Vegan Chicken Parmesan

This was absolutely delicious and full of flavor - the best part is that it's quick to prepare and can be finished within an hour! Most of the items are premade as I didn't have time to do it myself, but it would probably be even tastier if everything was homemade.

(Chicken Seitan Ingredients)

• 1 Package of Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1 tbl Original Mrs. Dash
• 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder, Rosemary and Oregano
• 1/2 can of Sodium-Free Swanson Vegetable Broth
• 1/2 tsp of Iodized Salt
• 3 tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil (per piece)

(Additional Ingredients)

• Vegan Cheese
• Marinara Sauce
• Oregano
• Nutritional yeast

(Directions)

• Combine the dry ingredients and carefully add the broth until it forms a loose but well-formed piece of seitan.
• Split it up into different pieces and boil them in the rest of the vegetable broth, more Mrs. Dash and a bit of water. Let them cook for about thirty minutes, drain them and then press them dry.
• Cook each piece in some extra virgin olive oil until the side has cooked and crisped to your liking.
• Place in a pan, slather it in your marinara sauce, and place on a small slice of vegan cheese.
• Place in the toaster oven(or regular oven) until sauce is heated and cheese has melted. Sprinkle the pieces with oregano and then some nutritional yeast.
• Enjoy!

That's Cat-tastic!

Don't worry, I'm not baking anything for an animal other than a human - besides, my cat is way too snotty (or smart) to enjoy even the sophisticated tastes of these crackers. I sure hope you aren't though, because these are way too delicious to not be eaten, and way too good for you to maintain a sophisticated character when eating them. You can use any type of cutter that you like, but all I have are three types of cutters and the cat was the smallest one that I could find.

These are made with three different types of flavors - Italian rosemary and Vegan Parmesan, Spinach and finally a mixture of the two.

Plain Cat-Tastic Crackers Recipe:
1 and 1/2 cups of All-Purpose Flour
1 and 1/2 cups of Whole Wheat Flour
2 tbl of Nutritional Yeast (try to get the ones that look the flakiest)
1 tsp of Garlic Powder
3/4 a tsp of Iodized Salt
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 cup of Ice water 1 tbl of Apple Cider Vinegar (with Mother is best)
A little less than 1/2 a cup of Pure Coconut Oil (not Virgin)
Turmeric and Paprika for color

Italian Cat-Tastic Crackers Recipe:
1-2 tablespoons of Crushed Sesame Seeds
1 tbl of Apple Cider Vinegar (with Mother is best)
1/2 a tsp of Rosemary
1 and 1/2 cups of All-Purpose Flour
1 and 1/2 cups of Whole Wheat Flour
2 tbl of Nutritional Yeast (try to get the ones that look the flakiest)
1 tsp of Garlic Powder
3/4 a tsp of Iodized Salt
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 cup of Ice water 1 tbl of Apple Cider Vinegar (with Mother is best)
A little less than 1/2 a cup of Pure Coconut Oil (not Virgin)
Turmeric and Paprika for color


Spinach Cat-Tastic Cracker Recipe:
1/4 cup of Spinach Juice or Chlorophyll and 1/4 cup Ice Water
1 and 1/2 cups of All-Purpose Flour
1 and 1/2 cups of Whole Wheat Flour
2 tbl of Nutritional Yeast (try to get the ones that look the flakiest)
1 tsp of Garlic Powder
3/4 a tsp of Iodized Salt
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 cup of Ice water 1 tbl of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother
A little less than 1/2 a cup of Pure Coconut Oil (not Virgin)


If you want to you can just use the first recipe and mix it together as you like, considering that there are only a few recipe changes in each. But after your decision, make sure that your coconut oil is well melted when you measure it out, then pop the measuring cup into the fridge for 5-10 minutes, then break it into pieces and let it chill for 15 more minutes. While the coconut oil has begun to solidify, add your dry ingredients together, then add the baking soda to your water mixture and wait about 2-5 minutes after stirring it. Once that is done, make sure that your flour color has a slightly darker tinge to it after adding the turmeric if you want them to be orange. Then make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients and alternate between the water and the coconut oil. If it is still quite wet - add more all-purpose flour and knead it to a doughy consistency. Afterwards, wrap it in plastic and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Prep your rolling and cutting area, making sure to keep the cutter and your table covered in all-purpose flour at all times. If your table is not marble, try to do this on a pan or some other non-absorbing surface.

Once the 30 minutes are up, take them it out, roll it to about 1/8 of an inch, then cut them into your preferred shapes with the cookie cutter (or your knife), rolling and rerolling until you run out of dough. Place the crackers on a well oiled sheet (use olive oil making Italian) and bake them in the oven for about 5 minutes or until they've puffed up to about twice their original size.     

Continue with the rest of the batch and enjoy!          



                                                                                                                                                   Signed,
                                                                                                                                        <3 Bou Shin<3

Buns, Buns, Be My Buns

             *New picture will be added soon*

When I tell you that this bread recipe is delicious - it is positively delicious! The recipe doesn't take too long, is easy to make your own, and produces the fluffiest and most flavor-filled bread you will ever eat. You can use rosemary, thyme, oregano or any other herb mixes you like. The key ingredient here is a little bit of garlic powder - which hits off the parade of flavors that hit your tongue. After the wonderful shock of garlic powder being a delicious component in my bread-making (I normally use fresh), I could taste the fresh bursts of rosemary and Italian oregano that I used. There's already extra virgin olive oil in the mix, but  I decided to coat each of my breadsticks with a mixture of salt, garlic powder and more olive oil.

(The bread recipe belongs to Enjolinfam on http//www.food.com/, and is titled "Healthy Italian Breadsticks or Pizza Crust)

After I pulled those babies out from the oven, the aroma hit me with wave upon wave of flavor. I knew it smelled positively delectable - but did it taste and feel just as delicious? Normally I would have waited for them to cool down but that smell was much too tantalizing to me. I picked up one of the smaller buns for a taste test, and after one big bite I knew I was in trouble. Soon I doused it with more of the olive oil-garlic mixture that I used for the coating and had eaten a little over half of the bread on the plate (there were quite a few more before the picture was taken). I made sure to save a bit of the dough and the already baked bread for a meal for the next day, but this time I decided to kick it up a notch. I had a can of chickpeas that hadn't been used in any Middle Eastern dishes yet and I always keep some form of seaweed in the house. I felt that it was time to introduce these two ingredients in the "Not-Tuna style".

I could never stand the taste or smell of mayonnaise before becoming a vegan, meaning that even the alternative "Vegenaise" was out of the question. I decided instead to just wash, drain and mash the chickpeas, strip up about a quarter of some nori, and add in some salt, rosemary, olive oil and finely diced red onions. I tasted it - and it was most definitely to my non-fishy liking. It wasn't too strong and it would go perfectly as a protein filling for this tasty bread. I wrapped up my "Not-Tuna Salad" and stashed it in the refrigerator overnight. I let the buns cool down some more and they followed the same route.

The next morning I heated my oven to about 250 degrees and put my buns on a baking sheet to warm them up. While the oven was being preheated I took out my "Not-Tuna Salad", mixed it up with some more olive oil to keep it from being dried out and tasted it once more. I found out that it tasted even better after it had been refrigerated for a few hours, and after the rolls had been toasted I slit them in the middle and stuffed it with the cool salad. I then proceeded to stuff my face with the delicious sandwich. Perhaps it would have been even better with some cucumber slices. Alas, I didn't have any and could not see for myself, but I was most definitely pleased with what I had then.

Enjoy!

             Signed, 

<3 Bou Shin <3