Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Finally finishing my current round-up from Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips. You can see my other posts about this book here.

Brown-Sugar Baked Ham with Caramelised Cabbage and Onion: I have made this ham recipe twice, because the first time I realised that I only put in 1 tsp of brown sugar instead of 1 TBS! Ooops. Definitely make sure to get that right. The marinade is very easy to make. The actual recipe in the book uses leftover marinade to make a coffee gravy, but as I am coffe adverse I skipped this and used a normal gravy. I also served it with the cabbage and onion dish. This one is quite sweet (it does have sugar in it) but very nice. Excellent with some roasted potatoes and the salty gravy.
Rating: Tofu Ham :), Cabbage and Onion :)



Chocolate Gravy: This is easy to make and sort of a cross between a chocolate sauce and a chocolate pudding. The book suggests serving it over some buttermilk biscuits (recipe also in the book), but I took an easier route and served it over some pancakes (purchased ready made and heated in the oven), vanilla yoghurt, and berries.
Rating: :)



Bringing Home the Tempeh Bacon: This bacon has a lovely marinade that includes hoisin sauce (yum) and is very easy to put together. There is heaps of marinade, so I froze the leftovers to make future batches. I served this bacon so many ways. Over some mac and cheese, in a BLT, and snacked right on its own.
Rating: :)





No-Tell Ro*Tel Cheese Dip: I've never had the original before, but this is a vegan silken tofu based version. I love a silken tofu based dip or sauce. I did use plain tomatoes instead of tomatoes with green chiles. It came together super fast, and thickens up very well on the stove. Instead of serving it as a dip, I used it to make nachos.
Rating: :)



BBQ 'Pulled' Tempeh and Carrot: This is meant to be made as a sandwich filling, alongside some crunchy coleslaw. But I switched it up and turned it into a bowl instead. It is really easy to make, with crumbled tempeh, grated carrots, and BBQ sauce the main features. I served it over some rice, spinach, and roasted carrots and drizzled with some more BBQ sauce and a creamy bottled dressing.
Rating: :)



And there ends this current go through of Cookin' Crunk! I really wanted to get it wrapped up today, because I have an exciting week coming up. Tomorrow my friends Molly and Helen (and Molly's friend Sharnette) are arriving from the US to come and visit me for a a week! I haven't seen Molly in 6 years since she was last here, and it has been even longer since I visited Helen in Seattle. I had a longstanding plan that after Dim Sim passed, I was going to drop everything and take off to Seattle to cry on Helen's couch for a few months, but COVID ruined that coping strategy. I will of course share our adventures on the blog.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise, lying on her back, looking at the ceiling fan.

Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Just a little post today, I wasn't sure if I'd blog at all, but I got some late Sunday afternoon motivation to do a little something. This is a few recipes from my continuing adventures through Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips. See other recipes from this book I've posted about here.

Creamy Squash Casserole and Tofu Chicken: The tofu chicken recipe book in this good is great - such a good marinade! I had lots of marinade in left over, so I froze it for future tofu chicken adventures. I didn't have adobo seasoning or poultry seasoning though, so I used a mix of garlic and onion powders, salt, chili-free cajun spice blend, celery seeds, and sage. It worked a treat. I served it with some Creamy Squash Casserole, which has rice and summer squash (I used zucchini). This is recipe looks very simple, but it is absolutely delicious!
Rating: Tofu :), Casserole :D



Unfried Corn: This is a quick recipe that uses frozen corn kernals (very handy). It is quite sweet, so I would decrease the amount of sugar in it substantially next time (it is only 1.5 tsp, but alongside the sweet corn that is quite a bit). The corn is cooked in a creamy soy-milk mixture, which is simmered off. I served it with some BBQ tofu and some green beans.
Rating: :)



Baked Curried Sweet Tater Fries: These were some very nice fries! I took the option to bake them, rather than deep fry, because I don't like deep frying stuff. I made the seasoning me-friendly by using mild curry powder, smoked paprika to replace the cayenne powder, and some extra salt. Great alongside a burger.
Rating: :)



