Christmas Pasta

Christmas Eve Dinner!

As you can see, this dinner is very festive with lots of red and green.  The pasta was even Christmas-shaped.  Feliz Navidad.

Broccoli Soup

After much discussion with Megan and Jessica about this broccoli soup, I just had to try it.  I've made recipes from Oh She Glows before, so I knew it would be good.  I also knew it would be heavy on the nutritional yeast, which is fine, but as much as I love nutritional yeast it can get to be a bit much sometimes.  I followed the recipe exactly, but maybe next time I would cut back on the nutritional yeast a bit.   Otherwise it was delicious and exactly what I wanted on this not-so-cold December day.  (It's 75 outside right now.)

Here is the recipe from ohsheglows.com:

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:

• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 4-4.5 cups chopped broccoli florets (2 heads, stems removed)
• 1.5 cups peeled & chopped potatoes (about 3)
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast 
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or crushed red pepper flakes)
• Low-fat vegan cheeze sauce, divided (see below for recipe)
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
• herbamare & onion powder, to taste
• Kosher salt & black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh minced parsley, plus more to garnish
• Daiya cheese, to garnish
• Smoked Paprika, to garnish (optional)

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil, onion, and garlic over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Cook for about 5-6 mins.
2. Add in the celery, broccoli, and potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Now, add the broth, nutritional yeast, and cayenne pepper and simmer for another 15 mins or so until the potatoes are just fork tender.
3. Meanwhile, prepare your cheeze sauce (see below) while the soup simmers.
4. Carefully transfer the soup (in two batches) into a blender. Blend until almost smooth (I left it a bit chunky, but you can blend as much as you wish) and place back into the pot. Stir in the cheeze sauce, reserving 1/3 cup for later.
5. Stir in optional lemon juice, salt, pepper, and optional herbamare all to taste. Finally, stir in the minced parsley and spoon into bowls.
6. Top the soup with croutons, Daiya cheese, remaining cheeze sauce, and smoked paprika.

Read more: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/12/20/broccoli-cheeze-soup/#ixzz2oPo8Z5Zv

Purple Rice Noodles with Stir-fried Veggies

I found these crazy purple noodles and thought they would be fun to try.  I sauteed some snow peas and other fresh veggies such as peppers, onions and carrots.  Added some soy sauce and sriracha and dinner was served. 

Pumpkin Pie

 I love anything pumpkin-flavored during this time of the year.  I put pumpkin spice seasoning in my coffee and I ate as much as the pumpkin-flavored goods from Trader Joe's as I could.  The pumpkin butter is amazing by the way, and I ate it on pumpkin bagels.  Yum.

Anyway.  I wanted pumpkin pie so bad, so I set out on a mission to make a dairy-free version.

Here it is!  Vegan pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!  Also pictured is Aunt Datha's delicious apple pie.  The recipe is from vegetariantimes.com, but I only used the filling part.  I cheated and used a pre-made graham cracker crust.

Pumpkin Pie Filling (from http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/vegan-pumpkin-pie/)

• 2 cups canned pumpkin or puréed home-cooked fresh pumpkin (see note)
• 1 cup low-fat soymilk or rice milk
• ¾ cup granulated sugar cane syrup
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ Tbs. dark molasses or to taste
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• ¼ tsp. grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. ground allspice

Preheat oven to 425°F.

To make Filling:
5. In large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until smooth and blended. Pour into prepared crust and smooth top. Bake 10 minutes.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake until filling is set, about 50 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool, then refrigerate overnight. Top with your choice of dessert topping if desired.
NOTE: If you are going to use fresh pumpkin for the pie, do not use the jack-o’-lantern type; the flesh of these large pumpkins is too watery and stringy. Instead, look for small pumpkins, sometimes called pie pumpkins or other varieties of winter squash. To bake, cut pumpkins in half and remove seeds. Set, cut side down, in a lightly oiled baking pan. Bake at 400°F for 30 to 40 minutes. Scoop out the cooked flesh and purée.

