Before Amanda was born, I blogged about the various casseroles that I made and froze in preparation for her arrival. We’ve gone through them all and I thought I’d post a little update to let you all know how they turned out. When I was first googling freezable vegan casserole dishes, I had a hard time finding any recipes or tips so I hope this people helps those who might be in the same boat as I was in.

To recap, I made a giant dish of lasagna and two smaller dishes of my enchilada lasagna (see link above to my original post for links to recipes). When we were ready to eat them, I defrosted them one of two ways:

1. If it was the morning and I wanted to eat it that night for dinner, I left it out all day on the counter.

2. If it was the night before and I wanted to eat it the following night, I stuck it in the fridge overnight to defrost. About an hour prior to heating, I took it out and let it come to room temperature. If your baking dish is too cold, you could crack it by putting it in a hot oven.

Lasagna: The dish froze very well. I was concerned that the tofu ricotta would have a funny texture or taste after being frozen, since freezing tofu definitely changes the texture and I’m not a big fan. When I baked it, it came out tasting as if I had just made it. When I was assembling the lasagna prior to freezing it, I used more sauce than I normally would have and I’m glad I did. It came out perfect and I think if I would have used a normal amount of sauce it would probably have been too dry.

Enchilada Lasagna: Again, I used more sauce than normal. It heated well and also tasted freshly made.

Both were a success and I was so happy to have prepared food on hand those first few weeks after coming home from the hospital. I was also glad to have had a well stocked freezer because it also made it easier on my husband since he was packing Emma’s lunches for school. We still have one quart of soup left to eat, but the rest is all gone. Sadly, my freezer is not organized and tidy anymore.

So I missed a day, but I did actually start this post yesterday.  I was just too busy to finish it.  I do have some good news to share:  Amanda is feeling better and it turns out she just has a cold.  Her lab work came back negative for any of the major viruses that cause the flu.  The best part is that she slept well last night, which means I actually got some sleep.  It was nice!

In my last post, I said I was going to make muffins and I actually got it done!  I ended up making LOTS of mini muffins because I like to save some to stash away in the freezer for Emma’s lunches or for snacking on when we’re low on snacks.  Besides that, when you’re making muffins, it’s not that much more work to make a double recipe– it’s certainly less work than making a single recipe on two separate days, right?  I like to think so.  My doubled recipe made about 5 dozen mini muffins.

I’ve been making lots of variations of this muffin recipe lately and it’s served me well.  I can change it up a bunch of different ways and it has always turned out great.  Use fruit in place of the veggies, add some dried fruit, change the up the spices– the possibilities here are endless.  The only fruit I wouldn’t try in this recipe are bananas.  While I’ve never tried bananas here and can’t say for sure how it would turn out, I can say that I’ve never had luck making banana bread or muffins when the recipe uses vegetable or canola oil as the oil.  The best banana bread I’ve made uses vegan margarine.

Spicy Carrot Zucchini Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/16 tsp mace

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup non-dairy milk

1/3 cup oil (or half oil, half applesauce)

1 TB vinegar

1 cup carrots, grated

1 cup zucchini, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper liners.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and spices.

3.  In a large bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and the carrots and zucchini.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir well.

4.  Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake.  Mini muffins take about 10 minutes.  Regular size muffins take about 15.

Friday is our turn to bring snacks to Emma’s preschool and she wants to take muffins.  I’ll be making an apple cinnamon batch of these tomorrow and will post that recipe variation.  Enjoy!

Hello all and Happy World Vegan Day! Today also kicks off Vegan MoFo (Month of Food)– an event that I have put off every year since I started blogging, telling myself that I’d do it for sure the following year. Well, I told myself that last year and again this year with the rationale this time that with the new baby and my lack of blogging the last 7 weeks that she has been with us that I wouldn’t contribute much anyway. Then I had the thought maybe this is exactly what I need to get my butt in gear and return to blogging more regularly so, by the skin of my teeth, I made the sign up deadline and am now officially a part of Vegan MoFo! Woo hoo!!!

