#244 Angel Hair with a Creamy Tomato Sauce

The creamy tomato sauce was made by mixing Follow Your Heart cream cheese with my favorite tomato pasta sauce. I'm not sure exactly how much cream cheese I used...but I'd guess about a 1/4 of the container. I slowly added it, giving it a chance to melt. I stirred it into the angel hair pasta. Mmmmm! I also bought an artisan bread loaf and served warmed pieces with a garlic, olive oil and basalmic dipping sauce.

#243 Angel hair alla Checca

I love angel hair! It cooks up in 3 minutes and has the most fun, delicate texture. One night I was starving but couldn't figure out what to eat. I ran to trader Joe's and picked up whatever sounded good. When I got home, this is what I made. It hit the spot! I used TJ's Bruschetta Sauce (it's in the refrigerated section near the hummus) no need to heat it up, just toss it in with the warm, drained pasta. I had it with Kalamata bread and a glass of wine. Perfect!

#242 Chilequiles

I typed up a whole explanation for this and then the browser closed unexpectedly. I don't have it in me to retype it. . . but I will later. In the mean time you can just stare with curiousity at this picture.

#241 Scrambled Tortillas

This is not pretty to look at, but it is tasty to eat! The recipe is from Vegan Brunch. I think it's a take on a spanish tortilla (The Spanish omelette or Spanish tortilla, also called simply tortilla in English when there is no confusion with the Mexican maize tortilla, is a typically Spanish dish consisting of a thick egg omelette made with potatoes and fried in olive oil.) thanks Wikipedia! Soft, blended tofu is used in place of the egg and steamed corn tortillas are mixed in as well. Topped with a spiced tomato sauce (I used garden tomatoes! Yummy) and avocado. Cozy breakfast in a bowl. I had daiya shreds on hand but I actually liked it better without.

#240 Potato and Kale Enchiladas

The recipe for this came from Veganomicon. I love love love the filling. It's made with potatoes, kale, lime juice, garlic and cumin. I ate so much of it!! Mmmmm! I also made spanish rice for the side. Yummers.

#239 Chili Cheese Dip

This is an old favorite from my pregan days. Ridiculously simple and always a crowd pleaser, mix a can of chili with a tub of cream cheese, serve with tortilla chips. Done! For parties I keep it warm in a small crockpot. I think the best chips to use are Scoops. I really love the multigrain ones. It's like eating a lil bowl of chili.

#238 Portobello Mushroom Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing

This recipe came from Veganomicon. Whenever I take out this cookbook, I always stop and look at the picture of this salad and think to myself, "I need to make this someday." Well today I made it. . . and. . . mehhh :/

My problem with it was the mushroom. The marinade I cooked the mushroom with was too vinegary- especially since the dressing was heavy on vinegar flavors from the mustard and red wine vinegar.

 I liked the mustard dressing though! It was really yummy! If I make this again, I won't use the marinade for the mushroom and just roast it with some earth balance and a bit of salt and pepper. 

The salad also had chickpeas, avocado, fresh tomatoes and red onions. Yumm!

#237 Disco Fries

Disco fries are my favorite thing (besides beer) to order at Tony's Darts Away in Burbank. They're fries with gravy and cheese. The vegan version comes with shredded daiya. I baked frozen fries from Trader Joe's and made mushroom gravy from Vegan Brunch. The gravy was really yummy but next time I'll make a smoother, brown one because that's what Tony's uses.

#236 Linketts

My friend, Kerry has been telling me to try these forever and I finally found them at Ralph's. I have to admit that I was a little freaked out about them being in a can. . . but they were actually quite good! These were a small version (perfect Lynzo size!) of their larger Big Franks. We ate these with baked beans and corn on the cob (from our garden!). Yumm! I perfect summery dinner :) 

#235 CocoCurry Tempeh Kale Salad

I made this "clean out the fridge" salad for lunch today. I was surprised at how amazingly delicious it turned out! First off I peeled, cubed, and steamed a yam. Then, while the coconut curry tempeh was sizzling away in the skillet, I chopped kale, homegrown tomatoes, and cilantro. I tossed in the hot, steamed yam, some quinoa, and topped it with the tempeh. Oh man! It was tasty and came together quickly. The heat from the yam and tempeh wilted the kale a bit and the juicy tomato provided a sauce/dressing of sorts. I'm really loving these marinated tempeh slices that I bought from whole foods. This is my favorite flavor so far. What did you have for lunch today?

#234 Chickpea Cutlets, Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus

                                                                                                                          

This so isn't a summer dinner! But I remembered these cutlets last week and couldn't stop thinking about them. The recipe for these chickpea cutlets came from Veganomicon. They are so good! I really love them. . . enough to cook them in this 90 degree weather (in my un-air-conditioned kitchen!). I followed the directions almost exactly, opting to cook them on the cast iron skillet the finish them off in the oven. I also made mashed potatoes and gravy, and lemon garlic asparagus. Yumm! This was all so great! I was even able to set aside some chickpeas and mashed potatoes for Rigby.

Rigby!

#233 Lynzie's Birthday Ice Cream Cake

Happy Birthday Lynzie!!!!

Today is Lynzie's Birthday!  Once upon a time, she thought she could never be vegan due to her love of ice cream.  Thankfully there are a ton of non-dairy frozen treat options out there for her to enjoy! The soy ice cream is Trader Joe's Cherry Chip. I made a cherry-berry cake since Lynz isn't a huge fan of chocolate. I modified the strawberry cupcake recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking by using a very cherry berry blend of frozen fruit (also from TJs) in place of strawberries. I topped it with soyatoo's extra creamy whipped topping. Next time I'll make my own whipped topping but since we celebrated at a restaurant, keeping the cake frozen and a surprise was mission enough for me! It was nice having something besides cupcakes for dessert and everybody seemed to enjoy it.

