8 Healthy, Yummy Meals and Snacks

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Well, at least I'm early for the last set of wishes. I actually starting crafting this post on December 1 (maybe that date will even show up at the bottom of this post since it's been in draft mode so long?). My new year's resolution will be to post more - it's just been a little tricky since free time is pretty hard to come by with a busy toddler and another little one on the way! Thank goodness my all-day sickness has waned, allowing me to again be excited to try new recipes.

Chelsea Style Waffles from Vegan Brunch - the first time I made these I just subbed maple syrup since I was too lazy to go to the pantry to find my barley malt. Am I ever glad that one day I did muster up the strength! I love the malted taste. And these always turn out, unless past waffle disasters.

Green Goddess Pizza from VwaV - what took me so long to make this!!! Delicious, but hideously garlicky. I now make Isa's dough recipe in my breadmaker, but use whole wheat flour, and it turns out great.

Chickpea Eggplant Stew from Vcon - I was on a real eggplant kick for a while. This was pretty easy and so yummy. Unfortunately, I can't stomach the thought of eggplant anymore, so I'll have to wait until the end of this pregnancy to try this again.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup from Vegan Lunch Box - love it! Ash gobbles this up. Great way to eat what I find to be a bland veggie.

Heart Healthiest Cookie in the World from VT - I may have the title completely wrong, but geez, it's a long one. They were good, but a little labour intensive. The second time I made these, I tried making them with agave nectar and skipping the whole EB/sugar melting step, but they turned out pretty gross.

Leek and Bean Cassoulet from Vcon - I can't say it was my fave. I like making my own veggie pot pies with chick'n tenders instead. Maybe I found it too beany?

Stewed Tofu with Miso Gravy from VwaV - I served it with mashed sweet potatoes and it was heavenly.

Eggplant Moussaka from Vcon - loved it! But again, will put this one on hold. I found it to be much less labour intensive than the rollatini but with the same great taste. I think I used jarred pasta sauce to avoid extra effort.


I received plenty of new cookbooks for Christmas - Vegan Soul Kitchen, Short Cut Vegan and Vegan Comfort Food, so I'm totally pumped about blogging about them!

Gluten Free for a Week (well, almost...)

This week's menu is courtesy of October's Vegetarian Times. And I guess with it being Celiac Month, many of the recipes are gluten free (GF). Over the past few months I've been trying some GF recipes as an added challenge to just vegan cooking, so it seemed like a fun task to try some of these meals out this week.

I first have to note that I would have modified the order of the recipes presented, but damn blogger is giving me a hard time with copying/pasting and moving pics around...argh...

Pumpkin Parfaits with Oat Crunch - Wow, awesome! The Oat Crunch tastes like Kashi Go Lean Crunch, and with sweetened pumpkin pie filling, this really does satisfy a sweet tooth. I really wish we could eat these at Thanksgiving instead of pumpkin pie. Well, maybe these and a slice of pumpkin pie.

Tasty Tofu Patties - Tasty? Yes. Tofu? Yes. Patties? No - more like crumbles. I have no idea what I did wrong but this stuff just didn't hold together at all. Maybe some chickpea flour would have helped! Ah well. Plus, the recipe said it would make 8 patties - I got to 10 and still had 1/2 the mixture leftover. I'm going to just cook it up like a scramble - way less effort. I served these with my Actually Crispy Sweet Potato Fries...rice flour for these fries this time to stick with the whole GF theme.


Curried Red Lentil Soup - I have about a billion red lentil soup recipes, but something stood out about this one. It was great! And Ashley gobbled it up, so based on that alone, this one is a keeper. I kinda cheated on the whole GF thing, as I served it with multi-grain whole wheat bread.

OK, so this one is the only thing that's not from VT and it's not really GF, but I worry that if I don't blog about it now I'll forget to! Zucchini Spelt Muffins from Vegan Brunch. I don't have much luck with grated carrots or zucchinis in baking, as everything turns out soggy. This was the case with this muffin, sadly. I'm sure it's user error and not the recipe, as Isa is a Recipe Goddess.

