Soup, Sandwich & Salad

Latley I have been obsessed with pumpkin seeds. They are so delicious on salad. So that is why I posted this. My salad is pumpkin seeds, spinach, salad greens, cukes, onion, red pepper and Little Island Salad dressing.

This is what I was lucky enough to have my hubby make for me for dinner tonight. It was supposed to be a dinosaur kale quinoa wrap but after seeing Justin try to eat it that way, I tore my kale up and had a dinosaur kale, quinoa salad. It was delicious with the obvious ingredients in the name plus: tomatoes, avocado, grated carrot, & cucumbers. Add salad dressing and voila! It was super tasty (from the Thrive Diet).
So on Friday I made pesto, my first attempt. It was from Vegan with a Vengeance and it was really yummy but unfortunately i failed to read that it was a teaspoon and a half of coarse salt rather than what I used which was finely ground sea salt. Needless to say it was REALLY salty. But I still ate it up and again the next day and then for lunch yesterday. So overall a success. p.s. I LOVE WALNUTS (no gross pinenuts, ick)
I made miso soup last week sometime as well. It was half from the thrive diet (ground up sesame seeds, miso paste, green onions) but I added a little soya sauce and tofu (way too much tofu). It was good minus the copious amounts of tofu, oh well the first time you make something never goes perfect. I had it with a hummus, avocado, spinach and red pepper sandwich, toasted. It was a pretty quick, yummy little dinner.
That's all for this week, I made stir fry again but decided not to bore you with the same old same old. My hubby is making me a pizza from the Thrive book on Thursday if it's fabulous I will post it. Until then happy cooking!

Falafel night!

Mmmm.... falafel. So I attempted falafel tonight. It went quite well actually. Would never have gone near as smooth without a food processor (I love you food processor). So this is from Vegan with a Vengeance I can't remember everything in the recipe off the top of my head but I think it's chick peas, bread crumbs, flour, cumin, cayenne, coriander, onions, garlic, & salt. You also have to let it rest in the fridge for a bit first as well as the dressing you put on it.
So this is from Vegan with a Vengeance I can't remember everything in the recipe off the top of my head but I think it's chick peas, bread crumbs, flour, cumin, cayenne, coriander, onions, garlic, & salt. You also have to let it rest in the fridge for a bit first as well as the dressing you put on it (Tahini Dressing where you fry garlic in oil and add tahini, paprika, salt, pepper, & balsamic vinegar, water and blend it all). Then after a 1/2 hour in the fridge you fry em in a lot of oil (didn't say they were super healthy). This is what they look like, draining after the pan frying.
So then you put em in a pita with lettuce, cukes, tomatoes and red onion and drizzle on the dressing. Fantastic. My husband just loved them too, I will definitely make them again!! It may become a Sunday tradition in fact!

Valentine's Day Treats

There! Got your attention! Banana Split Pudding Brownies from Vegan with a Vengeance. I made them for my hubby for Valentine's Day... although we may have partaken in 3 a day early.....

Ok now that I've shown you the prettiest picture I'll show you what we've been up to lately.

My husband made some crackers which I did not enjoy, but he loved! Lemon sesame crackers. They were very pretty I must say. They are from the Thrive Diet.


Ok, next I also made some lemon cupcakes. I took them from the sexy low fat cupcakes (VCTOTW) and added lemon juice and I put lemon juice in the buttercream icing. Well I used whole wheat flour and the cupcakes were uh, ahem, very healthy tasting. And my icing was so running. So all in all not my best work but I thought I would post anyway just to have something more to show for my past few weeks.

WARNING: MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF STIR FRY AHEAD!!!

Last but not least I show you what happens when I get let loose in the produce section. I found baby bok choy and zucchini and sugar snap peas.....and then I grabbed tofu thinking yum yum. Then I added my usual stir fry appearances (red peppers, garlic, onion, & lots of mushrooms) and did a make shift sauce of peanut sauce, soya sauce, veggie broth, basil, and some mixed thai seasoning (ingredients: basil, paprika, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne). And by the time it was all together well... look
Yup that's right I needed two gigantic frying pans to contain the spread of the stir fry. Here's a close up of the extreme yumminess served over brown rice (it's under there somewhere).
It was awesome, possibly a bit much... But very delish! I quite enjoyed it.. and I got to enjoy it in my lunch today and tomorrow and the next day and the next...

Yay! Cookbooks!

Ok small correction for the last post. The refried beans I usually use are Amy's not Annie's or Eden Organics not Simply Organic, yah I know that one was way off. Sorry about that!

