yesterday i made a big batch of chimichurri, as well a batch of the faux beef from ldv, and attempted some combination of the two in a veggie burger.  i want to fine tune this a bit more before i post a recipe, but basically, i mixed chopped sesame seeds, flour, carrots, red pepper, seitan, and chimichurri sauce, made them into patties, and browned them.  i had one for lunch with tomatoes, onion, tofutti cream cheese, and more chimichurri sauce on top of a piece of sunny millet bread.  now, i’m not complaining–they were better than those frozen hockey pucks you get at the store–but they weren’t quite what i was going for.  i think the seitan was too salty (cut back on the tamari), and there should have been a bit more spice and chimichurri-ness in the burger itself.  but it’s a good start, and i’m ready to keep trying.  here’s a closeup shot:

inspired by my recent trip to sf and a tasty, not-too-sweet horchata i had there, i thought a fantastic way to use up my container of vanilla soygurt would be to concoct some sort of horchata cupcake!  they’ve got cinnamon and lime zest in them.  i really need to find ways of making a lightly sweetened but firm cream-cheese frosting (mine was a little runny).  frosting is always the turnoff for me with baked goods.  it’s always too much, too sweet… in my pre-vegan days i was totally content with plain whipped cream as a topping.  so, maybe my calling is to come up with that for my fellow not-too-sweet-vegans.  at any rate, i think this made a pretty sexy cupcake, don’t you think?