Buffalo Tofu and Vegetable Pancakes

I absolutely loved tonight's meal. It was pretty simple for the most part to make, just required a bit of prep work. For the tofu, I cut it up into slices, browned it in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes, flipping once. The sauce was 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce and 1/3 cup Earth Balance. Once the tofu was done in the oven, I finished them off in a hot frying pan by pouring the sauce on them and letting it reduce for about 6 minutes.

For the patties, I grated up one medium zucchini, 1 medium sweet potato, 1 onion, and 1 potato. I squeezed out as much of the juice as I could and then added, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp ground flax seed and about 1/2 cup whole wheat flour to bind. They were amazing. Jam packed full of vegetable goodness. I cooked them on my griddle with no oil so there was no added fat to them. I will definitely be making these again.

Here they are cooking on the griddle, browning up nicely.

For dessert I revamped my Oatmeal coconut cookies and call these Oatmeal everything cookies. I even managed to cut out half the fat by using applesauce instead. Next time, I am going to push it even more and see if I can reduce another 1/4 cup of oil


Oatmeal Everything Cookies

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil (I used canola this time)

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup cane sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (I used sucanat)

1/2 cup soy milk

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups rolled oats (regular not quick cooking)

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375. Mix soy milk with vinegar and let sit for a few minutes to thicken. Add applesauce, oil and sugar and whisk to mix. In a separate bowl mix together remaining dry ingredients. Add wet to dry. Stir. I used an ice cream scoop (half filled) to measure these out onto 2 half pans. Bake for 12 minutes, remove from oven and place on cookies sheet immediately. This recipe makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Banana, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich

We both went out for lunch today to celebrate our nephew's First Communion so I wanted to make something quick and easy for supper. Well, the other day on the Everyday Dish blog Julie talked about making Chocolate Paninis. Well ever since then I have been wanting to try them out. Even though we do not have a panini press and I am not going to run out and buy one, I thought using a frying pan would work just as well. And it did! I smothered peanut butter on the inside, cut up bananas, cinnamon and chocolate chips and fried them in the frying pan. I also made up some chocolate dipped strawberries earlier that we enjoyed with our all dessert dinner. They were divine. The chocolate was all melted and the peanut butter and bananas were warm. Delish!

Veggie Burgers, Tater Tots and Corn

We decided to try out this brand of veggie burgers tonight because they were soy free and vegetable based. Yuck! I could not stand the taste of them. I do not even think the bbq would have made the taste more palatable. Dh did not mind them but I will not buy them again. At least they had a lot of fiber in them!

We served them on bread slathered in homemade BBQ sauce and pickles, pepper fries, tater tots and sweet corn.

Linguini with Pepita-Kale Pesto

Tonight I made a pepita-kale pesto over linguini and garlic bread with leftover hot dog buns. The pesto was a little oily for my taste but overall it had a nice taste to it. Highly nutritious with the head of kale I made it with. Excellent way to get rid of some kale that may be going limp in the fridge. If you have never tried kale, run out now and get some! Do not be afraid of it. It is amazing for you and taste great.

Pepita-Kale Pesto
1 bunch kale
1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds-lightly toasted in hot frying pan for a few minutes)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil (I would try to use even less next time)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast.

Boil kale in water for about 5 minutes, drain and add all ingredients except oil to food processor. Mince together and stream the oil in until it all comes together. Reheat on stove and serve over pasta.

Leftover Tacos and Cupcakes

We had leftover tacos for dinner tonight (please see previous post if you need pictures to remind you of what they look like). I also made this today for an AGM I am planning to attend tonight. I do not usually frost my cupcakes but people always complain and say they are not cupcakes if you do not frost them...they are muffins. So I decided to try out a few recipes by Kittee. These are her chocolate cupcakes . I also frosted them with her beet frosting. I love the idea of this beet frosting since you only use a little bit of beet juice to colour the frosting and no nasty colouring agents. You cannot taste the beet at all in the end product. Overall I really enjoyed them. They sat in the fridge for a while so they got kind of hard and did not stay as moist as other cupcakes I made but the chocolate flavour was very rich and the frosting very sweet.

Tacos

I picked up some Yves ground round (mexican seasoned) tonight and thought I would give it a shot. I have to admit that I bought ground round many years ago and hated it so much that I never bought it again. This stuff was much better. I did not have to add any more seasonings to the base of it. I served it with shredded beets, refried beans and pineapple salsa. They were delish.

Homemade Ravioli and Yahtzee

Needed a quick dinner for dh tonight so I threw some of the frozen raviolis I made a few weeks ago into some boiling water and added some spaghetti sauce and flax bread. He was very proud of the high score of 578 he got on his Yatzee game so he snapped both of these together. So dh, this is for you...

BBQ Ribz and Veggie Kabobs

What is better then being a vegan and loving bbq? Being able to enjoy it all on your vegan bbq! I love bbqing and which we could do it everyday. We brought out the bbq tonight and made some of Susan's famous Barbecued Seitan Ribz from her amazing blog, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I doubled the recipe hoping I could freeze half and eat it sometime next week. I made some homemade bbq sauce with some tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, dijon mustard and a few other items. Sliced up some parboiled potatoes, mushrooms and fresh pineapple to make the kebabs and marinated them in a little leftover italian salad dressing. Everything turned out great! I cannot wait to make more of these throughout the summer.

