Winter Blahs

Well, we had a nice blend of precipitation today - freezing rain and wet heavy snow - at least it gives us a chance to have March come in like a lamb in comparison!

Today is Monday, and I had a bunch of library books due (I request all sorts of titles that come in all at once, it seems, and I never have a chance to even open the covers in the three weeks I have them). One of the books was Veganopolis. I had actually opened it when I first picked it up, and even made a recipe - it was for a homemade quinoa cracker. The recipe turned out really gross - I think I had rolled the dough out too thick, resulting in hard bricks that could easily call for some dental work. When I saw that it was due back today, I thumbed through it quickly and came across a 'Chicken' Noodle Soup that would be ideal for a crummy weather day and for using up some leftover seitan pot roast from Vegan on the Cheap. It was also a great way to use up little bits of pasta that remained in various pasta boxes in the pantry too!



Not only did the soup warm me up, but Tracy sent me an email from the National Capital Vegetarian Association regarding this year's Veg Fest...there's a cupcake competition! I'm super pumped! It sounds right up my alley - I just have to think of which one I could make...

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!

Veganomicon - Revisited!

Ah, so good to revisit a cookbook that I pull out so often. Since it's starting to get pretty chilly out there, I've been turning to warm soups and comforting entrees.

Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans - Tasty, but some baby spinach or something else green would have added some nice colour I think.



Eggplant Rollatini - OMG. Heavenly! ALOT of work, as indicated in the recipe, but so darn good! I really wonder if this would freeze well, as I'd be up for all the effort to just magically pull it out of the freezer one day and enjoy. I'm going to try the Eggplant Moussaka this week since it seems similar but less work.

Acorn Squash, Pear and Adzuki Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes - Sooooo glad I had Kyle peel that acorn squash. I would have hurled it across the kitchen in frustration for sure! Thanks Isa for the warning! Kyle didn't suspect a thing when I asked him to help out...hee hee. The flavours of this were great and I really liked the mushroom topping alot.

Chickpeas Romesco with Saffron Garlic Rice. I didn't have any white rice on hand, so I used brown and it was really sticky and mushy. I didn't really notice the saffron/garlic at all, oddly enough. But the Chickpeas Romesco part was delicious!

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.

Boring Post Alert - Soups and Muffins

Wow, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with a post...I made two pressure cooker soups from the Complete Vegetarian Kitchen by Lorna Sass. I wanted to use up some of the dried beans Kyle bought as part of our 'emergency' food stash. Honest to God, we have enough emergency food for the whole neighbourhood should some major catastrophe happen. Anyways, the first was White Bean with Escarole Soup. I subbed baby spinach since I don't think Loblaws carries escarole, but I never even tried looking for it. It was OK, but seemed a little bland.


Again, trying another bean soup, Adzuki Bean Soup with Corn (this is not the title, but I'm too lazy to dig out the book to check what it is). Meh - again, not alot of flavour. I was surprised at how the colour from the adzuki beans leached into the soup...interesting.



Continuing with the theme of boring, some simple Banana Blueberry Muffins. I basically mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tbsp ground flax with 3 mashed bananas, a little oil and soymilk to make a moist batter. I then add some frozen wild blueberries. Nothing exciting, but I changed it up making regular-sized and mini-muffins so Ash and I each had our own sized snack.

Coldbusters

Princess came home from school complaining that she wasn't feeling well. Wanting to stop her cold in its tracks, I figured soup was in order. A small head of savoy cabbage had caught Pete's eye at the grocery store earlier in the day, so it became the main ingredient in the soup. Here's a vegan nod to the infamous Chicken Soup remedy.




Ch-egan Cabbage Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 tblsp olive oil
1 large carrot, chopped into small pieces
1 new potato, cut into small cubes
5 cups of water, divided
3 tblsp vegan no-chicken broth powder
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
3 cups savoy cabbage, chopped finely
2 Gardein vegan “chicken breasts”, cut into small strips or Yves Chick'n Tenders, chopped
2 tsp sugar

Saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Add carrot and potato, broth powder and 1 cup of water. Braise for 5 mins. Add tomatoes, remaining water, salt, thyme and bay leaf. Simmer for 20 mins. Add cabbage, "chick'n" strips and sugar and cook until cabbage is soft. Remove bay leaf and serve.

And guess what? After a small bowl of soup, she was bouncing off the couch again.

Soup n' Such

So much to blog about, but truly, so little time...


As Tracy mentioned in her post, it's gotten so cold that soup is an ideal meal. I pulled out Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons and made a Creamy Golden Potato Squash Soup. It was so silky and smooth! One thing this recipe made me realize is to not use the crumbled bay leaves that came with my spice set - there's a reason why recipes always say to remove the whole bay leaf before serving (obviously not possible with the bits I have)...those things do not soften up and result in little irritating pieces with every bite.



