Surprise Cookies and an Underwhelming Lasagna

Veggie "Basagna"

I had a request for "basagna" on the weekend and as much as I enjoy eating lasagna, I haven't yet mastered or found a vegan version that satisfies me.  There is always something missing, a richness or sauciness that I used to love about eating it in my pre-vegan days.   I guess I just haven't found the right recipe or combination of sauces and fillings. 

For my weekly cooking challenge I decided to combine ideas from three or four recipes.  It didn't turn out well enough for me to want to post the recipe but I'll keep working on it and share the improved version later.  I added sauteed scallion, carrots, red peppers and spinach to the tofu ricotta mixture which was quite tasty and I also added a layer of eggplant with the tomato sauce.   It definitely needed extra tomato sauce ladeled over the top when served.

While I was busy cooking components for the lasagna, my daughter was whipping up her own creation in a bowl on the kitchen table.  After taking a look at the mushed up fruit and nuts in the bowl I suggested we add a bit of flour and oats and see if her "dough" would bake up into cookies.   We were very excited to see if the experiment would work.  She insisted on adding a spice so we settled on nutmeg.   Here follows the ingredients with very rough measurements, it made seven cookies that were surprisingly tasty with no added sweetener!  I really enjoyed the peanuts in the cookies and although the name implies crunchiness, they were actually quite moist and soft on the inside. 

Yum-Crunch Delicious Cookies

1 banana mashed
1/4 peach chopped into tiny pieces
1 or 2 tablespoons roasted peanuts
1/4 cup rice crisps
1 tsp lemon Juice
2 tablespoons soy milk
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup oats
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Smush wet ingredients together with a potato masher until well blended and then add dry ingredients and mix well.   Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 18 minutes.   Enjoy! 


Yum-Crunch Delicious Cookies!


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My friends Kika and Kathryn were busy in the kitchen last week.    Kika made a super delicous looking Mung Bean and Carrot Salad with a few variations, check it out at her lovely bilingual blog named Come Compa here. 

It looks like Kathryn baked a successful batch of Irish Soda Bread in honour of St. Patrick's day, here is her post at The Hedgehog in the Kitchen.

Butternut Squash and Wild Mushroom Lasagna

Creamy and rich, almost overwhelming so, with not a drop of dairy in sight.  The butternut squash lent this dish a hint of sweetness.  I made the mistake of using dry noodles instead of the type you must boil first and the top layer was a little on the chewy side.   I think I prefer lasagna with some type of red sauce although this was very good.  The food in the photo looks downright scary because I'm terrible at making lasagna look pretty and it always falls apart when I lift it out of the pan.   Recipe from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet. 

Caution! Caution!  View the following photo at your own risk. 



Butternut Squash and Wild Mushroom Lasagna


For our weekly cooking challenge this week, my buddy Kathryn over at The Hedgehog in the Kitchen made a delicious lentil soup.   Check it out!  

My other friend Kika has also been doing lots of cooking this week for vegan mofo and her latest creation looks yummy - Vegetable Curry with Chickpea Patties.

Poppy Seed Pull-Apart Rolls

I woke up yesterday morning with half my life packed and thought it would be so easy not to cook something new.  But, with my daughter still soundly asleep and a few moments of calm I pulled out Vegan Brunch, flipped it open to the back and came across a recipe for Poppy Seed Pull-Apart Rolls.   Perfect!   Some nice fresh rolls to tear into on a Sunday morning.   What could be more comforting?  The ingredient list is short and I've never made rolls, so it sounded perfect for a challenge this week.  I will be taking the next two weeks off while we move but I can't wait to start cooking in my new kitchen.  Hopefully the quality of my photos will improve with the better lighting there.   

This recipe called for equal amounts of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour but all I had in my pantry was the all purpose so these rolls won't be the healthiest things on the planet.  The dough was extrememly sticky, so sticky that I had to add at least another half cup of flour and much more while I was kneeding it out.  You can see how sticky my hands were here when I tried to pry the dough out of the mixing bowl.  The rolls turned out a little denser then I expected and had lots of poppy seeds but they were tasty.

