My Sunday afternoon started off with so much promise, with cooking and the Steelers game on the agenda.  My Stillers disappointed me by losing to the Giants, proving that I can only count on myself.  Luckily, I scored some kitchen touchdowns.

The theme for this week’s Iron Chef challenge is stuffing.  I was unusually ambitious this time and made two stuffed (and curiously phallic) dishes.  First we have manicotti- simple but tasty.  Second, frozen stuffed chocolate-covered bananas.

Manicotti and I have a checkered past.  As a kid I loved the dairy-filled version.  One day, a few months after going vegan, I found a frozen manicotti that I thought was vegan.  It was displayed with several other products of the same brand that were clearly labelled “vegan”, and the packaging was nearly identical to these.  I took it home and nuked it in my little dorm room, where I thought, “This is some tasty stuff”.  When I started getting awful gas pains, I took the box out of the trash, and realized it wasn’t vegan afte rall.  Today is the first time I’ve had manicotti since that painful day 7 years ago.  I’m glad I’ve rediscovered it.

These are more of guidelines than a recipe, but I was so excited about not boiling the noodles that I thought I’d share my method.

Manicotti
(makes a half batch; double to use up the whole box- duh.)

1/2 a box of manicotti (6-7 tubes)
1 batch (2-3 cups) of your favorite tofu-based ricotta (I used cashew ricotta from Veganomicon)
1 26-oz jar pasta sauce, or equivalent homemade
1/2 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spread enough pasta sauce in an 8″ by 8″ baking dish to cover the bottom.  Fill uncooked manicotti tubes with ricotta (I used a spoon; you can try a ziploc bag with the corner cut off) and arrange in pan in a single layer.  Cover with remaining sauce, and pour warm water over everything.  Cover tightly with tin foil and bake for 40 minutes.  Remove foil and bake 10 minutes more.

Frozen stuffed chocolate-covered bananas

2 large bananas
1/2 c chocolate chips
splash of non-dairy milk
a glop of peanut butter (1/4 cup-ish)
a few generous squirts of agave nectar
small handful nuts, chopped (I used pecans)

Peel bananas and cut in half, then in half again but this time the long way.  You end up with 8 banana quarters total.  Melt chocolate chips and a little milk (I do this in the microwave at 50% power so they don’t burn).  Stir til smooth and set aside to cool.  Mix PB, agave, and nuts (it helps to nuke the PB to soften it, if you’re using the refrigerated kind).  Take a pair of banana quarters and spread one side with about a tablespoon of the PB mixture.  Sandwich it with its matching quarter and dip/spread in chocolate to coat (this is messy).  Place on wax paper/tin foil and freeze for about an hour (too much longer and they’re tough to eat).