Simplest Red Fruit Salad ever & some of our favorite Summertime recipes!

Life, our book and travel to foreign lands have kept us away. We have a guest post and several recipes waiting to be posted and shared with the world but today I need to work on the book -- so I'm posting a 4 ingredient treat in time for all those picnics, potlucks and BBQs coming up this weekend. This one is dedicated to that friend who always brings beer and salsa. This is a recipe* that even they can make.

But if you're more of a superstar than that -- you can click here to see a list of some of our favorite Summertime recipes and potlucking tips or you can check out some of these:

Cherry Cola BBQ Vegan Chicken Wings
Antipasto Pasta Salad
Curry Vegan Chicken & Potato Salad
Burger & Veggie Packet
The Cruelty-Free Crawfish Boil
The Chicago Beer Dogs
Apple Churros
BLT Crostinis
Vegan Ranch Mashed Potatoes
Sesame Teriyaki Beef-less Skewers


Of course, if you are firing up the grill this weekend we can't encourage you enough to try The Beer Can Tofurky! I know it seems a little intimidating but I hope this appetizing post by The Redundant Vegan will encourage you to take this vegan wonder on!

I have a great post lined up for tomorrow that I still need to edit the photos for so until then... enjoy this simple pleasure!

The Betty Crocker Project: Vegan Beer & Cheddar Bombs

Right now you might be furiously flipping through your Betty Crocker cookbook looking for this recipe. You'll stop at Beer-Cheese Triangles and wonder if this is what we veganed. You might read through the list of ingredients and notice that we tinkered a bit. You might even find it in your heart to forgive me introducing these addictive bitty noms into your life because not only are these little awesome bombs super easy but they turned out even better than I thought they would. I think sometimes this is why I try to keep my hopes and dreams to myself. I mean things don't always turn out the way you hoped they would and who wants anyone ever saying to them things like:

"I was watching The Olympics the other day and noticed you weren't there. What's up with that?"

or

"I couldn't help but notice you never married Christian Slater." *

Who also wants to admit they actually wasted a daily "wish" and some "hope" on Vegan Beer & Cheese Bombs? I really should be saving those things for more noble pursuits but I'm off topic. Now that I know these little savory buddies are actually incredibly easy and completely delicious - I have to share. It's my job.

Ready to get bombed?

The Chicago Beer Dogs

I was never a hot dog person. Even when I was a little eater that hadn't gone vegan yet... hot dogs were just never my thing. Which I'm actually really happy about - meat based hot dogs aren't really food. So you can imagine my surprise when years ago I had Tofurky Beer Brats and actually liked them. I mean I loved them.

Over the years, Dan and I have been exploring new and exciting ways to add a little variety to our beloved cruelty-free brats. This is one of my favorites thus far. I know you're probably wondering why I'm not posting Manhattan Dogs since NY is going to the Super Bowl this weekend... well it's like I said - this one is kinda my one of  my favorites.

The Blueprint by Hawk Krall - from Serious Eats

Now we did tweak it a bit like we skipped the neon relish because sweet relish is just superior in many ways. We also used celery seeds instead of celery salt and just sprinkled poppy seeds over the top rather than using a poppyseed hot dog bun because I couldn't find a brand that didn't have eggs in it and baking my own seemed like more work than most people are willing to put into a hot dog.

Like many of our posts - I feel weird even calling this a recipe since it is so easy and is kind of more of an ingredient combo magic trick.

Are you ready to be amazed - with hot dog magic?

The Cruelty-Free Crawfish Boil

We've been buried in book-writing the past few weeks. We even postponed New Year's Eve till after the manuscript gets sent in. We bought a few extra weeks of caffeine and chocolate and sitting on the sofa before those New Year's Resolutions kick in. I wish we could enjoy them, but I guess it goes without saying that I've been too lost in the book to enjoy anything. If you haven't figured this out about me yet from reading this blog, I can get a little hyper-focused on a project--and I really like doing things right.

Which brings us to today's post! Honestly this isn't part of The Betty Crocker Project, and I'm really glad it's not. See, crawfish boils are a big thing in The South. If you've never of them, I'm just going to link to this and spare you the heartbreaking details. The thing is that with the rise in popularity of Cajun and Creole food, these events are becoming popular all over the US. Food bloggers from LA to NY hosted them in their backyards last summer and well, that's just sad. I also hope that doesn't mean next summer all those squirrels and opossums need to watch their backs too.