Sticky, doughy hands

Poppy Seed Rolls before rising

Risen and ready for the oven

The final product

My friend Kathryn over at The Hedgehog in the Kitchen made a simple and delicious sounding Spicy Lemon Pepper Pasta with Broccoli this week. I hope she continues her adventures in the kitchen while I am on my wee break. I look forward to seeing what she has been up to when I get back!

Rice Noodle and Skinny Carrot Fast Fry

In the middle of making soup for my weekly cooking challenge my tummy started grumbling so I decided to try out the new vegetable and fruit peeler we purchased yesterday at the Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair.  I can't eat chunky carrots so when I saw a pile of super skinny carrots piled on top of the demonstration table, I couldn't resist buying this simple little peeler.  When I tried my hand at making the carrots tonight I wasn't quite as skilled but I managed.  

Into the pan went a bit of oil, half a sliced onion and after a few minutes my gorgeous skinny carrots.   I mixed a little sugar with some soy sauce, sesame oil and about a tablespoon of Thai spice blend I found up in the cupboard.  Next in went the cooked rice noodles in along with the sauce and after a quick toss it was ready!  Have I mentioned that I adore rice noodles?  They take only a few minutes to cook and are delicious.  I meant to add tofu in with the veggies but forgot so I fried some up on the side in a bit of sesame oil and soy sauce and added it at the end.  A very quick and satisfying supper and now back to the kitchen I go to finish off my soup. 

Stir Fried Rice Noodles with Skinny Carrots and Tofu

Lasagna a la Leftovers!

Lasagna a la Leftovers!

We've had a busy week house hunting, (eating crap while on the road) and I was craving something comforting as well as nourishing so I decided to throw together a lasagna for dinner tonight.   Using the tofu basil ricotta recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen and digging through the bottom of my vegetable drawer, I came up with a couple of old zucchinis and some mushrooms to use add some interest.   I had just enough leftover homemade tomato-vegetable sauce languishing in the fridge to make this work.   I sliced and roasted the zucchinis for a bit and then sauteed an onion with the mushrooms.  Layering as follows; sauce, noodles, zucchini, the tofu-ricotta mixture and then more sauce followed by noodles, mushroom and onions, tofu-ricotta, sauce, noodles and then the remainder of my Daiya cheese.   Not bad!   Next time I'll leave off the Daiya cheese.  I don't think I'm a fan and I figured out why tonight.   It has this strange almost sweet flavour that doesn't sit well with me.  I can live without it. 

Vegan Cooking Challenge - Week 3

Wow, we are already on week three of our cooking challenge and I'm happy to report that this week's dish was a success.  My first attempt from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Vegan Table was a winner.  In a traditional Pad Thai there's more of a tangy, tomato base but in Colleen's version, the sauce is a sweet and slightly spicy, peanut sauce.  Some of my favourite foods - rice noodles, broccoli, garlic and crispy, seasoned tofu were smothered in a lime, tamari, peanut butter combination.   It pulled together fairly quickly even with a few separate steps.  While the noodles soak in boiling water, the tofu is sauteed, set it aside and then the veggies are cooked.  Everything is thrown together along with the sauce and quickly heated.  I was surprised at how fast I had dinner on the table.  After my last two or three disappointments I'm ecstatic to have discovered a meal I'd be happy to make again.  I didn't get a great photo of the plated food so you'll have to make due with two cooking shots.  

Pad Thai before the sauce hits.

And now it's Jeannette's turn with two submissions!

This week’s meal was a bit of a challenge. We had extensive flooding and the city had to restrict water usage due to a break in the water main. Along with the restriction, the water from the tap had to be boiled. I had way too many veggies in the fridge that had to be used up. The first dish I prepared was Tofu Aloo Gobi from the book Vegan Express by Nava Atlas. For this recipe I only omitted the cilantro, which I don’t care for, and I added an extra ½ cup of green peas.

