2015 Resolutions - Appetite For Reduction

2014 was, for me, a pretty good year. Unlike 2013, I actually made a net profit from being a full-time musician, and, in traveling to all of the various Renaissance Faires, conventions, and SCA events at which I performed, I got to try so much delicious food! I took tons of pictures from the various places at which I ate in St. Louis and Kansas City, and I plan on getting those posted to the blog this year (Procrastination, thy name is musician.)

Due to a combination of all of the delicious food I ate through 2014 and the fact that I messed up my right knee jumping on a trampoline in late August, I ended 2014 heavier than I started it. My goal weight is 140 lbs, and I'm currently about 176 or so. I have been using the My Fitness Pal app on my iPhone to track my calories, but eating out at restaurants is very difficult to track, unless you're at a big chain (MFP knows *exactly* how many calories are in a tall soy mocha with no whip from Starbucks!) Since I want to lose weight, since restaurant food is so hard to track, and since I'm such a fan of "Julie And Julia", I've decided to cook and blog my way through Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes in 2015. I think it'll be fairly easy to cook 125 recipes in 365 days, and I imagine I'll be repeating some recipes that are really good. I'm also planning on having lots of healthy smoothies throughout the year, as well as getting more use out of my juicer, and eating a few raw meals.



I'm going to allow myself one "cheat day" a week (where I can eat pretty much whatever I want - mmmmm, vegan donuts), but at least six days out of the week I'll be eating as healthy as possible. One of the things I love about "Appetite For Reduction" is that each recipe has full nutritional information listed. Talk about easy to track in my app!

Since yesterday was January 1 (Happy New Year, by the way!), I started with "Hottie Black-Eyed Peas & Greens". My sweetie and I went shopping on Dec. 31 to pick up black-eyed peas and collard greens, so I was set to make this yummy-looking recipe. My sweetie swears up and down that he hates collard greens, so I made just half of the recipe so that he can eat some black-eyed peas plain.



I thought this was absolutely delicious! I ended up using both paprika and Tabasco sauce, and the flavor was amazing. My sweetie ended up trying a couple of bites, and decided that he loved the dish, but still isn't fond of the bitterness of collard greens. He's going to use the recipe, minus the greens, to prepare his half of the black-eyed peas, though.

Weight - 181.4 lbs. Recipes to go - 124.

In Which The Hedgehogs Make April A Faux Egg Salad Sandwich

After a long day of faire, April discovered that she had an unwelcome, unexpected visitor. She drove home, and the hedgehogs sent her to relax while they made dinner. Since April had been planning on making the Faux Egg Salad from page 50 of "Vegan a Go-Go!: A Cookbook & Survival Manual for Vegans on the Road", the hedgehogs decided they'd make it for her.



The hedgehogs had almost everything they needed, but realized they didn't have any garlic or pickles. However, they had a GIANT bunch of parsley, so they added lots of that.


Buttercup says that Hedgie is going to owe her BIG TIME after this.

After mixing everything together and tasting it, they decided it was good, but needed a little something. They added about 1/2 teaspoon of Kala Namak (black salt) and two yolk's-worth of The Vegg, and mixed some more. This time, it tasted really good!

Hedgie and Buttercup made a sandwich with some of the Faux Egg Salad and some avocado, and toasted the whole thing.


"Hey, Hedgie. How are we going to get it up the stairs to April?" "Oops."


Full Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate links included in this post. I receive a small commission if you click through to Amazon and purchase products using these links. That being said, I'm currently in the process of trying to pay off a $34,000 hospital bill, so if you want to buy something, feel free to click!

RECIPE REVIEW - The Vegg Baked Frittata

Today, April and the hedgehogs are going to tell you about their latest experiment with The Vegg. Are you sitting comfortably?



Good. So, the hedgehogs woke up this morning, and Buttercup thought she saw a bird outside, but it was really just a couple of leaves, and Hedgie told her she was being silly...



...and we've lost your attention. Sorry. So, The Vegg experiment! Last time, April and the hedgehogs made an omelet from The Vegg Cookbook. Even after baking it in the oven for a bit, April's omelet was very soft and not nearly as "set" as she would have liked it to be. Interestingly, Jen from Living the Dream @ Deer Run had made the exact same omelet just two days earlier, and found that her batter was too thick even to pour!

This time, April decided to make Chris Dixon's Baked Frittata on page 57 of The Vegg Cookbook (also posted on the blog here). Her hope was that something that *started out* being baked would set up better.

