The perfect dog August 5, 2012

So in many years of being vegan, the perfect vegan frankfurter has been some what elusive. Sure there were some good enough ones: Smart Dogs and Tofu Pups, but both left something to be desired, they duplicated the bargain basement version of hot dogs very well, but not that perfect dog.

Field Roast has finally perfected the vegan frank. Field Roast’s dogs have the right amount of snap and smokiness that captures at least what i remember high-end hotdogs to taste like. Add some good mustard and a little onion relish or sauerkraut and you are good to go.

Oh and they are six franks to a pack so no leftover bun dilemmas.

–Shane

Vegan Taco Tower May 2, 2011

Tonight’s dinner was totally improvised, we are at the end of the grocery cycle, so that means we’re out of a lot of things!  But I came up with something easy and yummy that we’d have again, so I’m calling it a success:

This tower of yumminess is built on a foundation of spinach.  Then comes the layer of black beans and corn seasoned with chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.  On top of that, I placed a mound of whole wheat couscous and topped the whole thing with mango peach salsa and sliced grape tomatoes.  Yum!

-Kala

The Lazy Vegan: Channa Masala April 4, 2011

You ever have one of those nights when any sort of effort is just too much…effort?  Well, when it comes to dinner at least, tonight is definitely one of those nights!  Luckily I had a packet of Tasty Bite Channa Masala that I picked up today at Whole Foods (it’s on sale!) to rescue me.  Because I can never leave well enough alone, I added a big handful of spinach, some crushed red peppers, and a bit of Sriracha to the mix:

Yum!  This is the first time I’ve had anything from Tasty Bite, the husband is a fan, but for some reason I’ve just never given their packets a try.  Oh, and if it looks like I had my channa masala on an english muffin, it’s because I did 🙂

-kala

The Lazy Vegan: Evol Foods Tofu and Spinach Saute Burrito February 1, 2011

At a loss for a lunch idea Kala and I picked up some Evol Foods tofu and spinach saute burritos from the frozen food section at our local Whole Foods. We prepared them in the microwave. The results were acceptable, but not spectacular.  The biggest complaint we both had was that the burrito was bland, and the big chunks of potato added little to the burrito over all. It made a decent light lunch but did really needed some hot sauce to give it some zing!  Kala also did not care for the texture of the tofu, as it had the spongy/chewy frozen and thawed tofu texture, although I thought the texture of the tofu was a point in its favor.

As for if we might try them again, maybe especially if they were on sale, I think I would also like to try the Veggie Fajita burrito to see if there is any more zing involved. I think maybe paired with some guacamole or maybe preparing them in the oven might also improve our over all experience.

–Shane Photos by Kala

When in doubt, Pancakes! January 25, 2011

What do you do when you’re out of cereal, english muffins, and bagels and you’re hungry for breakfast?  Why, you make pancakes of course! 

I used one of my favorite recipes, the Pancakes for One from Bittersweet – perfect for a quick breakfast!

-kala

Mac and Trees! January 7, 2011

For last night’s dinner, I tried out a recipe from the new book Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, I made Mac and Trees:

Yum!  This came out really awesome and I’ll be making this again for sure!  I did make a few chanes to the recipe:  I left out the onion flakes because we didn’t have any, I put in a bit more turmeric than called for, I added pepper, and I only put in about half the broccoli that the recipe called for.  I can’t wait to try more recipes from this awesome book!

-kala

Red Soup January 4, 2011

Last night’s dinner was another new recipe from Color Me Vegan, I made the Six Shad of Red Soup:

I added a few things and left a few things out, but overall it was very yummy and super healthy!  I’m really loving the recipes in Color Me Vegan, the book is getting us to eat veggies we don’t usually cook with like beets and purple kale.  Gotta love delicious and colorful veggies!

-kala

Colcannon! December 28, 2010

Last night we had vegan colcannon and Tofurky sausages for dinner:

‘Twas amazing!  Shane gave me Color Me Vegan for Christmas and I decided that we should try recipes from the book for all of our dinners this week.  If this yumminess is any indication of the awesome that’s to come, this is going to be a great week!

-kala

Hummus Pinwheels December 27, 2010

Everything sounds more fun when you add the word pinwheel to the end of it!  At my favorite local co-op, the Wedge, one of my favorite ready-made foods are the hummus pinwheels.  So today I decided to make my own:

Very simple and very yummy!  I heated up a couple of whole wheat tortillas, spread them with hummus, and then added spinach, sprouts, tomato, carrot, and sunflower seeds.  Paired with a clementine, this was a simple, healthy, and delicious lunch!

-kala

Holiday Eats!!! December 9, 2010

So, the holidays are on us once again, and with them comes the required amount of feasting, and festiveness.  This brings up the question of what to eat. There are a growing list of options from Tofurkey, to Field Roast and the UnTurkey

This past Thanksgiving we tried a newest product to enter the holiday roast market the Gardein Savory Stuffed Turk’y a seasonal product that is available for the holidays at Whole Foods and other natural foods retailers.

The package comes with two stuffed Turk’y “breasts,”  and Turk’y gravy. The Turk’y had a good flavor and texture, it was lightly breaded and well seasoned with out being overly salty.  The stuffing was nice but not quite as good as homemade.

The one real issue Kala and I had was the gravy, it tasted a bit too much like real turkey and was a little on the sour side. It was not my favorite part of the meal, we were happy we had some Hain brown gravy to replace it with.

On the whole it was a mixed experience.  I think we would get the product again, but discard the gravy straight away.  So if you are listening Mr Ronnen, here is what we would really like in a holiday product, something we can stuff with our own stuffing.  We love every thing we have tried thus far from Gardein, but a stuff-able breast would make the ideal holiday vegan meal, at least for those of us who would like to have a bit more hands on in our holiday meal.

–Shane

Photo by Kala