Blessed Vegan Life

Ethiopian-Inspired Lentils

2012-02-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

G was in the military for seven years, and part of that time he spent in Eritrea and fell in love with the cuisine. When I was pregnant with SR, he first introduced me to it at a downtown restaurant in our area. That's when I also learned the proper way to Ethiopian food was by having it served on injera bread and using more injera as the utensil, scooping up the food by hand and putting it in your mouth. How fun! I love learning new cultures and experimenting with all kinds of new and interesting things. We went to that restaurant at least monthly, and by the time SR was born, she already had a high tolerance for spice! As a toddler she was chowing down on salsa and other spicy things. Anyhow, that restaurant closed, but two more opened up. At one of those, berbere, a strong Ethiopian spice was sold by the bag. I bought a bag, froze it, and have been making lentils at home with it ever since. That restaurant has since closed, but we still have Queen Sheba, which always seems to show up in G's or my birthday pics. I'm almost out of my berbere now, so I'm hoping to find another local source. You can make yours from scratch: it has over a dozen spices in it, and I've seen recipes for it online, and I may do that, or a version of a few recipes, if I can't find a restaurant that will just sell it to me. :-) We eat this dish about once a month, but I still haven't made injera, tsk tsk. I usually make a simple lentil dish for the Blessings when I make this one, but now the girls are starting to try it. So, soon I may have a couple more berbere eaters on my hands. I use quite a bit of berbere, so if you are sensitive to heat, you might halve it at first. By the way, this does take a bit of oil, but the end result does not taste oily at all.

Ethiopian-Inspired Lentils

Ethiopian-Inspired Lentils with roasted cauliflower, baby bok choy and mushrooms (the color is somewhere in between the top and bottom pictures.)

Ethiopian-Inspired Lentils

Ingredients:

1 lb. lentils
1 32oz. box of vegetable broth
Water to cover by a couple of inches
1/4 cup olive oil
1 red onion, halved and sliced thinly
1 head garlic, sliced
4 Tbs. berbere
1 tsp. salt

Directions:

Put lentils in a large pot with the broth and water. Cook over medium heat 45 minutes, or until tender. You can let the water cook down to where the lentils are loose but not soupy. Meanwhile, prepare the onions and garlic. Heat the oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the seasonings, stir well, and cook for two or three more minutes. The spices will soak up practically all the moisture in the pan. Stir frequently. When the lentils are done, add the spice and onion mix to them. Turn the heat down to medium low, and cook for at least ten more minutes, letting the flavors blend well. Served with roasted veggies, this makes a complete meal. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans (soon).

Glorious Green Salad

2012-02-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

I like to have a lot of fun with salads for my clan. Sometimes, we'll have big salads on individual plates, and I'll holler from the kitchen, "Who wants carrots? Who wants garbanzos?," and so on. I pretty much know by now who likes what and not, but sometimes my Blessings have changing tastes, so it's good to be reminded. Sometimes, I'll make one huge salad that's the meal itself, with maybe crackers or something to go with it. That's when I really load up the toppings to make the salad as varied and crunchy as possible with a symphony of flavors to tease and please younger palates. The one I made on this night was served alongside of homemade bread sticks and dipping sauces, and everyone was well pleased and full. Below, I've listed the toppings I heaped on, just to give you a new idea or two. Having fun with your salads is the takeaway moral of the story.

Glorious Green Salad

Ingredients:

Romaine, chopped
Canned quartered artichoke hearts in water, drained
Red onion, slice thin
Canned garbanzos, drained
Tomatoes, cut in small wedges
Fresh spinach leaves, torn if large
Jarred julienned pickled beets
Carrots, shredded
Celery, chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped
Purple cabbage, chopped small
Raw sunflower seeds
Favorite dressings and oils and vinegars on the side

Directions:

In a big bowl, layer the ingredients, except for the dressings. I do not like to toss my salads before serving because all the goodies get hidden under the lettuce. Instead we scoop straight down in order to get equal amounts of everything. Drizzle your favorite dressing on top - sometimes we sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top of that - and dig in. Served with bread sticks or crackers or toast makes for a filling meal. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Sugary Lemon Loaf

2012-02-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

This is one of our favorite sweet breads that we indulge in a few times a year. I veganized it from an old Mennonite baking book of mine that I bought many years ago, changing the name to effectively represent the bread, and adjusting the ingredients and directions. It's fun to make and even more fun to eat!

Sugary Lemon Loaf

Slice of that beautiful bread

Sugary Lemon Loaf

Ingredients:

Non-stick spray

Bread:
1 and 1/2 Tbs. EnergG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
1/4 vegan margarine, room temperature
1 and 1/4 cups vegan or raw sugar
1 and 3/4 cups self-rising flour - please note the type of flour here!
1/2 cup rice milk
3 fresh lemons, rinds grated (I use a regular carrot grater for this.)

Sugar topping:
2 lemons from above, juiced
1 fresh lemon, rind grated
3/4 cup vegan or raw sugar

Directions:
For the bread: Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and set aside. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the Egg Replacer and the water. Pour that mixture along with all the other bread ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended. Pour mixture into the loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. When bread is almost done baking, make the sugar topping.

For the sugar topping: Mix the ingredients for the sugar topping together in a small bowl. (You can freshen your garbage disposal by dropping the used lemons in it one at a time.) As soon as the bread is ready, poke it all over the top with a wooden skewer stick, several times. Spoon the topping over the surface of the bread. It will look really soupy, but don't worry, the bread will soak it up. Keep bread in loaf pan and place on cooling rack to completely cool. When finished cooling, you can remove from loaf pan. Delicious! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Homemade Fries (deep-fried version), and a badge removal

2012-02-04T09:00:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while I pull out our deep fryer to make indulgent homemade fries. Because my fryer is on the smaller side, I have to make our fries in three batches, which ends up taking about 45 minutes. So, I'll plan on making the other dishes for dinner to time with the fries. Sometimes, though, we just like the fries as a treat after a hard school day. You can see in the picture that my fries are crinkle cut. I've got a tool just for that purpose, so it makes it a little more fun for the Blessings, as well.

On a side note, I've removed my badge for the Circle of Moms contest. I'll still be on the site, but I won't do any more self-promotion here. I've heard from several people (including my own sweet mom) who are not getting a hovering hand cursor over the orange thumbs up to vote, so they can't vote. Also, it looks like I'm pretty much out of the running to be an Internet sensation when you look at my competition. :-) But, no worries, every day I get to look at a certain three precious faces and know that I'm their top veggie mom, and that's good enough for me. Thanks to those who voted or at least attempted to vote.

Homemade Fries (deep-fried version)

Ingredients:

Enough oil to reach fill line in the deep fryer (maybe two cups?)
9 russet potatoes, scrubbed and sliced in fry-type strips
Salt to taste
Ketchup
Rooster sauce

Directions:

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Plug in your deep fryer. Pour oil to fill line. While oil is heating, you can prepare your potatoes. Put in three of the cut potatoes in the deep fryer. Fry for thirteen to fifteen minutes, until they get a golden brown, turning occasionally. (If you've cut your potatoes particularly thin, they will cook faster.) Line a serving dish with paper towels, and drain the fries there. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat with the last two sets of three potatoes. Keep fries warm in oven while waiting for next batch(es). Note: please do not place your lid on the fryer while it's plugged in and cooking food; my friend started a kitchen fire in her home by doing that. Serve with ketchup and/or rooster sauce. Feeds five hungry vegans -barely!

Zesty Black Beans with Cooling Tomato and Avocado - and a contest reminder

2012-02-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

This is a great dish to warm you up on a cold day. The farmer's market already has the first avocados in, and I was lucky to find a good tomato in the store. The spice in the beans is tempered by and paired perfectly with the tomato and avocado. Served with roasted potatoes, it makes for a tasty, complete meal.

Zesty Black Beans with Cooling Tomato and Avocado

Dinner is served!

Just to remind you that you can still vote in the Circle of Moms contest for the top 25 veggie moms. I was fortunate enough to be nominated, and I have several bloggie friends in the competition with me. The nice thing is there's plenty of room for a bunch of us. So, if you would like to vote (for me?), you can just click on the pink badge in my top left corner, and it will take you to the site. Just scroll down to find me; I appreciate your vote! You can vote once every 24 hours.

Zesty Black Beans with Cooling Tomato and Avocado

Ingredients:

1 lb. dried black beans, sorted for grit
Water to cover
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbs. ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne
4 Serrano peppers, seeded and chopped (wash your hands after handling)
6 - 8 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 tomato, cut in quarters and sliced thin
1 avocado, chopped small

Directions:

Place beans in a large pot and cover with enough water so that water level is about two inches above beans. Cook on medium heat for two hours. (If you want to soak the beans overnight to remove potential gas "issues" from them, you can do that as well.) Keep water level about one inch above beans during cooking process. Once they've cooked for two hours, add the salt through the garlic. Cook another 45 minutes on medium heat. Turn heat to low until beans are completely tender. At this point, you don't want as much water, just enough to keep them moving around but not soupy, but you don't want them super thick either. Once beans are completely cooked, turn the heat off and add the tomato and avocado. Serve with roasted potatoes for a complete meal. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Mushroom Gravy, G's Birthday and a Contest

2012-01-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

G's birthday was a few days ago, and once again, I made it through that sketchy period, where for two weeks I'm too old for him. Whew! As usual, he asked for a very simple birthday dinner - no fuss, no muss. Everything he requested, I made for him. I wasn't thinking in terms of posting any recipes, so I didn't take a clear shot of the gravy. I wish I had taken a picture of it in a ladle or in a gravy boat, but eh, I didn't think about it. But, looking at the roasted potatoes, you kind of get the idea. It's an easy, yummy gravy, chock full of mushrooms, really!

G's birthday dinner (my) plate: Roasted potatoes with Mushroom Gravy, Boca Chik patties, green, purple and orange cauliflower. (He asked for a vegetable medley, and I thought this looked colorful.) On G's plate, his gravy was on his patties, too. The boy wanted gravy! The lighting isn't too great in this picture to show off everything as good as it was.

G's birthday lunch was at our usual go-to place for either his or my birthday. Queen Sheba's has an all-you-can-eat vegan buffet during the week, so it's really cost-effective with five hungry mouths. Since he works from home on Friday's, we took his lunch a day early. Their information is: 1704 Broadway, Sacramento, ph: 916-446-1223, www.queenshebas.com .

G's birthday cake. He told me he wanted it in Captain America colors, JK's favorite superhero of the minute, so it's a white cake with cherry and blueberry filling. This was a hit with everyone, even my mom, who isn't crazy about sweets.

Slice of same cake. The true color of the cake is actually reflected in the picture of the whole cake. Again, the lighting wasn't the greatest on my table.

Also, someone nominated me to be one of the top 25 veggie mom bloggers at Circle of Moms. I'm not one normally for self-promotion, and I'm a bit shy, but G goaded me on to accept this. So, if you want to vote for me, you can do so once a day until February 14th. I don't have Facebook or Twitter or MySpace to my advantage, just you, my wonderful, kind, insightful readers. This blog is my only venture into the cyber world beyond my e-mail. Thank you in advance! And thank you to whomever nominated me. :-)

Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced small
8 to 10 button mushrooms, chopped small
6 Tbs. vegan margarine
4 Tbs. flour
3 cups of vegetable broth
2 Tbs. soy sauce
5 to 7 drops of liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

In a medium pot, heat oil on medium heat. When hot, add the onion and cook for ten minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for five minutes more, stirring frequently. Move the onions and mushrooms to one side of the pan, and add the margarine on the other side. Let it melt. Add the flour to the margarine, and either whisk the two together or use a fork to blend them into a kind of paste. Add the broth to the paste while continue to whisk. It's okay if some of the onions and mushrooms sneak on over and blend in. When all the broth is added, the whole pot of ingredients will be mixed together. Add the remaining ingredients, and continue to stir gently with whisk until gravy comes to a boil. It will thicken very rapidly at this point. If it's too thick, you can add a touch more broth. Serve hot over roasted potatoes, or anything else you like. If the leftover gravy congeals overnight in the refrigerator, simply warm up with a little extra water, and it's good as new. Feeds five hungry vegans and a couple of guests.

Royal Platter (with soy)

2012-01-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

When my girls were much littler, I loved to make snacks for them on divided plates that were full of a variety of goodies. (And, I still do!) What I quickly found out was that G appreciated these snacks as much as they did. So, one night I was struck by a unique idea for dinner: to have a large platter of a variety of foods requiring no utensils, save for a couple of toothpicks for spearing. Dipping sauces and plenty of napkins were always nearby. Because at that time we only had daughters, I named these dinners Princess Platters. And, they were a huge hit with all of us. The combination of foods were endless. Just like when we have nachos family-style, I put the platter on a tray or ottoman, and we would watch a movie in the living room. What was also nice was that the girls would eat things that they normally would turn their noses up at because it was in the fun presentation of the Princess Platter. So, I could sneak in healthy foods that way, too. When JK came along, I changed the name to the Royal Platter. This version is called "with soy" because sometimes I use baked tofu for the main protein. I love making the platters as much as they love eating from them, and no two are ever the same. Here is just our latest version.

Royal Platter (with soy)

Ingredients:

Possibilities are limited only to what you can think of. This is what we had one night:

Gimme Lean, sausage style, cut into rounds and sauteed
8 - 10 red potatoes, quartered and roasted, seasoned with salt and pepper
Celery, sliced into strips
Carrots, cut into sticks
Marinated artichoke hearts
Pickles
Olives with peppers and garlic
Walnuts
Chocolate Chunks
Ketchup, BBQ sauce, and vegan Worcestershire sauce for dipping

Directions:

Once all the food has been prepared, put it into a large divided dish. Pair up similar foods with each other, or ones that will go well with a partner or two. Skewer a few items with toothpicks. Keep dipping sauces and napkins handy. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Winter Veggie Stir-Fry

2012-01-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a simple but delicious stir-fry using the bounty from Winter. Feel free to sub any of your favorites in that you find in the farmer's market. This combination was just perfect.

Winter Veggie Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, halved and sliced (both halves)
3 carrots, sliced in diagonal
3 celery sticks, sliced
1 green bell pepper, quartered and sliced
2 small turnips or 1 large, thinly sliced
2 King oyster mushrooms, halved width wise and thinly sliced into long strips
2 cups of baby dino kale, chopped
Soy sauce to taste
Cooked brown rice

Directions:

In a large pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. When hot add the onion, carrots, celery, bell pepper and turnips. Stir frequently for five to seven minutes, until they just become fork-tender. Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional two minutes. Add the kale and soy sauce and cook until the kale just starts to wilt and turns a bright green, about two or three minutes. Serve over brown rice. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Salad Bar Night!

2012-01-18T09:06:00.000-08:00

As most of you probably do, we eat plenty of salads with and for dinner. With children, I like to keep it as fun as possible, for even though they're vegan, they're still kids and don't always want to eat a salad every day. So, Ill make a variety of salads from different regions, or have big individual salads loaded with their favorite toppings, or like this version: I'll have a salad bar with familiar and unfamiliar things to top whatever greens are the base that night.

My dear mother, bless her heart, gave me three heads of iceberg lettuce. Just like home, ah, the memories. The only time we usually eat iceberg now is when we're over at my parents or when she drives over to bring me three heads of it. So, there it is, the star of our show, and it's thumbing its nose at Romaine, red leaf, butter, endive, and radicchio. Let it have its crunchy glory, I say, surrounded by all sorts of goodness! Below, I'll list the toppings left to right, just to give you an idea of what you can have. Add or take away at your taste bud's pleasure.

The Salad Bar

What my plate looked like loaded up.

Salad Bar Night

Ingredients:

Nice big bowl of lettuce, chopped
A variety of ingredients with proper handling tools provided. We had:
Pear tomatoes
Finely grated Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style
Green onions, sliced
Carrots, grated
Celery, chopped
Raw turnip, grated
Radish, grated
Green bell pepper, diced
Parsley greens, chopped small
Sliced almonds
Marinated artichoke hearts

A variety of dressings, olive and sesame oils, red wine and balsamic vinegars and lemon juice

Directions:

Top lettuce to your heart's content with the goodies. Add the dressings to season lightly. Eat! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Pumpkin Pecan Bread with Chocolate Glaze

2012-01-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

I started developing a recipe for pumpkin bars a few months ago with some of my pumpkin puree . Unfortunately, the bars turned out too gooey and soft to be called bars, so I kept trying and tweaked my ingredients. I had added a chocolate glaze to the top of them, and for my family, that was all they needed to give them a thumbs up, but I knew it was just the chocolate channeling through them. So, as I fiddled with the ingredients, I thought I had come up with a winner. However, this batch turned out more like pumpkin bread, but it was good pumpkin bread! I wondered if I should keep forging ahead with the idea of bars or just settle for good bread. I decided good bread was good enough...for now. I thought I would just give it to my family, as is, but the uproar for the chocolate glaze was deafening, so on the bread went the glaze. I made two square loaves of bread and froze one for Christmas dessert. If you also decide to freeze extras, just freeze the bread, and add the glaze before serving. I also suggest rewarming the bread in the oven, instead of just serving after thawing. However, I noticed that my thawed out bread was drier than the one that was freshly made, so I would freeze with caution.

Pumpkin Pecan Bread with Chocolate Glaze

Here's a square of that yummy bread. See those pecans nestled within?

Pumpkin Pecan Bread with Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:

Non-stick spray

Bread:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 and 1/2 cups rice milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract.
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup whole pecans, chopped

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs. cocoa
2 Tbs. soy milk

Directions:

For the bread: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8x8 pan with non-stick spray and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients: the flour through the cinnamon. Add the rice milk and vanilla and beat on medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add the pumpkin and nuts and stir well with a spoon, until blended in. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool pan on cooling rack.

For the glaze: When the bread is completely cooled, remove from pan and place on serving platter. Mix together the glaze ingredients in a small bowl with a spoon. Spread over bread. Let firm up before cutting. Very good. Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.

My Birthday Food Fun, 2012

2012-01-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday, so in keeping with posting on places to eat, I'm including the restaurants that we went to to celebrate. To be even more helpful, I'm including the actual addresses of the restaurants, just in case you make the drive. :-) My daughters also made my cake, and my mom made a pudding pie, mmm-mm.

The first restaurant is Andy Nguyens (2077 Broadway, Sacramento) that is a Buddhism-influenced vegetarian restaurant. My mom took me there on Friday for lunch to start the eatin' early.

We started with a simple soup that the waitress described as "broth with vegetables." She really sold it with her vibrant description, don't you think? My mom held the spoon up for your viewing pleasure. There was some basic soft seitan in there as well.

Next came the Treasure Rolls, which we thought looked beautiful. To make it vegan, they subbed out the veggie ham for veggie shrimp. It had a nice peanut sauce to go with it.

This is my mom's dish, Supreme Wisdom, which is so apropos. It was was seitan and veggies in a coconut milk broth. The jasmine rice was on the side. When I asked about the side salad that was mentioned on the menu, we were told that the pot stickers were the salad. So now you know: pot stickers are salad. Inside it appeared there was mashed tofu with some indefinable veggie.

My dish was the Limitless Compassion, which is true if you have a good story. I didn't bother showing you the "salad" again. My dish was mock beef and veggies in a spicy sauce. I have no idea how the peppery substance got on the plate.

All in all we liked the food. The restaurant has changed since the last time I was there about five years ago, but it's still similar to what it was. I was not overly impressed to the point that I wouldn't investigate our other vegan Asian treasures around town. But, it was satisfying.

For dinner on Saturday night, my parents took us to Thai Smile (4400 San Juan Blvd., Fair Oaks), the same place we went for G's birthday last year. I like this restaurant, and every time I go, I like to try something new off the menu.

I started with a bowl of Tom Kha: Artichoke Soup. And artichoke soup it was! Can you see them floating there? Besides artichokes, there were button and straw mushrooms in a coconut milk broth, And that was about it. It was very simple, but for a girl who loves artichokes, mushrooms and coconut milk, it was great.

My main dish was Pad Kra-Prao: Chili and Thai Basil Stir-fry. I had my choice of tofu or mock meats, and I chose mock chicken. I wish now I had just stuck with tofu to soak up the flavors more. Without sounding boastful, I like my own seitan: I can flavor it just right, and most restaurant versions are kind of bland. The sauce and veggies here were great, and it was just spicy enough. G and I shared brown rice to go with it.

Here is my birthday cake. SR made the batter for the cake, and GR made the frosting. It was delicious!

Here is the chocolate peanut butter pudding pie that my mom made.

Er, my dessert plate shows my fondness for pudding pies. Ahem. I loved my cake, though, too!

Hope you enjoyed the food tour of my day. G's turn comes up in two weeks. And, as usual, for two weeks he says I'm too old for him.

Sausage and Cheese Muffins

2012-01-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

I developed this recipe a few weeks before Christmas to see if they would turn out, and they did. So, I presented them on Christmas morning for my family, including my parents, to enjoy. They are hearty and a tasty way to start the day.

Just a note: You'll see that I'll be using flax seed thickener, instead of EggReplacer, in my savory dishes. Just trying to incorporate more flax in our diet.

Sausage and Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped small
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 pkg. Gimme Lean sausage style, diced small
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, shredded finely and divided
2 cups of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. flax seed meal
3 Tbs. water
1 and 1/2 cups plain rice milk
Non-stick spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and green onion, and saute for one minute. Add the diced sausage to the pan, and cook for five minutes, until it has browned. Stir occasionally. Add half of the cheese to the sausage mixture and stir until it has softened and blended in, about one minute. Set aside to cool while you work with the rest of the ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small pot, mix together the flax seed meal with the water. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, about a minute or two. Add this, along with the rice milk, to the flour mixture. Using a hand mixer, blend on medium low speed until incorporated. Add the sausage mixture, and stir well with a spoon. Spray a cupcake pan's wells with the non-stick spray. Fill wells to the top with batter. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake for 40 minutes. An inserted toothpick will not come out clean because of the cheese and sausage inside the muffin, but after 40 minutes, they will be done. Makes one dozen muffins. These freeze great, as well, if you want to double the recipe. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Kale with Oyster Mushrooms and Garlic

2012-01-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

I'm a BIG fan of mushrooms and always have been. Of course I love the humble white button and its cousin the brown crimini, portabellos big or small, shitakes, straw shrooms, a woody-eared shroom, and enoki, but, I've never had oyster mushrooms before. So, when I saw them for sale at the farmer's market, I thought I'd give them a try. I brought them home with some fresh kale and made a fantastic dish for lunch that took less than ten minutes to cook. The mushrooms released an incredibly savory liquid that added so much flavor to the dish. I am definitely sold on oyster mushrooms now!

One thing on the recipe: I normally like to list ingredients by measurement not weight, but the vendor sold her shrooms by weight, and I didn't think to see how much of a cup they were. I'm thinking a cup to a cup and a half. But, you can just guesstimate.

Kale with Oyster Mushrooms and Garlic

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 pound of oyster mushrooms, bottom end trimmed, approx. 1 and 1/2 cups
1 lg. bunch of kale, approx. 8 to 10 cups, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. When hot, add the garlic and cook for one minute, until the garlic releases its fragrance. Add the mushrooms and saute just for five minutes. Add the kale and mix well. Cook until kale just starts to wilt and is a beautiful bright green color. Season lightly and serve immediately. So addictive that it's hard to stop eating from the pan after you're supposedly done. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Winnie the Pooh Cake with Natural Colors

2011-12-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

I recently went to my first sobriety-celebration party for a relative, a first for me, and it was so fabulous. It was wonderful cheering someone on who was proudly saying they were alcohol-dependent-free. Of course, I had to make a cake for my gang, as it was a full-on potluck with desserts. I've been going through a craze lately (the last few years) of collecting various cake pans, so I thought this was as good a time as any to pull out one of my Winnie the Pooh pans and practice with my homemade colors. I simply used my White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting recipes for the cake and frosting. I've been stowing away liquids in the freezer from colorful foods I've been cooking for this purpose, such as artichoke water, asparagus water, beet water, etc. If it's got vibrant color, I freeze it.

So, this was my first attempt at making these colors, and I've already learned a few things. In the future I'm going to reduce the liquids in a pot, before freezing, to concentrate and deepen the colors. I noticed this time that if I added much more, the frosting would have been too thin. Also, be careful of colorings that already have flavor, like turmeric. It added a nice color, but too much more, and the flavor of the spice would have dominated the sweetness of the cake. As it was, it tasted like a spice cake, which was just fine. You'll also notice that poor Pooh's left eye, eyebrow and his nose are hard to distinguish from each other. I had planned to outline his shirt, facial features, and his arms in a dark brown, but we were running late and the frosting hadn't dried, so Pooh had to come as he was. Take this as a starter cake, and build on it. As I improve my methods, I'll share them with you.

Winnie the Pooh Cake with Natural Colors

Ingredients:

White cake batter- you can use my recipe White Cake
1/2 cup soy milk
Non-stick spray
All-purpose flour

White butter cream frosting - you can use my recipe White Butter Cream Frosting
2 Tbs. leftover liquid from boiling red and orange beets, divided
1 tsp. chocolate pudding mix or cocoa
1 tsp. turmeric

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make White Cake as usual, following my directions, but adding in the extra 1/2 cup of soy milk. Spray your cake pan with non-stick spray and lightly flour, tapping out the extra. Pour in cake batter, and bake for 40 minutes. Cool in pan on cooling rack for fifteen minutes. Invert onto cake platter, then invert back onto cooling rack to finish cooling.

When the cake is completely cool, make frosting according to my directions. Place two dollops of frosting on cake platter to hold cake in place, and put cake on platter. Pull out 1/2 cup of frosting and put in a small bowl. Mix with 1 Tbs. of the beet liquid, until well incorporated. Using a butter knife or a small paint brush, frost the area that is Pooh's shirt and tongue. Pull out 1 Tbs. of frosting and put in an even smaller bowl. Mix well with the pudding mix or cocoa, and paint on the facial features. Use the rest of the frosting to make Pooh's fur. Mix with the other half of the beet liquid, along with the turmeric, and frost Pooh's body. This ends up having a hint of the turmeric flavor, which I thought was tasty. Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.

Savory Stuffed Peppers and Christmas, 2011

2011-12-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

We had another great Christmas this year. I have some pretty hysterical pictures of five-year-old JK completely ecstatic over the celebration.

As usual, I made a big breakfast buffet for my family and parents and then made some dishes to bring to the family potluck for dinner. I decided to bring stuffed peppers for dinner, and they were super tasty. I've got the recipe below, but first we have to cover some highlights.

You'll see in one of the pics below what my buffet looked like. I made:
Scrambled Tofu with broccoli, mushrooms and spinach
Sausage and Cheese muffins (recipe on a future post)
My mom's fruit plate
Chocolate chip cookies
Oatmeal cookies
Brownies
Lemon Sugar Loaf (recipe on a future post)
Coconut Caramel Happy Birthday, Jesus, Cake

For dinner:
Savory Stuffed Peppers
Tofurky
Dessert:
Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Glaze (recipe on a future post)

Just a note on the peppers:
I made enough for 22 people, so you can definitely halve the recipe or more for your needs. Or, you can make the whole batch, and freeze what you won't eat in the next few days. I also cut my peppers in half, but you can use fewer peppers and keep them whole. With all the food at the potluck, I thought having a whole pepper would be too much for some people. I also used white rice to appeal to more people, but brown could be used, of course.

Savory Stuffed Peppers

Stockings hung with care, even for the dogs and cats

Breakfast Buffet (fruit plate hadn't yet arrived)

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Glaze (for potluck dessert)

R.I.P. - Here lies the blank spot where there was a great photo of the kids, but GR was embarrassed and pleaded with me to remove it. The caption is below.

All the kids enjoying JK's new superhero masks. They seem to have suddenly taken on the powers themselves!

GR and JK delivering our annual Christmas cookies to the firefighters.

Now, on to more of the recipe photos:

Here are the peppers, washed and waiting for the water to boil.

The stuffing being sauteed.

Blanching the peppers.

Completed peppers, ready to go!

Savory Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

11 green bell peppers, tops trimmed, seeds and heavy pith removed, and halved lengthwise
1 cup white rice, uncooked, prepared according to package directions
2 Tbs. canola oil
1/3 cup chopped shallots
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 - 12oz. pkgs. Lightlife Smart Ground, original style
1 - 15oz. can of black beans, drained
1 Tbs. dried oregano
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 - 15oz. cans tomato sauce, divided
Non-stick spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a very large pot about two-thirds full with water, and bring to a boil. This will take some time, so you can prepare the rest of your dish while waiting. Cook the rice and set aside. In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for two minutes. Add the Smart Ground and mash with a fork or potato masher, so there are no big lumps. Cook for two or three more minutes, stirring often, so it doesn't burn. Add the beans and spices and cook until heated through, about three or more minutes. Add the rice and stir well, so it's thoroughly mixed. Add two cans of the tomato sauce and mix well. Spray two baking dishes with the non-stick spray. If the water is boiling now, carefully dump the peppers in it and boil for five minutes. Drain in a colander in the sink. Using tongs, place the pepper halves cut side up on the baking dishes. Spoon the filling into the well of each pepper - use every last drop of it. Spoon the last can of tomato sauce over each pepper. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans and seventeen close friends and family.

Cheesy Saucy Bread

2011-12-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the delay in putting out a post. There's been a lot of personal stuff going on, so I really haven't been online at all except for financial necessities and homeschooling materials. I'm hoping to get back to a regular schedule of posting about two times a week again.

Anyhow, on to the recipe: this is a completely indulgent bread, and I use that term loosely. My family thinks it's simply cheese pizza, but no, I'm calling it Cheesy Saucy Bread, and that way it can be served alongside other dishes to make a complete meal. It's super easy, too, so I hope you have fun making it!

Cheesy Saucy Bread right out of the oven

A slice of Cheesy Saucy Bread alongside a pasta dish and roasted veggies

Cheesy Saucy Bread

Ingredients:

1 - 15oz. can tomato sauce
1 Tbs. tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style, finely shredded

2 lg. loaves of ciabatta bread, cut into quarters or halves, depending on size.

Directions:

Heat top broiler in oven. Put all the ingredients for the sauce (tomato sauce through pepper) into a medium pot. Cook over medium low heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomato paste is well absorbed. Place the sections of bread on large baking sheets. Spread the sauce evenly over the bread. Sprinkle the cheese over the sauce. Place bread under broiler for four minutes, or until cheese melts. Serve with pasta and roasted veggies for a complete meal. Mm-mmm, good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Peach Cream Cheese Spread

2011-11-26T08:19:00.001-08:00

This is a very easy recipe that is similar to my Strawberry Cream Cheese . I made it with the last of the summer's ripe peaches a couple of months ago. It's simple and delicious, perfect for a breakfast bagel. I'm going to continue to experiment with different kinds of fruits and will post those that are just as delicious.

A close-up of that beautiful Peach Cream Cheese Spread

Now, it's being shy

Peach Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients:

1 8oz. tub of vegan cream cheese, room temperature
1 ripe peach, diced small
Bagels - plain or sweet style

Directions:

In a small bowl mix together the cream cheese and fruit with a spoon. Chill for about an hour. Spread on bagels. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Thanksgiving, 2011

2011-11-24T19:23:00.001-08:00

We had another great Thanksgiving this year. We filled our bellies and finished off the night playing Twister and the Five Little Monkeys board game. As usual, everyone got to pick a dish that they wanted for the meal - dinner or dessert, their choice. And, my job is always to fill in the blank (usually the vegetable). This year, JK picked chocolate chip cookies. When I went shopping, I saw a stash of chocolate chunks, which I haven't seen for about ten years! I pointed them out to him, and thankfully, he agreed to the chunk version, yay! Cookies are usually my sweet downfall, rather than cakes or pies. They are so easy to pick up, and in a few bites they are gone. I've got to figure out how to get control of that. Anyhow, I simply veganized the recipe on the bag by Bakers and reworded the directions to suit my taste. They were delicioso. Between all of us, about half made it to the Thanksgiving table. Serves me right for making them early in the day.

Here's our complete menu:

Tofurky - always picked by G
Gravy - Me
Cranberry sauce, smooth and chunky - SR
Waffle Fries - SR
Steamed Broccoli - Me

Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake - made completely by GR, no recipe for the cake or frosting, and she wrote Thanksgiving across the top
Pumpkin Pie - GR, who made this too, and we bought Rice Whip for the top
Roasted Chestnuts - Me
Chocolate Chunk Cookies - JK

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Our Thanksgiving Spread

My Thanksgiving Plate

Our Dessert Spread

My Dessert Plate

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

1 and 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup vegan or raw sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
2 Tbs. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pkg. chocolate chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugars. Add the Egg Replacer, water and vanilla extract, and beat on low speed until well mixed. Add the flour mixture in two halves to the sugar mix, and continue blending until well mixed. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Take a heaping tablespoon of the cookie dough - I found I had to mold it into balls in my hands - and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for twelve minutes. Cool for a couple minutes on cookie sheet on cooling rack, then place cookies directly on cooling rack to finish cooling. Makes about three dozen. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Classic Bean Tacos

2011-11-21T08:53:00.001-08:00

One of my dad's signature dishes was tacos. We had taco night about once a month or so, and he was always in charge of it. This version of the taco was the first one I made when I stopped eating meat, and I use all the traditional toppings that we used at home. It hits the spot and the heart.

Classic Bean Tacos

Ingredients:

At least one 29oz. can vegetarian refried beans
Canola oil
20 or more corn tortillas
Hot sauce
Ketchup
3 green onions, sliced
Romaine lettuce, chopped
Tomatoes, diced
At least one medium can of sliced black olives
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded

Directions:

Heat the refried beans in a medium pot until warmed through. Heat one teaspoon of the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. When hot, add one tortilla. When it starts to change shape or bubble (just in ten seconds or so), flip over. Add a large spoonful of beans down one side of the tortilla. Fold the other side over the beans. Place on a paper towel lined cookie sheet. Follow suit with at least one more tortilla before adding a bit more oil to the pan. Finish with the remaining tortillas and beans. Have the toppings ready at the table. I like to add the hot sauce and ketchup on the beans, so they stay put, instead of falling to the plate. Have fun, enjoy the food, eat to your heart's content. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Fried Potatoes with Jalapenos

2011-11-18T10:22:00.001-08:00

I love to create spicy dishes, but with my family, I have to usually separate out all the spicy ingredients and add them in at the end for me. This is one of those dishes - the Blessings are not too keen on onions and jalapenos. But, lately, JK has been chowing down on pickled garlic, even though he still requires his potatoes to be peeled! Anyhoo, if everyone in your family likes all the ingredients here, I recommend cooking the toppings with the potatoes, instead of in a separate pan like I did.

Fried Potatoes with Jalapenos

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. canola oil
6 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed into bite-sized pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 large white onion, quartered and sliced
1 head of garlic, peeled and sliced
2 jalapenos, ends trimmed, seeded and quartered lengthwise, and sliced
Black pepper!

Directions:

In a large pan, heat the canola oil over medium heat. When hot, add the potatoes and cook for at least twenty minutes, until they begin to get fork-tender. Add the salt and pepper. At this point, heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. When hot, add the remaining ingredients, except for the black pepper. Cook for about fifteen minutes, until onions are brownish or beginning to caramelize. The potatoes should be done at this point - you're aiming for a brown crispiness on their edges. Serve the potatoes and top with the jalapeno mixture. Add pepper to taste. So good. (If you wish, you can add the uncooked onion, garlic and jalapenos to the potato dish, while the potatoes are still cooking, and cook them together.) Feeds five hungry vegans.

Fried Tofu Sandwiches

2011-11-14T10:39:00.001-08:00

When I was a kid, one of the few egg dishes I liked was my father's fried egg sandwiches - just a fried egg between two slices of bread, slathered with mayo. Several years ago, I wanted to recreate that memory vegan-style, so I made a fried tofu sandwich. At first it was just as simple as the egg version, but over the years it's become more grandiose with classic condiments and veggies added to it. Now, I don't even think of my old childhood fave, for my new love is far superior in presentation and taste. The sandwich pictured is with my Basic White Bread and my mom's homemade pickles - shout out to Mom!

Fried Tofu Sandwiches

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. canola oil
2 pkgs. of extra-firm tofu, drained and sliced in 1/4" to 1/2" slices width wise
10 Slices of bread
Vegenaise
Mustard
Lettuce, torn into sandwich size pieces
2 tomatoes, thickly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste, optional
Pickles, sliced into rounds

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. When hot add the tofu slices and cook until brown on both sides, about ten to fifteen minutes. Repeat with rest of tofu, if all of it couldn't fit in pan the first time. Drain on paper towels. Spread Vegenaise and mustard on bread, add two or three pieces of tofu, along with the lettuce, tomato and pickles. I like to sprinkle salt and pepper on top of the tomato slices. Serve with a side of roasted veggies, if desired. Hits the spot. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Almond Streusel Coffee Cake

2011-11-11T18:44:00.001-08:00

This is a very similar coffee cake to my Apple Streusel Coffee Cake. I veganized this from a mailbox solicitation years ago, making some adjustments in the ingredients and baking time. Except for a slight change in directions and eliminating apples, there really isn't much difference. I've really been enjoying using fresh citrus when I need their juice and grated peels in recipes; it is vastly superior to the store bought versions. I recommend doing this, if you really want to taste the intensity of flavor. I love to have these for Saturday breakfasts when I can get up early while the family is snoozing and fill the house with the fragrance of baking. I usually make two and freeze the second sans glaze. They are easy to reheat; just add the glaze when cool. They're also great to thaw out and warm up for when guests come over.

Almond Streusel Coffee Cake

A slice of Almond Streusel Coffee Cake

Almond Streusel Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

Non- stick spray

For the streusel:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup flour
5 Tbs. vegan margarine, melted
1 tsp. fresh, grated orange peel

For the cake:
1/2 cup vegan margarine, room temp or softened
1/2 cup vegan or raw sugar
1 and 1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
1 tsp. fresh, grated orange peel
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup orange juice (fresh from oranges, above, or store bought)

For the glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 and 1/2 tsp. orange juice

Directions:

For the streusel: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a Bundt-style cake pan with non-stick spray and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, sliced almonds and flour. Add the margarine and orange peel and mix well. Set aside.

