Plant a radish, get a radish, never any doubt. That's why I love vegetables, you know what they're about!

Gah! Food overload! When I get in the groove like this, I really need to update more often. My days are filled with yummy, nutritious, healthy whole foods, and I'm loving it. Let's get to it...

Scottish Broth-The Vegan Table
"Broth" in Scotland actually means stew...go figure. This is a delicious soup, and very easy to make. You throw all the ingredients in a pot (after soaking the barley, red lentils and green split peas) and simmer until done. I love barley!


Creole Stuffed Pepper and Messy Rice- Veganomicon
I've made stuffed peppers a handful of times in the last 12 months, and every time they are different. Gotta love variety. I left out the jalapeno so I don't know how "creole" these are anymore, but they're filling and the bean mixture is tasty. The messy rice is made with crushed coriander seeds (lemony!) and jasmine rice.



Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream- The Vegan Scoop
The only downside to this e-book cookbook so far is that I can't write my recipe notes in it! This ice cream is so good! I added the green food colouring just to make it more like store-bought ice cream :) I made this using all soy-based milk and creamer. Next time, I will experiment with coconut and almond milk.


Chili- The Vegan Slow Cooker
I added another cup of tomato sauce when I got home, since it dried out a bit. Billy and I loved this chili, and it was great as Sloppy Joe filling too.


Breakfast Bake- Skinny Bitch
My first recipe from my new cook book, Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Guide. I sauteed the potato, onion and tempeh bacon filling yesterday, and just popped it in the oven this morning for a delicious and filling breakfast. I also had a side of fresh fruit salad from the Vegan Table (no picture).


Chicken Gnocchi Soup- a modified recipe
The only thing I love more than a good vegan cookbook is veganizing recipes on my own! One night I felt like having gnocchi, but didn't want the typical gnocchi and pasta sauce. So I went on my allrecipes app and searched for recipes with gnocchi. I found a recipe for a creamy chicken and gnocchi soup. So I subbed out the cream and chicken with vegan subsitutes, and OH MY GOD, this is my new favourite soup. I'll post the recipe one of these days!


Chicken Salad- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch
A vegan mayo-based chicken salad, served on greens. I used PC's meatless chicken. Yum!


No-Chicken Noodle Soup- Vegan Slow Cooker
This didn't have much broth left by the time I got home, but it was a very simple and tasty "chicken" soup for dinner.


Pizza- The Vegan Lunch Box
I've been using the pizza dough recipe from Vegan Lunch Box the last few Sundays, because you can mix it up and then stick it in the fridge until you're ready to use it...which fits perfectly into our lazy Sundays. Plus, we make individual sized pizzas for portion control, and they're cute! This one had soy pepperoni, green peppers and Daiya mozzarella.


Applesauce Muffins- How It All Vegan
These are very midly flavoured, with applesauce and cinnamon, but they are so fluffly and light.

the Perfect Sunday

To me, there's lots of different "perfect days" out there. But Sunday is special. That's me time. I was awoken this morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls, because Billy was holding up a cup of "cinnamon pastry" coffee to my nose, along with a plate of cinnamon toast. Mmmmm. Then we caught up on some DVR'ed shows and brought the dog for a walk in the park, while taking in all the beautiful fall colours.

The rest of the day will be spent alternating between knitting and cooking/baking to fill the house with pleasant smells. And who knows, I may even throw a puzzle in the mix.

Here's what I've made so far:

Pumpkin Cake- Sinfully Vegan


This is a lovely spiced cake. On its own its satisfying but nothing spectacular. Topped with the whipped pumpkin topping however, puts it over the edge. The sweetener in this recipe is maple syrup (lots of it). It also has applesauce, whole wheat flour and flax powder in it, so its pretty healthy for a dessert :)

Chicken Soup- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

Yummy! Apparently this is Billy's NEW favourite chicken soup. It has PC's meatless chicken chunks, veggies, and rice. I subbed the rice for pasta. It's a tad salty for my taste, so I will cut that down next time, but other than that, it's delicious!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup-Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Foods

There is a lot of pureed pumpkin floating around our household due to Thanksgiving and the season. I'm trying to find different ways to use it (this week was pumpkin chocolate chip muffins). This soup is very spicy, but kind of bland. It only has pumpkin, milk, veggie broth, maple syrup and dried chili flakes in it. Maybe I'll like it more with crackers. However, I also find it hard when an ingredient transitions from "dessert" to "dinner". I think its also why I don't like coconut milk in savoury dishes.

Knitting Update:
I finally finished my brown cotton lacey bolero that I've been working on since June (I frequently hibernated this project when I got to a tough step :P). I just need to sew up the arm seams and weave in loose ends, then I will show it off here :)

Happy Sunday!

