Native Foods #2

Chad ran the Chicago Marathon last weekend, so we couldn't resist another visit to Native Foods.  

 

This time I had the Scorpion Burger (with their homemade tempeh and cheddar) with a side of sweet potato fries.  The tempeh was  melt-in-your-mouth, the cheese was gooey, and best of all, it was sloppy by the end!

 

 

And Chad had the Bistro Steak Sandwich.  As soon as we read "bleu cheese dressing," I knew he would order that.  I was delicious... peppery seitan, crusty bun, messy dressing!

 

 

I forgot to take a picture of dessert.  I couldn't decide between the Pumpkin Pie and the Pumpkin Cheesecake, but finally went with the cheesecake.  I don't know what the pie was like, but the cheesecake was a pretty solid choice.  The crust was crispy, granola-y, nutty goodness and it was served with a side of pecan caramel.

 

Well, I couldn't quite keep up with MoFo this week, but things are really coming together at home!  Our furniture is coming tomorrow, Will's room is just about done, we have pictures on the wall (although more along the floor, but it's progress), there are few boxes (on the main floor at least!) and my sister even took Will for a few hours one night so Chad and I could be extra productive!  Here's to being more productive with the blog next week.  Until then, happy MoFoing :)

Bring on the Burgers!

My latest addition to my cookbook collection is "The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet: 101 Globally Inspired Vegan Creations Packed with Fresh Flavors and Exciting New Tastes" by Joni Marie Newman that came out on May 1.  I pre-ordered it through Amazon was excited to find it at my door when I came home from school the last week in April.  This looked like it would be the perfect book for summer grilling.  Well, first of all, the book itself it gorgeous.  It's heavy for a paperback, with thick,colorful pages and pictures for about every third recipe.  To boot, the recipes are great too!

So far, we have tried three burgers:

grilled, topped and ready to eat!

Our first burger adventure was the Chipotle Sweet Potato Burger.  Chad and I love all things chipotle, so this was an easy choice.  The burger had a great texture from a combination of baked sweet potato, tofu and cashews.  We grilled these outside, which could have gone better.  Next time I will take Joni's advice and freeze the burgers before grilling them.  We had a lot of burger stuck to the grill, but they were delicious, regardless.  We topped them with avocado and tomatoes and skipped the buns.  I also made a side of black bean and rice salad with some homemade chipotle mayo.

baked to (almost) perfection

The next burger was the Jamaican Jerk Burger.  We had some leftover seitan from making Seitan Brew Stew (from American Vegan Kitchen) earlier in the week, so this burger was really easy to throw together.  I don't know if I added too much liquid or not enough dry or what I did, but this burger never really held together.  We baked it, so it wasn't a big deal, but it turned out to be a crumbly, yet tasty, burger.  We'll definitely have to experiment a bit more with this one if we want to grill it.  I enjoyed the flavor from the pineapple and hot peppers. 

Tonight we made Garlicky Ranch Potato Burgers.  I am pretty much in love with these burgers.  They were SO easy to make and were FULL of flavor, despite an ingredient list shorter than 10 ingredients.  This is definitely a recipe to keep in mind, because usually have everything on hand.  They were like bulked up, super tasty hash browns in burger form.