Friday, November 30, 2012

#335 Mexicana Kale Bowl

This was the best bowl of leftovers I've ever had!

In the very back of Appetite for Reduction, there's a section on, The importance of eating sandwich and The element of a bowl. One of the suggestions is the Mexicana Kale Bowl: Brown rice, black beans, red velvet mole (from Monday) steamed sweet potato, steamed kale and cilantro. I added avocado too. It was heaven. I have such a love affair for kale and cilantro, it was wonderful to enjoy them together. The yam hit the spot since I skipped them at Thanksgiving. I missed them.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

#334 Teriyaki Chik'n Bowl

I made this with Gardein's teriyaki chicken. I cooked it according to their directions. I also steamed broccoli and roasted some cherry tomatoes and cremini mushrooms. I served it over white basmati rice. Yum!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

#333 Portobello Pepper Steak Stew

Yum yum yum! This is a new one for me, from Appetite for Reduction. Portobello pepper steak stew served with caulipots. I also made the surefire seitan (from AFR) so I tried 2 new recipes. It's so exciting to keep discovering great new meals from my favorite cookbook. This was a total stick to your ribs, meat and potatoes meal that everybody loved. Mia and Finn especially grubbed on the seitan. Mia rarely likes faux meat so this is kind of a big deal. Bonus: The stew is made in one skillet. Yay!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

#332 Cookie Bars


Don't you love the strategically places junk food items at the check out stand at Trader Joes?! They usually make me mad because there's nothing for me...but yesterday, I found something I could actually buy. This is the blondie bar mix. I used earth balace and Ener-G egg replacer instead of butter and eggs. They came out super yummy, a little on the greasy side though. MMMMM!!

Monday, November 26, 2012

#331 Black beans in mole with Broccoli Polenta

These 2 recipes (soft broccoli polenta & black beans in red velvet mole) are from Appetite for Reduction. It was yummy, quick, and easy! Ryan and the kids liked it too.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

#330 Fried Mac and Cheese Balls

Yes. Yes. Yes. I did. Ok, so here's how I did it. I followed the directions for mac and cheese here. I added a teeny extra bit of cashew and didn't add the water to the cheese sauce. This made a thick creamy sauce. I needed it thick to act as a glue to hold the noodles together. I mixed the cheese with the noodles and spread them out on a plate and cooled it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. I rolled the mac and cheese into balls. Then, I rolled the balls into flour. Next, I dipped the balls into a little almond milk, then rolled it in panko. After the first round of panko, I squeezed the balls into tighter balls, dipped it one more time in almond milk and rolled it one last time in panko. I don't have a deep fryer. So I fried them by rolling them in canola oil.
Pre-Fried. Breaded and Ready to GO!

They came out amazing!! I served them in my wannabe Soul Bowl (Find the recipe here). I rolled them in buffalo sauce and served it up! Amazing! I can't wait to make these for Michelle!



WOAHHHH!! Look inside!!


Saturday, November 24, 2012

#329 Happy Thanksgiving!!!!


This year it was just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving at my house. I made all of our favorites: potato clover rolls (veganized from a recipe I found on www.food.com), a celebration roast from field roast, mashed potatoes and golden gravy (real food daily), green bean mushroom casserole (theppk.com), savory sausage stuffing (vegnews holiday cookbook), sliced cranberry sauce from a can (my high fructose corn syrup guilty pleasure) and voluptuous pumpkin pie with rad whip (from vegan pie in the sky). Everything was delicious! We have days worth of leftovers and so many dishes!!!

Friday, November 23, 2012

#328 Street Tacos

I'm calling these street tacos because they cooked up so fast and I ate them off a paper plate. . . though not on the street ;)

Sean whipped this up for me. It's a corn tortilla slathered with warm refried beans, grilled gardein scallopini (shredded), lettuce, tomato, and topped with Follow Your Heart creamy garlic dressing. Yumm! Good job Sean!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

#327 Thanksgiving Breakfast


I have a lot of cooking to do today so breakfast needed to be quick and easy.  We had cinnamon rolls from Trader Joe's and tempeh bacon. I had a mimosa (okay, I had 2) with almond sparkling wine and a venti soy misto with 1 pump of cinnamon dolce from Starbucks!  What a perfect way to start the day!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

