Easy Peasy

Dinners this month will be focused around cleaning out the cupboards and using up some staples and canned goods. So with that in mind, I made a super quick and easy meal yesterday that was also very tasty. Chili macaroni (a la Hamburger Helper style, sorta). Canned black beans, canned diced tomatoes, macaroni, soymilk, and some seasonings (oregano, chili powder, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper...). All simmered for 20 minutes. It hit the spot! No recipe, I just winged it and tasted for seasoning.



Latest Knitting Project: Cotton Bolero

This took a little while to get off the ground as I was reading the chart wrong, but I think I've got it for now. I'm liking the lacy look so far.


So, as elated as I am that we are soon moving into our first home....make that first house, as my home is always where my family is, even if it's not in a house, I've been lamenting the fact that I will no longer be a 5 minute walk away from our town's beautiful lakeside public park. But, Billy and I just did a quick tour of our new neighbourhood and we are two minutes away from an awesome, huge park (minus the lake). There's a playground, a tennis court, an arena (which is great in the summer for running around with the dog), and a closed 1 km cycling path, along with a few other features. So I'm feeling pretty good!

A Treat

Our closing date for the new house isn't until August 3rd, and we probably won't move in right away, but we've already starting packing, dejunking, donating and all the other activities that come with a move. We literally have no weekends free after this one (full of plans), so we need to work fast! I thought I'd make us a treat and take a break for breakfast today.

French Toast- The Vegan Table
I used one of the variations and made French toast "sandwiches" with banana slices. These were made with a day old baguette sliced up. With the banana and a touch of vegan whipped cream, these were heavenly! Then back to work...

Crazy...

Poutine:
Fried, mushroom gravy and Daiya "mozzarella". It was really good!


Linguine with Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce and Bruschetta
A simple meal when we're short on time.


These last two weeks have felt like two years. Billy and I officially bought our first house today! More details to come...

We are pretty busy right now with traveling and some things going on. Stay tuned....

Happy Stuff

It's been a long and exhausting two weeks at school, as my students write their provincial tests. One day this week, I'd had enough and needed to visit a few of my happy places to make everything OK again! So I took a trip to the library for some books from my book bucket list, and did some retail therapy at the local yarn store....

These are all vegan yarns (gotta love the warm weather yarns that come out!). I got 5 skeins of Butterfly Mercerized Cotton (brown), two skeins of Berroco Comfort DK (nylon, acrylic) in red, two skeins of Classic Elite Yarns Firefly (viscose and linen) in gray, two skeins of Rowan lenpur linen (green), and a skein of Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo, a mix of bamboo viscose and nylon in purple (hello, socks!). I cannot disclose all of the projects I have in mind for some of these yarns, as they are part of my Christmas knit list. But the brown cotton is all mine and I hope to make a bolero with it.

Two of my animals getting along this morning...they look so guilty.

Junk Food

The following is a few weeks of stuff, I don't eat this stuff every night! We like to do one "junky" meal a week as a treat, like pizza, or mac and cheese, etc...

Mac and cheese....so rich and filling!



Pizza with daiya cheese and vegan pepperoni


Chicken Nachos:
Corn tortilla chips with Daiya mozzarella and cheddar and chopped up PC "chicken".


My local health store started carrying Sol Cuisine's veggie breakfast patties. These taste a lot like sausage patties! So I had to make breakfast sandwiches last weekend to try them out. A tofu egg with cheese and sausage. Mmmm, it hit the spot!


Dill's tongue captured in action!


Also, here's the Prospect Park Potato Salad I brought when we went camping...

Camping-vegan style

Hubby and I went camping with a big group of friends on May long. What a blast! And I wanted to have fantastical food and meals with me, rather than relying on veggie dogs and burgers (although they came along for the ride too...). With a little planning and prepping, it is definitely possible to eat like kings while camping!

