Will you be mine?

I made a couple batches of cookies to share with family on Valentines Day last week.

First, V'con's Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies:
Everyone loved these...except me. I think I would've liked them if I weren't expecting raspberry, but I was, and I was a wee bit disappointed. I think the almond extract was too overpowering, and if I make them again, I would leave it out.

And, from the Joy of Vegan Baking, Sugar Cookies with White Icing (I actually can't remember if that's what the icing is actually called, but I used whatever the book recommended):
I colored the icing with some pink water leftover from cooking beets for Baby Teague. I thought that beets were a fitting Valentine's Day food for the little guy, and he seemed to enjoy them.

Longer post coming.....sometime. ;)
xo

A week of Vegan Family Dinners

We've had a pretty mellow week. It's still mega cold here, but we will survive (hey! hey!).
So, I have 5 new dinners to share.

First, last Wednesday, I made ED&BV's Sweet Potato-Lentil Chili, with a sprout salad and ExtraVeganZa's Red Pepper Hemp Cornbread.
The chili was *awesome*. I loved it. I'm a recent sweet potato convert, and I thought this was so good. It was a hit with everyone. The cornbread was a tad sweet for my taste, but good. I think next time I'll add less sugar, and maybe throw a minced jalapeno in. But isn't it pretty?

Thursday we had spaghetti at my dad's which was super yummy, as usual.

Friday, we had ExtraVeganZa's Root Vegetable Pot Pie.
I didn't have any rutebegas, so I threw in beets to even the score a bit. It's full of (purple) potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and the aforementioned beets. It was super comforting yummy. Perfect winter food.

Saturday my in-laws were in town, and we went to a great Vietnamese restaurant we live right around the corner from. They have a huge vegetarian menu, and we got a bunch of yummy dishes to share, like salad rolls, mango and tofu curry, and lemon tofu. Mmm.

I don't remember what we had on Sunday, but I think it was just a quick pasta.

Monday I made V'con's Pinneapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stirfry (or something to that effect...).
I knew Quinn would love this. It is full of his favorite things: cashews, quinoa, peppers, pinneapple, and peas. What's not to like. The quinoa is even cooked in pinneapple juice for extra pinneapple-y flavour. We all liked it, but I think I'd make this again just for Q.

Tuesday was my new favorite food, V'con's Chickpea Cutlets, served alongside a tomato-basil salad, and some roasted cauliflower.
Sigh. I heart those cutlets.

Last night I made V'con's Po' Boys and ED&BV's popcorn fries.
Sweet goodness, this dinner rocked my world. Okay, so it's obviously not healthy. The only veggies were the Veganaise-drenched cabbage, and a few slices of tomato. The french bread is white. Yada yada yada. Whatever. This was awesome. It made me smile with every bite. Oh yum. I want more. Yum. Oh, and although the recipe doesn't call for tomatoes, I highly recommend them. I left off the pickles, and without the tomatoes, it would've been a tad dry. Also, I left off the chipotle mayo, because chipotle, and really, all things smoky, make me want to gag a little bit. (I ran out of chili powder a few weeks ago, and accidentally bought chipotle chili powder to replace it. *shudder* So, now I have chipotle chili powder that I will never use. Sigh.)

And our lunches (no pictures), have been ExtraVeganZa's Peanut-Lime-Cilantro soup, and ED&BV's Monkey Minestrone with Polenta Croutons, which I looooved. I used Tinkyada's Sweet Dreams pasta, with all the fun shapes, and Quinn loved it. My hubby loved the croutons and said that they reminded him of chips (his favorite thing in the world).

I've done a bit of baking too, this past week. My grandpa's girlfriend (that's not as weird as it sounds) had a birthday last week, so I made her a batch of ExtraVeganZa's Lemon-Lavender-Blueberry Muffins.
I can't believe I haven't mentioned these muffins here before. They are my most favorite muffin in the whole world. Okay, that's a bit of a lie. They are tied for first with Vive's Stork Muffins. But whatever. These are lemony and lavendery and perfect and yummy.
We also made, but don't have pictures of, ED&BV's Cocoa-Banana Muffins (yum!), ExtraVeganZa's Apple-Walnut Spice Muffins (I thought these were good, but they are the first muffin ever that Q didn't like), and Hide and Seek Muffins from Pretend Soup (which we've made before.