Mama's Mac and Tomatoes: This is pretty simple, with macaroni and fresh tomatoes and basil. It is also really good! The tomatoes make this incredible broth. You definitely want to make sure that you are using the best tomatoes you can for this. I served it with some herby tofu and roasted broccoli.
Rating: :)



Vanilla Spice Cupcakes: These are an easy to make cupcake recipe, that go great however you want to serve them. The recipe in the book pairs them with a pumpkin buttercream. I was making these for pink-themed bake sale, so instead I filled them with strawberry jam and topped them with pink strawberry flavoured buttercream.
Rating: :)



This would have been my final Cookin' Crunk post, but I have a few tempeh things I want to make on my week off that I have coming up, so I have saved a couple of other photos to go along with that. Stay tuned!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise being a little bunny baby having a nap with my black cat face cushion on my bed.

Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Popping back with another post about Cookin' Crunk, by Bianca Phillips. See previous posts about this book here.

Mess o' Greens with Turnips and Granny's Corn Casserole: I rounded out this meal with some Field Roast meatloaf that was lingering in my freezer. The slowly simmered turnips were so lovely! I cannot get collard greens or mustard greens here. I probably should have gone for kale, but I took the easier option of baby spinach that I ended just in the last few minutes. The casserole was lovely and creamy (thanks to cream cheese). I left out the pimentos and chiles, and added some celery, to keep it mild.
Rating: Turnips :), Casserole :)



Seitan Beef Stew: This is great for cold weather! Instead of seitan, I used big TVP chunks that softened up wonderfully during cooking and absorbed all the flavour. I used baby spinach instead of kale for the greens.
Rating: :)



Seitan Tips over Brown Rice: I used some beef-style strips in this recipe, which came together very quickly. I used carrot and celery instead of capsicum, as per usual. It also has mushrooms in it, and has a great savoury taste. I got three serves out of this, served over brown rice as instructed.
Rating: :)



Eggplant and Sausage Jambalaya: I took the easy route with this recipe, and after sauteeing the vegetables I threw everything in the rice cooker (except the sausages) and forgot about it until dinner time, which was great! I used some Field Roast sausages, and zucchini instead of capsicum, and I also left out the spicy parts. The sausages are slices, sauteed, and added at the end.
Rating: :)



Cheesy Broccoli-Rice Casserole: This lovely recipe combines mushrooms soup and cheesy sauce (both recipes are also in the book) for a great creamy outcome. You do need to have cooked brown rice for this recipe, so plan ahead. I decreased the amount of brown rice from two cups to one and a half cups because I was using some leftovers and that is what I had.
Rating: :)



Creamy Tofu Chicken Pasta Bake: There is a great recipe for tofu chicken in the book, which is part of this recipe,though I did find the flavour of the tofu chicken got lost a bit once it was all baked. This also uses the mushroom soup recipe as a base, mixed with some diced tomatoes. It is topped with just nutritional yeast, which is great because I love it.
Rating: :)



I'd like to talk about something completely different at the end of this post - music! My favourite musician Jenny Owen Youngs has just released a new album called Avalanche, and it is INCREDIBLE. If you like beautiful, emotional music, please check it out. You will cry. You can stream it in all the streaming places, or you can buy it on Bandcamp!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Mirabelle contemplating life from within a paper bag.

Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

My how time flies. It has been almost four weeks between posts? Not intentional, but just things happening. Nothing of note happened, just, you know, things. But let's get back to some recipe round-ups! It has been ages since I have done one, and we are ready to move on to a new cookbook. This series of round-ups will be coming from Cookin' Crunk, written by Bianca Phillips of Vegan Crunk blog fame! See other posts about this book here

Tangy Tempeh Chops with Mashed Sweet Taters: The tempeh chops recipe was meant to have green peppers in it, but no way, I used some extra celery. I made half the recipe and got one very satisfying serving. The sauce has a bunch of things in it, including ketchup! The mashed sweet taters looked suspiciously too sweet when I read the recipe... maple syrup and nutmeg? But actually they were not too sweet, and had a lovely flavour that was the perfect companion for the tangy tempeh. I made a quarter of a recipe for one serve. All served over some baby spinach.
Rating: Tempeh :), Sweet Potato :)



