Quick ways to use up Filo

8/6/12 10:18
eredien: Dancing Dragon (Default)
Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Get a regular-sized muffin tin. Line it with scraps of filo dough, brushing briefly with olive oil. Add either:

Mushrooms in Filo
- Wash 12 mushrooms, take out stems; put in whole to filo-lined muffin cups.
- Add fresh marjoram, pepper, and garlic salt. Rosemary optional.
- Put in 350 deg. F oven for 15-20 m or until done. Allow to cool on wire rack in tin so filo keeps its shape.
Makes 12 mushroom bites. Great for appetizers or just eating. A good way to use up the last few mushrooms in the bin.

Mushrooms in Filo

Moroccan-Influenced Sweet Potato rounds in Filo
- Get 12 frozen sweet potato rounds (you can find these at Aldi's or at Trader Joe's). Do not thaw. Place 1 round each in prepared filo-lined muffin tin.
- Add cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to taste.
- Add a small amount of vegan margarine to each muffin cup.
- Put in 250 deg. oven for 15-20 minutes or until the most delicious smell ever fills the room. Allow to cool on wire rack in tin so filo keeps its shape.
Makes 12 sweet potato bites. You will immediately want to eat more so I suggest making a double batch of these. Best served warm. They are also excellent cold the next day and can be refrigerated in a tupperware for several days.

Vegan Moroccan-Influenced Sweet Potato Rounds in Filo, Plated

Vegan Moroccan-Influenced Sweet Potato Rounds in Filo

Edited: added photos!
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Vegan Food Review: Trader Joe's Veggie Crumbles

8/11/11 09:48
eredien: Dancing Dragon (Default)
When it starts to be winter, I want to cook all my food in the oven. I also absolutely love food stuffed with other foods--stuffed apples, stuffed peppers, stuffed pears, things with stuffing inside. So, when I saw Trader Joe's had a new kind of vegan fake meat crumble in their "cold but not frozen fake meats next to the vegetables" section, *and* saw that the package featured stuffed peppers, I went for it and bought 2 packages, for $2.99 each.

Oh my gosh, what a great deal! Not only was there little packaging (just a bag and a recyclable cardboard surround, but there is a *lot* of fake meat inside this deceptive little package. This would work great as a replacement for just about anything where you would use ground beef (which so often starts out as and then gets cooked into unidentifiable mush anyway). I made three dishes--one a kind of Indian-spiced chili, another garlic-ground-beef substitute for movie night with [livejournal.com profile] ab3nd and my roommate E, and a third got added to my pre-existing pot of rice along with some spices for a delicious kind of casserole-thing. Both of these made immense amounts of food--the chili I shared with two friends, and it still lasted me for a week, for instance.

This would be perfect for tacos, stroganoff-type dishes, chili (obviously!), soup, meatballs, hamburgers, pizza, calzones, "stuffed" pizza, stuffed peppers...all of which I plan on making with the crumbles.

It's eat-and-eat, so it's easy to make.

How does it taste? A tiny bit crunchy after cooking, but I liked the texture and the very slight nutty flavor. Vegetarians liked it. Non-vegetarians also liked it. I hope TJ's keeps this stuff in stock forever.
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Vegan Food Review: Trader Joe's Fruit Frenzy Bars

10/4/11 21:57
eredien: Dancing Dragon (Default)
So, there's a lot more vegan food readily available in the last few years. I've decided that when I get a new vegan food I haven't tried before, I should talk about it here.

So....Trader Joe's Fruit Frenzy Bars.

TJ's other fruit popsicles aren't vegan, but these are. I try to buy vegan stuff from TJ's in part because they are really good about labeling what is and isn't vegan, and finding out if something not labelled vegan actually is or is not, and why.

These are largish fruit-flavored popsicles which have three flavors per pop. When I say "fruit flavor," I really mean "these were made with real fruit." For instance, in the top part of the pop, which is blackberry flavored, you can taste the blackberry seeds. The lemon part has actual pieces of pulp in it.

These are really tasty, though a bit sweet for my taste. They have a nice icy texture without being too hard or too soft to really bite into. The top is blackberry, the middle part lemon (though not nearly sour enough for me; it tastes to me more like orange), and the bottom strawberry. Quite good. If I were making Florey Punch, I would get a bunch of these and use them to cool it off; it would probably melt beautifully into the punch bowl.

There's 5 per box.

Rating: Yum! Definitely worth buying. Delicious and full of vitamins, and not too calorie-tastic. If you're a fan of cold desserts and fruit popsicles like me, I would really recommend these especially.
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