Some tempeh lovin'

I made the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes, from Vegan Brunch, the other night and oh my goodness I think I have a new fave to add into my regular recipes. Hell yes.

Tonight I had a rockin' summer-type dinner with sweet potato fries, steamed zucchini, and a tempeh salad sammich on some homemade rosemary foccacia (recipe from Veganomicon). For the tempeh salad, I steamed it with some water and a dash of shoyu and then mixed it with a couple spoonfuls of veganaise, some garlic scapes, a small red onion, and some salt/pepper when it was cooled. Yummers!




I went to Boneshakers tonight for some tea and quality doodling time and they had vegan ROCKY ROAD COOKIES. I was still full from dinner, but I HAD to have one. So gooooood. I now know what I am making with that Angel Food marshmallow kit I have in my cupboard.

Snowglobe day

I made a pita puff!! So exciting! Only half the batch puffed, but still! Better than last time! There was no rhyme or reason to the puffs either. Some happened on the top shelf on a baking sheet and some happened on the bottom shelf of the oven on the pizza stone. Happy nonetheless! They were super-strong too, not like the whimpy dry pitas that you buy in the store that break if you put anything saucy in them. I made some homemade lemon hummus (with dried beans! I'm trying to be good about not buying canned.) and homemade falafel! Everything took way long to make, but it was way worth it. I made up a quick dill-veganaise dressing and a red cabbage/carrot/scallion/olive oil/apple cider vinegar/spices salad to go alongside and in. I used the non-puffed pita's the next day as leftovers and made a mini falafel-hummus-olive pizza.



Tonight, I made Joni's BLT and Avocado Burger. Stuffing avocados into things is brilliant.


I'm not gonna lie. I was disappointed when I started peeling my Tie-Dye potatoes, that I scored at the farmer's market, and they weren't tie-dyed inside.

Baked potato and greens soup with french fry crouton! From Veganomicon and SOOO YUMMY. It was 50 degrees out yesterday, but was a snowglobe outside all day today. Soup was welcomed.


I had a sudden sweet-tooth urge at 11:30pm the other night, so I made mini-muffins. Chocolate-chocolate-chip-walnut. mmmm. I cooked them a bit too long, so they are a little crispy, but still yum! I used AmyArgh's blueberry muffin base, and just added in some cocoa, choc. chips, and walnuts. Bite-sized!




And lastly, I got a treasury tonight!

VeganMoFo Day 25-Black Bean Cutlet Taco Salad and DIY lightbox!

I was pretty excited about dinner tonight! In layer order: there is sauteed swiss chard (sauteed with lemon juice, olive oil, pepper), crumbled blue corn chips, Vcon cutlets made with black beans (I used cumin and hungarian paprika for spices in it), Nacho sauce from Yellow Rose Recipes (this is my go-to nacho sauce; so yummy. I replace the jalapenos with half of a red onion, and decrease the cumin to let the nooch shine through. Also, i was out of lime juice, so I used lemon), homemade GUAC (with half of a red onion and two cloves of garlic, and a dash of lemon juice), and some more crumbled chips.

I'm even more excited for the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Now, more about that homemade lightbox. It was super-easy, free, and not time-consuming at all, but now that I've used it a bit, I know what to do better next time. First off, selecting the right sized box is important. I like to be able to take a picture from all sides and from above, and the smaller sized box that I chose pretty much only accommodates straight-on shots. So! Next time, I will choose a taller box, that will accommodate overhead shots (or maybe some sort of flap that opens on top for the camera...hmm...) and wider, so that I'm not having to cut down colored paper to fit or so that I'm able to go in for a more angled, side-shot. Not to mention, my dinner plates don't fit into this box (so my above dinner was NOT taken in the lightbox)!

Otherwise, SUPER-easy. Just cut out each side (even the bottom, so you can just lay it over something that you arranged), and duct-tape either tracing paper (what I had), tissue paper, or even really thin cheap-o copy paper over each cut-out square (except the bottom and one side that you will stand at with your camera. That's it! I just taped pretty colored paper on the back panel or laid it under my subject.




p.s. Is anyone else having trouble with Blogger uploading your pictures in the REVERSE order than you selected? Argh!! *copy/paste/copy/paste/copy/paste*

VeganMoFo Day 5-Vietnamese Seitan Baguette with Savory Broth Dip

Yeah! So yummy. I've been wanting to try this recipe, in Veganomicon, for awhile now and finally remembered to pick up bread yesterday at the farmer's market (I never eat bread ever, is that weird?) I made the seitan using the seitan-o-greatness recipe, as I prefer it baked, and used radishes instead of cucumbers, as that what I got in my CSA haul yesterday.

I need to eat more sammiches!

Summer Food

I made a plum bbq sauce early this week with some CSA fruit. So yummy! I used the recipe for apricot bbq in Veganomicon, just replacing the apricots with plums. Had it over some baked tofu, with breaded and fried zucchini, and some swiss chard with garlic butter.

Homemade veggie burgers! So yummy! There are carrots, radishes, mustard greens, onions, scallions, chives, garlic, celery, and TVP in there. Fresh organic corn on the cob to accompany.


Homemade ice cream! Chocolate PB:

Super-blueberry:

I've been listening to Liz Phair and The Breeders all day long

I made seitan piccata (from Veganomicon) for 4th of July dinner for Nik and I. Steamed asparagus and carrots as a side. The sauce was soooo yummy and my seitan came out perfect (I used the Seitan Cutlet recipe, also from Vcon, but then baked it afterwards to make it firmer). I used the leftover sauce (a white wine sauce with green olives, capers, and pimientos and some herbs) for a salad dressing tonight!



This weekend I also made some blueberry muffins, using the blueberries that I received in my CSA this week. This is the recipe I used


Painted a bit tonight. Started working on a BIIIG painting (well big for me; about 20"x24") of a lovely moth-girl. Also did some more sketches for my new series, but I can't show those yet!

MLK Day-off Foodz

Cauliflower and Mushroom Potpie with Black Olive Crust from Veganomicon. Those Black Olive crust/biscuits sure were something




Oatmeal-chocolate-ship cookies. I used the Oatmeal Raisin recipe in Vcon, but raisins are like poo, and chocolate>poo (i have good logic, see?).