Huge Photo Post To Make You Hungry.

Was going through my food photos and I realized I neglected to share a bunch of deliciousness that I've been eating. Check it out!

I'll start with the black bean burgers I made tonight after work. Very simple, just black beans, onions, garlic, herbs, spices and oats to bind the mixture. Bake for 30 minutes flipping halfway and you've got a tasty burger. One can black beans makes 4 burgers.

Served with salsa and vegan thousand island sauce.

One weekend I made homemade hummus, tomato bruschetta and olive tapenade. Love eating this stuff with fresh bread.

The grape leaves are from Trader Joes and they come in a can.

A night out at CPK. The Tuscan hummus is vegan!

The roasted veggie salad is also vegan with the ginger hoisin dressing. So good.

Homemade baked falafel. Vegan with a Vengeance recipe never fails.

Served with Vegan Diner home fries!

In a pita with luscious tahini sauce.

Homemade pizza deliciousness with Trader Joe's dough and vegan mozzarella!

Night out at Tacomiendo for veggie taco and potato taco (half eaten)! Order with NO CHEESE!

Guac and chips!

Tacomiendo has great juices. This one is the Healthy Heart: Carrot, Ginger and Apple!

Tender Greens in Culver City has the freshest food.

Happy Vegan Salad has edamame hummus, spelt salad, tabbouleh, quinoa salad and mixed greens. So tasty and filling.

Roasted tomato soup with basil oil is so warming.

Breakfast tofu sandwich.

With lots of ketchup and Vegenaise on toast.

Sandwich stuff and Baja Fresh.

Picked up some ingredients for sandwiches this week. I never tried the Tofurky tempeh before. So convenient! I usually make my own tempeh bacon.

Tempeh bacon, Avocado, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich on Dill rye. YUM.

Went to Baja Fresh yesterday. Easy vegan meal and cheap too. The beans and rice plate (no cheese) with a side of corn tortillas, guac and pico de gallo!

Enchilada Casserole & Date-Raisin Muffins.

My go to enchilada casserole. I normally use quinoa but goddamn, is quinoa getting expensive or what? I used couscous instead today. Came out great! Pretty much just sauteed onions, celery, peppers and garlic with herbs and spices (cumin, oregano, chili powder, cayenne), then added a can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of black beans, chopped zucchini and asparagus. After the veggies were tender, I added cooked couscous (1/2 cup dry) and mixed it all together. Then I layered the mixture with flour tortillas and tomato sauce in a baking dish, then topped with more tomato sauce, Daiya cheese and vegenaise. I used El Pato tomato sauce which is spicy. Then I baked it at 350 F for 45 minutes.

Topped with guacamole and fresh salsa.

Date and Raisin muffins. The raisins are in there somewhere. The dates are in the puree. I used this no sugar, fruit sweeteened muffin recipe. I chickened out and added a little bit of sugar to the batter. I also added a handful of 10 grain cereal, a bit of blackstrap molasses and sultanas. I'm still on the lookout for a vegan sticky bran muffin recipe. I wanted something like that today but didn't have any bran lying around.

Black bean burger and Bisquick cake!

I whipped up these black bean burgers and baked them in the oven. I served them with grilled onions doused in bbq sauce. They were pretty good.

Aaaaand, I played around with Bisquick again and made a cake! I used a recipe from the vintage Bisquick cookbook. It was for the "Velvet Crumb Cake" in which I substituted the 1 egg with 1 TB of cornstarch. I think I will try a different egg sub next time. Not much rise on this cake. I added finely chopped dark chocolate to the batter.

Very moist and tasty with a cup of tea or coffee.

Cantalini's Express veggie sandwich and Black Bean Tortilla.

Yesterday, we headed out to a nearby take-out italian place called Cantalini's Express. They make a great roasted vegetable sandwich that had eggplant, zucchini, red bell peppers, mushroom and asparagus. I added the Daiya vegan cheese and got it all melty. So yum!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! This was my delicious black beans that were simmered with onions, tomato, chili powder and cumin on top of a toasted flour tortilla with lettuce, guacamole, hot sauce, lime and Tofutti sour cream. I have a ton of leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Cheezy Enchilada Casserole & Lemon Loaf Cake

My love for casseroles will never die. Today I made an adapted version of Bob Barker's vegan enchilada casserole which you can find here. I forgot to top it with Fritos at the end, bah! But it's ok it was still amazing. I used black and pinto beans along with a package of veggie ground from Helen's Kitchen. I also added a lot of sauteed peppers and onions. And for the cheese, I used Pepper Jack Daiya vegan shreds.

