Poirot and burritos.

Got off early so I came home and made rice, cheesy beans, sautéed chipotle tofu and corn salsa to make burritos. Then I plopped myself in front of the tv to watch Poirot. This is the life!

Sauteed tofu with onions and lots of dry spices like chipotle powder, smoked paprika, granulated garlic, mesquite, cumin, salt pepper... and a dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

Burrito bar. From L to R; Corn salsa, cheesy beans (refried beans with some vegan cheese mixed in), sauteed tofu, red rice (just rice cooked with onion, garlic, water and a can of El Pato tomato sauce).

Yum. 

Chipotle Tabasco is soooo good.

Monsieur Poirot using his little grey cells.

Enchilada Chili Casserole.

For the filling, I made a pinto bean and sweet potato chili with zucchini and peppers. I let it thicken up before making this casserole. I layered corn tortillas with the filling, red chili sauce, enchilada sauce, Daiya cheddar and topped with more sauce, blobs of Vegenaise, more Daiya and olives.

Also made a side of mexican rice. Yummy!

French Toast Breakfast and Cabbage Rolls

I finally made the Fronch Toast recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and it was a so good. I ate all of that! I served it with some Tofurky maple tempeh bacon.

Before being drowned in maple syrup. Yum yum yum.

And for Sunday lunch my mom and I made the Syrian cabbage rolls from the Olive Trees and Honey cookbook. The insides were stuffed with rice, smashed chickpeas, onion and diced tomatoes and flavored with cilantro, garlic, mint and paprika.

I made a delicious side of dill potatoes with caramelized onions. This meal was amazing. And I have ton of leftovers!

Broccoli Rice Casserole, Garlic Cheesy Bread and Mocha Blueberry Cake.

Last week I made this broccoli rice casserole following one of those old Campbell's recipes. Instead of cream of mushroom soup, I used Imagine portobello mushroom soup. It was good. Next time I'll add more soup and more salt.

Saw this pull apart cheesebread recipe going around that I had to make vegan. You basically melt Earth Balance, add garlic and scallions. Then you pour this mixture into the crevices of your cut up bread loaf. Wrap it in foil and bake for 10 minutes at 350 F. Then unwrap and fill with cheese, then bake for another 15 minutes unwrapped at about 400 F.

It's totally doable!

Delicious and so bad for you! I probably ate most of it on my own. The guilt!

And for weekend dessert, mocha blueberry cake! I used this recipe. I used blueberry instead of plain yogurt so mine had a hint of blueberry flavor.

It is intensely coffee flavored. The dark chocolate drizzle is a must to balance out the strong coffee.

Rice Cooker Disaster!

So the day after the bulb exploded in my oven, I wanted to make a cake but didn't want to use the oven until the broken bulb was replaced. I am ignorant about electronics and I believe there are loose wires somewhere and didn't want to risk anything. So I read online that you can make a cake in your rice cooker. I checked different blogs and thought I'd give it a go. The only problem is that when you force your rice cooker to stay on "Cook", you will overheat it and blow the fuse, which is what happened to me. I can probably get it fixed but I decided it was time to get a new rice cooker.

Here's cake batter in my old cooker ready to go. I had to keep it on "cook" by taping the button down. I took someone's advice online to do that. Not smart.

Cake came out very moist and nice. Didn't enjoy it as much because I was bummed that I broke the cooker.

Our new cooker. It was time to upgrade to a Zojirushi which is a very well respected brand. It's a japanese brand but the conventional cooker I got was made in Thailand. Since I am Thai, I thought that was a good sign. I ordered it on Amazon and it arrived a couple days later. It's pretty! I grew up using rice cookers with flowers on them.

Make great rice as expected!!!

Made a pot of Thai style rice porridge using steamed rice made with the rice cooker. Perfection!

And fried rice again! So the lesson here is DO NOT make cake in your rice cooker, unless you have one of those fancy micro chip ones with a cake function!

Thai Style Fried Rice and Baja Fresh tacos.

