Going Against the Grain

Peanutty Pumpkin Stew

2012-01-24T16:13:00.001-08:00

I'm posting my first mediocre recipe review from Vegan on the Cheap. I made the Peanutty Pumpkin Stew the other night for everyone. I have to say that it was pretty tasty. It was a bit bland for my taste, but my family gobbled it up. I think I will sneak in a few more spices the next time I make it. It is packed with super healthy ingredients, so it will definitely be on the table again. The part that wasn't so great was that the cooking times were WAY, WAY off. That was very frustrating. It took a very long time to cook. I think the next time I make it, I will try it in the slow cooker. I do have a picture, but my phone is shattered at the moment, so I'll have to post it later. My recommendation for this recipe is to play ahead. The cooking time is WRONG, but the recipe makes a very nice soup. I'll post again after I make it in the slow cooker.

Bean Burgers

2012-01-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

Tonight my kiddos and I made this recipe: Bean Burgers. I have to say that while it wasn't bad, it wasn't all that good. I had double the amount of oats, and they still didn't set up well. It just wasn't a very good recipe. It was good enough though, that I want to play with it. Today's food:

Breakfast: granola with soymilk
Lunch: Clean out the fridge day! leftover Thai, adzuki beans with butternut squash, hummus/salsa with rice crackers and snap peas
Snack: Clif Builder Bar
Dinner: Bean burger patties with mixed greens, salsa and nooch, grape tomatoes, apple slices, and some snikiddy "fries"

Day 13

2012-01-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

Today was another weird day because I had a choir retreat all day and then an evening out with my husband. So, no new recipes for today, but here's the food for today.
Breakfast: two strips of tempeh bacon, fruit, and OJ
Lunch: BBQ tofu, peppers and mushrooms, tortilla chips, fruit, and veggies
Dinner: Thai food that I can't remember the name of and fried tofu

General Tso's Tempeh

2012-01-13T19:15:00.000-08:00

Tonight I tried a recipe from another blogger that I loved! The recipe is called General Tso's Tempeh. My whole family ate and liked this recipe. Now, it was a lot of work, but it was worth it! It's not something I'll make on a busy night. I changed it up just a little. I steamed the tempeh for 20 minutes ahead of time. I have found steaming the tempeh first cuts that bitter taste. Because of that, I cut the amount of water I cooked the tempeh in. I think I put in less than half, but then I added a little bit when it got dry. I used chili sauce instead of Sriracha, Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce, arrowroot instead of corn starch, and I didn't add the sherry. I quadrupled the recipe. Well, technically, I quadrupled the amount of tempeh and sauce. I also added in a bunch of steamed broccoli and chopped up a bunch of green onions. I made fried rice to go with it. I steamed brown rice, then heated up my skillet and put a small amount of oil in it. I threw in some frozen mixed veggies and let them cook for a bit. I put the rice in and put some Bragg in with it. I cooked that until it was a little crispy. I served the tempeh over the rice, and it was fantastic! I also made the ambrosia salad from the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart meal plan that I made a few days ago. That is just really delicious.

The rest of the day's food included:
Breakfast: cornflakes with soymilk
Lunch: Country Beans with quinoa, lettuce, salsa, nooch, and corn tortillas
Snack: Clif Builder Bar

Survey time!

2012-01-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

Okay - I saw this on Happy Vegan Face's blog, and I thought it would fun to do! So, here goes....

1. What's your favorite gluten-free flour?
Amaranth flour - it makes yummy pancakes, and even more importantly - GRAVY!

2. What have you always wanted to deglutenize, but haven't yet?
Potato Knish

3. What's one of your favorite xgfx meals to make?
Pizza. People think pizza has to be unhealthy to be delicious, but that is just not true!

4. Your biggest gluten-free success that makes ya most proud?
Gravy! What can I say? I'm Southern.

5. Most "epic xgfx fail"?
Biscuits. Sadly, they were little rocks. I haven't given up yet though.

6. What product do you wish was xgfx that isn't?
Tofurkey products

7. If you could pass along one gluten-free tip to a gluten-free newbie, what would it be?
Don't think about having to replace every gluten product with a similar non-gluten product. Think of it as an adventure in a whole new way of eating - one that is healthy and will make you feel fabulous!

8. What's your favorite xgfx product?
Crunchmaster crackers

9. Is there anything you miss being gluten-free?
Sometimes I just want bread.

10. Any xgfx techniques you've learned that have been most helpful?
Don't rely on processed gf foods. Look at different ethnic foods for finding interesting gf food.

11. Have you found a favorite gluten-free pizza dough recipe that makes your heart sing?
I have some I like, but I don't think I'd say makes my heart sing! :)

12. Xanthan gum. Do you or don't you? Love it or leave it?
I really have no opinion on this one.

13. Favorite gluten free prepackaged bread.
None.

14. What's your favorite way to nosh on quinoa?
I made a curried lentil stew with quinoa recently that was fabulous.

15. Name five of your most coveted pantry staples.
Nutritional yeast, jarred pimientos, Crunchmaster crackers, raw agave nectar, organic salsa, dried beans

16. If you could only buy three gluten free flours to last you for three months, what would they be?
amaranth flour, garbanzo flour, potato flour

17. Any xgfx ingredients you are intimidated about trying?
Nothing intimidates me in the kitchen!

18. Favorite place to buy foods?
Costco - I have a family of 7, and I can buy so many bulk organic items there.

19. Favorite meal when dining out?
That's a hard one - I'd have to go with anything Thai.

20. Freebee - insert your own question and have fun with it!
What would you say to someone who says, "You're vegan AND you don't eat gluten? What do you eat?"
LOL - I think I could talk their ears off for hours answering that one. I eat things on a daily basis that many people have never heard of.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2012-01-12T22:13:00.001-08:00

Tonight's "salad bar:"

I am still doing the 21-Day Kickstart - I just haven't posted in a few days! Two days ago, I was involved in a concert at Boettcher Hall in the Denver Performing Arts complex with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and The Spirituals Project Choir, so things were a little busy! I cannot remember what I ate that day. Oops. And I was kind of sick yesterday, so my brain's a little fuzzy on that, too. So, I'll just skip to today!!!

Tonight's dinner!

Today I tried a new recipe from PCRM called Cream of Broccoli Soup. It was pretty good. I made it in the middle of the day, so not very many tried it. My 12 year old didn't like it, but to be fair, she was sick. My two year old couldn't get enough. She ate a huge bowl of it, and then had some more. It's a recipe that I'll keep. It wasn't my favorite, but it was definitely a keeper. I also pulled out an old favorite recipe from Vegan Planet tonight. For supper, we made a "salad bar," and the kids loved it! These kiddos are used to eating salad, but they seemed to really dig they way we did it tonight. I'll definitely make that a permanent part of our salad routine!

Food for today:
Breakfast: yogurt with granola, green smoothie
Lunch: Cream of broccoli soup with rice crackers
Dinner: green salad and adzuki beans with butternut squash
Snack: hummus/salsa with rice crackers and a Clif Builder Bar

Cream of Broccoli Soup:

BBQ style portobellos and tofu

2012-01-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

This picture is awful! I snapped it though as I was grabbing my food and running out the door! I had a major rehearsal to get to tonight, so there was no time for retakes. Hopefully it'll give you the idea though. I'm in week two of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, and I tried another of their recipes tonight. It was FABULOUS! I completely and absolutely loved it. It's called Barbecue style portobells, and it is supposed to be just for portobello mushrooms, but only a couple of us in my house like mushrooms. I made some baby 'bellas with the recipe, but I also sauteed some onions and tofu for the rest of the sauce. I doubled the sauce using Bragg Liquid Aminos for soy sauce to make it gluten free. This recipe is easy and delicious. I ran out of mild chili powder yesterday, so I cut the amount of chili powder in half and used chipotle chili powder. It was a tad spicy! Oops. My older girls and I liked it (although the younger one said it was a little too spicy), but apparently the rest of the family said, "TOO SPICY!" I really liked the smoky flavor of the chipotle though, so next time I will add one tsp of chipotle chili powder and three tsp of mild chili powder (remember I'm doubling the recipe). I will also add more vegetables with the tofu. Delicious! I highly recommend it.

Today's food consisted of:
Breakfast - cinnamon-raisin oatmeal
Lunch - leftover Broke Bean Stew, hummus/salsa and rice crackers, carrots, and tomatoes
Snack - Clif Crunch bar, a dark chocolate square, and a banana
Dinner - BBQ baby 'bellas, tofu and onions, roasted potatoes, steamed carrots, and guacamole and tortilla chips

Broke Bean Stew and Ambrosia Salad

2012-01-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Today's dinner was fabulous! I tried two new recipes. One I got from PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, and the other one came from The Biggest Loser website. Broke Bean Stew is super healthy, super easy, and super tasty! Be forewarned though - if you use the amount red pepper flakes that it calls for, it will be SPICY! I didn't put in what it called for, and it was still spicy. It was perfect for me, and my older two daughters liked it, too. Everyone else thought it was too spicy, so I'll have to tame that down next time. :) I put extra spinach in the bottom of my bowl then ladled on the soup.

The ambrosia salad was simple, but it was really tasty! Everyone loved it. Here is the video about how to make it:

The rest of the day's food looked like this:
Breakfast - a Lara bar and a green smoothie
Lunch - a veggie/tofu stir fry with brown rice and a green salad with peanut dressing (my son and I had a day out today, so we went to Thai Basil for lunch)
Snack - a square of dark chocolate - yum!

Curried Lentil Soup and Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes

2012-01-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

I was going to try and blog for each day of the 21-Day Kickstart, but I keep forgetting! Yesterday's food consisted of:
Breakfast - green smoothie
Lunch - Curried Lentil Soup and leftover Peanut Noodle Salad (pictured above)
Dinner - Curried Lentil Soup, carrots/celery with guacamole

I tried this recipe Curried Lentil Soup yesterday, and I LOVED it! I changed it up a bit to make it gluten free. I added two less cups of broth, cooked some quinoa and added that at the end of the cooking. This recipe is fantastic, and I highly recommend it!

Today, I had a choir retreat, so it was a potluck. I made the Peanut Noodle Salad recipe to take. For breakfast I made Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes. This is another recipe that is a big WIN! These are gluten free and delicious. They are very Southern, and well, being Southern, I LOVE them!

Lunch was potluck, but I stuck with Peanut Noodle Salad, a dish my friend made with brown rice, black beans and some chopped up veggies with some salsa on top, and a few grapes.

I had a snack of a Lara bar and dinner was a soy yogurt with granola.

Peanut Noodle Salad

2012-01-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today is Day 4 of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. I forgot to post yesterday. I didn't try any new recipes, but I wanted to post what I ate anyway. So, here's what I had: breakfast - green smoothie and yogurt with granola; lunch - tomato and fresh basil with rice crackers, hummus/salsa with carrots, and oranges wedges; snack - Clif crunch bar; dinner - leftover Southern beans and greens

Today has been: breakfast - green smoothie; lunch - Southern beans and greens, salsa/hummus with rice crackers, and salad; dinner - Peanut Noodle Salad and roasted potatoes.

The Peanut Noodle Salad was the latest recipe that I've tried from Vegan on the Cheap. This one was a big win! Everyone loved it. I got thumbs up all around. It was easy, cheap, and healthy! I did things a little differently. I used wide rice noodles instead of linguine and Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce to make it gluten free. I didn't bake the tofu. I put a little oil in a pan and cooked the tofu with some Bragg. I didn't put in red pepper because when I pulled mine out it was going bad. Oops. The recipe was great! I highly recommend it.

Southern Beans and Greens

2012-01-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

Today is day 2 of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. Today I made Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. It was pretty good. I think it would be better with a banana cut up in it and maybe some nuts. I'm going to try it again. I also made a green-ish (ran low on greens!) smoothie. Lunch was a Clif Builder Bar (peanut butter/chocolate - yum!), an orange, and a tofu spring roll with peanut sauce.

For dinner, we had leftover of the Hoppin' John Salad, which after eating twice, I have decided I don't like. We also had hummus/salsa and tortilla chips and Southern Beans and Greens. I put garbanzo beans in the slow cooker today (with kelp). Tonight I made the recipe with those beans with a cup of the cooking water with some veggie broth powder. Oh my goodness! It was fantastic! I did not put in Tabasco sauce because it is gross, but I did put Cholula on it. It was so delicious! I will be making a pot of this to portion out to take to school with me. I had seconds. I highly recommend this recipe. Next time I will also put in more greens than I did tonight. I didn't measure; I just used the bunch of kale that I bought at Whole Foods. I forgot to take a picture of my plate, so here's a picture of leftovers in the pot. :)

Hoppin' John Salad

2012-01-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. I did not make the oatmeal that they had on their website, but I do plan on making it tomorrow! I made these: Gluten-free Pancakes with blueberries and a green smoothie. Yum!

For dinner, I made the Hoppin' John Salad on their website. It was okay. It was a little too lemony. If I make it again, next time I will add more tomatoes, less lemon juice, and more salt. I added pepper as well. I served it over spinach. We had salsa/hummus with tortilla chips with it. Decent dinner. Since it was family game night, we had popcorn with Bragg Liquid Aminos and nooch for a snack! Here is the video about the salad.

