What I Ate Wednesday #37

 

In the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, we stayed at home and thought about how blessed we were this time.  We were not so lucky with Irene and we prepared for the worst.  Bringing everything up from our basement and clearing out our backyard. With all the preparation, our prayers were answered as we saw the super storm come and go in our flood prone town. I thought I would be doing a lot of cooking, being stuck at home for two days, but that was not the case.  I was glued to the TV and feeling the pain of so many people affected after going through it before.  My prayers are with all those who are in the process of recovering from this natural disaster. 

Even though the darkness of the day did not allow for the best pictures, I decided to participate in WIAW this week anyway.  So here are the meals I ate today, and an added bonus since dinner was a bust!

Our neighbors stopped down and had coffee at breakfast since they had no power. I cooked up a simple batch of apple pie pancakes that were light yet filling.  They were a simple breakfast instead of blowing up the kitchen like I normally do.  Cinnamon and agave added a subtle sweetness and fresh apple, that I par cooked, and Earth Balance Buttery spread were perfect little chunks tucked inside the batter.

I had planned on making a vegan chicken potato corn chowder for lunch.  I put that off to tomorrow.  Instead lunch was Amy’s Veggie burgers with portabella, caramelized onions, and a few thin slivers of Daiya Jack.  I served a handful of baked chips on the side. These were really delicious.

 

After lunch, we shared the last of the baked apple crisp I made the other night.  We had it warmed with some vegan vanilla ice cream and some cinnamon on top!

By dinner, we were slammed in our office and cooking was not so much on my mind. Mya asked if we could have cereal for dinner. I looked at the counter which had sauce, beans, kale, veggie Italian Sausage, and rice pasta waiting to be cooked. I thought she might be onto something. I checked the cabinet and we had plenty of choices and a full carton of coconut milk in the fridge. Okay, cereal for dinner!

I had spelt flakes, raisins, dried cherries, granola, hemp seeds, a small piece of frozen banana sliced thin and some ice cold coconut milk.

 

Since this was not really a dinner, I will share with you a meal I was planning on writing a post about for the past two weeks.

Mya loves sushi from Wegman’s.  She asks for it all the time.  I tried in the past to make it and never got it right. I finally did.  A few practices and it was awesome.  I realized I pay $6.00 for 1 roll (8 slices) of vegan sushi.  I made my own rolls, five rolls (40 pieces) for less than $5.00.  I saved $24.00 and enjoyed two meals from the forty rolls.

I used nori sheets for three rolls and two rolls were soy sheets.  Inside my rolls were sticky brown rice, avocado, matchstick slices of carrots, red pepper, and snow peas, I also used slices of spicy baked tofu for my center and a sprinkle of sesame seeds in each.  They turned out perfect. I was over joyed.  I did not have pickled ginger so we had some minced ginger on top.  Mya and Andy were thrilled. I was so happy they stayed together.  I bought a sushi kit brand new at a yard sale and it had a book of tips with the bamboo mat, and those tips did the trick. Amazing, I now can make Mya sushi anytime.

So this is what I ate Wednesday with a bonus!  I hope all of you out there have not been effected by the storm, but if you have, you are in my thoughts and prayers. 

I will be posting the Vegan chicken potato corn chowder as soon as I make it this week.  I hope you have a great Wednesday!

What I Ate Wednesday #36

 

 

 

Is there better way to start your day than ICE CREAM?  Not dairy ice cream, but almond ice cream, fresh from my Vitamix and topped with lots of super goodies! Please excuse some of the pics, it is so hard to get breakfast pics when the sun is still rising, and today it was really cloudy too.  I tried to prolong breakfast as long as I could, but after my workout I was ready for something cold and refreshing.

This bowl of fabulousness was composed of a handful of almonds, a squirt of agave, a scoop of vanilla Spiru-tein protein, 1 drop of pure vanilla extract and lots of ice.  It creams up into a lovely soft serve style “ice cream”.  I topped it with hemp seeds, chia seeds, and a handful of pumpkin flax granola.  It was heavenly. Mya loved the idea of ice cream for breakfast, what kid wouldn’t?

After making a frozen breakfast, a warm lunch was on the menu.  Soup, no, make that soups.  I made two different batches of soup this morning, Andy’s favorite “chickenless” pastina, and my grandmother’s beefless potato pea stew.  Both turned out just the way I planned.  It was so easy to make two pots because both started with sautéed onions, celery, and carrots. A few more ingredients in each, and then soup is ready for weekday lunches.  I had both pots done by 9:00am.  I let it cool down and the flavors grow stronger while we got some things done before lunch. I used seitan for the beef in the stew, and it was amazingly undetectable, I think I could fool omnivores with this stew.

There was a bit of errand running and some nutrition studying through the afternoon.  Then there was some chocolate craving. Yep, I needed to make some chocolate.

This was a simple recipe because I used melting disks from Trader Joe’s. I found half a bag stowed away. Normally, I use coconut oil, agave, and cacao.  I was too low on coconut oil so I raided to cabinets to see what else I had.

I conveniently found a bag of trail mix that only had about 3/4 cup left in it, and there was a barrel of pretzels that a few would not be missed. 

I combined those two and waited for the chocolate to melt in my glass bowl over simmering water.

Once the chocolate was melted, I mixed all the trail mix and pretzels in and coated them thoroughly with the chocolate.  Then the whole mixed was poured onto a parchment lined pan. 

It was then popped into the freezer for about an hour to harden.

Then it had to be broken up for a taste test. 

YUM. You could taste the dried blueberries, cranberries, dates, raisins, soy nuts, almonds and pretzel pieces surrounded in the dark bitter sweetness.  Chocolate heaven. Mya and Andy agreed. Of course, it took a lot of taste tests for them to be sure.