#326 Almost Thanksgiving Dinner

This Thanksgiving, we're going to be in Las Vegas. Not wanting to miss out on Thanksgiving food completely, I made this dinner by cooking Gardein's breaded turkey. I made easy mashed potatoes by boiling the potatoes in veggie stock instead of water. This gave it a little extra flavor. I cooked up some green beans and sprinkled a little cayenne pepper at the end to add a little heat. I put a little scoop of cranberry sauce and poured lots of mushroom gravy on the turkey and mashed potatoes! Mmmm!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

#325 Preserved lemons


I know they're not a meal on their own, but I will be using them in some upcoming meals.  These are the slow method of preserved lemons from Terry Hope Romero's newest cookbook Vegan Eats World.  These have been hanging out in my cool garage for the past 2 weeks.  Now they are going in the fridge to live.  The small jar is for Lynzie...if she wants it.

Monday, November 19, 2012

#324 Moroccan Spiced Pumpkin Soup


This was my first time using this cookbook. The soup came out yummy but it definitely confused me...The picture of this soup on the back of the cookbook was bright orange and looked thick... mine came out...well brown and thin. I checked the directions and ingredients probably a million times. I don't understand how the soup would come out as thick as in the picture with 4 cups of liquid added to a 15 oz. can of pumpkin purée. . . that being said it was tasty. My notes for the next time I make it are: use less onion (an entire onion was too much) and use a little less cayenne than suggested. 

I served these with vegetable pakoras from Trader Joes. They were yummy. Sean and I agreed that the pakoras would be better served with a cool creamy dip like sour cream as opposed to the sweet dipping sauce it came with. 


Sunday, November 18, 2012

#323 Jackfruit Quesadilla

This was a clean out the fridge meal. Flour tortilla, vegetarian refried beans, BBQ jackfruit, shredded cabbage, avocado, and green mole salsa. Yum!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

#322 Red Pozole


Lynzie's Version...Yes, there's soup under there!
Broth before toppings
I love this soup. I'm so glad the weather finally cooled down enough to make soups again. I eat my pozole almost like a salad as you can see in the first picture. I used all the toppings the recipe suggested (shredded cabbage, fresh corn, radish, cilantro, avocado, tortilla strips, lime, and red onion).  This soup was so good, I didn't even mind eating the leftovers twice!!!

 I got the recipe for this yummy soup from a fellow blogger. You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!

Sean's Version






Friday, November 16, 2012

#321 Circus Confetti Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my friend Sarah's early 30th birthday celebration in Solvang. She loves confetti cake...who doesn't? It's so fun and colorful! I found these cool, striped, paper cups at TJ Maxx awhile back. They're in between mini and regular sized. I'd never worked with baking cups like them before, I liked that I didn't need to use a muffin tin and they retained their color nicely. My local bake shop started carrying this cool line of toppers and tags and I'm obsessed!! Remember the dancing kitty ones I used for Moxie's birthday cakes? These elephants were perfect for the big top tent-esque liners. The cupcake and frosting recipes came from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. I usually make the oil version of vanilla cupcakes but this time I did the margarine variation. A lot richer in flavor and color. They were more dense, but in a good buttery way, less spongy. The birthday girl liked them, that's all that matters!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

#320 Caldo Verde with Crumbled Tempeh

Another new one from Appetite for Reduction. I used to make the Native Food's version of caldo verde all the time and got burned out on it. So glad I was in the mood for it tonight, it was delicious! The fennel seeds and tempeh gave it a nice, smoky, sausage-like flavor. I halved the salt and crushed red pepper and it was still a bit salty (and spicy according to Mia). I made a note of that in my cookbook already so next time will be perfection. I used chard this time but I'm excited to try it with kale also.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

#319 Corn & scallion cornbread

Technically this Soul Bowl post isn't a repeat because I used a new cornbread recipe. This one is from my favorite, Appetite for Reduction. Ryan really liked it, he said "this biscuit, or whatever, is amazing! The rest is the same old stuff but the bread thing is new." Oh man, sometimes he surprises me. But usually he's oblivious. Which means this cornbread must be good!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

#318 Soyrizo Potato Salad

I made this by cooking diced potatoes in a little oil. When the potatoes were cooked, I added in soyrizo and cooked it until it browned. I used romaine lettuce as the base and put diced tomato and avocado slices on top. I used a teeny bit of Follow Your Heart Vegan Caesar dressing for a little tang. Very yummy!

