lemon poppy blueberry muffins

I wanted to make some goodies for my employees at work, so I asked what they wanted. The request was for lemon poppy muffins with a sugar glaze, and another request for blueberry muffins... When I got home from work I looked in The Joy of Vegan Baking. I found a recipe for lemon blueberry muffins, so I added poppy seeds and thought it was a perfect compromise :) I made a lil glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar for the top. Came out super yummy :) That Joy of Vegan Baking is an awesome cookbook!

groceries RANT

sometimes buying groceries is really fun, i get to buy components to dishes that i envision in my head. it's exciting to walk down the "international" aisle, and look at chutney and rice and coconut milk and curry paste... and come up with an idea for dinner. that type of grocery shopping is fun. sometimes i feel like a crazy outcast in hannaford. the types of food i buy are from a tiny percentage of the grocery store real estate. i've noticed that i only visit the produce, nature's place, international aisle (dried beans) and beer/bread section. there are aisles and aisles of processed junk. i just don't get why people buy that stuff. what is it about processed packaged peusdo food that has all of america so addicted. there are so many people that don't even drink plain ole' water anymore. everyone drinks soda after soda after sportsdrink after vitamin water after crystal light. JUST DRINK WATER! it's delicious, it's what your body is craving. people shouldn't be ingesting weird creepy chemicals all the time.

vegan mac with horseradish and cauliflower

I made this yummy pasta on sunday when we were feeling lazy and wanted something satisfying. I was inspired by this Rachael Ray recipe, I used my regular vegan mac cheese sauce, but added a whole bunch of prepared horseradish, and a good squirt of horseradish mustard, yummy!!! (hubby laughed at use of "good squirt"). The cauliflower was fresh from the Greenmarket.
It's amazing to me that I bought this huge plant, then once I peeled and took off the stem, only a pretty lil cauliflower was left.
This bread was an afternoon snack! It's a salt-stick, also purchased from the Greenmarket. It's an organic whole wheat and rye loaf with caraway seeds and salt all over it! I sliced it, put a lil olive oil and a lil earth balance, some garlic powder and some fresh parsley and basil inside. I warmed it up in the toaster oven for a few. It got gobbled up with a lil balsamic in about five minutes flat. yummy!

tempeh reuben sandwich & marinated zucchini salad

This was a quick dinner I made for my husband :) It's a tempeh reuben sandwich, for the tempeh: I used tempeh bacon that I had marinating in the fridge, layered with sauerkraut, and dressing (vegenaise, horseradish and ketchup). The bread is Heidelberg Rye :) yum yum. The salad is thinly sliced zucchini and fresh garlic marinated in a vinaigrette for a couple hours.

The hubby says "that was bangin!"

mashed taters, smokey tempeh and corn on the cob!

This is tonight's dinner. It starts with the fresh corn we found at the farmer's market this morning! I love fresh corn :) The farmer's market was wonderful today, so many people out, and so much variety in the produce. We brought our friend Kaitlin, and we all had a fabulous time. We got some spicy pad thai for lunch from the thunder mountain curry booth. I love them because they ALWAYS have something vegan and yummy. In addition to the corn we had smokey tempeh from the Veganomicon. And some super yummy mashed potatoes. For flavor: I mashed in some vegenaise, horseradish, onion, garlic, soy milk, salt and pepper and fresh chopped parsley.
Dessert was: Tofutti Marry Me bars. Oh my, are these delicious!!! Just like the fudge bars I remember.... and a nice cool down on a hot and humid summer day!

its too hot! lets eat pesto pasta!

It's CRAZY hot today, so I didn't really feel like cooking. But I'm usually a hungry kid, so I knew I had to make something . My husband was feeling junky, and craving some protein. So the original plan for dinner contained some beans. I had some pinto beans in the fridge, that had been thawing out all day. I decided to just fry up some pinto beans and mash em up. I added a lil tomato paste and some chili powder. Creamy and yummy! What the heck else do I want for dinner? How about some pasta?!?! I'm always happy with pasta!
I cooked up these cute squiggly noodles, and tossed them with some homemade pesto (basil, parsley, garlic, olive oil, miso, and almonds). I added in some chopped zucchini from the in-laws garden! (I love free veggies!!!!)