Hummus, pita, dolmas, and tomato cucumber salad.

I’m on a quest for something as satisfying as mac & cheese. There are a lot of vegan recipes that approximate the experience, and I’m going to try them all until I find one I love. And if I can’t find one, I’m going to cry in the corner.

Today’s attempt is credited to Derek Grant of The Vandals fame, and has been nicknamed “punk mac.” It’s very similar to the recipe for mac & cheese I used out of the moosewood, but uses nutritional yeast and oil where the “add cheese” step would be.

The result was a very savory noodle dish, but not quite what I was looking for. I found it a bit salty, and while it would make a great side dish, was overpowering by itself in a big bowl. The sauce for this recipe would be remarkably good as the sauce for Welsh Rarebit if I substituted lager for water.

After writing about Qdoba’s burritos a few days ago, I checked up with another local burrito place, Boloco.  I wrote a comment on their website, and asked them about vegan options.

3 hours later I had an email from the Executive Chef himself.  The rice, beans, tofu, tortillas, and 5 of their burritos are either completely vegan or can be veganized by leaving off the cheese or sour cream.  He even included his phone number in case I had any further questions.

Props to Boloco for great customer service and vegan-friendly food! 

S’mores cupcakes! This is my first attempt at piping frosting. The finished product is spicy and insanely sweet.

The cupcakes contain and are topped with Annie’s Chocolate Chip Bunny Grahams, which ended up working well. This was fortunate, because they were the only vegan graham cracker I could find at the shop.

I’m a Texas boy, and take my chili fairly seriously.  I don’t have a recipe per se, so every batch comes out slightly different.  Here’s the most recent take, using black, garbanzo, and white beans, with a bit of TVP for texture. It’s topped with salsa, tofutti cheese, and chopped onion.

Next time I make it, I’ll write up a recipe (this batch was cobbled together mostly from leftovers).

I’m drinking a raspberry “milkshake” made with Purely Decadent vanilla, soymilk, and fresh raspberries. It tasted a lot better before I put the protein powder in, alas.I ate out for lunch today.

There’s a Qdoba nearby that has a vegan burrito which, while uninspiring, is very filling and tasty.

The big food excitement in these parts is a small chest freezer, which will be delivered on Monday. More space means cooking in advance, more room to keep ingredients, and a freezer which is not stuffed so full that things fall out of it every time I open the door. The salesperson was discussing a buddy of his who had one full of Omaha Steak, but I’ve got something a bit different in mind. Something decidedly less steaky.

UPDATE: I’ve been informed that Qdoba’s burritos are not vegan; the tortillas are to blame. I could still get the fillings without the tortillas, but still!

Scrambled tofu is great. It’s not scrambled eggs, though it shares the same place on the place. It’s it’s own dish, and it is delicious.

I treated myself to a big breakfast today; I whipped up some ‘fu, brought out some leftover biscuits from the weekend and fried up a few Gimme Lean sausage patties.

This is the part where people usually hate me.

I’m thin. In fact, I’m mighty thin. I’ve got one of those crazy fast metabolisms that let you eat anything you want. I didn’t do anything to get it, so it’s nothing to be proud of. And it has drawbacks. It’s hard to get the weight on, especially as I’ve been doing more exercise and lifting weights.

I had a hard time keeping up with a vegetarian diet, and it’s more challenging with a vegan one. Between normal needs, offsetting the exercise, and adding a bit more to add bulk, I should apparently be getting around 3500 calories and at least 100g of protein a day. I can eat every time I’m hungry, and eat until I’m stuffed, and it’s hard to hit that every day.

My goal with my body is to eventually gain 15 quality pounds. The goal with food is to work with awesome, nutrition-rich, high calorie and protein meals, so I don’t have to eat 6 meals a day or rely too much on protein shakes and pre-packed stuff.

There are only a few things I can improvise with when it comes to cooking. No matter how fluid I can be in other parts of my life, I find comfort in the security of a recipe. Eventually, I’ll understand how it works, and I can get a little bit more confident in taking departures.

Tonight’s stir fry was entirely improvised. I knew I had some seitan to use, and I pulled out what was left in the fridge veggie-wise, chopped it up and then figured out what to use for the sauce. The end result was remarkably good considering I was cooking on the seat of my pants. Sometimes you get lucky!

I’m still a n00b when it comes to cooking with seitan, but this came out very well. I simmered it in water, and then briefly sauteed it in sauce before adding it in with the veggies.

I’m not yet through my first bag, but I’m officially addicted to Tings. They’re sort of like cheese curls, but better. I can eat a bunch without feeling bad, which is a good and a bad thing depending on how you look at it.