Dinner time rolled around last night and I had no idea what to make.  We were also pretty low on stuff in the house, so I had to raid my pantry and freezer for something.  Here’s what I came up with, feel free to make substitutions.  Literally, I just kept adding stuff as I found it and made this up as I went along.  It turned out pretty good too.

Kitchen Sink Salad

1 cup quinoa, dry

1 cup green lentils, dry

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 cup frozen/canned artichoke hearts, chopped

1/4 medium onion, chopped (I used white, feel free to use any color you have)

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen green beans

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1/4 cup chopped basil

Dressing:

Juice from 2 limes

Juice from 2 tangerines

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

S & P to taste

In two separate pots, bring 2 cups water to a boil (2 cups per pot).  Add quinoa to one, lentils to the other, cover, reduce heat and simmer until done.  The quinoa will be done in 10-15 minutes; the lentils will take about 20.

Meanwhile, combine all of the dressing ingredients together in the bottom of a large bowl.  Add the rest of the salad ingredients and the quinoa and lentils when they are done cooking.  Toss to combine and taste for seasoning.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

(I served ours over some romaine lettuce.  Once I made the dressing, I reserved some of it to toss the lettuce in.)

This is an interesting take on a pasta salad.  The pasta here is Israeli cous cous (or you could use regular) and I made a citrus dressing to toss it all in.  It was pretty darn tasty too.  It’s great for picnics and summer parties because it doesn’t contain anything (mayo) that will go bad if left out.

Citrus Cous Cous Salad

1 1/2 cups Israeli cous cous*

1/2 large cucumber, seeded and diced

1/4 cup dried cherries

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

1/4 cup chopped green onions

For the dressing:

Juice and zest from 1 medium orange

Juice of half a lemon

2 TB white wine vinegar

2 TB olive oil

1 tsp agave

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.   Add your cous cous and cook until tender.  While cous cous is cooking, mix together the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large mixing bowl.  When pasta is cooked, drain well and toss in the dressing.  The hot pasta will soak up all of the yummy dressing, so it’s important to add it before it has cooled.  Add remaining salad ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.  (Since the cous cous is still hot, you may want to wait until it has cooled before adding the mint to keep the mint from wilting.)  Serve either cold or at room temperature.

*If you are unable to find Israeli cous cous (the large type of cous cous), you can use regular.  Cook according to package directions, then follow the steps above.

My Dad’s birthday was on Friday and we all headed to Sacramento to celebrate.  We left Friday evening when Matt got home from work.  He had to DJ on Saturday night, so he left Saturday afternoon, but Emma and I stayed through Sunday and took the train home.

My Dad’s favorite dessert is peach pie.  I think I only make pie about once a year (for his birthday) and every year right before I’m ready to make it, I realize that I don’t own a pie plate.  First of all, how is it possible that I want to start a baking business and I don’t even own a pie plate?!  Anyway, I now have one on my wish list and I will definitely get one before next July 17.

A cake pan did the trick this time.  Just for fun, I cut out stars in the top crust.  The peach pie recipe was from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  The only change I made was to mix the peaches with the butter/flour/sugar mixture instead of layering it as the recipe suggests.  I also threw in some very ripe apricots.  Save yourself a buck and use frozen peaches for a pie.  You can’t really tell the difference between fresh and frozen.

Since I can’t resist and opportunity to make a cake, I also made my dad a birthday cake– vanilla with raspberry buttercream.  Yummmmy!!  Sadly, the fondant that I had made to cover the cake failed me.  It was too dry and crumbled when I rolled it out.  Anyway, I had to resort to store bought fondant– eww!  The swirls on the top are made from gum paste, which I made in my stand mixer this time and it’s the best batch of gum paste ever.  The trick is to knead in some shortening, even if the recipe doesn’t necessarily call for it.

And this horrible photo is an asian noodle salad that I made to have with dinner.  It turned out really good, so I’ll blog about it despite the horrible photo.  I didn’t measure, but it’s pretty much fool proof:  Boil noodles per package directions (we used spaghetti, but you could use whatever you want).  While noodles are boiling, make dressing in bottom of large bowl (juice from 3 limes, about 2 TB rice vinegar, about 4 TB soy sauce, pinch of red pepper flakes, a drizzle of toasted sesame oil, 2-4 TB agave).  Throw in your veggies and toss to coat with dressing.  I used some cucumbers (from my Grandma’s garden!), red cabbage, red onion (would have preferred green, but didn’t have any), cilantro, edamame, and cherry tomatoes (from my Dad’s garden).  When noodles are cooked, drain and add them to the salad.  Toss and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Top with peanuts.

A few weeks ago, we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that we had never tried before.  The food was super good, especially the salad dressing.  It was a mayo based dressing and, even though I knew it wasn’t vegan, I ate it anyway because (1) it was THAT good and (2) I figured if I kept eating it, I could find a way to veganize it (and probably lighten it up a bit) at home.  So voila!  Here is my veganized and lightened up version of Kobe’s salad dressing:

Creamy Japanesey Salad Dressing

(click here for a printer friendly version)

1 green onion, chopped

3 TB rice vinegar

1 1/2 TB soy sauce

2 TB vegenaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp toasted sesame seeds (or up to 1 tsp toasted sesame oil)

1/4 tsp agave nectar

1 clove garlic, grated or minced

S&P to taste

Combine and pour over salad.

