Assorted Eats and Snow Day!

First things first – it snowed all day today! Of course it didn’t stick because it was 80 degrees on Sunday, but it was beautiful. Such a rare sight for Austin and a great pick-me-up after last week’s pilot suicide attack on one of our buildings.

I’m so proud of myself for remembering to take my camera to work. Scenes from outside my office right in the heart of downtown.

I’m still eating and taking pictures, but with the wedding a month away I find myself away from home a lot and when home, on the phone. One of the best things I made myself was a veggie burger pita. I was extra hungry (what’s new) and put two Chipotle Gardenburgers in one of my homemade pita breads with some iceberg lettuce and tomatoes and onions.

I also made a homemade tomato and spinach soup. It’s not very pretty and it wasn’t all that good now that I think about it.

Spaghetti squash with mushroom sauce.

Leftover casserole of broccoli, spaghetti squash, and soup – the soup was good in this!

Some greens from my farm box, lightly steamed with raw carrots and corn.

Marinated raw veggies – purple cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, daikon, red pepper, zucchini, and green onions – so yummy.

And a spicy homemade slaw with carrots and cilantro.

The wedding plans are all in place. Tomorrow Chase and I are going to pick up his suit and have dinner together. Chase and Cat are moving to their new place this weekend. I’m having so much fun.

And it’s still snowing!

Vegan Dinner Party!

Hi, everyone! I’m back from my wonderful week of vacation at my sister’s home in Alabama. The highlight of the trip was hosting a vegan dinner party. We spent the whole day cooking and had a blast. Thanks to all of you who offered recipe suggestions. We decided on a Mexican theme because we love it, and frankly, good Mexican food is hard to come by in Alabama. Your hosts/chefs:

For our entrée, we chose the oh-so delicious Bean & Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado from Eat Drink & Be Vegan.

For our sides we made Messy Rice from Vcon and added in fresh cilantro for a Mexican flair, and a tossed green salad. We plated for our guests and the plates were beautiful.

Here’s our table. You can tell which is my seat by the bowl of broccoli.

Yes, those are margaritas next to some of the plates. The meal was fabulous and our guests loved their dinners.

They also loved the TWO desserts we made. I selected recipes from Vcon which I had made before and knew would be a hit. One was my favorite, Apple Peanut Caramel Bars.

The other was my sister’s favorite, Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.

Needless to say, the desserts received rave reviews. After dinner the ladies asked for recipes, looked through the cookbooks I had brought with me, and asked me lots of questions about my diet. They said I inspired them to eat healthier, so I’m hopeful I truly did.

My sister had recently bought a Blendtec blender and received a set of All Clad cookware for Christmas. We cooked and ate a LOT and had so much fun together in the kitchen. And my little nephews are enjoying green smoothies every day! During the week I also made Hide the Lentils Spaghetti Sauce from ED&BV (forgot to take a picture) which everyone liked. And we made two soups. Boy, that Blendtec really makes some creamy soup. One was a butternut squash (not vegan because it was made with chicken broth).

The other was Potato Leek Soup from Urban Vegan. (Sorry for the steamy picture.)

Now I need to get off the sweets and back on my diet… again!

Happy New Year! Time to Detox

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as I did. After finally finding some time to sit at my computer, I need to catch you up on my holiday eats, so here goes.

Christmas Eve Chili with beans, butternut squash, carrots, corn, peppers. So good we even served leftovers for Christmas dinner.



Christmas dinner contributions – mashed potatoes

Shredded Brussels sprouts with cranberries and pecans (Alton Brown recipe)

Tuscan Braised Beans from Urban Vegan (completely awesome)

And treats – gingerbread men (from leftover house dough)

Cherry and Pecan loaf

Mint chip cookies (obviously not vegan)

Banana Oat Bundles (from Vive), half with dried cranberries, half with mini chocolate chips

And my New Year’s Day dinner – blackeyed peas with brown rice, bok choy for greens, and broccoli because I always eat broccoli for dinner.

I enjoyed way too many treats during the holidays and found myself in serious need of a sugar detox. So I signed on for a Seven Day Detox with The Raw Divas. I began Saturday and feel so much better – yay! I’m eating only raw fruits and veggies. It’s not difficult, but I do miss cooking. I moved my mixer off the counter and replaced it with the blender to make green smoothies. Oh, and salt. I do miss a sprinkling of flavored sea salt on my veggies. I mentioned on my last post that I got a new camera for Christmas. Now even my boring salads can look yummy.

Or a handful of almonds.

See you next time with lots of salads….

Soup and Snax

I cooked for 6 hours on Sunday and I don’t have much to show for it. I made my weekly pot of beans, then I made a test recipe for the upcoming Austin Food Bloggers potluck which I don’t want to share yet (it's good!), and then I made some requested nonvegan birthday scones for a friend, which he loved.

