Family Friendly Curry

Made this curry from a recipe I saw in a past issue of Thrive. The author says its mild enough for her two year old who loves it so I thought I'd try it for dinner. It's basically a coconut milk and tomato paste base with ginger, curry powder, cumin, coriander as the spices and chickpeas, peas and sweet potato. It's very mild and to me, very sweet. It's all from the sweet potato and I guess the coconut milk as well. I added some lemon juice and extra salt to tone down the sweetness. Henri ended up eating a whole (baby sized) bowl with basmati rice which I was super happy about. For my bowl, I squirted  more lemon and Sriracha hot sauce and it was pretty good.

Garlic mushroom cheese toast.

Method: sauté 1/2 a carton of mushrooms in margarine and garlic, a dash of soy sauce and a pinch of  all purpose seasoning.

Preheat oven to about 375-400 F. Lay 3 slices of whole grain bread on a baking sheet, spread with a bit of margarine, layer each with a slice of tomato, salt, pepper, the garlic mushrooms and top with vegan cheese. Heat in the oven until cheese melts.

They are pretty yummy.

Sunday cooking.

I made the one pot lasagna again because it was amazing and went so fast. This time I used zucchini and mushrooms like the original recipe. 

Banana pancakes for breakfast. I love this simple recipe I found in Thrive mag.

Halloween baking!

Me and Henri made chocolate pumpkin cupcakes today using chocolate cake mix and a can of pumpkin purée. That's it. H got to lick the bowl afterwards. 

After they baked and cooled, we dyed vanilla frosting orange, green and purple and decorated the cakes.

Little baker!

The end result! Super spoopy cupcakes!

They were yummy!

One pot lasagna.

I adapted the Happy Pear's one pot lasagna and it turned out really good! I used wide noodles instead of lasagna sheets and used mixed frozen veggies and kale. A cashew sauce is in between layers and its topped with a sprinkle of Daiya cheese.

In their recipe, you cook it all on the stove. I did the sauce in the same pan, then ladled half of it out then did the layering of red sauce, noodles, cashew sauce, red sauce, noodles, cashew sauce and then Daiya. Instead of leaving it in the stovetop to cook further, I stuck it in the oven with a cover for half an hour so the cheese would melt.

Sweet potato falafel wrap.

Yummmm. Served in a tortilla with hummus, avocado, beets, vegan tzatziki and sriracha!

Soup.

This is Ina Garten's lentil and sausage soup veganized. It's very hearty and delicious. I put some bruschetta on top which made great croutons.

Saturday cooking.

I toasted some day old French baguette to make bruschetta. 

Served with Leaf Cuisine garlicky herb cashew spread, tomato basil salad and hummus. Yummy.

Garlic roasted asparagus.

This was made with a box of Krusteaz cinnamon swirl cake mix, 2/3 cup water and 4oz applesauce. The cinnamon topping is included with the cake mix. It is delicious!

BBQ veggie loaf.

I used the Adventist loaf generator and used tofu for the protein and BBQ spice rub for flavor. 

Served with mash and gravy. It was sooooo delicious!

Recipe;

1/2 cup pecans
2 TB olive oil
One onion, diced
One large garlic clove, minced
One large carrot, peeled and chopped finely
Two celery ribs, diced finely 

1/2 red pepper chopped finely 

2 cups mashed firm tofu

1 cup dry bread crumbs (binder)

Veggie broth if needed (I didn't need it)

3 TB tapioca flour
1 1/2 tsp BBQ spice rub
2 TB ketchup plus extra to spread on the top of loaf
2 TB soy sauce

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan or 8x8 square baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8x8 pan makes a crisper loaf).

Grind the pecans into a coarse meal using a food processor or spice/coffee grinder. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Sauté any vegetables you've chosen in the olive oil until soft. Add to the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix and mash together well, adding only as much liquid (veggie broth) as needed to create a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and spread more ketchup on top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked through.

Pumpkins!

Took Henri B to the pumpkin patch today and we had so much fun! I was drooling over all the beautiful pumpkins. I wanted to take every variety home.

Chickpea Tikka Masala

I love a good curry! This one is adapted from The Happy Pear. I made it with chickpeas, soy chunks and mushroom. It was delicious!

Oat banana pancakes.

I used this recipe from a magazine called Thrive. I used half oat and half whole wheat flour.

They were yummy!

Pie on Sunday.

Sunday lunch was this gorgeous steak and mushroom pie. I usually use soy chunks but used Boca burgers instead. Was yummy!

Steak and mushroom pie

2 TB olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 carrots, sliced

2 ribs celery, sliced

1 cup frozen peas or mixture of frozen peas/carrots/corn/green beans

2 Boca frozen burger patties 

1 cup veggie broth

1/2 tsp vegemite or marmite

1 TB tomato paste

1 TB soy sauce sauce

1/2 tsp thyme

1 container mushrooms sliced

salt and pepper to taste

1-2 tsp Cornstarch mixed with a little cold water to thicken.

frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed (a good vegan brand is Pepperidge Farm)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Heat the Boca burgers on a plate in the microwave for 2 minutes. Alternatively you can fry them in an oiled pan according to package directions. Cut up both burgers into chunks.

5. Add oil to the pan and add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery. Cook until they start to soften. Then add the mushrooms and cook until they soften. Add the frozen veggies, vegetable broth, marmite, tomato paste, soy sauce and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Add the burger chunks to the pan and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and cover and simmer until veggies are tender. Add more broth if needed. Also add cornstarch mixture to thicken and let simmer.

6. Pour mixture into a baking dish and top with puff pastry sheets. Bake for 20  to 30 minutes or until pastry is golden and puffy.

Sandwich and Pumpkin Cookies.

A hot peppered Tofurky and Daiya cheddar sandwich on beer bread.

 Very good!

Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. I added chocolate chips.

Henri and I had quite a few! 

Mozzarella Beer Bread

I've made this before using Daiya cheddar and it's so good! Today I used vegan mozzarella from Trader Joes.

Recipe: (from Daiya foods website- no longer available)

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a bowl combine: 3 cups white flour, 1 TB baking powder, 3 TB sugar and 1 tsp of salt. Mix. Stir in 1 cup of cheese. Add 1 bottle of room temperature beer. Stir until batter is moistened. The batter will be lumpy. 

Pour into a greased loaf tin and pour 2 TB of melted margarine over the top. Put it in the oven for about 35-40 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack to completely cool.

I ate a big hunk of it with yesterday's casserole. Yum!