Brandie's Engaged and I Got Mail!!!

I am sorry I have not blogged for a couple weeks. We have had a whirl wind of events in this home of ours. Dh's birthday is on June 13th and Brandie's (our daughter) is June 15th. Daddy and Brandie have been celebrating their birthdays together forever. So this year was no different, except that Micah, Brandie's sweetheart, wanted to propose. We all went to Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate. After all the presents were open, sneeky mom took Brandie to the restroom while Micah hid the ring inside a rose. Brandie was completely caught off guard. She had no idea. Micah pulled the rose from her bouquet, which she did not like, and asked her if she had ever noticed how beautiful a rose was on the inside. She was pouting and complaining that he ruined her bouquet. She finally said no and Micah asked her to look. Oh My Goodness! Her face was in shock. She looked up at her dad and asked,

"How'd that get in there?"

Then Micah pulled her out of the booth, got down on one knee, and proposed. DH got the whole thing on video. Everyone in the restaurant was whistling, clapping, and celebrating with them! It was a night to remember!

Micah popping the question!

Brandie saying, "YES!"

Brandie's chin was quivering from tears of joy and Micah

was just beaming and happy that part was over.

The Happy Couple! We are so blessed that they wanted us to be a part of this wonderful night. Oh, the wedding date is September 15, 2007! Brandie does not want a fall or winter wedding and waiting another year until summer is out of the question.

I think I might loose my mind, but hey it will be worth it.

More pictures to come, but onto food!

I Got Mail!

I got my new DVD in the mail! The Everyday Dish by Dreena Burton, Julie Hasson, and Bryanna Clark Grogan. I stayed up until 1:00 am watching it. I love it! I am going to make everything. Here is my first recipe from the DVD.

Bryanna's Vegan Chicken Cutlets getting ready to be baked in the oven.

Baking seitan is the best! These are so easy to make. Anyone who has been leery of making seitan, FEAR NO MORE!! Order it now you won't be sorry!

Here is our first dinner with these cutlets. We served them with gravy, potatoes (russets and sweet potatoes) , sliced tomatoes, and steamed broccoli.

These cutlets are so easy to make and they are fantastic!!!!!!!

Our next dinner: BBQ Seitan "Chicken" Cutlets served with mashed russet and sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, corn, steamed Swiss chard, yellow squash and apple sauce.

My DH who is an omni man enjoyed this meal.

Now I have to choose which recipe to make next!! Get this DVD, You won't be sorry!!!

Evolution of my First Seitan Roast

I love this time of year. I love fresh fruit. Here is a pretty picture of my breakfast. Fresh strawberries, organic fresh blueberries, and fresh pineapple. All of them were so sweet. They just sweetened up my morning!

Here is my first Seitan Roast ready to be put in the crock pot. I got the recipe from Ellen's Kitchen. We think it needs quite a bit more seasoning to eat on its own, but the texture is great. But look below for our dinners so far. Oh, by the way this is a very easy recipe and it cooks in the crockpot.

Ready to begin is cooking in the crockpot. Boy that garlic looks like little biddy eyes looking at you.

Here is my seitan "roast" fresh out of the crock pot. That is garlic on top, not creepy eyes looking at you. :o)

Our "roast" sliced and ready for the dinner table. It looks so pretty. Scary, I told my husband, it looks so real.

I was in the middle of cooking dinner when we got a long distance call from my father-in-law. He is a great man. Anyway I spent so much time talking to him before I passed the phone to DH, that the veggies got a little, lets say "WELL DONE". Thank goodness they were forgiving when I added some tamari, garlic, and some toasted almonds. Also pictured is our sliced seitan "roast" with gravy, baked Yukon Gold potato, cherry tomatoes, and the disaster "hemp biscuits". I got that recipe from Dairyfree.com, but the taste of these is very bland. They are more like a cracker than a biscuit.

This roast is so versatile. Here we cut it up in little pieces and cooked it with some rice and vegan gravy. My favorite was the sauteed zucchini, fresh spinach, and green onions. Look how yummy green they are. The organic grape tomatoes we get are sweet as sugar. :o)

Basic White Bean Soup, Multi-grain Bread, Black Bean Burgers

Hi everyone! This is what has been cooking at our home this week. Hope everyone is doing well. I am still in pool therapy and going to the chiropractor everyday. I am having more good days than bad. I even made it all the way through church. I was so happy for that blessing. Sunday night was bad, but worth it to be in church. Hope you all enjoy the foodie photos.

