The one thing I hear most from non-vegetarians is “I don’t really eat meat, I only eat chicken.” I have mixed feelings about this kind of statement. On the one hand any reduction in meat eating is a VERY good thing for the animals and for the environment. However, chickens happen to not be covered by the humane farming act (which provides very little protection to begin with) living their short lives in the most pathetically torturous conditions. In addition, something like 10 times the number of chickens are killed a year as compared to cows. So by “only eating chicken” you are in fact doing a lot more harm then good than if you “only eat cows”.

So Next time you want a chicken dish, substitute tempeh for the flesh of a chicken, and the Tempeh Piccata recipe for Veganomicon or Candle Cafe Cookbook. All you have to do is boil the tempeh in some water and soy sauce for 10 minutes, slice it thin, coat in flour, and fry or bake it till it is golden brown. Then just make a normal piccata sauce to go on top of it.  The sauce pictured below has mushrooms and  capers (love capers!).

My last blog entry was January 19^th which is the day my Dad passed away. He developed ischemic colitis and was hospitalized on Christmas day. After about 2 weeks of hospitalization he had to have major surgery. This surgery would have been tough on the healthiest of people, but my Dad had been battling renal cancer since August. In the end the surgery proved too much. He was 65.

The best thing about my Dad was that he was always genuinely interested in and derived real pleasure from hearing everything that was going on in your life. He was unconditionally supportive and loving. I will miss him a great deal.

Ok so I will be the first to admit that this dish doesn’t “look” all that appetizing. However I can assure you that on a cold day, this is the perfect meal.

If you are new to Veg cooking or you are seasoned pro, Veganomicon is a cookbook that all cookbooks wish they could be but can’t cause they suck. The best thing about Veganomicon is that the recipes are relatively easy to make and they actually turn out really good, if you follow the instructions. This might not sound like a surprise, but I can’t tell you how many times I followed a recipe to a “T” and the dish still turned out like crap.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy this cookbook now!

Below are the Chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon with mushroom gravy. I made the baked and fried versions and both are really good.

Around here we call this dinner CrAzy Noodle dish because the oval noodles you see are really made out of rice! This dish is soooo good but the recipe is top secret!

More important than the taste however, is the fact that Tina’s Grandmother use to make it for her when she was a wee baby. So even though her Grandmother is gone we honor her memory and the importance role she played in Tina’s life when we eat it! Thanks Grandmother!

If you are like me, you don’t really like tofu all that much. Well I like it if it is prepared correctly, and by that i mean it has to be either baked, pan fried, or deep fried. If you use any of these methods you will avoid the slimy weirdness of straight up tofu. So in this dish I pressed the tofu for 30 minutes between paper towels (that gets rid of the extra water) marinated it for 30 minutes, then sauteed the hell out of it till all the sides were crispy.

So the marinade is pretty easy:

2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry sherry
2 tsp dark sesame oil

Cut the tofu into cubes pour the marinade and cubes into a zip lock back and let sit!

Then go ahead and stir fry up any veggies you like. Tonight we had Bok Choy, mushrooms, brocolli, and mushrooms, but you can add whatever else you like. Sautee those babies up with some garlic (4 cloves minced here). Then once it is about done, throw in the sauce which is a derivation of the marinade:

3-4 Tbsp hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry sherry
2 tsp dark sesame oil

You also want to add about a cup of vegetable broth with some corn starch mixed in. You can add less or more broth depending on how much sauce you want. So through that in, bring to a bubble which should make it all thicken. Then throw it on some white or brown rice!