Marinated Beans, Artichoke-Black Olive and Tomato Bruschetta and Eggless Chocolate Cake.

When you have a nice baguette or a box of water crackers or a package of pita bread or lavash, you must have lovely things to eat them with like hummus, vegan cheese (Daiya havarti jalapeno is my choice!) and the following two salads. I made a simple batch of marinated garbanzo and white beans. Two cans of beans get to marinated in lots of olive oil, garlic, a bit of chopped onion, white wine vinegar, parsley and italian herbs.

Next up, I made the Artichoke, black olive and tomato bruschetta from the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook. This book is amazing. So many great ideas like this. I must remember to use this book more often.

For dessert, an eggless chocolate cake made with tofu. I don't normally make cakes with tofu in them but I had half a block of tofu hanging out in my fridge that I wanted to use up. I made a quick chocolate glaze/icing on the stove with cocoa powder, margarine, vanilla and powdered sugar. Sprinkles for color.

Gotta have ice cream with your cake! To be honest, I'm not a fan of tofu in vegan cakes. I get that it is trying to substitute for eggs but it really doesn't need tofu at all. The texture is more dense and "eggy" and not light and fluffy like the normal vegan cakes I make.

Red lentil soup and a vintage sandwich spread recipe.

Red lentil soup recipe from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook. I added potatoes and spinach. So good and easy to prepare.

I've been reading books in bed all morning, one of which is Mary Meade's Magic Recipes for the Osterizer (blender) and I found this sandwich spread recipe made with apricots, walnuts and mayo. What the heck? I had all the ingredients so I gave it a go. I added more vegan mayo and nuts to balance out the amount of fruit. To the sandwich, I added a slice of Tofutti cheese. This was surprisingly good. The crunch of the walnuts are nice against the tangy mayo and slightly sweet apricots. I made sure to use dried apricots without any sugar added.

This book was published in 1952 and it has fantastic recipes in it. The cocktails section is great.

Dainty sandwiches! haha!

Heads up! Rite Aid pharmacy carries these vegan british crisps. Yummy!

Black bean burger and Bisquick cake!

I whipped up these black bean burgers and baked them in the oven. I served them with grilled onions doused in bbq sauce. They were pretty good.

Aaaaand, I played around with Bisquick again and made a cake! I used a recipe from the vintage Bisquick cookbook. It was for the "Velvet Crumb Cake" in which I substituted the 1 egg with 1 TB of cornstarch. I think I will try a different egg sub next time. Not much rise on this cake. I added finely chopped dark chocolate to the batter.

Very moist and tasty with a cup of tea or coffee.

A vegan Bisquick pancake.

I bought a box of Bisquick the other day in order to try out some recipes from a 1964 Bisquick cookbook that I have. I haven't yet tried any of those retro recipes but yesterday came across a recipe for vegan pancakes using Bisquick at Modern Martha blog. Link to recipe here. Yes, I know that Bisquick is not healthy and contains hydrogenated oil of some kind but I had to try this out! I normally use the Vegan Brunch recipe which is much healthier (and delicious) and uses "from scratch" ingredients. The Bisquick one was very rich and very fluffy. It was really good with some Earth Balance margarine and a drizzle of Lyle's Golden Syrup. I also made Lightlife sausages pictured in back.

Groceries on the cheap, british snacks, grilled food and a vintage Bisquick cookbook!

So the 99 Cents Only stores have a very quick turn around for produce. It wasn't like this a few years ago! Now they are constantly unloading new produce into their growing produce section. All this for 25 bucks! I got spring mix, iceberg lettuce, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, 2 kinds of tomatoes, yellow potatoes, raspberries, strawberries, pineapple and more. Some organic, some not. It sure does help to save some money.

And they also carry 100% coconut water for 99 cents each! I usually pay $2.50 per can at Vons.

The Continental Shop in Santa Monica have a huge selection of british foods for your pleasure. I have here an assortment of crips, tea biscuits and chocolates. The non-vegan crisps and chocolates are for my husband. Both tea biscuits and the Corkers thai chili crisps are vegan. I also picked up a can of Lyle's Golden Syrup for my pantry which is not pictured.

Whoa the color! I was fiddling with my camera and put on on the POP color setting which is why my grilled food is particularly saturated in color. It was nice out today so I decided to cook outside.

Yellow potatoes were so good.

I'm becoming redundant with my grilled meals. Another grilled veg sandwich on a kaiser roll with vegenaise and bbq sauce.

Got a book I ordered in the mail today. This vintage cookbook was published in 1964. Love it.

Ooh!

I love vintage cookbooks. I have a box of Bisquick in my pantry. Now I need to work some of these out, vegan style.

I just love looking at the photos. Some look appetizing, some not so much!

Tacomiendo burrito, fried rice and CAKE!

A gigantic veggie burrito from Tacomiendo. It was filled with loads of grilled veggies, black beans, rice and avocado. I order it without cheese and sour cream. I enjoyed this the other night while watching a few episodes of Ozzie and Harriet on dvd.

So I was in the mood for fried rice the other day. I sauteed some veggies and tofu in peanut oil.

Added cooked rice, soy sauce, ketchup and black pepper.

And made a scrummy bowl of fried rice that I like to top with Sriracha, scallions and a squeeze of lime juice. I made this two days in a row.

Cake craving! I used the two ingredient method: 1 can pure pumpkin + 1 box cake mix. I used yellow cake mix today. Caramelized apples made it all even more delicious.

Apple Pumpkin Upside Down Cake, Polka Dot Muffins and Quesadilla

Pumpkin apple cake from an adapted recipe that was featured at the Midcentury Menu blog. I used a can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake mix for the batter. That's it! The apples, I just simmered in juice (cranberry or apple will do) until tender. I melted Earth Balance margarine on the bottom of the pan and sprinkled brown sugar, layered the apple slices, then poured batter on top. After 28 or so minutes in the oven, it was perfect! This cake went to a house party we went to last night. It was gone in a flash.

Polka Dot Muffins recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook. It uses cream of wheat in the batter and for me, it was a little too coarse of a muffin. I don't know if I'll make these again. They were just ok.

Breakfast Daiya cheese quesdilla.