Has It Been A Week…?

We’ve been so busy this past week, packing, organising, selling and general upping and moving to another country type stuff. But there’s always time for eating and cooking :) So, here’s some of the stuff we’ve been munching lately…

This is Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. It was mildly spicy and creamy and I threw in some chickpeas to make it a little more filling. I really liked it, but Wee G was not so keen…that might be because he’s not really so keen on eggplants.

It looks like we had ourselves a little barbecue here doesn’t it? Unfortunately we didn’t :( It was all cooked in the oven, but tasted almost as good as barbecue. We had some tofu and veggie kebabs, corn on the cob, spicy potato wedges and coleslaw with pineapple. I also made BBQ and peanut ginger dipping sauces. The peanut ginger sauce was made from the Ginger Dipping Sauce from Vive Le Vegan! mixed with peanut butter. It was amazingly good!

And here’s a close up of the pineapple coleslaw yumminess. I think it was my favourite part of the meal, but Wee G wouldn’t touch it. He has never recovered from some kind of mysterious coleslaw-related childhood trauma. Even the inclusion of pineapple was not enough to tempt him to taste it….pah

What to do with leftover cabbage? How about some Chinese Cabbage and Tofu Soup? Yes please. This is from Vegetarian Soups From All Seasons. It seemed like it may end up a little bland, but I added some garlic and ginger and it turned out very tasty.

Some snacky chickpeas. They were roasted in the oven with some spices (cumin, chilli and a tiny bit of cinnamon I think) and then nibbled while watching telly.

Last time I made this Cornmeal Coated Tofu I thought I would try and make it a little more like fish fingers next time for Wee G. But I changed my mind and decided not to entertain his latent fishy desires and just made it exactly as before. Yummmm...

And last but not least some Peanut Better Cookies from Vive Le Vegan! I added some chocolate chips because...there really should be chocolate in every cookie. I’ve never eaten peanut butter cookies before and I was not crazy about them…I think I prefer my peanut butter and my cookies separate. However Wee G loved them so he got to eat them all to himself :)

See you later innovators!

Some Bits and Bobs

We are really getting in to packing now and it seems like everything is everywhere… :( I am planning on packing the kitchen stuff last so that I can keep cooking for as long as possible :)

I bought some Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (which are accidentally vegan).

"Crescent Rolls are VEGAN??!!"

I intended to spread them with my Notella, but it was all gone by the time I got round to using them, so instead I made them in to little rolls with chocolate and hazelnuts. They were so yummy!
First I spread margarine (Earth Balance) on the dough.
Then I added some chopped chocolate chips and hazelnuts…
…and cut in to strips.
Then rolled each strip up…
…like this…
...until all were done... and popped in the oven for about 11 minutes till golden.

Yumalicious! We had these for brunch with a massive fruit salad. It was decadent, but very healthy at the same time :)
This is a pasta bake I threw together using all the stuff in my fridge that I wanted to finish up. I lightly sautéed onion, asparagus, green pepper and spinach and added some cooked brown rice pasta, tempeh, canned tomatoes, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and some tofu-basil ricotta (from VWaV). It was topped off with more tofu-basil ricotta and baked for about 45 mins. It was simple, delicious and perfect with a salad.
This is a great snack idea from Vive Le Vegan! In the book it’s called Cinnamon Sweet Hemp Spread, but I used almond butter instead of hemp butter. It’s so good as a little dip for apple slices. Finally here’s a little tempeh stir fry thrown together in about 15 minutes. Just some onion, pepper, cabbage, asparagus, mushrooms and tempeh served over rice noodles. The thing I love about stir fries is that they are different every time. The sauce for this one had ginger, garlic, tamari, red pepper flakes, , vinegar, maple syrup and thickened with cornflour and water.

Hope you’re all having a great week!

Chickpea Crazy!

Anything with chickpeas is good in my opinion and I’m always looking for other ways to cook them . This Hummus-Quinoa Casserole is from Vive! and although it sounds like a strange mix it turned out really well. It’s a layer of quinoa covered with a layer of hummus and topped with veggies roasted in balsamic vinegar (to which I added garlic to make them extra tasty). It came out a little dry, but I think that was because I loosely halved the recipe and ended up with too much quinoa. I’ll definitely make it again with a few changes and I’m looking forward to it cos it was really good.

It looks quite pretty in the dish, but I made a bit of a mess taking it out so it looked a little different on the plate :)

For my casserole I made Creamy Hummus also from Vive! As I’m not crazy about tahini I substituted peanut butter as suggested by laura jesser and Melody a while back. And it was yumalicious! So thanks for the idea! And it also enhanced the smell of the casserole as it had a lovely peanutty aroma when I took it out the oven.

Last night we had some Morroccan Chickpea Patties that I have blogged about before. They are so good! And great with some potato wedges and a salad. Try them if you haven’t done it already!

