It makes me so sad that I haven’t had a lot of time for posting and cooking lately. I am probably only cooking about twice a week lately. This week I made some really good food though. I made Vegan Black Bean Soup on Monday, one of my dh all time favorites, and Tuesday I made Italian Portabella Sandwiches. They were so awesome. I sauteed portabella mushrooms, some orange bellpepper and Herbes de Provence in olive oil and then added basil tomato sauce to it and let the flavors meld together. Then I hollowed out a sour dough bread role and scooped the mushrooms and sauce into the bread cups, topped with vegan mozzarella cheese and toasted in the preheated (400 degree) oven for about 10 minutes. It was definitely heavenly.

This week we also tried Fakin Bacon. I was craving a bacon type flavored sandwich. Though the Fakin Bacon didn’t taste like “bacon” to me, it did taste kind of like barbecue beef. We put on toasted bread with veganaise and it was so good. It just needs a little barbecue sauce and it will be the perfect summertime barbecue sandwich. I have been experimenting more with tofu lately and have been really liking what I taste. Last night I had a blackened tofu burger from New Frontiers (local health food store). It was so good. They put blackened tofu on a vegan whole wheat bun with veganaise, shredded lettuce, shredded carrot, sprouts, and onion. It had kind of a spicy flavor because of the blackened tofu. I could eat that for dinner every night it was so good. I am hoping to have some time in the next week to go blog visiting, because I just haven’t had the time or energy lately. I miss reading about what everyone is up to so much. Hope everyone is healthy and happy and I will visit you all soon.

So I broke down and finally tried the Amy’s Mattar dinner with Daahl. It was absolutely delicious. I have tried over and over again to find good frozen Indian food and have yet to be impressed until trying this dinner. I particularly liked the Da. I could have eaten a whole bowl of that alone. If you like Indian food this is a definite must try.

The next time I go to the health food store I will definitely be picking up some more of these to keep on hand for those hectic days when I don’t have time to cook.

I don’t know how many of you have tried the peanut butter Tofutti Cuties, but they are to die for. The chocolate is so chocolaty and the peanut butter ice cream is perfect and creamy. My whole family is hooked.

Last night I made a new variation of the nachos from the night before. I took most of the same ingredients and put them into a tortilla and made quick and easy homemade burritos. They were delicious, even better then the nachos I think.

Vegetarian Tortillas
Vegetarian Refried Beans
Guacamole
Tofutti Sour Cream
Taco Sauce
Green Onions

Wrap all ingredients up inside the tortillas and enjoy!

I have been doing simple cooking this week while adjusting to the new work schedule. Anything that I can cook in minimal time with maximum leftovers. I plan on doing a big thing of mashed potatoes tonight and make a big pot of Native American beans this week (can easily be converted into burritos and nachos, love the flexibility). Anything that I can cook in bulk and then turn into several dishes is definitely right up my alley.

I have picked up a couple of Amy’s Indian Food frozen dinners, but have been scared to try them, because all of the frozen Indian Food dinners I have tried so far have not been good and I love Indian Food. Nothing is worse then being all excited to try something and having the taste in your mouth and what you get tastes nothing like it and barely edible. Has any tried the Amy’s Indian Food dinners? If so, how were they? If I get brave enough to try them this week I will report back to you all on how they tasted.

It is funny, because I read the other day something about Tofutti cream cheese and Tofutti sour cream having partially hydrogenated oils. Apparently Tofutti cream cheese and sour cream comes in two versions, with or without hydrogenated oils. There was a whole discussion about how the non-hydrogenated version tastes chalky. I thought, Oh my God! I have been consuming partially hydrogenated oil, and I didn’t even know it. Because the Tofutti I eat tastes great, and the comments about how it isn’t very good were many, I just assumed I had been eating the hydrogenated version, based on the discussion. So the next time I went to the store I read the labels, and it turns out that the stores I shop at don’t even carry the hydrogenated version. That being said, I still love the products and don’t think they taste chalky at all, so there is no reason for the hydrogenated version.

