Cheesy burger mac

It's the last day of MoFo 2013!  I feel like this MoFo has gone by faster than others, because there are so many things I didn't get around to.  I think I also got so caught up on making stuff from Cookin' Crunk that I ignored my other theme, which was to cook from my pantry.  I think I actually have more stuff now than when I started!

Today's post is a bit of a cop-out because I actually made this yesterday.  I had a long, exhausting day today, so I don't feel like cooking.  But yesterday, along with all the ice cream shenanigans, I also made Cheesy Burger Mac from Cookin' Crunk!

This recipe has three components - the cheese sauce, the burger, and the macaroni.  I made the Basic Cheese Sauce and boiled the macaroni while the Ground TSP Beef was cooking, so it all came together pretty quickly.  I'd say I was in the kitchen for about 30 minutes, which is good for me.

I threw some frozen peas in with the macaroni towards the end of cooking, so I just ate this as a one-bowl meal.  It was really tasty, though I kinda wish I'd put more cheese sauce in mine.  Oh well.  It works well as leftovers, though the pasta does soak up the sauce.  I could definitely see myself making this again (probably later this week since I have enough of everything for another batch).

And since I didn't take a picture of the food, here's a picture of Zebby.

Sundae Sunday - We're gonna need a bigger bowl.

Today is the final Sundae Sunday of Vegan MoFo 2013, so I thought I'd make it a pretty epic sundae.  My inspiration was classic glutton Homer Simpson.  In the episode where Homer intentionally gains weight to get on disability, he and Bart are at the diner.  Homer has a banana split, and Bart tells him to eat around the banana - it's just empty vitamins.  So tonight's sundae is a banana-less banana split!

Sorry about the shadow - I had to work fast before the toppings oozed off the ice cream.

The components of this sundae are:  Swedish Glace vanilla ice cream, homemade chocolate ice cream (using my variation of the V'con chocolate), raspberry jam ice cream (using the method I mentioned in this post), fudge sauce left over from making the Dublin Mudslide, Lyle's Squeezy Syrup butterscotch syrup (which has "suitable for vegans" right on the label!), marshmallow sauce using this recipe and Sweet Vegan marshmallows, and zero bananas.

I think traditionally a banana split would have strawberry rather than raspberry ice cream, but I hate all things strawberry (with the exception of Rekorderlig Wild Berry cider because the strawberry is sufficiently masked).  And, obviously, it would have a banana.

I have to admit, my sundae was a bit sad.  The marshmallow topping was a complete failure - I spent  £3.49 on the biggest, fluffiest, most delicious marshmallows I think I've ever eaten (I took a bite of one) and wasted it all on this gross, gloopy, chewy sauce.  The flavour was alright, but the texture was awful.  I actually pulled the whole thing off of my ice cream.  Speaking of which, the chocolate ice cream was also kinda naff.  I think my chocolate kinda seized up when I put it into the mixture because it was really bitty.  So basically that third of the triumvirate was a bit crap.

The rest of it was delicious.  I still love Swedish Glace vanilla ice cream.  I even prefer it over the French vanilla I made for Mike's birthday party.  I've never eaten a better vanilla ice cream, and I anticipate I never will.  I also love that butterscotch syrup, and I love Tate & Lyle for making it vegan.  The raspberry jam ice cream was good, and the fudge sauce worked well with it.

I have loads of ice cream and sauces left, which is probably the best part!

Southern Saturday - sweet potato hash

It's the last Southern Saturday of MoFo!  I can't believe it's almost over (and almost October).  Since I'm nowhere near finished cooking through Cookin' Crunk, I might keep blogging about my experience.  I've at least liked everything I've made so far, and I've loved quite a lot, so I'm looking forward to the rest of it.  A lot of it is stuff that takes advanced prep, multiple steps, or loads of ingredients (some of which I might not be able to get here), so it might not come as thick and fast as the recipes I've made for MoFo.  That said, I have to make food for a work potluck at the end of October, so I might take a range of stuff to that (since I can usually only eat the hummus and bread).

I meant to do more today, but I was out and about and hauling things around a lot, so I just made one dish for brinner - Sweet Potato Hash.  I didn't take a picture because, frankly, it ain't pretty.  I honestly can't remember if I'd ever had corned beef hash pregan.  Surely I must have, but maybe I blocked all occurrences of it from my memory because of that time my dad fed us dog food and told us it was corned beef.*

Mike and I both loved this, so much so that we finished it all off before it even got cold enough to reheat.  I thought I'd have to use it up as leftovers tomorrow, but it was gone pretty quickly.  I used the ground TSP beef from the book, so I did all the prep and the beginning stages of cooking while that cooked.  Apart from grating the sweet potatoes, it was pretty easy.

