One Disaster After Another!

Hi everyone,

I know it has been almost 2 weeks since I have posted anything new, but I have an excuse. (Don't you just hate excuses?) Well many of you know I have been out of work for about 15 months with a back injury. It became quite clear that money does not grow on trees, and the health insurance fairy does not exist. This meant I needed to go back to work to survive. My doctor released me to work 3 days a week, 4 hours a day. I can tell you after 1 week that is truly all I could handle. I work from 8-12, but by 11 I am ready to hit the road. So enough about my wonderful work schedule and financial ruin. lol

I came home from work starving and hurting. I needed to cook. but hurt. I had nothing prepared, no leftovers, no bread, nothing, which led me to a pouting party. DH decided to take a nap (I think he was trying to leave the party gracefully), which left me alone to pout. Have you ever noticed it is no fun to pout by yourself. Shoot, there isn't anyone to feel sorry for you. lol As DH slept I figured I would empty the fridge and see what I could make. Of course, all vegans know you make, a stir fry! I cut up some broccoli stems, cut fresh corn off the cob, some potatoes, and frozen peas. I wasn't lying, there really was little to use. I also added spices, tamari, and some broth. Oh my, did it taste good! I grabbed a small bowl of applesauce and off I went to sit down and eat. Somehow as I sat my plate down it tipped and my entire lunch went on the floor including the applesauce. Needless to say I went without, but my dogs had the lunch of a lifetime. This is the before shot. Trust me you didn't want to see the aftermath!

Disaster number 2- I once again tried another seitan roast recipe. I can tell you that this one may look interesting

and even the slices

seem to be the real thing, but the texture! That is a whole, different story. When you were a kid, did you ever chew on silly putty or rubber bands? If so, do you remember that funky rubbery texture? You know the one where you bite into the silly putty and it gave a cracking kinda noise. That is the texture of this roast. It was so bad that I put it in my food processor to make ground seitan. The funny thing isn that I had just finished emailing Kleo telling her that you never have to throw seitan away because you can grind it up and it makes perfect ground "meet". All seitans are salvageable with this technique. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! This seitan would not even chop up. It looked, tasted, and felt like little cut up pieces of rubber bands. GROSS! In to the trash it went. Moral of the story, not all seitan is created equal and not all is salvageable.


Last and final disaster, Coconut Cream Pie. DH loves this pie. It is one of his favorites. I looked through another vegetarian cookbook, which I will leave anonymous, and found a vegan Coconut cream pie recipe with an oatmeal crust. I was so excited. I made the crust and began to get my ingredients together for the filling. Oh my gosh! The recipe calls for 2 containers of silk tofu. I couldn't believe it. I only had one. So when all else fails hit the Internet. I found Dreena's site and fell in love with her pie. I got out her cookbook, The Everyday Vegan and saw that I had everything needed. I was thrilled! My only regret is that I would have opened her book sooner because the crust I made sucked!! It was hard, dry, and tasteless. Here is my pie. The filling is wonderful and it will be a regular with our family, but the crust is out the window. Next time, I will be using Dreena's suggested crust recipe. Trust what you know is good! Thank you, Dreena!

Just a shot of a slice of this yummy pie. Well, yummy filling. The crust went in the round file. We ate coconut pudding. :o)

That pretty much ends my disasters for now. I have wheat soaking to make sprouts so we will see what my next adventure will be. Thanks for stopping by and listening to me rant!

(((hugs to all))))