Vegan Brunch

A few dishes I've made from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's

VEGAN BRUNCH:

Curried Cauliflower Frittata

the tofu, grated carrot, and spices mixture

I changed the direction of this frittata by skipping the curry and using other spices. My kids will eat a lot of spicy things but pass if they think it's too spicy. And I don't have time to risk making a multi-step (also this one was actually really quick and easy) recipe if they're not going to eat it, too.

the cauliflower, sauteed in a tablespoon of oil with minced garlic

After putting it all together and baking it, the frittata came out well-formed and delicious. We loved having a new way to eat cauliflower, which is one of my kids' collective favorite vegetables. And it's always nice to have a way to eat veggies at breakfast.

Old-Fashioned Chelsea Waffles

Another winner. This waffle recipe includes cornmeal along with flour.

I added my own Sugar-Free Raspberry Sauce. We were practically lapping this stuff up. I mixed frozen organic raspberries, water, a little organic cornstarch and lemon juice plus a bit of all-fruit spread.

Mom's Morning Casserole

The Bottom Potato Layer

So...I took a bit of a detour on the next layer. I have a "cooking with tempeh" aversion right now. I do like to eat tempeh, but I never like to cook with it myself. The "moldy" spots freak me out; I can't handle looking at them. I always end up wasting half of the package by cutting them off.

Early in my pregnancy, I didn't really have morning sickness, but I did gag and dry heave whenever something was unappealing to me (really dumb things like a glass that didn't get completely clean in the dishwasher or a gray spot on a baked french fry). I had a spell with tempeh, and I haven't been able to cook with it since (although I can eat it if someone else prepares it, which is weird). Sorry for the long explanation and mention of dry heaving in my food blog...all of that to say: that's why I used black beans instead of tempeh in this recipe. I also used carrots instead of bell pepper for the sake of my middle child.

End Result

Here's what it would have looked like with tempeh and peppers.

This was a great meal: filling and satisfying. We all loved it. The black beans were delicious, but I always love beans with tofu scramble. I'm sure the tempeh would make this a different kind of wonderful dish. Maybe I'll try it next with seitan.

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Speaking of great cookbooks, Friday night is the deadline for entering my Appetite for Reduction giveaway.

And, as always, go here for others' Vegan Month of Food posts.

Appetite for Reduction Giveaway

I've enjoyed everything I've made so far from Isa's Appetite for Reduction. "125 Fast & Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes" Although I imagine a lot of you have it already, somehow we've ended up with an extra copy, which I'm giving away! With the holidays coming up, it's a great idea to make lower calories meals so we can enjoy all of the treats even more. Here are a few of the things I've tried, and if you have this book and are not entering the giveaway, tell me which recipe I must try next.

Mango BBQ Beans

over Mashed Yuca with Cilantro & Lime

*Loved these beans, and I will definitely add mango to my beans again. However, I will not add any red pepper flakes to this recipe next time because my mouth was on fire! The Mashed Yuca was interesting (in a good way)! I don't think I'd make it again because yuca takes a lot of work; it's really tough to cut through and all waxy, etc. However, if you've been curious to try yuca, this would be a fun recipe for you to make.

FRESH TOMATO SALSA DRESSING

*Always love fresh salsa.

BIG FAT TACO SALAD

with Fresh Tomato Salsa Dressing

and

GUACAMAME

*I'm a big taco/taco salad fan, so this couldn't have been a miss with me. The guacamame (avocado with edamame) is definitely not as flavorful/mouth-watering as regular guacamole, but I love that it cuts the calories and adds protein.

QUINOA, WHITE BEAN, & KALE STEW

with FRESH CORN & SCALLION CORN BREAD

*I was out of quinoa, so I subbed sprouted rice. I also subbed turnips for parsnips. I like that this stew pushed me into eating vegetables I don't get a lot of, like turnips and leeks. For the cornbread, I couldn't find scallions at the store, so I omitted those. Good, reliable stew and bread.

To enter the giveaway: If you leave a comment on this post, let me know you're entering the giveaway. I'll put anyone's name who is entering in a hat and draw. Open to anyone in the world.

For 4 additional chances, tell me whether you are a google friend connect follower, whether my blog is on your blog roll, and for two extra chances: blog or tweet about the giveaway. You just need to leave ONE COMMENT with all of your entries to make it easier on ya. Or if you blog about it or something later, feel free to leave an additional comment another time.

I'll pick a winner next Friday, October 28 at 10:00 p.m.

