Vegan Recipes and Plant Based Cooking

Corn season is upon us. The weather has gotten warm and the ears of corn have filled the supermarket produce section. We at the jersey shore love our corn. Low priced, sweet and beckoning to be eaten. Those with barbecue grills like to grill their ears of corn, which is a very nice way to cook it. My mother prefers hers boiled, which is just plain sad. But I like to grill mine in the oven. If you don't have an outdoor grill or just don't feel like using it at the moment the oven is a great way to roast fresh ears of corn. We'll treat it very similar to the way we treat roasted potato. Both are a tender and sweet starchy treat. Simple preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. In the meanwhile you can shuck your corn and make sure it's thoroughly cleaned or husk and silks. Lightly moisten each ear with some olive oil. Use a paper towel dapped with some and gently rub each ear. Then dust with some salt and pepper. Some cayenne is nce too if you like it. When the oven is ...

I tried Boca Burger vegan this afternoon. I was skeptical. I had eaten them years back and was unimpressed. But a lot of my tastes have changed since then and I imagine that recipe has undergone various alterations as well. Plus it's so difficult to find vegetarian burgers sans egg. But obviously if it's vegan it doesn't contain any egg. The Boca brand was 2 for $6 at the supermarket and I wasn't going to get it because the frozen patties always disappointed me in the past. But when I took a peek there was a coupon attached to the box for another $1 off two. So that brought the cost down to $5 or $2.50 per box. So I went for it. I'd had original boca burger in the past, but never vegan. But I wasn't too worried since I've developed a taste for pretty plain tofu. The vegan patties are shockingly pale when you first take them out of the package. They look like tofu. I had the urge to marinate them, but I refrained. Instead I seared one in a very hot pan...

This whole cage free bullshit really pissed me off. Yet another way to dupe the consumer. And people really buy into it. They think they're doing something good. They pay extra for the extras believing they are being kind. And the evil corporations laugh and continue thinking up new ways to make their vicious cruelty sound palatable. Cage free indicates only that chickens are not stored in tiny singular cages. Instead they are housed in large, dark, communal cages full of many other chickens. Where they wade through each other's shit and peck at each other and generally enjoy a life devoid of sunshine and happiness. Don't even get me started on 'free range'. Access to the outdoors. If their disproportionately skinny little legs can carry their hormonally over sized bodies to the exit through a sea of other deformed chickens. And if they manage to get there, it's just some barren dirt. And they have exactly 15 minutes per day chance to reach this false san...

I recently discovered this line of cookies at my local supermarkets that is sans eggs. It's called food basics. They're very cheap. They are like below store brand. But oddly, they taste very good. I really like the iced oatmeal cookies. They don't taste particularly oatmeally , however, they do taste good. I've also tried the chocolate chip variety and was again pleasantly surprised at the nice texture and flavor. The chocolate chip version was moist, but not too chewy. There weren't a whole lotta chips, but the flavor was much better than I expected. Definitely better than a chips ahoy or a chips deluxe. Similar to an Archway, but not quite as chemically chewy. These cookies aren't just eggless , they're also lower in fat and calories than your typical big brands. Which is just another plus. They are very low cost. The packaging is totally unappealing, but the gems hidden inside as really nice. I get them in both Pathmark and A and P. Target has their...

You know what always tickles my funny bone just a little bit... people who eat salads. Well, people who eat salads believing them to be healthy and low in fat and calories. Restaurant salads are generally worse for you than anything. Caesar salad is not low fat. It's the dressing. That's the culprit. If you eat dry salad or salad only with vinegar you'll be all right. But the dressings are swimming in fat and calories. People hear or read the word salad and they automatically equate that with a healthy choice. And food purveyors take full advantage of that. Marketing this ersatz health food to unsuspecting diners. Somewhere along the line people especially got the false idea that Caesar dressing and vinaigrette's are better. Not true at all. Vinaigrette has just as much oil as any other dressing. While its true that 'creamy' dressings may have more fat than oil/vinegar mixes all regular dressings are pretty darn fatty. If it's not lite or fat free beware. ...

Every year for Mother's Day my brother gives my mom a Carvel ice cream cake. And every year they ask me if I want a piece. And I say no, it has eggs in it. And they say why would ice cream have eggs in it. And I say I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it does. And then I read the ingredients and there are the eggs in the bold typeface allergen alert section. It's sad really. You'd think you could avoid eggs by having ice cream cake instead of conventional cake, but no. The strangest part is when someone suggest I eat around the egg containing parts. As if I just don't like the taste. To eat around them and discard them would be more wrong than eating them in my mind. Chickens suffered and I"m just going to enjoy it anyway, but throw away the part I find offensive. That's totally backward to what I"m trying to do by not eating eggs. But then some people... most people, just don't get it. They think if it the brand is called 'Born Free...