At her host Duane's house, April only has access to a mini food processor (her camping blender has gone on walkabout somewhere in her van, and isn't ready to come back yet). The Vegg powder, garlic, water, spices, and arrowroot powder all fit in one batch, but the 12 oz. of silken firm tofu would not. April mixed a bit, poured it into a big bowl, added a bit more tofu to the food processor, mixed that, added it to the bowl, and continued until all the tofu was mixed. She then finished mixing the "eggy"mixture together by hand.



For filling, April used an onion, two large mushrooms, 4 slices of Upton's Naturals Seitan Bacon, and six small potatoes. She wanted to add some broccoli, but was afraid that there would be too much veggie matter for the eggy mixture to set well. After roasting the veggies for 30 minutes and seeing how much they cooked down, she realized that she could have added the broccoli (and the second onion, and the third mushroom, and some more bacon). Well, knowledge for next time.


The hedgehogs wait patiently for the frittata.

After baking the frittata for 35 minutes, the very top looked somewhat set, so April sliced into it. Unfortunately, it was still quite gooey underneath.



She put the frittata back into the oven for another 20 minutes, at which point the top had puffed up like a souffle and was looking very brown.





It was a bit more solid than before, but was still like a very thick custard under the top layer. April used 8 tablespoons of arrowroot powder instead of the 6 called for in the recipe, as well. Duane thinks that a wider shallower pan might work better next time (April was worried about a larger pan fitting into the toaster oven, but Duane swears it will fit).

As for flavor, both April and Duane thought that the frittata was very good. The creaminess of the eggy mixture paired well with the roasted veggies. Duane ended up adding extra salt, pepper, and garlic to his second slice, and said that it helped, so April will double the amounts of those things in the eggy mixture next time.

Vegg Omelet & Chocolate Peanut Butter Bacon Fauxnut Holes - From The Vegg Cookbook (and Bonus Taco Tuesday!)

In yesterday's post, April and the hedgehogs had decided to use April's brand new The Vegg Cookbook and Upton's Naturals Bacon Seitan to create some delicious food that would impress her omnivorous host, Duane. For the main course, April decided to go with Mimi Clark's Vegg Omelet (with seitan bacon and veggie filling) from page 15 of The Vegg Cookbook.

The hedgehogs helped April gather all the ingredients for the omelet.



April poured the Vegg/tofu mixture into the pan. The recipe had said to cook it for 10-15 minutes, or until the edges set. After 15 minutes, April's mixture was still kind of soupy.





She let it cook for about 20 minutes total, when it looked as if the top was starting to solidify a bit. She grabbed two wide spatulas, went to flip the omelet in half...



...and watched in dismay as it glooped partway over the veggies and bacon. She turned the heat up a little bit, and continued to cook the omelet for another 10 minutes or so. Unfortunately, April's finished omelet didn't really look like Mimi's finished omelet, so April slid her resulting half-set mixture into a loaf pan and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. The result was an omelet that, while not nearly as solid as a traditional omelet, still held together and tasted pretty good. Duane's review was that it had a "good flavor (not quite as egg-like as real eggs) and interesting texture." He wasn't fond of the cooked spinach (a fact which April will keep in mind for the upcoming Vegg Fritatta), but thought that the seitan bacon was "fantastic". April has a sneaking suspicion that, since she was using a propane stove, the heat wasn't high enough, and will try raising it the next time she makes the omelet.



For dessert, Duane had chosen Mina Azarnoush's Peanutbutter Bacon Chocolate Donuts from page 78 of The Vegg Cookbook (she has also posted the recipe here). Instead of buying a donut pan, April decided to use Duane's mini-muffin pan instead, resulting in Fauxnut Holes.



Instead of instant coffee, April used her existing canister of Cafix. She also used powdered peanut butter (PB2) for the glaze, and cut up cooked pieces of seitan bacon for the topping.

The fauxnuts cooked perfectly in the mini-muffin pan, but the glaze was VERY liquid-y. Buttercup suggested adding some arrowroot powder to thicken it, and Hedgie suggested putting that mixture into the freezer for a bit, but the glaze was still not thick enough. April ended up drizzling the glaze over the fauxnut holes on the plate instead of dunking each fauxnut hole into the glaze, and then sprinkling the bacon bits over the top.





