Rice Paper Bacon

I tried the crazy rice paper bacon recipe that vegans have been raving about. Sorry guys this was not for me. The texture was papery and plasticky with a slick of oil that didn't work for me. The flavor was ok but not smoky enough. Didn't make up for the texture unfortunately. I made a BLT for dinner which was ok. I felt slightly queasy afterwards. I'll stick to my coconut or tempeh bacon.

French Toast Breakfast and Cabbage Rolls

I finally made the Fronch Toast recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and it was a so good. I ate all of that! I served it with some Tofurky maple tempeh bacon.

Before being drowned in maple syrup. Yum yum yum.

And for Sunday lunch my mom and I made the Syrian cabbage rolls from the Olive Trees and Honey cookbook. The insides were stuffed with rice, smashed chickpeas, onion and diced tomatoes and flavored with cilantro, garlic, mint and paprika.

I made a delicious side of dill potatoes with caramelized onions. This meal was amazing. And I have ton of leftovers!

Creamy Cashew Leek and Spinach Pasta with Tempeh Bacon.

Hey guys, here's a great pasta recipe that uses a vegan version of creme fraiche. You basically soak about 1 cup of cashews in hot water for 30 minutes, drain and then blend with 1/2 cup water, 2 TB lemon juice and a couple pinches of salt. Then you cook up some leeks, garlic, spinach and mix in with cashew sauce. I added tempeh bacon to mine. This is optional.

Some ingredients: spinach, vegan cheese and pasta. You will only need 1/4 cup cheese. Save the rest for pizza later in the week!

Chop up your leeks (I used 2) and garlic (2 cloves) . Quickly fry up the tempeh bacon that has been cut into bits.

Saute the garlic and leeks in olive oil over medium high heat. Once leeks have softened, add half a bag of spinach that has been roughly chopped.

This is what your cashew creme fraiche looks like all blended up.

Stir the cashew sauce into the leeks and spinach. It'll be very thick. At this point you can add some unsweetened soy or almond milk to thin it out, or even hot water. Add the 1/4 cup of vegan cheese. Season with salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon, red pepper flakes.

After the sauce is nice and hot and creamy, mix in the pasta. Add the tempeh bacon bits.

Eat!

The Salads In My Life.

I am really loving Terry Hope Romero's book, Salad Samurai! I've been on a BIG SALAD kick because of it. Here are a couple salads I made this weekend. I scored at the 99 cents store when I picked up organic baby kale, organic romaine and organic spring mix. They were the perfect base for the following luscious salads.

This is a BKLT salad (Bacon, Kale, Lettuce, Tomato). I love the maple dijon dressing from her recipe. I added vegan sausage, grape tomatoes, red peppers, red onion, french fried onions, vegan parmesan (sesame seed, nutritional yeast based) and Terry's coconut bacon! The coconut bacon bits are a perfect combination of salty, smoky and sweet.

This is another salad with the above mixed greens, steamed broccoli, Field Roast vegan sausage, Chao vegan cheese, french fried onions and topped with Terry's "Back at the Ranch" salad dressing which is cashew based. So good! Get this book now!

Salad Samurai: BLT salad

I just picked up Salad Samurai the cookbook and I can't wait to try all the recipes. There was one called BKT which is Bacon, Kale, Tomato salad that looked so good but I didn't have kale so I used romaine and baby lettuces instead. Turned out perfect. The dressing is a beautiful dijon/maple concoction that tastes wonderful. My tempeh bacon came out dark because I accidentally used gravy browning instead of liquid smoke! I eventually found the liquid smoke in the back of my cupboard and shook some into the tempeh marinade. Oops! The browning didn't alter the flavor in any way, it just made the tempeh a very dark brown.

I can eat this everyday it's so good.