Pasta Bolognese

Are you ready to try something amazing?! This is the Super Easy Pasta Bolognese from Manifest:Vegan. So good I was asked to make it again the following week and visitors were happy just eating the leftover sauce with bread. I'd say that qualifies as success! The TVP takes on a slightly too sweet flavor; the first time I thought it was the brand of tomato paste I used (I caved at the store and bought the cheap stuff at like 10 cents a can), the second time I used my usual all-natural one and it was better but still sweet, so I'm guessing it's the wine or balsamic vinegar--I might cut those down next time. Regardless, it's scrumptious. This is comfort food at its best. Paired with garlic bread and a salad (the one in the background had roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, olives, and a basic vinaigrette) and you're all set for making people's tummies happy!

Lazy Sunday

I thought about going to lab, then decided against it. While there are definitely things I could work on, there's nothing that I *have* to work on, so I decided to just have a nice carefree day. Of course, that included cooking! For lunch I whipped up two more recipes from Appetite for Reduction that I've been meaning to make: Butternut Apple Soup and Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits. I actually had the pleasure of trying the biscuits yesterday at Isa's demo at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market (she made Roasted Vegetable Thai Green Curry Stew and these biscuits). So, I already knew they were good. The soup had been on the schedule to make for weeks with said butternut squash hanging out on the counter, but it's just been so warm here lately that it didn't sound good. I just sucked it up and made the apartment ridiculously warm by having the oven and stove going--sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyway, the soup was fabulous. While the process of peeling and cutting the butternut squash can be a little daunting, on this lovely, relaxing day it went smoothly--and Isa's instructions helped too! I used Fuji apples here because that's what I had in the fruit bowl and once all the prep is done this comes together quite easily. The pairing of the soup and the biscuits is quite nice too. The soup is sweet and spicy and the biscuits are a very different sweet and they blend beautifully. This makes a TON of soup, so be prepared for lots of leftovers or halve the recipe.

I also decided to make some sweet treats for people at school. I had originally decided on chocolate-covered strawberries, then I thought those might be difficult to transport without melting and sticking together, so I searched around for something using those ingredients that might be more carry-to-school friendly. I found these cookies from Messy Vegetarian Cook and decided to give them a try. They looked adorable, like little chocolate strawberry love letters. Here's how mine turned out:

I think I was a little too generous with my filling. While they're not all going to win awards for beauty they do taste good--had to do something with those ones that completely fell apart. I did have some that turned out really good though, like this one:

Some lucky soul will get that beauty tomorrow! Lesson of the day: less can be more when it comes to filling chocolate fruit cookies (or just cut larger squares). I followed the directions except I needed to add a little soymilk to my batter in order to get it to hold together, maybe 1 tablespoon total.

Hope everyone has a fabulous remainder of the weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day!

40 Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli

I happily received Appetite for Reduction for Christmas. After reading about this dish online for a while now--it was a tester's fave this was on my list to try first. It didn't disappoint. I screwed it up a little bit because sometimes I lack the ability to pay attention to details (what'cha gonna do?). I just threw everything in the casserole dish at once instead of adding the vegetable broth at a later time; regardless it worked out great. This makes for a very light dinner--not always what I'm looking for, but for a weeknight it's fabulous.

I love that this book uses tons and tons of veggies in all the recipes and incorporates lots of beans, along with tempeh and tofu. So easy to find awesome things to pair together. Highly recommend! Also, Isa is gonna be at the Ferry Building here in SF this saturday during the Farmer's Market doing a demo from this book. I plan on checking it out! I've been wanting to go to this supposedly amazing market since I moved here. I'll have a bit of free time the next couple of weekends so I'm excited to get out again.

MoFo 17: Thanksgiving Dinner

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day! The sun was out and it was beautiful here in San Francisco. I did have to hit up two stores (two because I forgot portobello mushrooms for the above dish and had to run out again), but it all came together--even if it was 2 hours later than expected.

Above is the porcini and pecan pate with some fresh french bread for spreading. This was delicious! I was a little concerned as I was making it because it didn't seem like it had enough different ingredients to have more than a musky mushroom taste (what with the dried porcinis and the fresh portobellos), however it didn't taste overly mushroomy at all. It was super smooth and tasted creamy and decadent. Definitely a winner.