Our crawfish boil actually uses May Wah's Shrimp Balls and Vegan Prawns, but captures the spirit of this dish without any of the cruelty. It's also insanely easier and cleaner! You can make this year-round and enjoy a little faux summer in the middle of winter.

Bon Appetite!

Beer-Battered Green Beans

So, we've been a little MIA lately. We had computer issues that ended up being a bigger deal than I thought because we needed that computer for our photos. We also had a photo shoot for our "about the author" section with V.K.Rees Photography that was literally magical. She was able to take photos of me that I actually like. It's was like some kind of Harry Potter moment. I've been setting up 2 completely awesome contests for December. You're going to love these. And of course, there is the book...

The deadline for the manuscript for our book is about 2 weeks away and I admit I'm nervous and excited and busy. There's the recipe testing and writing and the typing out of recipes and then double checking there's no typos and just so much to do. I've been so terrified of mistakes and I've literally been micromanaging myself while being excited to finally have the best job in the world.

I had to stay in Brooklyn over Thanksgiving and missed out on The Shannons' Annual Vegan Feast. I can tell you I did make the best of it by getting a lot done - including a Peking Tofurky with drumsticks and Asian vegetable wild rice. But I missed going to Boston to see everyone and spending the holiday with family. This is the first time I have missed Thanksgiving since Dan and I became "us" and it was kind of sad.

But enough with the sad stories, today we're going to talk about Beer Battered Green Beans. You've seen Green Bean French Fried whatever on the menu of all those TGIF-ish places. I've always kind of joked that this trend was a dubious attempt at "healthy fries" after Super Size Me*. I mean after that movie, everybody seemed to be deep frying their green beans. Weird or wonderful? Maybe both.

Having said that - These fries are good! They are delicious. I mean I was really shocked at how fraking good these fries were. Green beans are one of my very favorite vegetables so it was fun to play around with a new way to make them but you have been warned just because these little guys are green doesn't mean they are "health food"... They are a fun, vegan, basket of food that will go great with a cold beer and some Hockey. We should love them for who they are.

Game on!

The Betty Crocker Project: Thanksgiving Day Parade #8 - Roasted Rosemary & Dark Beer Tofurky

So this is one of those blog posts where I feel like complete honesty in easy to follow bullet points is called for:

• This recipe is an amazing way to level up your Tofurky. It has a dark and rich unique flavor that is intended to recreate what you get when you brine a turkey. Our process isn't really anything like the long one used to brine turkeys but the result of this recipe seems very similar. 
• This recipe makes a thin but flavorful crust on the outside of your Tofurky that doesn't recreate a "skin" completely but it's wonderful. So you can really appreciate it.
• We cooked Brussels sprouts in the dark beer marinade like Betty suggested but it was not my favorite thing to ever happen. The marinade reduces over the vegetables to makes something too strong for me but I do suggest instead steaming or roasting your Brussels sprouts and then using the leftover marinade to make a gravy by adding 1 cup of vegetable broth.
• You can skip the flavor injector step if you want but it's kinda cool.  You really should give it a try if you can.

I think this photo shows you the delicious crust.

 And don't forget to enter to win a coupon for a Free Tofurky Feast!

You ready to show this Tofurky who's boss!

The Betty Crocker Project : Baked Vegan Chicken & Waffles

My only compliant about this recipe is that I didn't add enough Maple syrup in the pictures.

When I lived in Atlanta, there seemed to be signs everywhere for Chicken and Waffles "Shacks". I mean even Motown Legend Gladys Knight had a chain that seemed to be in every strip mall*. Which at first I assumed meant they served waffles in the morning and fried chicken at night. Imagine my Northern girl surprise, when I learned about this heart attack inducing dish was a staple in Soul Food cuisine. I mean I had lived in St.Louis and spent time in Kentucky and Louisiana and never heard of such a thing. But any cuisine can vary from region to region. Take the French dish Ratatouille: It originated in Nice and was simply seasoned with thyme and black pepper but then those show-offs down the coast in Provence started adding all these green herbs and a bit of lavender and the flavor turned into something completely different. Well, Soul Food is no different**. You can go to a completely legit Soul Food restaurant in Texas and have a pretty different experience than you would in Florida or Tennessee. From what I gather, the epicenter of Chicken and Waffles is Georgia. At first it seemed strange to me but then when I thought about it. Is it really that much weirder than having a side of fried bacon or sausage? I mean it's savory and oily meat with sweet waffles.