Minestrone Soup

 
I didn't follow a recipe and I didn't write anything down, but this soup is really easy to make.  I basically just threw a bunch of fresh veggies into some broth, added canned tomatoes and oricchiette pasta.

And done.

A Classic Fall Dinner

This delicious dinner is pretty easy and straightforward:

1.  Wild Rice Pilaf from Trader Joe's.  (I'm obsessed with this stuff.)

2.  Mashed potatoes

3.  Kale Salad

This is pretty much all I have time to make anymore.  But, hey it's delicious and healthy! 

Acorn Squash Stew

It's Fall and the stores are full of all sorts of pumpkin-type vegetables.  I picked up an acorn squash at Trader Joe's the other day with high hopes of actually making something with it if I had time.  Tonight Baby went to sleep early, so I got to have some precious time in the kitchen to cook again!  I think I'm averaging about one meal every two weeks.  (Don't ask what we eat the rest of the time... pretty much every vegetarian boxed meal from the frozen section at Trader Joe's.)

Anyway, I decided I wanted soup.  I've been itching to make a hearty soup from scratch.

This is what I did:

Ingredients
1 acorn squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1-2 carrots, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 400.

Cut acorn squash in half lengthwise.  Place face down in a casserole dish and roast in oven for 45 minutes.  Let cool and scoop out large chunks, then cut into smaller chunks.  Set aside.

In a large stock pot, heat oil.  Cook onion, celery carrot, garlic, and ginger in oil until softened, about 5-7 minutes.

Add broth and water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. 

Add squash chunks, beans, cumin, salt and pepper.

Let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Blend and serve.

I like my soups to be a bit chunky, so I only blended half of this soup and then mixed it with the non-blended portion.  Perfect!

This is a great stew for a cool fall evening; and yes it does get chilly here in San Diego county at night.  

Easy Dinner

This is the kind of meals we've been having lately; quick and easy.

Frozen organic green beans
Rice made in the rice cooker with smoked paprika to flavor
Sweet potato tots
Tofurkey sausage

Deviled Potatoes

 My friend Lena made these for my baby shower back in June, and I've been craving them again ever since.  And I actually found time to make them this weekend in time for the "Vegan Viewing Party" with friends on Saturday night to watch one of our favorite shows.

They are pretty easy to make.  I just followed this recipe from Post Punk Kitchen and they were Ah-mazing!  This is a new classic in my repertoire from now on.

Amazing Kale Salad

 
I am obsessed with this salad.  I made it four times in one week, that's how much I love it.

When Megan was staying with us to help watch the baby when I went back to work, she made this salad and I loved it so much I apparently couldn't get enough of it.

All the ingredients are from Trader Joe's:

French Lentils
Beets
Organic Kale
Grape tomatoes
Fresh squeezed lemon juice
Green salsa
Quinoa and Black Bean tortilla chips.

Classic Favorite Mac and Cheese

The last post was about how I've been MIA due to just having a baby and that I don't have time to cook any fun recipes.  Well, that is still true, but even if I do have time to cook, I usually don't have time to write about it. 

I do want to mention that I managed to find some time to make my classic standby favorite -- Mac  and Cheese.  I used my original recipe from way back and it was wonderful.  I should note that I increased the alternative milk and Daiya cheese to about two cups each, instead of one cup.  The baby was taking a really long nap that afternoon and I was excited to get back into the kitchen for awhile.

Here's the original posting of this dish. 

Here's the proof that I cooked it recently:

New Baby = No Time to Cook

In case anyone has been wondering where I've been, I've recently had a baby and therefore have had no time to cook or blog.  As it is at this very moment, the baby is just starting to stir from her nap, so I'm typing this as quickly as I can before she fully wakes up.  And yes, usually I'm napping when she's napping, but I just had too much on my mind today and couldn't fall asleep.

