Avo Toastie and Epic Salad!

Breakfast is very satisfying with a slice of buttered toast topped with avocado, grilled piquillo pepper, cherry tomatoes and sprinkled with Hawaiian smoke salt and pepper.

Behold The Epic salad I made for lunch!

Romaine topped with grilled zucchini, portobello mushroom, red onion, piquillo peppers, artichoke hearts, avocado and vinegared beets. Yuuuum.

Drizzled with two dressings: French and poppyseed/caramelized onion.

Dinners this week: Salad and Meatloaf.

Made a quick salad the other night of arugula, grilled Portobello seasoned with garlic and soy sauce and tossed in a Dijon vinaigrette. I served it with a baked sweet potato. This was so good.

Last night I made a Magical Loaf out of chickpeas, mushrooms, celery, onion, green peppers, panko bread crumbs and oats. Slathered it with Manwich sloppy joe sauce instead of ketchup. Yum! 

Create your loaf here!

Tonight it's all about the meatloaf sandwich on squishy white bread slathered with vegan mayo, mustard and ketchup!

Grilled Portobello Sandwich, Pesto Pasta Salad, Scones

Grilled portobello, red pepper, red onions on toasted whole grain bread with Vegenaise, arugula pesto and fresh arugula. Amazing sandwich.

Served with arugula pesto pasta salad.

Arugula and spinach pesto mixed with Vegenaise made a great pasta salad dressing.

Cranberry and raisin scones.

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!

Mashed Potato Stuffed Mushrooms

I made mashed potatoes, added sauteed onion and stuffed them into portobello mushrooms, then I added a dollop of Wayfare smoked hickory cheddar vegan cheese spread and vegan bacon bits. Baked them in the oven for 15-20 minutes and 350 F. Really yummy.

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.

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.

Easy weeknight meal.

I was craving baba ghanooj today so on the way home from work, I picked up a few eggplants and made it in about 20 minutes. I used the recipe from Tables of Lebanon which was a little lemony for my taste but still very good. It's probably my fault as I used 4 smallish eggplants (instead of 3 large) and didn't reduce the lemon which I should have figured to do. I also made a salad and grilled a couple of portobellos with garlic and olive oil.


The baba sure is pretty isn't it? I blended the heck out of it so that's why it is so smooth.


At the last minute I added chickpeas to my salad. Gotta have some protein.

VeganMoFo: Portobello Mushroom "Fries".

These were a treat and a half! I usually shy away from eating fried food but a friend of mine recommended this recipe to me. I followed a recipe by Rachael Ray and veganized it by substituting soymilk instead of egg wash and "parmezano sprinkles"* for the parmesan. Came out really good except a little salty because I think I oversalted the mushrooms before grilling them. But aside from that, the mushrooms were juicy and the panko crumb coating was wonderfully crispy. After eating a few dipped in homemade ranch (Vegenaise, red wine vinegar, plain soymilk, garlic powder, parsley), I combatted the saltiness by wrapping each "fry" in a green leaf lettuce. It was really fresh and yummy that way. Just had a thought! These would make great "wings"!

*parmezano sprinkle is a recipe for faux parmesan cheese in The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook which consists of almonds, white miso paste, nutritional yeast and salt. I imagine you can skip the parmesan and just use breadcrumbs with equally good results.