So when I was putting together a menu for a vegan Soul Food dinner party, I started thinking of ways to veganize this classic unique dish while also making it a bit more healthy but didn't have a proper waffle iron to pull it off. $40 later and here we are enjoying Baked Vegan Chicken and Waffles. I have to admit I've fallen in love with this unusual but awesome combo.

Speaking of awesome combos... Tonight we're going to a Hen Party with free cupcakes! No, not a British bachelorette porn and baked goods extravaganza. There is a party for our dear friend Jasmin Singer over at Our Hen House. If you find yourself anywhere near Manhattan tonight you should stop by and say "Hi". Just Click Here for the details if you didn't already click on the other link.

Even if you can't make it tonight - You can still enjoy this Georgian country classic! If for not other reason than to add it to the list of things you've done in your life.

Vegan Rock-toberfest & The Betty Crocker Project!

I'm not German but I love love love Oktoberfests! I mean what's not to love? Polka dancing, pretzels, cheap random imported beers, sauerkraut, beer brats (vegan of course) and all kinds of other awesome-ness. When we were in Budapest we hid out from a biblical thunderstorm in a German-fest tent (not an Oktoberfest but it had the same vibe) and watched some pretty amazing accordion* accompanied karaoke. Of course in Budapest around May Day festivals aren't hard to find but it was one of the best nights we had there during one of the best weeks ever. This month we're going to be Deutsching it up with a handful of vegan recipes to help you rock-toberfest!

In America, we're used to our potato salad chilled and with more mayo than potato but in Germany there is a very popular dish called Kartoffelsalat that is actually a potato salad served warm and with bacon.We made our own tweaks of course on Betty's Recipe to make it our own vegan noms and so you can add this side to your party with some Roasted Vegan Black Pepper Beer Brats (recipe also included)! I know! two recipes in one day! It's OK to say "Hölle ja!" right now.

You would think in Germany they would call this "Das Gutes" but they don't. Silly Germans.

I know I promised news to explain my bad blogging habits lately so here ya go : I recently resigned from my job to focus on this blog and our upcoming book full-time. This is going to be my last week balancing working a full-time (plus) job and busting through The Betty Crocker Project! It's been a bit of a challenge wrapping up a job I've had for 6 years but it's time. I'm sure you don't want to hear about that though... you want to hear about the contests and guest posts we have lined up this month for Vegan MoFo but this isn't a time for spoilers... Now is when you need to open a bottle of your favorite Bier, put on some Hasselhoff and get on your Pleiderhosen**!

You ready to Rock-toberfest?

Rosemary, Flax Seed & Spent Grain Bread (with a few bread baking tips)

If you're new to our blog, you might not know that we love food projects. I mean, every couple has shared loves. We happen to love being huge vegan nerdballs. We love figuring out how to make things vegan, and we love finding new ways to enjoy being vegan more... a Cruelty-Free Science, if you will. With that comes an mutual excitement for food-related crafts... like home brewing our own beer. Now I have a pretty good story about the time in college when my friends and I tried to brew our own beer, but I'm saving that for a post that is actually about home brewing. This post is about bread.

See, after you brew your beer, you have a lot of 'spent grain' leftover that you can either throw out or use in numerous ways in numerous recipes. This leftover grain is supposed to be a good source of fiber and protein--so why not use it? I did a quick little poll on Facebook to see what kind of recipe you all would want us to start with. The winner: Rosemary*& Flax Seed Bread.

This is an easy, chewy and really nice bread that I think anyone can make... even if you don't have any spent grain. But I feel like I should warn you that, like all bread dough I have ever had the misfortune of running into, this dough is fraking sticky and grows fast. I mean it's like this. For some reason, whenever I bake bread I forget how sticky bread dough is, and find myself and my kitchen covered in the stuff. Since we're all friends here, I feel like I can admit to you at one point while I was trying to get dough off my fingers, I may have said something like "Bread Dough - I'm going to punch you in the face." Yeah. I know it doesn't make any sense. But I thought I should warn you that it gets pretty sticky.