To read more about: Vegan Month of Food

Vegan MoFo: White Beans, 3 Ways

I am interrupting my vacation stories to finish this post I started before I left. In my continuing effort to cook more frugally - and to...well...cook at all...here is what I did one week with a bag of Great Northern Beans from Wal-Mart:

First night: White Bean and Kale Enchiladas

homemade enchilada sauce (tomato paste, water, chili powder, garlic, other spices, organic cornstarch), beans, thawed frozen kale, Daiya, organic corn tortilla shells

roll 'em up, cover with more Daiya and bake

served with romaine on the side

Second night: White Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers

food process whole cooked sweet potato,

whole wheat bread crumbs, sesame seeds, beans

I wrote down the quantities, but as usual, have misplaced it. These particular ingredients, though, make a great patty that cooks up nicely and evenly in a skillet.

Third night: White Bean Chili

I had intended to make Heather's (from Where's the Beach?) Spicy White Chili, then I discovered I was out of some of the ingredients, including vegetable stock. I used her white beans and soy chik'n as inspiration, though. I mixed pasta sauce with water and spices for the base, then added the beans, sauteed Gardein Buffalo Wings (plain without using the sauce), and sauteed spinach.

Don't think any of us were sick of white beans. The dishes were so different, we weren't at all. In fact, my daughter woke up one morning and asked for "beans with ketchup" (with the small amount of beans that were leftover) for breakfast.

Breakfast is served.

Eat to Live - sort of

I mentioned in my last blog post that I went on the Eat to Live diet for 2 weeks. And that I lost 4 pounds on it. I bought the book and was very determined. I'm not finished with the diet; I just got off track a little for various reasons. I think that it forced Ryan and me into some very great habits, though. We're saving money, too, which is an added bonus beyond our health.

I also checked out Joel Fuhrman's book Disease Proof Your Child from the library. I think I was hoping for some kind of diet recommendation that was new to me, and I was absolutely motivated to stick with it. However, it really was pretty close to how I feed the kids already. Great book, though, and I'm still poring through it.

I have been making a lot of homemade salsa lately. I was just sure that these ingredients would make the most beautiful salsa.

However, I kind of ended up with salsa soup. This was my first salsa-making attempt. (It tasted good, though, and I ate it all.)

I'm getting better at it.

I made these veggie burgers based on Fuhrman's recipe (but I used beans from scratch, not canned). Same ingredients (sunflower seeds, oats, beans, ketchup, and spices); I just didn't go through all the steps of baking them. It tastes delicious before you even cook it. We have went through a lot of these lately, which is good since I'm used to paying $4+ for a box of FOUR veggie burgers.

Our new obsession is roasted asparagus. I had some from the Whole Foods deli awhile back, and it was one of the BEST tasting foods I've ever put into my mouth. MY asparagus doesn't taste quite as good as that (I don't know how they did it - maybe it was drenched in oil?), but it's still great. I love squeezing lemon on it after I take it out of the oven. I spray oil on the kids' but leave it off Ryan's and mine.

I am a cereal addict; however, I mostly ate fruit (sometimes with a sprinkling of nuts) for breakfast. I also ate my steel cut oats, but I definitely used the oats as more of a condiment.

This soup is loosely based on the "Famous Anti-Cancer Soup" recipe in Fuhrman's book. (The only reason I don't follow it exactly: it's a little more time-consuming. You're supposed to juice celery and carrots for the base. One of these days, I'll get around to that.)

I basically just pour a container of low sodium vegetable broth into a pot and add water. Then I just throw in whatever odds and ends of vegetables I have lying around. (This particular batch I stuck with the original recipe: split peas, onions, zucchini, leeks, carrots, and celery. It also has cashews.) You don't even have to chop them. When the veggies are slightly soft, I puree it all in my BlendTec. (You also leave some of the split peas whole at the bottom of the pot, then pour the pureed mixture back into the pot.)

After my second batch of soup, I was getting a little tired...of soup. I added some extra split peas into this bowl to "liven things up" a bit.

This is what my typical meal looked like while I was following the diet.

I love salads like this so much that it wasn't a big change to have a salad as one meal a day. I always use my favorite recipe for dressing: Vegan Caesar. It doesn't contain oil (although it does use almonds).

This is why I said "Eat to Live - sort of" - I'm sure not every ingredient I used is technically part of the diet. I used Bragg's. I did put a very small amount of salt in my salsa. I sprinkled Kelp Granules on my soup. I'm just trying to cut way back on salt, and I have to find ways to live through this. After about a week, it did get easier.

This past month we've moved over to what I call the "Wal-Mart Diet" (which I'll explain another day). Basically, it's part of our money-saving venture. We were doing SO WELL with our budget. I thought we were going to end up spending A THIRD of what we normally spend on food a month. Then Wednesday night, I cracked, just a little over a week before the month's end. I went to Whole Foods and filled my cart. I didn't feel proud of myself so hopefully I've learned my lesson. However, I hadn't had sliced bread in WEEKS.

