MOFO - Day 17 - Chase the Chill Chili from AVK

I'm going to keep going with my American Vegan Kitchen love today. I have made this chili (and variations of this chili) a few times now. Fred and I love things a little hotter, so I used hot chile powder in this. I love the combo of both seitan and beans in this version. It is a stick to your ribs chili. It really will chase the chill. I made a whole batch of Tami's savor seitan and froze the leftovers for another tasty meal.

We ate this straight up this time, but it is excellent with jalapeno corn bread. It makes a good amount, but our whole batch is almost gone. Fred ate lots and we gave some to our good friend today. He is a hard-core meat eater, so I am excited to hear what he thinks.

I'm starting a sub-theme today: Red, White and Green Chilies. Today's chili is the red portion of the sub-theme. Check tomorrow for White!!

Just look at those beautiful chunks of veggies, seitan and the hearty beans. Oh yes, don't forget your organic beer!

MOFO - Day 16 - Chipotles American Vegan Kitchen Style - GIVEAWAY!!!

I'm very excited to announce that I am going to be giving away a copy of American Vegan Kitchen!!! **

I always am so happy when I make things from American Vegan Kitchen. Tami knows her way around the kitchen there is no doubt. She also does spicy extremely well.

She has generously offered to send one of my lucky readers a free copy of American Vegan Kitchen!!!!! If you don't have this book yet, you should make sure you add it to your collection. Who knows, you might be the lucky winner and get it for FREE! Just make sure to leave a comment on this post about how you use chiles your favorite American dishes and you could be the lucky winner. If you have a favorite from AVK tell me about that too! 


Winner will be drawn at random for all comments posted by Friday at midnight. So make sure you comment before then!

Every time I open AVK I have a really hard time deciding what I am going to make. This time I was able to narrow it down because of my MoFo theme. I love smoky chipotles. So I found the perfect recipe for today's post. Smokin' BBQ Portobello Sandwiches. Tami's Smokin' Chipotle BBQ Sauce is really easy to make. It is smoky, sweet with a little bit of heat. It would be great for any type of BBQ recipe really. But I wanted to stay true to the book, so we had these as mini po'boy of sorts. I sauteed up the mushrooms, slathered them with the sticky, yummy sauce and served them on little slices of baguette with a touch of Vegannaise. They were the perfect quick easy chile filled snack for our mid-afternoon house cleaning break.

I am going to be featuring another dish from AVK tomorrow, so make sure to check back. Don't forget to leave your comments on this post for your chance to win. The winner will be drawn on Friday!

**Sorry to my international readers, this can only be shipped within the US.

Here they are in all their yumminess 

Smokin' BBQ Portobello Sandwiches

MOFO - Day 15 - Green Chile Grilled Cheeze

So this is not officially a recipe, but it is officially pretty tasty. I ran out of time today and had nothing ready for today's post. So I decided to ad-lib for today's entry. This will end up being something I will make again too.

Green Chile Grilled Cheeze

1 Sandwich

2 slices whole wheat bread
Vegan butter (enough to butter bread)
1 thick slice sweet onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
dash salt
1 - 1/2 inch thick slice large tomato or two smaller slices
1 whole roasted green chile, large enough to cover the size of the bread
1/3 cup grated Daiya cheddar (or your favorite vegan cheddar grated)
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives

In small bowl combine cheddar and chives. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Heat small iron skillet over med-low heat. Lightly salt and grill onions in olive oil until they are softened about 3-5 minutes. Remove from pan. Place one slice of bread buttered side down in same pan. Top evenly with half of Daiya mixture. Next layer in order with green chile, tomato slice(s), grilled onions, remaining Daiya mixture and second slice of bread with butter side on top. Grill on med low heat until bread it browned and crisp, about 3-5 minutes. Flip and grill other side until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Slice in half and serve immediately.

MOFO - Day 13 - Chicken Nachos a la Lombardi's

This is going to be short and sweet because I have a hot date with my handsome honey. If you know me or have followed my blog for a while, you might know that I got my first cooking gig when I was 15 at a place called Lombardi's 2nd Effort. Oddly enough it was an awesome Mexican joint that also made pizza. The owner was definitely Mexican, but he loved Vince Lombardi and his philosophy. They gave me my first opportunity to cook and I fell in love.

The other day I was on FB and my very great cooking bud from this very restaurant had asked me if I remembered how we made these. It stirred up wonderful gastric memories and I developed an unbelievable hankering for their famous chicken nachos.

