Welcoming Myself Back to Blogging

Well, that was quite a break, was it not? I haven't been here for some time and a lot has changed since I last blogged, well blogged seriously anyway. I have gotten married to the most wonderful man :) and just recently, I have finally taken the vegan plunge. There are other things that have happened since I have last been in blog mode, but many aren't to be mentioned here. Needless to say, I am still tremendously blessed and and supported and thankfully still loved by God and my family and what can't you get through when you have all that.

Recently, I have been greatly inspired by so many food blogs that I am tempted to revamp my blog into a diary of my vegan ventures. I only hesitate because there are other things that I still enjoy talking about and sharing about. For that reason, I will refrain from making this blog too specific and let it just be a voice for me (even if I only feel like talking about food for the next year or so). That is still simply tink, I think so anyway. I hope someone will join me on this experience as I dare to document my thoughts and happenings in this greater something we call the internet.

Beautiful Day

It is sunny and windy in Virginia (Tidewater) today. I am stuck in my office for a while but it's my sweetie's birthday today so I will leave early and enjoy some of it with our kids. I am looking out of the window of the office across the hall over the water of the James River. The surf is excited and white foam is speckled out on the water. I remember that for years I wondered why there were dark spots on the water in lakes and bays. I didn't realize until much later that it was the shadows of clouds dancing on the surface. This earth is so beautiful and such a feast for our eyes, I am going to try to do at least one thing to better care for it today. I hope you will join me.

Some Seitan Ideas and Vegan Cheezecake

Okay so here are some dishes I ultimately made with my most successful (to date) batch of seitan:
I have to say that VWAV (Vegan With A Vengence) Jerk Seitan is the BOMB!!

This one below was my lame attempt at Seitan Adobo, which in my mind was a really good idea, since I have been craving the adobo flavor, but in practice turned out just a sour mess, but the plate looked good. I offered it to my very wanna-b-veg dog, and even he had a hard time with it.

This is not Kapone after the food, but just a pic to give you a visual.

I also tried my hand at a cheeze steak. This was actually really good, but I want to tweak the seasonings a bit. I made the nutritional yeast cheeze sauce on the stove top for this one and I was pleased. I sauteed it with peppers, onions, and mushrooms. This is just the filling, because I didn't have a bun or sub roll handy for the pic, but it was good, let me tell you.

Finally, this I am really proud of, it is a cheezecake mainly derived from the baking sheet (via fat free vegan). I had to sub vanilla for the almond flavoring (I'm allergic to tree nuts) and I reduced the lemon juice and added some soy creamer, (which will start to coagulate on you if your not careful, who knew?), but the cake turned out really great. I threw some frozen fruit, wine and sugar on the stove for the topping.

Some Vegan Recipes I've been working on here lately.

Lasagna, inspired by Soul Vegetarian in D.C. I've tweaked it quite a bit (I use TVP and also make the cheese with a soymilk and toful mixture), but I do love this recipe.

Lasagna roll-up, my fiance' (self proclaimed skeptic of all things veg) really liked this one.

Vegan "Save a Veal" Parmezean. A baked seitan cutlet.

This is my snow day chilli. I made it with TVP, black beans, and kidney beans. It was good and my daughter and fiance' loved it.

Hopefull this is just a beginning for me. I absolutely love getting into the kitchen and experimenting with new vegan and vegetarian recipes. I am still on my path to converting for my sanity, my part and my health, but it is still a work in progress. Hopefully the pics will get better too :)