Homemade Crackers, Sundried Tomato Pate, a Sandwich and Gardein Beef and Broccoli.

Homemade crackers. I forgot to prick the dough so they came out curved!

Sundried tomato pate recipe from You Won't Believe It's Vegan! and some fancy jalapeno cilantro hummus.

The pate is so good! It's nut based and so very creamy. The hummus was ok. I'm not a fan of hummus that uses cumin in their recipe.

A great sandwich on rye german bread: Tofurky italian deli slices, Daiya jalapeno havarti, Bubbie's sauerkraut and tomatoes with russian dressing. So yummy!

I made this beef and broccoli dish the other night using Gardein beef tips. So good!

Hummus Sandwich & Whole Wheat Carrot Cake.

Simple dinner for me last night. Homemade hummus on toasted pita bread with cucumber and harissa.

Made a carrot cake when I got home today. I just needed it. Mondays you know...

I cut myself a slice after dinner and my husband brought me a fresh cup of coffee. Was delicious. I used white whole wheat instead of all purpose white flour so it was a heartier cake but still very moist.

The Making of a Perfect Sandwich.

My favorite sandwich: hummus, avocado, chili jam and salad greens on toasted bread, seasoned with lime juice (or lemon), salt and pepper.

Be generous with the hummus and avocado. It's so worth it. Got the idea from Mary McCartney's book. I love that book.

Amazing Sandwich.

I have Mary McCartney's book FOOD to thank for this taste combination in a sandwich: hummus, avocado, lemon juice, chili jam (or sweet chili sauce if you can't find chili jam) and salad greens (spinach in this case) on seeded bread. Amazing flavor!

So tasty!

For dinner yesterday I made the Spicy Chickpeas and Carrots from the River Cottage Veg cookbook. It has great flavors: cumin, garlic, orange zest, orange juice and smoked paprika.

For supper tonight we had a bunch of lovely things to nibble on. Salad, tomato bruschetta, white bean hummus, agave roasted cherry tomatoes (that I made yesterday) with fresh seeded baguette slices.

Arugula, cranberries, grilled zucchini, grilled mushrooms tossed in a light italian dressing.

Tomato bruschetta which is simply fresh cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and basil, salt and pepper.

Popped open the Moroccan Olive Salad that I bought yesterday from World Market. This stuff is good! Green olives bathed in olive oil, tomato sauce and spices.

All served on seeded baguette slices. I love eating like this so much.

So tasty!

"Life Changing Loaf of Bread".

This "bread" recipe has been going around the internet and has been blogged about many times by foodies like myself. I wanted to try it because I'm a fan of dense breads full of fiber. I buy Mestemacher german breads often and I love them. This one is not really like Mestemacher because there is no rye. It is loaded with different nuts and seeds which creates a crunchy texture. It is very dense and very flavorful. My loaf was made with flax seeds, chia, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds and roasted hazelnuts, psyllium husk and oats. It is lightly sweetened with agave and rich with coconut oil. Find the recipe here! Pictures of my loaf below.

As you can see, the loaf came out beautifully browned and golden.

I cut them into slices and topped it with Trader Joe's eggplant hummus, arugula and tomato bruschetta salad. Delicious!

I pre-sliced some and will save for later!

More lavash pizza and "Help Yourself" lunch.

I love making lavash pizza. I made these on Saturday. So simple and quick! Just ten minutes in the oven.

With arugula salad.

I love this. This was today's mid day snack. My husband just told me today that growing up, his mom would make lunch that she would call "Help Yourself". She would lay out a bunch of items like breads, crackers, meats, cheeses, spreads, pickles, etc and everyone would help themselves. I kind of did something similar today. Homemade tomato bruschetta with store bought hummus and olive tapenade, Daiya cheese, crackers and fresh bread.

So scrummy.

My favorite Daiya wedge flavor, jalapeno havarti. It's so creamy and good with a slight kick.

Sunflower Mac n Cheez, Fountain of Health Hummus.

I made a vegan mac n cheez today loosely based off the Veg News mac and cheese recipe. The base is usually cashews and some veggies like potato, carrots and shallots. Well I didn't have cashews so I used soaked sunflower seeds, potatoes, kabocha squash, onions, carrots and miso. Came out so creamy! I also added about 1/2 cup of Daiya and stirred it in at the end. Would you like some mac with your cheez?