And to start things off, I have an awesome recipe to share… but no photo of said awesomeness. Sorry! Hey… at least I’ve got a post for today. It’s a step in the right direction, right?! And, just so you know that I’m not a lazy bum, I’ll describe to you the scenario that is my life at this moment in time:

Emma, my 4-year-old is so generous that she brought home something from preschool and shared it with me– a yucky cold! Aaah! I tried my best to keep Amanda, my 7-week-old, from catching it, but she caught it too and it’s hit her pretty hard. I took Amanda to the doc today and he did a nasal swab to determine just what virus is making her nose so stuffy and he thinks that she has broncholitis. There’s not much I can do for her aside from what I’ve been doing, so we just have to let it run it’s course. She’s not sleeping well, which means I’m not sleeping well, but things should improve soon. So, I have her snuggled fast asleep in my Ergo Baby (I LOVE this thing!!) while Emma is sitting on my bed talking to me without pausing for a breath.  I also haven’t finished unpacking the groceries that I bought yesterday and my kitchen is a mess. The joys of motherhood!

Ok, back to the food…

I’ve been making these sandwiches lately and they’re so darn delicious that I just had to share the recipe, even without a photo.  Instead here’s a photo of the world’s cutest kids (I’m a bit biased, I’ll admit).

Broiled or Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

For the Sandwiches:

Bread, whatever kind you like (I like using foccacia or ciabatta; anything with a soft crust works well)

Eggplant

Zucchini

Red Onion

Red Bell Pepper (*see note below)

Portobello Mushroom

Lettuce leaves

Tomato Slices

For the Herbed Mayo Spread:

1/4 cup vegan mayo (I use Vegenaise)

Juice of 1/2 small lemon, about 1 TB

1 TB chopped fresh chives

1 TB chopped fresh tarragon or basil

S&P to taste

Prepare the veggies (except the mushroom, lettuce and tomato) by slicing them to 1/4″ thickness, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with S&P.  Put onto a hot grill or place under a preheated broiler and allow them to char a bit before flipping.  Once they are charred on both sides and tender, remove and set aside.  After cooking the mushroom, slice to 1/4″ thickness.

Prepare herbed mayo by mixing everything together.  Spread a thin layer on both sides of your bread, pile on the veggies and top with lettuce and sliced tomato.  Voila!  You can cut these large to serve as a meal or cut them small and stick some toothpicks or skewers into them to serve as appetizers.

*Note:  I buy red peppers already roasted because it’s easier and sometimes cheaper to buy them that way instead of fresh.

Well there you have it!  I’m off now to finish unpacking those groceries and clean up the kitchen so that I can make some muffins.  I’ve been making muffins lately and Emma has been loving them no matter what kind I make.  Her favorites have been banana, carrot spice and pumpkin.  I welcome any opportunity to sneak extra veggies into her so today’s muffins will be extra veggified.  Stay tuned for that… and I just may get that post up tomorrow.

I know… eww, gross! While I was in the hospital after Amanda was born, I thought it would be a fun idea to review the food that I was served while in the hospital so I took a few photos.

Amanda was born at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, CA. The staff there– nurses, doctors, everyone!– was so awesome. I received the best care and had a much better experience than I did when Emma was born. Emma was born in San Francisco because that’s where we were living at the time. Both girls were born via c-section, which meant a longer stay for me and more meals to review!

When I first checked in to the hospital, the nurse asked if I followed any kind of special diet. I informed her that I was vegan and she put that info into the computer. Actually, I have to confess something here: my pregnancy was not totally vegan. I was so incredibly sick in the beginning that I ate whatever would stay down, which included a cheese stick on 2 occasions. I also would eat baked goods regardless of whether or not they were vegan. I don’t like cheese and I generally don’t like things that contain dairy (it’s all I can taste and it’s gross), but there were a few times when I was desperate. To give you an idea of how sick (and desperate) I was during this pregnancy, I lost 8 pounds at the beginning and had to go to the hospital for IV fluids. I ended up gaining back that 8 pounds plus another 9, for a total weight gain of 17 pounds. By the time I was discharged from the hospital, I was already a pound or two below my pre-pregnancy weight. Now, I’m not bragging or anything here and I still have some weight to lose before I’m comfortable with my body size, but I do want to point out that I was forced to re-evaluate my thinking when it came to food because my body was just not cooperative. I’ve decided that I don’t really like being labeled “vegan.” Yes, I tend to stick to a vegan diet more often than not, but I don’t need the label.

