Substantial Mix-n-Match Salad
Mango (Passion-less) Sorbet
Mushy Peas
Post-Race Protein Shake
Sticky Rice with Mango
Chocolate-Dipped Things
Baked Polenta Fries
Easy Apple Tarts
Orange-Soy Seitan Tenders with Polish Pimped Mashed Potatoes & red kale
Smoky Zucchini Bean Dip
Chocolate-Covered Cherries
Mega-Israeli Salad
Balsamic-Baked Beans
Arty-Farty Party Nuts
Chocolate Mousse
Tapenade
Tri-Color Quinoa
Niblet Salad
Blueberry-Banana Bread
This is a photo of Liv begging with all her might. When she heard we were baking a birthday cake for grandma, she made me get down Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, and flipped through until she came to page 65, and said, "This is the one. Make this one." I've never seen her do this before. I was convinced, and would have attempted it if I'd been prepared. I couldn't find the agar I used back in 2006, was out of silken tofu, and am unfamiliar with castor sugar. So get this creamy picture out of your mind! It's not what I baked.
I came up with this 'Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting' from Joy of Vegan Baking. I've found that one of those giant tupperwares upside down transports a cake from my spring form pan perfectly. The red lid is beneath the plate.
I like this cookbook because it uses ingredients I have on hand and I haven't found a dud. It was a dense & delicious cake, and the frosting could have used more soy milk (my bad). Olivia never mentioned the creamy cupcake again. We'll tackle that another day.
My mom LOVES roosters, so I felt lucky to spot this cookie jar from the street at a garage sale. $10. Sold.
I filled it up with the crowd pleasing 'Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies' from Vive le Vegan!
I went over the critical 11 minute cooking time, and even a little crisp, these cookies are great.
If I'd had an Endangered Species bar, I would have made our favorite cookie, 'Chocolate Mint Melties' from eat, drink, and be vegan.
We think these cookies are the best.
See Jolie checking out the best of a Farmer's Market run? Tomato, Swiss Chard, and Kale plants for our garden. I also picked up some vegetables from The Peaceful Belly, but overall, I can't help but be disappointed about the lack of variety at the market. Next time I'm doing a head count, cuz I think there's as many meat vendors as veggie vendors. Is that wrong? I'm for local selling, buying, eating, etc. & I know meat speaks volumes of my location, but still...
Speaking of veggies... This is the 'Super Spring Salad' from the May issue of Meatout Mondays. It's a recipe from the wonderful blog, Live It Up Vegan!
As much as I love this kind of food, my family does not. Their idea of trying the salad was plucking out the big chunks of fresh corn cut off the cob. I don't overly try to convince them and enjoy it myself over the course of a couple days. Loved it! Thanks, Gaia!
Lately, this has been occupying the girls while I cook or do the dishes. They love it.
Write the shape of a letter using white glue. Stick beans (or noodles, or whatever) along the shape.
They are now on "J" and I plan to string up the alphabet.
This idea came from Kids Craft Weekly, which is a great resource for fuss-free themed ideas.
The kids also love to get in on the kitchen action using rolling pin and cutters. Abi had fun making 'Whole Wheat Sesame Crackers' from May All Be Fed by John Robbins.
Originally I was drawn to his 'Chapatis' recipe on the opposite page to accompany the dish below, which was my second (hand) Smoked Paprika experience, which is much less harmful than it sounds! :)
The crackers scooped up this 'Chana Dal'
2 c (uncooked) split baby garbanzos (chana dal)
6 c water
3 cloves red garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
sea salt to taste
Saute the garlic in oil until fragrant, add the rest and simmer until tender. Puree to desired consistency (I reserved some). Feeling brave, I threw on tomatoes after learning that tomatoes are OK if they're still on the vine, cherry, or from your own garden!! Buy organic.
I broke my Smoked Paprika seal on this awesome 'Smoked Paprika Hummus' recipe that the urban vegan sent after reading my desperate plea below.
This was delicious! I used Triscuits to scoop, and when those were gone, I grabbed a spoon. Thank you for this yummy recipe, Dynise!!
