VeganMoFo Day 20 Monday Night Special

Monday Night Special

Cream of Broccoli Soup by Vegan Dad

Grilled Rice Cheese Sandwich

Fruit Salad

Taking freezer pictures reminded me that we had leftover Cream of Broccoli soup and what better to have with soup than grilled Vegan rice cheese sandwiches. (Careful folks some of the rice cheese contain casein, which is not vegan) I just finished cutting up honeydew, cantaloupe, and strawberries so fruit salad became another addition to to nights meal. One very satisfying meal.

VeganMoFo Day 19 My Vegan Freezer

OK, my friends,
As promised, here are my Vegan freezers. :o) We have two refrigerators in our house and one garage freezer so you are getting the full picture. :o)

INSIDE FREEZER 1




Garbanzo Bean and Amaranth Flours





Yellow Corn Meal (2 jars of it)





Wheat Germ and Brown Rice Flour






Smoothie central: Peaches, Mango's, Unsweetened Carob chips, and Banana's hiding








Blueberries and Acai puree









Pureed Strawberries, Lemon juice, Oat flour, Barley Flour hiding.









Split pea soup, Lasagna, and some Breakfast Faux Sausages









Repeat. :o)






Seitan Stash: Homemade Italian sausage, Breakfast Patties, and 1/4 lb RFD seitan blocks

GARAGE FREEZER

Vital Wheat Gluten



Homemade marinara sauce and wheat germ

Whole wheat pastry flour



More Vital Wheat Gluten and Marinara Sauce

Wheat Bran, Rye Flour, and Steel Cut Oats

INSIDE FREEZER

Whole Wheat Pita Bread, Roasted Almonds, and Filo Dough

Corn Tortillas, Red and Green Bell Peppers, Walnuts

RFD seitan, lemon juice cubes, cooked white beans hiding, and homemade vegan cheese

Veggie drawer: spinach, snow peas, green peas, corn, and green beans

Flax seed Meal, Whole Almonds, and Sliced Almonds

Yeast packets and Ice Packs

Pecans and Raw Cashews

More Sliced Almonds, Whole Flax seed, and Pecans

Pumpkin Seeds, Pistachios, and Pine nuts

I am actually missing a couple photos, but bare shelves, ice packs haven, and my frozen grapes prolly won't be missed. Happy Sunday!!!

PS: I have fought a good fight and I still can't get the last pictures and descriptions to match up. Sorry guys you will have to figure the last on out on your own. Life is an adventure and so is the big bad BLOGGER. HEHEHEHE

VeganMoFo Day 18 How did I miss my 100th post?

I'll tell you how, I was just Mofoing away and never stopped to pay attention. I have not missed a MoFo post yet, and knew I would hit my 100th post before MoFo started and I still missed it. You can bet I won't miss my big 200. :o) Oh well, happy 105th post to me!!! :o) Thanks to all of you for being my blog buddies. It is so awesome how we all come together to share in each others accomplishment, disasters, heartaches, and celebrations. Woo Hoo to all of you and great big HUGS!!!

Yes, we are still in a heat wave. DH is lucky he is getting homemade bread. Who wants to turn on the oven in this heat? Not me! So once again I bore you with yet another salad. Good thing I have a stash of seitan in the freezer. :o) This is one of my favorite salads. Packed full of mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, mango, walnuts, black beans, and some seitan strips. I really could eat this everyday.

Tomorrow is the day you all get to see what is lurking in my freezer.

At least I will stay cool taking pictures.

VeganMoFo Day 17 Clean out the Fridge Dinner

It is the end of the work week and it was time to clean out the fridge to make room for the unknown creations of this coming week. :o) Cleaning out the fridge makes dinner not only fun, but a mystery until it is completed. I took leftovers out and began to see what I could make. Cut up a potato and cook up with some green and red bell pepper to start with. I found some water chestnuts and knew I had to use them. Yep, get out the green beans, toast up some almonds, thrown in those chestnuts and just a dash of tamari. Wait I have some leftover seitan too! Slice it really thin and toss it in with the green bean dish and stir fry it together. My, this dinner is taking shape. Last but certainly not least get out the leftover salad containers, (both of them), the rest of the miscellaneous containers of carrots mixed with cucumbers, black beans, mango, add a fresh tomato and avocado, and dinner is served.

It might look like a mess, but it sure tasted good!

VeganMoFo Day 16 Some days you have to satisfy a craving!

Seriously folks, I woke up during the night craving Swiss chard and garlic. When I woke up I was still craving delicious chard and garlic so when it came time for lunch I could wait no longer. Out of the fridge came the chard, garlic from the basket, and chickpeas from the cupboard. Yep, steamed chard with garlic along side flax seed crackers and garlic hummus. Oh and you can't forget more fresh pineapple spears. :o) Lazy vegans meal? No, just a nutritionally balanced meal. :o)

Yes, I do feel better now. Wonder what I will be craving tonight?

