Saturday Comfort Cookin'.

Nice to get back in the kitchen on the weekend instead of going out to eat all the time. Today I wanted comfort food so I made my standby. It's my quinoa-black bean tortilla casserole, adapted from a stuffed pepper recipe from Vegetarian Times magazine. It has layers of flour tortillas, quinoa, black beans, veggies and spicy tomato sauce with a creamy vegan mayonnaise topping. I love this thing and could probably eat the whole pan by myself. CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE. You can be creative and add any kinds of veggies you want. Today I used red bell pepper, corn and zucchini.

Along with the casserole, I made sweet corn cake which is a recipe I got from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen cookbook.

All together now. After a few shots of Tapatio, I was ready to dig in.

I also made banana bread because of some overripe bananas I had lingering in my kitchen. Who doesn't like banana bread?

I took a break from guitar practice to have a cup o' tea and a slice. So good!

Long time no blog!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been eating lots but not cooking as much as I want to. I am addicted to Domino's cheeseless thin crust pizza with mushrooms, olives, onions and green peppers and extra sauce, help! I really do want to cook from scratch at home. I have lists that I keep of foods I want to cook. Here are a few things that I've made recently.

I made another cashew cheese from the Vegetarian Times recipe, this time with a black pepper crust. So good.

Here is our spread along with goodies from the much too expensive antipasti bar at Whole Foods. $8 for the container on the right - what?

Nosh nosh!

This was a delicious grilled portobello burger along with grilled potato that I made last weekend.

Monday's chili made into chili dogs on Tuesday with chopped onions and kraut!

Mmm. More weekend food.

I actually had the motivation to cook this weekend. Have a look see.

Sauteed tofu on salad greens with cranberries and poppyseed dressing (Brianna's).

Stuffed mushrooms via this recipe.

Vegan cashew cheese from the Vegetarian Times recipe.

On top of crackers of course.

Homemade vegan potato salad (potatoes, vegenaise, red onion, celery, parsley, dill, mustard, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper) and roasted vegetables. Very yummy.

In To Lunch.

I haven't been out and about too much as I've been in search of a new job. So in between bouts of internet job searching and creative thinking time (painting or jewelry making), I whip up small meals for lunch and enjoy them here at home.


Yesterday I had this. Foul Muddammas (fava beans cooked with garlic, olive oil, lemon), za'atar dip (jordanian thyme, sesame and sumac with olive oil) and whole wheat pita. I know it's a bit of a beige looking meal but it was nothing but delicious, I tell you!


Today's lunch was more colorful. This is the Two Bean Salad with Tarragon Dressing from Vegetarian Times magazine. This was really delicious and quite filling too. Recipe here.

Harissa Spaghetti with Spinach, Mushrooms and Chickpeas

I am so in love with the homemade harissa that I made. I want to use it in everything! Luckily I know about this delicious spaghetti recipe that combines the wonderful flavors of spicy harissa, tomato and saffron. It is also cooked in a broth so there is so much flavor! Recipe here.

Weekend Cooking: Bruschetta, Dijon Potato Salad and Lake Cuomo Pasta

We're going to be enjoying a picnic al fresco later on this evening so I got some fresh baguettes and made this beautiful bruschetta with cherry tomatoes, roasted red peppers and fresh basil.


And what's a picnic without potato salad? I made this dijon potato salad that has dill, capers, pickles and pepperoncini in a dijon/olive oil/lemon/vegenaise based dressing.


Say hello to my cute 2.5 qt. dutch oven! I picked up this baby at Cost Plus World Market last night for a good deal and was very eager to make something in it! I decided on this Lake Cuomo Pasta recipe but halved it and instead of ricotta cheese I made a mixture of crumbled tofu mixed with italian herbs, garlic, red pepper flakes and a touch of miso paste.


So I layered everything in there: pasta, juice from tomatoes plus water, olive oil, salt/pepper, tomatoes/basil, veggies, tofu ricotta and more veggies. It went into the oven for an hour.


And out of the oven! A half recipe really makes a small batch so next time I should add a little more of everything.


I mixed the pasta before serving to get all the ingredients to blend together.


Ta da! This was so good. It was kind of like lasagna, creamy and rich. I loved it! Can't wait to make more!

Banana Molasses Bread

Look what I made last night! I would have taken a photo of the whole loaf but a lot of it is gone already! I based it off of this recipe. I didn't have Sucanat so I used regular unrefined sugar and added some blackstrap molasses for color. I also used spelt flour and omitted the chocolate chips. It came out so moist and amazing. This will be my go-to banana bread from now on.

Rice Casserole

Another warm and comforting casserole for a chilly day. I've made this before. It's the "Potato and Chickpea Curry with Rice" recipe from Vegetarian Times. It's so easy to throw a bunch of things in a dutch oven or covered casserole and bake for an hour. I made 1/3 of the recipe and added green beans and eggplant to my casserole and served it with sauteed garlicky kale. I should have doubled the amount of eggplant in it because they shrunk to almost nothing! But still, this was really yummy.

Banana-Nut Muffins

Oh my these are good! I haven't made many vegan muffins because I'm not much of a baker but these were just perfect. Soft and moist with the perfect amount of banana flavor and walnut crunch. These are the "Chimp Cakes" from Vegetarian Times magazine. The only difference I made to mine were using regular unrefined sugar, as opposed to Sucanat which would have make them a dark brown molasses color and I also omitted the chocolate chips. The muffin in front has it's hump cut off and spread with sunflower butter. I just discovered sunflower seed butter and I can't believe I didn't try it sooner. It's incredible!

