Dreamin' It Vegan

Warm Curry and Sweet Potato Tacos

2012-01-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone is staying nice and warm this winter. It's finally raining out here in California. It's been a cold winter for us so far, so this rain warms it up...a bit. I know for some of you reading this it is summer where you live.

Moving on to some warm and yummy food.

Coconut Vegetable Curry w/Tofu
This is a mild curry but that's only because I had a mild curry powder on hand. The nice thing about curries are that they are pretty versatile. You can find recipes for curries all over the internet. I just read a few recipes and then made my own. I can tell you the ingredients but not sure about how much of each ingredient.
Coconut Vegetable Curry
2 small russet potatoes, white sweet potato, carrots, cauliflower, garlic, white onion, curry, coconut milk, vegetable broth, cilantro(optional), 2 chopped Roma tomatoes.

Sweet Potato Tacos

Let me just say that I LOVE TACOS! It's actually rare for me not to like a taco but Dave and I really enjoyed these. These sweet potato tacos are from Color Me Vegan by Colleen Patrick Goudreau. Another great cookbook from Colleen. I highly recommend her cookbooks along with her website and podcasts. Her podcasts were such a great find when I changed to a plant based diet. She really helped me from the start and opened my eyes to the realities of factory farming, facts about protein, how to respond to people who aren't vegan, etc. I can't say enough about Colleen so check out her podcasts if you haven't already.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Gluten Free Chocolate Lavendar Birthday Cake

2012-01-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

My son just turned 14 yesterday. How the years pass so quickly. We took him to see Sherlock Holmes 2 last night. What a great flick! Just as good if not better than the first. We don't get out to the movies much, but stream it to our t.v. or watch on dvd's. Are there any you have seen recently that you would recommend?

My son plays guitar and so my idea for decorating his birthday cake was to

use the design of his guitar. His guitar is a Schecter Synester Gates, it's black and white and on the neck it has the deathbat(skull with bat wings). In my mind I pictured this amazing looking cake....in the end it looked like this. He said it looked amazing...what a kind child he is. ha ha! Hey the idea was there! I went online to look up more Synester Gate skulls and found the one with the hat, then I added the bat wings. Note to self: buy a book on cake decorating or take a class or two.

Chocolate Lavender Cake with a Chocolate "Buttercream" Filling and topped with a White "Buttercream"Frosting/Chocolate Ganache Design.

I usually make cakes from scratch but I was low on gf flours so I thought I would try a packaged mix. I already had a gf mix in mind so it was on to reading reviews!. End result-Wholesome Chow Chocolate Lavender Cake. Our local health food store was out of the white and chocolate mixes so that's why the choclate lavender was made. The verdict on this cake is 2 thumbs up! The texture is really nice, doesn't fall apart and is moist. The lavender is perfect in this too! When it comes to cost...one cake mix cost about $5.99 and it makes one 9-inch cake. I used 2 6-inch cake pans so I was able to make a layer cake other wise it would have cost me about $12 to make a 9-inch layer cake. So it isn't cheap by any means, although gf mixes aren't cheap. So if you aren't up for making a cake from scratch or just want to keep a mix on hand I highly recommend Wholesome Chow. The reviews on their Gluten Free All Purpose Pancake Mix were really good too. That will be my next purchase.

I tried Bobs Red Mill GF Pizza Crust Mix the other day that tasted really good too! Have any of you tried that before? Are there any favorite GF mixes that you like? I'm not a fan of using garbanzo flour in my baked goods...just thought I'd add that bit in.

Some of you may know that my son, Keaton, has had stomache issues and so after seeing the Naturopathic Doctor last month, she said to eliminate soy then wheat to see which one was the culprit. The elimination of soy didn't change his symptoms, it's looking like it is wheat.

I decided to take Keaton in to see a Naturapathioc Doctor because he was having other health issues and I didn't like what the pediatrician was recommending. Next week is Keaton's one month check up with the Naturopathic Dr. I'll give you more info. about why we went in to see her and how Keaton's health is doing.

Have a wonderful day! It's still sunny out here in California but could we use some rain!

Playing catch up/Heirloom beans/Chanterelles

2012-01-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Woooo! Lots of stuff to talk about. Oh and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great holiday season.

Dave and I got a new mattress set from his parents for Christmas. Huge surprise to us! I can't thank them enough! I guess we had been complaining alot about the sink hole in the middle of our bed. Ha! So our new mattress is a memory foam one with an organic cover. Nice. To tell you the truth I was never a huge fan of the foam when we would go out and test mattresses at the store. Being that this was the type they bought us I decided to have an open mind. It didn't really take too long to get used to sleeping on it. I guess it may be because our old mattress was so old and uncomfortable. If I hop on the bed I don't spring back, at all, I just kind of clunk down on it. It's actually pretty funny. Do any of you have this kind of mattress? I heard it can get kind of warm due to the foam but so far it's been nice and cozy because we don't sleep with our heater on. We are planning on purchasing a cushy layer to set on top and hopefully that will help with any heat issue that may come up during the summer months.

A couple of my girlfriends came up during the holidays for the day and we exchanged gifts.

Cute black/white lunch tote with a lunch container included, bpa free! Then a homemade scarf and 4 bags of heirloom beans!

These beans are Ayocote Morado Beans (Purple Runners)

The place where they were ordered from is called Rancho Gordo. The beans they carry are heirloom beans and the owners are part of the seed saving movement. Not only are many of the beans grown up in the Napa area but they started a project with bean growers in Mexico that grow heirloom beans. By purchasing directly from the farmers in Mexico, Rancho Gordo can offer some beans we would never have been able to try out here in the U.S. and also helping those farmers continue to grow beans that have been around for generations. It's a win win! Check out their story and order some tasty beans!

Rancho Gordo's site says that these beans cook alot quicker because they are fresher. I totally agree on this. I didn't even soak these beans overnight. They plumped right up with a quick soak. Dave, Keaton and I couldn't stop eating them straight out of the pot they were cooked in.

In a pot I sauteed up some onion, garlic, red chili pepper, one tomato and a bit of cumin. I then added water to cover and cooked for about 1 1/2hrs. The juice from these beans came out so flavorful along with the beans.

Chanterelle Tacos

Sauteed Chanterelles

My first Chanterelle was had last winter on top of a pizza at Full of Life Flatbread.

They were so tasty I couldn't wait to buy my own Chanterelles and use them. These have a very earthy flavor to them. We did some reading up on where you can find Chanterelles and now we want to go Chanterelle hunting. lol! If you know anything about these golden earthy gems you know that they are a bit pricey. I usually see them for sale at about $12-$13 per pound. Dave and I hit up the Farmers Market the other night right before they were packing up and we were offered 1 lb for $10! She said they weren't too pretty and many weren't whole but I didn't care. I cleaned these up and used them the next night as a filling for taco's. I had a recipe from last year found in Whole Living Magazine. The recipe is from Heidi Swanson over at 101 Cookbooks. As a note Chanterelles are very moist so you don't need the addition of much oil or Earth Balance. I served these taco's along with the beans I mentioned above. Awesome dinner.

Chanterelle Tacos

by Heidi Swanson

Whole Living, May 2011

adapted by JoLynn(dreaminitvegan)

Serves 4 Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

1 red chile, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Fine-grain sea salt

12 ounces chanterelles

1 1/2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano

8 corn tortillas

Optional-chopped cilantro, taco sauce, or anything else you may want to add.

My advice with these tacos, less is more because of the flavor from the mushrooms.

Directions

1.Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion, chile, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until onions are translucent, 2 to 4 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, over high heat, until mushrooms turn deep golden brown and release their liquid, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle with oregano. Adjust salt if necessary.

2.Toast tortillas over the flame of a gas burner, turning with tongs, until crisp and blackened in spots. (You can also char them in the broiler.) Divide mushroom mixture among tortillas and sprinkle with cilantro.

Hope you enjoy and if you have used Chanterelles, how have you made them? I can't wait to buy more I have some other recipes that I found that look fabulous!

My son Keaton actually got to go Chanterelle hunting with some fellow students from school on their hike club. Mark, the adult who spear heads hike club, takes the kids out once a year mushroom hunting and then his wife cooks them up to enjoy, He said it was alot of fun and the mushrooms were delicious! I wish I could've gone.

One more thing before I go. I won a bottle of Ovega 3 from Urban Vegan over the holidays. This came at a perfect time due to Dave and Keaton needing to take more DHA. Each gel cap has 320mg DHA and a total of 500mg. Omega 3's! Awesome.

Enjoy your weekend!

Colorful holiday foods

2011-12-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

Good day everyone!

My day started off happy and you want to know why?

Dave(my husband) and I drove down the street to our health food store to get a coffee before he went to work. We step up to the counter and lying there is the longest, most delicous smelling loaf of unsliced sweet bread. I told the lady how good it looked and she said that it's a vegan pumpkin chocolate chip bread that was still warm from the oven. My heart just sped up....she had the other gal slice off a piece for me. YUM! I'm saving the other half for Keaton. Then while we were waiting too pay another girl gives us a sample of pumpkin spice cake...Dave asked if it was vegan and she said "yes". My lucky morning! It was soooooo moist. It's not every day that this kind of thing happens for a vegan.

Pumpkin chocolate chip bread

Want to impress your guests with colorful and delicous foods this Christmas and that don't take hours and hours to make? How about....

Quinoa Pilaf (recipe below)

Marinated Pan Grilled Tofu, Roasted Asparagus and Quinoa Pilaf

This was a huge hit with Dave and Keaton.

Two Bean Tempeh Chili with finely chopped kale.

This is a great way to add more greens into your diet. Finely chop your greens and mix into the chili.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta with a kick.

This recipe is adapted from Gluten Free Goddess. You can

take any vegetable really. I used asparagus, roma tomatoes, eggplant, onion and bell pepper. I also eliminated the use of raisins. You can also add finely chopped greens to this as well and no one would know.

Quinoa Pilaf

2 C. vegetable broth

1 C. quinoa, rinsed

1 med. yellow/white onion, diced

1 small bell pepper, diced

1/3 C. parsley, chopped

1/4 C. pinenuts, toasted*

S & P

In a medium saucepan heat up broth and quinoa until boiling. Cover with lid and turn down heat to low. Cook for about 20 min. Once quinoa is cooked take off heat and let sit for about 10min. then fluff with fork. Take off lid and cool down to room temperature.

While quinoa is cooking heat up a heavy pan(I use cast iron) and toast pinenuts. Keep close watch as to not burn. This only takes about 2 min. or so.

In a large pan heat up 1 T. olive oil or broth/water to saute onion. Once the onion is softened add the bell pepper and cook for 2 more minutes. Take off heat and add the quinoa, onion, bell pepper, parsley and pineuts. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Scoop into serving dish.

Marinade for tofu

1/3 C. Olive Oil

1/3 C. lemon juice

1/3 C. Italian parsley

1/3 C. Cilantro

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

In a blender or processer add olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, cilantro, garlic. Blend together. Add in red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.

Slice tofu up and lay in a casserole dish. Pour marinade over and let sit in refrigerator for a couple of hours. Heat up grill pan and spary with olive oil. Grill tofu. Serve with leftover marinade.

I hope this gives you all some ideas. If anything whip it up for dinner one night just for your family.What are your plans for Chrismas dinner?

Until next post. Have a great day!

Feeling warm and toasty...

2011-12-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

I did it again! Not posting for a couple of weeks, bad on me.
I hope you are all staying well and warm. It's quite cold this morning 28 out and our heater didn't want to kick on right away. That's a problem being it was 61 inside.

A quick recap of Thanksgiving. We drove down to my in-laws and spent the night.
I made an amazing pumpkin pie without any soy. My crust even turned out awesome.

This is a pic of it the next day which got a little smashed on the drive.

This is the recipe from Gluten Free Goddess blog you can get it here. I only made the filling for my pie and made just a regular flaky pie crust. One adjustment that I made in the pie filling is that instead of using xanthan gum, because I was out, I used 1 T. spelt flour. If you don't have arrowroot powder you can use tapioca starch /you can use flour instead. The reason for the xanthan and tapioca starch is to thicken it without gluten. Obviously mine isn't gf because of the crust and flour I used in the filling.

Gluten free cornbread without flour? You heard me right. This recipe uses only cornmeal.
I was skeptical at first because I thought it would turn into mush. As you can see it's not mushy at all but fluffy. I've never been a fan of the cakey cornbread. My grandma always made cornbread, corncakes, cornbread stuffing,etc which consisted of lots of cornmeal and less flour. So this was perfect. I found the recipe at
Notes From the Vegan Feast Kitchen by Bryanna. Check out her site for the recipe.
Not only does this tastes great but I couldn't wait to use it in a gf corn stuffing recipe I had been eyeing for sometime.

Gluten Free Corn-Stuffing at Silvie+Maryl. Silvie and Maryl are two sisters that give fabulous info on health, food, etc. This calls for pecans and raisins. I eliminated the raisins but used the pecans that tasted great in this. I'll be making this again next year.

Root Vegetable Soup

Using the vegetables I had on hand to make this delicious and easy soup

Recipe:

1 Large yellow onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 med. butternut squash, chopped

2 Lg. carrots, chopped

1 white sweet potato, chopped

2 small yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 fennel, chopped

1/2 tsp. red pepper

6 cups, vegetable broth

2 tsp. thyme, dried if you have fresh add 1T.

1 1/2 C. cannelini beans or great northern, rinsed

kale, chopped(optional)

Saute yellow onion in 1 T. olive oil or water/broth until soft. Add in the chopped garlic, fennel and red pepper for about 5 or so minutes until soft. Next add the rest of the vegetables and broth. Cook for about 45 min or so until soft. Mix in chopped kale and stir just until wilted. Ladle into bowl with a drizzle of olive oil if you wish.

Now it's on to making our Christmas dinner menu. I'm thinking tamales again or maybe italian? What are your plans for Christmas?

Another holiday meal idea Roasted Root Vegetable Enchiladas with Chipotle Cashew Cream

2011-11-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

Whew! It's that time of year again when we are all figuring out what to make for Thanksgiving.

The other night I made the Roasted Root Vegetable Enchiladas with the Chipotle Cashew Cream from VegNews 2008. Talk about AMAZING! One more Enchilada recipe on my list of favorites.

Don't these look soooo goood? These are some left overs that I packed for Dave's lunch along with Cilantro-Lime Brown Rice which is a favorite of ours.
I know there are those of you who turn your noses at cilantro but we love it. lol!
The recipes for all 3 are down below. You can make everything in advance too.

In some of the parenthesis there I wrote what I used or added to original Enchilada recipe.

Roasted Root Vegtable Enchiladas
VegNews Nov/Dec 2008 issue
Makes 10 Enchiladas

2 1/2 pounds yams, parsnips, and beets, peeled and diced(I used 1 Lg. white sweet potato, 1Lg orange sweet potato(yam) 1 lg. parsnip and 2 garlic cloves chopped)
1 large yellow onion(1 1/2 Lg. onions)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups Chipotle Cashew Cream (see recipe below)
10 corn tortillas
14 ounces mild green or red enchilada sauce(There is a homemade Enchilada sauce below that someone from Daves work gave him that I finally made, it's definitely less costly to make and quite easy)
(I also added a small can of diced green chilis)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, toss vegetables, onion, olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper.

Spread veggies evenly on prepared sheet pan. Roast for 50 minutes, or until soft and lightly browned, flipping mixture after 25 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes and in a large bowl toss roasted veggies with 1 cup of cashew cream. Turn oven down to 350.

In a shallow plate, pour roughly half the enchilada sauce. Dip a tortilla into sauce to coat each side, spread 1/4 cup of roasted veggies into the tortilla, roll up tightly, and place into a 9x13-inch glass baking dish, seam side down. Continue with remaining tortillas, fitting two rows of five enchiladas each.

