Great Vegan Eats

Hello blog land.. I would love to be a more regular poster.. but, I don't think that will ever happen.. I was downloading my pictures thinking holly cow, I have a lot. Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks.From Eat, Drink and Be Vegan the polenta casserole. The top pic is the casserole straight out of the oven the bottom is it in all its steamy glory.. Emma and Daddy REALLY liked this one, funny Eli usually devours any thing w/ beans but, he really didn't care for this one. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups beans of your choice - I used a can of kidney and some left over black beans. Next, we have an action eating photo.. I had tried the most of the seitan variations in LaDolce Vegan and loved them! This is the first time I have tried the turkey.. darn good eats!

Black bean burgers and roasted butternut squash w/ coriander seeds - both from V-con. I had bought a squash thinking I was going to make it at Thanksgiving but, it never happened. Mind you my kids love the whole maple syrup/brown sugar method of cooking squash. The didn't not like this one. The burgers where a hit though.

Chickpea-quinoa pilaf from V-con.. Darn quick, darn good, chalk full of protein goodness! If you are looking for a good vegan potluck dish this one would do!
Ahh, I had some close ups of the soup but, went with this one. I just love Eli's face in the steam!This is something we eat a lot! Cindy o's "chicken" and rice soup for the soul from La Dolce Vegan. I always throw in whatever frozen veggies we have in the freezer. It is so easy and has a wonderful flavor. What I like most is the little seitan bits cook right in the soup - genius!Pumpkin waffles from Vegan w/a vengeance with some vegan sausage and the most perfect ready to eat pears I do believe I have eaten in my whole life! I have said it before here in Alaska our produce is often not like what you can get else where! So these pears where a real treat! Yes, this was a dinner one night. Little miss Emma had mentioned the pumpkin waffles one day and I flat could not get them off my mind! They really are more of dinner food! They are extremely dense and filling. My take on the sweet potato curry from Vegan family favorites. I added lime leaves, lemon grass, green beans and chick peas served on a bed of brown rice... This is another ol' standby in our house.
Oops how did this get here?
Daddy was out of town and cruising through the store I saw these on sale none the less. VEGAN ORGANIC KIDDIE T.V. dinners. How cool is that? Funny thing was I had to explain to Eli and Emma what T.V. dinners are. No, they didn't get to eat it while watching T.V. but, it was a big hit none the less! I didn't think it was really enough dinner for a 5 and 6 year old so I made a big salad w/ beans. Yup, they gobbled up their dinner and salad before they got the coveted apple crisp. We have come a long way from the hungry man meals or chicken pot pies of my youth. Thank goodness! The sad thing is though I think they were on sale because they were discontinuing them. I rarely look at the convenient frozen food (besides the Amy's cheese less pizza) because so much of it might be vegetarian but contain hidden dairy.

last but, not least..

I must be the very last blogger to post Thanksgiving one week and a couple days late.. hummm... My Beautiful Mom came w/ her Beautiful Mom..(my Granny, my kids Great Granny).. what a joy to have four generations at our table... That is what Thanksgiving is all about.. is it not? Good times were had by all! I hope everyone out there had a great day too! Here is my Thanksgiving plate mostly thanks to the The Real Food Daily cookbook. Wow, it was a lot of work and prep but, worth the effort. I made the corn sage stuffing. Be warned it says it serves eight, I think they meant 8 starving football players because man o live I could not lift that pan w/ one hand if I tried! It was an obscene amount of stuffing. I also made the Mushroom gravy... The best gravy ever! a bit spendy w/ all of the mushrooms but, by far the best gravy I have ever made! And again it makes a BOAT LOAD! I used it for the green bean casserole which was by far the hit of the night! Again a heck of a lot of work(making the gravy and frying two large onions)- no cans of funky onions or salty soup was opened in the process! ohhhh VEGAN GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE.. (makes my mouth water just writing about it!!!) I would say that recipes needs to be doubled to keep everyone happy (everything but the fried onions there seemed to be plenty for the topping). I also made the faux Turkey breasts from the same book. Very good! I don't know if I would make those again though. I really liked last years Tofurky from How it all Vegan.. It was just so easy and the right amount.. Just for me!

Not pictured is my ol' standbytofu pumpkin pie.. from vegweb .. everybody still loves this (I have been making this for years).. This year we had some very omni guest this year who even asked for that recipe.. claiming it is the best pumpkin pie they have ever had!!! I always use extra firm silken tofu and 3 tbs cornstarch... mix everything in the blender and Viola! Easy as pie!
From ED&BV the white bean and Rosemary soup... ummm... I thought the recipe looked very flippen kid friendly but, my kids did not like it! maybe too many fresh herbs? rather then dried? I just don't know, I am sure I will try it again on them both.. . Little Ms. Emma thought it tasted better w/ cheese flakes (nutritional yeast flakes) I thought it was very good and ohhhh so creamy!
ohhh the mac daddy from v-con! (isn't it funny how there have been just waves of the same recipes in the blog world from the same new books?) The kids LOVED this too no end! they had two servings and little Eli BEGGED me to put in his lunch for the next day! Me and honey personally like my cheese sauce a tad better.. Funny thing is there is very little difference. Evidently a difference enough though!... I think next time I will do my sauce w/ the crumbled bit of tofu! that seemed to add a bit of moisture my baked mac and cheese was missing. ..

This was a quickie dinner.. I was shopping at our Safeway and noticed this sauce was half off.. Okay, I never have any vodka laying around and have heard really good things about a vodka pasta sauce... (oh by the way this was one was accidentally vegan). I was very curious. .. and well, normally this bottle of pasta sauce was ten bucks! ahhh ya.. For that price it should be flipping fab huh? even at five bucks it seems to me to quite a stretch! Because, even Safeway has an organic pasta sauce for $ 3 .50... any hoo I bought it.. Eli had a Dr. apt. after school leaving me very little time to come home and make a fab dinner and it seemed like the perfect time to try this over price sauce... verdict? A big fat ehh... Nothing to write home about about! Thank goodness I was not one of the suckers who paid ten flippen dollars for it! I added some silk creamer to it as suggested on the bottle.. but it was still jarred sauce... oh well... evidently I need me some vodka around the house to make my own sauce...!