I suck at remembering to take pictures of the food I make and last night was no exception. It sucks to, because my nachos were so pretty and tasted so absolutely fabulous. Anyway, here is the recipe and I will post pictures the next time I make them.

Vegan Nachos

1 can vegetarian refried beans
4 green onions chopped
1 cup Tofutti Sour Cream (non-hydrogenated version)
1 cup guacamole
1 cup salsa
1/2 can chopped black olives
4 cups tortilla chips

Heat refried beans on the stove until warm. Line a medium sized baking dish with chips. Cover the chips with refried beans. Top beans with salsa. Top salsa with guacamole. Top guacamole with sour cream. Then top sour cream with onions and olives. That’s eat, quick and easy dinner and oh-so-delicious.

Guacamole

1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup vegannaise
1/2 cup salsa (add more if you like your guacamole spicy).

Mash avocado and mix in vegannaise and salsa. Serve with chips or place on top of your favorite burrito, taco, or nachos.

Well, I have survived my first week of work and am re-adjusting to getting up at 4:45am. Luckily I only work a couple of blocks away from work since I have to be there at 5:30am. I have been making dinner in bulk so that I have nutritious vegan foods to take for lunch. We don’t use microwaves or plastic, so I have to take things that are either good cold (like my cold spaghetti today), or that I can heat in the morning and put in a thermos (like yesterday’s Vegetable Chowder). Thank goodness I still have some leftovers, because that will pretty much cover lunch this week. Tonight I am making vegan nachos. I will post pics and the recipe tomorrow. I am pretty excited about them. I have an idea in my head for how I want them and hope the taste matches what I imagine.

I got a great new vegan cookbook for Christmas. It has a lot of great recipes, many of which use tofu. I have been wanting to try some of the recipes because I don’t usually cook with tofu, mostly because I don’t know what to do with it, so I am psyched about learning how to cook with it. The cookbook is called Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.

Has anybody used any of the recipes from this book? If so what are your favorites? I am looking forward to trying the French Toast and the Tofu scramble.

Also very exciting, I posted about Scheese a couple of months ago and had heard it was now available in the U.S. but couldn’t find it anywhere. Well, I just learned that you can order it through Vegan Essentials. Whole Foods is starting to carry it in very limited cities (Tempe, AZ among just a handful), but only the very lucky will have the opportunity to walk into a store and purchase whenever for now. I am definitely wanting to order some. My son loves cheese and I am hoping that this will get him off of it for good.

Okay, we are about to enter that most busy time of year. For my family, the official shopping season begins the day after Christmas. Though I have put my foot down this year and refuse to go to Walmart. Told mom if she is going, I’ll meet her at Target. I really cannot fathom torturing myself with all of the noise, pushing, shoving, rudeness and crazy rush for the cheapest of the cheap. I will actually be doing quite a bit of shopping online this year. But I do enjoy Target’s toy section. This year, we are wanting to redo my son’s room. He is turning five in January and we want to give him a more grown up room. His room actually turned into everything exactly the opposite of what I wanted, a huge random toyfest that could rival any toystore. From bells and whistles to just downright insane. One day this month, while he is at school I plan on going through his toys and only keeping those things that he truly loves. I am going to buy him a chalkboard table, like the one below for Christmas.

I also plan on getting him some corkboard and a magnetic dry erase board. Between now and his birthday, I am hoping to get his room completely re-organized and redone. I want him to be able to enjoy his room, which he can’t now because it is so severely overrun with toys.

I don’t know if you have been on Amazon lately, but that have a tone of organic bedding on sale right now. This stuff is beyond cheap. I am wanting to pick myself up a pair of sheets because you can’t go wrong with these prices. Check them out:

This organic Jersey sheet set comes in Cream or Blue and is currently only $29.99. Yes, you read right, $29.99 for organic sheets. They are disappearing like hotcakes. Yesterday, when I looked they had a few more colors.