Pour remaining enchilada sauce over rolled enchiladas, and drizzle with remaining 1/2 cup cashew cream. Bake uncovered for 10 minutes to heat and lightly brown the cashew cream.
(You could also add a white or black bean to this as well)

Chipotle Cashew Cream
Makes 1 1/2 Cups

1 cup raw cashews
1 cup water
1 canned chipotle pepper(I only used about 2 chipotles because it can be extremely hot by adding a whole can. Use your own judgement on this ingredient)
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

In a blender puree all ingredients until smooth.

Cilantro-Lime Brown Rice (I cut this recipe in half because the full amount makes ALOT. This will serve at least 5)
Makes 5 cups
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 cup cilantro, leaves and stems, rinsed and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Zest and juice of two limes
3 cups water
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups long-grain brown rice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a blender puree onion, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, lime zest and juice, and water.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil and rice, and lightly toast for 3-5 minutes. Stir in cilantro mixture. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. When the rice boils, place saucepan into oven and bake for 50 minutes. Remove and let sit covered for 10 minutes. Remove cover and fluff rice with fork before serving. (I like to transfer the mixture into a baking dish with a lid before I bake in the oven).

Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce
This is how you make it:

4-5 Lg garlic cloves, minced
1 T. cumin
Grind if you want this smooth or just stir together until well mixed.

Heat a thin layer of oil to cover entire skillet(this doesn't have to be very thick).
Once heated whisk in a 1 oz. pkg of California Chili Powder(or another mild chili powder).
Then whisk in 2 T. flour. Continue whisking and add in the garlic cumin mix. Next add vegetable broth to create the consistency you desire.
Wallah! A quick and easy enchilada sauce that's alot less expensive than a canned version.

How's your Thankgiving meal ideas coming along?
Next post: Making New Holiday Traditions and GF cornbread and stuffing.

Delicious-Eggplant Rollups & No-Meat Balls (Eat to Live)

2011-11-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

Smell the garlic and onions. Feel the warmth as you step inside your house from the cold weather. Doesn't that sound so nice?

I was so happy to finally check out Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, MD from our library.

Now I need to buy it because I wasn't able to re-check it out due to other holds on it. Bummer!

Dr. Fuhrman writes about the science of how food works in the body and how you should consume as many nutrients as you can in each meal. I was able to make a few recipes which were all very flavorful and packed with veggies. Dave and Keaton really loved all of these recipes too.

Eggplant Rollups

These were more flavorful than the tofu ricotta spinach ones I usually make. Next time I'm doubling the recipe because they were eaten way to quickly.

Towards the end of summer my heirloom tomatoes were abundant so I was able to use them up by making lots of marinara sauce which I used in both of these recipes. Dave actually had his fill of tomatoes because I was using them on a daily basis. Personally I don't think you can eat too many tomatoes.

No-Meat Balls

from Eat to Live

Makes 16-18 balls

1-2 T. water or low or no salt sodium vegetable broth

1/2 C. diced onion

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 C. diced celery

2 T. parsley, minced

1/4 tsp. dried sage

1 tsp.dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 1/2 C. cooked lentils or 1 15 oz. can lentils

1/4 C. cooked brown rice (I needed to use 1/2C.)

2-3 T. tomato paste

1 T. arrowroot powder or whole wheat flour

2 T. Dr Fuhrman's MatoZest or other no-salt seasoning

2 T. nutritional yeast

ground pepper to taste

optional: vital wheat gluten for a chewier consistency

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saute pan heat 1-2 T. water or broth. Add onion and garlic and saute for 5 min or so. Add celery, parsley, sage, basil and oregano. Saute for another 5min. adding more water or broth as needed to prevent sticking.

In mixing bowl combine sauteed vegetables with remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Mash lightly with tomato masher. With wet hands for 2 T. of mixture into a smooth ball. Place on very lightly oiled baking pan and bake for 30-40min. (I used a spray oil for pan and then lightly sprayed the balls).

Serving suggestions: serve with marinara, over pasta or as a sandwich filling.

Have you tried any recipes from Eat to Live? How did you like them?

Have a great weekend and stay warm and dry!

Liebster Award + Quinoa Basil Stir Fry (under $7)

2011-11-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

Previous post: 4 ingredient African Stew for under $8. I hope you all check it out and try it.

I was awarded the Liebster Blog Award by Nuestracena-Vegan Cuisine who is just too sweet.

"Liebster" in German means 'dearest' or 'beloved'. In this case I think it means 'favorite'.

The rules of winning this award are as follows:
1. Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the www!

I get so much from all of your blogs and it's so nice to see the vegan love all around us. Every blog is special but there are always those that stand out to each of us a bit more. The following blogs do that for me.

happyveganface - Jessy always seems to bring a smile to my face when I read her blogs and with her comments too. Along with her wonderful GF recipes.
VegSpinz - she always amazes me with her food art and original recipes
MELOMEALS: $3.33 A DAY - fresh, colorful, nutritious meals for under $3.33.
seitan is my motor - lots of beautiful and original baked goods

Thank you ladies!

Since my last post was a meal under $8 I thought I'd reshare the Quinoa Basil Tofu that cost's under $7 to make. See vegan food doesn't have to cost much.
Have a great day!

4 Ingredient African Stew + birthday cake

2011-11-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Good chilly afternoon everyone! Hope you are all staying toasty and warm. I think we just may put a fire on tonight.

A couple of months ago a co-worker of Dave's invited us over for dinner.

They know Keaton and I are vegan and Dave was told not to worry about the meal that they were making a meal they usually make but with changes to accomadate us. To our surprise the whole meal was vegan.

We had a lovely mixed green salad with fresh berries and a light vinaigrette. Then the main meal was a very delicious...

African Stew with Portobello Mushrooms

We kept talking about how good this meal was I had to get the recipe.

To my surprise there was only 4 ingredients listed in the recipe. 4 ingredients! I couldn't believe it!

You serve this over a nice bed of brown rice and wallah! The key to this recipe is letting it cook over a low heat for a couple of hours to let the tomatoes really melt down and the flavors mingle together. I think this would be a great to make in a crockpot. Sometimes simple is better and this dish is wonderful left alone without any fancy spices. Although it makes a great base for adding other veggies, I still like the simplicity for a change. It makes 4-5 servings. This would be an easy recipe to double for company. It cost's less than $8 to make.

African Stew

by Eulalia

1) 3 large yellow onions chopped and cooked in olive oil or water for about 45min on low heat until soft and start to sweeten.

2) Add 2 16 oz. cans of stewed tomatoes, drained( I like a bit more tomato so I used 1 28 oz can + 1 16 oz. can.- if you can't find stewed just add whole plum tomatoes in a can

3) Add 2 cans of coconut milk(I used lite just because I had it on hand but using regular would give it a bit more thicker consistency and an even richer flavor. The boys loved it with the lite milk just as much)

4) Allow to cook together at least 30 min on low heat.( I found that cooking it for a couple of hours really helped develop the flavors more and cooked the tomatoes better.)Note- as this cooks you want the tomatoes to break down into it so you can use the back of a spoon or something to help do this.

5) Once cooked through add salt and pepper to taste.

6) At this point add mushrooms, tofu or anything else. ( I sauteed 8 oz. of portobellos and 8 oz. cubed firm tofu I broil on low until almost golden). Let cook for about 15 or more minute until ready to serve.

Let me know how you like it!

This was my Halloween Birtthday cake I made for myself. Chocolate cake, chocolate rice mellow creme filling, thin layer of white frosting and topped with chocolate ganache. The ghosts are made with rice mellow creme. I found a recipe at Annie's Eats for a marshmallow filling and adjusted it to a vegan recipe. My go to chocolate cake recipe is down below.

Moosewood Chocolate Cake
(double the recipe for layer cake)

adapted by dreaminitvegan

- 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 c. oil + 1/4 c. apple sauce/canned pumpkin.(The original recipe calls for 1/2 c. oil but I found it's more moist using apple sauce or pumpkin. Added perk, less fat)
- 1 cup brewed coffee, cooled down
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and sugar into an big bowl.
In a separate bowl,mix the oil, water or coffee and vanilla.
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix the batter just until incorporated.

When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir only until the vinegar is evenly distributed into the batter.

Transfer the batter into an 8/9 inch round pan... or two if you doubled the recipe.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until cake tester/ toothpick comes out clean or the top springs back when touched. Cool completely.

Rice Mellow Fluff Creme

1 cup Earth Balance

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

7½ oz. Rice Mellow Creme

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat together the Earth Balance and confectioners sugar. Then add in rice mellow creme and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and fluffy.
This is so nice and light in between the layers of cake.

This is my first time using Rice Mellow Creme. Have you used it before?

Creepy Fingers! BOOOOOOOWAHHHHHHH!

2011-10-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

It's that time a year again when all things scary come out! Boo!

This is such a fun time a year, I love seeing all of the original costumes people come up with. I especially love all of the scary movies playing all month long. The classic black and white monster movies are my favorite, but then again I love all of those classic movies. Getting back to the old monster movies , I really love to watch them all. The music and the way they acted were just so cool. Some of my favorite black and white monster flicks are Nosferatu(1922), White Zombie(1932), Vincent Price movies, Bela Lugosi's Dracula,and Frankenstein to name a few. The other day I watched for the first time Curse of the Demon(1957)with Dana Andrews, the demon in it was pretty silly but for back then these were scary movies. Then there is the Uninvited, A Ghost Story with Ray Milland. The list goes on and on and I'll watch them all plus so many in between then and now. Carrie with Sissy Spacek....great one. Then there is the fabulous movie...The Shining with Jack Nicholson, even Dave will watch this one and he does not like scary movies AT ALL

Oh and how can I forget The Nightmare Before Christmas! Tim Burton movies rock! I even have The Nightmare Before Christams mug that a friend got me a few years ago and a couple of t-shirts. Wear them every Halloween, the t-shirts that is. Then there is Casper and Hocus Pocus which bring back memories of the first time my son Keaton and I watched them together,then every year after.
What are your favorite Scary/Horror movies if you are into them?

Yesterday Keaton attended his last Halloween dance in middle school..(tears).

I made these Spooky Fingers.

These were alot of fun to make and you make them plain or gory like I did. Although I think some of the kids were leary because they were more on the gory side. I found the recipe a couple of different place but the one that shows how to roll the dough is here. These would be fun to make with kids.

SPOOKY FINGERS

by Novel Eats

adapted by dreaminitvegan

•1 cup vegan butter, softened

•1 cup Earth Balance or other vegan butter (I believe Earth Balance makes for better baking)
•1 cup vegan confectioners’ sugar

•1.5 tsp Ener-G egg replacer with 2T. water, whisked together

•1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

•1 T. soymilk or other non-dariy milk

•2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

•1 teaspoon baking powder

•1 teaspoon salt

•3/4 cup whole, blanched almonds or pumpkin seeds.

Combine the vegan butter, sugar, egg replacer, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer.

OnceAs it is mixing gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt
Once your dough is well mixed, refrigerate it for 30 minutes. This will make the dough easier to handle when you are shaping the witches fingers.

Just before you take the dough out of the refrigerator, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the dough from your refrigerator, and using a teaspoon or tablespoon scoop a heaping spoonful onto a piece of wax paper. Use the wax paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie
Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail.

Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance
Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets, being sure to give each cookie a little space so that they do not bake into each other.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 18-20 min. or until the cookies are slightly golden in color.

Tips: Rolling the dough on the thinner side will give you more cookies and since they do puff up quite a bit while baking.

Optional Gore: After you have allowed your cookies to cool, remove the almond from the end of each cookie. Squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel (not all decorating gels are vegan, so be sure to check the ingredients). I melted chocolate and spread it on the back side of the cookie to give a nice contrast in taste. Then I dabbed some chocolate under the almond(it helps the almond stay on better) added some red gel then pressed the almond back on. I stuck the fingers in crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, so having the chocolate under the almond kind of looks like they are dirty. Yuck! You can also add some green tint to the dough to make them look like Witches fingers. So many ideas!

Let me know if you have made these before or if you do.
Have a fun weekend everyone! Stay safe and don't drink and dirve if you are going to a party.

Next Post will be my Halloween B-day cake that I make for myself each year.

Pet Food

2011-10-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Wow I've just been slacking in my posts these last few months.
Hello all I hope you are having a good autumn day. It's been quite cold and foggy these past couple of mornings. We are pretty lucky it clears up mid morning to a beautiful sunny day.

Just when I think I'm starting to deal with controlling my emotions regarding the loss of our dog Cleo we receive a cremation certificate from Oak Hills Memorial Pet Care.  It brought up all of my emotions again but at least I know she was treated with care. I'd like to share with you a bit of what the card said.
"You may be assured that your beloved pet Cleo was treated with dignity and consideration during our special process. We have placed your pet's cremains beneath a stand of great trees in a serene country setting." I feel now I can truly move on knowing she is at peace and was taken care of.

Regarding pet food, I've always tried to feed my animals the best food while not breaking the bank. When Cleo got cancer I took another look at her food.   Researching all of the sites on canine cancer I found when it came to feeding dogs with cancer they all mention getting off store bought pet food and making your own.
Hmmmm....it sounds like with humans, fresh whole foods are just healthier. It totally makes sense!

The first dried biscuit for dogs was processed in 1860, right after World War II bagged and canned pet food became popular in the U.S. because it was more economical.  Before that time dogs ate table scraps, vegetables etc.  You can read about the history of commercial dog food all over the internet or at   History of Dog Food  Like with people, the more processed food you eat the unhealthier you become. Also the more organic ingredients the better as well.

If you can't feed your pet a completely fresh diet try to feed a higher quality kibble then add fresh veggies to it like I've been doing. You can mix all kinds of veggies, omega oils, etc. Wheat, corn and soy are the biggest allergens for dogs. Wheat especially is not good for dogs. Sweet potatoes are alot better than white potatoes which are real starchy.

This is a mix of kale, swiss chard, carrots, peas, quinoa and a bit of barley. Ace loves this stuff!

Some of the research I've done has been on finding companies that also use organic ingredients. I've e-mailed quite a few regarding their ingredients. I'm surprised to find that Halo the one Ellen Degeneres recommends, doesn't use hormone free chicken or eggs from small farms.  There are a couple of companies that carry dehydrated food which is made using very low heat but enough to kill pathogens. Here are a couple of those- Dr. Harvey's you would add a protein to it. Alicia Silverstone has been feeding her dogs for years using this food and for a protein she adds lentils, beans or tofu to it and her dogs are healthy as can be. You need to add an omega oil to this food as well as l-creatine and taurine if no meat is used. Then there is The Honest Kitchen , one of their food items is all veg. This food is alot pricer especially if you have a bigger dog like our 80lb Ace dog. Carna4 is a newer line of baked kibble from Canada. They had a great response when I emailed them regarding where their chicken came from. They say they choose the freshest like they do for themselves. You can truly see that the owners care about their pets. Now while I'm vegan I don't believe in factory farming but most of the meat in dog foods come from factory farms. So when even buying a kibble that has some meat in it I prefer organic ingredients. Petguard Organic Pet Food is good and they have a vegetarian option as well.

Amongst my research I found that Natura Pet food brand which includes EVO, Innova, California Natural and Karma( 90% organic)was bought out to Proctor and Gamble. Here is a company that was supposedly a high quality pet food yet they sell out to a company like Proctor and Gamble. It's also interesting that there was a class action lawsuit against them filed regarding their claims regarding the description of their dog food.  It's always good to research a pet food before you purchase.  I also don't get the addition of cottage cheese in some of these dog foods because just like people alot of dogs can have an allergy or be lactose intolerant. Milk is for babies is what I say. If you feel you want to give your pet yogurt because it contains probiotics then add a capsule or two of probiotics.

