Birthday Food

So that time of year has come around again when I pretend that I am turning 24 when its actually a slightly higher number than that, its at this time when I stuff myself with bad food and here's what I had:

Speculoos & banana on toast:

Eli's Earth Treasure bar (delicious as is the celebrate bar which I also had):

Subway sub loaded with Chinese 5 spice style seitan, Vegusto, sun dried tomatoes & spicy pickle mayo

Delux Brownie from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar with soya ice cream and more speculoos spread:

Cake:

I also had many other things (Speculoos shreddies, hot choclate, lattes, chocolate covered nuts, ice cream etc)...

Cookbook Challenge Week 19 - Vegan With A Vengeance

I have had this book for years (it was one of the first Vegan cookbooks that I bought) but I have rarely used it, the only recipe that I have made is the Raspberry Blackout Cake with Ganachey Icing for my birthday last year which was delicious.

This week I have cooked 5 things from the book -

Breakfast Veggie Chorizo - this was really good - kind of like a spicy bolognese, a bit watery but full of flavour and very simple/quick to make:

Sweetcorn Chowder - this was outstanding good, flavoursome, sweet & spicy, definitely the best sweetcorn/chowdery soup I have tasted and I will definitely be making this again:

Mash with Post Punk Chickpea Gravy - this was another great recipe (the book just seems full of them), warm, lemony and delicious, I made it twice it was so good:

Banana Split Pudding Brownie - this was a good recipe, I have never actually tried a brownie before (I may have eaten something when I was a teen that was reminiscent of a hockey puck and covered in M&M's from Spar but I don't think that actually counts as food) so I was looking forward to trying this and it didn't disappoint. It was chocolatey, sticky, fudgy & delicious:

Finally I also made the blackout cake again (it was my birthday again) and as normal it didn't disappoint:

Overall I think I have underestimated this book in the past, I have looked through it and found the recipes either unappetising or complicated, however I have been proven completely wrong and all the recipes that I tried were great. I will be pulling VWAV out far more frequently in future. 

Cookbook Challenge Week 18 - PETA's Vegan College Cookbook

This week I have been cooking from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, I bought this book several years ago and one of my favourite recipes come from it  - Chick Magnet Chicken Casserole (layers of soya chicken, silken noochy garlicky sauce, tomato sauce, vegan cheese & tortillas). I have adapted this recipe by substituting the tortillas for Ritz crackers (its now called my Haven casserole because I was watching the Stephen King TV series Haven when I adapted the recipe and also becuase in Stephen Kings book The Stand some of the characters eat Ritz Crackers but enough of my strange rambling!) and now vegan bacon rasher crunchies.
This book hasn't got great reviews online and admittedly some of the recipes are extremely basic (one recipe is bread, vegan cheese & pickle) but other are actually rather good (I have eaten the Haven casserole on my birthday for 3 years running now) so I decide to try some others:

The morning-after scramble - this is tofu, garlic, soya milk, nutritional yeast & salsa. Admittedly it doesn't look very appetising but it was actually really tasty - spicy and cheesey at the same time and completely different from any scramble I have had in the past :

No need to visit a diner for has browns casserole - this was shredded potatoes, broccol & sausage topped with a cheesey sauce - just lovely:

Broke ass cinnamon rolls - these are really simple (bread & sugar & margarine & cinnamon) and were tasty but not great , oddly I ended up making them 5 times:

Mediterranean Muesli - this was my least favourite recipe - oats, soya milk, apricots & dates. It was OK but a bit tasteless and I won't be bothering to make it again:

Not your average burrito - chicken (I used the tofu chicken from cookin crunk), brown rice, broccoli & vegusto vegan cheese wrapped in a tortilla - it was really delicious and I will make this again in future:

WTF wings - Soya chicken coated in soya sauce, garlic powder & cracker crumbs. These were surprisingly good,  I did overcook them slightly but they were still rather tasty:

Chick'n Nachos - refried beans, chicken, salsa & tortillas. This was really good, a bit basic but full of taste and very filling:

Adapted Chick Magnet Chicken Casserole - not great to look at but lovely to eat :

In a pickle chickpea salad - other than the casserole above this was my favourite recipe (Chickpeas, celery, nooch, onion powder, relish & mayo) it was absolutely delicious and I will be making it again this weekend:

Overall I really liked this book, its not fine dining and the recipes probably won't win any prizes but they were quick, tasty and not too unhealthy, a very useful little book when you work late and need a quick snack/dinner idea.

Cookbook Challenge Week 17 - Please Don't Feed The Bears

This week I have been cooking from a curious little book called Please Don't Feed The Bears by Asbjorn Itonsus:

I first came across this book a few years ago on the VeganFreaks forum and decided to buy it, it does not just contain recipes but also stories*, hints about cooking (such as "Thickeners Demystified") , quotes, hand drawn pictures, music recommendations for each recipe and a cross word.