Roasted Ratatouille Pizza with Chewy Pizza Dough - OK - the dough. I'm used to 'tough' pizza dough. I thought I'd done something wrong because this gluten-free dough was runnier than my pancake batter. But I followed the instructions to spread the dough with a baggie on my hand and it turned out great. A little soggy, but actually edible. More edible than I thought considering some of the GF stuff I've made has been pretty gross. I don't know if I will make this crust again, but I will definitely roast up the veggies like this for topping future pizzas! I do also have to note that I didn't have that 'heavy' feeling that I normally have after woofing down several slices of pizza. As for the veggies, I would normally cook off some of the liquid on the stovetop, but roasting made the veggies a little chewy and delicious!

Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salad Topping - I had my doubts about this turning out since the chickpeas were so lumpy compared to the runny batter. But the chickpea flour really did make a crepe-like texture and everything held together perfectly! Great off the griddle and also tasty cold the next day.

Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Popcorn - So tasty! Basically microwave popcorn with melted Earth Balance, Sucanat and cinnamon. Tasted just like the cinnamon toast I made as a kid where I loaded it with margarine, a ton of sugar and cinnamon goodness. So yummy! But very calorie heavy. I ate most of the recipe myself, so I probably had about 10 of the 1/2 cup servings to myself. Honestly, who would be able to eat only a meager 1/2 cup of this stuff?

Autumn Vegetable Tagine (no pic - no idea how I forgot to snap one) - I have a pressure cooker since I use it to save time on a meal, but with having to bring it to high pressure three separate times while making this recipe, I didn't find it to be all that helpful. The flavour of this dish was kinda blah and while it wasn't horrible, it really wasn't worth the effort. I also felt a little deceived since a glance at the photo in the mag showed all ingredients, including the couscous (in my case, quinoa) mixed into the pressure cooker. Of course, this made me think it was a one-pot meal. In reality, the grain is cooked separately, adding a little more effort than I originally thought.

The upcoming week's menus are more simple, as I'm trying a few reliable faves since Ashley got stuck with a nasty stomach bug and needs to eat up! I think there are a few sneaky dips that I might be able to blog about though.

Assorted Recipes

Wow, I think I've been storing up some pics again. I shouldn't do that since I forget what I made (I caught myself staring closely at some of the pics, wracking my brain trying to remember what it was - especially when some of the ingredients are nearly indecipherable!). My brain hurts from all of this thinking that I can't even think of an exciting title for this post.

But first, I have to report on Veg Fest. It was great! I honestly couldn't believe how many people were there! It was insane! Crazy that there are that many vegetarians/vegans/interested folks in Ottawa. I only wish the attendance would have encouraged Whole Foods to open here! We didn't stay too long, since the little one was a little crusty with all of the people around. I had hoped to order from one table with a bunch of different things, but as soon as it was my turn in line most of the options were already gone and it would be another 10 minutes (an eternity with a screaming child!) for their replacements to show up. My plans for a cupcake were nixed too. Ah well. There's always next year! If any of the organizers are reading, I hope that the circle of tables in the middle makes rows next year so that some of the space can be used better...especially when I'm sure more people will make it out!

Now back to the food...in my attempt to make faster meals to get dinner on the table at our most harried time of the day, I turned again to Nava Atlas' Vegan Express. Sweet and White Potato Salad with Mixed Greens. Not bad, but weird having cooked potatoes in it!

From Vegan Express yet again, White Pizza with Sweet Potato and Carmelized Onions. World's ugliest pizza, but tasted good. I had a hard time getting the sweet potatoes cooked well enough. It was a little too much work for me.

A winner from VT - Warm Potato Sald Primavera (May/June 2009). So yummy and a little unique! I love how the pesto was so thick.

From VT again, Thai Red Curry with Green Beans and Eggplant (April 2009). Omigod. I'm not a Thai food fan, but I loved how quick it was and how this tasted! Even without the curry sauce! I added Pete's Szechuan Tofu to this, which added lots of heat! I have to make this again, and it also encouraged me to try more recipes with a coconut milk base - such an easy and yummy way to make a creamy and filling texture!