It was a cold and rainy weekend, so a big pot of soup for dinner was in order. I made another recipe from Love Soup and took to my mom’s, hoping Chase would join us as well. Naturally he got called in to work, but in these hard times we are all thankful to have jobs and don’t complain. Anyway, I decided on White Bean, Garlic, and Greens Soup.

I used spinach for my greens. The soup was very good, nicely seasoned with sage (an herb I don't use often enough) and garlic, and perfect topped with some seasoned croutons.

Now for the snacks! I love really really crunchy snacks. First the store bought variety.

These Go Raw Snax are very tasty and are nice to have with my salads for lunch. I usually have rice cakes, but these, as you can imagine, have way more flavor.

Best raw crackers I’ve found so far.

I like to have a bedtime snack. I can’t seem to manage more than six hours of sleep a night, so I need quality sleep. I’ve always heard that carbs before bed help you sleep better. This would explain my lifelong habit of having a bowl of cereal about an hour before bedtime. I usually chop up a whole apple, sprinkle on tons of cinnamon, then top with a little cereal and vanilla almond milk. My new favorite cereal is Yogi Crisps.

I imagine this is similar to the new granola clusters cereals I’ve seen. Yogi Crisps are delicious, wheat free, low calorie, and have a way cooler shape than clusters.

I buy cinnamon raisin flavor. There are no raisins in the package and for a while I thought they forgot to add them in. Then I read the ingredient list and saw that the raisins are pureed and added to the crisps – nice! This is a great cereal, even eaten straight out of the bag.

I did make myself one homemade treat. It’s another yummy Dreena recipe - Easy Pleasin’ Oat Bars. Of course I added in chocolate chips and cacao nibs.

These bars are easy to mix up, spread in the pan, and bake in just about 15 minutes.

I’ve been loving all of your MoFo posts. It’s hard to keep up but I’m doing my best!

Love Soup

I recently received a copy of Love Soup to review. Love Soup is a huge collection of soup recipes by Anna Thomas, author of The Vegetarian Epicure. The book is very nicely laid out by seasons, and broken out further into subchapters such as Green Soups, Hearty Summer Soups, Holiday Soups, Cold Soups, and also includes recipes for broths, breads, salads, sweets, spreads, and other accompaniments. There are 160 recipes provided, and the recipes are very creative and utilize fresh seasonal vegetables and herbs. While not all the soups are vegan (and this is acknowledged in the introduction), most could easily be made vegan by using nondairy creams, cheeses, and yogurts. I love to use coconut milk and coconut yogurts, and usually find most recipes don’t REALLY need cheese. Ms. Thomas offers variations and loads of helpful tips with each recipe.

As you know it hasn’t exactly been soup weather here in Texas, but I did find nice soup and salad recipes to try. For my soup I made Mung Bean Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes from the Hearty Summer Soups chapter. I have had a 2 pound bag of whole mung beans in my pantry forever. There is lots of information about split mung beans, but I’ve never been able to find proper cooking instructions for the whole mung beans. I learned from Love Soup that mung beans are easy to cook, have a delicate flavor, are high in protein, and burst open when they cook! This soup is perfectly Indian spiced and completely delicious. I did have to deviate slightly and use a large can of fire-roasted tomatoes, because our fresh tomato season only lasted a month. It’s nice to know canned tomatoes work, because I would definitely make this soup again anytime.




For my salad I chose Heirloom Tomato Salad. I had a giant heirloom in the fridge waiting to be dressed up, and finding this recipe was perfect for a hot Labor Day lunch. As you can see, it is simply tomato, onion, fresh basil, and seasonings. In my opinion, heirlooms don’t need much more than that.

If you LOVE SOUP, I would definitely recommend LOVE SOUP. Honestly, it contains wonderful background with each chapter and recipe, and the instructions are about the best I’ve ever come across. Also on my “must make” list are Kale Salad with Tomatoes and Corn; Brown Rice and Chinese Cabbage Salad; Cucumber, Rice, and Fresh Herb Salad; Eggplant and Roasted Garlic Pesto; Deconstructed Hummus Soup; and Butter Bean and Summer Vegetable Soup.

And now I get to have a delicious soup and salad dinner!

Soup Into Salad

I saw a recipe on Johanna’s blog for Mexican Rice Soup and thought it looked so yummy. Without complaining again about the tortuous heat, there was no way I was going to make soup, so I decided to turn it into a salad! I just omitted the broth, and I took some shortcuts by using prepared salsa and frozen corn. The first night I ate it as is.



And the second night I put it atop some greens.