All in all when it comes to your pets, fresher is better. If you have a question regarding a product e-mail the company they always reply rather quickly.
What do you feed your dogs?

Saying goodbye to a furry loved one

2011-09-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I'm back. Dave and Keaton keep asking if I've been blogging and I said I haven't been. The reason? I Just haven't wanted to post about our dog Cleo and I knew that would be the first thing I'd have to do.

Our dog Cleo was put down to sleep last month. She was only 8 yrs old. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma(bone cancer) only a month before and it was very aggressive. It was so hard to see her go and I don't ever want to make the decision to put a dog down again. She picked us, our son, when she was a puppy and that made her even more special to us. She was such a joy and brought so much happiness to our home and to those who came over to visit. Cleo was so vocal, looking out of Keaton's bedroom window barking at passer by's or animals, greeting Dave when he would get home from work or whining because she wanted us to pet her. All of those things we now miss. Even until the end she still had a wag in her tail. We will miss her each and every day. We are lucky to have Ace dog during this time of change in our family, but his personality is just so different than Cleo's.

She'll always be our (Queen) Cleopatra.

R.I.P. Cleopatra Teabag Blues 5/1/03-8/31/11

When I first found out about her cancer the first thing I thought of was...What did I do wrong? Then I started doing research on canine cancer. I was also finally able to track down the couple who own Cleo's dad, they also kept one of her siblings. They told me that Cleo's mother died from cancer 3 years ago which would put her at about 8/9years old. The pup they kept and another sibling has tumors starting to grow but they are not cancerous. Another sibling has hind leg issues. The rest so far are healthy like the father who is still alive at age 13. So it seems that the mother passed on some unhealthy genes but like humans I do believe in diet and disease.

I then started researching more about dog food. I already try to feed them the best kibble but even at that I'm always on the lookout for something better. . What I have found out is that the more fresh a dog's food is the healthier it is for them. Like us humans, eating cereal and processed foods only....we are not going to be the healthiest. When we eat fresh foods that's when our health is optimal. Dogs are the same. The first dry dog treat was invented in the 1800's than after WWII dry kibble became popular because it was less expensive. Feeding our animals human grade food or fresh food rather than a kibble just makes more sense but it does come with a price tag. My goal is to slowly add more fresh food into the diet of Ace than hopefully completely change over. I'll let you know of a couple of good pet food companies I've found in my research next post.

Until then...which I promise will be sooner than later.

Perfect Summer Grilled Dinner & Cleo dog

2011-08-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

I hope you are all having a great summer. We've pretty much just been hanging out. We got some bad news regarding our lab Cleo a few weeks ago. She has osteosarcoma(bone disease) and it's progressing pretty fast. Her xray showed her shoulder bone is mothlike all the way through..she only has a very thin solid strip of bone on her front right leg. Sooooooooo....only option is to keep her comfortable and keep her pain under control as much as possible. We are taking it day by day. Lot's of emotions flowing...Keaton has taken to sleeping on the floor so Cleo can sleep with him. It's hard to watch your kid go through something like this while Dave and I are so sad as well. Sorry, this is really hard for me to write right about right now so I'll let you know more soon.

Keaton playing video game with Cleo

Cleo, Ace and Merlin on a sleeping bag one evening.

I'd like to share with you a really good Tofu Lasagna that is from the Martha Stewart mag. that I made last night on the grill. I was wanting to make this for months now and I finally got to. I was so excited at how the finished product turned out and tasted....like so excited!!!

It has grilled zucchini, crookneck squash, tofu, basil, pesto and tomatoes.. Yum, yum, yum!

We ate this with some Rustic Wheat Bread and Grilled Artichokes.

It isn't heavy which is really nice. Just perfect!

I made Dave a sandwich with the leftovers for lunch today.

I highly recommend making this...It's just so pretty too. Get thie recipe by clicking here. The marinade it says to make...well I actually used that on the vegetables before grilling. They have a slight lemony taste which is so refreshing.

More good food to come. I've been so slacking with my blog lately but I have been cooking and have pics to share.

Peace....

Furry Birthdays, GF-pasta and salads...lot's of pic's!

2011-07-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

July we have a couple of our furry family birthdays we celebrate. 1st up is Merlin, he is 16 this month! He

is still a pretty active cat for his age, like last night, he was very noisy running around and wanting in then out. Errrrr! He has thinned out quite a bit and is more verbal now. If you come over for a visit and the dogs try to get all of your attention, well you will hear Merlin loud and clear, while he jumps onto the couch to say "I'm here too"!

Next up is Ace who just turned 2 on the 2nd. He just wants all of the love, is quiet and loves to try to crawl onto your lap.

We took a drive the other day and ended up in Cambria. We had to pick up some of our favorite Italilian pretzels, Taralli, from Allocco's Italian bakery. The owners are so friendly. On the way home it started getting cold, especially sitting in the back of a Jeep, so Keaton shared a blanket with Ace.

Dave and I walk back to the Jeep from picking up some burritos and we see Ace with this sweatshirt on and Keaton giggling. Quite funny.

For lunch the other day I had leftover whole wheat pasta noodles and added broccoli, red bell pepper, garlic, drizzled with olive oil and lemon.

For Keaton I made Vegan Yum Yum's "Hurry Up Alfredo" sauce and added Gf pasta noodles and a side of broccoli.

Yesterday I went with a friend to our Farmers Market. It is so busy now with wonderful colors of vegetables, flowers and the smell of all of the fruit! I know all of you out there love the Farmers Market too.

I was so happy to see Santa Barbara Picstachio Company there. These are my favorite pistachio's and the flavored ones have a nice and light flavor, slightly salted and they are organic. You won't find a crusty coated pistacio that's loaded with salt here. These are just perfect and you can order online too! If you purchase some let me know what you think!

I picked up some lovely golden beets at the Market too. I roasted some with olive oil and sea salt.

Once they were done I sliced them up and added them to a salad with red lettuce, kale,spinach and pecans. A good way to sneak in dark leafy greens is to chop them up in small pieces and then add them. I then drizzled a mixture of Blood Orange Balsmic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, agave syrup(you can use maple syrup or honey) salt and pepper to tastse. I saw a salad like this in The Flying Apron's Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Cookbook. The dressing called for regular balsamic.

I'm looking forward to trying the bread recipe's from theis cookbook. Alot of the recipes call for garbanzo flour which I don't like to use in sweets so I'll be subbing in different flours for those.

For lunch I had lightly sauteed swiss chard, with garlic, yellow bell peppers drizzled with a tahini sauce.

Last but not least you can never have too many gf chocolate chip cookie recipes. I found this recipe from from Eat, drink & Be Vegan

These are soft and yummy! I of course cut down on the sugar from the recipe and only added 2 T. of sugar and for the flours I used 1/2 C. Sorghum flour, 1/4 millet and 1 T. buckwheat flour.

Do you have a favorite GF chocolate chip recipe?

Summer grub if you dare turn on your oven...

2011-07-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Howdy all! Summer has hit California in full swing. Basically it's been...HOT! We don't have air conditioning in our home but at least we have ceiling fans in every room. Luckily it cools down at night so we can sleep comfortably.

How are all of you dealing with the heat in your area?

Since it's been quite hot I haven't been using our oven but if you are, here are couple of recipes that are summer worthy.

Stacked Sweet Corn, Bean and Tempeh Casserole

The original recipe for this casserole was found in Better Homes and Garden magazine. I was eyeing this recipe for quite a while before I made it. Now that corn is in season it's perfect...you can always use frozen though. Dave and Keaton loved this meal and it's so easy to make. Click here for the original recipe. Listed below are the items I used in replacement of animal products.

I used:

Soyrizo instead of chorizo

8 oz. tempeh (you could use veggie crumbles as well) vs. beef

chili verde sauce vs chunky green salsa (I couldn't find chunky green salsa)

Daiya cheddar vs. dairy cheese

I then topped it off with fresh cilantro and tomatoes. Isn't it pretty?

Next time I'm going to try using some Daiya pepperjack cheese. If you haven't tried that flavor yet it is better than the cheddar...that's what we think anyways.

Blackberry Galette

(Pre baked pic)

(Baked)

For the crust you can use your favorite pie crust. Then in a mixing bowl add the berries,

sugar, a couple of Tbsp. organic cornstarch or flour to thicken while it bakes. Bake in oven at 375 degrees until berries are cooked and crust just starts to turn a light brown. This will take about 40 min.

Stay cool and enjoy!

Spring rolls...so easy!

2011-06-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Our laptop is back and working wonderfully!

How's everyone's summer going? We are really having a nice one.

My son, Keaton, left last week to spend time with his grandparents. He comes back home on Thursday.

Oh how we miss him! In the mean time with him being gone Dave and I have been able to hang out together which is really nice. We spent one day at Avila Beach. Saturday I spent the day with a friend at the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice...everyone was so nice and check this out...One of the food vendors there was Strictly Vegan Jamaican Cuisine. They were very busy which was great to see. I had the wrap with Jerk Gardein strips. The wraps are loaded with vegetables and not too much gardein which I really liked. They top it off with a mango type salsa and serve with chunks of plantain. Yum! It was fun people watching too. Sat. night Dave and I went out to the brewery in town, listened to good music and ate the best sweet potato fries..ever! They were crispy and crunchy, due to just enough sea salt. Oh and of course we had us some beer! Good times.

Now that we are having warm weather I've been cooking alot lighter.

I finally made spring rolls. I don't know why it took me so long because they are so easy to make.

Softened rice paper wraps are filled with marinated and grilled tofu, a mixture of julienned vegetables...red bell pepper, carrots, scallions, daikon, cucumber, cilantro and pea shoots. These vegetables were first julienned, put in a bowl, then mixed with a lime marinade.The marinade consists of lime juice, liquid aminos(coconut aminos, soy sauce or tamari), ginger, agave, sesame oil.

These are served with a side of peanut sauce. In a blender add organic peanut butter, ginger, garlic, braggs liquid aminos, cilantro, red onion, lime juice, sesame oil, a dash of sriracha hot sauce and water to thin out. With the leftover sauce you can use on noodles and such.

Have you made spring rolls before? If so what do you like to put in them?\

Enjoy your sunny day!

Cuckoo for Coconuts!

2011-06-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a short post due to laptop issues. We are going to be sending it in for repairs. Errrhhh!

I've been whipping up some tasty coconut treats lately.

Coconut Macademia Cookies dipped in Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350.

Step 1) Beat together until fluffy-
1/2 C. Earth Balance
3/4 C. Powdered Sugar
Step.2) Next beat in-
1 Egg replacer(I use Ener-G and follow directions on box for equivalent for 1 egg)
11/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (coconut extract would be a nice addition to these if you have it)
2 T. coconut milk or non-dairy milk(don't use a low-fat milk)
Step 3) Mix in sifted
1 3/4 Spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
Step 4) Stir in
1 C. Shredded Coconut
1/4 C. choped Macademia Nuts

For dipping cookies into chocolate melt about 1/2 C. semi sweet chips

Use a small scooper or a tablespoon drop onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10-11min.
To make sure the cookies are done, the bottoms should be slightly brown but not the tops.
Cool on cooling rack before dipping in chocolate.

These would be great with white chocolate mixed into the batter .

Coconut Lime Cupcakes from VCTOTW.
Coconut milk just makes everything so much more moist. These were so delicious!

What are some of your coconut treats?

My computer almost froze up on me. I'll be back next week, hopefully.

GF-Strawberry Muffins and GF-Spinach Pasta w/grilled Artichokes

2011-05-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day today and also one to thank all those vets who have served our country and those men and women that are still doing so today. Most of us know someone who has put their lives on the line. My husband's second cousin who is 23yrs old who just finished up Army boot camp is on his way to Afghanistan. We are thinking of him today and hoping he stays out of harms way. While I have my own feelings on war I will not get into that.

Now I'll move on to the food! How does GF-Strawberry Muffins sound?

This is pre-baked, obviously. I like to use the Vanilla Gluten Freedom Cupcakes from VCTOW...

but with some changes.

I originally was going to frost these but they turned out more like a muffin...or so I thought. These would make a great breakfast muffin. These came out really light and airy.

The changes I made were...

eliminating the almond extract/decreased the sugar to 1/2 c.

1/3 C. millet flour instead of corn flour

1/2 C. sorghum flour instead of quinoa flour

1 C. chopped fresh strawberries added at the end....fold in gently until well combined.

Next up...dinner.

Spinach Pasta with Cilantro Pesto and Grilled Artichokes

This recipe was taken from Veganomicon but I used GF-spinach pasta and I used fresh artichokes. Since artichokes are now in season I used them and then grilling them really made the dish more fresh tasting. The cilantro pesto that has basil in it is really nice too. This also tastes good cold the next day.

Are there any other ways you all use fresh artichokes? Anyone have a vegan stuffed artichoke recipe? I'm trying to come up with one.

Enjoy your day!

Farmers Market Goodies

2011-05-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

Farmers market is starting to have an abundance of spring veggies and fruits. Also beautiful flowers! I can't help myself, I just can't pass up the gerbera daisies, so many colors to choose from! What are some of the things you can't pass up at the Farmers Market

and more....

Fava beans anyone? My goal is to try things I've never tried before and the fava bean is one of them.

With all of the recipes I've seen using fava beans I decided to grill them. First I washed, dried and put them in a bowl. I drizzled some olive oil, coarse salt, pepper, cilantro and a squeeze of lemon. It doesn't take long to grill them about 6 or 7 minutes, flipping them once as they grill.. What was the verdict on tasting the finished product? Not bad, not my favorite, but not bad. They remind me of lima beans, which I don't like and never have, but better. I don't know if I'll buy them again but I would eat them if someone had them.

Butter Romaine lettuce that looks like a flower when I opened it to drain the water out. This has such a nice flavor.

Pea shoots and dried garbanzo beans are also finds at the market.

Chopped up romaine, tomatoes, green onion, bok choy, garbanzos, pea shoots with ginger miso dressing drizzled on top!

More goodness to come!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

A happy Mother's Day to all of you mother's out there!

Keaton is in 7th grade and still making homemade crafts for me. This saying is too cute!

"Roses are red, Violets are blue, You're the greatest mom ever, And I love your vegan cooking too"

I'm so proud to be a vegan mom!

Dogs, treats and quinoa stuffed peppers

2011-05-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

This month of May is starting off beautifully!

This past weekend was a busy one for us. My in-laws and grandmother-in-law came up last Thursday and stayed until Sunday. Friday was grandparents day/Greek Festival at Keaton's school. Then on Saturday we celebrated my in-laws 45th wedding anniversary. We took them to see Keaton's guitar teacher's band play and then had some friends drive up to surprise them and stay over to celebrate with us. They were truly surprised so that worked out perfectly!!! Then on Sunday we all went to breakfast then everyone went home. The house was so quiet after that.

Since it was so beautiful out and I didn't want to laze around inside the 3 of us headed up to Cold Springs Tavern to listen to some live music and have a drink. We ended up meeting a Russian couple along with their son and it ends up the husband is the bass player for a popular Russian band called Mumiy Troll. Of course when we got home we had to look that band up on line. lol! They were really nice people and love it here in America.

Oh and Cleo turned 8 on May 1st as well. I don't know how the rope toy got around her neck but she didn't seem to mind it.

Yesterday when I went to pick up Cleo's dog food I found these cool doggy snacks.

Dehydrated sweet potato. At least it takes them a few minutes to chew these up instead of one or two crunches then they're gone.

Alter Eco Pacific white and red quinoa. This is before it was cooked.

I mixed the white quinoa with the red and look how pretty this is. This is after it was cooked.

A few weeks ago I saw Cheryl Crow on a morning show along with a Chef that she made a cookbook with. The recipe they showed was one for Quinoa Stuffed Pablano Peppers.

