Because I can’t promote just one thing in a post, let’s do

#MeatlessMonday Vegan Pork Albondigas with Match Meat and Red Gold Tomato Sauce

Phew.  That’s a mouthful.  This post is like already like NASCAR car.  It’s just covered in ads.  Hrmm…let’s see how much worse I can make it.

Anyway, this is the promised second post in my Saturday Edition of #MeatlessMonday.  I’ve been doing a little catch up on the #MeatlessMonday tip since I missed  a few weeks.  So that’s why this is a #MeatlessMonday post.

Secondly, this is a recipe for albondigas, which is Spanish for “meatballs.”  But don’t be fooled.  Sure, there are some albondigas recipes which are pretty much like your average Italian meatball recipe or exceptional one’s at Jasper’s.  (By the way, he’s having a from snout to tail pork dinner Thursday.)  Others, though, use Latin ingredients like corn or jalapenos to give them a unique flavor.  I used this recipe as a basis for my albondigas from About.com because it stuffed them with rice.

Third, since I am trying to do this as a #MeatlessMonday, I figured I’d turn to Match Meat since they are my favorite source of meat replacers and I had a package of ground pork vegan Match Meat in my freezer.

Fourth, most of the recipes you find for albondigas are actually for albondigas soup, which is fine, and it’s how the About.com folks got away with using uncooked rice in the albondigas.  I, on the other hand, didn’t want a soup.  So I found this recipe from WhatsCooking.us for albondigas in ancho chile sauce.  And since the recipe called for diced tomatoes, I was more than happy to use the Red Gold tomatoes that I got in the tin I mentioned yesterday on BlogWellDone.com.

So in the end, I took the albondigas recipe and the sauce recipe and combined them together to make dinner.

(Oh, did I mention I went to the Farmhouse for lunch and guest posted on The Bobby Pin?  And congratulations to Chef Michael Smith for his James Beard nomination and to Chef Debbie Gold for being tapped for Top Chef Masters.)

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but with extra diabla and some vegan crab Match meat.  All of which makes really good

Camarones a la Diabla Minus the Camarones

So, there’s a lot going on with this post today.  In brief, what I wanted to do was keep the week of #MeatlessMonday recipes theme going on, so this recipe is absolutely 100% vegan.  It doesn’t get much more #MeatlessMonday than that.

Secondly, in case you don’t know what camarones a la diabla are, they are one of my absolute favorite Mexican dishes.  Translated literally it means shrimp of the the devil, or deviled shrimp, but they are a fabulously spicy shrimp dish I order a lot at Mexican places.  The shrimp are stewed in a spicy tomato sauce and served with warm tortillas, rice, and avocado.  So good.

Of course, there’s a problem, right?  Camarones are meat.  This is #MeatlessMonday (Wednesday edition.)  That means no camarones.  So that’s when I turned to my good friends at Match and their Uh-may-ZING vegan crab made from plant proteins.  So good.

In the end, I came up with something that was not bad for a first attempt at a Mexican dish.  It still needs some work, but I think I got pretty darn close.

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It’s Valentine’s Day, what are you going to do for romance?  How about a nice

Asparagus and Avocado Salad

Now, maybe you think I’ve lost my mind here and you probably wouldn’t be too far off.  But see, I know my other #letslunch compatriots are going to do romantic meals with chocolate and probably strawberries and all that fancy schmancy romantic stuff.  But I’ve found that romance is really something you have to tackle on a case-by-case basis.

For instance, if you want to romance me with food, show up with sushi.  Or crab legs.  Preferrably both.  And a nice sweet champagne.

If you tried that on my wife, well a) you’d have me to deal with but b) she hates seafood and doesn’t much like champagne.  She’s more of a chocolate only kind of gal.

So I’ve decided to do what I do best and turn this romantic Valentine’s Day into nice cheap potty humor.  How you might ask?  With a little help from the Romans.

