a very vegan breakfast

This was my breakfast this morning. Creamy oatmeal topped with Agave syrup, cold blueberries, slivered almonds and toasted shredded cocoanut. Sooooooo good. I am slowly starting to use more and more vegan type of foods such as Agave and Ive got to say, Im a fan!

The Vegan Adventure Recipe 3- Mushroom and Spinich Risotto

Yesterday was a hard day. First of all, even with a 'dream baby', being a single mom is hard. I would never willingly make this choice for anything in the world. Second, I had to sell my fur baby yesterday. Joey was SUCH a good dog for us. He truly was a kind, gentle and true companion. Jo-Ben and I have talked about it and thought about so many different options, situations and scenarios but in the end we decided that it didn't make sense to keep Joey right now, mostly because of the 'big move' and the unknowns with our plans to rent in California and everything. I put up an ad on Kijiji and managed to sell the little guy to a really great family with two little girls who have 'wanted a dog all their LIVES' as the older of the two girls exclaimed. I think he will make them really happy and they will give him a good home but its still sad to say goodbye. To top it all off it turned grey and ugly and started to thunder and lightning and rain and EVERYTHING when my little pup left SO I decided that I was in the mood for some comfort food. Hmmmmmm, I thought to myself, what on EARTH do vegans eat for comfort food?! The answer: RISOTTO! I have never made Risotto and I have always wanted to... must be all that Hells Kitchen and hearing Risotto this and Risotto that. Come to think of it, Ive never had a chance to order Risotto in a restaurant, the hubs is going to have to take me to a nicer place than the Get'n'Go sometime soon! Anyways, I made this amazing Mushroom and Spinach Risotto for dinner and it was SUCH great comfort food but was also so SO refreshing.

Here's the link to the recipe!

http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/vegetarianentreessides/r/vegrisotto.htm

Last snuggles with my pup...

Goodbye friend :)

Rain, rain go away.

My handsome cooking partner!

The Risotto coming together

Lots of flooding and stirring and flooding and stirring

The end result was a beautiful, creamy mixture, I stirred the spinach and lemon juice in at the last min and...

with a few grinds of fresh ground pepper, this was my dinner!!! wowza, I definitely WILL be making this again and again!

Asher lately...

I realized that I haven't posted any pics of Asher lately and I have hundreds and hundreds so here are a few for anyone interested!

Playing on his play mat, he is learning to hold himself up, making new noises all the time and rolled over form the front to back the other day!

Family pic in the canola field outside our house :)

Car ride with his fingers in his mouth- as always

Cute lil guy!

Always stretching and moving lately!

With his Dad

With his Mom :)

The Vegan Adcenture Recipe 2- Cauliflower & Chickpea Curry

Growing up in the Fraser Valley in BC, Canada I grew up in a very diverse community. I had allot of friends from many different ethnicities and along with those cultures came their cultural foods. Among my favorite and most memorable are Vietnamese and Indian. A spice that is so prominent in both regions is curry. I LOVE curry. Its spicy but not hot and the depth of flavor that it provides is incredible. When I saw this vegan curry dish I was SO excited. It reminded me of this curry chickpea stew that I made from my Martha Stewart Everyday Food mag. This recipe looked so easy and the cauliflower and coconut milk drew me in!

Here is the link to the recipe!

http://sporkandfoon.typepad.com/spork_or_a_foon/2009/05/curried-cauliflower-and-chickpea-stew.html

It all started with a simple onion and a head of cauliflower... don't know why I bought a white onion, I usually buy yellow ones. Anyways, cauliflower is among my faves of the vegetable world.









After you brown and soften the onions you basically just throw it all together, bring it up to a boil and let it simmer. Pretty simple!

After simmering for about 20 mins this was my dinner! I also made some brown sticky rice, lentils cooked down and I topped everything with lots of cilantro... I also topped it all off with a sprinkle of coconut whichbrought out sweetness of the coconut milk in the curry.

