Mexican Millet with Oven-Baked Lemon-Pepper Tofu

Another Veganomicon recipe - the book was feeling neglected. I LOVED this recipe and I can't wait to make it again. Millet is a yummy (and cheap!) grain, and this is slightly spicy, slightly tomato-y mushy goodness. The tofu was marinated in lemon juice and black pepper and then baked at 350 for 30 minutes.

Sloppy Joes

Last night was sloppy joe night. Strangely, there is a lack of sloppy joe nights in the vegan comfort food household, considering how perfectly comfort-food-y this meal is! These are made with brown lentils, and the recipe is the "Snobby Joes" recipe from Veganomicon.

Slow-cooked Beets and Seitan with Red Wine Sauce

It's a rainy Saturday so I felt like making something fancy, by which I mean something with red wine. The beets are the Three-Orange Beets from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, a very favourite cookbook of mine, and they are cooked in orange juice with a touch of marmalade.

The seitan is a basic recipe, simmered and sliced, and the sauce is the Red Wine Roux from Veganomicon. I can't believe I had never made this sauce, it is delicious!!

Recipe roundup!

This week I made this carrot gnocchi recipe from Vegan for the People: http://veganforthepeople.blogspot.com/2009/10/carrot-gnocchi-with-basil-pesto.html
It was really good and I will definitely make it again. I made some kind of creamy cashew sauce to go with them, not pesto, but I can't remember what was in it..

I also made this super simple but AMAZING split pea soup from 101 Cookbooks: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/vegetarian-split-pea-soup-recipe.html
I prefer yellow split peas to green but I had some green, so I used half green and half yellow. I make split-pea soup about once a week when the weather gets cold, and I usually add carrot and potato and other things, but I like the simplicity of this recipe.

I made raw pasta sauce last night based on this recipe from Ani Phyo:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/zucchini-ribbons-with-raw-tomato-marinara
I liked it. It would have been better if I had added the basil but I didn't have any.

I plan to make this roasted sweet potato dish:
http://www.sassyradish.com/2009/10/roasted-sweet-potato-salad-with-black-beans-chili-dressing/

and I can't believe I haven't made this yet: http://www.recipezaar.com/Creamy-Chickpea-and-Tahini-Casserole-56818

Any comments on these recipes? Which online recipes have you tried lately and which ones are on your to-make list?

Vitamin Wheel

I just thought this was cool...

Raw Chocolate Caramel Cake

This is my new favourite dessert recipe- and it is from the cookbook Raw for Dessert by Jennifer Cornbleet. It is the chocolate lava cake recipe but the caramel variation, and without a top - I used the extra chocolate "cake" to make more little cakes instead. Yum yum yum.

Soy-free Chocolate Mousse

There seems to be a version of this pudding on every raw vegan food blog- and for good reason! It is super easy and super delicious. I'm glad for an alternative to tofu-based mouse. This one has a much better aftertaste.

My version:

2 organic avocados
5 honey dates, soaked in water at least 3h
1/2 cup Fair Trade cocoa powder (no, I didn't use raw cocoa like the raw-foodies usually do)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend!
Use some of the date-soaking water until you have the desired consistency.

Raw Tortilla Soup with Cheesy Hemp Nacho Sauce

I'm excited for my lunch for tomorrow! It is:
Raw Tortilla Soup (minus the cilantro):
http://www.choosingraw.com/raw-tortilla-soup/
Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkYb1KrOD3s
and organic corn chips.

Pesto Scrambled Tofu with Cherry Tomatoes

I am the new proud owner of Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and this is the first recipe I've made from it. It's as delicious as you would assume. Which is very delicious.
(All photos on this blog can be clicked for a bigger view).

Easy Black-Bean Stir-Fry

This was a super quick and simple dinner. The noodles are these cool 100% millet noodles that I found in a Chinese grocery store. They were great, and they are slightly yellow in colour so they kind of look like egg noodles.

The stir-fry is Soy Curls, carrot, celery, ginger, and black bean-garlic sauce from a jar.

Green Salad with Pesto-baked Tofu

Mixed baby greens, grated raw beet, grated carrot, tomato and slices of tofu baked with pesto.
I'm not sure what the dressing was.. probably olive oil, white wine vinegar, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.

Lemon Macadamia Wedding Cake

I got married on the 1st- and this was my wedding cake! It is the lemon cake recipe from [here], including the lemon curd center, but we used an icing that we invented made with icing sugar, macadamia nut butter, coconut cream, and shortening. My friend Courtney made it for us- and it was amazing! The roses matched my bouquet.

Lemon Biscotti

These biscotti are for my wedding favours. We're making 3 flavours of biscotti, and this is first one. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly!

Here is the recipe, copied from this link: http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2005issue2/vj2005issue2biscotti.htm

Lemon Biscotti

3 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
Flax seed egg replacer for 3 eggs
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 Tablespoons Malibu rum
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking power, baking soda, and lemon zest. Blend well.

With a hand blender, mix lemon juice, oil, egg replacer, agave nectar, rum, and vanilla. Blend until smooth and creamy. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the liquid ingredients in. Mix until a stiff dough forms. Try not to overmix the dough.

Form into two logs. Lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten the logs’ tops. Bake for 30 minutes. Logs should give a little, like a cake, when they are done. Remove from oven and let cool for at least half an hour.

Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Cut the logs in slices on the slant, about 1/2-inch thick or more if you like thicker biscotti. Lay biscotti flat on a pizza screen or baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes. If you use a baking sheet, turn the biscotti halfway through baking. Biscotti should be crisp and lightly browned.

Herbed Tofu Baguette Sandwich

A yummy lunch after grocery shopping. Organic baguette with baby spinach, bulgarian roasted red pepper spread, and tofu marinated and fried in olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, italian spices and dijon mustard.