Whoops

Two months since I posted...yikes. Buying the house, fixing it up and moving in was a huge drain, not to mention kicking off a new school year! I've been cooking a bit but not bothering to take pictures. Til now!

I'm also hosting Thanksgiving next weekend, so there will lots of pictures from that.

Cupcakes!
Just basic chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and various sprinkles. These were made for a BBQ night that we had at our place in August to celebrate the end of the mixed league baseball season.


Cheezy cream of broccoli soup- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

As the weather gets colder, I turn to soups to comfort me. This is a very yummy soup with daiya cheese in it. I was expecting a more orange soup but the daiya doesn't melt all the way into the soup. It's nice and thick though. Skinny Bitch gets a bad rap for having lots of "junky" recipes that use lots of vegan cheese and meats. But every once in a while I get a craving for those kinds of foods, so I like it!




Attention readers: any recommendations for great crowd-pleasing vegan Thanksgiving recipes?

Dinner last night...

Lemon Rosemary Roasted Potatoes- Vive le Vegan

YUM



Pizza Burgers- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

A veggie burger topped with vegan cheese, warm pizza sauce and "peperoni", as well as some slivered fresh basil. Sooooo good! The grilling was courtesy of hubby.


Mint chocolate chip ice box cookies- Vegan Cookies...

These are interesting. They have flakes of fresh green mint in them. They're crunchy but not hard.

Before:


After:


Pumpkin Bran Muffins- Vegan Brunch

Going through my cookbooks while we were meal planning for this week, I was reading out the names of some muffin recipes for Billy so he could decide what kind we'd have. I was prepared for chocolate or raspberry or some deliciousness. But he stopped me at pumpkin bran! Fine by me :) These are really nice and have a nice flavour from cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. The recipe calls for wheat bran flakes, not the kind of bran that's in the cereal.


I got a gift card to Michael's from my brother in law and his wife for my birthday so I decided to go spend it up today. I bought myself two skeins of 100% organically grown cotton, worsted. I've never really seen thicker yarns of cotton. I would never have bought these myself at 12$ a skein, so I figured it was a good way to use the giftcard to spoil myself a bit :) I think I may use it to make some soft storage baskets. The colour is Walnut.


There should be some more baked goods this week eventually....plans for banana bread and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (if I can get off Netflix long enough!)

1 month into my new job, I'm cooking again!

I am trying to make more meals that both me and the hubby can enjoy together, since we have a lot of fun cooking together, and its nice to eat the same thing every once in a while. So we chose a few recipes to make this week that hopefully I can show you soon. Of course, I also picked a recipe just for me!

Ham and Cheese Puff Pockets
I got the idea for these from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, although I didn't use the same dough to make them. I just used Pillsbury dough (I don't have time to achieve that kind of flakiness, although I know a few girls who do...ha!) I just wrapped the dough around some chopped Tofurkey deli slices and vegan cheese slices. So yummy! Billy ate it too so it's not just PMS food as the book states :P



Potato and Leek Soup- The Vegan Table

A very simple soup, and it's completely blended. I persuaded hubby to try some (he doesn't like potatoes or onions) and he liked it! I guess because there's no chunks of the offending foods. So while it was intended to be a "Melissa only" meal, he ended up sharing it with me :)

Caesar Salad- The Vegan Table
This was made to go along with the delicious soup. It's not my favourite of the vegan Caesars floating around out there, but it is good and I would make it again. It's simple to make. The dressing is tofu based. I didn't make the homemade croutons though, as I have a big bag of store bought ones to use up.



More to come!

Weeknight Meals and wedding food

Baked Ziti- Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food

True to the title, very easy to put together, and on the table in about 40 minutes. I used rotini instead. This has smokey TVP which gives it a great flavour.


Sloppy joes- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch
Another easy meal with TVP. On the table in about 30 minutes. I served these on whole wheat Kaiser rolls, with a side of chips and veggies.


A commentor asked for a picture of our wedding cupcakes. I baked about 150 chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW and a good friend made the buttercream icing. I started baking about a month before the wedding (they freeze beautifully). We then had an icing party a couple of days before the wedding. You can't beat good friends. These were topped with a blue or brown chocolate candy. (Blue and brown were our colours). Our friend also made a vegan cake for us to cut into and serve to the head table. It was chocolate cinnamon with buttercream.



I didn't think to take pictures of the meal, but we went with a buffet and the hotel made lots of great vegan options like a pasta bake, rosemary potatoes, steamed veggies, rolls, salad, etc. So good and I was very pleased with the result.

Heavy on the comfort foods

Lots of food...my batteries were dead for a while so I have some catch up to do.

Cha Cha Chili-Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

I made this before heading out to my parent's camp for Valentine's weekend with the hubby. I was in a bit of a rush, so the beans were a little undercooked, but I simmered them some more once I got to camp. Chili=camp food. This is great with cheddar "cheese" and tortilla chips, or served on a baked potato. I couldn't get a good picture, but we all know what chili looks like. This one has rice, and I also added ground round at Billy's request.