In this version I used chicken seitan cutlets cut into 3/4 inch pieces. They were coated with my favorite taco seasoning and seared until they were dark brown. I used some thicker and very crunchy chips. This is very important, because otherwise the chips will not hold up the the toppings. The chips were topped first with a small dollop (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) of toffutti sour cream, then one chunk of the seasoned chicken. I then placed very thinly sliced Daiya Italian blend over each chip and garnished with a thin slice of jalapeno. Slap these babies under the broiler for about 3 minutes until the chips start to brown and the Daiya is bubbling. Serve with your favorite salsa and share a great memory with yours truly.

Mucho Gusto y gracias Dan Cervantes, wherever you are.

MOFO - Day 12 - Chicken and Waffles with Jalapeno Gravy

12 days in a row. I feel good! I'm having a lot of fun with you guys. I hope you are enjoying chile mania. I know I've been a little heavy on jalapenos, but we are getting a good crop out of the garden. You have to run with that when you are so lucky.

Tonight I decided to go all fatty and decadent. My friend, the lovely Julie, just happened to have a brand new fryer and waffle iron she was getting ready to put in a garage sale. Instead she gave them to me! Well, out of courtesy of course, I felt I should take them and appreciate them immediately. Gotta show my gratitude.

I've been seeing and hearing a lot about fried chicken and waffles lately. Now this is a combo I would not normally think of eating. For one, I am not a big fan of waffles. Secondly it is certainly not healthy or light. But I do have to say, it was a fun plate to create.

The waffles are the Corn Meal Waffles from Isa's Vegan Brunch. I made the savory option. The "chicken" was from a previous Food Network Friday challenge. The recipe is here. I served the chicken smothered with a Cajun Jalapeno Gravy. You gotta have some green with all of this beige, so I quickly sauteed up some smoky collard greens.

Cajun Jalapeno Gravy

Makes about 1 3/4 cup

3 tablespoons vegan butter
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 large jalapeno, finely chopped (2 tablespoons)
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon granulated onion
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon rubbed sage
2 cups vegetable broth

In medium sauce pan over med high heat, melt vegan butter. Whisk in flour. Stirring constantly to prevent burning make a medium roux by cooking until the mixture is light brown in color. The mixture is extremely hot so use caution. Add jalapeno, shallot and garlic. It will sizzle very loudly and may splatter a bit. Saute for 1-2 minutes until the vegetables soften up. Slowly pour in vegetable broth while whisking constantly until all the broth is in the pan. Stir with a spoon making sure to get all cooked on bits off the bottom of the pan. Turn heat to low and simmer, whisking frequently until gravy thickens up, about 10 minutes. If you like it thicker, you can let it simmer longer. Salt to taste. Serve over chicken or mashed 'taters.

MOFO - Day 11 - Restaurant Review - 24 Carrots

It's not a total chile-ful post today, but I did order an extra dish just so I would have something with chiles in it...so there!

Today Fred and I hit one of our new favorite places, 24 Carrots located at the NW corner of Chandler Blvd and Kyrene Road next to the Subway in Chandler.

Fred has been haunting this place for quite some time. He likes to stop in for a re-charging juice or smoothie to get him going after a good work out or for a quick pick me up at work. We both love this place for many reasons. They use local and organic ingredients whenever possible. The owner, Sasha, is a true food lover. She creates her recipes without tasting them. I asked her why she did this and she told me that she tends to over-spice things because she loves a ton of flavor. Instead she makes her creations and has others test the flavor. It seems to be a winning formula. Her passion is making healthy meals and snacks for our junk-food nation's inhabitants. They were originally a juice and smoothie joint but 24 Carrots has recently revamped their menu to include a slew of tasty and healthy food choices.

I was very excited to see they had VEGAN specials this fine day.

They are now offering a full breakfast menu. I don't have pictures of this, but you must try the Vegan Eggs Benedict. The garlic aoli is amazing! The avocados are fresh and plentiful. I never seem to make it in before 11am, but I plan on trying other selections like the Fruited Breakfast Quinoa and the vegan muffins.

Their lunch menu now boasts Salads, Wraps, Pita Pizzas, Sandwiches, Burgers and Raw Treats. There are always vegan options and very often gluten free options as well! he daily specials usually include vegan options as well. On our latest visit I finally remembered to bring my camera. I told Fred to strap the feedbag on because we were going to try lots of stuff!

First we checked out the appetizers. We started off with the Dolmas ($4.95). I don't often like a lot of dolmas because they are not executed well. These were delicious. They were flavorful and the filling was so creamy and delicious. The plate was garnished with fresh spinach and cherry tomatoes. We were planning on taking them home for a snack later, but they never made it out the door.