This is just a quick white bean soup that goes delicious with homemade bread. Mothers Hubbard's cupboards were still bare so, I finished cleaning out the fridge and made this soup.
















Basic White Bean Soup
1/2 pound white beans soaked over night
1 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 celery chopped
3 garlic cloves chopped
5 cups "no chicken broth" or veggie broth ( we love "no chicken broth)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute veggies in some broth until onions are transparent. Add your broth and beans. Simmer until beans are tender.


I also made some more bread. We are a big bread eating family. We love Dori's 9 grain bread, but I wondered if I could change it around a bit. I am happy to say it turned out awesome. Thanks, Dori for the base recipe!
















Multi grain Bread ( makes a 2 lb loaf)
1 1/4 cup water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour (red or white wheat)
1 cup whole wheat bread flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/3 cup of 6, 7, or 9 grain cereal (I use this kind, we like it)
2 teaspoons sea salt
3 Tablespoons Natural sugar (I use Succant)
1 1/2 teaspoons millet
3 teaspoons flax seed meal
1 Tablespoon of yeast
Add all the ingredients to your bread machine according to the manufactures directions. ( I use the dough cycle and finish baking in the oven, if you are going to use only your bread machine make sure you cook on the whole wheat cycle) Once the dough cycle ends, take out the bread knead a couple times and place in your greased bread pan, cover, and let rise until double. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Kate over at Vegan ventures made some awesome black bean burgers. Thank you, Kate! I changed them a bit and they turned out really good. They make quite a big patty and they are only 3 points on Weight Watchers. I made these a week or so ago, but froze them for quick meals.

Here is my version of Kate's New and Improved Black Bean Burgers.


Black Bean Burger
1/4 cup grated onion
1/4 cup finely chopped bell pepper ( I used red)
5 garlic cloves finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, cumin, and chili powder ( I used New Mexico Mild)
1 teaspoon dried oregano and dried basil
1 3/4 cups of cooked black beans
2 Tablespoons of "no chicken broth"
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
2 Tablespoons of flax seed meal

Mix all the ingredients in your food processor being careful not to over process so you have some whole beans. Form them into 8 patties. I used a half cup measure and they came out perfect. Cook and enjoy. 1 Pattie = 3 points on Weight Watchers

We pan fried ours and served them with some
steamed broccoli, avocado and tomato salsa, and a quick macaroni salad. The macaroni salad included 4 different kinds of pasta, grape tomatoes, shredded carrots, and a quick dressing made of equal parts: agave nectar, mirin, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. :o)

Veggie Pizza, Diann's Chickpea Potato Bread

Mother Hubbard's Cupboards are bare. After reading 2 or 3 blogs with veggie pizza posted it was all over with. I had to have pizza. Here is your very basic veggie pizza, bell pepper, tomatoes, olives, spinach, pineapple, and no cheese. I love pizza without cheese. Even though I have vegan cheese I just prefer it without. I love the taste of veggies.







We also had a nice salad with lettuce, green beans, wax beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, mushrooms, spinach, carrots, and cucumbers. Now the veggie drawer is empty except for a few carrots and some celery. I think it is time to go shopping. :o)

Last, but by no means least, Diann's Chickpea, Potato Bread. Oh My Goodness it is so goood! The family loves it. It has a dense texture, which makes it easy to slice into thin pieces. One thin slice about 34 grams is only 1 point on weight watchers and 60 grams is 2 points. Thank you Diann, for sharing this recipe with me. Checkout Diann's site and see her bread.

Here is Diann's recipe. She says it originally came from a cookbook, "Bread Machine Magic" 1992 edition. It was the Buckwheat Bread recipe, but she veganized it and used chickpea flour.

I changed her recipe a bit by using all soymilk, substituted olive oil for the margarine, agave nectar for the corn syrup, and used regular yeast*

Diann's Version
5/8 c. soymilk - I think this is 1/2 c. + 2 T.
5/8 c. water (sometimes I use all soymilk)
2 T. light corn syrup (sometimes I sub agave nectar)
1-1/2 T. melted margarine
1/4 c. instant potato flakes
2 c. bread flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. chickpea flour
1-1/2 t. salt
1 pkg. dry yeast (I usually use rapid rise)

Mix together liquids and pour into breadmaker. Mix together dry ingredients (except yeast) and add. Make a well for the yeast and add. Run the dough cycle.

