The Envelope Please..........

And the winner is..........Adventures in Vegetarianism!! That's right, thanks to all of my loyal readers I've been voted Best Food/Wine/Cooking blog from 2007. My win is your win, I couldn't and wouldn't have been able to do it without all of you.

When I started Adventures in Vegetarianism in October I never expected to have so many readers in such a short time. You have all really inspired me to keep trying out new recipes, and keep sharing my adventure. Many of you even inspired the move to veganism, which I am extremely grateful for. It's great to have such a wonderful community of caring and compassionate people to be a part of. Your support and encouragement has really made the process much easier than I ever could have imagined. Thank you, thank you, a million thank yous.

I would also like to thank my family for their patience and adventurous palates. They are always willing to try out new recipes (they don't always like 'em, but at least they try 'em). My husband, Rob, has been so supportive and understanding of the changes our diet has undergone over this past year.........thank you honey!!!

Stay tuned as the Adventure continues in 2008!!!

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for............

Ice Cream!!!!

First up were ice-cream cookie sandwiches. I just whipped up a batch of Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies and made them into ice cream sandwiches using Temptation's French Vanilla Soy Ice Cream. These were a big hit, and so easy to make!

Later in the week I tried the Strawberry Swirl non-dairy ice cream from the current issue of Vegetarian Times. They have a whole section on vegan ice-cream this month......yahoo!! This was delicious, and almost perfect in it's consistency. The only problem with it was that I had to sub maple syrup for agave (as suggested in the recipe) and the maple syrup didn't quite taste right with the strawberry flavor. I'm going to have to play around with the sweetner a little on this one, but it's definitely a keeper. And see those cute, perfectly ripe strawberries on top. They were part of our CSA basket last week. We got 1 quart+1 pint of them, and we're all hoping for more this week!

And finally was this little creation.....Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice-Cream in a Waffle Bowl. Yesterday the girls were eating waffles and it just came over me to attempt making waffle cones. I used my regular recipe for waffles which included baking powder, so no matter how thin I poured the batter on the waffle iron, the dang things kept fluffing up too much to roll into cones, so I improvised and made bowls instead. It was really quite easy. I just removed the waffles from the iron before they were finished and while they were still quite pliable, then formed them over an upside down custard bowl. I then baked them at 350 until they were nice and crispy. I was very happy with the result, although next time I'm going to leave out the baking powder and try to make cones.

I made up the ice-cream recipe as well. Now, I'm not usually one to brag on myself or inflate my own ego, but I must say, this was the best vegan ice-cream I've ever tasted, hands down!! The consistency was right on, just like it's traditional dairy counterpart, and the flavor couldn't be beat. I've decided to call is "nice" cream because it's cruelty free (and nice to taste as well!!). YUM.......I'm so glad summer is here!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Nice-Cream

1/2 block silken tofu
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup plain soy creamer
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1 Tbs. Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Recipe Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie dough

In a food processor or blender combine all ingredients, except the cookie dough, and blend or process until tofu is creamy. Chill in refrigerator for several hours, then transfer to bowl of ice-cream freezer and freeze according to your freezer's directions. When ice-cream is nearly finished freezing add in 3/4 of the cookie dough while paddles are still running to allow cookie to dough to be combined into ice-cream.

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!