Spring Cleaning Pizza Party

Man, I'm beat. Jared and I have been cleaning like crazy today. It actually started last night with us taking everything out of our little computer room/nook, scrubbing it down and reorganizing the whole room in order to make it a haven for me to get some serious studying done once school starts. Then, before we knew it the rest of the house became shiny and new. To reward our immaculate surroundings (at least to our standards), I decided to throw Jared and I a mini pizza party. I made the pizza dough from VWaV in my bread machine (on the dough setting), and it turned out awesome! I made 2 pizzas, which were a little bigger than personal-pan size, both with tomato sauce, Teese, veggie pepperoni, garlic salt, dried oregano, nutritional yeast and red pepper flakes. I would've added extra stuff like bell peppers and onions, but I was so wore out from cleaning. Seriously, if you can get your hands on some Teese, make a pizza ASAP! So freakin good!!!


I even made a sweet pizza with the left over pizza dough that had cinnamon and sugar! Jared said it was really good but I think if I made this again, I'll roll the dough out thicker to form bread sticks. Perhaps I'll make a Tofutti cream cheese icing to drizzle over it too.

Farewell Village Pizza (just kidding)

UPDATE! From several sources, I have heard Village Pizza is back in business. Yeah!

When I heard that the only place to get a vegan pizza in Atlanta (at least that I know of), Village Pizza, went out of business, I was kinda bummed. It was so nice to have a place actually have vegan cheeze and 3 vegan "meat" toppings including veggie pepperoni, veggie sausage and veggie ground round available. They had a great crust and pretty decent atmosphere. Unfortunately it was across town for us and in my opinion, a bit on the pricey side. A medium pizza, which could feed 2 comfortably, was around $20, after drinks and a tip, about $30. I guess that might be standard, but it always seemed a bit too expensive for pizza. Since they did offer vegan toppings, we tried our best to support them, knowing full well I could make a pretty awesome pizza at home, for a lower price that didn't require driving across town.
Like most towns, restaurants that offer vegan options are slim. Atlanta does have a good handful of places to eat but now we were minus a pizza place which meant I had to master pizza at home. I have always used my dad's pizza crust "recipe" (he doesn't measure) but decided to give Isa's pizza dough a try from Vegan with a Vengeance. MAN, is this a great crust. After mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, kneading by hand for 10 minutes, letting the dough rise twice for about an hour each time, I was able to stretch this dough thinner than usual. Isa's dough wasn't sticky and kept its shape fairly well with little effort.
I think the way to an amazing homemade pizza is a really hot oven (500 degrees or more) and an equally and pre-heated pizza stone. After the dough was stretched out, topped with tomato sauce, veggie pepperoni, FYH cheeze, fresh Roma tomatoes and dried oregano, it was baked for only about 8 minutes and broiled for another 2 minutes. It sucks that Village Pizza is out of business but I am happy to say I have made a pizza that hit the spot!
Before being baked:

Right out of the oven:

(I would have taken better pictures but I was too hungry!)

a big thumbs down for VeganRella

Pre-Vegan days (PV days), I loved cheese. I ate cheese at every meal and had the cholesterol levels to prove it. When I couldn't think of anything to eat, I went to cheese and crackers. When I decided to go vegan, I went cold tofu after reading Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres. I knew if I weaned myself off of cheese slowly, I would, as Vegan Freak suggested, look forward to that little bit of cheese and I would never quit. Every since I gave up dairy, I haven't really craved it BUT have been on the look out for a good vegan cheeze. I have heard from several people that VeganRella was the best vegan cheeze they have found. We were craving pizza and decided to give VeganRella a try.
First, I tried a little VeganRella on crackers and it had a nice firm texture, although tasted nothing like mozzarella . . . but I was expecting that. Not bad, just not great. Another thing was the smell. It smelled funky, but not in the stinky cheese kind of way. In fact, it kinda stunk up the apartment when I shredded it up for pizza topping. But I was determined to have a cheezy pizza! I made a perfect crust, chopped up some red onion and green peppers, had some good tomato sauce ready and veggie pepperoni for an extra kick. The oven was set high and ready to melt the cheeze. Well, the good news is that it did melt. The bad news is that it melted into a glue-like, pasty goo all over the rest of the toppings. Every time I took a bite, it stuck to the roof of my mouth and front of my teeth. In other words, it was bad. Really, really bad. There was no way to pick it off so Jared and I ate the whole thing since the crust was really great and hey, that was what was for dinner.
I'm not sure if anyone else has had this experience with VeganRella but we will never buy it again. I think I'll just stick to silken tofu or go cheeseless.
Here is a shot of the goo at it's worst:

100th Post: Pizza, Banana Bread!

Proudly, I am writing my 100th post. I have enjoyed writing in this blog since I started back last July. I became vegan in May 2007 and this blog was a way for me to keep myself on track with a vegan diet. What I learned was my conscience, soul and morals kept me on track and really this blog became just a document of my journey.
Now on to food. I went to Whole Foods this morning to pick up some maple syrup and olive oil and came home with pizza making groceries. I made my basic pizza crust I posted about before. I cooked the pizza on the stove top with olive oil spray until the crust was golden. I finished cooking the crust in the oven with the toppings. Whole Foods was out of Vegan Mozzarella, so I bought some silken tofu to put on the pizza instead and I am so glad I did. I also topped the pizza with pasta sauce left over in the fridge, vegan pepperoni, green bell pepper, red onion, thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes (a yellow one with green stripes and a red one with blackish-green stripes), Vegan Parmesan, dried oregano and red pepper flakes. I don't like my toppings cooked to death, so I baked the pizza in the oven until they were a bit wilted but still had a nice crisp bite to them and the tofu had a brown touch to it. Good God was this amazing! Probably the best pizza I ever made.

