Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween!

Here's today's lunch: Quick and Easy Chili from Vive le Vegan, with a cornbread muffin from How It All Vegan, carrot sticks with some Goddess dressing for dipping, a banana oat bundle (Vive) and some mango applesauce. So far I've only eaten the chili and cornbread, since Billy had to run for a midterm, but I'll enjoy the rest of it later. I love how the thermos actually keeps my food steaming!













On that note, the chili is leftover from last night. Mondays are movie night for Billy and me and a few people from work, and I had a lab until 7, so I needed something I could whip up quickly in between. The chili was perfect! So easy and so yummy. This is really a snap to make if you have a well stocked pantry. I had recently bought chili sauce and red onion, and I always have some ground round frozen, and of course, lots of beans, so all I needed to get was a green pepper, which I had bought a few days ago. Billy really liked the chili, which is great because he's a chili lover. When I told him I was making chili he asked "Does it have an insane amount of beans? Ground round? Alright, looks good" Haha. Nice to know I can make one that meets the standards his mom set ;)
vivechili
I've never had cornbread before, but it seemed perfect for chili so I made them while the chili was cooking. I really liked the texture with the meal. Billy didn't really like them, but he at least tried it. I ended up just crumbling the whole thing into the bowl with my chili. I love that the muffins have real corn in them too.
HIAVcornmuffin
I already mentioned that I made a vegetable chowder from La Dolce Vegan on Sunday. Its so simple, and to me, its the perfect lunch soup. Stock, veggies (carrots, celery, potatoes), ginger for some kick, and a few other things and voila, soup in 20 minutes. Mmmm this one's pretty spicy, but there's nothing better on a cold fall day.

Note: My flickr is full for the month, so I'll have to post the picture of the soup tomorrow
(Blogger rarely lets me upload pictures anymore)

I also made the mock beef and rice noodle toss on the weekend (from LDV). This one's easy, especially if you already have the seitan made. If not, seitan is really easy to make. It takes an hour to simmer, but you can do other stuff while its doing that. I made a double batch so I could freeze some. The seitan was marinated in teriyaki and stirfried with some veggies and served with rice noodles. I liked it, it was the perfect meal to power up for a long night of work.
beefandnoodle
And lastly, maple flax squares from LDV. I was so excited when I put these in the oven, because the filling had such a gorgeous maple flavour from the maple extract....but I couldn't really taste it in the finished product. They were still good though, they didn't last long, and they inspired me to try some new maple desserts. The filling has walnuts in it too, yum.
mapleflaxsquare

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh, everything looks so good. I too love chilli, and love experimenting with throwing different stuff in there. And I think your corn muffin looks like just the thing. And from your previous post, I'm just so intrigued by the creamy fruit salad recipe, will have to try it soon!

Happy halloween!

Melissa said...

Bazu, do make the fruit salad! It is so good. I was thrown off by the mayo at first, but the flavours improve as its refrigerated.
I think next I'll make a baked chili with cornbread topping.

Carrie™ said...

I made chili and cornbread on the weekend! I like an insane amount of beans in mine too. I used fire-roasted tomatoes. I didn't have any ground round in the freezer, but I had some tofu, so I thawed that out and crumbled it into the chili. I turned out great. I made Mollie Katzen's cornbread and put it in a 9X9 pan. Not as personal as individual ones. I might do that next time.
Maple anything has to be good. Maple was on my top 5 list. I haven't made those squares yet, but I have the page marked, so soon!

Judy said...

That maple square looks divine!

Melissa said...

Carrie, great minds think alike :)
I haven't yet found fire roasted canned tomatoes, but I'm keeping my eyes open.

okramary, I used Yves Veggie Cuisine Ground Round (I'm pretty sure I used the regular stuff and not the Italian flavour one)

raising kahne, the flax and walnuts are pretty healthy, although the fat content must be pretty high, especially since the crust is just a flour, margarine type of crust. I really liked the muffins. But I don't think I'd like the cornmeal texture with other types of meals, maybe soups. But the texture goes well with the chili.

Thanks Judy :)