Fountain of Health hummus now available at select RALPHS supermarkets in southern California! This is my favorite packaged hummus that I found on my last trip back to Montreal. It's made in Quebec (under Fontaine Sante) and it's so lovely. Creamy and fluffy and just perfect! I got two flavors. I hope they never stop selling it here. This made my day today.

On a bagel. Yummy snack.

Sunflower Mac n Cheez recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 box of macaroni
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup carrots, sliced
1/2 of a small kabocha squash, peeled and sliced
1 cup raw, hulled sunflower seeds that have been soaked in hot water for about 15 minutes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tablespoon yellow miso
1/4 to 1/2 cup plain almond or soymilk
2 TB lemon juice
1 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup Daiya cheese

Method:
Place the potatoes, onions, carrots and kabocha squash in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Cook macaroni in salted water. While pasta is cooking: drain the sunflower seeds and put the sunflower seeds, garlic, miso, 1/4 cup almond milk, lemon juice, paprika and salt in a blender and blend until smooth. You may add more almond milk if it's not smooth enough.
When vegetables are cooked, drain the water that they were cooking in and add the vegetables to the sauce in the blender. Blend for about 2 minutes or until all ingredients come together and the sauce is smooth. When pasta is finished cooking, drain and put back into the pot. Add the sauce, stir in the Daiya. You can turn on the heat a little to get the Daiya to melt. Usually, the sauce will be pretty hot coming from my high speed blender.

It's a lovely and relaxing Saturday. Nibbles to nosh!

We love to nosh on delicious spreads that go well with baguettes and crackers. They are especially nice on weekends because we are relaxed and unhurried and martinis are usually on the menu as well.

First up, we have really amazing hummus and garlic spread from Fresh n Nova that find at Whole Foods. So far this is the best packaged hummus for me. I don't know why it's so hard to find good packaged hummus! Below is the garlic spread which is very much like the famous garlic spread at local middle eastern restaurant Zankou Chicken. So garlicky and amazing.

My husband is a runner (I'm more like a "kind-of" runner!) so he was excited to get this book which has both meat and veggie recipes. The vegan recipes are clearly marked which I like. It's a gorgeous book with tempting recipes.

Pretty photos too and clear, concise recipes.

Here is the chickpea spread. I made it pretty much how it was written except I added the juice of a small lemon. It needed some brightness. I also chilled it a bit instead of serving it hot. It's really good!

And a quick olive tapenade made with chopped black and green olives, red onion, white onion, garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil.

All together now. Let me tell you, it's all scrumptious and vegan! My husband loved it so much he wants it all again tomorrow!

Flatbread sandwich, White bean ketchup curry and Mushroom rice.

My inspirations today are from my two current favorite cookbooks: Mary McCartney's FOOD and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg. The above sandwich I had at lunch is Mary's "hummus, avocado and chili jam sandwich" on a whole wheat flatbread instead of toasted whole grain. Very messy and very delicious.

Dinner was the ketchup curry from Hugh's book. He uses chickpeas but I was all out so I subbed white beans. It was a super easy 10 minute recipe that uses ketchup instead of tomatoes. Loved it. On the side, more flatbread and one-pot mushroom rice from Mary's book.

Vegetable soup, Hummus avocado and chili jam sandwich, Granola bars.

I want to eat more veggies. Coming from a vegan, that sounds kind of funny. I feel like I've been eating way too many carbs lately. Toast, bagels, pasta, crackers have been my snacks of choice a lot. I made this soup because it has lots of veggies: cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, zucchini, green beans and cabbage as well as kidney beans. It's so delicious. Always comes out great every time I make it. To flavor it right, I add veggie broth powder (homemade) and a touch of Marmite. Mmm...

I finally found a good chili jam that I could use for this sandwich recipe I found in Mary McCartney's cookbook. It's Braswell's Jalapeno Pepper Jelly that I found in the kosher section of Albertsons supermarket. It's so good! This sandwich was amazing. The hummus was homemade with chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and a little water. That's it. I hate store bought hummus that add all kinds of other stuff like cumin, ugh!