I digress… So when I told the hospital staff that I follow a vegan diet, I half expected a lecture about proper nutrition blah blah blah, but they were super nice and very accommodating. One of the nurses even asked me a about it and we chatted for a long while. And, two or three days into my stay, someone from the hospital nutrition office (the people who plan the meals or whatever– the dietitians, I guess) called my room to make sure that I was getting the right food.

Every day with my breakfast, I would get a vegetarian menu to choose my meals for the next day. Most mornings, I had oatmeal and wrote somewhere on there that I’d like soy milk. I would also generally get a piece of toast or something else like that. Now, I wasn’t so anal as to ask whether or not the bread was vegan. That was more trouble than I was willing to go to, especially since I was recovering from a c-section and taking care of a newborn on my own (the hubby was at home a lot of the time taking care of Emma). The options for lunch were pretty much the same as the options for dinner but I tried to mix it up. The best part is that when my food would come, they would put the menu on there that I had filled out the previous day and write somewhere on there “no eggs, no dairy.” It was very thoughtful, I thought.

I bet you’re wondering exactly what I was eating… here are a few photos. Sorry for the poor quality, but I didn’t have a camera and took them with my phone.

The top is a tofu veggie stir fry that was actually really good. I think I ate that pretty much every day for either lunch or dinner. The bottom is a pasta primavera dish that was also tasty, but I think the sauce may have had cheese or dairy in it. I ordered it one day and it came without sauce, with just plain noodles and steamed veggies. I liked that much more than when it came with the sauce. Like I said, I wasn’t so anal as to check whether or not there was dairy in the sauce. The people preparing the food were doing their best to accommodate my special needs and I didn’t want to make a big deal about something like that.

The night before being discharged, the hospital offers the patient a special meal to share with her husband as sort of a last hoorah. That menu was the least appealing of all because it was stuff like filet mignon and maybe a chicken dish. The vegetarian option was some kind of ravioli and the side dishes were all starches like rice or potato– things that are usually served alongside meat. I never filled mine out and my nurse that day noticed and asked if we had planned to have the special meal. I told her that I didn’t really care all that much and I explained about my diet preferences and that I thought I would get a more balanced meal sticking with the normal food service. Well, she called the dietitian for me and asked them to make us something vegan and they did! What they brought us was just a slightly larger portion of one of the meal options from the normal daily menu, but it turned out to be really good. It was a plate of Indian dishes that I think were all vegan except for the spinach. When I ate it, I wish I would have ordered it during my stay. The special celebratory meal came with either champagne or sparkling cider and a nice salad. Matt got the champagne while I opted for the sparkling cider for Emma to have. She drank it out of the champagne flute and thought it was fancy!

Here’s a picture of our little Amanda now at 6 weeks old, and that’s her big sis snoozing in the background. I really can’t believe she’s 6 weeks old already!

So it’s been a while. Do I even have any readers anymore?

We have another little princess, Amanda, born Sept. 12. I haven’t been doing much cooking since she’s been born, but am slowly getting back into the kitchen. I have a few new posts on the way… just have to get them finished. I’m starting to find more and more time to myself and I’m not as sleep deprived as I was, so I will get those up soon.

Seriously, anyone still out there?

In my last post, I mentioned that our oven caught fire while making some oat cakes. Before extinguishing the flame with baking soda, I first grabbed my phone and took a video of it. It was just too crazy not to video and I didn’t sense that there was any danger letting the fire burn for an extra few seconds. What happened was there had been a small crack in the heating coil and that crack broke all the way through, which made the rest of the heating coil catch fire.

