Excuses, Excuses...

I've had so many posts lined up and just haven't been able to sit down and get to writing. Last week, I was away on vacation with some friends and that allowed me to answer the question:

Can you make it through a week on a cruise ship as a vegan?

Answer: Yes, but with a few difficulties. I'll expound later.

Before leaving, I attended a cooking workshop that sponsored by The Cancer Project. They advocate vegetarian/vegan diet for health reasons. I learned so much and could not wait to post, but getting ready for my trip really put a damper on my lofty blogging goals.

Two days before leaving, the heater in my house kicked the bucket. Obviously this was quite a problem with the cold temperatures. Since the central air bit it shortly after I bought the house, I needed to replace both. That left me with the option of canceling my trip to be there for the installation or ummmm, let's see: Moving half my basement from one side to the other, finding a place for my birds for the week, moving all their stuff, and packing in about 10 hours. It was crazy weekend with no sleep, but I did make it out of Boston on one of the last flights before they were all canceled due to weather on the east coast.

I'll write about food now and then do a separate Cancer Project post within a few days before I head out for another week long trip.

First from VwaV, Seitan Portobello Stroganoff. This was very tasty.

I used the Lightlife Smart Strips Chick'n flavor to make some burritos. They were stir fried and then added to wraps with tomatoes, onions, some refried beans, and home made tomatillo sauce. The Smart Strips were quite good, unfortunately the rest of the meal really was not. The bean mix was the dry kind that needs to be rehydrated. It was quite terrible in comparison to canned beans whole or refried. The tomatillo sauce was also hideous. The recipe I used was reviewed well, but it was awful. Perhaps the tomatillos weren't fresh or the chili pepper was too spicy. If you'd like to purchase Smart Strips and try using them in a different recipe that is more palatable, here's link to a $1 off coupon. View the pic of bean/tomatillo monstrosity, it certainly looks unassuming until you taste it.
I picked up a fresh young coconut to try out. It was rather fun to hack it open. Inside is a soft jello like flesh rather than the thick tough coconut flesh in a regular brown coconut. There was also a lot more coconut water. The coconut water was sooooo good and I enjoyed the soft coconut fruit.It is easy to see how it might be sliced for noodles in raw cooking. Unfortunately, I just used it for smoothies and ate some on its own. The coconut is below along with some of the flesh.


Here is a LightLife Fakin' Bacon wrap. It has lettuce, tomato, Fakin' Bacon, a bit of mayo, and some sunflower sprouts. Thumbs up on Fakin' Bacon. Link to LightLife $1 off coupon.

Last but certainly not least, I made up a batch of Seward Cafe's Rebel Rocks found at Cooking By Kittee. Who could imagine rye flour, coconut and chocolate would morph into such a delicious treat? Rebel Rocks, rock! I love these, doesn't matter if they are hot out of the oven, room temperature or frozen...always yummy!
Ok, a quick blurb on vegan cruising. My friends were really worried about what I would eat, I had some concerns too. Supper in the sit down dining room was a little difficult. I often checked out the menu earlier in the day to see if I could find vegan friendly options. If not, I'd hit the buffet which I kind of preferred anyway as it didn't require dressing up. I managed to find salads, cold soups, and pasta or veg chili (sans cheese) in the dining room.

The buffet had many options. Salads, Asian style sauteed veggies, sushi (avocado/cucumber), pastas, grilled veggies. I found vegetarian miso soup with tofu one night. Another night there were Indian chickpeas and lentils. Breakfast was normally fruit and maybe some peanut butter on a roll or toast. Otherwise oatmeal and bananas with almonds. Obviously you won't find vegan desserts on the ship, but perhaps that is better for the waistline. One night I did go searching the shops for dark chocolate. I found some decent vegan dark chocolate, but it was sugar free and I had no interest in aspartame flavored chocolate.

Cruise Caveats - They rarely label any of the foods or have ingredients listed at the buffet. That makes it very difficult to discern if there is butter or milk in something or beef/chicken stock in soups. If I saw a cook milling about I'd ask, but often I skipped anything potentially bad. One day I asked about an Indian soup. The gentleman confirmed it was vegetarian. As I was ladling it into a bowl, I saw chicken. After that I only took soup if it was labeled as vegetarian.

Anyways, look forward to my post on the Cancer Project workshop. I'll be making the blog rounds shortly as I've got a week and a half to catch up on.