When cycle is through, turn out dough and knead a few times, then place into greased 9x5 pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 - 40 minutes.

Stir-fry and Korean Style Seitan

After therapy I was hurting and just down in the dumps. I am tired of this "game". Anyway what does one do when they are depressed? Cook, what else. I was not sure what to make and supplies are low so it was time to clean out the fridge. "STIR-FRY" of course! While the spaghetti noodles were cooking I did a quick stir-fry of celery, green onions, carrots, bean sprouts, peas, and broccoli. My sauce was a creation of hoisen, tamari, garlic, and agave nectar. Turned out to be a very satisfying lunch.


Here is a batch of seitan I made up for meals later this week. I ground up 2, half pound packages, which are now in the freezer to be used later and sliced up another half a pound to be used for tonight's dinner. I used the seitan recipe from Joanne Stepaniak's book, "Dinner for Two".

Korean style seitan. I made a marinade out of tamari, rice vinegar, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, ground ginger, and green onions. Then I put the sliced seitan in to marinate for about an hour. Once most of the meal was cooked I gave the seitan a quick fry in a nonstick pan along with the leftover sauce. To accompany our Korean style seitan we had wild rice, steamed broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, and some fresh pineapple and kiwi. The family really enjoyed dinner tonight.

Crazy two weeks of sewing and leftovers

Happy Memorial Day to all! Boy have the past 2 weeks been a whirlwind. Brandie and her sweetheart were invited to "War". For those of you who don't know what that is, it is like going back in time to the early Medieval times. This was a 4 day bash out in Petreo, California over Memorial Day weekend. There is Merchants row, sword fighting, a carnival with games of the period, music, dancing and classes to learn everything from beading to shoe making. They have a big feast and good old fun. Once sundown hits everyone must be dressed in "Garb" (clothing for the period), or they must leave the park. I have been sewing Brandie and Micah's outfits. I was worried what to make, so Brandie researched and we got a very good idea. With my back injury I could only sit at the sewing machine for 15 minutes at a time and them I would recline or lay down. I finished the clothes at 12:30 on Friday afternoon, 40 minutes before they headed out. Brandie ended up with one dress, 2 tunics, and a belt. Micah ended up with 2 pair of pants, 2 shirts, and one tunic. Brandie went to the thrift store and picked up solid color sheets, which were turned into Medieval clothes. She picked up a couple yards of material at Wal-mart for a buck a yard too. I love that she is so thrifty. Anyway they had a good time below are the come pictures when they got home.

I love this picture of them. They have such nice smiles. Here Brandie hasher tunic over her dress. She said she would get hot and take it off. I am kinda glad, since she looked so cute in her dress.

Brandie's dress from the front. Micah hand stitched their little bags on their belts.

Good job, Son! Almost done!

Back view of Bandie's dress. Shoot, the pattern called for a zipper, something they did not have back then. I sewed in little loops of cord so we could weave the dress closed. We had fun.

Our Medieval couple!

Now you have seen why we ate leftovers for the past couple weeks. I just didn't have it in me to do too much cooking and sewing. Don't you just love your freezer in times like these.

So here are some goodies we munched on.

Before we found out about the kids going to "War", I made a huge pot of Pinto beans. I cooked them with "no-chicken broth, canned green chilies, cumin, chili powder, onion and garlic. Lucky for us Pinto beans are a magical bean that can be turned into tacos, burritos, soup, and stew.

Here is a recipe for a Couscous salad that Brandie changed a bit from the original on Susan's site fatfreevegan.com, which orginated from Vegan Fusion.

Mt. Carmel Couscous Salad

1 3/4 c No-Chicken Broth, 1 c Couscous, 1 c Tomato, chopped, 3/4 c Cucumber, seeded and chopped, 3 Tbl Italian parsley, minced, 2 Tbl Lemon juice, fresh squeezed, 1 Tbl Balsamic vinegar, 11/2 tsp Garlic, minced, Sea salt, and Black pepperto taste

Bring broth to a boil. Remove from heat, add the couscous, cover and allow to sit until all liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Then fluff it with a fork and let it cool. Once it is cool add the remaining ingredients. It says it makes 2-3 servings, but it fed us more than once. Check out the original recipe from Vegan Fusion

Thank goodness for left over "Mac and Cheeze" This is my adaptation from Susan's "Baked macaroni and cheese" Our families favorite. You can see my recipe here http://boosveg-a-nut.blogspot.com/search?macaroni+and+cheese

Please check out Susan's recipe: http://www.fatfreevegan.com/pasta/976.shtml

Veggies getting ready to be roasted. I love roasted veggies!