When they are cooked and plated it's so pretty. What I liked about this recipe is that it's a really light meal do to using quinoa instead of rice. So it is perfect for Spring or Summer. This is probably the first time I followed a recipe exactly, well pretty much. lol! It was kind of on the bland side I think because there is no salt used. I ended up adding just a bit of salt because I felt it needed it and next time I would adjust the seasonings and kick up the heat. Oh and I didn't use any type of cheese on top.

I loved the Romesco Sauce but it needed a bit more heat and a bit of salt as well. I didn't want the leftover sauce to go to waste so I was using it on everything from wraps to veggie "sushi" rolls. I'll definitely make this sauce again

You can find the recipe for this dish by clicking here.

It's Spring!

2011-04-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day today! Everywhere you look there are orange poppies popping up In our yard, in our neighbors yards, on the side of the roads, on the moutains. They are so pretty! I love the Spring.

One of my favorite flowers is the Sweet Pea.

They are so fragrant. I put some on my nightstand.

As you can see Merlin is enjoying the weather and flowers as well. Although he is laying under the bird feeder!

Cleo and Ace trying to look for trouble.

Peaches! Our one peach tree is loaded with peaches this year. I can't wait until they are ripe.

If you are looking for a yummy hot cereal that's gluten free try Cream of Buckwheat.

This is Keaton's new favorite and I've gone through 3 boxes already within a very short period of time. The brand we are buying is Pocono %100 Organic Cream of Buckwheat. It has a very mellow flavor nothing like the taste of buckwheat flour at all.

This is the buckwheat cooked.

For dessert last night I made some vanilla cupcakes from VCTOW. Made some vanilla pudding. Sliced up some strawberries and melted some chocolate with a bit of non-dairy milk. Then I put it all together to get this!

Yumminess!

Enjoy your beautiful day.

Moving forward....

2011-04-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hi ya'll! I want to thank all of you for your kind words in regards to the loss of my father, they meant alot to me. I'll always have some wonderful memories of him to cherish. This whole experience has reminded me to enjoy every minute with my family/ friends and let them know how much they are appreciated and loved because life can change in an instant.

Moving forward...we've added an addition to our family for the time being.

Ace dog and Keaton

When my sister said she was moving back to CA. and couldn't take her dog, I offered to take him. I just didn't want to see another dog taken to a shelter. The problem here is that I didn't really discuss this with Dave and on top of it when Ace was brought to us I found out he wasn't neutered or updated on his shots. Uhhhhhhhh what was my sister thinking! Anyways with these unforseen costs I looked around to find a place that would help with costs for neutering a pitbull and found one. It's called DAWG and they will even update his shots. So we are on the list and waiting for the call when we can take him in.

He is the sweetest dog! He instantly fit right in with Cleo and Merlin kitty. He is a love bug, friendly and very submissive. He loves everyone. He's actually been so good for our dog Cleo, who is almost 8yrs old, she's getting alot more exercise now. He wins the hearts of all upon meeting him. Can we keep him when all is said and done? I hope so. Dave still wasn't planning on the addition so we will see but he does dig the dog and getting attached to him as well. If all else we want the best life for him in a happy loving home. I'll keep you posted.

Cleo and Ace

Where's the food? Here's my favorite snack below

Kale Chips Cheezy style

I've posted these before and you can find the recipe here. This time I only used
1/2 C. soaked cashews
3 T. tahini
3 T. lemon juice or more for a thinner sauce
1 Tomato
1 red bell pepper
dash of salt
Blend together in food processor. Pour onto kale leaves. Lay kale leaves on a baking sheet put into an oven at 200 with the door left open for about 4 hours. I turn the baking sheet half way through and also flip the kale leaves over as well.

In loving memory...

2011-03-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Unexpected things happen everyday and there is just no preparing for it.

In loving memory of my dad, John-1937-2011, who unexpectedly but peacefully passed away during his afternoon nap.

He was one of the most selfless, kind, giving and loving people I knew. He loved people, was very social and he loved animals too.

So many memories. Breakfast was his favorite meal and the waitresses at the coffee shop loved him. I remember as a kid going to breakfast with him and the employees would say "Hi John!" then he would go help himself to coffee. I remember when he worked graveyard hours and in the morning when we'd wake up for school there would be cat food in the garage for the stray cats( my mom never did dig that scene.) Our love of animals came from our dad. I remember one time he ran into a fast food restaurant and bought a meal for a homeless man, I'm sure there were many more he did the same for. There have been people my mom never knew about just calling or showing up at the house with stories about how kind my dad was and how much they enoyed the many conversations and/or visits my dad had with them. After all of these years my mom is just finding out how truly wonderful and caring my dad really was.

There are so many more memories I have, just to much to share.

I will miss him always.

GF Double Chocolate Chip Fudge Brownies

2011-03-01T12:08:00.000-08:00

Happy March to you all! So I didn't post much last month. Hey it was a short month. lol! Really though I got a stomache flu and intestinal something that just got me down. Yesterday was actually the first day I was able to eat somewhat of a full meal. Anyways I haven't really been on the computer much. I'm back now!

It's been so cold here on the California Central Coast/Valley, we are just not used to it being in the 50's day after day. Burrrrrrr!

It snowed up on our mountain a week ago so we took a drive up to enjoy for a bit. We brought Cleo for her first snow trip. She loved it!

I love my camera!

Of course Cleo found water.

This tree just looks cool.

Drive back down the mountain.

GF Double Chocolate Chip Fudge Brownies

My first attempt at making GF brownies and the result...amazing!!! They are so so good. I think I may even go to the extreme and say "perfect". Seriously that's how yummy these are. They are a bit crispy-crunchy on the corners and fudgy inside, just the way I like my brownies. Right now I'm not going to share the recipe because I didn't write it down..hmmm my bad. I'm pretty sure I have the measurements right in my head but I'm going to make these one more time to be sure. I may even have a giveaway for these. I'll keep you posted.

Stay warm!

V-day dinner and a homemade donut coconut dessert

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

Good day to you! It's raining again which is lovely. For a while there we were experiencing Spring like conditions which was wonderful for working outside. Now it's back to being inside for a while.

For our Valentine's dinner I let my son choose the dinner menu.

Emerils Tofu with Mushroom Ragu

served on mashed potatoes.

This may look fancy and taste it as well but it's so easy and quick to make.

Mine actually looks more colorful than Emeril's but it's because I used a whole carrot intead of half of one. For the mushroom mixture I used shitake and cremini. This also tastes wonderful using seitan, which is what I used the first time I made this meal. I'd also like to mention that not all tofu is created equal, my favorite is Nasoya Organic Extra Firm Tofu which has a wonderful texture and taste.

Beckmen Grenache

Dave brought home a bottle of Beckmen Grenache, that I had mentioned in a previous post, to enjoy with dinner. Beckman rose and red wines are vegan even though it doesn't say it on the bottle. They also use biodynamic farming practices.

I was trying to come up with something different for our Valentine's dessert and donuts came to mind. I remember using the donut recipe from Vegan Yum Yum years ago and how much Keaton and I loved them. How the wonderful memories came back when they were baking in the oven. The smell was incredible!

You must make these! These are light and not too sweet. These are even better than the ones you would buy at a donut shop. I don't have a donut pan so I used a cupcake pan and then stuck some decorating tips in the middle to give them the hole in the middle. Once cooled I poured melted chocolate on them then put in the refrigerator to harden. This is also very quick to make. To finish off the dessert...

I used a scoop of coconut bliss on top of the donut. This is my favorite coconut frozen dessert because it's so creamy, light and slightly sweet. As you can tell I don't like things that are too sugary sweet.

The donut and Coconut Bliss was then drizzled with homemade chocolate and caramel sauce.

This was another way that I served up this dessert. This looks really rich and sweet but it's acutally not.

As a Valentine for Keaton I got him 2 bars of Newman's Own Organic Chocolate. The one bar that is open is a Dark Chocolate Orange flavor. He loves them and me too!hee hee.

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Vegan Valentine's Day to all of you!

Since I didn't make any sugar cookies for Dave and Keaton over the winter holidays I went a head and made a batch for Valentine'sDay. Click here for this perfect sugar cookie. It is a bit chewy and soft on the inside and just a bit crisp on the outside. If you like a crispier cookie roll it out thinner and cook a bit longer.
Some of the cookies I made into a sandwich style and filled with a raspberry tofutti cream cheese like filling and a chocolate filling. The Chocolate "Buttercream" Frosting I used is so tasty and it's not loaded with margarine and sugar. This amazing recipe is from Ricki at Diet, Dessert and Dogs and you really must try it to believe how good it is. The only change I made to the recipe is that I used cocoa powder instead of carob powder and I added about 1/3C. of organic powdered sugar.

Speaking of love...I'm so in love with this salad! Dave and I had this for lunch one day so I added the tofu just to make it a bit more filling. The ingredients are bok choy, romaine, edamame, carrots, cucumber, and the noodle and dressing mixture is taken from Gramma's Bok Choy recipe. Then drizzle with sesame oil. In regards to the dressing for this, the recipe calls for quite alot of sugar that's really unnecessary especially if you use a different vinegar. For instance I used a Green Apple Ginger Golden Balsamic Vinegar(whoosh... take a breath) from Global Gardens, which is already on the sweet side. You can also sweeten the dressing with other sweeteners if you choose. For more of a slaw salad you can slice the bok choy and lettuce thinner and use more dressing. Yum this is so good! Oh and go ahead and add some chunks of avocado and shredded nori on top which is also delicious!

Dave, Keaton and I are staying in tonight. Keaton picked the meal for me to make and I'm making a little something for dessert. Hopefully it will rain and we can enjoy our evening by the fire watching a movie and/or playing a game.

Enjoy your Valentine's with your sweetie and/or sweetie's!

Oh and remember to share the love with all of our animals.

XOXOXO to my Cleo dog and Merlin kittty!

Don't eat it/eat it

2011-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

Confused by my title? So am I. Lol!

They say to eat something because it's good for you but at the same time it's bad for you.

It was brought to my attention this past weekend that on a certain t.v. show, it was mentioned that you should eat Gouda cheese because there is something in it that can help prevent cancer. I went online to check it out and it's vit. K2. You can get K2 in a vitamin, my vitamins have K2 in them. K2 is also made from the bacteria living in our own digestive track. Of course our soil has been depleted of so many vitamins and minerals that we do need to supplement a bit even if we are eating whole foods. Going back to the Gouda thing, it is dairy and dairy consumption is linked to a variety of health problems and cancer. Last I heard eating lots of vegetables, fruit and exercise helps to prevent cancer.

Then you have the mercury and DHA issue. Last year on that same show they were saying how mercury is poisonous to the body and no mercury is good for you. At the same time they are telling you to consume fish(most fish/shellfish contain mercury) for the DHA. Do I really have to consume mercury to get DHA? Personally I think consuming mercury to get DHA would defeat the purpose. I'll get my DHA elsewhere, from algae like the fish do. Why don't they tell people about getting DHA that way?

Then there are those people that take what they hear from the t.v. or radio and apply it to their lives before reading and doing research on their own to back up what they hear. Always do your research first.

Spices and herbs are great for you too. Ginger, tumeric, oregano, etc. are all wonderful for you and when you add these wonderful spices to your food or diet that's great! I see plenty of people that take the time to add these things but continue to consume foods that have no fiber, are high in saturated fat and cholesterol.. They are on medications and continue to have the same health problems because they aren't eliminating bad foods from their diet. I guess what I'm saying is there is no one food or magic pill to prevent disease. It's about our complete diet that helps prevent disease. If people would just eat more of a plant based wholefoods diet they would be building a better, stronger machine to fight against disease.

Food is thy medicine!!!

On that note.

Below is a beautiful pic of a yummy meal we had recently.

Tofu Picatta with shitake mushrooms, served along with gf pasta and broccolini. The picatta recipe I always use is from VCON because it's the best!

Enjoy your day!

Soup Soup and More Soup!

2011-01-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Where shall I start? First off while I'm typing this blog I'm enjoying a nice glass of Beckman Grenache. The Beckman's use biodynamic farming. Also their red and Grenache wines are vegan! So pick up a nice bottle of Beckman wine(if you are a wine drinker) or come visit me and I'll drive you on over to their winery. hee hee.

I'm now going to get down to business! At the beginning of the New Year I made 3 soups that I want to share with you because they are delicious, low in fat and quick to make.

Curry Corn Soup with Spicy Chile-Ginger Sauce

I wasn't sure how these flavors would all work but WOW did it work. The chili-ginger sauce was really nice and Dave made a comment about how he really liked it. It's a nice take on a corn soup and I found it in the DeliciousLiving magazine. The only changes I made was that I used olive oil instead of coconut oil and veggie broth instead of the water and bouillon.

Next up is....

A very simple Creamy Broccoli-White Bean Soup from Whole Living Magazine.

This soup was so quick to make which was nice for a change. It's even better that the family liked it.

It's so easy to make it vegan too, you just use veggie broth and leave out the parmesan.

Now for my new favorite soup....

New Year Noodle Soup

(Check out how cool this pic is with my new camera. So close and clear!)

Seriously my new favorite soup. I just made more chickpeas today and I think I just may be whipping up this soup again this week.

I saw this recipe at 101 Cookbooks blog and it comes from a cook book called Saraban-A Cooks Journey Through Persia. When reading the ingredients list for this recipe you wiill probably be thinking about how these flavors work toghether. They just do!

Just checking in.

2011-01-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I miss all of you! I'm still here. I've tried to finally write a post but something is going on and everything I wrote didn't save. Frustrating. I'll be posting soon. Hope all is well.

The panini maker is out of hibernation and butternut squash phyllo rolls

2011-01-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

The decorations are put away, the lights are down and the kid is back in school as of yesterday. Another new year to make a fresh start.

So the family is going to go on a light detox, if you will, starting Monday. No caffeine, alcohol(I'll miss you red wine),sugar, wheat, peanuts, bottled juice or soy for at least a week. We'll take it one week at a time but I am going to keep the added sugar at bay for a while. I do have to mention though that we do have dinner plans with another couple next weekend but we are going to a flatbread place that has wonderful salads and light flatbread pizza so we'll try to keep it light and then go right back to it the day after.

I do think that the spring/summer time is easier for detoxing just because there are more vegetables and fruits available so.....we may do better then.

Are any of you out there going to detox?

I know New Years Eve has past but we decided to have a party for it this year. We took our panini maker out of hibernation and let everyone make there own panini's. So glad we did, it was a hit of the party! Dave grilled a bunch of vegetables on the bbq and vegan mozzarella. Since there were quite a few non-veg peeps Dave grilled some animal meat that came from his boss that raises grass fed cows. Not my thing obviously but at least we weren't serving up antibiotics and added hormones to our friends. Moving on we also had a few different mustards, pesto and sundried tomato pesto to spread on the bread.

We had so much food with everyone bringing an appetizer. Speaking of appetizers check the picture below.

Butternut Squash Phyllo Rolls

Okay these wonderful gems I made quite a few years ago and everyone loved them. Well I received the same reaction this time. People would bite in and say "oh these are so good, what's in them?" I would start off saying butternut squash, onion, etc. Then they would say that it tasted like there was some type of cheese in them but they couldn't place what type and then they would look at me because they know I'm vegan and don't use dairy cheese. That's when I had to say that there is tofu in them, but it's a tofu mixed with some other ingredients that makes a sauce. The sauce actually tastes alot better when mixed into the butternut squash mixture. So anyhoo if you want to make a delicious appetizer that everyone will love make these!

Butternut Squash, Corn, and Cilantro Phyllo Rolls

taken from the Real Food Daily cookbook

by Ann Gentry

Makes 24 rolls

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups finely chopped onions
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 3/4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded,
and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup julienned peeled carrots
1 cup very thinly sliced green cabbage
1 cup yellow corn kernels (about 2 ears of corn)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup Tofu Ricotta Cheese (recipe follows)
8 frozen whole wheat phyllo pastry sheets, thawed
1/2 cup canola oil(I used Earth Balance)

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and garlic and saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent.