These Spa Life Organic Percale Sheets in Natural are also a great deal $59.98. When I have looked elsewhere for organic sheets they always cost over $100, so I was very excited to come across such great deals.

The other day, when we were in Palo Alto for my dad’s surgery we stopped at a diner for breakfast. I ordered a hash brown skillet with veggies only. They were great about making sure nothing had meat, butter or cheese and it was super delicious. So yesterday for breakfast I decided to make my own version. I grated up some potatoes and cooked them in olive oil making hashbrowns and in a separate skillet I sauteed onion, garlic, mushrooms and broccoli in vegan butter spread. Then I poured the cooked vegetables on top of the hashbrowns. The results, a delicious, savory breakfast that I will be cooking over and over again.

Hope everyone is having a great day and I will chat atcha soon.

I have had the great opportunity to try out some new things lately. Though I have been cooking too much original lately, I have picked up a few items at the health food store. First off, I picked up some Vegan Organic food bars. They are chalked full of healthy vegan proteins and at 300 calories are truly a meal replacement bar for those super busy mornings when you are on the go. I don’t necessary advocate eating these on a daily basis, I still prefer real homemade foods most of the time, but they do use cold processing and are 90 percent raw.

Next up, WHA Guru Chew in Cashew Almond. This is supposed to be a healthy snack bar and only has 170 calories. Honestly, what could be better than maple caramel covered nuts and seeds. These bars taste like a candy bar, but they are so much healthier. I could probably eat a whole box of them, which categorizes them in the dangerous food category for me, so far now I will treat them like candy and only buy one at a time, when I really crave something sweet.

While I was out of town last weekend, I was fortunate enough to stop into Whole Foods market and sample some of their vegan Coconut, chocolate chip cookies. If they hadn’t been labeled vegan and processed sugar-free, I would have sworn that they weren’t. But I checked the ingredients and reassured myself that there weren’t any animal products in them.

Has anyone ever tried Isle of Bute Scheese. This stuff is supposed to be good enough to eat straight and comes in different flavors such as Hickory Smoked and Cheddar with Chive. They were featured in this months VegNews as one of the Editor’s picks. They are a British product, but can now be found in the U.S. The website is scheese.co.uk. They say it is so good that even omni’s can’t tell the difference. If you have tried it please let me know because I am thinking of picking some up for Christmas if I can find it. If anyone knows where to get it in LA please let me know.

Well, this is about all the exciting things I have to say for today. I will chat atcha all soon.

Okay, everyone I am hoping to be back to blogging almost daily, though next Monday and Tuesday I may not get a chance to blog. I have been doing my dad’s job for him this week and next week while he recovers from surgery so that he doesn’t lose any income. I have missed everyone so much. I am really excited to be back to blogging and plan on doing some blog hopping this afternoon to catch up on what everyone has been doing.

Last night we went to New Frontier Health Food Store in San Luis Obispo. I have been there before, but haven’t been overlly impressed, but it appears they have changed things around and gotten in a lot of new (vegan friendly) items. I was most impressed with their deli case, which had several vegan options. I got the blackened grilled tofu (delicious beyond words), sauteed sesame kale (I definitely recommend trying this if you ever find it where you are at). Next we went to their bakery (I always have to take a peak), and low and behold they had several vegan desserts including vegan chocolate cupcakes, vegan lemon poppyseed cake, vegan mocha chocolate cake, vegan apple cranberry cake, and vegan strudels. I resisted the urge to try absolutely everything they had and settled on the vegan mocha chocolate cake. The frosting was heavenly, though the cake was a bit dry. But all in all I have it two thumbs up. I was good and only ate half my piece. I took the other half to my parents to share.