So I got my two new cookbooks and what recipe do I make first? One off someone's blog. Credit due to Domestic Affair and her red lentil hummus.

http://domesticaffair.ca/

I decided to make this since chick pea hummus tends to give me some digestive issues. My lentil hummus was very thin though, not sure what I did wrong. Once the lentil mixture was done I tried it and decided I would eat simply that with no other additives... mmm. But it was still good, unfortunately still gave me some digestive problems...maybe hummus and I were not made for each other like I thought we were :(

Ok I did spend a lengthy amount of time going through my books this weekend though. Funny story actually. On friday when I knew my books would arrive, I got a call on my cell at work. Our building buzzer phones our cell when someone rings it so it was the lady with my books. I told her to wait and I'd phone my husband to go down and meet her. I phone him and he doesn't answer. So I wait like 15 grueling, feeling awful minutes for her to phone back saying... helllloooo? And I tell her to just leave a slip. So I get the slip and we go to the post office that night (despite the fact that it says pick up tomorrow after 1:00). So I wait in line like 15 minutes and by the time I get to the front I decide to play dumb about the 1:00 thing, at first I thought about leaving and coming back but after investing all that time.. you know. So the lady rifles through all the boxes after giving me a hard time that it's supposed to be tomorrow and I make everyone in the line wait just to get my precious vegan cookbooks. Then she's like and ACTUALLY because it's friday it should be after 1:00 on MONDAY. Then I was like man I'm glad I lied, lol. So I have my babies finally. Here are some I want to make, something for you to look forward to. (BTW if any of you (assuming anyone actually reads my blog) have made any of these, please give me the review!)

Vegan with a Vengeance:
Banana Split Pudding Brownies
Tofu Scramble
Chocolate Chip Scones
Carrot-Raisin Muffins
Spanakopita
Falafel!!!
Green Thai Curry
Spanish Omelet with Saffron, Roasted Red Pepper, & Almond Sauce
Lemon Gem Cupcakes

Veganomicon:
Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls
Tofu Florentine
Chickpeas Romesco
Marinated Asian Tofu
Acorn Squash, Pear and Adzuki Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes
Potato and Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chile Sauce
Mac Daddy
Curried Udon Noodle Stirfry
Fresh Rosemary Focaccia
Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies

Ok if your mouth is not watering you are a robot. Ok, I'm done now, any thoughts, feelings, emotions on what to make first? I'm thinking the banana/fudge brownies for sure, maybe a curry... Falafel... and I was so excited to see a Romesco with chickpeas, I love the type of sauce and my mom used to make it on chicken and it was one of the few times I enjoyed meat a lot so I figured damn it'll be good with chickpeas. Alright that is enough! I need to go finish eating some dinner! There is salivating happening. *MWAH*

Mexi-Pizzas

Ok so this is a recipe I've tried twice and looooved. Now I've never seen anything like it so I guess I'm going to take credit for it, my first original recipe on here so to speak. I call them Mexi-Pizzas.

You'll need:

2 whole wheat tortilla shells (10 inch)
1 can refried beans (I prefer black beans my self... either Annies or I believe Simply Organic)
about 4 tbsp of salsa
1 pepper (color of your choice or do 1/2 and 1/2) in thin strips
1 small!!! red onion or 1/4 of a large one (depends on how much you like onion)
1 Avocado

The way I put these babies together is, preheat oven to about 350-400 and on a pan put the tortilla shells, spread beans on first then a couple tbsp of salsa over them. Then cook the peppers slightly ( I usually do this with a little bit of vegetable broth in a pan) and put the peppers on and I like to put the onion on raw on top in thin strips... you can cook if you prefer but when they are very thin all they need is oven time. Then I bake them for about 10 mins, and while this is happening I make some guacamole with an avocado and a little bit of salsa and sometime garlic if I'm feeling it. Then I top the guac on the pizzas. Surprisingly simple and so goooood.

There! I'm officially an internet published recipe author... I didn't realize it'd be over so quickly...

Superbowl!

Well despite the terribly sad ending to superbowl 2008, my party went incredibly well. I made my miso guacamole again to have on tortilla chips and some quesadillas (refried beans, peppers, onions, mushrooms, & salsa) and people didn't even miss the cheese! There was also veggies and red pepper hummus and some pineapple and strawberries, and of course my green tea cupcakes. I was very impressed. I think I threw a pretty good party. I'm hoping to do it again soon. Maybe a theme party! I'd like to attempt sushi for sure... so maybe japanese.

Anyway, so my camera died so I unfortunately have no pictures to show you. *sigh. I could not find the extra batteries. Justin did make some extremely yummy energy bars... spicy chocolate I believe. They really kick my chocolate craving (banana, jalapeno, dates, sunflower seeds, carob powder, flax seed, macadamia nuts, hemp seeds, & sea salt). So yummy! On par with the banana chocolate energy pudding (bananas, dates, ground flax seed, carob powder, coconut oil, lemon juice, & sea salt) also super yummy! Ok enough for tonight!

p.s. my books were shipped yesterday! 3-5 business days!!!

New Recipes Coming!

I'm very excited! I just ordered two new cookbooks today online: Veganomicon & Vegan with Vengeance. I've read such good reviews about both of them I just had to get them for myself. I will soon be cooking up a storm of new recipes.. but that will have to wait 3-9 business days. I'm far too cheap to pay the $6 for it to be 2-4.

So I was lazy today and had salad for dinner. Not much new goodness to report here. We did make crackers last night and lemon cupcakes but those pictures will be posted in my superbowl spread post. Be patient loyal blog followers (aka Mom).