Taco Tuesday!

We had a super fantastic taco night last night! :) I used recipes from the Veganomicon to make baja marinated tempeh, spicy slaw and mexican millet. I didn't follow any of the recipes exactly, but I used the general idea and everything came out super yummy. Other ingredients in our awesome taco bar included some Newman's Own salsa, Guacamole (courtesy of awesome neighbor Leah), Organic Blue Corn Taco shells and Daiya Cheddar cheese (courtesy of awesome friend Kaitlin). We were all very happy with our tacos!

Oh oh oh! I also made a Cilantro-Lime Creme for the tacos, I made this up myself and I thought it was a key topping :)

ingredients:
1 box silken extra firm tofu (the cardboard box kind, not water packed)
1 Tb olive oil
juice of 1 lime
dash apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

-blend everything until really creamy, i use an immersion blender for several minutes

Pizza Night :)

I made a yummy pizza last night. I used some pizza dough that I had in the freezer. I found the pizza dough recipe on http://happyveganface.blogspot.com/ On top, I put some jarred tomato sauce (Newman's Own Roasted Garlic), homemade tofu ricotta (from Vegan with a Vengeance), chopped Gardein chicken, spinach and red onion.

We definitely ate the whole darn pizza :) :)

Raisin-Millet Soda Bread

Today, I made the Whole-Wheat Millet Soda bread recipe from the Veganomicon, I substituted raisins for the currants and coriander for the caraway seed. I love warm yummy bread on a rainy afternoon!

Kale and Peanut Noodles

I wanted to cook up some kale that I got from the Greenmarket last weekend, so I steamed it, then sprinkled a lil salt, nutritional yeast, grated some nutmeg and ground some black pepper. Delicious! Kale is so nutritious and really yummy!

The peanut noodles are multi-whole grain angel hair tossed with my easy peanut sauce :)

ingredients: (these are estimates, I'm not really into measuring...)
about 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
3 cloves garlic- pressed
1 squirt Siracha sauce
2 Tb brown sugar
2 Tb Bragg's
1 Tb tomato paste
2 Tb fresh chopped cilantro
1 Tb rice vinegar
2 cups hot starchy pasta water (more or less)

-stir it all together and put on pasta, yum yum!

Southwestern Corn Pudding, Red Beans & Rice

This was last night's "Lost" night dinner with friends :) I made the Southwestern Corn Pudding from the Veganomicon, I've seen it on so many other vegan blogs and it sounded delicious. I thought it came out super yummy, I'll probably go a lil lighter on the cilantro next time, but overall so creamy and delicious!

I made brown rice in the rice cooker and made up a red bean recipe as I went along :) I'm definitley going to make beans like this again!

ingredients:
1 small onion-chopped
3 cloves garlic-minced
2 stalks celery- chopped
1/2 red bell pepper- chopped
3 c. red kidney beans (i had these precooked in my freezer, so i just let thaw out on the counter for the day)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
salt
liquid from the beans/water

-sauteed onion for a bit in a lil oil, then added the garlic, celery, red pepper
-add in the beans and spices, liquid smoke, etc..
-cook for an hour or so until the beans break down in a creamy saucey concoction
-top with a lil hot sauce :)

yummy corn pudding!!!!

danny makes yummy food too!

Danny made serious veggie burger sandwiches with tempeh bacon, arugula and spinach (from the Greenmarket) :) I contributed oven fries! We make a good team!

tempeh bacon! yum yum!

1) Cut 1 block of tempeh in half, then slice into thin strips

2) Marinate tempeh strips in smoky-maple marinade

ingredients:
4 Tb Bragg's liquid aminos
1 clove garlic- pressed
1 Tb maple syrup
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp tomato paste

(whisk ingredients together, and add tempeh, marinate for a couple hours, or leave in fridge for a couple days)

3) Fry marinated tempeh strips in a castiron skillet :)


Bacony breakfast sandwich :) Whole wheat bread with lots of EB :) :)

sundried tomato-arugula pesto pasta

It was a nice lazy saturday today :) I made a pesto-pasta for dinner.

ingredients:
1 small onion
1 clove raw garlic
4-6 cloves roasted garlic
1/8-1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup walnuts
1 tsp tomato paste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 handfuls arugula
salt and pepper
starchy cooking water from pasta

1 batch cooked farfelle pasta
handful bread crumbs

-mix pesto ingredients together in food processor, process until nice and smooth
-mix pesto with pasta in large bowl, add pasta cooking water until moist
-top with some breadcrumbs

nachos!!!

Yay for nacho night! Also, yay! for new digital camera, I'm gonna have much better pictures of food!

So... its tortilla chips, covered in Amy's Black Bean chili, some spring mix, a nacho cheese sauce (w/ black olives) and avocado.

Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe! (i found it here!)

ingredients:
2 cups. water
1/4 cup raw cashews
1 4.25 oz. jar of pimentos
1 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tb cornstarch
1 Tb lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cumin

-blend all together until really smooth (i use the stick blender)
-heat in sauce pan over med-high heat, whisk alot.... it'll get really thick and nacho-cheesey in like 8-10 mins

sundried tomato alfredo over fettuccini, grilled asparagus and double-garlic bread

It was time for another "Lost" night dinner :) Leah brought over some nice wine and some really yummy garlic bread (the bread had whole cloves of garlic already baked in). I grilled some asparagus on the stove top on a grill pan, just tossed with a lil oil, salt and pepper.

I also made some fettucini alfredo, I cooked up a pound of whole wheat fettuccini, and tossed it with the sauce. Here's the recipe for the sauce:

Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 box silken tofu
2 Tb nutritional yeast
1 Tb earth balance butter
2 Tb soy milk
salt and pepper
1 chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
2-3 Tb sun dried tomatoes

-In a food processor, place all of the cashews in, and pulse until the nuts are a fine powder. Add in lemon juice, tofu, nooch, butter, process until smooth. Add in the soymilk, process-- this should be a thick paste now (cream cheese texture)
-In small frying pan, cook up the onion and garlic in a little oil, until a little brown.
-Add onion, garlic and sun dried tomatoes into food processor, process again until smooth.
-Transfer sauce into small sauce pan
-While your pasta is cooking, add in some starchy pasta water into the sauce, and whisk until you get the consistency you want, I added about 2-2 1/2 cups of starchy water.
-Combine the pasta with the sauce (yum yum!)

easter food :)

i forgot to take pictures of everything we made for easter... we made potato rolls, broccoli salad, gimme lean sausage w/ fried peppers and onions, and lemon bars.

this is the dough for the yummy country-style potato rolls (Veganomicon). they came out super tasty!

and pretty! aren't they yummy-looking?? my omni sister-in-law said that "you can totally bring these over for dinner again" and "they kind of taste like bagels"

these are lemon-bars from The Joy of Vegan Baking... i think im in love with vegan lemon bars.

mellow yellow soba noodles w/ tofu

i'm going to get an actually digital camera, so i can have better pictures of my food. these are all with my camera phone, and it doesn't really do justice to the yumminess of dinner.

tonight i tried a variation of a recipe that was in a recent vegetarian times magazine. i made a package of soba noodles, cut up a package of precooked asian-marinated baked tofu, i tossed the noodles and tofu together with a yellow sauce i made. the sauce was: 1 chopped small onion, cooked in a couple tablespoons of oil, then i added in turmeric, brown sugar, salt, pepper, 2 cloves crushed garlic and a scoop of sesame seeds.