No it won't be pickles and ice cream. :o)

VeganMoFo Day 15 Time for Stir Fry

Tonight's dinner was simple stir fry. Simple because you can use whatever you have in your fridge. I think mine needs more color, but the taste was spot on. :o) Noodles, broccoli, celery, carrots, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, snap peas, and soy sauce.

Now for a really cute picture. Here are a couple of my fur kids. Abby and Kelly. I just love them!

Until tomorrow, Hugs and good night. "o)

VeganMoFo Day 14 and Breakfast for Dinner

I know it is 11:42pm and I am just getting dinner posted. Well, at least it is before Wednesday. :o) DH and I were vegging in front of the TV playing Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader. We love that show. On to dinner. Tonight it was clean out the fridge and what better way to do that than tofu scramble or stir fry. Since I wanted hash browns tofu scramble won out. Every time I make this meal it comes out different because I use what I have on hand. Tonight's scramble consisted of medium firm tofu, pressed, green and red bell peppers, yellow onions, tomatoes, jalapeno, zucchini, diced RFD seitan, and Bryanna's scramble tofu seasoning, which is my favorite. We also had diced hash browns with more left over bell peppers, onion, and jalapeno. And of course we can't leave out the fresh pineapple spears and red delicious grapes.

I must say, breakfast for dinner is really a favorite of mine!

Hugs to all and good night!

Now it is 11:54, hurry Sheree' publish this post. :o)

VeganMoFo Day 13 and Delicious Wrap

Hi everyone! Today we were hit with our first Santa Ana winds here in Southern California and they are doing a number on us. The wind is a howling and blowing up a storm. Too bad it is not the cooler soup making weather. Darn! It is too warm for the stove or oven so we fixed up wraps for dinner tonight. This wrap contains my favorite seitan, (check out the Real Food Daily Cookbook), carrots, romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, mustard, and another favorite, avocado, all on a sprouted wheat tortilla. We served it up with some fresh pineapple spears. Delicious!

See you all tomorrow unless we get blown away. :o)

Boy that wrap looks good, might have to have an instant replay for tomorrows lunch. hehe

VeganMoFo Day 12 and Fat Free Banana Nut Bread

Hey folks if you haven't heard about Lindsay's E-book you need to get right over to her blog and get a copy. I have been one of her testers and now is your chance to get the secrets too all those goodies that have been floating around her tester blogs. Today I made another favorite of her recipes. Fat Free Banana Nut Bread. It is so moist and delicious!

Happy Sunday everyone!

VeganMoFo Day 11 and Peach Cobbler

I know this is going up on Sunday morning, but it was our treat on Saturday. We had the baby and just never got it posted last night. Do I still get MoFo credit? :o) I felt it was time to surprise DH with a yummy dessert. Peach Cobbler was on the menu. I first got the idea over at Samantha's blog. She used yummy fresh peaches so I am sure hers was much better than the canned peach version, but I was trying to use what I had on hand. The recipe came from veg web. DH liked it, but wished it had more juice and less biscuit topping. Maybe it was the canned peaches. I am sure they lack the juice that a fresh peach has. Oh, there are variations of this recipe for other fruits too! Enjoy!

Too bad we were out of vanilla soy or coconut ice cream. Off to add that to the shopping list. :o)

Peach Cobbler

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
1 TB. cornstarch
4 cups sliced peaches (about 6 medium)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp lemon juice

Topping:
1 cup flour
1 TB. sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup soy milk
3 TB. Earth Balance


Directions:

Heat oven to 400. Mix 1/2 cup vegan sugar, the cornstarch and cinnamon in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir in the peaches and lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for one minute. Pour into an ungreased 2-quart casserole; keep hot in the oven. Cut Earth Balance into flour, add 1 Tbl. vegan sugar, baking powder and salt until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk. Drop dough by 6 spoonfuls onto hot peach mixture. Bake until topping is golden brown - about 25-30 minutes.

VeganMoFo Day 10 and Blue Corn Tacos

T.G.I.F. Seems like it has been a long week, which brings me to our go to meal. Quick and easy!
I use Garden of Eden pre-made blue corn tortillas. They take 2 minutes to heat up in the oven and they taste great. These are stuffed full of refried black beans, some ground seitan, veggies, and guacamole. The only problem with these is we could eat a dozen. :o)


Now it is time to go to bed and dream of what is to come in the kitchen next. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite.

