Yet another pizza

Trader Joe’s just makes it too easy what with their $1.19 balls of pizza dough and all. Spread it out. slap some stuff on it, bake it, eat it. This time we used the crust as a delivery system for their Chickenless Pulled Chicken. We’d never had it and wanted to give it a try. It comes in a BBQ sauce, but it could use a little jazzing up. You know, a little something to make it pop. The texture is nice though and it’s already in reasonably small pieces so you don’t have to mess with it unless you want to. It’s topped off with mozzarella Teese and a sprinkling of red bell pepper.

Chilaquiles Verdes

Finally, I’ve made something out of the cute little cookzine Vegan de Guadalupe! The Chilaquiles Verdes recipe may look a little plain and simple, but it tastes homey and comforting. I was concerned about only seasoning the tofu with salt & pepper, but it was plenty tasty. Also, you can follow the recipe exactly, but you don’t really have to. It’s very forgiving. I used half the tortillas and only one can of salsa. I also added sliced avocado on top. Mmmmm. It cooks up really quickly and a little plop of refried black beans on the side make it sort of a complete meal. Some shredded lettuce on top might have been nice too, but I didn’t have any.

And I’m surprised at how well the pic turned out considering the display on my poor old camera decided not to work so I was shooting blind.

Persephone Cupcakes

The quest to use up the POM Wonderful pomegranate juice continues! For our vegan potluck today, I made the Persephone Cupcake recipe I found while googling around. I made the recipe as written except I substituted soy yogurt & milk for the coconut yogurt and almond milk and I must say it needs some work. I forgot that I usually don’t like the results when using yogurt in a baked good. The texture seems a little gummy. But the flavor is lovely. 

The frosting also had issues. The pomegranate juice will not stay incorporated with the rest of the ingredients. Whip all you want, it’ll look all fluffy and mixed, then slowly the pomegranate juice seeps out. And it does appear to be just the pomegranate juice, not the soy milk. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to tell if the rose water seeped out since it’s clear. I’m sure there’s some chemical reason for this. Frosting still tastes okay, but looks funky. Also, to avoid an unappetizing color, I ended up using a drop or two of food coloring like I did with the Pomegranate Bars. All in all, I loved the flavor mix here and I’ll definitely be playing with it. I think I’ll start from scratch though and not bother trying to salvage this recipe.

Lemony Cashew-Basil Pesto on Pasta

Last night I whipped out this recipe from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. You can find the recipe here. I admit that I drizzled in a couple more tablespoons of olive oil, but it still has way less than a standard pesto recipe.  And doesn’t it look like Spring? Yeah, I know basil is a Summer thing, but work with me here. Also, I only used half of the pesto on half a pound of pasta. The rest I froze in a bucket for an even quicker meal some time in the future.