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.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. Ours was busy, with lots of traveling, but fabulous none the less.

Here's the food I've made in the last few weeks, in random order.

Roasted garlic and tomato rice soup-Veganomicon
YUM


Braised "chicken", kale and brussel sprouts- Veganomicon

Delicious, quick and easy. I used PC meatless chicken instead of making seitan.


Pasta with arugula and sundried tomatoes- Vegan Italiano
Another simple pasta dish from VI....never goes wrong.


Vegetable Pizza- Vegan Italiano
This has tons of veggies: asparagus, zucchini, tomato, onion. And instead of tomato sauce its garlic olive oil as a base. I topped it with some Daiya mozzarella. Mmmmmmm.


Minestrone- Vegan Slow Cooker
I left the pasta in a little long at the end, so it ended being more of a pasta dish with soupy sauce, but it was fantastic. Billy devoured this.


I've been knitting like a fool since October to make my family some knitted Christmas gifts. Now that I can finally show them, here they are!

Mom-in-law's argyle lace hat
I loved that I got to make my own buttons!



Mom's cable lap blanket
Super quick and easy but it ended up being smaller than I hoped. When I make this again, I'll add a fifth panel and knit it all in one piece rather than seaming four panels together.


Sister's Firefly Shawl-
I was a bit skeptical of this but it looks awesome on my stylish sister!


Brother's Extra Warm Man Scarf
Meant as a hug every time he puts it on :)


And to use up some scrap yarn, I knitted two snoods for our dogs on those cold winter walks ;) (Also known as the hat of humiliation)

I'm back!

I took a break from cooking. First, because Billy was out of town and I felt lazy and lived like a bachelor, and then when he was back we just wanted to hang out so I didn't want to be in the kitchen all night. Plus the weather has been so nice, we uncovered the BBQ, and that's Billy's domain :). But, I've done my groceries and I'm ready to jump back into it...

Vanilla ice cream cake with caramel sauce- Vive le Vegan

This is a vanilla cake layered with banana, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. I left out the pecans so Billy would eat it too. Next time, I'll make the sauce with a darker sugar...but very good.


Chicken Cacciatore with pasta-Vegan Slow Cooker

This was easy to prepare. I just had to slice up some green pepper, onion and garlic, and mix it with marinara and seasonings. It cooked with the PC Meatless chicken in the slow cooker, and we just made some pasta in the evening. Very filling!

Caesar salad with sourdough garlic croutons- Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Foods
I whipped this up quickly last night to go with the chicken cacciatore. The dressing is very easy. I only reduced the amount of capers, since I'm not a huge fan. The croutons are so yummy!



Brownies- Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar
Made at Billy's request for Fox's cartoon night....easily one of the best brownies I've ever made!Nice and chewy. Make them!

Lots of Food!

Today, is my last day of class!! But I'm not done school. I have next week off and then I have a month of practicum teaching...then I'm done! Woot!

I've been cooking more lately, which feels great.

First, I made a pasta recipe from 125 Best Vegan Recipes: penne with sundried tomatoes, artichokes, portobellos, roasted red peppers and onions. The onions are lightly caramelized, and then you throw in the rest of the ingredients, ten minutes later you have dinner. This dish was really good and something that I'd expect to get from a restaurant.

I also made the lemon and pea risotto from Veganomicon. Yum yum. The basic risotto before the addition of lemon juice, zest and peas was good too, but I really like the lemon twist. It's served with roasted red peppers.

I made cookies for class yesterday, although I ended up being one of two people that brought something so they didn't last long. I made the chocolate raspberry cookies from V'con. They are so good! Chewy and rich, with a distinct almond flavour from the almond extract. I think the word "almond" should be in the name of these cookies because it kind of overrides the raspberry flavour. Nevertheless, very good cookies and they were loved by my classmates.

Also, from V'con, I made banana bread for Billy. For some reason, my microwave timer stopped so the correct baking time on these was kind of a guess, but it turned out really well. The molasses in the recipe gives it a nice, different flavour.

