Cooking, cooking, and more cooking!

Bored beyond belief without the internet. Crazy! What on earth did I do before it exsisted? I miss everyone. You are all like best buds. Thank you for checking in on me. We do have our internet back and hopefully for good this time. I have been cooking like crazy so please forgive the long post, but enjoy!

Couscous and roasted veggies. How can one go wrong? You can't! Fast, delicious, and healthy.

I have been very lazy lately when it comes to making bread; therefore we have not eaten sandwiches, french toast, and I have had no breadcrumbs to use in my casseroles. Sure you can buy bread at the store, but the price and the long unidentifiable list of ingredients just turns me off. This meant I had to get out of my lazy stage and make some bread. Come on, I have a bread maker for Pete's sake. In the end here is my multigrain bread recipe that became almond butter toast shortly thereafter. I am back in the good graces of the family.

I have been lucky enough to do some recipe testing for Melody. This is her new Marinara Sauce. I have been making the same spaghetti sauce for almost 25 years and dear hubby would have it no other way, that is until this came along. It is simple, flavorful, and has a nice little kick to it. My DH loves it. He says it is a HOME RUN! Here we added ground seitan to it for our spaghetti dinner. I have already made it twice and have 3 jars of it stashed away for calzones and lasagna. Way to go Melody!

I found this great recipe from an article, but forget which one. I found it on the internet! It is called, Dana Sly's Blue Ribbon Vegan Cornbread. The recipe does have 1/4 cup of canola oil in it, but it is so worth it. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour and sucant, which in my opinion made it wonderful. Even 4 pts on Weight Watchers and I am still game. The found flax seed in it produces such a wonderful taste and texture. It is so moist that there is no need to add Earth Balance. What a yummy lunch, broccoli and cornbread. My kind of lunch, simple and satisfying.

Sometimes nothing hits the spot better than a nice big bowl of fresh, homemade vegetable soup. This is a take off of another wonderful recipe from Susan. I added black beans this time and I love the contrast of colors. mmmmm good!

When I make vegetable soup it makes a ton. Here is another yummy bowl with the addition of brown rice, Swiss chard and some of that yummy cornbread!

Comfort food is the best thing ever. No Internet, no TV equals comfort food. Susan over at fatfreevegan.com has some great recipes. I know I have posted my version of her macaroni and cheeze before, but this time I added ground seitan. Oh my Gosh! The most wonderful flavor and satisfaction came out of this meal. Thank you Susan for your great macaroni and cheeze and Joanne for your great seitan recipe!

Were having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave! Bring out the grill! Once again a family favorite, Susan's BBQ Ribz. We were watching Emeril Live on the food network the other night and Emeril was making homemade ketchup, which he turned into a spicy and I mean spicy BBQ sauce. It is time consuming, but so worth it. The recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of red pepper sauce ( we used Sriracha) along with a Scotch Bonnet pepper, also known as a habinero pepper. Let me tell you, with the combination of these two hot ingredients, you have one very spicy BBQ sauce. It is fantastic. Here is our meal with spicy ribz and grilled pineapple. If you have never tried grilled pineapple you should!

Yes, we are still having a heat wave so back to the grill we go. This time along with leftover Ribz, we had broccoli, potatoes, and grilled zucchini. I am so in love with grilling and roasting vegetables. The wonderful sweetness of them really comes forth. Boy I can make myself drool, just writing about them.

With the Internet down I have been able to cook from a cookbook, which I love. Joanne Stepaniak's, Table for Two. This cookbook has a variety of dishes, which are very low in fat and most recipes make only 2 to 4 servings. Beware some of her recipes that serve 2 are very large servings, of course whoever cried over leftovers. Leftovers make some of the the best breakfast and lunch meals. Here we have Cabbage and Pasta Bake. It is a mixture of whole wheat pasta, green cabbage, spices, and seitan. The recipe calls for tofu, but I am in love with the ground seitan from this same cookbook so I used some of it instead. This meal gives you the since of peace, a real comfort food. I did increase the spices and nutritional yeast, which gave it more pep. I think an addition of green beans or peas would help give the dish more color, texture, and flavor.

We were given a whole bunch of very ripe bananas. Who in their right mind would turn them down? They are so versatile, but baked goods are my favorite way to use them. This recipe is another yummy creation from Joanne Stepaniak's cook book, Table for Two, Banana Nut Muffins. These muffins are made with whole wheat pastry flour and sweetened with organic apple juice concentrate. I love them. Their fragrance is amazing! I don't feel guilty at all when I eat them. The recipe gives the option to use raisins or currants along with the bananas. I left them out this time because DH requested that I do. I think if you soak the dried fruit before adding them it will make the muffins more moist. I will definitely add them and see if my theory really works.

The smell of sweet ripe bananas in the house makes my dear hubby crave banana bread. When he saw the muffins he was a very sad boy. You ask yourself, "How do you know he is sad?" It is the droopy eyes, the pouting lip, and the quiet hints of how he loves banana bread. What else is the dutiful, peace making wife to do? Make delicious, moist and not so healthy banana bread for the love of her life. My man loves white flour and white sugar, which is a rarity in this home. He says the sweeter the better. This recipe comes from The Vegan Family Favorites a comfort food cookbook, which is very omni friendly.

Whenever I come home our fur kids get a treat. We have been out for a couple weeks and the kids were not happy. I mean they really pout when they do not get a cookie. It is all about routine with them. Needless to say, thanks to Vicki they once again have goodies. I don't have a cute "bone" cookie cutter, but I don't think they mind. Although the picture is not so great, my new son-n-law said, "Momma, these smell really good." Brandie said, "Honey, momma made them go ahead and have one. Pretty cool that we can eat the fur kids goodies, 100% vegan and healthy.

I just couldn't leave out our precious Joshua. He always has such a thoughtful look on his face.