Stir fry

Usually my mom and I go grocery shopping together, and we divide the list and both go separately to get whatever is on our list. I always get the produce, but this time I decided to let mom get it. She got SO MANY VEGETABLES. Which is really cool, but we had trouble getting them in our fridge, we had to use the other fridge in the basement to fit it all. I just hope none of it goes to waste. I think we're doing pretty good considering. But anyway, I made a very nice stir fry with all of it.

It's got carrots, onions, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, bok choy, mushrooms, and lots of garlic, ginger, and basil. Maybe one or two other things. I was going to add tofu, but then I realized that there was PLENTY. It was served over white rice, which I usually try to replace with brown rice, but that day I just felt like eating white.

And my next post will be my Valentine's post!

Yam sandwich

For this sandwich I used my panini press, which I rarely do, because it's constantly covered in cheese and butter. But I gave it a very good cleaning and made myself a sandwich.

First I sauteed some slices of yam with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and agave (All out of maple syrup) while caramelizing some onions.

Once those were done I put them on the sandwich with some tomato and fresh spinach, and put it in the press. Which wilted the spinach slightly, and made a delicious sandwich!

Sushi

Here's some quinoa sushi filled with carrot, avocado, and green onions. With a bowl of rice noodle soup.

Peanut sauce

Pretty simple meal here. Just some quinoa, peanut sauce, and steamed broccoli for dipping. Simple, but definitely yummy. And healthy!

I'm not sure if I've posted how I make peanut sauce before, but in case I haven't here's how:

Saute some minced garlic and ginger until getting slightly browned, turn down the heat and add lots of peanut butter, some soy sauce, lime juice, vinegar, water, chili paste, curry powder, and sometime's I'll add some dried lemongrass. All to taste. Once it's hot (Be sure not to burn it!), and tastes just how you like it, turn off the heat, and tada! You have peanut sauce.

Catching up

Eek, over two weeks since I've posted! I've been really busy! First I skied up to a cabin with lots of snow, and stayed there for two days, then I went to something called Non-Con, which is like a big gathering of homeschoolers, pretty much, and then after that, I had a friend over for an entire week! Unfortunately I didn't get many photos, and I was a little too busy to try many new recipes, but I did think of one!

I even found some old photos in figuring out what I have and have not posted about yet.

A little treat I've been enjoying recently: Chocolate covered marzipan (Basically delicious almond paste) Not even made to be vegan, just coincidental. Yay! Also, it's delicious.

Some soup and caesar salad from forever ago. Next time I make some caesar salad I'll share the recipe.

In case you haven't noticed, when I cook, I generally just throw some stuff together and it ends up tasting good, which makes writing recipes or remembering how I made something a while ago difficult.

The soup wasn't very good, nothing to really mention.

The chocolate chip-pumpkin-oatmeal cookies I made for Christmas presents.

A meal from a while ago just using up what I had on hand. A simple stir fry, some quinoa, and some Daiya quesadillas with salsa.

Here's a heap of sauteed veggies. Broccoli collards, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, onion, garlic (Maybe some other veggies as well?) with just a small splash of balsamic vinegar and teriyaki sauce. Nom nom nom. Simple but delicious.

Some kind of soup that I don't remember? Brown rice, kale, carrots, peppers, and onions is what I see.

Sandwich. Sauteed mushrooms, onions, and spinach with vegenaise, mustard, tomato and avocado.

Cuppy cakes. Made quite a while ago. They're the gingerbread cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. They were delicious!

Lemony quinoa-vegetable soup.

Some of my mom's coleslaw. She makes it pretty often, and is really good at it. I know there is some vegenaise, lemon juice, flax seeds, and chopped dried cranberries, but I don't know the rest. Maybe she'll be nice enough to share a recipe, or at least the ingredients in the comments. ;)

Some of her broccoli slaw. A bag of broccoli slaw, balsamic vinegar, halved cherry tomatoes, flax seeds, and some other things that she might also be willing to share.

Some curry from a while ago. I see potatoes, tofu, broccoli, carrots, onion, and maybe zucchini? Along with some brown rice. It was delicious, but then again, I'm not that picky when it comes to curries, they're all amazing.

Miso soup! I was eating a lot for a while. It's a really nice comfort food or light Winter meal. And super healthy, too!