Next up was dinner. Here we have festive chickpea tart, cranberry and orange salad, and green bean casserole. The tart was a recipe from Dreena Burton, and like everything from her it was just fantastic. This tart is like fall blended together and put in a crust; it's got chickpeas, spinach, dried cranberries, onions, and is perfectly spiced. I made the flaky pie crust from Vegan Vittles to put it in and that was great as well--best part: no shortening in the crust! We topped the tart with the yeast gravy from The (almost) No Fat Cookbook, a nice simple nutritional yeast based gravy. The salad recipe I adapted from swell. I used a baby spinach and arugula mix instead of kale because the guys are not the biggest fans of kale, especially uncooked. I also swapped out dried cranberries for fresh. I doubled the amount of orange juice, orange slices, and avocado, and halved the amount of oil. I didn't bother with the balsamic reduction drizzle because there was enough going on already. This salad was fabulous! I loved the combination of all the fruit with the greens. Yum! Lastly on this plate of goodness was green bean casserole. This recipe was modified from cute and delicious. I swapped out fresh boiled greenbeans for the canned and caramelized onions for the can of french-fried onions. This also turned out great! The noochy sauce was deslish. I loved having so many vegetables on our plates, it made dinner not feel so heavy...and it left room for the amazing dessert we had coming. Behind the dinner plate are some roasted chestnuts. I'd never had these before and a friend brought them over with her. Interesting, but good! She was raving about the chestnut and lentil pate from Veganomicon; I may have to get on that.

Alright, and here's dessert! It's the chocolate cinnamon babka from Vegan Dad. We had a bit of trouble with this recipe since it's written in ounces and I don't have a kitchen scale. So, I just kept adding flour til it seemed like the right consistency to me--and it worked! Crisis averted. This looks much more complicated to make than it really is, perfect for entertaining! I didn't realize there needed to be a second rise after adding the chocolate layer and twisting it up, and since I didn't have time I just skipped it. It puffed up quite a bit while cooking (and we had let it rise the first time for about 5-6 hours), so it worked out just fine. Let me tell you, this is delicious! Once it's cooked the cinnamon flavor doesn't really hit you, it just adds to the bitterness of the chocolate and makes it taste so good. This will definitely get made again.

Being the klutz that I am I of course didn't make it through the day without a battle scar. I hit my arm against the rack in the oven (right above where my oven mitt covered) and ended up with this lovely. Luckily it doesn't hurt...I'm so tough.

Here were the beautiful arrangements we had for the table. I put together the mums and sunflowers and my friend brought over a beautiful bouquet with purple kale as the main component! Gotta love people who appreciate the beauty of vegetables! We also had some cute little pumpkins and a kabocha squash mixed in with some candles. I plan on roasting these babies up and making something with them (I've never had kabocha before, ideas?). Hanging out on the counter there is also a plastic Yoda...He's from a cereal box years and years ago (at least 9), and ever since my dad and I have taken turns hiding it back and forth, seeing how long it would take for the other to find it and just how creative we could. He's been in showers, pillowcases, suitcases, car trunks, purses, food--he gets around. Now that my parents live in Florida it's longer in between the hidings. I left him at their house for him to find last time I was out there in June; I got him back today (my dad snuck him to my brother when he was visiting in September for my brother to hide), he was tucked in along with the groceries. Oh, Yoda where will you go next...

Weird traditions--just another thing I'm grateful for. Here's hoping you had a wonderful day with good food and great company!

If you have photos of your vegan Thanksgiving dishes there a couple of blogs that would love the pictures for some epic food posts: Quarrygirl and Lunchboxbunch.

Also, if you feel like winning some awesome cookbooks: Robin Robertson is giving away her last cookbook of MoFo, Party Vegan. And Ricki is giving away the cookbook of the winner's choice!