Add the squash and carrots, and saute 25 minutes longer, or until the squash and carrots are crisp-tender.
Add the cabbage and corn, and saute for 4 minutes, or until the cabbage wilts and the liquid evaporates (the mixture should he thick and chunky at this point). tir in the cilantro and salt. Cool to room temperature and stir in the cheese.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large, heavy baking sheet with parchment paper.

Unroll the phyllo sheets on a dry flat surface. Carefully remove 1 phyllo sheet and lay it on a work surface (keep the remaining phyllo covered with plastic wrap and a damp kitchen towel). Brush the phyllo sheet with some of the canola oil. Cut the phyllo sheet crosswise into three 4-inch-wide strips. Place 2 generous tablespoons of the butternut squash mixture on one short end of each phyllo strip. Working with phyllo strip at a time, roll up the phyllo to enclose the squash mixture, folding in the sides as for a burrito. and brushing the edge with more oil to seal. Transfer the rolls to the prepared baking sheet, seam side down, and brush the tops with more oil. Repeat with the remaining phyllo sheets, oil, and butternut squash mixture, Forming 24 rolls total.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, then arrange the rolls on a platter and serve warm.

To make ahead: stored in an airtight container, the uncooked rolls will keep for 1 week in the freezer. To bake, place the frozen rolls on a baking sheet (do not thaw them) and bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

TOFU RICOTTA CHEESE

Makes 3 cups

14 ounces water-packed firm tofu, drained
2/3 cup yellow miso
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
5 large cloves garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. The cheese will keep for 2 days, covered and refrigerated.

New Camera!!!

2010-12-29T21:07:00.000-08:00

My Christmas gift from Dave and Keaton this year was a Canon EOS! I was completely surprised and it was so unexpected. I guess they feel my food pic's aren't up to par. lol! Anyways it was such a wonderful gift from them. My in-laws got me a long distance lense. I'm so so happy! No more blurred photo's unless I want them to be.

Keaton's friend's mother made us some vegan treats this year. What a pleasant surprise and very thoughtful they were to make these for us.

Fudge (this was so good I had way to much)

This will be my go to recipe for fudge. I'll have to post the recipe later.

Spiced Pecans

This is a butternut squash lasagna that I had been wanting to make. The recipe is taken from

Giada De Laurentis but of course made vegan. It was really good and really easy to make. There were supposed to be more layers but there wasn't enough sauce or butternut squash. Next time I will double those two things. I didn't have enough basil so I added in some sage. As for the vegan ingredients I used Earth Balance and daiya mozzerella. I would make this for company in a heart beat.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun New Years Eve. We are having some friends over for New Years and I hope the appetizers I have planned turn out.

Until 2011!

Have a very merry Chirstmas!

2010-12-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

Warmest wishes to all of you! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas spending time with family and friends.

Our dinner menu has changed. Dave ordered tamales and I made vegan ones the other night so our menu now will be tamales, rice, beans, tortillas and a big salad. For dessert I'm going to make a flan from VCON. Of course there will be plenty of cookies and caramels to munch on.

Speaking of cookies I can't leave you without a recipe now can I? If you love ginger, molasses and chocolate than these cookies are for you. They are so soft and chewy....yum! Keaton and I love these. I've been making them for years now. I found them on the Martha Stewart website years ago and the only ingredient change needed to make them vegan is to sub Earth Balance for the butter. Cool eh?

Chewy Chocolate gGinger Cookies

by Martha Stewart

Ingredients
Makes 2 dozen

•7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
•1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
•1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
•1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Directions

1.Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate

•Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

•In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

•In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.

•Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chewy Ginger Cookies, Rumnog Cookies and Caramels for Keaton's friends families.

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Caramels

2010-12-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

It's definitely the holidays. Cold, rainy, beautiful lights, cinnamon, ginger and pine! I hope everyone is well and staying nice and toasty warm.

So Christmas is a few days away. Do you have your menu planned? Dave is going to grill outside, since he is cooking animal meat for his side of the family. My plans for the rest of the menu is to make a butternut squash lasagna, grilled stuffed portobello mushrooms, roasted root veggies, some kind of greens, rolls, and a green salad. Oh and today I'm going to try and make tamales. Let's hope they turn out. Fingers crossed!

I made these packages full of goodies for Keaton's teachers this year. Rumnog cookies fromVCON that I highly recommend, caramels and mocha caramels.

Caramel

Mocha Caramels

These were my first attempt at making caramels. It does take some time to make these. It takes about 55min or so to cook on the stove while you have to stir often. Cutting and wrapping the caramels were the most time consuming but they are worth it.

I was messing around with some extra caramel and made a pecan turtles.

Happy baking and candy making. Keep those ovens on to keep yourselves warm. If you are in Australia then you might want to be sitting in a pool eating a popsicle. lol!

I'll be back with the results from my tamales before Christmas!

Back tracking and pineapple guava

2010-12-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! I guess I really took a bit of a break from blogging after MoFo! Not on purpose mind you, I've just been busy with Christmas stuff and all that.

Here is our Merlin kitty in between Keaton and his laptop. He is such a lap cat and cuddler.

Have you ever heard of a pineapple guava? These gems I spotted at the farm the other day. We had the worker cut one open for us and said we could even eat the skins. They taste better without the skins but they are edible. These are not a hybrid either, like we first thought. They do have a pineapple taste to them. Hmmm could be why they call them pineapple guava....duh!

Yum! I love trying new foods.

Here's a tempeh salad sandwich on GF bread from Sami's Bakery. I still can't get over how good this bread is. I even took a couple of slices to the vegan gal who works at our local health food store to try.

I'm going to start my baking and or candy making for gifts. Last year I gave the teachers baked goods and they loved them. Yummy posts soon to come. What are you baking or cooking up for gifts this year?

Keep warm and toasty this weekend!

Last day of Vegan MoFo 2010! Frosty Stew and Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-12-01T00:03:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the night of MoFo 2010!

I'm pushing the time here because it's almost midnight.

It's been fun and a bit stressful at the same time to try and blog everyday. I'm bummed that I had some hiccups regarding computer/internet issues during the month. I really enjoyed visiting more blogs and seeing all of the talented vegan cooks and bakers out there in blogland. There are a plethera of recipes I want to make and I figure if I make all of them I'll never have to make another meal more than once! lol!

Thanks to all of you who have visited my blog and kept me going by your comments. Until next year of Vegan MoFo...keep on bloggin'.

Here's a cookbook I bought when my son was born, 12 years ago. I made most of his food...yes it took some time but I just felt better doing it. I also wanted my son to have more of an open palate and to enjoy all kinds of foods or shall I say...flavors. This is a vegetarian cookbook, I wasn't vegan back then, but my son loved the recipes. I even enjoyed them too. Which brings me to tell you why I'm talking about this book. I remembered making a really good stew from this book(it's been years) so I decided to make it for Dave's birthday tonight. It's called Frosty Stew and it has all kinds of root vegetables, dark ale(for depth) and bouquet garni for the herbs. This would even be good with tempeh in it.

Next time I will not chop the veggies up so much, I don't know what I was thinking, but it turned out really good. I actually had other plans for this stew but it didn't work out so I'll save it for some other time.

A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally by Fran Costigan
from the Book Publishing Company. This is a great book for everyone to have. Fran Costigan teaches at the Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC. Looking through the book I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies and they looked perfect. They hardly have any additional fat in them besides the peanut butter. Dave loves peanut butter cookies and well I just don't ever make them so.....for his birthday I did.

They turned out a bit crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Just perfect! Now I have to try to find a GF version for Keaton. Hmmm?

Enjoy your night!

I know it's a bit late but... Thanksgiving grub!

2010-11-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Howdy everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving out here in the U.S.A. and for those of you in other parts of the world...I hope you had a great weekend.
I'm so bummed that I haven't been able to blog. We've had our internet and land line down since last Wednesday. We've switched to cable but when the technician came on Friday and then left, our internet was freezing up. Last night we spoke with a friend who is a computer guy and he told us what to do. So here we are...Monday the 29th!

Moving forward we had a really nice Thanksgiving down at my in-laws. My brother came out from AZ with my nephew. We met up with some friends we haven't seen in a while for dinner the night before. Good times!

Some ingredients used for the meal and dessert.

Vegetable Succotash

This is kind of like succotash but it doesn't have any lima beans in it. My brother-in-law that passed away quite a few years ago, this was his favorite veggie dish I made, so whenever I make this it's in honor of him. We miss you Zig! My mother-in-law was very happy that I was making dish this year. The ingredients are: red and yellow bell pepper, yellow onion, chopped garlic, sage(use fresh if you have it), fresh corn, zucchini, yellow squash, olive oil, salt and pepper. You just heat up some olive oil, add garlic for about a minute. Then if you have fresh sage add that and saute for about 30sec, if you have dried rubbed sage add later. Add the veggies and cook until cooked but not mushy. Season with salt and pepper. The sage is what totally makes this dish!

Trader Joe's Cranberry Sauce(L), Veggie Succatash(bottom), Mashed Potatoes w/brocolli(right),
Field Roast-Celebration Roast(top) with Golden Gravy.

The potatoes were made by my sister-in-law and she just diveded half and left out the butter and cheese. The golden gravy recipe I use is from The Real Food Daily Cookbook. The Celebration Roast from Field Roast is so juicy, it's really really good! We also had sweet potatoes and a green salad.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

This years pumpkin cheesecake was thicker and lighter due to using silken tofu. You can forgo the silken tofu and sub in more non-dairy cream cheese if you want a richer more dense cheesecake but we loved the taste of this version. It's almost mousse like.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350.

2 paks graham crackers(there are 3 in a box)

1/4 C. organic sugar

1/3 C. Earth Balance

1/2 C. pecans, crushed

In a food processer pulse the pecans until crushed(don't process into fine powder)then pour in a bowl.

Next add graham crackers into processer and pulse until fine crumbs. Add the sugar and Earth balance until combined then add the pecan back in and completely process together.

In a cheesecake pan pour graham cracker mixture into it and pack down. Bake in oven for about 7 min.

Take out and cool down. Once cooled down wrap aluminum foil around the bottom because you will be baking the cheesecake in a water bath and you don't want water seeping into the cheesecake due to the cheesecake pan.

Filling:

2 8oz. containers of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese or any other non-dairy cream cheese

1 12oz. pak silken tofu, firm

1 15 oz. can organic pumpkin

1 C. organic sugar

1/2 C. organic brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3 T. cornstarch or arrowroot
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves

In a food processor(blends better) or hand mixer, blend together Tofutti and silken tofu until smoothe. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until all of the ingredients are thoroughly blended together and smooth.

Pour filling on top of graham cracker crust.

You will need a baking sheet or something that has at least a 2 inch lip.

Put baking sheet into oven then put cheesecake pan into the middle of the baking sheet. Add boiling or very hot tap water into the baking pan so the water goes up almost 1-inch up the side of the cheesecake pan. The reason for the water is that it keeps the cheesecake from cracking. Bake for 45-50min. Until cheesecake is set in the middle.

Once cheesecake is done let cool down to room temperature until putting into the refrigerator. Chill at least 4 hours but it's better the longer it is refrigerated.

I will be posting tomorrow. It's my husbands b-day tomorrow so I'll be making something special.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-11-25T08:54:00.000-08:00

My internet went down the other day so that's why there was no post. Then we traveled yesterday to mee with the family sooooo.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the day with your family. Can't wait to see all the delicious food
everyone had and shared with family and friends.

Vegan MoFo day 22/Chickpea Patties and pumpkin bundt cake

2010-11-22T23:48:00.000-08:00

Is everyone staying warm and toasty? Whew it's been cold. We just got a 24hr notice from the weatherman that we need to cover our plants because Tuesday night it's going to dip into the 20's. Okay it's California people and here that is coooooold!

The other night I made some chickpea patties. They turned out quite tasty too I might add.

Keaton liked them served this way on a tortilla with mustard, lettuce, tomato and avocado. I need to find the recipe I wrote down as I was making these before I post it.

This small bundt cake is made using the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe from VCTOW.

A light glaze would be perfect over this.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for a few items I need for some Thanksgiving recipes.

Are you all prepared for Thursday?

Vegan Mofo days 20 &21/ Vacation trip part 2

2010-11-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

So I missed a day of blogging for MoFo and I'm so bummed about it. I was so busy Sat. morning with trying to get everything packed and ready to go for our overnight trip that I didn't have time to sit down at all. We went to visit a friend we haven't seen in a while so......

Anyhoo I'm back and on to share more of our summer vacation trip on the northern coast of California.

Farmers Market in Arcata one morning. Yes it's summer and it was a cooler summer out here in CA. Up in that area they said most of the summer was overcast like this.

We spotted this tamale and salsa booth.

Vegan tamales were a score and ever so tasty.

This was really cool to see...raw juice at Farmers Market...very cool.

This handsome speciman was spotted on our way to Fern Canyon. Isn't he beautiful!

The trees were just so huge and amazing.

We ate dinner one night at Humboldt Brews and they had a good selection of vegan choices.

These aren't very good pictures but I had the falafel that came with sweet potato fries. Check out all of the veggies on top of the falafel.

Another pic of falafel. Keaton had the grilled portobello but I forgot to take a photo of it.
Check out the menu by clicking above on Humboldt Brews. They even had tofu as an option.

I'll share more photo's of the redwoods in future posts with more on food as well.
So tired....
Have a nice night. Back tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo Day 19/ Sami's Bakery-GF sourdough bread

2010-11-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

Per Jessy at HappyVeganFace I ordered some great tasting GF-Bread. It's from Sami's Bakery.
You have to try it if you can only eat GF-bread.

Yes that's right. Sourdough!

You have to place a minimum order of $25 but that's okay for us cuz I'm just going to freeze the rest. I ordered a couple of loaves of sourdough, the millet & flax bread and lavash. Keaton loved it and I'm so happy he did. We finally found a vegan GF bread that isn't heavy, dense and chewy. YAY!\

Enjoy your night!

MoFo day 18/ Pumpkin Scones

2010-11-18T22:04:00.000-08:00

Good evening everyone! Whooo...I'm barely making the post for day18!

I made 2 pumpkin desserts but I'm only posting one right now. These are pumpkin scones with a cinnamon glaze. They turned out more on the moist side, you know not as dry as most scones, kind of cake like and really light.

Pumpkin Scones w/Cinnamon Glaze

serves 8

2 C + 1/4 C. spelt flour(if using white flour use 2C +1T. flour)

1 T. baking powder

1/2 Tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 C. pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. sugar

1 T. molasses

7 T. Earth Balance

3 T. full fat soy milk or non-dairy cream

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices.

In another bowl blend together pumpkin puree, vanilla, molasses, earth balance, soy milk & apple cider.

Blend in the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until completely combined. The dough will be more wet than dry.

Flour hands and take the dough out of the bowl and place on baking sheet. Form the dough into a 7-inch circle or so and then take a knife and cut through making 8 slices, but keep it in the circle.

Place in oven and bake for about 20min.

Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes just to slightly cool. Than take your knife again and gently cut through each piece and place on a cooling rack to completely cool.

Once scones are cool you can glaze.

To make the glaze use about 1 C. of powdered sugar, cinnamon and non-dairy milk until you get the desired consistancy to drizzle over each scone.

Vegan MoFo day 17/Better late than never

2010-11-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

Not much in the way of food today. We went on a new hike, Farmers Market, than picked up our dinner at Santa Ynez Burrito. They have really good burritos, I had the grilled veggie burrito. The food is all organic which makes it even better.