Chili and Date Nut Bread

I'm reading how cold it is everywhere. The same here, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Though I really want to stick to my 2 day per week raw resolution, I'm having trouble with the cold weather. I'm just craving soup and tea. I've been making a concerted effort to have at least one raw meal it day. That might translate to fruit for breakfast or an interesting salad for lunch.

When the summer months roll around, I'll be preparing more raw foods for sure. What did I cook up last week? Well we had a chili cook-off at work before the superbowl. Since I wasn't planning to partake I made up a batch of VwaV Chili Sin Carne Al Mole. This was my first brush with adding cocoa to a meal rather than dessert. Believe it or not the seitan and spices with cocoa is actually might tasty.

Since I started on the raw kick, I seem to have developed an addiction to dates. Funny because as I child I hated them! Anyway, last night I baked a loaf of Date and Nut Bread from Vegan Vittles. The recipe is not as sweet as I'm used to with other Pumpkin and Zucchini breads, but it very good. It made a great breakfast with some Tofutti cream cheese.

For those of you that have been asking about Little Lad's. I'm posting a photo of the cheese in the container and the package with the label. Everything is very simple. If you are looking to get a hold of their products, I think you'll need to stop in at a local store in Maine. No it doesn't look that appetizing cold, but it sure looked great melted for mac n cheese in my other post!

Another week...

Did you all catch the new story about a lucky duck in Florida? She was shot by a hunter and spent two days in the refrigerator. When the hunter's wife opened the door, the duck looked up at her and she had her daughter rush the poor duck to the vet. Fortunately it is now recovering at a wildlife sanctuary. Link to article.

What else? This afternoon I went with a friend to see the movie Babel. I'd wanted to see it in the theatre, but didn't make it earlier. Thanks to the Oscar buzz, it is back. It is a very interesting movie that I enjoyed. One 30 second scene which wasn't all that necessary to the movie, stuck out to me because of the audience's reaction. In preparation for a wedding ceremony in Mexico, one of the actors kills a chicken for dinner. It was more graphic than necessary and the packed theatre expressed disgust rather audibly.

Situations such as these both perplex and frustrate me. There were likely few other vegetarians or vegans in theatre, yet everyone was shocked and revolted by what happened on screen. How is it that people can compartmentalize where their food comes from and then sit down to dinner?

Anyway, on to good vegan food. Sorry about the dark photos, they were taken with my cell phone. On my raw days this week I stuck to fruit and salads again which means not many pictures. To the right is grape tomatoes with some evo, basil, and crushed pesto LivingNuts. These sprouted raw nuts come from Maine. I originally found them while there for work. These babies are a little expensive, but they have an amazing taste and I order them every once in awhile. To the left is kale and collard salad. It is the same salad I made last week with swiss chard. I also blended up a noteworthy smoothie with coconut water, banana, raw cacoa powder, and raw almond butter.

It has been so cold here and of course when it was 10 degrees outside it was on my raw days. The very next day I cooked up a batch of Spicy Peanut Eggplant Shallot Stew from PPK. I'm pretty sure this is a teaser from the new cookbook. The verdict... I like it, but probably not enough to make it again. This soup was a lot of work and I had higher expectations for it. It seems like the lemon overpowers the peanut butter which is rather disappointing to me.

Last time I was in Maine for work, I picked up some of Little Lad's Not Cho' Cheese. This stuff is great and unfortunately, I've been unsuccessful at duplicating the recipe as of yet. It is made from potato, carrot, lemon juice, soybean oil, water, and "spices". What did I make with it? Pure comfort food... Mac and cheese with slices of soy dogs. On the side is Asian style broccoli. I've posted about this before. Just steam broccoli and add a dash of soy sauce, sesame oil and cracked red pepper. Yum!

Lastly, oven baked tofu. Also on my last trip to Maine, I picked up a bottle of Soyvay Wasabiyaki on clearance. I'd read about it, but this is the first time I actually saw it. How lucky am I to find it for half price? Anywho... I marinated slices of tofu in the Wasbiyaki (teriyaki with wasabi) then baked it for about 45 min in the oven at 425. I like to use my toaster oven as it uses less energy (no need to fire up the gas stove for 6 slices of tofu). Turn it once about halfway through cooking. I'm a now a Soyvay fan! Tommy also dug this tofu.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes regarding my knee. Every week it is getting better. I actually picked up a trainer for my road bike and I've been using that to keep up the exercise and also help rehab my knee.

