Random Eats

Here's a random assortment of things we've eaten lately:

Quinoa, steamed broccoli & cauliflower, raw & steamed carrot, baked tofu, raw kale, and AFR Caesar Chavez Dressing:

Curried Chickpeas and Greens from Appetite for Reduction, along with some steamed cauliflower and Traditional Cranberry Sauce from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan:

One Wild Chick Soup from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, along with some Fancy Biscuits from How It All Vegan:

A saute of fresh zucchini, yellow pepper, and red onion, seasoned with some basil, oregano, salt, and pepper:

Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits (subbed with canned pumpkin) from AFR:

A homemade, on-the-fly baked rotini casserole, with shredded carrots, zucchini, spinach, onions, garlic, tofu ricotta, and tomato sauce:

Mellow Lentil Sniffle Soup from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan:

Have a great weekend!!

Vegan MoFo Day 31: A Smorgasbord of Vegan Food

It's the last day of MoFo, so I wanted to leave you with a smorgasbord of yummy stuff I've eaten the last few days. I haven't traveled to Sweden, but I'm Swedish on my mother's side of the family, so there ya go.

Lemon Lentil Soup from Peas and Thank You:

Oatmeal Bread from How It All Vegan!:

Lotsa Veggies Lentil Soup from Appetite for Reduction:

Everyday Chickpea-Quinoa Salad (with avocado), also from Appetite for Reduction:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance:

Orange-Date-Walnut Bread from 1,000 Vegan Recipes: 

Bean & Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan:

I used black tortilla chips and Daiya vegan cheddar to make it look very Halloween-y :)

I'll be back with a MoFo recap soon!

Vegan MoFo Day 27: Germany, Part 2

I think I got a wee bit carried away writing about Sulzfeld in my last Germany post. I promise to keep it short 'n sweet this time :)

This was the coolest hotel EVER. We spent Valentine's Day weekend 2003 in Baden-Baden in the Black Forest. This is Hotel Der Kleine Prinz. It was so expensive we could only afford to stay one night, but it was so cool. We had afternoon tea at the hotel and then visited the Friedrichsbad Roman-Irish Baths. Later that night, we got gussied up and visited the Casino Baden-Baden. People were gambling here in evening gowns and tuxedos. Very James Bond-ish!

This is a picture we took from our car as we were driving through the Alps on the way to Austria...

This is Schloss Neuschwanstein in Hohenschwangau. King Ludwig II of Bavaria lived here, and it's the castle that inspired Disney's Snow White castle.

A view from inside the castle...

This is downtown Garmisch-Partenkirchen. This town hosted the Winter Olympics in 1936.

 Here's my hubby (the man in the yellow hat...hehe) at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.

This is a photo of Heidelberg. We took a day-trip here to meet up with my hubby's cousins, who were traveling through the area. Lots of cool bridges and architecture here!

This is a picture of the Falterturm ("crooked tower") in Kitzingen. Legend has it that there is a golden ball at the top of the tower that contains the heart of Vlad Dracula, and the tower is leaning toward the cemetery across the street where he's supposedly buried. Pretty cool, huh?!

Of course, one of my favorite memories of Germany is going to all the winefests. Here's a picture of the Kitzinger Weinfest. It's a tad blurry, but hey, I was at a winefest. I think that explains everything.

Here's my Dad, my hubby, and me in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenburg was about an hour's drive away from Sulzfeld, and we visited often. It is such a cool place!

The town gets all decorated for the Easter and Christmas holidays, especially. We took this photo around Easter in 2002.

And finally, a photo of Fortress Marienberg in Würzburg. Würzburg was the largest city close to Sulzfeld, about a 30-minute drive away. I remember once attending a formal dinner in the Fortress for my hubby's military unit. They served cold cucumber soup as an appetizer. Let's just say that it didn't go over so well, although I personally thought it was delicious :)

Let's face it - German cuisine is often all about the meat. I say, let them eat tempeh! Smoky Tempeh & Greens Stew from Appetite for Reduction, more specifically!

 You want some broetchen with that? How 'bout some Fancy Biscuits from How It All Vegan! instead?

Germans also love their cabbage. Here's some Cabbage and Fennel Salad with Apples and Raisins, along with some baked marinated tempeh and mashed carrots and turnips. Das ist gut!

Ginger Peanut Soup and Coconut Bread

Another day, another batch of bad food porn. *Sigh* I will get around to reading my camera manual....I will get around to reading my camera manual...


I bought a really big head of cauliflower last week. I used about half of it in the 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma, but I still had a good amount left over. I decided to put it to good use and make a special dinner my hubby really enjoys - Ginger Peanut Soup from How It All Vegan! and Luscious Coconut Bread from VegWeb. I know I've said it before, but I still feel the need to apologize for the bad pictures!

