Cookies, Veganomicon, and more!

I had a bit of a posting hiatus.... my apologies! Life's been crazy, and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon. But no matter, let's get to the goods!
ED&BV's Mellow Lentil Sniffle Soup
I love red lentils. I think they may surpass garbanzos as my fave legume. Mmmm.
Vegan Lunch Box's Tofu Fish sticks, paired with sauteed purple and green curly kale and a tomato-basil salad drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum!
And, from ED&BV, the Quinoa Chickpea Confetti Casserole and Raw Red Pepper Aioli.
And, of course, cookies! (All from ED&BV)
Super-Charge Me cookies (for my sisters)
Walnut-Carob-Cranberry Clusters
The Double-Carob Cashew cookies (again), and Green Tea Cookies I made up (I'll post the recipe later in the week).
And look what I got in the mail today!
I'll try to do a Halloween post later in the week!
Happy Halloween all!

ED&BV....le sigh

I am borderline obsessed with this book. I think the anticipation built prior to receiving the book, combined the fact that it is truly an awesome cookbook validate the obsession.
My favorite recipe so far is the Lemon Garlic Pasta. Yes, I made this twice in two weeks. I think it is my new lazy supper. But I will make it even when I'm not feeling lazy, because it is wonderful. Mmm. Goodbye store-bought tomato sauce, hello lemon pasta. I threw in some tomatoes and spinach from the Farmer's Market for extra health and yumminess. (I used spinach rice pasta both times I made this...hence the colour.)To accompany the pasta, we had the Living Caesar Salad, which was lovely and yummy, and will certainly be made again in the near future.
And for last night's dinner, the Brown Rice and Beans "Jumble-aya". We didn't have a can of diced tomatoes, or kidney beans, so we compromised, using diced cherry tomatoes and black beans. It was so simple to make, and really good.
For breakfast yesterday morning, we made the Peanut Banana Tortilla Turnovers with Molassa-Dip. They were, of course, so good!
And for a snack while we watched America's Next Top Model (oh reality tv....my terrible guilty pleasure.....), we made the Softly Spiced Nuts, though I failed to get a picture.
One last ED&BV item.... The Chocolate Mint Melties. I took these out of the oven less than an hour ago, and my house smells minty-licious. Mmmm. I am bringing them to my step-sister's birthday party tonight (Happy 14th Birthday, Nicole!), and am fighting not to eat them all.
Okay, so I think my husband is scheduling an ED&BV intervention as we speak, so I'll move on.
A few weeks ago, my lovely new friend Nicolette and her son (who's just a tad younger than Quinn) came over to spend the morning with us. Not only are they vegan, but Nicolette is also a Holistic Health Practitioner, which is super cool. Anyways, we decided to make some smoothies with veggies (which, oddly enough, Dreena posted about a few days later). I didn't get any pictures that day, but here's a picture of my smoothie-covered boy on a different day, and the recipe Nicolette shared with me.
This smoothie had purple kale, hence the purple-ness.
Nicolette's Pear-Mint Smoothie
4 ripe pears, cored and sliced
4-5 leaves kale
1/4 cup mint leaves
4-5 dandelion leaves
2 cups water
Throw is all in a blender and enjoy!
This recipe is great, because the sweet mint really overpowers the flavour of the kale. I like to add a few tablespoons of Udo's DHA oil as well. :)
I'm going to a potluck this weekend, and will be making the tofu roast again (by request), as ell as some other goodies that I'll post about early next week.
Peace!
xo

Lots and lots of stuff....

Yikes! I have so much to catch up on. I have pre and post-Thanksgiving food to post about, so let's get to it!
Here's a batch of Energy Cookies from Vive. My sisters recently moved out together and went veg. One of them has heard some veg*n horror stories, and is super-concerned about iron, so I made them a batch of these yummy iron-rich cookies. They loved them, and are asking for more.
Next up is a picture of the leftover tofu roast, just so you get an idea of what the inside looks like. (This little piece was all that was leftover from two roasts!)
And from ED&BV, Lemon Pasta, Popcorn Fries, 5-Spice Almond Cookies, and Double-Carob Cashew Cookies.
Holy hannah... it was all so good. The pasta was perfect and easy, and I want more! The fries were....oh my goodness.... the best fries I've ever had in my life. Seriously. Wow. (Hubby made them and I was very impressed with his potato cutting skills! I gave myself a giant cut while preparing Thanksgiving dinner last weekend, and am feeling a little leery of knives...) The cookies were both super good, and I can't get the carob ones out of my mind. (Okay, so, to be honest, I made them with chocolate, because we had company, and I wanted my vegan goodies to impress, and you know how some people can be about carob. I promise to use carob next time.)
My step-sister and brother-in-law (the aforementioned company) came for dinner on Friday, and I made the Potato Squashers and Chickpea Sensation Patties, both from ED&BV, along with some steamed swiss chard. Yum! These were really good, and the picture does them no justice.
Cooking and breastfeeding, because that's how we roll. :)
In other news, we got a new fridge! Yay! I had to take a picture when it was all clean and organized.
And in one last bit of non-food-related vegan-ness, check out the cute Isabooties I got Teague! The blue pair is for xmas, so shhh!

