Red Lentil Dahl, Caesar Salad & Energy Bars.

Tried out The Happy Pear's recipe for red lentil dahl today. It's pretty similar to the usual dahl I make but they add curry powder and lime juice to theirs. I also added a tiny bit of olive oil to sautee my onions and garlic and also added about 1 TB of tomato paste. I also pureed half of the soup because I used whole red lentils which didn't break down enough for me. Because of the added tomato paste, it was more tomatoey. Yummy!

Caesar salad with whole grain croutons and sauteed tofu. I used the dressing from "The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook". I added some Vegenaise to my dressing to mellow it out a bit. It's quite strong with the nutritional yeast and dijon flavors, as is.

Love these energy bars. They are made out of toasted oats, peanut butter, agave, maple syrup, coconut, hemp protein powder, nuts, dried fruit and chocolate chips! Slightly healthier alternative to a processed power bar or candy bar. I posted the recipe at a previous blog entry here. I omitted the sugar and used maple syrup/agave instead. I found that the bars are softer as a result.

Wrapped up individually for lunches this week.

Here, watch The Happy Pear red lentil dahl video!

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!

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.

Pasta With Greens, Garlic and Chile and More Roasted Spuds.

More cooking from River Cottage Veg. I made more roasted spuds to go with the leftover sauces from yesterday. Double carb lunch!

A very simple pasta recipe from the book with kale, garlic, onions and chile. I also added Parmezano Sprinkles which is a vegan parm recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook.

Weekend Food: Squash and Onion Quiche, 2 Bean Salad & Apple Cider Pumpkin Upside Down Cake.

I got up super early today and went grocery shopping to get ingredients for today's menu. Saturdays are really the only day I feel motivated to make a lot of food. I would have added a fourth dish of potato salad but I forgot to buy potatoes!

Squash and onion quiche from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. You can't see the squash and onion because they were mixed in with the filling! I took a cue from Isa's book Vegan Brunch buy adding cashews to the filling to make it creamier. After a few hours in the fridge, this will be ready to eat.

My husband was in the mood for bean salad so I whipped this one up based on the technicolor bean salad in Linda McCartney's Kitchen cookbook. I left out the green beans.

And now for the best part. I made this gorgeous cake based off of the recipe I saw at a fabulous blog called Midcentury Menu. Find the recipe here. Instead of making the cake from the cake mix instructions, I just used a can of pumpkin and the cake mix and stirred it all together. Worked great! Only thing is when you plop the batter on top of the apples, you have to be careful to spread it all out with a spatula as the batter is thickish.

This cake is so moist and delicious. The apples are so good with the pumpkin flavor of the cake!

Vegan Snack Time Again.

Homemade "cheddar" from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. It's made out of almonds, roasted peppers, miso paste, nutritional yeast and other spices.


It slices well but is on the softer side. Very tasty though! I topped a wasa bread with the cheese and olive and red pepper salad.

VeganMoFo: Nachos

Quick dinner of homemade nachos with refried beans, jalapenos and fresh salsa. I used the Nacho Cheez recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook. It's very smooth and creamy with a nice kick from the cayenne and other spices in it.

Junk Food Alert!

I had nachos for dinner. Yes these are very junky but what the heck! I was in the mood for them so I made sure that this was on the menu tonight. I made "taco meat" out of tvp and taco seasonings and cheez sauce from 'The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook'. It's the "instant cheez-it sauce" and I added a few TB of salsa to it. With some black beans, jalapenos and a vegan mayo "sour cream" (just mix it with lime or lemon juice), I had a drool worthy plate of nachos!


There's this recipe for microwave chocolate cake on vegweb that I had made a couple of times before. I was in the mood and I needed it now. So I whipped this up in 3 minutes in my microwave. I added vegan chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. Sweet coconut on top made it a fun dessert to indulge in. This is something I will not do often because it's junk food, but when you want it, you gotta have it!


And you're wondering, is it good? Why yes. Yes it is. It's very fluffy and soft and gooey from the melted chocolate chips.

Shells n Cheez Please.

This was dinner. It's the "Instant Cheez It" sauce from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. You prepare it by making a dry mix of ingredients which you keep in a storage container and use 1/2 cup at a time that you whisk with water or nondairy milk over medium heat until it gets thick and bubbly. Then you can add it to your favorite pasta or as a topping for vegetables or anything at all. I had mine with shells. So creamy and much better than that Velveeta crap!

Edited to add: This is still considered "cooking out of the pantry"!

Pantry staples used:
pasta
nutritional yeast
flour
spices/herbs: paprika, turmeric, garlic powder, onion powder, dill, dry mustard, salt, pepper, sugar

Other ingredients:
plain soymilk
margarine
wet mustard

Ingredients I had to purchase: none

Weekend Meze.

It rained last night and the forecast had predicted rain today but it has yet to come. I took advantage of the current blue skies and sun with slight breeze to lunch al fresco once again. I'm really getting used to this! It makes me look forward to the weekend. Come summer, this is will be a regular thing. Can't wait.


