Maple Mustard Marinade

Inspired by my favorite food truck, The Cinnamon Snail, I made some maple mustard tempeh for dinner. They have a sandwich on their menu called the Maple Mustard Tempeh Sandwich. It's on grilled spelt bread with kale, tomato, onion, and roasted garlic aioli. And it's so good. If you live in NYC, you NEED to go to this food truck. You won't be disappointed.

Here's the maple mustard marinade that I made. It's enough for one 8oz package of tempeh. I let the tempeh marinade for 25 minutes, then lightly fan fried it, added a little salt, and devoured it. You could also use this marinade for tofu or as a dressing on salad.

Maple Mustard Marinade

1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients together. So easy!

My Favorite Veggie Dip

I've been obsessed with tahini lately. I drown my falafel sandwich with it, I add a ton extra to these amazing veggie burgers, and I make a tahini dip for veggies at least once a week. I can't get enough of it.

Tahini Veggie Dip Ingredients
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup water
1 small clove garlic, pressed or chopped finely
large pinch salt

Instructions: Whisk everything together, and serve with your favorite veggies! See how easy that was?

You also might have noticed the ratios between the lemon juice, water, and tahini - 1 part lemon juice, 1 part water, 2 parts tahini. This makes it easy to double, triple, half, etc the recipe. I usually make the equivalent to whatever 2 lemons juices to. Tonight it was 1/3 cup lemon juice, so I then added 1/3 cup water, 2/3 cup tahini, a medium sized clove of garlic, and a few pinches of salt. I also make the dip in my 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup, eliminating the use of other measuring cups (and therefore I have fewer dishes to do later).

The same basic recipe can also be used as a dressing for salad. I thin it out though with more water, so that it can better coat my salad greens. The thickness of the dip/dressing is so easy to control - just add water.

French Toast Day

I have off from work today, so it's been declared French Toast Day. French toast isn't complicated or time consuming to make, but it's not something I would take on before work. It's definitely a weekend or holiday breakfast. My batter consisted of vanilla soy milk, vanilla extract (I can't get enough vanilla!), flour, and cinnamon. I used a little Earth Balance in the pan, and topped the french toast with powdered sugar and maple syrup. Okay, I drowned it in maple syrup. I am syrup-obsessed.

The finished product:

Vegan Bake-off

This weekend I was one of 20 bakers selected to participate in the first vegan bake-off, held at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY. http://www.veganbakeoff.com/

There were 3 judges:

Sarah Gross, the founder of Rescue Chocolate (http://www.rescuechocolate.com/), whose peanut butter pit bull chocolate bar is a must try. She is also the organizer of the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival (http://nycvegfoodfest.com/), which is coming up in just a few short weeks.

Myq Kaplan, a comedian and creator of the podcast "Hang Out with Me." (http://myqkaplan.com/)

Adam Sobel, owner of the Cinnamon Snail, the most amazing food truck. Ever. And it's vegan. If you live in NYC, you MUST try Cinnamon Snail. Some of my favorite are the ancho chili seitan burger and the seitan al pastor sandwich. http://www.cinnamonsnail.com/

For the competition, I created 250+ cookie sandwiches and named them "Girlfriend in a Sugar Coma (I know, I know, it's Speculoos) Cookie Sandwiches." For those of you who don't get the reference, one of my favorite Smiths songs is called Girlfriend in a Coma, and the chorus goes like this: "girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it's serious..." For those of you who are wondering what Speculoos is, all you need to know is that you should run out and buy some right now. Okay, okay, I'll give you a little more than that. Speculoos are Belgian cookies (marketed as Biscoff in the US), and it comes in an addictive spread. The cookies are ground into a paste (like the consistency of peanut butter), and the result is cookie butter. I used the Speculoos spread in the filling of the cookies, and turned it into a frosting-like filling.

There were awards for 1st/2nd/3rd places, and the audience choice award. I received one of each! I received the 3rd place award AND and the audience choice award. How awesome is that?!