Another delicious soup was courtesy of one of Sarah Kramer's books - Auntie Bonnie's Black Bean Soup. Delicious! The addition of vinegar was genius! It offered the perfect amount of tang! I was also impressed with how easy it was to put this together.



And still on the whole fall theme...time for pumpkin scones! Some pie pumpkins grew on their own in our garden thanks to our compost pile (I guess some of last year`s pie pumpkins' seeds germinated!), so I roasted them up and made Pumpkin Scones!



Fall also means Thanksgiving. I'm so late in posting my feast, and the pic is of my plate of leftovers! I'm terrible! But I was more concerned with eating my meal than taking a pic of it while the little girl was happy! I made Dreena Burton's Rosemary Tofu Balls into cutlets (I thought they were too spicy but everyone seemed to like them!), and served them with maple-ginger winter squash, mashed potatoes, stuffing and veggies.



And finally, it was little Ash's baptism. We had a big shindig at my mom's after the ceremony, which initially had me a little stressed since I wanted to make lots of food (including a dessert) but would have no time. I decided to outsource the dessert and proceeded to try and find somewhere that could make some kind of vegan cake. I searched on the web for places in Ottawa, but had no luck - one bakery told me they could do vegan, but to expect it to taste 'dry and bland' (what???) and to make a small cake for the few vegans at the party and do a non-vegan cake for everyone else. I knew there had to be a better option out there! Thank goodness one of the moms in my mom's group sent me a link to Lil' Cakes. They were able to do all sorts of vegan cupcakes for me!


I was indifferent about the whole ceremony, but super excited for the five dozen cupcakes that were waiting for us! There was vanilla with buttercream, vanilla with raspberry mousse filling, chocolate with chocolate mousse, pumpkin chocolate chip and gingerbread with lemon buttercream. Best of all, they were absolutely beautiful AND delicious! I think I might need to establish a weekly standing order for cupcakes...

Putting it All Together

I had a bunch of random thoughts regarding dinner last night. One - it's fall, I'm craving soup. Two - I want to come home from swimming and have dinner immediately because all of us will be cold and hungry. Three - I have a 4 lb bag of chana dal in the cupboard. Four - It has to be something healthy because I'm trying to lose a couple of pounds to make running easier. After scouring the interwebs to find the perfect recipe, I gave up and morphed some of the better ones into one to suit the ingredients that I had and the level of blandness that was required (after making one rather surprisingly volcanic Tofu Vindaloo this week, I had to redeem myself). The results were tasty, very healthy and made enough for the whole street (or to freeze for future quick Friday night meals).

Pardon the photo, but I was halfway through my bowl before I realized I might want a pic.



Golden Crockpot Split Chickpea Soup

2 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 lb chana dal (split chickpeas), rinsed
4 cups veggie broth (I used a 1L asceptic package that I bought on sale for $1.99)
4 cups water
2/3 cup Thai red rice (could substitute brown rice)
sea salt and pepper to taste

THE NIGHT BEFORE
Chop the veggies

THE MORNING OF
Saute the onions in olive oil until soft. Add the other veggies and saute for a few minutes. Add to the crockpot along with the dal. Add the veggie broth and water. Turn on low and cook for around four hours.

AT LUNCH/WHENEVER YOU CAN
Add the rice. Cook for another 2-4 hours. Add more water if it looks thick. I ended up adding more 2 cups.

AT DINNER
Stir and serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Every Course is Covered!

I think I've made enough new things when put altogether would serve as a 10-course meal!

I was feeling a little under the weather, but Vcon's Chickpea Noodle Soup hit the spot! I think it was so dark since I didn't have any light miso. Cool thing about this soup - it turns into a noodle casserole the next day!

This looks like next day's Chickpea Noodle Soup, but is actually some spaghetti recipe from an old copy of VT. It said to roast the spaghetti first in the oven before adding it to broth to cook, as it would give it a nutty taste. I didn't notice any difference and was annoyed at the time it took to do that extra step. It's served with some delicious potatoes from our garden that Kyle cooked up.

Speaking of Kyle cooking, here is his delicious salad!

Salad:
Shaved Carrots (garden)
Honey cherry tomatoes (garden)
Beefsteak tomatoes (garden)
Lebanese cucumber (garden)
2 cloves garlic (garden)
Basil (garden)

Dressing:
3 parts olive oil
1/3 part balsamic vinegar
1/3 part lemon juice
Salt-pepper-onion powder

I made VwaV's Gigantoid PB Cookies with a few variations...one of the moms in my mom's group has celiac issues, and the other is severly allergic to nuts! So I made these with soy nut butter (which really doesn't taste like a nut butter at all much to my disappointment) and rice flour. There were OK, but I really do prefer the original recipe and am thankful I don't have any allergies!

