Creamy tomato soup & grilled cheese, salad w/ homemade croutons, gluten free cake and another casserole.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, so I made an all American favorite: tomato soup paired with a grilled cheese sandwich. So comforting and delicious! I loosely followed Mary McCartney's "Must Have Creamy Tomato Soup" (subbing almond milk for the soy creamer) and made the sandwich using pepper jack and mozzarella Daiya vegan cheese. Yummy yummy yummy yummy....

A simple salad with mixed greens, homemade croutons (made from Ezekiel bread) and one of the most delicious salad dressings ever. It's the Caesar dressing recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Make it now! Recipe for the dressing below. For the croutons, just toss bread cubes with olive oil and garlic powder and italian herbs and toast in a 400 degree F oven for 15 minutes, stirring 1/2 way.

Gluten-free chocolate cake loaded with candy sprinkles.

I made this casserole last week. It's the usual quinoa, black beans and Daiya cheese tortillas casserole. I love it so much.

Caesar Dressing (Adapted from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak)

3 TB nutritional yeast flakes
2 TB tahini
2 TB Dijon mustard (use whole grain mustard!)
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/3 cup water
3 TB lemon juice
1 TB red wine vinegar (she used balsamic)
2 TB Vegenaise (my addition!)
Whisk all ingredients together and chill. If too thick add a little more water.

Victoria Sponge with Lemon Curd

Cake time again! I made another victoria sandwich with lemon curd. I had a bit of a lemon curd meltdown with a recipe I found online, so I think I'll be on the lookout for another one next time.

Even though the curd was a little runny, it still tasted amazing!

Tofurky Artisan Sausages

Tofurky has some new sausages out. Their new artisan line has three flavors: Andouille, Spinach Pesto and Chickn and Apple. I brought home a package of the Andouille flavor to try out in a bun.

I heated the sausage in a pan with a little oil. It doesn't need much cooking time. So easy. They work great on a grill too. This is a really good sausage with a slight kick of heat. Loved it on a bun with all the fixings: chopped onion, mustard, ketchup and sauerkraut.

50 years ago, we met John, Paul, George and Ringo!

I am celebrating this weekend because it's Beatlemania again. It was 50 years ago that America was introduced to The Beatles. They arrived in February 1964 and changed the face of pop culture as we know it, via music, attitudes, fashion, originality and visionary genius. Where would we be without them? To show my love for my favorite music group I made a vegan version of the classic victoria sponge cake in celebration. I filled it with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream. It's so delicious! I'm sure it's not exactly like the traditional victoria sponge they make in Britain but it'll do!

Would you like some cake with your cream? Haha, next time, less cream I think?

To have with a cup of tea. Cake recipe is here. (Except I used almond milk and olive oil in mine.)

Cheezy Enchilada Casserole & Lemon Loaf Cake

My love for casseroles will never die. Today I made an adapted version of Bob Barker's vegan enchilada casserole which you can find here. I forgot to top it with Fritos at the end, bah! But it's ok it was still amazing. I used black and pinto beans along with a package of veggie ground from Helen's Kitchen. I also added a lot of sauteed peppers and onions. And for the cheese, I used Pepper Jack Daiya vegan shreds.

So good with homemade guacamole.

And a dessert to celebrate the weekend: lemon scented vanilla cake with lemon icing. This cake recipe uses olive oil which I find makes cakes very very moist.

Vanilla Lemon Loaf Cake
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup unrefined sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup almond milk
1/3 cup regular olive oil
1 TB grated lemon zest
1 TB cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan with oil. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake about 30-35 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Poke holes in cake with a wooden skewer. Make icing and pour over cake.
Lemon Icing
1/2 to 1 cup powdered sugar
2-4 TB lemon juice
Mix until smooth and thick, but pourable. You may add more sugar or lemon juice until you get the right consistency.

Weekend foods.

A gorgeous and really delicious potato and green bean salad with capers, olives and red onion tossed with dijon vinaigrette. The recipe originally adds white beans but I was out. You can find the recipe at this blog page*.

Easy dinner of Dr. Praeger's California veggie burger brushed with bbq sauce on Ezekiel bread. It was yum.

I had a fight with my sweet tooth and my sweet tooth won. I broke down and baked a chocolate sheet cake with cocoa walnut glaze. Damn good and totally worth it! I used Fran Costigan's "Mix in the Pan Chocolate Cake" which is the same recipe as Crazy Cake, Wacky Cake and all those vegan egg free chocolate cake recipes out there. She adds a teeny bit of cinnamon which makes it nice.

*I'll post the recipe for the potato salad here just in case that link doesn't work later on.

Sicilian Bean and Potato Salad (Recipe from Linda McCartney's On Tour cookbook)
1 pound new potatoes, unpeeled
1 pound green beans, steamed and cut into 1 inch lengths
1 cup cooked or canned haricot (navy) or cannellini (white kidney) beans
1 small red onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup black olives, pitted and sliced
1-2 tablespoons capers
Classic Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

In a medium saucepan, cook the potatoes in boiling water until they are tender. Allow them to cool slightly and cut them in half.
Mix the potatoes, beans, onion, black olives and capers in a large bowl. Pour sufficient vinaigrette over the salad to moisten it and toss well. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Classic Vinaigrette (Recipe from Linda McCartney's On Tour cookbook)
1-2 teaspoons fine or grainy mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, or 2 tablespoons wine, balsamic or cider vinegar
6 tablespoons olive oil
crushed garlic to taste (optional)
sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a small bowl, mix the mustard with the lemon or lime juice or vinegar. Whisk in the olive oil gradually. Stir in the garlic if you are using it. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chocolate Cake (adapted from Vegan Chocolate cookbook by Fran Costigan)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chilled almond milk

Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cocoa powder in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Add oil, vinegar, vanilla and milk. Mix until batter is smooth. Pour into a greased rectangular baking pan and spread batter to make it even. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Frost immediately with cocoa walnut glaze.

Cocoa Walnut Glaze(adapted from a Ree Drummond recipe)
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick Earth Balance buttery stick)
4 TB cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 TB almond milk
1/2 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped fine walnuts/or pecans
To make glaze:
Melt a stick of Earth Balance margarine (about 1/2 cup) over medium heat. Add 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder and whisk to combine. Turn off heat and add vanilla, milk and powdered sugar. Whisk to get all lumps out and make it smooth. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If too thin, add a little more sugar. Stir in walnuts and pour over warm cake. Glaze will set a little bit and give it a nice crackly finish.

Pizza Casserole.

It's called 'pizza' because it has components of pizza flavors. It's fun spiral pasta layered with tofu-cashew ricotta, pizza sauce, italian herbs, capers, veggie ground "beef" (flavored with fennel, sage and crushed red pepper flakes), green peppers, onions, black olives, kale and zucchini. It was super good and if you know me, I love a good casserole. This will last the rest of the week.