Jabchai

2011-12-29T18:28:00.001-08:00

This is kind of an odd post, but we really like this dish. It just comes off the back of a Korean vermicelli package. We enjoy the vermicelli. It is made from sweet potato starch, and I tease the kids that they're worms! Yep, that's how we roll here at Chateau Chaos!!! :)

I cook the vermicelli according to the directions, then drain it. The directions on the back of the package call for meat, but we use tofu. We fry that up with some Bragg. I also stir fry an onion. When those are done I dump in the sauce which is:
2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
3 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
roasted sesame seeds (I use about 3-4 tbsp)
black pepper (I just dump in whatever I feel like! Helpful, no?)

After the sauce is mixed in, I dump the noodles in, and then put 1/2 pounds of spinach in. Turn off the heat and mix until the spinach is wilted. I also cook up some baby bellas in olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper to put in mine.

That's it! Pretty simple, vegan, gluten free, and pretty healthy!

Moroccan-Inspired Lentil Soup

2011-12-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made Moroccan-Inspired Lentil Soup out of Vegan on the Cheap. I really liked it, and it smelled incredibly fabulous cooking! I cooked some quinoa and put the soup (really more like a stew) over it. I am usually leery of dried fruit or fruit juice in savory dishes, but I was feeling adventurous. :) The dish is super healthy. It's filled with lentils, vegetables, and spices as well as dried fruit (I used raisins), fresh parsley, and a small amount of lemon juice. I, having seven people to feed, made more than what was called for, but I still have lots of leftovers. I know what the kids are having for lunch tomorrow! This dish makes a lot. My husband enjoyed it as well as my oldest daughter. The younger kids ate it, but I don't think they were as crazy about it. They didn't complain about it though, so that's good because they're going to get it again! This recipe is definitely a keeper. So far, I am liking this book.

Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice

2011-11-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

Tonight I tried my first recipe out of Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. I have to say, it was a big success. I made the recipe called Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice. I didn't exactly measure out all the ingredients which is par for the course for me! I did measure out the spices, but I should have added more because it was a little diluted. I think it was because I added more beans and more rice than was called for. I also didn't have fire-roasted tomatoes, so I used regular canned tomatoes, and I didn't add the olive oil. I also added dried kelp to the beans. The recipe calls for pre-cooked or canned beans. I soaked the black beans overnight, then threw them in the slow cooker. Since I was coming home early today, I cooked them by themselves with the kelp for several hours. When I got home, I added the vegetables, spices, and rice. Next time I think I'll just throw it all in together in the morning. I added some Sriracha in my stew, and it was delicious. This recipe was easy, healthy, and yummy! It was also vegan and inexpensive, so it is definitely a keeper. Tonight was a fabulous start to Vegan on the Cheap!

Vegan on the Cheap

2011-11-28T13:16:00.000-08:00

Here's my new cookbook! Seriously - how perfect is this book for me right now? I am trying to eat vegan, and all the recipes are vegan. I am trying to cut out all gluten, and most of the recipes are either gf or easily adaptable. I am trying to eat cheaply but healthfully, and well, look at the title! Perfect. I am trying out my first recipe from the book tonight. It is in the slow cooker as I type. I am thinking about adding a section to put links to blogs where I have tried recipes from specific cookbooks, or maybe groups of cookbooks by the same author. Thoughts?

Energy balls

2011-11-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

My friend Christmas told me how to make these energy balls. They are simple and very versatile. Oats, dried fruit, some kind of nut/sunbutter, and liquid sweetener (I use agave). I haven't experimented much. Usually I make them with oats, raisins, peanut butter, and agave. I can get organic raisins and organic peanut butter at Costco, so that's usually what I make. This time, I forgot the peanut butter, but luckily I bought organic almond butter at Costco, so these are made with that! They are yummy. My kids prefer the peanut butter ones, but they ate these this morning. I don't have measurements because I don't tend to measure stuff! Just put the oats in a bowl, dump in the raisins, and then start playing with the nut butter and agave until you can make the mixture into balls. You can eat them then, but I prefer to chill them in the fridge first. I think they taste better that way, and since I use old fashioned oats, the oats have a chance to soften. Also, they don't break apart as easily when they are chilled. Kid friendly - vegan - healthy!

An overhaul!

2011-11-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

I have not kept up with this blog very regularly as of late! I started back to school in January, and things have been beyond cuh-razy since then! It is my goal to get this blog up and running again. I have had a long and interesting food journey. I originally cut out gluten due to some digestive issues. When I started adding gluten back into my diet, things seemed to be going fine. Long story short, with a lot of experimenting, I have realized that I cannot continue to eat gluten. I continue to have digestive issues with gluten. I also have insomnia. I have dealt with chronic insomnia for pretty much all of my life. I have tried everything that I have researched to help it. Some things help, but nothing has fixed the problem - UNTIL I cut out gluten. The only time in my life that I did not have to deal with insomnia was when I was completely gluten free. I also have issues with mental fog and energy. The most troubling issue for me though is pain. When I eat gluten, I have pain in my legs and feet. When I don't eat gluten, the pain goes away. That is pretty clear cut - the gluten has to go - for good.

I am also cutting out dairy and eggs. While this is a health issue as well, it is more of an ethical issue for me. I have never eaten much dairy and eggs anyway. It is both an environmental and an ethical issue for me. Honestly, I have no ethical problem with eating an egg that a chicken shoots out of it's booty. I DO have a problem with the way the chickens are treated, the horrible conditions they have to live in, etc. So, from now on, all the recipes on this blog will not only be gluten free, but they will be vegan as well.

I've toyed with the idea of changing the name, but several friends have pointed out to me that Going Against the Grain works perfectly fine, so I am going to leave it as is! I will be changing some other aspects of the blog though. I will revamp the recipe link section to reflect which recipes are vegan/vegetarian, etc. So bare with me while I get everything in order, and I would love to hear feedback as the changes are implemented! Thanks.

Sesame-Broccoli Stir-Fry

2011-04-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

I tried a recipe out of Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet recently called Sesame-Broccoli Stir Fry. It was pretty good and pretty simple. My husband really enjoyed it. The recipe called for steaming the broccoli which I didn't do. I just put it in the pan raw and stir fried it. (I should add that due to having to referee kid issues, my veggies got a bit over done which was a bummer.) The recipe also called for red bell pepper, but I switched that out with carrots and bean sprouts. The sauce had sesame oil, soy sauce (I used Bragg), hoisin sauce, and sesame seeds. I, personally, thought there was too much hoisin sauce, and I will reduce the amount next time I make it. Overall though, it was pretty good. Kids ate it, hubby ate it, I liked it - recipe success! We also had green beans with tomatoes, corn, greens, and fresh tomatoes and basil with gf crackers. Yummy meal!

Green smoothie love and recipe fail!

2011-03-30T21:42:00.001-07:00

Who says kids won't drink green smoothies? My kids love them. They get the best "green" moustaches as you can see. My 7 year old daughter asked me, "How come you don't get a moustache?" Hee hee. Then she proceeded to tell me they were fun! Apparently, I'm just not doing it right. :-)

I've recently started back to school full time which has been super challenging when trying to cook scratch, gf/df healthy meals for 7. I've started relying on my old favorite Vegetarian Times. VT is pretty reliable with their recipes. I saw a magazine on the stand at the HFS that they put out called Quick & Healthy 30-minute Meals. I bought it because that is exactly what I need right now. The first recipe I tried out of it was called Southwestern Salad with Avocado-Lime Dressing. The picture in the magazine is pretty because it did not have the dressing on it! I am sad to say that this is one of the very few recipes from VT that I have tried that was AWFUL. I did switch out the sour cream with a pine nut sour cream substitute to make it vegan. However, the dressing was just kind of gross. I ate it, but I think that is mainly because I felt guilty wasting so much food. The kids wouldn't even eat it. I am very disappointed, but given VT's excellent track record, I will definitely try more recipes out of the magazine.

New green smoothie

2011-03-28T19:36:00.001-07:00

I tend to stick to the same old same old when it comes to green smoothies just switching it up very little. I saw a recipe for a very different smoothie on another food blog, and I thought I'd try it. It has a pear, a banana, a bunch of parsley, blueberries, and water. I decided to put in a couple of dates because I like my smoothies sweet. I was very curious to see what it would taste like, and I was pleased! The parsley adds a sort of minty taste to the smoothie. I will definitely keep the dates in it though. It added just enough sweetness. I did take a picture of mine, and hopefully I'll get it up on the blog soon. For now, here's the original recipe with a picture! Enjoy.

(okay - picture is added! It's not the greatest picture in the world due to the lighting, but it was a yummy smoothie. For the record, I got tired or waiting on the hubs and just figured it out myself. I am woman - hear me roar! LOL.)

Questions

2011-03-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

So, my hubby was going to help me get recent pictures off my phone (long story - phone issues) tonight, so that I could finally update my blog, but he got all grouchy about it. *grump* I guess that'll have to wait until tomorrow! So, I swiped this from Veganza for fun!

1. Favourite non-dairy milk?
Homemade cashew milk is the best.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Well, the TOP 3 changes all the time, but the upcoming 3 are: 1) avocado wasabi salad, 2) pressure cooker Ethiopian stew (although I have no pressure cooker, so I'll have to improvise! I've been looking for a reason to make injera again though.), 3) Cuban-style black beans from Vegan Planet.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Nutritional yeast for sure

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
A gazpacho that was WAY too green peppery. I was 17 or 18 and learning to experiment in the kitchen and try new recipes. God bless my parents who ate everything I made EXCEPT the gazpacho. It was pretty bad.

5. Favourite pickled item?
Cucumbers. Boring - I know, but still yummy!

6. How do you organise your recipes?
The recipes I have on cards go in a file under the general categories.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Compost! We built our own awesome, huge compost pile. We just emptied one side two weeks ago and puts lots of lovely compost in our garden!

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
1) tofu, 2) peanut butter, 3) tomatoes

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Mom's homemade beans with cornbread. Yum.

10. Favourite vegan ice cream?
The best is vanilla Tofutti - hands down. Not the healthiest - but still the most delish.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
My Blend-Tec blender. Although my cast iron skillets come in a close second.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Fresh basil. The smell is intoxicating and the taste is out of this world!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
The New Farm Cookbook - it has masking tape holding it together!

14. Favourite flavour of jam/jelly?
Blackberry

15. Favourite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Thai peanut pasta

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
I can't eat seitan (and please don't call it say-TAN - it just sounds stupid, really stupid.) because it's gluten. Tempeh (and no, it's not tem-PAY) is good, but it takes a lot of prep for it to be good, so it's labor intensive! Tofu is just yummy and versatile.

17. Favourite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
One favorite meal? Gosh.... I like making oat balls or oat sausage balls.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Bento stuff and the snack box.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Blueberries, orange juice, kale burgers

20. What’s on your grocery list?
hummus - yes, I know I should make my own, but I don't often.

21. Favourite grocery store?
Well, I love Whole Foods because it just has so many cool things, and I love all the fruits/veggies. I also love Costco because I can buy organic fruits/veggies in bulk! What can I say? I have five kids.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
I'd love to make a vegan (or at least dairy free) version of cottage cheese loaf - although since the main ingredient is cottage cheese, I don't know that it is possible!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Yikes! Lately I haven't been checking the blogs because I've been so busy. I love Vegan Dad, Vegan Yum Yum, and The Spunky Coconut though.

24. Favourite vegan candy/chocolate?
I don't know the name of it, but Vitamin Cottage sells these coconut bars covered in dark chocolate that are supper yummy!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
A bottle of Acai juice. It felt extravagant.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
Scared? Ha! I laugh in the face of.... uh, unusual ingredients. I just bought some fufu flour to try. That's one of my favorite things about cooking, to grab something unusual just to give it a try!

Veganomicon's scalloped potatoes

2010-08-31T20:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight I made a fabulous recipe from Veganomicon. Actually, I made two recipes, and my husband and I enjoyed them both. The first one is called Herb-Scalloped Potatoes. They were delicious. As with the Lemony Roasted Potatoes, I had to play with the oven time a bit, but that's okay. I also realized that I definitely have to make more than the recipe calls for. We ate every bit of it - even the baby ate it! I'll post my revised recipe after I make it again and have time to play with it a bit. They're made from potatoes, soymilk, broth, nooch, and spices.

The other recipe I made was the Southwestern Corn Pudding. It's sweet and chewy and very nice. Unfortunately, only my four year old would eat it, so I won't be making it again. It was a very pretty dish. The picture from my phone does NOT do the dish justice. I used blue corn meal, plus there was red from the red pepper, green from the jalapeno, and yellow from the corn - very colorful!

The peanut butter/banana crepe roll ups were iffy. I screwed them up this morning. I mashed the banana up too much making it very gooey. When I made them for the rest of us for lunch, I just mashed the banana enough to squish it a bit, and the roll ups were good. The kids are willing to give them another shot tomorrow.