Well, I had already made some muffin batter that was bound for the oven as soon as the oat cakes came out and, not wanting to waste it, I had to think of another way to “bake” it. I used my apple-carrot-raisin muffin batter recipe, but added in one small grated zucchini. So, instead of making mini-muffins, which was my original intention, I ended up making it into a loaf and “baking” it in my slow cooker. The slow cooker method worked out really well, even though it took like 20 times longer to bake than if I had been able to bake them in the oven. Oh well– they still got made, we still get to enjoy them, and I didn’t have to waste any food.

To bake in your slow cooker, you will first need a loaf pan that fits in there. You will also need the little trivet thing that comes with the slow cooker (it’s the rack thing that people probably use to make something like a pot roast). Put the trivet in the bottom of the slow cooker and fill the bottom with boiling water. Mine took about 5 cups of water and I think it’s important to use already hot water since the slow cooker would take forever to heat up all that water. Once you’ve got all that assembled, put your filled loaf pan on top of the trivet, cover and turn the slow cooker to high. It should be done in about 4 hours. If you wanted to prepare this at night to bake while you are sleeping, I imagine cooking it on low would do it. Low would probably take anywhere from 6 to 8 hours.

UPDATE: To read about how these turned out after defrosting and heating, check out this post.

In preparation for the baby’s arrival, I spent the day yesterday making some one-dish-meals that could be frozen. My idea was to make something that had veggies, protein and carbs all in one so that we could eat them by themselves and get a well-rounded meal out of it. If I have the energy, I can throw together a salad or something to accompany the dishes, but we’re still getting lots of nutrition if we just eat them by themselves.

Also, my 4-year-old starts Pre-K on Wednesday and I wanted to have some homemade snacks on hand for her lunch at school. I ended up making a batch of zucchini brownies (her favorite!) and Dreena’s Easy Pleasin’ Oat Bars. Unfortunately, I’m all out of freezer space so the oat bars may not make it in there. I’ll move some stuff around today and see if I can’t find any more space. I also wanted to make a batch of mini muffins, but my oven caught on fire right when I was taking the oat bars out. I had already made the batter, so I’m experimenting on “baking” it in my slow cooker. I’ll post the results of that when it’s done. (The oven fire was very minimal, in case you’re worried. The heating coil at the bottom had had a small crack in it for a while and I was concerned that it would break one day. The fire started at the point where the crack was and traveled like a sparkler firework along the length of the coil. I put some baking soda on it after taking video of it and it went out. On another side note, a small plane crashed into the lagoon directly behind our house on Thursday, so if things happen in threes maybe that means the baby is coming this weekend!)

Anyway, back to the food. In my freezer, I have a giant dish of lasagna (the individual lasagne made into a regular lasagna– double the tofu ricotta recipe and add some fresh spinach), two small dishes of enchilada lasagna, 3 quarts of Minestrone soup, 2 quarts of cooked black beans, 1 quart of lentil and brown rice taco filling, and 1 quart of cooked chickpeas. To freeze the casseroles, I first put a sheet of Press’n Seal wrap directly on top of them to keep out any air and to keep any ice crystals from forming, then I topped it with the lid that came with the Pyrex baking dishes. Also, for the zucchini brownies, I individually wrapped each one in Press’n Seal wrap and then put it in a glass food storage container with a locking lid. I will do the same if I’m able to make space enough for my oat bars.

A quick note about the zucchini brownies. I use this recipe here, but this time I made them with half applesauce, half oil and half whole wheat pastry flour, half all-purpose. They turned out great! Oh, and I also added some dark chocolate chunks.

Here’s what my freezer looks like now:

There’s also some convenience food in there from Trader Joe’s– their vegetable burritos (on the left side), the mini pizzas (on the top– for the kid), and some of their vegan noodle bowls stuffed way in the back. I’d say we’re set for at least a little while!