MoFo 13: White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup and Focaccia

I don't know what caused me to stop on this recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance, but I'm glad I did. It was another night when the fridge was pretty bare, so this dish worked out perfectly. Besides the time it takes to roast the garlic this soup comes together super fast. It was so good too! It tastes rich and like it took a long time...gotta love the complexity that simple roasted garlic can add. I'm not the biggest fan of white beans, because of their tough texture, but I love their versatility and when they're blended up (like in the biscuits with white bean gravy also from VwaV) then they're right up my alley!


We like to have something to dip when we eat soup. Cuz we're super classy like that...so I made the focaccia from The Urban Vegan to great results. I loved that everything was just tossed in the food processor to be mixed up and then baked. I cooked it a tad too long, so it was a little tough, but still good. Some fresh herbs in place of dried would take this fantastic little flatbread to new heights.

Round-up:

1) Remember the obligatory green bean casserole at holiday dinners? I remember really liking the crunchy onions (even though I didn't like onions...I guess if you fry anything) but the rest left me wanting to gag. Not so with this version from cute and delicious! A cheesy nooch sauce has replaced the cream of mushroom soup and now it just looks yum-my.

2) Something that makes my heart happy: Babycakes is now serving up vegan, gluten-free baked goods at Walt Disney World. I think my love of Disney has been made quite apparent (especially the last few days--I really need a vacation) and this makes me so excited. They're one of the few parks to actually have veg options at almost every single restaurant and to cater to vegan or other dietary needs at their fancy sit-down restaurants. I've had some of my best meals in restaurants ever at DisneyWorld (especially at California Grill and Jiko--the latter even has a vegan menu); they send the chef out to talk to you and make up something special based on what you like--it's awesome! Where they were lacking was the dessert department, although a couple of their shops do now sell Divvies, but looks like they're taking care of that now too!

3) I recently had the opportunity to eat at Encuentro in Oakland. It's an all-veg wine and tapas bar. It was a bit pricey, but it was good. We ordered the vegan cheese platter and I loved the idea of the different nut cheese spreads and pates. I want to put one together sometime for my next house party...maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas. Anyway, over at Vegan Good Things is a porcini and pecan pate (recipe from Gather in Berkeley, and a nominee for one of the 10 best restaurant dishes of 2010) that looks so tasty and would be the perfect accompaniment to a lovely vegan cheese platter.

4) My mom's signature dish used to chicken and dumplings. My whole family loved it--she made it well. After being away for awhile that's the dish we would always ask for, it was also what I missed the most after going vegetarian. She's since come up with some great vegan recipes (her black bean soup is amazing) for when I visit, but I think it's about time we try to veganize this old family favorite! Tofu Mom over at Tofu 'n' Sprouts has been doing a different post about gravy for the entire MoFo. Yup, I didn't know it was possible either, but she's doing it and doing it well! Today is a recipe for "Chicken" Gravy with Dumplings--it's full-on comfort food and I can't wait to try it out!

Win! This week Robin Robertson has a copy of Vegan Fire & Spice
up for grabs.

MoFo 9: Quick Lo Mein

Robin Robertson has a much prettier photo (and the recipe!) for this dish on her blog. This is another winner from Vegan on the Cheap. I used wide rice noodles in place of the spaghetti/linguini because I had them and I thought they'd go better with the flavors anyway. While it is my firm belief that just about anything can taste great covered in sriracha and sesame seeds, this is abnormally good. I got a "you can definitely make this one again" from the boyfriend. That usually indicates it as a winner! This also packed up perfectly well for lunch the next day.

Posts to check out:

1) I love soup. It's usually fairly simple, filling, and makes a lot so it's great for leftovers. So great for the weather we're having right now...in fact I made soup for dinner tonight...not from a can! I made this one that Sofia blogged about from Viva Vegan! (post to follow eventually). So, here's a soup recipe roundup from LunchBoxBunch!

2) Our Veggie Kitchen has a recipe inspired by a food cart in Portland (blast them and their abundance of vegan food carts). It's for a tofurkey cheesesteak and it looks yums!

Win! Ricki from Diet, Dessert and Dogs has a giveaway for Lucini Cinque e' Cinque. Click over to her blog to find out what that is and how amazing it looks!