Another meze lunch with lots of things to nibble on and again with the mediterranean theme. I just got a new cookbook, "The Greek Vegetarian" and I wanted to use it today. I made from it Eggplant Puree with Walnuts and Fava Bean Stew with Mint. I also made hummus and a greek salad.


Hummus on the left and Eggplant Puree with walnuts (Makedonitiki Melitzanosalata) on the right. The eggplant puree was delicious and garlicky. The walnuts are first ground to a paste and then processed with roasted eggplant pulp.


Fava bean stew with mint (Koukia Stifado me Dyosmo). Delicious and filling tender fava beans with a base of tomatoes, red onions, garlic, mint and dill. I added dill because I'm crazy about it and a lot of greek dishes have fresh dill so it seemed rather fitting.


Greek salad with cucumbers, olives, red onions and "Betta Feta", a tofu based faux feta from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook. Drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.


First of the jasmine blooms I've seen this year.


Buster eating pita.


Dessert is banana bread that I made with the biggest ripest bananas that I found in our fruit bowl. The cake sunk in the middle a bit because of my impatience. I peeked in the oven way too many times!

Weekend Frittata

Yay, weekend! I figured I'd have more time to cook today so I made a tofu based frittata this morning. It has zucchini, red peppers, potatoes, spinach and onions in it. While it was in the oven I caught up on some television. After the frittata came out of the oven, I wanted it to rest for a while so it would set properly. If you cut into it too soon, it will be too soft and mushy. It does well to even let it set until completely cool or you can chill it for several hours in the fridge. You will have nice firm slices in that case. I will be eating this through the weekend with a nice salad. It can be served at room temp.


I cut into mine too soon so I turned the soft side away so you can see the crusty part on the sides. I served them with a sauce made from Vegenaise, dijon, ketchup and black pepper.

Lemon-Cherry "Teasecake" Pudding

Doesn't this look lovely? Would you believe it if I told you that one serving of this pudding contains a serving of a whole grain? "What?", you say? I know, I couldn't believe it myself. The secret whole grain in this recipe is millet. Yes, that stuff that looks like little seeds that I feed my budgie Sparky. This recipe is the 'Lemon Teasecake' recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook which is a vegan, soy-free version of lemon cheesecake. I didn't have a pie crust so I just layered the filling in a bowl with canned cherry pie filling. It's thick, creamy, tart and slightly sweet. I'm glad I added the cherries which added more sweetness. But how cool is this? You would never guess it was millet. The trick is after you cook the millet, you blend it up with some lemon juice, maple syrup, cashews and vanilla extract until very creamy. After a few hours of refrigeration it is ready to eat. I wish I had some Soyatoo whipped cream to put on top.

"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.

'Gooda' Uncheese + Today's Lunch.

I woke early this morning because I had this idea last night to make "uncheese". For lunch I was planning on a cheese stuffed pepper with spinach salad. I had a nice assortment of red and yellow peppers and lots of spinach for a salad. I leafed through The Ultimate Uncheese Book to pick out which uncheese I was going to make. I saw the recipe for 'Gooda" and decided to give it a go. It turned out really beautiful in color and in taste!


Check out this lovely block of Gooda, a cashew based dairy free cheese. (I used an empty tofu container for the mold.)

So this is what I did for lunch. I took a half yellow pepper, seeded it and drizzled some olive oil into the cavity. I stuffed it with a little spinach, sliced tomato and about 4 TB of Gooda chunks. I stuck it under the broiler for about 7 minutes but the Gooda started to burn so I took it out and popped it in a hot 400 degree oven for about 4 minutes more. This is what came out.


I served it on top of spinach salad that was lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. I smooshed the cheese around with my fork because the burnt parts were too ugly to photograph!


Cut open to see the insides. The uncheese is gorgeous! It was spreadable and very creamy. It went very well with the pepper and the spinach leaves and gave it mucho flavor! Some of the ingredients in this uncheese: cashews, dijon mustard, paprika, garlic, onion, carrots, nutritional yeast*, tahini, liquid smoke. (*Nutritional yeast is a cheesy tasting vegetarian food supplement.)


Mmm, mmm. All together on a fork. A very tasty bite.


Can you tell I loved my lunch?

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".

Pizza Pie!

Seems like there's an italian theme going on here with pizza casserole and spaghetti in the past few days. It's pizza nite tonight. I wanted to use a ready made pizza dough* that I had languishing in the freezer for the past week or so. I also had a Tofurky sausage to use up so I made this yummy pizza. It also has lightly sauteed onions, squash, red peppers and black olives. I cut some thin slices of the pepper jack "uncheese" that I made a while ago and added them to the pizza. It melted quite nicely to a gooey-liquid consistency which reminded me a lot of Follow Your Heart soy cheese. Next time I will forgo the sausage and just overload it with veggies as that's more my style even before I went veg.




A perfect slice with all the colors of the italian flag.

*you can get a lump of pizza dough at Trader Joe's for a buck and some change.