But around the time your home starts to smell like fresh baked bread and rosemary... you'll forget all about how troublesome this dough is. By the time you enjoy your first slice with a little vegan margarine... you'll already start planning sandwiches and soups to enjoy with this amazing bread.

First you have to bake it. So let's get started.

The Betty Crocker Project : Diablo Beef-less Lentil Chili Mac

Every food blogger has been there. You make this kick ass casserole-ish dish, a dish that you have a responsibility to share with the world and it's pretty much as photogenic as the monster in Cloverfield. It can be hard to see in photos what makes this casseroley dish special and different than all the other casseroley dishes in the universe of the casseroles and casserole wanna-bes. See if you're the kind of eater that loved our 3 Alarm Vegan Bacon Cheeseburger then you will love this casserole. It's all "beefy" and "cheesy" while sparing those poor cows. It also has that "smokey" and "salty" bacon flavor that makes hipsters and the hipsteresque crave it like Gollum and that evil ring without harming any little piggies. And then on top of all that - it's also spicy. The Chipotle peppers make a nice, deep, rich, smokey, warm spicy that will make you glad you made some Limeade to go with it. You remembered the Limeade right?

 OK - Devil Casseroley Dish, prepare to be made and not in a Goodfellas way...

Vegan Chicken Lettuce Wraps & How We Survived The Heat Dome...

2 years ago today, I married my best friend. Now this might seem like a pretty obvious and trite way to describe a wedding, but it fits. I mean it wasn't like the old-school wedding days, where life as we had known it changed forever. My parents didn't hand me over in exchange for a few cows, and Dan didn't lift my veil with crossed fingers. Our lives slowly began to intertwine long before we ever even kissed. We'd been building a life together for years before I ever put on that off-white dress, and our course didn't really change much from the day we decided to be more than friends in the first place. In fact, the life we had already begun to build together just got a little better... we just dressed up, ate a bunch of cupcakes, and made it legal, is all.

Over the weekend in New York City, numerous same-sex couples (and some not-so-same-sex) finally got to make it legal too. Now, I know a lot of you like to read inside bits about our relationship rather than here me talk about politics. I mean, I get at least 20 emails a week asking about what we fight about and how we move past those bloody battles. But if we were all sitting down to dinner tonight, talking about how proud we are to live in a progressive state would come up. We might also talk about the Pompeii exhibit we saw over the weekend and some thoughts we had about the new Captain America movie... which was freaking incredible*.

And if you were visiting last weekend, we would have have eaten these lettuce wraps that require very little cooking and eased our suffering considerably. See, we were trapped last weekend in The Heat Dome. Now if you're wondering if that is worse than the Thunderdome... it seriously is. We're not big on air conditioning, so a Heat Dome is pretty much a nightmare. Now you would think we were used to heat after years in Virginia. Back then the sadistic humidity gave us an excuse to drive to the beach. On nights when we were feeling kinda fancy-ish, we'd stop by P.F.Chang's on the way back. Their vegan lettuce wrap appetizers are pretty spectacular and always went perfectly with sun burnt shoulders and large lemonades. We made ours with Gardein Crispy Tenders and enjoyed them with some beers from Brooklyn's Sixpoint Brewery**, a game of Civilization, and a giant fan.

And that I guess is why, on the 2nd anniversary of our wedding, we are posting this delicious recipe that helped us do more than just survive the Heat Dome... it was a tiny reminder of how we're not just making it through our lives together. We are, as my husband so eloquently put it, "Living in the Awesome!"

Let us eat lettuce wraps and be awesome! Awesome for all!

South American Corn & Quinoa Summer Stew

Have I ever told you I can read minds*?

Right now, you're thinking a combination of 3 things:

1. Summer Stew? I feel like I'm running through a sprinkler full of molten lava right now. Why would I eat stew?
2. South American? That's pretty general. There are numerous cultures in South America. How authentic is this recipe?
3. I read on Facebook someone broke into your house while you were home. WTF happened?

Let's begin with #1. This stew has lots of flavor, hearty vegetables, and very little fat or oil - so you can eat it at room temperature or even slightly chilled. Hence a delicious summer stew.

#2 : Yeah. Well, I was trying to find a chilled soup to make this week and kept stumbling across soups from South America that sounded delicious: like Canja de Galinha, which is a Portuguese/Brazilian soup made with chicken & lemon. Of course, ours would be vegan. We also had this package of Quinoa our buddy Pulin brought back from Peru that was begging for a special project. So I started collecting what I liked about all these soups and made this hybrid. I feel like I should be more humble here but I just can't. This soup is really lovely.

#3 : Yes. Someone broke into our home Monday afternoon while I was home. I locked him the bedroom and called the police. They came really quickly but the guy still got away through our bedroom window. Am I OK? Yeah. I mean there are some unpleasant dreams, but that's to be expected, right? We live in a really charming neighborhood with really nice people in it. I still want to love my home, so I'm focusing on that. I've also been thinking a lot about how scary it is to do bad things.

I mean, we've all done things we shouldn't have. Remember how fast your heart was beating and how badly you didn't want to get caught? I'm hoping that the sound of our bedroom door locking and me yelling that I was on the phone with the police was enough to scare this man into choosing other ways to spend a sunny afternoon.

Tomorrow I'll tell you more about what I did wrong in this situation, but let's get back to this freaking AMAZING stew! This stew is like the queen of all the other stews.

Long Live Summer Stew!

The Betty Crocker Project : The Vegan BBQ Casserole

It can be hard to make a casserole look cute.

It's almost April, and I think I speak for a lot of us when I say there's some serious "cabin fever" running rampant on the internet the past few days. I mean, do we really need to argue over every little thing and find fault in every comment and post? How does that make the world a better place?

So I went searching for a Betty recipe to save the day. One that would make the world a better place and give us a little glimpse of our impending summer. BBQ Beef Casserole seemed like a perfect place to start. Yes, I am pretty sure Betty intended this recipe to be a potluck dish, served to many people with sides of baked beans and fruit salad. We decided instead to keep it all to ourselves, and include a few BBQ-themed potluck favorites to make a complete party in a dish. I really channeled Betty for this one.

I admit I was little cautious about this at first... but it was awesome. Here's hoping it makes us all feel a little sunnier...

The Betty Crocker Project : Corned Beef-less Tips & Cabbage

Ugly? Fair enough.

I recently decided to never watch the movie Short Circuit ever again. I'll give you all a moment to recover.

Now before you all assume that I was afraid of the sentient robot who was originally built to be the ultimate weapon... that's not it. It's because I love this movie and I'm afraid it might not live up to my very kind memories. Also I have come to terms with the fact that Ally Sheedy might not actually be a very good actress and she already ruined WarGames for me last summer.

Now you're probably wondering what this has to do with this pretty traditional Irish American meal that is also known as The New England Dinner in Betty's cookbook. Well, back when I was a little meaty eater, I loved this dinner. This was a Betty recipe I both looked forward to and dreaded because I had such fond memories of this meal - I worried it would be impossible to veganize this recipe in any meaningful way. I mean we're making corned beef - that's salt cured beef if you're not familiar. This could have gone very wrong but it didn't. In fact it was a nice reminder of a dish I haven't had in like 20 years. Does it taste just like the meaty version? I would say 70% - which is enough to capture the spirit of this dish and make it a great dinner this St. Patrick's day. I mean this really made me happy and I'm kinda tough on myself - so that's saying something. I figure I got lucky with this one, why test my luck with a beloved robot movie. I mean didn't Short Circuit 2 do enough damage?*

Before we start marinading some Gardein, I want to make sure you remember to enter the latest Meet The Shannons Contest and check out The Official Shannon Family Desert Island Food List on one of my very favorite blogs : The Laziest Vegans in the World. We put a lot of thought into it and feel pretty good about our choices.What's on your list?

The Betty Crocker Project : Easy Vegan Shrimp Gumbo

I have always loved Creole and Cajun food. I have spent huge portions of my life dreaming up ways to veganize old school Louisiana favorites like Beighnets, Po'Boys, Hush Puppies, Hoppin' John, Red Beans and Rice and Jambalaya. Hell - we even deep fried a Tofurky. So I guess I don't need to rave about how excited I was to make Betty's Shrimp Gumbo. Here's the thing...

