Friday, November 17, 2006

Alaskan Vegan Kid Food at it's Very Best!

Ya me! I happen to love low stress happy dinners! I try not to cater to the kids to much and expose them to things they may or may not like.. But, at the same time I really do appreciate low stress dinners. It's a mothers dilemma.. I swear Emma would have "hot dog"soup (Cheezy corn and frank chowder from Bryanna's 20 min. to dinner) every day and Mr. Eli pick would be bean and cheese burritos. So here are three creations the kids have never had before and loved ...really whats not to love?

First off we have a Calzone - I used Bryannas(Nonna's Italian Kitchen pg. 199) pizza crust recipe (w/ 1/2 whole wheat). Stuffed inside is breast of tofu aka tofu chicken from the same book pg. 170, diced and sauteed w/ garlic then added some jar spaghetti sauce, pineapple and the last of our stash of veganrella (sniffle).
Next from Vegan Planet Thai Peanut-burger wraps pg. 459 w/ spicy peanut dipping sauce pg 160. The 'burger' part is made up of onions, garlic, ginger peanuts, tofu, peanut butter, cilantro, soy sauce, chili paste and bread crumbs. Me oh my it was very good and the kids loved it! Emma especially liked the spice peanut sauce. The 'burger' part is baked and well, mine didn't hold up and turned out very crumbly- but worked great in the wrap.
Oh happy days.. Again Vegan Planet Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchilada pg 361. I saw this done by Seattlegal over at The Vegan Cookbook tester (Her picture is soo much nicer then my mess here), My first thought how much the kids would love them and for me- what a welcome change to our regular enchiladas. Well, when I went to get my cookbook low and behold that page was already marked w/ a yellow sticky. < -I guess I shall publicly confess here -> I often go to bed w/ a arm full of cookbooks and read them. Then I mark pages that I think the kids would eat, ah ya, while watching the food network sounds kinda weird huh? Needless to say this contributes heavily to my midnight munchies and my waist size because I after all have no self control! (its on my wish list though).
Any way these were a big hit! I made some home made enchilada sauce to go over it. I feed some to my older daughter Amber (17 years old) and her friends.. one of the boys asked "wow- so no meat in there huh?" and when I told him it was black beans and sweet potatoes he said " these are so good- I have eaten sweet potatoes before but, I have never liked them.". I thought they were very reminiscent of the Addictive Sweet potato recipe, give them a try-if you don't have Vegan Planet- you wouldn't be sorry (after all of 338 reviews it receives a 4.5 out of 5)! Be sure to read the reviews they offer a lot of great ideas- oh and change the serving size its default is 12 servings. And now I will leave you w/ this picture of little ms. Emma all tuckered out from playing in the snow all day. She is curled up in our kitty Sammy's bed- Evidently it's not just for kitty's anymore.

24 Comments:

At 10:55 PM, Blogger Ruthie said...

Oh my goodness. Your daughter is too cute! I sure hope Sammy doesn't have fleas, though. Wait -- do they even HAVE fleas in Alaska?? hee hee! just kidding :)

I have Vegan Planet but have yet to try the Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos. The reason is that I find a lot of recipes in that book to be kind of bland. Maybe if I try with some homemade enchilada sauce or the cheesey sauce you posted on here before they'd be worth trying. :)

And I totally agree with you that stress-free dinners are so good... I mean, imagine the difference in a meal that gets a thumbs down. If you spent several hours in the kitchen preparing it, it's heart breaking. But if you didn't stress too much over it, hey c'est la vie. :)

 
At 6:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your daughter is sooooo cute. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

 
At 6:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yum! I also mark cookbook pages with sticky notes and then forget to go back and cook them! Confession: I like just reading cookbooks!

Your food looks great!

 
At 7:45 AM, Blogger aTxVegn said...

What a precious picture of Emmy!

I don't take my cookbooks to bed too often, but they are full of stickies, and I always have foodtv on when I go to bed or I can't sleep. So I guess we're both weird!

I made similar enchiladas recently. I just love sweet potatoes with black beans. I recommend making chili with it too. My son makes a great one!