Hurry Up Alfredo

2010-08-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

I tried a new recipe tonight from a blog I follow: Vegan Yum Yum. Apparently she has a cookbook coming out and this recipe is going to be in it. This recipe is super easy and pretty tasty. It was a little bland for me, but my family chowed down on it. I changed it up a little using Bragg for the tamari. I only had one tablespoon though of Bragg, so I used it and then added one teaspoon of salt. Next time I am going to plan on sauteing some vegetables to add to it. Sorry for the poor picture. My camera isn't working, so I took this on my phone. Here's the recipe Hurry Up Alfredo

I've been trying to brain storm some new ideas for the kidlets lunches. One idea I came up with was to make cornmeal crepes and put some peanut butter, honey, and bananas in the middle. I made the crepes tonight. I used this crepes recipe blueberry crepes. I'm anxious to see how they roll ups turn out.

Tofu and spinach with coconut-peanut sauce

2010-01-26T08:56:00.001-08:00

This is the dish I mentioned before. I know I have a habit of saying that I'm going to play with a recipe and then post it, and then I don't! Well, this time I'm actually posting one that I've played with! The original recipe came from Delicious Living, and it's supposed to be for the slow cooker. I haven't made it in the slow cooker yet though. Everyone in my family LOVES this recipe, and eats every bite of it. Here is the delicious recipe:
2 13.5 oz cans coconut milk
2/3 C peanut butter
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
19 oz firm tofu, drained, pressed, and cubed
3 large handfuls of spinach
2 C brown rice

Cook rice. Put everything but rice and spinach in a big pot. Cook over very low heat for 20 minutes. Add spinach and cook about 5 minutes more. Mix in rice and serve with Bragg and Sriracha. Delicious!!!

How hippies do football food...

2010-01-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

Being whole food eating hippies AND massive football fans, I had to figure out some healthy(ish) football food for the NFC championship game. I'm pleased with the spread! We had tempeh hot wings, roasted potatoes, sweet potato fries, a green salad, and fruit kabobs with an orange cashew dip. It was yummy!

I got the recipe for sweet potato fries from a fellow food blogger, and the original recipe is here. I changed it a little to reduce the salt and make it gluten free. So, here's how I made them:
Sweet potato fries
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp gf all purpose flour or amaranth flour
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
Chop sweet potatoes into fries. Put the rest of the ingredients in a big bag. Put the fries in the bag and shake them until they're coated. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes until soft and slightly browned.

Here's the recipe for the orange-cashew dip
1 1/2 C raw cashews
1/4 C maple syrup
1/2 C orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
Blend in a high powered blender until smooth and creamy. Chill and serve with fruit!

Gluten free blueberry crepes

2010-01-20T15:02:00.000-08:00

There's so much going on lately, that I haven't been keeping up with this blog very well. I've been cooking a lot of great vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free food lately though! I just made crepes for the first time ever. A while back I bought a crepe pan, and I never used it. I recently cleaned out my kitchen, and I resolved to either use the pan or get rid of it! Well, the crepes were fabulous, and I'll definitely be making them again, so the pan stays! I got the recipe out of Vegetarian Times. I can't tell you the number of VT recipes that I have tried and liked. Many of them have become regulars are our dinner table. Vegetarian Times is a great resource for vegetarian recipes. This recipe wasn't gluten-free or dairy-free, so I'll post the way I made it. Also, since I am cutting out almost all refined white sugar from my diet, I'll be experimenting with it more in the future, but for now, here's how I made it. These crepes were absolutely delicious, and I did not miss the gluten or dairy AT ALL!

Cornmeal Crepe Batter
1 C gf all-purpose flour
1 C masa
1/2 C sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 C almond milk
1 tsp vanilla

Filling
3 C fresh blueberries
10 oz. all fruit blueberry spread

Cashew Cream
1 1/2 C cashews
1/4 C maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 - 1/2 C water

Whisk together flour, masa, sugar, zest, and salt. Whisk in eggs. Whisk in milk 1/2 C at a time until batter is smooth. Whisk in vanilla. Cover and chill over night (recipe says at least 30 min.). Simmer fruit spread and 1/4 C water for about five minutes. Take off heat and mix in blueberries. Blend ingredients for cashew cream in a heavy duty blender until smooth and chill.

Whisk 1/4 C water into batter to thin. Lightly oil pan and heat over med heat. When skillet is hot, pour 1/4 C batter into it, lifting and turning pan to swirl batter so that it coats bottom of pan. Cook until edges begin to brown and center is dry. Flip and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute more. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with blueberry mix and cashew cream.

Here's some of the other delicious gf/df food that we've been eating lately:

This dish was absolutely mouth watering! It had two kinds of mushrooms plus tempeh in a mustard/beer sauce. I used a gf beer and amaranth flour, and it was so delicious. I served it over mashed potatoes and with a side of sauteed chard. I may have to make this one every time my husband goes out of town (he doesn't like mushrooms. Weird, I know.)

My son took this picture (note the Luke Skywalker light saber chopsticks!). This was a recipe called breakfast beans (best - beans - ever! out of The Seventh-day Diet) with brown rice. I also put lots of lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, hot sauce, and nooch in mine. Yum! This one is sort of a standard at our house.

This night we had a lentil loaf (out of The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook), balsamic roasted green beans and red peppers, and a huge green salad. Healthy comfort food!

Here's another mushroom dinner that we had when my husband was out of town. It's a mushroom-tomato soup. The kids weren't crazy about it. I guess I'll have to make this one for book club! I love it. It's an old stand by for me. It has lots of onions, mushrooms, parsley and/or basil, and red wine in it. We had a big green salad and rice crackers with it.

This dish was another hit it out of the ballpark meal! We LOVED it. The kids gobbled it up. I am going to experiment with the recipe a little before I post it because it needs a bit more bite to it. It was really fabulous though. It had coconut milk, tofu, spinach, and rice in it. The kids totally chowed down on it!

For this meal, I cooked up some CSA spaghetti squash. I sauteed onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, and fresh basil to put over the top of it. Unfortunately, the whole meal took longer to cook than I had anticipated, so by the time we ate it, it was kind of cold. I need to make that dish last next time because it's not nearly as good when it's cold. The noodle dish was soba noodles with veggies and a peanut/vinegar sauce. I thought it was okay, but everyone else loved it, so it looks like that recipe is here to stay as well!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Smoothie

2009-11-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

My daughter named this smoothie. It is very yummy and super easy to make. (Oh, my camera battery is dead, so no picture!)
cherry Whole Soy
banana
frozen blueberries
orange juice
probiotic powder
combine, blend, enjoy!

Gluten free gravy

2009-11-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

I have found the secret to gluten free gravy! Seriously. Want to know it? Okay, I'll give it to you for free! Ready? The secret to gluten free gravy is, wait for it, drum roll please...........
amaranth flour. Yep. That's it! The stuff is fantastic. It makes delicious gravy. As a Southern woman, gluten free gravy has been a priority of mine. There is a vegetarian restaurant here in Denver that makes really yummy gravy, and I have been trying to emulate it for years. Well, I finally got it. Here's the recipe (sort of):

olive oil
1 small chopped onion
2 tbsp Bragg liquid aminos
1/2 C amaranth flour
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder (you can use fresh garlic, but I forgot to add it until after the onions were cooked, so I put in powder!)
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp sage
1/2 tbsp rosemary
soymilk
salt and pepper

Okay, I did not measure the soymilk. I just added little by little until it was the consistency that I wanted. I'd guess the olive oil was 3 tbsp. I love this gravy.

Another tofu stir fry

2009-09-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner was so darn yummy and easy. The kids ate it up! I didn't measure anything, but here's what was in it:

tofu
carrots
red bell pepper
bean sprouts
ginger
brown sugar
Bragg Liquid Aminos
lime juice
peanuts
cilantro
rice noodles

Cheezy Sauce

2009-07-04T21:39:00.001-07:00

Okay, I posted these pictures then forgot to actually blog about it! This was a recipe from Veganomicon. It wasn't bad, but honestly it was more like gravy than cheezy sauce. We used it to make chili cheeze fries. It was okay, but just not all that great. I don't think I'll make it again. I have a gravy recipe that I like, and I have a cheezy sauce recipe that I like. So, not a glowing review, but it wasn't bad either!

Carrot-tofu Stir Fry

2009-07-04T21:38:00.001-07:00

I used CSA cilantro and onions for this stir fry. I thought it was a little bland, but the kids gobbled it up! It had tofu, carrots, and onions. The sauce had broth, corn starch, garlic, lime juice, sriracha, and cilantro. I mixed it up with steamed basmati.

Organic and local

2009-06-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

We started receiving our weekly CSA box from Grant Farms last week. We've been enjoying fresh veggies! The first box was mostly greens plus radishes, cilantro, dill, and baby beets. Here's a picture of one of the salads I made this week with greens and radishes from our CSA box.

My neighbor gave me some fresh oregano out of her garden, so I chopped some up and some fresh dill from our CSA box and put them in our mashed potatoes. It was yummy! I'm looking forward to seeing all the cool veggies, fruits, and herbs we're going to get this summer and fall.

The great cookbook challenge!

2009-06-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

I thought about calling this - super busy stay at home family manager of a family of 7 cooks dairy free/gluten free gourmet recipes! It was a bit long though, so I figured the great cookbook challenge had a better flow to it. My husband and I had a rare few hours to ourself on Friday evening, so we went to a movie. One of the previews was for a movie coming out with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep called Julie and Julia. Meryl Streep plays Julia Childs. Amy Adams plays a woman named Julie who decides to make a Julia Childs' recipe every day of the year and blog about it. I TOTALLY loved that idea. Now, if I was a single woman with no children or at least had no children - I would do that! However, I am married and I have five children. So, a new recipe every day will never fly. I have decided on a modified approach to the challenge. The book I'm using is already vegan, so that takes care of the dairy issue. Many of the recipes in the book are already gluten free, but I may be modifying some of the recipes to make them gluten free. Plus, there are no rules about following the recipe perfectly. I've never been too good at doing what I'm told anyway! LOL. Anyway, here is my first recipe out of Veganomicon for the challenge: potato-kale enchiladas. I made a few changes to the recipe. The most obvious being that I made it into an enchilada casserole instead of rolling and stuffing the enchiladas. When one is a busy mom trying to squeeze in some healthy cooking, you make things easy on yourself!

Here's how I made them (the stuff in italics are things I've changed):
Enchilada Chile Sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 sm can roasted green chiles
2 tsp chile powder (the recipe says 2-3 tsp, I knew my hubby would prefer 2 tsp, so....)
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
(the sauce also calls form 1 tsp sugar, but I have learned by trial and error to NOT add sugar, so I didn't)

Potato-Kale Filling
1 pound potatoes (they call for Yukon gold or red)
1/2 pound kale, washed, trimmed, and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 C beef type broth
2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp lemon juice (I changed this one simply because I ran out of lime juice - they turned out so well that I'll probably leave it that way. I liked the tanginess of the kale!)
1/2 tsp salt
18 corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 375.
Prepare enchilada sauce:
Saute the onions in oil for 4-7 minutes, until softened. Add remaining sauce ingriends, bring to a simmer, remove from heat. Puree sauce in blender.

Prepare filling:
Peel and dice potatoes, boil until tender, drain and cool. (I made these the day ahead to make preparation quicker and easier!) Cook garlic in olive oil until garlic is slightly browned. Add the kale, sprinkle with salt, and raise the heat to medium, stirring to cover kale with garlic and oil. Cover the pot and let the kale wilt. Remove lid, add ingredients and cook 3-4 minutes more.

Assemble:
Use a 9" x 13" pan. Put a little sauce in the bottom, dip 6 tortillas in the sauce and lay them in the pan. Spread half the potato-kale mixture on top. Repeat and end with a layer of tortillas. Pour any sauce left on top of the casserole. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 12 minutes or so until the tortillas start to get a little crisp on the edges. Then - enjoy!

We had a yummy salad made with our CSA greens and radishes. Then, we ate super delicious strawberries from our CSA box for desert!

Garden greens

2009-06-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

We harvested our first garden greens! They were yummy! Our garden is doing pretty well. We've had outrageous amounts of rain which is incredibly unusual for Colorado. It did wash away a couple of my pepper plants, all of my basil, some of the second batch of lettuce, and some of the carrots. The peas, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, and chives are looking awesome! We made a salad with the romaine and spinach that we picked. The kids had a blast picking the greens, and they all ate them as well!

Skillet Cornbread

2009-04-09T20:06:00.001-07:00

Here's a recipe that speaks to my Southern heart! Tonight I made skillet cornbread, and it was so yummy! Everyone loved it - especially smeared with the local honey we had. We had "breakfast beans" (that's a recipe I'm going to talk about another time), fried potatoes, fresh tomatoes, and skillet cornbread. I used this recipe, and I will definitely be making it again. I added a teaspoon of chipotle chile powder which gave it a small kick! I think it would be good with fresh corn kernels, sauteed jalapeno, green chiles, or even chopped chipotles. I'm sure we'll be experimenting! Jalapeno jelly would be great, too, although the honey was divine with it! This is a terrible picture, but I forgot to get a picture BEFORE we started eating! The cornbread was cooked in my cast iron skillet. Have I ever mentioned how much I love that thing? It's awesome!

