Chickpea Cutlets, finally!!

I finally did it.....I made V-con's Chickpea Cutlets!! For months now I've read rave reviews on nearly every vegetarian and vegan blog I frequent, as well as on Mothering.com. People can't seem to get enough of these cutlets, so I finally decided to find out what all the fuss was about. I still don't own this book, but I found the recipe on Chow.com. The only change I made was to leave out the soy sauce so that Stella could eat them as well.

You'll recall that I made ED&BV's Chickpea Sensation Patties awhile back. And, you'll recall that we all really liked them, even Mairin. Well, I'll have to say, V-con's cutlets may well have been better than ED&BV's (although, Mairin disagrees....she didn't eat any of these). I really like the addition of the vital wheat gluten to these cutlets. They make such a wonderfully textured patty. And, contrary to my previous experience, these patties came together in less time than Dreena's version (I usually find that Dreena's recipes come together very quick and easy, and not so with Isa). We will definitely be putting these into our rotation of frequent repeats.

I decided, at the advice of a fellow mothering.com mom, to bake the patties first and then fry them. When I took them out of the oven they seemed like they were going to be a bit dry, so while they were frying up I made a quick little mustard sauce to go over them. For the sauce I added about 1/4 cup Dijon mustard to 1/4 cup olive oil and whisked it together. To that I added about 1 Tbs of light brown sugar, and a pinch of salt and pepper, then gently heated it over low heat. It turns out the cutlets weren't dry at all, but the sauce was still a great addition. With the cutlets I served some yukon gold potatoes mashed with original Rice Dream. I also steamed up the last bit of broccoli and carrots I had in the fridge.

Last night we went to Buca di Beppo for my baby brother's 18th birthday. I am happy to report that they were very nice and accommodating to my requests of no animal products. I was able to eat their bruschetta and the penne campofiore (both of which they were happy to serve without cheese).

Chickpea Noodle Soup

Well, my cooking has been about as lazy as my blogging this week!! We've all been feeling a bit under the weather at one point or another, and after taking care of sick children, and then being sick myself, well, my menu didn't quite pan out as planned this week.

So, after a short hiatus, here's Wednesday's dinner. We had Chickpea Noodle Soup from Veganomicon.

Unfortunately, I made this on the first night I was not feeling well, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping I would. It was very delicious, but my stomach just couldn't handle it. Stella and Rob also approved (although, I had to serve Stella's before I added the miso, so it was slightly different). As a matter of fact, Rob enthusiatically approved of this soup, and he's usually one to turn his nose up at soup (which is unfortunate for him, since I'm a huge soup fan and make LOTS of it in the winter months).

The soup did not capture the essence of chicken noodle soup, like I had hoped it would. I have to admit, chicken noodle soup is one thing I'm sure missing so far this winter, and I was hoping this would be my replacement. I'm going to have to keep looking I think. I had big plans for making some Chicken Noodle soup with some No-Chicken Broth and some chicken style seitan, but after the seitan incident of last week, I'm not sure if I can stomach it or not. Perhaps I'll try the recipe without the seitan and see how it goes.

Chickpea Noodle Soup will definately be made again this winter. However, next time I think I will use regular spaghetti instead of the soba noodles. The brown noodles really freak Mairin out(I have to cover our whole wheat spaghetti with sauce so she doesn't know the noodles are brown!!), so I think regular spaghetti will ensure she will at least try it. Other than that, the recipe is practically perfect.

Sloppy Joe Gets a Vegetarian Make-Over

Wow, it's been a looooong time since I've been in the kitchen!! We were out of town this weekend, celebrating Diwali/Thanksgiving with some friends on Friday and visiting family Saturday and Sunday. Thursday really was the last time I cooked something. It was a nice break from the kitchen, but I was glad to be back today.

We got back last night and there was no food in the house. The girls ate Weetabix, and Rob and I ate chili that I had frozen a few weeks ago. So, needless to say, we made a trip to Whole Foods today. The menu for this week consists of some newcomers and some repeats.

Tonight's feature was a newcomer from Veganomicon. We had Sloppy Joe's vegetarian cousin Snobby Joe. Remember Manwich from when you were a kid??? Snobby Joe is about as close as you will ever get with a homemade, vegetarian version. These sammies (more Rachel Ray speak) really do take you back. Our girls have never had Sloppy Joe's before, so this was their first experience, and I think it was a good one. Mairin actually ate and liked hers, and Stella wolfed it down (although, she had to eat hers without a bun, because WFM had no buns that were not potentially contaminated with peanuts). I followed the recipe exactly, except I gave each sandwich a sprinkling of nutritional yeast just before serving. The recipe didn't specify what kind of lentils to use, so I used Puy's because I like them the best. Our Snobby Joe's were accompanied by some oven baked sweet potato fries and some steamed broccoli. It was delish.

Sweet Potato Fries:

4 sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp canola oil
sea salt
pepper

Heat oven to 450. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into fry shape. Combine fries with oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Spread fries on baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 450 for 30 minutes, turning once during cooking.

I also made some veggie stock tonight. My bag of scraps in the freezer was so full I'd already started a second, so I thought it was time to get the stock made. I didn't take a picture last time I made stock, and I regretted it in the end, so this time I took a picture.

I can't really give a recipe, as the stock is different each time I make it. It just depends on what particular scraps I've saved up since last time, and I don't measure the herbs and spices, I just throw them in. So, each batch is unique. But, always delicious.

There's something so rewarding about simmering your own stock all day, and then using it for your cooking. Homemade stock really lends a terrific flavor to all of your dishes, and it's so easy to make, you should try it sometime.