As you can tell from the number of pasta/noodle posts on this blog, I love noodles, and I eat them a lot.
This creamy Alfredo sauce was just perfect for my homemade fettucine pasta.
And this time lucky me, I happened to have homemade vegan “chicken” and “bacon” to throw in.
No regret about being on the plant-based diet!
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you probably already know that I like making pasta.
But for some reason making Udon noodles at home never came to me until recently.
Back home I didn’t know anybody personally who would make Udon themselves.
So I just automatically thought Udon is something you buy.
But last week I had craving for Udon, but I didn’t have any at home AND I was not in the mood for going shopping.
So for the first time in my life I decided to make it myself.
It was actually not as difficult or time-consuming as I initially anticipated.
At the last minute, I decided to make “Kishimen”.
Kishimen is a type of Udon noodles, but they are flat and wide.
So it’s like pasta but “fettucine”.
Same ingredients, but different shape.
Kishimen is popular noodles in the Nagoya regions where I grew up.
I haven’t had Kishimen for a long time, and I was excited.
The noodles turned out amazing!!
Perfectly chewy and delicious.
It’s kind of good and bad, because after this experiene it would be hard to go back to store-bought ones.
And my vegan egg turned out perfect too!
It’s been a while since last time I made sourdough bread like this.
I’ve been keeping my sourdough starter, Bobby, alive for almost one year.
There isn’t much to take care of him (mostly weekly feeding), but sometimes I ask myself if it is worth it especially when I’m too busy to make anything with it.
Well, the answer is YES.
Whenever I make sourdough bread like this, the final result gives me such joy.
Just looking at the beautiful crusty bread makes me so proud and glad that I decided to start this sourdough life.
There is another trendy cooking video going on Instagram.
I don’t watch the whole video, but based on the few seconds I see, it looks like you put cherry tomatoes and a hunk of cheese (feta?) in a pan, and then add cooked pasta to it.
I happened to have homemade white vegan cheese that I wanted to use up, so it was perfect.
I added a lot of garlic as well.
How about that!
This was delicious!!
Veganize any type of cake is a challenge, but when the main ingredients are cream cheese, eggs, and cream, the challenge becomes a headache!
The Basque burnt cheesecake has become extremely popular in Japan the past few years.
Although I’ve never tasted it myself, I was intrigued by the unique look (burnt apparently) and the creamy texture inside.
So I decided to create a vegan version.
I was excited and nervous until I finally got to taste-test it.
It turned out great!!
I used homemade vegan cream cheese (this particular batch’s main ingredient was tofu) this time.
I was very happy with the result, but I may try a few different things to fine-tune the recipe.
If that happens and I’m completely happy with the recipe, I may share it.
I still have some homemade Mochi, and I decided to add some to my chili.
Well, Mochi is so versatile, basically just another type of carbs, like rice, pasta, or bread, so I knew this would work well.
Remember Mochi?
The sticky Japanese rice cake.
I toasted a couple.
This is an East-meets-West comfort food!
You’ve seen me posting vegan eggs, but these “non-poached” poached eggs turned so great that I had to show them off!
(Here is the link to the YouTube video where Ms. Shizuka shows you how to make these vegan eggs -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mANUZa8OAs .)
These beautiful “eggs” were placed on toasted homemade sourdough English muffin, avocado slices, homemade vegan Caesar dressing, homemade vegan Parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper.
Don’t they look great?!
Seriously, who wouldn’t believe this is NOT an egg?
Based on a little reading I did, Ma Lai Gao is a traditional steamed cake, popular in Hong Kong.
I’ve never had a chance to try Ma Lai Gao, in Hong Kong, or anywhere else, but when I found a vegan gluten-free recipe in a book by Ms. Hiroko Shirasaki, a popular Japanese recipe developer, I got interested.
It steamed beautifully.
I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I liked what I saw and tasted.
This cake is soft and moist, and has a depth in the sweetness, but not overly sweet.
But after making it, I did a little more research, and I found out that the authentic one has a rather fluffy (rather than moist or sticky, which I was going for!) texture.
I’m not sure if there is a next time, but if there is, it would be fun to make some changes to get the fluffy texture,
I’ve made different “carrot cake” breakfast versions, but this time it’s a bagel sandwich.
As I always say, I loved the flavor combo of the carrot cake but not the sugar/extra sweetness that comes with it.
So I like to make a dish using the combo but minus the sugar.
Homemade bagel, homemade vegan cream cheese, cinnamon, a date (pitted, opened, and flattened), shredded carrot, raisins, and chopped walnuts.
Once you take the sugar out, it creates a guilt-free satisfying whole-food dish, and becomes perfect for breakfast.
Yesterday I found beautiful romaine lettuce at a grocery store, and I came home with a package of three.
I just recently bought Ms. Miyoko S’s “The Homemade Vegan Pantry” cookbook, and I thought it would be perfect to try her Caesar salad dressing.
I modified some ingredients and process according to what I had and my personal preference, but it turned out great!
I only quickly looked through the book, but I like seeing many interesting ideas already.
I cooked my homemade vegan bacon because I wanted it as a topping.
This time I gave them a little smoky flavor.
Fresh romaine lettuce, vegan Caesar dressing, crispy bacon, V-Parmesan, and freshly ground black pepper.
This was delicious!
We enjoyed it as the first course of our lunch today.
