I am in a New Year's Eve Food Coma.

I bought a Field Roast Celebration Roast about a week ago and thought I'd make it today. Never had it before so it was my first time trying it. I roasted it in the oven on a bed of onions and poured over an orange juice/soy sauce/olive oil marinade and let it roast for about 45 minutes.

What a feast! The roast was really really good, it was tender and tasted really flavorful. I prepared the gravy using a tub of Tofurky "giblet" gravy and whisked into it over medium low heat: 2 TB olive oil, 1 TB orange juice concentrate, 1 tsp. soy sauce, 2 tsp. mixed herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary), 1/4 cup red wine and black pepper. I let it simmer until it thickend a bit.

Hello Magical Coconut Cookie Bars from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar! These are before they are cut into bars.

They don't look much like the photo in the book but who cares? These are freaking delicious. The layers go like this: cookie crust (made out of crushed CATS Cookies for People from Trader Joe's), coconut milk/brown sugar concoction, chocolate chips, sweetened coconut and chopped walnuts. Sugar Coma.

Pasta With Greens, Garlic and Chile and More Roasted Spuds.

More cooking from River Cottage Veg. I made more roasted spuds to go with the leftover sauces from yesterday. Double carb lunch!

A very simple pasta recipe from the book with kale, garlic, onions and chile. I also added Parmezano Sprinkles which is a vegan parm recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook.

Roasted Potatoes with Mojo & Chocolate Torte with Bittersweet Ganache

I tried my first recipe from the River Cottage Veg book and it was a success. It was roasted potatoes with two kinds of mojo: Mojo Picon and Mojo Cilantro. These sauces are perfection. Each one required a whole bulb of garlic. Insanely tasty. The picon had roasted red peppers and chile. I want to make these all the time now. Also on the plate, a pretty salad and a blob of leftover muttabal from a lebanese restaurant we went to last night.

In Fran Costigan's Vegan Chocolate cookbook, this is called "Bittersweet Ganache-Glazed Chocolate Torte To Live For". It really is. Intense and chocolatey and moist.

Xmas foods.

Tempeh sausage pastry puffs from the Vegan Brunch book.

I thought the recipe would make good sausage rolls. I was right.

Boston vs. Brooklyn cream pie cupcakes and espresso oatmeal cookies from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

It is always a pleasure to receive beautiful cookbooks for xmas! Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

Meals on Toast.

Otherwise known as an open face sandwich, right? I'm big on stuff like this. Today I made Mary McCartney's saucy mushrooms and tomatoes on toast which is so good that I've made it a million times already. But today I got some really nice tuscan style pane from Trader Joe's. I don't have pics but later on I had another meal on toast, a slice of the same bread, toasted, buttered (Earth Balance) with avocado slices, Sriracha sauce, salt and pepper. Yum. Other things to eat on toast: hummus and thinly sliced tomato, peanut butter, banana and agave syrup, Heinz beans, Earth Balance and marmite, vegan cream cheese and pepper jelly, chickpea salad with melted vegan cheese...the list goes on.

Vegan Beef Stew

Got this recipe idea over here. It uses seitan but instead I used rehydrated soy chunks. I didn't bake my stew in the oven, I just cooked it in a dutch oven on the stove for several hours on very low heat with a lid on it. I added a little more liquid to mine as well. Also other additions: green beans, celery, portobello mushrooms and marmite. I'm not big on eating soy chunks all the time but today I really wanted something meaty and comforting.

Bubbling over the stove.

I wanted to serve the stew on top of noodles that were like egg noodles. I found these at Vons and they are vegan and have no eggs yay!

So hearty and filling.

These are the deluxe cocoa brownies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I liked them but they were a little too cakey for my liking. It is mostly my fault, my oven is wonky. I'm a fan of dessert so these will keep me happy for the weekend.

One Pot Chili Mac with Soy Chunks.

Not a great pic but if only you could taste this. I really enjoyed this hearty one pot meal. I do love throwing things in a pot and walking away. Works best on weeknights. I've made this a few times before and copied and pasted my recipe below with additions and substitutions in brackets. I added soy chunks to this which made it so meaty. Because I used them, I needed to add more water. If you feel it is drying out too much, feel free to add a little more boiling water to keep it moist and saucy.

One Pot Chili Mac
3 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 a large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TB tomato paste (I used 4 TB today for more sauciness.)
2 TB chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 TB chopped chipotle peppers (I added this today.)
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni pasta
2 1/2 cups boiling water (you may need about 1 cup more if you're adding soy chunks)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce, any kind (I subbed 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 can tomato sauce today.)
1 14oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I used black beans today.)
1 1/2 cups soy chunks

In a large pot on medium high, heat olive oil and saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic until veggies get fairly soft. Add tomato paste and spices and stir to coat veggies in spices. Add the macaroni, boiling water, soy chunks, spaghetti sauce and turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Add kidney beans and stir. Lower heat to medium and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes and then stir pasta to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cover again and cook for another 7 minutes. Remove lid and stir for 3 minutes or so to make sure pasta doesn't stick to bottom of the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Vegan Steak and Mushroom Pie

The veggies.

Some ingredients.

The insides before topping with puff pastry.

From the oven to the table, all puffed and golden!

On the plate with a side of mashed potatoes. This is the best comfort food ever.

The Recipe:

Steak and mushroom pie

3 TB vegan margarine + 2 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 cup dry protein soy chunks rehydrated in boiling water until soft.
2 TB flour
1 cup veggie broth
1 tsp red miso
1 tsp vegemite or marmite
1 TB tomato paste
1 TB vegan worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
1 tsp thyme
1 container mushrooms sliced
salt and pepper to taste
frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed (a good vegan brand is Pepperidge Farm)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Put the kettle on and boil water and pour over soy chunks in a bowl and let sit until soy chunks are soft.
3. Drain the hydrated soy chunks and put them in to a bowl. Add a couple of TB of flour and toss to coat the soy chunks.
4. Heat margarine in a pan on med high heat. Add soy chunks to pan and brown evenly, about 5 minutes. Remove soy chunks from pan and set aside.
5. Add oil to the pan and add the vegetables. Cook for a about 4 minutes. Then add vegetable broth, miso, marmite, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce and thyme to the pan. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the mushrooms. Add the soy chunks back to the pan, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and cover and simmer until veggies are tender.
6. Pour mixture into a baking dish and top with puff pastry sheets. Bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden and puffy.