It was just perfect! I thought I was so clever and began looking through Vegan Soups by Nava Atlas for more ideas. Oh, the possibilities! You have your ingredients and spices all worked out for you, so even when it’s not soup weather you can still enjoy Johanna’s and plenty of Nava’s recipes in salad form. And if it IS soup weather where you are, be sure to check out Johanna’s recipe and remember to pull out your copy of Nava’s book of delicious soups.


I have a couple of other bloggers to mention. I made Vegetation’s Chickpea Tofu. I don’t tolerate soy, and I get so envious when I see all the wonderful tofu creations you all get to enjoy. Now chickpea tofu is not as firm as the soy variety, but it is really delicious and quelled my tofu envy both in taste and appearance. It just requires a quick mix, like making polenta. Then you let it set up.

Once set, give it a quick sear in your sauté pan and add it to your veggies.

A long long time ago, Amey sent me several packages of allergen free baking mixes. One morning before the thermometer reached 95 degrees (that would be 10 am, but, again, I’m not complaining) I decided to bake myself some treats and pulled out this mix.

I also decided to experiment again with replacing the margarine with beans. Kinda ironic the package says “bean free.” Anyway, I prefer fatfree, so I mixed up some drained and rinsed white beans and added enough applesauce to replace the ¾ cup oil.

I know some of you are still having a hard time believing bean brownies and cookies don’t taste like beans, but I swear you would never ever know! And see, they turned out perfectly.

Sometimes I don’t eat all my broccoli so I'll have room for cookies.

Dreamy, Refreshing Soup

It may not look like it from my picture, but this cold soup is the lightest, smoothest, and most refreshing thing I’ve eaten in all of the past two weeks of 102 degree heat. I got the recipe from GOOP.com. Gwyneth says it will be in an upcoming book called “Clean.” I made a double recipe, and what I couldn’t eat I used as salad dressing. It’s so delicious and you can make it in less than five minutes.

Cucumber and Avocado Soup
as posted in GOOP.com

Zest of ½ a lime
Juice of one whole lime
½ teaspoon salt
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
½ an avocado, peeled and chopped

Blend everything together until totally creamy and smooth.

I’ve not been around lately due to the College World Series, but there’s a two hour rain delay now so I’ll take this time to come see what you all have been up to!

Mexican Food for Game Night

This is the dinner I took to my mom’s for an evening of watching baseball. It wasn’t a particularly spectacular or memorable meal. Oh, it was yummy, all right. And it was quick and easy to make each dish, and it definitely hit the spot on a 100 degree day. The beauty of this meal was the recipes I put together. It had perfect mix ‘n match-ableness. Here’s what I made.

Corn Soup
from Vegan Fire & Spice


Soup when it’s 100 degrees? Yes! This soup is made with fresh corn and potatoes and served at room temperature. My mom loves corn soup and she loved this recipe. It was very good.


Carrot Ribbon Salad
Adapted from a recipe by Dr. Ben Kim

Makes 6 small servings

Ingredients:
6 medium carrots, washed and peeled

Large handful of fresh cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

Juice of one orange

1 T. olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 avocado, peeled and diced

Directions:
1. Slice carrots into thin strips using a mandolin or vegetable peeler.
2. Combine carrot strips and cilantro leaves in a salad bowl.
3. In a separate bowl combine the orange juice and lime juice. Whisk in the olive oil. Add the garlic, salt and pepper and whisk again.
4. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Gently stir in the avocado.

This simple salad was really really delicious. Of course I love cilantro, and Dr. Kim says:
Cilantro is particularly good when combined with carrots and citrus juice - we were introduced to this recipe by an old family friend, who learned it from celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.

Wild Rice Salad with Mango, Onion, and Red Pepper

This was simply a box of wild rice, cooked and cooled. Then I added chopped mango, onion, and red bell pepper. I served it at room temp too. It was a wonderful way to use that box of rice I’ve had in my pantry forever.


Tipsy Soft Tacos

From Lisa of Show Me Vegan

I bought burrito sized spinach wraps and just made the bean part of Lisa’s recipe, so I will call these Beer Bean Wraps. These beer braised beans were terrific! I think they may have tasted even better the next day. Is it just me or does everything taste better when you add alcohol to it? Oh, I made the toasted pepitas too. Fabulous idea, Lisa!

Like I said, the mix ‘n match aspect of this dinner was the best part. The rice salad and the carrot salad could remain a side dish, or they could go in the wraps or garnish the soup. The toasted pepitas got sprinkled over everything.


For dessert, fresh strawberries on top of a Sweet Freedom treat which I will reveal on Sweet Freedom Saturday.

A refreshing and delicious meal to go with a victory for the Longhorns!