In quilting, there is fabric known as cheater cloth. It’s printed to look like a pieced quilt. I wasn’t so sure what to think of cheater cloth when I first saw it, but now I am all in on anything that looks good and is easy. (Check out this cool new fabric from Connecting Threads.)

I love chili, and I have been making Nora Cooks amazing Ultimate Vegan Chili for four years. I just needed a way to make it fast and easy. So here’s my cheater cloth version. Make it hot, medium, or mild to suit your tastes.

Ingredients

• 2-3 cans of chili beans in mild sauce, with liquid (I use the Safeway brand)
• 1 can of salsa-style fire-roasted tomatoes (don’t drain)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (your favorite, don’t drain)
• 1 bag of frozen seasoning blend (onions, celery, red peppers, green peppers, and parsley flakes. I added extra frozen peppers)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1 jalapeño, seeded, small dice (optional)
• 1 can of green chiles, mild, medium, or hot
• Olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (I often leave this out)
• ½ to 1 cup of water, if needed

Chili spices:

• 3 Tablespoons of chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon of salt

TVP (Optional, but increases the protein, and I like the texture.) 

• 1 cup of TVP (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
• 1 cup of hot water
• 1 teaspoon of bouillon paste or enough for 8oz of water
• 2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes (Trader Joe’s)
• 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce, liquid aminos, or coconut aminos
• 2 teaspoons of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

Directions:

1. Heat up water and dissolve the bouillon in a one-cup measuring cup of hot water, and stir well
2. Add TVP, nutritional yeast flakes, and spices to a small bowl and mix well to combine.
3. Add bouillon water and soy sauce to TVP and mix. Set aside for 5-10 minutes to hydrate.
4. Sauté the seasoning blend or equivalent. I put the frozen blend in without thawing and let the ice crystals steam off without a lot of stirring. Add the garlic and jalapeño for 90 seconds more.
5. Add the TVP mixture and sauté for a few more minutes.
6. Add undrained chili beans, tomatoes, green chiles, and spices, and stir. Add water if needed. Bring to a soft boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 10-20 minutes, stirring regularly.
7. Serve with tortilla chips, rice or quinoa and your favorite toppings.

Enjoy!

We eat a lot of tofu. We are running low when there are only three packages on hand.

Some people don’t like tofu: this post is for you.

So why eat tofu? I can think of several reasons:

• Add protein to your diet without the downsides: cholesterol, calories, carbon footprint
• Avoid dairy intolerance
• Trying to switch to a plant-based diet
• Low-cost protein
• Versatile
• Easy to buy
• It’s a “clean” food
• Trying to impress Jake

Okay, that last one’s a joke.

Tofu is plain on its own. I can eat it plain, but I wouldn’t start there.

If I were trying to work tofu into my diet, I would focus on cuisines and dishes I like, and then look for recipes that include tofu or use tofu as a swap.

Here are four recipes that give tofu a good name.

1. This Vegan Chicken Salad recipe by Sam Turnbull of It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken earned a spot in the regular rotation with its ease and versatility.
2. The Best Vegan Chicken Nuggets from Sweet Potato Soul. Great as a chicken substitute in other recipes.
3. Brown Sugar and Mustard Glazed Tofu, another recipe from Sam Turnbull at It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken.
4. Cold Tofu Salad With Tomatoes and Peaches. Nothing says summer like this salad from Hana Asbrink for the New York Times. We serve it on lettuce or mixed greens. Equally good with pears in place of the peaches. This might not be the dish to start with if you are new to the wonderful world of tofu, but we have made it more times than I can count.

Let me know if you go on a tofu adventure. Don’t give up easily. Stay open if you can. Bon appétit, y’all!

Photo by Christina on Unsplash

I love chile crisp, and the first time I made this Carrot Risotto with Chile Crisp recipe from Alexa Weibel for the New York Times, we had an abundance of arborio rice on hand. (We always have chile crisp; that’s a Jake staple.) The thing that cracks me about the recipe is the number of servings: 4? As in 4 linebackers? It calls for 2¼ pounds of carrots; that’s more than ½ pound of carrots per serving! Even for a carrot-loving vegetarian, that’s a lot. But lately our cooking has slowed way down, so a recipe with lots of leftovers is appealing. The vegan parmesan shreds from Trader Joe’s worked well in this dish. More spices were added. Smoked Paprika is our latest go-to.

