bantambb:

I made vegan waffle for breakfast this morning. Never made waffles before (only ever made pancakes because I never had a waffle iron, that is, until I moved back home!)

Made it based off a recipe I found on Vegweb. The recipe uses apple sauce in place of egg/butter. I also left out the berries (did not have any), but added in vegan chocolate chips and vanilla extract. The I sifted vegan powdered sugar over the top and served with real maple syrup.

YUM!

Baked tempeh salad wrap w/baked sweet potato fries and spicy veganaise fry dip.

Alright, So tonight’s dinner was a page out of something like a Betty Crocker recipe book. I felt like this was something a little housewife in the 60’s would have made for her family for some reason!

Tonight’s dinner: Gardein Beef-less tips with broccolini, peas, and fusilli pasta, in gravy.

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked Fusilli pasta (spiral)
• 1 pkg Gardein’s frozen beef-less tips
• 1 cup fresh broccolini chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup sweet onion finely chopped
• 1- 1 1/2 tbsp chopped garlic (I like garlic so I put in the 1 1/2 tbsp)
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp braggs liquid aminos
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

In large pot, cook pasta till nearly done. Drain and set aside

In large saucepan, heat 1 tbsp oil and brown beef-less tips on all sides on med-high heat. Turn down heat to med and add chopped onions. Continue cooking till onions are soft and translucent. Add chopped broccolini, peas, and chopped garlic. Add 1 cup of vegetable stock, cover and cook 10 minutes.

In separate saucepan, heat remaining veggie stock. Slowly whisk in flour and nutritional yeast until fully incorporated and there are no lumps. Add the braggs, Worcestershire sauce, and apple cider vinegar, and stir till mixed. Gravy should start to thicken. If too thick, add more vegetable stock or water, if not thick at all, slowly add more flour, stirring constantly until the desired thickness. 

Add pasta to the beef-less tips and vegetables. Pour gravy over top and mix until pasta and gravy are fully mixed with beef and veggies. Serve hot and enjoy!

Very much Oliver approved! Two bowls later and he was still asking for more! Except I don’t think he was a huge fan of the peas :( 

(forgot to take a picture before we started eating, so I leave you with what was left in the pan and Oliver’s empty bowl

findvegan:

Crispin Hard Apple Cider at Gather Restaurant in Berkeley, California

Now I LOVE Crispin’s hard apple ciders. But I ALSO still eat honey (don’t give me flack!). So this makes me torn.

Not all of Crispin’s hard ciders are 100% vegan due to the use of honey as an ingredient. But if you don’t mind eating honey, these are a MUST! And if you have the chance to try the Staggar Lee, DO IT! It was the best $6 I have spent in a very very long time.

Barnivore has a little information about which of their drinks are vegan and which are not (again, only if you DO NOT eat honey. If you do, then you can enjoy all of Crispin Ciders fresh hard cider drinks!). You can find Crispin’s at your local Whole Foods Markets

(Source: findvegan)

just finished icing these bad boys!

Vanilla pistachio cupcakes with rose water icing.

recipe, eventually!

(note: and, as someone pointed out on my facebook, those ARE pistachios and NOT moths on top of the cupcakes, and they ARE mini cupcakes, not just giant pistachios)

Dinner tonight:

‘Chicken’ Salad and Sweet Potato soup

‘Chicken’ Salad

• 1 1/2 cup cooked/canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 1 stalk celery, diced (I cut mine very fine)
• 1/4 cup sweet onion, diced same size as celery
• 3 tbsp finely chopped green onion
• 2 heaping tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1 tbsp pickle relish OR 1 tbsp finely chopped pickles w/ 1tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 4 heaping tbsp vegan mayonnaise (I used Veganaise)
• 1 tbsp mustard (I like spicy mustard!)
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• pepper to taste

• 1 cup loose arugula or spinach

Take pre cooked/canned garbanzo beans(chickpeas), and in a medium sized mixing bowl, mash beans with potato masher or back side of a fork till still fairly chunky, but most of beans are smashed. Add all other ingredients with the exception of the arugula, and mix well. 

Plate your arugula and add a heaping pile of your ‘chicken’ salad on top.

Sweet Potato soup

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3 cups peeled and chopped sweet potato
• 1 cup carrots, chopped into about 1/2 inch slices
• 2 large shallots, sliced
• 2-4 large cloves of garlic (I like mine garlicky so I added 4)
• 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water
• 2 tsp liquid aminos or soy salt
• parsley for garnish

In large pot, heat oil over med-high heat. Add shallots and saute till starting to brown. Add carrots and cook for about 4 minutes till carrots just start to brown. Make sure to stir and not let shallots burn. Turn down heat to med, add chopped garlic, 1/2 cup veggie stock, and cook for 5 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and the rest of the stock. Cover and cook for 45 minutes or till sweet potatoes and carrots are super soft. In batches take soup and blend till smooth. Return to pot, bring heat back to med-high, heat through. Stir in liquid aminos, and cook for 3 minutes.

Voila! Super simple and super tasty dinner!!

The soup was certainly Oliver approved tonight! 2 bowls AND he finished mine!

Tonight dinner: Falafel!

Tonight I attempted making Isa’s falafel recipe from her cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance. I never made falafel from scratch before. I always either bought them pre-made from the store, or *GASP* made it from a box.

I had this really yummy roasted red pepper hummus in my fridge and could not figure out what I wanted to eat it with. So I made a HUGE bowl of quinoa tabouli (I will write up the recipe later), bought some vegan dolmas from my work (Aladdin food, a local brand from Beaverton Oregon), and attempted to make the falafel.

Problem #1: I do NOT have a food processor. I have a regular blender and a ‘Magic Bullet’ blender, but not a real food processor. So it was pretty hard trying to blend the chickpeas with the ingredients in batches to get it all the right consistency. Well turns out I missed blending a whole bunch of the mix, but in the end after cooking the falafel, the chunks worked!

Problem #2: I did NOT want to fry them in oil. I am trying to stay away from oil as much as possible, and being that I did use oil in the tabouli, AND there was oil in the dolmas and hummus, I really wanted to keep them away from the oil. So I decided to bake them. Which was not a problem AT ALL! They turned out nice and crispy on the outside, and moist yet cooked on the inside. Note to self: ALWAYS bake falafel from now on!

Well all in all dinner turned out awesome. The falafel was perfect. I always know I can count on Isa and her awesome recipes for a hit meal.

YES PLEASE!!!