Sunday, February 25, 2007

Embracing the Pig (A Huge Dinner)

I got the flu yesterday, but that didn’t stop me from cooking a HUGE meal. First let me show you what I got at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. (The flu struck me at noon.) I got broccoli, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, golden beets, arugula, and oranges.



You'd think our meal would be more colorful, but it really didn't turn out that way. We began with an appetizer of pumpkin seed pesto and flax crackers. The pesto was made from a recipe I got from a macrobiotics class I took back in October. The crackers are super fabulous! I veganized this recipe from Land O’Lakes. They were easy to make and I wish I hadn’t halved the recipe. These are break-apart crackers....

and the pesto, one of our top ten favorite recipes.


Our main course was Seitan Bundles – locally made garlic hummus and a piece of seitan bundled in Pillsbury crescent roll dough. These were delicious and fun to make. I made tamarind ketchup from a recipe I posted here. Chase thought the ketchup was too sweet and put pesto on his Bundle.


Side dishes were VWAV Chickpea Broccoli Casserole – finally! I liked it okay, but still prefer steamed broccoli with a side of plain ol’ chickpeas.


and Beets and Brussels – I steamed the beets from the Farmers Market and fresh Brussels sprouts, then sautéed some onions, added in the veggies, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme, and topped with toasted almonds. Beets are another veggie (like eggplant) I am trying hard to love. This was delicious when I picked out the beets.



For dessert – Cupcake Mountains! I made VCTOTW Basic Chocolate Cupcakes and Tofu Whipped Cream from Sinfully Vegan. Beautiful and delicious!



I also made Orange Cinnamon Rolls using this recipe from Chris at Eat Air, just because I’ve been saying since Christmas that I need to make cinnamon rolls. Chris used tangerines in his recipe, but my farmers market oranges tasted miles better than my grocery store tangerines, so I used my oranges. This is a great recipe. Now I want to make apple cinnamon rolls and orange chocolate rolls and lemon almond rolls and …. Look how beautifully these turned out.



This was pretty much all my aching body wanted for dinner last night.


We won’t be having a family feast next Sunday. I’ll post about that later this week.


Stay well, everyone!

23 comments:

Twisted Cinderella said...

Wow all of that looks really really yummy!

Jackie said...

What a fabulous feast :)

Hope you are feeling much better.

Anonymous said...

wow. everything look so good. I especially like the seitan bundles.

laura k said...

Looks delicious! The seitan bundles are creative--and I always forget that the Pillsbury dough is vegan. Good thing to know in a pinch!

Anonymous said...

Can you share the pesto recipe? Thanks.

Unknown said...

The rolls look mouth watering. I'm amazed that you cook like this when you have the flu. When I have the flu it's cereal and PB&J!

aTxVegn said...

Thanks everybody.

Megan, I knew you would comment on the seitan!

Laura, I haven't used that Pillsbury dough (or any canned dough!) in so long. I know you love to bake like I do, but this was fun and tasty.

Julia, I haven't had the flu in a long time and it really sucks. I have never slept so much in all my life.

veganluv - Here's the pesto recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do.

1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed (use 1 cup basil if not a cilantro fan)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1 large lime
1 t. nutritional yeast
1 t. miso (light)
1 t. salt
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. agave nectar
olive oil to desired consistency

Combine all ingredients in food processor, adding olive oil last.

Yields 2 cups

bazu said...

Way to embrace the pig! (and this is the perfect year for that). Your dinner looks magnificent. I'm always in awe of your farmer's market goodies. and those cinnamon rolls... droooooool.

Oh, by the way, I finally got some oat bran, so I'm ready to give your oat muffins recipe a try soon!

MeloMeals said...

Wow, what a feast! You'll have food for the next several days! Those rolls look very sinful and delicious.. everything looks so good!

I am definitely going to try that Pumpkin seed pesto, as I always have pumpkin seeds on hand. I love them.
..oh and the crackers too..mmmm

Mikaela said...

Must make those cupcake mountains - they look great! Also, for the crackers, did you just replace the buttermilk with soy milk and lemon juice?

aTxVegn said...

Mikaela, I replaced the buttermilk with soymilk and apple cider vinegar, but lemon juice works as well, and I replaced the butter with margarine.

Amey said...

Oh WOW!
What took me so long to see this amazing post!

First of all, I have to say that your cinnamon rolls look so beautiful and perfect. I was so inspired by that recipe that i also made them, but I guess I screwed them up and then overcooked them... they didn't look nearly as lovely and scrumptious as yours do or as Chris' did.

also your comment about how the beets and brussels tasted delicious when you took the beets out really cracked me up. I am lucky enough to like beets, but I know we've all got our projects.

It's super cool that you made crackers. I've been wanting to make homemade crackers for years but I still have never tried it. They look delicious.

Also, thanks for posting the pesto recipe, it looks really delicious. I'll copy it into my "try this someday file!"

I hope you feel better soon!
love amey

KleoPatra said...

Seitan bundles!!! YUM!

arcadian~beauty said...

yum, I'll have to try the pesto recipe some day too! Can you use dried basil or cilantro instead of fresh? If so, how much do you think you'd use? Oh those rolls look so delicious!!!

vko said...

Hope you are recovering quickly from your flu- I'm sure all the delicious food that you made helped.

I made brussel sprouts too when I was sick- maybe we crave the vitamin c in it? Do most vegans cook when they are sick- seems like I did & Urban Vegan did and you certainly cooked a huge feast. I never cooked when sick during my pre-veg days...

Your cupcake mountain looked great- and the veggie stews & veggie mix in your previous stovetop post look absolutely gorgeous. I love all the colors and so healthy.

Hope you feel better soon!

scottishvegan said...

Those little seitan parcels kind of remind me of sausage rolls...very cute! I keep meaning to try the VWAV Chickpea Broccoli Casserole too, but she does put me off in the book by saying it’s a little bit bland. Now you have said it’s only ok so I don’t know if it’s worth bothering to make it! I like beets, but in the UK we call it beetroot and usually eat it pickled and you can buy it like that it the supermarkets, but I haven’t seen it here. Your cinnamon rolls and mountain cupcakes look beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting the Pesto recipe. I do love cilantro so this sounds wonderful.

bazu said...

Just came back to say thanks, Diann! Your comment was the first one clueing me in to the fact that something was screwy with my images in my last post! Hopefully, it's all fixed now. thank you!

Sheree' said...

I hope you are better from the flu. You scored at your farmers market. I love fresh brussels sprouts roasted with garlic and olive oil. Actually everything looks wonderful. Your bundles are so cute and the cinnamon rolls. Oh ya baby! Keep the good food rolling!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

all the food looks fabulous! the pumpkin seed pesto sounds amazing - i'd love to make that. and oooh la la on the cinnamon rolls. feel better soon! :o)

arcadian~beauty said...

oh thanks, I didn't realize it was so inexpensive-I'll have to look for it next time at the grocery store. :)

Kati said...

Those cupcake mountains and cinnamon rolls look decadent! Everything really looks tasty - I especially love pesto. Hope you're feeling better!

Emmy said...

What a tasty assortment of fruits and veggies you got at the Farmers Market. The homemade crackers and pumpkin seed pesto sounds divine. The desserts look great too :)