A tale of two chilis, part one.

Every time I have some left over dinner, I put it in the freezer so that I have a ready stash of dinners for when I am on call at the clinic. Sometimes though, it is nice to reuse leftovers in different ways rather than the old reheat. Vegan Planet (which I seem to be quite into at the moment) has a whole stack of chili recipes, and a whole stack of recipes that use the chili recipes



A couple of weeks ago, I made Backyard BBQ Chili. It was a very tasty chili, with a hint of sweet and smoky from the BBQ sauce. I served it with Mum's Apple Coleslaw (from How It All Vegan), green leaves (because I can't get enough of the green stuff) and some corn chips. It was a great dinner! Fastforward to earlier this week...



Jalapeno Rice and Chili Stuffed Squash, served here with some tasty roasted brussel sprouts. I used butternut pumpkin, as called for in the recipe. But I found the amount of the chili/rice mixture was way too much to fit in the cavities of these cute little guys I found. To get a cavity big enough, you would need to have a HUGE butternut, which would be too much for one to eat. In the suggestions, it mentions trying with a kabocha pumpkin. I think this would work better, as you can get an adorable cute little kabocha and still have a really good space for stuffing.

Earlier this year I had another tasty chili retake experience. I think I have blogged these two recipes randomly at some point previously, but I'm posting the photos again. So ha!



This is East Coast Chili. What makes it East Coast, I have no idea! The book also has a West Coast Chili, which has avodaco (apparently avocado = west coast USA). Anyone have any suggestions as to why this is East Coast? Anyway, it is super yummy. It calls for 2 cups of burger crumbles, but I used 1 1/2 cups of dry TVP, and all was well. The dry TVP absorbs the flavours fabulously. I served it over macaroni (apparently the thing to do on the East Coast) with some steamed carrots.



And here it is reborn as the fantabulous Chili Macaroni Bake. It is SO good. It definitely deserves a repost. Creamy, cheesy macaroni topped with the left over chili and sprinkled with vegan cheese. So fabulous! I could eat it all day!

I am looking forward to future adventures with the many uses of chilis. So stay tuned!

VeganMoFo: Cooking for Cancer

No posts for a week! What a poor showing for VeganMoFo. Hopefully I can make up for it today with a bounty of exciting photos! Today I hosted a Girls Night In (though it was more of an Afternoon In) as a fundraised for the Cancer Council, and invited a bunch of the girls from work around to partake. So naturally I have spent the preceeding 36 hours more or less cooking non-stop, except for some much needed sleep last night! I wish I had a picture of the entire spread on the table, but I did get separate pictures of each dish.

Holy Moly Hummus from How It All Vegan



I *love* this hummus, it is one of the best recipes I've made. With sauteed garlic and bucketloads of tahini, it has an amazing flavour. Best the day after making, the flavours grow together overnight.

Black Forest Cake from Now Vegan



A bit of a potential disaster, but it all turned out OK, if not very pretty looking. Firstly, ignore the instruction that says to add soy milk, which is not in the list of ingredients. Secondly, I needed to cook this about half an hour longer than it said. Alas, when I took it out after the initial 40 minutes the centre was all wobbly and so promptly sank down. This made the cutting in half after cooling interesting, as I ended up with a donut for the top half. Also, the cake did not want to stay together when moving from the cooling rack to the serving plate. I salvaged it by pressing it back together with my hands, as it was very moist. I then used the marinated cherries to fill the hole in the centre. The chocolate cream icing I ended up accidentally freezing trying to speed chill it, then had to zap it, then accidentally froze it again, but I finally got it fairly sorted. Had to finger paint it on around the sides of the cake though. Despite the drama and the fact it looks no where near as neat as the one in the picture, it was a big success taste wise. This particular one has a very strong coffee taste. Also doesn't have a creamy layer in the middle, just chocolate and the cherries.

Gorgeous Guacamole from How It All Vegan



Truly gorgeous, tasty and super quick and easy to make. Very strong on the lime juice. Perfect for corn chips.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes from The Joy Of Vegan Baking



With Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting, of course. These are great! The frosting stays quite runny though. But winning combination.

Sesame Asparagus Sushi from Vegan Planet



Hurrah for home made sushi! It is so much fun to make. I was a bit pressed for time so I cheated and used my mum's rice maker, which made the rice a bit gluggy. But otherwise it was great. The recipe says to use one thin asparagus spear per roll, but definitely increase it to two or even three for extra flavour.

Wild Mushroom Pate from Vegan Planet



Made in honour of my mushroom-freak friend who attended. Who doesn't love mushrooms anyway? Shiitake, porcini, cremini and button mushrooms. Very yummy and quite easy to make. And it has a very nice texture as well.

Strawberry Shortcakes from Vegan With A Vengeance



These are magnificent! The scones are spot on, light and delicious tasting. The macadamia cream is outstanding. And the strawberry sauce is ridiculously easy to make. These were the first things to go, people loved them! I served them disassembled for people to make up themselves so they didn't go soggy. Cut a scone in half, then put some cream and sauce on each one. Delightful! I wish I had a photo of a made up one, because they were super cute.

Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade from Veganomicon



I had some walnut oil I needed to use, so this blend of basil, walnuts and maple syrup seemed the thing to make. It is quite sweet, as the name would suggest, but it is really nice. Quite different.

OK, this isn't something I made. But it is a chocolate raspberry slice from The Forest that one of my friends brought me. I haven't actually had it yet because my belly is too full from the other stuff!