Not pictured, I grilled up a seitan steak from Veganize this, with BBQ sauce. I served it with couscous and pea salad from La Dolce Vegan and Prospect Park Potato Salad from Veganomicon. Chilled salads like that are perfect for camping, since you don't have to worry about warming them up, and they're very satisfying.

Also, I prepped everything I needed to make tofu scramble, so all I did to do in the morning was saute it on the propane stove. Mmmm it was sooooo good, served with a banana nut muffin (La Dolce Vegan).


I also had Yves chicken burgers and soy hot dogs, which hit the spot roasted on the fire. Throw in lots of fresh veggies and fruit (prewashed and chopped), and I did not feel deprived at all.

Breakfast on the last day was this delicious grilled bacon tempeh in a TLT sandwich. Oh god, it was good.






Also, last week my staff had a potluck salad lunch. I contributed potato salad from La Dolce Vegan. Yes, those are grapes, and they're actually quite nice in potato salad!


Wolffie's B'nanner bars! From La Dolce Vegan...I love these cakey bars. They've got a buttercream frosting on them.

The Dog

Note: this post is not meant to debate whether or not your pet should be on a vegan diet. I am well aware that dogs are omnivores, but healthy, nutritionally balanced vegetarian pet food is available. It is an informational post to help inform others and maybe give them a helping start if they choose to do so.

After watching a video (which I may or may not post in the future), I have decided to switch my dog to a vegetarian diet. Most dog food is made from leftovers from slaughterhouses. Picture them scraping up the leftovers and hauling them into a truck....not what I want to feed my dog. Anyways, I've made the decision not to *buy* any meat products for my dog, but I will not make a huge deal out of other people feeding her meat products if it happens (although she's not supposed to get scraps:P)

So far, we've got her eating Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Vegetarian Dog Kibble. Vegetarian dog kibble is easily available as many dogs have meat sensitivities. Dill really likes it, and as a treat I pour some olive oil over it every few days.

Also, once a week or so, she's given a can of Holistic Blend canned dog food, the fruits and veggies flavour. Dill eats this up in two minutes flat. She adores it.




And from How It All Vegan, I made her the bad breath doggy biscuits. I get the same reaction out of Dill when I give her one of these as if I just gave her a milk bone. I only had gingerbread men cutouts, but I'm going to look for bone shaped ones.


So far, Dill has lost her little winter tummy and has tons of energy (as usual).

Picture Heavy!

I haven't posted all week so I've got lots of pictures! In no particular order, because I don't feel like moving all of them around, here it is...
Bean Pizza Pocket- Vegan Italiano
Pizza pockets filled with navy beans, basil, salt and pepper and pizza sauce. I also threw in some Daiya cheese I had kicking around. These are quick, easy and yummy!



Garden Wraps-Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Foods
This was lunch this week. Whole wheat flax tortillas with a dijon mayo spread (with nutritional yeast and parsley too), and filled with green leaf lettuce, tomato and broccoli sprouts. I loved it!


Sunday was BBQ night. I did a steak and potato dinner and it was phenomenal.

Loaded baked potato: Earth Balance margarine, Tofutti sour cream, Daiya cheddar.


I picked up these weiner dog corn holders last weekend....I couldn't resist!


Grilled seitan steak with garlic rosemary sauce and mushrooms- Veganize This!
This steak is so good! I love the texture of the seitan (meaty) and it grills up really well on the BBQ. It's topped with a rosemary garlic white sauce and cremini mushrooms. It was a bit salty, but I'll just leave out the seasoning rub next time.


Here's the "steak" before being grilled.


I made these lemon and rosemary potatoes for Billy on the grill since he doesn't really go for baked potatoes.



We split a bottle of home-brewed black cherry wine courtesy of the in-laws. Best wine I've ever had!


Poached Pears in Amaretto-Vegan Italiano

And for a light dessert, poached pears in a sweet Amaretto syrup. Delicious! Cinnamon and cloves make this really special. Billy's favourite fruit combined with his favourite liqueur.