Hope you all had a great week and that your are staying warm if you are in the North East!

Lots of New Recipes

My knee is still recovering, but I'm doing much better. Though stairs are still a bit difficult, I am back to some active stuff. Monday was a work holiday for me and I gave the treadmill a go. I managed a slow mile (3.5 mph), but I was able to jog. I'm pretty psyched about that.

Anyway, onto the food...

The generous folks over at LightLife sent me a mini cooler full of their products. I've purchased Lightlife brand foods before, but this actually gives me a chance to try some items I might not normally purchase. Ha! Now I finally need to try tempeh again. (I've got some tempeh issues.) They also sent me a link to give out for you to print a LightLife coupon. I'll try to keep posting it as I use up the rest of the cooler pack.


While watching the news last week, there was a chef from a restaurant in Boston's North End (Little Italy) called NEBO. They demo'd a recipe for Tagliatelle with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe. I easily veganized it with LightLife sausage and some veggie broth. Oh, and I hate raisins...so I used chopped dried apricots. Since it was a test, I made it without and then later added them. I actually kind of enjoy the spicy, saltiness without the fruit; however, it is tasty with apricots as well.

BTW - You can sub fettucine for tagliatelle if you have trouble finding it. Check out the wiki article on tagliatelle for an interesting read.

Broccoli Rabe ---I'm not a huge fan. I think this is the first time I tried it and I found it to be rather bitter. When I make this dish again I might just use broccoli or spinach.

Since I needed to use up the rest of the sausage, I made some vegan waffles and patties for breakfast later in the week. The recipe for Ginger Buckwheat waffles came from vegweb. These were ok. They definitely needed less ginger. I added some cinnamon, but they were still lacking something. I'll have to keep searching for a good vegan waffle recipe.

I've mentioned before that I'm preparing more raw foods. I'm trying to eat raw at least 2 days a week for the year. Last week, I failed to take photos. Today was raw day and I did snap pics of almost everything. As you'll see, I'm keeping it very simple for now.

Breakfast was just some fruit as I rushed out the door. For lunch, I packed the fixings for guacamole and mixed it up at the office. Instead of chips, I used chopped romaine lettuce squares. In addition, I brought some carrot salad. The recipe was from Rawsome!: Maximizing Health, Energy, and Culinary Delight With the Raw Foods Diet. It looks very plain, but the orange and cumin pack some flavor.

For dinner, I decided on a smoothie and a side of greens. The smoothie was mango, banana, and freshly squeezed orange juice. The greens were based on a recipe using kale and collard greens from Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People. I used rainbow chard. Wow, this really surprised me. I'd never really eaten raw swiss chard before and didn't have high hopes for it. This is a great dish that I'd make again with any type of greens.

It is very simple. Chop up the greens with some basil and garlic, then mix by hand (important, to mix the dressing directly into the leaves) with lemon juice, olive oil, and bit of salt. The recipe called for a dash of cayenne which I skipped. Let it rest for 10 minutes and enjoy.

Time Flies

I keep planning on posting and then the day whizzes by and I've forgotten to post yet again. Over the holidays, I did quite a bit of cooking, though I only managed to document a few of the recipes. As usual, I've been lurking at other blogs. I was blown away by some of your holiday creations.

Anyway, here are the recipes I did photograph.

Organic cabbage was on sale, so I made up "veggie ribz" and cole slaw. The slaw is just red and green cabbage with carrots, celery seed, some vinegar, and a bit of soy mayo. You might notice 3 flavors of "ribs". Two are BBQ sauces. The third (and slightly scary colored one) is Ah So Sauce. I saw a jar at the supermarket and picked it up awhile ago. My mom sometimes cooked Chinese (non veg) stuff with this sauce. When I was a kid, I loved it. The verdict now ---not bad, but I prefer regular BBQ sauce.

Since I still had leftover cabbage, I gave this recipe for cabbage soup a try. Of course I used veggie broth instead of beef broth. This soup is surprisingly simple and the dill really added a lot flavor. Unfortunately, it didn't photograph all that well.

