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 :)

Skinny B*tch Rocks!

So I got a few new cookbooks from the library. I know it's not new or anything, but I got Skinny B*tch in the Kitch, as I never realized it is a vegan cookbook. I guess you have to be familiar with the preceding book or something, as nowhere on the cover does it suggest anything about vegan cooking! Anyways, despite it's lack of inspiring photos plus the fact that some recipes tell me I'm being a pig, I decided to give some recipes a try.

First up - Pecan-crusted French Toast. Eerily similar to Fronch Toast (which I love!), the addition of pecans is genius. And they actually stick! I'll definitely be making this one again.


I've been craving some tabouleh lately, and I found an easy recipe in here! I've never made it before, so maybe this recipe isn't so ground-breaking, but I never knew you just had to add boiling water to bulgur! I do have to say that I would have liked for the bulgur to have been more tender.

And Kyle and I have been meaning to eat more salads. The Edamame Three-Bean Salad was so easy and tasty. It only would have been more colourful had I had enough red pepper and red kidney beans (I subbed black beans). I'll be making this one again during the summer for sure!

And while it's in the appetizer section, I served up Crabby Crabcakes on top of the suggested spinach with the lemony dressing from Vcon. Now I've never had crab before, but the shredded parsnips in this tasted so darn good! I loved these! And since I made so many, I had lots of shaped cakes ready to be fried for the next night, making for a very easy dinner prep. As for the sauce, I didn't have the time nor all of the ingredients for the remoulade recipe, so I just mixed up some Nayonaise with ketchup and a dash of onion powder instead.

Still on the appetizer route, I had to make the onion rings. I can't tell you the last time I ate these, since we've never made them at home and I would worry that most restaurants would fry them up in oil used for fish, etc. These were great! I'll just be sure to use a finer grind of cornmeal (it wasn't specified in the recipe) and I'll be sure to buy a white onion next time.

Ah...dessert. We're supposed to be on a dessert strike, but I couldn't resist. And besides, this next recipe is so healthy - it's not even in the dessert section! When I saw the recipe for Homemade Granola Parfait I thought, 'meh, another boring granola recipe'. But I kept an open mind and made it anyways. This recipe is brilliant - I've never put brown rice syrup in my granola and boy, have I been missing something! It makes it so crunchy and adds a touch of sweetness - nothing like the maple syrup alone that I've been using for so many years! It was delicious with vanilla soy yogurt and yummy strawberries.

Well, since I made and served dessert one night, I had to do it again! I was also craving rice pudding, so I had to make that too. Now since there's only Kyle and I eating this, I didn't want to store the leftovers in a casserole dish so that next time we went to get a serving, we'd carve out a thickened hunk to put in a bowl. So I decided to throw the finished rice pudding in a pre-made vegan shortbread pie crust. After chilling in the fridge, it firmed up nicely enough to serve - and subsequent servings were still pretty and tasty! While it was a good healthy recipe with brown rice, I found it to be not quite 'saucy' enough, so I'll stick with my other recipe that is more creamy with soy yogurt. But I'll stick with this way of serving it from now on since it is also a 'thick' recipe versus the runnier rice pudding I had as a kid.



Finally, Dream Bars. I had scanned this recipe several times since it had so much stuff in it, and such a weird topping of coconut milk that I had a hard time envisioning how it would look and taste. While this pic doesn't do it justice, as I was supposed to let it cool a little more, it was heavenly. It made a whole 9x13 pan, so if you make this, make sure you do it when you will have lots of people around to help you out. You won't be a skinny b*tch if you eat this all by yourself, like the book suggests. Plus, you may want to mini-barf, as Kyle did when he set out to eat about 1/4 of the pan in one sitting.

All in all, a great little book! I'll definitely be buying my own copy of this one since it had so many standard and neat little recipes!