MoFo 8: Pepita Fettucine with Spinach and Cranberries

It's 11:47 PM now, this is gonna get in late. I was at school before 8 this morning for an exam, then class from 9-5. After that I had to do some work in the simulation lab (we all have our own dummy with a giant mouth we can put plastic teeth in to work on) until 9:30. My boyfriend picked my tired cranky butt up and we just grabbed some Chipotle for dinner. That place has been my savior for a quick, cheap (for the city) satisfying dinner. Now I have a few minutes to relax (which I spent reading blogs) before I study for a bit, then head to bed so I can have another crazy day tomorrow.

The above recipe was made last quarter, back when I still had time to plan out meals, shop, and then make them. This quarter is hitting me hard (it's supposedly the hardest of the 3 years) and our meals (or lack thereof) have seriously suffered. This dish was fantastic and quick to throw together. It's sweet and spicy all at the same time and because it's pasta it's comforting going down. Next time I make this I'd use less dried cranberries than called for because I thought there were just too many, but otherwise it is another fabulous recipe from Vegan Yum Yum.

I think I was just so excited to finally be home, but here's quite the round-up for today:

1) While I'm a big fan of cooking and eating a nice warm meal, sometimes the simplicity and sheer goodness of the flavors present in raw food dishes is unsurpassed. This recipe for cucumber clubs from Raw on $10 a day (or less!) looks so refreshing and satisfying.

2) I'm also a bit under the weather and this roasted garlic, apple, and butternut squash soup from eat well. live well. be well. looks like just the thing to help me feel better! Now if only I could find someone to make it for me...

3) On the more decadent side of things, how about these german pancakes with chestnut mousse and chocolate sauce from vegalicious? Um, yes please! That picture is drool-worthy.

4) Quarrygirl had a write-up of the first vegan beer fest that was held in LA over the weekend. It looks like there was fabulous food and drink and hopefully they'll make it a recurring fest so I can go sometime!

5) Over at the paupered chef there's a fabulous comparison of canned vs cooked from scratch chickpeas along with the ultimate taste-test: homemade hummus. I've never made chickpeas from scratch before...one day.

6) Some more butternut goodness over at vegan.chicks.rock (every time I type that I always want to type "yes they do!", so now I did) with a butternut squash gnocchi with buttery sage sauce. Sounds and looks perfectly autumnal and would make a fantastic Thanksgiving meal.

7) Since no vegan's recipe repertoire can be complete without some sort of legume loaf (nut, lentil, bean), how about this one: lentil and mushroom loaf with savory potato filling from Wing-It Vegan. While it's not the most photogenic of all the foods out there it seems like a great winter meal to come home to as these nights get colder and darker.

8) Sofia, who I've had the lovely pleasure to meet, at carnal vegan has another appetizing soup, chipotle sweet potato bisque, that I'm now dying to make. I won't have the perfect accompaniment of homemade fresh bread bowls, but I can admire from afar.

9) And now, to kill with sugar shock is the amazing looking maple turtle cake over at fragrant vanilla cake. I have no words...

Win: Joni from justthefood is hosting a giveaway for 2 copies of the book she coauthored, 500 Vegan Recipes!

While not from a blog, if you haven't had a chance to read the NY Times article that's circulating, "While Warning About Fat, US Pushes Cheese Sales," you really should. It illustrates not only what's wrong with cheese, but also what's wrong with our nutritional guidelines and food regulations and subsidies in this country.

And with all that, I bid you a very good night!

MoFo 7: Basil Scalloped Tomatoes and Croutons

This is a dish that I saw over on Oh She Glows and just knew that I had to make instantly. Unlike many recipes where I think "oh, that looks good. I'll keep it in mind next time I'm looking for things to make," when I saw this one I was like "zOMG, I need to make that now!"




This was still summer time and heirloom tomatoes were at their peak of beauty and freshness. I reduced the amount of parmesan, just sprinkling a little bit of Parma! on top and used sourdough bread for the croutons. It was fabulous; like heaven in a casserole dish. The only caveat is after it sat for a bit it started to get really soggy, so this one will not save well. This wasn't a problem because we both went back for seconds (and thirds) and polished all of this off. This was pretty quick to throw together, so great for a weeknight!