For the cake: In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed. In a mug, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water. Add this, as well as the orange peel and vanilla to the sugar mixture. Blend with the electric mixer, until incorporated. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Alternate mixing in the dry ingredients with the orange juice into the sugar mixture. Start with low speed and work your way up to medium. Spoon half of the cake batter into the cake pan. Follow with half of the streusel. Finish scooping out the rest of the cake batter on top of the streusel, making sure to cover it as best you can. Top with the remaining streusel. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Ignore it if some streusel sticks to the pick; you're looking for gooey cake batter. Cool on a cooling rack completely. Once completely cooled, invert on a large plate, then invert again onto another plate, making sure the streusel is facing up.

For the glaze: In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and juice well. Using a small spoon, drizzle in a zig zag fashion back and forth around the cake. Let set up for at least fifteen minutes, before slicing. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Tofu Tacos

2011-11-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

We love taco night here at our home. I always think it's going to be more work than it is, but really, it comes together in a half hour or less usually. I like to make variations of things to keep them fresh and fun, but also hang on to the successful classics. I started using tofu as one of my taco fillings a few years ago, and found that it worked really well. Now, it is one of the fillings that I rotate around on taco night. For the shells, I sometimes use a tad of oil to soften up the tortillas in a pan. Use only as much as you need, just a couple of drops for two or more tortillas before adding more. I find that corn tortillas sometimes need a little extra help to soften up, without breaking. Here are some tasty toppings ideas for you, as well.

Tofu Tacos

Ingredients:

Canola oil, divided
2 pkgs. extra-firm tofu, drained and mashed
1 vegan taco seasoning packet
20 or more corn tortillas (we are feeding five hungry vegans here, with teens!)

Toppings:
1/2 white onion, sliced
1 tomato, diced
Fresh cilantro sprigs
Romaine, sliced in strips
Ketchup
Hot sauce

Directions:

Cover a large baking sheet with paper towels, set aside. In a large pan, heat two tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the mashed tofu and cook until it starts to brown, about fifteen or so minutes. While cooking, prepare the toppings. Add the taco seasoning packet to the tofu and stir well, cooking for another minute or so. Remove from heat. Heat a teaspoon of oil either in a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. When hot, add one tortilla, wait ten or so seconds - bubbles may appear on the tortilla, or it may bend at the edges - flip over and scoop a tablespoon or so of the taco mix onto one side of the tortilla. Flip the other side of the tortilla over to cover the filling. Remove from skillet and place on baking sheet with the paper towels. Repeat with one or two more tortillas, until the pan is dry, and then add a teaspoon more of oil. Fill with an assortment of the toppings. Just a small tip: I like to add the ketchup and/or hot sauce directly on the tofu, instead of on the very top of the toppings, so none of it falls onto the plate, if there's a topping avalanche. Very yummy. Feeds five hungry vegans, sometimes with some cold, tasty tacos leftover for the next day's lunch.

Joe's Special with Tofu

2011-11-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

When I was twelve and fourteen years old, my father took on me long-distance bicycle trips: one was the California coast border to border and the other was Seattle to San Francisco. He and I did a lot of shorter long trips together, but each of the two long-distance ones took us one month to accomplish. They were literally the best times I had with my father growing up. We could talk, we saw sights and heard sounds that people in cars whizzing by missed. We slept mostly in hiker-biker parts of regular campgrounds, but sometimes we found ourselves in a sheep farm, or a hidey-hole up a steep trail, or the rare hotel to wash up. We met some great people on these trips, and if they were bikers going the same direction as us, we found ourselves meeting up at the next campground 50 to 75 miles away the next evening. Sometimes we would get to know other travelers over a week. It was a wonderful time for me.

One of the things that was commonplace was to share our meals with each other and develop a sort of outdoors banquet. This is when I first had Joe's Special. It was actually my father's contribution, but I don't recollect him making it other than on these trips. We usually had it at least once a week on the road, and my belly always welcomed it. The other campers brought whatever they had to contribute and would gather around the fire that was heating our meal; the smells were an invitation for everyone to join in. My father made his with ground beef, mushrooms and spinach - we would carry the food and pans right in our panniers, our bicycle packs. He seasoned it simply with just salt and pepper - the outdoor air and the moon and the crickets fed the rest of the senses. I've made a vegan version in different ways over the years, and this is my take on it with tofu. I've added liquid smoke to try and recapture the essence of being in the woods, the campfire lights sparking into the air, but I don't think anything will quite compare to the memories I treasure. This is as close as I can get it.

Joe's Special with Tofu

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. of canola oil
2 pkgs. of extra-firm tofu, drained of water, cubed into approximate 1/2" squares
8 to 10 mushrooms, sliced thickly or quartered, depending on size
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the cubed tofu and cook until it browns, about fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mushrooms and cook for another five minutes. Add the spinach and seasoning and cook until the spinach wilts, just a couple of minutes. Served with baked potatoes, this makes a complete meal. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Vegetable Salad

2011-10-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my mom often put me in charge of making the family salad for the dinner table. Everyone seemed to appreciate how many goodies I added to the iceberg lettuce that was always the base for our salads. As I grew older, my penchant for goodie-filled salads sustained itself, and I found myself always digging around for the extra yummies I put in. One day it dawned on me what I was doing, and I thought: why don't I just make a salad from the goodies themselves? It was so obvious! So, the Vegetable Salad was born, and it has enjoyed a showing quite often. Of course you can use any combo of goodies you like; these are just the ones I used for this particular salad. Free your inner goodie-lover!

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients:

1 can of green beans, drained
6 mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 tomatoes, wedged
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
3 green onions, sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup sliced roasted red bell peppers (jarred)
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
Your favorite dressing or lemon juice

Directions:

Dump all ingredients, except the dressing, in a large serving bowl and toss well. Serve with your dressing. Enjoy the goodies. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Open-Faced Broiled Tomato and Cheese Sandwich

2011-10-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

This was another sandwich born of opportunity, necessity and availability. Hungry for lunch one day, I poked around, pulled out some simple ingredients and broiled a sandwich that we all appreciated. Hope you do too, and enjoy it for dinner too sometimes.

Open-Faced Broiled Tomato and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:

Several thick slices of bread - I used my Basic White Bread
Vegenaise or Nayonnaise
2 or 3 fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled if desired, sliced thickly
Salt and pepper to taste
At least 1 cup of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Mozzarella style, finely shredded

Directions:

Place oven rack second from top and heat the top broiler. On each slice of bread, spread the vegenaise (or nayonnaise) a little more thickly than usual. Top with three to five slices of tomato. Salt and pepper the tomatoes to your taste. Top with a sprinkling of cheese. Place all the slices on a cookie sheet, and broil for three or four minutes, until the cheese melts. Serve immediately. Feeds five hungry vegans. Perfect for that nagging hunger question.

Fresh Summer Fruit Salad

2011-10-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

We make a lot of fruit salads, and the summer seems to offer such a wonderful variety of natural sugary goodness. This is an example of one of the salads I made a few weeks back, when the fruit was still at its most flavorful. I added a bit of coconut and raisins for some extra variety. I served this with some of my homemade rolls . It makes for a nice lunch or a light dinner.

Fresh Summer Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

1/4 of a large watermelon, approximately four cups, chopped
1 cantaloupe, seeded, cut away from rind and chopped
2 mangoes, diced * See tip below on how to prepare a mango
2 bananas, sliced
1 nectarine, chopped
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 small snack box of raisins, approximately 1/4 cup

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a large bowl. Gently toss together and serve immediately. Feeds five hungry vegans.

* There are two ways that I have found the easiest to get at the succulent mango. One is to peel the ripe fruit with a paring knife. Once you get the peel going, it is easy to just grasp ahold with your fingers and pull it off the fruit. Once the fruit is peeled, you can take a larger knife and slice the two wide halves of the mango away from the fibrous pit inside. Then you can go around the edges and slice away any large chunks of mango still attached to the pit. Anything left over but too small to cut off, can munched on directly. Just wash your hands afterwards. The second way is to leave the peel on and slice away the wide halves like above. With the fruit still in the detached peel, you take your knife and carve cubes into the mango. Then, laying the peel flat, carefully slice under the mango cubes, releasing them from the peel. For the remainder of the mango still attached to the pit, you may do the same or peel and cut away as in the first option. One of these choices should appeal to you more than the other. Either way, don't let the fact that you have to work a little harder deter you from getting at a fresh mango. They are worth it!

Dark Chocolate Mini Cupcakes with Frosting

2011-10-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

For this recipe, I simply veganized Hershey's chocolate cake recipe and turned it into scrumptious mini cupcakes. Yummers! Here's the easy recipe, along with their veganized frosting.

Dark Chocolate Mini Cupcakes with Frosting

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
Non-stick spray
A little flour for dusting
2 cups vegan or raw sugar
1 and 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Frosting:
1/2 cup vegan margarine
2/3 cup dark cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
For the cupcakes: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the mini cupcake wells with non-stick spray. Sprinkle a little flour in each well and swoosh around to cover the spray. Pat out the extra flour into your sink. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a mug, whisk together the egg replacer and the water. Pour that mixture and the soy milk, oil, and vanilla extract into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix with an electric blender on medium speed for two minutes. Pour in the boiling water and mix on low, until the water is blended in. Batter will be thinner than you might expect, but it's okay. Fill each cupcake well about 3/4 full. Bake for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into one of the middle cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in pan on a cooling rack for ten minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan and put directly on rack to finish cooling. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Makes six dozen cupcakes!

For the frosting: Melt the margarine either in the microwave or on the stove top. Put melted margarine in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk the cocoa into the margarine. Alternate adding the powdered sugar and the soy milk into the cocoa mixture, mixing on medium low speed with an electric blender. Add vanilla and beat for at least two minutes on medium speed, until the frosting has a creamy consistency. Spoon by dollops onto cooled cupcakes. Eat and enjoy. Feeds five hungry vegans for several desserts.

Black Bean Mole' over Coconut Couscous

2011-10-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

I cannot take the credit for the creativity of this dish. I got this out of a newspaper clipping several years ago. All I've done is veganize the toppings and bring out larger quantities of them, adjust some of the ingredients, give directions on how to toast the coconut, and make the directions in more my style, with slight changes. But, my family, all of them (gasp!), loves this dish, and it's so fun and different, that I just had to share.

Black Bean Mole' over Coconut Couscous

Ingredients:

Couscous:
1 cup uncooked couscous
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mole':
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 - 15 oz. cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 - 16 oz. jar of mild or medium salsa
1 and 1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Toppings:
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style, finely shredded
1 container of vegan sour cream
6 green onions, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced - we used a combination of red and yellow tomatoes

Directions:

For the couscous: Prepare the couscous according to package directions. Set aside in a covered pot. While the couscous is being prepared, take a small pot and heat it over medium heat. Add the coconut and cinnamon and stir. Continue to stir until the coconut begins to brown, or toasts. It should emit a nice fragrance, not a burned one. Once toasted, stir into the couscous and recover.

For the mole': Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for less than a minute, until it releases its wonderful aroma. Do not over cook - garlic is quick to burn. Add the rest of the mole' ingredients and stir well. Lower the heat to medium low and cook for another five minutes, or so, until all is heated through.
Serve mole' over couscous and load up the toppings. So, so good! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Liebster Blog Award

2011-10-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

A thank you goes out to Farrah at Carrot Top Vegan who bestowed the lovely Liebster award on me. I'm not really sure who the original Liebster is, but I'm sure they are a very intriguing person. So, this award needs to passed on to five bloggers who have less than 200 followers and who show their support during MOFO. So, I thought I had better get on this, instead of procrastinating past October!

The amazing, stupendous bloggers that I have chosen are...(drum roll, please!):

1. Maud at Food Feud

2. Carissa at Coffee and Sunshine

3. Millie at Nuestra Cena-American & Latin Vegan Cuisine

4. Molly at Vegan Flower

5. Jessica at Veggie Cookie

Be sure to check out these wonderful blogs, including Farrah's, and if you feel inclined, add yourself as a follower!

Zukes with Anaheim Peppers and Garlic

2011-10-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

So, if you read my previous post, you will remember that I had a side dish that I really liked. Here is basically my lunch the next day, an exact replica of the dinner the night before. I think you'll really like the zucchini dish that I made to go with my Radical Rice Salad. I've made it again since the first time I enjoyed it. What's nice about Anaheim peppers is that they're just slightly hotter than bell peppers, so they can suit taste buds that can't tolerate heat, but for those heat-lovin' people that are in the same family as the former, it gives them a little pepper variety beyond the classic bell.

Zukes with Anaheim Peppers and Garlic

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
2 Anaheim peppers, ends trimmed and sliced in rings - you can scoop out the seeds with a spoon and rinse the rest out, or leave a few seeds in for heat, like I do
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
6 medium or 4 large zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and peppers and cook for one minute over medium heat. Add the zucchini and cook for five to ten minutes longer, until the zucchini is fork-tender. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with Radical Rice Salad, above, or another hearty grain dish. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Radical Rice Salad

2011-10-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

I like to jazz up different ways to make salads, so they're not boring. This is one way to do that, that I make several times a year. The more goodies tossed in this particular salad, the better, in my opinion! I threw together a veggie dish on the side that tasted way better than I anticipated, so I will post that easy recipe next. Enjoy!

Radical Rice Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup of uncooked brown rice, prepared according to package directions
3 cups fresh veggies - we used: broccoli florets, chopped small; carrot, grated; green onions, sliced; tomato, chopped
1 small can sliced black olives, drained
1/2 can quartered artichoke hearts in water
1/2 can garbanzos, drained
1/2 cup of your favorite salad dressing - I used a tangy French dressing
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Directions:

Once rice is cooked, add it and all the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Best served chilled but can be served at room temperature in a pinch. If chilling, use non-breakable bowl before putting in refrigerator. Stir before serving. Serve with a side of sauteed veggies. Feeds five hungry vegans well.

Lentils with Tomatoes and Veggies

2011-10-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is such a simple, rustic dish, perfect for the coming cold days, that I make often. It's versatile, and you can use up veggies that are dwindling in your produce bins. Served with a side of pasta, this makes a complete meal.

Lentils with Tomatoes and Veggies

Ingredients:

1 lb. lentils, picked through for grit
Enough water to cover lentils by one inch
3 cups of veggies: we used broccoli stalks and florets and fresh green beans
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 and 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 large tomato, diced

Directions:

Cook lentils in water in a large pot over medium heat for about 45 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Add more water, if necessary, to keep the lentils from drying out. Add the veggies and seasonings and cook another ten minutes. Limit adding water at this point because you are not trying to make soup, but you don't want it to be bone dry either. Add the tomato and turn off the heat. Serve with a side of pasta, and you've got a tasty meal! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Confetti Tofu with Red Pepper Hummus on Rye

2011-09-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Here is my second entry into the sandwich contest, which also didn't land the grand prize. But, I was happy with how this turned out. I really like how the crunch of the vegetables worked with the softness of the tofu. And, the hummus was a great complement as a spread. This is definitely going to go on my recurring menu board. Hope you like it, too. Again, I've had to adjust my measurements from two sandwiches to five, but I'm pretty sure these are close to accurate.

Confetti Tofu with Red Pepper Hummus on Rye

Ingredients:

Tofu:
1 pkg. extra-firm tofu, drained and mashed
2/3 cup of vegenaise
1 Tbs. of yellow mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 and 1/2 cup Italian Mix Giardiniera, chopped, excluding the onions

Hummus:
1 - 15oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained
1 Tbs. sesame tahini
1 and 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 and 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup roasted red bell peppers (jarred)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt

10 slices of Rye bread

Directions:

For the Tofu: In a medium bowl, mix all of the ingredients together. Set aside.

For the Hummus: In a food processor, process all the ingredients, until smooth, at least one minute. Taste, and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

For the Sandwich: Spread at least a tablespoon of hummus on one side of each slice of rye bread. Add two to three tablespoons of the tofu mixture on half of the bread slices. Top with remaining rye bread. Messy, so have a napkin or two nearby. Very unusual and good. You will have leftovers for more sandwiches the next day for lunch. Enjoy! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Teriyaki Tofu Tango Sandwich

2011-09-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of two sandwich recipes that I submitted to a contest, that didn't win. So, even if they're losers to them, our family still thinks they're winners! I'll post the other one a little later, so as not to deluge you with sandwiches, but here's my first entry. This was actually quite tasty and very easy to make. Hopefully, you'll love the tango, too. I'm adjusting the recipe to feed five - the original recipe was meant to feed two.

Teriyaki Tofu Tango Sandwich

Ingredients:

5 six inch long sandwich rolls
1 pkg. extra-firm tofu, drained, and sliced in ten rectangles, width wise
Your favorite teriyaki sauce, divided
Non-stick spray
5 baby bok choys or 1 regular bok choy, greens only, thinly sliced
1 cup of cilantro, green tops and with just the beginnings of stems
1/4 red onion, sliced thinly
2/3 cup roasted red bell pepper slices (jarred)

Directions:

Marinate the tofu slices in a cup of the teriyaki sauce for at least a half an hour. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with the non-stick spray and place the tofu slices on it. Drizzle any extra marinade over the slices. Bake for fifteen minutes, flip over the tofu, and continue baking for another fifteen minutes. Remove from oven and let cool while you prepare the rest of the sandwich. Baste about a teaspoon or so of teriyaki sauce on each of the inside slices of the rolls. On the bottom half, divide the bok choy greens between the rolls. Divide the cilantro sprigs on top of the bok choy, and the red onion on top of that. Nestle two slices of tofu on top of the onion slices. Top with the red bell peppers. Fold the top of the roll over on everything. Fresh and tasty. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup

2011-09-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to continue to come up with creative ways to use up my pumpkin puree, and I've never made a pumpkin soup before, so I thought I'd give it a try with the ingredients I had on hand. It turned out pretty well, and I will make this again. I'll keep you posted as I develop more pumpkin recipes - I've been working on some bars. :-)

Creamy Pumpkin Curry Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
4 cups of pumpkin puree
5 cups of vegetable broth
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup fresh basil, sliced thinly width wise
More basil for garnish, if desired

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the red onion, and cook for at least fifteen minutes, until caramelized. Add the next six ingredients (pumpkin puree through pepper), and cook for a half hour. Lower the heat to low, and add the soy milk and basil. Cook for five more minutes. Ladle into bowls, and add additional basil for garnish. Simple and elegant. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Breakfast Links

2011-09-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

I first started making my own breakfast links about a year ago. I was curious to see if I could save money by doing so. What I found out was that I could make about 75 links for the same amount of money that it cost to pay for one pack of six vegan breakfast links at the store. That was a no-brainer: no more store-bought breakfast links for us! I played around with different ingredients until I finally created a recipe that mimics the taste of the store-bought kind pretty darn closely. My secret ingredient, to get the texture just right, is tofu. As far as I know, I have never seen tofu used in a seitan recipe before. So, if I'm right about that, and then you see tofu-seitan recipes popping up all over in money-making cookbooks, tell them to throw ol' BlessedMama a dime or two. :-) (I was actually advised to hold on to this recipe, but who am I kidding? I'll never have a cookbook. So, I'm sharing!) Having the gluten flour, tofu and beans makes for a really tender piece of seitan. You can serve these as an accompaniment to a breakfast meal, or you can make them for my Brothy Beans with Sausages dish. We love these, and they can freeze well. Hope you save money and like them too.

Breakfast Links

I make my links about three to four inches in length.

Once rolled out, they get twisted up into their own foil packets.

Here's a big pot of them, getting ready to get steamed.

