Food Overload

I've got to post more often if I'm going to cook so much! Make sure you scroll down to the last post for my spring roll recipe :) It's March Break tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to cleaning the house, doing some cooking, and hanging out with friends. Billy's trying to eat vegan during the week (weekday vegetarian), so I'm going out of my way to make hubby friendly foods to make it easy and fun for him. He's doing great!

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce-Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook
Labour intensive! Maybe next time I'll wait for a weekend to make these, but they were rather fun. The mix of squash with butter and vegan parm is a nice filling and the sauce is light. The dough is hard to roll out in one piece so I cut them into smaller pieces and then rolled out the squares. The dough is the best part! Billy's not a huge fan of squash so I made him a different filling.


"Beef Ravioli"
This is just filled with Yves Italian Ground round, with sauteed garlic and some seasonings and topped with jarred tomato sauce. He loved it!


Cincinnati Style Chili Mac- Supermarket Vegan
I got a new cookbook! I already have Vegan Italiano by Donna Klein and love it, so I thought I'd try this one. The concept is that you can find all the ingredients at the grocery store with no specialty products needed (as in fake cheese, milk or soy products). There's a lot of things in there that will appeal to picky eaters and husbands :P. So our first dish from the book was this dish, which is really a quick chili mixed with macaroni and then baked. It was spicy! I'll cut down the spice a bit next time but this was filling and yummy. Billy made the baked beans and macaroni casserole too (no picture), and he enjoyed it.


Curried Udon Stir-Fry- Veganomicon
This is one of my favourite dishes from Veganomicon. It is so good! This is a dish that I made purely for my own enjoyment but Billy liked it too. I love those fat chewy udon noodles. It's stir fried veggies, PC meatless chicken (I used this instead of seitan), and a creamy curry sauce all mixed with udon noodles. Mmmmmm.


Lentil Tacos with Fresh Salsa- Skinny Bitch UEC
This was dinner tonight. Billy was worried about taco filling that didn't consist of some sort of "meat" replacement but he said these were delicious...and I concur! The lentils are blended into a kind of pate consistency and topped with fresh cherry tomato salsa and lettuce. The only change I would make would be to cook the green lentils a little less so they keep some of their crunchy texture. And some taco seasoning wouldn't hurt!


I visited the health store recently and saw this So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk (like Greek yogurt...thick!). I find it sour, which I think is normal for that style, but I loved it blended up in my morning fruit smoothie! I'd also try it with some granola, fruit and a touch of agave for sweetness.


Butternut Mac and Cheese
I used the recipe here and really didn't change anything other than using soy milk and Daiya instead of milk and cheese. I also might have added some more milk to the cheese sauce. It was good! Super creamy. Next time I'm going to use my standard cheese sauce (from La Dolce Vegan) and just mix in the butternut squash, but the sauce from this recipe was good too. Billy didn't want to eat this as a meal since he doesn't love squash but he had a bite and said it was pretty good. Baby steps...


Blood Orange and Peppercorn Sorbet- Skinny Bitch UEC
Yep, black pepper in sorbet! Whole peppercorns are simmered with the juice, but are strained out before freezing. It's not really obvious in the taste, I think it just enhances the blood orange juice. This has a gorgeous colour and is really sweet! I'm still in love with my ice cream maker.


Spinach Feta Pizza
When I was younger and we went to the fair/exhibition in our old city, I always got a slice of spinach feta pizza and it was magical (back before my vegan days). I had a pang for it last Sunday, and we all know everything can be veganized (well, except meringue...sigh...). Garden of Vegan has an awesome tofu feta recipe, which is also awesome in pitas. So I made that, let it marinate, steamed up some spinach, and sprinkled it on my pizza before adding Daiya mozzarella. It hit the spot! The dough was made in the breadmaker my Gramma gave me...so good!


Black Bean Enchiladas- Skinny Bitch UEC
I cannot, for the life of me, find corn tortillas in my town, so I had to use small flour tortillas, but these were tasty! These got the husband stamp of approval too.


On the menu this week: leftover ravioli, skillet lasagna, chicken BBQ skewers with herb citrus sauce. and maybe some mac and cheese :)

Happy Cooking!