Then, I've told you about my rice noodle soup I like to make, this is similar. I wanted some miso soup one day, but wanted something a bit more substantial. So I added veggies and noodles. So it's kind of like a cross between my rice noodle soup and miso soup. It's very good. (Yes, there's wakame, tofu, and green onions in there to make it more miso-soupy)

And some jamabalaya! Same recipe as before, pretty much, but I cooked it in my rice cooker, and added some kidney beans.

And then for Non-Con, the person who set it all up had a birthday recently, so I made her some cupcakes, and mini-cupcakes. All chocolate, as she requested. The recipe was from VCTOTW, along with the peanut buttercream frosting on some, and the chocolate buttercream frosting on others. In case you can't tell, they say "HAPPY B-DAY MARY!" I especially like the little smiley face one. Please forgive the messily frosted ones! (And the little note is just saying what kinds of cupcakes they are, and that they're vegan! In case anyone there aside from me is vegan)

And then, although I don't have a picture, I can tell you about a new sandwich idea I had. I usually just have a sandwich with sauteed mushrooms, onions, spinach, and maybe some bell pepper or zucchini. But that day I was out of mushrooms, peppers, and zucchini, so it'd just be spinach and onions. So I gave up on the idea of a sandwich and rummaged the fridge. Then, I saw some yams in the back of the fridge. So I peeled one, cut it in half widthwise, and then sliced it fairly thin. I then put it in a baking pan with some olive oil, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and sage, and baked them until soft, but a little crispy on the edges. I put that on a sandwich with mustard, tomato, avocado, fresh spinach, and caramelized onions, and dug in. Aside from how pretty the sandwich was with the pretty bright orange in it, it was absolutely delicious! Maybe next time I'll try using the stove rather than the oven to see if that's better. I'm certain it'll be faster at least. That's a new favorite sandwich filling of mine!

Have a great week!

This week's food

Lots of posts from this week, so they'll all be compressed into one post, so that they'll actually get posted at some point.

Lots of sandwiches this week.

My favorite sandwiches aren't stuffed full of fake meats and cheeses, but just sauteed veggies and mushrooms.

This sammie has sauteed mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, and zucchini. Along with a good smear of hummus, sliced avocado, and some olives on toasted bread. A little messy, but very tasty.

Almost the same here, but instead of hummus and olives, guacamole and some lettuce.

Then, trying to get some raw in there, I made some raw sandwiches. Romaine for the "Bread", guacamole, mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper, and grated carrot.

Then cooooooookies. Quite possibly the best chocolate chip cookies EVER. The only thing I changed is I used all brown sugar, and cornstarch instead of tapioca flour. These were amazing. easy, soft, not too sweet, and delicious.

Then, for a brunch, I made a Spanish omelette. It seems more like a fritatta to me, but maybe I'm confused. It was delicious none the less! I also added some mushrooms to it, and a chunk of tofu to the eggy mixture to see if that would firm it up a bit. I was planning on having it for breakfast for a couple days, as I really hate making breakfasts for some reason, but it was all gobbled up before the next morning. Mainly by me, but still.

Then, yesterday I just had a big heap of sauteed vegetables for lunch. Mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, broccoli, and spinach, just with a little splash of balsamic vinegar and a little splash of island teriyaki sauce. Yum!

Then, yesterday's dinner. Pretty much the best stew ever, and the broth was wonderful!

I started off by boiling some parsnips, carrots, potatoes, onions, and garlic in some vegetable broth. (I also cooked some short-grain brown rice in there. But barley would be even better. But I was out) Then I took about half the veggies, (Trying to avoid the rice, but if you get some, no big deal) and some of the broth, and pureed it in a blender, then added it back to the stew and added some bell pepper, mushrooms, and kale. The pureed veggies in the broth thickened the stew to just how I like it, as well as giving it lots more nutrition and flavor. I'll probably be doing this whenever I make soups or stews from now on.

Then, today's lunch.

Another heap of sauteed veggies (Same as yesterday) along with some cheese, another cheese, and crackers.

Delicious week so far!

Have a great day!

Faux cheese

The other day I decided to take a shot at making a vegan cheese, looking around in the kitchen, and remembering some other vegan cheese recipes, I collected some ingredients, and mixed them together. It tasted pretty good, but it was a paste. The next time I made it, I decided I would mix in some coconut oil, to see if that could give me a firmer cheese. And oh my, it definitely worked. It's a bit salty, and very strong, but I really like it, and my mom loves it.