Round-up:

1) Dreena has a post about grow-at-home mushroom kits, and she has a giveaway for one. I've seen these around the internets and I have to say they're pretty cool. I love the idea of growing things at home, even if I do only live in an apartment where my cats kill anything that tries to grow. One day I'll have a yard...maybe.

2) Over at Vegan.Chicks.Rock is a review of a muffin recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance that I've never seen before: Apple Pie Muffins. They look great and I'm gonna have to take her advice and make these so that I too can have a happy tummy.

MoFo 6: White Bean and Barley "Risotto" with Kale and Tempeh

So I have this bad habit of shopping online. I'm so busy with school most of the time, and it's so convenient that pretty much everything I could ever need is available to be shipped to my door that I do take advantage. With Amazon as long as the order is over $25 it ships for free; because of this I have been known to just add things to my cart that I'd been thinking about purchasing, usually cookbooks. It sometimes doesn't save money, but other times, amazingly enough it does (cuz shipping can be hellza expensive). I know I have a problem; I doubt I'll seek help. A few of the cookbooks I've accumulated this way I have been extremely happy with and, as so, glad that I was "forced" to get them...like the one the above recipe comes from: Vegan on the Cheap. This is the first recipe I tried from it and I loved it!

The flavors in this risotto were great. I subbed cremini mushrooms for white (because white mushrooms=blech to me), but otherwise followed the recipe. The tempeh is cooked separately first to give it a "smoky" taste and it added a lot. This dish was hearty and was great the next day for lunch as well. This was also my first time working with barley. I'd had it in restaurants before, usually in soup, and have liked it, but I'd never found a particularly tempting recipe. Until now!

I know as per the MoFo agreement weekend posts are not necessary, but I felt like it anyway. So did lots of other bloggers! Here are some posts to check out today:

1) My friend Kelly over at Kohlrabi and Quince has a great post up about a crazy-ass run we did last weekend called Warrior Dash. There was a big group of people we knew who were there and it was painful, but a good time!

2) Amey at Vegan Eats and Treats is trekking along on her way through the world's foods, today she's cooked up some food from Cuba!

3) Wing-it Vegan is spending her MoFo time cooking up eats from other blogs! This week was all beets, and it ends on a sweet note with beet cookies! It's crazy-sounding, but the results are beautiful.

4) Over at Cake Maker to the Stars Kittee has a guest blogger today talking all about the fabulous vegan sandwiches available here in San Francisco. From the list I have only tried Ike's and it definitely delivered, maybe one day I can try out some of the others. The vegan "cheesesteak" from Jay's Cheesesteak and the torta from Gracias Madre sound like winners to me!

MoFo 2: Veggie, Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

Guess what?! This is the first post I have for food I actually made in my new apartment! Finally getting somewhere now.

This was one of those I have all this stuff I need to use before it goes bad meals. I just cooked up some quinoa and grilled some zucchini slices, then tossed those with Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, avocado slices, and garbanzo beans. On top I poured sweet and tangy salad dressing from Oh She Glows. It was filling, simple, and tasted great.


Alright, now for my roundup for the day:

1) Over at Meet the Shannons, this totally adorable couple is veganizing the Big Red Betty Crocker cookbook. While I wouldn't want to try everything they make--they use a lot of mock meats and many of those freak me out, like for this "shrimp scampi." Today, however, while not a Betty recipe, looks amazing: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting.

2) Over at Vegan Planet, the brilliant Robin Robertson (author of so many amazing books, check her out if you haven't) has made some Yuba-Wrapped Veggie "Eggrolls." Genius!

3) Allyson over at Manifest:Vegan posted about a scrumptious looking Super Easy Winter Squash Stew. I agree it does look super easy and I will definitely try this one out!

MoFo 1: Tofu, Spinach and Daiya Lasanga

Welcome to MoFo! There are over 500 bloggers participating this year--vegan bloggers out in full force!!! I'm going to spend the month catching up with my cooking posts and doing a daily roundup of my fave blog posts of the day.