We've been bicycling everywhere! I pull the girls in a trailer and it feels great on many levels. More later.....
This is Vegan YumYum's 'Sour Cream Banana Bundt Cake' with fresh peaches. I had everything except a bundt pan, so I used a jumbo muffin tin, reducing the bake time to about 25 minutes. I had it again the next day with kiwi, and imagine any fruit would be delectable on top it's so good - moist and delicately flavored. I highly recommend this recipe, especially if you have 3 bananas that need to be reincarnated, and you're in the mood for a yum-yummy treat.
Making more of Bryanna's 'Vegan Pork Tenderloin' from the Everyday Dish DVD, because we were out... again. We really dig this roast, and I seriously can't wait for her upcoming seitan e-book.
This time, I added 1/8 tsp ground chipotle chile and 1/4 tsp poultry seasoning, and will probably do the same next time. I have the Romertopf clay cooker #111, which I recommend because it is larger and you can double the recipe, cooking 2 roasts side by side, which is what I'll do next time...
We haven't had an outdoor grill for many years, and on a whim we picked one up. We christened the Smoky Joe with boca burgers, black bean burgers, Yves Dogs, and Vegan Pork Tenderloin. The verdict? The burgers were better than ever, and Art loved the hot dogs dipped in spicy mustard. We were disappointed that the Pork Tenderloin dried out too much. Is it because we didn't put bbq sauce on until the plate (we wanted to keep it clean). Any tips on grilling seitan? We had fun cooking outside, and next time I'm throwing on some veggies.
Going to The Berry Ranch has become a tradition for us. It's a cute farm nearby that grows raspberries, blackberries, sweet corn, pumpkins, and so much more including hanging petunia baskets you see in front of the barn.
This time, we bought a flat of blackberries and a "celebrating 15 years" Berry Ranch mug. Although Art and I haven't been visiting the ranch that many years, we have been married that many coming up next month.
A Yummy Salad: greens, fava beans, beets, fresh cut corn, vegan pork tenderloin seitan sauteed with teriyaki & pomegranate juice, red bell pepper, French cornichons, and tossed with 'Simple Cider Vinaigrette' from Vive.
This is how I prepared the fava beans fresh from the FM: 1. pull open along the seams and remove the beans. 2. drop in boiling, salted water for 30 seconds. Drain & drop in ice water. 3. slice the inner skin of each bean with a fingernail and pop out the beans.
Amey, of Vegan Eats & Treats was in town for a wedding, and we were thrilled to have her and Musty over for breakfast yesterday. I took some photos, and can't wait to share them next time. See you soon!
This 'Banana Carob Almond Coconut Loaf' from ExtraVeganZa (pg. 125) was delicious! I used equal amounts of whole wheat pasty flour and spelt flour, and the recipe is actually for muffins, but I decided to just dump the mix in a loaf pan and it baked through nicely. The recipe also calls for chopped almonds inside the batter, but I knew the girls wouldn't go for it that way, so I put sliced almonds on top, which is easy to remove. Art and I ate several slices, and this is a yummy recipe with several flavors that compliment each other perfectly.
Here is a bread bowl of 'Potato-Asparagus Soup' from Vegan with a Vengeance (p. 99) I had an abundance of potatoes and asparagus to use up, and like magic, I found this recipe. Isa admits to not spicing up this recipe much because asparagus is her favorite vegetable and she wanted its flavor to shine through. It shined a little too much for us, and we added several shakes of chili powder and sea salt, which kicked it up a notch. I'm a huge fan of this cookbook, but this recipe turned out just OK. Look at the fresh lacy dill from my herb barrel! 
For Memorial Day we went to a barbecue at Fred & Wendy's house. She asked me to bring a salad, and my standby is 'Quinoa Spring Salad' from Vive le Vegan! (pg. 71) Art took this photo right before leaving, and the wind blew off, and took away the fresh cilantro garnish! I LOVE this salad, and this is a double recipe. Fred thoughtfully grilled some portobello mushrooms for us on the grill knowing we are veggie. Thanks for a fun party!
There was left-over salad from the party, so Art and I ate cups of salad the next day. Nasturtiums are growing like weeds in my herb barrel, so I dressed them up Hawaiian style!
