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Lazy vegan pizza

vegan pizza

Lazy is probably going to work its way into many of my post titles this month. Since I’ve spent the better part of the last 2 or so years working in a kitchen long hours, cooking when I get home has to be fast and easy.

As I said in an earlier post, Trader Joe’s is great for lazy food. That includes lazy pizza. In the refrigerated section, by the cheese in our location, they’ve got vegan pizza dough balls. Just let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes, spread out on a pizza pan, throw on sauce and toppings, bake and eat.

Feeling extra lazy? Why yes, yes I am. Then they also have vegan pizza sauce. Your only challenge is to have some vegan cheese on hand. Which I did this time, some Daiya mozzarella.

And I thought about grabbing some sliced pepperoni from work, but instead tried to be a little less lazy and made the TVP Pepperoni from Hearty Vegan Meals For Monster Appetites. This stuff is so easy to make that it’s lazy. Seasonings, TVP, boiling water, soak, it’s pepperoni! And it’s delicious! One recipe made enough to generously top two 16″ pizzas with a little extra left over. I’ll probably throw it in a pasta sauce.

Cold Weather Food

I thought yesterday morning was cold. Especially when Grover escaped as I was letting when I let Tak out for her first pee. Chasing him around the yard for ten minutes all bleary eyed at 5:30am was not much fun. He runs, he meows, he runs some more. I think he finally let me catch him when he realized he was cold. It’s a good think he’s a handsome cat. See?

Im too sexy for my fur, too sexy for my fur... — I'm too sexy for my fur, too sexy for my fur...

On to food. If you haven’t made the Cholent from Veganomicon, this is the perfect time for it. After chasing Mr. Short Bus cat around the yard, I swear I would have eaten this for breakfast if I’d had any left. So warming and satisfying. The tvp chunks have the perfect chew to them. It’s like the stew my mom made growing up without all the death. Hell, next time I might even make it with biscuits on top like she did if I don’t make it into a pot pie form.

Stuff cooked but not documented

Over the past few weeks I’ve been really bad about taking pictures of food. There are various reasons: laziness, forgetfulness, ugly food, repeats, and so on. Anyway, here’s a list of stuff I’ve cooked lately but haven’t blogged:

Mole Posole: This is one of those recipes I go back to again and again. It’s easy and made up of mostly pantry food. And it tastes amazing. By “prepared mole sauce” they mean the paste you normally find in that jar you can’t re-close rather than the aseptic box of sauce I used on the enchilada stack.
Rice Vermicelli with Soya Mince & Peas: This is from A Vegan Taste of Thailand. Another one that’s pretty quick and easy and I make on a regular basis. It’s basically rice noodles, tvp, peas and thai red curry sauce.
Cumin Lime Tofu with smashed sweet potatoes & broccoli: The tofu came from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. It tasted wonderful but was a little bit too juicy. I probably could have cooked a bit longer to dry it out more, but I was hungry. As leftovers, it seemed to dry out a bit more and be about perfect.
Gemelli with Asparagus and Pine Nuts: Another book I keep going back to for easy, tasty recipes is Vegan Italiano. This one was a perfect use of new spring asparagus. And what is it about toasted pine nuts that totally makes my mouth water?
Savory Vegetable Pot Pie: This one is another go to recipe and comes from The Candle Cafe Cookbook. Use chicken style seitan instead of tofu and even picky omnis will enjoy it.
Linguine with Broccoli Sauce and Garlic: This one is also from Vegan Italiano. It came out a touch dry so I ended up adding a bit more olive oil at the end. Still tasty and easy.
Three-Bean Chili with Chive-Flecked Cornmeal Dumplings: Seriously, how can this be bad? From Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker. I love coming home to dinner all ready and waiting. Okay, I did still have to make the dumplings, but it was mostly all ready.

Mexican Food at Across the Street

Doesn’t a Mexican restaurant with a number of choices for vegans sound great? Of course it does! A week or so ago Matt and I checked out Across the Street over on Highland by Cosmo’s.

across the street margarita chips salsa guac

Inside it’s cosy and vibrant. We were there pretty early, so I don’t know how loud it gets in there. It wasn’t an issue at all for us. Warm crispy chips & a nice red salsa arrived. We went ahead and got some guacamole as well. And margaritas. All of the above were excellent. Matt ordered carnitas (he’s not veg, der) and I got the tacos with one tvp and one tofu. He didn’t like his carnitas. Thought it was too tough and dry. My tacos were pretty good. The tvp was clearly made by a non-veg person. It tasted like they reconstituted the tvp in plain water then just kind of cooked it with some taco seasoning. So, they need to figure out that tvp needs to be soaked in something flavorful before cooking. The tofu was great though. If I remember right it had a light dusting of seasoned cornmeal and was fried. Pan-fried, I think. The rice seemed slightly mushy, but tasted good. The beans seemed slightly bland at first but I found that I appreciated them more as I ate them, so I think they were fine. There are more vegan options on the menu, so I’m all for going back and checking out something else.

across the street tvp and tofu tacos rice beans