Here's how I made it:
2 cups soymilk
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 3/4 cups corn flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for coating the pan)
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp chipotle chile powder
Preheat oven to 425, and put the cast iron skillet in there to heat up. Mix the milk and vinegar and let the milk curdle. Mix everything together. Put oil in the hot skillet, then pour in the mixture. Cook for 20 minutes (or under toothpick comes out clean and top is nicely browned).

Yummy Lentil Stew

2009-03-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

I've had an episode of Get Fresh with Sara Snow recorded since December. She made a lentil stew on it that sounded delish. I finally made it tonight. I sounded like it would be big enough to have for dinner and throw the leftovers in the freezer for after Baby T is born. It was! Well, it might not have been if the kidlets hadn't had a friend over. They were more interested in playing than eating tonight, but that's okay. It was really yummy. It cooked so long that the lentils fell apart and made it creamy. It was an awesome comfort food that was healthy! Even dh (the self avowed soup/stew hater) said he liked it which is good because it's going to be made again! Here's how I made it.

2 C red lentils
8 C water
2 tbsp "chicken" broth powder
potatoes
celery
carrots
several kombu strips
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp thyme
1/2 tbsp oregano
bay leaf
zucchini
1 large can of diced tomatoes

Chop all the vegetables. Mix lentils, water, broth powder, potatoes, celery, carrots, kombu, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 30 minutes. Add spices, zucchini, and tomatoes and simmer for another 15 minutes or until lentils have broken down and veggies are tender. Remove bay leaf and enjoy!

Green beans with tomatoes

2009-03-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who is expecting a baby the same time as me, posted a link to a recipe for tomatoes and green beans. It sounded good, and I had some fresh green beans, so I decided to make my own version of it! Here's the original version Aunt Kate's Green Beans in Tomatoes. My kids LOVED this dish and came back for seconds, so I'll definitely be making this one again! Here's my version:
Green Beans with Tomatoes
2 lbs green beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp minced onions
black pepper to taste
Mix the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and herbs in a large pot. Put the green beans in with the tomatoes and cook on medium high heat until the green beans are crisp tender.

I also made a version of honey baked lentils that was really great, but I need to tweak it a little. I'll post it later. I also tried a recipe for chipotle mashed sweet potatoes. Trey really liked that one, but unfortunately, no one else did, so that one got scratched!

Every St. Patrick's Day, I make Irish Bean Stew! Normally, I make a meal full of green/Irish stuff. This year, I was just too tired, but at least we had a really healthy meal! With the Stew, I steamed broccoli and cut up tomatoes and sweet peppers. With that we had carrots and made a cashew/pimiento "cheese." It was really delicious.

Last but not least - Livi's bentos for this week! She loves her bento boxes and loves taking pictures with them! This one has grapes, a boiled egg, Cajun jerky, soy cheese, snap pea crisps, gf pretzels, strawberries, and gf Pamela's cookies.

This one has gf pretzels, strawberries, grapes, a Pamela's cookie, a veggie dog, carrots, and soy cheese.

Tempeh Hot Wings

2009-03-15T19:50:00.001-07:00

First let me say - these are absolutely, positively, freaking fantastic!!! I loved them! I will make them often! I got the original recipe off this site: Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk. I changed the recipe to make it gluten free and to my liking! :-) I bought the tempeh at the Aurora Vitamin Cottage, and unfortunately they only sold one kind of tempeh. So, they were pretty thick. Next time I'll just have to bite the bullet and drive to Whole Paycheck - uh, Foods - to get the long, thin kind. I think they'd be way better with the thinner tempeh. I didn't think about getting a picture of just the hot wings until they were almost gone, and my picture is weirdly orange. You can get the idea though. Dinner was so fabulous tonight!

Here's the recipe for the tempeh hot wings:
2 pkgs of tempeh
1/2 C amaranth flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp thyme
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/3 C soymilk
8 tbsp margarine
4 tbsp hot sauce (I used Tapatio)
8 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp agave nectar

Cut the tempeh into fairly small triangles. Boil water. When the water is boiling, put the tempeh in and let it boil for 15 minutes. Drain and cool enough to handle. Mix amaranth flour, salt, thyme, paprika, pepper, and garlic powder. Have a bowl with the soymilk and a bowl with the flour mixture ready. Dip each tempeh piece in the milk and then coat with the flour mixture. Put them on a greased baking sheet and spray the top with olive oil spray. Cook in a 400 oven for ten minutes - flip and then cook for ten minutes more. While the tempeh is cooking, prepare the sauce. Melt the margarine in a saucepan and then add the hot sauce, ketchup and agave. Keep the sauce hot. When the wings finish cooking, put in a bowl and coat well with the sauce.

I would have liked to have had the wings a little hotter, but Trey and Beth thought they were just fine! Next time I'm going to have to make two batches - one a little less spicy for Ray. He liked them, but the poor kid went through about 8 glasses of water! :-) The rest of dinner consisted of basmati rice with sumac, roasted asparagus with lemon, roasted potatoes with lemon/garlic seasoning and chile powder, sauteed mushrooms and sweet peppers, and a green salad. Aaahhh - it was yummy!

Cashew Fruit Dip

2009-03-15T19:17:00.001-07:00

I made the cashew fruit dip again. I really like it. It's not overly sweet. It does taste better if you make it ahead of time and then let it chill. This recipe makes a pretty good amount, so if you're feeding a smaller family, you might want to cut it in half.

1 C raw cashews
12 oz. Vanilla Whole Soy yogurt
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp cinnamon
Blend really well, chill and serve!

Vegiac

2009-03-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

I have to say that being a gluten-free vegetarian seems to set one apart! A lot of the mainstream books that focus on being gluten-free, also focus a lot on meat eating. The first book about celiac and gluten sensitivity that I read was insane about it. I swear, this woman thought our ancestors ate a diet that consisted of about 75% meat! You'd think we were more like lions and tigers than apes biologically. Oh well. Thanks to Vegetarian Times, I found a website community dedicated to gluten free vegetarians! Woo hoo. Vegetarian Times is a great magazine, and over the past couple of years, they seem to have gotten pretty in tune to the growing gluten-free vegetarian community as well. Many of their recipes are naturally gluten-free. Unfortunately, the first article and recipes that I saw dedicated to gluten-free were pretty nasty. I think they tried a little too hard, but it was a step! I think they even mark their recipes gluten-free now. Although, I usually don't pay much attention to the gf markings on recipes. There is still too much confusion that they are often wrong. I just read for myself. Anyway, it was nice to find a gf vegetarian community. There are several different message boards. They're a bit quiet, but I'm sure as more and more people find out about it, it will become much busier. Check them out: Vegiac.

I tried a new recipe (sort of) that I found in VegNews. It was for a creamy cashew dip. It was so yummy! I changed it a bit, but because I only had so much of certain ingredients, I didn't measure anything - I just threw them in! I am going to make it again, measure the ingredients, and then post a recipe. It was so fabulous. The kids loved it, and so did I! I also made quick tacos. I used a soyrizo that is gf and super yummy. We were in a hurry, so this was just a quick meal to throw together. The kids ate every bit of it though. I think the older kids had 5-6 tacos a piece. You'd think they were filling up a hollow leg. LOL.

March Madness Bentos

2009-03-09T19:49:00.001-07:00

My daughter's school intramural basketball tournament starts tomorrow. So, in honor of that, I made her a special bento for lunch tomorrow. The "basketball" is half an orange that I drew on (Yes, I know - my artistic skills are lacking! LOL.) Also in the top tier is a peanut butter "sandwich" on a gf graham cracker with words in chocolate sauce, just raspberries, and gf pretzels. The bottom tier has peanut rice noodles with carrots and broccoli.

For dinner tonight, I made orange-chile broccoli stir fry with rice, and a salad with a peanut sauce. The sauce was adapted from a recipe in an Asian cookbook my darling husband got me for Christmas. It was okay, but it was very vinegary. It definitely needs work. The salad was romaine, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and tofu.

Lots of things!

2009-03-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

This post will be kind of disjointed, but I have a lot of things to put on it! This first product is a salad dressing that my kids love. They like to dip veggies in it. It's dairy free, and as far as I can tell, gluten free as well.

This was our celebratory desert tonight! :-) My husband got a job, so we decided to splurge, and get Tofutti ice cream bars. I do believe I have raved about Tofutti products on here before, but they are the best commercial vegan deserts ever! The sparkling cider has been in the fridge since New Year's Eve when we were all too sick to drink it. We figured it was time to break it out.

After my husband was laid off, I slashed out budget which included our food budget. Well, the way I know how to eat cheaply is by eating pasta, homemade bread, homemade muffins, etc. I figured - a few weeks wouldn't kill us. Holy cow! If I had any doubts about how gluten affected my children, I don't now! They may be able to handle small amounts, but the overload sent their systems into meltdown mode. I think I'm still shell shocked from it all. LOL. Anyway, it wasn't worth it. My new goal is to find ways to eat gluten free cheaply. I know there are many people in the same boat, so I'll be blogging about it from time to time. Tonight I made roasted potatoes which are so delicious, cheap, and gluten free! Peel and chop up a bunch of potatoes (remember - family of 6 - so we chop up A LOT!). Then, throw them in a big ziploc bag with oil and spices - shake - throw them in the oven at 400 for about 40 minutes - and prepare to partake in the yumminess. I used a packet of onion dip mix last night. This dip is more expensive than the regular grocery store brands, but it doesn't have all the crap that they have either - plus, as far as I can tell it's gluten free. Even with it being more expensive, it's still a cheap meal. You can use other spices as well - another favorite of ours is to use a garlic/lemon mix that I have in a big container.

These crackers are another product that we enjoy. The smokehouse flavor are gluten free and vegan. They are really good. The best ones are the ranch flavor, but they do contain dairy unfortunately.

Last but not least - a picture of our lunch. It was kind of a weird combo, but everyone chowed down! I made a peanut butter smoothie (dates, soymilk, vanilla, peanut butter, and ice) which the kids love! I also made some rice and beans, chopped up some fresh tomatoes, and put out salsa to eat with corn tortillas. With that, I made the green/citrus salad that I made the other night (I forgot to put on the almonds, darn it). Like I said, weird combo - but it all disappeared!

Spinach/citrus salad

2009-03-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made two new recipes. The first was an asparagus and lentil dish that was okay. It needs some work though. I am going to play with the recipe and see if I can get something we like better. The asparagus was super yummy though. I broiled it in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then sprinkled lemon juice on top of it. It was fabulous!

The salad was a variation on one that I've made before, but the dressing was brand new. My mom told me about it a while back. It was a big hit with everyone. Even my oldest son, who has decided for the time being that he doesn't like salads, nibbled on his. The salad consisted of spinach, romaine, sliced red onion, mandarin oranges, and sliced almonds. I usually have walnuts in my spinach salad. I liked it with the almonds. I'm going to have those more often. The recipe my mom gave me for the dressing called for apple cider vinegar which I was sure I had until I opened my cabinet and found red wine vinegar. Oops. I used that instead though, and it was really good. Here's my version of the citrus dressing:
1/4 C grapeseed oil
1/4 C orange juice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp agave nectar
Shake well!

Scrambled Tofu Burritos - again - and a yummy orange smoothie

2009-03-03T19:08:00.001-08:00

I made scrambled tofu burritos again last night. This time, I took the time to measure out the ingredients - okay, some of the ingredients. So I have kind of a proper recipe! LOL. The spices are measured out anyway. I didn't drain the tofu as well this time, and it was a bit mushier. I will be more careful of that next time. Here's how I made it:
chopped carrots
chopped celery
chopped pepper
chopped onion
19 oz "cotton" or Chinese style tofu, drained, pressed, and crumbled
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 tsp ground mustard
2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp no-salt seasoning (I use Costco's organic no-salt seasoning)
cooked hashbrown potatoes (I used two potatoes that I cooked on low heat with olive oil and water until they were done)
chopped tomatoes
sliced green onions
spinach

Cook the first four ingredients in olive oil until they are softened. Mix the tofu with the spices then add to the pot. Cook until the tofu is browned a bit. Add the potatoes and finish cooking. Add the tomatoes (I put in 5 I think), green onions, and spinach (I put in two large handfuls that I chopped a bit). Turn off the heat, cover, and let the spinach wilt a bit. Serve with corn tortillas, salsa, and hot sauce. Enjoy.

This recipe makes a lot - remember there are soon to be 7 in my family!

Tonight we had leftovers of the burritos, and I made a yummy orange smoothie to go with it. Everyone loved it. It was super simple, too. I used agave nectar, but I think next time I will throw in dates instead. Honestly, I forgot I had them! The smoothie was 1 1/2 C of orange juice, 1 1/2 C soymilk, vanilla, a banana, about a tablespoon of agave nectar, and a bunch of ice cubes. Blend and drink!

