Enchiladas

I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system I'd like to share more about tonight's meal: Enchiladas. The great thing about something like Enchiladas is that you can play around with the ingredients depending on what you have, what is in season or what you feel like.

Vegan boyfriend and I have different preferences so it's easy to wrap up separate goodies and bake them in the same dish. I ate on (boca) beef and black beans with toffuti cheddar on top. Boyfriend did the same with black olives...yuk! Sides, which were not pictured, were Spanish rice and refried beans.

Shepard's Pie

This is a favorite we come back to time and time again. I believe there are a few variations (and someday I hope to try Veganomicon's with plantains and sweet potatoes!).

In our house we keep it simple: mashed potatoes, corn, and (boca) beef. Mmmm! :)

Pan Fried Pizza

This evening I tried another recipe from the "Vegan Italiano" book. The idea is using self-rising flour and frying the crust on your stovetop then broiling it with toppings and sauce to finish it off.

I made an herbed crust with seasonings I'm pretty sure were meant for sauce...but since I already had a ready-to-go sauce that I LOVE I just ended up with an awesome crust too. :)

As the author mentions, you can make self-rising flour just by adding salt and baking powder...which is the route I went but i was expecting the dough to rise further. It seemed kind of dense which makes me believe that something went wrong but I just don't know what.

The only real benefit to this pizza versus what we do traditionally is that it is MUCH speedier. Yet the portions were very small (we basically split the pizza and there are no leftovers).

Product Review: Naked Dillo, Choco Dillo

TWINKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did you know that name brand Twinkies are not even vegetarian because they have beef fat in them?? That is disgusting! Thank goodness for Cakewalk's delicious treats. I saw these on sale at Food Fight and I just couldn't justify passing them up.


As you can see they basically look like the real deal. Except, I don't remember Hostess having an awesome chocolate covered one...zing!

These little cakes were very moist and the filling was very fluffy and *just* like I remember. Couldn't ask them to change a thing.

French Onion Soup

Vegan boyfriend beat me to the punch on dinner last week. He did a vegan variation on a French Onion Soup he found online. As for his spin on the cheezy topping he melted a slice of tofutti mozzarella on a piece of bread and dropped it in...genius!!


The soup was a bit sweet but otherwise good. Growing up, I never had too much FO soup so I had no expectations going into this. But I will say I love love LOVED the cheezy toast. MMMmm

Product Review: Ricera Yogurt

As a child, and long before I knew what vegan or vegetarian meant, I despised dairy in the forms of milk and yogurt. I was the notoriously picky eater in the family. Even to this day I don't find myself indulging in too many vegan milky foods (except cheezes which I adore).

The other week at Whole Foods, I saw this Ricera yogurt product on the shelf and thought I'd give it a try. It was vegan...and it was peach (my favorite!) so why not?


Well, I don't think this was a life changing product. The yogurt is made of brown rice so I was pleased to have a soy alternative but it wasn't anything out of this world. It was your run of the mill yogurt which just isn't for me.

Pasta E Fagioli

Tonight we dined on Italian and it was glorious. Pasta E Fagioli (aka: pasta fazool).


I used the recipe from vegnews.com but subbed Kidney beans in for the Cannellini which was really the only difference (minus the fact I completely forgot about parsley). When I make this dish I really like to use shells because the pasta sometimes craddles the little beans like a baby...and well, its just so gosh darn cute!! >_<
I know how terrible this pic came out but when you gotta make a point, you gotta make a point. Also, I usually just throw in a whole package of pasta so it's not really that soupy in the end. But you know what? I just like it that way. :) And so does vegan boyfriend.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Chocolate Chip Muffins! As much of a muffin-nut I am they do rank 2nd place in my world to the delicious PANCAKE. Nonetheless, there are days when you gotta go muffin.


This was the lemon-blueberry recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking modified. Pretty easy and pretty fantastic!

Check out this muffin top action...awesome...

Mediterranean Tacos

Sometimes you just need something light and tasty after a long day's work. I whipped up some quick little wraps tonight and looking back I feel like Mediterranean Tacos more accurately reflects this meal.


This was very easy!

-1 cup long grain white rice, 2 cups water and 1 veggie bouillon cube cooked together
-1 chopped roma tomato, lightly salted
-1 leaf romaine lettuce
-1 ripe avocado
-2 TBSP Brianna's French Dressing
-small tortilla wraps

Seasoned rice is simple to make if you have any bouillon cubes on hand and many different flavors can be created. It's one of my favorite things to make! Also, Brianna's French Dressing is possibly the best french dressing on earth. Must. Buy. Always.

Yum!

Pizza Soup

For Christmas I was gifted the "Vegan Italiano" cookbook by Donna Klein. One recipe that stood out as an immediate MUST TRY was the Pizza Soup. Obviously I'm a soup gal.

Basically this soup is traditional veggie pizza toppings (chopped onion, green pepper, mushrooms, and garlic) mixed with pizza sauce and broth. As suggested, we served it with garlic bread.



Unfortunately, for me, this recipe fell flat. :*(

We ended up adding all the pepper and onion versus the 1 cup recommendation so I'm pretty sure it was a little chunkier as suggested. I think I prefer my soups to be a little creamier and softer - like beans and stewed tomatoes - whereas this maintained some crunch.

In all fairness, I was a little queasy the night we made it so perhaps this is a totally biased post. Plus it might be worth mentioning the day after it was a bit tastier perhaps after the flavors melded overnight. While the soup turned out good, it wasn't exactly my style so I don't think I'll be rushing to the kitchen to make this again.

Product Review: Leahey Broccoli & Cheese Soup

Yum!! Broccoli and Cheese Soup!! Back when I lived in Wisconsin this was a wickedly popular soup and it was frequently on the menu at local lunch spots. I've had a few "cream of broccoli"s since my days gone vegan but nothing remotely close to the original.

Enter Leahey powdered soup.

This soup was ridiculously similar to the ole classic and so SO *SO* easy to make (uh hello, add water and heat?). For $2 a packet this is totally worth your time.

And yes, that's my Hello Kitty Toaster. That's what's up.