Have you ever been making something and you get to a step in the recipe that makes you pause. Everything in you says - This recipe is perfect the way it is. If I do this - will it really be better? That moment when your heart says it's time to stop but you can't help but continue. There were 2 moments in this recipe where I wish I had the ability to turn back time :

• I wish I had used May Wah's ridiculously yet awesomely named Shrimp Balls instead of their Large Vegan Prawns. The Shrimp Balls are just firmer and have more flavor. ( Is anyone else laughing right now?)
• I wish I had added 1/2 Cup of vegetable broth or tomato sauce or even some diced tomatoes rather than the tomato paste. Yes Gumbo can be tomato-y and more people apparently like it tomato-y than spicy and roux-y. It lost a lot of kick when I added the tomato paste and became more of a sweeter tomato sauce than the spicy chowder with rice dish I personally love. But if you're not sure what you like or maybe are not the kind of person who orders the 5 pepper dishes at Thai restaurants - a medium salsa type - I suggest adding the tomato paste a little at a time till you like the flavor and thickness. 

Enough chatter - Let's start making this dish that is still so good it will make you smack your mama*... I mean Betty always brings it.

The Betty Crocker Project : The Homemade Mediterranean Happy Hour featuring The Pita Pizza

Tabbouleh Salad and Lemon Garlic Hummus

So right now I should be telling you all about the food writer and photographer coming over to have dinner with us this weekend. I could be telling you about the dream I had last night about Lobster Killer or how I've been sick all week. But I am finding myself completely distracted. See I just found out Season 3 & 4 of Ghost Adventures is available to watch instantly through our Xbox.

Now as you may remember, I love the show Ghost Adventures. I love when they role played being Union soldiers in Gettysburg, wore Top Gun flight suits on a haunted air craft carrier and swing billy-clubs in condemned prisons to get a rise from the "ghost inmates". I really like trying to follow their "chains of evidence" and how excited they get when there's a draft. Most of all - I love their "tools of the trade". They are pure Dr.Igon Spengler Gold!

So here's what you  need to watch hours and hours of Zac, Aaron and Nick shaking their fists into the night and yelling "Bro - Did you hear that?" or maybe some big Super Bowl type of thing if you can even find something like that happening somewhere. It's the kind of spread that is perfect for marathon TV watching or a new take on The Homemade Happy Hour. This spread makes a lot of food quickly and is so super easy  that anyone can make them - even if they aren't feeling 100%.  In fact, they're so easy I feel a little guilty posting them but instead I'm just going to focus on how much I love eating these pita pizzas... really you should too. Of course, Betty's Tabbouleh and Hummus were already vegan, so we just needed to meddle with the recipes a little to make the pizzas just right. I think you'll love these.

I know we usually have Mexican Food on Friday night... but we might have to make an exception & make these again.

You're going to need to stock up on your pita bread.

Did you know that January is Soup Month?

It might be too hot to eat yet - but a grrl's gotta try!

So I've been posting a lot of soup recipes lately, and realized that I might have forgotten to tell you all that January is Soup Month. OK, I did forget. I do that sometimes. If you know me in person you know - I'm in my head a lot. Maybe too much. I'm shy is all. I'm one of those "socially awkward" people who's often 4 sentences too far into a conversation for some folks to really get how wonderful what I'm saying really is, or halfway through the joke before I start telling it. Sometimes I can't even type fast enough to keep up with myself. So I might have forgotten to mention that on the day I found out January was Soup Month, it seemed like destiny was winking at me from across the party. My handsome and wonderful Dan got me a big beautiful slow cooker for Christmas, and I want to use it everyday to make everything. We eat a lot of soup around here. Not just soup - we eat really good soup. I know I'm not being humble, but I have so few talents, I feel OK celebrating this one.

When I first went vegan, one of my only concerns was what would I do with only cans of tomato soup to keep me warm. But we live in a different world now. Now vegans can have any kind of soup you can dream of. So in celebration of Soup Month here is a list of soups in no particular order that you can enjoy before it's too late... It'll be February before you know it. I want to make a joke about "outlaw soups" here, but it's back to that 'I'm kinda a weirdo' thing and I might be the only one who thinks that would be funny.

