:: 29 ::

Tonight was much better in the dinner making department. Ayla was very cooperative (ie. entertaining herself while I got dinner prepared) and so I got more done than I anticipated. Well it doesn't look like much but I had the idea to make something with chick peas tonight and this is what came of it. I was rifling thru my Jamaican cookbook and came across a curry recipe that I knew would go perfect with chick peas and potatoes. I didn't feel for having rice again so I decided to make some roti, which is a type of Indian flat bread for those wondering. I did make curried chick peas some weeks ago and I do remember saying that I would never use another recipe for it because it was that good. But I didn't have any more coriander seeds and that was one of the main ingredients for that curry. So this one that I found made perfect use of the spices I did have while not compromising the taste one bit. Definitely a two thumbs up for this dinner tonight. Especially the roti, I can't believe I made it myself it's so good. I wish I had doubled the recipe instead of halved it!

Hmm, I can't decide which picture I like best so I'll leave both :)

:: 28 ::

I haven't really been feeling up to posting to the blog lately. I guess I'll be kind of glad when Vegan MoFo is over because I hate feeling tied to an obligation. I know it's supposed to be for fun and what not but I still feel that pull like it's something I signed on to do and therefore 'have' to finish if that makes sense. In any case I'll feel a bit more liberated once it's all over and done with. For the last few nights we haven't made anything spectacular. Mostly veggie dogs, salads and leftovers. Not much has been very blog worthy. Tonight I had some cauliflower and broccoli to use up so I found a recipe that used just that. I also happened to have the dried shiitake mushrooms on hand that the recipe called for and I decided to throw in some almonds at the last minute. It turned out pretty good although it's not very photogenic.

I think I'll go make another batch of Isa's pumpkin cookies to cheer me up. I made some this weekend and well needless to say they've all been eaten off.

:: 24 ::

We couldn't decide what to make for dinner tonight (as usual) so I said 'why not have breakfast for dinner?' And that was that. I tried the tofu scramble that Vegan Dad had posted about a few days/weeks ago. It was the best tofu scramble I've ever made. I think I'll be using this recipe from here on out. It uncannily resembles scrambled eggs but that's about as close as it gets. This tastes way better than scrambled eggs ever did. We had it with some veggie breakfast patties, some hash browned potatoes and slices of tomatoes. I also found some great ciabatta buns at the grocery the other day that were vegan (surprisingly). In all it was an excellent breakfast dinner. It's actually kind of good this way because I don't seem to be posting very many breakfast or lunch meals since starting this whole Vegan MoFo thing.

PS. I don't think I've ever made a Vegan Dad recipe that I didn't like. I highly recommend checking out his blog if you're ever in a cooking rut.

:: 23 ::

I realize that my daily posts are becoming dodgy but yesterday we weren't home for dinner so there was no official dinner. I ended up having a bowl of cereal. It's a slippery slope I tell you! But then there's Alex to save us from our unhealthy rut tonight with a truly amazing dinner. Really I can't rave enough about it, it was just fantastic! Unfortunately it was a 'freestyle' as we like to call it and so there's no recipe. As you can tell he's not very on the ball on handing out recipes. I must really squeeze this one out of him because I don't want it lost to the recesses of his mind because it must be made again. I forgot what he said he was trying to accomplish with this meal, but it's basically broccoli and an amazingly marinated tofu all stir fried together. We had this over some steamed jasmine rice. Parfait!

And did I mention he took the picture this time? Lookin' real good.

When the cat's away the mice will play and Vegan MoFo #21

First up my dinner tonight for Vegan MoFo. I can't believe 21 days have already shot by! Before I show dinner, I must confess that this is a poor way to be showing anyone how vegans eat on a regular basis. I mean I can clearly remember us having fries maybe 3 days ago for dinner (ok maybe 5 but still). So there's no excuse for us to have them again.

But there you have it, Alex felt like making burgers for dinner tonight and well everyone knows nothing goes better with a burger than fries. This time we didn't even have the green salad to balance it out. Yikes! But it was oh so delicious all the same. Alex even commented that it might have been the best burger he's ever had. Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow in the health department.

We put onions and mushrooms that are lightly fried on them. Ever since discovering this one little thing we've never had a burger that didn't taste perfect. It's that 'je ne sais quoi' (I don't know what) flavor it imparts.

And now onto the best part of this post. So while I go to work in the daytime, Alex is left at home to care for our darling daughter, Ayla. But what do we have here, stashed on my camera?