I made the most delicious thai style fried rice on Tuesday. I kind of winged it and based it loosely off the recipe from Buddha's Table. I stir fried garlic, onions, celery in oil, then added the veggies, cut up Tofurky sausages and then the rice. I then added 2 TB of Maggi seasoning and a TB of mushroom soy sauce, 1/4 cup ketchup, white pepper and a squirt of Sriracha. YUMMY with a squirt of lime juice!

This was my dinner at Baja last night. The usual baja veggie tacos with spicy salsa, rice and beans, no cheese!

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!

Sushi Craving.

Got a sushi craving last night and with minimal ingredients (sushi rice, nori, cucumber, orange bell pepper and scallions), I was able to whip this up in no time! So good!

Carrot Cake, Bean Dip, Not-So-Dirty Rice and More Carrot Cake!

Last week on Tuesday it was National Carrot Cake Day. I had no idea it existed but my friend posted about it on Facebook. I liked the idea of that and it's been ages since I've made a carrot cake. I must have a long long time ago pre-vegan. So it was time to make a vegan one.

That day I got home from work and used what I had at home. I used Kittee's Vanilla Cake recipe and just added 1 1/2 cups of shredded carrot and some cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and ginger. Shop bought frosting, some chopped nuts and a few Halloween sprinkles later, I had a carrot cake!

This was so moist and delicious! I'm not too crazy about shop bought frosting so I made a mental note to make a cream cheese based icing next time.

Bean dip we had today. I can eat this everyday it's so good with crispy tortilla chips.

This is Bryant Terry's "Not So Dirty" rice recipe from Vegan Soul Kitchen. It's really tasty. I made a big pot of it so I can take it to work for lunches this week. I used Tofurky sausages in it instead of seitan and tempeh.

Carrot cake fever again. This time in cupcake form. I used a different recipe today from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World along with cream cheese frosting. I accidentally added extra flour so I had to compensate by adding more liquid but it still turned out good.

Asian Deliciousness.

A few asian meals that I've been craving. The first is a simple tofu and vegetable stir fry, the second is a plum sauce and sesame glazed tofu served with steamed broccoli and edamame. All served on a bed of rice with a healthy squirt of Sriracha sauce!

Tacomiendo burrito, fried rice and CAKE!

A gigantic veggie burrito from Tacomiendo. It was filled with loads of grilled veggies, black beans, rice and avocado. I order it without cheese and sour cream. I enjoyed this the other night while watching a few episodes of Ozzie and Harriet on dvd.

So I was in the mood for fried rice the other day. I sauteed some veggies and tofu in peanut oil.

Added cooked rice, soy sauce, ketchup and black pepper.

And made a scrummy bowl of fried rice that I like to top with Sriracha, scallions and a squeeze of lime juice. I made this two days in a row.

Cake craving! I used the two ingredient method: 1 can pure pumpkin + 1 box cake mix. I used yellow cake mix today. Caramelized apples made it all even more delicious.

Flatbread sandwich, White bean ketchup curry and Mushroom rice.

My inspirations today are from my two current favorite cookbooks: Mary McCartney's FOOD and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg. The above sandwich I had at lunch is Mary's "hummus, avocado and chili jam sandwich" on a whole wheat flatbread instead of toasted whole grain. Very messy and very delicious.

Dinner was the ketchup curry from Hugh's book. He uses chickpeas but I was all out so I subbed white beans. It was a super easy 10 minute recipe that uses ketchup instead of tomatoes. Loved it. On the side, more flatbread and one-pot mushroom rice from Mary's book.

One Pot Mushroom Rice

I'm loving Mary McCartney's cookbook FOOD. She really is my style of cook, relaxed and non-fussy. This rice recipe was like boom boom boom, done! I think I was in and out of the kitchen in about 30 minutes. Very tasty rice which will go well with various main dishes. I'm just having it by itself. It's very comforting and full of good mushroom and onion flavor.

Moujadara and Broiled Vegetables

A very good meal to have on weeknights. While the moujadara (lentils and rice) was cooking on the stove, the vegetables went into the broiler and in about 20 minutes, dinner was served.