Scalloped Potatoes with White Beans, Veggies and Crispy Panko Topping.

I had a craving for more potatoes so I made this dish. I used to make it for Thanksgiving ages ago using butter, milk and cheese but it is easily adaptable for vegan diet.

Recipe

2 lbs small white, Yukon gold or russet potatoes, sliced

3 tb Earth Balance margarine

1 cup chopped red or yellow onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

3 tb flour

1-2 tsp mixed dried herbs  (Rosemary, sage and thyme)

1 tsp dried parsley

2 cups soymilk plain and unsweetened

1 head of broccoli, cut into bite size pieces 

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cups panko bread crumbs

Paprika

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a baking dish with cooking oil spray.

Boil water in a large pot and cook potato slices until just tender. Drain and set aside.

Steam broccoli in a steamer or microwave for 3 minutes covered in a bowl with a little water added.

Heat 2 tb of the margarine in the same pot over medium high heat. Sauté the onions, garlic and red bell peppers for 5 minutes.

Stir in the flour, herbs, salt, pepper and soymilk. Heat and stir until thick and bubbly.

Stir in white beans and broccoli. Then add potatoes and stir gently to coat with sauce. 

Pour it all into a baking dish.

Melt 1 tb margarine in a small bowl in the microwave. Stir the bread crumbs and margarine together. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of potatoes. Sprinkle paprika on top. 

Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Broccoli Sweet Potato Soup, Heidi Ho Cheeze.

Great soup recipe from The Happy Pear cookbook. I used Japanese yam and it was beautiful. Smooth and creamy.

If you don't have this cookbook, you must get it. I got it on Amazon for $20.

A new item to try. A basic cashew cheeze that is great on crackers.

But, I used it in salad and it was amazing! Also added coconut bacon (recipe from Salad Samurai) that made it even more amazing.

Broccoli Rice Casserole, Garlic Cheesy Bread and Mocha Blueberry Cake.

Last week I made this broccoli rice casserole following one of those old Campbell's recipes. Instead of cream of mushroom soup, I used Imagine portobello mushroom soup. It was good. Next time I'll add more soup and more salt.

Saw this pull apart cheesebread recipe going around that I had to make vegan. You basically melt Earth Balance, add garlic and scallions. Then you pour this mixture into the crevices of your cut up bread loaf. Wrap it in foil and bake for 10 minutes at 350 F. Then unwrap and fill with cheese, then bake for another 15 minutes unwrapped at about 400 F.

It's totally doable!

Delicious and so bad for you! I probably ate most of it on my own. The guilt!

And for weekend dessert, mocha blueberry cake! I used this recipe. I used blueberry instead of plain yogurt so mine had a hint of blueberry flavor.

It is intensely coffee flavored. The dark chocolate drizzle is a must to balance out the strong coffee.

Stir fry!

Yumcious stir fry with broccoli, eggplant, orange peppers, bokchoy in a garlic, soy sauce plum glaze. Had it with white rice.

"Cheesy" Broccoli and Quinoa Casserole.

And here we have yet another casserole this week. I found the recipe here and gave it a go when I got home from work. Only thing different is I also sauteed some celery and carrots with the onions. I also added 1 tsp miso paste and 1 tsp veggie broth powder to the sauce. I cut my salt to 1 tsp because I figured the miso would make up for the other, but I probably should have kept the salt content as the recipe directed.

I would definitely make this again. It's creamy and very satisfying.

Long time no blog...here's a soup recipe.

Trying to get back into blogging. Things have been kind of dull around here. No sweet puppy to come home to anymore. I haven't been motivated to do much more than go to work, come home, shower and make very simple dinners that don't require much effort, ingredients or time. These past couple of weeks I've been focusing on soup because throwing things into one pot and walking away while dinner cooks itself is so appealing right now. I've been inspired by the soups on Fran's Ayurvedic blog. The one I made tonight is just a variation of what I've been doing the past two weeks. Whatever veggies I have on hand goes into the pot. It always turns out tasty.

Pureed Veggie and Lentil Soup With Pumpkin

1/4 to 1/2 cup mung dal (split mung beans)
2-3 cups chopped kale leaves
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp yellow mild curry powder
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup pureed pure pumpkin from a can (ingredients should be just: pumpkin)
salt and pepper to taste

Put lentils and vegetables, (except pumpkin) in a pot. Add water to cover about 1" above the vegetables. Bring to a boil. Add spices/seasonings, stir and lower heat to medium and cover. Cook until all vegetables are tender and lentils are mushy. Blend half of the soup and pour back into the pot while simmering on low. Add the pureed pumpkin and stir well to incorporate. This will thicken up the soup. Simmer until heated through. Adjust spices and salt/pepper as needed. Serve with a drizzle of tahini and a squeeze of lemon.

Miso Mac

Yes, the macaroni is green. And here's why, the sauce is made from broccoli! In The Veggie Lover's Cookbook, there's a recipe called Miso Macaroni that uses cooked broccoli and onions as a base for a sauce in which you add white miso, nutritional yeast, vegan margarine and tamari. I made a quick version by steaming broccoli, onions and sliced carrots in the microwave, threw them in the blender along with the other ingredients and blitzed away until smooth. Then heated up the sauce, added crushed chili flakes and tossed in cooked macaroni. Dinner took about 15-20 minutes.

Roasted and Sauteed.

Tonight's dinner featured roasted broccoli and cauliflower. If you haven't tried roasting these vegetable, you must! So much better than boring steamed vegetables. Toss cauliflower and broccoli in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast at 400 degrees F on a baking pan for about 30 minutes until golden.