Yes, that's right, Ayla playing Rock Band drums. And from her highchair no less! These pictures seriously had me cracking up. So the 'mice' were in full play mode while the 'cat' was indeed away. ;)

:: 20 ::

I should mention here that Alex and I love Asian food. You'll usually find at least two or three times a week we're eating something Asian related. So it should come as no surprise that we had another stir-fry type dish for dinner tonight.

His favorite, Singapore noodles, made with soy sauce and curry powder. It's also usually served with bbq pork and what ever kinds of veggies you want to throw in. Obviously we're not into the killing of any innocent pigs so we subbed in some fried tofu. It's really been a clean out the fridge kind of week around here so the pickings are getting really slim. I can tell you all from now that I have no idea what I'll come up with tomorrow night. Tonight was challenging enough for me as it is! I have to say signing up for this Vegan MoFo has got me worried about pulling crap out of the kitchen when I'm feeling so lazy. I really need to start thinking more about kitchen appliances. ;)

:: 18 ::

Somehow the day ran away with me yesterday and I didn't get around to posting. In any case we had leftovers so there wasn't much to blog about. I guess I could have talked about my favorite kitchen appliance (which is my hand blender by the way) but I got home late from work and wasn't really up to it.

Tonight, I wanted something fast and requiring very little effort on my part, so I tried to make the Chickpea and Quinoa Pilaf from Vcon, except I didn't have any more quinoa! I had already started chopping up stuff by the time I realized this so I had to improvise. I have a lot of brown rice in this house in many various forms so I decided to use up some of that. It turned out brilliantly! The only thing is I wasn't too sure how much water to put. I usually use my rice cooker to make rice and so doing it on the stove always gets me a little stumped. In the end the water didn't all evaporate and I'm not certain it was supposed to because this is my first time making pilaf. I'm sure if there are any leftovers it will be a perfect consistency tomorrow. I had a salad with it afterwards which is not pictured. I'll definitely make this again, I love the taste of coriander seeds and cumin together, yum!

:: 16 ::

Tonight was Alex's night to prepare dinner again. This time he was craving a sandwich similar to the one I made us a few weeks ago.He's been craving one for a couple of weeks now but we don't get that Tofurky sandwich meat here. We decided to try it with the Yves veggie ham instead. It worked out wonderfully and tasted just as great as the last time. This time I forgot to buy some more cucumber so I subbed in some chopped green onions for the crunch factor instead. We paired it with a mixed greens salad drizzled with a simple dijon vinaigrette I whipped up and some homemade fries. A very nice end to a pretty busy day. Sorry that the sandwich picture isn't clearer. I was just too hungry to be fussing around with the camera.

I've had a request for the recipe for the Sheperd's pie we had for dinner yesterday. I'll have to ask Alex and post about it next time.

Vegan Mofo #15 & What's in my (vegan) freezer?

First up is my dinner tonight for my entry for Vegan MoFo. Alex made a lovely sheperd's pie tonight. It's undeniably one of my favorite comfort foods. I should look up where the name comes from but I'm too tired to get around to that now. It's interesing because in french it's pâté chinois' which doesn't at all translate to 'sheperd's pie' but to Chinese pie. Anyway, it was really good and I can't wait to have leftovers tomorrow.

So yesterday I wrote about being tagged by Bex from How to feed a vegan about what's in my vegan freezer. It was started by Billy from Vegan Talk. The rules are:

1. Take a picture of the items in your freezer
2. Post the pictures with a summary of the items
3. Tag 5 vegan bloggers

So here goes! As I noted yesterday I have two freezers so this is going to be a big summary, thank goodness I cleaned out the smaller freezer recently!

In this top picture from my small fridge freezer, we have from top left to right: plastic containers of diced tomatoes, pureed broccoli and cauliflower in ziplock baggies for Ayla, bag of veggie scraps for making broth, rye bread, coffee, homemade pizza dough, tortillas, spring roll wrappers and Teese vegan cheese. On the bottom from right to left we have: chocolate chips, peas, ground flax seeds, cashews, ginger, tomato sauce (in plastic container), almond flavored dessert tofu and vodka.

Fridge freezer side door: endangered species chocolate, bananas, phyllo dough, homemade pasta dough and icecubes.

This is the big freezer side tray, I have frozen nuts of various kinds and some frozen dried fruits. And two types of soy icecreams, butterscotch and neapolitan.

Bottom of the big freezer, various bags of frozen fruits and veggies for smoothies and rushed dinners, some soy puff balls bought at T&T in West Ed mall and some veggie shrimps. I think the plastic container has fruit. On the other side (second picture) we have hot dog and burger buns and frozen icepacks. Oh and that bottom corner of green, those are veggie spring rolls. I think there are also some veggie dumplings in there too. Phew!