• Pizza Soup
• White Chili
• Beef-Less Stew
• Beer & Daiya Cheddar Cheese Soup
• Beef-Less, Barley & Vegetable Soup
• Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
• Double Corn Chowder
• Matzo Ball Soup
• 16 Bean, Leek & Tofurky Kielbasa Soup
• Spicy Split Pea Soup
• Borscht

Happy Soup Month!

The Betty Crocker Project : 16 Bean, Leek & Tofurky Kielbasa Soup

This batch was made with Tofurky Kielbasa but I think Field Roast's Apple & Sage Sausages would be perfect!

Someone needs to say it. SyFy Channel's Vampire & Werewolf movie marathon this weekend was a little too heavy on the werewolves and had a significant lack of vampires. That's not to say it wasn't still completely wonderful! I mean, who doesn't love a good monster movie? But sometimes a gal needs more dialogue during the big bad death scene than most werewolf movies allow...  and less icky spine and muzzle faces.

So what do us Shannons make for dinner when there's this level of distraction? Pretty much what you would expect. We pull out the slow cooker and return to debating which movie has better werewolves; taking into account origin stories, transformation scenes, and CGI cheating, of course. But if werewolves aren't your thing, you might find yourself instead wondering: can I even name 16 different types of beans? And where would I even find them?

Fear not! They sell bags of 15 bean soup in the dry bean or soup aisles in most grocery stores, and that last bean is green beans. So relax. Pull out your largest stew pot or slow cooker, and let's make some soup!

The Betty Crocker Project : The Homemade Italian Happy Hour

Whether you want more money to donate to charities, have maybe lost your job, are looking to start a family, or are getting married... money is on a lot of people's minds right now. So here's a money saving tip that I learned from my grandparents: Homemade Happy Hours. It can be a lot of fun to go out, get some fancy drinks, and a basket or two of appetizers... the entire time reminding yourself it's OK because the drinks are only $3 and appetizers are half off. But let's be honest: then the bill comes, you've spent way more than you thought, and now you have to tip. Or, you could spend the night in a place where you can control the music, your sports team is on a TV you can actually see, there's a short wait, and you know that they serve your favorite drinks. Home.

The Homemade Happy Hour we're sharing today is Italian-themed, and actually a pretty remarkable spread. We made toasted Crostini, Roasted Garlic, and Sauteed Olives. Just buy your favorite beer or beverage--maybe a Morena or Peroni or a bottle of Limoncello if you want to keep it Italian. These recipes are easy enough that you can make them right after work and not worry about mussing up your kitchen. And they're delicious enough that you won't miss paying extra to have someone open your beer bottle for you. Be sure to keep reading... we included lots of pictures.

Also, be sure and check out Dan & me on Our Hen House's Podcast this weekend! We love those kick-ass ladies over there, and it was a great honor to be a part of what they're doing to make the world a more compassionate place. If you're not familiar with Our Hen House, we highly recommend you check out their site.

The Betty Crocker Project : Pizza Soup

Since we started our little project we've seen quite a few impressive pizzas - An Extraordinary League of Pizzas if you will. Some were pretty old school like the Margherita Pizza, some were a little schamncy like the White Pizza and others were just about as American as a pizza gets like the Meat Lovers and Stuffed Crust Pizzas. But recipes like Pizza Dip are just pure Betty gold.

When I first saw Pizza Soup - I admit we wrote it off as one of the recipes we were dreading. We were biased and unfair. We never even read the recipe and there we were making jokes about how bowls of melted cheese shouldn't really be called "soup"... that being said I would eat bowls of our vegan Mac & Cheez sauce if I could - so I shouldn't talk.

Also - this soup isn't anything like what we thought. The truth is this soup is actually a really flavorful and unique vegetable soup with some melted Daiya and toast on top. It's delicious. It's really pretty and colorful with the bell peppers, mushrooms and basil. I mean let's face it - it's kinda impressive looking. I'd bet this silly named soup would get some "ohs and ahs" at any dinner party.  I just might test this theory.

We knew going into this - we'd love Pizza Burgers but it's good to know Betty's streak is still strong. We loved Pizza Soup and I don't care who knows!