Sunday Roast!

Craved a Sunday veggie roast today so I made the perfect roast potatoes, heirloom rainbow carrots, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. And to go on top of all that, Bryanna Clark Grogan's vegan brown gravy. SO GOOD!

Dinner ruined! Plus backup dinner and chocolate pudding freezer pops.

So I got home from work today and spent a good amount of time making the above dinner. I revamped the coconut lentil dahl and made patties and roasted cauliflower. It would have been so good. Unfortunately when I took them out of the oven, I realized a light bulb in the oven had exploded and there was glass on the food. There were shards of glass mixed in with the cauliflower. I was horrified! Had to throw it all out! At least I got some pics. I will recreate this dinner again one day.

Smokehouse chickpeas from Salad Samurai. Easy to make when dinner gets ruined!

Backup dinner was this salad with smokehouse chickpeas with homemade thousand island (vegenaise, ketchup, pickle relish). It was very good.

The other day I made vegan chocolate pudding and decided I wanted them to be freezer pops instead. Super easy to do. Just pour them into plastic cups, stick a popsicle stick or in my case skewers with some foil to cover and freeze overnight.

Super tasty too!

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.

"Steak" and mushroom pie.

My neighbor was the one who inspired me to make this dish. She had a photo assignment to photograph the pub food at Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica. Her photos of the steak and mushroom (or it could have been steak and ale) pie looked amazing. I said to her: "I'm going to make that!" And so I did.


This is the filling of soy chunks, vegetables and mushrooms in a savory gravy.


Finished pie out of the oven.



I didn't have potatoes so I made cauliflower mash instead!

Steak and mushroom pie

3 TB vegan margarine + 2 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 cup dry protein soy chunks rehydrated in boiling water until soft.
2 TB flour
1 cup veggie broth
1 tsp red miso
1/2 tsp vegemite or marmite
1 TB tomato paste
1 TB vegan worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp thyme
1 container mushrooms sliced
salt and pepper to taste
frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed (a good vegan brand is Pepperidge Farm)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Put the kettle on and boil water and pour over soy chunks in a bowl and let sit until soy chunks are soft.

3. Drain the hydrated soy chunks and put them in to a bowl. Add a couple of TB of flour and toss to coat the soy chunks.

4. Heat margarine in a pan on med high heat. Add soy chunks to pan and brown evenly, about 5 minutes. Remove soy chunks from pan and set aside.

5. Add oil to the pan and add the vegetables. Cook for a about 4 minutes. Then add vegetable broth, miso, marmite, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce and thyme to the pan. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the mushrooms. Add the soy chunks back to the pan, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and cover and simmer until veggies are tender.

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


Pie poured over cauliflower mash. This was SO TASTY.

Roasted and Sauteed.

Tonight's dinner featured roasted broccoli and cauliflower. If you haven't tried roasting these vegetable, you must! So much better than boring steamed vegetables. Toss cauliflower and broccoli in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast at 400 degrees F on a baking pan for about 30 minutes until golden.


I made oven baked risotto yesterday which made a ton of leftovers so I had that with sauteed Tofurky vegan sausages, onions and mushrooms. Everything was so good and so filling. I'm very full right now.

Easy Weekend Food.

Today was all about simple, easy to prepare food. The risotto was oven baked which left me with not much to do as the oven did it for me! I threw in a few handfuls of bagged broccoli slaw in with the risotto for some color. The cauliflower was tossed in a bit of olive oil and I popped that in the oven on a sheet pan while the risotto cooked. The chickpea dish was simply canned chickpeas tossed with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, mint, parsley and salt. Everything came out delicious.
You can find the risotto recipe here. You may omit the nutritional yeast if you don't have it. Tastes just as good without it. I left out the margarine which didn't affect the flavor at all. Make this, it's so good!


The coconut pudding was from The Vegan Family cookbook and has silken tofu, rice milk, coconut milk, cornstarch and sugar which simply got blended together, boiled and then refrigerated until chilled.

Quiche-y Part 2.

A new week, a new quiche! Last week I made the Classic Broccoli Quiche from Vegan Brunch. Today I made a similar one with cauliflower, lima beans, red peppers and red onions. This one's for supper tonight. YUM! Recipe here (I substituted cauliflower for broccoli etc.)

Mock Crab Cake Wrap, Cauliflower White Bean Dip

Yesterday's "crab" cakes made beautiful wraps for lunch today.


Also on the lunch menu: cauliflower white bean dip. This was adapted from the "Lower Fat Cauliflower Hummus" recipe from Veganomicon. I didn't have any chickpeas so I used white beans as a nice and creamy substitute.

Breakfast in Bed: Raw Strawberry-Banana Pudding and Toast!

I whipped up this decadent raw pudding this morning that was so thick, rich and creamy. It was really yummy and filling too. Yes, it's healthier than most desserts but it's not low fat because of the nuts.

Raw Strawberry-Banana Pudding

1/2 to 1 cup raw unsalted cashews (I didn't really measure but think I used close to a cup!)
8 dates, pitted
6-8 fresh strawberries
1 frozen banana

Soak cashews and dates in hot water for at least 20 minutes. Drain water. Blend all ingredients in a blender until thick and creamy. Serve with fresh berries on top.

Edited to add:


This is dinner tonight. It's a cauliflower, potato and mushroom gratin adapted from Brian McCarthy's Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin from The Vegan Family Cookbook.

Detox Week 2, Day 14

So...my husband has quit the diet and is now back to his regular foods. He ordered a sausage pizza yesterday. :( I'm a little disappointed but it's not my place to force him to do anything. He did it for almost two weeks and it was enough for him. He said the raw salads and vegetables were giving him heartburn. So, it's just me now ready to finish off the last week of healthy eating. I have to say that I'm starting to really crave white bread and coffee like crazy. I made a gluten free butternut oat bread today that bombed big time. I'm not even going to post a picture. It was very sad. So no bread for me today. But other than that, things are good. I've lost about 3-4 pounds which is nice! If I can stay on track with my workouts this week, I can probably lose another pound or two.

Today's eats:


Breakfast: Banana, date, mango, tangelo and strawberry soymilk smoothie.


Lunch: Chopped salad with spinach, green leaf, rocket, cucumber, red peppers, onion and walnuts. Drizzled with goddess dressing.

Snacks: Veggie crudités and white bean dip, sprouted grain chips, a pear and three 1" pieces of carob date brownies.


Dinner: Aduki Bean Stew (from You Are What You Eat cookbook) on top of cauliflower mash.


After dinner tea.