Vegan Mofo: Buckwheat Pancakes

It's been a crazy week and today was another crazy day. I had a lot of running around to do, so by the time I got home with two hungry kids in tow (and a hungry hubby), I needed a quick dinner. We've had pasta twice this week (I love leftover sauce!), so that was out. So, I went with quick and easy and made pancakes tonight. Apparently I make pancakes a lot, because on my Klout score, pancakes is my highest ranked topic of influence--sad, I know.

There are a couple of recipes on Veg Web that I've tried and really like, so I chose the one I hadn't made for awhile. Grandma's Buckwheat Pancakes were delicious! I just realized that I forgot to put in the regular flour. I only used the buckwheat. Hmm...that may explain why the pancakes where thinner than I expected. Oh well, they still tasted great! Normally, I'd serve them with fruit, but tonight we just had pancakes. Now, the recipe says that it feeds 2-4, and I'd say that you'd want to double the recipe if you are serving more than 2 people. Only the kids and I ate the pancakes and we had 2 1/2 small pancakes each. They definitely would have eaten more if I had made more.

I enjoy using Veg Web for new recipes because they are uploaded by regular folks and you can read reviews before you try to make anything. The reviews are helpful because sometimes other cooks will say, "This was good, but I made these slight changes and then it was great!" It's a good place to get some good basic recipes and some more complex ones too. You can read more about how I use Veg Web here. If you like pancakes, give them a try!
 

Vegan Mofo: Carrot Fries

I thought I'd try something new tonight.  I had been looking for recipes last week to use some of the carrots that I had on hand, and this one caught my eye.  I started with a recipe from www.vegweb.com.  You can find it here:  http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=15346.0.  I didn't have everything listed in the recipe, so I winged it.

I peeled and cut the carrots using a Pampered Chef tool that I never get to use to make them crinkly.  I tried to cut the pieces fairly thin so that they would cook.  Put them on the baking sheet and sprayed them with olive oil.  I sprinkled them with a spice mix that I made in an empty spice jar.  I used some paprika, garlic salt, parsley and oregano.  Popped them in the oven and let them bake.

I did not take a picture, but I thought they looked pretty good!

The verdict:

I really thought the kids would like these, especially since they are like regular fries.  They did not.  On the other hand, I really liked them and I will make them again for me.  I'll try them out on my hubby when he gets home tonight.

Vegan Recipes on VegWeb.com

Last year, I found out about a lot of new things as a vegan.  One thing I learned about was the Vegan Month of Food (also known as vegan MOFO).  It was a neat way to join the community of vegan bloggers and find out more about different foods that vegans eat.

One Web site I found during this time was VegWeb.  I like this Web site because it has a lot of great recipes.  There are other features on the site, but I have to be honest and say that I haven't really looked at them.  There are lists of vegan substitutes as well that are very helpful when you might not have all the ingredients on hand.

What I find very helpful are the reviews.  It's nice to see feedback on any given recipe so that you know how it turned out.  Many users will also give suggestions like I changed this and added that or I cut the sugar in half, etc.  It really makes it easier to experiment when other people are willing to let you know how their changes worked out.

The have an iPhone app as well.  It was $2.99 well spent in my opinion.  I like that I can save recipes, browse through dishes and have everything in my hand.  I don't have to haul my laptop into the kitchen and try to find a spot to put it.  Now I can just use my phone to see all the details.

I thought I'd share with you a couple of recipes that I've tried and loved on VegWeb.

I'm a chocoholic and this can be a bit of a problem when you are trying to stay away from milk products.  Enter vegan brownie recipe.  This recipe is so easy to make and tastes delicious.  My kids love when I make these (which I do whenever I need my chocolate fix).

We also like Easy Pancakes.  They are exactly what they say--easy.  They taste great and you wouldn't know that they were made without eggs except for the fact that they are lighter than regular pancakes.  Even my omni-vore husband liked them and that's saying something!  You can add fruit or chocolate chips to these to make something different.  I've enjoyed thawing some frozen fruit and pouring it on top (with the juice from the fruit too) and adding a bit of syrup.

So, there you go, 2 of my favourite recipes from VegWeb.