I would absolutely make this again.  It was super delicious and really homey and comforting.  In fact, I still have some TSP beef left, so I might make a personal-sized serving while Mike's at his game!

*Unfortunately, true story.  Or so I'm told.  Apparently, dad could only afford a potato and a can of dog food.  I was probably too young to have understood what corned beef was and that dog food was different and not to be eaten, but maybe he felt the need to lie to us in case mom asked what we'd eaten and we told her dog food (even though none of us could've read the label at that age - my now 32-year-old sister wasn't even on solids yet).

New stuff from Sainsbury's and another Cookin' Crunk recipe down

I found a new thing at Sainsbury's today!  They have their range of meatless alternative frozen foods, and they've recently come out with an Indian Lentil and Spinach quarter pound "burger" (along with a bunch of other stuff that wasn't vegan).  I pretty much couldn't resist, so I bought a pack and had some for dinner.

I served them with some spinach (cooked from frozen with lemon juice, salt, and garlic granules), boiled new potatoes, and Creamy Tahini Sauce from Cookin' Crunk.

The burgers were pretty tasty, and I could see myself buying them again.  I might try to make my sides with more Indian-style spices the next time I make these.  I loved the tahini sauce - it's slightly similar to Isa's Classic Vegan Caesar dressing - but I had to add a lot of water to get it to sauce consistency.  Regardless, I would absolutely make this again.  It went really well with the potatoes and spinach, and I imagine it would work in loads of other applications.

Oh, before I forget, in their wee Jewish section, Sainsbury's sell these chocolate wafer things (like the inside of a Kit Kat but twice as wide) that are vegan!  They're super delicious.  Now they just need to bring back the mini-latkes.

Granny's Corn Casserole

I went to my local hfs, Real Foods, and spent ages trying to decide if I wanted to buy any delicious, delicious processed convenience foods because I could not figure out what to make for dinner.  I had already decided to buy some cream cheese (Sheese brand, fwiw), nooch (finally replenishing my stock), and marshmallows (more on those at a later date), but that obviously didn't help with dinner.  Then Mike called to ask me something, and while we talked we figured it out.

We decided on chickpeas and broccoli - I already had frozen chickpeas, and he bought broccoli.  When I got home and started cooking, I decided to use the cream cheese I'd just bought to make Granny's Corn Casserole from Cookin' Crunk.  It turned out super quick and easy - apart from chopping the roasted red pepper that stood in for the pimento, there was almost no work required.  It took about 5 minutes to throw together, which is always a bonus.

It tasted alright, but I think that was down to using a lesser cream cheese.  I bet it would've been great if I'd bought Tofutti, but the only one they had was the herby one (which probably would've been fine).  I liked it, but I think I would've preferred the version she mentions in the intro.  I might see if I can recreate that one myself!

Lazy day - pizza for dinner

Today was payday, I got an email for 2-for-1 + 7.5% off* pizza from Pizza Hut, and I was feeling lazy.  Guess what we had for dinner!

Pizza Hut pan pizza crust is vegan (at least in the UK).  Also, if you order online, you can do all your additions (+shrooms and olives for me, +onions and mixed peppers for Mike) and subtractions (-cheese for both of us) without having to speak to a person!  As you might imagine, I love ordering from the Hut.

I had some of the Tesco smoky cheese left over from taco night, so I grated the rest of it and had just enough to lightly cover both pizzas.  If I'd had it, I would've thrown something chick'ny onto my pizza (my pregan favourite was chicken pan pizza with extra cheese), but I didn't.  It was good!

*There's a thing here called VAT Parity Day, which is the day on which food and drink business owners cut their prices by 7.5% in some kind of protest at the fact that you have to pay VAT on restaurant food but not on food you buy at the store.  I'm not entirely clear on why this is unfair or whatever.  There are a number of reasons why people don't eat out as much as they make their own food, and while cost comes into it, I don't think anyone would really notice if restaurants paid 7.5% less tax because they'd probably leave their prices as they are anyway.  And even if they reduced their prices by 7.5% if they didn't have to pay VAT, it would still be more expensive than cooking my own food, so I would still eat at home about as much as I do now.

Taco Tuesday - lentil tacos

It's Taco Tuesday!  I had some lentils left over from a few days ago that I wanted to use up, so I decided to make lentil tacos.  But the recipe I have calls for chili powder, which I didn't have, so I first had to make chili powder.  I used this recipe but doubled the quantities, used chipotle powder instead of cayenne pepper, and added a bit of allspice and coriander because the old bottle had those in the ingredients.

These are topped with Tesco smoky cheese, Uncle Ben's Mexican rice, Joya plain soy yogurt, Tesco mild salsa, and iceberg lettuce (in no particular order).  They were super delicious.