Forgiving but not forgetting

I'm starting to forgive Candle Cafe for its not-so-great tofu scramble. These lemon poppy seed muffins are delish. I asked Billy while I was baking them if he liked lemon poppy seed muffins in general, and he said "not really". That's funny...he ate 3 for supper last night! These are nice and light with a crunch from the seeds. A perfect breakfast with a smoothie.

Dinner tonite was courtesy of CalciYum! Hearty soybean burgers. I don't make my own burgers very often, just because I have the idea that they are time consuming and tedious. These did take some time, but with a little coordination, or even planning ahead, they could be made quickly. I did cook soybeans in my slowcooker for them, since I couldn't find any canned. Aside from the soybeans, these also have potato, carrot, celery, onion, ground almonds, tofu, bread crumbs, a nice touch of mustard and some seasonings. I love that they're baked and not fried, and they even hold up together pretty well. And...they have 24% of your daily calcium! I liked the flavour of these and I think I'll freeze some for later use.

Lunch this week, as I mentioned is lentil rice balls with pasta and tomato sauce from Vegan Lunchbox. I couldn't find any pomegranates like the menu suggested so I went with kiwi. And of course a square of dark orange chocolate. The author suggests packing the balls separate from the pasta until lunch or they'll get soggy. I find that they get harder when they're reheated so today I packed it with the pasta, and they were just right. I didn't get the greatest picture from yesterday but it'll do. I know you can all visualize it easily enough, I just like providing pictures :)

Two for One

Two posts in one day! I'll be eating leftovers for dinner the next couple of days, so I won't post much but my lunch. Tonight I used up some kale by adapting a recipe in Calciyum. Kale and sundried tomatoes. This had onion and garlic and veg stock, and it was yummy. One of the best kale sides I've made, since I'm not usually a huge fan of kale on its own. It went nicely with my burrito. The avocado sauce I made on Friday has had a chance to settle in the fridge, and I don't know if its the soymilk or what, but it doesn't taste right to me. I would prefer guacomole, but hey, you gotta try new things!

Oh, and for anyone who plans on making the chipotle burritos from Vive le Vegan, unless you're feeding a family of 4-6 people, I suggest you make the burritos separately. I've been making one at a time, but keeping the filling in the fridge and rolling it up in a tortilla when I need it. That way you don't have soggy leftovers. And it gets better everyday :)

Day 3 and muffins

Yesterday's meals consisted of all new recipes/ideas. Breakfast was a simple fruity smoothie from Calciyum. It was pretty good. It had oj, orange, strawberries, silk tofu, vanilla and maple syrup. I was too lazy to cut up the orange very much so there were a few chunks in the smoothie, but I liked them. The recipe makes a lot so that's all I had til lunch.














Lunch was cream of tomato and basil soup from La Dolce Vegan, served with multigrain crusty bread and salad. The soup tastes sort of like canned tomato soup but better! The basil lends so much flavour to the soup and I enjoyed the pieces of onion. With canned tomato soup, I practically have to put in a whole pack of crackers to eat. That's why I love homemade soup, you rarely need crackers to be satisfied, there's so much texture and flavour.














Dinner was week 2's Tuesday dinner from Vegan Cooking for One, Mediterranean noodles. Yum! My favourite dinner from the book so far, and very simple. Whole wheat spaghetti tossed with margarine and Vegan parmesan and topped with a sauce that has green pepper, onion, mushroom, veg stock, tomato paste and seasonings. Quite delicious. I really liked the parm on the spaghetti, I'll definitely be doing that again! I served the spaghetti with some stirfried collards with fresh lemon.














Last nite, I made some cinnamon raisin muffins from Table for Two for breakfasts and snacks. The book also focuses on smaller servings, so it makes 6 small muffins. I didn't take a picture, they're nothing special in the looks department, but they taste pretty good. I had one for breakfast this morning with a banana and I was pretty happy with the results.

I can' t wait to finish this week's meals, I have a lot of plans for next week!

So as I said earlier, I went to the dentist yesterday, and its all good...no cavities :) Things also went well with my academic advisor. He told me that with my grades I should go into medicine...that was a nice self esteem boost, and reassuring to know that if I wanted to, I could. He also told me I'm all clear for next year, and I actually have some room in my schedule in the fall, so I dropped one of my spring courses and am taking it in the fall...less work for me this summer :)

Hopefully I can post tonite's meal later on.

