Hotpot.

Finally made the Winter Warmer Hotpot recipe by Mary McCartney. Very satisfying and tasty, alone or on top of rice. My herbs of choice were summer savory and rosemary/thyme. I also used veggie crumbles instead of veggie burger chunks. I forgot to add cornstarch to the veggie broth so mine came out like a soup but still good!

Tuscan Bean & Cabbage Soup

Today I came home from work tired and hungry for something healthy and nourishing and tasty too. This is my fave soup by Linda McCartney. Instead of turnips, I used gold potatoes and cauliflower. I used water and 1 veggie bouillon cube. I also seasoned it with summer savory and Maldon Salt. So delicious. I ate two bowls!

Some foods I ate...

Thai Sukiyaki noodle soup. So good! My mom made this for me.

This is me when I crave sweets on a weekday. Take a box of chocolate fudge cake mix, add to it 2 mashed bananas, 1 1/4 cup of cashew milk and stir. Bake for about 35 minutes until done. Then for frosting, get a 1/2 cup of peanut butter and stir over low heat with 3 TB cocoa powder, maple syrup and agave to taste and some vanilla too.

Stir fry tofu and broccoli with chinese garlic sauce.

Falafel pita sandwich from Gaby's Mediterranean.

Native Foods & Lentil Soup.

We went to lunch yesterday at Native Foods in Westwood. So sad that the Culver location is closed. Santa Monica too. Why??? It happened so fast and so mysteriously.

This is the BBQ chicken salad. So yummy! For dessert a chocolate cupcake.

Fries and blueberry hibiscus tea.

Today's cooking: Ina Garten's lentil sausage soup. I didn't have leeks so I left them out. Used Tofurky Andouille sausages. Mmmm!

Served with a healthy portion of mashed potatoes.

Lunch for me and lots of leftovers for the work week lunches.

Broccoli Sweet Potato Soup, Heidi Ho Cheeze.

Great soup recipe from The Happy Pear cookbook. I used Japanese yam and it was beautiful. Smooth and creamy.

If you don't have this cookbook, you must get it. I got it on Amazon for $20.

A new item to try. A basic cashew cheeze that is great on crackers.

But, I used it in salad and it was amazing! Also added coconut bacon (recipe from Salad Samurai) that made it even more amazing.

Breakfast for One and Soup.

This morning I woke up and made the diner home fries from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch again because they were so amazing yesterday. And to go with it, I made the tofu scramble from Vegan Brunch. Normally I make mine pretty plain-ish with tofu sauteed with onions and some salt, pepper, turmeric and maybe garlic and onion powder. The recipe from VB calls for fresh garlic, cumin, thyme, turmeric and nutritional yeast. These flavors were surprisingly good in the scramble. I wasn't sure about the cumin at first but it worked and gave a nice kind of smokiness. I served with Vegenaise/ketchup sauce.

I love Linda Mc's book "Linda's Kitchen". It's out of print now but you can probably find it on amazon marketplace selling for less than a fiver. I have a handful of recipes that I turn to again and again.

This soup is one of them. You must try it!

Here is the soup ready to simmer away. I substituted potato for turnip and seasoned with Maldon salt, freshly cracked black pepper and summer savory. Such a good soup.

Pita sandwiches to die for, soup, squash and spice cake!

God this was so good. Hummus, olive tapenade, avocado and tomato in a pita.

Gorgeous isn't it?

Another sandwich, this time with pico de gallo instead of plain tomato. Just as delicious.

VWAV split pea soup never disappoints.

Beautiful baby squashes with shaved brussels, roasted.

Spice cake from a box made with canned pumpkin and topped with cinnamon bun frosting.

Armenian Lentil Soup, Garlic Cheesy Bread, Cake!

Armenian Lentil Soup recipe from The Happy Pear cookbook. It's got red lentils, potato, carrot, swede (my addition, it called for celeriac which I didn't have) onion and dried apricots. It's lovely and smooth after it gets blitzed in the blender. Very tasty!

Garlic cheese bread again!

Plain vanilla cake with vanilla icing and sprinkles.

Tender Greens and some vegan snacks.

Went to Tender Greens today to celebrate our 3 day weekend. Haven't been here in years which is sad because their food is very good!

I got the lovely Roasted Tomato soup. I love the drizzle of basil oil.

This is the delicious HAPPY VEGAN salad which has green hummus, quinoa salad, tabbouleh and farro salad along with mixed greens.

Snacks are always nice. Vegan Sriracha popcorn from World Market.

VEGAN TOFFEES!!! YUM!

Soup and Wine.

Made a perfect veggie soup and dumplings today. I've been out of sorts lately and needed some comfort food. The soup is just my "fricot" recipe which I omitted tofu and added broccoli. I love dumplings in a soup!

Restorative wine. Enough said.

Red Lentil Dahl, Caesar Salad & Energy Bars.

Tried out The Happy Pear's recipe for red lentil dahl today. It's pretty similar to the usual dahl I make but they add curry powder and lime juice to theirs. I also added a tiny bit of olive oil to sautee my onions and garlic and also added about 1 TB of tomato paste. I also pureed half of the soup because I used whole red lentils which didn't break down enough for me. Because of the added tomato paste, it was more tomatoey. Yummy!

Caesar salad with whole grain croutons and sauteed tofu. I used the dressing from "The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook". I added some Vegenaise to my dressing to mellow it out a bit. It's quite strong with the nutritional yeast and dijon flavors, as is.

Love these energy bars. They are made out of toasted oats, peanut butter, agave, maple syrup, coconut, hemp protein powder, nuts, dried fruit and chocolate chips! Slightly healthier alternative to a processed power bar or candy bar. I posted the recipe at a previous blog entry here. I omitted the sugar and used maple syrup/agave instead. I found that the bars are softer as a result.

Wrapped up individually for lunches this week.

Here, watch The Happy Pear red lentil dahl video!