I knew I wanted to use up the Delicata squash I had around and I thought it might be a perfect dinner to roast them and stuff them. 

I had a bag of whole grain stuffing cubes that I mixed with a broth made from no salt bouillon. I stirred in sautéed onions. carrots, celery, apple, walnuts, dried cranberries and two crumbled Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages. I popped it in a casserole dish in the oven to cook beside my roasting squash halves.  When squash was fork tender, I flipped them face up and filled them with the stuffing and put them back in the oven for a few more minutes.  These will definitely be on my vegan Thanksgiving table.

These babies were cleaned down to shreds of skin.  Everyone enjoyed them. And, a small piece of chocolate for dessert.

I hope you enjoyed the meals. Thanks for stopping by this lovely Autumn day!

 

LiveJournal Tags: Sqash,chocolate,cacao,almonds,soup,stew,vegan,stuffing,Autumn

What I Ate Wednesday #35

 

Don’t Cry Over Broken Lasagna! That should be my WIAW title.  I spent the whole morning cooking up some fabulous meals.  I had to try the recipe ideas that were floating in my head, I had a few that were looming over me just dying to get tested.  They were all successful, with the exception of my broken lasagna noodles, but guess what, no one noticed, they were too busy cleaning their plates!

I love cooking, every bone in my body wants to be in the kitchen.  I have a constant influx of ideas for meals that nag away at me until I try them. The only problem is, getting these fantastic recipes on paper.  I really need to start recording myself so I can go back, write them down, and share them with everyone.  Even though my recipes are vegan, you would never miss anything if you tasted them.  I love showing people alternatives to their regular stand by recipes, adding veggies and healthier options is my passion.  I love to eat and even more, I love to share what I have made with my family.  When I see them devouring and asking for more, my heart sings knowing I provided them with a meal they love and that is not only healthy, but helping them to thrive.

So now that I have sung the praises of cooking and eating… on to the WIAW meals!

Since I had grand plans for cooking all morning, I kept breakfast simple today.  A light batch of whole grain pancakes mixed with some almond milk and yogurt instead of oil.  I cooked them in a little coconut oil and served them with a drizzle of dark agave.  These light cakes were so good, they were all gone in a flash.

These pancakes were pretty filling and surprisingly not a ton of calories, that is always a nice bonus.

After Mya was off to school, I decided I would start my morning off with making a batch of my cheesecake flavored bean bars.  But since that just is not festive enough, I thought I would add my protein rich vegan pumpkin pie filling over top of my bean batter and see if I could turn them into Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars.  Success!  They turned out exactly as I hoped.  I used a huge casserole dish to make these, and both layers had less than a cup of sugar between them!  This casserole would make about 32 pieces. 

The cheesecake bean bar layer was on the bottom so it could kind of form a crust, and the pumpkin pie on top since that was a softer texture.  If I was making this for a crowd, and not just for home, I might have added a crumble topping of pecans, oats, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon.  I try to keep the indulgences to a healthy minimum so no topping on this decadent tasting dessert today.  They turned out fabulous, just as I had imagined.  Don’t you love it when that happens.

First there was the “cheesecake” layer…

Then, the pumpkin on top…

Forty minutes later, it was baked to perfection. But needed to cool off in the freezer so it could be sliced…

One piece was not enough…

While the bars were cooling in the freezer, I cleaned out the food processor for the second time.  I wanted to make crust-less quiche cups for lunch. 

These vegan quiche cups are made with tofu and some soaked cashews in the food processor along with lots of herbs and spices to give it an authentic egg flavor without the egg.  On the stove I caramelized some onions and garlic along with some shitake mushrooms and broccoli.  I chopped fresh rosemary and chives from my garden and them combined them all into a batter.  I prepared a cupcake tin with cooking spay and poured 1/4 cup batter into each cup.  I baked these about thirty five minutes.  During the last fifteen minutes of cooking time, I made some coconut creamed kale for the base of the mini quiches. 

They turned out over the top exceptional!  Best of all, four of these are just over 100 calories!  The kale was a perfect accompaniment to the quiche.  The next party I have I am going to make these in mini cupcake pans as appetizers.  They were phenomenal.   Andy and I ate all 12 for lunch, sorry Mya.  I want to make these more often.  I could make the batter and leave them in the cupcake pan covered overnight and pop them in the oven to cook for breakfast while I am working out. 

After lunch, the dogs rested in the sun, and I cleaned out he food processor again, onto dinner prep.

Lasagna was on the menu for dinner.  I had the brown rice noodle cooking while we ate lunch. I love to use Field Roast Italian sausage in my lasagna.  I take four pieces and break them down to crumbles in the food processor. Then I pan fry the crumbles for a few minutes to release all the flavor.

I cleaned the food processor for the fourth time to make my ricotta.  I use a blend of firm tofu, soaked cashews, and herbs spices and some miso paste.

Once I drained the noodles, I found they broke up into different size pieces. Hence, the “Don’t Cry Over Broken Lasagna” title.

I pre-chopped my mushrooms and zucchini and prepared my assembly line. I figured once the layers were on top, no one would know, but me and you, my readers!

Just add sauce and “cheese”… no one can see.  This reminded me of Julie & Julia when Julia Childs flips her omelet and breaks it and says, '”It’s only you in the kitchen, nobody has to know, just piece it back together.”

Lasagna is totally worth the time and effort, it feeds many and there are always leftovers! I love leftovers.

Out of the oven and onto a plate, and no one knew anything except it was delicious!

This day was full of fantastic meals.  There is no where I would rather be than cooking in my kitchen and eating with my family.  I wish you many happy meals with your families!

Happy What I Ate Wednesday!