Recipe Round-Up: Bake and Destroy

Bake and Destroy, by Natalie Slater, has been around for a while, I am just very slow in getting my round-ups blogged. I was pretty intrigued by this book, subtitled 'good food for bad vegans', when I first heard about it. It is a lot of fun. The first chapter is the desserts chapter! But there are also breakfasts, mains and a whole lot of inventive snacks. Plus lots of fun pro-wrestling references (I love WWE).

Mac & Cheez Balls with No-Honey Mustard: This was my first attempt at deep frying and it did not go well, but all through my own fault I have discovered. My pot was too small, so the first ball I put in just turned black immediately on the outside but was frozen in the middle. Apparently bigger pots of oil, while scarier, will cook evenly. Anyway, I persevered, but was a bit underwhelmed with the results. Too oily, again probably my fault. I did find the coating batter was too thick, I needed to thin it a little, and the frozen mac and cheeze balls defrost very quickly, but if you are better at deep frying than I am you should be fine. The no-honey mustard sauce was sweet, but nice to cut through the deep fried. Also served with steamed broccoli.
Rating: Balls :|, Sauce :)



Whole Wheat Choco-Coconut Donuts: These are from the breakfast chapter, and they are fantastic. Not too sweet but full of flavour. The tops of these are pretty rough when they bake in the pan, but then you flip them over, glaze them with melted chocolate and they look fancy. I made these for a bake sale.

Rating: :D



Breakfast Bites: These tasty little morsals have banana, apple sauce, oats, coconut, nuts and fruits in them, making them a handy little snack. Bonus is that they are not too sweet. This says it makes 30 using a heaping tablespoon. I used an Australian tablespoon and got 20 cookies, baked for 25 minutes.
Rating: :)



The Non-Cop-Out Tofu Scramble: I love tofu scramble, I don't really consider it a cop out, however it does require a little bit of care. Too many restaurants don't seem to understand! This is full of Italian herbs, tomatoes, olives and spinach, and is a very yummy breakfast or brinner.
Rating: :)



Mighty Migas: Migas is a dish I have only discovered in the last several years through my vegan cookbooks, funny considering traditionally it is an egg dish!. This is full of tofu, beans, veggies (no capsicum) and tortillas. I used the option she gave for pathetic people who don't have corn tortillas to hand and used some crushed up tortilla chips instead. I topped this bowl off with some green salsa and some nooch.
Rating: :)



Chai Berry Muffins: I love berry muffins, and I love chai, so this seemed like a good mix. I found the batter incredibly dry, and had to add splashes of oat milk to be able to incorporate things. Even then it was a pretty stiff and lumpy batter that went into the muffin cups. However it worked out just fine!
Rating: :)



Cannibal Corpse Crock-Pot: Not the most enticing of names, but this is a recipe for BBQ slow cooker jackfruit. it was my first time using jackfruit! I found the sauce gave it quite a strong salty/vinegar flavour on its own. But I was impressed with how beautifully it cooked down.
Rating: :)



Grilled Mac 'n' Cheese Sandwich: I think you can pretty much imagine that this is going to be good, and it was! You spread out and chill the mac and cheese, then slice the cold mac and cheese into bread-sized slices before grilling. I used my panini press for this.
Rating :)



BBQ Salad: This salad makes use of the Cannibal Corpse Crock-Pot, which tops a mix of brown rice, kale and red beans, and is topped with ranch dressing. There is a ranch dressing recipe in the book, but I just mixed some jarred mayo and some dried herbs together.
Rating: :)



Totchos: This is in the snack section, but we had it for dinner one night. Frozen potato gems and shaken up with a taco seasoning, baked until crispy and then topped with refried beans and other nacho toppings, including a yummy Nacho Chee-Zee Sauce. Such a fun dinner!
Rating: :), Nacho Sauce :)



Mac 'n' Yeast: I made a half batch of this, which is plenty, and topped it with panko instead of regular breadcrumbs and smoked paprika instead of regular. It is a pretty nice mac and cheese. I then put it into tacos with BBQ strips, which was extra awesome!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



One lap-warming little Dim Sim, keeping my company while I watch TV.