Finally back in the kitchen with homemade bread

I am back! It seems as though I am finally out of the fast lane and can stop to smell the roses. It has been a very hectic 6 weeks or so. Saying "good-bye to my parents was very difficult. Packing them up had some pretty emotional moments, but they are happily and safely living in Rosharon, Texas with my younger sister. I have popped in on your blogs as much as I could and it is safe to say that I am way behind. While packing my parents I pretty much lived on bean and potato burritos, falafel, and toast. I am so ready to eat GREEN!!!!! I miss living food. After checking so many of your blogs I don't know where to start. You are all such wonderful and inventive chefs! Thank you to all of you who kept checking in on me and not forgettng me. Look out kitchen here I come! It is so nice to back in your own kitchen with the supplies you need to make VEGAN meals.

On a perfect note, our grandson is doing wonderful. Growing like and weed and melting our hearts every time we seem him. He has spent the night with Gma and Gpa twice and slept through the night for us on both occasions. He has rolled over from his tummy to his back and is now beginning to grab for things. Especially Gma's hair. :o)

Mommy leaving her pride and joy overnight with us for the first time. Poor Brandie was being brave, but was crying before she walked out the door. Just in case you all wondering, Brandie and her husband had a wonderful time together even though they missed there little one immensely.

Here we are getting ready to leave for church. We had to wake him up to dress him for church. I don't think he really woke up until we got to church. Gma loves her little man.

Gpa isn't proud or anything is he?

Being so ready to get back in the kitchen I was asked to demonstrate homemade bread at the ladies preparedness night at church. I did not want to do it, but I just don't ever say no. It was good to be cooking again and had a blast doing it. Just the kind of therapy the doctor order. I used the Dave's Killer 100% whole wheat Bread Recipe over at Everyday dish. Julie has amazing guests and recipes for all of us to try. Stop by and check her site out. I only have 2 bread pans and was on a roll so I improvised and made "whole wheat french loaves" and "whole wheat muffins" along with regular sandwich loaves. I made the recipe as it is written for the sandwich loaves, but went from molasses to honey for the "french loaves and muffins" This bread is KILLER bread. Thanks Dave and Julie!

Tradition Sandwich Style Bread

French Style

Tasty muffin or roll style

Please don't forget me!

Hi everyone! This is a quick not to let you know that I miss you all, but have been so busy with our new grandson, packing my parents to move to Texas, going to work, and physical therapy for my back that there has been little time to cook or post.

I have been sneaking peeks at all of your blogs and can't wait to say hi and make some delicious food. Looks like I won't have much time until after I get my parents to Texas to post. If I do it will be quick pics of who else, our little grandson.

Please don't forget me and I will be back soon.

Hugs to all of you! I miss you all!

I am a Grandma!

I am a grandma! Brandie and Micah did an amazing job birthing our little angel. Weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21 inches long I give you Micah Robert Jr. I believe there is nothing more precious. Brandie and Micah went all natural at an amazing birth center. I am so proud of both of them and know that they are going to be awesome parents. He is 100% natural baby. No shots, no pain meds, no antibiotics and fed 100% mommy's milk. Brandie has spent her last 9 month reading everything she can about how they can achieve the best health for their son and her and her DH have strong convictions, which I respect and admire. Just look at him, an angel from Heaven! How blessed we are!

Look at those perfect little features!

I know this is primarily a food blog, but I think it is written somewhere that grandma's have bragging rights. So consider this blog one big brag of our beautiful daughter, our amazing son-in-law, and the star, our Grandson!

On a cooler note, we have been having a record heat wave and cooking has been out of the question. DH and I have spent our days in the pool eating oranges and fresh blackberries from our neighbors yard. Hmm... must be the garden of Eden. :o)

Julie's Healthy Pancakes, Vegan Dad's Breakfast Sausage, and Testing Grammy's Meatless Balls

Breakfast is usually the same for DH and I . He eats a variety of cereals, soy or almond milk, and banana. My breakfast, as of lately, has been grapefruit, oranges, and mango or melon, which ever I have on hand. Somehow we got into a tradition of making Sunday morning breakfast a bit hardier. Why Sunday? I have no idea. We are always super busy getting ready for church and still this tradition has taken hold. This past Sunday we tried Julie's new pancake recipe from http://www.everydaydish.tv/ Well, it is the main batter minus the blueberries and orange juice. I increased the soy milk to compensate for the missing orange juice and added a bit of vinegar to the milk to make "Buttermilk" pancakes. We used what we had on hand and they are wonderful. Julie makes hers with what looks like about a 1/4 cup but I used 1/2 cup. Shall I say right now, make 1/4 cup, they are huge! DH who usually eats 4 pancakes could only eat 2. :o) They were a hit. Along with them is Vegan Dad's breakfast sausage recipe. Simply put, a staple in our home. They freeze well and taste delicious!