The resulting dish was very tasty and very low fat. A lot of Indian food can be rather heavy, with lots of cream and butter. This dish had all the great taste without the heaviness. I did miss the creamy texture, so I may add a bit of coconut milk next time. , as there wasn’t much sauce in the pan. We ate this dish as is, the potatoes providing the starch. I added raisins to my bowl, because I love raisins!

Tofu Aloo Gobi

My second dish is my own creation for using up zucchini. So, I’ll call it Summer Veggie Skillet. This week’s version is as follows:

3 leeks, sliced

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1 large bell pepper, chopped

3 medium zucchini, sliced

1 jalapeno pepper, diced

I tried to get everything about the same size. I cooked the leek in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Then I added the tomatoes and bell pepper and cooked them while prepping the zucchini. Then I added the zucchini, and then the hot pepper. I just cover and let this simmer, stirring occasionally, adding back the liquid from the lid. (You may need to add a splash of water if it dries out). I seasoned with a teaspoon of Italian herbs (dried in a jar mix). I cook this until everything is tender. I serve this over couscous. My husband loves it.

I usually make this dish with eggplant, more bell peppers, and no tomatoes, using water in their place. I have also added Italian dressing as the “sauce” on a whim. It is easy to make, uses up all the extra veggies and it freezes well. I will put this in my husband’s lunch in January!

Summer Veggie Skillet

Hurry Up Alfredo Sauce - We can eat it anytime!

Pasta and kale with Hurry Up Alfredo Sauce

This pasta sauce has become a family favourite, so much so that we sometimes make it for breakfast like this plate from yesterday morning.  I often cook up a batch of pasta, throw in some kale and broccoli a few minutes before it's done and then pour the sauce over.  This creamy, cashew based sauce is made in the blender and requires no cooking so its perfect for busy families.  My daughter wouldn't go near it the first five or six times we prepared it but she gradually became curious about the rapturous faces and sounds we were making while eating.   She has since been won over but to my chagrin has renamed it "pasta with hot-dog sauce".  I'm secretly horrified at the name but it seems to have stuck.  I think the dijon mustard or the combination of seasonings makes it smell like hotdogs to her.  You can find the recipe here, on Lauren Ulm's blog.  She is the author of Vegan YumYum, a beautifully photographed cookbook.  This is my favourite pasta sauce and it's also scrumptious poured over vegetables. 

Spaghetti and Beanballs - Vegan Cooking Challenge

This was an insanely busy week and thankfully I had decided ahead of time to prepare something relatively simple.  My challenge recipe for week two was Spaghetti and Beanballs from Veganomicon.  The bean balls are made with mashed up kidney beans, seasonings, bread crumbs and some wheat gluten.  We liked them but weren't thrilled so to speak.  I guess I'm not a huge kidney bean fan because they tasted too bean-y to me.  The leftovers are going to work with my husband.    Next week I promise to make something more attractive and hopefully delicious! 

Spaghetti and Beanballs

And here is Jeannette's yummy looking submission:

We had a rather late breakfast today, so we didn’t want a big meal. I decided to prepare Curried Cashew Couscous from the book Vegan Express by Nava Atlas. This dish was very quick to prepare, as the recipe promised. I did leave out the ginger and the scallions (I don’t like either taste), and I added an extra ½ cup of green peas. I don’t own any “fragrant” oils, like walnut oil, so I used 2 tablespoons of good quality virgin olive oil.


The resulting dish was very pretty to look at, slightly orange from the curry and turmeric. The peas and dried cranberries added a nice pop of color. The curry was very subtle, but tasty. You could add more curry and/or the ginger for a spicier taste, but it isn’t necessary.

I am surprised by the high calorie count per serving in the nutritional information given with the recipe. There are 400 cal for the cashews and 260 for the oil, which comes to 165 cal/serving at 4 servings. That leaves another 250 calories per serving for everything else, so I think 414 cal/serving is high, especially as it makes a lot. I think it is a pretty healthy and tasty side dish. We ate it warm, but it could be good cold. I think I might add more fruit to it, too, like apples, or maybe shredded carrots.

Curried Cashew Couscous