So this vacation post is really long over due. I mean it's November and we took our vacation at the end of August. We traveled up to the Giant Redwoods in Northern California. It was so beautiful! Instead of posting about some of the first places we ate on our way up north I'm going to start with the best meal of our trip and the most exciting one. Just so you know this was one vacation that there was plenty of vegan options all over the place. A vegans dream! Just how it should be everywhere you go.

My husband's friend's daughter(did you get that?) and her husband, bought this Japanese sushi restaurant a few years back in Eureka, CA. When he found out we were going to vacation up that way he told us to go have dinner at their restaurant. It's called Kyoto Japanese Restaruant. We heard that it's best to make reservations because they are always crazy crowded. I'm glad we did. It's not a very big place but they are in the process of expanding...again. So we get there and let Jenni know, the owner who is so nice, that Keaton and I are vegan. She said it was no problem and that almost everything on the menu could be made vegan. Keaton and I smiled. Yippy jump for joy!

This is the miso soup for starters. Yum!

When you walk into the restaurant there is this big white board with the daily specials. It was amazing how many daily specials there were on top of what was listed on the menu.

Mushroom Veggie Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Jenni's recommendation was the stuffed squashed blossoms on the daily menu that were filled with crab but she spoke with the chef and he stuffed them with mushrooms and veggies and the batter was rice flour instead of egg. I have to tell you these were absolutely exquisite! I can't say enough about them or describe them any more but let me tell you at just one bite, my mouth was very happy! Seriously I could of eaten a whole plate full and would have been satisfied but I still had more food to eat.

This was a cold apple salad with a light veganaise dressing and almonds. Keaton didn't really care for it but Dave and I did.

Avocado Rolls and Tofu Tempura Rolls

Keaton ordered the tofu dinner and he said it was really good. It came with tempura tofu rectangles(front right), rice, a savory cake like rice cake thingy(sorry I forget what it was but it's in the top right corner), ginger salad(top left), carrot slaw and sliced ginger.

Dave had a non-vegan dinner so I didn't take a picture of that.

If you are ever up on the coast of Northern California you must stop and eat at Kyoto Japanese Restaurant!

More vacation posts with vegan food to come.

Vegan MoFo day#16/Pasta Della California-Veganomican

2010-11-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

We've been getting some of the best avocados from the Farmers Market, I mean just perfect! They are also still so inexpensive right now that we keep a good amount in the house for salads and sandwiches.

With the weather being a bit warmer and having arugula and broccoli in the refrigerator I knew what I was going to make for dinner. Pasta Della California from Veganomicon is one of our favorites. The first time I made this I was skeptical about having warm avocados with pasta but the results were amazing! Dave called me up yesterday and asked what the dinner menu was and when I told him, he was very very happy. If you haven't tried this yet you must, I promise you'll love it. My mouth is watering again just wishing I had some leftovers to eat.

Aren't these pomegranates beautiful! My mother-in-law gave us about 6 when we went down to

there this past Saturday night to watch Pierce College play football. My father-in-law is a football coach for them. So anyways, she says it's too much work to take the seeds out. This is the deal, it's easier to take the time and just seed them all at once and to put in a bowl and store in refrigerator. They don't last long in our place and will probably be gone tomorrow. Fill a big bowl of water, place in the sink and cut in half. Then you just break and seed them in the water so there is no juice spurting out everywhere. The result is tasty and great for you pomegranate seeds. No added sugar and no concentrate, just pure crunchy with a burst of juice right in your mouth.

Until tomorrow!

Vegan MoFo day 15/ Warmer weather calls for some grilling!

2010-11-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

First let me start off by saying I'm the winner of a Trader Joe's gift card!!! Woohoo! They just called me and thanked me for bringing in my bag and told me the giftcard will be waiting for me. It's funny the last trip to TJ's my husband Dave asked me when I was going to win cuz I've been filling out those slips for many many years now. YAY!

A heart sliced beet. That just shows how good beets are for you. I usually juice beets but once in a while I roast them in the oven. I also love the taste of beet greens, do you? If you never have used them give them a try and let me know what you think. They don't last long in the refrigerator only a couple of days or so.

Recently I've been finding that I'm not alone in craving salads again. I think it's the warmer weather we are having. Fall salads are actually really yummy using seasonal veggies. I grilled a large white sweet potato, russet potatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, asparagus, carrots and beets. I used the balsamic dressing from the other night to drizzle on top. Served on the side of the salad are stuffed portobello mushrooms. These mushrooms are so flippen good and is a great recipe to make for company. The recipe is from the Candle Cafe but of course I make my adjustments. To cut down on oil for the sauteeing of the onions and garlic I use water. I add more garlic, cuz garlic is good, and more onion. The rest of the ingredients are bread crumbs, sage, thyme, spinach and walnuts. I don't use a measuring cup I just eye it.

Goodnight!

Vegan Mofo#14/ Gingerbread Biscotti & Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

2010-11-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

Another warm day out here in California. Beautiful!

Just the other night I made a couple of Biscotti recipes. I love Biscotti, always have, always will. I love the slightly sweet taste and the big crunch. I'm not much into dunking my biscotti but my Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti does very well in the dunking area.

Gingerbread Biscotti

So this gingerbread biscotti recipe is taken from the biscotti recipe in Veganomicon. I did make some changes due to I wanted less fat and less sugar. A true biscotti isn't very sweet like a chocolate chip cookie for instance. I usually cut down on the sugar in recipes because it seems like they are always just too sweet.
The following are the changes I made to the recipe and it still came out crispy crunchy!
1/2 C. sugar(instead of 3/4 C.)
1/3 C. oil (instead of 1/2 C.)
1/4 tsp salt(instead of 1/2tsp)
added 2 T. molasses
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
The only thing missing was vegan white chocolate drizzled on top. I have to order vegan white chocolate and I keep forgetting to.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

This combo is so delicious and the looks remind me of Christmas in a cookie. I didn't have the time but I wanted to dunk half into dark chocolate, but you could add chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate into the mix if you wish. These are definitely ones to dunk into coffee or tea. They are more crunchy and drier which I like. I so loved how these turned out. Keaton doesn't like biscotti so I didn't try to make them gluten free but I would still like to try it out. So if you come up with a great GF biscotti let me know. Jessy?

A while back I checked out the Millenium Cookbook and got a great biscotti recipe that didn't have any oil in the recipe but I can't seem to find the recipe soooooo. I went to Fat Free Kitchen blog and found her gingerbread biscotti recipe and just added changes to it.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

2 cups white organic flour(note below)
1/2 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer
4 T.water
4 T. Hemp Milk(divided)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 C. dried cranberries
1/2 C. pistachios

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl whisk the Ener-G egg replacer with the water and 2 T. hempmilk until frothy and thick. Next whisk in the sugar,vanilla and 2 T. of Hempmilk until well combined. Stir in the dry ingredients to the wet. Once well combined add the cranberries and pistachios. If dough is a bit dry add in more hemp or water a tablespoon at a time. Form into ball. Take the dough out and put on a prepared cookie sheet(sprayed with an oil) and form into a long loaf about 11 inch long, 3-4 inches wide and 1-inch high. Bake for about 30-35 min. just until the loaf is slightly a very very light brown starting.

Remove baking sheet when finished baking, let cool for 20min. and lower oven temp to 300F.

Once the loaf is cool, take off cookie sheet onto cutting board and cut in about 1/2 inch diagonal slices. Place the slices back on cookie sheet cut side down and bake for 10min. Then turn cookies over and bake for 10 more minutes.

Note-I think spelt flour may give this cookie a slightly lighter texture.

Mofo#13/ Roasted Butternut on Mixed Green Salad

2010-11-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their day. We've been enjoying our warmer day although we have to bundle up at night.

Yesterday evening I was alone for dinner so I roasted up the rest of a butternut squash I had with a bit of fresh sage, olive and sea salt. I already had a salad made so I just made some good balsamic dressing to go with it. The dressing I found is here. The only changes I made to it was that I added a few tablespoons of water and used organic cane sugar instead of brown. This is a really great balsamic dressing. In a pasta bowl I put some lettuce, butternut squash, dried cranberries and pecans. Then I drizzled the balsamic dressing and fresh ground pepper. I Sat down with a nice glass of red wine and scrolled through the old movie section of Netflix and found, to my pleasant surprise, Summertime starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. What a great way to eat dinner and enjoy a classic movie before the hubby got home.

Tomorrow I'll be back with 2 different biscotti recipes.

Vegan MoFo #12/ GF- Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-11-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday! Another beautiful California day but boy was it chilly this morning. Last night was the coldest so far...brrrrrr.

These cookies do contain oatmeal so if you are one who has Celiacs, you will need to buy GF certified oats. For you readers who don't know much about Celiacs disease, if you are truly gluten intolerent you can not have any food that touches gluten or processed from a facility that may also process wheat products. My son doesn't have celiacs but he is sensitive to too much wheat so he does okay with organic oats. Keaton says that these are his favorite GF cookies so far. So coming from a kid that's pretty good. Also for you out there I won't always list my ingredients as organic but most of them are. The chocolate chips I use are Guittard, they are also Gluten Free and the dark or semi-sweet chocolate doesn't contain milk. Personally, I feel these chocolate chips totally out do Ghiradelli in taste, they have this wonderful underlying caramel taste to them. Yum!

GF-Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oats
Recipe

Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl cream together:
1/2 C. brown sugar
3 T. apple sauce
1/3 C. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

In another bowl combine:
1/2 C. sorghum flour
1/2 C. rice flour
1/2 C. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder(Rumford brand aluminum-free)
1/4 tsp. salt

When sugar mixture is completely creamed together add in the dry ingredients. Next stir in 3/4 C. oats and 1/2 C. chocolate chips.

Use a tablespoon to drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet. Bake in oven for about 12min.

Enjoy your friday night. Keep warm.

Vegan MoFo Day 11/ Cheesy Sauce quick post

2010-11-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

Whew this week has just been flying by! I don't have any recipes for you today this is just a quick post.

Keaton went back to school today. He still can't hear out of both ears but he made it through.

Carrots, celery, golden beet, apples, cucumber juice

For dinner I made something really quick. Didn't feel like cooking.

I made a cheezy sauce (the nacho recipe subbed roasted bell pepper for the pimentos).

I poured the sauce over an organic russet potato and organic broccoli.

The cool thing about this sauce is that the only fat comes from the cashews(high in magnesium), nutritional yeast( is a complete protein and full of b-vitamins). So you can have what may look like a non-nutritional, fat laden, artery clogging sauce... but it isn't! Yum!

Back tomorrow with a GF-chocolate chip cookie

MoFo #10/ A different Tahini recipe w/chickpeas, veggies and brown rice

2010-11-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

Did you think I had forgotton about todays post? It's almost 5 and I just got back from a day of errands and after this it's off to the Farmers Market.

One of the first vegan meals that I had in my rotation was this. I usually use shitake mushrooms in it but I didn't have any on hand.

I'm not going to give out exact measurements but I will tell you what I used in the recipe. You can also use what veggie you have on hand. Shitake just goes so well with this dish and I usually don't use carrot either. First I cooked up a pot of brown rice. As the rice is cooking you saute up some yellow onion and 2 minced garlic cloves,until soft. Then add in veggies of choice. I had broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and italian red pepper. Saute just until slightly tender and then add about 2 C. chickpeas. The sauce mixture I just add right into the pan-1/3 C. Tahini, 3 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari, 1 1/2 C. no-chicken broth or veggie broth and mix in well and let reduce slightly. Add firm tofu chunks if you with. I did. Add more tamari if you wish as well. Serve over brown rice.

Okay I got to go. Have a great night.

Vegan MoFo#9/ Light Gumbo with Seitan Sausages

2010-11-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday! Today is going to be a quick post. I have to clean up around here and I'm going to watch a movie with Keaton. Yes he's home from school again. I went to go get his ears checked out and come to find out not only does he have fluid in the ears but he has strep! He came home from school yesterday with a sunburn type rash and his hands/feet were sore. The doctor said his throat looked red but that was it. According to his other symptoms...strep.
Food?

Yesterday's lunch.

Ezekiel English Muffin w/mashed white beans, avocado and tomato

Light Gumbo with Seitan Sausage

To get my recipe for my gumbo click here. In making this gumbo lower in fat it also was a bit more runny than thick. I just used 2T. Olive oil and 3T. flour for the roux. I only used 4 Cups of water and 1/2 a cup of pale ale(not dark) and 2 fresh tomatoes chopped. I sauteed seitan sausage, chopped them and browned them in the skillet using olive oil spray. The seitan sausage recipe was based on the steamed white seitan from Viva Vegan. I just adjusted the spices accordingly and made 6 small loaves.

Enjoy your evening!

Vegan MoFo #8/ Lemon Tahini Sauce over GF noodles

2010-11-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday to you!

It's on to the second week of Vegan MoFo! There are so many delicious recipes to try. I'm trying to check out new blogs everyday and support my usual blogs at the same time.

FYI. If you haven't seen the film FOODMATTERS you really need to. It's also a really good one to share with your non-vegan family members.

Lemon Tahini Noodles

Tahini sauce makes for a nice change instead of using a peanut sauce over noodles. The noodles I used were rice noodles from TJ's.

Lemon Tahini Noodles

1pd. rice or udon noodles

Prepare noodles according to package. While water is boiling prepare sauce.

In a blender add the following ingredients and blend until smooth.

1/2 C. Raw Tahini

1 garlic clove
2 T. fresh ginger, chopped

3 T. maple syrup or agave

3 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari

2 T. Brown Rice Vinegar

2 T. sesame oil

3 T. fresh lemon juice or more to your liking

2 T. cilantro

2 scallions, chopped

Splash of sriracha or more if you like to add some heat

1/2 -3/4 cup of water to thin out.

Vegetables:

olive oil

1 garlic clove

1tsp. ginger

vegetables of your choice.

Gently saute vegetables in a large pan with garlic and ginger. Once vegetables are slightly cooked add the noodles and the sauce. Stir together well. You can then serve into dish and top with sesame seeds.

Vegan Mofo #7/Simple Lentil Soup w/GF Chickpea Flatbread

2010-11-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a week of MoFo'ng already... wow it flew by! I've been trying to view other blogs this month that I've never been on before and it makes me so happy! Everyone is doing fabulous and there is so much yummy vegan food!

Lentil soup is one of those that you can add and do so much to. I chose last night just to do a simple lentil soup.

Lentil Soup

Recipe:

Olive oil

1 1/4 C. brown or french lentils, uncooked but rinsed

2 med. yellow onions, diced

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 1/2 C. celery, sliced

2 C. carrots, chopped

3 red tomatoes, chopped with juices

1/3 C. white wine

6 C. un-chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/4 tsp thyme

red pepper flakes, optional

*s & p to taste

balsamic or chili oil, drizzled to serve (optional)

1) In a large stockpot heat up 1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil.

2)Add in onion, garlic, carrots and celery cook until soft.

3)Add in red tomatoes, stir and let cook until they are quite soft.

4)Mix in lentils, white wine and thyme and cook for about 2min.

5)Pour in broth, stir and bring to a boil.

6)Once the mixture is boiling, cover with lid and bring to a simmer for about 40-45min. Cook until

lentils are soft.

7)Once lentils are soft, use an immersion blender to blend some of it or take a cup or so and put into blender. Blend until pureed and add back into mixture. Stir thouroughly and add red pepper flakes if you wish and continue to cook for 10min. more. Depending on how salty your broth is you may not need any salt.

8)Ladle into bowls. You can drizzle balsamic or a chili olive oil on top if you wish.

Berean (Chickpea) Flatbread

Yesterday on the Melomeals $3.33 a day blog I saw these delicious flatbreads Melody made with chickpea flour. These are totally gluten free which is great, especially for Keaton. The chickpea crepe recipe I usually use also contains white flour so I was very happy to make these ones. So last night I whipped some up and served them with our lentil soup! Keaton loved these, alot. You must check them out try them for yourselves. I also added some fresh rosemary to half the batter, yummy too.

MoFo#6/Balsamic Tofu w/peppers & onions

2010-11-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone's weekend has started off to a good one. The sky is cloudy and grey. One of the perks with raining is that my water bill is a lot less money. Bring on the rain!

Thanks for all the get well wishes for Keaton. He woke up yesterday feeling alot better. He still has a cough that's lingering but it's random now.

He's bummed because we didn't let him go to Magic Mountain with his friends but that's just a long day and

when Dave was giving him a hug this morning he noticed he was warm. He'll be fine, rest is all he needs.

There was this meal I used to make for Dave, not myself, in my pescetarian days. It was a balsamic chicken with pepper and onions. This was one of his favorite meals. I gave it a go from memory and it was delicious! If you want to impress dinner guests but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, this is it. I served it over mashed potatoes. You can adjust the recipe for a single serving to or just make more and just have it for left overs.

Balsamic Tofu w/peppers & onions

Recipe

4 servings

Olive Oil

14oz. Firm Tofu, sliced into strips

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 C. yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 1/2 C. Red Italian or bell peppers, sliced

1 tsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1/4 C. White wine

1 T. balsamic vinegar

s & p to taste

Heat up skillet(I use cast iron) and add olive oil. Once heated up add the onion, garlic and peppers to skillet and saute until soft. Next add in the rosemary and a bit of salt and pepper, continue to saute for about 2 minutes. Once done take out vegetables and put into a dish and set aside. Next add a bit more oil to the skillet and add the tofu strips, sprinkling a bit of salt onto the tops. You want to sear the tofu on both sides until they start to turn brown and get a bit of a crust on them. Once the tofu is done add the vegetable mixture back in with it and add the wine. Stir for about a minute or so until completely warmed through. Then stir in the balsamic vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over mashed potatoes or pasta.

Using a good balsamic is real important. My mother-in-law always makes sure I have balsamic vinegar handy and luckily she knows which ones are best. This one is from Oliviers & Co. and tastes wonderful! It's more syrupy but not too much and a bit sweet instead of real acidic. This is the kind you can drizzle over pasta or veggies before serving your guests or yourself.

Vegan Mofo #5/Almond Milk & Tulsi Tea

2010-11-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday and MoFo day 5!

Yesterday I didn't make much in the way of food. My son Keaton has been home from school since Wednesday. He started with a cough Monday night,Tuesday evening the dry coughing progressed and he was very tired. At least he's able to sleep through the night. He had a fever yesterdaywhich I think was a good sign that his body is finally fighting, whatever is going on, off. He had such a busy weekend last week and stayed up until the wee hours in the moring at a sleepover. I'm thinking his lack of sleep didn't do any good for his immune system as far as fighting off anything he was exposed to.

I usually use Umcka cold care or Sambucus Elderberry syrup but decided to try a homeopathic one. I know it takes time to work but I just wasn't feeling that it was doing much for him. I went back to our local health food store and purchased New Chapter Immunity Take Care Lozenges, and

Honey Gardens Apitherapy Honey Wild Cherry Bark Syrup(the gal highly recommended this one). The honey is raw and not heated so it contains the medicinal properties in it to fight bacteria and virises. As a vegan to use honey is a personal decision. Personally I don't buy much honey but when I do it's from a respected smaller farm and usually local. As far as this syrup containing honey, I'd rather give this to my son than antibiotics or medication.

So this morning he looks better, no fever, no dizziness, still has a cough and a bit of a yucky stomache but I think the stomache issues are linked with the coughing. We'll see.

Homemade Almond Milk

So a couple of weeks back I saw a video on The Plant Based Dietician blog where they made almond milk using filtered water and raw almond butter. Talk about saving some cash, this is so easy to make. Isn't it pretty?

This is Holy Basil Tea which they call Tulsi Tea. Keaton and I tried some this summer when we hit up the Farmers Market in Arcata, CA this summer. This is just such a nice tasting and smooth tea with a bunch of great health benefits to go along with it!

Office before painting. (Shelving was taking down already)

Office finished

I guess since my computer is back up and running, we finished our office and fixed our computer, I can finally
post our summer vacation. Hey better late than never. What a great month to post about it too since I have to blog like every day. I promise I will post about it!
See ya tomorrow!

Mofo #4/ Homemade chickenless nuggets and Bok choy salad

2010-11-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

Good day to all it's day 4 of Vegan Mofo!

Before I continue with today's food I must let you all know that Trader Joe's Hemp milk that I previously posted about is quite delicious! Hempseeds have a strong flavor yet the milk doesn't have that taste at all and is quite mild in taste. It seems that Hannah at bittersweet has also tried it and enjoys it as well. They also make a vanilla hemp milk. You can't beat the price for a great tasting non-dairy milk

I found this great recipe online for fat-free chickenless nuggets and I tell you these are so yummy and easy to make too. It was less expensive to make and doesn't have a bunch of extra stuff in it as well.

The recipe comes from Happy Herbivore so click on over to get her recipe. Her recipe does say "fat-free" but I melted a bit of Earth Balance and drizzled over each piece before I baked the nuggets. I'm sure you could spray olive or canola if you wish to as well.

The reason for making the nuggets were to add to this crisp and crunchy bok choy salad. One of my girlfriends signed up for the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart Challenge and I signed up as well to see about getting some new lower-fat recipes to help my husband out. This recipe by celebrity Ginnifer Goodwin stood out and it's just the perfect meal for a hot day or if you want a light meal. I actually couldn't stop eating it. lol!

GINNIFER'S RECIPE:

Gramma's Bok Choy (& Chick'n) Salad

Makes 6 servings

1 medium head organic bok choy, washed, cored, and dried

1 bunch organic green onions, chopped

2 1/2 ounces organic sesame seeds

1 2-ounce package organic sliced almonds

2 3-ounce packages Nissin Top Ramen Oriental noodle soup mix, uncooked

garlic powder, to taste

2 generous tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar

1/2 cup organic sugar

1 package Gardein Crispy Tenders vegetarian chick'n, prepared as directed

Chop bok choy into bite-size pieces; add onions and chill. Discard seasoning packet from the soup mix or save for another use. Break up noodles. Sauté sesame seeds, almonds, and noodles in oil. Add garlic powder and salt. Cool and store in a covered container for an indefinite time. An hour before serving, combine soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar and boil for no more than 1 minute. Toss the salad with Gardein chick'n and all of the above ingredients. For variety, this salad is also great with chopped pimiento or mandarin orange. Enjoy!

*note-I used a different Ramen noodle from our local health food store.
Until tomorrow......laugh a little.

MoFo #3: Hemp milk & GF pasta w/spinach, tomatoes

2010-11-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

Okay so it's day Mofo day 3! Another sunny day and elections are over, finally. I'm done with all of those ads and phone calls towards the end.

Trader Joe's finally has Hemp Milk! Woohoo! I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this. It's only $2.99 compared with the much higher prices at other stores.

Yum!

Add some Hemp milk and almond butter to your smoothie...delish!

This GF past dish is so easy to make and tasty too!

I don't have exact measurements so your on your own, sorry. I can give the step by step and ingredients used. I hope that helps.

GF pasta or whatever kind you want to use, cooked

olive oil

4 large cloves of garlic, chopped

Cherry tomatoes-halved

fresh spinach-cleaned and chopped

white wine

salt

ground walnuts(optional)topping

For the sauce: Heat up a saute pan then add some olive oil. Next add garlic and saute for a minute or so. Next add in the halved cherry tomatoes and chopped spinach until soft. Add about 1/3 c. or more of white wine until the wine has reduced a bit. Season with salt to taste. Serve into pasta dish and top, drizzle with more olive oil if you wish and top with ground walnuts!

See you tomorrow!

Vegam MoFo#2: Pumpkin Seeds and Leftover Chili

2010-11-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's day 2 of Mofo. Hope everyone is having a great day. It's warming up again and is supposed to be in the 90's, crazy eh? This won't last though and the nights have dropped in the 30's...burrrr!

Today I'm going to post about the pumpkin seeds I made last night. I love pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.

The first thing I did was to take all of the pumpkin flesh off of the seeds, and patted dry. Then I layed them out on a cookie sheet and put them in a 250degree oven for about 45min to almost dry out.

Once dried out I poured a couple of tablespoons of olive oil on them then sprinkled some dried thyme and sea salt. Put back into oven and turned the heat up to 350. These cooked about 20min. and I stired them around a couple of times to evenly toast. Wallah! A hint of thyme and sea salt. The cool thing is you can add any herbs you like or spices.

This is something I like to do with leftover enchiladas but for this I used left over chili. First warm up the chili in a pot. Then in a bowl add some salad, then the warm chili(or enchiladas), avocado and some chips. I don't know why I like this but it's just a tasty way of eating leftover chili.

I'll be back tomorrow with more food!

First Day of Vegan MOFO and Halloween weekend review.

2010-11-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

It's November and the first day of Vegan MOFO! I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! I did, it's my birthday on Halloween. Dave, Keaton and I went to a late breakfast Halloween morning and guess who was sitting a table away from us?????? Peter Facinelli, Jennie Garth and their kids. A vampire eating breakfast right by me. hee hee! That was a pretty cool celebrity sighting and start to my morning. Later that afternoon Dave carved the pumpkin.

Scary Leprechaun

Keaton made me a chocolate cake, while I made the filling and ganache topping.

The go to chocolate cake recipe we go to all of the time that is super moist and comes out perfect everytime is taken from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts. There are some changes I make they are: We double the recipe, use applesauce for half of the oil and I add a couple of tablespoons of instant coffee.
The caramel filling I used was actually the Dulce De Leche recipe from Viva Vegan and then the chocolate ganache was made with full fat soy milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted of course, than poured over the top.

Keaton went as a gorilla this year. He had some cool sunglasses to wear but forgot all about them.

3 Bean Chili

For dinner I made a pot of chili and a side of cornbread. For this recipe I used a ground veggie crumble because I thought that one of the parents were coming over to eat with us and they are a big time meat eater. We actually prefer no veg meat in our chili. I forgot to add the chipotle chili in adobe sauce which adds an amazing flavor, oh well next time. I make my own beans and this is actually the first tine I've cooked up my own kidney beans and man are nothing like the canned, they are so much better! I also use Pomi tomatoes in a box because it is free of BPA but you can use any tomatoes you like, even fresh which I use all summer long.

3 Bean Chili

Olive oil for sauteeing

2 medium onions, diced

4 Italian red peppers, diced

2 Anaheim peppers, seeded and diced

5 garlic cloves, minced

1- 12 oz. pkg veggie crumbles

1/4 C. soyrizo

1 1/2 T. oregano

1 1/2 T. cumin

4 T. Chili powder

2 T. Cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

39oz. Pomi diced or whole tomatoes in juice, don't drain( if whole you can chop up or just pour into pot and mash them with spoon against side of pot to break them up)

2 C. water

2 C. black beans, drained

2 C. white beans(northern beans or cannelini), drained

3 C. kidney beans, drained

Chipotle in adobe sauce (optional) use according to how much heat you can stand

In a large heavy pot heat oil. Once oil is heated saute onions, red peppers, garlic until they start to soften. Then add the veggie crumbles and soyrizo. Cook until it is browned and pepper-onion mixture is soft. Next stir in the spices, salt and cocoa powder for about 1-2 minutes.(This is also the time to add the chipotle if you want). Then add the water, tomatoes and beans. Bring to a boil cover and turn down heat to a simmer for an hour or longer. The longer it simmers the more the flavor develops.

VEGAN MOFO and stuff.

2010-10-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again for Vegan MOFO! November is going to be a month dedicated to blogging about vegan food everyday! I'm really excited about this because it's my first time. I signed up to help me get back into the swing of blogging again. I miss everyone and this will throw me into to it again, for sure. If you'd you'd like to sign up just click on http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/ . There are so many blogs signed up already, it's so cool!

So Cleo and Merlin weren't too happy about the crowns, obviously eh?

It's definitely Fall weather and Halloween is coming quickly. Is anyone going to see Paranormal Activity 2? I just watched the first one yesterday and what made it kind of creepy was that many of us have experienced at least one time in our lives some type of paranormal activity. I know I have when I was about 4 years old and then when my son was a toddler. Have you? Okay so I like the scary stuff.

We've had visitors for the past 2 weekends and coming this weekend. I love it!!! I have been cooking and baking but not as many pic's lately because we've just been busy with stuff around the house and I haven't made anything new and too exciting due to finishing up our office and just getting stuff done around the house.

I'm still juicing everyday which really makes me feel great! Here are a couple of meals that I've made recently.

Fettucine with Delicata Squash, Cremini Mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, sauteed sage in a light white wine sauce.

Stuffed Italian Peppers with brown rice and tempeh mixture.

Green juice-broccoli stems, celery, green apple, romaine, cucumber

I'm officially back on track to blogging so now I need to catch up on your posts. See you soon!

Raw "tuna" salad

2010-10-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

I do love the fall. Pumpkins, spices, baking, Halloween(my favorite), scary movies. What are some of your favorites?

I finally made a raw "tuna" salad. I don't know if it's because my tastebuds have changed or that I really wanted it to taste like tuna. I was very pleasantly surprised.

This is the mixture in a bowl. I made a wrap for Dave using this mixture, avocado, lettuce, tomato and Miso Mayo.

Raw "Tuna" sushi roll.

There are quite a few versions of the Raw"Tuna" Salad recipe out there but this is how I made mine.

Raw "Tuna" Salad

1/2 C. raw sunflower seeds, soaked 6 hrs or more

1/3 C. raw almonds, soaked 6 hrs or more

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. water

3 T. carrots, shredded or finely diced

2 T. celery, finely diced

2 T. green onion, finely sliced

1/4 tsp salt or more to taste

1/2 tsp. dill, dried (optional)

In a food processor blend until quite smooth sunflower seeds, almonds, lemon juice, water and salt. In another bowl add carrots, celery, green onion and dill. Add the seed and nut mixture into veggie mixture. Stir to combine.

I read that if you wanted to you could add a little mayo to it if you wanted it more tuna style. But I don't think you need to.

Colbie Caillat at Ventura Farm Walk 2010 and vegan cooking in school

2010-10-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

So this past Saturday a friend and I participated in the The Farm Sanctuary, Walk for Farm Animals in Ventura. Colbie Caillat walked right along with us and after the walk sang one song with guitarist Justin Young. I didn't actually meet her cuz, well, I'm kind of shy in that area but she seemed very down to earth.

This is Melissa on the left who has been hosting the Farm Walk for the last 4 years and is doing a fabulous job! I'm on the right with a goofy face(I don't really like my picture taken). The event was solar powered thanks to her boyfriend. There were vegan baked goods for sale, I made cranberry pumpkin bread, raffles and a plant based dietician, Julieanna Hever, to answer any nutrition questions. Julieanna is coming out with an idiots guide to plant based nutrition next year. Check out Julieanna's site at http://www.plantbaseddietitian.com/.

Colbie Caillat

You can see more photo's from the walk by clicking here from the newspaper.

Carrot Bread

One of the required classes at my son's school is beginning cooking. He was able to bring home all of the recipes and we went through and veganized them all. He's really enjoying the class and the extra perk of making all of the recipes vegan is that he and his partner gets to eat and bring more food home than the rest of the class. He thinks that part is pretty cool. Like this carrot bread above, he made with another student. They each got to bring a loaf home whereas the other students had to split up their loaves. The great thing about this class is that they rotate partners so that all of the students get to try their hand with vegan cooking/baking. The verdict so far is that the students are pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the vegan recipes. I was told that the vegan carrot bread turned out alot better than the original recipe and that everyone loved the vegan rice pudding over the dairy based one. So, so far so good. I just think it's great that the kids are learning that vegan food is just as good or even better.

