American Flatbread and Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels!

Have you guys tried either of these yet? Holy shit, they rocked my tube socks right off!!

A good friend of mine came over the other night for a night of drinking wine and catching up, we were in the mood for some vegan noms and even though I live right on the line(literally) of several awesome vegan friendly Boston neighborhoods. But sadly none of them deliver to my apartment. And even though I love to cook and my friend, Morris, is an extremely talented cook and pastry chef, we did not want to cook. We decided to take a walk to our local Star Market in search of quick and delicious vegan food to eat.

Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs because we bought a bunch of stuff but the feast we had was fantastic! I have never tried, or seen, this pizza we bought so as soon as I saw the words "vegan cheese" on it, it had to be mine. American Flatbread is a company based out of Vermont and while they only make one vegan pizza, it's a pretty mean one! They use lots of organic ingredients and Daiya! The pizza was a perfect combo of sauce (not a lot which is how I like it), spices and cheese. This pizza brought me back to my omni childhood. My parents both worked at Papa Gino's when my siblings and I were kids so we ate more than our fair share of pizza. Even into my teens and 20s when mom and dad no longer worked there, we still claimed it to be our favorite. As a vegan, I have had tons and tons of vegan pizza and they are all super delicious but none ever reminded me of Papa Gino's. I never really realized I was subconsciously seeking that certain taste until this pizza. It was like a flood of tasty memories pouring into my mouth. I think it was the herb combination used in the sauce and on top of the Daiya. Of course I don't know what herbs it was because on their website it lists parsley and other herbs, I guess I will just have to keep buying it. But then again, at around $10 a pop, I might just ask the fam what the herbs are and try and recreate it on my own.

Moving onto pretzels...


Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels are like whoa. They only have 2 vegan flavors but my market only carries the Apple Cinnamon. It is literally a pretzel stuffed with apple pie filling. Do I really need to say anymore? I don't think so! They also carry Chocolate Crumb, I really need to get my paws on some of those bad boys.

Sorry for the craptastic (and lack of cooked product) photos, the lighting in my kitchen sucks big balls.

We also bought some vegan buffalo wings but I forget the brand, they were sort of freezer burnt anyways.

Buffalo Soy Curl Hot Pockets

So the one week I decided to take off from the Cookbook Challenge has now gone into a second week. I have been beyond lazy lately, but I am back. Still kind of lazy but actually making an effort. Since it is now  halfway through the week I am going to wait until Sunday or Monday to get back on the Challenge Wagon. Just because I haven't actually been cooking anything worth writing about doesn't mean I haven't  been coming up with lots of awesome ideas though. Last night's Hot Pockets were one of them

Yes, Hot Pockets. I decided on this idea on the train after work earlier tonight. Last night I made Buffalo Soy Curl Pizza(the photos came out horrible so there will be no official post on that) and still had a bunch of leftover Buffalo Soy Curls, some Vegan Blue Cheese(see below for recipe) that I made, vegan cheese and pizza sauce. The only thing I didn't have already was dough. I didn't use a yeast based dough last night or tonight but only because I lacked the time and motivation to make one. Last night I used a basic yeast free pizza dough recipe, nothing special. Tonight I decided to change things up a little. To my basic pizza dough recipe I added a tablespoon of Vital Wheat Gluten just for shits and giggles. It actually produced a dough that when cooked was a cross between basic pizza dough and basic pastry crust.

After I divided and rolled out the dough and shredded the cheese it was time to assemble. I used a block of Cheddar from Galaxy Nutritional Foods. Normally for something like this I would use Daiya but I was all out. For the first time that I can remember actually using the Galaxy brand I was surprised at how much I like it. Don't eat it raw though, not good.

 I spread a thin layer of sauce on one side of each piece of dough(I don't like a lot of sauce), sprinkled that with some cheese, topped that with some buffalo soy curls with a few extra dashes of Frank's Red Hot and topped that with a little more cheese. Then it was time to fold, bake and consume!

The dough "rectangles" came out pretty rustic looking so when they were folded over they looked more like empanadas or mini calzones but I don't care, I am still calling them Hot Pockets!

They weren't very big but they were pretty damn filling. Delicious too! Vegan Blue Cheese is the perfect companion for these little guys. If you were a blue cheese dressing lover in your pregan days, you will love the recipe, I promise.

Hot Pocket Dough

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tblspn Vital Wheat Gluten

1 tblspn baking powder

1/2 tspn salt

2 tblspns olive oil

1/2 cup water. A few extra tblspns if needed

*Preheat 450*

1. Mix all dry ingredients in bowl and make a well in the center. 

2. Add remaining ingredients. 

3. Mix until combined into a dough

4. Knead 5-7 minutes until elastic. 

***You can be lazy like me and do steps 3 and 4 right in your stand mixer***

5. Dump dough onto floured surface and knead another minute or two, with your hands this time, to gauge if the dough needs more liquid or flour. 

6. Divide dough into 4 equal portions and roll each out into about an 8x6 rectangle. Don't worry if you can't get a perfect rectangle, mine didn't come close. 

7. Add toppings(whatever you would like) to one side of the dough, fold over, crimp shut with a fork and poke a few holes in the top to allow steam to escape. 

8. Bake about 15 minutes until they start turning golden brown.

Vegan Blue Cheese

1/2 cup crumbled firm tofu

 1 cup Veganaise or other vegan mayo
1/4 tsp tahini

dash of garlic powder

dash of lemon juice(literally just a dash)

dash of apple cider vinegar

1. Mix Veganaise, tahini, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and garlic powder until smooth. 

2. Mix in crumbled tofu. 

3. Serve with your favorite spicy buffalo foods and enjoy!