I made a new kind of curry the other day. We had gotten some barbecue sauce free from the a and p. When I smelled my mother cooking her chicken with it I was inspired to utilize it myself. So since we didn't have any vegetable broth or any cans of tomatoes and I wanted to make some curry lentils I decided the barbecue sauce might make a decent ingredient. I cooked some lentils and barley in a combo of water and several heaping teaspoons of curry powder. When that had simmered for a while I added the barbecue sauce, some spicy mustard, some Louisiana hot sauce and some frozen mustard greens. I left that for 10 more minutes or so. Add some more water. More curry powder. A little more barbecue sauce. 5 more minute to cook. Add some chopped garlic. Paprika. Chili powder. Onion powder. More curry powder. I like a lot of curry. A little more water. A little more hot sauce. Of course I"m tasting as I go. When the lentils were nearly done I added some frozen bell pepper stri...

I am currently seeking a job as a food creator at any nationwide chain restaurant. I have absolutely no experience working behind the scenes of the food service industry, but am infinitely experienced consuming the so called fruits of that labor. As a non-meat eater I am so sick and tired of the truly pathetic choices offered to me when I decide to dine out. I have created some truly delicious sandwiches sans meat. The restaurant industry really needs to embrace the bean. Black beans, red beans, pinto, lentil and more. The bean is a mighty and powerful bit of food. Cheap, tasty and easy to manipulate. Meat eaters will love the bean too if done right. Black bean lasagna is the bomb. Imitation bacon bits, black beans, pickle and Swiss cheese is an awesome Cuban vegetarian sandwich. Peanut butter and pinto beans and red onion. Hummus, curry lentils and cucumber. Cream cheese, garlic and red beans. Restaurants can charge less for bean sandwiches than they do for meat ones and people wi...

Here is my recipe for the perfect vegetarian Cuban sandwich. Picture to come as soon as I get around to extracting it from the camera and adding it to my PC. (Update: I forgot to take a picture of the vegan version. But I found some pics of the vegetarian version with a slice of borden sharp cheese food singles on whole wheath bread.) One sesame seed bun from the supermarket grocery or your local bakery. It needs to be a fresh bun that's big and covered in tasty sesame seeds. Layer the bottom with rinsed canned black beans. While buying dried beans may seem more economical, the amount of cooking required negates any savings you might reap. Lentils are the exception. Since lentils only take 20 minutes to cook, the dried kind really do save you money. Anyway, canned lentils are rare in the first place, because of that. Although I did see a can in the market the other day. Food is always evolving. So you layer the bottom of your fresh sesame seed bun with a small bunch of blac...

I visited our local Cheeburger again today for lunch/dinner or as those in the know call it, Linner. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Jersey shore. The morning had been cloudy, but the sun had come out by the afternoon. We'd finished our food shopping and were trying to decide what to eat. I had an onion ring craving. A rare craving, but an intense one. Now since I refuse to eat eggs there are very few onion rings I'm willing to consume. But Cheeburger onion rings are egg free and they taste really good too. Especially with those dipping sauces they have. Which are delicious. Super fatty, but mmm mmm good. Totally addictive. I like the creamy jalapeno. I avoid the vegetable dip as it contains eggs. Why I don't know, but that's what their website tells me. I really like that their veggie burger is also egg free. That is also hard to find. It's ironic though, that for their egg free onion rings and veggie burger their bun contains eggs instead. How sad. I get...

Have you ever eaten at Atlanta Bread Company? There's one where I live. When I used to eat meat I loved it. Their chicken and tuna salad sandwiches were the bomb. I guess they still are. I don't know for sure. Suffice it to say I had nothing but good things to say about the place. It's a little pricey but that's to be expected from a chain. I had the strangest ordeal there after I went vegetarian. I wanted the Italian Vegetarian Panini. But I did not want it on foccacia bread and I wanted it with Swiss instead of provolone. I like that they have 3 different veggie sandwiches on their menu, but dislike that all utilize provolone. Which is sadly not a very veggie friendly cheese. 99% of provolone contain animal byproducts. Foccacia bread usually contains eggs. So I wanted no part of either of those ingredients. Wow, did that royally throw them into a tizzy. I had to fight with them to get them to make the sandwich the way I wanted it. On rye bread with Swiss cheese. A...