International kid friendly cuisine (vegan)

Black bean and salsa soup. So easy. I had some black beans in the freezer- Daddy had bought some very yummy salsa from Costco.. So Ta da! I did add some corn to the soup. On the side we have our favorite country corn muffins from The Garden of Vegan. If your looking for a quick dinner idea this is it! It is not fancy but very satisfying!
This was my first recipe from the Flavors of Korea- Delicious Vegetarian Cuisine cook book. I made the Sweet potato stir fry which was great! It is basically 2 large sweet potatoes, onion, green pepper and a dash of soy sauce.. The sesame noodles however had a big ol' typo in the cookbook that render them inedible! They look good though don't they?.. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of soy sauce as the base to the sauce to 1/4 lb noodles (it was only the kids and I so it seemed like the perfect amount).. After looking through the book though I think the recipe really should have been at least one pound of noodles.. but, even that seems like an obnoxious amount of soy sauce. I did added some chopped "chicken" seitan but, it was all for not. I even tried to save the noodles by rinsing them w/ some water. Nope, even that didn't help.

So, I didn't give up though! Honey had gone to a Asian market on one of his trips and brought back some Korean vermicelli (made from sweet potato starch), some Denjang paste(Korean miso) and Gochujang (fermented hot pepper paste). So, here we have my second attempt from the Korean cook book. I made the Tofu Noodles (tubu kuksu) minus the tofu. I just don't think my kids are up for plain fried tofu YET. Instead I made thee three-way sesame coated tofu strips w/ spicy broccoli from the Vegan Planet. And the orange looking pile is the Cucumber salad (ol sangchae) from the Korean cookbook. In the cucumber salad I got try the Gochujang, which is so good! It is spicy but, not a eye watering kind of spicy -just chalk full of WONDERFUL flavor! I love spicy food and this could very well become a new addiction for me! Our adventurous 4 year old Emma tried it and liked it - Eli no way! They ate the rest of the dinner, though the next day Eli informed me he didn't like the "cooked bits on the crunchy tofu" I think he might have gotten some burnt sesame seeds on his tofu.

(I can't believe but I found all three of those recipes online they are all linked)
For lunch the next day I made a Korean miso noodle soup. The Korean miso is so different then the Japanese kind. The Korean is not salty and there is a hint of mustard seed that really sets it apart. It was nice but, I ended up spicing it up w/ the red pepper paste YUM!
A long time ago Honey had brought back some black lentils from Trader Joes and they have just been sitting in the pantry for the longest time. I scoured the Internet looking for recipes and found this one Kaali Daal. On the other side of the rice is Vegetarian Korma. I substituted the heavy cream w/ plain soy creamer for both dishes but, in the end I wish I had used coconut milk I think it would have made it creamy-er. I only had two green chili's so I used 1 1/2 in the bean dish and 1/2 one in the vegetables. Funny the bean dish didn't have any heat and the vegetables were spicy- a little too spicy for Eli but, he still ate it.

Saturday morning I was watching a cooking show and on it they were making a lasagna. It looked so good and I was inspired- So, I had some left over home made spaghetti sauce from last week and tried my hand at making Susan's (fatfreevegan) My Favorite Lasagna. To her filling I added 2 tbs tofutti cream cheese and 2 tbs lemon juice. I topped it w/ some Parmezano sprinkles from the uncheese cookbook. In this lasagna I tried the no boil rice lasagna noodles and I must say they are wonderful! I have tried the whole wheat ones in the past and they just seem to be so heavy.

Yes, my lasagna is lacking the olives that Susan's recipe calls for. I had been cutting some up when a friend of mine called. When I got off the phone and went back to cutting them I discovered that the little ones had came in and ate ALL of the olives and I was left w/ just a small hand full to put on the lasagna. What little kid (or big one for that matter) could resist ten whole olives on ten little fingers?

Well, there you have it. Quite a bit different they the last few weeks. I am happy to report the kids did enjoy all of these dinners and it was a pleasant change from the strictly kids foods we have been eating.