From Vegan a Go-Go, some brown rice-lentil casserole (I forget the name, and I already returned the book to the library). I thought Ash would like it, but nope. I made it into patties the next night with some added breadcrumbs.

Some kind of stroganoff? I don't even remember making this! Must have been the day after a rough night or something. I'll guess that it's from the same cookbook as the last recipe.

From Skinny B*tch in the Kitch, Penne with Butternut Squash, Sage Pesto and Almonds. Delicious! Yet another winner from this little cookbook.

I'm loving my weekly recipe from Veg News. I'd been saving a tube of polenta just for this! Polenta Fries - very quick, different and yummy!

ps - Blogger is being irritating with the spacing and we got a new camera where I couldn't find the macro button :)

Clearing Out the Archives

I was checking out my pics, and realized that I hadn't posted a few gems. Because it's been so long, I can't really remember the exact titles and where things were from, but I'll do my best.

First up, Cardamom Rice Pudding from an issue of Vegetarian Times. I love rice pudding, but I didn't love this one. Maybe it was all of the almonds plus dried cranberries and strong cardamom flavour, but this was a little much. I'll stick to my usual recipe.

I had some baby cereal that tasted way too iron-fortified for Ash to like, so I used it up in my banana muffins recipe! I tossed some in with some oats and added a little extra soymilk. They were my best muffins ever!

Mystery salad alert! I have NO idea what this was, but I think it was from a recent VT issue. I don't think I'll make it again, whatever it was, probably because I wouldn't even know what issue to look in!

Now for all the good stuff - delicious Vegan Lasagna from the latest VT. A little bit of effort, but pretty fast. Instead of cooking onions and garlic separately for each of the Speedy Red Sauce and Spinach Filling, I cooked them together and split them up. Cut down on alot of the time. I have to say that this recipe did confirm that I really don't like vegan cheese. I never liked regular cheese, so I'm not sure why I thought I'd like soy cheese, but I gave it another shot with this recipe and will omit it in the future.

Triple Nut Torte from a holiday issue of VT. Very easy, and super good! Instead of using a double boiler for melting the chocolate, I just stuck chocolate chips in a bowl and put the bowl on the hot cookie sheet (used to toast the nuts). Melted like a charm! Why don't the authors put these tips in? I'm sure it's not just new moms that don't need extra effort nor to wash extra dishes!

Finally, the most delicious Pan Pizza ever. I used the crust recipe from the most recent VT, but filled it with Isa Pizza toppings instead. Way better than the Hut, even for obvious reasons that it isn't laden with pepperoni! I can't wait to make this again. I'm going to try a pile of different mushrooms and onions. I'm so glad that I have a cast iron pan just for this recipe alone!

Summery Stuff

From VT's July/August again I made three recipes. The first was Barbecued Tofu and Grilled Corn Salad. Fabulous! I never managed to get grill marks when using my grill pan but it worked great!

Next up was Roasted Vegetables (no photo). Very basic, but I never put veggies under the broiler like this with such good results. I’ll definitely do this again when making pizzas with roasted veggies. Way better than the sogfest I usually end up with cooking marinated veggies in a wok pan.

Finally, my last recipe from VT was for Mango-Teriyaki Tofu with Brown Jasmine Rice. Delicious! I used leftover salad dressing from the revolting salad I made in the last post. Super easy. Again, great grill marks on the tofu from my grill pan, except after I flipped the tofu, I left it on the grill too long/at too high of a temperature since it went beyond grill marks. I scorched the sauce onto the tofu. Kyle was kind enough to pick it off each slice :(

I then made Rainbow Rice from W Network’s He Said, She Said. I really liked watching Mary Jo Eustace and Ken Kostick in the 90’s on What’s for Dinner, so I was happy to see them pair up again. Poor MJ...I would be bitter too if my hubby left me for Tori Spelling of all people. Anyways, she came up with an interesting recipe for peanut butter in a colourful rice dish that I had to try. Sounds like it’s got everything in it but the kitchen sink. I managed to use a few substitutions (including edamame and corn instead of the peas and omitted the bananas since I will never cook with them again) and it was pretty good and very easy. I’d say it’s a comfort food dish and I liked how it had lots of protein too. I wouldn’t say that this would be a recipe that I’d serve at a fancy dinner since it doesn’t look the greatest.

