VeganMoFo: Seitan and Mushroom Empanadas

Marvin the Hedgehog loves doughnuts and empanadas the best. 

Marvin is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

So that seitan and mushroom stuffing that I used for the stuffed mushrooms? SO GOOD.  Nik and I were invited to a Dominican-themed Birthday party last Saturday, in which I was the only vegan (or even vegetarian) in attendance.  I used this as a perfect excuse to make something I have never made before out of Viva Vegan, to bring with me, and empanadas won out (I have no clue why I have never made them before!)  I made them in mini version so that they were potluck-friendly and they were a hit!  Also, they're pretty!
 

VeganMoFo: Stuffed Mushrooms

Happy Mushrooms and Snail is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

The mushroom lady at my local farmer's market had some really nice (and huuuuge) crimini mushrooms last weekend that were practically begging to be stuffed.  So stuff I did.  I made the filling from the Seitan and Mushroom Empanadas, out of Viva Vegan, because I thought it would translate well into a stuffed mushroom (and into my tummy!), and because I had a dinner party full of omnivores to go to this Saturday, and it was a test run to see if I should bring the empanadas (I did!) Holy delicious!  It's the Kalamata olives that do it, I'm sure of it. It's a great unexpected salty twang that I just loved.  Also, I could eat stuffed mushrooms everyday. 

VeganMoFo: Seitan

'Lil Weiner Dude is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

Simple lunch of sauteed seitan, mushrooms, broccoli, and fresh tomatoes. Everything is lightly seasoned with olive oil/salt/pepper. 

Okay, I admit, I mostly made seitan because I wanted to draw a dachshund (but they're so cute!)  I don't make seitan that often, but when I do, it's great because it lasts for days and I can make a whole bunch of meals out of it (you'll see! I have more posts on it this week!)  My go-to seitan recipe nowadays is the red or white ones out of Viva Vegan.  They are super-simple, easy to add/subtract different spices and flavors, and always turn out great.  Win all-around. 

Happy Monday!

Daring Cooks-May Challenge-Stacked Green Chile and Seitan Enchiladas

Hello! After missing last month's Daring Cooks challenge, I was determined to not miss this month. A Mexican themed meal was presented as a challenge in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Hooray! Super-easy to veganize too. Thanks so much for the recipe, Barbara and Bunnee!

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken (I used Seitan!) Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

First off, I made up some of the white seitan from Viva Vegan, Terry Hope Romero's new book (which, by the way, I am sooooo excited to start making more recipes from!).

I used the recipe provided in the challenge for the Green Chile sauce, with minimal changes:

Ingredients:
1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) (roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely)
About 4-5 medium Tomatillos (peel, remove stems)
4 cups Vegetable broth
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 tsp granulated onion
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp sea salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)
squirt of hot sauce

Directions:
1. Roast your chiles (chopped) and tomatillos (halved, face down) on 400F for about 20 minutes or so
2. After cooling for a bit, puree in a blender or food processor.
3. Add the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the vegetable broth, chopped green chiles, granulated onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the cornstarch/water slurry mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.
6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

To assemble enchiladas, you need baking dishes big enough to accommodate 4 small tortillas laying flat (I used two), small tortillas, spinach, seitan, vegan cheddar cheese (I used Daiya), and the roasted green chile sauce. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of your baking dishes and lay 4 tortillas down. Alternate ingredients, stacking the enchiladas upwards (I used 3 tortillas for each serving size), ending with more sauce and cheese on the very top. Spoon any leftover chile sauce you have into the dishes (don't worry if it looks like they are swimming, it thickens up and is a good amount of sauce.)

Bake for 20 minutes on 400F. Let rest 10-15 minutes before serving. Delicious, and even better the next day, as leftovers!

Daring Cooks-February Challenge-Mezze Platter

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

The mandatory recipes for this challenge were homemade hummus and pita bread, and I chose to make roasted red pepper seitan and some pickled veggies. Actually, I already had made the pickled veggies in the summertime and just ate the rest of them with this meal. Mezze platters make me happy! For the seitan, I used the recipe for the Chorizo Sausages in "Vegan Brunch", but using garbanzo beans instead of pinto, and adding in the roasted red pepper at the end. I made a simple sauce of veganaise, dill, and a little soy milk to thin it out.

Melty pizzzzzzza!

I tried to go to a craft fair this past saturday, and got there around 5ish to find that it ended at 4pm. D'oh! It kinda took awhile to get there too (as it is impossible to go north-south in brooklyn very easily.) Good thing I had a backup! I've been wanting to try Pizza Plus, in Park Slope, for awhile now, but again, I never find myself in that area too often. Anyways! They serve up a whole vegan pie (with teese I think!) with toppings of your choice! I took foreverrrrr to decide, but went with mushrooms and sundried tomatoes in the end. Look! They even made it all melty! I love my slices from Vinnie's, but they do NOT know how to melt the teese. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome. We even got to eat outside in the backyard. Afterwards, Nik and I got some bubble tea to go (he got coconut and I got peach) and headed off to Prospect park to walk around. I'm not too keen on the tapioca balls, and thought I just ordered the plain tea, but the balls still came in it. I couldn't even swallow them, but made myself keep trying. Not too bad once you get used to them. Peach tea rocked though! The park was beautiful. It was supposed to rain that evening, but had cleared up, so I think a lot of people had stayed inside. It was nice strolling around with not that many people out. Oh, and we had some cute duck sightings!



I've been craving all things lemon lately, so I made the golden vanilla cupcake recipe, from VCTOTW, with added lemon zest in my bundt pan (I did have intentions of doubling the recipe, but completely forgot until everything was all mixed together.) For the top, I just mixed the juice from one lemon with confectionary sugar until it was a bit pasty and drizzled over. Mmmmm.


On sunday, I spent a couple hours in the kitchen making the bundt cake, some homemade Rosemary-thyme foccacia (from VCON, with 2 cups whole wheat, 1 cup white), and some seitan. I always bake my seitan, because it's always too chewy-gross when I boil it and too mushy when I steam it. Hooray for sammiches! And hooray for sunny sundays, in which I am free to spend my time in the kitchen!

VeganMoFo Day 5-Vietnamese Seitan Baguette with Savory Broth Dip

Yeah! So yummy. I've been wanting to try this recipe, in Veganomicon, for awhile now and finally remembered to pick up bread yesterday at the farmer's market (I never eat bread ever, is that weird?) I made the seitan using the seitan-o-greatness recipe, as I prefer it baked, and used radishes instead of cucumbers, as that what I got in my CSA haul yesterday.

I need to eat more sammiches!