April and Duane both loved the fauxnut holes. They were extra cocoa-y, and the crunch of the bacon was a great addition. Duane mentioned that some powdered ginger would taste good in the glaze, so next time, April will add ginger and use a bit less liquid, as well as cutting the bacon bits smaller so they're easier to eat.


BONUS PICTURE - since it's also Taco Tuesday, here's a picture of the tempeh soft taco April made for lunch. It has heirloom organic green tomatoes and salsa.

TV Tuesday / Dinner & a Movie - Spies & Pies (The Man With One Red Shoe & Waitress)

So, according to the official Vegan MoFo blogging prompts, Tuesdays are "TV Tuesday – Eat and Watch, cook a meal featured in your favourite movie or TV show." April had been doing "Dinner & a Movie" posts on Fridays last year for Vegan MoFo, but the hedgehogs said that she dropped the ball and will now be doing it on Tuesdays.



April and her fiance, Tim, have movie nights at their house every other week. They generally make simple food for general consumption, like spaghetti squash with marinara sauce or pan-fried polenta with pasta sauce (are you sensing a theme?), or perhaps something a bit more exciting, like Mexican Street Corn (which was absolutely delicious!). For the last movie night before April left for Kansas, everyone decided that they wanted to watch "The Man With One Red Shoe" and "Waitress".



The theme was Spies & Pies, and April spent the entire day making various pies for everyone. For dinner, she made the Veggie & Seitan Pot Pie from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook. This was some seriously tasty pot pie, and (as always), it was fun making seitan by hand. (Hedgie thinks it looks like a giant brain after it has cooked!) Even the omnivores at movie night loved the taste and texture of the seitan.





For dessert, April made a Vegan Apple Pear Pie by replacing half of the apples with pears in the Cosmos Apple Pie recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky: 75 Out-of-This-World Recipes for Pies, Tarts, Cobblers, and More. The Olive Oil Crust (made with coconut oil instead of olive) is April's very favorite go-to pie crust - it behaves perfectly!




Topped with coconut whipped cream!

Since April's friend Alloni is a huge red bean paste fan, April also made a Sweet Red Bean Paste Personal Pie by using the Olive (Coconut) Oil Pie Crust filled with sweet red bean paste from her local Asian grocery.







Since there was pie crust dough left over, and since April had a dumpling press that she'd never used, Sweet Red Bean Paste Mini Hand Pies seemed like a good idea. Apparently, she needs some work using the dumpling press - the dough tended to get stuck in the hinge edge, and made a bit of a mess. Hedgie seemed to think he could do much better, but when April told him to prove it, he mumbled something about needing to check on his stocks and wandered off.



Even though they weren't the prettiest things in the world, they certainly were delicious!

Mac Daddy - Veganomicon

A while back, Tim and I decided we wanted mac & cheese. Searching through our various cookbooks, we came up with "Mac Daddy" from the Veganomicon.



This is some seriously tasty food. We used pieces of lasagna noodles instead of macaroni, used the vegan Ricotta that we'd just picked up in place of the handmade ricotta (another reason for picking this recipe!), and topped the whole thing with Panko breadcrumbs, but otherwise, we just went with the original.



So. Freaking. Good.

Man, now I want mac & cheese again...

Immaculate Baking Company

I found this lovely display at a local HEB the other day -



The cinnamon rolls, biscuits, and crescent rolls are all vegan! I bought some cinnamon rolls and made them. Wow - tasty!



My boyfriend Tim bought a couple cans of the crescent rolls (WAY healthier than the Pillsbury rolls) to make his last batch of curry puffs. (I'll post his recipe next week.) Everyone agreed that they were actually better with the I.B.C. crescent rolls!

Baba Ganoush

While I've been up here in Kansasouri, I've had the opportunity to hang out (and share the stage!) with my friend Sarah. While over at her house a couple of weeks ago, I happened to mention that I love eggplant.



"Eggplant? Say, my grandmother has a ton of eggplants in her garden that she's trying to get rid of. Want some?"



Free eggplants? Sure, twist my arm. I ended up getting three gorgeous purple eggplants, just about the right size for juggling (which I can't do, though I joked that I was going to try). I spent a week or so trying to figure out what I would make with them. I finally decided that I was in a snacky mood, and that baba ganoush would be just the thing.



I went with this recipe. This was seriously some of the best baba ganoush I've ever eaten. I wonder if Sarah's grandmother has any more unwanted eggplants...?