VeganMoFo: Cheezy Lasagna and Pumpkin Rice Pudding

I absolutely love this easy lasagna recipe. It was one of the first vegan lasagnas that I tried when I first went vegan. I love the fact that you can add pretty much anything to it and it comes out right. Today I had a ton of zucchini so I put them in there along with carrots and spinach. Tofutti cream cheese comes to the rescue here to give you a really creamy "cheesy' ricotta-like filling. I sprinkled a little 'Parmezano Sprinkles' over the top. I love that stuff. I also made another pumpkin themed dessert: Pumpkin raisin rice pudding. Super easy and best when eaten cold. Recipe at the end of this post.






Pumpkin Raisin Rice Pudding

2 C white rice, cooked
2/3 C pure pumpkin (the canned variety will work here)
1-1/4 C soymilk
1/2 C sugar
3/4 C raisins
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk pumpkin and soymilk together. Put the pumpkin/soymilk mixture, rice, sugar and raisins in a saucepan. Heat on medium-low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occassionally. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and vanilla and let simmer for 15-20 minutes more until thick and creamy.

Vegan MoFo: Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies and Cardamom Coffee

Fall is here and pumpkins are to be seen everywhere. I have not yet shopped for any pumpkins to cook with but I did have some canned pure pumpkin that I wanted to make a dessert with. I found this cookie recipe at the PPK. I had all of the ingredients (except walnuts and raisins) so I decided to spend my solitary Sunday (husband was at a friend's watching football) baking these delicious treats. Wow, the smells coming out of the oven were heavenly. It reminded me that Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner. Yay!

I enjoyed my soft and tender cookies with a very aromatic cardamom flavored coffee by Cafe Najjar. I bought this coffee from lebanesefoodmarket.com. They have a great assortment of lebanese groceries and cookware. I bought a Ma'amoul mold there too which I haven't used yet. (To be seen in a future blog post!) I love this coffee. It's fairly strong and has a gorgeous cardamom fragrance and flavor. If you don't want to buy this, you can probably put a few teaspoons of cardamom into the coffee filter along with your regular ground coffee to give it flavor. I've done that with cinnamon before and it worked well so I can't imagine why cardamom wouldn't. In any case, coffee and cookies are a great combo no matter what flavors they are!

VeganMoFo: Corn Stew with Soy Chorizo, Eggplant and Potato

More fun with soy chorizo! I got a recipe for 'Guiso de Maiz' from johnp over at the PPK forums and I really wanted to try it out. I didn't have several of the ingredients that were in his recipe so I improvised a bit to come up with this. The chorizo was a very important factor for flavoring and spicing up this stew. I didn't use a whole lot but the little I did use added the perfect amount of flavor and heat. The rest of the vegetables made this stew hearty and filling, ideal on a cool, rainy evening like last night. You can serve this with fresh bread or hot tortillas on the side slathered with Earth Balance margarine or you can do like me and put hot roasted garlic croutons on top. That was such a good idea and so tasty!

Corn Stew with Soy Chorizo, Eggplant and Potato

2 TB olive oil
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 soy chorizo tube (I used 1/2 to cut down on spicyness. You may use a full tube if desired.)
1 small japanese eggplant, cubed or 1 cup regular eggplant, cubed
1 medium baking potato, peeled and cubed
1 15 oz. can stewed tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups frozen corn
1 tsp sugar
juice from 1/2 of a small lime
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, green pepper and garlic. Saute and let the onions and peppers get soft. Add the soy chorizo: cut one end off the casing and squeeze only half the tube of "meat" into the pot. Fry it for a few minutes and then add the eggplant. Cook for a few more minutes. Before using the stewed tomatoes, empty them into a bowl and break up the tomatoes with your fingers. Then add the tomatoes, potatoes and vegetable broth to the pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add the frozen corn, sugar and lime juice. You may add a little water if stew is too thick. Bring back to a boil then turn heat down and simmer partially covered for another 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stew will thicken as it sits.

Vegan MoFo: Soy Chorizo & Potato Quesadillas and Caesar Salad, the right way

One would think a vegan can't have quesadillas because of dairy cheese. Who needs cheese when you've got a whole lotta other stuff that you can put in them? You can use absolutely any combination of ingredients that you have hanging around in your fridge. Things like soy chorizo, soy cream cheese, spinach, garlic, red onions and potatoes. Not bad I say!


This is what Soy Chorizo looks like...a lot like the real thing, no?


This is what the filling looks like.


All grilled up. Ridiculously tasty! Spicy "soyrizo", sweet red onion, tender potatoes, gooey cream cheese with a crunchy tortilla crust...Recipe at the end of this post.

I have a big jar of Veganomicon's caesar dressing in the fridge so I whipped up homemade roasted garlic croutons this time to go on a side caesar salad. What a delicious recipe! I'm glad I made the croutons this time as they are 100 times better than the store bought! And you're lucky that you can get this recipe online here.