Now, I have had allot of curries and as far as I'm concerned this wasn't one of the best. It looks pretty but the flavor wasn't the best. I think if I am going to make a quick curry stew I would make my tried and true Martha recipe and add a can of diced tomatoes and a head of cauliflower into it and call it a day. oh well, cant win em all. I will not be making this one again :(

Here's the link to the Martha Stewart Everyday Food Indian Stew recipe:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/easiest-indian-stew?autonomy_kw=chickpea%20curry&rsc=header_2

The Vegan Adventure Recipie 1- Avocado Chocolate Cake

I love avocados and I love chocolate.... but together?! Really?!

I was so intrigued when I saw this recipe and just HAD to try it and what a recipe to start off my vegan adventure!!! This cake turned out moist, chocolaty and DELISH! There wasn't a single trace of avocado taste but you could tell that it lended its velvety butteriness to the cake FOR SURE. Who knew that you could make a cake, a goooood cake without a trace of butter or eggs. Well, now ya do and now that I do and HAVE this has become my go to chocolate cake recipe. Its awesome.

just click on the link for the recipe!

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/07/vegan-chocolate-avocado-cake/

First I got all of my ingredients together...

mmmmmm avocado!

Sooooooo, I tried to make the avocado icing first and it didn't turn out so great... I think it had allot to do with the fact that I used the really ripe ones for the cake and the one that I used for the icing was pretty hard, didn't blend properly and just made the icing a gooey, lumpy mess. gross.

Oooooo dry ingredients sifted together....

wet ingredients combined!

THE FINAL PRODUCT! So, I had some left over butter cream, espresso butter cream at that, reserved from some java chip cupcakes that I made a few weeks ago in the fridge so I spread a thin layer in between the two cakes because I had two cakes and nothing to go in between them! I know, I know, BUTTER and CREAM that go into butter cream icing aren't vegan but I had it, it was a thin layer and I have to ease into this vegan thing ok?! besides I think that the cake alone would be amazing without anything in between them and I will make it again and use a vegan icing next time. I promise.


Doesn't it look LOVELY?!

yum.

Here's my piece!

bliss.

My Vegan Adventure Begins...

Well, Jo-Ben is safe and sound in California which means that my vegan adventure begins. Today I went out shopping for new foods and did an overhaul of the pantry and fridge. (don't worry- I didn't waste the food that was unopened is going to the food bank and there wasn't much opened un-vegan stuff as I made Jo-Ben eat it all before he left!) Anyways, I have been eating (mostly) vegan over the past two days... I have had some milk in my tea because there was a little bit left and two eggs for breakfast yesterday because they were there and had to be used too... waste not, want not! :) I cant help it- I'm a good menno girl. I have found some great looking recipes on the Internet on various blogs and websites and I have to say I am really excited to try them out! Most of this stuff my husband would never ever go for so its going to be a fun new thing for me... kinda nice to try a new way of cooking, after your 100th lasagna or billionth taco night a shift in direction is looking fun to me! I am already feeling better, more conscious of what I am putting in my body makes me feel good. I am really hoping that this will be a lifestyle change and I can incorporate it into our families eating habits. I am really hoping that when I make the move down to Cali I can not only be eating this way but also buy all organic and local food. I think it will be allot easier down there than it is up here. So, here are some links to some recipes that I have committed to trying!


http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/06/asparagus-pesto-pasta-salad.html -good looking pesto pasta salad, Ive made a variation of this before so i know it'll be good!

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/07/vegan-chocolate-avocado-cake/ -don't know how i feel about the icing but the cake looks moist and delish, will make this when i have friends over for tea.

