One Pot Mushroom Rice

I'm loving Mary McCartney's cookbook FOOD. She really is my style of cook, relaxed and non-fussy. This rice recipe was like boom boom boom, done! I think I was in and out of the kitchen in about 30 minutes. Very tasty rice which will go well with various main dishes. I'm just having it by itself. It's very comforting and full of good mushroom and onion flavor.

More weekend eating.

I made another snack from Mary McCartney's book FOOD. It's the Pan-Fried Cheese, Tomato and Onion Sandwich. I used yellow and red cherry tomatoes and Daiya vegan mozzarella style cheese. It was delicious.

Gooey Daiya cheese.

Here we have a breakfast specialty of mine, a scrambled tofu sandwich. I added mushrooms today. Usually I have it on white toast but all I had was a loaf of Dave's Killer Bread which is full of whole grains. Worked out fine and was very satisfying with lots of Vegenaise and ketchup!

Vegans love cake too! Here is a tried and true eggless, dairy free date cake that I make often. It's so easy and so moist and sweet. Perfect with a hot cup of tea in the afternoon. Recipe here. (Substitute almond milk for the dairy milk!)

Mary McCartney's FOOD, Helen's Kitchen and Amella Caramels!

Tried some new things this week. My birthday was last Tuesday and as a birthday gift to myself, I bought Mary McCartney's book FOOD: Vegetarian Home Cooking. As you know I'm Beatles obsessed and also a fan of Linda McCartney's cookbooks. Mary is the beautiful daughter of Paul and Linda. She is a very talented photographer and judging from this book, she is also a relaxed and non-fussy cook, just like myself. The book has really great recipes (most are vegetarian but you can probably experiment by substituting vegan products for the eggs and cheese) and the photographs taken by Mary are gorgeous. One recipe that caught my eye, was the Saucy Mushrooms and Tomatoes on Toast. A very very simple recipe with big rewards. It was so tasty and made a perfect breakfast on buttered (Earth Balance) whole grain toast.

You see? It's just perfection. The tomatoes are sweet and juicy, the mushrooms are deliciously seasoned with soy sauce, garlic and thyme. The buttered toast brings it all together into one satisfying dish. I will make this again for sure.

Another picture to entice you to buy Mary's book. There is another recipe in it, Hummus, Avocado and Chili Jam sandwich. It sounds soo good. Where can I get chili jam here in Los Angeles?

I don't remember what day it was, but my husband and I were in the mood for tacos and we went to the local Vons to shop for ingredients. I used to love Morningstar Farms crumbles to make "taco meat" but alas it is no longer vegan. I came across this product by Helen's Kitchen that I was very willing to try.

They turned out fabulous. Very easy to make with no fuss, just like I like it! Recipe at the bottom of this post.

Went shopping at Whole Foods today and found these delicious morsels of fun. Vegan dark chocolate caramels! With gray sea salt! I love sweet and salty combinations. I bought two and they are all for meeee!

Kim's Quick Soft Tacos

1 TB olive oil
1 package Helen's Kitchen veggie ground
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper
4 soft taco size flour tortillas
Garnish: shredded lettuce chopped onion chopped cilantro freshly prepared salsa

Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan on medium high heat. Add the whole package of the veggie ground. It is fairly moist, so stir it around for a few minutes to dry it out a little. Add the spices and season with salt and pepper. Continue to stir for about 5-6 minutes until heated through. Take off of the heat and set the mixture aside. Heat flour tortillas individually over an open burner on your stove for a few seconds on each side to soften and warm them. You may also toast them in a dry pan over heat. Divide mixture onto the flour tortillas and garnish with shredded lettuce, onion, cilantro and fresh salsa.

Check these out. I collect vintage cookbooks and I just got this cool shipment of vintage cooking pamphlets from the 50's and 60's. I want to veganize some of them one day. Will definitely blog about that when it happens.

Weekend Food: Squash and Onion Quiche, 2 Bean Salad & Apple Cider Pumpkin Upside Down Cake.

I got up super early today and went grocery shopping to get ingredients for today's menu. Saturdays are really the only day I feel motivated to make a lot of food. I would have added a fourth dish of potato salad but I forgot to buy potatoes!

Squash and onion quiche from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. You can't see the squash and onion because they were mixed in with the filling! I took a cue from Isa's book Vegan Brunch buy adding cashews to the filling to make it creamier. After a few hours in the fridge, this will be ready to eat.

My husband was in the mood for bean salad so I whipped this one up based on the technicolor bean salad in Linda McCartney's Kitchen cookbook. I left out the green beans.

And now for the best part. I made this gorgeous cake based off of the recipe I saw at a fabulous blog called Midcentury Menu. Find the recipe here. Instead of making the cake from the cake mix instructions, I just used a can of pumpkin and the cake mix and stirred it all together. Worked great! Only thing is when you plop the batter on top of the apples, you have to be careful to spread it all out with a spatula as the batter is thickish.

This cake is so moist and delicious. The apples are so good with the pumpkin flavor of the cake!

"Cheesy" Broccoli and Quinoa Casserole.

And here we have yet another casserole this week. I found the recipe here and gave it a go when I got home from work. Only thing different is I also sauteed some celery and carrots with the onions. I also added 1 tsp miso paste and 1 tsp veggie broth powder to the sauce. I cut my salt to 1 tsp because I figured the miso would make up for the other, but I probably should have kept the salt content as the recipe directed.

I would definitely make this again. It's creamy and very satisfying.

Another Casserole! (And A Salad too.)

This casserole making is getting out of hand! But since we are heading towards fall, don't you think comforting foods that bubble and bake away in a hot oven sound appealing? This "Chilaquiles Casserole" is based off of this recipe. I didn't use enchilada sauce, instead I used one can of tomato sauce mixed with one can of El Pato sauce. I also used Daiya pepper jack vegan cheese and added an extra can of beans to the filling. Mmm, mmm good. I love cheesy and saucy food. I'll have seconds, please!

This was my dinner last night. A giant bowl of salad with sauteed tofu and other good stuff. Tossed with sesame oil, lemon and soy sauce.

Not again!

YES! Again! I make this when I want something easy and super satisfying. This quinoa and black bean tortilla casserole dish never disappoints. I make it so much I should really start referring to it as "The Casserole". This time I added Daiya vegan cheese to create a nice melty top.

Quinoa and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole

Filling:
2 TB olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes, drained with juice reserved
1 14oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups water
3/4 cups quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup Daiya cheese
Sauce: 2 - 8oz. can tomato sauce or you can use 2 cans of EL PATO sauce (yum!)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder or plain chili powder
pinch of cayenne
1/3 cup Vegenaise
8 flour tortillas (to make it gluten free, use corn tortillas!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat olive oil in a medium sized pot and saute the veggies and garlic until they are soft. Stir in the cumin, taco seasoning and oregano and then add the drained tomatoes, black beans, water and quinoa. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to medium low and cover. Let simmer for 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender. Season with salt and pepper. Prepare sauce: Mix the cans of tomato sauce and the reserved tomato juice in a bowl. Season with 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder. Add a pinch of cayenne and stir until combined. Prepare drizzle by combining vegenaise and about a TB of the reserved tomato sauce. Cut tortillas into 4 wedges each. Spread a little bit of the red sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Layer some tortillas wedges on bottom of dish. Spread with half the filling. Top with more tortillas. Pour half of sauce and sprinkle half of the Daiya cheese. Layer with more tortillas, spread rest of filling, top with more tortillas. Pour remaining sauce on top and the drizzle with vegenaise mixture. Top with other half of Daiya cheese. Bake covered for 30 minutes.