And the only new food we've given Teague is yams.
He loved 'em. He's been cut-off from broccoli, as it made him a wee bit, ahem, gassy, and he would therefore, keep me up all night (moreso than he already does). I plan to make a bunch more food for him this weekend.

And that's all, folks.
Peace and love.
xo

Back to the food

It's been three long weeks of cooking, so prepare yourselves for a lengthly-ish post.
First up, is the Portobello Mushroom Tofu Quiche from ExtraVeganZa. I didn't have any portobellos, so I subbed porcini mushrooms, which, the dear Food Network chefs have taught me, are really just baby portobellos. The quiche was super yummy, but a little labor-intensive, since it involved a few steps, as well as making a crust. I'm sure I'll make it again though.
I was supposed to use red pepper strips, which would've been prettier, but I had yellow on hand, so there you go.

My sisters turned 20 last week (they are twins... hence the sharing of the birthday....), and we had a small family dinner for them at my dad's house. My stepmom, who, like most of the amazing people in my life, always makes an effort to veganize food for us, made a vegan version of one of my sisters' favorite foods: Jamaican patties. Mmmm. I haven't had these in years....like, maybe 7 or 8 years. Wow. They were awesome.
While we're talking about awesome people, I'd like to give a shout out to everyone else who has been sweet to us in the past few weeks: thanks to my friends Audrey, for the pizza and the soup, Nicolette for the sushi, Trina for the rad bean-cookies, and to my family, who are always super supportive, and always have chocolate soymilk around for Quinn. :)

Next up is two ED&BV recipes put together: Living Caesar Salad and Blackened Tofu. It was super-yummy, but I totally effed up the tofu and burned the crap out of it somehow. I know the idea was to blacken it, but not to burn it to a total crisp. Whatever. I scraped the badly burned parts off and dug in. My husband loves all things burny (despite the carcinogens), so he kept his intact and loved it.

At the farmers' market on Saturday, I picked up, among other things, a huge savoy cabbage. I've never seen a savoy cabbage before, but they are really ginormous. My husband was reluctant to get it, since I rarely cook with cabbage, but it's the dead of winter, and the market has some pretty slim pickens. I knew I had a recipe that called for savoy cabbage in my ReBar cookbook, so I went ahead and bought it. As it turned out, ReBar had two vegan recipes using my new giant cabbage. I made the BigBarn Bowties. It was described as "humble and earthy" (just like me!!! haha), and it did not disappoint. Topped with nutritional yeast, it was a lovely winter meal.

Shockingly, I haven't done too much baking lately. I certainly should be, with the ridiculously low temperatures here. Last week, aside from a batch of ExtraVeganZa's Carob Mint Oatmeal cookies (or something to that effect), Quinn and I made a batch of ED&BV's Oatmeal Raisin cookies (inspired by VeggieGirl), with the addition of some carob chips. Quinn always likes to have a job when we bake (when we make muffins, it's his job to line the tray with muffin liners), so I gave him the oh-so important job of smushing the cookies down a bit before they went into the oven.
The cookies were super yummy, and baking with the boys (Teague is usually in a baby carrier of some kind) is the best way to spend a morning.

Speaking of the boys, we have a lot to catch up on with Baby Teague's dining experiences.
First, blueberries! He loved 'em, no surprise there.
Next, butternut squash, which also went over very well.

Also on the menu, without pictures, are broccoli, blackberries, bananas, and peas. He doesn't dig broccoli on it's own, but doesn't mind it mixed with other veggies. Oddly enough, he really doesn't like blackberries either. Huh. Maybe the seeds?

And lastly, that sneaky guy tried to rebel against our vegan values and eat a cow! We caught you Teague!
"Crap! I've been outed!"

Stiil here...

Hey friends! I'm still here... still cooking. I have much to post about, but have been too busy/ lazy to upload pictures onto my computer.

There's mega snow here....temperatures tomorrow will be -30 C for the high. Wow.

