Vic's Deli Slices

My friend Vic (from The Life blog) created a truly amazing recipe for homemade vegan Deli Slices. I baked the Deli Slices on Monday and I have been eating them every day ever since then. The recipe was very simple and easy to follow and it was not time consuming to prepare. However, it took a long time to steam and bake, plus there was some additional time for cooling. I also liked the fact that it did not have any soy ingredients, I needed a break from soy and this was a great idea.

I decided to change up the spices a bit, I left out the cumin and added "poultry seasonings" (sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg) and few dashes of hickory flavored liquid smoke.

When I got the wonderfully smelling stuff out of the oven, it reminded me of a vegan meatloaf. I could not resist and ate some still warm with some mustard and bread. Yummy! Then I let it cool and it firmed up nicely. The texture and taste reminded me of Tofurky Italian Sausage. I made some tasty sandwiches (with tomatoes, lettuce and vegan mayo) for dinner that evening, and more sandwiches during the week for work.

I crumbed up some Deli Slices into a salad the next day, for a filling and delicious dinner.

I also used it crumbled up in tomato sauce instead of vegan meatballs. That was fantastic!

Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

I replaced the traditional bulgur in Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa. Quinoa is a very nutritious ancient grain, because it contains all eight essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. I love this funny looking grain :-)

Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad

1 cup uncooked Quinoa

4 ripe medium tomatoes, diced

1 large cucumber (preferably seedless), diced

2 scallions, diced

2 cups finely chopped fresh parsley

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 Tbs olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

salt and black pepper to taste

Combine the Quinoa with 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook 15-20 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water until the grain gets cold.

In a large bowl, combine all the veggies, herbs, optional garlic and Quinoa. Add the lemon juice and olive oil and mix until well combined. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Czech style Christmas dinner in USA

Traditional Christmas dinner in the Czech Republic is fried carp, fried chicken, or fried schnitzel and potato salad. Making a veganized Christmas dinner from my homeland is one way how I stay connected with my family roots and traditions overseas. I made my "famous" potato salad (recipe here) and fried Boca Original Chik'n Patties. Then I squeezed fresh lemons over the warm patties. The warm Chik'n patties with lemon juice and the cold salad were a perfect combination.

I indulged myself with divine hot chocolate and Dandies vegan marshmallows.

I made another traditional Christmas dish. Its name would translate into "Mushroom Kuba ( Jacob)". It is a very easy dish. It was made out of cooked barley, sauteed porcini mushrooms with onion, garlic, ground caraway seeds and marjoram. Everything is mixed together and baked.

I used some leftover potato salad to create these traditional open faced mini sandwiches (Obložené chlebíčky). I added some Tofurky Deli Slices and a pickle.

I love these mini sandwiches. They are very easy to make, but look quite festive.

Merry Christmas!

Czech Christmas Cookies

Let me introduce you to traditional Czech Christmas cookies.

*Vanilkové rohlíčky (Vanilla-nut cookies covered in powdered sugar)

*Perníčky (Gingerbread cookies with traditional Czech spices)

*Linecké cukroví (Linzer Cookies)

There are tons of different cookies that we make, but these three are the most common cookies that most Czech families bake around Christmas.

I used a recipe from Czech Vegan Society for the vanilla-nut cookies that are shaped like the letter C. I used walnuts instead of hazelnuts, but you can use whatever nuts you want, even almonds work very well in this recipe.

For the gingerbread cookies I found an inspiration on Mattie's Vegan Baking website. I used his Gingerbread Cookie Buddies recipe that I modified. I substituted half brown sugar and half cane sugar for the turbinado sugar. I used extra molasses instead of the barley malt, and I had to add some almond milk because the dough was too dry and did not stick together. I used mini gingerbread man cookie cutter and wild forrest animals cookies cutters. For the icing I used powdered sugar and lemon juice.

I also used my own spices. The traditional Czech gingerbread spices are cinnamon, coriander, star anise, allspice, cloves, anise, nutmeg, fennel and sometimes ginger. I added ginger to the mixture, too.

The recipe for Linzer Cookies was my own and I am going to put it in my upcoming cookbook. I used seedless raspberry jam and red currant jam for the filling.

All of these cookies taste the best after a few days, not fresh out of the oven. They get softer and more flavorful.

I spent the whole afternoon baking and decorating these cookies, and cleaning up the huge mess. I realized something today, I am a terrible gingerbread cookie decorator! After several very ugly cookies I decided to leave the rest of the cookies "naked".

Winter food samples

It has been really cold in the past few weeks so I have been cooking more comfort, savory foods that make me feel warm. I have been experimenting with various grains and beans, including quinoa and whole grain bulgur. Here are some samples of my winter meals that I ate in the past week. I got a takeout from Moe's as well. I also ate some vegan donuts, brownies and gallons of hot cocoa.

*Bulgur with sauteed red kale, onions, garlic and asparagus

*Bean chili with vegan sour cream and jalapeno peppers

*Vegan burrito from Moe's

*Eggplant, zucchini and tomato ragout with chickpeas, fresh parsley and lemon

*Three pepper stir-fry over quinoa

Vegan S'mores

I love Sweet & Sara's vegan marshmallows. I have tried all of their flavors and haven't found any that I didn't like. I just ordered their popular vegan Smores (original). This was my very first time that I ate S'mores. I read a lot about this American tradition of making S'mores but I have never tried non-vegan or vegan S'mores before and I didn't think that a combination of a crunchy graham cookie, fluffy marshmallows and a layer of chocolate would be something that I would enjoy. I only ordered one package, since I was worried that I would not like the texture and the flavor combinations. This was a mistake. After I tried the first bite I knew that I should have ordered at least a dozen! The first bite was surprisingly amazing, crunchy graham cookie, soft fluffy marshmallow and a thin layer of delicious chocolate......

Then I put it in the microwave for 15 seconds. The marshmallow puffed up like a big vanilla cloud and the chocolate started to melt over this fluffy treat. I did not even mind that my fingers were covered in chocolate, getting dirty was part of the fun. Thank you, Sweet & Sara for making these amazing treats!

Nacho Mom's Ultimate Vegan Queso review

After I read all the positive reviews about this newest vegan phenomenon known as Nacho Mom's Ultimate Vegan Queso I decided to order a jar few days ago. Before I became a vegan I used to enjoy warm cheesy nachos, but since I became a vegan I could not find anything similar so I had to stick with boring tortilla chips and salsa. I bought some vegan nacho cheese dip few years ago, but it was quite weird and it didn't taste cheesy.

When my Nacho Mom's Ultimate Vegan Queso arrived I warmed some up on the stove and poured the queso over warm tortilla chips. OMG! The first bite awoke my memories of real cheesy nachos that I used to love. It was so good I could not believe that something so simple could be so realistic and so good. It was just perfect, not too mild, not too spicy, perfect texture, consistency and flavor.

If I didn't read all the blog reviews, I would be skeptical about this queso, because I would not imagine that tomatoes, nutritional yeast, chillies, flour and spices could create such an amazing cheesy dip.

This queso is not only delicious, but healthy, too. It is vegan, fat-free, soy-free, and the whole jar has only 160 calories.

These nachos were so good. I can see Beavis & Butthead eating them while sitting on their couch saying: "Heh heh heh, yeah, these nachos rule!"