Roasty Soba Bowl

I made another recipe from the PPK website tonight and it was great.

I subbed broccoli for the cauliflower, which is not a McClure favorite, and added some heirloom cherry tomatoes I needed to use up.  This turned out to be a genius idea because the tartness of the tomatoes worked really well with the earthiness of the other elements.  Here is the roasty goodness.

And the bowl.  Mine isn't as pretty as Isa's but I bet it tasted as good!  The dressing is genius - so easy and only three ingredients (miso, tahini, garlic) - all staples I have on hand at all times.

Sloppy Jerks

"Creamed spinach" has always sounded like a horrorshow to me, and has definitely been on the list of my Final Frontiers in what I'm willing to try.  When this recipe popped up on the PPK blog a few weeks ago I thought, "Well, I guess this is it," and I put it on the dinner list.  

Maybe it helps that it was coconut cream, I don't know, but I loved it!  And the seitan sloppy joe mix, seasoned with jerk flavors, was also great.  I like making fancy vegan sandwiches because they are hard to come by outside of my own house.

Served with tots, of course!

Happy Birthday to Benjamin!

Today is Ben's 35th birthday!  I was going to make him a non-vegan key lime pie, his favorite, but he requested a fruit pie instead, which are the pretty much the same recipe, vegan or not - just using Earth Balance in the crust instead of butter.  

This is an apple-blackberry pie based on a recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky, but with a crumb topping rather than a double crust.

Of course it was great.  How can pie be bad?  It was pretty liquidy straight out of the oven and kind of collapsed into a fruity cobbler-type thing.  I'm sure it will firm up in the fridge, though.

Jamaican Empanadas?

I've not been making anything exciting lately, and this was really just another thrown together meal with staples and random things from the freezer, as well as some vegetable odds and ends from last weekend. It all came together really great, though!

I thawed some of the empanadas I made with leftovers from the Jamaican Lentil Turnovers of a few weeks ago, whipped up a vegan ranch from silken tofu, chopped up some lettuce remnants, cherry tomatoes, and an avocado, and made some garlic yellow rice to tie the whole thing together.

Mexican feast! Except with Jamaican curry filling.

Black Bean & Soy Chorizo Crock Pot Stew

This was crazily simple and totally excellent for our randomly cold day today. Garlic, onion, red pepper, black beans, and half a package of Trader Joe's soy chorizo.

Another winner from The Vegan Slow Cooker!

Crunchy Kale and Coconut Bowl

A bunch of my friends have been talking about this recipe for weeks and I finally got around to trying it out tonight. I only used 1 Tbsp of olive oil as opposed to the 1/3 cup she calls for, and also halved the coconut, but even with those modifications it was pretty amazingly awesome. Neither one of us are huge coconut fans, really, but it works better in this than anything else I have run across, ever.

I served it over brown rice instead of farro, and made Veganomicon's Smoky Tempeh to round it out as a full meal.

Jamaican Lentil Turnovers

I've wanted to make this recipe since the first time I flipped through Bean to Bean - it's a mixture of lentils and vegetables, mashed into a paste-like consistency, stuffed into tortillas and baked. Basically sort of like a thick quesadilla, except with Jamaican flavors.

It belatedly occurred to me I should have used empanada dough instead, but luckily I have empanada wrappers in the freezer so I'm going to use some of the leftover filling and make some to freeze for a later quick dinner.

This was another solid recipe from Bean to Bean - I am really liking that cookbook! Highly recommend!

Caramelized Onion Quiche

I've been wanting to try a vegan quiche for quite a while, and finally got around to it today. I made this recipe from Vegan Brunch because it called for three pounds of onions, caramelized, and if there is one thing I love it's a whole bunch of caramelized onions. The rest of the filling is tofu and cashews, mainly, blended until smooth.

It was delicious. One of the other reasons I wanted to make a quiche is that Ben is always going on about how much he hates real (egg-based) quiche, but I was pretty sure he would like this. It really tasted more like a ricotta pie than anything else. I'm going to be trying other quiche recipes in the future for sure.

Chipotle Adobo Black Beans with Mexican Millet

This was so good but SO spicy. Why do I keep doing this to myself?? I knew as I was putting in all those chipotles and jalapenos (recipes: Veganomicon) it would be rough for my wimpy mouth. Ben loved it!

The millet is like spanish rice, except, you know, with millet. I'm sure there is something healthy about millet but I don't really know what it is; I just like it. I served a green salad on the side with blackberries and pumpkin seeds and just lemon juice to dress it since I am lazy and also Weight Watching.

This was a good dinner. Next time I will only put a little bit of the chipotle sauce on my serving, though!