Finally, a healthy meal

2009-02-26T17:21:00.000-08:00

With Trey being laid off and me doing various temp work, dinner has been, well, not blog-worthy for sure. We haven't been eating gluten free, and I am getting us back to it. I guess my new goal is to figure out how to eat gluten free cheaply! My kiddos are bouncing off the walls, and I'm thinking duct taping them to their chairs isn't such a bad idea. LOL. So, tonight, I actually cooked a healthy, gluten free meal. I made BBQ tofu (just drained, pressed, cut tofu baked with BBQ sauce), mashed potatoes, Marilu Henner's soba noodles, and a green (very green - lettuce, green peppers, green onions, avocado, and tomatoes) salad. It was so nice to have us all sit down to a healthy, home cooked meal together again.

Chocolate pudding

2009-01-27T18:53:00.001-08:00

I made a yummy pudding tonight. This recipe started our as Chocolate Pie from Vegetarian Times. I've made it as a pie before, but we prefer to just make the pudding. Here's how I make it.

8 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 10 oz pkgs silken tofu
10 oz jar blackberry preserves
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C agave nectar

Melt the chocolate and process everything in the food processor. Chill and enjoy!

Yogurt lament

2009-01-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

Is it so hard to make a good tasting vegan yogurt? Apparently. Whole Soy is the best by far. I can't for the life of me understand why Silk is the yogurt that you can buy anywhere. I mean, yes, they are a huge corporation, but how can you sell a product that tastes so badly that it makes you puke? I don't get it. When I tried Silk yogurt, I literally had to run to the sink, spit it out, rinse my mouth out, and get something else to eat, and I very nearly vomited. It's not like it was just bad, it was HORRID! You can buy horrid, runny, puke flavored vegan yogurt anywhere, but high quality, good tasting vegan yogurt you have to fight to find. It blows the mind.

Not hard to figure out that I am ticked at Whole Foods again. They now sell only one kind of vegan yogurt in big containers, and it is - you guessed it - puke, uh, I mean Silk. The only Whole Soy they sell are these little cups.

I'm having a very hard time justifying buying these little cups of yogurt. There's so much trash involved. But - darn it - I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO LEARN TO MAKE YOGURT! It sounds hard and messy and well, I like Whole Soy. In the end, I know I'm going to be making soy yogurt - I'm just going to have to bitch about it along the way.

Taco meat

2009-01-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I made the TVP taco meat again tonight, and I liked it better this time. It's basically the recipe from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. The biggest difference is DO NOT add the sugar. I know sometimes it cuts the acidity - yadda, yadda, yadda. In this recipe, it just adds a weird sweetness that is yucky. Everyone chowed on tonight's dinner, and the kidlets were excited to have it in their bentos tomorrow, so I guess it's a hit! Here's the recipe.
Soak 1 1/2 Cups TVP in 1 1/3 boiling water for 10 minutes.
Saute 1 medium onion in olive oil, then add:
1 14 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
Mix with the TVP and enjoy!

Here's the kidlets bentos for tomorrow!

Scrambled Tofu Burritos

2009-01-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

This meal didn't do much for my goal of adding more living foods into our diet, but it was full of veggies. I'm just glad I felt like preparing food! After many weeks of feeling crappy from the pregnancy, then I got strep throat. Not fair! LOL. Oh well, I'm feeling better, so at least we got a real meal tonight. It was yummy, too.

The scrambled tofu consisted of carrots, celery, red pepper, and onion sauteed in olive oil. Then I added the crumbled tofu with garlic powder, chipotle powder, mustard powder, turmeric, nutritional yeast, and no-salt seasoning. After that cooked a bit, I added some cooked hashbrown potatoes, chopped tomatoes, and chopped green onions. When it was completely cooked, I threw in some chopped fresh spinach. We put all of that in corn tortillas with salsa and hot sauce. Super yummy! The second picture is really blurry - sorry. My camera doesn't do close ups very well.

Pancakes again

2008-12-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

I already posted the pancake recipe (it's in the recipe index on the left if anyone is interested), but I made them again this morning and added blueberries this time! They were really good. I got a good picture of them this time though, so I wanted to post that. (yea, yea - I know - food geek)

The quest for interesting salads...

2008-12-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

Trey and I had an interesting Thai salad today for lunch. It had a fantastic peanut dressing that I have to learn how to make. I love salads. We tend to get stuck in the same old-same old rut sometimes though. The salad today had iceberg lettuce (I think you could sub romaine or even half romaine, and it would be yummy), cabbage, tomato, cucumber, carrot, tofu, and peanuts. It had this yummy peanut sauce covering it. I think the kidlets would devour a salad like that. I need to come up with some good salad combos to keeping things interesting for everyone. If anyone reading this blog has some good ideas - please pass them on! My first goal is to get my living foods intake up to 50% of my diet. I'd like to get it higher than that eventually. Coming up with creative salads will help me reach that goal!

Lots of fruits and veggies

2008-12-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

My quest to add more living foods to my diets is continuing! My first goal is to get to 50%. I'm going to have to get creative to keep my husband interested. He's "tired" of salads - which, really, is tough, but I don't want him to get burned out. I do want to grow old with him! So, I'm going to have to put more planning into our meals. Of course, I can only do what I have energy for!

Today, I had a midwife appointment, and I stopped to get gas. Livi saw a picture of donuts in the window and wanted one. I said no, so she wanted spaghetti! Yea, I'm not sure of the line of reasoning there, but we went home and made some marinara with onion, pepper, tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and zucchini. I cooked some gluten free pasta with it. Then I marinated some sliced fresh mushrooms in olive oil, lemon juice and Bragg (got the idea from Karen Knowler). They were good, but they definitely need to marinate for a couple of hours before eating them. We had a big green salad with the pasta.

After school snack today was soy yogurt with fresh strawberries, blackberries, kiwi, and banana.

for dinner, we had tofu satay with a raw satay sauce (made with raw tahini, miso, orange juice, cayenne, and some other stuff I can't remember!). The recipe came from a book called Alive in 5. We had another big salad with dinner! Yep, I definitely need to get a little more creative. LOL. Ah well, it was good, and I am definitely starting to feel better.

We had a healthy day AND the kids' bentos are packed for lunch tomorrow!

Gazpacho

2008-12-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had a pretty good gazpacho. The kids liked it well enough, but next time I'll blend the onion and pepper into the tomato juice. They liked the taste, but they don't like biting into raw onions! I've been a mom for nine years. I can't believe I made such a rookie mistake! LOL. The recipe was super easy. I saw it on Living Fresh with Sarah Snow. I chopped up five tomatoes, a small onion, some red pepper, cucumbers, and celery, got some corn defrosted and put some no-salt seasoning and olive oil and put it all in a big bowl. Next, the whole mix was drowned in tomato juice and voile - gazpacho. We had some rice crackers with it. My quest to add more living foods into our diets is going well so far!

For desert I made a sweet rice-ish type thing with mangos. That was gobbled up quickly!!!

This gadget is the coolest! I used to hate cutting up mangoes, but this gadget makes it way easy. Love it.

This picture is of the raw flax crackers that we started yesterday. They are - eh, at best. We might play with the recipe and see what we can come up with. They might be okay with some kind of dip or spread. We'll see.

A day of obsessive foodiness!

2008-12-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

Yea, I don't think foodiness is a word, but oh well! It was snowy outside and lazy inside today. I spent the bulk of the day surfing around the Internet on other food blogs and watching videos by raw foodist Karen Knowler. I also spent some time making a recipe index for the recipes that I have put on my blog. I tried several new things today that I got from the Internet. All of the new recipes, so far (we still have flax crackers in the dehydrator) have been a success!

First, we made chocolate nut mylk! That is a recipe that will be making frequent appearances in our home. It was quick, easy, nutritious, and yummy. I think it would be really good with a blended frozen banana. We'll have to try that soon.

Here's Karen's video on how to make it:

For dinner we made nori wraps - another idea we got from Karen. Mine had avocado, tomato, cucumber, carrot, red pepper, pickle, red onion, spinach, and romaine inside of it - simple, nutritious, and delightfully yummy. I think we'll be putting many things inside nori sheets. The other thing we made were sweet potato fries. I got this idea from a fellow veggie blogger. These were a huge hit. I thought we would have a ton, but they cook down quite a bit. I cut the amount of cayenne in half for my hubby. He's not a huge fan of spicy stuff. He grew up in Texas, a.k.a. the land of sour cream and cheese. I think next time I'll put the full amount in because they really weren't very spicy. Here is the link to her recipe. It is delicious.

Here is Karen's video on the nori rolls:

After our fabulous dinner, we had a fabulous desert. Another recipe that I got from another fellow veggie blogger (one who incidentally is also pregnant and due in May - cool). These are raw fudge balls. My self-avowed carob hating husband ate two of these without realizing he was eating carob! I'm not going to tell him - yet. These were totally easy, and everyone liked them. These fudge balls are a desert I don't mind feeding everyone! Don't they look good?

Kids green smoothie

2008-12-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling a little bit like a culinary mom genius this morning! LOL. Well, okay, maybe not - but let me bask in my glory. The kids love smoothies and they particularly love peanut butter/banana smoothies. I usually make those with bananas, peanut butter, vanilla, and soymilk. Well, today I decided to try and "green" the smoothie. I made it with spinach, dates, water, probiotic powder, flax meal, bananas, vanilla, crunchy peanut butter, and ice cubes. Even though the drink is green, the kids are in there happily drinking their spinach! I honestly wasn't too worried. I mean these kids have grown up with "weird" food! LOL. I'm having some for breakfast, too, and it's good! Next time though - I think I'll be sure and freeze the bananas instead of throwing in ice cubes. The ice cubes kind of dilute the taste a little - I think it would taste better without them.

Butternut squash with adzuki beans

2008-12-13T19:28:00.000-08:00

I have a huge vegan cookbook called Vegan Planet. I have only made two recipes out of it - which is silly! One recipe I have made over and over though, and it is a recipe that uses butternut squash and adzuki beans. This time of year, Costco has packages of peeled, cubed butternut squash which makes the recipe so convenient. You can use a can of adzuki beans, but I try to cook all my beans from scratch. Today I cooked up the adzuki beans with kelp. Then, I chopped up the shallots, sauteed them in a little olive oil for a couple of minutes, added Bragg Liquid Aminos, water, and the squash. The cookbook has more precise measurements, but I'm sure I made a bigger batch than what is in the cookbook because it took WAY more water than what was called for. Cooking the shallots and squash together slowly like that sort of caramelizes them and makes them gooey and sweet. When the squash is soft, mix with the beans, season with salt and pepper if you want, and enjoy!

I also cooked up some chard for dinner. Well, really, the chard is only "cooked" long enough to wilt it. I sliced 8 large garlic cloves, sauteed them briefly in olive oil, then added the chard and about a tsp of Bragg Liquid Aminos. After the chard is wilted, remove from heat and top with sesame seeds.

I sliced up some super yummy tomatoes to eat with dinner. My goal is to eat a high raw diet. Living foods are so important to good health. Now that I am not so sick all the time, I have started making green smoothies in the morning again. I plan on experimenting and trying out some new combinations. I've been making big, awesome salads for us. I have been trying to use up the prepared salad dressing that we have in the house, so I'll be forced to make my own! If I can ever remember to get more sunflower seeds from the market, Trey and I are going to make RAWvolution's onion bread again - that stuff is so good (stayed tuned for an upcoming blog post on it!). I just watched a tutorial video tonight on making flax crackers that I am going to try tomorrow. My health is so much better when I am eating a cleaner diet, and now that I am feeling well enough to prepare food - I am going eat a better diet! If it's healthy for me, it's healthy for the kids, and growing baby "Squishy," too.

Marilu Henner's Healthful Cold Spicy Soba Noodles

2008-12-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe in one of those free magazines at the health food store. Who knew Marilu Henner was such a health nut? This recipe is super easy and really good. It's become a frequent addition to our dinner table!

Today I went shopping at Costco. I love Costco! Here's why:

Look at all the yummy looking fruits and veggies! It's almost affordable to feed a growing family of six healthfully with a Costco nearby. Today I got a huge hand of bananas, 10 pounds of organic carrots (we're making juice and sun burgers this weekend!), cubed butternut squash (yea, yea, I know - lazy. Hey, I'm pregnant and I have four kids - it's called healthy convenience! LOL.), avocados, dates, cucumbers, red peppers, kiwi, romaine, pesticide free tomatoes, a big box of oranges, grapes, organic spinach, and organic apples. I always hear people say how expensive it is to shop at Costco - not true! If you stay away from the supersize Ghiradelli brownies, the 12-pack of Heath bars, and all the other junk and crap, it's easy to shop healthfully on a budget. I love it that I had buy the big two-pack of organic tofu for like $3 - how cool is that? I also got salsa, maple syrup, and artichoke hearts. Costco is one of my favorite stores.

