Summer and Sushi!

I had my last day of placement yesterday...and summer begins! I just got back from a walk on the boardwalk, it could not be any more gorgeous out.

Billy and I had plans to shop yesterday so when I got home (it was a half day) I made a quick pasta and bean lunch; with romano beans, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, mushrooms and brown rice pasta. I topped it with some vegan parm too.


To celebrate the start of my vacation, I decided to finally try (and make) sushi for the first time. I kept it really simple with fillings of cucumber and tofu bites. For the sushi rice and instructions I used Vegan Lunchbox. Sushi is yummy! I got Billy to make a roll, but he refuses to try it :( Next time I'll be making it with brown rice, since there's basically no nutrition in these ones, but I wanted to go for authentic my first time. And they're fine as next-day leftovers too.

Summer starts now!

It was a busy week, but I'm finally done placement! I forgot to take pictures of my lunch this week...but it was yummy. I made the cheesey lunch box fondue from Vegan Lunch Box. It was delicious with some dippers like baby potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms. I had it with an apple and some almond dark chocolate.

I also forgot to take a picture of a delicious soup I made. I modified it quite a bit from the mushroom barley stew in How It All Vegan, to use up some stuff in my fridge. It was sooooo good, and Billy loved it.

I was supposed to make a bean and bulgur salad from Vegan Cooking for One...but didn't want to use bulgur (wheat). So instead I used a ground round subsitute that I found, that's only made of soy flour. Its called So Soya. This salad had navy beans, the ground round and some veggies, and was pretty darn good.

Dinner this week was the Southwestern Corn Casserole from La Dolce Vegan. It is soooooo good, go and make it right now. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to expect based on the ingredients (silken tofu, soy milk, flour, corn, etc) but I was pleasantly surprised.

I made cookies two nights ago for all the staff on my floor at placement, as a little thank you. I made the chocolate chip cookies from Vive le Vegan (Since I know they're great), and also tried the chocolate pecan/walnut cookies from La Dolce Vegan (without nuts, extra chocolate chips). They both turned out great, everyone loved them. I had some leftover too, which led to me eating way too many....which led to me spending an hour at the gym, hahaha.

That's it for now. I just felt guilty for not posting sooner

Week 2 Wheat Free

More cheesecake (Sinfully Vegan)! This is Billy's plate, along with a nut and seed butter cookie from Vegan Lunchbox. The cookies are gluten free. We were expecting traditional peanut butter cookie taste, but they're different. I still like them though, and they'd be great with a cold glass of vanilla soymilk.


This week, I decided to take a week of dinners from Vegan Cooking for One, since they're usually pretty quick and easy recipes, with lots of veggies in them. Sunday lunch was bean and potato salad. It was surprisingly very good. Potatoes mixed with green onion, navy beans, vegan mayo and soy yogurt.

Sunday dinner was zucchini and tomato flan...which was basically a veggie pie. Very yummy.

Dinner on Monday had to be quick, since I came home and had about half an hour before we were out the door to play softball. The cashew vegetable curry was really easy to make, and I already had cooked the brown rice, so I was able to fit in a healthy dinner for the night.

I didn't make dinner last night. I ended up crashing after my placement and didn't wake up til 10:30 pm. So I had some air popped popcorn and applesauce instead.

Tonight, I did not feel like cooking, but I forced myself to, and it really didn't take long. I made tofu stew with basmati rice. The stew has carrots, onion, green beans and celery, sauteed with tofu, and thickened with rice flour and veggie stock. I love the sage in it. Billy ate this for dinner too, so its a winner.

No matter what happens, I'll always have food...

OK, where to start...I guess I'll just get into it right away!

Curried bean and rice filled zucchini from Vive le Vegan:

I made the rice and spelt kernels on the weekend so when it came to cooking this on Tuesday, it was pretty quick. There's great texture in this dish, from the rice, beans, spelt kernels, raisins and cashews.

Then, I had leftover rice and black beans from the zucchini, so for breakfast I made a quick burrito (with a brown rice tortilla), with the rice, beans, salsa, red pepper, and some cheese. Mmm it hit the spot. I'd kill for a whole wheat tortilla, but what are you gonna do, right?

Lunch for the week was from Vegan Lunchbox again. Wheat free oatmeal pancakes with maple syrup, strawberries and almond buttered sweet potatoes. However, by Friday, I was out of strawberries so the picture has a banana. Also, I was not a fan of the sweet potatoes so I brought yogurt instead for the rest of the week. The rest of the week, the pancakes were smaller, but these two were my first batch and I made them bigger than I was supposed to.

From the stuffed zucchini I had a bunch of leftover zucchini, as I had to scrape out the insides. So I made some gluten free lemon zucchini muffins. The texture is a bit grainier, but Billy didn't mind, and ate them as soon as they were out of the oven (haha, he ate zucchini...shhhhh). They're delicious! They have a great lemon flavour. Here's the recipe:

Lemon Zucchini muffins (or loaf):
1.2 cup shredded zucchini
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg replacer
1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup applesauce (or all oil)
1.5 cups gluten free flour (or you can use regular wheat flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp lemon zest
1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease a muffin tin or loaf pan.
In a bowl, beat the zucchini, sugar, egg replacer, oil, applesauce and lemon juice. In another bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking soda and powder and stir in the cinnamon and lemon zest.
Stir flour mixture into the zucchini mixture til just blended. Pour into muffin tin or loaf pan. Bake 45 min for loaf or 30 min for muffins, til a knife inserted comes out clean.
Cool ten minutes before removing to cool completely.

And last, but not least, some of you may have noticed that my mom has now found my blog (now I have to censor myself lol), and requested a cheesecake for mother's day. Happy Mother's day mom!!!!! This one's for you: Swirled Raspberry Cheesecake from Sinfully Vegan. This is so good. I had two pieces yesterday, and as a result have to be really good today ;)


Wow that was a long post. I'll leave you with this hilarious picture of Logan. *Warning* there's cat parts in the picture, turn your eyes away if you're under 18 :P

Still here....

Despite my lack of posting, I have cooked a little. I made a vegetable curry from La Dolce Vegan, but ate the last of the leftovers today without taking a picture...whoops. It was too spicy for my liking, but that can be fixed next time. I liked the chickpeas and loads of veggies (zucchini, red pepper, spinach, etc).

Hopefully, I'll have a picture of my lunch for you tomorrow.

I've been doing a placement from 9-5 and its very tiring, so posts may be a bit scarce for a bit. Also, this week I started a wheat free diet to see if it helps with my skin. Its so hard!!!!!!!

Time to bake!

I've sat through two days of initial practicum preparation...and they've managed to stress me out, not only about my placement this month, but about all of next year when I do my B.Ed. So when I got home today, I needed to bake something. I knew if I indulged too much, I wouldn't stop eating, so I decided to try something somewhat healthy. That's where Vive le Vegan's Energy Cookies come in. These are wheat free with a bit of barley and spelt flour. The rest consists of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds, along with some chocolate chips and cinnamon.

These are good. I got to bake and enjoy an after school snack without blowing my diet for the day. Now, that chocolate bar Billy brought me is a whole other story...