Spinach/citrus salad

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.