Healthy College Cookbook

I bought Billy the Healthy College Cookbook a few years back as an incentive for him to try cooking more. He did try a few things, but other than that, it's been collecting dust. Most of the recipes are vegan-izable so I decided to use up some food in my fridge and freezer and try out some new recipes.

To use up the four PC Meatless chicken cutlets I had left, I made sesame chicken. So good! Basically, I brushed warm agave nectar on the cutlets and sprinkled them with sesame seeds, garlic powder and pepper, and then baked them. The sweetness of the agave was so nice in this dish, with just a hint of pepper. These were so simple to make, literally 2 minutes of preparation. I plan on trying out a few more of their chicken dishes.

Next I made the baked ziti. Except I used rotini. This is just rotini tossed in a tomato sauce with herbs and ground round, onion and garlic. Instead of regular cheese I used up the nacho stuff I had sitting around. I left it a bit too long under the broiler...but it still tastes great.


And a random cat picture....Zeppelin passed out on the couch

Special Treat

I ordered some goodies from Vegan Essentials and they got here yesterday! I got Sweet n Sara's marshmallows and amaranth graham crackers (to make smores with of course). The marshmallows taste like the real deal without the gross stuff.

I also got Ricemellow Creme, which tastes so good! And was great on my peanut butter toast for breakfast. I'll have to figure out a way to use this to make rice krispies treats.

Soyatoo's Soy Whip was the star of my after-work snack last night....bananas layered with soy whip and topped with some chocolate and pecans. This tastes pretty close to whipped cream in a can...although it has a bit of a taste that's different. It was also good on my hot chocolate this morning.

Here are the crab cakes I made from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. I'm all out of remoulade sauce, which pretty much looks like 1000 island dressing. So tonite, I'll be serving my crab cake on whole wheat rotini with tomato sauce.

To use up some bananas, I made the banana wheat germ muffins from Veganomicon. Yummy! These are made with whole wheat and wheat germ, so they're healthy, but the banana also gives it a great sweet flavour. And they're only about 170 calories per muffin.

I busted out Looneyspoons again to get some delicious, easy and healthy meals. First, I made a chicken and potatoes dish flavoured with salsa. Filling and good!

Then I made the veggie fajitas, chock full of veggies: onion, carrot, red and green peppers and zucchini. I didn't have any sour cream on hand, so I mixed just a bit of Vegenaise with the salsa to make it creamy. I also threw in some black beans for some added protein then topped it with lettuce, tomato and nacho cheese .These are delicious and very satisfying.

I also made Crabby Cakes with Remoulade sauce from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, but I haven't taken a picture yet. The cakes are made up of veggies with some kelp powder for that crabby taste. They are really good! The remoulade sauce is a bit too lemony, but that's easily fixable. I served them over a bed of lettuce.

Almost as soon as I saw Vegan Dad's recipe for funnel cake, I had to make it! I wasn't going to, because I didn't want to cancel out all that healthy food, but I couldn't resist, and I threw in an extra long workout to make up for it. There are really good! Best to make when there's a friend around though, so you don't eat all of it at once. I just dusted mine with icing sugar and topped with warmed jam. But they'd be really nice with some vanilla soy ice cream on top too!

I just got a package in the mail from Vegan Essentials with some very exciting stuff...more on that later!

Product Review: Shopper's Drug Mart Nativa Organics

Shopper's has launched a huge organic food line, at affordable prices. There's a lot of different products out, much of it vegan-friendly.

One of those products, their cookie buttons, is my favourite so far. The box comes with 6 100-calorie snack packs. And the cookies are good! They're just mini chocolate chip cookies. And I love the snack pack size...I haven't had any of Nabisco's but they don't look very substantial, they look like a lesser version of the real thing. Not so with the cookie buttons.

Also, I got their natural microwave popcorn. Three boxes for 5$! It was obviously an introductory price, but I'm glad I stocked up, because it is very good. I'll make it my regular popcorn...they don't sacrifice any taste, and it's organic.

Check out a Shopper's near you. :)

Vegan Wedding

I have ambitions to put on a fully vegan wedding reception for my wedding. We're starting to look at locations and both places we're looking at right now have their own catering. One of them says they've never had a vegan wedding before, and he asked me what I had in mind, perhaps the cook could make it.

My family, and Billy's family, are meat eaters. They're going to be expecting some sort of beef/chicken/fillet type meal, so I want our meals to be excellent...but not too complicated or "vegan" if you catch my drift. I thought maybe a nice pasta dish, with some sort of tomato sauce as a base would be nice.

Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas, menu ideas, or resources for me? I'd like to be able to tell them more than "pasta with tomato sauce" otherwise that's exactly what we'll get.

Apples + peanut butter= heaven

I had the chance to cook in the last few days. First, I made wild mushroom orzo risotto, and Italian style kabobs from Vegan Italiano. This book has not disappointed me yet, everything comes out really well. The kabobs have red pepper, Brussels sprouts, red potatoes and red onion and they're basted in Italian dressing. Really simple and delicious.


Today, I made the dill and chickpea basmati rice from V'con. It's good enough, nothing stellar. There didn't seem to be nearly enough liquid to cook the rice in, as everything is cooked in one pot, so I added more. It ended up pretty sticky. The lemon juice added at the end is a nice addition however.

Then for dessert, apple peanut butter caramel bars, also from V'con. These are fantabulous. They don't stick together very well, but you can just eat it with a fork. With taste that great, no one is going to complain.