Monday, November 12, 2012

#317 Mediterranean Ravioli

I bought a package of mediterranean garlic and herb ravioli. Rising Moon Organics makes the yummiest vegan ravioli! I poured a garlic marinara over the ravioli. I also added some quartered artichoke hearts to go with the Mediterranean theme. Yum!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

#316 Corn Dogs

We baked these according to the directions. I like mine dipped in ketchup and mustard. We also made onion dip for dipping our chips into :)

Saturday, November 10, 2012

#315 Mason Jar Salad

We are in Solvang this weekend celebrating our friend's 30th birthday. Today we went wine tasting, which included a stop for lunch. Since we weren't sure if there would be vegan options for us, I packed our beloved goddess nicoise salad in mason jars to bring along. I love everything about mason jars and have been wanting to try this out for awhile now. I packed them pretty tightly and had to pour it out into a bowl. I can't believe how big this salad was!!!! Now I know I don't have to stuff it so full and will have room to shake the salad up and eat it out of the jar.

Friday, November 9, 2012

#314 Dirty Rice

Vegan crumbles cooked with white rice, and creole seasoning. I mixed in chopped green onion at the end before serving. It was yummy but a little too salty.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

#313 Roasted Butternut Alfredo

Holy moly!! This was amazing!!! The recipe is from ThePPK.com. Check it out...and make it soon!

http://www.theppk.com/2012/10/roasted-butternut-alfredo/

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

#312 Orange You Glad I Made Crispy Tofu?


This was so yummy!!! I feel like this is some of the yummiest tofu I've ever made!! I love how easy this dinner came together. The ingredients were all common kitchen staples! Mmmm! I served the tofu with a mix of brown rice and mixed quinoa with steamed broccoli. If you haven't bought this cookbook yet, you should!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

#311 Scrambled Tofu Breakfast Bahn Mi

This was the first thing I made from Terry Hope Romero's newest cookbook, Vegan Eats World. I love breakfast for dinner so that's when we had it! I just so happened to have pickled carrot and daikon on hand so that reduced the prep work a lot. Everybody enjoyed this sandwich, we'll definitely be eating this often!

Monday, November 5, 2012

#310 ChocoPB Banana Sundae

Bananas go so well with chocolate and peanut butter. I added some banana slices to a couple scoops of chocolate peanut butter ice cream and drizzled a little chocolate sauce on top. Mmmm!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

#309 In n Out

Although this wasn't a meal I made, I did doctor it up a bit. I whipped up a 1000 island dressing (vegenaise, ketchup, and dill relish) and added some tofurky and avocado to my burger. Yum!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

#308 Spaghetti and Meatballs

So I bought these new Morningstar Veggie Meatballs. I checked the ingredients before I bought them. But when I went to write this blog, I couldn't find the product information on the Morningstar website. In fact I couldn't even find the veggie meatballs at all! Sooooo...when I was at albertson's (yuck! I know) I picked up a box and looked at it. I think we're in the clear. I feel weird about it though since it doesn't say vegan on it....Can anyone else back me up on this? or tell me I ate something bad? I can deal with it...I just hate not being sure. Any who...if there were vegan, they were delish...and if they weren't....serious BUMMERINO.

Friday, November 2, 2012

#307 Clean out the fridge baked potato

I had a lot of uneaten leftovers in the fridge to use up (most of them got thrown away). I wish this was more exciting, oh well! It's a baked potato with gardein chipotle lime crispy fingers, roasted corn, avocado, cilantro, green enchilada sauce and crushed multigrain tostito scoops. It was yummy!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

#306 BBQ Chik'n Sandwich

We made these with Gardein BBQ nuggets. I cooked them according to the stove top directions. Sean sliced the veggies and shredded the chik'n. these sandwiches were great with some twisty fries :) MmmmMmmmMmm!