Cake and Soup.

Got home yesterday from work and really wanted cake. Made a quick chocolate cake with a cocoa glaze with nuts. Hit the spot!

For dinner, a white bean, cabbage, potato, rutabaga, carrot soup seasoned with summer savory.

Healing Soup & Victoria Sponge.

My friend Maile made a beautiful soup the other day to heal my cold. I tried to re-create it today. It has a lot of turmeric along with chili pepper flakes, paprika, sage, cumin, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It has good stuff in it: veggie broth, white beans, potatoes, broccoli, celery, carrots, onions, garlic and little tiny pearl pasta.

A cake was in order today. Even though I've been sick all week, I still have a sweet craving. A victoria sponge is perfection with raspberry jam and buttercream filling.

The buttercream was easy. I just softened about 1/2 cup of Earth Balance margarine and beat in some powdered sugar and vanilla and a drop of soymilk until it got nice and fluffy.

Buffalo Cauliflower and Fruitcake.

I made these on Thursday night and forgot to post about them because they were gone so fast. My husband loved them. I got the recipe here. I substituted Earth Balance for the butter. I also made a homemade ranch dressing for dipping!

Yesterday I made this fruitcake. A little late I know since christmas has passed but I had a whole container of candied fruit that I wanted to use. I used a boiled raisin cake recipe and just added some of the candied fruit. Came out great! I halved this recipe and baked it for about 35-40 minutes.

Veg Pot Pie

We had a ton of refrigerated pie dough that were leftover from holiday grocery shopping that I decided I would use a couple to make a veggie pot pie. I haven't made one in a long while. Here are the innards, a delicious mixture of potatoes, gardein veggie crumbles, carrots, celery, spinach, mushrooms, lima beans, green peas, green beans, onions, garlic and corn. The gravy is seasoned with soy sauce, veggie broth and miso paste.

Out of the oven, all browned and beautiful!

Lunch.

Recipe: Veg Pot Pie

1 TB Earth Balance margarine
2 TB olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, sliced
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 cup flour
2 cups veggie or mushroom broth (I used Better Than Bouillon Vegetable flavor)
1 tsp yellow miso paste
1 cup gardein veggie crumbles
1/2 cup plain soymilk
1/2 cup mushrooms chopped
2 Yukon gold potatoes, cubed
2 cups frozen veggie mix, thawed (carrots, peas, green beans, lima beans, corn)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 TB freeze dried poultry herbs or 1 tsp dried herbs (I used freeze dried mix of rosemary, thyme, garlic, scallions, sage)
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne
1 pie crust with 1 top (if frozen, thaw it out or use refrigerated pie dough)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Heat oil and margarine in a pot over medium high heat. Add onions, carrots, celery and garlic and cook for cook for several minutes to soften. Once the vegetable are fairly soft, add flour a bit at a time while stirring continuously. Add a bit of broth as you go. Once it is all smooth and all the broth is incorporated, add the miso paste. Stir to dissolve miso paste. Add veggie crumbles and soy milk. Continue to cook and stir and make sure the miso dissolves. Add the mushrooms, potatoes and frozen veggie mix. Stir to combine. Turn off heat. Add soy sauce, herbs, salt, pepper and cayenne to season. If it seems dry, you may add a bit more soymilk or broth. Pour mixture into pie shell (there will be a lot) and cover with top pie crust and crimp edges. Cut a few slits on the top for steam to escape. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes until browned on top.

Fat Free Fries!

Got this great idea from this blog and I'm so happy that I tried it today. I've been eating so much junk lately with the holidays and all. So this could be a step in a better direction for me.
You basically boil the potato wedges for 5 minutes. Then you drain and add seasonings and shake them up. Then you lay them on a baking sheet and bake them for 25 min at 425F degrees.

They baked up so crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Addicting!!!

Enjoyed them with faux fish fillets, curry sauce, ketchup and tartar sauce. I do love condiments!

Happy New Year!

Hey there, happy new year! 2015 will be a fab year, I can feel it! This is what I ate on New Year's Eve.

Vegan Pie in the Sky peach pie (without the basil, didn't have any!). So good!

With soy vanilla ice cream.

New Year's Eve fish n chips supper. Sophie's Kitchen makes fabulous vegan fish fillets. So good with homemade tartar sauce and lemon.