Isn’t that cake beautiful.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is coming up next week. If you are like me, you already have menu planned. This year I will be making vegan green bean casserole, vegan bread stuffing, vegan sweet potato casserole and sour dough rolls. My sister-in-law was very sweet in that she asked what I might like for her to make. She said she wanted to make sure she made things that I could eat and enjoy, so she is working on vegan pie crusts. She also wants to make a spinach pie, that I told I would help collaborate on. She wants to make a nice vegan crust for the outside and I will help her with the spinach filling. I might try my hand at a vegan key lime pie, though I may just save that for Christmas, because it really sounds as if we will have enough rich foods. I will try to take lot’s of pictures of these beautiful dishes, but want to provide you all with the recipes now, in case anyone needed some great ideas for vegan foods.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

3-4 cloves garlic
1 package mushrooms
2 tbsp canola butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cups rice milk
2 cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
4 cans green beans
French fried onions
4-5 potatoes
½ cup rice milk
½ cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp canola butter
½ teaspoon pepper

Cut up potatoes and put in water and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until soft. Mash potatoes add 2 tbsp canola butter, ½ cup vegetable broth, ½ cup rice milk, salt and pepper and mash until smooth. In a iron or stainless steel sauté garlic and mushrooms in canola butter. Add flour and create a rue. Add rice milk, vegetable broth, salt and pepper and cook until the consistency of a cream soup. Open green beans, drain and put in a casserole dish. Add mushroom soup mix and 1 cup French fried onions. Top casserole with mashed potatoes and cook in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes. Top with another cup of French fried onions and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Vegan Bread Stuffing

Bread Cubes
1 package sliced sourdough bread, cut into cubes
¼ cup vegan butter spread

Stuffing
4 tbsp vegan canola butter
1 onion
2 stalks celery
4 cups vegetable broth
All bread cubes
2 sprigs fresh sage, cut up
2 sprigs fresh thyme, cut up
½ tbsp salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ tbsp poultry seasoning

Cut up sliced sourdough bread and let sit out overnight. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt ¼ cup of butter spread in a small saucepan. Brush bread cubes with melted butter spread and place in oven for 15 minutes. Chop onion and celery. In an iron or stainless steel skillet melt 4 tbsp butter and sauté onion and celery until the onions begin to become translucent. Place bread cubes in a large mixing bowl. Add onion and celery and mix in. Add vegetable broth and seasoning and mix lightly to make sure all bread cubes are coated. Place in a casserole dish and into oven for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees.

Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole 

4 large sweet potatoes
¼ cup agave nectar
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup pineapple juice
¼ cup apple juice
2 tbsp canola butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
1 cup chopped unsalted cashews
4 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup maple syrup
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut sweet potatoes into smaller chunks and boil in water until soft. Let sweet potatoes cool and peel. Blend sweet potatoes until smooth with a mixer. Add butter, honey or brown rice syrup, maple syrup, pineapple juice, apple juice, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a skillet heat olive oil. Add chopped cashews and sauté. Add syrup and cinnamon and continue to sauté until cashews begin to caramelize. Top sweet potato casserole with cashews and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here’s my recipe for Spinach Pie, though we will be serving a modified version of this recipe:

Spinach Pie 

2 packages frozen spinach
2 medium onions, cut into slices
1 tbsp Arabic Seven Spice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
10 tbsp olive oil
6 phyllo pastry sheets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put 5 tbsp olive oil in a skillet, heat and add onions. Cook onions briefly for about 1-2 minutes, leaving them slightly crisp. Add spinach, Seven Spice, salt and pepper and cook an additional 2-3 minutes. Put remaining olive oil in a small bowl. Open your phyllo pastry package and lay sheets flat, keeping them all together. Do not pull the phyllo sheets apart. Brush top phyllo sheet with olive oil and place in a glass pie dish. Brush remaining sheets of phyllo one at a time, pulling each sheet off of the remaining sheets only once it has been brushed with olive oil. Immediately fold up remaining phyllo sheets and place in the refrigerator. Spoon spinach mixture on top of the phyllo dough in the pie dish. Wrap the tops of the phyllo dough on top of spinach, closing it up like a pie. Place in the oven and cook about 15-20 minutes, until phyllo begins golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately.