I have missed cooking and trying new recipes.  Finding time to even just EAT has been a challenge since Baby was born on August 16. 

I am so grateful for my mom who was here at the beginning to cook lots of amazing vegan food for me.  Also, I am so grateful for the many friends who have brought over veggie burritos, vegan salads, frozen vegan burritos and Amy's frozen vegan Mac n Cheese.  One friend even made a huge vegan Mac n Cheese casserole for me!  Thank you everyone for all the delicious and veggie treats and eats!

In other veggie goodness news, as I have found a few minutes here and there to get back in the kitchen, I've managed to make mostly rice, tomato soup, salads, and pasta with red sauce.  Pretty basic, but it's quick and it does the job.  FYI, I'm starving all the time.  Not only do I not have time to cook, I pretty much need quick and easy food that is ready right away for me to chow down.

Will's sister introduced me to Luna bars, which are delicious, and I am obsessed with them now.  I've also snacked on a lot of pretzels, popcorn, dried mango slices, Kind bars, tortilla chips, carrots and hummus. 

We have even managed to venture out to eat a few times; Casa de Bandini for Mexican food, Native Foods for my vegan birthday lunch, and just yesterday we went to San Marcos Pho, which I've been craving for weeks!

As I get more used to the lack of sleep and the baby gets more on a schedule, I am hoping to get back into my adventurous cooking!  As for now, I'm loving my new bundle of joy, and I don't even care if I don't have time to cook, because all I want to do is hold her and love her all the time.

Red Lentil Chili with Quinoa and Sweet Potatoes

This was inspired by a Forks over Knives recipe, but I made it my own.  I know I post a lot about sweet potatoes on here, but in reality I'm not a super huge fan of them.  If I do make them, they have to be a savory dish and not featured to actually be "sweet."

This time, I wanted to add sweet potatoes to the chili, but decided to roast them separately with some red bell pepper.

Anyway, this is what I did for the whole meal:

Ingredients
1 cup split red lentils
2 cups vegan chicken broth
3.5 cups water
1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon each of the following spices:  cayenne, smoked paprika, chipotle chili powder, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, salt

For the side dishes
1 sweet potato, roasted
1 cup red quinoa, cooked according to package

Directions
In a medium soup pot, cook the onion, red bell pepper, carrots, and garlic in a little bit of olive oil for about five minutes.  Add the spices and stir well.  Add the dry lentils, stir well before adding the broth and water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until lentils are soft, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, roast the sweet potatoes and make the quinoa.

When ready to serve, you can add the potato and quinoa right into the chili or eat them all separately.  I added them to the chili and it was delicious!  Not too spicy, but very flavorful.

Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes and Pasta

I went to the new farmers market in San Marcos on Sunday for two specific reasons:  1 -- I wanted heirloom tomatoes, and 2 -- I wanted fresh fruit.

Yes, I can get these from the organic section at Sprouts, but they are seriously not as good as the farmers market produce.  Yum.

Tonight I made a no-cook sauce for some whole wheat pasta.

1 large heirloom tomato, chopped into bite-size pieces
Green olives, sliced (as many as you want)
1/2 package whole wheat pasta

While the pasta was cooking, I blended the following ingredients in my tupperware chopper thing:

(about) 1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves
Few sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 garlic cloves
(about)2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt

When the pasta was done, I first mixed the tomato pieces and green olives with the oily-basil-garlic sauce, then poured the entire tomato mixture into the pot of drained pasta and mixed well.

I added a little bit of black pepper and red pepper flakes.

Delicious!  A delightful, easy, simple summer pasta dish. 

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta

This always happens when I see Mac and Cheese on a menu or have to make it for the kids I'm babysitting:  I instantly crave this classic comfort food and HAVE TO MAKE IT ASAP.