I just wanted a sandwich.

And it was so good. Funny that my carrot, chickpea, tomato, salsa, avocado, mustard, miso sandwich was so scandalous to me. It was just the price ($5.99 for a dinky loaf of hemp bread) that was scandalous to my Wal-Mart diet. It was the dozen biscuits I made and ate over a 24 hour period that made me realize I needed to go to Whole Foods and buy a few things to help curb my cravings.

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BTW, what happened to Stacy (Shorty Can Burn)? Did she announce she was shutting down her blog?

I finally added comments to your responses to my last posts. I'm trying to get better about that. And Ryan thinks the only reason anyone said he was "handsome" was the food. He says you would have thought that of any man with raw, vegan food in front of him. I said that he makes a good point. BUT that he is handsome, anyway. :)

And I really don't always eat an entire citrus fruit one juice pocket at a time. I just really like how they feel in my mouth. But I didn't want you to think I'm that much of a woman of leisure.

Muffin Tin Monday: Seeds, Plants & Flowers

This week's Muffin Tin theme was Seeds, Plants, & Flowers.
I'll start with the dirt dessert made from Dr. Oetker's chocolate pudding and ground up chocolate chips.
Before they ate, the kids ceremoniously planted pumpkin seeds into the "dirt." And the napkin flower isn't too impressive, but I tried!
Quinoa salad with grated carrots plus SPROUTED lentils (Can you see the little sprouts?). Little celery seedlings are also sprouting up.

More lentil/quinoa salad with avocado grass covering (but no avocado on Dash's). Strawberry, apple, and cucumber flowers. Dash also picked his cucumber flowers and "replanted" them in Tornado's garden.

Lots of Raw

Ever since I saw this "Trix" cereal that shannonmarie from Rawdorable made, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I decided to make it last week, even though I didn't have all of the ingredients I needed. (It stinks not having a Whole Foods in my town.) I did my best to make as many colors as I could. I was missing golden raisins (which I think would have been key here), rose water, and dragon fruit, and I was also making them in kind of a hurry because it was getting late. I could have ground up the nuts a little better. I dehydrated them for a little bit. I made a tiny bowl for my supper (that's all I needed - it was very tasty but filling), adding a little...

homemade almond milk. I had high hopes for doing away with so many Silk cartons, etc. in our lives...but the kids weren't big fans. I will keep trying to get them used to it. I could definitely see using only homemade almond milk with cereal, cooking, and in smoothies, etc. Would make a great shake with some bananas, etc. It was SO easy to make. Just soaked my almonds overnight, blended them with water, strained the pulp, then blended it again with some vanilla and agave nectar. I tried blending some also with soaked dates to see if that made it any tastier for the kids. Sissy did drink a cup, saying, "Yummy!"

The next day, I made pancakes using the leftover almond pulp. I added Bob's Red Mill garbanzo and fava blean flour (bean pancakes, anyone?), flaxseed meal, and a little whole wheat flour because I didn't know how it would turn out without any...baking powder, dash of salt, almond milk, dried cranberries, pineapple chunks, and blueberries. Obviously, they aren't as fluffy as "normal pancakes," but the kids and I didn't hesitate in chowing down a couple apiece.

Our new favorite thing...homemade vegan parmesan cheese. I used to buy yummy Parma whenever I was somewhere that had it...but the ingredients are simply walnuts, nutritional yeast, and salt, and that's what we used in ours. Just ground it all up in my mini-food processor.

We used liberal amounts with our brown rice pasta, sauce, and broccoli. This is what Dash said,

"It's so good an elephant would eat it!"

Stuffed Bell Peppers & Roasted Chickpeas

Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food) is almost up...the other night I made stuffed bell peppers, using peppers from dad's garden.

I stuffed them with a mixture of quinoa, onions, leftover taco crumbles, corn, tomatoes, avocadoes, spices, and salsa.

Here they are after I added the whole wheat bread crumbs and Daiya cheese. Tornado gobbled up 2 bell peppers himself and asked if he could take one in his lunch the next day, which he did. Dash and Sissy ate a modified meal this night...bowls of quinoa, tofu, cheese, baby carrots, and also avocado and tomato for Sissy.

I just wasn't into the idea of stuffed bell peppers, and I didn't feel particularly hungry.

I just ate some of the roasted garbanzo beans I'd made from using up the pot 'o beans I had from the day before. In a bowl, I drizzled them with olive oil and salt. On half of them, I also sprinkled Simply Organic spicy steak seasoning. I baked them at 350 for about 45 minutes, I think. I turned them halfway through. Yum. These didn't last very long around here.

Here's another recipe for them.