Gluten free, scratch pancakes

2008-12-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

My friend Sarah gave me permission to post this recipe for gluten free pancakes. She says she uses different kinds of flours when she's out of amaranth flour. Here's how they're made:

Ingredients
1 cup amaranth flour
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar

In a large bowl, combine amaranth flour, arrowroot, almonds, baking soda and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine water, lemon juice, oil and honey; mix well. Stir liquids into flour mixture; mix well. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Drop the batter by spoonfuls onto the griddle, using approximately 2 tablespoons for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

The first one I ate, I just put some agave on it and ate it like that, and it was fabulous!

After baby soup

2008-12-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

I made this soup today, and it's the same soup I made the day my youngest was born. I had two bowls of it right after birth, and I plan on putting it in the crock pot when I go into labor this time. I cheat a little with it. I use Imagine's vegan potato-leek soup then add water, a bunch of chopped up veggies - this time it was corn, carrots, leeks, potatoes, and onions. I also throw in some pepper and Organic no-salt seasoning and let it cook. Yummy!

Bentos, muffins, and scratch pancakes

2008-12-10T21:58:00.000-08:00

First, the bentos! This first one is Olivia's bento from today. Isn't her Peter Rabbit bento set adorable? It's perfect for her, too. Today I made her skewers of tomatoes, pickles, and soy cheese, ants on a log with almond butter, Glutino pretzels, snap pea crisps, gf mini cookes and gf animal cookies.

These bentos are the ones I made tonight for the kids' lunches tomorrow. The bottom tier has Glutino pretzels, dried blueberries, Pamela's cookies, and snap pea crisps. The top tier has "Heather's pasta salad," which includes pasta (gluten free Mrs. Leeper's vegetable spirals), a mayo-ish dressing, vinegar, organic no-salt seasoning, mixed vegetables, tomatoes, and seasoned tofu.

These muffins I saw at King Soopers, and I thought we'd give them a try. They are gluten free and dairy free. They were okay - a little gritty. I probably won't buy them again. They're not really healthy, and I prefer my homemade gf muffins.

Finally, I made scratch, gluten-free pancakes tonight for the first time! I liked them a lot. They're a bit thin, but they taste great. I got the recipe from my friend Sarah, and I have asked her for permission to post the recipe. For now, here's a picture of them - okay, the last two anyway. I forgot to take a picture when I had a whole plate full! They got eaten pretty quickly.

Stir fried ginger-sesame tofu

2008-12-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made a version of Pan Fried Ginger Sesame Tofu from vegweb. I changed it up a bit. It was good. Everyone ate it, and I heard no complaints. I want to change it a bit more. I think I would reduce the sweetener, add more Bragg and garlic, and add a thickener, and maybe a little more heat to the sauce. In addition to the tofu and green onions, I added broccoli. Next time I think I'll add carrots and maybe peppers, too, and probably bamboo shoots. Dinner was a success though - everything got eaten, and I got thumbs up all around. Here is the original recipe on vegweb: Pan Fried Ginger Sesame Tofu. Thanks to LizzyQ and The Vegan Mother's Blog for turning me on to the recipe! Here's the changes I made to the recipe.

First, I didn't have cornstarch, so I dredged the tofu in potato starch. It worked okay, but it got a little gooey at first. The end product was good though. I used agave for the sweetener, Bragg instead of tamari, 4 cloves of garlic instead of two, and chili oil instead of pepper flakes. I served it all over steamed brown rice. Stay tuned for my revised revised version coming soon!

Our family loves Clementine season! These oranges are sweet and cute, and they never last long in our house!

Here's the kids' bentos from today. First is the preschool bento. It included snap pea crisps, two Pamela's gluten free chocolate chip mini cookies, skewers (or as Livi alls them - shish kabobs) of tomatoes, soy cheese, and mini dill pickles, "ants on a log" with almond butter, and grapes.

Here's the older kids' bentos. They also had each had a thermos of "vegetarian penicillin." The bentos had "ants on a log" with peanut butter, two mini cookies, mandarin oranges, and snap pea crisps.

Vegetarian Penicillin

2008-12-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was looking at some other food blogs, and I found a recipe that looked really good. It's on the blog Beans and Greens: The Vegan in Park City. The recipe was for a vegan chicken noodle soup. It looked fabulous, so my daughter and I decided to make a version of it this evening. It was fan-freaking-tastic! We're calling it "vegetarian penicillin." I changed quite a few things about the recipe. The author of Beans and Greens has two teaspoons of fresh ginger in her version. Well, I'll try anything once, but ginger in this soup just didn't sound good to me, so I only put in 1/2 teaspoon. I think that the soup would be even better without the ginger, but it is so incredibly healthy and healing that it's staying in. She also said that the original recipe called for dill, but she didn't think that sounded good. I thought it sounded great, so I added it! I changed some other things, too. Here is her version: Not chick'n noodle soup. Kudos to her for posting a great recipe! Here is my version:
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 celery stalks, sliced
20 baby cut carrots, chopped
8 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 tsp dried oregano
9 cups water
3 tbsp meatless chicken broth powder
1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp tumeric
pinch of cayenne
3 pinches of shredded, dried kelp, crushed
4 oz flat rice noodles (not the super wide ones)
15 oz. "cotton" tofu (drained, cut small, cooked in olive oil and a little Bragg until browned and chewy)

In a large stockpot, saute carrots, celery, onion, garlic and ginger for about five minutes (add a couple of tablespoons of water to keep them from sticking). Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add noodles tofu and cook for another 10 minutes until noodles are soft. Serve and enjoy!

I also made some gluten free blueberry muffins that everyone enjoyed. It's a recipe that I got in a gluten free cooking class. I would like to play with it some and make it my own, but it's pretty good. I made 18 muffins and they all got eaten! They dont look like much, but that's okay.

Peanut butter "ice cream"

2008-12-07T17:12:00.001-08:00

Ray and I made vegan ice cream, and it was fantastic! These pictures don't look all that appetizing because we were too impatient to wait to eat it when it was good and frozen, so we ate it "super soft serve!" Yummo! The recipe came from Vegetarian Times, and it is definitely a keeper.

Noodle salad and glazed carrots

2008-12-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

Ray and I cooked dinner together tonight. He went shopping with me for ingredients, too. We made Miso-Sesame Noodle Salad from Vegetarian Times and Glazed Carrots, a recipe I found in Real Simple. The noodle salad was okay. We ate it, but I don't think we'll make it again. The glazed carrots were pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of carrots, but the boys really liked them. They were easy, too, so I imagine they're going to become a pretty regular thing in our house! We made them by quartering a bunch of fat baby cut carrots - enough to fill up the bottom of my cast iron skillet. Then added 1 1/2 tablespoons of Earth Balance, spread out in pieces over the carrots, then sprinkled 1 tsp of sugar on them. Then we put water in the skillet to about halfway up the sides of the carrots and cooked them on low-medium heat until the water was reduced to a glaze and the carrots were soft. We also had some Glutino herb crackers with dinner. They were pretty good.

TVP tacos and mock sour cream

2008-12-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dinner was fabulous! Everyone loved it. It's was completely vegan and almost gluten free (it will be the next time I make it). I'm glad it turned out so good because it took every ounce to energy I had to make it!!! *sigh* This pregnancy will be over someday, and I will have a beautiful baby to show for it. Anyhoo - dinner consisted of corn tortillas, TVP taco filling (from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook - I liked it, but I'm going to change it up a bit when I make it next - then I'll post a recipe), a "cheese" sauce (Here's the original recipe: "cheese" recipe. I made it a bit differently, and I am going to make it gluten free next time - we'll work on that later. It was pretty good though - a bit thick.), mock sour cream (recipe below), lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, salsa, and hot sauce. Man, it was so good, and I am really thrilled that I didn't vomit any of it up!!! LOL. Nice thing to put on a food blog, eh? Oh well, it's MY food blog. LOL.
Here's a happy customer!

Mock Sour Cream
1 cup raw cashews (rinsed well)
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp salt
Blend in a high powered blender until smooth and creamy.

I even got the kiddos bentos made for tomorrow. I showed Beth hers, and she said, "It's so cute!" LOL.

Thai peanut noodles and spring rolls

2008-12-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made Thai peanut noodles and spring rolls with a peanut sauce for dinner. It was super yummy! I even got all three bentos ready for school in the morning. It's so nice to feel human again.

The spring rolls consisted of rice thread noodles, tofu (cooked with Bragg), carrots, pickles, spinach, and red pepper strips wrapped up in rice wrappers. The peanut sauce was peanut butter, chili sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, and water (it was so good!).

Here's the recipe for the noodles. I copied the original recipe down from a cookbook 9+ years ago, but this version is quite a bit different. I don't know the name of the original cookbook unfortunately.
2 8-oz pkgs 100% buckwheat Soba noodles (cook according to package directions)
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 C finely chopped carrots
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 C vegetable oil
4 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice vinear
4 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 tsp chili sauce
Mix all ingredients except noodles - then mix sauce with noodles! Can be served warm or cold.

I got all three bentos ready for tomorrow's lunch! Wow - I am feeling remotely human today - sort of. Livi's has tofu (cooked with Bragg), pickle and tomato skewers, carrots, mandarin oranges, and pudding. Yes, that is a ghost that the tofu is in. They were supposed to be for Halloween, but I forgot them! Oops. Ray's top tier has Thai peanut noodles, a spring roll and a bottle of Bragg. Beth's top tier has two spring rolls (I also have a small container of peanut sauce for her. Their bottom tiers have mandarin oranges and pudding.

a quick bento

2008-12-01T20:31:00.001-08:00

Well, it's not much, but the kids like it! Sushi, rice crackers, a bottle of Bragg, mandarin oranges, and Sharkies.

A healthy, fresh breakfast

2008-11-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

This breakfast was just too pretty not to post! It was healthy, fresh, colorful, vegan, and gluten free!

Fresh fruit: bananas, apples, Clementine oranges, and pineapple rings. Nut butters: peanut butter and almond butter. Plus - cashews! Super yum-o!

Finally felt good enough to cook!

2008-11-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

I've been fighting morning sickness (a.k.a. ALL DAY sickness), and I haven't felt like cooking in weeks. I've been doing good if I made dinner at all - even if it was cooking eggs and hash browns. Tonight, I actually cooked us a proper meal! It was fantastic, too. I am finally going to post a recipe for oat-walnut patties and "potato heroine." Besides those things we had steamed broccoli with pimiento-cashew "cheese," and a green salad. Yum! Here's my version of oat-walnut patties:
4 C water
1/2 C Bragg Liquid Aminos
1/3 C olive oil
1 C chopped walnuts (you can substitute pecans, but I've never tried it)
1/4 C nutritional yeast flakes
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried basil
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp "beef" broth powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried sage
4 C rolled oats
Put all ingredients except oats in a large pot, still well, bring to a boil. Remove from head and stir in oats. Cover and let cool. Preheat oven to 350F. Form mixture into 3 inch patties and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes on each side. (sometimes I make these meatball size, and then put them in my son's lunch) The original recipe comes from The Seventh-day Diet.

"Potato Heroine"
The original recipe is called Lemony Roasted Potatoes, and it is from Veganomicon. I have tinkered with the ingredients just a bit, but the real changes are in the cooking times. If you cook the recipe like the book says, you will end up with hard, watery potatoes - yuck. Here's how I make them:
2 1/2 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled
1/4 C olive oil
8-10 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 C lemon juice (they say "fresh squeezed" LOL. They are obviously not caring for four children and pregnant with a fifth! Bottled works just fine)
1 C vegetable broth
2 heaping tsp dried oregano
2 tsp salt
2 tsp tomato paste
black pepper
Preheat oven to 375F. Slice potatoes in thin strips (if they are too thick - they will NEVER get done). In a large, deep casserole dish, combine oil, garlic, lemon juice, broth, oregano, salt and tomato paste. Put the potatoes in the casserole dish and pour the sauce over them. Toss to mix. Put pepper on top. Cook in the oven for 35 minutes - UNCOVERED! Then, stir, cover and cook for another 40 minutes. Stir and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Stir once more - check the potatoes for softness and to see if sauce has evaporated. Most likely you will need to cook them for another 15 minutes. Yes - they take an hour and 45 minutes to cook. Outrageous I know, but we don't call them "potato heroine" for nothing.

And here is the finished product!

Korean BBQ Marinade

2008-10-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

Dinner was so yummy! Okay, technically it was a couple of days ago, but I've been too tired and nauseous to update my blogs at night. I tried a new marinade from Vegetarian Times called Korean BBQ Marinade. I marinated seitan and portabello mushrooms in it. The seitan should have been cut up more and should have had more time to marinate. The mushrooms were freaking awesome though! I sauteed a yellow onion with a little of the marinade and served that over some steamed fingerling potatoes and made an Asian Viniagrette and served that over mache and heirloom tomatoes. It was a fabulous meal! I made the marinade a little different than VT's. Here's my version:
1/2 Cup Bragg Liquid Aminos
1/3 Cup agave nectar
1/4 Cup mirin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbs. sesame oil

This week's bentos!

