Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I have been wanting to do some test runs of vegan sweets for Halloween. Small batches of things that I thought might be great for my first vegan Halloween. Tonight, I decided to go for one of the quicker and easier ones: Chocolate Covered Pretzels.

For this, you will need the following:

-12 oz. bag of vegan chocolate chips (or carob if you prefer)

-1 tbsp. of vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)

-25-30 mini hard pretzels

1. In a large pot, bring several cups of water to a low boil and reduce heat to low. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a metal bowl that you can comfortably rest above the water, add the chocolate chips and the vegan margarine. Stir this mixture occasionally until everything has melted and combined.

3. One pretzel at a time, dip the pretzels in the chocolate and then retrieve with a fork and use another fork to place them on parchment paper about half an inch apart. Continue dipping until all of the chocolate is used. (This may take more than 30 pretzels, maybe less.)

4. Place the baking sheet(s) in the refrigerator for an hour, allowing the chocolate to fully cool and set.

Enjoy. 

These are great. I will definitely be making these for Halloween.

Leftovers Re-Imagined

Ever since my girlfriend's favorite Thai restaurant, Lek Thai, closed months ago, she has been busy searching for Crab Rangoon that may possibly replace theirs. We have tried a myriad of places, and it always seems that they leave her wanting. 

This has had some serious side effects. I now get to eat Thai food a lot more frequently, something I have been quite enjoying. I also often find myself with boxes of leftovers sitting cold and neglected. Not being one to let any food go to waste, I have been finding ways to integrate these leftovers into a fresh new dish that makes eating them seem like less of a chore.

Our most recent outing took us to Belmont Pearl, where my girlfriend of course ordered Crab Rangoon and I enjoyed some delicious General Tao's Tofu. She quite enjoyed her dishes, and my tofu dish was pretty good as well. It was advertised as a spicy entree, but I found the spice to be quite mild, and the heavy garlic in the sauce added a nice bit of sweetness. The only problem I really had was that it was a tremendous amount of food for just one lonely vegan. There would be leftovers.

What to do? My mind immediately went to some sort of wrap or pita sandwich. After a stop at store, I decided on some tasty looking pitas, brown rice, a small red bell pepper, broccoli, and red onion. 

I cut one of the pitas in half, and opened up each half to fill it with the tofu and veggies. I cut up a single crown of broccoli, and then julienned both half an onion and the bell pepper, and cooked off 1 cup of brown rice. 

Using a non-stick pan, I then heated about 2 tablespoons of canola oil on medium low heat. All of the vegetables were added to the pan and then mixed with a little Bragg's Liquid Aminos, making sure to integrate thoroughly. The veggies and Bragg's cooked for about 9 or 10 minutes, until a little soft, and then I added the leftover tofu, taking care to add all of the sauce sitting at the bottom. 

A little stir every once and a while, and 6 or so minutes later, I was ready to stuff my pitas.

I lined the bottom third of the pita with rice, then used tongs to add in broccoli, onion, peppers and tofu. I had plenty of the mixture left, which I used for extra pitas for lunch the next day.

It was a fun way to spice up the leftovers from a few days prior, and add a little more veggies into my diet.

Welcome

After some encouragement from friends, and my need to constantly document and describe my foodie adventures, I decided to start this blog. My hope is to update as often as possible, and I am planning on purchasing a point and shoot camera to make photographic documentation a tad easier.

There will be some of my own recipes, some recipes from various cook books, as well as my restaurant outing experiences. If there is something not here that you would like to see, I would love to hear from you.

I sincerely hope you enjoy what is to follow.