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.

still cooking

Awhile back I made the lentil balls from the Vegan Lunchbox and thought that my Honey would love them (he was traveling). The kids were not that thrilled about them and I thought it was the brown lentils so this time I tried it w/ red lentils. I cut down on the cooking time but, they ended up being a bit too mushy and well, just plain not as good as the original ones.

I made some more "beefy" seitan from La Dolce Vegan and covered them in some homemade bbq and baked them. Really good flavor but, the seitan didn't firm up enough for Honey who suggested a light fry after baking would have made this over the top good!
Sweet potato curry. One of Emma's favorites.
Ginger hoisin noodles from the Everyday Vegan. I double the recipe for the sauce and marinated the tofu in it- then lightly fried it up. I used udon noodles instead of rice, which was okay but, would have been better w/ rice noodles I think. Emma LOVED these noodles. Very kid friendly.
From the Real Food Daily- I made the basic seitan in the morning (4 lbs worth!) then marinated it using the Salisbury seitan recipe then smothered it w/ some Golden Gravy(all from the same book). The kids I must say had to be coaxed to eat this one. I thought it was good. I think it was the texture of this seitan more then the flavors the kids didn't like. Everybody in our house prefers the Vegan w/ a Vengeance seitan.. So now what do I do with the other two pounds of seitan? Along side I made Granny's hurry-up dinner rolls. Which were okay.
Roasted pepper Cannellini bean Sauce from Vive le Vegan. Honey liked it - The kids and I -not so much. I added some red pepper flakes to mine.
So, I saw Bazu's post w/ her walk the other day I thought I would share w/ you what our walk looks like.. I am 5'11 and the wall of snow is about eye level. It has been one heck of a crazy year here. We are working our way to braking the snowiest year on record here in Juneau. So far this is the fourth snowiest year w/ about 177 inches the record is 194 inches. The weather forecast calls for yet another storm headed our way and snow likely all week... uuuggghhhh! Yes, I know I live in Alaska but, we live in the rain forest not way up north.

Well, truth be told I don't fair well in hot weather - but, right now I am dreaming of a warm sandy beach and a cool drink something w/ an umbrella in it!

Snow ball fight anyone?

This weeks dinners..

Looks like breakfast huh? Nope it was a dinner. Biscuits from Cookin' Southern, carrot potato hash browns from Vegan Family Favorites, vegan sausage, and the real winner Bryanna's Hollandaise sauce from her website. It was freaky good! The perfect combo of texture and taste w/o eggs. I am just amazed by how she can brilliantly veganize things. The kiddo's have been begging for mac and cheese. I used my ol'standby recipe only I had a carton of rice milk that needed to be use so I replaced 1 1/2 cups of water w/that and the other 1/2 cup I used veggie broth. Man what an awesome replacement it ending up being! Nice and creamy! On the side was a big veggie salad w/ a bits of "beefy" seitan. Happy kids, very happy!

improved "cheese" sauce
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt & garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 cup plain rice milk + 1/2 cup veggie broth
1 tsp prepared mustard
2 tbs. earth balance
Combine dry ingredients and rice milk and broth and heat until bubbling and thick- keep stirring it gets thick quick. Remove from heat add mustard and earth balance.

This makes a lot..I probably used half for 4 servings of noodles.

For the baked mac I added some home made bread crumbs from some left over home made bread in the freezer. Just toasted it and put in in the food processor w/ a bit of olive oil and simply organics all purpose seasoning. I bake at 350 until the top gets toasty and brown.


I had a real hankering for a mock meatball sandwich. I used the Lentil-rice Ball recipe from the Vegan Lunch box. I thoroughly enjoyed them- the kids not so much. I think it was just the brown lentils they don't really like. My honey is gone out of town again and missed this one. Poor guy this was a sandwich right up his alley. Maybe when he gets back I will try them again w/ red lentils..hmmmmm anyway while we were eating it Emma asked why I just couldn't have used seitan.. soooo
The next day her and I made the 'beefy' seitan again from La Dolce Vegan . Then we sauteed up some onions, mushrooms, and red pepper added some pineapple and pizza sauce, melted some vegan rella and had us a pizza sandwich. Yum!
Here we have Wendy's (red) Lentil and brown rice Casserole from La Dolce Vegan. I had my doubts but, it was easy just dumping all the ingredients into a casserole dish and cooking it. I happened to love this one too, the kids ehhh.. But, they ate it.

seitan three ways..'beef', 'turkey' and 'ham'

Quinoa and Black Beans (a repeat ). To this recipe I add a can of fire roasted tomatoes and a can of green .
From La Dolce Vegan -Mock Beef and Rice Noodle Toss. Yet another Honey's favorite! The mock beef is kinda freaky stuff though.. It is really "beefy". It was unanimous this was an awesome dinner and the leftovers the next day were even better!
I guess I got stuck in my seitan rut only using the VWAV recipe and was ready to try another recipe. The LDV method of seitan making requires some time investments as you need to deflate the seitan every ten minutes.
After the rave reviews from the "beef" I was anxious to try the other seitan recipes from LDV and decided on the "ham" and "turkey".. Funny, I really liked the "turkey", but Eli and Emma preferred the "ham"- I thought it was just too salty. Overall though the "beef" was by far every one's favorite. I will be sticking w/ the VWAV recipe when I want to make nuggets though it just has a denser texture I prefer.
Here we have a peak into my quesadilla w/ the 'ham' seitan and veganrella mozzarella along side some of my cream of tomato soup.
I used the turkey seitan in this noodle dish. I was winging it and trying to get a creamy noddle dish- sauteed an onion, lots of celery and mushrooms then pureed w/ some soy creamer and plain soy milk seasoned and volia. It was okay, though not great. I think it was the whole wheat noodles I really didn't care for. It was a brand I had never tried before and evidently some are way better then others. Nobody complained though..
Yes, we have been eating an obnoxious amount of carrots lately.. The available produce at the store is in a mid winter slump around here.. Over priced and marginal at best.