Arroz y Habichuelas

This is one of my favorite recipes from the "Dining with Friends" cookbook. It's so simple and satisfying. I find this to be true of Priscilla's other recipes too and I go back to them again and again.

I prefer canned beans to dried and this recipe calls for the later though I use the former. :) This time around I wasn't thinking and added the salt intended for dry beans into my sofrito...3 teaspoons!! It was soooooo salty and completely inedible. I had to double the recipe by adding a can of tomato sauce and black beans to mellow out the taste. The aftermath was still salty but this time it was in fact edible.

I hope to never make that mistake again!

Italian Food in the Great Outdoors

I was totally stoked to find a cute bistro set that was 1. small enough for my tiny patio and 2. within my tiny budget. I fell in love with this at Home Depot and couldn't stop thinking about it. When I went back a week later to make my purchase it had gone on sale - $40 off!! ZING!


Isn't it lovely?

Vegan boyfriend made a tasty Italian dinner and it ended up being exactly what the doctor ordered. Look...how yummy?

Tofurkey Cheeze Pizza

TA-DAHHH!!!!!!!!!!! TOFURKY PIZZA!

There are 3 glorious flavors but I decided to start at the beginning: Cheese. Tofurky paired up with Daiya on these frozen wonders. I can't help but think to myself how ridiculously loaded those Daiya people must be...where don't they have relationships? This stuff is being stuffed in gardein, tofurky and restaurants everywhere. Genius + delicious = genicious. $6 and change.


I felt kind of embarrassed walking out of Food Fight with this box in my clutches. Not so much for the product but mostly because 1. I'm the type of person who buys frozen pizza and 2. I publicly stand in line like a dork for the latest cheezy vegan things.


I had to laugh to myself at how much this reminds me of brands like Tombstone frozen pizzas. My parents often defaulted to frozen pizza when my sister and I grew up. We'd buy the veggie version though none of us were vegetarian. My mom was convinced the meat varieties were made of "rat meat." I hated the wilty little veggie pie...it was always frozen in the center and so sooo yucky; it was my opinion this never happened with the pepperoni. ANYHOO, the tofurky pizza was looking a little sparse in the center and reminded me of the good ole days. :)



As you can see, the cooked version looks exactly like the baked. It was not bad! I would say this could feed 2 people in a sitting...obviously the pie is MUCH smaller than takeout. My only gripe is that it wasn't very saucy and I like extra sauce typically. NOM!

But honestly, a frozen pizza to heat up in only 10 minutes...that is crazy! Go out and buy some!

I'd die for you, Daiya

Daiya!! When the vegan boyfriend pointed to the glorious package at Whole Foods it was decided: I would write the first blog post on Daiya with their new baggie packaging. Well, I really don't know what happened but several weeks have passed and I hadn't written a word. I haven't seen any posts and I'm perfectly satisfied living in denial so here it is!

Obviously a pizza was in order...look! heirloom tomatoes.


and of course...black bean quesadillas...

voila!

Soft Shell Tacos

Even though there is nothing special about this post, I just really wanted to share the picture. Not because there is anything special about this picture either but I really love Mexican food and soft shell tacos make me happy!! :)


Has anyone else noticed how unbelievably good tofutti sour cream is?!

Turkey a'la Mode

Does anyone, besides me, remember Turkey a'la Mode? The catholic gradeschool I went to served this and you could do turkey or chicken on top of a starch... I really don't recall if it was rice or mashed potatoes.

Anyhoo, this is our variation!


This is so *SO* tasty! I'm thinking it should be the new Thanksgiving. Our mashed potatoes are basically russets mixed with plain soymilk, whipped earth balance butter, and herbs. However, I've been dying to try a sour cream and chive spin; I guess I've been reluctant because I don't know how the tofutti sour cream would hold up. Has anyone tried this? I would love to hear about it!!

The turkey portion is a package of tofurkey deli slices (either Oven Roasted or Hickory Smoked) cooked stovetop. Vegan boyfriend usually does these because he is the master seasoner. We frequently mix it up but one thing I really suggest is using hot pepper infused olive oil for an extra kick. So crispy delicious.../drool.