I’ve been trying hard lately to eat more Raw dishes; salads obviously being the easiest way to accomplish this goal.  I get tired of the same salads with the same dressing.  In fact, I find myself getting tired of salads altogether if I eat them every day.  So, I try to change it up a bit and give each it’s own uniqueness.

A few days ago, I tried this Fennel Orange Kale Salad from Kristen’s Raw.  In place of the hemp oil, I used cold-pressed organic flax oil.  I also didn’t have any kalamata olives, which was SOOOO depressing because I bet they’re awesome in this salad, so I used some cherry tomatoes.  My salad base was a mix of romaine lettuce and chopped kale.  Raw kale in a salad is a bit much for me, so I had to mix it up a bit with some crunchy lettuce.

Yesterday for lunch, I whipped up this salad using romaine lettuce, fennel, raw beets and cherry tomatoes.  I made this Sweet Dijon Dressing to go over it and it was AWESOME!  I found it to be a little thick, so I thinned it out just a tad with a TB or 2 of water.  This dressing is seriously good.  I think I’ll even try a ranch style version using the raw zucchini as a base and incorporating some of the herbs found in ranch dressing.

Today’s lunch was the same salad from yesterday, except I used a box grater to grate some carrot, beets and fennel.  Once I put the dressing on, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the top, which really made it super delicious.  I’ll have to remember to do that from now on.  Today, I had my salad with a banana and some coconut water.  Fresh coconut water is so delicious.  If you’ve never tried it, you’re seriously missing out.  I put mine in the fridge right when I bring them home from the store so that the water is nice and cold when I am in the mood for having some.  And, I’ve found that Asian markets have the best prices on coconuts, about 20 cents cheaper than my Whole Foods.  Be sure to buy the young coconuts (they have white all the way around).  The brown ones are older and don’t have the water inside.  Intimated about opening up a fresh coconut?  Here’s a video to help you:

Yep, lots of salads in my house these days.  This was was particularly tasty– perfect for those of us watching our intake because it tastes good, but is pretty healthy.  This is based on a lentil salad recipe from Raising the Salad Bar. Since I didn’t have all of the ingredients to make that recipe, I made up my own.

Lentil Salad

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

1 1/2 cups French green lentils

2 bay leaves

1 carrot, grated

1/2 medium red onion, diced (and soaked in several changes of water if the aftertaste of raw onion bothers you)

1 roasted red pepper, chopped

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup toasted pecans halves, crumbled lightly in your hand before adding to the salad

1/4 cup raisins

Dressing:

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1 TB white wine vinegar

1 TB fresh lemon juice

1 TB maple syrup

2 tsp flax oil

S&P to taste

Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add the lentils and bay leaves, reduce to a simmer and cook until the lentils are tender (but not mushy), about 20 minutes.  When cooked, drain them and let them cool a bit.  Meanwhile, put the remaining salad ingredients into a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing ingredients.  (NOTE:  The original recipe called for balasamic vinegar, but I was out, so I used the apple cider and white wine vinegars.)  When the lentils have cooled a bit, add them to the salad along with the dressing and toss everything together.

We had ours over some romaine and butter lettuce with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and drizzled with a little of the lentil salad dressing.  I thought the dressing was a little too delicate for the salad, so I will try it next time with the balsamic vinegar instead.  The delicateness could also be due to the fact that I used 2 tsp of flax oil instead of 1/4 cup of olive oil.  It was still good and I’ll be having the leftovers for lunch today, probably wrapped up in a cabbage leaf.  Yum!

The “chips” along the side of the bowl are garlic-herb lavash chips that I made so that we could have a “bread” with our salad.  These turned out great– even my Emma liked them!  All I did was cut a whole wheat lavash into triangles, either spray or brush lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle on some salt, granulated garlic and dried oregano.  Bake at 350 degrees until brown and crispy.  A very simple meal with very little cleanup too– can’t beat that!

Don’t forget– there’s only a few days left to enter yourself into my 1st super awesome giveaway!

I always thought it was just hocus pocus that spicy foods can help you lose weight, but according to this site, there may be some truth to it.  If it is true, I should wake up tomorrow 10 pounds lighter after the salad I had for dinner last night (and lunch today).  It was on fire!  But I really liked it.

I got this book from the library over the weekend, Raising the Salad Bar. Some of the recipes aren’t even vegetarian, but omitting and subbing would solve that problem. One recipe that caught my eye was for a sweet potato, corn and black bean salad mixed with cilantro and a chipotle-lime vinaigrette. It sounded good, so I decided to make it.

