Nourishing the mind, body, and soul along the vegan highway.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

OUCH and baby food lol

Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to let everyone know I am ok. I am on a diet of cream of anything and mashed potatoes. lol... I had a date with my dentist and my wisdom tooth. OUCH!! I should be back to normal next week and back in the kitchen. Thank God! for Vegan DAD. I have been eating his cream (pureed in my case) of broccoli soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. DH has been trying to help by making potatoes. :o) I am off to drool over all your wonderful yummies postings.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Testing is so much fun!

How I wish there were more hours in the day to do recipe testing. With that said here are just few reasons all of you will have to get The Happy Herbivores cookbook when it come out!

Crispy "Chickenless" Nuggets



Double Chocolate Muffins



Apple Crisp Muffins


Sorry, I can't divulge anymore information then this. Now wipe that drool off your chin. :o)


Sunday, April 13, 2008

Fun mail and good food

Look everyone, I got a package in the mail too! Galaxy foods contacted me about taste testing some of their products and of course I jumped on the chance. I know a quite a few of you are enjoying a similar package. Thank you, Stacey! Not pictured is the pepper jack, which happens to be Brandie's favorite. She is no longer able to find it around here so I gave it to here and told her she had to do a review on her blog. "Mom, my review is that I love it"

A rushed night, which gave us a quick meal of cheddar mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans and spinach with garlic and olive oil, and apricots. I grated some of the cheddar block cheese onto the potatoes. As you can see it didn't melt right away, but after giving it a mix into the hot spuds it melted great. I have not had cheese in a very, very, long time, but this stuff is great! I took the same thing to work the next day for breakfast. Who said I had to eat a "typical" breakfast. :o)

Next I made some of Vegan Dad's broccoli soup. With the addition of some more shredded cheddar block cheese we had broccoli cheddar, which was fantastic.


Here is the finished product. DH who will not eat cooked broccoli (throw it in a salad he says) loved this soup. It had to be the cheese. I was thrilled beyond words. That gives the vegan block cheddar cheese a 5 star rating! *****


As you can see in the picture above I also received mozzarella flavored sliced cheese. Of course that meant Italian of some kind. Pizza seemed to be quick, easy, and it also gave me a chance to use some more of the "new kid on the block" steamed sausages. I used Vegan Dad's recipe again, which I have posted about before. For those of you who have yet to try them, you really must. The crust recipe is from Vegan Lunch Box and it is really good. It is a multi-grain crust. Here are the little darlings just out of the oven. As you can see this cheese did not melt, but the flavor is spot on for us. My mom stopped by and also gave the cheese and the pizza a thumbs up!



Ok, everyone needs to go check our Rural Vegans site. She made some awesome stuffed shells and listed the recipe. Take note, I quartered the recipe because I was short on tofu and it still made a dozen stuffed shells. I used melody's simple marinara sauce that I have tested for her. I also put the mozzarella cheese on 4 of the shells and coated them with some olive oil before baking. I thought this might help the cheese to melt. Well, the verdict is in. No melting, but fantastic flavor.


Out of the oven and onto the plate. These are even better the next day. Although the cheese does not melt it has a very creamy texture, which in a sense is kinda melty, but just holds its shape. Does that make sense?


Well, it is now 1 am and I figure I should hit the hay. I will be posting again real soon. I am testing for Lindsay from The Happy Herbivore so look forward to some fun food porn. Just enough to wet your whistle and drive you crazy while waiting for her cookbook. :o)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Seitan rules this post!!!

Well, I posted this once and blogger deleted it along with Diann and Judy's sweet comments. Hey guys if you stop by I am sorry your comments are gone. Lets see if I can write something quick and to the point. I know that this looks like real meat, but hey this is a vegan blog. NO MEAT ALLOWED. :o) This is the newest craze. Thanks to Julie and her steamed sausages there is no limit on what you can do vital wheat gluten and spices. Vegan Dad made some awesome spicy sausage and linked over to Isa's blog. Don't forget to check out these two great blogs. This recipe is for Spicy Pinto Bean Sausage. I had canned chili beans so I improvised. I also added the red pepper flakes, that Vegan dad left out for his boys. They are spicy and delish. No omni would believe they are not meat. My DH is on cholesterol meds so I am on a mission to make the perfect seitan for him and get him off of them. He was raised a meat and potatoes man so he really misses meat. Thanks to all of you out there we are coming up with some great substitutes. Thanks to everyone!!


Here is another version, Breakfast sausages, by Vegan Dad. This little yummies are just that! Yummy. The recipe made 25 little sausages. They look like the real thing and taste great. I think next time I will add 1 tsp. of salt to the recipe. DH thought they were great, but I thought they needed a touch of salt. Needless to say they were gone in 3 days. We had homemade waffles and sausages 2 nights in a row. What can I say except YOU GOT TO TRY THEM!!!


So in my first post I was in search of the blogger who turned me on to RFD (REAL FOOD DAILY) and low and behold Diann let me know right away that it was her. I had been waiting to get this cookbook from my library and lost her link. Well, kids this stuff is amazing. It is really simple to make. The hardest part is waiting. It bakes for 2 hours, but it is so worth it. It makes 4 pounds of the most tender seitan I have ever had. Thanks Diann for the great tip and the reminder. Everyone go check out her delicious meal.
This meal a clean out the fridge meal. Leftover mac and cheese adapted from Susan's recipe, ribz from Susan's blog, and our first head of bib lettuce made into little wraps with tomatoes, avocado, and Asian dressing drizzled over the top after the picture was taken. Comfort food!


I leave you with the cutest picture. Look at our kitties. Abby is long, slender, and almost panther looking, but in this picture she looks like one of the Pokemon characters. She was so comfortable that she fell asleep in this position for about 20 minutes.


Hugs and comfort!