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/06/even-healthier-summer-fruit-tart-vegan.html -this just looks heavenly to me!

http://www.veggie-wedgie.com/?p=825

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/05/napa-cabbage-slaw-light-ginger-citrus.html -i think the flavor combo in this salad is going to be awesome.

http://sporkandfoon.typepad.com/spork_or_a_foon/2009/05/curried-cauliflower-and-chickpea-stew.html -planning on making this for dinner very very soon, looks so hearty!

http://bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com/2009/05/santa-fe-chowder.html

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/04/calm-tummy-banana-smoothie.html -sounds so yummy and makes sense, wonder if it works to soothe a upset tummy?

http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/breadsbakery/r/veganpestoflatbread.htm

http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/vegetarianentreessides/r/vegrisotto.htm -i have never actually made risotto before but cant WAIT to try!

http://www.tastespotting.com/patron/49533

http://veganvisitor.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/not-your-aunts-creamy-new-potato-salad/ -i love love LOVE avocados and cant wait to try this.

http://www.sophistimom.com/lentil-soup-to-love/ -joben hates lentils (from his 6 months in Nepal where they ate them for every meal!) so i never make them but this looks so delish and i cant wait to try it!

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/09/carrot-soup.html -i make a similar roasted veg soup so i think this will be awesome.

http://www.convergingcuisine.com/?p=128


And finally, some top ingredients to have on hand for vegan baking, great article!

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/05/top-5-babycakes-nyc-secret-ingredients.html


So, I'm pretty pumped, i think this will be a fun new way of cooking and eating and I cant wait to try out these new recipes! I will write a post for each one and post pics too, hope you enjoy my journey with me!!!

We are slowly going vegan...

WELL, Jo-Ben hasn't left yet but I have semi-started my vegan adventure. I think the only meat in the house left is a couple of burgers and cans of tuna. I made some fabulous Greek chicken, grilled pita and hummus and needed a side dish so I concocted a cous cous dish which turned out vegan and turned out AMAZING! I think the general public would be surprised how much vegan they actually do eat. Here is the cous cous recipe:

Cook 1 Cup of Couscous to the package directions (usually with equal parts boiled water to cous cous)

Let stand to cool

In a separate bowl combine
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup coursed chopped almonds (I just raw almonds in the food processor)
1/2 a can of whole chickpeas (I used the other 1/2 for homemade hummus)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

squeeze 1/2 a lemon and pour a gulg of olive oil over top of the mixture
season with salt and pepper and stir to combine

Add to the cooked and cooled cous cous and stir to combine (if it looks too dry add a little more olive oil and add any more salt and pepper or lemon to taste if it isn't zingy enough.)

This dish was absolutely delish- the varying textures and tastes (the sweet and chewy from the apricots and the mild crunch from the almonds complimented each other so well and the fresh green onions and herbs & squeeze of lemon gave the dish a really nice freshness. Never mind the chicken (which was awesome too btw) I could eat this stuff all week! (and I just might when Jo-Ben is away!)

I also made a DELISH salad this week which I realized was vegan and wanted to share the homemade dressing. Its actually a dressing originally from my Auntie Katie but I made mine vegan.

a bunch of fresh Basil (5 or 6 leaves)
1/2 a cup of fresh chopped parsley
5 or 6 green onions
1 TB vegan yogurt (I think my aunt originally used mayo here)
1 tsp each of dried mustard and curry powder
1/2 tsp of salt and pepper
1/2 C sugar (I am not going to be eating refined sugar after ours is out and Jo-Ben gos out of town so I used it this time but I am going to be trying a sugar alternative next time, Agave syrup maybe?)
1/2 C red wine vinegar
1 C oil (I used a light oil like Sunflower or Canola, my Aunt also suggested to replace 1/2 the cup with yogurt to make it lighter)

mix it all up in a jar and you have a delightfully fresh tasting dressing... the typical salad that our family eats this dressing with is a green salad with chopped avocado, papaya shredded carrots and broccoli... I added the avocado and papaya and I also threw in some chopped almonds and sunflower seeds, SO yummy!!!

Anyways, the vegan adventure is a go and I'm getting excited. Its really fun to try to figure out meals that cover all of my nutritional needs and finding new recipes to try! Will post pics next time. :)