My lovely Sunday Breakfast

Just seeing this picture relaxes me! I had a toasted sourdough english muffin topped with mashed avocado, baked beans, chopped tomato, salt and pepper. Add chai tea, an almond mimosa, Jane Eyre, and you're off to a great start!

Drunken Noodles in Cashew-Shiitake Broth

This recipe for this soup is in Chloe's Kitchen. Sean and I both really liked this. My recommendation is to check the broth frequently and add salt or soy sauce to taste. My broth wasn't salted enough when I served it. It was easily fixed though! I loved the noodles and the heat from the chopped jalapeno. I served this for dinner tonight with some spring rolls on the side. Yum!

Manhattan Glam Chowder

This recipe came out of Appetite for Reduction. I've never had a tomato based chowder before. I really like this soup. My only notes for next time is to cut back on the nori pieces. It didn't over power or anything- I would've just like less. The mushrooms were a yummy chewy addition. Sean said this is more or a stew and I'd have to agree. I think it's because for me, chowder was always white and served in a sourdough bread bowl. I'll definitely make this again! And maybe even serve it in a sourdough bread bowl :)

Eggplant Timbales

This recipe came from Chloe's Kitchen. I've been wanting to make these for a long time, but was super intimidated because they looked so complex. Well I have good news...these were actually easy and came together quite fast. The filling inside was yummy and really easy to make.

My only notes for next time is to use less or smaller garlic cloves for the garlic white bean spread underneath. I made it a day ahead and attempted to snack on some with some bread...yikes. Garlic overload. I could've killed an entire coven with that spread. The next day before serving it, I heated it up in a small sauce pan hoping to cook out some of the intense raw garlic. Mission accomplished! It tasted much better. I think I'd heat up the garlic spread anyways to keep a an even warm temperature throughout the dish!

I loved this and will definitely be making this again!

An Australian Adventure

Had to hold a koala!

Sean and I headed to Australia for vacation in December. We spent about 2 weeks enjoying everything the Cairns area had to offer. Instead of staying in a hotel we rented a vacation apartment. One of the reasons for doing this was to have a kitchen for us to cook in because it isn't always easy finding vegan food. When we were in Costa Rica for our honeymoon, I lived on rice, beans and steamed veggies. It was delicious but I missed variety! ;)



Things got off to an interesting start at LAX. It was late and not all the restaurants were open. We ended up at Chili's. They had a veggie burger for vegetarians. I ordered this sandwich with lettuce tomato, avocado, pickles and some BBQ sauce. It was actually quite tasty. . . The chef didn't skimp on the avo. But maybe I was just starving. I wouldn't go seeking this out.

This is the view from our apartment balcony! We loved getting up and eating a bowl of cereal out here every morning. We made sangria a few times with some Aussie wine, lemon lime soda and fresh fruit. Mmmm!

This was a dinner I made one night. Very simple pasta with mushrooms and zucchini and a side salad.

Fry's is a brand that makes vegetarian and vegan pre-mades. In addition to these burgers we also cooked up their schnitzel, chik'n nuggets and sausages.

This is what Sean and I ate on New Year's Eve. These breakfast burritos were so yummy! We used Fry's sausage, tofu, potato, tomato, avocado and refried beans. Yummy!

Sean did some research before we left for Australia. This is one of the restaurants he knew we had to visit. It was way up in the rainforest. The tables were all out on the patio over looking a creek and beautiful trees. This restaurant was great because they had a entire vegetarian menu. This was the only vegan thing on the menu (the waitress did say other accommodations could be made if I wanted something else.). Lemme tell you this was delish! I was surprised to see a whole tofu block but Sean helped me eat my leftovers. The slaw underneath was sweet, sour, and had notes of spiciness. Yumm!

I obviously ate more than this on my trip but since I was on vacation I didn't always remember to take pictures of my food ;) it was an amazing trip!!

Warm Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

Happy 1st Blog Post of New Year!
Michelle and I have enjoyed taking a little time off from blogging- but we've both been cooking! Tonight I made a yummy salad that I'm excited to share. I wish I had taken a picture of the plate from the opposite angle- but oh well!

This is really all about the salad. The pasta was meh...I might have liked it more if the salad hadn't been as delicious as it was. All I wanted was more Brussels sprouts. I didn't use a recipe. I just made it all to taste. Here's what I used:

1 1/2 Tb earth balance
One bag of trader joes Brussels sprouts (sliced thin)
1/4 of a large red onion sliced thin into half moons
1 Tb chopped sundried tomato
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the EB in a cast iron skillet or non stick pan. Stir in the red onion and garlic. Cook until the red onion has softened.

2. Pour in the shaved sprouts and stir until it's covered with the melted butter.

3. Spread it evenly across the pan and let it cook over medium heat until golden brown. Stir and repeat 2-3 times. You want some crispy and some tender greens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Add the chopped tomato and stir until heated through. Serve warm!

Yumm!!!

#366 Black eyed peas and greens

This is it!!!! #366!! I can't believe it! Another one from Vegan Diner (I'm obsessed I tell you) served with steamed kale and spinach and brown rice. Super flavorful and healthy, no oil was used or missed. Even Max liked this meal. Hopefully it'll bring us luck in 2013!