Reuben, what is he dippity doin'?

After a recent visit to the veganworld-famous Chicago Diner a coupla weeks ago, of course I had to bust out Vegan with a Vengeance and make Isa's Tempeh Reuben.

I loved this recipe before I went to the Chicago Diner, and sure, this recipe is great. However, it doesn't even begin to compare to Chicago Diner's Radical Reuben! I took matters into my own hands and made the seitan from the diner's very own recipe, published on the Vegetarian Times website. (Again, scroll down this page for the recipe!) Oh, and the results?

Muuuch better (taste-wise, at least, I mean; Reubens aren't too attractive appearance-wise).

I would say my sandwich was 90% as delicious as the one they actually serve at the diner! I tried to thinly slice my seitan with my chef's knife, but that didn't get the job done as well as a meat slicer would. I still used the VwaV recipe for all aspects of the sandwich except for the tempeh, which obviously I replaced with the diner's seitan recipe. I used avocado to replace the creaminess of cheese for some of the seitan Reubens I made throughout the week, and on the others I used mozzarella Teese. Either way, you have yourself an awesome sandwich -- actually, my very favorite out of all sandwiches!

(By the way, the title of this post references a song by John Reuben, a Christian hip-hop artist I happened to see in concert in high school. Have any of you heard this song before, or am I the only one?!)

On a totally different tangent, Chocolate-Covered Vegan really knows her food! Every time I make one of her recipes, I get awesome results! Her Five-Minute Chocolate Mousse was no exception, and thus this snack was born:

I made Katie's chocolate mousse, which I sweetened with a pinch of stevia. I also added a drop of almond extract and some vanilla. Earlier this week I also made the Buckwheat Crispies, simply dehydrated buckwheat groats that had been soaked overnight, from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, so I swirled some of those into the mousse, along with coconut flakes and banana slices. It was like a raw granola parfait! Kind of. I actually was a cheater according to Raw Foodist standards when I "dehydrated" the groats (I set my oven to a little below 200F and "baked" the water out for an hour, but it worked like a charm). Thanks for the awesome mousse recipe, Miss Katie!

Of course, I have to give you some latte art updates! Here are a few of my pours from this week:

(Never seen latte art before? This is how it is done, in case you are totally confused about the process.)

I seem to be improving. I have been able to pour a rosetta almost every time I have made an espresso beverage for myself this week (which is once or twice a day), yay! The rosettas aren't too great by professional standards, but I guess I have to start somewhere! ;)

Until next time, my friends...