2008-09-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

This week's bentos aren't very cute, but they're functional, and the kids like them!
Tuesday: mandarin oranges, grapes, tofu, cheese round, peanut butter crackers, a chocolate, and a skewer of tomatoes, olives, and a pickle. I also packed a fruit leather for Beth Ann and a package of Sharkies for Ray.

Wednesday: mandarin oranges, grapes, mini corn dogs, tofu, olives, a cheese round, a chocolate, a pickle, dried blueberries, and a fruit leather for Beth Ann, and a package of Sharkies for Ray.

Thursday: Pineapple, Tofurky, carrots, pretzels, a chocolate, and a skewer of olives and a pickle - plus a fruit leather for Beth Ann and a package of Sharkies for Ray.

Second bento of the year

2008-08-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying getting back into lunch making for the kidlets. I know they enjoy it, so it's sort of my act of love for them - a touch of mom during the day! These bentos have mini corn dogs, tortilla roll ups, grapes, Goldfish crackers, dried blueberies, a skewer of tomatoes, cheese, a pickle, and an olive, and a chocolate.

Back to Bento Time!!!

2008-08-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

Beth Ann and Ray both start school tomorrow, so it's time to get the bentos out! We're eating a normal vegetarian diet for the time being, so the next few bentos won't necessarily be either gluten of dairy free. I just love the bentos so much, that I'm going to post about them anyway!!!

In the bottom tier, I packed mandarin oranges. There is fruit leather in the lid. For the main part, I put Flat Earth Chips in the cup, a Babybel cheese, veggie meat rolled up with the animal picks, a skewer of grapes, a skewer of cheese, cherry tomatoes, and a pickle and a little chocolate.

Swing Thai

2008-08-14T20:57:00.001-07:00

Well, we're going through all the gluten/dairy testing now, and I think it's going to be a couple of months ordeal. Gah. My oldest daughter and I went out to dinner this evening at Swing Thai, and I was pleased to see that they have their gluten-free dishes marked, and there were quite a few of them. They also have their vegan dishes marked. How cool is that? I didn't take my camera, but I'm going to go back, take pictures, and do a proper review. For now, let me just say that their food is good, and there are plenty of gluten free/vegan options.

The Millennium

2008-07-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much lately because we've been on vacation, and then when we got home, we went back to eating gluten and dairy. We'll be getting tested soon, and we need to have accurate test results. So, we are trying to get in all the foods we may never get to eat again in the next two weeks!

Last October/November, we all took a trip to San Francisco. I was very excited to try the cuisine at the famed Millennium restaurant in the Hotel California. I thought I'd take a little time and blog about that! It was a very upscale restaurant. When our family of six invaded them (we had a reservation, of course!), they were prepared with a big table for us. This restaurant has been named the best by Veg News for a couple of years at least. We looked over the menu and ordered, and then started with the bread and lentil spread that was on the table. We were excited for our meals because the bread and spread was fabulous! Unfortunately, we were really disappointed with our meals. They were plated beautifully, as you can see from the pictures. Beth Ann ordered a soup, that she said she liked. I tried it and gagged. I nearly spit it out. Trey ordered a "raw"violi that he only ate because he was starving. Ray ordered a black bean dish that was pretty disgusting. The dish that Olivia and I ate was good. It was a portobello mushroom dish. It was absolutely not worth the money we paid for it though.

The one true highlight of the meal was the desert. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it. It was a vegan, nut-based "cheese"cake that was to die for! Overall though, we were severely disappointed. We felt like the restaurant was overrated and overpriced.

Yummy premade bread

2008-07-22T16:59:00.000-07:00

My mom buys bread from Kinnikinnick that is pretty darn good. We made grilled "cheese" sandwiches with it, and we had toast. We really liked it. Most pre-made gluten free breads are super crumbly and gritty. This bread is chewy and not at all gritty. I'm going to have to find where I can buy it in Denver. I didn't get a picture of the bread because I didn't think about it until we had already eaten all of it!!!

Blackberry pie

2008-07-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

While we were in Arkansas, the wild blackberries were ripe! Yum. The kidlets and I picked about six cups worth and I made a pie. My mom had a Gluten Free Pantry pie crust mix, and I used it. It was really a pain. I couldn't get it rolled out and then off the wrap like it says to do, so I ended up just putting it in the pie plate and using my fingers to spread it out. It worked pretty well. Then my mom and I made small rounds that we flattened out and put on the top.
Before:

After:

The pie crust was pretty darn good. If was very flaky, but a lot of pie crusts are flaky like that. It had ten tablespoons of margarine and ten tablespoons of vegetable shortening, so I'd like to find a healthier alternative, but it tasted good!

Arrowhead Mills gluten free pancakes

2008-07-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much because we went camping in South Dakota for nearly a week, and then after we got home we went to Arkansas! We're still in Arkansas. My mom made some gluten free pancakes from an Arrowhead Mills gluten free pancake mix. She added blueberries to the batter. They were yummy. They are much lighter than Bob's Red Mill gluten free pancakes. The kidlets ate them up. My friend has a recipe for gluten free pancakes that I'm going to try when we get home, but for a mix - Arrowhead Mills is the best I've tried!

Aaaahhhh, Tofutti!!!

2008-07-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

So, we're on vacation here in beautiful northwest Arkansas, and we shopped at a small health food store in Rogers. What do they have? They have two kinds of Tofutti ice cream in stock. The huge, mega, superstore, Whole Foods Market can't keep it in stock, but little Cook's can. Hmmmm. I love Arkansas.

Gluten Free Pantry muffins

2008-06-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

This morning I made muffins for everyone. I used Gluten Free Pantry's muffin mix. I added fresh bluberries and orange zest. I made them with olive oil and soymilk. They were yummy!

Almond Cake a l'Orange

2008-06-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight I tried another recipe from Gluten-Free French Deserts and Baked Goods by Valerie Cupillard. It turned out really well. We put a little apricot preserves on it, but I would like to have had orange marmalade. I couldn't find any at the store that didn't have corn syrup in it. I think it would be really good with it though.
1/3 C vegetable margarine
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C finely ground blanched almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 C white rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp orange zest
Melt margarine. Stir in sugar, almonds, and vanilla. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Then mix in the flour, baking powder, and zest. Pour into an oiled bread pan and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Raise the heat to 425. Bake for 13 more minutes.

more enchilada casserole

2008-06-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

I made enchilada casserole with corn tortillas, pinto beans, green chile, enchilada sauce, and cashew "cheese." They were pretty good. Ray scarfed them down. They need less "cheese" and more sauce and beans. I think they'd be really good with potatoes, too.

The kids made onigiri today at the bento party. I made a tofu salad, and even the kids who aren't used to our "weird" food (the ones who tried it anyway) liked it. We got our onigiri molds in the mail today, and the kids had fun with them. I really liked them, too. I kind of thought they'd be a pain, but they're really great.

scratch cookies!!! finally

2008-06-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

I tried a recipe from Wheat-free Recipes & Menus by Carol Fenster tonight for chocolate chip cookies. These are the first scratch cookies I've made since going gluten-free. They were pretty darn good. I'm going to have to check this cookbook out. Someone gave me this recipe. I have eight children in my house tonight (four of which are mine and four of which aren't), and they have all eaten the cookies and asked for seconds and thirds. I'd say that's a "thumbs up." Trey liked them, too. This picture is of the second batch I cooked. The first batch looked better, but the kidlets ate them up before I could get a picture! I made these a little bigger, and they really should have been smaller. They were a little more gooey than the first ones.

Here's how I made them:
1 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill all-purpose GF flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 extra large egg
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar. Beat in vanilla and egg. Mix remaining dry ingredients together and beat into everything else. Now stir in chocolate chips. Drop cookies by tablespoonfuls onto greased pan and bake for 12 minutes.

Cat in the Hat bento

2008-06-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

I made my first "theme" bento. It's a "Children's Book" theme - Cat in the Hat. It's not great, but it's a start! Here it is.

"Green" smoothie

2008-06-18T20:39:00.001-07:00

I love my Blend-Tec blender. I think I could blend a tire with that thing. It wouldn't be very tasty though, so I stick to edible things! One of the healthier things I make is our morning "green" smoothie. Trey really likes them, and so does Olivia. The older two will drink them, but they prefer peanut butter/banana smoothies. Here is what I put in them:
about 2-3 C spinach
1 1/2 C water
4 dates
1 large banana
1 scoop ground flax
1 scoop probiotic powder (for both of these I use the scoop that came with them)
I blend that up really well, then I add:
1 C frozen blueberries
1 C frozen raspberries (or other frozen fruit)
Blend really well and enjoy! This amount is enough for Trey and I to share, and sometimes Olivia has some, too.

WaterCourse Foods

2008-06-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

For father's day, we went downtown to our favorite restaurant - WaterCourse Foods. We've been going to WaterCourse Foods for ten years, since right after it opened. When we first started going, you could walk in on a Saturday morning and sit right down. It got to where you could wait an hour to get a seat on a Saturday morning. Recently, they moved to a larger place a couple of miles away. We went to their new place for the first time Sunday morning.

The atmosphere of the new place was a little more trendy and a little less hippie. It was nice. I sort of prefer the old place, but at least this place was bigger, and we only had to wait 30 minutes for a table.

It was the first time that I'd been to WaterCourse Foods since going completely gluten free, so I was hoping they'd have a good gf selection. While we were waiting for a table, we bought one of their gluten free muffins, and it was really good.

I was pleased to see that they had a few gluten free items on the menu. I hope they'll add some more options. Their other restaurant, City O' City, has a lot of gluten free options. They had gluten free onion rings which was really cool. We ordered "frings," french fries and onion rings. They were really good. We ended up ordering a second order.

Trey ordered the special. It was called the "Big Rig," and it was chicken fried seitan with scrambled tofu and home fries. He said it was really good. It's not gluten free though.

The three older kids ordered the kid's taco meal - a tempeh taco, rice and beans. I tasted Olivia's and it was okay. I ordered the chilequitos. It was pretty good. I'd love to give them a great review, but I'll have to go back again. The food was good, but I'm used to their food being AWESOME! Unfortunately, what I normally get has gluten in it. I've never tasted anything there that I didn't like though. I was disappointed in their scrambled tofu. I swear they changed it. Maybe we just caught the on a bad day because it wasn't as good as it used to be.

Crayon Juice

2008-06-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

A year and a half ago, for Christmas, my husband and children got me a juicer. I love it. The kids and I love to make "crayon juice" with it. We juice carrots and oranges and mix them together. Yummy! We call it crayon juice because it looks like we juiced an orange crayon! LOL.

Waffles, graham crackers, cookies, noodles and beer

2008-06-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

Dinner was a little boring. I just cooked some potatoes, garbanzos, and frozen green beans with jarred dopiaza sauce and served it over basmati rice with turmeric. So, I thought I'd talk about some gluten free products that I've tried.

First, we tried Van's gluten free, vegan mini waffles. We were at Whole Foods, and my daughter saw them and asked if we could try them. I said sure. Yesterday morning, we all decided to have breakfast in bed and watch The Sound of Music. We put them in the toaster, put peanut butter on them, and enjoyed. They were pretty good. I think I'm going to use them for miniature pb & j's for the kids' bento lunches.

Outside the Breadbox is a gluten free baking company in Colorado Springs. They make gluten free, dairy free graham crackers that are really yummy. They're not as crumbly as regular graham crackers. They have a very similar taste though. I made a graham cracker crust with them once, and it turned out really good. It wasn't as light as a normal graham cracker crust - definitely heartier, but I liked the taste of it. My parents like these graham crackers, too. Actually, I just bought two packages of them to send them on Monday.

We went back to City O' City last night and bought pizzas to take to the drive in theater with us. This time, I bought us some cookies. The first picture is of a coconutty/chocolate cookie called a scout cookie that was really good. It was chewy and thick. All of the cookies were not only gluten free but vegan as well.

I bought a chocolate chip, lemon poppy seed, and sugar cookie. The chocolate chip cookies was kind of weird tasting. I liked the other two. Trey didn't really like the sugar cookie. The lemon poppy seed tasted good, but it fell apart really easily.

I have been trying to special order these noodles from Whole Foods, but apparently I have some bad noodle karma or something. Eden Selected Buckwheat Soba noodles are made from only buckwheat. Most soba noodles have buckwheat and wheat. I have this package of noodles that my parents sent me. I guess I'm going to have to take the package in to Whole Foods and show it to them, so they can order me the correct thing. I went by today - again - to get the noodles that I was told were there. They ordered the wrong thing! Gah. I really want to be mad at them, but darn it, they were so nice, and they gave me a $10 gift card for all my trouble. It just takes the steam out of my ranting. *sigh*

I have a recipe for buckwheat crepes that calls for beer. Beer has gluten in it, so I had to go online and find a gluten-free beer and where to buy it. Bard's Tale Beer is made from sorghum, so it's gluten free. I had to call six different liquor stores from the website to find one who had a valid phone number and knew what I was talking about. Trey went and got it for me. I'm not a big drinker, but now that I'm a part of team gluten free, I figured that I might as well "take one for the team." So, I popped one open, and it's not bad. It's a little sweeter than regular beer, but it tastes pretty good.