Breakfast Links

Ingredients:

1 pkg. extra-firm tofu, water-packed, drained
1 cup of slow-cooked pinto beans
2 cups of vegetable broth
2 and 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 Tbs. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 and 3/4 cups gluten flour
Canola oil

Directions:

Put the first six ingredients (tofu through pepper) into a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Add the gluten flour, and stir until well mixed. Knead (you can do it right in the bowl) for about three to five minutes, to make sure there are no super wet or super dry spots. Pull off a small ball of dough, smaller than a golf ball, and roll out to a sausage link size, about three to four inches in length. Prepare a large pot with a couple inches of water in the bottom and a steamer basket inside. Once you have several links rolled out, put each one at the end of a small strip of aluminum foil. Roll the link up, so it makes at least two complete turns, and twist the ends closed. Start filling up your pot. Complete this cycle for the rest of the mix, until you have a pot full of foil-wrapped links. Cover with a lid. Turn the heat on to medium, and steam for 40 minutes. Remove from heat. Heat up about a tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Unroll several links and put them in the pan. Fry them for a minute or two, turning them, until they are browned on all sides. Do this with all the links, adding a bit of oil, as needed. Can be served alongside pancakes or tofu scramble for breakfast. Freeze unused portions. Simply thaw and reheat in microwave or oven. So tasty. Feeds five hungry vegans for several meals.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

2011-09-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Cheesy garlic bread - what could be better than that? I'll try to come up with something, don't worry. But, in the meantime, here is cheesy garlic bread! Yum! So easy to make, so sinfully delicious too. Makes the kids happy, what a bonus. Here is my super quick, easy way to make these beauts.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Cheesy Garlic Bread, sliced in serving bowl

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

2 lg. French loaves, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 head of garlic, all the cloves sliced
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style, finely shredded

Directions:

Put the top oven rack in the second position from the top. Turn on broiler. Put bread on large cookie or baking sheet. Spread margarine evenly over all four halves of bread. Press in sliced garlic into the top of margarined-up bread. Sprinkle cheese over all the halves - don't forget the very ends and sides! Broil bread for three minutes, until cheese melts. Watch for burning! (If you get a small portion that burned, wait a couple minutes for the bread to cool, and simply scrape off.) Cool bread for five minutes, then slice. Eat. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Simple Avocado Tacos

2011-09-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Like their name says, these are really simple tacos. But, there is a cute, short story that goes along with this meal, so I have to share it with you.

A few years ago, a good friend of ours (she and her husband are JK's godparents), had my children and I, and another friend and her son over for a play date and lunch. She is not strictly a plant-eater but very well could be because she always makes some awesome vegan dishes. Do you know any people like that, who are so health-conscious and would make the transition so easily but just don't? Anyways, she made these tacos by slightly blackening corn tortillas on one of her burners, spreading refried beans in them and adding sliced avocados. She put out rooster sauce for everyone to enjoy. Now, I am a fan, a big fan, of rooster sauce, but my eyes popped out when I saw her slather it on her tacos. It was like a little kid with a plate of fries and ketchup. And, then she proceeded to delicately munch on each taco. My mouth would have been pleading for something cool to drink. Well, the kids were all at another table, so we moms could somewhat hear each other talk. My SR reached over to grab a pitcher of lemonade to refill her glass when she accidentally spilled it all over the kids' platter of tacos! All of the children reacted differently, but they were determined to not let those precious tacos go to waste. My friend's son diligently picked one up from the platter, took a bite, and very emphatically said, "These lemonade tacos stink!" See, inadvertently SR created a brand new taco: lemonade tacos. Despite being drenched in lemonade, that platter of tacos was quickly eliminated, and grabby hands made their way towards the moms' sacred stash.

Now, I make these tacos, and, of course, we have to recount the original lemonade tacos every time. If you are feeling especially brave, you may try your hand at adding fresh lemonade, and let me know if they stink for you, too. By the way, don't let the simplicity of these tacos fool you: they are amazingly delicious!

Simple Avocado Tacos

Ingredients:

1 - 29oz. can vegetarian refried beans
20 or so yellow corn tortillas
3 - 4 avocados, sliced
Rooster sauce

Directions:

Pour the beans in a small pot and warm over medium heat. Heat a stove burner on medium heat. (My friend has a gas burner, and I have a flat, electric burner, and they both work fine.) Place a tortilla directly on the burner, until there are a few darkened spots. With tongs, flip the tortilla over to the other side. Each side should take 30 seconds or much less, depending on your burner. Place each tortilla on a cookie sheet, when done, and spread a tablespoon or two of beans on one side. Place two or three slices of avocado on top of the beans, and fold other half of tortilla over on top. Serve with rooster sauce. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Brown Rice topped with Caramelized Onions, Garlic and Tomatoes

2011-09-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is such a simple recipe, but the end result feels so gourmet. It's a nice way to snazz up the home kitchen.

Brown Rice topped with Caramelized Onions, Garlic and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 cup of uncooked brown rice, prepared according to package directions
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 red onion, halved and sliced (both halves)
5 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tomato, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

When the rice is nearing its end cooking time, heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onion when oil is hot, and cook for at least fifteen minutes, until the onion starts to turn color (past the translucent stage). Add the garlic and cook for two more minutes. Add the tomato and seasoning, and turn off the heat. Serve over the brown rice. A taste bud treat! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Home Fries

2011-09-06T14:51:00.001-07:00

Are you familiar with the home fries that diners serve? The cubed potatoes that are crunchy on the outside but so fluffy on the inside? Well, after realizing that simply frying the taters in oil or water, or even baking them, didn't get me the results I wanted at home,I pulled out the deep fryer, and voila, perfect home fries! I like to make them for breakfast dishes, and they can be served by themselves as a side dish or incorporated into a dish like my Breakfast Potato Skillet. Yes, these do take some oil, but if you make these sparingly, you can leave your guilt outside the dining room.

Home Fries

Home Fries on a breakfast plate with fresh cantaloupe and tofu scramble

Home Fries

Ingredients:

9 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
Enough canola oil to reach a deep fryer's fill line
Salt to taste

Directions:

Pour the oil into your deep fryer and heat. When hot, carefully add three of the cubed russet potatoes. Cook for 14-15 minutes, until the potatoes are golden. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Repeat with the rest of the potatoes in two more batches. Delicious and comforting. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Pasta with Sauteed Veggies

2011-08-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here is another easy way to use up leftover pasta. It works great, as well, if you make pasta fresh and just want to jazz it up.

Pasta with Sauteed Veggies

Ingredients:

About a pound of leftover or freshly cooked pasta - we used linguine
3 cups of your favorite veggies - we used:
2 carrots, cut on the diagonal
2 zucchini, cut on the diagonal
2 bok choy, cut into thirds and sliced thinly
5 garlic cloves, sliced
2 Tbs. canola oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbs. garlic powder blend or plain garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot or skillet on medium heat. When hot, add veggies and cook until tender, about five minutes. If using long pasta, cut into thirds or quarters. Add your pasta to the veggies, along with the seasonings. Lower heat to medium low and cook for another five minutes or so, until all is heated through. Simple and good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Leftover Pasta Delight

2011-08-20T16:24:00.001-07:00

This was a meal created by the fact that I was tired of having lots of little containers with bits of leftovers in the fridge. There was not enough on their own to make a complete meal for one person, much less for a whole family. So, I just did my "garbage" trick and dumped them all together in a bowl and had myself an incredibly delicious lunch for one: me. But, this was so good and so satisfying that I'm going to attempt to offer portion sizes that will make a meal for a family, namely one that has five members in it. Enjoy.

Leftover Pasta Delight

Ingredients:

At least 3 cups of leftover pasta - I used bowtie
At least one cup of leftover steamed veggies - I used cauliflower, broccoli and carrots
At least one cup of leftover sauteed kale with red onions and garlic
At least one cup of your favorite salsa
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Mozzarella style, cubed small
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and pour into a casserole dish. You can either reheat this in a microwave for ten to twelve minutes, stirring every few minutes, or reheat in a 350 degree oven for thirty minutes. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Hint of India Garbanzos

2011-08-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

This was one of those dishes where I was really craving curried garbanzos but didn't have any curry on hand. So, I kind of pushed that aside and decided to get more creative with the spices I already had in my cupboard, especially my poor neglected, underused garam masala. What turned out was a dish a bit on the spicy side but very tasty, definitely deserving of a reappearance.

Hint of India Garbanzos in serving dish

Now nestled on a plate surrounded by goodness

Hint of India Garbanzos

Ingredients:

2 - 15oz. cans of garbanzo beans, undrained
1 yellow bell pepper, diced small
5 garlic cloves, chopped small
1/2 red onion, diced small
2 tsp. garam masala
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients in a medium pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil and let boil for five minutes. Lower heat to medium low and continue cooking for 20 more minutes. Complete your meal by serving it over brown rice with steamed veggies on the side. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Sauteed Pasta with Garlic

2011-08-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is such a shamefully easy recipe, but it's good and quick on a busy night, so I thought I'd share it. Pair it with some yummy veggies, like roasted asparagus, and you've got yourself a complete meal.

Sauteed Pasta with Garlic

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. vegan margarine
1 head of garlic, cloves, peeled and sliced in rounds
1 lb. cooked and cooled, or leftover, pasta (small or medium sized works best)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the margarine over medium heat. When almost melted completely, add the garlic. Cook for about thirty seconds, or until the garlic releases its fragrance. (Garlic burns easily, so don't cook too long by itself.) Add the pasta and seasonings and stir well. Cook for five to ten more minutes, until the pasta is heated through. I like a bit of crispiness to some of the pasta edges, so I wait until that happens before I remove from heat. Easy and tasty. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Veggie Soup with Rice

2011-08-10T15:51:00.001-07:00

Hello, everyone! It's good to be back, and I really hope this posts well, and I can comment on my site and on yours. Thanks to Vegan Flower, we added on Firefox, and that's what I'm using to create this current post. Since this is my first post using Firefox, I have a new question: how do we upload pictures so that they stay in the order we want? I've tried two times so far. The first time, Firefox loaded them alphabetically, not the way I had intended. So, then I went back and changed all my pics names, so that they were alphabetical and in the order I wanted them to upload. But now Firefox hasn't loaded them alphabetically! This will be important when I have a post that has recipe steps involved with photos; I'll need them to be in order. Anyone? Vegan Flower?

I thought I'd give you a very short summary of what's been going on with us in the last couple of months. G's toe's skin has finally healed, but his toe joint and foot are still in pain. SR's wrist is still in pain, even after a cortisone shot. I'm trying to talk her into acupuncture. I pulled a calf muscle, the same one three times now in two years. And, I'm just healing from a back sprain. Ugh. I did earn my certificate to become a birth doula; that was a two and a half year process. We celebrated SR's, JK's, and both my parents' birthdays, as well as their anniversary, so we've been twirling in frosting over here. Both girls graduated from the last and highest level of swimming class, and JK is proud to be a guppy! We've had appliance repairs, auto repairs, and everyone but JK got new glasses, yay. Our garden went kaput. I took pics in June, and very soon after that, the dogs ate the grapevine and most of my nectarine tree, and the almond tree died. Both pups got spayed and had cone hats at the same time, very funny. What about you? What have I missed? I've been offline, not just on blogging, but pretty much everything - just trying to enjoy the summer with my kids.

Below the photos is a simple soup recipe that is a winner every time. You can use it as a guideline to build your own delicious soups. :-)

Veggie Soup with Rice

A simple wrestling cake for JK's 5th birthday

Strawberry Tall Cakes for SR's actual 14th birthday

Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes for SR's party - GR's grabbing one!

One of our artichoke plants, while it was thriving

Veggie Soup with Rice

Ingredients:

8 to 10 cups of fresh and/or frozen veggies, choppped
We used: broccoli, cauliflower, orange carrots, yellow carrots, red bell peppers, green beans, corn, and celery
1 - 32 oz. box of No Chicken Broth
1 - 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes
1 - 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
(In a pinch, I'll use spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce V8 or tomato juice)
1 - 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (or any beans you have on hand)
Water to cover everything by one to two inches
1 Tbs. garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 cups of leftover rice (your rice should already be cooked, or else it will soak up all the broth)

Directions:

Heat all the ingredients, except for the rice, in a large pot over medium heat for thirty to forty-five minutes. When it is bubbling, and everything is tender, add the rice. Turn down the heat to medium low, and add a bit more water if needed. Simmer for about ten more minutes, until the rice is thoroughly warmed up. Easy squeezy. Delicious and feeds five hungry vegans!

A Message About My Blog

2011-05-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well, Blogger has done it to me again. For the past few months, most of you know that I've been dealing with a formatting issue, where I can no longer write my posts in Compose mode. I have to go only to html and write and then force all my formatting that you see on the posts: spacing, centering, links, etc. I've learned to live with it and have become very versed in html coding.

But, now I have a new blog problem that's really preventing me from creating new posts: My blog doesn't keep me signed in, and in effect doesn't even recognize me. So, starting on last Tuesday, I was no longer able to respond to comments on my blog nor go to other people's blogs and leave comments for them. To me, if someone leaves a comment for me and I don't acknowledge it, and if I don't show blogger-friendship and comment on their blogs, it's akin to being rude on my part.

Other people are still able to leave comments on my blog, unless they are experiencing the same problem I am. And, apparently, there are several bloggers who are having the same problem according to Bloggers own Known Issues site. I could still continue to post, but it would really bug me to not be able to respond. So, what I've decided to do is hold off on posting until Blogger can get this fixed. I will continue to check on their site to see if there are any updates from them. When they get this fixed, I will continue to post again. If they do not get this fixed, then I will have to look for another way to continue. I have so many more recipes to share; as a matter of fact, right now I have about a dozen recipes in the queue waiting their turn. This is very disappointing and frustrating to me because I really wanted this to be long-term, but I don't see any other way. In the meantime, I can still be reached through my email at blessedmama@pacbell.net.

I won't be able to respond to anything you say here on my blog, but I hope you all continue to flourish, enjoy good vegan food, and help save the world! I appreciate all the friendships that were starting to form, and I hope to be back posting soon.

Thank you,
BlessedMama :-)

Bean and Facon Soup

2011-05-20T16:08:00.001-07:00

Well, wasn't that fun? Experiencing almost two weeks of not being able to access my computer was an exercise in time well-spent otherwise. Now that most of the electrical problems in our home have been fixed by my sweet G (Happy Anniversary today!), I can blog again! Aren't we all happier now?

This soup is a take on my favorite canned soup from my childhood. I've tried remaking it a few times, as I do with my most of my dishes before I post them, and I think I've come up with a recipe that is strikingly similar, except for the cruelty to animals. G grew up with a mom who worked the swing-shift and retired from said canned soup company, and he thinks this version is spot on. My children have fortunately never tasted the inhumane original and love this. I have to say, my other tries, which were too dark and heavy, take a back seat to this lighter, well-balanced tasty bowl of goodness. This is definitely going on my menu board on the inside of my cupboard.

Bean and Facon Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound bag of Great Northern Beans
Water to cover
1 - 32 oz. box of Organic Imagine No-Chicken Broth
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 pkg. of LightLife Smart Bacon, diced small

Directions:

Sort beans for grit and put in large pot with water a couple of inches over the beans. Cook on medium heat for one hour. Add broth, seasonings, and enough water to stay about an inch over the beans. Continue cooking on medium heat for another hour. When the beans are tender, add the facon, and cook for twenty minutes more. Can serve with crunchy bread and a yummy green salad. Feeds five hungry vegans.

GT Express Pizzas

2011-05-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

So, I'm going to start out by saying that this is not an endorsement of the GT Express kitchen gadget. But, since it is a gadget that we use frequently in our home, especially the children, it seemed appropriate to post a meal using it. Just to note, we have the original, old GT Express, not the newer RediSetGo. I was going to order the new one for Mother's Day per G's prompting, but ended up dealing with a nightmare of a recording that kept insisting I needed every other product and trip and magazine available to man, which caused me to cancel my order. So, I love my old version but cannot vouch for the new one. Anyway, I love this thing (we actually have two) because the Blessings can make wraps, burritos and grilled cheese sandwiches without using the stove or oven.

We got small recipe books with our order several years ago, and I've been having fun trying to veganize them. I use that term loosely because it's not so much veganizing, as it is completely revamping a recipe. This latest one is my version of their pizzas, which turned out just great. I used my pizza dough recipe again, and with that recipe, we made sixteen mini pizzas: plenty for dinner and lunch the next day! Everyone got to have just the type of pizza they wanted. I'm not sure if there's something similar on the market, but it's a great way to make small dishes. The only drawback is with a family of five, one of us has to wait for our meal since there's only four wells (read: me). See below for a tasty recipe!

GT Express Pizza

The size of the pizza dough ball you'll need for each pizza, about a palm-full

Two pizzas in their wells (with a touch of flour on the sides)

GT Express Pizzas

Ingredients:

Pizza dough, my recipe (click on link)
Various fillings - we used:
Organic pizza sauce
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet, cheddar cheese style, finely grated
Gimme Lean Sausage, made into little meatballs and sauteed
Black olives, sliced into thirds
Fresh pineapple, diced small
Artichoke hearts, quartered and canned in water, sliced in half lengthwise
Mushrooms, halved and sliced

Directions:

Follow the recipe on making the dough, including the resting period. Plug in the GT Expresses. Take healthy-sized handfulls of dough, filling up your palm, and on a floured surface, roll slightly out a bit larger than the size of the well. Place in heated well, and spread a small amount of sauce and toppings on each pizza. Once both wells have dough and toppings, shut the lid and time for ten minutes. Comes out perfectly. Makes approximately sixteen mini pizzas, plenty for five hungry vegans for a couple of meals.

Easy Bagel and Deli Slice Breakfast

2011-05-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is such an easy breakfast that it's not really a difficult recipe but more of another breakfast idea for you. I could have baked the bagels myself, and I could have made the deli slices by hand, but c'mon, we all need a break and have shortcuts sometimes, right? So, do yourself a favor, if you have a spare ten dollars, buy the bagels and some slices, and have a quick, easy and tasty breakfast. Just a tip: use the plain or savory bagels, not the sweet ones here.

Easy Bagel and Deli Slice Breakfast

Ingredients:

Bagels - plain or savory
Vegan margarine
Vegan deli slices from Yves or Tofurky or your favorite brand

Directions:

Cut the whole bagels in half. Toast them bagels. Spread a touch of margarine on each slice. Put a few deli slices on each bagel half. So good, so simple, so filling. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Grilled Cheese and Tempeh Facon Sandwiches

2011-04-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here is another twist on the grilled cheese sandwich. In the past I used Smart Bacon strips, and there's nothing wrong with them as an alternative to bacon. But, I'm trying to get away from processed/pre-made foods more and more, little by little, so I thought I'd just make a simple version of facon with tempeh. I will still use Smart Bacon and other meal-helpers in dishes, don't get me wrong - I'm not going to be hypocritical. But, for this sandwich, tempeh worked great, and I like knowing my family will reap the health benefits as well.