I made oven baked risotto yesterday which made a ton of leftovers so I had that with sauteed Tofurky vegan sausages, onions and mushrooms. Everything was so good and so filling. I'm very full right now.

New Year's Eve Nosh.

I am spending NYE in with some good food, records on the turntable, wine and champagne later when the clock strikes midnight. Happy New Year to all of you and I hope 2011 is a healthy and happy year. I didn't want to be fussy tonight and decided to keep it simple with a few nibbles. I flipped through my "Tables of Lebanon" cookbook and picked out 'Chickpeas in Olive Oil', Yogurt Sauce with mint and 'Potatoes with Cilantro' served with roasted broccoli and pita.


Potates with Cilantro or Batata Bi-Kizbara in arabic. This was a very easy recipe where you saute potato cubes in olive oil and toss with sauteed garlic and cilantro. It smells heavenly and tastes even more so.


Simple roasted broccoli that is so much more delicious than you think. Cauliflower would have been even better.


My plate. The chickpeas were simply dressed with olive oil, garlic, lemon and dried mint. For the sauce, I used Wildwood plain unsweetened soy yogurt that I mixed with a touch of Vegenaise and stirred in garlic, salt and dried mint.

Veggie Quiche!

Made a veggie quiche with tofu, broccoli, spinach and mushrooms. It's yummy right out of the fridge or warmed up.


I served it with a sauce made of Vegenaise with a touch of ketchup plus a baby lettuce salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Quiche-y.

My father in-law and aunt-in-law are arriving from Montreal tomorrow to stay with us for a month. I'm very excited for them to be here and made this beautiful broccoli quiche (from Vegan Brunch cookbook) especially for them to enjoy with a salad after the long flight. The recipe for this quiche is also posted online here at Isa Moskowitz's blog.

Smoothies, Baked Mac and Cheeze

Started my day off with a delicious peanut butter banana smoothie. This was like eating dessert!


This is the baked mac and cheeze recipe from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It was pretty good. There are no nuts in this recipe so it wasn't as creamy but still very satisfying with a side of steamed broccoli.




For dessert, the mango lassi also from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. Very nice, thick and creamy. I couldn't finish the whole thing though. It was too much so I saved the rest for breakfast tomorrow.

Meatless Monday.

I go meatless everyday, but would you be willing to do it once a week? My family are all onmivores and I'm happy that they are willing to eat much less meat than before because of me. My husband usually eats about 50-60% vegan but had a meat-ful weekend of steak and sausage pizza and bacon etc that he woke up this morning saying "I'm not eating any meat this week. I feel horrible!" Of course this made me happy but I would still be happy if he had said that he would cut out meat once a week which is what made me think of "Meatless Monday". What a difference it would make if everyone in this country, in this world gave up meat one day a week?


Tonight's meatless dinner was something very simple as per request of the husband. Baked potato, beans, steamed broccoli and salad. The beans are Heinz beans that we get from a store that sells british foods. Not the fanciest dinner in the world but cheap, delicious and filling.

Classic Broccoli Quiche, Vegan Style.

I do love a good quiche. This one is a perfect one. It's a recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz which you can find here. It's creamy and delicious, perfect served room temperature on a hot summer day like today. I'll be serving this to my father in-law and aunt in-law who will be arriving from Montreal tomorrow! I've got lots of good food planned for the next three weeks during their visit.

"Cheezy" Broccoli Rice Casserole

I like casseroles. It's a one dish meal with very little mess and cleanup. This recipe is from 'The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook'. I was going for a "golden hue" by adding turmeric but I think I may have added to much as it's quite yellow!






This morning I made a rockin' green smoothie. It was so sweet and beautifully green with little blue speckles. I really enjoyed this one and so did Buster! (Well sort of, he had about a tablespoon. Picky dog!)




Rockin' Green Smoothie

5 dates, pitted
1/2 cup water
1 cup ice
1 ripe banana
handful of frozen blueberries
2 collard leaves, ribs removed (about 2 cups)

Blend dates and water until smooth. Add ice, banana and blueberries. Add a little more water if necessary. Blend until smooth, then add collards and blend until smooth.

Pasta. Again!

It's just too easy. I made this last night after staring into the refrigerator for about 5 minutes, totally stumped as to what I felt like having. I saw broccoli. I saw grape tomatoes. I also saw olives and "Parmezano Sprinkles"*. I'll make pasta! Luckily I had a box of angel hair pasta in the cupboard. Not my favorite (I'm into spaghetti and linguine) but it would have to do. I sauteed the broccoli, tomatoes and some garlic in olive oil, cooked the pasta and tossed it all together, adding lots more olive oil, 4-5 more cloves of crushed garlic and the olives. I sprinkled some crushed red pepper flakes and the vegan parmesan (not pictured) over the top. It was delicious. It made a mountain of pasta so we'll be having it again tonight.

*"Parmezano Sprinkles" is a recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. It's a vegan parmesan cheese substitute which uses almonds, miso paste, nutritional yeast and salt. Email me if you want the recipe! devilandmouse[at]yahoo.com

Gimme more pizza!

After two days of eating healthy casserole (I ate that whole thing by myself!), I am ready for some junky food. I was so in love with the pizza I made the other day that I had to make another one. I got some whole wheat dough to make it a little healthier this time. This one has lightly sauteed onions, garlic, cremini mushrooms, black olives, broccoli and red peppers. Oh and a little leftover "pepper jack uncheese" that was left over and vegan parmesan sprinkled on top. All that's missing is red pepper flakes. Yum yum yum yum yum...

Several pics to show you the goods.






I was hypnotized by this piece of mushroom drowning in a pool of "uncheese".