Another Mary McCartney recipe for Granola Bars To Go. Mine came out a little burnt but still good.

Grilled veggie sandwich, Lunch plate, Garlic Sauce and Cake.

My second attempt at making a Paragon-style vegetarian sub sandwich. (See the previous post about Montreal.) I finally did it right and made it with a soft and tender french roll that worked perfectly. The grilled onions, mushrooms and green peppers were so good!

Yum.

Saturday lunch plate. Fresh bread, whole grain crackers served with hummus, garlic sauce, bruschetta and olive salad. All homemade by me.

This garlic sauce was really simple to make but I made way too much! I used instant mash potatoes since that is what I had, lemon juice, 10,000 cloves of garlic (no, not really - maybe 10), olive oil and salt. I whizzed it all in the blender and made about 2 cups.

And to celebrate the weekend, I made a cake. This is a pumpkin apple cider upside down cake. I got the idea from the Midcentury Menu blog. I liked this recipe so much I tracked down a copy of the vintage book it came from called "The Apple Kitchen Cookbook"(1967) and bought it. Watch this space for apple centric recipes!

Good Eats in Montreal.

Just got back from a nine day holiday in Montreal. I haven't been back in 8 years and it was so nice to be there again. This is the first time being vegan in Montreal though. I think I did ok. If I had stayed longer, I would have explored more vegan/vegan friendly restaurants. I was staying at my in-laws house, so we did a lot of hanging out and cooking at home which was fine with me!

The day after we arrived, we popped into L'Inter Marche on the corner to get a few staples. Bagels are a must. Montreal bagels are usually not vegan, made with egg and honey but I was able to find some packaged ones without any animal products yay! The hummus is by Fontaine Sante which I think is the best tasting packaged hummus I've ever had! We went through two or three tubs on this trip.

This is what my husband and I were looking forward to eating. He grew up in St. Leonard, which is primarily italian and the italian bakeries make the most delicious tomato pizza/bread. I was afraid it would be non-vegan, but alas, it is!

And it was nice to find soy milk at a little shop.

Another thing we looked forward to eating. Flakies! They are very crap for you but so good. Flaky layers of air and just a bit of "cream" and fruit filling. As far as I know, this is vegan. The ingredient list is dreadful, don't read it.

Found vegan margarine at IGA supermarket. I jumped for joy.

First meal I made was a simple pasta dish with chickpeas, olives and tomato sauce.

Second meal I made at home: pho! The bowl is tiny because they didn't have larger bowls. It worked well. It was delicious.

Home cooked meal #3. Mary McCartney's Courgette and Lemon Spaghetti. I made it without the cheese of course. Super good. Find the recipe online here.

That amazing hummus and Mary McCartney's saucy mushrooms and tomatoes on toast.

My husband's best friend and his wife took us out to Scaroli's Ristorante for great pasta. I got the primavera which was really tasty. Being vegan I run into a lot of "bland tomato sauces" at italian restos and this one was completely opposite. Full of flavor and even had caramelized red onions in the veggie mix.

Every vegan who visits Montreal eats at Aux Vivres. A friend of ours took us there and we had a great meal.

I ordered the seitan souvlaki plate. Really good stuff.

I had to order dessert. They bake their cakes, pies, brownies in house and I had a really hard time choosing. I decided on the "uncheesecake" with blueberry sauce. Amazing!

We had a quick lunch at Amir on St. Denis one day. I had the falafel pita and yummy garlic potatoes.

Paragon restaurant is a great little no-nonsense eatery in St. Leonard that makes really good submarine sndwiches. I ate there twice on this trip.

This pic does not do it justice. They grill mushrooms, onions and green peppers that are sliced thin thin thin and smother them in a toasted roll with shredded lettuce and tomato on top. I asked for no cheese and no sauce which I'm assuming is dairy based.

So after a 6 hr flight where I had to wake up super early in the morning, I arrived in L.A., headed straight to Vons and picked up ingredients to make my version of Paragon's sub. The insides were good but the bread is all wrong. Too hard, too dense. I need to find the perfect airy french roll for this. Keep your eyes on my blog, I will make this again.