The sweet potatoes get covered in some canola oil (I only used a small drizzle, not as much as the recipe called for), cumin, coriander and chili powder. Then they get roasted in the oven until they are cooked and a little crispy. The sweet potatoes get mixed with black beans, corn and cilantro and then topped with a dressing made from a chiptole, some Thai sweet chili sauce, lots of lime juice and some canola oil. I opted to use about a teaspoon of flax oil in place of the 1/2 cup of canola oil that the recipe suggested. Yikes! That’s like a million billion calories and thousands of grams of fat!

I opted to serve this salad over a bed of romaine and butter lettuces and some radishes, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The dressing was super hot– almost too hot for me and I like spicy stuff– but it was still really good. Along the side of the salad, I put some vegetable and flax tortilla chips to help extinguish the flames. All that fiber was very filling too.

For a very similar dish, roast some sweet potatoes and add it to my corn and black bean salsa and pile all that on top of some salad greens.

I’m finally getting around to posting about all the wonderful food we had at Christmas. Let’s start with dessert, my favorite part of any meal!

I’m really into baking at the moment and for Christmas, I made chocolate cupcakes topped with snowmen and some Lemon Bars.  I used the Lemon Bar and Chocolate Cake recipes The Joy of Vegan Baking. The Lemon Bar recipe was surprising because it calls for silken tofu. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, but since I know that silken tofu is perfect in my Pumpkin French Toast, I thought I’d give it a try.  They turned out delicious, except I think I’ll add more lemon next time than the recipe calls for, as I thought they could be a litlte more lemony.  Other than that, perfection!  I don’t think people would have been able to tell the difference between this vegan version and any non-vegan ones.

Which brings me to an interesting point– why do people freak out over the word “vegan”?  You tell someone that something is vegan and they automatically think it’s weird or tastes bad.  I’ll admit that I’ve probably had the same reaction to vegan cuisine at some point in my life, but where does it come from?  Why is vegan food somehow scarier than non-vegan food?

Anyway, back to dessert.  The Chocolate Cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking is the easiest cake recipe on the planet.  With recipes as easy as this one, I can’t imagine why people would resort to a boxed cake mix.  It’s foolproof.  I won’t use any other chocolate cake recipe.  I iced mine with some vanilla buttercream (I wanted it to look like a mound of snow) and put my snowmen up on top.  Yes, these guys were a bit labor intensive, but I really had a fun time making them.  I used white fondant for the bodies and colored fondant for the details.  Although technically edible, I wouldn’t suggest chowing down on them.  Fondant looks cute, but I don’t think it’s the most appetizing thing in the world.

For our main course, I made the Spinach, White Bean and Walnut Filo rolls from ED&BV. This is also an extremely easy thing to make, but is yummy and makes a nice presentation.  The best part about this recipe is that the filling can be made way in advance and refrigerated for a couple of days or frozen for a couple of months.  You don’t need to worry about the spinach turning brown.  To top our rolls, I made a cranberry sauce (recipe also from ED&BV).  Delicious!

And, finally, to go with our meal, I made the Veggie Guy’s Spinach Pomegrante Salad.  It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good.  So good.  Yum!!  And the red and green is just so festive.  You have to try this salad.  I’ve made it a few times since because I’m now addicted to pomegranates. The one thing I changed is that I used spicy candied pecans in place of the walnuts. Walnuts are not one of my favorite nuts to eat plain and I thought the sweet and spicy would be tasty in the salad. One thing I changed in that recipe is that I used brown rice syrup in place of corn syrup. They are super addictive– even Emma loved them!

What did you enjoy for your Christmas feast?

From the freezer: a pack of corn tortillas and a bag of pinto beans.  Tacos it is!  I based this recipe on the Bean & Zucchini Tacos that I’ve made before, but instead of zucchini, I used some kale.  They turned out very yummy!

To go with our tacos, I made some coleslaw.  What do these two things have in common?  Well, nothing except they were things that I had on hand and needed to use up.  Both were good, even if somewhat disjointed.

This coleslaw recipe is based on one that I found in Eat More, Weigh Less.  I changed it a bit, so I think it’s safe to post the recipe here.

Vegan Coleslaw

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 green apple, grated

Dressing:

2 TB vegan mayo

1 TB dijon mustard

1 TB sugar

1 TB apple cider vinegar

S&P to taste

In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients.  Add the cabbage and carrots and toss to combine.  If not using right away, cover and refrigerate until ready.  If using within an hour of making it, leave out at room temperature to give the cabbage time to wilt down.

It’s a very orange salad, isn’t it?!  I LOVE golden beets, but you could substitute them for regular ones here.  You could also change up the citrus depending on what you have on hand.  This salad was SO GOOD!

Golden Beet & Citrus Salad

1 medium orange

1 large grapefruit

2 small tangerines

1 large beet (or 2 medium), cooked

1 TB chopped mint

Dressing:

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp agave syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Peel and segment all of the citrus.  It would be most convenient if they were the seedless varieties but, if they aren’t, remove all of the seeds.  Combine them with the rest of the salad ingredients in a bowl.  Whisk together the dressing ingredients and drizzle over the salad.  Toss to combine.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.