We have a restaurant chain here on the east coast called Bertucci's. It is pretty decent Italian food. One of my favorite side dishes there is the spinach and artichokes. I noticed a can of artichokes on my pantry shelf, so I cooked them up with spinach, evo, and a dash of pepper. The photograph isn't all that impressive, but I scoffed it up.

Onto junk food...

I saw Bryanna's Gingerbread People on another blog and decided that I must make them. Originally I skipped icing, but then I went in search of a vegan icing recipe for them. This led me to Jennifer's post about vegan icing for Schmoo. I used her idea and mixed some VitaSoy Holly Nog with powdered sugar. I'm lazy, so I made it a little on the watery side so I could just dip the cookies rather than spreading on the icing. These cookies were a hit. People couldn't believe they were vegan.

Side note - I'd seen others post about the VitaSoy Peppermint Chocolate drink. Though I like the Holly Nog, I didn't have incredibly high hopes for the new flavor. Boy was I wrong! I'm in love the Peppermint Chocolate soy milk. ---Soooo good. It is on clearance at many supermarkets now, so get it while you can!

Speaking of peppermint chocolate, I saw these great chocolate candy cane cookies on Jess' blog. She actually got the recipe from FueledByPopcorn. Since I am obsessed with the VitaSoy Peppermint Chocolate, I figured I'd give these cookies a try. That day, I was being difficult and didn't feel like following the recipe exactly. I cut down on the margerine by 1/3 and used apple sauce instead. Apple sauce is sweet, so I cut down on the sugar by about 1/3 as well. Lastly, I was worried that the cookies would be too minty, so I cut down on the mint by 1/3. These were some tasty little buggers. When I make them next time, I'd cut out even more of the mint.

Over the past few days I've been experimenting with raw foods. I'm actually digging some of the new recipes I've tried and I'll do my best to post some photos. Tomorrow, I meet my dad for dinner, so I will be having my first cooked meal since Sunday.

Brazil Nut "Cheese" and GF Snickerdoodles

I've got one more recipe to bake up this afternoon when I get home from work, but I decided to hop on and post quickly at lunch. (Just in case I don't have time later.)

Tonight my family is having a Chanukah party and I'm bringing a couple of items. Last night I followed an interesting recipe I saw in Vegetarian Times for Brazil Nut Cheese.

It is very simple. Soak Brazil nuts in water overnight and then food process with salt, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and water. After that roll it into a ball and squeeze out extra moisture. Then roll it in fresh herbs and bake it in the oven. Serve it drizzled with olive oil.

I'd give this recipe 9.5 stars out of 10. It is a tiny bit salty for my taste, so next time I will cut down the salt and likely it will be 10! The picture really doesn't do it justice. I sliced it open so you could see the center.

This is the kind of thing I've missed a bit as a vegan. Spread this on a veggie sandwich and you have one heck of a lunch!

One of the people attending the party tonight has Celiac, so I wanted to be accommodating. I know what it is like when I go to party and can't eat anything. I'd decided on Snickerdoodles, but now I had to veganize and make the recipe gluten free.

The recipe I used was from allrecipes.com. First, I replaced the eggs with Ener-G egg replacer which is gluten free.  Then I replaced the flour with a gluten free mix. Everything else stayed the same.

The first batch of cookies was too soft after 8 minutes, so I put them back in for 2 extra minutes. Later, I learned that the cookies need to rest for a few minutes before removing them from the sheet. S0... If you like crunchy cookies, cook for 10-11 min. For softer ones cook for 8-9. Wait before moving them from the cooking sheet.

I hope you all enjoy the holidays!

News, Kale, and More..

First, I saw this article in various places via email and online. If you haven't read it yet, it is worth the time.

The UN released a new study with findings that say: The cattle industry produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment#

Onto food stuff...

After our offbeat Thanksgiving, I did make up a more traditional vegan T-day plate.


You'll notice roasted yellow beats, sauteed beet greens (with garlic), a small portion of mashed potatoes, half a roasted sweet potato with cinnamon, and some slices of Celebration Field Roast. Tommy loves sweet potatoes and field roast. This was my first experience with cooking up the beet greens. I liked them!

The Field Roast is a great. It is a seitan roll with butternut squash and apple stuffing. I'm a huge fan of this product and look forward to this time of year when it is easy to find Field Roast in the store. The Field Roast Company also makes seitan sausages that I'd highly recommend. Their site lists a new vegan cheese which I'm looking forward to trying; however, I've been unable to find any locally.

