Fish Are Friends Sticks

fishstickscoleslaw, originally uploaded by veggiebytes.

Here are some crunchy sea-flavored tofu sticks that will make you think of a friendly Gordon's fisherman...he's a man all for letting fish do their thing in the vast ocean.
Anyway, the recipe come from The Vegan Lunch Box and it has some interesting items added to a basic flour breading, including almonds and kelp granules. I didnt have kelp granules so I put part of a nori sheet in my spice grinder to get a similar amount.
These "fishy" sticks are baked and not fried, but get nice and crispy.
It's served with some steamed broccoli, coleslaw made with vegenaise and also some tartar sauce also made with vegenaise and color-free Cosmic Cukes!

Time to make the DONUTS

veganspicedonuts, originally uploaded by veggiebytes.

MMMM...donuts. Who hasn't felt like Homer Simpson and just want a nice cake donut. Well, if you don't eat eggs, you just might not get to have donuts anymore because almost all of them do unless you live in Seattle and can get Mighty-Os.
Then to the rescue comes a good vegan donut recipe and a cake donut pan. The pans are hard to find but I was able to get one off Amazon.com. A great plus is you do not have to fry 'em. Just spoon in the batter and bake for 10 minutes and you have donuts.

I got the recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's vegan recipe archive.
Next time, I'm going to try some icings or make some carob ones or maybe even blueberry! These were great dipped in my hempmilk.
That's another great thing to try...it's less heavy than soymilk and not just for hippies anymore.

Vietnamese Lunch

vietnameselunch2008, originally uploaded by veggiebytes.

I've been trying lots of recipes from Veganomicon and I haven't been disappointed.
The recipe for the vietnamese sandwich, banh mi, came out quite nicely.
I don't have the cookbook with me by my computer but it's called something like Vietnamese sandwich with dipping broth.
I didn't make the dipping broth as I actually took the time to make Pho (pronounced fuh). It's a very fresh tasting light soup with warming spices like star anise and cinnamon.
It's an authentic recipe coming from a fundraiser cookbook called Recipes with Borders, for Saheli, an Asian women's empowerment group here in Austin, TX.
Both the sandwich and soup have seitan that was made using Veganomicon's Seitan Cutlet recipe.
Anyway, it was a nice, filling but healthy lunch.

Buckwheat Noodles with Spicy Peanut/Pumpkin Sauce

buckwheatnoodspeanutsauce, originally uploaded by veggiebytes.

This is a fast staple in our household and so good for everyone.
The buckwheat noodles cook fast and are a nice Asian alternative to having spaghetti all the time. The Pumpkin/Peanut sauce is something that I know by heart now, but the idea originally came from Vegan Family Favorites.
You basically take some sesame oil and sautee minced garlic or hing, about 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger, then add about 1/4 cup peanut butter. Add about 1/2 can of pumpkin puree (NOT Pumpkin Pie Mix!), about 2 TBSP Braggs, and 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water, depending on how thick you want it. For dad or mom, you could add some chili oil for spiciness and leave it out for the little ones.
We fried some tofu to add and steamed broccoli to add the "green" component.
It's a nice filling dish and a great way to get Vitamin A from pumpkin throughout the year.

Natural Gingerbread House

I wanted to create a Gingerbread House without all of the fake colored hard candies...I never liked those anyway. The red and green everywhere reminds me of the red and green colored cherries in fruitcake, one of humankind's worst culinary creations.
Anyway, the mix comes from Dancing Deer. Since I never made the dough from scratch before, I thought we'd leave it to the professionals for the recipe and ingredients.
-After baking and assembling the house with the icing (not vegan, had some egg whites - oh well).
it was time to decorate. My 3 year old daughter helped and didn't even eat too many of the roof shingles (almonds).
The colors come from the India Tree natural food coloring kit. I still think it is too expensive, but worked nicely.
Here's what is on it:
Roof shingles:almonds
Star: Fennel Seeds
Door Frame: Panda Licorice stick
House Border: 365 White Chocolate chunks
Path: Sunflower seeds
Window and side of house: Raisins
Chimney: Goji Berries
Stones along bottom of house: Dates
Various gingerbread cookies decorated with colored icing

Next year I will probably attempt to make something else and get a correct icing recipe.

Vegetarians & World of Warcraft

Of all the things a mom could be doing....some of us like to waste a few hours playing the largest MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in history, the very violent and very addictive, World Of Warcraft.
Fortunately, my cooking skill is way better in real life than in game. As a vegetarian, all those recipes are geared toward cooking kills, meaning wild boar, wolf meat, spider legs etc, were a turn off. I have to admit that my character, Shakuntala, has not been a good vegetarian druid and has eaten an occasional ham shank for health. I do know someone who is veg in game which is quite noble actually.

Blizzard does have a holiday cookie contest and last year I won an honorable mention for my
Exodar ship cookie creation. It was a Cherrybrook Kitchen vegan sugar cookie mix with SeeLect blue (blueberry) natural food coloring along with various icings and gels (vegan but not natural). I was pleasantly surprised I was mentioned and also in awe of the 5 foot 3 Paladin someone spent hours making!
Will I enter this year? Probably not because we have just too many cookies and I still plan on making a natural gingerbread cookie house.
And I think I will try to get as many goodies from the Winter Veil festival on WoW.

2013 Update:  The link to my honorable mention no longer works :( so I had to upload my picture again manually.  I'm just remembering how fun it was to make this!

veganmoussaka

veganmoussaka, originally uploaded by veggiebytes.

This isn't traditional I know, but it was so fun to make.
My husband had his company Xmas party held at the Barr Mansion here in Austin. The nice chefs there thought about the veggie people out there and came up with this dish-- Vegan Moussaka. Traditional moussaka is made with ground lamb, eggplant, and a tomato based sauce and sometime either a custard or mashed potatoes on top.
This version is sliced delicata squash, eggplant rounds, and a lentil tomato stuffing. The top is lightly herbed mashed potatoes with scallions and nutmeg. The sauce is a vegan bechamel sauce.

It turned out nicely, except I might need a new bechamel sauce, I'm still very partial to the dairy/butter variety.