Day 2

For breakfast this morning I made the rich and simple pancakes from CalciYum! and topped them with some leftover raspberry maple syrup from Vive le Vegan. I also had a yummy orange with it. The pancakes are made from whole wheat and soy flour with allspice and cinnamon. There's also soft tofu, figs and maple syrup in the pancakes. These were pretty good. I made the pancakes pretty small so they required less cooking time. I also halved the recipe. I ate outside this morning in the sun to get some Vitamin D too :)














Lunch was leftover pilau and I also had a snack of edamame, an apple and a few almonds.

Dinner was Monday's dinner from Vegan Cooking for One, peanut butter-y stirfry. The veggie stirfry consists of onion, carrots, green beans, collards, and bean sprouts with tofu and a peanut sauce. It was pretty good. I don't like eating cubed tofu so I mashed it up and browned it, which I do like. It made a lot of food again but I was ravenous and ate most of it. Oh yes, it was served on a bed of brown rice. So I didn't get much variety in my grain servings today, but that will change eventually.














Billy and I went for a walk at sunset tonite. It was so nice out today! I love spring :D

Catch up time...

So my semester is over, now all that's left is a lab exam tomorrow night, and 5 regular exams throughout April. I have managed to do some cooking in the last week or so. I've been pretty busy. Billy's brother Brian is in town visiting from Winnipeg, so we've been going out a lot. I think I've been out more in the last week than I have been the whole semester! We went to Science North on Friday. It was fun, but I think its more for people who maybe aren't science majors :P A lot of the demonstrations and things there were things I do in class and lab all the time. But it was Billy's birthday, so it was his day :).

Being his birthday, it was a great excuse to make a cake! So I made the double chocolate cake from Sinfully Vegan for him. Its a rich chocolate cake with 4 layers, covered in chocolate cream cheese icing and some blended chocolate chips. Dang it was good. I think there's only one piece left after a day and a half! If you're going to make this one, make sure you have plenty of soymilk on hand. It took me about three glasses of soymilk to finish eating my piece, haha. Mmmmm, so delicious.














I didn't cook a birthday dinner though. For that, we went to East Side Mario's. My brother came along too. I don't think I've laughed so hard in months. Those three guys together are hilarious. I barely talked, just laughed. Last night, we went to Ice Age 2 as an extension of the birthday day, cuz we couldn't make it on Friday nite. It was so funny and really cute. I think we picked a bad time though. We were the only adults there not accompanying children! I mean, I understand that children will make noise, but if your kid starts wailing in the theatre, you should probably leave the theatre for a minute or two for a timeout! Plus the kid beside me was throwing popcorn, mostly in my direction, and there was no parental interference there. But popcorn covered or not, it was a fun movie.

During the week, I made chunky fettuccine with fresh herbs and vegetables from CalciYum!; it was a sauce made with bok choy, acorn squash, soymilk, basil, parsley and some seasonings. Yum! I've never had acorn squash before, and its great. It works really well in the sauce, it thickens it up and doesn't overpower the taste. I used whole wheat fettuccine.




























Also from CalciYum!, I made the figgy bars. These consist of a fig layer between two cake like layers. They're really good, but I think I slightly undercooked them, so they're a bit mushy. If I had left them in a few minutes longer, they'd be perfect. They were a great snack for school.















Wow, I've been making a lot of desserts. On Monday, I also made Wolffie's cowpies from La Dolce Vegan. I am loving these "no bake" dessert recipes! Its awesome. You just make the batter, spoon it on a cookie sheet, stick it in the fridge and forget about it for an hour (well ok, you don't forget, I couldn't wait to try them!). These are soooo chocolatey! It's essentially raisins and walnuts covered in chocolate. I really enjoyed them. They were great as a quick dessert after dinner, and I had some left for snacks at school.














Well, that's what I've been up to. Now that exams are starting, I'll have more time at home, and hopefully I can get back to cooking and eating regular, healthy meals again. I'm planning on updating more often so that all these pictures don't build up and it doesn't take me forever to do my blog! :P

Woot!

I lost four pounds! Do the happy dance with me! :)

Check out what I had for dinner last night, it was a bit of an indulgence:















It's butternut squash soup with a "turkey" sandwich. mmm. The soup was good, but the pieces of steamed collards weren't so hot...I think I would've prefered it if had been blended along with the rest of the soup, it was kind of rubbery. But the soup is still very good! The sandwich was on whole wheat, with Yves turkey slices (I really like their new texture and taste!) with some vegenaise(why must you be so fattening?), mustard and spinach leaves. Oh and a slice of tofutti cheese. A very good dinner, and easy to prepare (if you've got leftover soup lying around) right before work.