Mac and cheeze, collard greens and oven fried spicy chicken-Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food

I had a southern themed meal last week. The oven fried spicy seitan chicken was way too dry, but the coating is still good. The collard greens were rubbery, which could be my fault. The real star of this meal was the mac and cheese. I admit, I had high expectations for mac and cheese out of a whole cookbook dedicated to comfort foods, so when I flipped to the recipe and saw that it did not use soymilk or cheese substitutes, but nuts, I was a little skeptical. But, wow, it's delicious. Billy ate all my leftovers...and if Billy likes it, it's good! I didn't get a picture, but the recipe is on the cover of the book. This recipe is worth buying the book to have it!

http://www.vegcomfortfood.com/

Spinach Cheeze tofu scramble and breakfast biscuits- Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food

For breakfast this morning, I had easy breakfast biscuits and the spinach cheeze scramble. The biscuits are great, and once again, Billy is eating all of them. The tofu scramble has tons of flavour, and has nooch added in at the end of cooking, which gives it a good texture.

Tuno casserole, green salad and 1000 island dressing- Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food

This tuno casserole was missing something. BUT, I will say that I was forced to use kelp flakes instead of dulse flakes, and its almost a sin to give a negative recipe review if you didn't follow the directions perfectly, so I'll have to give it another try. It has pasta, a white cheese sauce, peas, and chickpeas. I refried it today with a touch of ketchup (don't ask me why, I'm not usually a fan of it except with fries) and more salt and pepper, and it was much better. For a side...green salad with 1000 island dressing. The dressing is amazing!! I cannot keep this one in the fridge or I'll be in trouble!

Pear crisp for two- Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food

And lastly the pear crisp for two. Simple and very good! I like that it's baked in two small ramekins for individual servings. It made it easy to omit pecans in Billy's but top mine with a few.

Everyday food and an anniversary

Where to start? Chronological order, I guess.

Last Sunday, Billy was supposed to have friends over to watch the football games. So I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies (Vive le Vegan) and chocolate raspberry cookies (Veganomicon), two tried-and-true recipes. And Billy even whipped up a vegan ranch dip for his chips, which is really good. But of course, the guys never showed (hungover) so we were stuck with all this food. I didn't have any cookies but I know they're delicious.


Then, to use up some white wine sitting in my fridge, I made peaches with spiced white wine, from Vegan Italiano. The wine is simmered with sugar and cinnamon sticks and then tossed with fresh peach slices. I don't drink or like wine...but this dessert isn't too bad, since the peaches are good, and the cinnamon sugar syrup helps out a bit too ;)

For lunches, I prepared easy Mexican wraps from the Candle Cafe cookbook. Quinoa and black beans are wrapped up in a tortilla with citrus-cilantro-marinated grilled tofu and a tomato-avocado pasta. These are very filling, and a nice change from regular sandwiches.


And lastly, yesterday Billy and I celebrated our anniversary and decided to have a romantic dinner at home with some of our favourite foods. So the appetizer was bruschetta on a whole wheat baguette (not pictured) and dinner was La Dolce Vegan's amazing mac n' cheese recipe, with a twist. Billy stirred in about a tablespoon of cajun seasoning. SPICY! I don't care what anyone says, mac and cheese by candlelight is just as romantic as any other recipe :) The picture I have is of the leftovers so it doesn't show how deliciously creamy this recipe really is!

Dessert, requested by Billy, was carrot cake. So I tried a new recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch for carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. This is originally supposed to be a two layer cake, but that comes out to about 800 calories per 1/12th of the cake....and that does not make a Skinny Bitch. So I made just one layer and half the icing recipe. This cake is fantabulous! It is so moist that it is fragile, and it could stand alone without any frosting. In fact, I found the icing to be a little too thick/sweet, and would prefer a lite glaze instead. But we both wolfed our pieces down with glee.

Another post, look at me go!

I have lots of meals planned but first I have to finish off my leftovers. So far since my last post, I've been eating up the tempeh pie slowly.

I also adapted a recipe from Cooking for the Rushed, and made a "beef" enchilada casserole, which is basically like a "mexican" lasagna. I'm very pleased with the results. It's a cheesy beef mix with salsa and onion, layered in lasagna noodles and topped with more soy cheese. It is comfort food at it's best. I top it with a little more salsa and some Tofutti Sour Cream. Now these are leftovers I don't mind!


From Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, I made a breakfast sandwich. This consists of fried tofu, soy bacon, soy cheese (optional), tomato slices and some seasoning. It is delicious and very filling. It kept me satisfied right until lunch time. I served it with a side of the yummiest organic strawberries I've ever tasted.

More to come!

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!