Creamy Tahini Sauce: This was absolutely delicious! I did switch it up a little by just using a few drops of sesame oil and using water for the rest of the tablespoon it called for, but I find a tiny bit of sesamy oil goes a long way. This is used in one of the recipes in the book, but I served it over some brown rice, roasted broccoli, and sauteed tofu for an old-school vegan bowl.
Rating: :D



Sweet 'n' Savoury Marinated Tofu: This is a variation given in the book for the sweet 'n' spicy tofu, but no spicy here. This variation switches out the sriracha for ginger. And it is sooooo good! I scaled the recipe down a bit as my block of tofu was only 300g rather than 450g, but I wish I had the bigger block because this tofu is incredible! I did use some of it in sandwiches, but I also used some of it just for eating straight up.
Rating: :D



Tofu Cottage Cheese: This recipe is very simple to make, but then has a bunch of different uses. Bianca recommends spreading it on toast with Marmite, so I put it on toast with Vegemite. Vegemite is Marmite's superior Australian equivalent. So salty, so good. I also added some fresh tomato slices. This was excellent for breakfast or for lunch.
Rating: :)



Cheese Tofu Scramble: I am a simple woman, and at the end of the day I love a tofu scramble over any vegan-egg based scramble. Tofu is my truest food love. This is a great savory flavoured cheese scramble. I used celery, mushrooms, and spinach as the vegetables. I browned the tofu first, before adding in the flavouring mixture. A lovely version of a classic.
Rating: :)



Tofu Scramble Enchiladas: I switched this up a bit to suit my own tastes, replacing the chili powder with paprika, leaving out the salsa, and using wheat tortillas rather than corn tortillas. What we got was a lovely casserole of saucy, cheesy, tofu filled enchiladas that was just as good for dinner as they would have been for breakfast.
Rating: :)



Dill Weed Potato Salad: A fun twist on a potato salad, this has pimento olives in it! I have never had a potato salad with olives in it before, but it definitely works. I left out the raw onion and the jalapeno. I used dried dill for this, as the recipe called for, but if I had fresh dill I would definitely have used that instead.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Month



The 7th of September was Mirabelle's one year adoptiversary!

Lammas 2023

We have had a sweltering summer, and the start of February was an extremely humid heatwave. Disgusting. Lammas, while being a harvest festival, is also a celebration of the height of summer, and acknowledgement of cooler times coming. I don't much feel like celebrating the fact that it is so hot, and cooler days are still a long way off in Brisbane, but I still made a nice dinner.

Lammas (1st Feb 2023)

Lammas is meant to be a harvest festival, and grains, corn, and bread are center along with seasonal berries. Not pictured are the berries I have been eating for breakfast. I have been eating a lot of blueberries at this time, as well as raspberries when I can find non-Driscoll ones. Blackberries are also a traditional fruit of this sabbat, but I couldn't find any fresh one's that are not Driscolls. If you want to know why I do not buy Driscolls, there is a global boycott (see more information here.

BBQ Seitan Salad from Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips: Being as hot as it was, I decided to just make a nice BBQ salad. I used Meet chick'n style strips for the seitan, and pan-fried them then glazed them in BBQ sauce. These sit on a delicious base of baby cos, tomato, cucumber, and radishes. I left out the capsicum and green onions, and added some celery. The salad is topped with vegan bacon bits and a Country Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. The dressing is based on vegan sour cream, is super easy to make, and tastes fantastic.
Rating: Salad overall :), Dressing :)







Pantry Corn Bread from More Quick-Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson: Bringing in the Lammas with corn bread! This has two options, either using a box of cornbread mix or making your own, I went with the latter because I don't even know if there are any vegan cornbread mixes. I halved the recipe and baked it in a 5 x 9 inch pan. The recipe uses tinned creamed corn as most of the liquid, which was fun. Taste wise this was good, though it had a very crumbly texture.
Rating: :)



And all served together!



I had assorted thoughts about making a dessert. But it was hot and I was tired, so I did not.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Please enjoy this photo of some kittens my friend is hand raising.

