Leftovers, emergency food, and life changing news!

I can't believe this year is almost over. There has been so much going on that it seems like the days are slipping through my fingers and I have not had a chance to enjoy many of them. With all the adjustments I am having to make in my life I have felt a bit lost, like walking through a maze in search for the correct turn to bring me back to my life. I am working part time again since my back injury, which is a good thing, but balancing my time with work, home, and blog have been difficult. Hence fewer posts, which I plan to change. I just miss blogging and having visits from all my friends in blogland. Brandie getting married was an awesome time, but I miss her dearly and it is hard to cook for just one vegan in the house. Don't blame DH he is so supportive and tries everything I cook, but he is still an omni and at times wants his kind of food, which leaves me with a never ending amount of leftovers. And then my dear Tilly being sick has put me in a slump for sure. I watch her everyday get a bit slower. She is sleeping quite a bit, but does not seem to be in any pain. She gets wet food now because dry is hard to eat. The tumor on her jaw is impeding the ability to chew hard food too. Our prayer now is that she goes peacefully at home with us. *tears* ....... I am trying hard to prepare myself, but it is difficult as many of you know. Thank you for lending me your shoulders and now for the star attraction, FOOD! Like I said leftovers have played a big part in my meals and with Thanksgiving approaching I did not want to cook any other large meals. Brandie and I love Susan's Baked Macaroni and Cheese. When Brandie was home it was ok, because the two of us would enjoy this for lunches all week, now that she is gone I have been enjoying it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I try to jazz up the leftovers into something else. Here we have the macaroni and cheese turned into a type of "hamburger helper". I took ground seitan, added chopped broccoli, tamari, more nutritional yeast, along with the mac and cheese and there you have it. I know it does not look like much, but it is really good. Of course fried potatoes, fresh zucchini and corn along with more broccoli topped off my meal with a lovely variety of flavors and textures. The mac and cheese is gone now so I told my DH I won't be making anymore until next year. :o)

Bigmouth Vegan made a sausage flavored Seitan O'Greatness, which I tried. It has good flavor, but when I ground it up is is a bit dry. I think it will work great on a pizza with sauce or in your favorite pasta sauce. I wanted to surprise DH with one of his favorite meals, a potato bar. I cooked up the "ground sausage" in a tiny bit of oil and it burned almost immediately. Lets try again. This batch I cooked it in a non-stick skillet, which worked perfect for a tiny bit of crunch warming it up nicely. We had our baked potatoes topped with seitan"sausage", corn, and green onions. Along with it was my favorite vegetable in the whole world, broccoli, fresh zucchini and spinach. Another favorite of mine is cranberry sauce. I couldn't wait until Thanksgiving. :o)

DH wanted burgers for dinner. I keep some easy to prepare foods in the house for emergencies and when the cupboards and fridge are a bit bare. I did not want to shop until time to get the Thanksgiving fixings, so I pulled out my "Nature's Burger Mix". It is easy, quick, and tasty. It is even good as leftovers. This product is a mixture of Brown rice, dehydrated yellow peas, green peas, onion, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, celery, carrots, and red bell peppers. It also contains barley, organic Bulgar wheat, whole oats, sesame seeds, soy flour, wheat gluten, wheat flakes, soy sauce powder, yeast, sea salt and other spices. I use mix 3/4 cup of the dry mix with 3/4 cup of boiling water and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. Then shape the mixture into 3 patties and fry them in a non-stick skillet. Here you have quick burger served on a sprouted wheat bun, with tomato, lettuce, red onion, mustard, and organic ketchup. OH, and some maple flavored baked white beans. How I love baked beans. You can tell the cupboards are bare when I cook up fried potatoes twice in one week. DH loves them and is lucky if he gets them more than once a month. Needless to say dinner was a success thanks to my emergency food storage.

Last Saturday Brandie and Micah invited both sets of parents to the Olive Garden as a thank you for helping them with the wedding. We each got a thank you card and flowers. Inside the card was an envelope, which we both thought was a gift card. NOPE! It was a sonogram picture of our first grandbaby. Yes, they are pregnant. They are saying it was a successful honeymoon. I can't believe it happened so fast. They got married on September 15th and conceived on the 25th. I am sure it must be a record. Needless to say we are very excited. Both of the kids are excited too, but right now Brandie is so sick she can't enjoy much. I made her some "chicken seitan" from Bryanna's recipe, which you can find on the Everyday Dish DVD and gave her some Brussels sprouts, which agreed with "baby bean". This is the baby's nickname since he looks like a little kidney bean in the sonogram picture. So I leave you with a very happy couple and grandparents. :o)