Brown Rice and Green Lentils, Baked Portobello Mushrooms, Cornmeal Coated Tofu and Bean Salad

This rice and lentils recipe came from a recipe book I had years ago. I no longer have the book as it, and several of my other cookbooks, met a soggy end when I had the great idea of storing them near the sink. I have pretty much the worst memory of anyone I know so when I thought about making this recipe I remembered there was rice and lentils and ummmm..... Well, I think there was onions, garlic and soy sauce and there might have been thyme. So that’s what I put in and it turned out really yummy. I also had a search on the internet and found a few recipes that had fried, caramelised onions included which sounds really yummy. I am certain that the onions in my cookbook were cooked along with the lentils and rice so I did that to keep the fat content down. I had it with a baked Portobello Mushroom and broccoli. I like some strange combinations sometimes... :)
Next to the Balsamic Strawberries this is my new favourite thing – Bean Salad. Not very exciting, just a mix of chickpeas, edamame, green beans, sweetcorn, red onion, parsley and Simple Cider Vinaigrette from Vive Le Vegan! It is so yummy! I made a ton of Rice and Lentils so I had plenty left over and next day for lunch I had some with the bean salad on top. I added some home grown mung bean sprouts (that is about as green fingered as I get). Delish!

I bought some cornmeal recently for a recipe I was going to make, but I forgot what it was (see what I mean about my memory?!) so I thought I would use some to make this Cornmeal Coated Tofu. Wee G liked that they looked like fish fingers (fish sticks) and wanted to know if I could make them taste kind of fishy. I think I could use some kind of seaweed, but I don’t really know anything about seaweed. We tried sprinkling them with some kelp granules but I think those taste salty rather than fishy. Any suggestions?

French Toast

We rarely have white bread in the house, but after making the no knead bread I thought I would take the opportunity to use it to make some Fantastic French Toast from Vive Le Vegan!
It was really nice with a delicate cinnamon/nutmeg flavour, unlike French Toast we used to eat when we were kids which was more savoury and flavoured with salt and pepper. I remember my Mum making it for lunch for my brother, sister and I. We would eat it faster than she could make it and then hover behind her in the kitchen demanding more! I wonder now if my Mum ever actually got to eat any or if the bread ran out before she even got a slice!
Anyway, this was delish and with the fruit and maple syrup added it was almost more like dessert than brunch. My only problem was that it stuck quite badly to my non-stick pan, but it wouldn’t deter me from making it again.

Sunflower Lentil Pie

Another recipe from Vive Le Vegan! Another fantastic recipe I might add! I think I am just going to work my way through this entire book trying everything! It’s like a loaf made with sunflower seeds and lentils combined with onion, oats, celery and flavoured with ketchup, tamari and Worcestershire sauce. I served it with Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce (also from Vive), garlicky greens and mashed potatoes. I don’t really like tahini a great deal and even though I love pretty much everything with chickpeas I don’t eat too much hummus because I find that the tahini is often overpowering in it. But...the Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce is helping to convert me!
It also makes a good sandwich (or pita!) filling the next day when mixed with some Vegenaise.

I bought vegan Worcestershire sauce for the first time so that I could try this recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever had Worcestershire sauce before. I knew it had anchovies in it so I always avoided it. I don’t know what I expected it to taste like but to me it’s just like a spicier and runnier version of HP Sauce. A bit disappointing really...I was hoping for some never-before-tasted kind of flavour...ah well. I’ve just realised now that I’ve eaten Worcestershire sauce flavour crisps before so I have tasted it...kind of! And I just went to the Walkers web site to see if their Worcestershire sauce crisps are vegan and they’re not even listed as one of their flavours. You will be happy to know that their BBQ Rib and Prawn Cocktail flavour crisps are vegan though...hmmmm.

Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive Le Vegan! Everything I’ve made from Vive so far has turned out so good. Wee G was eyeing up some cookies when we were out and I remembered that I had read on Dreena’s blog about these so I thought I would try them out. They are simple to whip up and can be made in less than half an hour. They have no refined sugar and I used half whole wheat pastry flour so they are verging on being healthy :)

Wee G’s verdict was that they were “really nice” as he gobbled down two in a row. I am not the greatest cookie fan, but I did think they were good although I am happy sticking with fudgy brownies from Vive…they are fantastic!!

Lemon Herb Tofu

This is Lemon Herb Tofu from Vive Le Vegan! It’s really simple to make and doesn’t involve many ingredients. We had this with some Green Goddess Potatoes and Sesame Broccoli. I know the flavours don’t really go, but these are the things I felt like eating at the time!

I really liked the Lemon Herb Tofu, but Wee G didn’t. He did eat it, but he wasn’t keen on having it again. I think the texture was too soft for him, he prefers his tofu fried and crispy. The next day I made the leftover tofu in to a sandwich filling as suggested in the book and also on Dreena’s web site. I added some celery, tomato, grated carrot and Vegenaise. I gave it to Wee G and when he was on his final bite of the sandwich I asked him what he thought of the filling. “It’s reeeaaally nice” he replied. Ha...sucker!!

Earthy Lentil Soup

This is Earthy Lentil Soup from Vive Le Vegan! I made it with black lentils that I bought in Trader Joe’s. That’s why it looks so dark. It also has molasses in it which makes it even darker. The molasses adds a nice sweetness to the soup, and the lemon added at the end makes sure it isn’t too sweet. After I took this photo I blended about half the soup to make it smoother and I think I prefer it that way. This would be a great soup for a chilly winter’s day. I’m not sure I will buy black lentils again, but I will definitely make this soup again! On the side is some Quinoa Whole Wheat Bread that I made and will blog about later.