Creamy (vegan) Pasta - Day 6 - (plus breakfast ideas)

During the week we basically have oatmeal, cereal, or toast with fruit for breakfast, but on weekends I always try to make a nice hot breakfast.
Saturday morning I made this vegan french toast.  Top it with a little vegan butter and maple syrup and yum... just yum.
Sunday I mashed up some tofu and made scrambled "eggs." I cooked some papas (fried diced potatoes) and soyrizo. Soyrizo is the soy version of chorizo. Most of my carnivorous family uses it in place of chorizo regularly because it's delicious!  We made breakfast burritos using the tofu, soyrizo, and potatoes.

Tonight I made this easy and amazingly delicious pasta and roasted veggies. I used butternut squash, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts... I love me some roasted veggies!  I just loved this pasta recipe because it's so much lighter and healthier than making creamy pasta with actual cream and butter.  Also minimalist baker is pretty much my favorite site for vegan recipes.

Topped it with capers and paired it with my favorite Chard... This dinner is a winner.

Painted Pumpkins - Easy Alternative to Carving

Pretty much the entire month of October has been sweltering hot here.  And I've had no time or energy to carve pumpkins or do any fall activities.

I kept promising to take my kids to the pumpkin patch so today I finally came through on my promise.  We first drove to the grocery store to get pumpkins at a fraction of the cost of the ones at the patch. (Sorry I'm too cheap to spend $10/ pumpkin). Then we went and played at the pumpkin patch by our house.  They have a little petting area for bunnies and goats at Giordano Farms.

The past few years I have carved the pumpkins.  But it's honestly just so much work for me, and I don't think any of us enjoy it.  So today I decided to have the kids paint their pumpkins.  There are so many cute ideas online!  I was lazy so we just used what we had on hand.  I put the blue painter's tape on their pumpkins to form the first letter of their names.  Then they just painted all over however they wanted. 

Peel the painter's tape off and you're done!

I wanted to do something cute on Jael's pumpkin so I decided to paint it Minnie Mouse theme to match her costume.  

I first spray-painted the whole thing red. Then I used black paint on the stem.  And I made spots on it using white acrylic paint.

I painted a "J" for her name with black paint.  Then tied a ribbon around the stem.  It turned out cute!

This is such a fun alternative to carving pumpkins... Next year I want to try the glow-in-the-dark paint!

My Book Addiction/ Reading Challenge

I have an addiction... to buying books.  Not necessarily to reading them.  But when I find a book at a great price that I may at some point in my life want to read well of course I have to buy it... right?  Right.  Well when they're $.50 at the library how can I pass that up?  Don't get me wrong, I love to actually read books too.  The problem is I'm much more inclined to read an ebook these days because it's convenient most of the time: in the dark, at night, while nursing, on my phone, and on my new iPad mini (thanks, Honey).  

Side note: You can download free ebooks from the library on the Overdrive app.

Anyway I have about 1 million physical books I need to read, and I'm finally making a point to start reading them.  Now, I will probably still be reading ebooks at times when it's inconvenient to read a book, like at 2 AM when I'm nursing and trying not to wake my husband.  But my goal is to read one physical book per month that I ALREADY own.

For October I've already begun reading The Red Tent so I will finish that.

I will take this challenge one month at a time in deciding which to read next. But trust me, I have plenty to chose from.

Just a few books from my collection

Vegan Baked Potatoes & Salad (Day 2)

This may sound boring and bland, but I can guarantee my tastebuds were not bored tonight at dinner.

A few weeks ago I learned a new method of baking potatoes from one of my favorite shows, America's Test Kitchen.  I've been wanting to try it, and I thought tonight would be a great opportunity.  But when I think of baked potatoes I think butter, cheese, sour cream, and bacon... None of which are vegan. :(

Luckily the baked potato recipe came with a rosemary, garlic butter recipe as well.  I figured I could sub in vegan butter for real butter.  But instead of heading to the store for vegan butter after school pick-up like I should have I went home to take a nap with baby.  Because I was tired... Oh so tired.

After my refreshing nap with Baby J we got our vegan butter, but the potatoes didn't get into the oven until 6 PM.  And we were all starving at that point.  So I improvised and whipped up some bruschetta on toast as an appetizer.

I was in a hurry so I put the garlic in totally raw, but you can sauté it in olive oil first.  Sorry this is not a real recipe since I didn't measure a thing.
I just chopped some Romas
Added some minced garlic
Added some thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Splashed in a some olive oil and balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
Toast some sourdough with olive oil and spoon the bruschetta on top

One of the first things in my fridge I checked for non-vegan ingredients was my Girard's Light Champagne salad dressing.  Thankfully it passed the test, and it was great on our salad tonight.
Salad ingredients:
Romaine Lettuce
Cucumbers
Avocado
Shredded Carrot
Black Olives
Raw Sprouted Pumpkin Seeds

The Baked Potato method and butter recipe did not disappoint.  Seriously the fluffiest baked potato I've ever made and probably the most delicious with the butter.

Ingredients:
4 - 6 Russet Potatoes - washed and patted dry - depending on size (I made 6 small)
2 1/2 cups kosher salt
1 head garlic, top sliced off
2 - 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 teaspoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter (or Earth Balance Vegan butter)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450. Put salt in a 9x13 pan.  Press the potatoes into the salt, making sure they're not touching.  Place the 2 sprigs of rosemary and garlic (cut side up) into the pan
Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hr.

Remove the pan and take out garlic head.  Brush the potatoes with the olive oil and place back in the oven for 15 min on 500.

Squeeze the garlic head into the butter.  Chop up about half of that additional rosemary sprig and combine it with the butter and garlic.

Serve the baked potatoes with the garlic butter mixture.

A seriously amazing dinner I would make again (vegan or not)!

Vegan Chronicles -- Day 1

So my (lovely) husband bet our vegan friend that he would beat him at fantasy football this past week.  If he won our friend would eat a burger; if he lost my husband would have to go vegan for 3 weeks.  I’m fine going without meat and most dairy.  My husband, on the other hand, is very picky and needs to have meat with pretty much every meal.  So this would not be easy.

Well obviously he lost the bet…. So here we are exploring veganism for the next 3 weeks.  I look at it as an exciting challenge.  He’s not thrilled about it.  But, hey, he should have thought about that before he made the bet!

Today I went to Costco and Trader Joe’s without a list.  I just went through the aisles trying to find anything vegan I thought my family would eat.   

I’ll be sure to share any interesting recipes and findings from our culinary vegan adventures.

If all else fails he can live off PB&J ;)

Day 1:

I have never made tofu before.  It looks utterly unappealing in most cases, and therefore I’ve never eaten very much of it.  But I decided to take the plunge and buy a giant box of it for about $5 at Costco.  I figured if it’s bland there has to be some way to make it taste delicious.

Tonight, for our first vegan dinner, I decided to make tacos.

I chopped some sweet potatoes and cooked them in coconut oil in one pan.  In the other pan I put some drained and diced tofu also with a little oil.  On both I put some taco seasonings: garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder.  To the sweet potatoes I added some cooked brown rice and black beans I had in the fridge.  (See my previous post for a simple way to cook black beans.) 

I heated some corn tortillas in a pan with a tad bit of oil for crispiness.  Then I just spooned the tofu and sweet potato mixture into the tortillas.  I added some avocado and salsa to my tacos.  Here’s the finished product.

Notes:

• I use coconut oil for almost everything so I don’t mind the flavor, but you could easily substitute with your oil of choice.
• You could totally leave out the tofu if your intimidated by it or just don’t like it.
• I would definitely add cheese if I wasn’t trying to be a good vegan!