VeganMoFo Day 9 and Lettuce Wraps

Though today was a tad bit cooler than yesterday, I was still craving salads. Seeing that it is MoFo I wanted to have something a bit more interesting. What is fun about being vegan is veganizing recipes. I picked this recipe from an Eating Well newsletter. You can see the original recipe here. It was very easy to veganize as you can see. DH and I loved the "meet" filling. Oh, and just to let you know. It makes enough to feed an army. We will be eating lettuce wraps for the next few days. Granted that is not too much of a struggle since I had to tell myself, "Stop eating!" I am trying very hard to live by the rule to only eat when I am hungry and not because it tastes so good and trust me these taste really good. We had brown rice and yes a salad with it. I just couldn't help myself. :o)

Five Spice Seitan and Lettuce Wraps

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 teaspoons sesame oil

1 pound ground seitan

1 tablespoon fresh minced ginger

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

1 green onion, sliced

1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, rinsed and chopped

1/2 vegetable broth ( I use no chicken broth)

2tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

lettuce leaves for wrapping.

1/2 cup chopped or chives

1 large carrot, shredded

I use stainless steel cookware so I heat my pan, spray with cooking spray, and add the sesame oi. Once it is hot add our seitan and ginger. Cook until it reaches your desired doneness. Stir in the cooked rice, bell pepper, water chestnuts, broth, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder and salt; cook until heated through, about 1 minute. To serve, spoon portions of the turkey mixture into lettuce leaves, top with herbs and carrot and roll into wraps.

Enjoy and Happy MoFo

VeganMoFo Day 8 and my trip to the Far East

This is the second time I have tried to post this, but blogger ate my previous attempt. So lets try again. We are in the middle of a heat wave here in Sunny Southern California. When I left work, I work downtown fairly close to the beach, and it was 94 degrees I knew it was going to be a cooker inland where I live. I was right, 105 degrees. Right then and there I decided there would be no oven cooking tonight. Stove top steamer was the way to go. I broke out this book, Natural Meals in Minutes to a recipe I have been dreaming of making.

Chinese Steamed Buns, page 36. I was really getting into this. First I made the filling, the one listed on the same page is the one I used, but you could use any type you like. The filling was chocked full of my kind of Asian flavors, green onion, garlic, fresh ginger, cabbage, and five spice powder to name a few. By the way, the filling is absolutely spot on! The bun part called for a fine whole wheat flour so I chose whole wheat pastry flour. Once I got my bamboo steamer out and the water heating I began my journey to the far East. Now the filling is done and is fantastic so I have high expectations for the bun recipe. As I began the process, the doubts began to appear and they only continued to get worse as I went along. My flour seemed a bit grainy compared to my idea of fine flour, but being the MoFo trooper that I want to be I continued on.

Off to the steamer they go. While they were steaming away I began my quick loosly based Asian Coleslaw. Shredded cabbage, grated carrots, red bell pepper, tomato, and some quickly roasted sunflower seeds all lightly topped with an Asian style dressing. I really loved this!

This is where my doubt and disappointment begins. The buns come out of the steamer and I decided to cut one in half and take a picture so all can see, but the bun was just that, bun. The filling was this tiny line across the bottom about 1/16 of an inch from the very bottom. I was so bummed. Too much dough and not enough filling. To try and save my dinner I cut off three-fourths of the bun and came up with these.

Well time to plate and go enjoy my trip to the far East.

In the end, I still needed to scrap out what filling I could and mix it with my coleslaw for dinner. All and all the flavors were dynamite, but when you waste all that time and ingredients to not have you meal turn out like you planned sucks!

PS. you can go on amazon website to the book and search inside. It lets you read the page for these buns. Maybe someone out there will have better luck.

VeganMoFo Day 7 Need a wrap anyone?

Today was a fast paced day and I still got something accomplished. Quick post since it is 10:40 pm and 4:30 am comes way to quick. What can I say we had to sit in front of the tv and veg. lol

I got up this morning with a plan ahead of me. "Meetloaf", it has been quite sometime and that was what I was craving. If you haven't used the Magic Loaf Studio over at Jen's Vegan Lunch Box you should go for it. Today's was tasty, but didn't firm up like my other combinations. I think it is due to the freshly cooked quinoa. Yes, this is one protein powerhouse loaf. Black beans, quinoa, walnuts, and flax meal. My purpose in making this was to have a meetloaf sandwich, or at least that was the plan. So the "meetloaf" is done, I let it cool and I put it in the fridge. Great! There is no bread. Hmm, I have wraps. Solution to my problem. Here is my wrap filled with carrot ribbons, Romain lettuce, meetloaf, and hummus. Perfect combination of crunch with the very tender and moist loaf. Need I say more. :o)

No Bread? No problem. Here it is fresh from the oven.

I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour for this one. Threw in some 7 grain cereal, olive oil, water, yeast, salt, sugar, and away we go! Too late for todays sandwich, but there is always tomorrow.

Finally, whats for dinner? Why "meetloaf" of course along with a huge salad, and corn.

My tummy is full and the eyes are droopy so it is time to hit the hay!

Goodnight all!

VeganMoFo Day 6, Sometimes only a salad will do.