And, since I don't have enough on my plate, I'm working on opening an etsy shop. Details on that to come... right now I'm thinking that it will be mostly baby/ toddler clothing made from recycled thrift shop clothes. Maybe children's backpacks, cloth diapers, pouch slings, and mei tai baby carriers. We'll see. (Yeah, that's not vegan-food related, but it's one of the reasons I've been absent. So.)

Anyways, I hope to have a post up in the next couple days. From the looks of the forecast, it looks like I won't really be leaving the house too much in the coming week.

I hope you are all a lot warmer than us!

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. :)

Happy Holidays!

Hey all! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday.
I have much to post, so let's get to it!

Last Saturday, before Christmas, we had a big Holiday/ Solstice party with a few friends of ours. It was an after-dinner party, and I made a few big pots of Chai Latte from The Joy of Vegan Baking (no pics, sorry... just imagine a big pot of.... chai. ;) ), and Lemon Cheesecake from the same book. Holy hannah, that lemon cheesecake rocked my world like crazy. Yikes. Sure, it was pricey, and a good $20 worth of soy cream cheese went into it, but damn. I was pretty sure that my cheesecake days were over, but I am so relived that they are not. Oh yum. I topped with a raspberry coulis. Ah, life is sweet.
Each of my guests took home a goody bag full of holiday baking: Jam-Print Cookies, 5-Spice Cookies, and Chocolate Mint Melties from ED&BV, Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance, and Mexican Wedding Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Mmm.

Our christmas dinners (one at my mom's, one at my dad's) consisted of tofu roast, potatoes, veggies... the usual suspects. Nice!
One of my sisters is in university right now, so to save on cash, she made everyone treats for christmas instead of buying gifts. Fine by me! Here's what she made us: Double-Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies and Fudgy Brownies from Vive, and chocolate-covered pretzels. Holy crappola. Chocolate covered pretzels rock my world, and I haven't had them in years. Le sigh. I heart my family.

Speaking of loving my family, can we talk gifts for a minute? My awesome hubby got me a mug from VeganDish that I am in love with! And look at how cute my guys are in their new Herbivore duds.
And here's a cute picture of my Grandpa ( vegetarian for 25+ years) sharing some cashews with Quinn. Awww.

For our post-christmas Boxing Day dinner, I made Fresh at Home's Golden Curried Dahl, and a batch of ExtraVeganZa's Spelt Chapatis. (On a side note, a dear friend just pointed out that me, and a few other friends, have been pronouncing this book Extra Vegan Za, although it seems like it's actually extravaganza. I feel like an idiot.)

Although I didn't mention it last month, I got a big ol' gift certificate to a bookstore for my birthday, which I, naturally, used to buy cookbooks. :) I picked up Fresh At Home, Real Food Daily, and The Joy of Vegan Baking (which I looove so far). Does anyone have any recommendations for what to make from which?

And, last but not least, (not-so) little baby Teague had his first not-from-the-boob food tonight! Some organic steamed pears, pureed, obviously.
I have done a lot of research on vegan infant nutrition, and have am quite nearly finished my holistic nutrition school, so I feel confident in doing a full post on the subject in the near future, if anyone would be interested. I will be following a feeding guide given to me by my naturopath, as well as my own knowledge on the subject.

Happy Holidays, everyone!
xo

Quickie

I am insanely swamped right now.... trapped under a seemingly endless pile of sewing, baking, and card making/ writing/ sending.
Anyways, back to the food. My mom and stepdad came for dinner last week, and I made V'Con's Chickpea Cutlets, with Mustard Sauce, and some roasted veggies (blue potatoes, parsnips, and carrots). Hot Damn I love those cutlets.
And, since we're covered in snow, and super cold temps, I made the husband and I a batch of ED&BV's Cocoa. All I had was full-fat coconut milk, which I used the whole can of, against Dreena's advice. I really should've listened to the well-meaning advice, because it was way too rich. Still good, but more like.... if-I-drink-a-whole-mug-of-this-I-might-throw-up good, y'know? I must add light coconut milk to my grocery list and try this again.
Oh, and a quick side note.... have any of you tried VitaSoy's Chocolate Peppermint Soymilk? Oh. My. God. If you haven't tried it yet, then run to your nearest health food store and buy a case...erm, a carton asap. Seriously. You will not be disappointed. Mmmmm. Damn the seasonal soymilks!