The first recipe that I tried was Chinese Take-Out. It was delicious and tasted like it had just come from a Chinese restaurant - very similar to veg in black bean sauce. I will be making this again without a doubt:

The second recipe was Corn and Potato Chowdah. Again another lovely recipe, creamy thick and tasty - and surprisingly healthy:

The third recipe that I tried was Road Rash Skillet - this is a mix of burger crumbles (I used Asda Chargrill Style Burger Mix), pasta, tomato sauce, green beans, oregano, garlic & cinnamon. This was again another really good dish, I have tried Cinnamon in savoury food before and didn't like it (Cincinnati chili from Low Cal Vegan Comfort Food) but this worked really well. I made it after getting home from work late and it was warm, tasty comfort food:

The final recipe that I made was Roald Dahl Soup. I'm not sure why its called this (possibly it was inspired from a recipe in Roald Dahl's cookbook - Completely Revolting Recipe's) but as per the 3 other recipes it was also rather good. It was made with yellow split peas, mung beans & Basmati rice with lots of curry flavour and was filling as well. Several people in work actually commented on how lovely it smelled in the office:

Overall I really like this book, the only criticisms would be that it doesn't state how many people each recipe serves and in one or two of the recipe's steps are missing (for example in the chowdah recipe it doesn't state what to do with the carrot) but from a taste point of view all the recipes were great. In the past I have also made the BBQ wrecking ball loaf which again was delicious (especially topped with Tofutti cream cheese).

*My favourite story is from page 29 about the day the author saw a dead woman, it was very touching and made this cook book extra special in my eyes.

Cookbook Challenge Week 16 - Veggie Burgers Every Which Way

This week I have been cooking from Veggie Burgers Every Which Way by Lukas Volger. I bought this book when I was in a bit of a rush in Waterstones and only realised when I got home that its a vegetarian cookbook with some Vegan recipes. Not to be put off, I made 3 of the Vegan burgers which I thought would be tastiest  - Best Portobellow Burgers, Mushroom Burgers with Barley & Seitan Burgers with Mango BBQ Sauce


Best Portobellow Burgers - this was really nice and very simple (about 5 ingredients), it was not very filling but still tasted really good. The only change I made was using small Portobellow mushrooms instead of 1 large and I swapped the rice vinegar for balsamic as I could not get rice vinegar:

Mushroom Burgers with Barley - these didn't look much like the picture in the book (possibly because I used my stick blender - perhaps a food processor would give a coarser texture) but they were still really good - full of flavour and quite filling, I perhaps should have cooked them a bit longer as they were a bit soft in the middle but the taste made up for that:

Seitan Burgers with BBQ Mango Sauce - this was by far my favourite recipe (2 actually as the Mango BBQ Sauce had to be made separately). The seitan was a great texture, tasted slightly meaty and the sauce was just brilliant (very reminiscent of Sweet & Sour), I did make 1 change which was leaving the seitan whole rather than cutting into strips. I will definitely be making both the seitan and the sauce again:

Even though some of the recipes in this book are only vegetarian I have to admit that I like the book and some of the recipes are very inventive, I will try a few more in future and hopefully they will be as tasty as these 3.

Cookbook Challenge Week 15 - Vegan Junk Food

This week I have been cooking from Vegan Junk Food by Lane Gold, I had high expectations for this book but was a little disappointed in some of the recipes.


Chickpea Tuna Melt - The tuna was not great, it was OK but not very tasty and just didn't taste as good as other versions from The Sexy Vegan and Happy Herbivore:

Tater tot breakfast casserole - This casserole was actually quite good, the tofu on the bottom solidified and become a bit like an omelette. The taste was good but I felt it was lacking something.

Bacon Egg Salad - The salad (tofu & chickpeas for eggs, bacons bits, mayo etc) again was OK but a bit tasteless, it could really have done with more flavour - possibly some soya cheese.

French Onion Soup Casserole - This is when things turned around, this was delicious. The soup base was tasty and had lots of depth, the bread soaked up some of the soup so it was gooey and the cheese finished it off well. I will probably make this again:

The Portabellow Cheesesteak was really good as well - mushrooms, onions & peppers fried with vegan Worcester sauce topped with soya cheese - just lovely:

Sloppy Joes - this was the best recipe I tried, I've never had sloppy joes before but this was lovely - meaty, tomatoey and delicious. Will definitely make this again:

Overall I did like this book and will be trying some of the other recipes (the onion dip looks devine) but what I found annoying was its reliance on specific branded foods that we don't have in the UK (Gimme Lean sausages - had to use Frys, Tater Tots - used chopped roasted potato, Vegan beef bouillon - I used brown Miso).

Cookbook Challenge Week 14 - Happy Herbivore

Happy Herbivore is the original book in the herbivore series, I have had it for ages and use some of the recipes regularly (Banana Bread & Pancakes) but this week I have made the "Tuna" salad, Rajam Masala & the Nomelet.

The Nomelet was quite good, it was baked rather than fried but for some reason I wasn't too keen on the texture, I much preferred the omelettes from Cozy Inside & The Fat Free Vegan Blog, but here's how mine looked:

The Rajam Masala (Kidney Bean Masala) was really good, not too spicy and packed with flavour:

Again I have saved the best for last - the "tuna" was great (not as good as The Sexy Vegans but almost), it didn't taste overpoweringly of fish and was good and creamy:

Overall this was a really good book and I will definitely be continuing to use it in future.