l_cakes

I'm wanting to do the Mayo Clinic Diet for 7 days (the real Mayo Diet, not the fad one). What should I eat as my main source of protein? (I'm not vegan, but I don't eat eggs or fish.) The Mayo Diet calls for proteins and fats such as in fish (which I don't eat). Normally my proteins come from nuts, oils, certain veggies, and veggie-meat... but the proteins in vegetables won't count, because the vegetable only counts as the vegetable in the Mayo Diet.

Help?

anyone have a tasty cajun seasoning recipe? i used to love cajun chicken (lunch meat) as a omni and want to make some seitan flavoured with it. thanks in advance.

I was inspired by the mole enchiladas at Rancho's in San Diego. For their fillings they have one with beans, another with tofu and another with just avocado. Since my grandmother gave us a squash last week, we decided to do a filling using that instead of the avocado (which isn't very good anyway, just in case you go there) and just used canned vegetarian refried beans.



( recipe and more pics... )

I have a question.
I cook veggie soup (vegetable s in veggie broth), but sometimes I don't have the time to stop and make the soup (or the money to run to the store and stock up on more vegetables)... so sometimes I just have hot veggie broth as my meal.

Am I still getting good nutrition from the broth?
(I know "not as greatly as if you ate the vegetables") but it's better than replacing my veggie soup with junkfood.

So, in your opinion is drinking the veggie broth as a replacement ok?

I rarely eat nuts, but I eat beans (lima) in soups and salads. I use Morningstar Farms products as my main source of protein (mostly the veggie burgers and crumbles, not so much the breaded items.) Is this good? I know they are a good source of protein, but are their products HEALTHY??

My stove is, according to the nice repair man, trying to kill me. So while I am waiting for a replacement, it is unplugged and inoperable.

I have two crockpots, a tempermental toaster oven and an electric teakettle. I also have a camp stove and a gas barbecue, but it is supposed to be cold and rainy all week, so I'm not thrilled with the idea of trying to use them.

I do not have a stove, broiler, rice cooker, steamer, oven or microwave.

The meals I bought groceries for this week were:

Sweet Potato black bean enchilada casserole (pantry mole from vegan brunch, steamed, cubed sweet potatoes, layered with beans and tortillas and baked)
Asian veggie stir fry with tofu and rice (I have mushrooms, onions, shredded cabbage, peppers, carrots, zucchini, tofu and broccoli for this)
French onion soup topped with Daiya cheese in a bread bowl
Reheated lasanga leftover from Christmas- I guess I can reheat that in the toaster oven, maybe. I hope. Because it was yummy and I'd hate to waste it.
Veggie burgers and sweet potato oven fries (I can reheat the frozen burgers in the toaster oven, but they need a side, and I'm stumped)
Uncheese fondue with bread, apples, and blanched broccoli
Tofu Florentine with mock hollandaise and oven roasted potatoes
Maple baked lentils (which I can manage in the crockpot), baked squash, steamed broccoli, and quinoa.


So I need help figuring out how to cook the veggies and the grains, or alternative recipes that will use the same ingredients. Gah. I am SO not amused.

I've got a well stocked pantry and spice rack, but I want to make sure to use up the fresh veggies so I don't waste them.

being a celiac, I can't have seitan. However, with my mad google skills [aka searching 'gluten free seitan'] I found a recipe celiacs can have :]

http://www.asparagusthin.com/2008/11/gluten-free-gluten.html

Gluten Free Seitan AKA The Non-Wheat Meat
½ bean flour
½ rice flour
¼ tapioca starch
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
Paprika
Cumin
Pepper
Dehydrated onions

1/3 cup water or stock
¼ cup. Ketchup or tomato paste
2 tbsp dairy free margarine
2 tbsp Braggs

If you freeze your flours, make sure they all come to room temperature before you begin. Stir together the flours, starch, and yeast with spices. Make the usual well and add the margarine, ketchup or tomato paste, water or stock and Braggs. Stir to combine. You should begin to obtain a pie dough like state. If it feels too dry then add a bit more water.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Knead for 2 to 3 minutes then let it rest for 5. Shape as desired - roll, flat, etc. and cover with oiled or nonstick tin foil. Bake for 15 to 30 minutes. If a crisp exterior is desired, remove the dough from the oven early and finish baking uncovered.
Let cool and savor the pleasure of seitan - sort of - once again!