Ostara 2022

In Australia, Spring officially starts on the 1st of September, even though the equinox takes place later in the month. Ostara is the sabbat that celebrates this equinox, and the return of Spring. Easter has folded in a lot of traditions from the original pagan celebrations. Of course, here in Australia Easter happens in March or April, and has nothing to do with the seasons. Eggs are a common food theme, given the celebration of new life. Seems wrong to be celebrating new life by using a product created by the horrific destruction of chicken lives. Thankfully there are many wonderful ways to celebrate with food that don't hurt animals. Hurrah!

Ostara aka Spring Equinox (23rd September, 2021)

I kept up an eggy theme, and also went with another classic spring food - carrots!

Eggless Tofu-Olive Salad from Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips: Tofu makes the best egg salad! Bianca's version includes chopped green olives, which I really enoyed. I had plain green olives, the pimento stuffed ones (as suggested) would have been even better. I think if using plain green olives, increase the amount so you get lots of those great briny punches throughout. I left out the raw onion, and I used some white pepper instead of black pepper. This was great on a sandwich, but also scooped onto crackers. Or off a spoon.
Rating: :)



Carrot Cake Ice Cream from Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky: Instead of coconut milk, I used my good friend Flora Professional Plant Cream as the base of this ice cream. I also couldn't get 100% carrot juice, so I used some Ginger Ninja juice, which is mostly carrot but also has some apple and ginger in it. As well as the carrot cake ice cream, it has a cream cheese ripple through it. Though mine didn't really ripple. I need to work on my stirring technique! This makes a HEAP of ice cream. It says it makes one generous quart, heavy on the generous. I have a 1L ice cream tub for homemade ice cream, and there was still quite a bit of extra I had to put in another container.
Rating: :)



Tomato Macaroni Soup and Scrambled Egg from To Asia, With Love by Hetty McKinnon: I was under the weather, so this soup sounded like a perfect way to honor the sabbat and also give myself some comfort. I made a half recipe of this and got two serves. For the scrambled Egg I used some Orgran Vegg, though it had a bit of a funky bitter after taste, I need to work on my seasonings for this particular brand of Vegg. It is a powder that you mix up, like the old FYH Veggs. My soup was quite thick, and very hearty. I did find it a little bland, but a splash of soy sauce to serve took care of that.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I like to post this for my Ostara posts. It is my sweet little carrot Sahara, hugging her sweet little carrot toy! They are both pirates.

Mother's Day 2021

Mother's Day came around again this year, as it always does, and I made a fun little dinner for my mum.

Smoky Maple Baked Beans from Kindness Community Vegan Cookbook: Despite the name, this recipe involves no baking. It is all done on the stove, and it doesn't take that long. The beans are a mix of butter beans and borlotti beans, and they are simmered in a mix of tomato, smoked paprika, maple syrup, and vegan Worcestershire sauce. They were quick and tasty. I served them with some roasted broccoli, potato gems, and some Rough Rider BBQ Sauce that I had made from Vegan Diner (another cookbook) to serve over the top as my mum loves that sauce. The recipe says it makes two serves, but we got three serves out of this, which worked well as there were three of us!
Rating: :)



Chocolate Fudgy Puddin' Cake from Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips: Colder nights call for warmer desserts, and this was a pretty easy one. I love a good self serving pudding! The only issue I had with this was the recipe calls to cream room temperature vegan margerine with soy milk... I've had a couple of other recipes call for that as well and it never works, the butter just goes a bit chunky through the milk. So I added half the flour and continued to beat and it all combined nicely, then mixed in the rest of the dry. This baked up with a delicious warm chocolate sauce bottom, and was great served with vanilla soy ice cream.
Rating: :)





But wait... there is more! Well, a little flash back. My mum's birthday is early December, but last year that was only about a week and a half after Dim Sim passed, so I didn't make her a big special dinner, because I could barely feed myself. But I did want to do something, so I made a chocolate pudding cake... but a different one to the one above. It made my feel a little better to be able to do something nice for someone I loved.