#232 Tofu with a peanut sauce

#231 BBQ Chick'n Sandwich

#230 Spaghetti Wheels and Lentil Meatballs

I got this recipe off the PPK website. It was super yummy! Sean and I both loved it!

Here's a link to the recipe:

Spaghetti-Nos With Mini Lentil Meatballs

#229 Acai Smoothie Bowl

We used to get these yummy smoothie bowls all the time from Juice It Up. You can buy the Acai packets in the frozen fruit section at Whole Foods or Sprouts. Blend it up with soymilk or apple juice, and any other frozen fruit you have on hand. Today I used a half of a banana, and some frozen mango and strawberry chunks. You want it to be thick. Sprinkle granola on top, Hemp Plus by Nature's Path is my absolute favorite. Just don't use one that has dried fruit in it because it gets really cold and hard from the smoothie. You don't want to break a tooth! Slice a banana on top and drizzle with some agave nectar (juice it up uses honey, another plus to making it at home). Such a great breakfast on a hot summer morning!

#228 Mandarin Chicken Dinner

I bought the mandarin chicken and the basmati rice from trader joe's. The spring rolls are from Ralph's. I found them in the frozen food section. I also served some sautéed chard from our garden. This was so easy! I think the hardest thing about this was waiting for it to finish cooking!

#227 Squash and Meatballs

I know I've posted this a few times already but it's so good I can't stop!! I'm so happy that spaghetti squash is back in season. I promise I'll start using it in other ways. But for now, here it is with Trader Joe's organic spaghetti sauce with mushrooms, meatless meatballs, and our favorite garlic bread from Chloe's kitchen.

#226 Pickles!

Sean and I made pickles with cucumbers and green tomatoes from our garden.

I don't have a recipe to share because we used a combination of several to make ours. We looked on YouTube for videos and read many recipes online. I recommend doing the same. We also bought a container of pickling spices to make it easier on ourselves. 

They came out great!

Do you have a good pickling recipe?

#225 Sunday Brunch

Tofu scramble from Vegan Brunch with the onion, carrot, spinach, and avocado variations. I served it with Trader Joe's hash browns and sourdough toast. What a great way to start the day!

#224 Cat's Burgers and Hot Dogs

Sean and I went over to our friends JJ & Catherine's house tonight for a BBQ and good company! I brought Gardein Burgers and some thousand island dressing for the burgers. We also had veggie dogs with whole grain mustard (brought all the way from Paris!) and garlic sauerkraut. She cooked everything on the grill and it all came out perfect!!! Mmmmm!

#223 Hugo's Summer Platter

Ryan and I went to Hugo's and shared this delicious special:

Veggie patty with a roasted tomato chipotle BBQ sauce. Accompanied by a samosa stuffed potato, our featured Napa cabbage-bok choy-pineapple slaw, marinara broccolini and an avocado-tomato salsa-filled portabello mushroom. Garnished with organic pea sprouts.

It was incredible! We both got an iced mocha and shared the pumpkin pie for dessert.

#222 Garden Rancheros

I threw this together for breakfast today. It was so delicious and satisfying! My neighbor had made some crazy spicy salsa using only items from our garden, (tomatoes, red onion, green onions, chilies, and cucumber). I blended it up a little just to smooth it out a bit. I mixed that into some fresh tomato sauce that another neighbor made from our garden's tomatoes. Perfect Ranchero sauce! I made the tofu scramble from vegan brunch and went with the carrot and spinach (baby kale and chard too) variations. I poured the sauce into the scramble and let it simmer. Meanwhile, I heated up a couple of corn tortillas, spread on some refried beans (rosarita makes a vegetarian one), and sprinkled on some cheddar daiya. I topped it with the tofu scramble and sliced avocado. It came together pretty quickly and I was full for 7 hours! Excited for the leftovers :)

#221 Garden Fresh Pasta

This was an exciting dish because so much of this dinner was from our garden! Sean made the sauce by sautéing garlic and onion in olive oil. Then he added a bunch of chopped fresh tomatoes, swiss chard, red cooking wine, capers and sliced kalamata olives. We let it simmer while the angel hair pasta cooked. We added pasta to the pan and stirred the sauce in. 

This was light, fresh and totally yummy!

#220 Chick'n Burgers X2

I cooked up some Gardein chicken strips and we made burgers out of them. Sean and I both made ours very different. 

Sean's:

vegenaise & mustard, jalepeno, tomato, lettuce, avocado and red onion 

YUMMM!!!!

Mine:

ranch dressing, chick'n tenders dipped in BBQ sauce, avocado, lettuce and tomato

YUMMMM!!!

#219 BBQ Jackfruit!

I am obsessed!!! I can't believe how easy and inexpensive BBQ jackfruit is to prepare. Low in fat and calories as well! I purchased cans of green jackfruit in brine (very important to get brine, not syrup!) from my local Asian market. There were 3 different brands so I grabbed one of each. They were all the same so I'd just go with whatever is the least expensive. I followed a recipe I found online. Check it out: ChowVegan's BBQ jackfruit recipe

Ryan's sandwich

We all enjoyed our jackfruit in different ways.  I had mine on a bed of baby greens (kale, chard, and spinach) massaged with avocado.  Mia's salad had red and green cabbage, raw corn kernels, and carrots.  Max's sandwich was on an onion hamburger bun with cabbage, corn and carrots.  Ryan's was like Max's but on a chewy ciabatta roll.  I love eating fresh corn raw but I did boil a few cobs to serve with EB spread and fresh pepper.  I know that we will be eating this quite often!

I added more BBQ sauce after I took this picture.

My salad

Max's Sandwich

One happy Texas boy!

Mia's salad

Enjoying the corn he grew

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