Tofu Roast

This recipe was such a hit! I found a copy online (posted with permission from Sarah Kramer) to share with you all!
I have been cooking from ED&BV this week, and will have a big post coming up this weekend.
xo

The Thanksgiving Post

Phew! It's been a while! We have been so busy, it's ridiculous. I keep waiting for life to calm down, but it just never seems to happen. Our trip to the mountains was lovely, but not as relaxing as I'd hoped. I have lots of things to post about, but I think I'll save it for later, and make this an exclusively Thanksgiving post.
This Thankgiving, I am thankful for family, friends, and Canadian cookbook authors! Did I mention that I got my copy of Eat, Drink and Be Vegan this week? Yahoo! I think I spent a good couple of hours looking through it with awe and excitement. Naturally, I had to put it to use in my holiday meals. Being the daughter of divorced parents, we generally have 2 celebrations for each holiday (if my husband's family lived nearby, we'd likely have 3). To make my life a little easier, I decided to make the same dishes for each dinner, varying only the desserts. Here's what we had (2 nights in a row...):
The Tofu Roast from La Dolce Vegan. This received rave reviews from pretty much everyone. I think it will definitely become a holiday staple. In the midst of my cooking/ eating frenzy, I neglected to take any pictures of the final product, so all I have for you are 2 pre-oven, pre-basting pics. Sorry!
Saturday night was dinner at my dad's, and for dessert, I made the Pumpkin-Cheese Pie from ED&BV. Yum! It was awesome. I used the Brown Rice Pumpkin Seed pie crust from ExtraVeganZa. It was so good. Everyone loved it, and my grandma wants the recipe (for this and the tofu roast!). (On a side note, my grandpa has been veg for over 25 years... how cool is that?!)
Tonight we had dinner at my mom's, and I made the Chocolate-Pumpkin Pie from ED&BV (which Dreena has kindly posted here). Wow. Seriously... go make this now. It is that freaking good. Everyone loved it. It is super rich and decadent, and oh-so yummy! Why are you still reading? Go make this pie!
Pre-oven:
And post-oven:
I made the Walnut-Cocoa Crust (or something to that affect) from ExtraVeganZa. Not only is it healthier than store-bought, but we couldn't find any vegan chocolate pie crusts. (Which is actually quite odd, since Oreos are vegan... We were able to find vegan graham cracker crusts, which is also odd, since graham crackers usually contain honey. Strange.)
My side-dish contribution was the Roasted Root Vegetables and Squash from ExtraVeganZa. It's filled with sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, rutabagas and more! And look how pretty it is...
Apparently I mostly take pictures of things before they're cooked. Ah well. You get the idea.
I also whipped up the Traditional Cranberry Sauce and the Thick 'N' Rich Gravy from ED&BV. So good!
Here's tonight's dinner, all put together:
My sisters made the super-yummy vegetable salad, and my step-sister made the green salad (with walnuts and a pear-vanilla vinaigrette, which was awesome).
And here's a pie of Chocolate-Pumpkin Pie, that I saved just for you!
Mmmm. (Yeah, I think every member of my family - my sisters, my mom, my dad, and I - has the plain white Corelle plates. Weird.)
It was a busy weekend, and I'm looking forward to slowing down and relaxing tomorrow.
Oh, and by the way, check out what we got from the csa this week:
Yay!
Have a happy Thanksgiving, Canadian friends. Everyone else, enjoy your weekends!
Peace!

Where am I?

My apologies for the extended blogging absence. We've been busy! I do have stuff to post about, but no time, so I am planning on doing a huge post on Monday (it's a holiday in Canada, and the hubby will be home, which will hopefully give me an hour or so to catch up on things).
Until then, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!