A Full Plate

I am a bit behind in my blogging. But this was the dinner we had the night after my last post. Leftover tin foil dinners, leftover BBQ beans and at James' request Samosa inspired mashed potatoes.

 The next night I took the leftover mashed potatoes and wrapped them in pastry. It's still not traditional Samosas but not too far off.

James is a huge fan of Samosas so this was a treat for him. We even got to talking about what other fillings we could do. So I'm sure we will be having versions of these again.     

We decided to name them "Packets". So these are Samosa Packets.







"No great thing is created suddenly."- Epictetus

Tin Foil Dinners and BBQ Beans

Tin foil dinners are so simple!  Wrap up what you want to cook in tin foil, pop it in the oven and soon you have amazing food with little effort.

Before going plant-based I would make tin foil dinners quite often but back then there would be a hamburger patty thrown in with veggies, salt and pepper.

Now, instead of the beef, I just drizzle some olive oil over everything. Yum!

I made this one with corn on the cob, green bell peppers, zucchini, onion, potatoes, cabbage and a clove of garlic.

For protein I made BBQ beans in the slow cooker. I used the same sauce that I used when making my BBQ Tempeh.

I'm still working on this sauce. It doesn't yet taste the way I want it to. It's good but I know it can taste better. :) 







"Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience." - George-Louis de Buffon

Salad Leftovers

For my lunch of leftovers from our grilled veggie dinner I piled grilled veggies and quinoa on the leftover salad greens and topped it with homemade croutons and (vegan) Caesar Salad dressing. 

Crouton and salad dressing recipes can be found in "Veganomicon"    

Our dog Andy deciding to be a lap dog :)

" Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" - Dr. Seuss

Grilled Veggies

All summer I've been telling James that I want a grill for our backyard because I would love to have fun grilling all sorts of veggies and things. I finally I decided to do something about it. No, I didn't go and buy a grill but I did pull out our cast iron stove top grill.

With the grilled veggies I made some quinoa and I also roasted some veggies in the oven because our grill is small and I knew it would take forever to grill everything. Plus I made the Cesar Salad out of "Veganomicon".

So good!!!





"There's a way to do it better — find it." - Thomas Edison

Crazy Days!

Wow! It's been a crazy week so far! We had more storms come through (it is monsoon season). Wednesday was a BIG one! It poured for most of the day which resulted in flooding in several parts of the valley and our power was out for most of the day. It worked out well that I'm reading a good book (Stephen King's "11/22/63") so I didn't miss having the internet or TV (that much). It would have been nice to know what was going on as it happened but I got caught up after our power was back on.

I didn't stick to my meal planning too well this week. Last week we ended up having leftovers for dinner several nights plus an extra meal that wasn't planned. So by the end of the week I still had planned meals that hadn't been made. On our store run James and I just picked up some odds and ends and now I'm just throwing meals together with things I have on hand.

With trying to eat better I've also been trying to watch our spending. Before if I didn't feel like cooking I would have James stop and get something on his way home from work either at a fast food place or the grocery store. I think I would call him at least a couple of times a week. I'm sure it added up to be a lot more expensive than cooking at home.

 Now I'm trying to go to the store only 1 day a week along with not calling him to pick up food. I'm not sure if or how much we're saving (he uses his tips to buy dinner) but I know it's a lot better for our health!

A bowl of Texas Hash. James' favorite meal.

"It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference." - Tom Brokaw

Baked Tofu and Pasta

Last nights dinner was really simple. I roasted some garlic, mashed it, tossed it with some fettuccine and Earth Balance Spread then served it with baked tofu, sauteed cabbage and onions. 

James loaded his pasta with Parmesan cheese. When I asked him how he liked it and if there was too much garlic in the pasta he said "There's garlic in here?" 

 All he could taste was the Earth Balance and the Parmesan. I guess worrying that 2 bulbs (yes two whole bulbs went into the pasta) were too many was done in vain.   

Yesterday afternoon I also spent some time baking. I still had the leftover chocolate fondue from a few nights ago that I needed to do something with. I thought about my options.... we could reheat it and do fondue again but I would have to go to the store to get more dip-able things and we would still have leftovers of the chocolate or I could do some type of baked good.

I went with cookies. When I looked at the chocolate it looked pretty solid so I thought I could just chip it apart and do a chocolate chunk cookie but when I stuck a knife into it it was almost the constancy of pudding. By this time I already had the dough for my cookies mixed. I figured it was too late to turn back now and dumped the 'pudding' into the cookie dough. 

After it was all mixed the texture had me a bit worried so I added some more flour. I tasted the batter (because I don't cook with dairy or eggs it's perfectly safe to do so).
It tasted pretty good but I was still worried about it. I did a test batch to see if they held up and if they didn't I could try to fix the dough.

As the timer went off I peaked into the oven, afraid of what I might find. To my surprise they looked ok. They weren't the prettiest shade of brown but I figured if they tasted good I could hide it by dusting them with powdered sugar.

Before I threw another batch into the oven I waited for the first to cool a bit so I could try one. I gently scooped one off on the cookie sheet. Holding my breath I folded the cookie in two and pulled apart the two halves. I was shocked at how pillowy it looked. I took a bite..........it tasted just like chocolate cake! I was so excited!! I think it is one of the best cookies I've every made. 

It went from me just trying to find a way to use our leftover fondue to me quickly trying to remember exactly how I made both the fondue and the cookies and writing it down so I can recreate them.  I will definitely want these again.

So I made the rest, dusted them with powdered sugar and waited for James to come home. I couldn't wait for him to try them! I was very good and didn't have another one until after dinner.

"Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails."- Max Eastman

Enchilada Casserole

Last Tuesday when I made out my menu for the week and went grocery shopping I hadn't planned on making this meal. The corn tortillas were to be made into bowls for a couple days worth of taco salads. Since I am trying to be healthy (for the most part) I didn't want to fry them so I planned to bake them.

 Unfortunately that didn't work out to well. They ended up really chewy and not very tasty. So now I had a bunch of corn tortillas that would need to be used and I was afraid if I didn't use them right away I would forget about them and they would go bad (It's happened before). 

Enchiladas sounded like the best idea to me. I looked to see what I had on hand that I wasn't planning on putting in another dish. I had 2 cans of black beans, onion, green bell peppers, tomatoes and garlic. I drained and rinsed the black beans, chopped up everything else, threw it all into a bowl together and added some seasoning.

I also made an enchilada sauce from scratch and then I was ready to assemble the dish. Usually I roll them but it kind of seem counter productive because when I serve them I can never find where one ends and the other begins. They end up not being true rolls because inevitably I scoop into one and end up with one and a half instead of just one or two. So I decided to skip the work of rolling each one. 

Not rolling them made it really simple. In a casserole dish I scooped in some enchilada sauce, laid down some corn tortillas, scooped in some filling, added more sauce and repeated. Then I baked it at 350 for 45 min. When it was finished it wasn't very pretty but it sure tasted good :)

 



"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein