Good Home Cookin'

Lately, for some reason, I have been craving my mom's cooking. Now, if you knew my mom's cooking, that would be a miracle. I learned how to cook for a couple of reasons and one of them was because my mom couldn't. So, I grew up cooking most of our dinners; however, there is one dish that my mom could make that was always delicious, which was corn casserole. I have been craving this recently, but I kept thinking it'd be impossible to replicate due to its buttery, cheesyness, goodness. I always hated meatloaf. In fact, I have always despised ground beef. Corn casserole seemed to always accompany meatloaf or some kind of ground beef dish. And what always goes with meatloaf? Green been casserole, of course. With these ideas, I set you to veganify this down-home, low-income, blue-collar meal. 

The corn casserole was the first thing I experimented with. It turned out perfectly! It was just a couple of ingredients and turned out delicious. A couple cans of creamed corn (which has no cream...surprise!), regular corn, vegan butter, acini di pepe pasta, and almond cheddar. It tasted just like I remembered. I didn't even have a recipe. I did it by memory as best as I could. Next was the meatloaf. I already had some vegan beef crumbles and I combined that with oatmeal, pureed silken tofu, meatloaf seasoning and diced onion. I topped it with an old family recipe for homemade bbq sauce. Again, turned out as close to the original as possible. Upon eating it, however, I realized it tasted so much like meatloaf that I can only eat this like once a year!!! Haha. I didn't want another casserole, so I did a deconstructed version of green bean casserole. Green beans, mushrooms and onions It turned out great too! They were fresh green beans and that made a world's difference with the crunchy, fresh snap!

Now, I have been allergic to chocolate (really just to caffeine) for 13 years now. So, when I get the chance I recreate 'chocolate' delights as much as possible. I just came across some ricemellow. What popped into my head?! S'mores brownies! So, I did and here is the result. It's topped with vegan praline almond ice cream! Better than I could've imagined. Some of you may be unfamiliar on how I might make a chocolaty dessert without any chocolate! Well, I use carob. Here is a like that explains what carob is. It really tastes like chocolate and coffee combined. It's really a great substitute. Some people hate it. I actually couldn't stand the taste when I first started using it 3 years ago. But I use it to this day as often as possible. I can trick a lot of people; however, if they do know it's fake, then many chocolate eaters say that there is a difference. I can't really say. I have no idea what real chocolate even tastes like. Nevertheless, this dessert was delicious! 

Overall, I had a very successful dinner and a trip down memory lane. I did realize, however, that this kind of a meal is a once in a blue moon type of thing. I might throw out all of the leftovers even. Too much food, and too much nostalgia. 

These were the recipes that pleased la lengua de un vegan.