Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Recent stuff

Not too much going on around here. Things have slowed down mega since the holidays, which is lovely.
Here are a few recent goings-on from our kitchen.
My most favorite grocery store/ restaurant closed last month, which breaks my heart. (And makes me hate giant chain grocery stores, but that's beside the point....) I used to get this really awesome tofu tahini rice bowl there, and I tried to recreate it, with a little help and inspiration from the rice bowl recipes from the Fresh at Home cookbook. Brown rice, marinated tofu, diced tomatoes, avocado, spinach, sunflower seeds, and tahini sauce. Yummers.
And after Michelle's hardy recommendation, I decided to make V'con's Leek and Bean Cassoulet. I've been wanting to try this recipe since she first posted about it, but it always looked so complicated, especially since I always wait until the last minute to make dinner. In reality though, it was super straight forward, and no trouble at all. Oh, and did I mention that it was totally delicious?
And my fancy-pants dinner: roasted portobellos, tomato couscous (both from V'con), roasted cauliflower, and steamed chard. It would've been fancier if I would have put it in a little cup, so it would've been all molded, and, well, fancy. But that was an afterthought. So. This is as fancy* as it gets.
I also made another one of the expensive vegan cheesecakes last weekend, and Quinn helped me clean up. :)
(Note the adorable sock monkey pants that Grandma made Quinn for xmas!)
And now for the feeding pictures! Two new foods for baby Teague. Spinach:
and swiss chard:
Both went over well, now I need to get back to my steamer and food processor, and decide what to make next!
Have a great week everyone!
*I refer to this meal as fancy, because couscous and roasted portobellos seem very restaurant-y to me. :)

11 comments:

Rose said...

I hate it when good restaurants close down, it makes me so mad! We used to have a vegan restaurant here in Austin but it shut down like a month or so before I became vegan :(

By the way - your fancy meal looks delish!

Ruby Red said...

I agree, it sucks when good places close! A tofu tahini rice bowl sounds delicious, so at least you were able to make a yummy replacement yourself. :)

The Cassoulet does look complicated! The little biscuits look especially enjoyable. I'm going to have to put that recipe on my do-list, as well as make some tahini sauce. (There's a recipe in the Chicago Diner Cookbook for a tofu scramble with tahini, so maybe I'll go for that.)

I would love to be served your fancy-pants dinner at a restaurant, and once again, cute kids!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Haha oh goodness the last two pictures are priceless!

My favorite vegan restaurant closed too! AND so many of the vegan products I've liked over the years have been discontinued... it just goes to show that the world desperately needs more vegans so there'll be more of a demand for vegan places and products!!! But it's great that you were able to make a tahini bowl that was at least a satisfactory replacement to the one you loved.

Mmmmm vegan biscuits = super comfort food.

veganmomma said...

Hooray for a greens eater. Rowan gags everytime I feed him green stuff other than avocado. Sad:(
He is liking more and more food though. I'd be curious about your take on food introduction. I've probably blown it by now (ro is almost 10 months) but I've been more selective with him than I was with my first. So far just some fruits, veggies, rice and a little oat.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

aww, I'm so sorry that your favorite restaurant closed - I definitely know how upsetting that is :0( hopefully you'll be able to find another restaurant that is ALMOST as good :0)

oh my, all the dishes you've made look fabulous - especially your fancier dish!! quite elegant and delicious-looking!!

so nice that Quinn helped you clean up, haha - and his sock-monkey pants are TOO CUTE as well!!

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

Oh cute-cute-cute!

I actually made sock monkey jammies out of the VERY SAME MATERIEL for my teenage daughter. She loves them too and thinks it's VERY cool that somewhere out there a cute little boy has a matching pair!

Isn't it great having a vegetarian freindly family? All mine are, so my get-togethers sound a lot like yours - I love my family.

Pooja said...

Hi there,
This is my first time visit to this blog, and truely liked it.

Nice array of recipes you have.
I loveth pics of your cute son too !
my blog is more than 18 months old and there is wide varity of veggie dishes you can find, Being from India, its is natural for me to be an expert with veggie cooking. I think you might like to have a look at those recipes.I will keep visiting here for more.

thanks.

Michelle said...

glad u liked it!

Lizzy said...

I love the baby pics!! My Baby LOVES spinach.. he is such an awesome little vegan.. he gets sooo excited when we share our veggies with him. You should have seen him last night when he tried our Indian food!

urban vegan said...

The kidlets are so freakin' adorable.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Cupcakes in a cone sound like something super-fun to make! I guess what I actually did post about isn't as interesting hehe.

Thanks for the idea; I now want to try making cup-cone cakes in the near future :o).