Spaghetti with Spinach and Mushrooms + Strawberry-Mango Crumble

I made this pasta recipe the first year I went vegan. I had just subscribed to Vegetarian Times magazine and I was exploring and trying recipes from various issues. That was about 2 1/2 years ago so I thought I'd come back and make this dish again. This recipe requires baking the dry spaghetti in the oven for a while to toast them which creates a nutty flavor. The toasted spaghetti is then cooked in a broth flavored with mushrooms, tomato paste and harissa (a North African red chili paste) and allowed to plump up which creates a rich and silky texture. The mushroom flavored broth with the kick of spice from the chili made it taste similar to asian style noodles. Very comfort foody.


Not the best picture, I was too anxious to start eating! I served it with fresh slices of ciabatta bread.

I also made a strawberry mango crumble for dessert. Behold...



I veganized this recipe which simply required substituting Earth Balance margarine for butter. Otherwise it was all as written. I did switch out rhubarb for strawberries, I kind of think they have a similar tarty sweetness, don't you?


Not pictured but I had this with a scoop of vanilla non dairy ice cream. It was perfect. So glad I made this!

Potato and Chickpea Curry with Rice

I love lazy cooking, don't you? Any recipe where it requires you to throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot or dish, stick it in the oven and go about your business for an hour is just damned genius isn't it? Today was one of those days. I didn't want to be bothered. All I wanted was to be lazy and lay in front of the tv watching episodes of 'The Vicar of Dibley', but I also wanted a nice, healthy, comfort food dinner at the same time. I got this recipe from a back issue of Vegetarian Times. In it, there is an article about dutch oven cooking with a few accompanying recipes. You can find this recipe online here. I don't have a dutch oven (though I really REALLY want one) so I ended up using a Corningware covered casserole dish. I only made 1/3 of the recipe, as the original quantities serves 8 which is way too much. The only real work I had to do was cut up a potato, 1/2 an onion and 1/2 a zucchini. Not bad at all. I heart casseroles!

I usually don't enjoy Sunday evenings but today is nice. I am able to enjoy a hot comforting dinner and a night of funny tv. Oh and dessert is covered!

Detox Week 2, Day 11

I'm halfway there. I'm starting to fall into the lazy trap though. I am tired of eating fruit and salad. I had to force myself to eat a salad for lunch. I saw some chocolate brownies yesterday, valentine's day brownies in fact. It reminded me that I won't be having any chocolate for V-day. I'm thinking about making the fudge carob brownies from Gillian's book for a treat on Saturday. Maybe I'll do that. And maybe a loaf of her butternut squash bread as well. That should help my comfort food cravings. Yesterday I was ok with eating out with family and seeing bread and fries on the table and not touching them. Today my mood is different.

So here are today's eats:


Breakfast: Pear, mango, plum, dates and banana smoothie.


Lunch: Curried Split Pea Soup. My favorite soup recipe from Vegan w/ a Vengeance. To make it diet friendly I decreased the oil to 1 tsp and and added water to steam-fry the onions, garlic and ginger. I used low salt soy sauce instead of salt to season. It was very good despite the unflattering photograph.


Lunch: The pretty salad I forced myself to eat: rocket/arugula, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes lightly drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.

My snacks today were 1 date and 1/2 banana mid morning, a handful of raisins several hours later and after a long dog walk I made this...


This is a peanut butter, banana, date, soymilk and carob smoothie. Heaven in a cup. My sweet tooth has gotten the best of me today.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup plain unsweetened soymilk
4 pitted dates
1 cup ice
1 banana
1 tsp carob powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TB unsalted natural peanut butter
Blend the dates and soymilk then add the rest of the ingredients and blend til smooth. You may add more soymilk if it's too thick.

Dinner was stuffed peppers! This recipe is from the latest issue of Vegetarian Times. It's got quinoa, black beans, spinach and tomatoes. I topped the peppers with sliced olives (to entice my husband who loves olives) and one of them with a tablespoon or so of cashew cheese (Gooda uncheese) for a little indulgence. A nice green salad and a dollop of homemade guacamole made the meal complete. Mmmm. They were delicious and so filling. I'm sitting up in bed typing this right now feeling very stuffed.

West African Inspired Peanut Stew

I dig peanut butter in recipes. Whenever I see one that calls for it, I'm there. This recipe I got from the May/Jun 07 issue of Vegetarian Times. You can also find it online here. I've made this once before and I had used canned tomatoes with added green chiles in it and little did I know that my mouth would be on fire after one bite of the stew! I'm Thai and the Thai-ness in me loves hot and spicy food but for some reason I found it a little too spicy. So this time around I used plain canned tomatoes and added a few pinches of cayenne for a subtle spicy kick. I also added about a tsp of sugar and the juice of a small lime. (This must be the Thai-ness in me again...) There's another peanut stew recipe out there that uses kale and pineapple which I've also tried (again, the peanut butter attracted me to it) and it was pretty good as well. If you want something a little different, this rich, creamy peanutty stew with delectable veggies on top of rice might be what you're looking for...


Heaven on a bed of rice.