Thank you Julie and Vegan Dad for making this Sunday a meal to remember!

The Happy Herbivore has done it again. Here is another mouthwatering preview of another great recipe for her upcoming cookbook. Enjoy, drool a little, and let your imagination go wild.

Here we have Grammy's Meatless Balls, which happen to be the best vegan "meatballs" I have ever tasted. Forget the frozen ones, these put those to shame! Here they are accompanied with mashed potatoes, gravy, and veggies.

Ok, now I know this meal is not the healthiest, but some days you just need some good old fashioned comfort food. Grammy's Meatless Balls worked wonderfully in this Vegan Alfredo dish by Don't get Mad get Vegan. By the way the Alfredo sauce calls for white wine, which we never have so I added 2 Tbls of "No Chicken Broth" and it tasted great.

And finally what everyone has been waiting for Spaghetti and "Meatballs". Once again Grammy's Meatless Balls did their job quite well. They hold up so nicely

in sauces and taste fantastic.

Well, it is time to wipe your chins and enjoy life. :o)

Fresh from the garden and recipe testing

I have to say, I am thrilled to have my computer back up and running. So far this inanimate object that has caused me such grief the past few weeks has finally gotten its attitude adjusted. :o) With that I share with you the first summer squash from our garden. These plants are just thriving, which we are so happy about. Brandie stopped by yesterday and her eyes lit up with pure joy when she say them. Yes, I sent her home a little care package of delicious home grown squash. Tonight's meal was simple and delicious. I stir fried, with cooking spray, some onion, yellow squash, and the little scalloped squashes. I love how they got a little bit caramelized. Sprinkled a bit of garlic and sea salt on them and they were ready to dish up. When dinner was over I wished for more. :o)

We also have an abundance of Swiss chard growing in our garden. I went out this evening before dinner and cut some beautiful 2 1/2 foot leaves off. I am not kidding, they are huge! Simple and quick. Saute some fresh garlic add the washed greens, some sea salt and pepper and let the magic begin. They so hit the spot!



Here we have a few tester recipes from the Happy Herbivore. You will so want to get her new cookbook when it comes out. Trust me mouth watering recipes! Her banana bread is so moist and delicious. I have tried many vegan banana bread recipes and this one is by far the best ever.

Vegan corn dogs anyone? Well, you will just have to wait. :o)

I made a Double layer pumpkin cheese cake today,

Susan's recipe, which is the best. Trust her when she says you can feed an omni and they won't be able to tell it's vegan. My DH loves this recipe! My dilemma was, what to do with the leftover pumpkin? After all the reason I made the cheesecake was because my canned pumpkin had been sitting in the cupboard just begging to be used. The answer make pumpkin bread, using the banana bread recipe as a base. It worked!! Just as moist and tasty as the banana bread. Yahoo!!!

On that tasty note I will close for now. Happy cooking everyone!

Edible flowers and grandbaby count down has begun!

When it rains it pours! I hate computers, well just my computer. I have not been able to upload any pictures from my camera. The program has a mind of its own and it has decide to YELL NO PERIMETER FOUND! What the heck is it talking about. I have uninstalled and re-installed it 4 times and still NO PERIMETER FOUND! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH it is enough to make a person nuts. I even took my computer back to bare bones and still the same smart attitude.

I am lucky enough to have a couple pictures to put up of Brandie and Micah's baby shower. Can you believe only 12 days to go until there due date? Time sure flies! Micah's mom put on the whole baby shower. I helped with vegan food. Brandie had requests :o) I made vegan ribz, tofu quiches, and a fruit salad. Of course silly me only got one photo of the fruit bouquet I made after some of the flowers go picked by hungry guests. I hope we can get my computer working so I can share some goodies I have been testing for the Happy Herbivore.

Until then, I leave you with a couple shots of the happy expecting couple.

One of the games was to guess how big around the two of them were belly to belly. That is Micah's mom, mamma huff in the picture. She is getting ready to measure the bellies.

My son-n-law is crazy, but I so love him. The shower was 3 weeks ago and my has Brandie popped out. We took pictures yesterday and I am waiting for Brandie to email them to me. Oh by the way, Brandie is loving being pregnant and already misses the big tummy moves. There is little room for little one to roll around so he/she just kicks and kicks now. The baby's head is down and there is no way that little one is going to change position now. There simply is no room. :o)

Finally on the mend and chickpea patties!

Hi everyone! First, thank you all for your kind thoughts and concern. I hope I never have to go through anything like that again. I am still cautious, but as you can see my meal has evolved from cream of anything to something I can sink my teeth into. Our Library finally got V-con in and I was the first to check out the copy. I love the chickpea patties. I know the picture is lousy since me and my iron skillet had issues, but it did not change the taste of these yummies! I also made the herb potatoes, which are similar to scalloped potatoes. They are easy and take no time at all. Lots of wonderful spices. DH love them. OH, the chickpea patties are even better the next day. I will cherish this recipe.