Of course all the food sounds and looks super, but I'm thinking that peanutty burger is something I need to make soon!

 
At 9:10 AM, Blogger Hannah said...

Ooo! Those Calzones look great! Your little Emmas adorible to:P
Amber

 
At 9:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Emmy is so adorable all curled up in the kitty's bed. I'm learning to love stress free (simple) dinners. So glad you were able to add in 3 new meals that the kids loved. I personally am drooling over the calzone. Delish!

 
At 7:26 AM, Blogger agnustic said...

Great page! I had to look into the sweet potato buritto. Living in New Mexico I always try to make veggie burittos.

 
At 8:35 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I just love how delicious that calzone looks. You reminded me that I wanted to make these. I'll have to wait at least a week now, though. We just had pizza last night. Hopefully I can remember this time.

 
At 2:55 PM, Blogger JENNA said...

i havn't had calzones in ages! I'm inspired. Your daughter in the kitty bed is too cute.

JENNA

 
At 7:50 PM, Blogger Eat Peace Please said...

This all looks so good. Especially the calzone and those pattie things rolled up. Yum.

 
At 4:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

lol your daughter looks so cute . love the food,i will try some like that with my little one.

 
At 6:39 AM, Blogger laura k said...

What a sweet picture of Emma all curled up there!

All of your meals look fantastic, especially those sweet potato black bean things... yum. Your kids have a great mom to cook interesting foods for them and broaden their horizons. I hope my (future) kids will eat the things I like to cook.

 
At 9:32 AM, Blogger bazu said...

Oh my gosh, a kiddie in a kitty bed- augh- too cute!

I just made calzones, too! How cool is that. We did one batch with broccoli/tofu ricotta and another with red sauce/gimme lean sausage. Yum yum.

 
At 10:29 AM, Blogger Nikk said...

When I try to steal my Sammy's bed, he huffs and sighs and tries to nudge me off. Good thing Emma stood her ground, right? :)

That food looks really good! I wish my mom had made me stuff like that as a kid! :)

 
At 11:55 AM, Blogger erica said...

ooh, those peanut wraps sound excellent! And Emma is so cute! I wish I had some kids around.

 
At 12:55 PM, Blogger Kris said...

Everything looks wonderful. I really need to get that Vegan Planet cookbook, I keep seeing it everywhere. I tend to hesitate with books that don't have pictures, but I just need to suck it up and buy the darn thing!

I love that your daughter crashed in the cat's bed. How cute!

 
At 4:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've never made enchilladas...I've gotta get on that cause they look amazing.

Your calzone looks ingridible. I've got to remember that the next time I made pizza I should flip it into a calzone.

 
At 5:09 PM, Blogger Laura said...

That picture of your daughter is absolutely adorable!

I have never tried combining black beans and sweet potatoes, but I love them both so much. I will definitely be trying them soon (I'm on the waiting list at the library for Vegan Planet, but I've been #1 on the list for a couple of months now...I think I might break down and just buy the book without having tried it first).

 
At 9:57 PM, Blogger Candi said...

Emmy is so sweet all curled up there!!

I love that calzone. I wish I had the ingredients to make it right now, even though I already had dinner. Lol!!

 
At 5:39 AM, Blogger Jackie said...

Emmy is so cute. I bet Sammy just came and cuddled up with her :)

 
At 12:23 PM, Blogger Valentina said...

it's like 7-8 years I don't eat a calzone. i've just realized that! yours look so yummy! your pics are always so nice and your daughter soooooo sweet!

 
At 4:02 PM, Blogger Catherine Weber said...

I love kids. Emma is a doll!

 
At 6:48 PM, Blogger seattlegal said...

Glad the enchiladas got a thumbs up! Have to laugh at your post-it notes in cookbooks - I do this ALL the time. Calzones look yummy too and as always, your kid shots are adorable!

 
At 11:40 AM, Blogger SDGvegan said...

I think I need to make some calzones this week! Those look delicious! Very nice food pictures and cute kid pictures too :)

 

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