Leftover Brinner

Tonight we had leftover frittata fried up in a frying pan like a tofu scramble. Made a sandwich out of it by slapping it on two slice of whole wheat bread and slathering it in ketchup. Roasted potatoes and 2 olives round this meal out. I liked the taste of this frittata better in this form, although it was quite mushy.

Brinner

I cannot remember which television show we saw the idea of Brinner on but it is a great word and a great idea. I wanted to try out a recipe from the Vegetarain Times with a few alterations. So, tonight we had roasted potatoes, toast and a mushroom-spinach frittata. It was not as firm as I would like but it was pretty decent. I froze half of it so I will see how that comes out next week.

Brinner Mushroom-Spinach Frittata

(sorry but all measurements are approximate since I did not write it down while making it)

1 med onion, diced

8 large mushrooms, diced

6 large handfulls of baby spinach

2 packages of tofu (one firm and one extra-firm)

3 tbsp of vegan cheeze

1/4 cup or so of soy milk

4 tbsp tamari (soy sauce if you use that)

salt, pepper and seasoning to taste

3 large tomatoes

Sautee the onion in olive oil for a few minutes, add mushrooms, sautee for another few minutes then add spinach a few handfulls at a time. Wait until everything is nearly cooked and water has mostly evaporated. In the blender, blend tofu, cheeze, soy milk and tamari until smooth. Mix this with the vegetables and place into a greased 13inch dish. Slice tomatoes and place on top of mixture. Back in oven at 375 for about an hour. Let cool 10 minutes, slice and enjoy

Pumpkin Waffles, Pears and tons of Maple Syrup

Two things I absolutely love...pumpkin waffles from Vegan with a Vengeance and real, pure Canadian maple syrup. I would put maple syrup on absolutely everything if I could. I sliced up a couple of pears that were getting to be too ripe and called this dinner.

Veggie Pizza

I had some leftover dough in the fridge and decided to make personal pan pizzas. I used a base of pineapple salsa, baby spinach, mushrooms, green and black olives and some Vegan Rella cheeze. I do not think I will buy this cheeze again. It melts really nice but tastes super oily. I want my Sheese back and hope it is in stock someday soon. Baked in the oven at 500 for 10 minutes.

Samosas, Brown Rice and Baby Spinach

Nothing exciting for dinner tonight. Veggie samosas, long grain brown rice and baby spinach.

Rootbeer Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes to curb my cupcake-craving but they did not do the trick. Someone on a forum I belong to posted a recipe for rootbeer cupcakes and I thought they would be neat. Frankly I am disappointed in them. They turned out too oily tasting and not cakey like I would have wanted them to. This recipe will not be a keeper. It is basically a white cupcake recipe with rootbeer substituted for the soymilk and rootbeer extract added.

Surgery...ice cream for dinner

So I had some surgery done today so that means vegan ice cream to eat for the next few days...woohoo! I will post the various kinds I get to eat over the next few days. Let's start off with this one....Good Karma Organic Rive Divine in chocolate mint flavour. Simply divine. I love that it is not soy-based and since chocolate and mint are my favourite combination it was truly divine!

Neatball Subs and Salad

I made tonight what my husband described as his favourite meal ever. Who knew?! I found some vegan "meat"balls at one of our local supermarkets and decided to try them out. I simmered them in spaghetti sauce for about 1/2 hour then in the crockpot for 1 hour on low. Served them in crusty bread with some Chreeze mozarella sauce (I have to hoard this stuff since I only have 1 pack left and I cannot find it anywhere in town!) and a nice salad on the side. They were good I have to admit even though it was not homemade. Sometimes a girl has to cheat just a little...

Caesar Salad

I bought some nice organic romaine lettuce and I asked dh what I should do with it and he said...Caesar salad. So I tried the recipe from Veganomicon. To be honest I was not totally impressed. I found that the silken tofu in the recipe made it taste too beany and watered down. It was good but the recipe made way too much and since it does not keep very well I have to think of where else to use it. Served it with croutons and fakin bits. The romaine was really nice and fresh.

Mushroom Soup and Southern Fried Tofu sandwich

I made the mushroom soup that I posted about a little while back. Instead of sour cream I used the leftover caesar dressing I had to thicken it. It was not as good as the first batch of soup but not bad otherwise. I also had some leftover southern fried mix in a tupperware in the cupboard that I wanted to use up. Sorry I cannot remember all that was in it...cornmeal, nutritional yeast and a billion spices. Coated pieces of tofu and baked them in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes, flipping once.

No dinner, just bread

I have been using this dough recipe to make big batches of bread dough to put in the fridge and I love it. Almost 1/2 whole wheat and white but turns out so soft and nice. I took it from Bryanna's blog, Vegan Feast Kitchen.

Tofu Chili Dogs

We needed something quick for supper tonight so we cooked up some tofu chili dogs and slapped them on some homemade buns that I made earlier today. Not a wholesome meal...unless you count relish as a veggie but it was quick!

Vegetable Tofu Pot-Pie

I have been craving a pot pie lately for some nice home comfort food but last time I tried this recipe I failed at the crust part so I was afraid to try again. Well this time it turned out great. I took the recipe from the book The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. It is a pretty simple recipe, carrots, potatoes, peas, corn, tofu in a sauce. The crust is cornmeal, whole wheat pastry flour, coconut oil and water. I made an extra one and froze it so it would be ready to pop in the oven anytime. These would be great in individual sizes as well.

Just out of the oven.