Not only did I see it on the menu at Sublime in San Marcos the other day, but Mac and Cheese was featured on a local news segment in the morning.  The nutritionist was talking about how to make "Kid Food" healthier and still delicious.  She threw a bunch of ingredients in a pot, including butternut squash, and talked about how this dish could be totally vegan by just leaving out the butter and not adding the parmesan sprinkled on at the end.  Bingo.  That was what I was making for dinner.

I tried to find her recipe on the news station's website, but it must not have been updated yet.  I found this one from Oh She Glows instead.  It looked to be about the same.  I didn't title this dish as a "Mac and Cheese" because it wasn't as cheesy-tasting as some of the other ones I've made.  It was more just deliciously creamy. 

It is a bit time-intensive with roasting the squash and everything, but it was worth it in the end.  The dish was really good and flavorful.  I'm always suspicious of how my omnivore husband is going to respond to substitution dishes like this, but he loved it and ate a huge plate piled high with the creamy pasta.  We discovered that sprinkling some Tapa Tio hot sauce on it was AMAZING.  The spicy sauce complemented the sweet, creaminess of the butternut squash perfectly.  I only added two garlic cloves, and it probably could have used one or two more.  I also added some chopped Kale and chunks of the roasted butternut squash.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Golden Beets with a side of Spicy Tofu

I have really been into these two vegetables lately.  So delicious!

I sliced the brussel sprouts in half, and sliced the beets into quarters, mixed them together with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted for 25 minutes at 425.

Meanwhile, I made small, thin squares with half a block of tofu.  I marinated the tofu squares in Stubb's Wing Sauce.  This stuff is super spicy, so watch out.  While the tofu was marinating, I sauteed some onions and fresh tomatoes to which I then added the tofu.

Black Bean, Sweet Potato, and Sausage Soup

I looked up this recipe from Forks over Knives on my iPhone, and it seemed really familiar.  I could have sworn I had made a recipe like this recently, but didn't remember for sure.  Just now, I checked, and sure enough on May 29, I made this soup.  Click here for the original posting.  Needless to say, I went ahead and made something that was INSPIRED from this recipe and this is what I came up with.

I halved the recipe and added Tofurky vegan Italian sausage.  Also, I made rice and put that on the bottom of the bowl before ladeling in this deliciousness.  No wonder if I love this recipe so much and have now made it twice.  This is one of the only dishes I like with sweet potatoes.  As much as I love sweets, I am just not a fan of eating sweet vegetables as an entree.  Pairing sweet potatoes with spicy vegan sausage and hearty black beans in a savory soup really does the trick for me.  Will loves just baking a sweet potato and eating it with salt, pepper and Earth Balance.  Me?  Not so much.     

Will and I scarfed down the entire pot of this soup, which is great because it means no leftovers!  My husband is not prone to the eating of leftovers, so if I make too much of something it usually goes to waste, or I'm stuck eating it for lunches for the next five days.  

Protein

The whole protein thing has been on my mind a lot lately, not because I'm concerned I'm not getting enough, but because I feel like people are needlessly concerned that I'm not getting enough as a vegan and I want to prove to them that I am, in fact, getting all the protein I need.

Normally, women need about 46 grams of protein a day, but since I am growing a human, I need about 70 grams.

Legumes and whole grains about probably the highest source of protein for vegetarians/vegans, and I eat plenty of these a day, not to mention green leafy vegetables, fruit, and almond milk.

My daily food intake looks something like this:

Breakfast
One large bowl of cereal with almond milk
One piece of toast with Earth Balance spread
1 cup of fruit
1 cup of tea or decaf coffee
1 cup of water
Sometimes orange juice

Lunch
Large salad with kidney or garbanzo beans
and/or
Veggie wrap in whole grain tortilla
OR
Soup with rice

Dinner
Salad
Some kind of entree (see the entire rest of this blog)

I usually don't count calories, or protein grams or calcium or anything like that, but just for fun I added up the amount of protein in my breakfast today.  This is what I came up with:

1 cup diced cantelope = 1.3 grams protein
1. 5 cup whole grain cereal = 15 grams
1 cup almond milk in cereal = 1gram
1 cup chocolate almond milk drink = 1 gram
1 piece of whole grain and seed toast = 6 grams

Total comes to 24.3 grams of protein just at breakfast.  And that's not including the additional cantelope I kept snacking on, or the little bit of almond milk I had in my decaf coffee.

