Broiled Tofu, Coconut Butternut Rice, and Pineapple Collards

All of these recipes are from Appetite for Reduction, and I've made all of them before except the pineapple collards. I'm always looking for ways to jazz up some greens, and this turned out to be a good way! In addition to the pineapple, they're seasoned with garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil.

We're headed to *S*C*O*T*L*A*N*D* this week so there won't be any posts for a while! But you can look forward to an exciting trip report when we get home.

Curried Chickpeas & Greens

This is one of the Appetite for Reduction recipes I hadn't tried yet - a quick, easy, delicious curry of kale & chickpeas over brown rice.

Very good for a fast weeknight dinner.

Broccoli Chowder

Can you tell I'm ready for fall? It's not quite soup time yet but I can't help myself. This is a nice broccoli chowder that also has some parsnip and yukon gold potatoes in there. I used to make a broccoli chowder with tons of cheddar cheese and sour cream, but this was just as good without all the dairy.

I defrosted a couple of our homemade buns to eat on the side. THEY ARE SO GOOD. I can't believe I haven't regularly made my own bread before. I'm hooked on it now for sure.

Chili-Lime Tofu and Mexican Spaghetti

This pasta recipe is actually the Pasta de los Angeles from Appetite for Reduction, but Whole Foods didn't have angel hair so I got spinach spaghetti. I used amazing heirloom tomatoes and a whole container of spinach and it was great. I felt like the tofu (also from Appetite for Reduction) might be overkill, as there were already beans in the pasta for protein, but it really was great together.

This was the last tofu recipe from the book that I hadn't yet made! I'm really closing in on finishing this book entirely. Lots of soups to go and a few vegetable side dishes, but I will knock those out this winter.

Homestyle Loaf

OKAY. I feel like "lentil loaf" and similar are used as sort of the default Gross Vegan Thing that omnivores like to make fun of. And, I admit, I share this prejudice. Who would eat that crap?? I think a major issue is that the word "loaf" is so unappetizing. Even "meat loaf" sounds pretty gross when you think about it.

So tonight, I decided to challenge my prejudice and try the Homestyle Loaf recipe in Vegan Diner, which is rapidly becoming my favorite cookbook. I've made a lot of her recipes, and have been blown away with every single one - so I figured she would be a dependable place to start for my venture into Loafs. In this recipe, the "meat" mixture is Boca crumbles, shredded tofu, oatmeal, and ground walnuts, with some onion & garlic & celery plus ketchup and soy sauce and various herbs. I KNOW it sounds suspect, people. But look at it out of the oven - nicely meatloafy:

And here it is sliced up.

It was GOOD. Ben said, "This reminds me of my mom's meat loaf," and that's exactly what Julie says in the recipe, that she made it as a substitute for her mom's meat loaf! Therefore, it must be true.

I also slivered a bunch of brussels sprouts and sauteed them with shallots and garlic and salt and pepper. Ben is an avowed brussels hater - and he ate these all right up. SUCCESS!

All-American Burgers & Banana Pudding Pie

Tonight I made another recipe from The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, the All-American Burger. It's a pretty basic one - the main ingredients are mushrooms, TVP, and vital wheat gluten, with some nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, ground mustard, and onion powder for flavoring. I also made more of her plain white buns that we really love, and the Cool Slaw from Appetite for Reduction. The dressing is cashew-based and Ben asked me if it contained heavy (soy) cream, so I'd call that a win.

Please note sleepy cat in the background.

For dessert I made the Banana Pudding Pie from Vegan Diner. I had my doubts it would work out, as I so far haven't been too awesome at making pudding from scratch, but it did! The bottom is lined with bananas and the pudding is vanilla, but it all works together to be nice and banana-ey.

Harvest

Look at all this basil, you guys!

We only have one plant that I've been using steadily most of the summer, plus I made and froze one batch of pesto a couple of weeks ago. This is easily enough for three more batches to freeze. The plant is looking pretty sparse now, but we have a good two months before it gets cold here so I think we'll be able to get quite a bit more out of it. Yay!

Next year we're going to get plant lots more herbs. And not kill them. Ben is a very conscientious gardener, actually, which is good because I am not.

Brazilian Black Bean Stew

This Vegetarian Times recipe is one that we've been making for a couple of years. It's simple and good, but for some reason I always have a hard time talking myself into eating sweet potatoes. I don't know why, because I like them just fine, but I always feel like maybe it won't work out.

There's a wide variety of healthy things in this dish - sweet potato, black beans, red pepper, tomatoes, mango, cilantro - and very little oil, so it makes me feel good to eat it. The hardest part about the recipe is not eating up all the mango before it's time to add it to the soup.

I have repeat dinners planned for the rest of the week so there won't be much food excitement coming up, but stay tuned because we went to St. Louis for Labor Day and I have lots of pictures to post!

Miscellaneous

This dinner is called "use up all the perishables before we go out of town." I made my true love Smoky Tempeh from Veganomicon, sauteed some zucchini and spinach in a little Earth Balance with salt & pepper, and steamed some corn on the cob in the microwave.

Aside from the marinating of the tempeh, this took about ten minutes and successfully used up all the vegetables in the fridge. Except the cabbage that has been in there for three weeks and miraculously still looks like new. I'm going to do something with that eventually, I swear.