Grilled Cheese and Tempeh Facon Sandwiches with roasted veggies on the side

Easy sandwich preparation

Grilled Cheese and Tempeh Facon Sandwiches

Ingredients:

2 pkgs. of tempeh, cut into strips
2 tsp. of liquid smoke
1 Tbs. canola oil
Follow Your Heart vegan cheese, cheddar style, cut into strips
Vegan margarine
Good bread

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large skillet that has a lid (but don't use the lid yet) over medium heat. Put tempeh strips in a shallow bowl and sprinkle the liquid smoke over them. Toss the tempeh carefully with your hands to get the liquid smoke over as much of them as possible; you can massage it in gently. Fry the tempeh strips for several minutes until golden on both sides (do not use the lid here). Drain on paper towels to get any extra oil off. Put cheese slices on bread, and cover each slice with a strip of tempeh. Top with the other slice of bread. Spread margarine on the top slice of bread. Add about a tablespoon or so of margarine to the same skillet, and put in each sandwich unbuttered side down. Cover with lid and cook for five minutes over medium heat. Carefully flip each sandwich over with a large spatula, so the margarine side is down now. Cover with lid again, and cook for another five minutes. Serve while warm. Can be served with a hearty salad or lots of veggies on the side. Tasty. Feeds as many as you want, which is of course, five hungry vegans!

Black Tie Cheesecake

2011-04-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

I call this Black Tie Cheesecake because it looks like it's all dressed up to go to a black tie event. I've made this cake about once a year for around the last ten years, and I love it every time. Whenever I am going to make it, I always think it's a big job, but then when I'm done, I always remember how easy it actually is. Then, I think, I should make this more often but never do. So now, perhaps by putting this all down here, maybe I'll actually make this delicious cheesecake more often. I first got the idea for the recipe off a free recipe card that was mailed to me, trying to get me to subscribe to recipe cards. I've veganized the recipe, changed the name, altered the amounts of the ingredients, and also tweaked some of the procedures of the recipe, as well, over the years. I'm confident that I can call it mine now.

I brought this as our contribution to Easter with all the relatives, along with my Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad, which has become pretty much the dish that everyone expects me to bring now: they love it so much. My mom provided Gardenburger riblets for us, and I also brought rolls. I once made the salad with something else for dinner for my parents, along with this cheesecake for dessert, and my dad told my mom later that that was one of the best meals he had ever had. From my dad, that's a huge compliment. I hope you enjoy this basically easy, but beautiful dessert, as well.

Black Tie Cheesecake

Cookie Crust

White layer of the cheesecake

Getting ready to mix in the chocolate into the second half of the white cream cheese blend

Chocolate layer of the cheesecake

Here the baked cheesecake has been cooling for about twenty minutes. You can see that the edges are already starting to pull away from the pan. When it's completely cool, you will gently run a butter knife around the edge to ensure that it's separated all the way.

Preparing to mix in the sour cream into the melted chocolate to make the frosting

Here is the cheesecake with the sides of the springform pan removed. The frosting is patiently waiting to be spread.

The frosted cheesecake - ready to be chilled in the fridge

What was left of the Black Tie Cheesecake after the relatives got ahold of it

Black Tie Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 pkg. Newman O's chocolate sandwich cookies
1/2 cup of vegan margarine

Cheesecake:

3 pkgs. of Tofutti cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup of vegan sugar
3 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
10 Tbs. water
1 8oz. box of Bakers semi-sweet chocolate, divided (2 oz.)

Frosting:

The remainder of the Bakers chocolate (6oz.)
1/2 cup of Tofutti sour cream

Directions:

For the crust: Scrape all the cream centers out of each cookie and set aside for a later meal or for present gluttony. Grind the chocolate cookie "jackets" in a food processor. Melt the margarine. Combine them both in a bowl and mix well. Press into the bottom of a nine-inch springform pan. Smooth out with the back of a spoon.

For the cheesecake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a mug or measuring cup, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water with a fork or small whisk. In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and Egg Replacer and water mixture. Beat on medium speed until well blended, two to three minutes. Pour half of the mixture over the cookie crumb crust. Melt two wrapped squares of the chocolate. Stir into the rest of the cheesecake mixture in the bowl. Pour evenly over the white bottom layer in the pan. Place pan on cookie sheet, and bake for one hour. Remove from oven. You don't want any cracks in the top of the cake: that could mean that it is too dry. If it's a little jiggly in the center, that should be okay; it will probably continue to set up while cooling on the rack and chilling in the fridge. But, most likely, it will appear pretty solid with the one hour baking time. Cool completely on cooling rack, then continue to chill for a few hours in the refrigerator.

For the frosting: When the cake is completely cold, remove from the refrigerator, and place the pan on a serving platter. Take a butter knife and gently run it along the edge of the cake to loosen any last parts of the cake from the pan. Remove the sides of the springform pan. Now, it's time to prepare the frosting. Melt the rest of the chocolate squares (6 oz.). Put in a small mixing bowl and add the sour cream. Mix well. Use a spatula or a non-serrated butter knife to spread the frosting on the top and sides of the cake. The sour cream adds just enough softness to the chocolate to spread it but leaves the chocolate firmer than regular cake frosting. Place back in the refrigerator and continue to chill for at least an hour before serving. Can be served cold from the fridge or after setting out for about twenty minutes. Longer than that can make the cake too soft. If you find that the crust is wanting to stick to the bottom of the pan, gently run a butter knife under the crust all the way around, to loosen it from the pan. This has only happened to me once, though. This is so good. Feeds five hungry vegans and several relatives.

Beet Feast

2011-04-22T08:56:00.001-07:00

I've been on a beet kick lately. I tried planting my own, but only one survived the frost, and then that one was dug up by the pups. So, I've been buying them left and right at the store. When I grew up, I only knew about beets in a can, and I liked them enough. I never would have voluntarily added them on at a salad bar or chosen them as a veggie to eat, but every now and then, when Mom would pop open a can, they were okay. I was in my twenties before I saw fresh beets with their greens, and it wasn't until after I had children that I tried to make them. I never bought them with their greens attached, just the detached bulbs instead. Who knew what to do with those greens? (G, of course, loves beets, could eat them all day, and they are always the most substantial part of his salads when we go to salad bars. SR has taken right after her dad: she loves them, as well. JK has good beet days and bad beet days, you just never know. GR is usually satisfied with most things I serve - she's the easiest.) So, a couple of years ago, I tried to start cooking their greens. Still wary of most greens, if you remember my iceberg lettuce and canned spinach days I grew up with, I wasn't the best greens preparer at first. Anyhow, now I've become brave with beets and their greens. I'm experimenting with different ways of cooking them, and below is not SR's favorite way, but it is by far the easiest. However, there aren't enough beet greens with the beets to feed my family, so I supplement with other greens to make a lush dish. I find the flavors of the mixed greens blends well. There are more than just the red beets around, so I've been having fun with a small beet rainbow. Here is an example of one of our meals with beets as its centerpiece. On the plate, timidly in the background, is a scoop of great northern beans trying to assert itself.

Beet Feast

Ingredients:

6-7 Gold beets, ends trimmed, peeled and cut into wedges
6-7 Red beets, ends trimmed, peeled and cut into wedges
The attached beet greens, stripped from their stems, washed and chopped
2 bunches of kale, stripped from their stems, washed and chopped or 8-10 cups chopped kale
1-2 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place prepared beets in pot of water. Bring to a boil, and boil for fifteen minutes. Drain. In a large skillet, heat a tablespoon of the oil. When hot add the greens a big handful at a time. When slightly wilted, add another big handful, until all the greens are in the skillet. If the greens are drying out and not really cooking, add the second tablespoon of oil. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Greens are done when they are slightly wilted but still have a bright green color. Serve alongside of beets. Mm-mmm. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Calzones

2011-04-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Calzones, mmm. The last time I had one, I was definitely not vegan. Maybe I was vegetarian, but I just can't remember. Anyhow, ever since I've been vegan (15 years now), I haven't had a calzone, and that just had to change. So, since I'm such a whiz at making my own pizzas now :-), I decided to go head-first in trying my hand at calzones. Now, I have yet to actually look at any recipes for calzones. I thought, Pizzas, I can make pizzas, therefore, I can make calzones. So, that's what I did. I have no idea if my recipe is authentic or not, but it sure worked for me, and for my children, who've never had calzones, loved them, and that's good enough for me. I started with my pizza dough, added some fillings, and voila, five calzones! Yay for us! Easy as pizza pie - give it a try.

A hot, steamy calzone, cut in half, and ready to be consumed

A ball of soft dough on a floured surface

Dough rolled out just larger than a dinner plate

Filling up the calzone with goodies

Calzone ready for the oven

Just out of the oven, resting before being cut in half

Calzones

Ingredients:

Your favorite pizza dough, or you can use my recipe (link above) - If you use mine, it's large enough to divide into five balls of dough
Extra flour for rolling dough
Your favorite toppings - we used:
Organic pizza sauce
Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheese - cheddar style, finely grated
Gimme Lean Sausage, made into small meatballs and sauteed
Kale, torn into pieces
Fresh pineapple, diced small
Black olives, sliced into thirds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough into five sections. Shape a section into a ball. On a floured surface, roll out each section into a circle a little larger than a dinner plate. Do NOT toss the dough, as you would for an actual pizza. To ensure a round shape, start at the center of the dough, and roll to the edge, all around. Turn the dough as needed to keep it as uniform as possible. Spread your pizza sauce all over the rolled out dough, keeping the edges clear of sauce about one inch. Sprinkle your cheese on sauce. Add your other toppings on one half of the sauce and cheese. Fold the half of the dough over that doesn't have all the extra toppings on it. Pinch the edges together to seal it shut. Press fork all across the sealed edge to further crimp and seal it, and it gives it a nice look, too. Make four short slits on top to release some of the steam while baking. Bake each calzone for 20 minutes. Let rest for five minutes before eating or cutting in half. Makes huge calzones that you can eat alone for dinner, and maybe have some left over for lunch the next day. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Roasted Veggies

2011-04-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Roasted veggies, you say? Well, I decided to do a post on this wonderful way of preparing vegetables because just as no one is born knowing how to blanch veggies (and some people have mentioned their thanks to me that I've written brief notes on how to do that), so also is no one born knowing how to roast them either. So, this is more of a short guide, rather than a recipe. By the way, I only began roasting vegetables regularly about a year ago. I usually steamed or stir-fried them, but now I think roasting is my favorite way to prepare them. Below is my all-time favorite combination of veggies to roast: asparagus, broccoli and mushrooms - and they all fit so nicely on a large cookie sheet! Have fun roasting!

Hot Roasted Veggies right out of the oven - see the steam?

A close-up of said veggies

Roasted Veggies

Ingredients:

Several cups of your favorite vegetables, chopped or left whole, according to your preference
Non-stick Spray
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Spread out your prepared veggies over the cookie sheet. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil over the vegetables, less or more depending on your taste. Sprinkle salt and pepper over all. I have found to keep seasonings to a minimum: when I used more herbs and spices, it hid the flavor that the roasting brings out. Bake for fifteen minutes. If you have harder vegetables, like cauliflower, you may need to bake for an additional ten minutes. You do not want them mushy when done, yuck - just barely fork tender, leaving a nice crunch. Mm-mm-good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Seitan Fajitas

2011-04-12T13:30:00.001-07:00

Fajitas are a food that I like to keep as simple as possible, in order to enjoy each of the prominent flavors. I used mainly just water, gluten flour and spices to make this version of seitan because I wanted a firmer texture for this meal. I believe you'll like the combination of spices and veggies that I put in, but whatever veggies you choose to use, I recommend to use just a couple. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

The finished fajita, opened up for you.

The seitan before it's steamed.

The seitan after steaming: see how much it expands. The foil will stretch to accommodate it, but you need to be sure you've wrapped it around at least twice, in order to ensure that it won't leak out of a seam. This makes a lot of seitan, so you can have leftovers!

Seitan Fajitas

Ingredients:

3 cups of gluten flour
1 Tbs. paprika
1/2 Tbs. oregano
1 Tbs. onion powder
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 and 1/3 cups of water
Canola oil

Homemade or store bought flour tortillas
1 bunch or several asparagus, trimmed and blanched
2 tomatoes, halved and sliced
Hot sauce

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten flour with all the spices. Add the water and stir well. Knead for a minute or two to completely combine everything - you want no wet or dry spots. Shape into a ball or loaf, and wrap securely in aluminum foil. Steam in a large pot with a steamer basket and a couple of inches of water on the bottom over medium heat for one hour. Carefully unwrap, so you don't get steam burns. Let cool long enough so you can handle it to slice it in three-inch strips. (You can save some of the seitan for a later dish: unless you are serving a large dinner party, you probably won't need this whole loaf at one time. However, feel free to cut the whole thing into strips and saute and freeze what you want.) Heat a large skillet with about a tablespoon of oil over medium heat. When hot, add several of the strips and cook for about one minute on each side, until browned. If you are cooking a large amount of the loaf, or the whole loaf, add more oil as necessary. Make sure the asparagus and tomatoes are prepared. To blanch asparagus, heat a large pot of salted water to boiling. Add the asparagus and boil for three minutes. Drain under cold, running water for just a moment to stop the cooking process. You're not interested in getting it completely cold. Fill a flour tortilla with seitan, asparagus and tomatoes, and douse it liberally with your favorite Mexican-style hot sauce. Fold over like a taco. Bite. Yum. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Review: Sun Chlorella USA

2011-04-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

Over a month ago I was contacted by a representative from Sun Chlorella USA asking if I would be interested in sampling some of their products for a review. After reviewing their website (www.sunchlorellausa.com), I thought it would be a useful thing to do. I'm not big on supplements, but G definitely is, and I knew at the very least that he would enjoy from and possibly benefit from these products.

So, they sent me regular sized boxes of their 200mg tablets and of their granules. They also sent me samples of the former two, as well as of their 500mg tablets, their facial cream, their tea, and their Wild Sun Eleuthero tablets. Right away, G inspected everything and looked up all their information online, even though they sent a bit of info along to us. He was impressed with the promoted benefits and planned on completing the full supply of the 200mg tablets and the granules. I was to share the samples with him, which was okay with me. The girls grabbed at the tea, but when I took the cream, they both claimed unfairness and said that since there were six packets, that they should be evenly divided. When I announced my age and said I deserved the cream, a general mutiny and a flurry of grabby hands ensued. It was only when they realized it was facial cream and not vegan cream for coffee that they quickly relented. I scurried into the bathroom with my booty. So, see below some fascinating pictures, along with our family's general review of Sun Chlorella USA.

What came in the box from Sun Chlorella USA

You can see the packets of cream on the right. They are single use packets, and I used them both morning and night. They had a slight green hue, which didn't bother me nor transfer to the skin. I wished the cream had been "creamier" and wasn't overall impressed or unimpressed with it - sort of meh.

I'm holding the 500mg tabs, and G is holding the 200mg tabs.

What is in each of our hands, is meant to be a daily serving. Since I am already not big on supplements, taking six huge pills or fifteen smaller pills did not appeal to me at all. G can somehow put an infinite number of items in his mouth and swallow it down with a teaspoon of water. Even though he doesn't mind taking supplements, even he was a little surprised at the daily requirement of these guys. However, although I didn't see any change in my energy or overall health, G said he did.

GR drinking the Wild Sun Eleuthero Natural Herb Tea (ignore the coffee stain on the counter)

Both girls seemed to like their tea. I had a taste and thought it was strong, but I'm not much of a tea drinker. They both added agave nectar to theirs and drank up. For the record, little JK did not like the tea, but that wouldn't be surprising.

Sun Chlorella Granules

I sprinkled my sample of their granules on my cereal one day and mixed it in. It definitely added an earthy flavor to it, not unpleasant. No healthy side effects noted. G, on the other hand, took his full box and poured a day's worth in his daily drink concoction that he stirs up and just guzzled it down with everything else. He again noted increased vitality. Hmm.

Wild Sun Eleuthero Dietary Eleuthero Supplement

Again, what's in my hand is the daily requirement. They sent us three packets, or three days' worth, of this. I don't even know what eleuthero is, and I couldn't tell the difference between this and the other tablets. But, I popped them down. You can all guess what G thought, by now.

To give you an idea of what we ingested for several weeks, the tablets and granules are pulverized cell-wall chlorella, and the eleuthero has eleuthero root and a bunch of unpronounceable things. You can purchase directly from their site or places like Amazon. They are not cheap, but not extremely expensive. A 20 day supply runs over 30 dollars, but if two or more people are taking it, then it becomes costly pretty quick. There are other products on their site, as well, ranging in price from medium-high priced to very highly priced.

So, in the end, G did most of the research. He did note that even though he thought they were a good product and offered health benefits, the sheer number of things to swallow and the price of the products would not appeal to some people. Being a single-income family, the only time we'll indulge in Sun Chlorella USA products is when they send them to us for free. Check out their site and see what you think!

Wok Tofu Stir-Fry with Sesame Oil

2011-04-03T10:06:00.001-07:00

Hi, Everyone! I'm following a couple of tips I found on the forum, and I'll know when I view my post, if they helped me with my blogger problem. Update: Okay, I've just previewed my post, not published, and it looks okay. I've done everything in html. Apparently, viewing it in Compose loses all my coding. The problem is, and I'll deal with it, that now I have to enter in coding in html. I can't find an html code for underlining, so my recipe titles will be bolded until further notice. Next, I'll see how it publishes - I guess we all will. :-)

So, I don't normally go into a lot of detail about what's going on with me personally - I usually just stick with the food. But, I've got a running theme here at home that I thought might be of interest to you. We've set up a small infirmary in the living room for all the human patients. Hmm, where to start? Well, let's start with the four-legged creatures. Now, the pups aren't sick, but they are currently getting all their vaccines and preventative shots. No big deal. Then, you add in Sparkly, the cranky kitty, who is currently wearing a cone almost full-time due to a chronic ear infection and needs meds throughout the day to knock it out. In January, SR was pushed into a door by a bully that's been harassing her for over a year and a half. She's had two casts and is now wearing a brace indefinitely on her arm until her problem is resolved. We don't know what exactly is going on with her: she could have a torn cartilage, a wrist fracture, nerve damage, or just a "general pain experience" as her physical therapist suggested (until we know more, that is). On Thursday, G tried to mow the lawn, but mowed his big toe instead. We were in the ER on Thursday and two hospitals on Friday. He's lost some of the top of his toe, the front of his toe, his toe is broken, and the bone is exposed. He likes to say he's not going to be a foot model anymore, and he also likes to say that he got a pedicure from his lawnmower. But, seriously, the guy's in major pain. He's on pain meds and antibiotics, and I've got him on an antibiotic-resistant probiotic, an herb for crushed toes, and an herb for nerve damage. And, finally, yesterday JK got the flu. My little guy has been expunging out of both ends, and can't even keep water down. That leaves GR and me and our kitty, Charlene, left. Help?

So, can you believe I still find time to cook? Well, this was actually made before the toe incident; I've been taking it easy on the meals the last few days. I'm sure everyone has done stir-frys (is that the plural?), so I'm probably not offering a bunch of new ideas. I just have a tip for doing it in the wok. Woks are not meant to contain bunches of food at one time. So, if you have a large family, or if you're making a particularly large stir-fry, do it in batches. In my directions below, I outline how I did mine, and I hope this helps you. I actually took pictures of my method for making tofu triangles, due to many requests, but they didn't turn out, so I will try again in a later post.