So now I have to tag 5 vegan bloggers, hmm, I'll go with:

Bittersweet
Heathen Vegan
Cravin' Veggies
The Pink Apron
Life on the Vegan highway is good!

::14 ::

Tonight was a rushed night. Interestingly enough we didn't have much left overs from Thanksgiving dinner. I've never been one to love leftovers so I usually make just enough for one or two meals. Sometimes if there is a lot of leftovers I find myself being the only one eating it or I freeze it then forget about it and end up throwing it out with my annual freezer cleaning binges. Well maybe it's not annual but whenever the mood strikes me. And speaking of freezers, I've been tagged by Bex from How to Feed a Vegan to show what's in my vegan freezer. I actually have two freezers a deep freeze and the smaller fridge one. I'll have to get to that post tomorrow as it's pretty late and I'm not up to rummaging in two freezers at the moment. So instead, I'll give you tonight's hurried dinner.

I bought a bag of frozen veggies, Asian stir fry style, for those nights when you just want to throw something together. Some people buy canned or boxed food I buy frozen veggies, what are you gonna do. I thought about mixing them with tofu but I wasn't feeling in the mood for opening a new pack to use in a 'rushed' meal so I threw in a handful or two of cashews that I also have stashed in my deep freezer. Mixed that up with some rice noodles and a premade sweet chili sauce and you have dinner. I know it's very similar to what I just made a few days ago with the hot and sweet tofu but dang was it ever good. I have to say for freezer veggies I was expecting that they wouldn't be too good, but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually saved some for Alex to have when he gets home later tonight from work but I think these leftovers are calling my name.

:: 13 ::

Yesterday was quite the night for all of us. Ayla was up for more than 12 hours straight with a horrible head cold and painful gas to boot. We finally got her to bed at 3:30am but then she would sleep for 1 hour then wake up for another 15 minutes of intense crying. Let's just say Alex and I were completely tuckered out for the whole day today. However, that didn't stop me from going ahead with our scheduled Thanksgiving day menu. Oh yea, it's Thanksgiving here in Canada. Happy Thanksgiving!

I made the simple seitan from Veganomicon based on the recipe that Isa posted the other day on the PPK (ie. she replaced the nooch for chickpea flour and breaded it with panko for frying). I decided to pair that with some homemade cranberry sauce, baked potatoes (sweet and regular), a mixed greens salad and some baked apples drizzled in maple syrup and a few dashes of soy sauce. I must say that it was an amazing meal to end the day. But the best part came with dessert. I made my first apple pie and it didn't disappoint! I used this recipe from allrecipes.com and a pie crust recipe from a fellow vegan blogger who's blog and name completely escapes me. In any case, this was the best pie I've ever had! The crumb topping was so good that I'm drooling and thinking of another piece as I write this. So anyway, all in all we had a very peaceful and fulfilling day.

One last thing, lately Ayla and I have been going on walks whenever we get the chance. That usually means whenever she climbs the stairs and starts pulling down all the shoes off the rack and trying to open the front door. In any case, the other day we were out for our walk and she tripped and fell on her face, on the sidewalk. I have to say, I must have some bad luck when it comes to watching her. She's constantly falling on her face! I must seem like the world's most negligent mother. Needless to say I think I'll just keep her away from public places till this one clears up...

:: 11 ::

Tonight I wanted to make something that was going to be just as tasty as yesterday's meal. I think I hit the spot with this one. I used the recipe for the Sweet & Hot Tofu that Vegan Dad blogged about a couple of weeks ago. I knew the minute I saw it that I would have to make it. It took me long enough to get around to it. But damn was it ever worth it! If you have not given this recipe a try then you seriously do not know what you are missing. I paired it with those chow mein egg type noodles (without eggs!) and some baby bok choy. I'm giving you 'pot' shots as I didn't take any pictures after it was all dished out.

I also made the Vegan Genoise Cake from Nonna's Italian Kitchen for dessert. I've been looking everywhere for a light sponge type vegan cake recipe not realizing that I've been sitting on one the whole time. I haven't tried it yet but just taking it out of the pan it felt really light and fluffy. I can't wait till it cools enough for me to dig in. I thought about icing it with something but I think I'll just have it plain with some fruit. Yum!

So I'm thinking about heading back into the sewing room to make something, anything. But I'm not sure what. I keep umming and uhhing the whole thing and usually just end up leaving empty handed. I think I might make something for Ayla, that way I'll be starting small while getting myself back in the groove.

