Saturday Taco Lunch, Stir-Fry and Carrot-Nut Muffins.

Had a delicious lunch with my mom and her best friend yesterday. Mom helped make this delicious spread of food. Tacos with sauteed tofu, veggie ground, fresh salsa and guacamole and potato salad. The tomato salad was fresh from Gelson's.

Stir fry using Tofurky sausages flavored with vegetarian stir fry sauce (kinda like oyster sauce) and sweet chili sauce.

Ok, so this was my attempt at making a raw vegan carrot cake with carrots, dates and nuts. All I can say is...FAIL.

So I transformed it into a cooked carrot cake. I just dumped 1 cup of carrot/nut mixture into kittee's vanilla cake recipe (halfing the cake recipe). I saved the rest of the raw cake mixture in the freezer for future use.

Vegan "Fish n Chips" (or Panko Crusted Tofu)

I've said this before on my blog that I never liked fish but these panko crusted tofu "fish" fillets are so good with homemade tartar sauce, a squeeze of lemon and a side of fries (chips) and peas. The tofu was first marinated for a few hours in an olive oil/miso paste/mustard/seaweed flakes/soy sauce/garlic/ginger mixture and then covered in flour, dipped in almond milk, then coated in panko bread crumbs and baked in the oven. I normally fry these but I wanted to keep it fairly low fat. If you want to fry, by all means do! I'm sure it'll be even crispier and tastier that way.

Creamy tomato soup & grilled cheese, salad w/ homemade croutons, gluten free cake and another casserole.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, so I made an all American favorite: tomato soup paired with a grilled cheese sandwich. So comforting and delicious! I loosely followed Mary McCartney's "Must Have Creamy Tomato Soup" (subbing almond milk for the soy creamer) and made the sandwich using pepper jack and mozzarella Daiya vegan cheese. Yummy yummy yummy yummy....

A simple salad with mixed greens, homemade croutons (made from Ezekiel bread) and one of the most delicious salad dressings ever. It's the Caesar dressing recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Make it now! Recipe for the dressing below. For the croutons, just toss bread cubes with olive oil and garlic powder and italian herbs and toast in a 400 degree F oven for 15 minutes, stirring 1/2 way.

Gluten-free chocolate cake loaded with candy sprinkles.

I made this casserole last week. It's the usual quinoa, black beans and Daiya cheese tortillas casserole. I love it so much.

Caesar Dressing (Adapted from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak)

3 TB nutritional yeast flakes
2 TB tahini
2 TB Dijon mustard (use whole grain mustard!)
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/3 cup water
3 TB lemon juice
1 TB red wine vinegar (she used balsamic)
2 TB Vegenaise (my addition!)
Whisk all ingredients together and chill. If too thick add a little more water.

Victoria Sponge with Lemon Curd

Cake time again! I made another victoria sandwich with lemon curd. I had a bit of a lemon curd meltdown with a recipe I found online, so I think I'll be on the lookout for another one next time.

Even though the curd was a little runny, it still tasted amazing!

Tofurky Artisan Sausages

Tofurky has some new sausages out. Their new artisan line has three flavors: Andouille, Spinach Pesto and Chickn and Apple. I brought home a package of the Andouille flavor to try out in a bun.

I heated the sausage in a pan with a little oil. It doesn't need much cooking time. So easy. They work great on a grill too. This is a really good sausage with a slight kick of heat. Loved it on a bun with all the fixings: chopped onion, mustard, ketchup and sauerkraut.

50 years ago, we met John, Paul, George and Ringo!

I am celebrating this weekend because it's Beatlemania again. It was 50 years ago that America was introduced to The Beatles. They arrived in February 1964 and changed the face of pop culture as we know it, via music, attitudes, fashion, originality and visionary genius. Where would we be without them? To show my love for my favorite music group I made a vegan version of the classic victoria sponge cake in celebration. I filled it with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream. It's so delicious! I'm sure it's not exactly like the traditional victoria sponge they make in Britain but it'll do!

Would you like some cake with your cream? Haha, next time, less cream I think?

To have with a cup of tea. Cake recipe is here. (Except I used almond milk and olive oil in mine.)

Cheezy Enchilada Casserole & Lemon Loaf Cake

My love for casseroles will never die. Today I made an adapted version of Bob Barker's vegan enchilada casserole which you can find here. I forgot to top it with Fritos at the end, bah! But it's ok it was still amazing. I used black and pinto beans along with a package of veggie ground from Helen's Kitchen. I also added a lot of sauteed peppers and onions. And for the cheese, I used Pepper Jack Daiya vegan shreds.

So good with homemade guacamole.

And a dessert to celebrate the weekend: lemon scented vanilla cake with lemon icing. This cake recipe uses olive oil which I find makes cakes very very moist.

Vanilla Lemon Loaf Cake
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup unrefined sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup almond milk
1/3 cup regular olive oil
1 TB grated lemon zest
1 TB cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan with oil. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake about 30-35 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Poke holes in cake with a wooden skewer. Make icing and pour over cake.
Lemon Icing
1/2 to 1 cup powdered sugar
2-4 TB lemon juice
Mix until smooth and thick, but pourable. You may add more sugar or lemon juice until you get the right consistency.