Quick Dinner: Soup and Sandwich.

Hot homemade tomato soup with garlic and basil. Yum.


Leftover "crab" cake sandwich on Ezekiel toast. Double yum.


Quick Tomato Soup

1 14oz. can stewed tomatoes with juice, blended until smooth
1 very small onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TB olive oil
2 TB fresh basil, chopped
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB tomato paste
1 TB nutritional yeast
1 1/2 cup plain rice milk (I use Trader Joe's Enriched Original Rice Drink)
salt and pepper to taste.

In a small pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add blended can of tomatoes, basil, tomato paste and soy sauce. Stir to break up paste and bring to a boil. Slowly add in rice milk. Add nutritional yeast and lower heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Before serving drizzle with basil infused olive oil.

Spelt Pancakes

This is what I had for dinner! I was craving pancakes like crazy so I had to give in and make them. I took the recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Vegan!" and substituted spelt flour for the all purpose flour and rice milk for the soy milk. Perfect pancakes if you ask me.

Sausage!

Got on to quickly post this pic. Tofurky sausage on a bun with caramelized onions and peppers, kraut and mustard. I had this while watching the game (Dodgers vs. Braves). Game's still on (we're tied 4-4) so see ya later...

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.

Mock Crab Cakes, Oven Baked Risotto and Steamed Spinach

This was fabulous! I had some tofu that I needed to use up and for some reason I wanted to make "crab" cakes. I've never had a real crab cake before because in my omni days I was never a fan of seafood. It doesn't matter because these were so delicious. I got the recipe from vegweb here. I did a few things differently by making my own "Old Bay" spice blend, adding a bit of spelt flour to the tofu mixture to bind it better and dusting the cakes with farina before baking. They came out crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. I served it with homemade remoulade sauce (Tyler Florence recipe using eggless mayo and omitting anchovies), a beautiful oven baked risotto and steamed spinach with lemon. The risotto was perfectly creamy and so comforting. It was a perfect side dish to the crab cakes.


Inside shot.

Beans on Toast, Steamed Chard and Carrots

I was so tired today after work that I didn't want to do anything fancy for dinner. We heated up some Heinz Beans, steamed some swiss chard and carrots and called it dinner. Simple but very satisfying.

Pad See Ew Dinner and Sunshine Blog Awards!

This was dinner tonight. Pad See Ew recipe from Buddha's Table cookbook. Yummy yummy!



I'd like to thank Vic from The Life blog for presenting me with this Sunshine Blog Award! Thanks man! I love visiting Vic's blog. He's an amazing cook with a knack for creating beautiful meals out of whatever he has in his kitchen. He is very creative with food and the majority of the recipes he uses are his very own! Thanks again Vic!

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world. I'd like to give recognition to the following blogs that I visit often:

My Marrakesh
I turn to Maryam's blog when I want to dream. She and her family live in Morocco and have been building a beautiful guest house called Peacock Pavilions! It will open very soon. Her blog is filled with beautiful photos and stories of her Moroccan adventures as well as design, art, style and food ideas. I am enthralled each and every time I visit her blog. I will visit her guest house one of these days!

Glue & Glitter
Becky's blog is filled with crafty goodness, tips on sustainable living as well as quick and easy vegan recipes. A long time ago she had a food blog called Apron Strings that I had the honor to guest blog on every now and then. That inspired me to create my own blog soon after. Thanks Becky!

Vegan Dad
I'd like to ask the vegan food blog community, who doesn't love Vegan Dad? He's a cook and baker extraordinaire! With a busy work life and a family at home, I wonder how he does it? I've been very inspired by his cooking and always look forward to his posts.

eat'n veg'n
I believe I've been following Diann's blog for as long as I've been vegan, so that'll be about 3 years. I am inspired by her healthy way of cooking that is always full of color and fresh ingredients.

Fat Free Vegan
I've been following Susan V's blog for about 3 years as well. Her blog is one of the first I came across when looking up vegan recipes. Her recipes are outstanding and presentation/photography impeccable.

Easy Veggie
Oraphan's blog is wonderful! Her enthusiasm for food and fresh veggies is contagious. I always look forward to her posts. I'm lucky that she is my cousin so we also get to talk food and go out and have veggie lunches together.

Heathen Vegan
I love Miss Jeni's blog. It is full of fun and exciting food and yummy baked goods. One day I will try her mince pies recipe!

Tea Amigos
These guys Dax and Mike are serious when it comes to tea and they seem to know all about it. I love getting updates about the latest teas that they've discovered. Being a big tea drinker myself, I can relate to getting really excited about tea.

Mosetta Stone
Mo's blog is awesome. She's funny and knows how to cure serious cravings with the food she makes. She's a great cook and I get great ideas from her blog.

Ste Martaen
As well as a blog that showcases their love of vegan food, this lovely family also have their very own handmade vegan cheese business. I have yet to try their cheeses, they look amazing. The recipes on the blog are seriously mouthwatering. I must make "wish tacos" one of these days because I keep going back to look at that particular entry!

1,000 Vegan Recipes
I wish every cookbook had a blog that was dedicated to it. This one is run by a group of bloggers who are cooking from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. I too have this book and always wonder how recipes will turn out so I like to peruse this blog to find out.

My Veggie Kitchen
Matt's got a great blog here. The food always looks terrific and I am always getting ideas here. His latest efforts of cooking with bulgur is very exciting to me. This is my kind of cooking!

For those of you that I named, the rules for accepting this award are:
1. Copy & paste these rules on your blog so your award winners could follow.
2. Put the logo flower on your blog or within your post.
3. Pass the award onto twelve bloggers of your choice.
4. Link the nominees within your post.
5. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting about it on their blog.
6. On your blog post share the love and blog link of the person from whom you received this award.