Walk for Farm Animals!!!!

2010-10-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm so frustrated! I've been using our laptop because our office is out of sorts do to painting, etc. and I now can't seem to download my pic's. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh. I'll have to wait until Keaton gets home so he can help me. I'll be brief this post and explain what we've been doing and why I haven't posted lately.

Dave and I have been busy redoing our office/music/guestroom. We are also refinishing a piano that was given to us from a neighbor who decided years ago to paint it a white shabby chic style. It looks like she painted rather quickly and with a flat paint which doesn't clean very well. We are trying to refinish as quickly as possible so we can bring it back inside the house and so Keaton can get back to playing. I'll post the finished piano when done. Lastly we are working on our yard. So lots of house stuff!

This past weekend, out here in California, we got hit with a heat wave. We may be under 100 today, yay! At least the nights are down in the 50's which is good because we don't have air conditioning.

Before I continue my day....Have you signed up the Walk for Farm Animals, Farm Sanctuary Walk? Tomorrow morning I will be walking for Farm Animals with a good friend of mine. If you don't have a walk near you, you can make a donation on line or go to my fundraising page, First Giving which located on the top right of my page here. It should be a really good turn out this year I'm really looking forward to it and then afterwards we will all be eating at Mary's Secret Garden, which is a great little vegan restaurant right across the street from where we will start our walk. I'll post all about it afterwards.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Raw Caesar Dressing

2010-09-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

It's officially Autumn. You know how you can just tell when the seasons change, it's the feeling in the air? I'm already missing the longer days. We have a pick-your-own Apple Farm up the road that I pass a couple of times a day taking Keaton to and from school and they already have these really huge, bright orange pumpkins growing. At the farms there are quite a few autumn/winter squash available too, and so realising that summer is gone, I gave in and bought my first seasonal squash, a nice delicata. It's also the season for baking to begin so I need to stock up on all my baking ingredients. During the summer I'm not much into baking just because it heats up the house and there is so much fruit available to eat as is, in it's natural state. Don't get me wrong or anything, I'm not going to pass up a berry pie.

Move over bell peppers,the Italians are in town! Sweeter and tastier than bells, what's not to love about Italians. Yummmmm... I've tried growing these and not much happened, so I was so happy to see these beautiful red Italians sitting there on the table of the onion/garlic guy at the Farmers Market. Last night at the F.M. I was telling him how much I loved these beauties, he agreed, and he said he was selling alot more of them than his bells. 2 for $1 and his Anahiems are 3 for $1.

Blackened Tofu w/Raw Caesar Dressing on romaine with grilled veggies. The blackened tofu recipe actually comes from The Real Food Daily cookbook but it's used with tempeh, I just didn't have tempeh on hand. I also cut way down on the oil that's in the recipe.

I've made a couple of different versions of caesar dressing but I really love the Raw Caesar Dressings best. The recipe below is one of our favorite raw dressings, especially my son. I hope you like it too.

Raw Caesar Dressing

adapted from a Woody Harrelson recipe

1/3 C. pinenuts, raw

1/4 C. cashews, raw

4 T. tahini

2-3 garlic cloves

3 T. nutritional yeast

2 green onions or 3 T. sweet onion, chopped

2 T. maple syrup or agave

3 T. apple cider vinegar

2 T. olive oil or flax oil

1/2 - 1 C. water

salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor blend all ingredients together. It can be thick so add more water

to desired consistency.

The cool thing about this recipe is that it can be played around with, if you like garlic add more, you want more lemon, add more lemon juice. You can also add kelp granules or dulse flakes.

Leftovers

2010-09-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I just thought I would leave you with a quick post before I get ready for my girlfriends that are coming up to spend the day with me.

Remember the Corn Saute from my previous post. Well the next day I had it for lunch but added some extra yumminess to it. I sauteed up some swiss chard in a hot pan, added some chickpeas, Corn Saute mixture and heated it through. Next I spooned it into a bowl and topped it off with avocado. This made for a very filling lunch.

Lemon Cucumber

If you think regular cucumbers are refreshing you must try these, just a slight lemony taste to them.

Have a great weekend!

Grilled Seitan Cutlets with Cilantro Lime Sauce and Summer Corn Saute

2010-09-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Blog issues...The photo of the flowers below and the Summer Corn Saute are only showing part of the picture and it's not letting me delete it and re post a new pic. Frustrating! Oh well, It's Friday!

I'm still working from our laptop, I prefer our desk top PC.

Certified Organic Flowers from the Farmers Market

Grilled Seitan Cutlets with Cilantro Lime Sauce

When you are looking for something with texture, flavor and something to satisfy that carnivore in your life, grilled seitan smothered in a sauce seems to do the trick. For a quick seitan recipe I love to use the Seitan Cutlets from Veganomicon. Dave loves grilled seitan smothered in some kind of sauce.

Cilantro Lime Sauce

In a food processor I blended 1/3 C. cilantro(don't be shy make sure the cup is packed high), 1/4 c. sweet onion, 4 garlic cloves, 1/2 jalepeno, juice of 1 large lime, 1/4 C. olive oil and s & p to taste.

In a small casserole dish I poured about 3/4 of the sauce over the seitan cutlets and let it sit for about an hour. Use the rest of the sauce over the grilled seitan.

Summer Corn Saute

This kind of reminds me of a succotash but there are no beans.

The market down the street was selling locally grown corn 3 for 98cents and the cashier said they were so sweet and good we bought a few more. I usually use up fresh corn the day I buy it because the older it gets the more starchy and less taste it has. So just make sure to wrap it up well and store in the refrigerator if not using the same day you buy it. Thinking of how to use the rest of the corn besides grilling it again, Succatosh came to mind. I didn't have any bean to use in it so I just thought of what would go well with it and I ended up with a sweet and flavorful dish.

Summer Corn Saute

3 fresh corn on the cob, corn sliced off into bowl
1 T. olive oil (if more is needed use water a little at a time instead)
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 Italian red pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced
1/4 tsp. oregano
1-2 T. chives
1/4 c. cilantro
salt & pepper to taste

In a small saucepan heat water and add sweet potato, cook until almost done. Strain and set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet and add 1 T. olive oil, you will probably want to use more oil but I usually add some water a little at a time instead. Next add the onion and garlic, saute until just translucent. Then add the Italian pepper, corn and sweet potato, cook until corn is fully cooked. Add the tomato and oregano, stir until soft. Turn off heat and stir in the chives, cilantro salt and pepper.
Enjoy!

The Cove

2010-09-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! I hope you are all doing well. I know you were expecting to read about my family vacation and I was expecting to blog about it, but it has been put to the side at the moment due to some unforseen computer issues. Right now I'm using our laptop which doesn't have any of our photo's in it so you'll have to wait just a bit longer. Until then.....I would like to share that Dave and I just celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary! We made it 15 years so far. I think that's pretty good. We had a really nice day to celebrate together. We ended our day with a nice dinner out and for our appetizer we had an heirloom tomato bruschetta(all organic and from their garden) and I have to tell you....Dave and I still can't stop thinking of it. Big chunks of tomato with all the goodness mixed in and then it was served over a warm baguette. Yummmmmm! I was so close to going back the next day for lunch when Dave was at work but he made me promise I wouldn't go without him.

The other night on Planet Green I watched a documentary called The Cove starring dolphin activist Rick O'Barry. It's about how thousands of dolphins are being slaughtered in Taiji, Japan, in this little cove every year and it's been kept quite secret even amongst the rest of Japan. Why are they doing this? You can find out more about by clicking here. Last year I read the book Dominon by Matt Scully and in it he gives an in depth look of the whaling industry, among other animal industries, so I had some background. When I actually sat there watching these wonderful creatures being slaughtered and the water turning red, there is no explaining all of the emotions that I felt. This is something that needs to be stopped! This goes right along with the beatings of seals and the torturing of cows and pigs on a factory farm.

Have a wonderful and delicious day!

Back from vacation!

2010-08-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive! We are back from our vacation and I have so much to post! We ended up staying on vacation a day longer, then we came home to broken sprinklers, our water heater was leaking and a heat wave. Doing laundry was slow going do to the heat, it was too hot to run the dryer during the day, luckily the heat has passed. Then Keaton and I drove to get our Cleo dog, from my in-laws down south, so we stayed the night down there. Then it has been stocking up on food and getting Keaton prepared for school starting this Monday. Whew!

Anyways, I have so much to post that I'm going to have to do it in parts. I don't have time to start today but I will tell you it was so beautiful up in the Giant Redwoods and there is so much vegan food up in Northern California I don't know why it's not like that everywhere else.

Rhododenron Trail in Redwoods State Park

Until I post about the wonderful food and scenery from our vacation here is a meal I made from Viva Vegan.

Potato-Chickpea Enchiladas with
Green Tomatillo Sauce
and Pine Nut Crema
served with
Cilantro Rice

(This was a hit with us and I added some kale to it)

Alfajores with Dulce De Leche Filling
(I also smothered some chocolate along with the Dulce De Leche on some of them and
I used arrowroot because I didn't have cornstarch and they still turned out although they had a underlying taste because of it. Next time I will use cornstarch)

Enjoy your Saturday!

Vacation!!!

2010-08-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Good Morning to you all! Just wanted to let everyone know that we're leaving today on a 5 day getaway, the 3 of us. Heading up to Northern California where the Giant Redwoods are. Looking forward to good vegan food and beautiful scenery, oh and time with my family of course. hee hee.
Have a great week!

Buying Local Organic Veggies and kids snacks!

2010-08-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Happy friday! I'm bummed we couldn't watch the meteor shower in the early hours of the morning, darn marine layer! At least it's sunny now and the heat is going to start cranking up in these next few days. Bring it on, I'm ready.

Below is a cute little fellow that I found in our kitchen, no tail of course the cat, a couple of days ago when we got home from a day of shopping. These little lizards are everywhere right now. So cute!

At the end of my last post I showed this photo below, of these beautiful organic vegetables and asked how much you thought they cost. There are 6 cucumbers, 8 large zucchinis, 2 large heads of lettuce, 5 beets, 1 large sweet onion, 2 lemons, head of garlic, 1 small silverline melon and 1 bunch of parsley.

The answer: $11.25!  We are pretty lucky to have so many farms near us. These vegetables are from a cute Organic Farm Stand that is based on an honor system. It's about 7 min.or so from our place. You can walk across the road and pick your own strawberries if you wish. Every item has a price written down above or below it.  They use a wine barrel with a slot on top to slide your money in and a small carafe to put your change in. The cucumbers and zucchinis were 6 & 8 for a dollar. They were sitting in a basket in the sun so they want them to be bought first. They were all fresh, no mushy ones at all. The heads of lettuce are huge and sell for $1.50 each. It's the silverline melon that cost me the $2 but it smelled so good I had to try it.

I know people are always saying how organic is more money but there are costs from not buying organic or pesticide free. The cost is your health.  Eating pesticides is not good for you. Are you going to spray chemicals on your fruit and eat it or let your kids eat it? No. Then what's the difference if someone else has for you? They have done many studies to show that pesticides can't just be washed off and goes deeper into the food. There is a list you have probably seen regarding the the dirty dozen(most sprayed foods) and the clean 15(least sprayed with pesticides. If you can't buy all of your food organic at least buy those that are on the list below. (you'll notice that alot of the conventional ones on the list that are safe to eat have skins that we peel off before we eat anyways.)
Buy Organic: Peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, pears, grapes(imported), spinach/kale/collard greens, lettuce, potatoes.
Okay to buy conventional: onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, mango, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, canteloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potatoes and sweet onions.

Why does organic cost more money in the first place? Here is a great paragraph I found athttp://ofrf.org/resources/organicfaqs.html describes it in detail for you.
"The cost of organic food is higher than that of conventional food because the organic price tag more closely reflects the true cost of growing the food: substituting labor and intensive management for chemicals, the health and environmental costs of which are borne by society. These costs include cleanup of polluted water and remediation of pesticide contamination. Prices for organic foods include costs of growing, harvesting, transportation and storage. In the case of processed foods, processing and packaging costs are also included. Organically produced foods must meet stricter regulations governing all these steps than conventional foods. The intensive management and labor used in organic production are frequently (though not always) more expensive than the chemicals routinely used on conventional farms. There is mounting evidence that if all the indirect costs of conventional food production were factored into the price of food, organic foods would cost the same, or, more likely, be cheaper than conventional food. Cost, however, is very dependent upon market venue and consumer product choice. It is possible to consume a moderately priced diet of organic foods by purchasing directly from farmers at venues such as farmers markets, and by choosing unprocessed organically grown foods at the grocery store."

Ways to buy organic/pesticide at a less costly price to you.
1)One way to cut costs on your fruit and vegetables is to eat in season. You will notice that they are always less money in season. Have you tried buying bell peppers these past months? They are quite expensive and most are from Mexico.  They are not in season but will be very soon. Then you'll see the prices drop.ket.

2)Check out your local farm/Farmers Market. There is no middle man when you buy your fruits and veggies this way. It's from the farm to you! Some farms you can pick your own, which is even less money. Also go to the Farmers Market when they are about to close. They will make some great deals with you because they would rather not have to take as much back with them.  These tomatoes below I buy at our Farmers Market.

These girls sell tomatoes and basil. At the end of their stand is a $1 bin , for soft tomatoes,that they keep adding to it during the market. I actually don't find very many soft tomatoes, but I don't tell them that. lol! The softer ones I use for my pasta sauce. This bunch was only $2! A great way to use tomatoes is to make lovely tomato bruschetta, which I did and the recipe is at end of blog.

So if you want to buy local and eat pesticide free produce you can find the deals. Also like the paragraph above said. The more we buy organic the more the prices will come down. Let's support our local farms!!!!!!

We also found a Strawberry/Rhubarb Pie(no dairy) at our Farmers Market.

Down the street from us is Buttonwood Winery,their whites and pinks are vegan, during the summer they sale peaches. These are some of the best peaches and they don't use pesticides. Did you know that there are different varieties of peaches? Not just white and yellow I mean varieties like apples? I just found that out this year too. Oh, can you smell them? Yum.

If you bring back the box that the peaches are in you will get 50cents off your next purchase. My last purchase was for my in-laws and us and the cute little older man that works there gave me the mom discount. I think he likes me. hee hee. Hey whatever works right?

Regarding some healthy kids snacks. I usually have some cut up veggies and fruit sitting out on the kitchen counter for Keaton to grab. Perks of summer, an abundance of fruit and cucumbers! (We love cucumbers). When his friends are over I'll put out a spread like this so they have a variety. Sometimes I'll put out a hummus dip or something as well. It's amazing how much growing boys can eat! I find if you have good food out like this they will eat it. If you let them into the pantry they will find that bag of chips or crackers, we rarely have chips, and they will eat that.

Tomato bruschetta is so easy to make and cheap. The only thing I had to buy was the baguette. If I had yeast on hand I would've made my own and it would have been even cheaper to make. An appetizer like this at an Italian restaurant for 6 pieces try $8. We got about 10 pieces costing about $2.20. We still have left over baguette.

Tomato Bruschetta

You can adjust according to taste and how many people you are going to serve this to.

1 lb. fresh tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1T. Olive oil

5 basil leaves, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 baguette or less

olive oil

1 garlic clove

Finely chop tomatoes and put in a small bowl. Add the garlic, basil and olive oil. Add Salt to taste and a bit of fresh ground pepper. Let sit so flavors can develop.

When ready to use. Heat oven to 400 or broil on low.

Slice bagutte into 1/2 inch or less, diagonal slices. Brush one side with olive oil and place the oiled slices down on baking sheet. Put into oven until a light golden color. If you are broiling pay attention because they can burn quickly! Once you take out of oven, rub a garlic clove over the oiled side of the baguette slice and top with tomato mixture. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!