Update on Brandie. She has 5 weeks to go. Her baby shower was yesterday and it was nice. Sadly to many people were not able to make it, but we enjoyed. She has been having some labor warm ups, which back in the day we called them Braxton Hicks. The midwife told her to keep an eye on them because if she goes into full labor in the next 9 days she can't birth at the birthing center. They consider her premature before then. They are not consistent so that is good. We are praying for no labor for the next 10 days just to be sure. She so badly wants a natural water birth.

I promise more yummy food now that I can eat.

Hugs to all!

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.

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)

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)

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!

The long awaited post and some good food

I am back! Really I wasn't gone to far, but as my mom would say, "I am busier than a one handed paper hanger." :o) As most of you know we are expecting our first grand baby and the kids needed to find a larger place to live before the baby came. Brandie is in her 28th week and moving was not easy. She has a very sweet husband who did his best to make her comfortable, but Brandie is very independent and wanted so badly to help. This is where mom and dad stepped in. We were helping paint, clean, and doing some slight construction on their new house they rented for the past week. Usually we spent about 10 to 12 hours a day helping and they finally got to move this past weekend. It will take time to get all settled, but at least they are in. They rented a big 3 bedroom home. It is really nice and the rent is good for the area. I am sure Brandie will post pics on her blog once she has Internet so I will let her surprise everyone.

Also, DH and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary. I told DH we will never forget this one as we painted the kids kitchen and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. :o) No worries, being together is what really counts. Brandie and Micah had flowers delivered to me at work last Monday (yes we were married on St. Patricks Day). They came and I teared up, but when I read the card below I sobbed. What do you expect from a first time grandma. Look at what the card says, Grand baby! I totally agree that I am a sap, I can't deny it.

My flowers are a week old and they still look perfect. I just love them and the vase!

Thank you kids and grand baby!

Everyone remember our new addition to the family, Abby? Lets just say her and Kellie are getting along splendidly. We just love her. :o)

They cuddle all the time and Kellie tries to be the momma. Always cleaning and taking care of Abby. Look how big Abby has gotten! She is 8 months old and she weighs 12 lbs and is sleek and long like a black panther.

Spring is in the air and DH and I started planting the garden a month or so ago. Sorry everyone if you are still under snow, but here in San Diego our weather is almost summer like. Here is our first radishes of the season. They are so sweet!

For those of you who remember our garden from last year can see how DH expanded it this year. You can see our 3 types of lettuce and spinach in this picture. Along the bottom you can't see (cuz my camera died) we have dwarf sweet peas that are almost ready to begin climbing the fence. :o)

Who love Brussels sprouts? We do! I have to be careful or Brandie will take the lot. No not really, but she loves them as much as I do. As you can see I made sure to plant enough for both of us. DH and her hubby don't like them. Yeepee, more for us!! 9 plants in all.

Yes, peanut butter and jelly have been a mainstay while helping the kids, but I did have time on Easter Sunday to make some Cream of Broccoli Soup. I got the recipe from Vegan Dad. He has a great site, check it out. I did add some of BRYANNA'S HOMEMADE VEGAN "CHICKEN-STYLE" BROTH POWDER and some extra garlic, but other wise kept the recipe the same. I think next time I will cook the veggies in "no chicken broth" for extra flavor. No CREAM here and it is velvety smooth. A quick spin in the blender and there you go! Thanks, VEGAN DAD!

One dad I did get a decent breakfast. Tofu scramble burritos, pink grapefruit and a bit of hashbrowns. I just love tofu scramble. This version has spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, bell pepper (red and green) and BRYANNA'S DELICIOUS HOMEMADE TOFU SCRAMBLER MIX , which I always have on hand.

Here is a favorite of Brandie's. Bryanna's Chicken Cutlets from the Everyday Dish DVD. Simple wrap of seitan chicken patties, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and a tiny bit of vegan mayo.

That's all for now folks. Thanks for stopping by and reading this very long post!

Hugs to all!!!

Smokey Refried Bean Soup by Susan

Hi Everyone! I am so sorry I have been away from my blog for about 2 weeks. It has been a very busy time. We had a huge party at church and it took some time to help work out details and decorations. Then a week later I was asked to give a talk at church, which took the rest of my week preparing. Public speaking is not my favorite thing to do. The good news is that everyone enjoyed the party and my talk is over. I have to say that Susan saved the day, well actually the week with her Smokey Refried Bean Soup. This soup is quick, easy, and tastes fantastic. I did cook mine a bit longer to have it thicken up a bit. I also used "no chicken broth" and 1/2 tsp. of the chipotle chili powder, and topped it with a quick tomato salsa and cool avocado. What a meal, oh wait a few meals! Thank you Susan, you saved me.