Frozen vegan deserts

2008-06-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

So, what goes better with summer break that frozen deserts? We went to the store and bought an assortment of soy "ice creams." We had a limited variety, but still a pretty good variety considering it was Safeway! The funny thing is that we don't eat a lot of "ice cream!" The one that we already had - vanilla fudge swirl - we've had for probably a month! Oh well, we had fun, and here are our results.

Rice Dream strawberry - very hard, not bad taste, but has kind of a weird taste. Not as gritty as it used to be (haven't had Rice Dream in a while), but not creamy at all.

Soy Dream Butter Pecan - nice flavor, mildly creamy, very hard - overall, our family favorite.

Whole Soy & Co. Creme Caramel (frozen soy yogurt) - very, very hard, icy, really sweet, nice caramel flavor

Purely Decadent Peanut Butter Zig Zag - not nearly as good as I remember it. It was hard, a little creamy, overwhelming fudgy taste, "beany" aftertaste

Rice Dream Chocolate Caramel Chai - Really, really hard, not creamy, weird taste, overwhelming chai taste. Overall, our family's least favorite.

Purely Decadent Turtle Trails - first soft one we tried, not really creamy, the "turtles" are really yummy, nice flavor, "beany" aftertaste. My oldest daughter didn't like it at all.

Soy Dream Vanilla Fudge Swirl - hard, strong "beany" aftertaste, nice fudgy flavor.

So, for what it's worth - there you have it! None of us thought any of the seven even remotely compared with Tofutti. Everyone has their own tastes though, so please feel free to add your own reviews!

Whole Foods sucks/Tofutti rocks

2008-06-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, Whole Foods doesn't completely suck, they have really friendly employees, but I'm really pissed at them. First, I special ordered a case of Eden Foods buckwheat soba noodles. They called me yesterday to tell me they were in. I stopped by tonight to pick them up, but they couldn't find them. I was at Whole Foods tonight for almost an hour. The chick who came to tell me that, "Sorry ma'am, but we can't find them" tells me that I should call when a manager is in and talk to him. Well, that won't really do me a whole lot of good because it was a manager who called me to tell me they were in! I asked her what exactly I needed to do to make sure someone would be able to find them the next time I came in because I wasn't too keen on making a special trip across town - again - with gas at $4 a gallon. Gah!

Second, Whole Foods has decided to stop carrying Tofutti "ice cream." What the heck?!?! There is exactly one - yes, that's right, ONE - type of vegan "ice cream" that is any good, and that would be Tofutti. There is exactly ONE vegan "ice cream" that is creamy, and that would be Tofutti. So, these buttheads decide to stop carrying it?!?! I am so angry. I left my name, and they are going to call me. I'm going to get everyone I know to call and complain and hopefully we can get them to carry the one and only good vegan "ice cream" again. They, of course, sell their own brand, which is as hard as a brick, but creamy Tofutti they stop carrying. Ridiculous.

Tonight we had "brinner," so nothing really to report. I took a picture of last night's dinner though to add to my "food porn" collection. Trey has really been missing hot dog buns. We've found one type of veggie hot dogs that are gluten free, but we've yet to find a good hot dog bun. When I was at Vitamin Cottage yesterday I saw that Outside the Breadbox makes a hot dog bun. I decided to buy a pack, so we could try them. As much as I would like to write a good review about them, I just can't. They didn't have a bad taste, but they were really hard and dry and fell apart as soon as I cut them open and put stuff in them. This deejay on the radio was talking about having a hot dog in a lettuce leaf. She was doing it because she was on a low carb diet, but it actually sounds like a good idea. I think I'll try that next time. I had my veggie dog with ketchup, mustard, dill relish (because sweet just sucks), sauerkraut, hot peppers, tomatoes, and celery salt. I also made french fries with cashew cheese, and giardineira.

Vegan, gluten free mac and cheese

2008-06-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Our dinner tonight was fabulous! We have finally figured out a gluten-free, vegan "mac and cheese." We bought Mrs. Leeper's gluten-free animal pasta, and then added a cashew "cheese" sauce. I got the base recipe from a fellow veggie blogger. Here's my version:
3 C raw cashews (rinse well)
1 C water
1/4 + 1/8 C lemon juice
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 C nutritional yeast
7 cloves of garlic
1 jar (4 oz) pimientos
Blend in high powered blender until smooth.
Mix the sauce in with the pasta. We put Rawmesan on top of it. We had steamed broccoli and green salad with it. The kids wanted us to have a "restaurant" tonight, so they served us, set the table, helped make the food, and even made us an appetizer. Beth Ann made the appetizer. I'm not sure how she came up with this, but she heats up two corn tortillas, spreads some vegan mayo, BBQ sauce, Tapatio, and Cholula on it.

She made a tortilla for Louis with vegan mayo on it. He loves it!

One of our servers!

I also made another yummy vinaigrette for lunch today.
1 tsp flax oil
3 tsp olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fig vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp thyme
Shake and serve.

Veggie-Flax Burgers

2008-06-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner was a big hit with the kiddos. I made sauteed chard with garlic and lemon juice, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, veggie burgers, and gluten free golden gravy. I wasn't very sure about the burgers when I was making them, but they tasted pretty good. My family really liked them though. Ray ate three of them! Trey said he definitely wanted me to make them again. Success! The original recipe came from Delicious Living. This version is doubled and slightly different but not much.
1 1/2 cans (8 oz) artichoke hearts packed in brine not oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 C chopped green onions
6 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
6 tbsp flax meal
4 tbsp raw tahini
lots of black pepper
1 C cooked rice (the original recipe called for brown rice, but when I went to cook that - I didn't have any brown rice. The basmati I had worked well though.)
Pulse in a food processor until well blended (I had to do mine in two batches because there was so much). Form patties and cook in a little oil. The heat needs to be fairly low because they need to cook a few minutes on each side. I used an ice cream scoop to make the patties, and they came out a good size.

My gravy has been a work in progress since we went gluten free. Everyone really liked tonight's version. It had Earth Balance, onion powder, garlic powder, "chicken" broth powder, soymilk, dried parsley, salt, a little chili powder, and brown rice flour. The thing about making gravy with brown rice flour is that it is a sweet flour. Adding the chili powder took care of the sweet taste though. Also, the rice flour takes a while to thicken up. You don't want to add more though because then it will get way too thick. You just have to be patient with it.

yummy balsamic vinaigrette

2008-06-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

I made a yummy balsamic vinaigrette for my salad this afternoon.
3 tsp grapeseed oil
1 tsp flax oil
3 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp basil

fruit kabobs

2008-06-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

After a long day yesterday, we had a light dinner and lots of desert! LOL. We had a salad with tofu, guacamole, and tortilla chips for dinner.

For desert, we made fruit kabobs with some melted chocolate on them. Then we had Whole Foods 365 Brand vanilla soy cream with chocolate and Soyatoo "whipped cream." The soy cream wasn't too bad. We tried to get Tofutti, but the Whole Foods we were at didn't have it. It's really the only soy ice cream that is good. It's fabulous. When I've bought ice cream, I bought the good stuff - the creamy stuff. The cheap stuff just isn't very good, and I don't buy it. The soy cream reminded me of that stuff. It was better than Soy Dream or Soy Delicious, but it just didn't come close to Tofutti. I don't even know why stores sell the other kinds. Tofutti is the best! It was a fun desert though.

City O' City

2008-06-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

Where do I start? This place is freaking awesome!!! There used to be a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Denver near the capitol building called The Watercourse. We've been going there since the summer of 1998. We drove downtown to the People's Fair today, and...IT WAS GONE!!!!! The horror - I was devastated. After we parked, I made us walk by just so I could make sure that it was actually *gasp* GONE! Sure enough, there was a new restaurant in its place called City O' City. I was on the street lamenting the unfairness of life, when a lady - my favorite new absolute stranger - told me that The Watercourse had only moved, and this new place was owned by the same people! Cool. Of course, we had to go in and see what they served.

It was basically a pizzeria. They had salads, hummus and flatbread, and some other things. I was bummed because it didn't look like they had hardly anything that was gluten free. The guy at the front then informed me that all of their pizzas can be made gluten free! GLUTEN FREE!!! We found a place we could get vegan, gluten-free pizza. How freaking cool is that?

The atmosphere at City, O' City is very similar to The Watercourse - very Bohemian, which I, of course, love!

First, we ordered the hummus with gluten free flat bread. In retrospect, we could have been happy with just the pizza, but I was just so darn excited to be able to order practically anything off the menu that we went overboard! LOL. The hummus was great, and the flatbread was pretty good, too.

Next came the pizza! It was fabulous. The six of us couldn't agree, so we ordered a small "cheese" pizza for Livi and Ray and a large pizza with tempeh bacon, caramelized onions, and sun-dried tomatoes. The "cheese" was a cashew ricotta. The pizza smelled fabulous, and it tasted even better. I was in heaven! Imagine - a place where you can buy vegan, gluten free pizza?!?! I'm still tripping about it.

To top off the coolness, they have vegan, gluten-free desserts! I have no idea if they're any good because we were too stuffed to try any. We're going to go back soon though and try them. This restaurant is AWESOME, and I highly recommend it!

Vegetarian Sushi

2008-06-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had one of my favorite meals - vegetarian sushi. The kids all love it, too. They each helped make their own roll. Apparently next time I'm going to have to make an extra batch because we finished it, and my son was looking for more! I made mine with sushi rice, nori, black sesame seeds, wasabi, carrots, cucumber, avocado, and red pepper. The new wasabi that I got is very sharp! I added some to my Bragg Liquid Aminos for dipping, and I think I might leave that off next time. It had quite a bite. Here's how we made them. First, get all the ingredients together.

Lay out a sheet of nori, spread out the rice on 2/3 of the nori, and spread a line of wasabi on the rice.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds on the rice and then pile the chopped vegetables in the middle.

Wet the nori that doesn't have rice on it, and then roll up the sushi.

Slice the sushi roll and serve!

I made a broccoli stir fry with an orange chile sauce that I got from another blog. Here is my version which is slightly different:
Zest from one large navel orange
Juice from two large navel oranges
2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 1/2 tsp chile paste
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp arrowroot powder
Mix together and pour over stir fry during last few minutes of cooking.

Here's our dinner - yum!

Easy Peasy Meal for Kids

2008-06-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

My friend's Carrie's girls came over today for a few hours. She told me about this dish that she makes that her girls like that our friend Heather told her about. I thought, well, sounds like something my kids would like, and I already know her kids like it! Sure enough, I made a pot of it, and they ate the entire thing. I remembered that it was basmati rice, tofu, and veggies. I couldn't remember the other thing. So, I sauteed some tofu with Bragg, cooked the basmati rice, and defrosted some frozen peas, green beans, and corn, and mixed them together with a little olive oil, and "chicken" broth powder. Didn't know it would be so easy to please 7 kids. The ingredient she told me that I forgot was butter. I think next time I would add just a little more olive oil, but no butter. I gave them grapes and gluten-free pretzels with it.

For dinner, I was planning on making some veggie burgers, but I forgot to put the bread in to cook, so instead I just threw something together. I cooked some more basmati rice, made some black beans with cumin, garlic, onion powder, and chile powder. I chopped up some tomatoes and lettuce to go with it. We had salsa and hot sauce and corn tortillas with it. Easy but good.

Tofu Satay with peanut sauce

2008-06-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner included a bok choy stir fry, spicy grilled eggplant, and tofu satay with a peanut sauce. The stir fry was a recipe from Vegetarian Times. I have tried many, many recipes from that magazine, and I have only thought one was disgusting, so I'd say that's a pretty good track record. However, we weren't all that impressed with tonight's stir fry. It was okay, but it wasn't worth the effort. I tossed that recipe in the trash. The peanut sauce was a new recipe. It was good, but it was very tangy. I think if I made it again, I'd add less vinegar and more cayenne. The recipe called for 3 tbsp peanut butter, but we doubled that. The recipe was for a dressing, so that's why it was so runny. We served it with tofu satay that is a favorite in our house. I drain and pressed the tofu, and then cut it in squares, then put it in the marinade. After I put it on a baking sheet, I cook it at 450 for 15 minutes, then flip them over and cook them another 10 minutes. The spicy grilled eggplant was a recipe from the internet although we changed it up a bit. It was pretty good, but it still needs some work. The tofu satay marinade is super easy. It consists of:
2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp mirin

The Asian sauce is:
6 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tsp minced ginger root
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 C peanuts, chopped
Whisk together first six ingredients until creamy, mix in peanuts. Serve.

This morning we had one of our favorite breakfasts. It's super healthy and versatile, too. We mix a container of Whole Soy yogurt (I prefer to use the vanilla flavor), with some chopped almonds, and fruit. This morning we had blueberries, strawberries, and grapes. You can vary the fruit, but the grapes are especially good. They add a sweet crunch that is very yummy. Here's two pictures of it. The first is before I mixed it up, and the second is after.