And, since I was cooking so much Italian, I wanted one of my favourite appetizers from when I was in Italy (and the easiest). Bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil, with a splash of balsamic vinaigrette.


Happy Cooking!

Endings and Beginnings

Here's my latest finished object, a block pattern sofa pillow. One side is all green, the other is stripes of green and grey. It matches my cabled throw, my couch and my walls :) I just used our old pillows, which didn't match anything in the living room anymore.





And my latest project, bamboo socks. This is Dye-Version bamboo fingering yarn (100% bamboo). I bought this skein of yarn without a project in mind, but I loved the colours (it's name is Jewel). When I check Ravelry's pattern database I found that this yarn is used primarily for shawls. I didn't want a shawl so I decided to make socks since I like variegated yarn, but not as a large clothing item (not my style). I think my feet deserved to be pampered with a little bit of beautifully coloured bamboo...don't you??

Early Mother's Day

We sent our Mother's Day gift for my mom-in-law this week and it got there early. So I can post this because I know she opened it :P Can't blame her, I wouldn't wait if I got a big box in the mail, that's for sure!
One of the gifts was these knitted gardening gloves by Debbie Bliss (pattern in The Knitter's Year). They're made of Debbie Bliss' Ecobaby 100% organic cotton. Love this yarn, squishy and soft... And the colour, sage, is really cute too. These would be great for pruning, tying up, watering in the morning when the sun hasn't had time to warm everything up, or like Billy's mom said, wrapping your hands around a cup of tea in the morning.




In other gardening news, I'm thinking the chance of freezing has passed now and I can start planting soon!

Carb-o-licious

Potato Tortino-Vegan Italiano
Potatoes layered with caramelized onions, veggie broth and bread crumbs. A nice, comforting casserole, served with salad.



Fusilli with lentil sauce-Vegan Italiano

I love this cookbook! Pasta tossed with a delicious sauce made of broth, spinach, lentils, tomatoes, carrots and onions. Rosemary and thyme tie it all together.

Surprise!

I just came back from a surprise birthday dinner for my dear friend Caroline. We ate at Respect is Burning and wow, it was good. The owner came over when he heard I was vegan and offered to make me a pasta dish off the menu with tons of yummy stuff. I told him no capers, no olives, please and have at 'er! I was not disappointed. I don't like to take food pictures at swanky restaurants, but it was fusilli with mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, greens, and lots of flavour!

My friend Erica, the baker extraordinaire, made delicious vegan cupcakes for everyone (since Caroline is also vegan). OMG They were sooooooo good. Dense chocolate cupcakes topped with a sweet raspberry icing. I love going out and getting so much delicious food. It just tastes better when you don't have to do it yourself.

I brought Billy home a cupcake since it was a girls only dinner and managed to snap a quick picture before he ate it.


Happy Birthday Caroline! xoxo

300!!

No, not the half-naked kind of 300....it's my 300th blog post! And yay, I have dessert to show as a celebration. Things just work out for me that way :P

Billy and I went to visit the in-laws this weekend for Easter. As usual, I had a plate piled high with yummy, cruelty-free food (which I ate too quickly to take a picture of). I had Tofurky and gravy, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, buns, and stuffing. Delicious....also, we stayed a night at my brother in law's new apartment, and him and his fabulous girlfriend made us a yummy mexican pasta. Gotta love being spoiled (and not cooking every once in a while).

Dessert was a low fat chocolate bundt cake with cherry filling and "whipped" topping. My MIL found a tofu based "whipped cream" recipe. While it wasn't the same consistency as cool whip, it was actually really good and added a little decadence to the cake, which was similar to a black forest cake.

The drive home was not a pleasant one for Dill (or my mom's car). She ate something and has been sick since last night. She puked no less than 10 times in the car :(


A big thank you to those that read this blog. Here's to 300 more!