Hi all!

Just looking for some party foods, for a New Years'. I'd planned to make a little geodesic dome out of gingerbread (piparkakut), to take and share. Buuuuuuuuuuuut I just remembered -- one of the attendees is celiac. Don't know how many other people will know to accommodate for him, but don't have the time (or the money) to remix with rice flour. Plus, something always goes wrong. It either absorbs too much water from the air and collapses away from the joins -- curse you, Australian summer! -- or buckles weirdly when I try to add the toffee. (And that doesn't even make sense. =/)

So, with three days to go: does anyone know of any quick and easy party foods that I could put together?Obviously it can't contain gluten, but nor can it contain traces of any sort of nut. It's really the nut part that's throwing me, since so much of my own diet involves them in some way. Fruit salad's always an option, but I always end up being the only person eating it. Something like joulutorttua (Finnish jam pastries) or teeny tiny cupcakes could be an option, but I haven't worked with other flours enough. Otherwise, I might just bring the dome and fill it with wheat-free lollies.

It would be fantastic if someone could help. =) Sorry for the essay!

Hi! I need some more help. I am in Paris, and trying to come up with an amazing vegan meal for my dad and his wife. However, this whole cooking without any kind of pre-packaged food scares the heck out of me. I went to the grocery store today and while it was HUGE! it didn't seem to have all that much food. It had clothes and furniture and all kinds of scary stuff, but not the rows of canned beans and tomatoes that I am so used to.

So - I found some giant bags of gnocchi, which I love. I would love to make some for dinner, but the problem is that I don't how to make tomato sauce without a can of tomato sauce. I can make a wine-based sauce, there's lots of wine about. But how? And the grocery store had these lovely giant eggplants. And tomatoes, and just about every other usual vegetable. And bread as a side is great. There's plenty of stores around that have the traditional bread without the egg wash. And what can I throw in for a bit more protein?

His wife is making ratatouille for dinner tonight, so I need to make something that is slightly impressive. They're also not giant pro-vegan-ers, so I for sure need some help.

ETA: On second thought, one of the other grocery stores probably has canned tomatoes and that kind of stuff, and I am going to try to stop by that grocery store tomorrow, so I could probably use some canned stuff too. Probably.

Hi, guys.

So I just moved to the Netherlands and our apartment doesn't have an oven. My husband did the househunting, and when I showed up on the day of the move and realized there was no oven, he was really embarrassed to have missed that, but I wouldn't have thought to check either. I did some poking around online and it doesn't seem to be that bizarre here for there to be no oven.

ANYWAY. To the point of my post! I will be (once we can find the money) purchasing a countertop oven of sorts (not that I know how it'll fit), but in the meantime, I can only cook on the stovetop. I didn't see a stove or hob tag, so I thought I'd come to you for ideas.

In the past 3 weeks, I've cooked a LOT of chili (regular and white bean) and a LOT of soup (lentil, pumpkin, tortilla), and I've been falling back on good ol' stir fry as well, but I'm having trouble thinking up fun and exciting recipes that don't require an oven. Searching recipe sites is kind of a pain because I have to go into most recipes and read to make sure there is no oven required. And the return rate is too poor to justify doing it.

Do you guys have any ideas for me to finally leave soups and stir-fries behind? Or at least to not have to resort to them every single night?

Thanks!

There was a foolproof recipe in a Queer Eye for the Straight Guy self-help book (don't ask, don't tell) for this easily veganized brownie dessert. It was shiny-topped brownie cake floating on top of warm, mocha pudding, the kind where you sprinkle a sugar mix on top of the batter and then pour coffee over it all before baking. No eggs, no mess. Except on one's face after eating.

That book is in storage thousands of miles away, but if anyone can post a similar recipe I'd be much obliged.

I thought I had margarine. I do not. All I have is a tub of Earth Balance and a tub of Smart Balance. Will either of them work?

I ask before trying because I used EB in a cookie recipe years back and they just ran and tasted like poo.