So as not to interrupt a day of Vegan MoFo I bring you a salad. We had our grandson to day and sorry to say he had center stage. :o) By the time we realized it was dinner time, this Gama was ready for a dinner that was quick, nutritious, and easy. That in itself can only be described as yummy, filling, salad. A quick trip to the fridge, limited chopping, some quick roasting of walnuts dinner was served.Simple and yummy this salad was a mix of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, cucumbers, mango, avocado, toasted walnuts, and a quick Asian flavored dressing.

And now, Jr. and I would like to wish you a good time in the kitchen tonight! :o)

VeganMoFo Day 5, Lasagna Roll Ups and Cinfull Sweets

A big thank you to all for your well wishes to DH. Yesterday I bombarded him with orange juice and tons of garlic on his toast thanks to a tip from Sarah and today he seem on the mend. He is still downing the orange juice, and in fact I just got done juicing another 2 quarts for him. Needless to say I think we have this bug on the run. :o)

I saw Lasagna Roll Ups on the Food Network some time ago and thought I have to make those. Then Vegan dad got the idea from a similar dish from Carrie. Awesome is the only word to describe them. They are so simple and perfect for serving. Everyone gets there own roll up. No mess trying to cut and serve, you gotta love that. Sorry no recipe because I just threw them together with what I had on hand. I used Vegan Dads procedure with my ingredients.

My tofu ricotta is a blend of firm tofu, herb of your choice, (I used fresh parsley this time), garlic, dried oregano, salt, and some nutritional yeast. I had extra Italian Sausage that I cut up, gave a quick stir fry, added my marinara sauce and began making them. Once they are done baking I topped them with Follow Your Heart Mozzarella and put them under the broiler to melt the cheeze and give it a bit of crust. Along with it was a wonderful fresh salad and my favorite Rainbow Swiss chard cooked up with garlic and a bit of sea salt.

Tomorrow is our Son-in-laws birthday and he loves my homemade vegan cinnabons. They are due over anytime now and I am surprising him with his own pan of them. DH had to have a small pan of his own and he has already done a taste testing. Thankfully they passed inspection. I am not sure my photo does them justice. They are really big, gooey, and covered with cream cheese frosting.

Here is the recipe I have used for years.

Cinnabons

1/4 c. Earth Balance melted
1/4 c. water
1/2 pkg. instant vanilla pudding (1/2 of a 3.4 oz. box) make sure it is vegan
1 c. soy milk
1 egg replacer
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. whole wheat bread flour
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

FILLING:
1/2 c. Earth Balance, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

FROSTING:
4 oz. tofutti cream cheese, softened ( make sure you get the one that is trans fat free)
1/4 c. Earth Balance softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. soy milk

Rolls: Place the dough ingredients in your bread machine according to the manufactures suggestions. Set for dough cycle. After complete on dough cycle, remove from machine and roll out your dough to 17x10" or there abouts rectangle.

Filling: Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Spread softened Earth Balance over the dough. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture over the dough. Roll up tightly from long end, pinching edges closed when you finish. Cut the slices about 1/2 to 1 inch in size. The bigger the slice the bigger the cinnabon. (I use tooth floss to cut mine. It works perfect and no smashed bons, you just put the floss around the roll, bring up the two ends, cross them, and pull) Place on a greased cake pan and let rise until double.

Bake them in a 350° oven for 15-20 minutes, until they are golden. Do not over bake or they will get really hard and nasty.

Frosting: Spread on very warm rolls. By strict orders of the family I always double the frosting.

Off to get cleaned up for the birthday boy. See you all tomorrow. Enjoy!

VeganMoFo Day 4 and Vitamin C

Well, today is day 4 of MoFo and I had great plans for a spaghetti dinner, but during the night I woke up dreaming of Lasagna Roll Ups. The problem is DH was not feeling good yesterday so I sent him to the chiropractor for an adjustment. He came home with the news that he had a virus. Stay away from me! I just got over being sick! Just kidding, we need to take care of our men when they are sick because they turn into such little boys. Needless to say I got up about 5:30 am and began to clean up and get myself ready for a day of cooking. Needing to make French bread for dinner, cinnabons for our Son in laws birthday, and the usual weekend ritual for the coming week I knew I better get started. Then I remembered my sick boy in bed. So I broke out my juicer and started washing, cutting, and juicing oranges. Yes, that is the key, feed my man liquid vitamin C all day. We are going to kick this thing before it takes hold and puts him down for the week.

I easily juiced about 3 quarts or more of fresh orange juice and I mean fresh. Our sweet friend from church brings by fresh picked oranges every Friday. She takes care of an elderly couple who just happen to have an orange tree. Since the fruit would just go to waste she shares with us. Thank you, Jane, you are an angel!

I am not sure if my planned dinner will come to pass today, but there is always tomorrow.

Happy Saturday Everyone!