Mother's Day Lunch.

Happy Mom's Day to all the motherly ones out there. For today, my mom wanted pizza which we ordered it from her fave pizzeria. For sides, I whipped up the following. All vegan all the time!

Grilled veggies.

Potato salad.

Arugula salad with crispy onions, almonds and cranberries in a lemon-white wine vinaigrette. For the dressing: 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp white wine vinegar, 4 tsp olive oil, a drop of agave nectar, salt and pepper.

My plate!

Edited to add a photo of my dinner! I made Mary McCartney's hummus, avocado and chili jam sandwich yet again. I absolutely love messy and satisfying sandwiches. Mmm, mmm!

Indoor Grilling and Vegan Cheese Making.

Hi folks! I'm back with pure happiness. I love to grill veggies. I usually grill outside on our tiny charcoal bbq but I decided to opt out due to laziness of setting it all up. I have one of those large grill pans that you set on the burners on your stove. Worked just fine except you don't get that charred taste that comes with charcoal grilling. It's ok. I was happy anyway.

Not too bad eh? I grilled some portobellos mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, red onions and cherry tomatoes.

I made some vegan cheese to enjoy with crackers and also to put in sandwiches. I used the Colby cheez recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook. It's made from cashews, roasted red peppers (I used some ajvar instead), nutritional yeast, tahini, lemon and spices and seasonings. I made the 'cheddar' variation which adds miso paste. It's tasty.

Slices nice too.

This sandwich was ridiculous. I smeared some Vegenaise and garlic spread on russian rye and layered on the cheddar, portobello mushroom and veggies and seared the sandwich on both sides over medium heat. So good!

Long time no blog!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been eating lots but not cooking as much as I want to. I am addicted to Domino's cheeseless thin crust pizza with mushrooms, olives, onions and green peppers and extra sauce, help! I really do want to cook from scratch at home. I have lists that I keep of foods I want to cook. Here are a few things that I've made recently.

I made another cashew cheese from the Vegetarian Times recipe, this time with a black pepper crust. So good.

Here is our spread along with goodies from the much too expensive antipasti bar at Whole Foods. $8 for the container on the right - what?

Nosh nosh!

This was a delicious grilled portobello burger along with grilled potato that I made last weekend.

Monday's chili made into chili dogs on Tuesday with chopped onions and kraut!

Father's Day Food & Gluten Free Chocolate Cake!

Outdoor grilling on Father's Day as requested by Dad. I made the usual fare. Grilled veggies, Tofurky sausages, baked beans, grilled potatoes, dill potato salad and for dessert, a gluten free, vegan, flourless chocolate cake.

A whole lotta veggies!

My plate.

Found this wonderful gluten free cake recipe here

Here it is after I glazed it with a basic cocoa glaze.

So this was really delicious. Super dense like a brownie, rich, chocolatey, sweet, yummy. I would make it again.

Tonight's dinner.

Came home from work today and threw some mushrooms, onions and red bell peppers on the grill and served it atop couscous with a side of crinkle cut fries and leftover quiche from the weekend. Yum.

I live for weekend grilling!

This kind of thing makes me very happy. Red and yellow peppers, onions, eggplant, mushrooms, snow peas, pasilla peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes...

Grilled bbq tofu and red potatoes.

BBQ tofu sandwich.

And later in the day, relaxing with tea and a vegan donut from Whole Foods in Venice.

Random Cooking.

Stir fry eggplant and bok choy with szechuan pepper and vegetarian "oyster" sauce.


This was my memorial day food. Portobello sandwich, homemade bbq beans and potatoes.


Panzanella from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen.

I Love Grilled Food!

Backyard grilling again this weekend. I love it. Vegetables taste so much better when they're grilled over open flame. They get all charred and tender and caramelized and so juicy.


The usual suspects: yellow and red bell pepper, mushrooms, onions, zucchini, tomato and baked potatoes. Tofu not pictured.


Pita sandwich wrap with grilled tofu and veggies with lemon-garlic mayo sauce.


Sandwich, mid bite!

More Backyard Grilling.

We enjoyed another day of grilling in the backyard. I can't wait until summer when we get some really good produce. I want to grill some corn on the cob and fresh peaches in butterscotch sauce. Today I used what was available.

Eggplant, marinated tofu, baked potatoes, red onions, red peppers and a tomato! I marinated the tofu overnight in a delicious marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, hot chili flakes and cilantro. For the potatoes, I cooked them in the microwave whole (poke holes in them first) then I split them, brushed with olive oil and grilled til brown and crisp. So delicious.


The ingredients were perfect for this gigantic sandwich!


Now try to sink your teeth into that! It was hard but so worth it.


For dessert I had this idea I got from one of Linda McCartney's books where she splits open a banana, stuffs it with praline, wraps it tightly in foil and cooks it over hot coals. I used chocolate pieces instead. Really yummy.

Serious About Sandwiches.

I've been on a sandwich kick lately. I don't think it'll end anytime soon. The fun part is deciding on ingredients and going shopping for them because there are also a zillion different combinations that make a damn good sandwich.


This one is Yves veggie "ham", vegan american slices, tomato, red onion, sauerkraut, Vegenaise on german sunflower seed rye. I've made this about three times this week.


This one is a special sandwich for the weekend. We don't have a bbq grill anymore so we went out and got one of those tiny ones at CVS that is perfect for the two of us. Fits on our patio table and grills enough hot dogs (for him) and veggies (for me). This sandwich was an inspiration I had on Friday that I finally go to carry out today. Grilled portobello mushroom that was brushed with olive oil and crushed garlic, grilled red onions and grilled red bell pepper with Vegenaise mixed with Dill n' Garlic Miso Mayo on a kaiser roll. This was so damn good, I can't even put it into words. Non-vegan restaurants take note! Vegans would like sandwiches like this on your menu.

Grilled Vegetable Marinara Spaghetti and Yogurt Parfait

Sorry about these awful night time pics! We didn't eat dinner until late because we went for our run first. My husband whipped up a marinara spaghetti and I heated up the grilled vegetable salad from last night and added them to my plate. I also added a clove of crushed garlic. It was delicious and very much welcome after an hour of pain!


Dessert was a soy yogurt parfait with strawberries, granola and coconut. I drizzled a bit of date syrup on it too because the yogurt was unsweetened.

Grilled Vegetable Salad

Sometimes I get really overwhelmed by the amount of veggies I have in my fridge that I usually want to throw them into a stew pot and call it dinner. I forget that simple preparations like grilling can get the job done too. I had one japanese eggplant, a red and green pepper that was nearing it's due date. I cut them into slices, brushed them with olive oil and grilled them until they were soft with charred marks. Then I cut them into bite size pieces and tossed them with a simple dressing of olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Was really easy and delicious!


Served with mashed potatoes and Heinz british baked beans.


For dessert we had root beer floats!