Yay for slowcookers!

Here is the wait-for-you stew from Vegan Comfort Food. It's made in the slow cooker, convenient! It's very basic: carrots, potatoes, celery, seitan, "beef" broth and some seasonings....but it's so good! True comfort food. I ruined the picture by putting crackers in, but it had a bit more broth than usual for a stew. I love recipes that use seitan where you just have to mix up the seitan and plop it in to cook with the rest of the ingredients. Mmmmmmm....

I bought a new belgian waffle maker with my PC points yesterday...I was tired of seeing yummy recipes that I couldn't make. Plus I'm getting Vegan Brunch soon, so I need to be ready!

To test it out, I made the banana walnut waffles from Veganomicon. These are good enough to eat on their own but I'm a maple freak! Although, you don't need as much as usual due to the sweetness of the bananas. Great way to use up ripe bananas too! I froze the leftovers for a quick breakfast during the work week.

Also, I remade the fettucine alfredo from Comfort Food, with regular unsweetened soy milk....so good!

I've got chik'n seitan simmering right now. Dinner is oven fried chicken, mac and cheese and collards.

Comfort Foods

We've been on a bit of a banana bread kick lately...I try to make different kinds of baked goods with bananas, but Billy still always asks for banana bread. And why not, it's one of the greatest foods of all time! I like to change up which recipe I use for variation though. This time, I used the recipe from How It All Vegan. This loaf is so moist and sweet, and the chocolate chips don't hurt either! It has dates in it, which really give a soft texture.

From my new cookbook, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (I know, I know, everyone else already has it :P), I made the carrot raisin spice cookies. Keeping Billy in mind, I left out the walnuts and coconut (picky!), and they still turned out wonderfully. These are delicious, with a great chewy and soft texture. The lemon glaze drizzled on top adds some extra pizzazz.

Omelettes were made for Sunday mornings. I made the spinach omelette from Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food...and it was very comforting! My first omelette didn't come out too nicely but it still tasted good! These were a little oily, but only because I eyeballed the oil for frying...next time I will reduce it. I still love the tofu omelette from Garden of Vegan, but this one has more of an eggy texture. Yum!

Also from Comfort Food, I made the wait-for-you slowcooker stew. That's for lunch today so I'll post it later!

New Cookbooks!

As much as I love my latest apartment, I have to say, it's really not the ideal lighting for food photography :(. Nevertheless, I won't let that keep me from blogging...I'm on a roll!

To keep my motivation for cooking up, I bought two new vegan cookbooks....every vegan's favourite thing in the world! Well, at least mine. I bought Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar...which I didn't even know existed until I saw it in the store...out of the loop or what?!?

Anyways, the recipes in Comfort Food sound delicious so I was eager to try them right away! For dinner yesterday, I made the alfredo sauce ( the book has two recipes for it) with linguine and the french onion soup. The creamer I used for the sauce was sweet which I didn't know, so the sauce was a bit off. Still ate it though, so it must be really good with non-sweetened creamer, or even soy milk. This was supposed to be topped with steamed broccoli, but I forgot to add that to my grocery list.

The french onion soup was more complicated than other recipes I've tried. That being said, it wasn't hard by any means, but required more cooking time and had more ingredients for the broth. This soup has caramelized onions, worcestershire sauce, red wine, vegetable stock, and thyme. And it's delicious! The extra time is worth it to get such a rich tasting broth. This soup is topped with a slice of toasted French baguette and mozzarella. Mmmmmmmmm....and Billy doesn't like onions, so I got it all to myself!

This morning, I made the Egg MacGuffins. The little egg patties are so cute! And they're very simple to make. My breakfast sandwich was on a whole wheat english muffin with the egg, tofutti cheese, and a slice of fake lunch meat, since sausage patties cannot be found around here anymore. I added a bit of vegenaise to give it some zip. These are great, and will become a part of my morning!

Also, here are the banana date scones from Veganomicon that I made...

Wanna see my weiner?

My husband and I got a puppy just before Christmas. A miniature dachshund (weiner dog) named Dill (as in the pickle). She is rambunctious and beautiful...and lots of work!

Billy and I made the hearty bean soup from 125 Best Vegan Recipes before the weekend. I brought some with me to camp, and it was the perfect meal after snowmobiling! Black beans, navy beans, celery, carrots, tomatoes...mmmm. Not the best picture, my new apartment just doensn't get the same great lighting for food pictures like my old place.

Today, I made the peas and basil risotto from Vegan Italiano, as well as the Tuscan beans and tomatoes. The risotto is so creamy! I love the fresh basil in it. The beans are also very good. The book tends to use can sizes that aren't available here, like 15 oz cans of beans or tomatoes, so I decided to up the amount of beans and tomatoes, but didn't bother to up the quantity of garlic and sage, so these could be more flavourful.