Ah, summer...time for Peach 'Custard' Pie! Peaches, sugar, soymilk, flour and nutmeg...delicious! I think I've blogged about this before!

I think this was from VwaV...these Stuffed Peppers were AWESOME! The black bean-quinoa filling is so great and can be eaten as a grain side dish, or a stuffing for squash or anything!

From a recent VT...Peanut Butter Coconut Ice Cream. Of course I added chocolate chips. I think I'll stick with Vcon's Ice Cream recipe since I found this one to be very 'icy' - and I don't mean too cold.


I was watching Ricardo and Friends on the Food Network, and he made this cool sandwich from a loaf of hollowed out round bread. I imitated using layers of pesto, roasted veggies (eggplant, zucchini, peppers and onions), Tofurky slices and VwaV's Tofu Ricotta. I weighed it down and kept it cold. It was delicious!

I was craving something with peanut butter again, so I made up the sauce for the Cold Udon Noodles from VwaV, but added warm noodles, coriander, red pepper, cucumber and cubed tofu that I cooked up. Yummy and easy.

How to make a fast birthday cake - take a graham pie crust, add some softened neopolitan soy ice cream and freeze for 4 hours. Spread some ganache on top and top with nuts, and re-freeze for another 4 hours minimum. Then serve! Just like Baskin Robbins! In this case, I topped with fresh strawberry slices before serving.

Another fast snack - tortilla chips tossed with sugar and cinnamon. The first time I tried it I warmed them in the oven then sprinkled with organic sugar and cinnamon. They were like Beaver Tails that I used to eat as a kid. However, they are easier to make when simply tossed in a bag with a little icing sugar and cinnamon (no photo). This time they were like waffles that we used to get an old southern Ontario amusement park.

Food for Hibernation

I've been trying to cook my way out of February and the long cold winter. May spring come quickly and without warning. First a few soups, synonymous with cold weather comfort.

Vcon's Ancho-Lentil Soup with Grilled Pineapple. Now I love grilled pineapple.



From the same, Tomato-Rice Soup with Garlic and Navy Beans. I was too environmentally conscious to fire up the oven just to roast the garlic, so I used the lazy alternative. But I didn't use canned beans! I made a huge pot of white beans, so we'll be seeing more of them in the near future. This recipe is really, really good and totally blows canned tomato soup out of the pantry.



I'm still working on the Nov/Dec issue of VegNews and tried the Barley Soup with Porcini and Dill from page 79. It was tasty, not stellar, but simple to make.



I love Vcon's Black Bean Burgers and have made them twice so far. This is a lousy photo that does not do them justice. They are super topped with avocado slices and Cilantro Sour Cream.



While we were at Rainbow Foods I bought some pre-made seitan and have been eying the Vietnamese Seitan Baguette with Savory Broth Dip recipe ever since I first got Vcon. My only regret is that I didn't buy two packs to make more sandwiches. I want to try again with a huge batch of homemade seitan because these were awesome. The sauce is kinda reminiscent of St Hubert's dipping sauce from my getting-sketchier-by-the-year childhood memories.



I borrowed La Dolce Vegan! from the library and picked out Portobello Pot Pie because Costco sells portobellos by the boatload. This recipe was easy and really good! Both Pete and Princess raved about it. I sauteed everything in a cast-iron skillet and then placed the crust on top and popped it in the oven.



One recipe in Vcon that has received a lot of press is Eggplant-Potato Moussaka with Pine Nut Cream. So of course, I had to make it. In particular, I chose to make it on a night that Sarah let me bring dinner over for the new parents. So far, it's my absolute favourite thing that I've made out of that book, and there's some pretty stiff competition. Here is the calm unbroken expanse of Pine Nut Cream.



We ate it faster than I could take a good photo of the inside.



In top spot for The Best Vcon Dish That Can Be Thrown Together on a Busy Weeknight - Tangerine Baked Tofu. I took a pic of the ingredients because I can't believe how so few things can taste so good together. Of course, booze helps.



Ya, that's Loblaws tofu. I hate shopping there, but they do have good tofu. And here are the citrusy baked 'fus cavorting with broccoli.



Finally, dessert! I took Dreena's recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and changed up the amounts a bit to yield enough cookies to feed our family for a couple of days. At least a day. They are great for lunches because they don't have any nut-related ingredients.

Healthy Kid-Friendly Oatmeal Cookies

Dry
2 cups spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice (omit if using chocolate chips)
Wet
½ cup organic sugar
½ cup canola oil
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup soymilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp blackstrap molasses
Extra
1 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins, dried cranberries or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine Dry ingredients in small bowl. Mix Wet ingredients in stand mixer on medium speed or in food processor until sugar is dissolved. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix. Add in Extra ingredients. Scoop onto cookie sheets lined with silicone or parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes then let cool on sheets. Makes 2 dozen cookies.