We were craving burgers the other day and decided to make these. This was our first time making bread and I think it turned out pretty well. We wanted to make burger buns but for some reason the yeast didn’t really work so they stayed small and dense like rolls. Sliders, then! We only had Very Vanilla Silk (which is quite often the case) so we didn’t want to add any more sugar. Then, when the dough was almost completely mixed, Dave remembered that yeast eats sugar so we decided to add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Other changes are Earth Balance in place of butter and a soy based egg replacer. We threw one of the buns in the food processor to make breadcrumbs for the burgers. All-in-all, it was a very tasty and filling meal. The only change we made to the burger recipe was using 2 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste instead of an egg. They were quite delicious. These pictures do the burgers no justice. They look really dry but in reality they were moist and wonderful! We will definitely make the recipe again, probably trying different spices next time. Should we ever procure some vegan worcestershire sauce, I’m dumping the whole freaking bottle in there.

Burgers & buns

Dave’s burger

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Wanted to try out a new stand mixer, and chocolate sounded appealing. Took a while to cook though, the pan we used is way too deep! Took one hour instead of 20 minutes, but tasted nice and used ingredients we usually keep around the house anyway.
We followed http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6433.0 with only small alterations. Melted coconut oil was used, which allowed us to avoid hexane and give it a small coconut smell/flavor.

So, holidays just happened. We had a very foody Christmas. Some food items we gifted were homemade spice mixes and truffles. We received matching aprons and a Kitchenaid mixer. We also got Felix his own kitchen so that he can cook while we do. We forgot to take pictures of our finished truffles but they turned out kind of wonky anyway. This recipe didn’t take kindly to the ridiculous amount of modifications required to veganize it. We half coated in walnuts and half coated in crushed candy canes. The recipes we used for the spice rubs were Magic Dust, Creole Spice Blend Mix, BBQ, and Jamaican Jerk Spice.

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Sorry about the lack of updates for the past few weeks.  Between starting a new job and preparing for “homemade Christmas” (pictures to come), there just hasn’t been much time for cooking.  We’ve been mostly just doing alot of repeats and this painfully simple recipe (if you can even call it a recipe).  This is another one of our super easy go-to foods.  We always have all of these foods in our kitchen.  It’s a pretty good meal.

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I raided my masala dabba again Dave was craving lentils so we threw this together. It was going to be dahl but I decided to make it less liquidy. You can use whatever kind of lentils you want. Recipes for lentils always seem to call for a specific type and I just use any kind. Currently, I’m rocking a combination of red and green. I don’t think it makes a difference. You may get the urge to salt the lentils while they’re cooking, like pasta. Resist the urge. For some reason, it makes them take longer to cook. We recently discovered the art of chopping onions with the food processor. When we chop them by hand, they make the whole house cry, not just the chopper. Our Cuisinart died so tonight we bought a Ninja. It is amazing. It is both faster and quieter than the Cuisinart. I highly recommend it.

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This was tonight’s dinner. It was fairly simple to make. This was based on casserole that I used to make, pretty much consisting of mix-a-bunch-of-crap-with-cream-of-mushroom-soup-and-dump-it-on-top-of-tater-tots. If you think you need to cook the squash, don’t do it. We used 3 squash and Dave thought it was overwhelming. Allison, however, very much enjoyed the squashiness of it all. It gets cooked enough in the oven so if you cook it before hand, you will have a pile of squash mush. Dave isn’t a fan of onion and Allison is burnt out on Daiya so we did the top with half onion and half Daiya instead of covering the whole thing with a combination of the two. Overall, good food. It was liked by all, including Felix

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This was tasty but nothing really stood out to me. Maybe if it had more herbs. I think it would be really good with sun-dried tomatoes. Very good to feed to little kids. It’s simple and doesn’t have alot going on with it. Slightly oily, but I blame the fact that many vegan “dairy” things, like Daiya and cream cheese, are mostly oil. Very loosely based on this recipes.

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Our second attempt at tikka masala. This is how we made it. It was really good but super spicy. I think it would be more enjoyable if my lips didn’t burn and I could take a bite without requiring a sip of apple juice immediately after. If that sounds good to you, make it this way. If not, I believe the red pepper flakes are unnecessary and the cayenne can be cut down a bit. It has alot of creamy stuff because I was trying to emulate the sauce they have at Samosa Hut which probably has a cup of heavy cream in every serving because it is ridiculously rich, thick, and creamy. I made the mistake of adding 1/2-1 cup of water to it when I put the tomatoes. Don’t do that if you want it thick.

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We finally took some pictures of Chili for a Blanket-y Day!

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We brought these to Thanksgiving dinner this year, along with our lasagna. Both went over quite well with our omnivorous family. Potatoes are pretty basic. There is a bit of extra liquid to make them creamier. We forgot to bring our camera so here is a lame cell phone picture and a paper plate

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