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Stir Fry

So, I was asked today about veggie stir fry recipes and after doing some searching and head scratching, I realized I hadn’t ever done a post on plain ol’

Vegetable Stir Fry

It’s an oversight I shall now correct.

Make no mistake about it.  Stir fry is so easy to do and, as such, is one of the WellDone family’s quick and easy go-to meals.  It’s also wonderful when we have a bunch of odds and ends that need to get turned into a dish just hanging out in the fridge.  Stuff like a stalk of celery, a carrot, half a green pepper, what have you.  We throw it all in a hot wok and in about 2 minutes you have a tasty, healthy, meatless, dinner.

Now, there is a trick to making a good stir fry, and it’s not what you think.  What is it?  Read on…

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What would unResolution Month be without

Vegan Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

using Newman’s Own Newman-O’s?  No where, that’s where!!

Real quick, first it is with a heavy heart that I make this post.  This is the final day of not only Vegan Week, but unResolution Month as a whole.  It’s a bittersweet moment, but it is a sweet moment since we’re going out with vegan ice cream!

We love this recipe in the BlogWellDone household.  We’re ice cream fans here in a bad, bad way.  For this, I blame Mrs. WellDone since when we became one in that whole marriage ceremony thing, I seem to have gotten her sweet tooth.  On the other hand, she seems to have gotten my desire to tinker with recipes.  Thus, it is with all due praise and admiration that I admit that this is her adaption of a recipe that came with our ice cream machine.

She was even the one who decided to add the Newman-Os, which are vegan chocolate sandwich cookies produced by Newman’s Own Organics, a company which produces some fantastic products.  (I’m in no way affiliated with them, we just like their vegan Newman-Os, lemonade, and salad dressing.)

The only problem I have with this recipe is that it requires an ice cream maker.  I wish I had a recipe for ice cream that didn’t require additional equipment, but it does.  The good news is that ice cream makers are not that expensive and they make really great ice cream.  Vegan or otherwise.

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Okay, one last vegan wing recipe and it is

Vegan Asian Zing Wings with Match Chicken

Yes, I am following a theme of veganizing Buffalo Wild Wings recipes with the frying instructions for Match Chicken.  No, I’m not sorry because BWW makes AWESOME wings.  However, today I finally get to feel useful since there is a good chance the Asian Zing sauce isn’t vegan right off the bat. So, I’m going to veganize it.

See, the Asian Zing sauce uses chili-garlic sauce, which you could kind of call Asian ketchup and not be too far off the bat.  I’m pretty sure that the sugar they use when making the sauce was processed using animal bones and therefore, should not be considered vegan.  The good news is that it won’t be too hard to make our own chili-garlic sauce knock off.

Oh, and as a word to the wise, one of the commenters on the recipe was complaining that the wings were too hot.  I think that’s because she used the wrong type of chili-garlic sauce.  As near as I can tell, there are two types of chili-garlic sauce.  One basically looks like runny jelly with little red flakes.  That’s what you want to use.  The other stuff is thick and red and looks like tomato sauce.  That stuff is HOT and would kill you in this recipe.  (I think that’s Sichuan chili-garlic sauce, actually.)

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Okay, someone asked about sticky wings, so I’m making

Vegan Mango Habanero “Wings”

Again, I’ll be rocking the Match Chicken again since it tastes awesome and they sent me a lot of Match chicken (at my request since I love me some chicken wings.)  And while yesterday’s vegan buffalo wing recipe was great, I really like wings with different flavors like soy-ginger wings, jerk wings, and these spicy little mango habanero wings.

They are a great combination of just a little sweet from the mango and a lot of heat from the death chili (I mean the habanero).  The mango is certainly not overpowering, but it’s the perfect complement to the whole mess of spice coming off that habanero.  Seriously, this ain’t no fru fru wing!