The dish above I'd been hearing rave reviews about, and I have to say that it lived up to the hype. It's the tofu spinach lasagna from The Vegan Table. I added the Daiya, because as you may know I was swimming in the stuff,and it made a very nice addition. I know I said that I had found a new favorite lasagna back in December, however this one is definitely a contender for that so coveted spot. It's also a bit easier. For the sauce I used the basic marinara recipe from Veganomicon, it's my go-to and it's always great! I really recommend this dish for that lasagna-loving person in your life.



While every dish from Colleen's book hasn't been amazing (case in point), this is one amazing lady who does know what she's talking about. She's one of my vegan role models, have you heard her podcasts?! Or checked out her website, Compassionate Cooks? She just released a new book, Color Me Vegan. I haven't had a chance to check it out, but it sounds really fun.



Hope you all have a great night, I got to this post in just in the nick of time. If you have a chance, check out my fave vegan blog posts of the day:

1) The always-adorable Amey from Vegan Eats and Treats is blogging her way around the world this MoFo, first up: Mexico!

2) Angela at Oh She Glows has come up with an amazing looking recipe, a cake in a jar--perfect single serving size!

3) Over at Vegansaurus, they're posting a recipe a day of Chef Tal Ronnen's Gardein Thanksgiving menu. Today is Sage and Pumpkin Seed Crusted Gardein with Cranberry Cabernet Sauce! Imagine serving that to your loved ones this Thanksgiving. I bet it would blow their socks off. I'm gonna have to keep this in mind for my celebrations. Also, don't miss the first recipe of a beet and orange salad!

4) Also from Vegansaurus: they're getting a new vegan chef/blogger each week to veganize the winning recipe from the Bravo show Top Chef: Just Desserts. This week it's a fried lemon pie with salted caramel ice cream...whoa! They're on week seven, don't forget to check out all the other amazing veganations!

5) Seeing as I'm a lover of all things pumpkin, and not only this time of year, Ashley over at The Edible Perspective got me salivating with her Baked Pumpkin French Toast. It's pumpkin food porn madness over there!

Chinese Tofu Salad

This salad here is one of my favorites. Growing up my mom would make Chinese Chicken salad; this is similar, but even better--sorry mom! For the base we've just got some cut up Romaine lettuce, cucumber, and normally oranges but I didn't have any so this time I subbed golden raisins. For the tofu I just pressed it, then covered it in a mixture of flour, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. After dredging, I cooked it up until crispy--good stuff. I used the sesame dressing recipe from How it all Vegan and topped with additional sesame seeds, both black and white. Just writing this has made me want this again...

Italian Rice and Beans and Glazed Green Bean Salad

Here's another Vegan Yum Yum dish, this one had better results than the last. The rice had great flavors with sundried tomatoes, navy beans, pine nuts, and lemon zest. The leftovers were great too.

I found these Chinese long beans at the store, they looked super fun and so I wanted to try them out.
I decided to try this green bean salad (also from VYY) and it was alright, but a bit too sweet for my taste; guess I'll credit the maple syrup for that one. I've tried this version of green bean salad before and preferred it.

Lime Peanut Noodles with Seitan, Kale, and Carrots

Since I'm such a whiz at making seitan now, I wanted to try another new dish featuring it. This is from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook. This was nothing special, but was easy and quick. I think frying up the seitan a bit would have made a great improvement, as was everything was a bit soft and there were no great textural differences. Some sriracha on top was the perfect accompaniment.

Spicy Tortilla Casserole with Roasted Poblanos and Chile-Lime Corn on the Cob

This dish from Viva Vegan! sounded like it had so much promise and I couldn't wait to make it. With spicy in the title and pine nut crema baked on top it sounded like it couldn't go wrong, but it did. It just wasn't anything special; it's the first recipe from this book to make me feel that way, so that's not too bad, but it was disappointing. It was dry and even with the roasted peppers, homemade sauce using fresh ingredients, pepitas and the crema, it was a bit bland. If there had been some sort of enchilada sauce to go on top this might have been alright. I just doused it in hot sauce/salsa, but unfortunately we didn't touch the leftovers. Next time I'm in the mood for something like this I'll make up the whole enchilada casserole from Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, that one's so good. Here are some in-progress shots of the sauce:



With the casserole I served some fresh summer corn, boiled and then served with squeezed fresh lime juice and chile powder. I got the serving idea from Fat Free Vegan. It was awesome, the flavors went so well together; I like it better than with Earth Balance. Pretty sure this will be my new favorite way to eat fresh corn. Although, I recently went to Gracias Madre and they had their own amazing version: chipotle cashew cream and cilantro--wow. Alright, there are lots of good ways to serve up some corn, but I'm loving this whole spicy thing.