Wok Tofu Stir-Fry with Sesame Oil

Ingredients:

Sesame Oil
2 pkgs. extra-firm tofu, drained and cut in triangles
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced in half width-wise and cut into strips
1/4 head cauliflower, chopped
2 stalks of broccoli with florets - stalks sliced thinly, and florets chopped
1/4 head of Napa cabbage, sliced width-wise and sliced thinly
6 asparagus spears, sliced on the diagonal
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1 cup of water
2 Tbs. corn starch
1 Tbs. fresh ginger, minced

Directions:

Have all your tofu and veggies chopped and sliced before you begin. Heat about a tablespoon in the wok over medium-high heat. After about a minute, test the heat with a piece of tofu. When oil is ready and simmers the tofu, add a quarter of the tofu (or 1/2 a block) to the wok. Cook for about three minutes, stirring fairly frequently, until tofu has browned. Remove to a large bowl. Add a little bit more oil to the wok and another quarter of the tofu and do the same thing as with the first batch of tofu. Cook the rest of the tofu in this manner. *[Next, you are going to cook the veggies in order from firmest to softest, or longest-cooking to quickest-cooking. You will add a bit of oil to each addition, as there won't be any oil left in the wok. The exception will be if you have a non-stick wok. I do not, so my food will burn. I have tried cooking with water in a wok, but that definitely did not turn out well. If you find that there is oil left on your food, drain on paper towels.]* Add the cauliflower and cook for about three minutes, stirring frequently. Add the bell pepper and broccoli to the cauliflower and cook for another three minutes, again stirring frequently. Remove to bowl with the tofu. Add a bit of oil to the wok and add the cabbage and asparagus. Cook for three minutes and stir. Add all the tofu and veggies back into the wok. Whisk together the soy sauce, water, corn starch and ginger. Pour over the wok goodies and stir constantly for about one minute, until it's slightly thickened. Serve over brown rice. Mm-mmm. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-03-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

First off, I have to start this post by saying that something has gone strangely wrong with blogger for me. It no longer recognizes my html codes; they completely disappear no matter how many times I enter them in, so all spacing is messed up. Any spacing between lines you see, are lines that I've forced there. I also can no longer post my ingredients list single-spaced, only double-spaced. I've bolded different headings, to make it easier to read. I hope this is not going to be a problem for readers. This is highly frustrating for me.

Anyway, on with the recipe.

So good. That's what you'll think when you have one of these treasures. We had two birthday parties to go to recently, so I made these to bring along for us. When my children are invited to a birthday party, I always make a dessert for them to have, and I try to make it as yummy as possible, so they never feel left out. These were so good, I had a few, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. There are chocolate chips inside the cupcake, as well, so you are not left feeling as if you been chocolate-shortchanged.

Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Batter:

2 and 1/4 cups soy milk

2 Tbs. lemon juice

2 cups vegan sugar

1 cup vegan margarine, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer

4 Tbs. water

2 and 1/2 cups flour

1 cup cocoa

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 pound bag of vegan chocolate chips (approx. 2 cups), divided

Frosting:

6 Tbs. vegan margarine, softened

2 and 2/3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup soy milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the batter: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy milk and lemon juice, and set aside - this is your "buttermilk." In a large mixing bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar. Add the Egg Replacer and water and beat with a mixer, until blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Alternate beating in the dry ingredients and the soured soy milk into the sugared mixture on medium speed. Beat until thoroughly mixed. Add all but a half cup of the chocolate chips to the batter, and stir well with a spoon. Scoop out batter into paper liners, and fill at least two-thirds full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into a couple of them comes out clean. Cool completely on cooling racks.

For the frosting: In a large bowl, mash margarine really well, or beat it with a mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk sugar and cocoa together. Alternate beating in the sugared mixture and soy milk with the margarine. Start on slow speed and work your way up to medium. When completely mixed, add the vanilla, and beat for one minute longer. Spread on cupcakes. Top each cupcake with several chocolate chips. Makes about two dozen cupcakes. Feeds five hungry vegans for a few days. Yummers.

Cornbread Stuffed Seitan with White Bean Gravy and Toasted Cornbread Crumbles

2011-03-26T10:13:00.001-07:00

SOMETHING HAS GONE HAYWIRE WITH THIS POST. NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I TRY TO FORMAT IT CORRECTLY, IT GOES BACK TO PARAGRAPHICAL FORM. IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX IT, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT! I'VE WORKED IN BOTH THE HTML AND COMPOSE AND CAN'T GET IT TO COOPERATE FOR ME. I WILL KEEP TRYING.

I've been feeling more and more comfortable experimenting with my own seitan. It's actually been fun trying to see how versatile it is and how far I can push the flavors. I decided to try my hand at stuffing it; I added a long name, and voila! - I have another tasty dish. My husband especially seems to like hearty meals like this after a long day at work. Now that I'm trying my hand at seitan on a regular basis, the Blessings never know what's going to show up at dinner! This turned out very well, and the gravy was just the right complement to the meal. The crumbles were a fun addition. There seems to be a lot of steps, but things come together really easily. Hope you like it.

Cornbread Stuffed Seitan with White Bean Gravy and Toasted Cornbread Crumbles

Seitan before steaming

Stuffed seitan before baking

Cornbread Stuffed Seitan with White Bean Gravy and Toasted Cornbread Crumbles

Ingredients:

Seitan:

1 cup of slow-cooked Great Northern Beans

2 cups of water

1 and 1/2 tsp. of ground thyme

1 and 1/2 tsp. of rubbed sage

2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. garlic powder

1 Tbs. onion powder

2 and 1/4 cups of gluten flour

Stuffing:

(I realized as I was writing up this recipe, that the cornbread here is the only part I didn't measure. I cut a wedge from the cornbread I made, and it looks to be just less that 1/4 of a pan, which is probably close to 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups ground.)

Unsweetened cornbread - you can use my Ozark Cornbread recipe - a large wedge

1/4 tsp. ground thyme

1/4 tsp. rubbed sage

Gravy:

1/2 cup of slow-cooked Great Northern Beans

1 and 1/2 cup of water

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. ground thyme

1/4 tsp. rubbed sage

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

2 Tbs. vegan margarine

2 Tbs. flour

Crumbles:

1 cup of ground cornbread (in food processor)

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions:

For the seitan: In a blender, add all the seitan ingredients, except the gluten flour. Blend well. Pour into a large mixing bowl and add the gluten flour. Stir well, and knead for a minute or two until the dough has no wet or dry spots. Divide into five mounds and shape into rough ovals. Wrap in enough foil to cover the seitan at least three times. Place in a large pot with a lid with water and a steamer basket. Steam on medium heat for 45 minutes. Remove and unwrap each seitan oval. (I make the cornbread, while the seitan is steaming, to keep things moving along.)

For the stuffing: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Break up the cornbread and put chunks into a food processor. Add the seasonings and process until crumbly. Along the side of each seitan oval, use a sharp knife to cut a deep slice. Don't go all the way to the edges or all the way to the back. Divide the cornbread mix evenly, and fill each seitan cavity with it. Put the seitan in a large baking pan, and pour 3/4 cup of water on the bottom of it. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully flip the seitan over, and pour another 3/4 of water on the bottom of the pan. Bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven.

For the gravy: In a blender, combine all the gravy ingredients except for the flour and margarine. Blend until smooth. In a medium pot on medium heat, melt the margarine. Add the flour and whisk well. Add the blended gravy ingredients and continue stirring constantly on medium heat, until it bubbles, about five minutes. Turn the heat to low and continue stirring for one minute. Remove from heat.

For the crumbles: Turn oven heat up to 400 degrees. In a food processor, put in enough cornbread to get about one cup's worth. Add the seasonings and continue to process until mixed. Place crumbles in small baking pan and bake for five minutes.

To assemble: Plate each stuffed seitan with gravy spooned over the top. Sprinkle the cornbread crumbles over the gravy. Serve with the rest of the cornbread and a simple vegetable. Fancy, yet satisfying! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Light Almond Carob Cookies

2011-03-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

As I wrote in my last post, GR's birthday was last month and we enjoyed two versions of pink strawberry cakes. However, my parents were unable to make it over on her actual birthday, so they came a couple of days later. I wanted to have a dessert for them, too, of course. Even though I'm not much of a dessert girl, my mom is even less so, and chocolate is very challenging for her to eat in particular because of its sweetness. So, I concocted what I thought would be pleasing to her: a not too heavy, not too sweet cookie. She liked them very much and took at least three of them, which I knew was a definite sign of success. So, for those of us who don't have a big sweet tooth, but want something that just hits the spot every now and then, here's my Light Almond Carob Cookies. By the way, these went over just as well with the rest of the clan; there were none left at the end of the night.

Light Almond Carob Cookies

Ingredients:

Batter:

1 cup vegan margarine
1/4 cup vegan or raw sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Icing:

1 cup of powdered sugar
2 Tbs. carob powder
2 Tbs. hot water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the batter: With a beater or pastry cutter, cream margarine and sugar together. Add almond extract and mix again. Add flour and salt and stir well with spoon, until well mixed. Add the soy milk and stir again. Add the sliced almonds and stir one last time. Scoop up approximately a tablespoon of batter at a time and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Gently press cookies into little disks and bake for 12 minutes. Cool in pan on cooling rack for five minutes before transferring cookies to a sheet of foil or wax paper to finish cooling.

For the icing: When cookies are cool, make icing. Whisk together the powdered sugar and carob powder. Add the hot water and vanilla extract and mix well. Either take a butter knife and spread a dollop of icing on each cookie, or dip each cookie into the icing. Icing will dry in less than a half hour, and the cookies will be ready to eat! Makes approximately two dozen cookies. Feeds five hungry vegans and a couple of grandparents.

Big and Little Pink Strawberry Cakes, Naturally

2011-03-17T11:58:00.001-07:00

GR turned eleven years old last month, officially making her a tweener. She requested a pink colored, strawberry flavored birthday cake. When we cut out artificial colors and flavors and petroleum-based preservatives last Fall, I hadn't really encountered a need to improvise on colors and flavors until now. I knew it would be coming with the children's birthdays, so I was mentally prepared. GR was very specific: she wanted strawberry flavor, not strawberry chunks. I had thought of using strawberry extract because I think it's okay, but I'll have to check to be sure. But, I really wanted to see if I could do this without extracts. I had also heard of using beet juice for the color, but since I was already using real strawberries for the flavor, I thought I'd see what color they'd make as well. What turned out was a sweet pink hue with a gentle strawberry flavor. GR was very pleased with it. She had a slumber party a few days later, and wanted the same thing in cupcake form, and we ended up with perfect little pink mini-cupcakes.

I used my White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting as a base to start with. I thought by adding strawberry puree, I wouldn't need the soy milk, but I actually ended up using the same amount of soy milk as in the original recipe. Also, since my dear husband, G, has been complaining so much lately about the lack of frosting in between cake layers, I decided to double the butter cream frosting. Eh, don't do that, unless you have a limitless ability to eat sweets. I am a salt girl, myself, but even my sugar-lovin' family said that frosting version was too sweet. So, stick to the original. I'll repeat the recipe below. The photo of the cake below is with the doubled frosting recipe, and you can see I had abundant frosting. GR wanted both her cake and cupcakes topped with fresh raspberries, and they complete her beautiful desserts. She wanted to do the honors of topping them herself, and she did a great job, deepening my belief that she's going to be a fantastic cook someday.

Pink Strawberry Cake

You can kind of make out the pink cake here

Gorgeous strawberry puree!

Pink cake batter

Our cute little, pink mini-cupcakes

Mini-cupcakes all dressed up and ready to be devoured

Big and Little Pink Strawberry Cakes, Naturally

Ingredients:

Cakes:
(The same for both a double-layer cake or mini-cupcakes)

2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 and 1/2 cups vegan or raw sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup soy milk
2 and 1/2 cups of chopped strawberries, pureed in blender
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water

Frosting:

1/2 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
3 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbs. soy milk

Fresh raspberries for garnish

Directions:

For the cakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For a double-layer cake, spray two round cake pans with an oil spray, and lightly flour their bottoms. For mini-cupcakes: I did not need to prepare the mini-cupcake pan - the cupcakes came right out. If you need to spray yours, feel free to do so. Set pans aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream the shortening to soften it completely. In a small bowl, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water. Alternate beating the flour mixture and the soy milk into the shortening, beating with a mixer on medium speed. At the end, add the strawberry puree, Egg Replacer mixture, and vanilla extract. Beat for three minutes, until completely smooth. For the two-layer cake: divide the batter between the two cake pans, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. For the mini-cupcakes: fill each cupcake well almost to the top with batter, leaving a bit of room. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a couple of them comes out clean. Cool both types of pans on cooling racks for fifteen minutes. Remove cakes from their pans and finish cooling on racks. Makes one double layer cake or four and half dozen mini cupcakes.

For the frosting: When the cakes have completely cooled, prepare the frosting. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and salt. Starting on low speed and working up to medium, beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the soy milk, and beat on medium speed for three to five minutes, until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Makes enough frosting for one double layer cake or four and half dozen mini cupcakes. For the double cake - rim the top layer with the raspberries, and for the mini-cupcakes - top each one with a raspberry. Feeds five hungry vegans and some giggling little girls!

Breakfast Potato Skillet

2011-03-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

Years ago, there was a Sacramento restaurant that G and I went to for breakfast. SR was just a baby and toddler at the time, so she just nibbled off our plates. But, I loved to order their potato skillet. It was a big plate of home fries covered with veggies, ham, cheese and a fried egg on top. By the time I had them leave off the ham, cheese and fried egg, I was left with home fries and veggies. I still loved it, though, because we could actually go out to breakfast on a Saturday morning, a rare treat for a vegan! But, then my frugal mind started adding up the money that I was still paying for the invisible ham, cheese and fried egg, and I began to wonder if I could duplicate this at home, but even more awesome than theirs. And what do you think I did next? You got it - experiment in the kitchen! Yay for my guinea pig family! So, the trick was to get that secret, elusive home fry flavor down: you know what I'm talking about - crispy potato square on the outside with a fluffy center. Just frying potatoes wasn't cutting it. I had to haul out my Big Daddy deep fryer. I deep fry about once or twice a year, so I'm not ashamed, I tell ya! Anyways, the potatoes were perfect, and by adding veggie hot dogs, vegan cheese and just the right veggies, it did the trick. I now have my scrumptious version of the Breakfast Potato Skillet! (Imagine that name echoing a few times.) Mine ends up being baked, and I don't think the restaurant did that; hence their "skillet" name, but I've kept that moniker for some good memories. That restaurant is now out of business, but we're still in the business of chowing down in the Blessed Vegan Life home. Come share in our food!

Breakfast Potato Skillet out of the oven

A steaming serving of this delight

The serving bowl after being attacked by hungry vegans!

Breakfast Potato Skillet

Ingredients:

9 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
Enough canola oil for deep frying
Salt to taste
1 and 1/2 cups of broccoli florets, coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 - 6 mushrooms, sliced
1 pkg. of your favorite vegan hot dogs (use eight of them)
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded, divided
Salt and Pepper to taste
Hot sauce or ketchup, optional

Directions:

Prepare the deep fryer. Gently put in three of the potatoes, diced, in the deep fryer. Cook for 12 to 14 minutes, until golden. Drain on paper towels and salt according to your taste. Repeat two more times with the remaining potatoes. I will do this step often the night before so as to save time in the morning. Put potatoes in a large baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, put the broccoli, bell pepper and mushrooms in a medium pot with about an inch of water and a steamer basket. Steam for about ten minutes, just until the broccoli is fork-tender. You do not want to overcook them. When ready, put them in a medium bowl, along with the tomatoes. While the veggies are steaming, prepare the hot dogs according to package directions - I bring water to a boil, turn the heat off, add the hot dogs and let sit for two minutes. Slice the hot dogs into 1/2" rounds. Add the hot dogs and half of the cheese to the bowl with the veggies. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir the whole thing very well. Pour on top of the potatoes in the baking dish, and sprinkle the rest of the cheese all over the top. Cover with a lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and turn on the top broiler, and broil for 3 to five minutes to melt the cheese. Serve with hot sauce and/or ketchup. Mm-mm goo-ood! Feeds five hungry vegans with leftovers for lunch...maybe.

Sauteed Dino Kale with Criminis and Tomatoes

2011-03-05T08:16:00.001-08:00

I have a love affair with kale. The only greens I grew up eating were iceberg lettuce and canned spinach, so when I first tried greens, it was tentatively. I didn't really like them at first because I thought they were bitter, and some are still harder for me to eat, like mustard greens, but I'm friends with most greens now. But, when I tried kale, I couldn't believe it! It was love at first sight: I loved chewing it, and it loved being digested by me. I've been growing kale now for a couple of years and try to incorporate it and other greens into as many different meals as I can for my children. They are so darn healthy for us! But, my kale plants are not lush right now, so I bought some fresh dino kale from the store and made a super simple veggie medley. I used that ultra-delicious garlic blend from Gilroy again, so you can use garlic powder or another blend, if you wish.

For those that have been wondering about the Blessings Question of the Day that I promised in my 100th post, I did do a couple, but it's on hold for right now. Apparently, I didn't pass the idea through to the Blessings before I announced it on my blog. I already mortify my girls on a daily basis just by being their mom. They think I'm too friendly to strangers: in the store I smile at people, horrors! I'll help someone randomly if they appear to need help, how could I?! I'll chat up someone in line if they seem receptive, oh, Mom, stop! So, as you can see, I've gotten myself in hot water with them with my little question of the day idea. Suffice it to say that most of the girls' questions were how I would rather be trampled by one animal or another, escape from death-defying situations, what body part or sense I would rather be without, etc. JK's were faves from colors to animals to foods to wrestlers, etc. Sigh. If things change, I'll let you know. Thanks to those who briefly played along!

Sauteed Dino Kale with Criminis and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
3 cups of crimini mushrooms, sliced
10 cups of dino kale, stripped from their stems, and either coarsely chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
2 tsp. good garlic blend or garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 tomatoes, halved and halved and again, and cut into "mini" wedges

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the kale in big handfuls, stirring for a few seconds to slightly wilt kale before adding next big handful. Add the spices. Cook for another three to five minutes, until kale is evenly bright green and slightly wilted but not overcooked. Add the tomatoes and stir until well mixed. Serve and eat immediately. Feeds five hungry vegans. Yum!

Monte Cristo Sandwich

2011-03-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

A Monte Cristo sandwich typically is a ham and Swiss cheese grilled sandwich that's been dipped completely in an egg batter before being fried. I've never had one, personally, but I saw a recipe for one and thought I could make a vegan version of it. It was a complete hit with my family and is very simple. I had vegan cheddar on hand, so that's what I used, and it worked great. I took a picture of the garlic blend that I used for the outside, but it came out too blurry. We have a town a couple of hours from here called Gilroy, and it's known for its garlic; the blend comes from them and is amazing. If you don't have a good garlic blend, then you can use garlic powder blended with onion powder and pepper. In the end, the sandwich ended up being an upgraded grilled cheese. I'll show you how...

Monte Cristo Sandwich

Ingredients:

Sliced sourdough bread
Vegenaise
Mustard
Vegan ham "lunchmeat"
Vegan cheese, your favorite flavor
A good garlic blend, or your own blend of garlic powder, onion powder and pepper
Vegan margarine

Directions:

Spread the vegenaise and mustard on the bread, and add a couple of slices of the vegan ham and cheese. Heat a large pan over medium heat. In a small bowl, mix a ratio of 4 Tbs. of vegan margarine with 1 tsp. of the garlic blend with a fork. Spread on both of the outside slices of bread. Use this ratio as many times as you need to make as many sandwiches as you want. Place three to four sandwiches in the pan and cover with a well-fitted lid. Cook for five minutes, carefully flip each sandwich with a large spatula, cover with lid again, and cook for another five minutes. You should have a nicely browned sandwich on both sides. If you find that your sandwich is burning, add a touch of margarine directly to the pan. I think having the ham in the sandwich prevented the cheese from completely melting, but it was very soft, especially in the middle and was delicious! Serve with some steamed veggies for a rounded out meal. I made more than enough sandwiches to feed five hungry vegans.

