Jalapeño Poppers and Acorn Squash

Okay, so I admit it. My mouth was on fire last night. In fact, I had to do multiple high speed circuits around the living room with a half piece of frozen bread shoved into my mouth before I could get the flames out. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised considering I was shoving jalapeños into my mouth. I'll not lie though. I loved the jalapeño poppers. They were absolutely delicious and the gooey cheeze that we made to stuff them was amazing. Next time, Thomas and I will know NOT to add the seeds of the jalapeños to the cheeze sauce to make it hotter. Believe me, its hot enough as it is. Thomas is the one who did all the cooking last night! I was simply his lowly sues chef. Along with the Poppers, he made yummy sugar glazed acorn squash and some salad. Overall, it was a great meal. Except...oh yeah, all the soymilk is gone...that's right...we guzzled it all in our frantic burning states of hell.



The original recipe for the Poppers (which we got from www.myveggiekitchen.blogspot.com)said for us to deep fry the poppers. Well, Thomas and I don't feel there's a need to deep fry anything. So, we baked 'em. And guess what? They turned out just as wonderfully golden, crispy and crunchy as if we had fried them!

Jalapeño Poppers
15 jalapeño peppers, with stems
the recipe for gooey cheeze sauce (below)
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup soymilk
1 cup flour (we used whole wheat pastry flour)
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

To prepare the jalapeños, cut a slit down the length of each pepper with a paring knife. Then cut the seed pod at the top of the pepper under the stem. The seeds should be freed now so take the knife and scrape them out along with the pith. Mix the garlic in with the cheeze sauce (along with the seeds if you want it really hot!) Take a ziplock bag and snip a small hole in one corner of it to form a pastry bag. Pour the cheeze in the bag and then funnel it through the hole and into the slitted peppers.



Dip each Popper into the soymilk and then dip it into the flour. Let them sit for about 10 minutes like this until the flour hardens some.



Then dip each Popper once more into the soymilk but this time instead of flour, dip them into the bread crumbs. Let them sit for another 10 minutes.



Lightly oil a baking sheet to put them on. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake them for about 30 minutes!

Gooey Cheeze Sauce
3/4 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup raw, unsalted cashews
2 oz pimiento peppers, diced
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
2 tsp. yellow miso
2 Tbsp. butter, melted (we use Earth Balance butter but regular is fine too!)
1/2 tsp salt, more to taste
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Place all of the ingredients in the blender and blend. Then blend some more until it is thick and creamy.



Makes 15 jalapeño poppers.

Acorn Squash
2 acorn squash
some butter (vegan or not)
some brown sugar or raw cane sugar

Cut each squash in half and dig out all the seeds with a spoon. Lightly spread around some butter on the inside of each half. Then sprinkle on some sugar. Place on a baking sheet face down. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake them for about 30 minutes until they are soft.

Serves 4.