Simply steamed broccoli and cauliflower.
Somehow we survived and I am done sewing for awhile and ready to cook! Hope I didn't bore you all too much, with family photos on this post. Off to the kitchen.....

Blueberry Muffins, Spicy Black Eyed Peas, Calzones, and Susan's BBQ Seitan Ribs

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I was given the surprise of my life. My sister flew in from Texas to surprise both my mother and I. I didn't have my camera with me, but will get pictures before she leaves next Saturday.

Saturday was cooking day. The family requested Susan's lasagna again. http://http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/03/my-favorite-lasagna.html Since I just made it and posted a picture I didn't take another one this time. When making it this time the only thing I changed was adding grated zucchini instead of sliced. I made extra filling to use in my Calzones. Melody made some beautiful ones last week and I had to try my hand at them. http://melomeals.blogspot.com/search?q=calzones Brandie and I loved them. I made 6 so we could have them for lunches too. The crust was made from my Bread machine cookbook. They are filled with the leftover lasagna filling, crumbled Gardenburger sausage patties, olives, my marinara sauce and some vegan Parmesan cheez. Brandie loves the sausage patties and said I should put more in next time. I think I would prefer a bell pepper and onion filling. We both agreed they were fantastic. Brandie's sweetheart took on for lunch and loved it. Micah is her omniman. He had no clue what was in it, but sure loved it. We served it with some fabulous tomatoes. They are not organic, but are pesticide free and grown in California.

I used my bread machine to make the dough, but I am sure you can prepare it by hand. I would make a yeast sponge first.

Whole wheat pizza dough/calzone recipe:

3/4 cup water

1 1/3 Tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 Tablespoon vegan sugar

3/4 t. sea salt

1 cup whole wheat bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 t. gluten

2 t. yeast

Add all the ingredients to your bread maker and start dough cycle. When the cycle is completed place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes.

Oven temp: 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

The dough made into 6 pieces = 3pts on weight watchers. :o)

I have to give credit to Susan at Fatfreevegan.com again. Susan I love your blog. It is so full of yummies. We fell in love with her Cranberry Orange Walnut muffins so I wondered if I could use blueberries. I changed the recipe a bit, but please visit Susan's site and try her delicious recipes. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10/cranberry-orange-muffins.html

These are fantastic!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Orange Walnut Muffins:

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup whole wheat white flour

1 tablespoon flaxseed meal

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 water

1/2 tablespoon egg replacer powder

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup soy milk

1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Spray the muffin pan with non-stick spray. I used my new silicone muffin liners I got for Mother's Day.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flours, flax seed meal, sugar, egg replacer, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. When you have finished sifting you will have quite a large amount of bran left over just dump it in. I like to sift so I don't get baking powder and soda lumps in my batter.

In another bowl, stir together water, orange juice, soymilk, apple sauce, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the liquid. Stir just to until all flour is moistened;DO NOT OVER STIR OR YOU WILL HAVE TOUGH MUFFINS. Fold in the frozen blueberries and walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

* Bake for 12 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin pan to a wire rack. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before carefully removing muffins from cups. Makes about 14 regular-sized muffins.

14 muffins = 2 points each on Weight Watchers

* When I made Susan's cranberry muffins they only took 12 minutes to cook, but this blueberry muffin recipe took 20 minutes. I am not sure if it was the silicone muffins liners or the changes I made required a longer cooking time.

Diann over at http://eatnvegn.blogspot.com/ made some wonderful Spicy Rice & Black-eyed Peas, a recipe she found over at Susan's site. http://www.fatfreevegan.com/beans/spicy_rice.shtml I substituted some fire-roasted tomatoes for the stewed tomatoes. I would like to try this recipe again without the sub. Brandie loves them, but I think the fire-rosted tomatoes over powers the rest of the ingredients. Diann's photo looks so much better than mine. Please visit her site and see how good they really look.