More cups of salad! This time, I made a 'Simple Slaw' which had shredded cabbage, carrots, and green onion. It's tossed with Brianna's Real French Vinaigrette, which is a light dressing. I also added some sunflower seeds to mine after the photo - I like crunchy food!
Stay cool this summer! Looks like another hot one - we are already breaking records here in Idaho (yesterday was 20 degrees higher than the record!), and our power bill went up 20% because of the lack of moisture over the winter. Is it 2008 yet?
A new cookbook! It was only $16 on Amazon, and I got free shipping -- a big savings compared to the $27 they wanted at the restaurant that day...
Without a store run, I made 'Corn and black bean salad' (pg.107) I had everything except whole-grain mustard & red bell pepper. So, I added 1/2 tsp. mustard seed along with dijon, and a 'cado left from 5 May. The ingredients are basic, the dressing is fab! What are your favorites from this cookbook?
This is how we spent the morning -- on bikes with the cool-cloudy breeze all around, rushing river beside us, and the green tree canopy overhead. It was lovely. We packed a picnic of water and pb&j sandwiches and apples.
Smoothies are the best after some exercise. In the glass is a great blend of:
Fresh --- pineapple, peach, mango, banana, OJ
Frozen --- strawberries, water (ice!)
I also made 'Peanut Butter Cupcakes' from La Dolce Vegan! pg. 239 - We were pretty hungry, and they disappeared quickly sans photo. I'm still confused about the differences between muffins and cupcakes. What are the rules?
It was a bicyclin' kind of day, so we popped this inexpensive bottle of French red. It went perfectly with...
a green salad! This bowl consisted of:
Butter Lettuce
Red Butter Lettuce
Red Bell Pepper
Green Onion
Tomatoes (from the garden!)
Kale might be our favorite vegetable (we prefer VwaV 'Garlicky Kale' pg. 120) and I still had some Asian Tempest garlic around. You also see steamed asparagus & red bell pepper, which was added to the veats bites when they were finished cooking. There's also collard greens, which we think turns out best in the rice cooker with a little water and earth balance & sea salt -- that's it! Art cooked the Veats Bites with a small amout of basic bbq sauce. This is our favorite kind of meal --- Green!
I did some yoga, I'm not about to start my period, and I'm still not OK. Please, just go see the movie and encourage your friends.
There are many simple things we can do in our everyday life, and this is a nice action item list.
In that spirit, we took a trip to The Berry Ranch. You probably already know that buying locally reduces the amount of energy required to drive your products to your store. When you buy from the farmer, there is less packaging, which could reduce your garbage by about 10%. Save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide and $1,000 per year. An added bonus is when a farm is organic, which is great, because the chemicals used in modern agriculture pollute the water supply, and require energy to produce. Let's promote, support, and celebrate our local farms -- before they sell out.
Here are some of the berries from the farm along with cantaloupe. In the bowl is VwaV 'Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy' and this recipe seals the brilliance of Isa in my mind - it is amazing. The brown lump on the right is my first attempt at The Magical Loaf Studio -- a clever idea by Jennifer @ the Vegan Lunch Box Blog. Be sure to enter your choices at the above link, and press submit to reveal the quantities and instructions (something I failed to do)
I used:
Smart Ground
Hemp Seed Nuts (not on the menu)
Uncooked Quick Oatmeal
Onion
Canned Black Beans with Liquid
Flaxseed Meal
Vegetable Oil
Cumin
Bragg's (not on the menu)
This is just a simple salad I threw together and really enjoyed. In addition to the fresh corn we bought at the Berry Ranch, there is quinoa, tomato, and Tamari Sesame Dressing, on a bed of lettuce with lemon wedges.
These are VwaV Scones, pg. 42. I did Isa's 'Berry Scones' variation using some of our Berry Ranch berries. I baked these to take to a playdate for the girls at a swimming pool, and wanted them to be appealing, so I sprinkled some pink sugar on top (not let's do organic as I'd like it to be, but I'm using up what we have first). All the kids kept calling them cookies - I think because of the sprinkles. Hey, whatever works!
