Sweet n Sour Chik'n

How did "Chik'n" become the shorthand for "vegetarian chicken"?  I don't know, but it works for me! So, the "Chik'n" in this recipe has sort of a cute story involving some very nice Whole Foods employees. I made a version of this recipe when I lived in Tallahassee, and the Chik'n I used was Quorn non-breaded chick'n nuggets. I thought they were great, because I love Quorn products. Anyway, I moved to Winston-Salem and wanted to make this recipe for EJ, but I couldn't find any suitable non-breaded chik'n nuggets. What's a girl to do? I went to Whole Foods, and bought the Quorn chik'n cutlets, intending to cut them myself. I asked the cashier if there was a way I could request for Whole Foods to carry what I was looking for. He thought that they should have a better product, but wasn't sure what it was. The girl that was bagging my groceries brought me to the frozen "meat" section and showed me the Gardein scallopini cutlets (which I love, but weren't right for this recipe). Then she showed me these Delight Soy nuggets that I'd never seen before. Apparently they are what Whole Foods uses to make their Mock-Chik'n salad. I told her I hadn't tried the salad before, and she brought me to the deli and got me a (huge) free sample! It was delicious, so I bought the Delight Soy nuggets, and for no reason at all, the cashier gave me a 20% discount. Thank you for your excellent customer service, Whole Foods!

That was the longest introduction ever to a blog post, so without further ado, I give you Sweet n Sour Chik'n (which I will just say quickly was amazing!)!!

From Food pics

Macintosh Apple Chick'n Sandwich

My husband and I recently ate here, and absolutely fell in love. At first glance, the menu was nothing special for a vegetarian; they only had the obligatory veggie burger. When we looked a little more, we realized that everything can be made vegetarian (turns out, one of the owners is a vegetarian)!! So if you are ever in Winston-Salem, I highly suggest checking out Finnigan's Wake.

At lunch, I had the Granny Smith Chicken Sandwich, and they subbed the chicken breast for a Quorn naked Chik'n Cutlet. Of course, I wanted to recreate this sandwich when I returned home, and recreate I did! And I LOVED the result! This will probably be my staple lunch sandwich for quite a while.  The cheddar cheese goes great with the apple slices, and the honey mustard adds the tanginess that every sandwich needs. These cutlets can be a bit dry, so the sauce helps a lot with that, also.

From Food pics

Fakin'-wrapped tofu dogs

Has anyone else noticed that meat has become a total fad? Like, I went to a girlfriend's house this weekend and saw a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. I actually felt the need to ask if there was bacon in them before I ate one! According to Google trends, searching for bacon has definitely gone up in the last couple of years, especially in comparison to other meats. What do you guys think of this meat bandwagon (the meat-wagon)? I'm interested to hear the opinions of meat and non-meat eaters.

From Drop Box

Back to my fakin'-wrapped tofu dogs. They were ok - definitely a novelty food item that I probably won't make again. I'm a fan of the Morningstar Farms "Bacon" (aka Fakin') and their tofu dogs are pretty good, too.

From Food pics

From Food pics

Pantry Challenge Day 6 - Crumbled veggie burger breakfast pita

I am definitely moving towards an empty pantry! This recipe took about 5 minutes to make, and it was surprisingly tasty. Also, by trying this recipe, I inadvertently discovered that cream cheese smeared on a veggie burger is a very tasty snack!

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/2 veggie burger (I used an Amy's veggie burger; it was quite large so I only used half)
1 tbsp ranch dressing
cilantro
salt, pepper
2 tbsp light cream cheese
2 tbsp salsa

1) Microwave the burger until its no longer frozen (it doesn't need to be heated through, but you do need to be able to break it up)

2) Crack your egg in a bowl, add the salt, pepper, and ranch. Whisk until its blended.

3) Crumble your burger into a small non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the egg mixture. I added my cilantro here, but it was a cilantro paste that comes in a tube. If you're using fresh cilantro, I would wait a little longer to add it.

From Food pics

4) While you're waiting for your eggs to cook, you can prepare your pita. By prepare, I mean spread some cream cheese and salsa in it. You could toast the pita, but I left mine untoasted.

5. Scramble the eggs, but don't break them up too much - leave the pieces large.

6. Stuff the pita. Add some salt and pepper if it needs it. Enjoy! (Add some fresh spinach or baby greens here if you have any!)

From Food pics

Filipino Torta

This is sort of like a meat and potato pancake...but way better. I use Morningstar veggie crumbles to vegetarianize it. You will need Jufran to add the final touch of awesomeness, which you can get at any asian supermarket. Jufran is banana sauce, and tastes like sweet ketchup. Its made in the Philippines and very delicious. You can get a regular or spicy variety, but warning, the spicy one is pretty spicy.

From Food pics

Ingredients:

3 cups thawed Morningstar veggie crumbles
4 eggs, beaten
1 potato, diced very fine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
salt, pepper

1. Cook the potatoes so they are slightly soft, but not too long because they will fall apart. I submerged mine in boiling water for less than 10 minutes (but I also cut mine larger than I would have liked).

2. Add all ingredients (except eggs) to a large bowl and stir. Let them cool (so that when you pour the eggs in, the eggs don't cook).

3. Add the eggs and combine all ingredients. The contents should be relatively smooth. Like I said, my potatoes were larger than I would have liked, so I smashed them with the back of a spoon.

4. Spray a nonstick skillet with oil, and when the oil is hot, drop a large dollop of meat/potato mixture onto pan. Cook it like a large pancake. If you use a large spatula, you should have no trouble flipping them.

Serve hot with rice and Jufran. Yum!

From Food pics

Vegetarian Big Mac

EJ loves Big Macs. He loves them so much that his elementary school bumped him from second to third grade because they thought he was so grown up, and even in the third grade, he was still the only kid to get a Big Mac on the field trip!

As an adult, EJ has been a vegetarian for some time, but every now and again I can catch his forlorn sigh as he yearns for just one more Big Mac. This evening I thought I would surprise him...and voila! The Vegetarian Big Mac is born.

Ingredients:
2 Boca griller patties
iceburg lettuce - as much as you can pile on
2 slices orange American cheese (i refused to get Kraft singles, so I bought the Land O Lakes brand...its really good!)
2 hamburger buns
thousand island dressing
(a real Big Mac has pickles, but I left them off because I hate pickles)

Toast burgers until cooked. Assemble the bottom of a hamburger bun, one patty, the cheese, some lettuce, pickle (if using), dressing, another hamburger bottom, another patty, another slice of cheese, more lettuce, more pickles, if using, more dressing, top of bun. I wrapped the entire thing in foil, crushing it together, and popped it in the oven for 3 minutes, just to warm it (cause you know McDonald's always has warm lettuce on their burgers).

I also made my own french fries to go with this. I sliced a potato pretty thin, tossed it in about a tbsp olive oil and tossed in a bunch of salt and pepper. I laid them on a greased cookie sheet and baked at 450 for 20 minutes, flipped, and baked another 7-10 minutes.

From Food pics