Beefless Stew

I remember being a kid and eating canned Beef Stew at my parent's house during the winter. It had little hamburger pieces in it with grill lines as if it were fresh meat. I always loved that soup. It wasn't until I was searching vegan recipes on Ellen Degeneres' website that I came across this little ditty. Basically, wow, it tastes like that childhood favorite! For the wine I used 'Our Daily Red' - I'm not sure how that compares because I'm not a wine drinker and this was one option that said vegan on it. Turned out great as far as I'm concerned!

Pesto Tomato Mozarella Panini

Vegan boyfriend made these panini's the other day. The recipe can be found in "Conscious Cook." It's focaccia bread, pesto, tomato and mozzarella (I think we used follow your heart brand...which is good but not great in my opinion). I think I would've liked this more if I had my choice of cheeze (maybe something in the world of teese?). Great pesto though...garlicky and full of flavor!!

Quickie Meal

We have a couple of staple meals when we're either short on groceries, in a rush, or just plain tired. For this particular meal we feasted on a a couple of Gardein chikn' tenders (NOMMY!!), fries, and a baguette burger. The burger is essentially any frozen vegan patty, lettuce, tomato, raw red pepper, onion, mustard, ketchup, mayo...anything goes!

Breadstick Vs. Pizza

I know it's ridiculous but I like my pizza to basically be a huge breadstick. That's why when we make pizza, vegan boyfriend makes 2 so he doesn't have to eat it. (He prefers something that I can only consider a vegan "Works").


This has an awesome base which is essentially: EVOO, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and a bunch of seasonings. For toppings I used wilted spinach and tomato. Pizza sauce I actually use as a dipping sauce. on the side. mmMMmmmm

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).

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.

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!

Taco Pizza, Tomato Harvest, and Japanese Treats

With an Italian in the family, handmade pizza is a pretty regular occurrence in our household. Happily we've had many delicious outcomes and no real disasters. Usually I like a really saucy cheeseless pizza with pinneapple and ranch dressing to dip. This week I felt like giving something else a go. Enter "taco pizza."


This delicious little pie is a handmade crust (simple flour, yeast, water). I spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on top then added a layer of spicy refried beans. The next layer is cooked lightlife brand mexican ground beef. Lastly topped with diced tomato and onion. Baked about 20 minutes.

Once the pizza came out i topped it with fresh chopped lettuce, salsa and tofutti sour cream. In hindsight I think I would've preferred to add the salsa before baking. Otherwise it makes for an icy bite.


It's starting to get brisk and drippy in Portland these days so we were beginning to worry about our tomatoes. This was our first year with a garden and we planted the romas pretty late in the season so they aren't ripe just yet. The below pic is a decently large bowl with our loot. I think it's a lot consider it came from a small container on our apartment's patio!


I thought you all would get a kick out of our shopping spree at Uwajimaya - the local Asian Market. We pretty much bought anything that was vegan friendly but most of it happened to be candy. That little pink stud is Willy - the blankie doll I sewed with my own two hands. Say hello, Willy!

Greek Bean Soup

Sunday's dinner was comprised of one of my FAVORITE recipes...Greek Bean Soup!! This particular recipe comes from the Dining with Friends cookbook. We made the mistake of buying a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes when we were looking for diced so this was more of a modified tomato soup...but still tasty.

At the moment I'm in the early stages of the common cold so here's to feeling better! (and sorry for the crappy pic...)

Mac & Cheeze

The evil temptress known only as "cheese" has haunted me through all my vegan years. What can I say, as someone who grew up in Wisconsin (and as a human being)...I love cheese! Here's the problem, I won't eat it! So what's a girl to do...

I scour the vegan blogs and various sites daily for the latest and greatest secretly yearning for cheesey recipes. It must have been a few months back I encountered the Mac & Cheeze recipe on vegnews.com. There is a god.

My first stab went pretty well - I added a whole package of noodles (12oz) instead of the suggested 8oz so it was a little dry and I was disappointed. Yesterday we gave it another whirl and it was glorious indeed. I am happy to report such success for vegan Mac & Cheeze not only without tofu but without nutritional yeast!! It's too bad there is so much butter that needs to be added but for a special "now and again" treat I'm not going to stress about it.

Try the recipe yourself....here!