Wee, a little break from REALITY.

Or not. Sorry I've been quiet guys, in the process of moving, life, etc. Also - I just plain stink at cooking... this blog is basically showing the few successes I have when it comes the things I make. So when I'm quiet, I'm either having a bad streak OR I'm eating stuff out of a box (*shame*).

Anywho. I've made a couple things in the past few days that are pretty good... Yesterday I made vegan cabbage rolls which Michael thought were great and I thought were "eh" but if he likes it, that makes me happy.



I also made some stuffed manicotti, I used daiya cheese for this & it was pretty rad. *heart*



Tonight I had a ripe avocado... I REALLY wanted to try this recipe for a raw avocado soup and I had all the ingredients but one, spinach :( SO I had to find something else. I decided to dig out my nori sheets and make myself some nori rolls! YUM!! AND SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EASY! You can't mess them up! Now, I just wish I had some wasabi.



**Edited to add a note: A friend of mine suggested that I needed to work on "presentation". I know this. However, until I work on my cooking skills, my presentation skills will have to wait. Sorry to any this may inconvenience. *thpbt**

Raw kale salad

I just ate a whole lotta kale. Like, a whole giant bowl full :D

I found this (I recommend the video) really great recipe for raw kale salad... and it looked DELICIOUS. However, I didn't have all the stuff for it. SO, I improvised. I didn't have avocado, so I used a sprout mix that I grew. I didn't have cherry tomatoes so I used one tomato off the vine. I sprinkled it with sea salt, a little chopped up nori, and some flax seed and sliced almonds. Used olive oil and a splash of rice vinegar. I think next time I'll use a little lemon juice instead. It was really really tasty... I ate it all so I wasn't able to take a picture (my bad!).

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 was great for you and that 2011 will be even better!

Happy Holidays!

Doesn't this just scream "Yule"? It sure does!! I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday!!!

Dear santa, all I want for Christmas is...

a little motivation.

Anyway... Almost packed ONE WHOLE BOX today. Did you see the word I slipped in there? Almost.

I did however throw together a quick lunch that was pretty tasty using left over chickpeas and rice. I saw this nifty video on youtube last night on how to make Jemzeela rice made in a traditional way which inspired me. So with that stuff in mind, I threw a bunch of curry spices, cloves & ginger into a pot with rice and chickpeas... added some chopped kale, nuked it (LAZY!) and then added some tofutti sour cream. Pretty tasty. :)

Happy (belated) solstice!!

How COOL is it to have a solstice WITH a lunar eclipse?! Too bad it was raining here... I ended up going to bed instead of expecting a miracle of a clear sky.

Anyway, I've been super busy working retail with the fast approaching holiday so I haven't had a lot of time to motivate myself to actually COOK a meal. I've been quite down the past few days (weeks?) as I really miss my family during this time of year so comfort food is definitely something I've been craving!

I used to LOVE tuna salad growing up and in this chilly weather it reminds me of summer days at home. Or even better, summer nights by the bonfire and the sound of frogs and crickets chirping chirping all around. I had a can of chickpeas readily available so I whipped up some vegan tuna salad. Now - I fully admit, I don't make this completely as the recipe states, as... well, I'm from the north, and where I come from you don't put pickles in tuna. I also left out the nutritional yeast this time... and since I've made it so often I tend to not measure out what I'm doing. I just add a little of this, add a little of that - until it looks good. This is always what gets me into trouble, but I had a little luck this time. :P

Anyway, I generally use green onion (any other type of onion tends to make me feel yucky), celery, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), veganaise (I prefer it over nayonaise), and some tamari (shoyu, soy sauce, liquid aminos), salt & pepper to taste. Spread it on some toasted bread, eat. Nom.

Now keep in mind - I don't add kelp powder... I don't have any. However it doesn't NEED it, in my opinion. I just eat it as I would any other mayo-like salad. :P It really helped with the comfort food craving. :P

Chicken and stars soup :D

Today I made something I've been wanting to make for YEARS. Chicken soup. When I found Edward & Son's not chick'n bouillon cubes I thought it would make awesome chicken soup and apparently I'm right. I tossed it into a pot with some carrots and celery (should have added onion, forgot - but it was good without it), baby bok choy, West Soy's cubed seitan (I diced it), and tiny pasta stars! Total love. I should also mention - I think this is the first time I've had seitan. I did just recently buy a box of vital wheat gluten but haven't gotten the courage to try it yet... After today though, I might very well do it - I saw a recipe for a seitan roast which sounded really good...

I would have taken a photo of the soup but I ate it all before I thought of it. :P

I have a new love affair with leafy greens... especially kale, however I went to a local chinese grocery and got a bag of baby bok... its incredible if you just steam it a little... *love*

OH! I was SO blessed earlier in the week when a (meat eater) friend of mine gave me a tupperware container of peanut butter balls. She told me she wouldn't try it so essentially I was her guinea pig :P She looked up the recipe online, I don't know where she found it but she wrote it down for me. Its basically peanut butter, carrot, raisins & oats. Fabulous.

Here's the recipe:

Ingred:

1/2 cup granola
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar (I know some of you might not consider this vegan - beggars can't be choosers - replace it with another sweetener!)
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c or 1/2 LG carrot
1 c 100% natural peanut butter (She used smucker's)

Dir: Mix all ingredients together except peanut butter (easiest to mix by hand). Mix in peanut butter 1/2 cup at a time. Roll into balls, refrigerate overnight to firm up. You can also dip them into a vegan chocolate to make a hard coating (uh, reeses pieces - but better - anyone??!).

I really loved these (I think there are only 3 left out of like 15) and so did Michael which just blew my mind.

At least - I thought that blew my mind. (Off topic moment) - Michael told me today he wants to have a kid in "the next few years". I feel like the typical man in this situation - the woman mentions kids and the man starts to consider camping in a remote location where no one can find him. Yikes. I think we need to discuss getting a surrogate mother or adoption.