We also had three bananas on the verge of being tossed out but I salvaged them and made the banana bread from The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide. The recipe only called for two bananas but I went ahead and threw in the third banana and it turned out great. I also added a little vanilla extract because it seemed a bit flat. This is Jared's Valentine’s Day treat, since we are trying to eat healthier, I figured this is a good "healthier" treat. I got my Valentine's present early, so I made him this early . . . that and the bananas wouldn't have lasted until Thursday ; )
Out of the oven and cooling:

Sliced and seconds away from being devoured:

caponata, the perfect pizza dough

I am not a big fan of olives but my dad made some caponata while I was visiting and I discovered that, despite having olives, I love the stuff. I made up my recipe that turned out awesome.

1 medium eggplant (I peel mine, cube it, salt it and let drain for about 30 minutes)
1 medium sweet onion sliced thinly
5 medium cloves fresh garlic finely chopped
14.5 oz can of peeled and petite diced tomatoes
2 tbsp natural sugar (or agave would work)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (more or less to taste)
2 tbsp drained capers roughly chopped
1/4 cup green olives (with pimentos) roughly chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley roughly chopped
Olive oil for cooking

After the salted eggplant has drained for about 30 minutes, rinse off the salt from the eggplant with cold water. Then with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels squeeze eggplant out so they aren't super wet. In a large skillet (I use non-stick) liberally coat the pan with olive oil and fry the cubes of eggplant until completely cooked through and have a nice color on them. In a seperate medium pan, sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add the can of tomatoes, sugar and salt and pepper. Once that cooks for a few minutes, add the cooked eggplant, adjust seasonings and turn off the heat. Stir in the red wine vinegar, capers, olives and parsley.
Some people eat this with toasted bread as a dip. Jared and I had the warm caponata over pasta though and it rocked!


I had a few interested people in my pizza dough to use for the pan fried pizza I made a couple posts back.
With the guidance of my awesome dad, here is a really great pizza dough that I now make in the bread machine. If you don't have a bread machine, you'd have to knead it by hand until it was elastic and let it rise until doubled in size.

1 1/4 cup warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp active dry yeast (or you could just use 1 packet, which is 2 1/4 tsp)
1-2 tsp sea salt (depending on your palate)
2 tsp natural sugar
1-2 tbsp Olive oil (i just do a couple glugs, so this is a guess)

Add the ingredients in order to the bread machine pan. The setting on the bread machine should be PIZZA/PASTA DOUGH (that's what it is called on mine). Once it has risen, you can use it right away or store it in the fridge for a day or two. I shape my pizza by flouring the counter top and roll it out until desired thickness with a rolling pin. I'm sure this pizza dough could be baked in the oven as a traditional pizza but I have only used it in the pan fried method, which is my new favorite way to eat pizza. I made a pizza with some of the left over caponata (reheated).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a lovely day tomorrow. Jared and I are going to be having Thanksgiving with my grandparents. Then over the weekend, we are hanging out with my dad and step mom, Jared's mom and dad and my sister is having her baby shower on Saturday. So, I will probably not be posting the next few days (although, I hope to still be checking on everyone else's posts).
Anyway, check out this crazy way I learned how to make a pizza. My dad sent me an article about pan-frying the pizza dough in olive oil on the stovetop. I have to say, I enjoyed the crust a LOT more with a crispy, olive oil coated crust . . . Plus, it only took minutes to make it! If you would like to experiment with this, here is the link to the article.
After the dough was pan-fried:

Topped with tomato sauce mixed with tofu crumbles and Italian seasoning along with vegan parm sprinkle cheeze on top. I only ate some of the crust, but Jared said this was an awesome pizza!

Village Pizza, Cookies

I haven't felt too much like cooking lately. I think because it's been kind of cold here in Atlanta (30's-60's) which a big change from Tampa, Fl. My warm and cozy comforter has been too seductive to want to get out of bed. So, in times like this, we are thankful to have, Village Pizza, an awesome pizza place that offers up an incredibly delicious vegan pizza. This pizza has vegan mozzarella, faux sausage and pepperoni, onions and green bell peppers (it also comes with black olives and mushrooms, which we skip since I don't like them). Despite some of my food intolerances, I do sometimes eat things that don't always agree with me. Luckily, I didn't feel too lousy after eating this pizza, probably because I rarely eat these things now. Sorry this isn't a very good picture, our camera has been acting up. This picture definitely doesn't do it justice.

Even though I haven't felt like cooking, the baking bug has bitten me. I made two different kind of cookies. The first batch was the Apple Butter Cookies from The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide. These scream cold weather, so if you have this book, give these a try.

I also made up a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I based off of a few different sources. My version is very naughty. They have Earth Balance buttery stick margarine, turbinado sugar, brown sugar, molasses, vanilla extract, unbleached all purpose flour, baking soda, sea salt and loads of chocolate chips. Next time I will add some pecans or walnuts to these.