thrifted awesomeness

everyone should have a cake pan like this

chelsea’s ultimate buttermilk biscuits!

one of josh’s favorite things to eat for any meal of the day would have to be biscuits. we’ve tried several different vegan biscuit recipes before..some good results, but mostly he would nod his head and say, “yea, they’re good,” but i could tell they weren’t the best. so this morning i woke up and decided i wanted to make josh breakfast. the first thing that came to mind were biscuits! i knew that if i made a big batch that josh would be able to have, oh, 5 for breakfast..1 or 2 for a snack, maybe some with dinner, and i might be able to sneak in a couple myself! 

this recipe is adapted from “tyler’s ultimate” on the food network, and it turned out great! you can see in the picture that they came out perfectly flaky, buttery, and just perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! the original recipe called for buttermilk, so i used soy milk and lemon juice to make my own vegan buttermilk. yesterday morning i made these buttermilk pancakes from flavor vegan (which is now our go-to recipe for pancakes!) and she used soy milk and lemon juice to make buttermilk, and it worked wonders. i usually use soy milk and vinegar but from now on lemon juice is it!

here’s the recipe!

1 1/2 cups soy milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

4 cups flour

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup vegan margarine, cold, cut into 1/2″ pieces

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, cold, cut into 1/2″ pieces

preheat oven to 375 degrees. in a small bowl, mix the soy milk and lemon juice and stir to combine. in a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. cut in the margarine and vegetable shortening with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles course crumbs. make a well in the center and add the soy  milk mixture. use your hands to fold the dry ingredients into the buttermilk until a sticky dough forms. add more milk if it’s too dry, or more flour if it’s too wet. turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently fold the dough onto itself 3 or 4 times. roll the dough out to a 1 1/2″ thickness and cut with a 2 or 3 inch biscuit cutter (or a round cookie cutter). place them onto an ungreased cookie sheet, brush the tops a little buttermilk. bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

the BEST loaded baked potatoes

long time no post! we’ve been super busy with the holidays and family and all of that…did everyone have as great of a holiday as we did?! i wanted to post all the pictures from christmas but i feel like we’ve all moved on from it by now so it might just be overkill. but let me say that it was filled with wonderful family and even better food!

so josh and i have been sitting on this recipe for baked potatoes for a while now, and i thought now would be a great time to release it! we’ve been making these probably a good 3 times a week because they’re SO good. seriously! we’ve incorporated the usual sour cream, bacon bits, and green onions that everyone loves either on potato skins or on their baked potatoes, and mixed it all into this delicious mushroom and onion gravy. once you pour the gravy mixture into the baked potato you basically get the best dinner of all time! 

you can have this along side anything you want…in this photo we made some yummy vegan chicken nuggets, and other times we’ve had broccoli with chickpea cutlets from veganomicon (which are SO good by the way!)

so here’s the recipe!

Loaded Baked Potatoes

Serves 2

2 baking potatoes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons margarine

1/3 cup onions, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

2 tablespoons bacon bits (make sure they’re vegan!)

3-4 tablespoons flour

2 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup vegan sour cream

3 tablespoons green onions, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

bake potatoes in microwave until done. while they’re cooking, heat oil and margarine in a large pan. add onions and cook until softened. add bacon bits and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are softened. add the flour and stir until well combined and a paste has formed. slowly stream in the vegetable broth, stirring constantly to combine. add the sour cream and green onions. heat and stir over medium/medium high heat until the mixture thickens to a gravy consistency (adding more flour if not thick enough) add salt and pepper to taste.
take the baked potatoes and slice them down the middle. use your hands to squeeze the two ends of the potato to split open the middle, creating a little cavity. pour a generous amount of the gravy into the cavity and top with green onions and bacon bits. enjoy!