This week I purchased some kale in order to try out a new recipe for Bean and Kale scramble that I found on FatFreeVegan. Generally I avoid kale, with the exception of one recipe I posted about previously.

This looked interesting, so I gave it a go. I included the optional mustard. The dill, soy sauce, and mustard made this dish quite flavorful and I'd cook it again.

So, I had some leftover kale and decided try out Kale Chips which I'd filed away a long time ago. The recipe is very simple. Chop up the kale, toss with olive oil and bake for 10 minutes (or until crispy) at 350 degrees. Wow, this couldn't be any easier and I love the crunchy kale chips! They are great plain and I also tried a few different toppings including vegan parmesan shaker cheese and creole spice seasoning. This recipe idea is a keeper.

I'm still limping around, so I'm cooking less than I would like, but I am keeping up with everyone's blogs.

A quick lunch time post...

I've been MIA yet again.

I'm actually recovering from a snowboarding injury. I managed to hurt my knee pretty badly. (Figures it happened, so early in season.) Fortunately, lateral movement is good/not wobbly. I'm doing my best to stay off it and we're hoping it heals on its own in 7-10 days. Otherwise, I'll need to get an MRI on it.

Needless to say, I didn't get much cooking done while lounging around with my leg up and ice packs on my knee. Though I do have 2-3 posts waiting for me upload. I'll try to do that tonight.

For now, I thought I'd share a t-shirt that I found amusing. The site that sells it, does not have a veg agenda which is kind of funny. If you want one, they are on sale at threadless.com.

Zombie Chickens

Normally, I don't post much as far as animal rights news. Today I was at a website (no connection to veganism) where this article was linked.

The egg industry sickens me and anyone who believes that eating eggs causes no harm to chickens, need to read articles like this.

The first paragraph:

In this rich agricultural region of Northern California, ranchers have been turning chickens too old to lay eggs into compost at a rate of a half-million hens a year.

But some chickens not properly euthanized have been seen crawling out of the compost piles, earning them the name ``zombie chickens'' -- and hatching a debate over what else might be done with them and other ``spent hens.''

Link to the full article.

Those poor animals. After a years of laying eggs in tiny cages and being deprived of basic necessities, they are suffocated and then buried alive. All this, so that people can eat eggs. Can you imagine how scared those poor creatures must be, after clawing their way out of compost heap filled with other dead brothers and sisters?

News like this is so frustrating and I'm not even sure what I can do to help. Living by example and sharing information are the first steps though.

More Soup and Thai Tofu Salad

Last night I made creamy cauliflower soup. Of course I changed the recipe a tiny bit. In the end I didn't add the soy milk as I thought the soup is creamy enough. I also pureed only 3/4 of it because I like the chunks of cauliflower. Lastly, I didn't add the nutmeg. This is because I have been adding different spices each time I have a bowl. At lunch, I just added salt and pepper. With dinner, I added garam masala. Yum!

Here is the recipe, it was posted on a veg Yahoo group I am part of.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

28 oz of vegetable broth
1 large head cauliflower --cut into pieces
1 med potato -- peeled and diced
1 med onion -- diced
2 tsp vegetarian bouillon
1 cup plain soy milk (optional according to Jody)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (also optional according to Jody)
salt and white pepper -- to taste

Combine vegetables, broth and bouillon in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Cook until the vegetables are soft (20-30 minutes). Puree (in blender, food processor, or with hand-held blender). Return to pan, add remaining ingredients and heat to desired serving temperature.

I also made Thai Tofu salad. The recipe caught my eye when I was flipping through one of those paper cookbooks they have by the cash register in the supermarket. I wasn't sure about peanut butter and tofu together, but this is great. I'd planned on making a wrap with my soup tonight, but the package of wheat wraps had seen better days. I tossed the green spotted wraps and just had a scoop of tofu salad beside my soup.

Here is the recipe for that as well. I'm looking forward to making a sandwich with this tomorrow.

Thai Tofu Salad

1 package of extra firm tofu
1/3 cup peanut butter
4 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice

1/8 tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp hot pepper sauce
¼ cup chopped red bell pepper
¼ cup sliced green onions
¼ cup chopped cilantro

Drain tofu. Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic powder, and hot pepper sauce. Mix well. Add tofu, bell pepper, onions, and cilantro. Stir with fork until well mixed and tofu is crumbly.