Orange ch'kn

From Quick and Easy Comfort Foods, this orange chicken is really good! Neither orange nor containing much orange flavour, it's still satisfying (only 1/4 cup oj in the recipe). And finally, Billy can have some OJ since I told him hands off til I made this :) I served it with arborio rice and some mixed veggies. Very filling. Instead of using tofu or seitan, like the recipe said, I used PC meatless chicken and some Yves turkey I had in the freezer.

WIPs: Works in Progress

I recently finished a zigzag pillow cover and now I'm knitting another one (from the same pattern book). This is using Bernat Super Value Solids (100% acrylic) in Forest Green. It is using up the leftover yarn from the sofa blanket I made earlier this year. So while I may hate my couch, I will love the super comfy blanket and two matching pillow covers! This one is easier to knit than the zigzag pattern as it's a bit more repetitive and intuitive, so I don't have to check the pattern every minute.



I'm always searching out new vegan knitting blogs to find out about the best non-animal fibers out there. I've recently added some of my favourites to my blogroll. Anyways, I thought I would say a little about the yarns I use for my projects for anyone else searching for this information.
My latest work in progress, garden gloves, is made using Debbie Bliss Ecobaby 100% fairtrade organic cotton (in sage). I found it to be very splitty at first, while casting on, but once the project got under way it improved drastically. It's nice and squishy and I love the colour! It's softer than some other cottons I've used. I got it at my local yarn store for 7.95 a skein (50g).


The glove is a simple stockinette stitch, with ribbing for the wrist. There will be individual fingers for the gloves, without fingertips.

New cookbook!

I bought myself a new cookbook, which is one of my favourite ways to treat myself! I got Veganize This!. It's gotten some poor reviews for being complicated, time consuming and requiring substitutions. But I like to have all kinds of recipes on hand ranging in the spectrum from super easy to super fancy. I made two recipes from it this week. The titles are really long and seem to list every ingredient in them, but don't let that scare you away!

Vegan Escargots à la bourguignonne en croûte vegan brioche with café de Paris butter (woo what a mouthful!)- Veganize This!

This is a Sunday kind of recipe, the kind where you need a whole day to be able to lazily make this. First, you have to make the brioche. I was a bit too hasty and didn`t let it rise enough because my loaf wasn`t as big as it`s supposed to be. BUT, it's delicious!! Then you shape the brioche into little cups, top it with mushroom that's been cooked in a seasoned broth with veggies, and then top it with the cafe de Paris butter. I will be reducing the mustard in the butter sauce next time, but other than that...delicious! I only had escargots a few times when I was around 12 or so, so I don't remember them other than being chewy, so I think these fit the bill. I couldn't get morels, so I used shiitakes.



Cumin and Avocado Oil-Rubbed Portobello Tortas with Pico de Gallo and Basil-White Peppercorn Mayo- Veganize This

Again, don't be put off by the title. In real life, this is a portabello "burger" with mayo and pico on a bun. And it's scrumptious!! I couldn't find tortas, so I bought kaiser rolls which is what the book suggests as a sub. Also, it's supposed to be a dragon fruit pico, but mine rotted before I could make this (what a waster). Also, it's supposed to be purple basil in the mayo. But I did what I could. I love everything about this recipe: the flaky kaiser, the creamy mayo where basil is centre stage, the fresh pico, the savoury and grilled portobello and the crunchy romaine to top it off. I highly recommend this recipe. Also, it didn't take much time (and would take even less if you pre-made the condiments).


I love when I can use my grill pan :) And, I was really excited to use avocado oil, since that's new for me.



Dill and Mushroom Frittata- Vegan Brunch

I totally bought the wrong tofu for this recipe (too soft), so it didn't keep the pie shape it's supposed to when it comes out of the oven. So mine is more of a scramble/omelette. But still very tasty. How great is fresh dill??


Finished Object
A pointy elf baby hat, how cute! I made this with my leftover organic cotton. Did you know that cotton farmers have a very high rate of cancer?? I'll never complain about the cost of organic again!


And lastly, our fur baby family, all getting along, because they're unconscious I guess ;)