I don't know how much more protein I'll eat the rest of the day, but I'm already 1/3 of the way to my daily intake and still have two more meals to go.

This just goes to show that without even trying, I'm already on the right track for one day, and need no additional supplements or protein shakes, or meat or dairy!  

Vegan Pigs-in-Blankets

 

 Ever since we went camping last weekend and I didn't get a chance to roast my vegan-dogs, I have been wanting pigs-in-blankets all week.  I finally got around to making them for lunch today.  I was going to try to be all fancy and make the dough from scratch, but then decided it was too hot and I was too lazy for that kind of nonsense, so I just bought two tubes of  Pillsbury crescent roll dough.  The veggie dogs are an old-time favorite from Loma Linda foods:  Linkettes.


So pretty much this meal was all sorts of processed stuff, but we'll just ignore that right now, and just enjoy this special treat.  Besides, haven't we been eating those wonderful, fresh salads and zucchini dishes all week?  I did add some carrots and celery sticks to the plate with the pigs-in-blankets.  There we go.  I made some big ones and some bit-sized ones.  I also added a little shredded vegan cheese for a kick.   

Also, the paper plates are because for some reason all the regular plates were in the dishwasher, and mostly we didn't feel like doing anymore dishes for the time being.

PS -- I'm not sure why the layout of this post is all weird and there's all that blank space at the beginning.  I can't seem to fix it.  Oh well. 

Roasted Golden-Beet and Avocado Salad

I could really get into this fancy salad thing!  These Martha Stewart salad recipes have been amazing this week!  This is another one that called for a roasted vegetable.  As easy and carefree you might think a salad is (and cook-free), these salads are quite intense.  I followed the instructions on roasting the beets, but after 45 minutes in the boiling hot oven, they were still hard as a rock.  Will suggested we just microwave them, so five minutes later we had softened, golden-beet wedges.  Thank you.  While Will was peeling the skins off the beets he recalled the beet sliders he had made once before and suggested we should make those for 4th of July.  Sounds good to me!  

Anyway, back to the salad:  Instead of watercress, which the recipe calls for, I just used baby Romaine and arugula.  I also forget to get radishes, but that would have been a great addition.  I left out the cheese, but everything else was there -- avocado, chives, oil and red-wine vinegar.  Oh, and I added a little fresh parsley to the dressing.  YUM!  This was the best salad yet!

Click here for the recipe from Martha Stewart.

Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean Salad

It is summer, and it is hot.  Time to start making some fancy salads.  This one is straight from my Martha Stewart magazine.  It calls for anchovies, but I just left those and the cheese out, added some green olives instead.  Although it's really hot right now, and I shouldn't be turning on the oven, this did call for the fresh red bell peppers to be roasted.  So I had to turn on the broiler and roast them!  Oh well, I don't mind.  It was an amazing salad and quite filling.  We both enjoyed it on a hot summer's evening. 

Click here for Martha's recipe.

Black Bean and Zucchini Quesadillas

Continuing to put the zucchini to good use, I made quesadillas with them.  This meal was so good, I made it again later in the week.  Of course I used vegan cheese, but everything just went together really well and I swear these are the best quesadillas EVER.

Ingredients:
Whole grain tortillas
Follow your Heart vegan cheddar cheese
Sliced black olives
Sliced grape tomatoes
Chopped fresh zucchini
Chopped onion

Lightly butter one side of the tortilla, place in skillet.  Put all ingredients on top of tortilla, fold in half and let cook until vegan cheese is nice and melty.  Gobble down and enjoy.

I also made a corn, zucchini and black bean salad.  Mix in some onions, salsa, and Tapa Tio and you have a great side to go with the quesadillas.  I am loving this zucchini!