Last, I made some slowcooker porridge from Vegan Slowcooker, using steel cut oats. The taste was good, but in the morning the porridge had brown spots on top, so I'd cook it a little less next time. With some brown sugar and soy milk, it was a good breakfast to start the day.

Comfort Food

Sometimes, its fun to just wing it and not use a recipe. As I mentioned before, I didn't do many groceries for the week, since I want to just eat whatever I already have on hand and save some money. I decided to have a downright comfort food meal for dinner last night. I had mashed potatoes, peas and corn and my own version of shake and bake. For that, I thawed some "beef" seitan I made from La Dolce Vegan, coated it in a breading and baked it for ten minutes. This meal really hit the spot.

It was my friend's birthday yesterday and she had a potluck. I brought a 5 layer dip and guacamole along with some tortilla chips. The dip is from Garden of Vegan and is yummy. Refried beans, sour cream, salsa and nacho cheese. Everyone loved the guacamole, although I've had better. I got the recipe from the simple little vegan slow cooker.

Why is there always too much cabbage?

Billy and I went out for dinner tonite after skating. I got the veggie burger at Kelsey's...it is freakin' huge! I'm talking like a 6 inch diametre at least! I ended up just eating the burger and the veggies, since I forgot to ask for no mayo, and it was all over the bun.

So I made the eggroll filling from the Simple Little Vegan Slowcooker, but couldn't find vegan egg roll wrappers, so I just made spring rolls instead. They're okay. It could be because I baked them instead of frying. I made an easy peanut sauce from VegWeb to spice it up a bit, and served it with some seasoned brown basmati. I do enjoy the crunchiness of the rolls though.

I was left with 3/4 of a head of cabbage from the rolls, so I made the tomato cabbage soup from La Dolce Vegan. It was a last minute meal, so I didn't have any caraway seeds and used cumin seeds instead. Very good. I stirred in some rice to the leftover soup today, and it was even better.

I had planned on making some things from Vive this week, but it may have to wait unfortunately, since I have all these leftovers to eat! Billy refuses to eat anything containing cabbage, so I'm on my own.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can use up half a head of cabbage?

Next stop...my thighs.

I got to use my slow cooker again yesterday to make Bacon and Lentil Soup from the Simple Little Vegan Slow Cooker. When we got home, the room smelled so good! The bacon strips (Yves) in this soup give it an amazing smokey taste since it cooks all day. I threw in some aduki beans I had in the fridge and subbed out the cilantro for basil, oregano and rosemary. So delicious!! I also made a french baguette from Garden of Vegan to eat with the soup. Nothing beats dunking fresh bread into a good soup, it was my favourite part of the meal!



Some exciting news (for me at least, not my body)... Katie a.k.a Sam's Mom generously gave me a copy of Vecan Cupcakes Take Over the World, since she got another one for Christmas. I'm not making any cupcakes til Valentine's Day, but I cannot wait. I owe all future enjoyment of cupcakes to Katie :) Thanks so much!!

Coming home to dinner

I didn't have time to take a picture of lunch today...but it'll be the same all week, so I'll get one eventually. Its perfect for this snowy weather we just got.

Dinner tonight was made thanks to my slow cooker and a recipe from The Simple Little Vegan Slow Cooker; Sloppy Josephines. Let me tell you, the smell in the apartment when we got home was amazing! These are really simple with ground round, ketchup, onions, bell peppers and some other stuff served over whole wheat kaiser rolls. I forgot to buy brown mustard and had to use dijon, but it worked out fine. Also, I couldn't find dark nonalcoholic beer so I improvised and used water with some tamari. These had such a great BBQ flavour. And Billy went crazy over them! He ate 3 and barely left me any leftovers for tomorrow! They weren't very sloppy though. The sauce thickened considerably, but I don't think that's a really bad thing.

I've also made the stuffed peppers from the book, which Billy also really enjoyed.

This weekend I had a craving for cheese biscuits, like the ones at work. But I didn't have any bisquick mix and all the recipes seemed to call for it, so I just made whole wheat biscuits from Table for Two, mixed in some Earth Island cheddar cheese and topped them with some garlic butter. They did the trick. The picture isn't all that great, but these were delicious.