Ethiopian Stew and Lemony Potatoes

I was craving ethiopian food so I decided to whip up a batch of injera. Injera is made from teff flour which is a super grain. I love the neutral taste of these. You can make them more of a sourdough taste by leaving the batter out for several days but sometimes when I am in a hurry I just make the batter fresh that day and cook them up. They cook in a similar way to crepes. I took the recipe from the book Vegan Lunch Box and you can find her blog here http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Next I put together a mixture of water and split yellow peas along with a chopped onion, boiled it all down and got this mushy like mixture. I then finished it off in the crockpot for a few hours to thicken it up.

Putting it all together...I made some lemony potatoes and served the mushy beans over the injera and enjoyed. I love ethiopian food and it has an extra bonus of not having to use cutlery if you do not feel like it.

Thick Stew

I was in the mood for some comfort food tonight so I decided to make a nice thick stew. I based my ingredients off of a recipe I read in Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. It basically has carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, peas, onion and parsnips that were cooked in a broth of vegetable stock and a little bit of cooking sherry since I did not want to open up a bottle of wine. I thickened it with whole wheat pastry flour and threw in some chunks of "chicken" flavoured soy that I had picked up in Portland last year. The stew turned out great, full of chunky vegetables and very comforting. Although we found that the chunks of soy were extremely salty.

Falafel Wraps

A few nights ago we had this for supper. Just simple falafels (okay I cheated a little and bought premade ones!) with some red pepper hummus, lettuce, tomatoes and red onion all wrapped up in a flax whole wheat wrap. Simply divine!

Portabello-Green Bean Bake and Twice Baked Stuffed Potato

Last night for dinner we had a portabello mushroom, green bean and onion bake. I cut up an onion and 3 large portabellos, mixed in 3 cups of frozen green beans and then made a sauce with 1 cup of veggie stock, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard, 2 tbsp olive oil and about 1/4 cup maple syrup. I then baked it for about 40 minutes at 425. It turned out pretty good. I served it with twice baked stuffed potatoes that I had made a few days ago in preparation for another meal. I just added some rice milk, sauteed onions, corn and various spices to the potato flesh, restuffed them and then baked them at 425 for about 20 minutes. Added a few "fakin bits" and served it all with a salad and presto...dinner.

Veggeroni and Homemade Pizza

I made a log of veggeroni today. This recipe comes from one of my favourite blogs, The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. Ever since I have tried this recipe I will never go back to store bought imitation pepperoni. It is so flavourful and slices up nice and thin...perfect for pizzas. I was missing a few ingredients today so I had to make some substitution. Unfortunately I only had crunchy peanut butter which turned out okay as long as you do not mind biting into the occasional peanut.

For supper tonight I made a homemade pizza. I sautéed some mushrooms and onions, cut up some black and green olives and sliced some veggeroni, added a little Cheddar Style Chreese and topped it all off with tons of dried oregano. Baked it in the oven, served it with a salad and enjoyed!

80 % Whole Wheat Bread

So I started the day off with making some 80% whole wheat bread in the breadmaker. This recipe made one dense 1.5 pound loaf. I would have liked it better had it risen a little more so I will have to play with the recipe a little.

1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp rice milk

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tbsp blackstrap molasses

3 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tbsp vital wheat gluten

2 tsp dry active yeast

Mix both flours together with the wheat gluten in a mixing bowl and mix well. Add ingredients to the breadmachine following the recipe order, ending with the yeast on top of the flour. Set to whole grain setting.

Spaghetti and Beanballs

Tonight I made spaghetti and beanballs (recipe from Veganomicon) and I loved them. They are a combination of kidney beans, vital wheat gluten and bread crumbs with spices and such. I really like that they do not contain soy in them like most mock meatball recipes I have made in the past. They were extremely simple to make. Even though my husband said they tasted a little beany I did not mind and I thought their flavour was delicious. I might try baking them in the oven next time though since the recipe said to fry them in an amount of olive oil which seemed excessive. Please excuse the lack of veggies tonight...even a vegan has to take a night off.

Creation Disaster...Samosas to the Rescue

I was really, really, really disapointed that tonight's dinner did not turn out. I tried to veganize a mushroom gougere recipe that turned out to be a disaster. I won't even horrify you with the pictures. This was one of those recipes were the egg substitute I used (flax and water) was no substitute for real eggs. Too bad because in the recipe it looked so good. Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess. I had to make a quick replacement meal so tonight we only had some samosas (from Costco) and leftover salad. Still good but I really wanted the other dish to turn out. I also had tons of carrots in the fridge that were drying up so I made some Carrot and Raison Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. They turned out nice and moist and full of flavour thanks to the spices.

Pineapple-Cashew-Qunioa Stir-Fry

I made Veganomicon's Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stif-Fry tonight with a few of my own variations. I added an extra onion, several large leaves of red swiss chard and corn. I also had to be a little creative on the sauce since I ran out of soy sauce. We had a nice romaine lettuce salad with carrots, cucumbers and dried cranberries on the side. We both absolutely loved this stir-fry and I will make it again for sure. Quinoa is one of those things you just have to love because it is so good for you. Packed full of protein, fiber, iron, magnesium and calcium. I have vowed to incorporate more of it into our meals this year.

Chickpea Patties, Lemony Potatoes and Veggies

So I got an amazing new cookbook from my husband for Christmas that I have been wanting for some time now called Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. It kicks some serious ass. I loved her first 2 cookbooks (Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World). So I have been trying out a lot of her recipes lately. Here is what I made for supper last night. I made some nice rosemary and black olive focaccia loaf (altered Veganomicon's recipe a little) with chickpea patties (Veganomicon), lemony potatoes (Veganomicon) and a side of peas and corn. These patties are too die for. So simple to make and versatile. I think they will be amazing on the BBQ in the summer. The only thing is I should have made a nice gravy to put on top of them since I baked them in the oven with everything else and they turned out a little dry.

So I have decided to start a blog since I love cooking and I love showing people what I make. Many of the recipes I show may not be mine but I will always give credit where it is due and will post my own recipes when I create something new. I just want to share a little bit of myself with the world and hopefully give people some ideas on what to make for supper tonight. I have been a vegan for over 3 years now and my love for animals is why I made the decision to eliminate all animal products from my diet and from my life. My two cats, Zany and Moon, are the loves of my life and I partly do it for them and in memory of Kensington the cat I hope you will join me in my adventure.