Last, but by all means not least Susan's BBQ Seitan Ribs. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/05/barbecued-seitan-ribz.html We throughly enjoyed these. They do puff up and are a bit thicker than I thought, but they are so quick and easy to make. I did elimated the liquid smoke. I am not a big fan of smoked flavor. I also used regular paprika because I have never been able to find the smoked kind. Baked seitan is the way to go. I used my indoor electric grill and they came out nicely. DH loves this comfort meal. What more could you ask for; BBQ ribs, baked potato, corn, and slice tomotoes. I think some coleslaw would have been nice too.

Brandie and Daddy Planting our Garden!

Here are some of our beauties. Sweet basil, purple basil, regular tomatoes, jelly bean tomatoes, zucchini, and chives. We sure hope we have success.

Here is our baby sweet corn, green beans, and more tomatoes. DH went nuts with the tomatoes. He planted a bunch of seeds, which leaves us with a bunch of tomato plants. Good thing our family eats them by the bushel. :o)

Our sweet Brandie working the soil with her dad.

It was some really tough ground. Thanks to my dad they finally got a reprieve by using his tiller. That made things move really fast.

There are our little green beans planted by Brandie. She is also planting the corn in this picture. In the end, Brandie also planted cucumbers, cauliflower, and lettuce.

Thank you Brandie for all your help.


Last but not least a cute picture of Tilly, one of our fur kids, playing in daddy's sock drawer.

Aren't fur kids cute?

Busted! Now she is ready to escape. :o)

Quiche, Sweet potato fries, quinoa, and a strawberry shake

We have found the breakfast food of champions. Susan's Mini tofu quiches. If you have not tried these I beg you too. I have disliked eggs most of my life. Even before I became vegan, eggs had to be smothered it cheese and salsa just to politely tolerate them. I read the reviews from Susan's post and knew I had to try them. When they were almost done cooking I touched the center to see if they were done and thought to myself, ewww they feel like eggs. I am happy to say they are fantastic and remember this is coming from someone who hates eggs. Now DH who loves eggs ate 3 of these right off the bat. He thinks they are great. Brandie made hers into a lil sandwich. Her version of a "vegan mc-muffin". They don't look as big as Susan's, but it might be the pan I used. Next time Brandie and I thought broccoli might be really good in them. I did add an extra 1/2 Tablespoon of yeast (we love nutritional yeast), but other than that I followed the recipe to a Tee. Thanks gain Susan for this masterpiece. I do know to double the recipe. These were gone lickety split. Everyone check out Susan's site. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/12/mini-crustless-tofu-quiches.html

Weight Watcher points:

Using lite silken tofu 0 pt each or 1pt for 2, 3 or 4 pieces.

Using regular silken tofu 1 or 2 pieces = 1pt, 3 pieces = 2pt, 4 pieces = 3pt

Yes, we are still eating falafel. Who can get enough of it. I made some sweet potato fries, which Brandie is now in love with, steamed green and red cabbage, broccoli, some yellow squash hiding behind the cucumber sticks, tomatoes, and another new kick, pickled beets. Let me tell you. We do not care for canned pickled beets. We don't like the taste or texture, but we found some jarred pickled beets that are free from preservatives and nasty stuff. They say they are like the German sweet and sour beets, although I have no idea if they are or not, they are great and are nothing like the canned varieties.

I just love quinoa! So I thought I would make a quick quinoa pilaf. Considering quinoa cooks in no time this is a very easy dish to make. I sauteed green onion, garlic, and shredded carrot in some No-Chicken broth. Once the veggies were getting soft I added a cup of quinoa and 2 cups of the broth. Put on the lid and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Right before it was done I added some frozen green peas. Dinner also included Gardenburger "vegan" Chik-n patty with homemade guacamole on a sprouted wheat bun, cauliflower, green beans, and some broccoli. We are in love with avocados. My guacamole is so easy. I cut up an avocado and tomato. Mix them up really good. Then I add granulated garlic and salt and pepper to taste. It works as a fabulous spread on sandwiches and when DH wants a salad I puree it more and it is a wonderful dressing.

Tonight's dinner was very colorful. We had the leftover quinoa pilaf, pickled beets, yellow corn, "Eden's Baked Beans", yellow squash, zucchini, sliced tomatoes and some black olives. I think we did it! We got all the colors of the rainbow in this meal. I know, it looks like a strange combination, but healthy and tasty is big in our house. It just feels good to eat healthy.

A quick strawberry shake for dessert. Fresh strawberries, soy delicious vanilla, and some Silk vanilla soy milk. What can get better? We found some organic baby cookies that are really good. Silly yes, but fun to be a kid!