So good with homemade guacamole.

And a dessert to celebrate the weekend: lemon scented vanilla cake with lemon icing. This cake recipe uses olive oil which I find makes cakes very very moist.

Vanilla Lemon Loaf Cake
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup unrefined sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup almond milk
1/3 cup regular olive oil
1 TB grated lemon zest
1 TB cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan with oil. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake about 30-35 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Poke holes in cake with a wooden skewer. Make icing and pour over cake.
Lemon Icing
1/2 to 1 cup powdered sugar
2-4 TB lemon juice
Mix until smooth and thick, but pourable. You may add more sugar or lemon juice until you get the right consistency.

Bean Tostada and a Grain Bowl.

Today's lunch was a delicious tostada that had refried black beans, corn, sauteed garlic kale and potatoes and avocado.

I also prepared a grain bowl for my lunch tomorrow. Quinoa, spinach, sauteed tofu, yellow tomatoes, sweet potato, cranberries and miso tahini dressing.

Another Casserole! (And A Salad too.)

This casserole making is getting out of hand! But since we are heading towards fall, don't you think comforting foods that bubble and bake away in a hot oven sound appealing? This "Chilaquiles Casserole" is based off of this recipe. I didn't use enchilada sauce, instead I used one can of tomato sauce mixed with one can of El Pato sauce. I also used Daiya pepper jack vegan cheese and added an extra can of beans to the filling. Mmm, mmm good. I love cheesy and saucy food. I'll have seconds, please!

This was my dinner last night. A giant bowl of salad with sauteed tofu and other good stuff. Tossed with sesame oil, lemon and soy sauce.

Not again!

YES! Again! I make this when I want something easy and super satisfying. This quinoa and black bean tortilla casserole dish never disappoints. I make it so much I should really start referring to it as "The Casserole". This time I added Daiya vegan cheese to create a nice melty top.

Quinoa and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole

Filling:
2 TB olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes, drained with juice reserved
1 14oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups water
3/4 cups quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup Daiya cheese
Sauce: 2 - 8oz. can tomato sauce or you can use 2 cans of EL PATO sauce (yum!)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder or plain chili powder
pinch of cayenne
1/3 cup Vegenaise
8 flour tortillas (to make it gluten free, use corn tortillas!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat olive oil in a medium sized pot and saute the veggies and garlic until they are soft. Stir in the cumin, taco seasoning and oregano and then add the drained tomatoes, black beans, water and quinoa. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to medium low and cover. Let simmer for 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender. Season with salt and pepper. Prepare sauce: Mix the cans of tomato sauce and the reserved tomato juice in a bowl. Season with 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder. Add a pinch of cayenne and stir until combined. Prepare drizzle by combining vegenaise and about a TB of the reserved tomato sauce. Cut tortillas into 4 wedges each. Spread a little bit of the red sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Layer some tortillas wedges on bottom of dish. Spread with half the filling. Top with more tortillas. Pour half of sauce and sprinkle half of the Daiya cheese. Layer with more tortillas, spread rest of filling, top with more tortillas. Pour remaining sauce on top and the drizzle with vegenaise mixture. Top with other half of Daiya cheese. Bake covered for 30 minutes.

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!

Taco Night.

This is what happened when I was desperately hungry while staring at the food in my pantry. Grabbed a can each of black beans, diced tomatoes and a bottle of Tapatio. Combined those ingredients with tofu and potatoes and they made the perfect taco filling.

Recipe Black Bean, Potato and Tofu Taco Filling

2 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 block of firm tofu, cubed
1 can black beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
2 large potatoes cooked in the microwave until soft, cubed
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion, garlic in olive oil. Add tofu and cook for a few minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until heated through. Season with salt, pepper and more spices if you prefer.