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

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cooking for others is great therapy!


Sorry for my absence, but sometimes life just doesn't go the way you expect. Many of you know I have been out of work with a back injury and it is just going on too long. My last day of work was last October 10. We were hoping I would be back to work by December and here is it April and I am still not working. It looks like it could be another 3 months, but I am shooting for sooner. Needless to say I have been in a rut.

I have not cared about cooking in the least. I have been living on Purebars, but that is another post. Last week I tried to cook, but everything that could go wrong did. We were having a Birthday breakfast at church and since I am vegan and other ladies in the church have various dietary needs I figured I would try to help out. See cooking for others was to be my therapy. First I needed to make gluten free mini muffins. Let me tell you that when you that the muffins grew so big that they spilled over my oven, made a horrible burning smell, and became a disaster. I was so frustrated. My fresh blueberries gone! I also needed to make a vegan quiche. Got myself pumped up and encouraged only to find out that I was out of mushrooms and leeks. One of the ladies at church is allergic to onions and dairy so I always make my dishes with leeks. Off to the store I go only to find out that they are out of leeks. They have not been able to get them for 5 weeks. What? Leeks, they grow year round! Frustration begins to get the best of me. I call my mom, she lives in Texas and I am in California, just to have someone to cry to. She was laughing, can you believe that? I told her this is not a laughing matter, but she just couldn't help herself. THANKS MOM! Off to another store, which I did not have time for, but what is a girl to do. Thank God, they had leeks. I arrived back home, did some deep breathing for stress relief, and attempted the gluten free muffins again. This time I made regular size muffins and they came out super! Now I was on a roll. Sugar free blueberry vegan muffins done, (made with stevia) check! Gluten free apple cinnamon vegan muffins done, check! Mini orange poppy seed vegan muffins done, check!

In the end, Saturday morning was perfect. I got up at 4:15 am and started making the quiche. I used a recipe from Whole Foods and it was awesome! I did add a couple tablespoons of nutrtional yeast to the recipe. I know that there are a lot of vegan quiche recipes from great cooks, but this one set up perfect and tasted great. I couldn't get a decent picture so here you have before cooking and after. As far as the muffin pictures, I forgot and they were gone in a flash


Getting ready to go into the oven.


Sliced and ready to devour.

Another picture. Does the green spinach and the blue plate make a yellow quiche?

I was blessed with a new toy, but you will have to wait. :o)

Hugs to all! I miss you all!!

13 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

LOVE IT ALL!!

Miss you too, dear Sheree!!

Virginia said...

i miss your posts! i am so glad the quiche and muffins turned out great!

Amy said...

Hope your back is feeling better soon! I LOVE the quiche, yum! And the muffins sound amazing, even if they were a disaster the first time around. We all have kitchen disasters sometimes, they're so frustrating!

Brandie said...

The quiche was AWESOME too! She also made a frittata that was pretty good too! LOVE it hen she cooks for us! Yum!

What new toy????

MeloMeals said...

Your quiche looks amazing!.. and sounds like you pulled it all off!

DJ Karma said...

There will always be those times when life tests you like that- frustrating, yet laughable in the end! Quiche looks AMAZING, and I'll bet all of your muffins got great reviews!

Cindy DG said...

this looks so yummy!! I love whole foods recipes!
Cindydg
I love having you on my blogroll!
http://vegetarianmamma.blogspot.com

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

I am so sorry about your persistent back injury, Sheree.

It looks like you came out of your cooking rut and made some delicious goodies for the birthday-breakfast! Your quiche looks PERFECT!

I hope your back heals soon!!

aTxVegn said...

I'm sorry you're still feeling so bad, Sheree. Your quiche does look absolutely perfect and I'm sure it was devoured as quickly as the muffins were.

Big Hugs!!!!

dreaminitvegan said...

Your quiche looks great! I like how thick it is.

The Cooking Lady said...

I feel my best when I am in the kitchen and moreso when I know friends and or family will be here to enjoy it.

Rose said...

This looks delicious and so perfect!

Bethany said...

it's such a bummer when you get a string of bad kitchen luck. but you stayed strong and showed those muffins who was boss.

the quiche looks so good. I make a green tofu quiche just about every weekend.