pasta lunch....vegan cookbook recipe

This is the 'Hurry Up Alfredo' recipe from Vegan Yum Yum and yummy it is! Get the recipe here . This recipe is definitely more of an alfredo sauce more than a mac n' cheeze type. The family gave their thumbs up. It's so good it's hard to stop eating it! I added some white wine and fresh basil to my sauce. This would be a great hassle free meal to serve for those non-vegan guests, it's so easy and quick to make. Just serve it up with a nice vegetable, baguette and a vegan caesar salad. Wallah! A fabulous meal.

Grilled maple tempeh and Double Broccoli Quinoa

This post is going to be a short and savory one. I know this looks pretty plain but not in taste! I Marinated some tempeh in a maple orange marinade then threw on the grill. While tempeh was marinating I made this delicious Double Broccoli Quinoa from 101 Cookbooks blog. I left out the cream and substituted veggie broth instead. This Broccoli pesto was really, really good you could even use it as a spread or a veggie dip.

Enjoy your beets!

I just used up the last of my beets for this delicious juice. Beets, celery, apples and carrots! My son raved about this one, I think because it was pretty sweet. See it can be sweet without the sugar!

Don't throw out those beet greens, these green leafs are sweet and packed with goodness. Facts about Beet Greens: they contain large amounts of vitamins K and A, along with large amounts of anti-oxidants beta Carotene and Lutein. They are also packed with calcium. So my lunch was loaded with good stuff. Lightly sauteed beet greens, quinoa, fresh grated carrots and walnuts. Dash of salt and herbs.

Pasta for two!

While snacking on some big organic cherry tomatoes I had sitting out, I thought about how I could incorporate them into dinner, besides a salad or eating them all up as they were. My son was eating at a friends house for dinner so that left just my husband and I. Pasta it was!!! Easy prep and clean up. This turned out very tasty and quite frankly you could very well make this for company just use more tomatoes, artichokes and basil.

This how I made this lovely pasta meal for two!

olive oil

6 oz. wheat spaghetti noodles (your choice of course)

5 garlic cloves, chopped ( I like the garlic)

1 pint/small green basket or so cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 jar artichokes

1 bunch of fresh basil, chopped

1/3 -1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup cashew butter (see note how to make)

red pepper flakes

salt

Heat up a medium saute pan then add about 3 tbsp. olive oil. Add garlic cloves and saute until soft. Next add the tomatoes and saute until they are soft. Next add artichokes, stir for about 1 minute and add the white wine. Let the white wine reduce a bit then add the basil and continue to cook. You want it to be a bit saucy, you don't want it to be dry. Next add the cashew butter. This makes it creamy and rich, you can not tell it is cashew butter at all for those of you who have never tried it. You just need to make sure you blend it well into the mixture, you don't want clumps, you may need to use a fork. You can always add more wine and olive oil for more liquid, just eye it. Add salt to taste and red pepper flakes if you choose.

Note: cashew butter

You can purchase cashew butter but I usually make it.

In a food processor add about 1/2 or however much you want of raw cashews.

Turn on the processor and let it run, you may have to scrap the sides a couple of times during this process, until it sticks together and becomes like a spread. Wallah! Cashew butter. Keep what you don't use in a container in the refridge.

Enjoy!

Day trip!

The Monday before school started my husband suggested we get out and take a drive up the coast. So we started out from our town of Solvang and drove to San Luis Obispo and had lunch at Big Sky Cafe . This is one of my favorite places to eat, they have many vegan options and are very friendly and accommodating. My son had the Black Bean Vegetarian Chilli and I had the House Salad and a bowl of Black Eyed Pea Soup. Both were really good! My son loves their Vegetarian Vietnamese Bánh Mì Sandwich and their Traditional New Mexican Pozole soup is very tasty as well.

Before we left San Luis Obispo we had to stop at Sweet Earth Chocolates , per the write up on them from Melisser at The Urban Housewife . They have so many vegan chocolates to choose from. The older lady working their was extremely friendly and explained the history of the company. It smells so yummy when you walk in. They use coconut milk in many of the chocolates, very creamy, and the caramel is so light! The turtle(the large one on the left) has bits of hazelnut, rice crispies, caramel and then chocolate, it's so light tasting. Then you have the carmels above with the swirly chocolate drizzled on top and then the truffles, coconut, almond and espresso. Many more to choose from but we couldn't buy them all now could we. These so far are the best gourmet, if you will, vegan chocolates we've tasted. They are also fair trade which is even better!

Next stop was Cambria and we stopped in at Alloco's Italian Bakery . My husband wanted to stop their to meet the owners who he done some business with but had never met. My son and I had the chance of already meeting this couple and trying these great pretzels called Taralli, an Italian pretzel that they make. These pretzels rock! This bakery is the only one out here in the west coast to make them. So anyways a very sweet older couple run this bakery. My husband got to meet them and we just had to pick up a few bags more of the Taralli. These would be great with a dip or bruschetta sauce at a cocktail party or just to snack on, like we do.

As the day continued we stopped at Hearst Castle, San Simeon but we missed the last tour so we just looked around the musuem part and gift shop. We continued on north to check out the Northern Elephant Seals. The track you see here is by one of the males that just made it to the water, it took him about 10 minutes or so.

Aren't they cute! The males have the trunk, like the elephant, the females don't. There were quite a few seals spread out on the sand. The males are HUGE and they make these burping sounds when they raise themselves up and go at it with another male. I'm bummed cuz I took some video with my camera but it's not letting me download to post it. It was so cool to watch these creatures, it's like watching the Discovery Channel but live. I could've brought a chair and hung out for hours.

This little guy was hanging out and turned around for me to take his picture. lol!

All and all, we had a very nice day together as a family, enjoy the beautiful coastline and see some amazing creatures.