Zucchini, Sweet Potato and Spaghetti

 
Amy and Hugh gave us a huge zucchini fresh from their garden so I was excited to put it to use today.  What to make, what to make?  I wanted to do something different.  I surveyed my ingredients and came up with this pasta dish.  It was inspired from this website, but I took a totally different spin.

My tomato sauce ingredients:
1 whole tomato
Green olives
Black olives
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

I blended all that together in a food processor and set it aside while the spaghetti cooked.

In the meantime, I shredded the sweet potato and 1/4 of the zucchini (it was a really big zucchini) in my KitchenAid. 

Sauted the veggies in skillet over medium heat with vegetable broth, not oil.

When everything was ready, I just mixed the sauce, veggies, and pasta all together and served!

Very easy. 

And it was quite satisfactory for everyone in the household :)

Pasta Salad for Camping

 
We're going to our favorite campsite on the beach this weekend, so I made some pasta salad for the festivities.  I also plan to make potato salad, but still need to get ingredients for that.

Other things on the menu will be veggie wraps, avocado sliders, grilled veggie-dogs, hummus and chips, etc., etc.  I'm sure I will post more about that after the weekend.

This pasta salad included the following ingredients:

Tri-color spiral pasta
Tomato/Carrot farfalle
Roasted red peppers
Black olives
Green olives
Corn
Artichoke hearts
Sun dried tomatoes

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup oil/juice from artichoke jar
1 garlic clove crushed
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

 I taste-tested of course and it is delicious!  Can't wait to chow down at the campsite later!

Asian Food Week

I have been majorly craving Asian food this week.  As in, I want it for every single meal.  I'm not even joking.

We went to Kim's Vietnamese restaurant in Encinitas to get my fix.  I love Kim's.  They advertise on a sign outside their restaurant that they have over 50 vegetarian items on their menu.  And it's true!  Every time I go there, I get to try something different and every time it's equally amazing and exactly what I want!  This time I got vegetable chop suey with mock chicken.  Delish.  Thank you Kim's! 

Kim's was EXACTLY what I wanted, but still didn't satisfy my craving.  I was just going to have to make my own versions of Asian food at home!

First up was a favorite dish I've made before from Chloe's Kitchen.  It's called Chinese Takeout Chow Mein, and it is REALLY good.  I don't know why I've waited this long to make it again.  I didn't take a picture because I was too anxious to start scarfing it down, but here's a picture of the first time I made it.  It looked a little different, but it's pretty much the same.

 For lunch the next day I ate an entire bag of Trader Joe's Kimchi Fried Rice.  Love this stuff so much.  I also ate a carton of seaweed snack strips from Trader Joes.


 That next day for dinner I made stir-fried snow peas and bok choy, with tofu and another bag of Kimchi fried rice.  I marinated everything in mushroom sauce and Annie Chun's Korean Sweet and Spicy sauce.

I can't get enough!  As I write this, my mouth is still watering for more Asian food.  Guess what will be on the menu for tonight?

Avocado Hummus

I was flipping through Chloe's Kitchen trying to decide what I felt like eating this week, and I saw this recipe for avocado hummus.  It was actually part of another bigger recipe for Falafel burgers.  I didn't want to whole burger, but as soon as I saw that avocado goodness, I wanted it!  Luckily I had the ingredients, so I pretty much made it right away and ate it with some corn chips.  Amazing.  It's like guacamole, but different.  Not spicy, but super creamy and delicious. 

Just take some garbanzo beans, olive oil, garlic, salt, lemon juice, and avocado, and blend it all up.  Look in Chloe's book for the actual recipe.  Yum.

Vegan Viewing Party

 My friend Tara came over to watch the season premier of one of our favorite shows.  We had been planning this for months -- we are both veggie-lovers and couldn't wait to have a totally vegan viewing party during this show!  I made the entree and salad, and she brought over freshly made green juice, chips, and homemade cookies with her amazing vegan frosting! 