As we eat the pre-made freezer meals (I suppose we’ll have to get a new oven first!), I will report on how they tasted. I tried to Google some information on freezing certain things (like I wasn’t sure how the tofu ricotta would freeze and defrost), but I couldn’t really find much information. I’ll also update this post or link to my new post about it in case some other Googler is looking for the same information.

Come on, Baby! We’re all set for your arrival!

Here’s my haul from Wednesday’s FM trip:

From last week, I had a melon, some strawberries and a few apples leftover. This week, I spent about $35 and got 2 more melons, grapes, berries, kale, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, a couple more apples and pears. Everything is organic except the melons and grapes, but as I mentioned last week, I always wash the outside of the melon before cutting it and the farmer who was selling the grapes said he doesn’t spray. When I asked him about it he said “oh no, I use praying mantises and spiders.” And then I saw a giant spider the same color as the grapes crawling on the side of his scale. LOL I trust him. The grapes are really delicious, too.

To store the berries, I did the same technique as the strawberries. Simply put them in a tupperware container once you get them home and refrigerate. Only wash them when you’re ready to eat them.

This is probably more than I would buy and keep on hand normally, but I want to have a pretty stocked fridge just in case I go into labor sometime in the near future. Today is my due date and I’m still pregnant.

Should I keep you all in suspense or spill the exciting news first? Hmmm… tough call. Okay, okay– here’s the exciting news:

Some of my recipes are featured in a free “Back-To-School” e-book. Yes, it’s free! Alisa over at One Frugal Foodie and Go Dairy Free had the brilliant idea of producing this e-book to help moms and dads with the back-to-school transition after seeing the back-to-school grocery ads featuring cheap cereals and other convenience items that contain little nutritional value. It was a great idea and, of course, healthy eating is something I fully support.  The book is not vegan, but there is a good selection of recipes to suit everyone’s needs and some can probably be made vegetarian or vegan with a quick swap of ingredients.  Download your free copy by either clicking on the image above or by clicking this here link.   My biggest, sincerest thanks to Alisa for coming up with this awesome idea and for putting so much time and effort into it.  And thank you to everyone who participated and contributed their recipes.  I hope this e-book is a big success and kids everywhere are able to enjoy healthy, homemade breakfasts and lunches.

Here are the direct links to the recipes of mine that are included in this lovely gem:

• Sweet Potato Waffle
• Granola
• Faux Tuna Sandwich Filling
• Black & White Hidden Treasure Burritos
• PB&J dilla

This new recipe is a spin on my Whole Wheat Oat Bread recipe, which is also featured in the e-book.  When this recipe was chosen for the book, I realized how long it’s been since I’ve made it so I thought I should give it another test before the book became available.  While testing it, I actually improved upon it and came up with a few substitutions for some of the ingredients.

Whole Wheat Oat Bread for the Bread Machine

1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegan margarine, canola/veg oil or olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 TB vital wheat gluten*
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons brown sugar, maple syrup or agave
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 TB flax seeds

Put ingredients into bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer.  Use medium setting.

*In lieu of vital wheat gluten, you could use white bread flour and wheat bread flour in place of the all-purpose and wheat flours.  Adding 1 TB of vital wheat gluten for every one cup of regular flour is a DIY way of making bread flour.  I add an extra TB just for kicks.

As if I needed another thing to keep up with (LOL!), I’ve started another blog! I have lots of things that I’m interested in and that I want to share, but I can’t have a blog dedicated to each and every thing. Soooo… I started this blog here that is a dumping ground for everything else I’m interested in– a place to share my craft projects, information on living a more eco-friendly lifestyle, tips for saving money on DIY projects, and anything mommy related! Really, it’s a dumping ground for all of the things that I want to blog about, but that don’t necessarily have anything to do with cooking and/or living a vegan lifestyle. Come on over and check it out (and while you’re at it, maybe you’ll want to “follow” me or add me to your reader). It’s still a work in progress and I will probably change the format and/or color scheme a time or two before finding something I like, but there are some posts up already and it’s officially in business. If you’re interested in doing a guest post, just send me an email or leave a comment on either of my blogs and I’ll be in touch.