Susan's Favorite Lasagna! Yum-O!

There are some things that I really miss. Even before going vegan, lasagna was a rare item for me. Even when I was a vegetarian, being allergic to dairy kept me from indulging in this all time favorite. The allergic reaction was just not worth it. With all that said, I have now found the most wonderful lasagna in the world. Susan's favorite lasagna http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/03/my-favorite-lasagna.html has now earned top billing in my recipe box. The textures and flavors are incredible. I have never made lasagna without boiling the noodles first. In Susan's recipe you assemble the dish with uncooked noodles. I don't know if it just me and my imagination, but the texture of the noodles gave me the feeling of eating mozzarella cheese. It was so cool. I had to change the recipe a bit to what I had on hand and was nervous it would not turn out. I am glad to say that it worked out great.

Susan's recipe calls for 10 oz. of frozen spinach, which I did not have. I did have one of those big, square containers of fresh spinach and thought shoot lets give it a try. I cooked down the spinach in a bit of No-Chicken broth. Once it was done I drained it real well and weighed it, well I only had about 7 oz, but I did have some zucchini. I got out my mandolin and sliced it real thin. I cooked up a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce, sauteed cremini mushrooms with some spring garlic we picked up at Whole Foods, mixed up the filing and got started. As you can see in the picture my tofu filling is quite a beautiful shade of green. Though it looks different than others I have seen the taste is great. I also forgot to mix the mushrooms into my sauce so I just layered them along with the zucchini.

See the pretty green tofu sauce with the zucchini.

Ready to go in the oven as soon as I seal it with foil.

Once I put it in the oven I got out a can of black olives and stared slicing. I prefer to buy whole olives and slice them myself. I also made up a quick batch of *vegan parma substitute* I grind up some nuts, walnuts this time and add some nutritional yeast and salt and there you have it. Yum-o! After 30 min under foil and 30 min without foil it is time to spread the love.

The finished dish of love. Please follow Susan's advice and let it cook at least 15 minutes before cutting. It came out of the pan perfect.

Made up some quick garlic toast on a french roll with a tiny bit of Earth Balance.

Thank you Susan for sharing your great recipe.

Cleaning out the fridge, stir fry, comfort food, and tacos

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who has not given up hope on me and my blog and took the time to stop by. I appreciate you all! The time had come to clean out the fridge. This was a quick stir fry of cabbage, bean sprouts, green onions, red onion, broccoli stems, and a left over baked potato. Toss it around with a bit of no chicken broth, tamari, and some spice and you have a very quick and tasty dinner. This last batch of broccoli I got was as sweet as sugar. You just have to love a quick stir fry.

We are still cleaning out the fridge before shopping day. We had left over *meetloaf*, steamed cabbage with carrots and onions, frozen peas, baked potato with earth balance and a green salad with organic grape tomatoes that are awesome! Can you say comfort food?

Last but not least we had the last of some cooked black beans in tacos. I know it is hard to see them through all the veggies, but the black beans are there. I found these great corn tortillas by "Food for Life" They are sprouted corn tortillas and they have fantastic flavor! The tacos are filled with black beans, tomatoes, shredded carrot, and avocado. I made up some Spanish rice in my rice cooker. I used brown rice added some green bell pepper, tomato, and a can of green chilies. Instead of cooking the rice in water I use the "NO-CHICKEN" broth. This stuff is great, even DH who has never liked Spanish rice enjoyed it!

I cooked today! "Meatloaf, Seitan O'Greatness , Veggies

Hi Everyone,

I want to say thank you to all of you who stopped by and posted me get well wishes and helpful ideas to help backs. I so enjoy the friendships I have made, though most of us are miles apart. This whole back thing has had me in the dumps for too long. Update: The doctor has taken me out of work for 6 weeks, I have pool therapy, spinal manipulations and adjustments along with a load of homeopathic medicines. After a week on the treatment my chriopractor has already seen disc impovement. I am keeping my fingers crossed. He has me set up with a 12 week treatment.

I was home alone today and wanted so badly to cook. It has been like 3 weeks. I figured just go for it! It took me 5 hours to make dinner, but it was finally something other than PB&J or avo sammies. DH, my omni man, called me and said he wanted meatloaf. (the real kind) Well, that is his choice, but for me I figured I would make a vegan version. I popped over to Jen at veganlunchbox.com and used her meatloaf maker. I have tried it before and the family loves it. Today I wanted millet and black bean. I used walnuts, no-chicken broth, onion, lots of garlic, celery, black beans, millet flaxseed meal, cumin, yeast flakes, vegan worcestershire sauce, and vegan chicken-style seasoning. It tastes really good. I kept tasting before it was cooked. Don't you just love how you can do that being vegan since there are no nasties. :o) This recipe stayed together so well, that I think you could make patties and fry them. I will up some of the seasonings next time. I also made some of Bryanna's Fat Free Vegan Rich Brown Gravy,(which you have to get from her newsletter) sorry I don't remember which one, along with steamed broccoli, yellow squash, frozen green peas and a baked potato to finish the meal off.

I was such a happy camper today that I didn't stop there. The simple things in life, like getting in the kitchen, make me so happy. I just love to cook.

I was visiting blogs and found many of you have made the Seitan O'greatness or versions thereof. Tex over at http://eatnvegn.blogspot.com/ made a wonderful looking Seitan O'Greatness and then I found Laura had made it too, http://myedenkitchen.blogspot.com/ . Of course my journey did not end there. I found that Susan over http://blog.fatfreevegan.com has made her version of Veggeroni (Seitan Pepperoni) http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/04/veggeroni-seitan-pepperoni.html, which I intend to make very soon. Here is the one I baked today. It seems darker in color than most, DH and I both enjoyed it. I can't wait to try it in different ways. Sorry the picture is not great, but the flavor is. I was wondering if I could change the seasonings a bit to make a "chic'n" flavored seitan log. I am gonna try. :o)

Last buy not least I want to thank Brandie and her sweetheart for being such a important part of my life. They make me smile and feel good. Thanks kids for doing all that you have done.

Here is their Easter picture that we took after church. They make a great couple!

This is Brandie's favorite picture.

This is my favorite, but actually who can pick, they make such a neat couple.

Bad back and Happy Feet

Hi everyone! I am so sorry I have disappered. My back is giving me so much grief that my inspiration, desire and ability to stand and cook pretty much flew right out the window. Today I cooked for the first time in what seems like eternity. I made some steamed squash, broccoli, and roasted some yams, yukon golds, carrots with onion and garlic. Sorry no pictures, cuz it is pretty boring stuff. My back has to get better or I don't know what I will do. I have been living on chips (oh so healthy), the stero-type vegan PB&J, and avocado sandwiches. Not healthy, making me feel yucky, and oh so depressed. I am sure no one wants to hear my sad story. But I wanted everyone to know I was alive. I have been reading a bunch of blogs and getting really hungry for real food.



The good news, my mom bought us the DVD Happy Feet. It is a really good movie. I am happy to have a movie out there that did not hurt animals during the making and one that promotes taking care of Mother Earth. Brandie sent me this picture and I think it is so cute and creative. Amazing what you can do with eggplant. Brandie sent me some other ones that I will post every now and then to give cuteness to my rather dry blog. I will try this weekend to get some serious cooking done. Thanks for visiting!