Tuesday, December 16, 2008

My Latest Favorites and Some Obstacles


Lately, breaded tofu has been my new favorite method of cooking tofu. All it takes is a simple dip in a mixture of oil, soy sauce, and maple syrup and a dredge in some breadcrumbs, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, and any other spices and into the oven it goes! I've also tried making these into little tofu nuggets and everytime I make them, my little brother and sister grab them off my plate (I'm so happy that they have all been more open to trying certain vegan proteins- it makes making dinner for them a lot more enjoyable)! Last week I finally got around to trying a dish in VWAV that I overlooked for far too long- the Maple Mustard Glazed Potatoes and String beans (I added some parsnips and carrots as well). YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY! I just made this because I had everything on hand and wanted a warm meal, but this may be my new favorite way to roast vegetables. I think I might even bring this to my grandmother's house for Xmas dinner!

I finally had a free afternoon this past weekend and decided to take advantage of it and bake. But what to make? Hm....I didn't want anything super sweet or decadent because I was going out for dinner with a friend that night and knew there'd be lots of cake involved, so I considered muffins. As I thought of different types of muffins to make, I remember I had this recipe for breakfast cookies saved onto my computer from the Food Network. Perfect! These would be a nice, healthy breakfast and fun to make. The recipe was easy to veganize as I only had to sub EB for butter and a flax "egg" for the egg. I also used maple syrup as the only sweetener, canned pumpkin instead of the carrot baby food and added about 3 T. more, used oat bran instead of bran flakes, and added 1/4 c. nondairy milk. Despite all of these changes, the cookies were a hit and I'm sad that they're all gone. But they're so easy I can always make a bunch more :)

Alright, some news (I seem to have a lot of that lately, don't I?): I have recently found out that I have multiple food allergies including (these are off the top of my head): wheat, gluten, rice, oat, barley, almonds, peanuts, sugar cane, dairy and eggs (not that those matter much to me!) lentils, bananas, pineapple, garlic, soy, lettuce (how does that even happen?), and a few other things that I can't seem to remember right now. While I do not experience any obvious physical symptoms from these foods, these allergies may be causing some problems I've been dealing with for awhile now. So, over the next 2 months I have to weed out all of these foods from my diet, starting with the grains and gluten. Now, I still will be able to eat some of these foods if I take a digestive enzyme before each meal because I am allergic to so many commonly used foods that they will be difficult to avoid. I plan on not worrying about my allergies and just taking the enzyme when I eat out, but I really want to try to avoid these foods at home. So you can expect a lot for creative meals and my own versions of some recipes! Just wanted to let you know why I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooknig recently, but once I get to the store next week I will be cooking and baking up a storm! One of my first missions- gluten-free breakfast cookies :)

Oh, and I have a question for some of you- what are you planning on making for your holiday meal this year? My family and I are going to my grandma's house for Xmas and, while I have dessert already planned, I'm at a loss for what to make for my meal!

7 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Oooh, those Maple Mustard Glazed Potatoes & String beans look great, as do the baked goods!! :-)

Oh my goodness, that's quite a list of allergies!! I'm allergic to gluten/wheat, dairy, and soy, and my recipes on my blog are free of these ingredients, for sure.

For your holiday meal = how about stuffed squash (stuffed with a medley of vegetables and quinoa)??

Anonymous said...

I've been dying to try that recipe!!! I'm glad you liked it.

Oh I'm so sorry about the list of allergies! That so much! I would totally cheat...but then again thats why I don't get that stuff checked so I won't have any "forbidden foods".

I second VeggieGirl with the stuffed squash recommendation. Nothing beats a festive colored(ex: red cranberries, green kale) stuffed squash!

Vegan_Noodle said...

I share your love of all breaded and baked tofu... and those maple mustard glazed beans. Oh I had forgotten how much I loved that dish!

What a bummer about the allergies! But I bet it's good to know because now you can do something about it. I will love seeing how creative you're going to get in the kitchen!

I haven't even thought about holiday meal yet, but I like Liz's idea of stuffed squash. I am making vcons potato eggplant moussaka for a holiday dinner this week, which is totally a crowd pleaser.

Anonymous said...

Wow that is quite the allergy list! My family has a lot of wheat and dairy allergies and I have a "food sensitivity" to soy so I had to revamp a lot of recipes too. Good luck to you, I look forward to your new creations in the kitchen.

For Christmas dinner I'm making the Cran Apple Quinoa in ED&BV and a stuffed squash as well. And I'm planning on making phyllo rolls stuffed with a bean veggie mixture. And of course so roasted veg and salad. Hopefully it all turns out!

Anonymous said...

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear about your allergies! That's gotta be rough... I've never even heard of a pineapple or lettuce allergy before.

Anonymous said...

Wow, how did you find out about all of your allergies? That's such a long list. Did they do testing for each of them?

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Oh wow, girl, I am so sorry about all those allergies! It sounds so daunting! But then again, to many people (me included, when I first started), cutting out meat and dairy sounds daunting. So I'm sure there are lotsa yummy substitutes you'll learn about :o).