Tofu Eggless Salad (from Crazy Sexy Diet) - favorite lunch

One of my absolute favorite lunches to have on this new vegan (and sometimes gluten free) lifestyle is Tofu Eggless Salad. I even made this for Mike and my dad and they thought it was real egg salad.

It is so quick and easy and lasts several days. I love putting it on spinach, with Rudi's Gluten Free bread or Mary's Gone Crackers. 

If you try it, let me know what you think.

Tofu Eggless Salad

(Please note this is not my recipe. All credit goes to Chad Sarno http://www.rawchef.com/ via Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet

2 blocks of firm tofu

1 cup vegan mayonnaise (I use Follow Your Heart Vegenaise and an considering using less mayo)

1/4 cup onion, finely diced

1/2 cup carrot, grated

1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped (sometimes I'll use 2 tbsp dried parsley)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast (not to be confused with bread-rising-yeast)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

First, drain and pat dry the tofu blocks (the salad can get really runny if you don't).

In large bowl, crumble all tofu. Hand mix with remaining ingredients until thoroughly combined. It will keep for 5 days. 

Drain and pat dry the tofu so the salad doesn't get runny.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.

Tofu Eggless Salad on a bed of spinach

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I made Cinnamon Quill's Veganized Cinnamon Rolls ... I'm in HEAVEN!

After my first baking class at Spiral Diner (read about it here), I have become a little bit more brave and have vowed to get back in the kitchen. I was so inspired by the Spiral Cinnamon Rolls that I thought I'd try a gluten free, vegan cinnamon roll I had been coveting on the Cinnamon Quill blog. You have to see her photos of the cinnamon roll ... Mike and I were drooling!!

Vegan, GF Cinnamon Roll. SOOO good. I'm still working on my photo skills. 

There are two types of cinnamon rolls: yeast and quick bake. Spiral's were yeast and I thought I'd venture to try a quick bake (let's say a quicker bake - they still require some sweet time in the kitchen). In my few attempts at gluten free, vegan baking, I've been disappointed because they've tasted gritty so I proceeded with caution.

I meticulously followed the instructions and prayerfully placed them in the oven. While those delicious brown sugar filled strips of dough were baking I made the delicious-lick-the-spoon-and-bowl-and-counter icing.

Here is the only place I veered from the recipe.

Icing: I doubled and tripled because we LOVE icing

2 Tablespoons melted organic shortening (Spectrum Butter Flavor)
2-4+ teaspoons non-dairy milk (Almond Milk)
3/4-1+ cups confectioners sugar
Splash of Almond Extract (the original recipe from Cinnamon Quill uses vanilla but this made it taste like amaretto)

Vegan, GF Cinnamon Roll. I tried to take another picture the next morning. 

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I have a blog crush on Allyson Kramer!

So I have to make a confession. I have a Blog Crush. A few weeks after I committed to being a vegan (and trying to be gluten free when I can) I found Allyson Kramer's Manifest Vegan blog. It was like I had moved from living in black in white to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in technicolor. The pictures, the recipes, the whole blog had me in absolute awe. 

For the weeks leading up to finding this "golden egg" of a blog, I had tried some not so hot vegan dinner and baking recipes. I know my husband was secretly thinking I had drank phizzy lifting juice because my once fairly decent recipes had taken a fall down the hatch into the boiler room. But Allyson's recipes were so inviting and her sweet spirit encouraged me. 

Now, I know that hummus is already vegan.  But for Super Bowl I wanted something with a little more of a Veruca Salt sass. Allyson has a recipe for an amazing Chili Garlic Pumpkin Hummus. So I made it last Sunday and it was a huge hit. It was creamy, yet had that delicious kick at the end. For those of you unsure of the pumpkin, don't worry, it complements the hummus and it is not an overpowering pumpkin taste at all. Unfortunately I don't own a Vitamix (it's on my wishlist) so I had to make the hummus in a blender, which takes a little extra time and patience. While it wasn't quite as smooth, it was still such a hit that Augustus Gloop himself would have been proud of how we downed that bowl of hummus. 

Please be sure to visit Allyson's Manifest Vegan blog, even if just to look at the pictures. Absolutely gorgeous. She has certainly been my Golden Ticket to the this new vegan (and sometimes gluten free) world I've entered. 

Chili Garlic Pumpkin Hummus from Manifest Vegan

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