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

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Fun cooking and delicious meals

Yeah! Blogger finally let me on. After deleting and emptying files, history, cookies, and whatever else I could I was given the right of passage to post on my blog. I was a bit worried that I would never get logged on. Anyway, I have been cooking up a storm. It was time to defrost the big, bad, boy freezer in the garage. I usually keep a good amount of go to meals ready for weekday meals and when I saw that my stash had been deleted it was time to break out the ice pick and hair dryer. All kidding aside the blow dryer does work on those last, few, stubborn ice chunks. Next came the fun of filling the bad boy back up. I cooked up a huge batch of my marinara sauce. To achieve a great sauce I mix to sauces together. The first, is a recipe adapted from an old Mennonite cookbook that I have made for over 25 years and Melodies awesome marinara sauce for that extra kick! Sorry folks it is a test recipe, which is fantastic. Here is the sauce ready for the deep freeze.


Next, over run with zucchini I made some zucchini pancakes. I found this recipe on Su Good Sweets and they are awesome. They have a really nice flavor and they freeze really well for those on the run mornings. I can grab one, toss it in my lunch bag, and use the toaster oven at work. If you are trying to get your kids to eat more veggies this is a way to do it. I used agave in place of honey. So, so, good!




I also made Susan's favorite lasagna, which has become our household favorite. This recipe freezes really well. I freeze it in single serving portions and put a spoon of added sauce over the top. Defrost it and place in the toaster oven and you have a wonderful meal. For those of you who use the microwave it works well in it too. Sorry no picture. I packaged it up and tucked them all nicely in the deep freeze.



After all that cooking it was time to try a new recipe. I broke out my Vegan Vittles cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak. Mine is the older edition. It is a wonderful cookbook. This week I made "Barbecue-Style Braised Short Ribs" on page 130. They are very simple to put together, but take an hour and a half to cook in the oven. You turn them every 30 minutes while baking. The sauteed onions, carrots, and garlic along with the sauce turn your home into a summer BBQ. Give them a try!





Finally after a few really lousy days with my back and I mean lousy it was time for a comfort meal. My dear hubby is my knight in shinning armor. He has been helping so much around the house and even helping me get dressed (I am not able to bend these days), he still had time to help make this comfort meal. I know we have all made this same meal, but it was really good today. "Buttermilk" Biscuits with cream gravy, scrambled tofu with zucchini, Vegan Dad's sausage made into patties, and good old country potatoes. I tried hash browns, but they never turn out. They just stay soggy or burn. If anyone has any great solutions to this problem please let me know. DH loves hash browns. And to top it off, my DH did all the dishes and boy were there alot. Thanks babe!




Lastly a smile from our grandson. Enjoy!




8 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Goodness gracious, Blogger has NOT been kind to you lately, Sheree!! So glad that you're finally able to be back on, and posting :0)

Oooh, lots of delicious food!! That marinara tester recipe looks enticing.

Your grandson is a doll!! :0)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Someone after my own heart-- I love filling up my freezer with lots of stuff to have for later. But wow, that's a ton of marinara sauce. Looks like you're well-prepared for some yummy pasta meals :o).

That last pic is beyond precious.

aTxVegn said...

I'm sorry your back has been bothering you again. I know how hard that is on you.

Melody's pasta sauce must be awesome for you to have made so much of it! I hope I get to try it one of these days.

I never eat breakfast but I love seeing pics of pancakes. They sure look good. I guess I'll have to do a breakfast for dinner soon.

Your grandson is so cute! That smile is just precious.

Anonymous said...

Your grandson is a total cutie! And the food looks fab too!

Thank you for the link to those pancakes, I still have tons of zucchini and freezing them sounds like a good idea too.

I finally moved my blog from blogger to wordpress, because blogger was really frustrating sometimes. I am glad you were finally able to log on.

Kati said...

That marinara sauce is such a beautiful color!

I think the key to perfect hash browns is to shred the potatoes in a food processor, squeeze as much water as possible from them (even blot them with paper towels if need be), then fry them up in a skillet with a reasonable amount of oil. Though I haven't made them in awhile, this method always worked for me.

Hope your back is feeling better soon - lucky you to have such a helpful hubby!

Anonymous said...

what's up with blogger? the first blog I had, I ended up having to give up because I couldn't log into it anymore. meep!
your food looks amazing as usual, and your grandson? the cutest!

MeloMeals said...

He is SOOOO adorable! You know, I don't care if you share my recipes. My cookbook is soooo on the back burner. I am just way too busy at this point.. oy.

Judy's Nutrition said...

What a darling little baby!

Those zucchini pancakes look and sound delicious - I'm not overrun with zucchini but may have to make a trip to the store to become so!