I also made the banana date scones from Veganomicon today but did not have time to take a picture, so I will try to post it later. I will say that they are very healthful, and a good breakfast bread. No refined sugar, just dates and brown rice syrup.

Squash and Soup

Well, that makes two posts this year! Yesterday, I made Spaghetti Squash Mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca, from Veganomicon. Billy likes this one, minus the salsa! The squash was still crunchy, which I don't know is normal, but it's pretty good. I like the occasional bite of fresh pineapple too!

Today, since I'm feeling a little under the weather, Billy made the delicious "chicken" and rice soup for the soul, from La Dolce Vegan. This is our go to soup, and I've blogged about it before. So easy to make! It only takes about 20 minutes, and then you have a delicious and nutritious soup to eat.

Oops...where did the time go?

Wow...over a year since I posted. Let's go!

I haven't been good at taking pictures, so I only have a picture of this lemon coconut bundt cake from Veganomicon. It is so tasty! I brought it to my French class tonight, and everyone loved it. Coconut milk, shredded coconut, lemon juice and lemon zest all in one, what a great combination!

Plus it gives me a reason to use my bundt pan which I received as a wedding gift...

Some of the cake stuck to the pan, so I had to do some patch work!

I have been cooking with a few girlfriends on Sunday nights. This week we made the potato kale soup from V'con....comfort food at its best! We also made vegan caprese salad, stuffed zucchini, and chocolate zucchini cake.

I promise to try and be a better blogger!

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!

Veganomicon Feast

I went on a cooking/baking spree one day to use up the groceries I had bought, before they went bad. It resulted in two entrees and two baked goods from Veganomicon.

First, pasta della california. It's linguine with a white wine garlic sauce, arugula, broccoli and avocado. The avocado is pretty good, since it's just added in at the end, although warming up leftovers is bit harder, since I don't feel like eating hot avocado. It's a good plate though, with just enough saltiness and spicyness.

Then I made the tempeh shepherdess pie. I had two packages of tempeh in the freezer, and this was a great way to use it up. The tempeh is simmered with a tamari mixture, then cooked with spices, peas and corn, and cremini mushrooms. Then you make a gravy sauce right in the whole mix! Top it with mashed potatoes and bake, and voila, you have dinner. I didn't have any soymilk left, so my potatoes are probably a little less creamy than desired, but it still tastes great. A very homey, comforting meal.


Then, to use up the pumpkin puree I had leftover from making a pie, I made pumpkin-cranberry scones. These are wonderfully spiced and not too sweet, but not bland either! It was my first time using fresh cranberries, and they provide a nice, tangy bite every once in a while. They're topped off with pumpkin seeds.


Also, I made chocolate hazelnut biscotti. There are so yummy. I love almond extract in chocolate things. I wish I had some soymilk around so I could dunk these in tea. I brought them, along with the scones, to work for everyone to try, and the biscotti was more popular, although I prefer the scones. Not to brag, but my baked goods are somewhat treasured at work now :) Once everyone hears I brought something in, it's a race to see who will get some. And no one cares that it's vegan.


Happy Halloween!

Catch Up

I could go on about how long I've been gone, but I won't bother. There's been little time/little motivation for me to be in the kitchen often, which is so not like me. But I'm starting to get back to business. To the food!

This is Mac Daddy from Veganomicon. It's a nutritional yeast cheesy sauce, mixed with macaroni and firm tofu and baked. It's pretty good for a nutritional yeast sauce, although I must admit I'm a "fake cheese" mac and cheese girl now. I plan on mixing the leftovers with some steamed broccoli.

Next, maple and brown sugar pinwheels, also from Veganomicon. I didn't have enough brown sugar, so I subbed the rest with regular sugar and molasses. These turned out very nicely. I didn't make the orange icing to go along with it. They're pretty sweet on their own, and as they bake the sugar coats one side with yummy goodness. They're like cinnamon rolls, but no cinnamon. The underused cardamom is used instead, along with allspice.

I couldn't get Thanksgiving off from work, and all of my family left town, so Billy and I had a small dinner at home together. I made a simple, but good, "meat and cheese" lasagna, and pumpkin pie. The pie recipe was from Sinfully Vegan. I believe I undercooked the crust, as it was a bit chewy on the bottom. I wasn't a huge fan of the filling. I know pumpkin pie isn't meant to be supersweet, but this one just wasn't sweet enough for me.

In the summer, I ordered marshmallows (which led to severe finger burns at a bonfire) and ricemellow creme, which led to some yummy homemade treats, such as:
Last minute smore with graham crackers, melted chocolate and ricemellow creme;

and rice krispie squares! These were pretty soft, but very yummy. I think I got the recipe from a youtube video for vegan rice krispies.


I've got plans for more food this week....if I get over this cold and feel like cooking.

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.