Macaroni Pancakes!

Psych! That would just be gross, people.

Despite the Nature's Bin gorge-session on Friday, I did a lot of relatively minor cooking this weekend. Unfortunately, most of it was from cookbooks, so I shan't be posting the recipes here. But I can at least offer up some recommendations.



For dinner on Sunday night, I decided to whip up some pancakes. My VwaV cookbook was, for some reason, all the way out in my car, I realized. And as I was donning rather large Grinch slippers and an uncombed Elvis-'do, I decided that I'd avoid trekking out there to nab it and just try out another recipe instead. I had a couple leftover bananas from work, so I decided to go the banana-walnut route, and I used the Banana Walnut Pancake recipe from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook. As always, I tossed in some semi-sweet chocolate chips as well. Because I am a self-professed chocolate-chip pancake whore.

AND I AM NOT ASHAMED.

*Ahem*

Anyways, these pancakes are decked out with bananas and walnuts and even some oats. Not too shabby. My only problem with them was that I think I made them too big (and didn't thin the batter out well enough) so the insides ended up staying kinda goopy and not cooking through all the way. Nothing that a little bit of syrup can't fix though. =) So although I'd recommend the recipe, just be sure to add a bit extra soy milk and make sure to cook those babies through all the way.



The other thing I whipped up on Sunday was the Macaroni and Kidney Bean Salad from Easy Vegan Cooking (which I scored at Half-Price Books a couple months ago). I dig this cookbook, even though it has no pictures (which is typically necessary for me to indulge a cookbook's recipes), just because it has some really simple and yet tasty recipes that you can whip up quickly and with ingredients that you normally have around the house. This one was no exception--it consists of wheat macaroni noodles, kidney beans, scallions, diced green peppers, walnuts, vegan Baco-bits, and a cider-vinegar dressing. I was surprised that it was such a tasty dish given its absolute simplicity. Somehow the very minimilastic dressing allows all the ingredients to work it a lot more on their own, bringing out their flavors instead of hiding them by overpowering them. I've been hooked on this ever since Sunday, stealing little nibbles of the leftovers here and there and chowing on it for the occasional lunch and dinner. This is a definite highly-recommended recipe.

Stay tuned tomorrow for an actual recipe! Try not to wet yourself in excitement!