Oh, and I almost forgot, no holiday would be complete without spinach dip. Here is my spinach dip recipe again with a pic to go with it.

1 cup veganaise
2 cups Tofutti sour cream
1 package Knors vegetable soup mix (still looking for a version of this without horrible chemicals)
1 package organic frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 sour dough bread loaf
1 box of triscuits

Mix veganaise, sour cream, vegetable soup mix and spinach together in a bowl, cover and let sit in the refrigerator at least four hours (over night for best results). When ready to serve, hollow out the inside of bread loaf and fill with spinach dip. Serve with bread insides and triscuits.

Here is another great some with some wonderful Thanksgiving recipe options. Check out Thanksgiving isn’t out of reach for vegans.

An interesting note, Joan Jett (for those of us to remember Joan Jett) has paired up with PETA to encourage people not to buy turkey for Christmas. She is a long-time vegetarian and is calling on Butterball hotlines to tell them that their is no good way to cook a tortured turkey. Interesting article, check it out at Joan Jett Talks Turkey on PETA’s Holiday Hotline.

I recently posted a vegan dessert in response to someone looking for vegan desserts on Yahoo!Answers and was chosen as the best answer. I was very excited. You can check it out at Yahoo!Answers.

There is also a great little interview with Joaquin Phoenix that I recently read that I would like to share with you. It talks about one of his first experiences of animal cruelty and how it effected it. It is a short read. Check out Fake Leather Please.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, with minimal stress. I am really looking forward to my very first vegan holiday, starting off my very first vegan holiday season. I may have to try to through a Christmas party with beautiful and elegant appetizers. I have many ideas that I am dying to try out.

Okay all. I know it seems as if I have disappeared from the blogosphere. I have been sick for the past 2 weeks. I started getting sick before my grandfathers funeral and it has progressively gotten worse over the past week since I have been back. I have been having a hard time getting out of bed. I thought I would sit myself upright for a few minutes and post briefly to let you all know that I am still alive. I am finally going to see the doctor today, becasue my body is just not fighting this crud and it is not getting better. I thought I was feeling better on Saturday and went out for a while to take my son to a Halloween fair, but by the time I got back I was running a fever of 103.7. So much for being better. I have mostly laid around and slept for the past 6 days and it sucks.

I know it is a bit late, but if you can find these things at your local health food store, there are some great vegan Halloween treats to pass out to the neighborhood kids. I have found some great articles, providing lot’s of resources. So I would definitely check them out. If they are too late for this year, you can file them away for next year. I wish I had time to go out and get some, but then again I am truly a fan of Hot Tamales and already have a Endangered Species dark chocolate bar set aside for the occasion for myself. Happy reading:

No Tricks, Real Treats for a Non-Dairy and Vegan Halloween

Give out vegan-friendly sweets this Halloween

Milk chocolate fit for a vegan

Vegan Candy List

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

I cannot believe how fast the weeks have been flying by. It blows me away that it is already Wednesday and that Halloween is just around the corner. We have so many things coming up this month. A close family friend just had a baby yesterday, my nephew’s 1st b-day is in a week, my son has a bounce-a-thon for school and we have Halloween and my brother’s 30th b-day. I will be doing a lot of cooking to preserve my veganism.

Anyway, time for MWM and here is what I bought this week:

Midweek Munchies: What Cindy is contributing for the week From the grocery store: Vegetable Broth Rice Milk Mushrooms Potatoes Onions Bananas Frozen Strawberries Frozen Peas Pinto Beans Kidney Beans Salsa Chips Tomato Sauce Flour Peanut Butter Bread EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch Cereal From the Garden: Tomatoes 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 Harmonia’s blog

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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!