Matzoh Pizza

Thursday, April 28, 2016 - Dinner
Passover Pizza (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

This matzoh pizza was a variation of the English Muffin Pizzas from the same cookbook.  The outer edge stayed crispy, but the part with the sauce and toppings got a little softer, like a thin-crust pizza.  The matzoh pizza was okay, but the english muffin pizzas (and my own pita pizza recipe) are better.

Matzoh Chocolate Brittle

Saturday, April 23, 2016 - Dessert
Matzoh Chocolate Brittle (Recipe from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

I was expecting this to be similar to chocolate-covered pretzels, with a peanut brittle flavor.  I used unsalted matzoh, so it didn't really have that sweet/salty combination that chocolate pretzels have.  There was a strong toffee flavor, which is not my favorite.  The bottom side of the bread was very sticky with soft toffee, but the top side turned out well with the hardened chocolate.

I didn't love the flavor - or the texture - so I will probably not make this again.  There is a full baking sheet's worth of brittle, so I probably will not even eat what is already made, though I may have a few more pieces.

Outrageous Granola

Saturday, April 23, 2016
Outrageous Granola (Recipe from Mayim's Vegan Table by Mayim Bialik)

This granola turned out perfectly. It was crunchy and delicious, and relatively simple to make. I made the granola on Saturday afternoon to eat for breakfast on Sunday. It smelled delicious as it was baking, filling the whole house with the scent of toasted oats, nuts, and maple.

I sampled some of the granola on Saturday evening, and saved the rest for later. It was great by itself, and it made a fantastic cereal - topped with almond milk - for Sunday morning breakfast.  It would also be good on top of yogurt.

This recipe is a new favorite, and it would be easy to modify the types of nuts and dried fruit to try different flavor combinations.  

Rainbow Smoothie

Saturday, April 9, 2016 - Dinner
Rainbow Smoothie (Recipe from Mayim's Vegan Table by Mayim Bialik)

This 'rainbow' smoothie is made from a variety of colorful fruits and veggies, including blueberries, raspberries, oranges, pineapple, and spinach.  I was skeptical about spinach in a fruity drink, but I couldn't taste it -- the smoothie tasted like berries with a hint of orange.  This smoothie was very sweet, and it was more like a dessert than a meal, but it was a relatively healthy dessert, since there was no added syrup or sugar, and since it had vegetables in it.  It was very thick, so I added a little more almond milk than what the recipe suggested.

Green Smoothie

Friday, April 8, 2016 - Lunch
Green Smoothie (Recipe from Mayim's Vegan Table by Mayim Bialik)

This smoothie was delicious!  I admit that I was not expecting to like it -- the green color is not appetizing.  The main ingredients are banana, pineapple, and spinach.  It mostly tasted like banana, and not like spinach at all.  Avocado was an optional ingredient that I didn't use this time, but I might try including it the next time I make this recipe.

Fruity Oatmeal Smoothie

Sunday, April 3, 2016 - Lunch
Fruity Oatmeal Smoothie (Recipe from Mayim's Vegan Table by Mayim Bialik)

When it comes to smoothies, I tend to be a bit old-fashioned.  I've tried some weird combinations, and I usually prefer the simple fruit and milk blends (or almond milk, in my case).  I'm planning to try a few of the smoothie and shake recipes from the various cookbooks I own, and I started with this simple recipe that falls on the milder end of the smoothie spectrum.  I was a little wary of the oatmeal, so I made sure it was very well blended before tasting.

This was a good smoothie.  Strawberry-banana is one of my favorite fruit flavor combinations.  The oatmeal was detectable, but not distracting - about the same size as the strawberry seeds, with a slightly different texture.  The smoothie was tasty, but not very filling -- at least not as a lunch meal.  It would work best as a breakfast meal, or as a summer side dish / dessert.  I will probably make this recipe again, and I look forward to testing some of the other smoothie recipes as well.

One Year of Recipes

It's been one year since I started this blog with the goal of trying new recipes and cooking healthier foods.  Here are the stats on what I've cooked in the past year.

The blog includes 67 different dishes, including 55 new recipes I had never tried before starting the blog.  I've used recipes from a variety of sources, focusing on my favorite cookbooks:
    - The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (43 recipes)
    - Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin (11 recipes)
    - The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (3 recipes)
    - Party Vegan by Robin Robertson (2 recipes)
    - Mayim's Vegan Table by Mayim Bialik (1 recipe)
    - Runner's World magazine/website (2 recipes)
    - my own recipes and creations (4 recipes)

A few of my favorite recipes (Pad Thai, Chana Masala, Cinnamon French Toast, and variations on Tofu Scramble [1, 2, 3]) are meals I cook on a regular basis, and I've made several of the other new recipes multiple times.  I've also incorporated many of the recipes' cooking tips and flavor combinations into my own homemade creations - sometimes with great results (for example, the sauce in my Grilled Tofu with Peanut Soy Sauce), and sometimes it doesn't turn out as well.

I've discovered several great new breakfast foods, like Whole Wheat Waffles with Maple-Berry Syrup, the Not-Just-For-Breakfast Banana Split, and Wheat Pancakes.

I still haven't bought a nice camera.  My phone has a decent camera that works well in natural light, but I still want to get a good quality camera that allows me to play around with different exposure settings.  It would be nice to have it when I travel to new places, and for other amateur photography that I enjoy, in addition to taking food photos for blog posts.

My goal of one new recipe per week was tough to maintain, but I did it - at least on an average basis.  There were many times I made 2-3+ new recipes per week and other times I didn't make a new recipe for a couple weeks in a row, instead of consistently doing 1 new recipe every week.  The point of the blog wasn't to force myself to stick to a schedule, but rather to explore new recipes instead of always falling back on pizza and tacos.  In those terms, I think I've been successful.  I still make homemade pizza (with store-bought crust) every week, but I'm doing a much better job of cooking new foods in addition to sustaining my pizza habit.  I look forward to continuing the blog, cooking new recipes, and finding more favorite meals!