Boy, I have been eating bad the past week. With all that has happened between the heat and William being sick, I haven’t been doing much cooking. I am paying for it right now. My stomach hurts so bad. I think it must be increased sugar consumption. I have had a few sodas lately, which I don’t usually drink. Anyway, today I have a very healthy menu planned for the day.

Breakfast: Power Fruit Smoothie
This is truly one of my favorite recipes. I made it for both my husband and myself this morning. Here is the basic recipe:

1 banana (per person)
1 cup mango juice (per person)
1 cup frozen mangos (per person)
1/4 cup vegan protein powder (per person)
1 tbsp spirulina (per person)

Blend it all together in the blender until smooth. You can’t really taste the spirulina or the protein powder over the wonderful taste of the fruit. This recipe will jump start your day.

For Lunch: Vegan Minestrone Soup and Salad with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Salad Dressing.

Vegan Minestrone Soup

3 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
1 tbsp herbes de Provence
2-3 zucchini, chopped
2-3 tomatoes, chopped
2 cans cannellini beans
1 sm package frozen cut green beans
32 oz vegetable broth
1 16oz can tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for about 4-5 minutes. Add fresh basil and oregano and saute for one minute. Add zucchini and saute for an additional 10 minutes or so. Add tomato and mix. Add canellini beans, green beans, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and mix. Let simmer for about 1/2 hr.

Dinner is going to be very simple, zucchini and bean saute over brown rice and salad

Zucchini and Bean Saute over Brown Rice

3 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1/2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
2-3 zucchini, chopped
1 can canellini beans
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups water
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 tbsp fresh basil
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a medium sauce pan bring 2 cups water with olive oil and salt to a boil. Add rice and cook on low heat for about 45 minutes or until all water is absorbed. Sitr in 1 tbsp fresh basill. In an iron skillet, saute onion and garlic in 3 tbsp olive oil for about 4-5 minutes. Add zucchini, tomato and beans and saute for about 10-15 minutes. Spoon rice onto a plate and top with vegetable-bean mixture.

Hopefully this will bring my stomach back into balance a little.

Okay, here it finally is. I know about 1 1/2 later. But I finally got the cake pictures from my husband. So here is the recipe and the pictures of my husband’s vegan banana cake with cream “cheese” frosting.

Vegan Banana Cake

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups rice milk
4 bananas, overripe, mashed
1 cup olive oil oil
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wipe two 9-inch round or square glass baking dishes with and olive oil covered paper towel and sprinkle small amount of flour in dish. In a medium mixing bowl mix together all dry ingredients. Add olive oil and stir until mixture is crumbly. Add mashed bananas, rice milk, and vanilla and mix with a mixer until smooth. Pour into baking dishes and back for about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes clean.

While cake is baking prepare cream cheese frosting.

1 16 oz container vegan cream cheese
1 package powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp rice milk

Using a mixer, mix all ingredients until smooth. Take half of the mixture and add one mashed banana for center filling. Place filling and frosting in the refrigerator until cake is cooled and ready to frost.

Once both cakes are completely cooled, cut thin layer off of the top of each cake so that they stack neatly. Spread banana cream cheese filling on one layer and place the other layer on top. Frost entire cake with frosting.

Pour into prepared pan and bake on center rack for 40-45 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean.

Remove from oven, place on wire rack to cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Midweek Munchies: What Cindy is contributing for the week Haven’t done much shopping this week because of the heat and William’s heat stroke. We did more eating out than anything, but I did buy a few things so here they are: From the Grocery Store: macaroni noodles sweet relish celery black olives mustard smartdogs hotdog buns boca burgers whole-wheat hamburger buns vegetable broth peanut butter whole-wheat bread bananas frozen strawberries mango juice apple juice lot’s of gatorade water From my garden: Yellow onions Tomatoes Zucchini Cucumbers It was a barbecue, pasta salad, and cold fruit smoothie kind of week. Links to other Midweek Munchies (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I’ll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for The Vegan Place Blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

I know it has been a while since I have posted. It has been a rough couple of days. Temperatures here have topped 110 degrees and we don’t have central air conditional, just a couple of window units. For some reason city planners in this area thought it was perfectly acceptable to not put air conditioning in most homes (except very new) in this area. It has been too hot to get to my computer. On Saturday, my four-year-old son got heat stroke. He was very sick for the past three days. At last, he has finally started sweating today for the first time in three days. He was running a temp of 103.4 on Saturday and had an average temp of 102 over the past couple of days. We were able to block out our livingroom and set the window unit and fans going to try to keep him cool, plus wrapping him in cool towels (which did not make him happy). We were able to bring his temp down some, but when he went outside for even a minute it shot right back up to 102. He had a fever during the night for a while last night, but his temp is now back to normal, and as I stated he is sweating when he walks outside, with no rise in temperature. So it seems we are past the danger zone, but I think I will keep him inside for the next day or two regardless, because the past couple of days have been really scary. I know I promised to post pictures of my husband’s birthday cake and the recipe. I haven’t forgotten. I will remind my dh to download the pics today and will hopefully post the recipe later today. If not for sure tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good weekend and is staying cool.

