Weekly try outs

I am going to try out three recipes this week. An entree or soup, a salad/dressing, and aim to find something my 6 year old son will try. 

Because I have the produce to use up: Dr Fuhrman's Famous Anticancer Soup. 

Because it sounds awesome: Hidden Cashew Ranch Dressing by SusanV on the Fat Free Vegan blog. I want to use this to top a Southwest Style salad I want to make. Greens topped with roasted corn, tomatoes, and green onion. I will likely throw some black beans in there too. 

I am stumped so far for the kid. I want to stay away from a dessert, but may consider a smoothie. Another front runner is a recipe from Chef AJs (this link actually takes you to Julieanna Hever's site, Chef AJ's site was not cooperating--this is another tremendously useful site!) Unprocessed--Easy Cheezy Peas. It will be good for me too, because I am not a fan of peas. Too many memories of mushy, canned peas or shriveled ones served in the school cafe. My caution on this recipe is that it calls for it to be served well chilled. Yikes. I don't know about that. 

Edited to add: I made the soup and the salads tonight. My kitchen is wrecked and my feet hurt. Don't know whether to call that success or not!

Seitan loaf of greatness -> Buffalo bites

The husband has really been wanting buffalo wings lately. Who am I to deny a craving? Last time I used a recipe for pressure cooked seitan, but this time I decided to use the much more flavorful Loaf of Greatness recipe from the PPK. I think that this one might be in Veganomicon, but I always access it through this blog that is not updated much anymore

The recipe is super straightforward and used everyday ingredients for me. Winner!

Behold the Greatness!

Since I am making buffalo bites, I decided to cut it into chunks before baking. 

After baking, they are crisp and chewy. They held their bite size shape nicely. Doused with Buffalo sauce and ready to marinate before we chow down. 

The recipe needs no changes or additions. Love it. Also easy to follow even for someone knew to making seitan at home. I have made this in loaf form many times. I have also cut the cooked loaf up to make barbecue "ribs"-- longer strips with BBQ sauce on. 

This is more of a weekend recipe for me because of the steps involved. It is easy to make a couple of batches and freeze or store in the fridge to use later. I think when I have done this I made each loaf on its own rather than doubling and splitting the whole thing. 

Wingin' it!

Green Monster

I tried to resist buying this cookbook, but once I had it in my hands I had to have it. The pictures are beautiful and the author chose the real highlights from her blog. The only complaint I have so far is that many of the recipes carry over on to the next page with just a few lines of text or a note. It seems that the publishers could have changed the typeset or design to allow for the recipes to be on one page with the picture facing. I don't know why, but I hate flipping pages when I am using a cookbook. Also, I kind of wish the USA version had the same cover as the Canadian print--I just like that parfait picture better!

Recipe: Classic Green Monster

Thoughts: Since working in a coffee shop where we made smoothies and juices, I have been skeptical about following a recipe for a smoothie. Seems silly to me, but after following this to a tee I get it. This smoothie is phenomenal. I could drink it any time of the day.

Changes: I didn't have a frozen banana, but other than that I didn't change anything. I was unsure about the vanilla, but it was nice. I think I could leave it out for myself, but leave it in if I were serving this to my son.

Ingredients: These are everyday ingredients in our house. 

Weekday meal: I could drink this daily. It is easy to make and blended up nicely in my Nutribullet. 

Keeper: Definitely will be making this again and again. I can see why this recipe became so popular on her blog!

                                               

Purpose

To cook from my many cookbooks. 
To learn to follow a recipe. 
To introduce more whole foods plant based recipes to my repertoire. 
To have a project. 

How was it?

What about the recipe? 

Ingredients?

Modifications?

Husband or child thoughts?

Weekday meal?

Keeper?