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.

Happiness

This hamster is so cute I think my eyes are going to bleed!! It's guys like these why I really enjoy being vegan. Not that people are out there eating hamsters...it's just a general love of animals big and small. How do you not embrace this at full speed? Love it!

Christmas Robe

This year I thought I'd make a robe for Mother dearest to gift her on Christmas day. Why a robe? Truthfully, it's only 1 of 2 things I know how to sew. So what? Everyone can use a good robe during the wintertime!

This particular pattern is kimono style so I picked out an Asian print. I'm still unsure if I'm all that jazzed on the fabric I picked out...but all in all, I think it turned out pretty good! :)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Below is a picture of dinner time in our household this Thursday. We ate a faux turkey, hot artichoke dip with crostini, tofurky brand gravy, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, yams, fresh cranberry sauce, sparkling apple cranberry juice as well as blueberry pie!


The following is a pic of the creation of my faux turkey. I tested out a super simple recipe from www.everydaydish.tv. We were very surprised how much we felt this tasted like a store bought tofurkey. I never had much luck with vital wheat gluten in the past but I think the key to making it successfully must be in the boiling piece because that was new to me. We also baked it afterward to crisp it up a bit.


Since Mikael so graciously allowed us to have a "traditional" midwest Thanksgiving versus an Italian or East coast menu I permitted him to pick out this years signature dessert. The result - blueberry pie! I took this particular recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking but to be honest, it seems like most blueberry pie recipes mimic the rest. The pie was served with vanilla bean soyscream (Mikael's hybrid for soy ice cream) and soyatoo whipped cream. MMm!!

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!

Apron Prettiness

This is a pic of the cute little apron I recently finished! Ignore my face...I look grumpy but actually I was tired and didn't know my head was going to be in the pic. :)

I was *so* in love with this fabric used on the body...it reminded me of a Russian plate or vintage doll or something. So beautiful!! The contrast print on the other hand...I'm not so sure. It "matches" but didn't result in what I hoped for.

Now I'm ready to cook!! <3