I was having a major snack attack yesterday. But I tried to ride it out. I had a raspberry punch orange (awesome!) and 4 or 5 almonds after my semi-workout, and a bunch of raw veggies. Another thing that helps me avoid the munchies is a glass of lemon perrier with some fresh lemon wedges added. I love mineral water, it helps me avoid pop.














I garnished it with a strawberry. I bought some yesterday from Smith's Market, they were surprisingly good. Other strawberries I've bought in the winter are never really that great, but these are juicy and flavourful. I love strawberries.

As for breakfast today, I wanted to make pancakes or something as my weekend "treat" but I didn't have all the ingredients to make any of the ones I wanted. I did, however, have a bunch of leftover kale (its impossible to use up a whole bunch!) so I made kalewiches from Table for Two. I put the steamed kale on whole wheat toast and drizzled it with some good olive oil, sea salt and some fresh lemon juice. Mmmmm, that hit the spot, and its healthy! I had some more delicious strawberries and chocolate soymilk. Oh ya, and some green tea/mint/ginger tea. I actually used the water from steaming the kale to make my tea! You can't taste a difference and that way you're still getting any nutrients that were lost from the kale by steaming! :) I did this with the butternut soup too, I used the steaming water to make vegetable stock. So there's my tip of the day, I'm sure some of you veteran vegans have been doing this for years.














Ever since I got my camera, I've mostly taken pictures of food, so I was goofing around yesterday with my cat, trying to get a good picture. She kept moving around though, obviously, but here's one of my fur baby, Whiskers.














Speaking of Whiskers, she just puked all over the floor. I told Billy not to let her drink that milk! He's gonna get it now....grrrr Thank God for hardwood flooring.

I'm all cooked out!

OK, I have lots of stuff to post about, so bare with me. Not all of it is food, either.
First of all, to the person who stole my extension cord that I use to plug my car heater in, you suck. You better not let me catch you using it in the same parking lot, and shame on you!
Secondly, after you guys ever noticed how ugly the meat section is in the grocery store? The produce area is full of different colours, as are most of the aisles. Then you walk past the meat section and its like bloody red stuff shining under fluorescent light. Yuck!

My herbs are a-growin'! Let's do a flash back, shall we?









This last one is from today...I'll have useable herbs in no time! The garlic chive sprouts already taste like garlic/onion. Keep growing little babies :D



I've been in the kitchen all afternoon. I made butternut squash soup from CalciYum! and also the Greens and Grains mushroom casserole from the same book. The casserole took longer than expected, as my dad highjacked the oven to cook his pork, ick. So I have to violate my "don't eat after 8 pm" law for the day. It better be worth it! I only had a bite of the soup, I'll be having that for dinner tomorrow before work.
This is the soup:














From the bite I had, it was good. I'll have to write more about it once I've had a hot bowl of it. It has soymilk in it, but it would be equally as good without the milk. It's a good way to use up that squash sitting in your fridge. The green stuff is collard greens and kale (great sources of calcium).
The casserole, which I'm eating right now, is good! I was worried it would suck, just because it doesn't look all that exciting at first, but it browns nicely in the oven. Its not as flavourful as I would've liked, but I'm sure that could be fixed with some gravy or something. It sure does make a lot, leftovers galore! It has organic quinoa, brown rice, collards, kale, tofu, a veggie mixture and spices.
Just a nice, simple dinner. :) The cookbook says this recipe has about 350 mg of calcium per serving! Nice! With a glass of soymilk, that's about two thirds of the RDA. The book also points out that those of us who don't eat animal protein and limit our sodium intake, need less calcium. Dang, those green beans were good!

Today, in my tea (mint/green) I added some chopped up ginger (thanks to Dreena for the recommendation and advice!) and it was awesome. It actually, in my opinion, improved the taste. And hopefully if I do it regularly, it'll help ward off the flu/cold.

Oh yes, the rice crackers I had are these ones:


Mmmm, I really love them!

I've been going through Sinfully Vegan (which has nutritional information) to see if there are any desserts/snacks I can make that won't pack on the pounds. There's only a few things (cookies if I have 1, puddings) that would be ok. I'm starting to think its better not to know how fattening food is. One slice of cake=600 Calories???Eeeeek. That'll make me think next time I go to eat it!