Vegan Chicken Salad

This recipe by Sam Turnbull of It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken earned a spot in the regular rotation with its ease and versatility.

We added more spices because that’s how we roll, and ate ours as a wrap with lettuce, tomato, and avocado. We used the vegan nugget recipe from Sweet Potato Soul to prepare the tofu. Delish!

Photo by Hans Ott on Unsplash

Za’atar Roasted Tofu With Chickpeas, Tomatoes, and Lemony Tahini Recipe by Yewande Komolafe for the New York Times

When I feel sad finishing off the leftovers of any dish, I know it was a winner. THIS DISH FALLS INTO THAT CATEGORY. I loved this dish, and it quickly earned a spot in the regular rotation. 

There are great suggestions in the comments, so be sure to check them out. We use a tofu press for recipes like this one. I cut the tofu into chunks instead of slabs, but would probably tear it next time.

Za’atar is an incredibly versatile spice and herb blend. Our current za’atar is a blend from World Market, but you can make your own, too, using a recipe like this one, Za’atar Spice Blend Recipe – Cookie and Kate, or this one, Za’atar Spice Recipe | Feasting at Home. 

Let me know if you try it! What’s earned a spot in your regular rotation lately?

Photo by Mahz Alam on Unsplash

We have been making most of our own bread for a while, usually an artisan-style loaf in a Dutch oven. It will not surprise you that sometimes we go without bread because time and energy are lacking. After reading Dopamine Kids, I was inspired to revisit bread makers. I read the reviews on Wirecutter and decided on the budget pick since this is our first bread maker. My awesome mom bought this for me as a birthday gift, and it’s downright magical.

It makes loaves in three different sizes, and it’s been perfect for the two of us. We’ve made white, French, and wheat bread, and all have been outstanding.

Photo by Dan DeAlmeida on Unsplash

What to make when you don’t feel like cooking

Ramen is one of my comfort foods; it might just be my version of mac and cheese. We’ve been making our own ramen mix for a while, so I was completely shocked to stumble across this spicy vegetarian version.

Packaged ramen is notoriously un-vegetarian, but Ramen Express Hotter and Spicier Chili Ramen Noodles are vegan, Halal, and Kosher. It’s good straight out of the package and great if you zhuzh it up with green onions, avocado, tofu, and carrot shreds.

You gotta eat: Chicken-style tofu nuggets and Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry

This month, we made two recipes from Jenné Claiborne at Sweet Potato Soul. Jenné is one of my go-to vegan recipe resources. I love her meal-planning guides and her how-to videos.

Chicken-style nuggets

I have a confession: I have no memory of ever eating chicken nuggets. 

I’ve been a vegetarian most of my life, and I wasn’t a meat-eater as a little kid. Chicken nuggets became widely available in 1983 with the nationwide launch of McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. So I missed what seems to be a mainstay of children’s diets. 

I do, however, enjoy the novelty of eating a dish that I have no experience with. So when Sweet Potato Soul sent out a link to her chicken-style tofu nuggets, it was an enthusiastic: “I’m in!” 

This is an easy weekday meal, especially if you split the prep from the cooking. Great with salad and grilled cheese. The most time-consuming part is pressing the tofu. We have a locally made tofu press I found from Seattle Products on Etsy. It’s a bamboo press, and we really love it. 

We press tofu anywhere from one to two hours, sometimes less; it just depends on how much time we have. For this recipe, you tear the tofu after pressing it. This is a great technique if you’re using any sort of sauce; it creates more crevices for the marinade than a straight cut might. I usually press the tofu as a separate step. I put the liquids in one bowl, and the dry ingredients in another bowl. Robert usually does the assembly and the air frying. 

Whenever we try a recipe, and we’re ready to make it again within a couple of days, you know it’s good. One of the things I like about this is that it tastes great. It’s relatively healthy, and it’s versatile.

Recipe note: If you don’t have dill pickle juice, you can use apple cider vinegar as a substitute. But this recipe is a great excuse to get some dill pickles.

Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry

Jenné also has a supper club. She picks a recipe and invites everyone to make the dish and share the results. For March, the recipe is Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry.  I like chickpeas and curries, so this was another easy yes. I made this as a weeknight meal, and again, I split up the prep, which seems to be my go-to on almost everything, so I got all the ingredients together. I cut the onion. I pressed the garlic. I mince the ginger. I assembled the spices and drained the chickpeas, reserving the liquid (A.K.A., aquafaba) to make whipped cream.* 

Then I came back and assembled the dish. This sweet potato chickpea curry uses mainly pantry staples. As long as you have a sweet potato and an onion, you’re good to go. You might need to stock up on Garam Masala. I tend to stock up on the bags from Penzey’s. I do not fool around with stocking Garam Masala (or cumin): I go for the big jars. You can also make Garam Masala; there are good recipes online, and it’s worth doing if you have the time. 

Recipe notes: Because I had a fairly large sweet potato, I microwaved it first to make it easier to cut. It also made the sweet potato easier to peel, and the dish cooked more quickly. Win-win-win. We used fire-roasted canned tomatoes to make this dish. 

I appreciate that Jenné explains why you do certain things, and that is very helpful because you can then apply what you learn to other recipes. The result was a dish that tasted like one served by a favorite Indian restaurant.

* I never want aquafaba to go to waste. This curry recipe yields enough aquafaba to make a mixer bowl full of whipped cream or about three whipped topping-sized containers of whipped cream. No ultraprocessing here! This homemade whipped cream has four ingredients: aquafaba, sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract. You will beat it longer than you think you need to, but you’ll have creamy topping straight from the freezer without thawing.

P.S. We made the mug cake recipe from Nora Cooks to celebrate our anniversary, the one with more traditional ingredients: Chocolate Vegan Mug Cake. Loved it!

Photo by Anthony Camp on Unsplash

Butternut squash risotto

This https://www.loveandlemons.com/butternut-squash-risotto/ from Love and Lemons is a one-pan wonder! We microwaved our butternut squash to make it easier to slice. I didn’t grow up eating risotto, so it’s a relatively new experience for me. Most proud that our winter keeper system for squash and other vegetables kept this one fresh until February!

Mug cake!

This magical recipe https://minimalistbaker.com/gluten-free-chocolate-mug-cake from The Minimalist Baker is the perfect instant dessert. Not gonna lie, it comes together like a science experiment requiring some ingredients that might not be among your typical pantry staples: tapioca starch, potato starch, almond flour, and coconut sugar. But once you mix the ingredients, it takes two minutes in the microwave. This would be amazing with ice cream—we added homemade whipped cream. We shared one, and it was perfect.

Nora from Nora Cooks has a mug cake recipe with more traditional ingredients: https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-mug-cake.

Gnocchi soup?

This https://thehiddenveggies.com/vegan-gnocchi-soup from Monica at The Hidden Veggies was delicious and unexpected. I loved every bite. It had never occurred to me to put gnocchi in a soup.

Kale and white bean artichoke dip

Another home run from The Minimalist Baker: https://minimalistbaker.com/kale-white-bean-artichoke-dip

We made this with mixed baby greens, and all spinach would work, too. If you use canned beans, you can use the whole can, no problem. Violife plant-based cream cheese worked perfectly in this recipe, but I think coconut cream would work well, too. We had our dip served over a bed of fresh greens and Moroccan-spiced rice and lentils. Crusty bread on the side would be amazing, but we served ours with tortilla chips because we are behind in bread-making. It was delicious. Easy to make—just allow for the time needed to soak the cashews.

Photo by Nick Collins on Unsplash

Un chef-d’œuvre de dessert (a dessert masterpiece): Vegan Yule Log Cake (Bûche De Noël)

This amazing dessert is from Nora Cooks: Vegan Yule Log Cake (Bûche De Noël) – Nora Cooks.

This is one of those desserts that felt like a part-time job, and I was mostly a spectator. We didn’t know vegan meringue was a thing until a month ago, when I came across this recipe. I am lucky to have a live-in pastry chef impersonator who apparently fears no cake. This was truly delicious, and the steps to make meringue also revealed how to make vegan whipped topping that stays creamy in the freezer.

