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

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.

Stir fried rice w/herbs de provence and recipe testing!!!

I love herbs de provence!  Instead of using asian flavors for a stir fried rice this recipe uses herbs de provence.  It so flippen good!  Again very quick to make.  I found the recipe once again at Vegetarian Times

and I added brocolli, of course any veggie you want to throw in would work.  I also used crumbled frozen tofu which was perfect for this.

So I've been doing some recipe testing, which kind of slacked do to the holidays, for the wonderful ladies who just released a cookbook last year called 500 Vegan Recipes and are working on another one.  The very talented Celine-Have Cake Will Travel and Joni Marie Newman- Just the food blog and author of Cozy Inside Cookbook.  It's quite fun and I'm so honored to help out with the recipe testing.   So the salad you see up above is an un-tuna salad(it's not yet named as of yet)consisting of tempeh and lots of goodness!  This is a great salad mix that would be great in a sandwich, on a bed of lettuce(like I did) or with crackers even.  I will definitley be making this again and again.

This here is a breakfast pumpkin muffin bar.  Lovely with coffee or tea in the morning.  It is just sweet enough and is gluten free!  My son loved this bar and I packed one per his request in his lunch until they were gone.  He's pretty excited that I get to test recipes out. lol! I have some more photo's of other recipes i've tried so far but my computer isn't letting me down load them right now.  So I'll share those later.   See ya next post!
Oh for all of you Californians, keep try we should have a break this weekend!!!  yipppeeee!

Curry hits the spot!

With all of the Dal recipes i've been seeing lately and the curry cravings I've been having I decided to make a nice yellow lentil curry stew that I saw a few days back from Hannah at Bittersweet .  So I made a big pot of this, served my son and I a big bowl full, we sat down in front of the t.v. and watched the movie 9.  Have you seen it?  It was really good, different good, Tim Burton style.   We love Tim Burton movies.

This was extremely easy and quick to make.  It definitely hit the spot and made me all warm inside!

I made some brown rice on the side instead of adding it into the pot so I only used 4 cups of broth.  I didn't have any tomato sauce on hand so I diced up 2 tomatoes and cooked them with the onion, garlic mixture and I also used a bit of fresh ginger and some tumeric. Oh and no vinegar.  I can't wait for left overs tonight!

Quick, easy & tasty...

I hope everyone had a good weekend. We felt this weekend went by so fast! Our town had it's tree lighting on Friday and Christmas Parade on Saturday.
It's raining today, yay! We didn't even have to do a rain dance, but I was so ready to.
I was really craving this meal. It's so easy to make and is very comforting...to me anyways. I don't have measurments it's just all by taste.

Cook up some brown rice, set aside. In a large pan, saute onion, few minced garlic cloves. Next add in a chopped bell pepper, shitake mushrooms, once these are getting soft add the brocolli. You make the sauce right in the pan. Sauce: tahini about 1/4-1/3 cup(I love tahini so I had more) a little white wine(dry sherry), ginger, soy sauce & veggie broth. Just stir around with the veggies until warm and add a can of garbanzo beans & 8 oz. cubed extra-firm tofu. Stir until all warmed through. Serve on a bed of rice or grain of choice.

Green Curry with Vegetables

For those busy days and not alot of time to make dinner, sometimes a jar of sauce on hand does the trick. You can still lightly saute fresh vegetables and then pour in the sauce. I'm really not into premade sauces and I have to say I only have this one in the pantry every once in a while. It's Trader Joes Thai Green Curry Sauce. It's actually pretty good and has a nice kick to it. The veggies I used were sweet potato, russet potato, red bell pepper, snow peas & brocolli. A half block of tofu and the brown rice is under there somewhere. Enjoy!