Some of our family’s favorites

Awhile back I had a hankering for some tomato soup. Well, in the name of blogging I tried a new recipe from the 125 Best Vegan Recipes cookbook. All though, it wasn't bad I really should have just made everyone in our house all time favorite cream of tomato soup.

That's okay, we all ate our soup and quesadilla then the next night I recycled the left over soup into a pasta bake.. This went over much better! Topped w/ veganrella and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast flakes..

From my last post I did it again, I made the Lunch box roast beef and like I said I should have done the first time, this time I did make two.. One for honey to grill and one so the kids could take some yummy sandwiches to school. Like Ms. Megan said -it is a time investment to make.

So really making two roast is the way to go!

Well, I have sense learned that if I do make this again it will be only for my family. I am MSG/nitrate/ sulfate sensitive and evidently it was the marmite which is yeast extract sent me off to migraine land. I was clearly in denial hoping it wouldn't get me. The first time we ate it I wanted to believe that my migraine was hormonal but, after eating it again it is confirmed.. It was the seitan pot roast.. bummer because it re ally is good. I was trying to come up w/ some sort of replacement for the marmite, does anyone have any suggestions? I might try using the vegan worcesterchire sauce? or just leave it out and see what happens.

Honey giving the grilled seitan roast beef a thumbs up..

Behold the grilled beauty! We served them hamburger style on buns w/ all the fixins.

Again from the Vegan Lunch Box the triple chocolate cupcakes. I made them as only double chocolate- I left out the icing part. That way one, they travel better and two this recipe makes 24 so I could freeze some of them.

I am not much of a baker unless I have too. And well, the kids were invited to a birthday party, so I had too. This recipe intrigued me because there were no egg substitutes required- no soy yogurt, flax seeds, egg-replacer nothing. There is also nothing nutritionally redeeming about them either.

One thing I learned- I should not try and cook all of the cup cakes at the same time. Evidently my oven has hot spots and some of the cupcakes got a bit too toasty. Very good moist vegan chocolaty goodness!

On one of the days Daddy was out of town I made the kids and my favorite alphabet soup..From the Vegetarian family cookbook. Heck after all that seitan I was ready for some veggies! I was out of the little alphabet noodles and replaced them w/ some animal shaped + spiral rice noodles.. all was well.

After readings SaraJanes post about her Vegan "Chicken" and Dumplings I had had another hankering. After the whole tomato soup thing I didn't try hers (which don't get me wrong looks fantastic! I didn't have the soy cream or even plain soy milk). Our family's favorite comes from the well, the cookbook Vegan Family Favorites (ironic?). It is so easy and so good. This time I added some frozen 'chicken' tofu, onion, garlic, corn and instead of veggie broth I used water w/ no chicken flavored cubes. Perfect! The kids have never had real chicken and dumplings so, when Emma asked what we were having for dinner I told her using my exaggerated quote fingers "chicken" and dumplings to which she replied ohhh you mean dumpling soup Yum!Notice the fine silverware setting? Eli and Emma came up w/ a new game to play this weekend. When they set the table they set all six places when we only need four.. See that way we can play sit anywhere you want night. Evidently we should be wild and crazy once in awhile and not just sit in our normal spots ALL the time!

vegan lunch box -seitan pot roast..ohh baby!!

Excuse my very long absence. Life is good it has just been busy and it seems I have just been cooking ol'stadbys that I have already blogged about. Nothing really seemed that blog worthy.
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Until last night.
If you have the Vegan Lunch Box Cookbook YOU MUST TRY THIS! pg 119. The wheat gluten pot roast and gravy. Man oh Man! The recipe says it serves 4 w/ leftovers for lunch. But, really it was all we could do to stop stuffing our selves and eating the whole darn roast in one night. My family really loved it. If I knew how good it was going to be I definitely would have made two roast. The only minor substitutions I made was instead of red wine I used 1/4 cup red wine vinegar w/a 1/4 cup water and instead of fresh thyme I used a 1/2 tsp dried. On the side is of course mashed potatoes (1/2 white the other 1/2 sweet I use the pressure cooker w/ about a cup of veggie broth salt and pepper)

sorry about the bad photo
Okay so we did manage to save enough for three sandwiches (lucky kids and honey!)... BEHOLD the beauty! That seitan looks kinda freakishly like the real deal doesn't it? My hubby believes that this would pass with any skeptical omni test. He also wants to try doing this recipe only try to shape the seitan more like a tube to be cut up into burgers and then grilled... mmmm that boy is always thinking.
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Well, I started a post about our summer vacation many moons ago but, never got around to posting it. Here is little Emma enjoying her very first doughnut from Ronald's Doughnuts in Las Vegas.
It was cute - all though she has never seen the Simson she started chanting just like Homer Simson ...mmmmmm doughnuts


Emma has dairy allergy's and has never had a doughnut! The poor kid huh? Well, a couple of years ago her and I were in Seattle and I had tried to make it to the vegan doughnut shop there. But, I got lost and frustrated because of my poor timing we had hit five o clock traffic so we never made it, she still remembers to this day.