Also, this recipe isn't pretty enough to take a picture of , but it's a favourite of mine (without the cheese, of course): http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=9108

Chickpea Cutlets for lunch

I've probably posted these cutlets before, but it's a good recipe.. go make it if you have Veganomicon! They are made with both chickpeas and gluten flour, so they are packed with protein... and deliciousness!

Spinach-Chickpea-Sundried Tomato Quinoa Bake

Sorry, the pic sucks, it was too dark and I had to photo-shop it- I promise this meal tastes better than it looks!

I actually wrote it down the ingredents for once:
2 cups raw quinoa
approx. 3 tbs chopped sundried tomatoes in oil
1 tbs oil from the sundried tomatoes (or other oil)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 1/2 cups veg broth
1 package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
1 19oz can chickpeas
a pinch of garlic powder
a pinch of salt

Stir together and cook in a big baking dish, covered, for 45 mins or until it looks good.
I saw a non-vegan recipe like this with egg- I wonder what I could use to make this stick together..

Spinach Salad

Sometimes salads are awesome. Here is one made from organic baby spinach, raw sunflower seeds, cubes of baked tofu, english cukes, and a vinegrette made from white wine vinegar, toasted walnut oil (my new favourite thing in the whole world), and maple mustard. Woo!

Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I found the Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream here (at Rainbow Foods)! It is the BEST vegan ice cream I have ever tasted - including the stuff I've made myself in my ice-cream maker! We had the cookie dough kind and it was fabulous. I love that it is made with agave nectar instead of sugar! (Agave has a low glycemic index so it doesn't affect your blood sugar like refined sugar does.)

Potato Soup with Tofu Bacon and Chives

I must say, I'm quite proud of this soup. It's cheap, easy and totally delicious. The soup is just diced onion softened in olive oil, about 6 chopped potatoes and vegetable broth (from cubes). I used to hand-held blender to blend it up after the potatoes were soft.
The bacon tofu: chopped tofu, tamari, a few drops liquid hickory smoke, garlic powder, fried in a bit of olive oil. It's topped with chives and a bit of soy cheese, and tah-dah! Baked-potato type soup!

Italian Sausage with Tomato Sauce, Spinach, and Mini Potatoes

This was an amazing meal. Turtle Island Italian sausage isn't cheap, or low-fat, but damn are they good. It was too much food.. but we ate it anyway.

Vegan Wedding!

He said yes!

Barbecued Tofu with Bows and Kale

I got up to get some juice and Elsie takes my place! No tofu for kitties! This is my first time using the Real Food Daily cookbook that I got for xmas. It was a success. The tofu is first marinaded and then you fry it and top it with homemade bbq sauce. Homemade bbq sauce is sort of time intensive (depending on the recipe) but is totally worth it. I changed the sauce recipe around a bit and I put more tomato than it called for, so it was more a sweet tomato sauce than a sticky, thick bbq sauce, so it worked well on the noodles.

Almond Apricot Glaze Cupcakes

I'm not sure why it took so long, but I've finally got a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. These were perfect! I also made Tirimisu cupcakes and Earl Grey cupcakes. I snuck some whole wheat into the Earl Grey ones and they were perfect. Next I'm making the agave nectar vanilla ones.

Pesto Tomato Pizza

Pizza again. Pizza is such a perfect food! Maybe I should write a vegan pizza cookbook. Hmm.
This one is herbed white flour crust, with a homemade pesto of basil, garlic, vegan parmesan, pistachio nuts and olive oil. That's topped with fresh tomato. That's it!

Spinach Burgers and Fries with Gravy

The burgers are a great recipe from V Cuisine by Angeline Linardis. This is a Canadian book, so that's probably why I hadn't heard of it. It's a great book! The Lightened-Up Moussaka is possibly one of my favourite meals ever, and we're already made Bold Broiled Eggplant twice since xmas (when I got the book). The gravy is my favourite creamy miso gravy recipe.

Whole Wheat Vegan Cheesy Pigs!

My version of Vegan Lunchbox's version of goldfish crackers. I was out of white flour, and most other flours because of xmas baking, so these are a mixture of spelt, whole wheat and oatmeal flour. Oh, and I added some smoked paprika! They are delish but a little too much work to make very often. It's a big recipe and I got a bit bored of cutting out pigs and minipigs.

Spice Advice and Alanis

Dear vegan cooking geniuses, what do I do with smoked paprika? I begged for some for xmas.. without knowing how to use it.

Also, you should try the "peanut butter chocolate chip cake" in Vegan Express if you haven't yet. It is simple, oil/margarine free, and awesome.

and lastly, Alanis Morissette on her new (super healthy-style) vegan diet:

OK!: How did you come to choose Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s program?

I went to my favorite bookstore, Banyen Books and Sound, in Vancouver. I saw this book, Eat to Live, and I thought, that’s exactly what I want to do. I wasn’t interested in some fad diet that was unsustainable, like “lose 10 pounds in two weeks.” I don’t believe in diets; I think they’re short-term and a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. So I opened it and flipped through and thought the weight loss is incidental. The primary focus is disease prevention.

and:

OK!: Why did you want to find a new eating plan?

"Longevity. I realized I want to live till I’m 120. There’s a lifestyle that I am how happily creating that can, as best as is possible, prevent most forms of cancer and other diseases."

Grapefruit-Noodle Salad wih Spicy Peanut Sauce

It doesn't look much like the classy photo of "Grapefruit-Soba Noodle Salad in Spicy Peanut Sauce" in this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, but it still tasted amazing! My edits: whole wheat fettucine instead of soba, no radishes and no cilantro.