Separated at birth?

"I Can't Believe It's Vegan!!"

Vegan food preparation can be tedious as some of you may already know. After a long day of work. the last thing I want to do is prepare a batch of seitan or press some tofu and wait and wait... to add to a stir fry dish. However, there is a website hosted courtesy of Peta that has a VERY long list of convenience foods that are, indeed vegan, and it will not hurt your wallet either. It can be found here. I purchashed Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate brownie mix and canned frosting (reread the ingredients since the contents sometimes change over time). I followed the instructions for the brownie mix and used Enger-g as my egg replacer. I added pepppermint extract to the batter and frosting and sprinkled with crushed candy canes. WAS SO DAMN GOOD THAT I AM POSTING TWO PICTURES!!! I have to stop eating them because my partner will be home in two hours and our guest will be here shortly after my parter gets here. It took me about 15 minutes for the assembly which is much faster than making vegan brownies by scratch. Check out the website!!

Vegan Village Internet Cafe

"Ham" Seitan!!!

I made a wonderful seitan loaf today and wanted to share it. I apologize for the crummy picture but it did taste wonderful. It is another one of Bryanna Grogan's recipe and it can be found here and there you will also find a better picture of it as well. I eliminated the "bacon" chips and bouillon and replaced it with Goya brand "ham" powder. It does taste "hammy" and it made wonderful sandwiches. I think I will make a vegan reuben with it. The "ham" roast was not bready at all and sliced beautifully!! Best of all, the recipe makes 3 pounds according to Bryanna and only costs a few dollars to make... maybe even less. It's a heck of a lot less expensive than Yves Brand and tastes a whole lot better and even better texture. If you need to really mimic the "ham" look, try subsituting part of the water with canned beet juice. Warning: I have never tried it and an not opposed to flourescent colored foods ;).

Big fat lip... :()

Haha!!! Catchy title!! I made a great vegan pizza with ONE BIG FAT LIP that held all the yummy sauce and "cheese". I intentionally rolled the dough towards the edges to mimic the ones served at the brick oven pizza joints. I finally did it!!! After many failed attempts I finally made a great pizza!! It's not only delicious but vegan as well. The pizza crust is my own recipe, the sauce is jarred, and the "cheese" recipe belongs to Bryanna Grogan and can be found here. The "cheesey" sauce resembled mozzarella but it won't fool a real cheese lover. It makes a great substitute though. For the "cheese", I omitted the flour and added a 1/4 raw cashews to the blender. Bryanna has great recipes... I mean the best vegan recipes I've ever seen and tasted but the crust recipe is my own. This recipe is a result of many attempts and experimentation to finally "perfect" the ultimate pizza crust!!! Don't omit the dried ginger, you won't taste it. It acts as a yeast activator to maximize the yeast power for the fluffiest crust ever! No one will ever guess the "secret" ingredient. Don't forget the pizza stone either. I cooked mine in a pizza pan (it has holes on the bottom) directly over the preheated stone (located at the very bottom rack of the oven).

Lucy's Bread Machine Pizza Crust

3/4 cup water (110-115 degrees)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon dried ginger

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 1/4 cups flour (preferably bread flour but all purpose will yield good results)

2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (optional, omit if using bread flour)

2 teaspoons yeast

In a bread machine bowl, dissolve the yeast, ginger and sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes. It must foam up. If not, the yeast did not activate and you need to start again. Add oil into the yeast solution. Add the flour, salt, and vital wheat gluten and then select the “dough cycle”. When the machine signals the end of the cycle, remove the dough and knead into ball on a lightly floured surface. Let dough rest for about 15 minutes. Stretch the dough out in a 14" or 16" pizza pan with holes. A this time, place pizza stone on bottom rack of oven and preheat to 450 degrees. Let crust rise for another 20 minutes for a thicker crust. Top with sauce, cheese and desired pizza toppings. Place pizza pan directly on stone and bake for 10 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the crust is lightly browned.