I'm also thinking about changing the name of this blog. I didn't realize that after I had created it there was someone out there with the blog name A Crafy Vegan. I hadn't thought of putting 'A' before 'Crafty Vegan' when I was searching out blog names. So stay tuned for that as well.

:: 10 ::

Day 10 of Vegan MoFo. Alex pointed out to me today that MoFo means something entirely different than 'month of food'. Well I don't make the acronyms now do I so I cannot be held responsible for the double entendres. In any case, I was feeling a bit adventurous today and decided to have a little japanese night with miso soup, veggie spring rolls and sushi. It all turned out so wonderfully. As we were eating we remarked that it felt as if we had ordered take out. We'll definitely have to make this again soon. It turned out to be much easier to roll the sushi rolls than I thought it would be. Ayla even enjoyed her share by picking out and eating the veggies in the middle. The rolls have carrots, cucumbers, green onions, tofu and shiitake mushrooms in the middle.

:: 8 ::

A part of me can't believe I took on this challenge of following Vegan MoFo. I'm usually the type that will say they're going to do something and then at the very last minute will drop out or decide that it's just not worth it. I know it can be a terrible trait but there you have it. I must say though, that this is making me really think outside of the box when it comes to making dinner. And I mean that literally, I'm trying to stay away from the pre-packaged stuff and make things from scratch whenever possible. This next dish comes from a cookbook I found here in Red Deer. It's called Authentic Recipes from Jamaica by John Demers. This cookbook is by no means vegan in anyway, but I wanted to get it so that I could veganize some of my favorite foods from my pre-vegan days. I'm really happy I got it because the pictures are so full of color and it makes me think of visiting my family over there and the good times we had back when I was much younger.

I chose to make the Ginger Tamarind Chicken replacing the poor chicken with a batch of seitan I made using Chris's recipe from Eat Air. I also added some poultry seasoning and swapped the beans for tofu. It turned out really tender with just the right kind of bite. I decided that I wanted to make a coconut rice to go with it so I roughly used the recipe from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I added some thyme and spring onions and omitted the lime juice. All of that with a nice spring salad, it was a perfect meal to end the day. We finished the chocolate chip cookies today so I'm already deciding on my next sweet delight. We'll see!

:: 7 ::

I've been itching to make a ratatouille ever since I saw the movie. I had never heard of it before but I figured it would be a good way for me to introduce myself to eggplant in a good way. We tried it once before but I think we weren't took keen on the results. It was a deep fried recipe and I think it absorbed too much of the oil. I remember reading somewhere after the fact that eggplant does that. Anyway, so I was checking out all the lovely vegan blogs doing updates and I came upon the Vegan Lunch Box by none other than Jennifer McCann aka Jennifer Shmoo. She had done a lovely ratatouille for lunch the other day and she so kindly emailed me her recipe to try out on my own.

Well, to my complete delight it was really fast and so simple to put together. And I must say it was very very delicious indeed. I'll definitely add this to my 'must make again' list. The only downside to all of this? It's not very photogenic. I made it this afternoon before leaving for work at 2:30 and by the time I came home at 5:30 all of the nice bright colors had kind of all melded into one big beige. So even though this doesn't look amazing it really does taste good. We paired it with some pumpernickel bread using the pumpernickel crouton recipe from VwaV.

Luckily I can still save this post with some cuteness in the form of my sleeping babe. I've been telling my mother for weeks now about how Ayla likes to sleep using a pillow because I guess that's what she sees Alex and I doing. Today I had to wake her up from her nap to go pick up Alex from work and I came upon this sight. It was too good to pass up!

As you can see the wrinkled brow is due to Mama making flashes go off while she's trying to rest. Oops!

:: 6 ::

I'm having a great time thinking up new things to make for Vegan MoFo. It's forcing me to actually get in the kitchen and whip up some good food. Yesterday after dinner my sweet tooth started kicking in so I asked Alex what he'd like me to make. He immediately asked for chocolate chip cookies.

We're huge fans of the Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies in Vive le Vegan by Dreena Burton. They're amazing and I've never used another chocolate chip cookie recipe since finding this one. I know there are probably others out there that are just as good but the ingredients used in this recipe are right up my alley. They don't call for butter (unlike most cookie recipes) which is quite pricey in my neck of the woods. I had to use the flash since it's late and the shadows are out to play.

PS. How do you like my vintage cookie jar that says 'Biscuits' (French for cookies) on it. I just love it so much!