Totally MIA!

Sorry I have been missing in action but life has been one hectic ball of craziness. The good news is we leave for Australia very soon and I could not be more excited. Although I will not be able to update my blog while away I will be bringing back tons of pictures with me and will do many posts when I return. I hope everyone has many happy holidays!

Day 2... the cravings almost got me!

Well day 2 brought on the cravings especially when I went to Costco with my dad. I managed to control myself for the most part. Then my dad brought over a cake that my mom had made. I ate a small sliver of it this evening. Sigh....there is always tomorrow.

Breakfast:oatmeal

Lunch:Leftover Tofu and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Snack: Rye crackers with peanut butter, almonds

Supper: Hummus, Tomato Brushetta, cucumbers, carrots and celery.

Day 1...getting use to life without sugar

I have decided to try something a little different and am hoping I have enough motivation to stick to this change. I am trying to cut most sugar out of my diet (and for those of you who know me you know I love my sugar!) This line of cooking follows a lifestyle change called First Line Therapy where you eliminate sugars and eat foods that have lower glycimic index values. First day and so far so good.
Breakfast: oatmeal with blueberries and Almond Milk
Morning Snack: 3 rye crackers with almond butter

Lunch: Butternut Squash soup with a salad (romaine lettuce, artichoke hearts, cucumbers, chickpeas, tomatoes and olives)

Afternoon Snack: Hummus and veggies

Supper: Tofu Stir Fry with Ginger Broccoli, Portabellos and Red Peppers over quinoa.

Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Vegan Thanksgiving #5 2009

We celebrated our 5th Annual Vegan Thanksgiving Sunday evening and there was a lot of food to go around. I loved everything this year and we definitely now have staples that will be made each year.
The menu looked something like this:

Tofurky Roast

Stuffed Mushrooms from Tofu-N-Sprouts Blog

Grean Bean Casserole

Baked Brussel Sprouts

Homemade sage Stuffing

Roasted Poatoes done 2 ways (one with Tofurky roast the other in a maple/dijon sauce)

Chesepeake Tempeh Cakes (from Veganomicon)

Homemade cranberry sauce

Homemade Gravy

Everything on my plate! My mom also made me a beautiful birthday cake with crazy candles for my birthday but none of the pictures turned out..:( The cake is gone now in my belly. It was an amazing chocolate cake with raspberries with this amazing creme-caramel sauce on it. It tasted so yummy especially since I did not have to make it myself :)

Needless to say we have enough leftovers for the next week so I will have to find something else to blog about for the next few days.

So what am I thankful for this year...for my amazing family who is so supportive in so many ways. I love my parents and brother so much. I am thankful for change and for hope because sometimes without hope I would just give up. I am thankful for a loving husband, two amazing kitties and great friends.

Sushi

So what happens when you are craving Sushi on a sunday night at 5:45 and the stores close at 6pm? Well you get 2/3 of the ingredients you really wanted to make sushi with since the avocados are all hard as a rock. I have been craving sushi for a few days now but I was trying to make it until tuesday when the stores have their 10% off days. Anyhow...tonight we had sushi with roasted asparagus and veggie mock shrimps. In retrospect the mock shrimps made the dish a little too fishy so I probably would not use them again. They were perfect for rice wraps but maybe not so much for sushi. The asparagus was perfect though...it was no avocado but was okay none the less.

Why did I become vegan...for Kensington

Everyone has a reason for why the became vegan or what lead them there. Mine is a very personal story that I do not always share with people who ask. My original reasons for turning vegetarian was because of the literature I began to read about the slaughterhouses, the transportation of animals, the torture and misery that these animals lead. My reason for veganism however is Kensington the cat. His story brings tears to my eyes and I will not repeat it. His story has nothing to do with the food that I eat but has everything to do with how people treat animals. He is the reason that I am vegan because I want to personally ensure that his suffering brought along change. If you are not the type that is weak of heart you can google is story. I will warn you it is painful.

I just celebrated my 5th year of Veganism in August. Each day I keep Kensington is in my thoughts and he is always in my heart.

VeganMoFo III

Welcome to VeganMoFo 2009...this is the month where we go nuts about blogging all about vegan stuff. I promise to blog at least 20 days in October. So here goes...

I am still working through recipes from The Vegan Brunch. Tonight I tried out the recipe for a Lemon Cashew stuffed Crepe with Whole Berry Sauce. I also made some homemade vegan Chorizo sausages and baked some blue potatoes on the side. All I can say is WOW! This was my first time making crepes and although the first few were big time flops I got the hang of it towards the end. The cashew lemon stuffing is simply divine! This is a perfect make ahead recipe since everything can be made the day before and assembled the next morning.

I somehow managed the make the Chorizo sausages a tad too spicy for our liking but they turned out really good and what I love about them is that they are soy free. It is very difficult to find a vegan sausage that tastes good and is soy free. I plan to make a bunch of these and have them ready in the freezer to grill up on the bbq or throw into various dishes.

So if you have never made crepes because you were too intimidated now is the time to throw caution to the wind and give them a whirl! I promise they are worth it and you can impress your family and friends.

New Cookbook: Vegan Brunch by Isa handra Moskowitz

Okay, I waited my turn patiently in the line up at our local library to get my little paws on this amazing new book and boy was it worth it. Isa is also the author of Vegan with a Vengeance, Veganomicon and Cupcakes Take Over the World which are all amazing cookbooks.

I thumbed through this book and have decided to buy it once I return this one to the library. Tonight I made her Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes and I absolutely loved them. I improvised a little on the sauce since I did not have the ingredients she requested for it but it turned out amazing. This was my first stab with panko as well and I love it. I served some fresh local corn and squash on the side with a Sunrise Mix of lemon orzo, sweet potato orzo, mustard seeds and red rice on the side. It was yummers!

My Mom and Dad Came!!!

My mom and dad came this weekend. It was so amazing because my mom brought all of this food with her and I never had to cook once. Plus everything tasted so amazing that I was in heaven. My dad also put 6 new windows into our home which was awesome. My parents are amazing!
Friday night we had portabellos, rice and lentils wrapped in filo dough with a chickpea salad filled with veggies from the garden.

For dessert...homemade vegan donuts!!!

Saturday my mom had made fresh homemade naan bread filled with potatoes and vegan cabbage rolls. They were so amazing! I am lucky to have been blessed with great parents like mine.

Pizza

Tonight we had pizza! I made a half batch of Vegan Dad's amazing no fail pizza dough. I made one small subsitution and added some veggie stock instead of water that I needed to use up and cut back on the salt. I topped the pizza with fresh minced garlic and olive oil for the base and added shredded zucchini, yellow tomatoes and homeade seitan on top. As usual it was delicous!

Pita Pouches

Tonight's dinner were nice pita pocket sandwiches. I bought some nice fresh pitas from the store today and packed them with mixed lettuce, avocado, red onion, fresh corn off the cob, cucubmers, salsa, vegan sour cream and Garden mock chick'n breast. These really hit the spot and it was nice to not have to warm the entire kitchen up.

Tofu and Green Beans

What to do....what to do. I am really feeling less and less creative about making meals lately. I am not sure why with the abundance of summer around us. I hummed and hawed over what to make for dinner tonight and came up with this dish. It was actually quite delicious and not too spicy. I pressed some extra firm tofu for about an hour then fried it in a little bit of olive oil until brown on all sides. I then sauteed an onion and garlic, added some curry spices, veggie stock and soy milk. On the side I steamed some green and yellow beans. Once the mixture came to a boil I added the tofu back in with the green beans. Mixed it all up and served it over brown rice. I crumbled some pistachios over mine for a treat.

Now what am I going to make tomorrow...

Gnocchi and Sauce

I am completely addicted to gnocchi. This use to be another food that I hated up until a few years ago. I will confess that I attempted to make this once myself. It turned out pretty decent but boy was it a pain in the @ss to make! The counter gets stuck with flour and potato residue and you really have to be committed to making a billion batches at a time if you want to make it...just my opinion. Tonight I opted to buy it premade. I served it with some fresh tomato sauce and garlic bread on the side. Perfect comfort food.

Beets, Beans and BBQ Skewers

I have to say I am proud of myself with this beet dish. Now, a few years ago I never would have touched beets no matter how they were cooked. When I was young I remember my mom making beet dishes and hating even the smell of them. Now I love them!

This recipe was inspired by Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables. When I was in Portland, Oregon in 2006 I saw the documentary made on Farmer John and actually got to meet him which was amazing. He talks about generation of farming and CSA's. It really is a great documentary. Well he sold a book which I absolutely love. It is divided by seasons (which means nothing here in Winnipeg!!) but each vegetable has a page dedicated to it about storage, flavour companions etc plus amazing recipes. This beet recipe was tweeked a little from his original one.

Beets in a Creamy Sauce
6 med beets
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup veggie stock
1/4 cup soy milk (or almond/rice)
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped

Cut the tops and bottoms off of the beets and scrub them clean. Place them in a glass dish with half cup of water and cover with lid or foil. Place in oven at 425 for about an hour (you can also roast garlic in the oven at the same time for another use). When you can pierce them easily with a fork they are done! Take them out and let them cool a bit before running them under cold water. Their skins will easily come off. Slice beets in half and then in quarters. All of this can be done ahead of time.

In a pan sautee the onions in evoo, add flour and cook for 2 minutes, add stock, soy milk and dijon mustard and stir to combine. Let thicken for 1 minute then add the cut up beets. Let simmer over low heat for 10 minutes until the beets are warm again!

On the side I reheated some rice and onions with local green beans and Gardein BBQ Skewers. I had a coupon to try them for free and they were actually pretty decent. I found them filling and only actually ate one of them.

Fresh Garden Sandwiches

A trip to Crampton's Market and a visit from my parents yielded me some nice local veggies. I got an eggplant, tomato, red pepper, zucchini, cucumber and red onion. I sliced everything up and roasted it, added some fresh red pepper hummus, sliced up some fresh ciabatta bread and came up with the following creation:

Cold Pasta Salad with Lemon-Dill Dressing

Tonight we had a cold pasta salad. I cut up some cucumbers from a friend's garden, local carrots, baby onions and celery. I used Eden Organics pasta shells, cooked up some chickpeas from scratch and added some of Crampton's Lemon-Dill sauce. This is the perfect summer salad. Plus we have tons of leftovers so I won't have to worry about lunch for the next few days.

Boca Spicy Chick'n Burgers and Potato Salad

I was lucky enough to take a quick trip to the USA on Monday with a good friend so I loaded up on some Boca burgers that I still cannot find here. Tonight for supper we had one of the Spicy Chick'n Boca burger on whole wheat buns with tomatoes. Sides of fresh local carrots and celery and I made a quick potato salad that had a lemon/dill dressing from Crampton's market and cut up green onions topped with a few bacon bits.

Pizza

I was buy myself tonight so I splurged and bought some flour....have you seen the price of flour these days!!! I topped it with a combo of earth balance and Frank's Red hot sauce for the bottom layer then added artichoke hearts, black olives, pineapple, left over ground seitan and some Blue Sheese. yummy!!!

Seitan "ham" stuffing, potatoes and asparagus

Even though it was super warm out today I made Bryanna's Setian "ham" in the toaster oven. It turned out pretty decent even though I was missing 1/4 of the ingredients. I was craving a sunday night dinner but did not have time over the weekend so we had it tonight. I pan fried some baby potatoes and steamed some local asparagus with some homemade cranberry sauce and stuffing on the side. YumYum

Taco Salad

My mother brought me some fresh Romain lettuce out of her garden and I had some veggie ground round mexican flavour so decided to make a salad. I served some salsa and tofutti "sour cream" on the side with chopped up olives and tortilla chips. yummy

Potato Salad and Sandwiches

My parents were over for supper tonight and we wanted to have something nice but does not require hours of cooking in the oven. I have not made too many potato salads in the past but must say I am very impressed with this one. 95% of the ingredients tonight were picked up from Crampton's Market. If you still have not been to Crampton's....drop everything right now and go to the corner of Waverly and Bishop Grandin. I assure you will not be disappointed. Excellent selection and amazing customer service!
The sandwiches are on delicious whole clove garlic bread (a must for when you go to Crampton's), with dill hummus, local cucumbers and tomatoes, lettuce and garlic sprouts.



"Creamy" Dilly Vegan Potato Salad
2-3 lbs of baby potatoes cut in half
1 tsp salt for boiling water
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
2 dill pickles, chopped
1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped
3-4 tbsps tahini
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp vinegar (I used Apple Cider)
1 tbsp pickle juice (straight from the jar)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste.



Boil potatoes in salt water for 15-20 minutes making sure not to overcook. Add chopped onion, dill and pickles into a bowl. Add the rest of ingredients right into the bowl and stir to incorporate all ingredients. Drain potatoes and add to sauce coating all pieces. Top with vegan bacon bits just before serving. Enjoy.

Sweet and Sticky Wingz

I was craving some gluten tonight and had found a bag on sale last week. I have been wanting to make a seitan ham but the heat is preventing me from doing so. Enter Sweet and Sticky Wingz. You can find the recipe on the amazing Vegan Dad's Blog. Vegan Dad has so many amazing recipes that I wish I could try them all (hopefully one day I will!)

These things are super simple to make and I could not believe how amazing the sauce tasted. Granted it is filled with maple syrup and sugar but OMG you need to try it! I served some quinoa/couscous/orzo on the side with a salad. I will definitely be making these again but I think next time I will make them in small one bite sized chunks.

Pasta Primavera?

Tonight was not exactly what I had in mind for dinner but we needed to use up some leftover veggies so voila. Now I am not exactly sure what pasta primavera is but I always assumed it was pasta with veggies so this is what I will call tonight's dinner. I sautéed some onions and 2 Tofurky sausages in EVOO, added zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms. I added a little veggie stock thickened with 1 tbsp of flour to about 1 cup of veggie stock and then mixed everything in with 1 bog of wholewheat rotini. I added some fresh chopped tomatoes at the end. It was actually pretty decent and the only herb I added was some basil.

Annie Chun's Udon Soup

I have seen these for sale before and have always been curious to try them but they have always been super expensive. Well they had them on sale at London Drugs for 3.69 and I had $1.00 off coupons so I bought a few. I have to say that I am actually pretty impressed. The bowls are biodegradable which is amazing and the soup is actually quite filling. The broth is very tasty. The only drawback is that the noodles are very long and difficult to eat with a spoon and end up making a mess everywhere. As well there are little red chili flakes hidden in the soup and if you bite into one...yowsers! Overall though for 2.69 it is a great deal for convenience food that is vegan.

Baked Beans and more beans.

Tonight we had some baked beans with green and yellow beans and a Tofurky beer brat on the side. For some reason the sausage did not taste as it usually does so I did not really like it. I was impressed with the beans although I did find them a little too sweet.

Way too hot to cook!!!

It has been getting too hot to cook lately so that is why there are a lack of posts. Tonight we had tacos with Mexican ground round, shredded butter lettuce, Blue Sheese, sweet vidalia onions and chunky salsa. yummy!

Taquitos, Potatoes and Zucchini

I love our little toaster oven that we got last year. It means we can still enjoy warm food even once it gets super hot out. Tonight we had taquitos with zucchini and homemade potato wedges. I seem to be running out of motivation to cook but maybe we just need to find some inspiration.

Picnic Food

We went out for a Birth Roots Doula Collective picnic today which was so much fun. We each brought our own lunches and they supplied a vegan cake (unfortunately was not vegan but DH had a piece for me!). I made some sandwiches on a loaf of sourdough bread. I added hummus, mustard, marinated artichoke hearts, cucumbers, vidalia onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and grated blue Sheese. We had some nice peaches and popcorn (who knew popcorn was a good picnic food!) on the side. For dessert I made some of Kittee's amazing peanut butter fudge. It was such a beautiful day out but we went to a pool party right afterwards and were dead tired by the time we got home! What a fun day :)

Sloppy Joes and Fries

I have been craving these for a while now and still remember how great the recipe I use to make them is. I think they come from the Garden of Vegan (the green book by Sarah Kramer). I cannot remember the title right now. They are super simple to make tvp, onions, red peppers, seasoning, tomato sauce but they taste amazing. I even shredded up some zucchini to boost up the veggies.

Here is the cake I worked on today for hubby's birthday. I usually make it a 4 layer cake but I thought we could cut out some calories by halving the recipe....yeah right! It is a Chocolate Raspberry Torte to Live for! I have made it before and only making a half recipe makes it go much quicker. I cannot wait to dive into it later on tonight!

Stuffed Chik'n Breasts, Aspargaus and Spaghetti Squash

Tonight we had an array of items for supper. Many of the items came from Crampton's Market. Seriously if you live in Winnipeg and have never been drive down there tomorrow. They are friendly and amazing. I roasted some potatoes in various spices, roasted the local asparagus with some salt and pepper and cooked up a spaghetti squash. This squash is special because I purchased it at Crampton's Market last September! It lasted this long on my counter. I made a alfredo-type sauce to go on top of it because I did not want to serve it with a tomato sauce. The main attraction was the stuffed Chik'n breast and some really amazing Potato-Rosemary bread from....Crampton's Market! We were stuffed after this meal which is good because there was no dessert :)

Mock Alfredo Sauce
1/2 box Silken Tofu
1 cup almond milk
1 tsp salt and pepper
1/4 of a small onion, minced
handful of grated Blue Sheese
pinch of nutmeg
1 tbsp earth balance (vegan butter)
2 tbsp flour

Melt earth balance and flour and let it brown for a few minutes. Meanwhile put everything else in the blender and blend. Pour into pot, whisk until no lumps and heat until it boils. Makes quite a bit of thick sauce. Thin it out with water if too thick.

Veggie Dogs and Fries

Lazy Dinner today after a day filled with meetings. We had Yves Veggie Chili Dogs with various toppings and french fries. I guess we are missing some veggies...potatoes and minced onions are veggies right?

Perogies and Snap Peas

I found some perogies at the back of the freezer so I sliced an onion and sauteed these with some organic snap peas. I have never had these peas warm before but they were actually quite good.

Pizza and salad

We really need to go shopping because it is getting slim-pickings in the fridge. I whipped up a batch of pizza dough smothered it with tomato sauce added some sliced red onion, 1 crumbled veggie burger, black olives and vegan parmesan cheese. Mixed salad on the side with raspberry poppy seed vinaigrette (from Cramptons which is simply amazing and flavourful!).

Chickpea Cutlets, asparagus, roasted potatoes and salad

Tonight we had chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. Have not had these in a while and I really missed them. I love making them into little nugget sized cutlets. We had some local asparagus on the side, this was roasted in the oven with a little bit of evoo and salt and pepper, roasted potatoes with seasoning and evoo and a nice mix of salads on the side. We had some agave for a dipping sauce. Yum.

Brinner

With little to no groceries left in the house I had to improvise for dinner tonight...so we had brinner. I made some homemade roasted potatoes (cut potatoes, little evoo, rosemary and salt and pepper and baked in the oven) with some Brainless Banana and chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and maple syrup on top. Yummy!

Potato and Tofu Stew

I was craving the rich sauce from Vegan With a Vengeance's Potato and Tofu Stew in Miso broth. I was shocked to discover that I only had half of the miso required to make this recipe but it still turned out great. I used fresh creamer potatoes from California and local mushrooms and carrots. This stew really hit the spot and has truly become comfort food to me.

Pretzel Bites a la VeganDad

Tonight we had Pretzel Bits a la VeganDad blog. His blog is filled with amazing recipes which are all kid and adult friendly. His recipe for Pretzel Bites is super easy. We had some Yves Chili dogs that I cut up in 4 and wrapped some of the pretzel dough around them. They tasted amazing!

Of course Pretzel Bites taste better when they are dipped in both mustard and ketchup!

Avocado and Cucumber Sushi

Kind of a simple supper tonight. I rolled up some sushi with avocado and cucumbers. Very tasty and we had some nice watermelon for dessert.

Best Sandwich Ever and fruit salad

Here is the amazing sandwich I made for supper. I went to Crampton's Market again today to pick up a few things. This sandwich is made with local multigrain bread, local tomatoes, local cucumbers, lettuce, local hummus, homemade cranberry sauce and pickles. I served a nice fruit salad on the side. Now I know you are thinking what!?! cranberry sauce and hummus!?! Try it...it is an amazing combination. I could eat a sandwich like this every day.