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.

Grillin' and Chillin'.

Grillin' the usual veggies!

And bbq tofu!

My folks chillin' and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

Grilled peaches.

So delicious.

Finished veggies with mushrooms too.

Sandwich.

Cali Creamin' Vanilla Cream Ale by Mother Earth Brew Co.

Mary McCartney's Corn Fritters.

I've been loving Mary's book "Food: Vegetarian Home Cooking" and as I've said before, her recipes are non-fussy and very relaxed which is how I also like to describe my cooking style. You can find the recipe for these beautiful corn fritters here. I veganized them by omitting the eggs and using almond milk and adding a little more almond milk to make the batter smooth. I also used Vegenaise instead of the yogurt for the sauce. I would have used Wildwood plain unsweetened soy yogurt but didn't have any on hand. The recipe comes together easy and I was able to make 12 delicious fritters.

After eating my fair share of fritters, I decided to relax with a tall frosty glass of cider. Happy Memorial Day weekend!

"Get Well Soon, Paul!" cupcakes and other weekend foods.

So the love of my life, Paul McCartney got ill the day after he arrived in Japan a little over a week ago. He was so ill that he canceled the entire asian leg of his tour. You can imagine how worried I've been! We need you to be well Macca! I forget that he is almost 72 years old. He is normally so bouncy and energetic that I can't fathom him ever being sick. And Paul hardly ever cancels shows so to hear that five shows were canceled was pretty alarming. I made some vanilla cupcakes today with chocolate icing to wish Paul a speedy recovery. So far his people have said that he is definitely recovering. I hope he gets lots of rest. I'm seeing him at Dodger Stadium this August so I am very excited.

I used kittee's moist vanilla cake recipe and a chocolate icing recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook. I used Ghirardelli chocolate in my icing. Yummy.

Keeping the McCartney theme, this is Mary McCartney's pan fried cheese, tomato and onion sandwich. I used Daiya vegan cheese for gooey meltiness.

Crockpot pinto beans from scratch. Just a bit of onion, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper and liquid smoke for seasoning.

Tostada with pico de gallo, avocado and hot sauce. So delicious!

Salads and CAKE.

Amazing salad with mixed greens, big chunks of avocado and leftover chili covered in vegan "thousand island" dressing.

Arugula and couscous salad with orange bell peppers, spinach, scallions, tomato and garlic, tossed in a lemon, white wine, dijon vinaigrette.

My oven wasn't working for about a month and now that it's fixed, I made a cake! A basic yellow cake recipe from "The Complete Vegan Kitchen" and lemon glaze.

I was so waiting for this moment to arrive. Cake is my one true weakness.

Restaurant Food Review: Waterloo & City Gastropub.

Went to a local british style gastropub in Culver City for Happy Hour on Friday night with the office. Two of us are vegan, so we wondered how well they would turn out some vegan plates. Luckily there are items marked "v" on the menu to denote vegetarian/vegetarian friendly options. So our only thing was to find out whether they could be made vegan. On the happy hour menu there were three items that were able to be made vegan.

The chef added a beautiful array of veggies to their flatbread pizza and omitted the cheese. This was wonderful.

The other two items were the french fries, naturally and the arugula salad with crispy shallots and smoked almonds. We made sure the salad was ordered without the cheese. The salad was phenomenal and as you can tell by yesterday's mother's day post, I tried to re-create it at home. I'm happy that W&C were able to accommodate the vegans! I would love to go back again to enjoy some cocktails and some nosh to nibble on.
Waterloo & City / 12517 Washington Blvd. Culver City, California 90066
Pictures courtesy of my dear friend Maile.

A Bowl of Chili.

I was in the mood for a bowl of chili today even though it was almost 90 degrees out. It has pinto beans, soy chunks, onions, zucchini and carrots. It was delicious! I topped it with a dollop of Tofutti sour cream to extinguish some of the heat. I don't think it worked because I managed to burn my tongue!

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!

Tuesday Eats.

Wow, so glad that Tuesday's over and done with! For a second there I thought it was only Monday! I came home from work and didn't want to cook anything so I made a serious sandwich. I mean, look at it! There are many layers in that thing. Lettuce, spinach, tomato, red onion, piccallili, jalapenos, two different kinds of mustard, Vegenaise, sauerkraut, oil, vinegar and not to mention vegan bologna and vegan cheese slices, all on jewish rye. I enjoyed the hell out of it. Oh yeah, there is a small mountain of Sweet and Spicy Chili Doritos which are accidentally vegan by the way.

For dessert, I celebrated with mint chip soy ice cream by Double Rainbow. I added some chocolate sprinkles for fun.

Cantalini's Express veggie sandwich and Black Bean Tortilla.

Yesterday, we headed out to a nearby take-out italian place called Cantalini's Express. They make a great roasted vegetable sandwich that had eggplant, zucchini, red bell peppers, mushroom and asparagus. I added the Daiya vegan cheese and got it all melty. So yum!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! This was my delicious black beans that were simmered with onions, tomato, chili powder and cumin on top of a toasted flour tortilla with lettuce, guacamole, hot sauce, lime and Tofutti sour cream. I have a ton of leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Michelada, Quesadilla, Chopped Salad, Curry and Vegan Snacks.

Yesterday was a nice hot Saturday and cocktails were in order. Here is a vegan Michelada which is 1 can of beer, 1 small can of tomato juice, squeeze of lime, salt, chili powder, a few drops of soy sauce (or vegan worcestershire) and Tabasco. So refreshing!

Breakfast quesadilla this morning made with Daiya cheese.

This is a vintage copy of The Watkins salad book published in 1946 that I inherited from my late mother-in-law. I made one of the french dressing variations in it and made a yummy chopped salad.

Rainbow salad.

The dressing was so easy to make too. I added capers and chili sauce to mine.

This salad was very good.

Also made a quick chickpea and potato curry with glorious basmati rice. I made the rice lebanese style with lots of olive oil! This is key.

Ran across these accidentally vegan snacks at the store. The ice pops are really light and fresh and the Sahale Valdosta pecans are so good. I can probably make them myself but I liked the convenience. They have cranberries, black pepper and orange zest. Tasty!