The pasta dish I made is penne with garlic, onions, white beans, chard and grape tomatoes.  I read somewhere that it is traditional in Italy to serve pasta and beans when friends come to visit, so I thought this was a perfect dish to serve and enjoy with Tara.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup

I don't care that it was a perfectly hot summer day today -- I wanted to make this soup!  I didn't even do any menu planning or grocery shopping this week, but I had a sweet potato, and that's all I knew.  Thus, this soup. 

I quickly googled a recipe and found this one from Forks Over Knives:

Click here

I made yellow rice on the side, and we had a delicious, healthy dinner! 

Taco Bell

I ate Taco Bell food for two meals today.  Not exactly a prime example of veggie goodness, but definitely needed ;)

Snack meal: 1 1/2  fresco bean burrito

Dinner meal:  2 tostadas, fresco style

Spaghetti Alfredo

I just happened to spot this jar of vegan Alredo sauce while I was shopping at Sprouts, and I had to try it.  I keep meaning to make a homemade version of vegan Alfredo sauce, but this just seemed so much easier!  (Have I mentioned lately that I've been really lazy with cooking lately?)

Earlier today I took the jar out of the pantry and set it on the counter in preparation for tonight's meal.  Well, as a nice surprise, I came out of the room this evening to a fully-made meal of spaghetti with vegan Alfredo sauce and broccoli!!  How exciting!  I didn't have to cook, and this meal made by Husband was delicious!  More please.

Caribbean Vegetables with Coconut Rice and Black Beans

From Chloe's Kitchen

When I told Will what I was making he started salivating.  "That sounds like it's going to be amazing!"

And the final verdict?  It was.  I mean, everything was amazing, but the coconut rice won the prize.  SOOOO good. 

Enough said. 

Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Pasta

I know it seems like I've been making a lot of pasta lately, but I do try to limit it to once a week or once every other week. 

This week I needed an idea for tempeh.  I hardly ever use the stuff, but it's so good!  I found the recipe of Food.com, and the link is below.  It was pretty easy to make and was delicious.  Even Will scarfed it down.  Earlier, as I was making this dish, he walked into the kitchen and looked skeptically at the soy bean chunks.  "I don't think I like tempeh."  He said.  Well, too bad for him.  It's what's for dinner.  Tempeh or nothing.

Needless to say, the tempeh went over well.  The broccoli with garlic was really good too. 


Click here for the recipe!

http://www.food.com/recipe/spicy-tempeh-and-broccoli-rabe-with-rotelle-316836

Two Veggie Burritos Please

This is what dinner looks like when we're too hot and lazy to cook.  I have a feeling we are going to be having a lot of dinner's like this coming up.

90+ degrees at our house today!  And summer is just beginning...

Pasta with Tomato and Pepper Sauce

I looked up a couple recipes, and used them as inspiration to come up with my own.  I didn't measure anything, so if you want to make this, just use the following ingredients as inspiration and create your own delicious pasta dish!

What's in this:

Whole wheat rotini
Chopped onions
Thinly sliced yellow and orange bell peppers
1 fresh Roma tomato
1/2 can diced tomatoes
Salt, Pepper and Italian Seasonings

Serve with a nice, healthy green salad and enjoy!

Perfect Hominy White Bean Chili and Cornbread

I have been wanting to make this recipe Robin Roberston's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook for a long time.  I know the point of a slow cooker is to help when you don't have time to cook, but I haven't even had time to throw this stuff in a slow cooker! 

I finally made it, and added some kidney beans in addition to the Navy beans and hominy.  I topped the warm, spicy chili with fresh slices of avocado and made vegan corn bread on the side.

The cornbread recipe came from the back of the package of Arrowhead Mills Organic Yellow Corn Meal.  Super easy. 

If you want the recipes, go buy this book because it is amazing, and maybe pick up some of that corn meal.