I think I made up for it though.

So here she is standing in front of the surgery goodness! All but three trays on the bottom are vegan. The lady behind the counter was SOOO NICE!!
So if you are ever in the Las Vegas area I recommend hitting up Ronalds - as a bonus it's not to far from the Trader Joes.

Vegan comfort foods...

Well, Daddy's home for a bit.. Here is one of his favorites .. From The Vegan Family Favorites again w/ the veggies and dumplings. I added seitan and corn.

Veggies and dumplings in the pot
A close up

Eggplant Parmesan

So eggplant was on sale here in our neck of the woods and I wanted to try something new. Here we have Susans (fatfreevegan) Vegan Eggplant "Parmesan". My picture looks nothing like hers though. I even woke up at midnight the night I cooked this going over the recipe in my head wondering what I did wrong. I followed all of the steps and the recipe to a t, but mine turned out mushy. VERY edible mush, though. The only thing I could think is maybe I cut the eggplant too thin. It worked in my favor though, because the kids-who claim not to like eggplant ate it up. Honey suggested adding some no bake lasagna noodle to it and making eggplant lasagna.
Mushy eggplant parma Tater tot biscuit from Cookin Southern vegetarian style
That salad looks kind of out of place there huh? Oh well- I just thought we could all use some roughage (who doesn't). Everybody LOVED the tater tot biscuits. Who would have thought to combined those two things together? I did replace 1 cup all purpose w/ whole wheat pastry flour and they still got fluffy. From the same cook book I made the Cole Miner's "Chicken Fried" Steak and Gravy. The patties are made from chick-peas and quick oats, onions, garlic, tahini, dijon mustard. Coated w/ nutritional yeast flakes, flour and sesame seeds.

Last night we ate yummy enchilada's, blogger is being finicky and not letting me up load a picture right now...

Have a great weekend. And thanks for all your well wishes from my last post.

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.

veggie dumplings and sunflower-lentil pie

This could very well become one of our family favorite! I made the Veggies an Dumplings from Vegan Family Favorites pg. 175. I did spruce it up a bit by sauteing an onion w/ the celery and carrots. I also added some corn and chopped up seitan making it a one pot wonder! My DH could not get enough of it! It was so much better then the chicken and dumplings I use to make using the recipe of from the Bisquick box..(Although, my daughter Amber would very much like to disagree w/ that statement- she is far from being even vegetarian let alone vegan. She did try it though.) If you are ever in the mood for some wholesome, kid friendly, vegan comfort food I would highly recommend this recipe! Next, we have from Dreena's Vive le Vegan we have the Sunflower-lentil pie, with some very lightly steamed broccoli and some butternut squash on the side. I did make the recommended Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce to go over the pie I also drizzled it over my broccoli (oh my-YUM). Okay, this was not one of the kid's faves.. But, me and my DH thought it was very-very good especially w/ the sauce! Dreena also recommends mashing it w/ some vegan mayo and making a sandwich out of it- Me oh my that's whats happen for lunch tomorrow. We'll see if the kids like it better that way.
Okay so Fiber at 28 cooks has a round up going on -

Fiber writes-

"Have you ever visited a food blog, day after day, and stopped and wondered what the chef behind the magic looks like? I often wander through my Blogroll and wonder who's on the other side of the computer. As food bloggers, we focus so much on the food that we often reveal nothing of ourselves to our readers. On any given street, I probably couldn't pick out more than 2 or 3 of the writers of the 100 or so food blogs I read on a regular basis. That's where this "Behind The Apron" round-up comes in. Starting today, and ending January 31st, post a picture of yourself on your blog, revealing as much (tastefully, of course) or as little as you want. Introduce yourself, show us your family, do whatever you want. "

And well, if you haven't been to this site before you should- there is by far the most stunning food photos ever and lots-o-yummy recipes!

A lot of you are braver then and I and already do this- with your avatars and what not. My Mom has been encouraging me to do this for months! She is absolutely on of my biggest blog fans and is positive that me showing you pictures of the rest of my family (i.e. not just those cute kids Eli and Emma) would please all of you! ahh.. but, I am shy.. and really don't photograph well.. I am one of those people who just HATES my picture being taken- it just never seems to lead to any good! But, I am up for the challenge!! Stay tuned in the mean time spread the word.