It is very strong, a bit salty, fairly similar to a very fancy, sharp cheese, and since it's so strong, I'd suggest not making any double batches.

Anyway, on to the "Recipe" I hesitate to call it that, because I didn't measure at all, so these are extremely rough estimates. I'll try to measure next time. I tried to have the estimates be a little on the short side, because you can always add more, but you can't take it away.

About 1/2 teaspoon white/mellow miso

About a tablespoon nutritional yeast (Regular will not do! If you must, you can probably use brewer's yeast)

About 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

About 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

A little sprinkle of garlic powder

A tiny, tiny bit of horseradish

About 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini

Melted coconut oil

Mix everything together except the coconut oil, taste it, and adjust to however you like. Then add about three-four times that full amount of melted coconut oil. More for a firmer, milder cheese, less for a softer, stronger cheese (I'd go closer to the four times as much)

Re-adjust seasonings if you need to. If it's not mixing well, add some more tahini. Once it's all mixed and tastes really good, chill it for a while until you can shape it, then shape it however you want. (I made a little wheel, sort of) Then wrap it up in foil or something, and chill for at least an hour until it's firm.

Then get out some cracker, apples, or whatever you like, and enjoy! (Be sure to slice it thin though, it really is very strong!)

I won some cookies!

I won some Intention Cookies! I've never won a giveaway before, so this is really awesome! Also, these cookies sound absolutely delicious. I will let you know what I think when they arrive. I'm especially excited about the Love, and Well-Being cookies. But they all sound great.

I'll probably do another post later in the day.

Breakfast bagel

Here's breakfast one day. Much fancier than my breakfasts usually are (I am definitely not a morning person).

It's a lightly toasted bagel, spread with lots of hummus, then with soaked and sliced sun-dried tomatoes, and sliced olives. It was really good, especially while it was still warm. Yum!

Christmas gifts

Sorry I didn't post this before Christmas, I was going to, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise for everyone I'd be giving them to. And then I would have posted around new years, but my grandpa couldn't make it here on Christmas, so we had a late mini Christmas yesterday, and I didn't want to ruin the surprise for him either. But anyway, I can post about it now!

I made some soaps. You can find big things of soap at crafts stores, and then you just melt it, add fragrance, color, and sometimes add-ins. Like to the lavender soaps I added in some real lavender. Then you mold it, (I use those disposable loaf pans because they're a good size and shape to make good soap slices, and because they're flexible so I can take the soap out easily) let it cool, and then slice it. I made lavender soaps and cucumber-melon.

Then I made some candles, just melt some wax, add a tiny tiny bit of crayon (For color), and fragrance, then put them in whatever mold or container and add a waxed wick.

I made rose, (The pink ones), lemongrass (Th yellow one), pine (The trees), and cucumber melon (The green ones)

And then of course I made some truffles.

I made a bunch of different kinds, and on each kind I drizzled on a different pattern in dark chocolate. For the lemon ones I did a zigzag, for the orange ones I did a spiral, for the coffee ones I did a waffle, and I left the mint ones plain. And then I also had chocolate covered crystalized ginger, and chocolate coconut balls.

I wrapped some of them in the same bags I wrapped the soaps in, and some in cute little boxes with hearts on them. Somehow I didn't get a picture.

I also made some almond bars. So pretty!

And peanut butter fudge! Recipe from a friend.

2 cups peanut butter (Sorry, not natural!)
3/4 cups margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups (one 14.4 ounce package) graham crackers, crumbled
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Beat 1 1/4 cups peanut butter and all the margarine in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup powdered sugar.
With hands or wooden spoon, gradually work in remaining cup of powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Spread mixture into greased pan.

Melt remaining 3/4 cup peanut butter with remaining 1 1/2 cup chocolate. mix, then spread over graham cracker crust. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Not exactly healthy, but tasty!

I also made a whole wheat pancake mix for a few people, which I put in jars with instructions taped to the jar.

I considered also making some sauces, or seasoning mixes, but I was too busy.

I also made some gingerbread, and pumpkin-oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies (No walnuts or raisins, but with added chocolate chips) and put them in cute bags with ribbons. Which I apparently didn't take a picture of. Probably because it was really really late.

You guys can come back to this post around Christmas time if you want, otherwise, maybe this will be useful for a birthday gift or something.