My 1 year old keeps asking for a cookie but I have none to give her and my family had millions of cookies all over tonight at the holiday party. She was going to lose her mind.

If it won't work are there any similar recipes that are simple so I might have everything I need? Cookies, cookie bars, anything! My beeb needs a cookie! :)

I asked everyone for some help doing a Harry-Potter themed secret santa for work, and I wanted to share the results! Everyone was very jealous, with the boss and the boss' daughter both saying that they are going to rig the selection next year so that I pick them!

I started off with dragon's eggs (brownies) in a basket with "grass" (tissue paper was all that I could find at the last minute) I used a recipe from vegancooking, but I can't remember exactly which one I used. And I made them in a little mold that I got for easter a couple years ago to make easter egg cakes to decorate, and then glued the halves together with frosting.


The second day I made Pepper Imps (peppermint patties) from a recipe on vegweb. I took an empty applesauce bottle and filled it with the imps and googled for some images to decorate it. I used a mold of gingerbread boys and girls (cause sadly my local kitchen store didn't have an "imp" mold, whatever that would be).



For the last day, I made Chocolate Frogs. I found a website that shows how to make the boxes, and I googled Frog Cards so that I could make my girl her very own wizard card. I found a frog mold, and made the peanut butter cups from vegweb.


All in all, it seemed like a big hit! thank you all for your suggestions!

Recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Used the Orange Pudding Cupcakes minus the pudding and the Orange Buttercream Frosting w/ orange zest instead of lemon zest. Annoyed at the number of typos and mis-prints in this cook-book, though. The orange buttercream frosting recipe has three extra sentences from what I can only assume is another recipe involving blueberries. :)

Recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:
Orange cupcake:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c plain soy milk/rice milk
1/2 c freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated orange zest



( More recipe )

I am trying not to fall victim to the temptation of non vegan cookies this year. help! i know this is last minute but what are some good sugar cookie recipes and peanut butter cookie recipes. also snickerdoodle types would be great! 

also it would be nice to have an already vegan recipe vs. using a substitute. whatever you have is fine though! ill probably just end up buying newman os. lol pathetic substitute for vegan cookies but i left all my cooking things in my dorm and i doubt im going to go out and buy new everything. we will see. i hope i dont cave and eat the non vegan cookies... :(

These are simply the best truffles ever. Not only because the flavor is the perfect blend of sweet, salty and festive, but because they're actually pretty darn good for you.

( the recipe )

This year my coworkers and friends are getting homemade granola. Here's the recipe I've come up with after significantly modifying Mark Bittman's. Because the dry ingredients are so bulky and not necessarily consistently shaped, I used my scale to measure them consistently. The cup measurements are just rough estimates based on memory for those who don't have kitchen scales.

( Apple-hazelnut granola )

Hey folks! It's dinner time, and I'm not sure what I want. But I have a container of Tofutti cream cheese (with chives) and I want to do something with it. I'm thinking like a base for a pasta sauce? I'm not sure. What are your favorite recipes that use cream cheez?

If anyone is after a quick fruit cake that's simple for xmas then this is it !



I made this on monday, doubled the recipe worked perfect.


Ingridents
2 tsp egg replacer
4 tbsp water
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/2 sugar
170g mixed fruit
1 1/4 cup of water or orange juice
1 3/4 cup flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1 tsp all spice


Method:

1. Preheat over to 180 degess celcius
2. Briefly whip the egg replacer in 4 tabs water until fluffy
3. Place margarine, sugar, mixed fruit, whipped egg replacer & water/orange juice into a saucepan
4. Bring to the boil and cool for 10 mins stirring occasionally
5. Sift the flour, baking powder, bi-carb soda & all spice
6. Mix in boiled mixture and transfer into a greased loaf tin or a greased 8inch diameter cake tin.
7. Bake for 35-40mins
8. Let cool in tin.

Note: as you can see I made mine in a round cake tin, and pressed 120g of blanched almonds on top before cooking :)

What's the best seitan recipe you've ever used? Or your favourite?

edit:

err. I dont mean how to make it.. I mean how to use it.. like what dishes do you use it in.