Soothing soup

I don’t have any recollection of eating chicken noodle soup, but this recipe gives me those vibes. This is another Nora Cooks recipe that we tried in the past month. We liked it so much, we’ve already made it twice: Golden Orzo Soup with Chickpeas – Nora Cooks. It’s so good. I also discovered a gluten-free version of orzo that we will try in a future version, maybe substituting cannelli beans for the chickpeas.

It’s okay to revisit old favorites

I have a cake recipe that I’ve been making since I was a kid. I haven’t made it in a while. My husband requested it for his birthday. I looked at the recipe with fresh eyes, and I made some changes to reduce the sugar and the oil. I had to depend on memory to ensure the right consistency, but luckily, I have made this at least 100 times.

It was a winner, and the birthday boy was happy. I made a bunch of notes for future modifications. So if you have a recipe that is just too sweet, high in fat, or otherwise doesn’t match the way you eat in this season of life, consider this your permission slip to make changes and give it a makeover. You might be surprised—and pleased—with the results.

Photo by Alex Diffor su Unsplash

For the four Sundays of Advent, I made a sweet treat for Robert: hot chocolate mix, self-saucing lemon cake, white chocolate mix, and brownies. December is definitely dessert month in our house, and we’ve increased the number of workouts to try to balance the robust dessert menu.

Hot Chocolate Recipe

This is the second time that I have tried a homemade hot chocolate mix, and I was very happy with the results from this recipe by Mel’s Kitchen! I am not a food processor person, so I used a French chef’s knife to cut up the white chocolate chips. It wasn’t fast, but it was doable. The mix turned out great, and the resident hot chocolate lover was very happy.

There are several plant-based powdered milk options to experiment with: check out Dairy & Non-Dairy Milk Powders – Anthonys Goods.

Reindeer Mix (White chocolate mix)

This white chocolate-covered snack mix has many names, and I’m linking the recipe from Butter With A Side of Bread that I used as a starting point to try to re-create the mix I’ve had in the past: White Chocolate Chex Mix – Butter With a Side of Bread

I used Heritage Flakes cereal in place of the Cheerios, along with wheat, corn, and rice Chex. I love pretzel snaps and used mixed nuts in place of the more traditional peanuts. (I used a combination of unsalted and salted mixed nuts.) I did use dried cranberries and would have added chopped dates if I had them. In the past, I’ve added mint M&Ms, but I had the hardest time finding them this year. I used melting chocolate wafers for the white chocolate mix. I think it works well, but you can also use chocolate chips and add some coconut oil. This mix is downright addictive and definitely a family favorite.

I mentioned the self-saucing cake in the November 2025 newsletter and first made these vegan brownies last year. I continue to be amazed that you can mix aquafaba (chickpea juice) and cream of tartar, and get an egg replacer or the start to an egg-free meringue!

It’s Soup Season

Sometimes, we make soup with the ingredients we have. This month, we had an abundance of carrots and potatoes, so we made Pamela Anderson’s Anti-Inflammatory Lentil Soup Recipe.

We also made this Brothy Carrot Butter Bean Soup from Munching with Mariyah. This yummy soup has French onion soup vibes.

Tofu Time!

You may have figured out that tofu recipes are my jam, and we tried two new ones this month:

We made this Crispy Orange Tofu from Nora Cooks. Nora is one of my favorites, and this was a restaurant-quality dish. For this recipe, I employed a tip from Nisha Vora of My Rainbow Plant Life: take the tofu out of the package and put it into a freezer-safe container along with the water that’s in the tofu package. Stick it in the freezer (I did mine overnight), and take it out the next day to thaw before using in your recipe. The freezing changes the texture of the tofu. It makes it chewier. It’s kind of weird for vegetarians to call something meaty, but it has a different texture that works well for recipes like this one.

We also made this Mango Chickpea Salad from Plant Based RD using shredded high-protein tofu, another serious change of pace from the typical tofu texture. I’ve been on a high-protein kick—and we needed that to balance out dessert!

This was my first time making sweet chili sauce and hoisin sauce from scratch, and they both turned out great! I didn’t have dates or date paste, so I used raisins, one of the suggested substitutions.

Photo by Crystal Tubens on Unsplash