Quick Veggie Pizza

2011-02-23T12:00:00.001-08:00

This was my first time making pizza dough from scratch, and I really liked it! I found a recipe on allrecipes, changed it slightly and doubled it for my family. Even though it uses yeast, the rising time is only thirty minutes, which was fantastic for a weeknight meal. The only flour my recipe uses is all purpose, and I thought the crust came out great. The dough was incredibly soft to work with and a cinch to roll out. The girls really wanted to see if I could toss the dough, so I did, and to my amazement, it stretched out amazingly. The dough stayed uniformly round when I rolled it, but changed into interesting shapes when I tossed it three or four times. So, that was a fun twist. Some shapes fit on my pizza pan, and some had to be baked on a large cookie sheet. I thought by doubling the dough recipe that I'd have just enough for five mini pizzas, but instead, I ended up with five full-size pizzas, yum! It was the tossing that did it. After the short rise time, the dough already had a sourdough-y fragrance, and I found that very appealing. One thing I will do differently next time is to not make all the crusts ahead of time: even with plenty of flour in between layers of uncooked crusts, they all stuck together, and I had to re-roll and start over. But, it was so quick, it wasn't that big of a deal. There is sugar in this recipe, and some sort of sweetener in all the recipes I searched, so I just decided to put it in. I think I'll give it a try without the sweetener next time, and see if there's a marked difference. With the simplicity of ingredients and the quickness of the meal, I can definitely see me making homemade pizza frequently in our home!

A close-up of Quick Veggie Pizza

What my dough looked like after rolling.

How big it got after a few tosses!

Its fun, quirky shape straight from the oven! What was fun for the Blessings, is that everyone's pizza had a unique shape.

Quick Veggie Pizza

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 pkgs. or 1 and 1/2 Tbs. of active dry yeast
2 cups of warm water
4 cups of flour
1 and 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 Tbs. vegan or raw sugar

Your Favorite Veggie Toppings:

We used:
Organic pizza sauce
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded
Tomatoes, halved and sliced
Can of black olives, sliced in thirds
Dino kale, stripped from stems and torn or coarsely chopped
Mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let rest for ten minutes. Combine the remaining crust ingredients in a large bowl, along with the yeast mixture, and mix well. Cover bowl with a damp towel, and let rise for 30 minutes. Punch dough down and divide into five sections. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll out one section of dough to about the size of a plate. Pick up and gently toss with your hands, until it's at least one and a half times its original size. Put on your baking sheet or pizza pan, and load with toppings. Bake for 20 minutes. While baking, make your next pizza. (I did not try to bake more than one pizza at a time because I thought they may stay undercooked, and I wanted this first time to be a success. However, I may do that the next time I make these to test my theory.) Remove from oven and let rest for five minutes before slicing. So good and easy! Feeds five hungry vegans, with leftovers for lunch the next day!

Simple Garlic Bread

2011-02-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

This is such a simple recipe, but I am still marking it down because, as I've said before, I'm making sure I've got down some family favorite recipes for my children to have. And, this, as simple as it is, is definitely one of them. The main thing I remember about garlic bread in our home when I was growing up, is it was a necessity every time we had spaghetti for dinner. Now, my mom didn't make spaghetti all the time. She made it a few times a year, and when she did, it was a huge production: the homemade sauce bubbling on the stove for hours, me picking all of the mushrooms out and eating them to the point that she learned to add way more than needed, ah, the memories. Well, if my grandma was involved, and there was a huge family dinner with all the relatives, she did the garlic bread. Both she and my mom had the same recipe. And, when she cut the bread, and if I was near her (and I made sure I was), she always seemed to cut a couple of pieces that were just too thin for the table. And, then she would hand me one and take the other, shrug her shoulders, and explain that we had to eat them, they were just too thin. So, more than a recipe, which is delicious by the way, this garlic bread represents tradition for me, in more ways than one.

Simple Garlic Bread in the bowl, free from "too thin" ones.

Out of the oven, resting before being sliced

Simple Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegan margarine
6 - 8 garlic cloves, minced
1 loaf of extra sour French bread (I use Colombo)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Cut the loaf in half width-wise, then each half length-wise. The easiest way I do this is to stand each cut half on end on the cutting board and slice from the end down. Lay the four pieces on a cookie sheet, cut side up. Melt margarine in a small pot over medium heat. When melted, add the minced garlic, and cook for about one minute, until the garlic releases its fragrance. Take a basting brush and paint the margarine and garlic on the bread. If there is any garlic left in the pot, be sure to get those too! Bake for eight to ten minutes, until the edges of the bread begin to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for about five minutes before cutting into individual slices. If you cut the bread too soon, it will tear jaggedly. Share a too-thin piece with someone you love. Feeds five hungry vegans. Double or triple if the gathering is large.

Traditional Nachos

2011-02-16T08:16:00.001-08:00

So, we finally had another nacho night. It's been too long since the last one. For those new to my nacho experiences, I make a big platter of nachos, put it on the ottoman in the living room, and we all sit on the floor and watch a movie while munching. It's fun, it's messy, and it tastes good! This time we watched an episode of NCIS off of one of SR's DVDs, her fave show. I like to make variations of nachos, but I stuck to the traditional kind for this batch. It was gobbled up very quickly.

Traditional Nachos

Ingredients:

Big bag of corn tortilla chips
1 - 29 oz. can of vegetarian refried beans (or homemade)
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded
Pickled jalapeno slices
1 15 oz. can of black olives, sliced in thirds
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
3 green onions, sliced
Guacamole
Vegan sour cream
Salsa

Directions:

Preheat the top broiler, making sure the rack is in the second position from the top. Heat up the refried beans in a small pot. In a large platter, cover the bottom with a few big handfuls of chips. Spread the beans over the chips, and sprinkle the cheese on top of the beans. Broil for three to five minutes, until the cheese melts. Bring out of the oven, and add the rest of the ingredients, amount to your liking. Surround the inside of the platter with chips, in a ring, and a few in the center as garnish. Tote along a second bowl of chips, and dig in! The ones on the bottom become deliciously soaked with the full flavor of the nachos, and are fun to eat, despite them being firm-challenged. Feeds five hungry, grabby, selfish vegans.

Seitan Steak and Asparagus Roll-ups with Hollandaise Sauce

2011-02-13T10:58:00.001-08:00

I saw a version of this recipe in a carni (or omni) cookbook, and I thought, "I could do this." The original called for thinly sliced top round sandwich steaks, pounded, so I started to think how I could come up with a seitan version. It also called for Swiss cheese, but I did not add any vegan cheese, and it tasted great. I've been experimenting with my own seitan recipes, and working them until I like the texture and flavor, and when I like one enough, I'll present it to you. This was a tad fancier than my family's used to, but a little fanciness does them good! With the asparagus tucked in the roll, and with the Hollandaise sauce drizzled on top, I loved this dish. I hope you do too. This recipe makes eight steaks, but I only used five for my family; I sliced up the remaining three for a stir-fry later. You can use any leftover sauce poured over steamed veggies the next night!

A Seitan Steak and Asparagus Roll-up with Hollandaise sauce, served with a helping of cous cous. The picture unfortunately came out a tad blurry.

When you shape the steaks, I suggest doing it directly on the foil, so they don't stick to the cutting board. Here are all the wrapped steaks in the pot, waiting to be steamed. See how I've kept them flat and rectangular.

Here are the Roll-ups on a platter, with their strings still on, just waiting to be served!

Seitan Steak and Asparagus Roll-ups with Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients:

Seitan Steaks:

1 cup slow-cooked pinto beans
2 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbs. garlic salt
1/2 cup steak sauce - The 365 organic brand at Whole Foods is vegan and free of corn syrup
1 Tbs. vegan Worchestire sauce
1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
1 tsp. pepper
1 Tbs. dried oregano
3 cups gluten flour

3 asparagus spears per roll-up, bottoms trimmed
String for tying
Water for steaming and baking

Hollandaise Sauce:

6 Tbs. vegan margarine
4 Tbs. flour
2 cups original soy milk
1/2 tsp. turmeric
4 Tbs. nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
1/16 tsp. pepper

Directions for the Roll-ups: Put all the ingredients, except the gluten flour, in a blender, and process until mostly smooth. I have an ordinary blender, and it works just fine in mine. In a large bowl, add the blended ingredients and the gluten flour, and mix with a spoon thoroughly. Knead for a couple of minutes, to make sure it is blended well. Divide the dough into eight parts. On a large section of aluminum foil, pat out one of the dough parts into a rectangular shape the best you can on one edge of the foil. You want it approximately eight inches in length and the width of your hand. (You will be rolling this around the asparagus, so you don't want it so thin, it will break apart, but you want it long enough, so that the ends reach around.) Once you have your shape, flip the foil and steak over one time, fold down the top and bottom edges, and continue to flip the steak over until it reaches the other edge. You don't want to roll it, you want to keep it flat. Hopefully, you'll have about three flips total. Do the same with the other steaks. Place in a large pot with a steamer basket and a couple of inches of water, and steam over medium heat for forty-five minutes. Take the wrapped steaks out of the pot. You can put in the fridge those you won't be using in this dish; this recipe is using five steaks. Quickly unwrap the steaks and let them cool slightly while you prepare the asparagus. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Carefully drop in the asparagus spears and blanch for three minutes. Drain the spears and rinse under cold water. Put each steak over a long piece of string width wise. Place three spears in the center of each steak, so it forms a "t" and fold the ends over, so they touch. Holding the steak edges in place, tie the string securely in a bow. I had GR help me pinch the ends together in place while I tied the string. I found I needed that little extra help. Place the roll-ups in a baking pan, and pour 2/3 cup of water in the bottom of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Pull the pan out, flip the roll-ups over, add another 2/3 cup of water, and bake for another 20 minutes.

Directions for the Hollandaise Sauce: During the last ten minutes of baking, start the sauce. In a medium pot, melt the margarine over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until there is a sort of paste. Add the soy milk slowly and continue to whisk, so there are no lumps. Add the remaining ingredients, and continue whisking until the sauce thickens. This only takes a few minutes. If you find it's cooking too fast, turn the heat down to medium low. Once it's thickened, set aside for the roll-ups.

Plate each roll-up, cutting away the string. Drizzle the desired amount of sauce over each roll-up. Round out the dish by serving a healthy grain. A nice meal. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Warm Lentils with Carmelized Onions and Red Bell Peppers over Greens with a Tangy Mustard Dressing

2011-02-09T12:43:00.002-08:00

This was another one of those meals that came together because of a lack of groceries in the house. I had lentils, an onion, and some lettuce and tomato, and began to figure out a way to make a potentially blah meal great instead! The more I started to put things together, the more ingredients I thought to add, until I came up with this relatively simple dish with a super fancy title. Enjoy!

Warm Lentils with Caramelized Onions and Red Bell Peppers over Greens with a Tangy Mustard Dressing

Ingredients:

Lentil Dish:

1 lb. lentils, picked free of grit
Water to cover
1 Tbs. garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, halved and halved again lengthwise, then sliced into strips
1/2 cup marinated red bell peppers (I used Mezzetta Deli-Sliced Roasted Sweet Bell Pepper Strips)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

1 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Dressing:

4 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup of white vinegar
1 Tbs. of yellow mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. dried oregano

Directions: In a large pot of water, bring lentils to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium and cook for 40 minutes, or until tender. Keep water level no more than a half inch above the lentils, adding water as needed. Add the garlic powder, salt and pepper, and cook another five minutes. While the lentils are cooking, heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for at least twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown or caramelize. Add the pepper slices and garlic powder, oregano and salt and pepper and cook for another three to five minutes, until flavors are blended. Create a bed of lettuce with the tomato wedges on plates. Spoon a serving of lentils over each bed of greens and top with some of the onions and peppers. Combine all the salad dressing ingredients into a jar with a lid, and shake thoroughly. Drizzle the desired amount of dressing over the top of each serving. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

100th Post Giveaway Winner!

2011-02-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who entered and for all the nice comments you made on my last post.

This morning I went to http://www.random.org/, entered in my numbers and came up with Commenter #2! Of course, this was the one number that was entered in three times! Will the real #2 please stand up?

This forced me to go back to old-fashioned counting, which as you know, counting up to two is very challenging, and it led me to Jenn. Congratulations, Jenn! Now, remember the rules: read the book, while munching on the snacks, while my picture is close by, so we can all be together! All I need is your mailing info, and we're good to go - I'll mail it out sometime this week.

Thanks also to those who answered the Blessings Question of the Day! I picked the hippopotamus because I wouldn't want to deal with a hairy horn or pointy tusks! Maybe I could outrun the hippo and avoid those teeth! Today's question by JK is: Who is your favorite superhero? Mine is Superman, of course!

Thanks, again!

100th Post Celebration and Giveaway, Yippee!

2011-01-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

It's taken me over a year to do it, but I finally am at my 100th post! Woo hoo! Whew who?

So, with that in mind, I've decided to have a giveaway to you! Here's a hint of what you can receive in the photo below. But, mind you, you are getting not one, not two, but three fabulously, indescribable gifts!

Here's JK and GR with me, intently reading The China Study. I now see with the poor lighting, what I would like as a brunette. G wanted me to drape my Raiders cozy over my lap, but Costco cut off the bottom of the picture. And, ignore the price tag, people - it's a gift to you, you know! Before you can see your total giveaway package, though, you have to endure a certain amount of nostalgia from me. You didn't think this was going to come without strings attached, did you?

I accidentally discovered food blogs in the Summer of 2009 when I was doing an online search for vegan pepperoni, since I couldn't find my brand in the store anymore. I was brought to a site that listed an amazing recipe. A recipe to actually make vegan pepperoni? I didn't know anyone could do that. Well, I thought I had found a unique website; I still didn't know that this was a "blog" or that others existed. When I started nosing around the site, I found links and comments, and I was just blown away. I realized if I wanted to leave a comment and not be anonymous, I had to have an account. That's why my profile says August, but I actually didn't start my own blog until October.

I originally started my blog for my children. I had been creating a cookbook on Microsoft Word for about ten years, and I thought a blog would provide a more professional look and a way for me to add photos for each dish. I still keep my children in mind, and I hope that they will appreciate Mom's recipes one day, and that maybe some of the better ones will be passed along to grandchildren and on.

I've realized that blogging takes up more time than I anticipated. When JK comes to me with a book, or when someone needs help with a math problem, or when my hand is being tugged to go outside and play, blogging has to take the back seat. As you know, posting is time consuming, but commenting is also time consuming. Sometimes, I just quickly look at what other people have posted without commenting because of the time issue. And, even that can become addictive. So, I beg forgiveness if you don't see my comments as much as I would like to leave them. I've probably just got done peeking at your site.

I'm announcing a NEW FEATURE! Introducing The Blessings Question of the Day. My children ask the darnedest things, and I thought I should let you in on the fun. So, with each new post, I'll pose one of their questions, and if you want, you can answer that in the comments section as well. Shall we start with this one from GR? Sure! Okay...Which would you choose to have angrily chase you in the wild: an elephant, a rhinoceros, or a hippopotamus? We'll revisit this at Post 200 to see if we will continue this. :-)

For the next 100 posts, I hope my recipes and my photography get better and better. We had already cut out msg and corn syrup, and last Fall we also eliminated artificial colors, artificial flavors, and petroleum-based preservatives. My first real challenge will be GR's birthday cake in less than two weeks because it will have a pink hue. I'm looking forward to the challenge and still being able to give my children fun food.

In the meantime, I'm showing a small sample of what I've made in my first 100 posts below. If you want to go directly to the recipe of any photo, just click on the picture caption. Meet me at the bottom for rules and what exactly I'm giving away!

Breakfasts:

Soups:

Salads:

Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad

Breads:

Candy Cane Coffee Cakes

Basic White Bread

Entrees:

Sourdough Soy Pizza

Chili Cheese Nachos

Broiled Avocado Cheese Sandwich

Pumpkin and Kale Quesadillas

Desserts:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll

Thank you for humoring me with that. I hope that wasn't too many pictures. So, what do you get in this giveaway? Have I built it up enough? I think not! It's just too spectacular.

You will be receiving a copy of The China Study by the father and son Campbells. It's riveting reading as you can see in my photo, especially with JK's tongue hanging out. It actually was a ground-breaking book when it came out, outlining how China's diets and ours are so different and the cause and effect between food and health. You will also be getting a small snack bag of Somersaults to enjoy while you turn the pages. And, finally, you will be getting the very photo of JK, GR, and me in it...autographed!! And, as my dear husband, G, pointed out, it's suitable for framing. So, you can place us on your nearest flat surface where you will be reading, and we'll all enjoy the snacks and book together.

Rules? Very simple:

This is open to:

1. Domestic

2. International

3. Followers...

4. ...Or Not

5. Lurkers, come on, introduce yourself already!

6. First-time Peekers, don't be shy.

I think that's everyone. All you have to do to enter is make a comment...that's it. I have two requests: Make only ONE comment. If you have a question for me, e-mail me at blessedmama@pacbell.net, as I will not be making any responses in the comment section. Rest assured, though, I'll be happily reading your comments. Also, when you comment, please number your comment, as I do not know how to have numbers inserted in. And, if the person above you forgot to number theirs, then please put the correct number down on your comment. For instance, Rose forgets to point out that she's number five. Shenandoah comes along, notices that, and after tsk-tsking, she correctly numbers her own comment as number six. See? That way, when I go to random.org, I don't have to count everyone. New edit: Sometimes two people may type comments at the same time and enter in the same number. If that happens to you, don't worry about it. Hopefully, the next person in line will enter the correct number for themself. You may notice that my comment section says at the top how many comments are currently listed, without individually numbering them, so just add yourself as the next number regardless if someone else is slightly off.

I'm going to keep this open through this Saturday, the 5th and will announce the winner on Sunday, the 6th. No pushing or shoving, there's plenty of room here! Make sure there is a way I can contact you, if you're the winner - either in your profile or in your comment, unless you know that I already have your e-mail address. Good luck everyone, and thanks for coming by. I've already begun to meet some pretty wonderful people in the blogosphere, and I'm looking forward to being around a lot longer and meeting many more. :-)

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas

2011-01-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

I call this dish Beginner's Soy Enchiladas because I'm nowhere near an expert enchilada maker. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I made them, but I've been wanting to make them for years. For my first time in at least a decade, I decided to stick to the familiar tastes of the past. For me that meant using soy ground, vegan cheese, and yummy toppings. By the way, the cheese melted really nicely here - I did not have to use the broiler. I also used canned enchilada sauce because I've never dipped my toes in the territory of homemade enchilada sauce before, and I wanted this meal to be as successful as possible for my family without any of Mom's usual fiddling with ingredients. I had trouble with the corn tortillas cracking when I rolled them; I found that microwaving softened them a bit, or coating them in the enchilada sauce helped, although the latter made for a mess. When I can come up with a sure-fire way to fold corn tortillas without cracking them, I'll let you know. My family really loved these, and even though I made a lasagna-sized pan and a half, there were only two enchiladas left by the end of the night! G mumbled something about how lettuce doesn't taste as good the next day, mm-hmm. I think at the end, they were being polite in not taking the last of them. By the way, I only had two, so it wasn't me. Since these were so easy to make and required so few ingredients, I will be making these more often. If I come up with more creative recipes for enchiladas, I'll let you know. In the meantime, here's my super simple version.