Where O Where Has Jody Gone?

I've been lurking around at everyone's blog, but really haven't taken the time to comment or post. Work has been busy and I've been sidetracked by some personal stuff as well.

It was great to see so many wonderful veg*n Thanksgiving meals as I made the blog rounds. This year was rather nontraditional for me. My father and his girlfriend were called out of town on short notice and that changed the family Thanksgiving plan. I ended up heading over to my aunt's for a late lunch, rather than having a big gathering. We decided on an Asian theme. She made stir fried tofu and veggies. I brought spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce based on a recipe from Vegan Cooking School.

The past few weeks, I've been eating pretty simple meals that include salads, marinated tofu and veggies, or fruit/oatmeal. Though I took some pics, it seems silly to post them. The cool weather makes me crave soups and often times I have a cup of soup with my lunch. Last week I made tomato lentil soup. It looked so pretty in the leaf bowl.

Tonight I have a creamy cauliflower soup, cooking. I'm looking forward to trying this new recipe which I will post soon with a photo. I'll be trekking around and commenting on other blog later. Hope everyone is doing well.

Chickpea Patties and Cupcakes

This morning I met a friend for breakfast at Garden Grille Cafe in RI. I had a tofu scramble with portabellas, spinach, and sun-dried tomato. After that I had to go pick up bird seed for Tommy. When I went to get the bird seed, I found that one of my favorite sporting good stores is going out of business. I stopped in hoping to find snowboard boots, but they didn't have my size. Though, I lucked out and found a great winter jacket for almost 70% off. When I got home, I did some yard work. A few trees had branches out close to the house, so I sawed off the offending limbs.

Tonight I made the Moroccan Chickpea patties from Vive le Vegan. Thanks to Leslie for the idea. I thought I had bad experiences with fennel in the past, but this fennel tasted nothing like I remembered. It wasn't bad, even raw. Verdict on the patties... I liked them, but they were a bit difficult to keep together in the pan. Honestly, the mix was just fine on its own without breading or cooking into patties. I'd use it as a dip or make sandwiches with it in the future.

Last weekend, I made the chocolate stout cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The were ok, but not great. This was probably my fault as I made them without out cupcake papers and potentially cooked them too long. This weekend I made chocolate cupcakes and filled/frosted them with the peanut butter cream frosting. These were spectacular. The frosting and the cakes are perfect and perhaps taste even better than any cupcake I've had in the past (vegan or not). Yay Isa! The first photo of the cupcake came out a little funky, but I am posting both pictures.

Happy Halloween!

Thanks Jen for the info on vegan Halloween candy. Unfortunately, my sister picked up Halloween candy yesterday and it is the non-vegan kind. Next year, I will get Twizzlers or something. Though I know Twizzlers have glycerin in them. Glycerin is not always vegan and it doesn't say vegetable glycerin. I assume if they made PETA's list, then they checked out the source.

Anyway, I've cooked quite a bit since I got back. I've been bad about posting. Last weekend I saw Bryanna's Waffle Iron Hash Browns on VeganCyclist's blog. Since my waffle iron has never been used for anything other than waffles, I gave them a try. They were delicious, even Tommy thought so. If you don't have a waffle iron, VC made her's in a panini grill and they came out a-ok.

What else... I had recently picked up Bryanna's Authentic Chinese Cuisine: For the Contemporary Kitchen. Originally, I planned on making soup; however, I saw the recipe for Dan Dan Noodles and tried those. These were awesome. As I was cooking them, I was wondering if the strange mixture of ingredients would work. They totally did. I've got leftovers waiting for dinner tonight! The only change I made to the recipe was adding some broccoli. With the extra veggies, I was able to make three meals out of it, instead of two. Tommy dug these noodles too, though I think she is wondering why I haven't cooked tofu or seitan in awhile.

Lastly, Halloween stuff. I was visiting Yeah, That Vegan Shit and saw these awesome bloody finger cookies that she made. I gave them a try for today's Halloween party at work. The only change I made was using jam instead of red frosting. When I make these again, I'd put the almonds on before baking the cookies. The severed fingers were a bit brittle and a few broke while adding the almond fingernails. I just added more jam and stuck them back together. The almond cookies are actually very tasty and they could be made again as regular cookies in the future.