Our Veggie Kitchen

It's been a long time since I've had something on my plate that stared back. This weekend, I elected to go with the reprehensible and wholly inedible. For a week, my wife had been saying "you're not actually going to do that are you?", "why are you doing that?", Do I need a divorce?" The answers were "yes!", "IDK, therapy maybe?" and "might be a good plan"



I can't explain myself, but ever since learned about vegan jello, I've had an uncontrollable urge to build a mass of suspended jiggly, I don't even know. I'd once seen a picture of corn dog jello and I wanted to try to duplicate that feat. I also intended to make a Mexican fiesta of Orange jello, refried beans, and birds eye chili peppers and, maybe a peanut butter and olive platter. Vegan jello gels faster than actual jello and I wasn't quick enough so you'll be spared all but the corn dog masterpiece. Morningstar's Corn Dogs aren't vegan, but, I'm not sure you can even call this food. Oh well, it was fun.



I also made funeral potatoes. If you have any Mormon friends, there's a good chance you know what funeral potatoes. Basically, they're a quick casserole of butter (like a cube!), cheese, sour cream, Campbell's Cream of Something soup and frozen potatoes. I ran some recipes through my cookbook and some topped out at over 60g fat per serving and were definitely Not vegan.

In my version, I used homemade mushroom soup, homemade nacho sauce and Tofutti sour cream and it tasted pretty good. And if you've got everything in the freezer, it's just as quick.

Funeral Potatoes
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
32 oz frozen potato cubes
2 cups cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sour cream (why does Tofutti have trans fat?!)
1 cup nacho sauce, warmed if refrigerated
1 1/2 cups corn flakes
2 tbs Earth Balance Margarine, melted

Heat oil in a medium sauce pan. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and saute a minute more. Remove from heat and stir in mushroom soup and sour cream. In a 9x13 casserole, add frozen potatoes and stir together with nacho sauce. Fold in the mushroom mixture. Toss the cornflakes with margarine and sprinkle across the casserole. Bake, uncovered for an hour in an oven, preheated to 350 degrees.