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas (in the pan)

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas with a side salad (my plate)

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas
1 - 28oz. can enchilada sauce, or your favorite homemade version
1 Tbs. canola oil
2 pkgs. Soy Ground, Mexican style
1 block of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, mozzarella style, finely grated

Toppings:

Romaine lettuce, chopped small
1 - 15oz. can olives, sliced in thirds
Vegan Sour Cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pan, heat oil. Add the soy ground, and cook over medium heat until browned, about five minutes or so. Add 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce and stir into the soy ground. Put half of the finely grated cheese in with the soy ground and sauce, and mix well. Turn heat down to medium low, and cook for a few minutes, until cheese blends in. Set aside. Put a thin layer of enchilada sauce down in the bottom of a lasagna-type pan, about 1/2 cup. To soften corn tortillas, try microwaving a handful at a time for fifteen seconds. Put two to three tablespoons of soy ground mixture in the middle of each tortilla and roll the tortilla up the best as you can. Place seam down in pan. If it cracks, don't worry, it will still taste good. Do the same with as many tortillas as it takes to use up the remaining soy ground. I got about fifteen or so enchiladas out of this and had to get a second pan, which I partially filled. Once all the enchiladas are placed in their pan(s), pour the remaining sauce evenly over them. Sprinkle the second half of the cheese on top of the sauce. Cover the pan(s) with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Take out of the oven and cover with the toppings. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

G's Birthday and German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting

2011-01-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

Friday was G's birthday, and so for two weeks, he thought I was too old for him. This happens every year, and he thinks it's hilarious each time. I thought I'd show you how we enjoyed the cuisine for his day, as well as the small gathering my mom threw the next evening to celebrate his milestone. For his birthday cake, I made his favorite: German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting. I've gratefully adapted and used both recipes for a few years from some I've seen online in a few spots, and of course, I've made minor adjustments for my clan. Happy Birthday, G!

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting

We had lunch out at one of the Sacramento area's oldest vegetarian spots, the Sunflower Drive-In. Here, I'm enjoying their nutburger (veganized) with chips and salsa.

Here is one of Sunflower's resident chickens that visit the diners.

Here is G's requested birthday dinner: slow cooked pinto beans, fried potatoes cut his favorite way: julienned, and corn bread. I made him unsweetened cornbread in his own star pan, and sweetened the children's and mine into teddy bears. It's not much of a different menu from last year's.

On Saturday night, my parents took us out to Thai Cuisine, where I enjoyed a small bowl of Hot and Sour Soup...

...and Red Curry with Tofu. Delicious. Excellent. Superb.

My amazing mom insisted on baking all the goodies for G's small party. She has three different kinds of cookies, two bars, and a birthday cake - all vegan. The only thing that's not vegan are the Raiders M&Ms. And, yes, G thoroughly enjoyed the Raider theme. Thanks, Mom!

Here is what the German Chocolate Cake looked like the morning after G's birthday. I guess five hungry vegans know how to make a dent in a birthday cake! G did NOT want me to skimp on the inside layer of frosting, so I made a large amount to ensure that he would have enough!

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:

3 cups of flour
6 Tbs. of cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups vegan or raw sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup of canola oil
2 Tbs. white vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Frosting:

2 sticks of vegan margarine
1 and 1/2 cup of vegan or raw sugar
3 cups of shredded coconut
2 cups of pecans, coarsely chopped
1 cup soy milk
2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour two round cake pans, and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: the flour through the salt. Make three deep wells, and pour the oil in one, the vinegar in a second, and the vanilla in the third. (I have made this cake without making the wells, and just mixing the wet ingredients separately and then adding to the dry. For some reason, the cake bakes quicker and makes a thicker batter when creating the wells. Don't ask me why. I have seen this in other recipes, though, too.) Pour the cold water over all the wells, and thoroughly mix well. My mixer broke on Christmas Eve, so I mixed this by hand, and it turned out great. Divide between the two cake pans, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling rack for fifteen minutes. Then, turn cakes out on rack and finish cooling.

For the frosting: Once the cakes are cooled, begin making the frosting. In a medium pot, heat all the ingredients over medium heat, stirring frequently. Once the margarine is completely melted, remove from heat. Let cool for ten minutes, and spread half on the bottom cake layer and the other half on the top layer. Leave the sides bare. Feeds five hungry vegans over a couple of days.

Garden Pictures - January, 2011

2011-01-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

Time for more garden pictures! When I started posting pics of my garden last year, I made a plan to do this every five months to illustrate what can grow in a Sacramento garden throughout the year. Well, apparently January gives us a pretty dismal garden, but it's a pact that I made with myself, so it cannot be broken! We had a pretty hard frost that lasted about a week that really took a toll on some of our plants, as you'll see. I didn't photograph everything because some of our trees, as adorable as they are, are just sitting there. So, I'm showing stuff that actually has some action, or I have questions about, and then a strangely sparse ground that has something to do with my husband, G. Oh, and some new pics of the pets, of course!

This is our nectarine tree. We planted her last March, and over the summer she gave us one beautiful nectarine that we shared. I'm not sure what these little bumps are, they aren't quite green buds, but I like 'em!

This is our grapevine. We're not sure if it's dead from the frost, or just dormant. We're new at grapes. Anybody know?

Okay, this shot has a story. I planted rows and rows of seeds for short, stubby carrots. As planned, up sprouted blades of green, boldly reaching for the warm sky that was lurking above the gray pillows hiding it. So, I come out one day to check on them, and they're all gone! It turns out my dear G weeded that nasty grass for me that was growing in my garden bed. I couldn't thank him enough! Now, instead of grassy, non-existent carrots, I have several of these things coming up, which mysteriously resemble my bulb flowers from the front yard. Did they migrate here, over the fence, and around the corner? I'm curious to know what these little buggers will turn out to be. Maybe they're really mutant, husband-resistant carrots, come to plump up my salad bowl!

Oh, this pathetic bed has tried and tried to provide good service to me over the past several months. G has transplanted our too tart, too small strawberries, that nobody likes, in here in the bottom left corner and upper right corner. That sprig of lettuce in the upper left corner has been growing for about a year and hasn't gotten any bigger. Can you make out the purply leaf near the upper middle? That's a beet plant. I planted dozens of seeds, and most of them came up, only to be gobbled up by pesky slugs. This is the lone survivor, but he is badly chewed, and hasn't grown since the frost. I may harvest it just to see what's underneath. In the bulk of the bed, I've just planted green onion seeds. Gulp...they look like grass when they grow, don't they?

Okay, here's the bed that houses my once flourishing artichoke plant and kale. In the foreground is my once thriving artichoke. That big stalk is the original trunk. Well, I wanted to let one thistle completely bloom to see what it would look like, and apparently that's a sign to the plant that it needs to die. And, it did. We were going to pull it, when we saw new signs of life near the bottom; so here it is again, springing forth anew. The one just behind it, we planted last year. They probably won't give us new flowers until next year. Our kale, to the right of the artichokes, has been hit hard by the frost. I'm hoping for a resurgence in the Spring.

This is our little Mandarin orange plant. Look at the cute, little presents she's giving to us!

Here's Mindy. She and Abby are 9 and 1/2 weeks old now.

And, Abby.

Last time I took pics of the cats, their tags showed our info, and I didn't want all you guys, er, I mean the Internet calling me, so I didn't print them. Now, my kitties are private, so you can see them again. Here's Charlene, on our car, looking superior, as she should be.

This is actually a neighbor's cat, Fancy, who's here 95% of the time, so I included her.

Here is cranky Sparkly in one of the three cardboard boxes that we keep putting out for Fancy.

And here is one of the two brand-new cat houses that G made for Sparkly and Charlene, complete with a porch and roof, a scratching post, and a ledge for their food. The blanket is sticking out of their cozy home. But they sleep in cardboard boxes. And, Fancy sleeps on the soil underneath a folding chair by the door. Silly cats.

Pasta Salad with Tofu

2011-01-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a very simple dish that I make several times a year that offers just a small twist for fun. I like to see where I can add tofu in dishes for variety and a little extra protein. Tofu works very well in pasta salads and soaks up some of the flavor of the dressing. I also like it here because it shows how my children don't always need to eat their tofu cooked; they actually love it raw and sometimes eat it straight off the cutting board before it goes into the bowl. If you toss the veggies into the bowl with freshly cooked pasta, the heat from the noodles will actually soften the veggies enough to imitate blanching. If you wait until the pasta is cold, I would suggest blanching the firmer veggies before adding to the bowl.

Pasta Salad with Tofu

Ingredients:

1 lb. of medium pasta (I used rigatoni)
1 pkg. of extra-firm tofu, drained and diced small
3 - 4 cups of veggies - we used:
1 tomato, diced
2 cups of broccoli, diced small
1 cup of asparagus, sliced into one inch diagonals
1 cup of your favorite salad dressing
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, prepare your tofu and veggies. Put into a bowl. Drain pasta and add to bowl. Add the salad dressing and salt and pepper and toss well. Chill for at least two hours before eating, although I've eaten warm pasta salad on occasion, and it's tasty as well. Before serving, taste and adjust dressing and salt and pepper, if necessary. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Our Newest Family Members...Arf, Arf!

2011-01-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that last April our sweetie-boy doggie, Earl, died from terrible whip worms. He literally took his last breath in front of us while we were in the back yard with him. He was such a good doggie and was perfect with the children. We have all had a doggie-sized hole in our hearts since he passed away, and the girls have been wanting a dog ever since.

So, finally last week we picked up a couple of the cutest little sisters you ever saw! They are 3/4 Labrador Retriever and 1/4 Golden Retriever and were seven and half weeks old when we brought them home. They have brightened our lives. Instead of replacing Earl, they are a tribute to him because he was so special. They are officially the girls' puppies, so I can actually relax when they need to go outside or need to be fed. As Grandma Pup, I get to hold them and smooch them and then hand them over when there is a "duty" to be done with them. Very fun, indeed. I should say that the girls saved allowances and Christmas money to pay for these puppies; we just had to help GR a smidge, but that's it.

Before you see the pics, I start you off with this song from VeggieTales, Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen, sung by a contestant who wasn't picked, poor thing.

"Puppies are cuddly.
Puppies are cute.
They're never nasty or mean. Sniff (inhales deeply through one nostril)
I'd give a home to all the lost puppies,
If ever one day I were queen! Arf! (barks while eye twitches)"

On with the pictures!

Our sweet puppies, Abby and Mindy

Abby

Mindy

SR with her puppy, Abby

GR with her puppy, Mindy

Just so you know, GR thinks her expression makes her look sad, but I think she looks fine!

All four girls!

JK and the pups bonding

Napping together

And they call it puppy love...

Thanks for checking out our new, darling family members. I'll keep you updated with "aw-worthy" pics.

Birthday Ups and Downs

2011-01-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday, and so I created a photo log of all the food, except my breakfast cereal, that I ate - just for you! I call it ups and downs because of a few things: some of the food was great, some was ethically horrid to the point of sending me to the brink of anger, some of my photography was totally out of whack, and my presents were great: I got a Christian book on tape, a new apron, and doughnut pans. Read on, if you dare!

This is my birthday cake that my ten-year-old, GR, made all by herself. She was disappointed that it turned out to be enough batter for only one layer, the frosting was thin, and she forgot to mix in the chocolate chips. But, I assured her that nothing tastes better to a Blessed Mama than something that was made from love by one of her Blessings. And, this tasted good! It was a marble batter with vanilla frosting.

Here's my slice of that delicious cake. The photo doesn't do it justice.

We went to the same Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, Queen Sheba, that we went to last year. They have a lunch buffet that we like to hit, and it's darn good!

We went to an all-vegan diner, Sugar Plum Cafe, and got some sweets from their bakery. I ordered from the day-old section (half price, you know), and I got a carrot muffin with frosting. I really only got it for the frosting because it was the only day-old choice with some. Four-year-old JK ate his red velvet cupcake frosting in the car on the way home. What I like is they use beet juice instead of dye to color their frostings. This stays in line with our Feingold plan, so it was perfect for us. Well, anyways, typical for JK, he ate the frosting, took a bite or two of the cake part and handed it to me, saying he was full. Then that's when a plan started formulating in my head. I put my unsuspecting frosted carrot muffin on the table...

...set down JK's partially munched on cupcake...

...and SCRAPED off the frosting, smearing it all over JK's topless cake. And voila, I had just what I wanted: chocolate with frosting. I gave the soy-free, gluten-free carrot muffin to my eatin' machine hubby, G.

We headed later over to my parents who were taking us out to dinner. My amazing mom is always trying out recipes for us. She brought out chips and salsa and made homemade hummus for the first time. She found a recipe that had peanut butter in it. It was so good! I am very proud of her. You can see JK is enjoying some, too.

We headed over to the Noodle House, a restaurant near their home in Carmichael that I've really liked in the past. I always order the same soup, so I was really looking forward to it. We started off with our usual spring rolls and peanut sauce.

My soup is Number 91, which is described as a hot and sour soup with noodles, tofu and vegetables. The noodles are served on the side, and I add them in as I wish. Not hard, right? Never had a problem before. Well, first off my mom's dish arrived about fifteen minutes before anyone else's - I don't like that when that happens. They also brought out tofu on a small plate that I was supposed to add to my soup - weird. Well, it turned out they thought my mom's dish was mine, and that I wanted tofu on the side. I explained I had the soup with tofu in it, and they finally understood, I thought. Moving on... Then my dad's dish arrived about another ten minutes before "my soup" arrived. Something looked different. First off, the noodles were already in the soup, but I thought maybe they just changed their procedure. No big deal. The broth looked different though, and G noticed an oily residue on top. As I started swirling my spoon around, I couldn't see any tofu, but I did pull up a suspicious looking chunk of something. G hoped it was a very large piece of ginger, so my mom tasted it, and confirmed it was indeed chicken. Chicken?! I called the waitress over and said there's chicken in my soup, hello??? She went over with me again what type of soup I ordered, and I explained. Up until this point, with just my parents served, and with me getting the wrong dish, I was still chalking things up to "things happen" and not getting too stressed. So, about ten minutes later, my dad now done, my mom eating slowly, my soup came back out. I gave the before-mentioned tofu to the kids, who were so hungry. (The picture above is from this soup.) Still no food for G or the Blessings. I didn't want to eat in front of my children, especially JK, who kept asking about his food. I asked about their food, and was told they were "working on it." About another ten minutes later, my mom was about done by now, their food arrived. The girls ordered a sweet and sour, and JK just had simple steamed veggies with tofu and rice. His came with an obvious sweet and sour sauce, and I didn't notice until later that the girls came with a brown sauce. Hmm. So, I thought, let's see if JK will eat his even though there's this sauce on it, and he seemed to do fine, so I let it go. I started on my soup. It definitely tasted different, and there weren't many veggies, and only three pieces of tofu. Not to worry, they're having a bad night, we're still coming back. About half way down, I pull another piece of chicken out! What???? I call the waitress over, now I was irritated - very - and asked what was going on. Well, I actually told her I knew what happened before she had a chance to answer. They brought the soup back into the kitchen, fished out all the chicken they could find, and added three pieces of tofu back in. Not only is that unsanitary, it's illegal! I expressed my frustration and disbelief, and said I wanted a new soup, unmarred, and packaged to go. My dad was not to pay for the new soup or old. I couldn't believe it. I was ready to come back again and forgive all the errors up until I discovered their gross slip of the hand. What if it was seafood, and I had an allergy? I explained that I was vegan for ethical reasons and how much this offended me. Then we all looked at the girls' brown sauces, and I gave all the food to my parents.

This is my mom at the restaurant with SR and GR acting silly. Their expressions capture my feelings of thinking of going back to that restaurant ever again.

We went back to my parents' home for my mom's Blind Date Bars. The picture, again, doesn't do it justice. It's a chocolate cake foundation with chocolate chips and walnuts. So, it ended on a happy note. Yay!

Snow Pics, Review of Hometown Seeds, and an Ecolissa Clothing Discount!

2011-01-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Boy, there's a lot to get done in this post. Busy, busy, busy.

First, I thought I'd show you the paradise where I was for a few days, celebrating the new year. What's nice about Sacramento, besides its own quaint charm, is that it's just a couple of hours away from some great getaways: San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean, and the Lake Tahoe/Truckee/Donner Lake area.

My family stayed at a friend's cabin with my parents in the coldest weather that I have ever experienced in my entire life! Sacramento is cold when it gets below 70 degrees, and people think we're in the next Ice Age when it's below 50. I've been in Truckee and Tahoe when it's snowed, and the temps hovered in the 20's. Well, this time we were in sub-zero temps in Truckee. Ahem, I said sub-zero! But, it was beautiful. Please enjoy just a couple of snapshots of some crazy, cold fun.

Here's the Truckee cabin where we stayed.

Here is a snowball fight with some of the biggest snowballs known to mankind. That's GR hurling a chunk at SR, G, and JK. G got back at the Blessings with one about twice that size. I have some great shots of the children sneaking up on him with arms poised to throw on his unsuspecting back. This pile of snow in the foreground is covering our patio. The Truckee River is in the background.

A beautiful shot of the scenery on a walk. So gorgeous it was breathtaking. The snow sparkled like silver.

This is GR on the morning we left. She went out to recover all five toboggans that we brought that were buried in the snow. Some of my shots captured the snowflakes pouring down on her. Look at her hair and our car behind her. I hope everyone had an awesome and safe New Year!

Okay, well that was fun. But now on to Hometown Seeds. I was contacted by Melanie who offered to send me their Kitchen Herb Value Pack worth $16.99, if I would add their company as a link in my blog list. You can find them in my Veggie Friendly section. I said sure, and in a couple of weeks I received a package with ten bags of seeds in it. You can see in the picture above that I got parsley, thyme, cilantro, chives, sage, rosemary, oregano, dill, and two kinds of basil. Melanie did not ask me to review her seeds, but I told her I would anyway.

Of course, I can't review the quality until I plant them, and I plan to save one garden bed just for this purpose. However, I went to their website, http://www.hometownseeds.com/, and looked around. What I was first drawn to was their Survival Seeds packet, in case of some kind of disaster! That was exciting to me, and it offers 22,000 seeds of bunches of kinds of foods.

They also offer sprouting seeds, vegetable seeds and flower seeds. The prices seem comparable to my neighborhood nursery, so I wouldn't necessarily be tempted to buy online, unless it was a seed I couldn't normally find. Like their asparagus seeds, for instance. Everything seemed to be around two dollars a packet, but they offer various large deals. Check them out, and see what you think.

Finally, Melissa Dion from Ecolissa asked if I would post a discount on my site for her clothing website. I was not offered anything in return, more than you are being offered, but I don't do everything just for greed's sake. I checked out her site and thought, "Sure, why not?"

I asked Melissa if her site was completely animal-cruelty free, and she responded, "Everything I carry is 100% vegan. No leather, fur, wool, silk, down feather, etc. I am vegan, so it is very important to me." If you would like to check out Melissa's clothing site, her address is http://www.ecolissa.com/. You will get a 20% discount if you mention the coupon code "vegan20"when you order.

Hope you had fun checking everything out on here. Keep warm, grow plants, and wear clothes!