More VT - Back to May

After having moderate success with the June issue of VT, I decide to go back to the May issue and make a few things. First up was Pita Panzanella. I was surprised at how tasty this was. I did substitute edamame for the frozen peas (blah) and I think that was a better choice to add more protein. I always expect a meal to taste like mint gum whenever I read mint in the list of ingredients, but I’m always pleasantly surprised! The best part of the recipe was toasting pita triangles in a little olive oil – I must do that from now on!

Next, I made a Greek Lentil Salad. Good – even better a few days later.

I wasn’t too impressed with the Burst-of-Spring Salad (no photo). Yes, I did omit the radishes because I don’t like them and my avocado wasn’t healthy-looking enough to add, but I don’t think either of those two ingredients would have helped. The dressing was really watery and simply tasted like I poured orange juice on spinach. I’ll stick to my tried and true orange spinach salad with red onion vinaigrette.

The Italian Eggplant Ragout was pretty tasty – although allowing the eggplant to hang out with 2 tablespoons of salt not only removed it’s bitterness, it made the dish REALLY salty and the eggplant actually tasted pickled! And I did rinse the eggplant well!


Finally, on Friday, I made Edamame Rice Bowls. Very easy. Remarkably tasty. Even better with the necessary addition of something salty like tamari. I should mention that I used crumbled tofu instead of feta.

VT - June!

So I’m back to making some meal plans again – thank goodness! I’ve been looking at some of the time-friendly recipes from issues of VT. I first tried some recipes from the June 2008 issue. I tried the Spring Orzo Salad and was totally delighted. It was easy! I did make some substitutions, of course. For added protein, I used edamame instead of the frozen peas. Delish!

I then made the Golden Bowl, which was essentially a stir fry. I was surprised that this was voted as one of the favourite reader recipes from some veg restaurant, but whatever. I found it quite bland (which certainly says something, as I don’t like anything remotely spicy!).

The best recipe from this issue was the vegan Mac and Cheese. I was seeking some comfort food, and oh my god, I found it! Now, I do have to say that it doesn’t taste like mac n’ cheese, which is why I like it. I never liked the taste of cheese so I don’t often seek out anything trying to mimic the taste. But something was telling me to try this recipe. Am I ever glad I did! It was so easy, the sauce was mild, and the leftovers were even good! I made it gluten free by using brown rice pasta too.

Finally, I wanted to offer a little public service announcement. They look nice, but do not make the Roasted Bananas. Two weeks later, I still want to mini-vomit. See, I thought that I would have these delicious crispy bananas in a caramel sauce. Instead, despite following the recipe to a “T” (OK, close to a “T”, I used cinnamon instead of allspice), I ended up with soggy, stringy bananas in a sickeningly sweet sauce. I didn’t help that Kyle split the results between the two of us when the recipe was to serve EIGHT! Regardless, one little banana half was enough to know that this was not good. Ugh...

Chowin' Down

Once again, this week was pretty busy on the food front. I had to use up the last of our garden bounty, and VwaV inspired me to team my remaining grape tomatoes with pesto and pasta. I made my usual pesto with fresh basil, ground almonds, garlic, olive oil, sundried tomatoes and salt, then mixed it with sautéed grape tomatoes and onions, and finally tossed it all with pasta and olive oil. It was a really great way to end this past season - I'm already looking forward to next summer's garden! Although, that's not so hard to believe - Ottawa winters are dreadful and we always look forward to the nice weather!