Chocolate Puddin' Cake from La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer: This recipe was a little easier in that it didn't involve margerine so there was no beating involved. Just mixing. The only change I made was to replace the walnuts it called for with chocolate chips, to make it extra chocolately. Please enjoy a very similar photo to the one above, but it was a different recipe!
Rating: :)

Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Today we are delving back into Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips. I've followed Bianca's blog for a long time, and I had the absolute delight of spending time with Bianca at VidaVeganCon in Austin two years ago. Her cookbook is a lot of fun, full of very satisfying and delicious food. You can see what else I've made from this book here.

Baked Tofu Fish Fry with Hush Puppy Corn Muffins: Tofu is marinated in a slightly fishy marinade (it has dulse flakes) and then is breaded (also with dulse) and baked, making yummy and crunchy savoury triangles. I didn't taste much fishy in the finish product, but it was still great. I appreciated that the breading mix made almost the right amount - there was not much waste (unlike a lot of other recipes calling for breading). The tartare sauce is a simple max of mayo, horeseradish and pickle relish, and was lovely. Bianca suggests serving with the corn muffins. These are fun, using tinned creamed corn in the batter. I made a half batch. I found that the batter seemed a bit dry when I was putting it in the muffin pans, but the finished product wasn't dry at all. I also skipped the minced onion and used some onion powder, which may have made the batter a little dryer as well. Served with some broccoli.
Rating: Tofu :), Muffins :)



Sausage Gravy with Sage: I unearthed a tube of Gimme Lean Sausage from my freezer that I have brought back from the US to make recipes from this very cookbook. In order to stretch the tube across all the recipes, I made a half batch of this. This gave me two serves, with some biscuits and a side of cheese kale. This gravy is so savoury and rich!
Rating: :)



Breakfast Lasagne: This was another Gimme Lean recipe, and again I halved it. I got three servings from it this way. I still used a whole medium potato though, because I like a thick potato layer. This has layers of potato, tofu scramble, sausage and cheesy sauce. I just made each layer in order, put it in the casserole, and then started on the next one.
Rating: :)



Sweet Potato-Sausage Balls with Cheesy Dipping Sauce: These are so much fun! This used the last of my Gimme Lean, and again I hlaved the recipe. The dough was quite sticky and quite soft, I found it easier to roll with slightly damp hands rather than floured hands. The balls sort of flattened and spread a little while baking, so they are more bites or patties, kind of like a mini-scone. Instead of the Spicy Cheesy Sauce, I made it a smoky cheesy sauce by mixing in some smoked paprika rather than chilli powder. All served with some rice and broccoli.
Rating: :)



Cauliflower Creole: This is a nice, comforting, vegetable stew. My cauliflower was huge, and I used it all, so perhaps it should have been a but more saucy, but I liked it this was. I left out the capsicum and the hot sauce.
Rating: :)



Hopping John with Sausage and Brown Rice: This recipe uses Gimme Lean as well, but I didn't have any left, so I just three Fry's sausages that I cooked and chopped and it was really nice. The recipe starts with dried black-eyed peas, but I had cooked, so I changed it up a little. I used 1 1/2 cups cooked beans, 3/4 cup of water, 1 bay leaf, and thickened for about 15 minutes, then continued with the recipe. I also threw in some grated carrot that needed using. Served over brown rice and some baby spinach, I got three big serves.
Rating: :)



Holy Mole Chocolate-Chile Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream: I made these for a bake sale (that I wasn't organising), and they are quite lovely. The recipe calls for grinding ancho chiles, I used a TBS of chipotle powder in the liquid mix and added a sprinkle of hot chili powder when mixing, and it gave a lovely gentle heat. The frosting was not too sweet, and made the perfect amount to frost all the cupcakes with a decent swirl from the piping bag. I used a blend of wholemeal spelt and white all purpose flour. I actually got 13 cupcakes out of this, so a perfect dozen for the bake sale and one for the cook!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The good news is that little Aurora is doing wonderfully in her new home. But we are very excited that she will be coming to board with us for a few days next week. I miss her sweet face! Here is a photo from when she still lived here. One day we put her in my hoodie and she loved it!