The soup is dynamite - it's really so, so easy to make, and it has a ton of good-for-you stuff in it, like broccoli, cauliflower, ginger, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and peanut butter. Sometimes I'll also add some chickpeas or tofu to the pot, but this was just the regular, straight-up version. I love to top our soups with some shredded coconut and chopped peanuts. It just adds that little somethin' somethin.'

The soup was murderously hot and we were starving, so I put some frozen spinach at the bottom of our bowls and added the hot soup on top. This is one of my favorite tricks - you cool your soup down AND add some more veggies! I do this with my son's hot foods all the time, usually with frozen peas :)

Of course, no soup is complete without a great bread alongside. The Luscious Coconut Bread is, indeed, luscious! It's sweet and moist and utterly delicious.

Soup and bread is one of our favorite combinations in the fall and winter, so you'll be seeing lots more over the coming months!

Black Bean and Corn Salad with Country Corn Muffins

It's been hot. I've been busy. My toddler son is a bundle of energy, and by day's end, I haven't had much energy left to blog. I also haven't been having enough energy to put a lot of thought or creativity into my cooking. This past week, I definitely employed a let's-see-what-I-can-make-with-frozen-veggies-and-beans-and-grains-and-whatever-else-I-can-scrounge-up kind of cooking tactic. As a result, I did default to some quick and easy faves, like Mexican pizza, Kristen Suzanne's Raw Harvest Soup (doggone it, I made this last night and didn't take a picture because I thought I had already blogged about it - WRONG!!), AFR's Big Fat Taco Salad, and (when I was especially tired), Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs with spaghetti and frozen broccoli:

I also have been enjoying some Living Harvest Tempt Coffee Biscotti hempmilk ice cream, which I picked up on sale at Whole Foods (I'm too much of a blogger newbie to figure out how to rotate the picture, but you get the idea):

Today, I actually busted out the knife and cutting board (and muffin tin!!) and made a real dinner. It's an old favorite of ours, Black Bean and Corn Salad with some Country Corn Muffins from How it All Vegan!:

I've made this recipe dozens of times, and it is just so easy and so good. I take it to cookouts, potlucks, and even when we go camping, and it's always a big hit. Fresh tomatoes, corn, orange pepper, black beans, scallions, and cilantro are tossed in a zesty lime-garlic-olive oil dressing (I reduce the oil, though, from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup).

It's perfect in so many ways: easy to make, no cooking involved, makes a lot, transports well, and it's very nutritious.

I love the Country Corn Muffins recipe. It's probably the most fool-proof recipe I've come across. Even though the recipe calls for all-purpose flour, I have substituted whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, and buckwheat flour (as I did tonight), and the muffins always come out great. I actually love the funky color the buckwheat flour gives the muffins! :) I also use my own egg substitute (2 tbs garbanzo bean flour and 2 tbs water), agave instead of sugar, and lemon juice instead of vinegar. I told you, it's fool-proof! These are gluten-free, whole-grain, low-sugar, and chock full of fresh corn.

I bet the salad would be really great just scooped up with some tortilla chips, too! Hmm....

Father's Day Feast

Happy Father's Day! I am blessed to have the best Dad in the whole wide world (in my humble opinion). He is the kindest, sweetest, most gentle, and nicest person I have ever met in my entire life :) I love you, Dad! In fact, I admire my Dad so much that I married a man just like him - my sweet husband P! Love you too, babe! :)

Since my son is only two and isn't quite capable of doing much for Father's Day (other than saying "HAPPY DADDY B-DAY DADDY" to my hubby this morning), I wanted to take the matter into my own hands. I did a lot of prep work yesterday so we could spend more time today having fun and less time cooped up in the house. Mission accomplished! Dinner prep only took 30 or so minutes and we were able to spend most of the afternoon kayaking on the pond and hanging out in the backyard.

Our dinner was Jamaican Tempeh Patties with mango chutney, mango & black bean salad (adapted from Veganomicon, some Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, and Charming Chocolate Cupcakes from How It All Vegan!

Making the tempeh patties was a breeze tonight, since I had already made the dough and the tempeh filling yesterday. All I had to do today was roll out the dough, fill them, and bake them. Easy as 1-2-3!

After I rolled out the dough, I cut it into circles:

Added the spicy tempeh filling:

 Folded it over into a half-moon shape:

Crimped the edges with a fork to seal:

 And put them on a greased baking sheet:

 While they were baking, I threw together the mango-black bean salad (it also has red bell pepper and scallions):

Some golden brown patties with the salad:

 Served with some chutney and beer on the patio:

 The lime chutney was NASTY!! so we opened a jar of mango chutney too. The mango was much better!

And for dessert, cupcakes!

Hubby said he had a great day. That makes me happy! :) I got to talk to my Dad via Skype too, which was great!! Love you Dad, Love you Hubby!!!