MoFo-ing!

Welcome to Weekly Vegan Menu's Month of Vegan Food Blogging!

For this month, we are changing the name to

"Weekly Vegan Menu Take-Out."

For the following month we are recreating restaurant food for your home. Don't live near Millennium? No problem. Applebee's uses meat? We got it covered.  Desserts use eggs and dairy? Sink your sweet tooth into November.

This month we are traveling all over the U.S. making signature meals - yes, not dishes, but meals! - from top vegan, vegetarian and popular restaurants.

We'll travel from the East Coast's Anchor Bar to the West Coast's Cafe Flora and stop along the way at Chicago Diner, Olive Garden and even Outback. We'll dip down to sunny Florida to visit Sublime and not even ignore Benihana.

Yup, that is how confident we are that not only will we bring you vegan food from far flung places, but make many meatless meals possible from the cross section of Americana.

Here is the line up, not necessarily in this order.

Red Robin

Millennium

Sublime

Suma

Enjoy Chinese

Chicago Diner

Herbivore

Greens

Olive Garden

Pizza Hut

Anchor Bar

Mother's Cafe

Benihana

Cinnabon

Annie's Pretzels

Cafe Flora

Soup Nazi

Applebee's

Outback

TGI Friday's

Native Foods

Follow Your Heart

Not to be outdone by super cool blogs like Vegan Appetite, we, too are giving away cookbooks. One per week, so check back often. Only one cookbook per wining address or family. We are shipping anywhere in the US and if the post doesn't charge UK and Canada more than the book's cost, we'll ship there, too.

This is promising to be an exciting, fat-filled (maybe we'll try to health it up a bit!), delicious month of vegan food.

I can't wait! 

jerk chickpeas and potatoes

When you hear of food being jerked, it is usually chicken. Please don't jerk the chicken around! Not here! We are kind to chickens and needed something else to jerk. Chickpeas became a natural because of its firm texture and ability to actually get crisp in the oven. Adding a few potatoes to the jerking also became a no-brainer.

You can also add carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes (I did) or a winter squash (it's that time of year, again) to the jerking pan. If you add any of the less denser veggies ( i.e. sweet potatoes) add them later in the cooking so they don't over cook.

The jerk marinade is made with garlic, jalapenos, allspice, cinnamon, cayenne, brown sugar, vinegar and a few other ingredients. Make it as spicy as you like it, but remember that cooking takes some of the edge off the raw version.

I made a cilantro-yogurt sauce to tame the heat. This really was an easy meal to make and very satisfying to my jerk-tooth.

Add a side of greens and this meal is complete.

Cost Breakdown:

potatoes: $2

chickpeas: $4

onion, garlic, peppers: $2

spices: $1

vinegar, lime, sugar: $1

carrot, sweet potatoes: $2

yogurt, cilantro, parsley: $2

Total to feed a family of 5:

$14.00

JERK CHICKPEAS AND POTATOES PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE