Lentil Snobby Joes over Polenta

I have not been feeling well since I returned from Boston but I was still craving a nice homemade meal tonight. A few months ago I bought a huge bag of Puy French Lentils and have been itching to use them in recipes. This lead me to open Veganomicon and boom I found Lentil Snobby Joes. These have been on my list of things to try out for a while so I was excited to try them. The ingredients are super simple and even incorporate my favourite ingredient in this world...maple syrup! The end result was a nice smokey flavour. I plan on making a nice big batch and freezing some to have on hand.

I also recently purchased some polenta wanting to give it another shot. I sliced it up and fried it on my griddle. In the end we found it did not have much taste to it but the consistency was nice and the polenta paired very well with the Snobby Joes. It was a nice alternative to buns or bread.

The side salad was made with a Top-Secret salad dressing recipe which includes Tahini and Miso and then topped with Hemp Seeds.


Okay I cannot resist showing a picture of my furbabies...Moon and Zany :)

Boston Veg Fest 2010

I had an amazing opportunity to go to Boston over the weekend to attend their 15th Annual Veg Fest. Wow was it amazing! It gave us amazing ideas on what we would like to do for our very own Winnipeg Veg Fest coming in August 2011. Here is some of the food we had in Boston.

Our first restaurant visit was My Thai Vegan Cafe. I was a little skeptical about this restaurant as we walked up a long set of green stairs. Once we got to the top though the inside was very beautiful. I guess you really cannot judge a book by its cover!

Golden Triangles...filled with veggie-chicken and veggies with a nice peanute sauce. They were delicious.

Vegan Pad Thai...was decent but not super.

Gaeng Kiow Wahn...green curry with veggie beef and veggies. This was one of the most amazing dishes I have ever had in my life. The green curry and coconut milk combination was so delicious and the combination of veggies made this a perfect dish.


There was tons of food choices within the Veg Fest and unforunately I did not get a chance to take a picture of all of them. This combo was a vegan curried goat and BBQ tofu. The Curry part was great but the bbq was nothing to write home about.

This company....Like No Udder...was one of the many soy treats available at the Veg Fest. We had milkshakes, coconut ice cream, peanut and butter ice cream and the topper...Vegan Soft Serve in a Twisted format with chocoalte and Vanilla.

Here I am enjoying my cone!

I absolutely loved Boston. It was so easy to get around the city with the subway and evereyone was so friendly. There were so many restaurants we could not get to but were happy with the restaurants we visited while in Boston.

Vegan Mofo 2010...Why I became Vegan!

Vegan MOFO (Month of Food) 2010 is here and I am committing myslef to blog at least 5 times a week. There are over 375 vegan blogs all over the world participating this year which is awesome.

I thought it would be appropriate to start the month off with sharing my reason as to why I became vegan. I remember growing up and never loving the taste of meat. We never ate much of it and I was blessed with a mother who cooked an amazing variety of meals filled with fresh veggies. As I got older I dipped into vegeteraianism because of not liking the taste of meat and no other reason. Of course I lied to myself during this time while I labelled myslef a "vegetarian" but still ate chicken because I thought that was how it was done.

Fast forward to 2004 when I started educating myself. I started watching the videos, reading the pamphlets and it broke my heart. I consider myself a very compassionate person towards all animals and people and once I saw what the horrific torture these animals were experiencing the nightmares began. I made a vow to return to being a vegetarian with a transition of becoming a vegan.

On August 5th, 2004 I read about a cat nammed Kensington. The tears pour down my face as I remember the fate that this cat suffered. He died alone, scared and in pain at the hands of saddist. I cannot even bear to go into this story but you can read more about Kensington's story here.


Because of Kensington I made the decision to go Vegan over night. Kensington is the reason for my veganism. I never want another animal to suffer at the hands of humans. The nightmares went away and I never looked back. I love being a vegan and have explored so many new food options over the years. It has been over 6 years that I made the decision to become a vegan and I have loved every day of it.

To Kensington...I hope you are now living your life out over the Rainbow Bridge where no one else can ever hurt you and I hope you know you will always have a place in my heart.

2010 Thanksgiving Meal #1

I know it has been forever since I posted last but work has been insane this summer. I had an amazing time working at a seasonal market called Crampton's Market. I had an amazing boss, worked with great people and ate some good local fruits and veggies. I also worked all the time which left me zero time to cook. All that is about to change as I said goodbye to my summer job this weekend. Now I am free to get back in the kitchen.

That being said I opted to order in for our Thanksgiving meal tonight. Boon burger, which is a local all-vegan burger joint was offering an all inclusive Thanksgiving meal. It included a "turkey" patty, maple yams, caramlized onions, stuffing,cranberry sauce and gravy.

I cracked the lid open and everything looked amazing. When we finally dove in I was amazed at the flavours that I found in the various dishes. It was simply amazing and I am glad that I got it. It is so awesome that we vegan's have more alternatives then just buying Tofurkey Roasts.

Rustic Bread and Zucchini Lasagna

First of all I have to apologize for the lack of posting. I am now working full time so that is taking up most of the time. The amazing thing is I work at Crampton's Market which is an amazing place that sells local veggies, fruit and stuff. Anyhow to tonight's dinner...

I had to admit that I was quite intregued when I first read about this lasagna that uses layers of bread instead of pasta. Turns out it is friggin fantastic. This is perfect comfort food for winter. I modeled my recipe from the recipe for Rustic Bread & Eggplant Lasagna from the amazing Vegan Yum Yum Blog.

I started off with a homemade sauce simmering on the stove. I used portabellos, onions, carrots, roasted garlic, lentils, local tomatoes and Aussie Basil. I then sliced an old loaf of ciabatta bread and roasted it in the oven with Garlic Infused Oil. I sliced some local zucchini and layered the bread, zucchini and sauce with vegan Daiya cheese. The end result tasted amazing. I made one to freeze and will be looking forward to eating it very soon. This recipe is a keeper for sure!

We had a slice of this lasagna with local green and yellow beans steamed on the side.

I have an amazing friend who went to Fargo, ND over the weekend and returned with these 2 large bags of Daiya cheeze. Enough to last for the rest of the year! I portioned them out into smaller 2 cup bags and now have 32 cups of Daiya cheeze waiting for me in the freezer. Now to start looking for recipes that I want to make :)

Dragonbowl Salad and Latkes

I am trying to clean out the fridge and cupboards and found some mock chick'n strips hiding in the back of the freezer so we had those tonight with a nice refreshing salad made with lettuce right out of the garden, local baby carrots, local baby beets, shelled hemp seeds and a miso-tahini dressing. I also baked some grated zucchini and sweet potato on the side.

Local Salad, Baby Potatoes and Seitan Sandwich

Vegan Reuben Sandwiches

I have been craving these since I had amazing Vegan Reuben sandwiches in Portland, Oregon in 2007. I wanted to make a seitan recipe and found a great recipe for Vegan Corned Beef on Vegan Dad's amazing Blog. The recipe was super simple to make once I restocked my spice cupboard. This recipe makes a huge amount of seitan, is very economical and freezes well. I sliced the Vegan Corned Beef into thin layers and topped it with saurekraut, homemade Thousand Island Dressings (vegannaise, ketchup and chopped pickles) and a spread made up of tahini and miso, all on rye bread.

For the Love of Cherries!!!

I was looking for something a little different for supper tonight and stumbled upon a recipe for Mexican Stuffed Portabellos from Herbivore Dinosaur's blog. Very basic ingredients, local tomatoes, onions and cilantro stuffed into portabello mushroom caps. I served this with a side of roasted corn and Jasmine rice tossed with cilantro and a splash of Lemon Grapeseed oil. It tasted very refreshing and delicious.

I was lucky enough to be gifted a case of cherries and spent most of my day off pitting these little round beauties. I then invested in a cherry pitter and it made my life so much easier. I froze around 3/4 of the cherries, kept some fresh cherries and made these amazing Cherry and Almond Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. I love that these only have a small amount of oil and sugar. The recipe uses soy yogurt which I rarely buy but wouldn't you know when I went shopping they had tubs on sale for 0.99 today because they expired today! These taste amazing and I will be freezing most of them so I can grab one for a quick snack.