Easy Recipe Alert!

A nice twist on the quesadilla front...sweet Strawberry Chocolate Quesadillas! I pulled this from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (Moosewood Celebrates or something like that). Made it for the weekly mom’s group get-together. Sweet, sinful and messy. A great way to use up seasonal strawberries! OK, next post will actually be something nutritious and meal-like...

Happy (Belated) Canada Day!

I'm a little slow in posting this...

After looking for a quick, cool dessert contribution to this year’s family Canada Day celebration, I decided I would re-make the Key Lime Pie. But something told me it wasn’t very festive to serve something green on Canada Day, where something with red or white would be more appropriate. Enter Kyle’s great idea – to modify the recipe (I’m a pro at that!) and use strawberries instead. Now I think the tang of lime with the strawberries would have been a little too much, so I cut out the lime juice and rind (which Kyle found quite bitter anyways) as well as the agave nectar (instead of the originally called for honey), and instead added ½ cup vanilla Almond Breeze and a drop of almond extract. I then arranged sliced strawberries on top in an attempt to replicate our national symbol – the maple leaf. Pretty! And yummy! Although my next project will be to substitute the vanilla pudding mix and find another stabilizer.

I hope my dentist isn't reading this...

I know I had dissed this recipe in the past, but my sweet tooth was craving this cool, summery treat. And besides, I found a new brand of tofu cream cheese that didn’t have any hydrogenated products in it. I made a delicious Key Lime Pie. I devoured two pieces the night I made it.


The next night, I was watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. I love that show because geez, if they can raise that many kids while maintaining some sort of sanity, it gives me hope that I can handle the one I have! During the episode, Kate revealed that she would be making Monkey Munch with the girls. It looked like a sweet variation of one of my faves – Chex (US)/Crispix (Canada) Mix! I was at the store the next day buying the ingredients that I was missing – all it takes is Crispix, chocolate chips, peanut butter, margarine, vanilla and icing sugar! Kyle and I are addicted.

I fear that I have turned into a junk food freak.

More VT - Back to May

After having moderate success with the June issue of VT, I decide to go back to the May issue and make a few things. First up was Pita Panzanella. I was surprised at how tasty this was. I did substitute edamame for the frozen peas (blah) and I think that was a better choice to add more protein. I always expect a meal to taste like mint gum whenever I read mint in the list of ingredients, but I’m always pleasantly surprised! The best part of the recipe was toasting pita triangles in a little olive oil – I must do that from now on!

Next, I made a Greek Lentil Salad. Good – even better a few days later.

I wasn’t too impressed with the Burst-of-Spring Salad (no photo). Yes, I did omit the radishes because I don’t like them and my avocado wasn’t healthy-looking enough to add, but I don’t think either of those two ingredients would have helped. The dressing was really watery and simply tasted like I poured orange juice on spinach. I’ll stick to my tried and true orange spinach salad with red onion vinaigrette.

The Italian Eggplant Ragout was pretty tasty – although allowing the eggplant to hang out with 2 tablespoons of salt not only removed it’s bitterness, it made the dish REALLY salty and the eggplant actually tasted pickled! And I did rinse the eggplant well!


Finally, on Friday, I made Edamame Rice Bowls. Very easy. Remarkably tasty. Even better with the necessary addition of something salty like tamari. I should mention that I used crumbled tofu instead of feta.

VT - June!

So I’m back to making some meal plans again – thank goodness! I’ve been looking at some of the time-friendly recipes from issues of VT. I first tried some recipes from the June 2008 issue. I tried the Spring Orzo Salad and was totally delighted. It was easy! I did make some substitutions, of course. For added protein, I used edamame instead of the frozen peas. Delish!

I then made the Golden Bowl, which was essentially a stir fry. I was surprised that this was voted as one of the favourite reader recipes from some veg restaurant, but whatever. I found it quite bland (which certainly says something, as I don’t like anything remotely spicy!).

The best recipe from this issue was the vegan Mac and Cheese. I was seeking some comfort food, and oh my god, I found it! Now, I do have to say that it doesn’t taste like mac n’ cheese, which is why I like it. I never liked the taste of cheese so I don’t often seek out anything trying to mimic the taste. But something was telling me to try this recipe. Am I ever glad I did! It was so easy, the sauce was mild, and the leftovers were even good! I made it gluten free by using brown rice pasta too.

Finally, I wanted to offer a little public service announcement. They look nice, but do not make the Roasted Bananas. Two weeks later, I still want to mini-vomit. See, I thought that I would have these delicious crispy bananas in a caramel sauce. Instead, despite following the recipe to a “T” (OK, close to a “T”, I used cinnamon instead of allspice), I ended up with soggy, stringy bananas in a sickeningly sweet sauce. I didn’t help that Kyle split the results between the two of us when the recipe was to serve EIGHT! Regardless, one little banana half was enough to know that this was not good. Ugh...

At Long Last - A New Post!!!

Wow, it's really been too long! Honestly, I've eaten, but the camera is now used for taking pics of the baby and not food. Besides, I'm lucky if I have a chance to throw something in my mouth never mind take a pic of it :(

But I did make some stuff that I found pics of on my camera...I threw together some roasted sweet potatoes with edamame and green onions, and tossed in a dressing comprised of tamari, seasoned rice vinegar and sesame oil. Delicious!



For a cool treat (and believe me, it's needed right now since there's a humidex of 40 degrees Celsius right now), I rolled a banana in melted chocolate, then rolled it in a bowl of chopped peanuts, then rolled the concoction in press n' seal and stuck it in the freezer. After a few hours, it was like a vegan Drumstick! Sorry for the blurry photo...

Sweet or Salty?

I recently purchased Nava Atlas' Vegan Express cookbook, as I really need to find fast recipes to throw together while the little one is chipper. Since the weather is getting nicer, we've been looking for salads (Kyle wants to eat salad every day). We had an avocado and mango kicking around in the fridge, so the Black Bean Salad with Avocado and Mango seemed fitting (again, I'm nowhere near the cookbook now, so the title could be off).

I liked it, but couldn't tell if it needed to be sweet or salty. I re-read the recipe, and sure enough, no salt was mentioned. With the onions and avocado, I was looking for a salty flavour, like guac. But with the mango and lime juice, it seemed like a sweet salad.

Regardless, it was good and not spicy (conducive to breastfeeding), but I'm still wondering what to add to it to make me not question whether to add sweetness or saltiness. If anyone else makes this and has any ideas, please let me know!