Next up we tried the Raw Papaya Noodle Bowl ($8.95). Fred had been wanting to try this for a while. We both adore kale, so we thought we'd give it a try. The kale was that beautiful emerald green and very fresh. It was a gorgeous looking salad. However out of everything we tried this was our least favorite. Part of the reason was just personal preference...neither of us is crazy about peanuts and this salad had peanuts as a garnish and it tasted like some in the dressing. The one thing we found odd was that the dressing was pretty warm. It just didn't work for me.

We moved on to the next adventure. We usually order different dishes and try each others' selections. Today was no exception and man was I glad! They offer two options for their burgers the Betty: served with just a deli dill pickle and the Veronica: served with organic tortilla chips or baby carrots, deli pickle and a choice of pineapple slaw or fresh garden salad. Because we were totally pigging out on so many other items, I got mine Betty style. I ordered the Wild Mushroom Tofu Burger ($6.95 Betty/$9.95 Veronica). I envisioned it coming with mushrooms and onions on top, but they were actually part of the patty. I thought it was very tasty. Like many of their burgers the patty is very delicate, so make sure to have napkins handy. My burger was grnished with a generous portion of fresh veggies. It was pretty as well as tasty. I have to put in a plug for the Veggie Masala burger I had on my last visit. It is a great Indian spiced option.

Fred's selection was the Vegan Egg Sandwich ($8.95). This is their version of an egg salad sandwich. The menu description doesn't tell you but it is speckled with dried cranberries, which I found to be a very nice addition. The sandwich is served on a delicious 9-grain bread it's soft and delicious. The sandwich came with a generous portion of avocado and tasty tomatoes. Fred opted for the combo with tortilla chops and a pickle. This is a generous portion for even the hungriest diner.

By now we were pretty darn stuffed. Fred had even tried to call for belly back up with no success. But because this is the month of the chile I had to order something with chiles in it. As luck would have it, the special of the day was Vegan Jambalaya. This was also a very generous portion and was served with a small house salad with house vinegarette. I asked what peppers were in it and she said they used chiles and serranos. She did not put a lot in because she was concerned most guests wouldn't like something too spicy. For us it was pretty mild (I could have used more pepper, maybe a splash of hot sauce), but pretty tasty! We were truly stuffed so we only had a few bites. But we both agreed it was pretty tasty. They were kind enough to bring us a box to take it home.

We always enjoy visting 24 Carrots. We usually run into some very nice diners when we are there. The staff is super friendly and the food is consistently fresh and tasty. One word of warning, this is not a run in and run out dining experience. Be prepared to take your time. Bring your laptop for some free WiFi if you are dining alone to kill a little time. The food is made to order in a very small kitchen and takes quite a while to appear at your table. We witnessed one customer come in for take out and leave before her food was ready. As long as you go in to the experience knowing and expecting this, you will be thrilled with this wonderful healthy little neighborhood gem.

24 Carrots
4140 W Chandler Blvd #2
Chandler, AZ 85226
480-753-4411

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MOFO - Day 6 - Cayenne Pepper - Not just for savory anymore!

Ah cayenne pepper. This spicy pepper usually found in powdered form is a powerhouse of heat. Rating 30,000 to 50,000 on the Scoville Scale, it is wise to use caution when using it in recipes lest you painfully clear your sinuses and other things. The cayenne pepper is named after a city in French Guiana. The pepper is related to the bell pepper, but it is its sassy spicy trouble making distant cousin.

The pepper is not only powerful on the heat index, but it has been proven to have health and medicinal uses as well. Cayenne is believed to help prevent prostate cancer. It is loaded with vitamin A and also  has B6, E and C. I recently had an interesting and painful experience with cayenne. I had a nasty cold and made an elixer of agave, lemon and cayenne in hot water. It soothed my sinuses and I am sure burned out some of the nasty cold. Well, Fred, who is always trying to take care of me, made a batch for me. Unbeknownst to me, he loaded it with a very healthy dose of cayenne. I took a big swig and felt this incredible burn all the way down. Holy mama! I managed to drink about half of it before I had to claim defeat. Funny but true.

I love using cayenne in savory dishes. It is fantastic in many Mexican and Southwestern dishes. I can hardly imagine any type of chili without it. However I have also found that is pairs amazingly well with Chocolate (in small amounts). I have school in about 20 minutes. It is one of my classmate's birthday. I decided to make some cupcakes to wake the class up and secretly slip them some vegan awesomeness. I made cupcakes based on the Basic Chocolate Cupcakes from VCTOTW. I added 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a very healthy pinch of cayenne to the batter. They are topped with the Chocolate Mousse Topping with a little cinnamon thrown in from the same book.

I hope my classmates gobble them up and I hope you enjoy checking them out. Have a great Saturday!!