Hawaiian-Style Sweet-and-Sour Roasted Pineapple, Brown Rice, and Baby Bok Choy

This pineapple recipe is from the May/June issue of Vegetarian Times. It looked fantastic and it didn't disappoint. My boyfriend, who doesn't even like pineapple, loved it as well. The roasting caramelized the fruit and it brought out the flavor and provided some crispy bits. Also within were red bell peppers and red onions, all the flavors went together wonderfully. It was great over rice, but it wasn't necessary. The only negative to this dish, like most roasted dishes is that it gets cold so fast. On the side was ume vinegar sprinkled baby bok choy. Yummy.

Here's another pre-roasting beauty shot:

Latin Feast: Arroz con seitan, Braised Brazilian Shredded Kale, and Black Beans

Oh. My. God. This rice dish is one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. It tasted like it came from an amazing restaurant, but even better because it came from my own home. The beautiful coloring came from achiote paste, and the addition of green olives and capers gave an unexpected flavor combination. I used the steamed white seitan for this dish. So yeah, it's amazing and if you or a friend has Viva Vegan! I suggest you make this right away. Let's see a close up of this beauty:



Served alongside was another recipe from the book, braised Brazilian shredded kale. It was also very good, with onions and nice smoky flavor from the addition of liquid smoke. To round everything out we also made the black beans from Veganomicon. I like this simple recipe because it doesn't take much: a can of black beans, an onion, a bay leaf, and that's about it. The beans can just sit on a burner while you're busy cooking other things.

Leftover Mix Plate

Here are some more of the roasted veggies and quinoa, I sure made a lot. I served it up with some fresh strawberries, whole wheat pita, and hummus from Vive le Vegan! This was a nice little grab bag of a dinner, but it all worked out well together. This hummus recipe has become my favorite when I'm in the mood for something basic. It's got a fabulous garlic and lemon aftertaste that I love. Once made I sprinkle with a little extra virgin olive oil and paprika. It's great served with carrots, cucumbers, warm tortillas, or just about anything.

Creamy Sweet Potato Bake

This dish is from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook. It definitely had potential, but I screwed it up. I grabbed yams because sweet potatoes were not available at the grocery store and little to my knowledge there are quite a few differences. For one, yams are much drier, and herein lay the problem. The casserole was pasta, spiced cream sauce (hints of nutmeg, yum), kale, and topped with bread crumbs. The yams really sucked to moisture out of everything so they were a bit tough to eat, but it all tasted great. We'll definitely have to give this one another go, using the correct ingredients next time.

Let's play catch-up shall we?! First up, Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Lucky day! I got out of class at 1 o'clock today and had the rare opportunity to not study or drill on plastic teeth in plastic heads and just enjoy myself (doing laundry and cleaning up my computer...but it felt good to get things done! And I got to watch "Bones" while I did so, which is so nerdy that it feeds my soul--and the lead is vegan, which is awesome). I haven't been cooking or experimenting quite as much as normal lately, but I've still got all sorts of good stuff that have been made in the last couple months. This will be a long series of posts...


Back a couple months ago was a simple dinner of roasted veggies on a bed of quinoa and dressed with the better than bottled balsamic vinaigrette from Oh She Glows. I just walked around the grocery store and picked out whatever struck my fancy. We got red bell pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, asparagus, and japanese eggplant. Look at those beauties all cut up and ready to cook. I just sprinkled with a little olive oil and salt and cooked at 400 degrees until tender, a little over 30 minutes, tossing once during roasting.


This turned out great. The leftover veggies and dressing were perfect over lettuce and made a great salad.