I will post about my husband’s birthday cake this evening. He still has to download the pictures from his camera, but I will say that it was delicious. I was quite excited.

Midweek Munchies: What Cindy is contributing for the week This weeks groceries weren’t too exciting, but I did make a cake and that was pretty cool. From the Grocery Store: Whole-wheat flour Powered Sugar Sugar Olive Oil Bananas Avocadoes Roman Lettuce Salsa Tortilla Chips Flour Tortillas Peanut Butter Apple Juice Mango Juice Water Potatoes Fresh Spinach Yellow Bellpepper (mine still haven’t rippened in my garden, sigh) Pinto Beans From the garden: My first roma tomato Cucumber Squash Zucchini Banana Peppers Green Onions Yellow Onions Serrano Chiles Links to other Midweek Munchies (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I’ll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for The Vegan Place Blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

Last night I made my first vegan cake from scratch. I am very excited. It is my dh birthday today and I wanted to make something that I could eat too. We won’t be eating the cake until tonight, so I will take pictures and post the recipe tomorrow if the cake tastes as good as it looks.

This hot weather makes me think of early settlers and cowboys out traveling across the country and the meals that they cooked on big open fires. Here in the U.S. Western-style gatherings are pretty common. I have some fun recipes to help you throw your own Western-style hoe-down.

You can cook these recipes on the stove on over a campfire like they did in the olden days.

The first must at any good ole fashioned hoe-down is Native American Beans. Cooked out on the range, beans were easy to store and could travel for miles. I have posted the recipe for Native American Beans before so I will just put the link for the recipe.
Corn was another staple in the old west. It is easy to grow and can be grown in hot climates. Just pull back the leaves and remove silkie threads, slather with vegan butter spread and put the leaves back into place. Wrap the corn in tinfoil and place on the grill.

Don’t forget homefries. No Western meal would be complete without them. Here is my favorite recipe for homefries:

5-6 Russet Potatoes
1 onion
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Slice onions into thinly sliced rings and cut potatoes into medium slices. Heat oil in an iron skillet and add onions and potatoes. Sprinkle potatoes and onions with salt and pepper and cook until potatoes are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and the onions are nicely caramelized.

To top this delicious meal off, you must add corncakes. They are so good.

2 cups cornmeal
1/4 cup olive oil
¼ cup agave syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Mix 1/4 cup olive oil and cornmeal in a bowl until mixture is crumbly. Add agave syrup and salt and mix until blended. Warm the other 1/4 cup olive oil in an iron skillet and pour batter into two-inch diameter cakes and fry until they brown on the outside. Flip and brown the other side.
Now if you are real country you will put a couple of corn cakes in the bottom of a bowl, top them with homefries and beans and add a little salsa to the top. This is the way my dad eats them. I personally like all of the flavors individually. You don’t have to serve meat to make others feel like they have been part of a down-to-earth homecooked country dinner.
[tags] vegan country cooking food free recipes beans corn potatoes corncakes blog blogs [/tags]

It was definitely an interesting weekend. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was crazy. The good part was seeing my grandparents and aunt’s and uncles. The downside, my poor grandparents were living in filth and we only got about half as much done as we would have liked to in cleaning it. At least my grandmother has enough room now to walk with her walker from her bedroom to her livingroom and is no longer looking at piles of dust filled trash in every corner of the livingroom.

Anyway, let me change the subject to food. It was very difficulty eating vegan on the road. I had my handy-dandy restaurant guide, which, unfortunately wasn’t much help. We stopped at Carl’s Jr. on the way to my grandparents. I thought great! I will get a salad bar and maybe a baked potato. Unfortunately, not every Carl’s Jr. has these items so I ended up eating crisscut fries (the only vegan item on the menu). We picked up dinner at Stater’s Brothers where I was able to get a veggie sandwich. It appeared that they had quite a few vegan options in their deli case, but I was too tired to inquire about everything so I got a side of fruit to go with my sandwich.

The hotel we stayed at (Super stated that they had a continental breakfast in the morning. I thought, well at least I should be able to get fresh fruit for breakfast. I was amazed that they did not have fresh fruit out in the morning. The only items they had were Otis Spunkmeier muffins (definitely not vegan) and raisin bagels. So I opted for the high sugar bagels because at least they didn’t have dairy products. For lunch I went to an old standby, Taco Bell, where I had my favorite, tostada no cheese add guac. And for dinner I went to Olive Garden and had the Capellini Pomodoro and Minestrone Soup. I was happy that the soup didn’t use vegetable broth and the breadsticks use are coated in margarine not butter. Unfortunately, their house salad dressing has cheese which is why I went with the soup.

The next more I got another lovely dry raisin bagel and for lunch had leftover Capellini Pomodoro. Last night we went to Denny’s for dinner and I figured I could have the spaghetti, but Denny’s revised their menu and no longer serve spaghetti as an option. So I went with the boca burger, which was hopefully vegan and the only item on the menu not dripping in animal products.

I am soooooo glad to be home and look forward to making a big healthy salad for dinner tonight. We got our first ripe tomato and a bunch more cucumber today. It is supposed to be 105 outside today so I doubt that I will be cooking much for a day or two. Just lot’s of fresh fruits, salads and veggie sandwiches.

[tags] vegan restaurants food blog blogs eatingout [/tags]

Today will be my last post for a few days. I am going with my dad to my grandparents to help clean out their house. They are both very old and their health is failing. My grandfather has been in longterm care, but will be returning home in a couple of weeks. He still isn’t ambulatory so I we have to move his bed into the living, which is basically cluttered with everything my grandfather has collected over the years, including magazines and newspapers. We will basically be emptying out the whole room, steam cleaning it and then only returning the things that are necessary. It is supposed to be 107 degrees there on Saturday, the day we plan on doing most of the work. They live in the California desert. Thank goodness our hotel has a pool, because I will be utilizing it in the evening. No need for working out this weekend anyway, which btw, I have being doing a great job with. I have walked everyday for at least 45 minutes in the morning and walk for another 30040 minutes in the evenning. In addition, I have been lifting weights again, which feels so darn good. I am loving it.

Did anyone watch Rachel Ray the other night. She was doing a tour of California’s Central Coast. Well that is where I live. I has happy to find out some information that I didn’t know before, such as Buona Tavola uses local, organic fruits and veggies. I haven’t been to Big Sky Cafe in a long time, but need to make a point in doing that again soon. I want to put together a vegan guide to the Central Coast, including vegan friendly wineries (since this is one a several wine areas in California). Unfortunately, this project is not exactly at the top of my list right now.

I am hoping to have time to post a quick recipe tomorrow, but if I don’t I hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

P.S. My hubbie is ultra supportive of my choice to be vegan, my dad lives by the motto live and let live and my brother is his wife are glad to see me eating so healthy and love my recipes. My mom on the other hand is a bit resistant. I think she is afraid that I will be different in other ways and not a true member of the family as a vegan. Thank you everyone for posting your opinions. I will be vegan no matter what anyone says, but I do live across the street from my parents and we have a lot of family gatherings.

P.S.S. So I guess I had more to say than I thought. This week I cooked Vegan Tortilla Soup, one of my all time favorite recipes; barbecued corn and potato; Mediterranean Pizza Sandwiches (this is a must post recipe, because these were so good, may I will make them again next week and take pictures); and spaghetti with Italian Tomato Sauce. Tonight I am having leftovers because I will be busy cleaning up the house and getting ready to go out of town.

[tags] vegan vegetarian food blog blogs [/tags]

Midweek Munchies: What Cindy is contributing for the week I bought some great stuff this week, and even better I actually convinced myself to walk to the grocery store as opposed to wasting gas/energy and help save the environment some. I also remembered my cloth bags this week, which I often forget (I know shame on me!) Tofutti Sour Cream Tofutti Cream Cheese Ortega Jalapenos Corn Potatoes Spaghetti Noodles Tomatoes Organic Tortilla Chips Bananas Frozen Mangos Vegetable Broth Serrano Chilis Fresh Sourdough Bread Extra Virgin Olive Oil Red Onion Yellow Onion Pinto Beans Cilantro Tomato Sauce Veganaise Apple Juice From My Garden Oregano Basil Green Onions Zucchini Squash Banana Peppers Cucumber I wonder if anyone can tell from the ingredients that I bought what I had to eat this week? Links to other Midweek Munchies (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I’ll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for The Vegan Place blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!