Later in the week, I made Orange-Glazed Tofu and Broccoli from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. Oddly enough, it tasted just like this. But it seemed way easier! I'd definitely make this again in a heartbeat. And I liked it with the tofu, since seitan seems to be turning my stomach these days.



On the baked goods front, I think I've nearly made every muffin recipe with VwaV. I have been tempted by the Ginger Raisin Bran Muffins, but since I'm not a fan of raisins nor crystallized ginger, I made a couple of subs to include nuts and a chopped pear. I'll definitely make these again, as I really liked how they tasted just like something from a bakery - not too soft and moist like my muffins usually are!



Last night, I decided to make something from the November/December 2007's issue of VT - I've been looking to add to my salad repertoire, and the Spinach-and-Orange Salad with Almonds and Honey-Sesame Dressing fit the bill. Now, I didn't want to use the honey, so in my usual fashion, I substituted half the amount of honey with maple syrup, and the other half with agave nectar. Omigod - this salad was great! Very easy too. I also drizzled my leftover dressing from my plate onto my leftover Orange-Glazed Tofu and Broccoli serving - I'm so refined :( I hope my mother doesn't read this, but I figure it was better than licking my salad plate clean (which, of course, I NEVER do...)



Tonight, Kyle and I made separate batches of Sarah's Stew - his with meat, and mine featuring Yves Chick'n Tenders (due to my recent non-fondness of seitan, I've been using these, which oddly enough, I can stomach). Here's the recipe:

Sarah's Stew

6 large potatoes, unpeeled and diced into 1-inch cubes
1 head cauliflower, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
2 large onions, diced
2 cups savoy cabbage (optional)
2 cups celery, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 jar tomato paste
2 teaspoons marjoram
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon celery salt
pepper to taste
8 cups vegetable stock
1 ½ tablespoons Spike seasoning

*Yves Chick'n Tenders, optional

Heat oil in an extra large cooking pot. Add the vegetables. Stir well for 2 - 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste, herbs, Spike and pepper, then pour in the stock and tenders (if using). Stir well, and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover pot and simmer for 30 minutes. By this time, the water should have been absorbed and the vegetables will be tender. Tastes way better the next day.

Our Special Day

Yesterday we celebrated something very important to us.



Pete and I wanted to have an intimate, relaxed ceremony at home with our family. And of course, it had to be vegan. Being the busy day that it was, I only got a photo of the whole table after the hungry guests had a few bites.



We had a veggie tray from Farmboy and Dairy-free Ranch Dip from April 2007 VT, a fruit tray with a dip that I made from soy yogurt, strawberries, a banana and agave nectar, Vietnamese Vegetarian Salad Rolls from the Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant, hummus and pita, nachos and Farmboy salsa, Parisien Bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and veggie sushi from Ebi Sushi. The owner was sweet enough to open her restaurant early to have the sushi ready for us, and it was excellent. Here is the pre-party tray.



And the piece-de-resistance, a two-vegan-sister effort, with a little help from Isa and Terry, our wedding cupcakes.



Sarah made the Coconut Lime Cupcakes and the Lemon Macadamia Cupcakes (although she subbed almonds for the mac nuts) which were both absolutely spectacular. I heard many compliments about the Lemon Cupcakes in particular, and it is rumoured that Kyle deserves credit for the idea of the lemon rind heart at the top of the icing swirl. I made the Pistachio Rosewater cuppers, which I really liked too. Just a note for anyone that wants to make them identical to the cover of VCTOTW - I think they used the alternate topping suggestion, the Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting, to make them look like that. I actually preferred the Rosewater Glaze for this cupper - it was delicately sweet and didn't overpower the flavour of the cupcake.

We "cut the cake" and enjoyed each of Sarah's cupcakes.



It was a fabulous day and we're grateful that we have so many wonderful people to share it with.

I loved the wedding flowers, by Anika's Arts and Flowers, also in Barrhaven (I gotta plug the local businesses - buy local!)





We're on our honeymoon now, and we didn't even use any fossil fuels getting here.