"Crab" Cakes

This started out as a plan to make Chickpea Sensation Patties from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. However, I came upon this post from Vegan Dad, and decided to change my plan and make these instead. We've had the Chickpea Sensation Patties several times, so it seemed appropriate to take another direction....plus, Vegan Dad's meals are almost always kid friendly and my kids almost always like them.

Now, I know, in Vegan Dad's post he says these weren't an attempt to replicate crab cakes, but as soon as I read the recipe I thought "crab cakes", and naturally my mind went straight to tartar sauce. It also seemed that I could sell these to Rob a lot easier if I called them "crab" cakes instead of chickpea cakes!

These were out of this world, and the addition of homemade tartar sauce put them over the top. My only complaint is that I could only get 8 decent sized patties from the recipe, and Stella ate 3 of them. So, aside from my toddler, the rest of us were left wanting more. Next time I will definitely double this recipe.

For anyone who's curious, the tartar sauce was just Vegenaise, sweet pickle relish, small diced onions, and lemon juice. I didn't measure the ingredients, I just mixed and added to taste.

And finally, I'll leave you with a shot of our Valentine's dinner................

Orange Sesame Tofu, sauteed sugar snap peas, cilantro lime rice, and mixed salad with cumin lime vinaigrette.

Belated Easter Post

Our house has been a hub of activity over the last several days, and I'm only now getting around to posting about all of our delicious eats for the Easter holiday. But, before I get started, above you see pictured the lovely clay eggs that the girls and I painted. This project was a lot of fun. Much more so than dying hard boiled eggs. First we got to cook and shape the clay, then wait while they dried, and finally paint them. Plus, they'll make great decorations for years to come, and wonderful keepsakes for my girls when they get older. A fun Easter tradition, even for the non-vegans out there.

My in-laws are over from Ireland, and they spent the weekend with us. As many of you know, there's very little in the way of pre-made, pre-packaged vegan food, so this meant a lot of time in the kitchen for me. It was both fun and stressful, as I always get a little nervous about cooking for my non-veg family. Have any of you noticed that the tastes of vegetarians and non-vegetarians are quite different? Us veg-heads tend to love the "real" flavor of food, grains and tofu are fave's of vegetarians (and often snubbed by the omni's), and I don't know about you all, but I ADORE beans. So, I always find it difficult to come up with vegetarian meals to satisfy the tastes of the omnivores among us.

Our guests arrived on Saturday afternoon, so I needed to fix dinner for everyone on Saturday. Actually, I spent much of Saturday preparing things for that meal as well as for the rest of the weekend. For Saturday's dinner we had Fried Chick-un with mustard dipping sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Tantalizing Thai Slaw from Compassionate Cooks, and Vegan Cornbread. For dessert I made Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies. I think the meal was a success. My in-laws really liked the "chicken", and the slaw was a great hit. One meal finished, one success under the belt!!

Sunday we had my vegan blueberry muffins for breakfast. It was quite chaotic here with 5 adults trying to shower for church, two kids going crazy over what the Easter Bunny brought, and egg hunting galore going on. I knew this would be the case, so I baked the muffins Saturday night, and breakfast was waiting for us on Sunday when we were ready.

Following church, my dad and step-mom also came to our house, as well as my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, and my niece. For lunch we had Egg-less Egg Salad on whole wheat pita, Chipotle-Lime Two Bean Hummus with assorted chips and pita chips for dipping, and some crudites. Again, another success. I even fooled my dad, omnivore of omnivores, with the "egg" salad.

Following lunch my dad and step-mom left, and were replaced by my mother, stepfather, brother, grandmother and grandfather. So, I think for our evening meal we had a total of 12 adults and 3 children. Our dinner menu consisted of Chickpea Cutlets, grilled asparagus, Less Dressed Potato Salad,and The Dalai Mama's Mama's Baked Beans! There was also a fruit salad that my mother brought that was not vegan (it contained dairy and marshmallows), and a small ham for the omnis. For dessert I made the Pieless Apples A'la Mode from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Below is a photo of my plate of yummy vegan goodness. Unfortunately by the time we got around to eating dessert I was too beat to go get the camera and take a picture, so I have no photo of that.

I made a huge batch of cutlets, and there were only 2 left. A sign of success I should think. My brother ate two of them, and skipped the ham!!! The baked beans were also great. To the ingredients listed by the Dalai Mama I also added a can of crushed pineapple. Yum!! I just finished them off for lunch today.

And finally, for breakfast Monday morning I made my Powerhouse Pancakes, and some Boca Sausages. Before departing, my father-in-law took us out for a nice lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, where I had the Grilled Vegetable Salad. And too tired to cook another thing, we had left-over cutlets, potato salad, baked beans and slaw for dinner last night.

All in all, a weekend of successful vegan cooking!! My mother-in-law even requested a few recipes. And there was a lot of reading and discussion of The China Study and Diet for a New America going on!!

***As a side note, we had some left-over Fried Chick-un, and we ate it cold dipped in the mustard sauce Sunday afternoon. That stuff is GOOD!! It's almost better cold than it is hot, it totally tastes like Chik-fil-A.***

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).

Back to the Kitchen

Back to reality.......we had a wonderful time in Cancun, no one was ready to come back to our real lives. It was one of those vacations where you do absolutely nothing but relax. We were all loving basking in the sun, swimming all day, sipping drinks by the pool, having massages, temperatures in the 80's........but alas, back to reality.

Back to reality can only mean one thing, back to the kitchen (it was nice having someone else cook all of my meals for 7 days!!). But, before I could get back in the kitchen, I had to get to the store (we had a box of cereal, a dozen eggs, and one 1/2 gallon of Silk left when we returned). So, I hauled myself out into the frigid weather (in all fairness it was in the high 40's yesterday, but it felt pretty chilly in comparison), and got to WFM. Needless to say, with next to nothing left at home I had to spend a small fortune, but we do have food now, and I'm all set to cook.

Rob and I were both commenting that while we didn't want to leave Cancun, we were looking forward to returning home to my cooking (a girl can't get a decent vegetarian meal in Cancun...hence all of the seafood I consumed). So, for last nights dinner I planned Chickpea Sensation Patties from ED&bV, mashed potatoes with Thick and Rich Gravy (gravy also from ED&bV) and I cooked up some green beans that we'd bought at the end of the season from the Farmer's market and had frozen.

I've been reading a lot of raves for Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon lately, and since I don't have that book I used Dreena's chickpea patty recipe instead. I haven't made one of Dreena's recipes that I haven't liked, so I was sure this one would serve as a wonderful substitute until I get my hands on Veganomicon.

Of course, I was right. The chickpea patties really were sensational, and the gravy was incredible. This wasn't a meal that I thought Rob would be crazy for, but he loved the patties and even asked for more gravy (which says a lot considering he very much dislikes gravy). Even Mairin ate half a patty which is really something for her.

The recipe makes 8 patties, so there are leftovers for lunch today.....you forgot to take your lunch today Rob, looks like I'll be eating the patties, sorry.