Soy Chorizo and Potato Quesadillas
(makes about 3-4 quesadillas)

1/2 red onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tb olive oil
1 soy chorizo link
1 cooked potato, peeled and cubed (I poked a raw potato with holes and cooked it in the microwave. It was easy to peel after it was cooked.)
2 handfuls baby spinach, roughly chopped
flour tortillas (soft taco size)
Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
margarine

For filling:
Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until onions get soft. Add soy chorizo: to do so, cut off one end of the casing and squeeze the "meat" mixture out into the pan. Stir around and cook for a few minutes. Add cubed potatoes and stir around again to coat the potatoes with the chorizo mixture. Then add the spinach and keep cooking until it wilts. Set mixture aside.

Preheat a skillet on medium heat. Take a tortilla and spread margarine on one side. Flip it over and spread cream cheese on other side. Put about 1/2 cup filling on top of cream cheese only on one side. Fold the other side of the tortilla over to press and close together. Place the quesadilla in a hot skillet and use a spatula to press it down while cooking. Grill both sides until golden brown and hot.

VeganMoFo: Tea For Two

Had a good friend over yesterday for tea. I love tea parties. I don't care if it's for two or twelve, I really enjoy preparing tiny sandwiches and treats to share. Along with a pot of black tea, little sandwiches were in order. I made two delicious standbys: joni's tofu egg salad finger sandwiches and open face cucumber/cream cheese. I used Tofutti brand non-dairy cream cheese. I love this stuff. My friend loved the tofu egg salad. If you like egg salad, this tastes very similar. My friend bit into one and said "Oh my god, this is good!". She suggested that curry powder and sultanas would be good additions. That sounds so good to me. Will try it next time.



I also made tartines, which are baguette slices covered with some kind of spread or different layers of ingredients. I made these with cream cheese, sliced cucumber and balsamic tomatoes with basil.



And for dessert we had leftover birthday cake and cookies. My friend made these beautiful vegan cookies. On the left are Anzac biscuits which were so amazing. I've never had Anzac biscuits before. They had oatmeal and coconut in them and were so chewy and addicting! The ones on the right are Okara Molasses. These were good too, soft and mild with a hint of molasses flavor, more "health foody" but still delicious. I plan to get these recipes from her asap!



ANZAC Biscuits (recipe from my friend)

Ingredients

* 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar, rolled oats, and
coconut
* 4 oz (1 stick) margarine (Earth Balance works fine)
* 1 tablespoon golden syrup (Lyle's brand is
available at Cost Plus. It's a little pricey per jar,
but the flavor can't be replicated)
* 2 tablespoons boiling water
* 1 teaspoon baking soda (add a little more water if
mixture is too dry)

Method

1. Grease cookie sheet and pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
(You can use a non-stick cookie sheet or line a regular
cookie sheet with parchment paper)
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Melt together margarine and golden syrup. Combine water
and bicarbonate soda, and add to margarine mixture. (I do
this in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, and add the
other stuff when done: about 35-40 seconds)
4. Mix margarine mixture and dry ingredients.
5. Drop teaspoons of mixture onto tray, allowing room for
spreading. (I use a small ice cream scoop. The scoops should
be a tad larger than a small superball or smaller than a
golf ball)
6. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool
on tray for a few minutes before transferring to cooling
racks.

I find that 15 minutes is a little long. The cookies end up
a little too crunchy. It depends on your oven.

Welcome to the Vegan MoFo!

This month, me and a bunch of other bloggers will be writing about vegan food everyday for the whole month. I will try to get an entry in every day as best I can. I think I can do it.

I think tomorrow will be my first official Veganmofo post. Today I will leave you with a picture of my birthday dinner last night. My omni husband doesn't cook much vegan food but when he does, it's absolutely special and delicious.


Garlic & Olive Oil Spaghettini, Veganomicon Caesar Salad

HB to Me.

It's my birthday and I am making my own birthday cakes! Just because I can't get a cake from the nearest bakery does not mean I can't enjoy birthday cake! I took it upon myself to make my own sweet treats to celebrate the 32nd year of my life. I really enjoyed making the mini loaf cakes last weekend so I made them again, two kinds: Vanilla and Raisin-Spice. To make the raisin spice I just added some raisins and some cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to the batter. I drizzled the vanilla with a plain vanilla glaze and colorful sprinkles and the raisin-spice with a dark rum flavored glaze.

Lookee here:


And my birthday lunch today? Veganomicon's Caeasar Salad! Sorry, I didn't make my own croutons like the recipe says. I was horribly lazy and subbed store bought croutons. Next time though, I promise! I also sprinkled a little Parmezano Sprinkles in it which was a nice touch. The dressing was creamy and garlicky and very very good. I have a giant jar of it in my fridge that will not go to waste.



Tonight the husband is making me dinner (yes!) and then later on in the evening I'll be tuning in to the season premiere of my new favorite show, 'Pushing Daisies'.