Veggeroni Pizza

It's been quite a while since I made a pizza, so I added it to my menu for last week. I'm happy with just sauce and veggies, no faux cheese, no faux meat. Rob and the kids don't quite agree with me on that issue. So, I bought some Follow Your Heart Mozzarella and decided to make them a "cheese" pizza.

However, when searching around on the Fat Free Vegan I ran across this handy little Veggeroni recipe, and decided to give it a try. Oh man, I'm glad I tried this recipe, these little "pepperoni" are outstanding. I was never a fan of pepperoni before, they are nothing but little grease cups, yuck! These, having no animal fat (or added fat at all) solve that very disgusting problem. It's been quite a while since I've had a real pepperoni, but from what I recall, the flavor of these is strikingly similar. Rob, being a big pepperoni fan of the past was also very happy with this vegan version.
I did make a few minor changes. I did not have mustard seeds, so used dried mustard powder instead. I was also out of Liquid Smoke, so I skipped that step. And of course I subbed tahini for the nut butter, since all nut butters are a no-no around here. Finally, I did not use Agave Nectar (Stella's allergic to it...go figure), but I did use ketchup instead of tomato sauce, so it was plenty sweet.

I diced the left over veggeroni and used it in a tofu scramble on Saturday morning. It was a very tasty addition to the scramble. I'll be making this seitan pepperoni again very soon!

Spaghetti and "Meat"balls

Here it is Monday, and I've been a whole week without blogging. Summer's keepin' us busy and outside more than inside on the computer!! I've got several things to blog that I'll break up into a few posts to make reading easier.

Before we became veg one of Mairin's favorite meals was spaghetti and meatballs. I haven't really found a suitable substitute for her, so when I saw these featured on Vegan Dad I had to give them a try. I've never really liked tempeh before, but I thought grating it would make a difference since it seems to be a texture thing with me. Fortunately, I was right. With the tempeh grated I had no problem eating it at all. These "meat"balls were very good, and definitely were a good stand in for Rob and I. Unfortunately Mairin wasn't a fan. However, I'm quite confident that I can toy with the spicing a little and win her over with a more traditional flavor.

Do you see that purple basil on top??? It's from my garden!! The first thing we've been able to eat out of our garden. Yay!