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Hamburger Time

Or

How to Make the Perfect Hamburger

Point of order, welcome to unResolution Month’s Hamburger Week!  Hamburger Week is a new institution in unResolution Monthdom and I’m pretty sure that by the end of the week, you’ll be wanting it to come back next year.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll have six straight days of hamburger toppings, fillings, and other deliciousness.  But first, we need to talk about how to make the perfect burger.  Making a good hamburger is not difficult, but there are a few unbreakable rules that I will now share with you.

The Perfect Hamburger Starts With the Perfect Meat

Let’s start from the beginning: the burger itself.  Good hamburgers are made from exactly one type of beef: 80% ground chuck.  If you have anything else in your freezer, turn it into meat sauce and go buy 80% ground chuck.

Why chuck?  Chuck is the shoulder, which means that it will be tough, but it will have some nice fat to it, which means that it will have great flavor.  Now, I know what you’re saying: fat is bad!

Let’s be real for a minute.  Like really real.  You are about to eat a hamburger.  It’s going to have fat in it.  Plus, you’re probably already thinking about the fries you’re going to serve up with it.  That’s fat.  Get over it.

Ahem.

Plus, fat is flavor and you want flavor.  So 80% chuck.

The Perfect Hamburger is Cooked With the Right Pan

Cast iron.

Next topic…

Okay, I know, you’re asking “What if I don’t have cast iron?”  Buy some.

Okay, okay, if you don’t have, you can use a skillet.  Just get the sucker nice and hot.

But they’ll taste better if you cook them in cast iron.

The Perfect Hamburger Comes From Perfect Technique

So, here’s what you do:

1. Take your ground meat out of the refrigerator and let it get the chill off.  If it’s frozen, um, put it in the fridge and make burgers tomorrrow.  You can nuke the burger if you really want to, but some bits will be cooked and others won’t be cooked and it ruins the texture.
2. Roll the hamburger into the same sized patties.  You can do either half pound or quarter pound.  I prefer half pound.
3. Sprinkle both sides of each pattie with salt and pepper.
4. Get your cast iron skillet (nudge nudge) good and hot.
5. Lay down four burgers max in the skillet and cook them for eight minutes.  Then using a spatula, flip and cook for another 8 minutes.
6. If you are adding cheese, flip the burgers again, place the cheese on top of the burger and cover the skillet.  Let cook for 1-2 minutes to get the cheese nice and melty.

Add to bun (toasted or not, your call), smear with ketchup (no mayo or Bruce Willis will KILL you) and enjoy!

Okay, I’ll give it to Gordon Ramsey.  He seems to know how to cook a few things, like

Scotch Pancakes with Bananas

You know, I actually have no idea what makes them “Scotch,” especially because when making them he said pancakes were an American recipe and even said that desserts like this were the reason Americans were so fat.  (I tried to get angry with him for the comment, but it’s Gordon Ramsey.  It’s not like Gordon Ramsey is well known for making ego-affirming statements and hugging people’s inner child.)

That’s all beside the point. 

Anyway, this recipe made it to unResolution Month for a number of reasons.  Not the least of which is that I have 31 days to cover, but only four weeks.  So during those 3 extra days I try to feature other chef’s recipes and, frankly, when I saw Gordon Ramsey make these bananas on The F Word, I sat in rapt attention and really, really, really wanted to eat them.

So, now I share this recipe with you.  (Oh, and by the way, that image over there is about what Gordon Ramsey’s bananas looked like, though they were a bit saucier.)

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Egg Rolls

Welcome to day 2 of 31 days of food that tastes good, but is in no possible way healthy for you.  Today, we’re going to do

Fried Egg Rolls

I’m actually a little surprised that I’ve never done a recipe for egg rolls before since I love them every time I head to the Chinese restaurant or to Chilis or wherever they get served.  In fact, I love them so much I think I’ll do egg rolls for my next two posts in addition to this one.  Today, we’ll do a traditional asian filling, tomorrow Southwest egg rolls, and on Monday, we’ll do avocado eggrolls.  Three days, three fillings.  Awesome, right?!  Now you gotta come back!

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