Sunday Casserole & Oat Bran Muffins

I like to make a casserole on Sundays; something that I throw in a baking dish and pop in the oven while I go about my household duties. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that this casserole of quinoa bean burritos is my old standby. Instead of serving them as a burrito, I just cut into the casserole and served up little squares of layered tortilla, quinoa, spinach, red peppers, corn and beans. The topping is Daiya cheese with a vegenaise/lemon juice/chili powder drizzle. The drizzle made the Daiya get all melty and cheezy.


Just out of the oven. Look at that topping!


Mmm.

Later in the day I made oat bran muffins with a recipe I found in The Vegan Family Cookbook. I haven't had a proper bran muffin since before I went vegan and what I remember was that they were dark brown, sweet, sticky and full of raisins. While good and wholesome, these muffins were not that. So I'm asking my fellow vegans, can you point me to a recipe for a bran muffin that I described? I need to go through my cookbooks...

Lentil-Vegetable Soup with Red Wine and Miso

It's soup time! This is adapted from the "Lentil and Escarole" soup in The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook. I swapped escarole for kale and added potatoes, summer savory, red wine and red miso paste. It also has onions, garlic, celery and carrots. So hearty and delicious!

Edited to add: This soup gets very thick the following day and turns into stew! Yum!

Moong Dosa.

Hard to believe, but I've never had dosa before. Yesterday at work my co-workers were raving about the ones they ate at a south indian restaurant in San Francisco. It got me in the mood to try this dish out. I bookmarked this recipe a while ago in hopes of making it and tonight was the perfect night. I prepared the batter in the morning after soaking a bowl of moong dal (mung beans), red lentils and rice in water overnight. I also prepared a masala filling from "Flavors of India" cookbook which has onions, chile, potatoes and spices like cumin and mustard seed. I tried to make coriander chutney (from same book) but made it too watery so I added some vegan mayo to thicken it up. I would have used soy yogurt but didn't have any.


The first dosa was a failure.


But the rest after that turned out much better. I know I could have made them thinner like they're supposed to be but I just don't have the skill just yet!


The end result: Pretty dosa filled with spicy potatoes and onions.


My dinner plate. It was delicious! I do want to try authentic dosa at an indian restaurant soon. This was a fun experiment.

Monday Eats.

Happy Monday all! Don't worry, it'll go by fast! That's what I tell myself every Monday anyway. After a nice walk this morning with the dog, I had a bowl of Farina hot cereal (cream of wheat) with blackstrap molasses, maple syrup and cinnamon. Not so pretty looking but it was very good.


I made a big batch of this red bean jambalaya from 1,000 Vegan Recipes last night. This will be lunch and possibly dinner today. It's a pretty good recipe though I did change a few things like using yellow pepper instead of green, jalapeno instead of mild green chiles and I omitted one can of the crushed tomatoes because I didn't have any. I guess it would have been more tomatoey with it but I liked it this way.

Monte Cristo Breakfast and Pizza/Salad Lunch

Hope everyone is enjoying the tail end of the weekend. This was breakfast today. Monte Cristo sandwich which is basically french toast slathered with Vegenaise and stuffed with veggie ham and melty dairy-free cheese then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Served with a cup of illy. Yummmm. In case you're wondering, I used Lightlife Smart Deli Veggie Ham and Tofutti American dairy free cheese. My recipe for this sandwich here.


Lunch: Take-away sundried tomato-garlic pizza with added Daiya cheese plus spinach salad with orange-dijon dressing from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. Served with half a banana and pomegranate white tea.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffin Bread

It's been raining for the past week and it even hailed this morning. I made this lemon poppyseed bread to welcome back the sun and whattya know, the sun just came out right now!


This is the lemon poppyseed muffin recipe from The Chicago Diner cookbook. It's less hassle for me to just throw the batter into a loaf tin. This beautiful bread is a result.


So good with a spread of margarine and blueberry jam.

Orange-Ginger Hoisin Tofu

This is a take on Vegan Dad's Pan Fried Tofu with Plum Glaze. I didn't have any plum sauce and I was trying to figure out what to use instead when I remembered a neglected jar of orange-ginger jam that I had in the fridge. The jam's awful on toast but perfect for a sauce like this. It came out really great: crisp pieces of tofu covered in a sweet gingery sauce served with rice and steamed broccoli.