Isa Pizza, Pizza Sauce and Cashew Cheesy Cream

I got a bit adventurous tonight.  Amy wanted pizza, and I didn't want to order out, so, I got out Vegan With A Vengeance and made the pizza crust and the pizza sauce for Isa Pizza.  The recipes make enough for two pizzas, so I decided to try something.  One pizza I did up with veggies (onion, spinach, and tempeh cubes on both) and Daiya (both cheddar and mozzarella styles.  The other pizza I made the same way, EXCEPT that instead of Daiya, I used the Cheesy Cashew Cream from the Nirvana Enchilada Casserole recipe in Isa Does It.  Both pizzas were good, but I thought the second one was AMAZING.  That cashew cream is just fantastic. AND I have four slices leftover for a lunch some time this week!  It was Amy's idea to put spinach on the pizzas - we sautéed all the veggies in olive oil before putting them on the pizzas to bake.  Needless to say, these pizzas were better than ANYTHING we could have ordered elsewhere. 

Did I mention I am beginning to love cooking at home?

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Tarragon Sauce

Another recipe from Isa Does It.  I'm not tired of that book yet.  I did make so many substitutions that I'm not sure the author would recognize her recipe.  (Blasphemy, I know, but hopefully the vegan food gods will forgive me.  It's still vegan, after all)  I used twice the amount of cashews called for in the sauce.  I used canned yams instead of baked fresh sweet potatoes.  I used sparkling grape juice instead of the white wine (I really need to find some non-alcoholic wine)  Anyhow, it still tasted pretty good.  And I learned that I MUCH prefer fresh tarragon to dried.  The licorice aroma/taste is nowhere near as harsh.

In fact, I've discovered I really like fresh herbs.  They really make food taste fresher.  And they are easier to measure and much more difficult to mess up.  I will have to try my hand at growing an herb garden in the kitchen.  If I can keep the cats out of it.

Mom and Amy do it!

We are having a fabulous ISA CHANDRA MONTH OF FOOD!!!

Saturday, I made the Roasted Red Pepper Mac and Cheese.  Tonight, we made Creamy Potato and Leek Soup AND Roasted Vegetable Romesco Sandwiches.  Man, this stuff tastes so good that it HAS to be fattening just thinking about it.  (Actually not so much, though cashews and almonds make appearances, and I used almond milk in the soup instead of water)  Amy loved the sandwiches, and amazingly enough, there is enough sauce that all we need are veggies and rolls to have this again tomorrow night.  I even have enough soup to take to work, if need be.  For breakfast, I made Chickpea Scramble and roasted potatoes which were delicious.

Lasasgne And Meaty Beany Chili

Amy did something wonderful:  she cleaned the kitchen Saturday.  I hate cooking in a filthy kitchen, and sometimes, especially if we make something pan- and bowl-intensive during the week, stuff gets piled up in the sink and on the counters, until you cannot navigate the place at all.  But Amy rose to the occasion - she cleans the kitchen and cleans and refills the cat boxes in exchange for gas money, so it works out great.  I had quite a bit of cooking I wanted to do, so it felt good to pull out my chopping knife and cutting board in a clean kitchen.  I also have The New Farm Cookbook, which I had made the melty cheeze recipe from a few nights ago and had some left over.  I was feeling lasagne, so...

I took the vegan lasagne recipe from The New Farm Cookbook, and messed with it a little bit.  In addition to the melty cheeze, I added some mozzarella flavored Daiya, which really enhanced the mouth-feel of the lasagne.  I made this last night, but since no one has been home for dinner besides me, and Amy doesn't like lasagne anyway, I have dined on it two nights in a row.  And I plan on taking some of it to lunch this week.  I'm still not so sure about the melty cheeze recipe from that cookbook - I think the nooch flavor is too heavy, and for some reason, it doesn't taste cheesy to me, even though Amy says it tastes cheesy to her.

For the church pot luck this afternoon, I made Meaty Beany Chili and Corn Muffins.  People ate up the corn muffins.  The chili was pretty good, I think I will make it again, and not use quite so much chili powder, and use green peppers instead of the golden pepper I used.  Maybe even add an extra jalapeño or two, though I really don't like my chili all that hot.  This tasted a bit too tomatoe-ey for my taste.  Maybe I should have added two TBSP maple syrup instead of just one.  I am not sure.  I did use diced tomatoes instead of tomato purée.The lentils make it "meaty" just like ICM says they will.  So, a definite keeper.  I do know one thing - the house sure smelled wonderful when we woke up this morning. (I cooked it overnight because the pot luck luncheon was directly after church at 1115.)  The corn muffins turned out practically perfect.  I just wish I had a larger lidded box to carry them in.  I will definitely make those again as well.

Crusty Corn Bean Pie and Noochy Cheeze from "The Farm"

I decided to veganize the Crusty Corn Bean Pie recipe from Diet for a Small Planet, and top it with the cheese sauce recipe from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook.  I guess I'm just an old hippie at heart.(I remember the hippies, but was a little younger than most of them)

Anyhow, Amy says the cheez sauce smells like cheese, so that should work.   This is the first time I've made the sauce, and it is my first recipe out of the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook.  Incidentally, this cookbook is pretty much vegan, and was one of the first vegan cookbooks to reach a wider audience.  There are recipes to make tofu, soy milk, tempeh... it's pretty amazing.  I would have to quit work and go live on a commune to be able to do all that, but I can at least try some of the recipes.  There is a minnestrone soup recipe I really want to try.

A swing and a miss

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese looked delicious.  I wonder, what went wrong?  Well, when they say use a Vitamix, I think they mean exactly that.  My four cup food processor just doesn't cut it.  The sauce was grainy because the cashews were not completely "blended".  I even found a whole cashew in it.  And I soaked them for two days!  I don't know if I will try this recipe again or not.  Probably not.  Too many other things out there that do not require the use of a Vitamix.

Update: This tasted better as leftovers.  It still needs a bit more spice, maybe some cayenne, and some dry mustard.  Maybe I WILL make this again, after all.  I was also thinking perhaps I would use acorn squash instead of butternut.  Or turban squash - it's really sweet, and would have more flavor.  I think perhaps, too, I overcooked the squash.  That would account for a lack of flavor.

Belated Birthday post

I almost forgot to post something about my birthday.  It was a wonderful day.  Amy gave me a little book, a copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which is a favorite of mine.  Marcus gave me a Le Creuset baking dish - very very nice.  I will definitely use this!
Amy made a feast of Spaghetti For Peanuts (veganized, from Diet For A Small Planet) and roasted Brussels sprouts.  She also made a veganized Red Velvet cake.  YUM!  We had some really good eating today.

Later, Marcus took me out to dinner and we went to Tito's Diner.  I had their hummus and a veggie burger and sweet potato fries.  YUM.

All in all, it was a very fun birthday!

Shepherd's pie

Amy did a beautiful job layering the mashed potatoes on top of the filling.  And it tasted even better than it looks.

T TBSP flour + 1 TBSP Earth Balance + 2 cups soy milk made the sauce with onions and a bag of frozen vegetables.  Baked for a half hour.

I originally thought I'd make soup for this first day of the MoFo but Brian wanted shepherd's pie, and he gladly boiled up the potatoes to get us started even before I got home from  work.

Amy said, "I think it's very tasty, especially if you add some chili powder and some cheese."  (The cheese she added was Daiya chedder style)  Brian had only one word: "Good."

I guess my behavior speaks for itself - I had three servings of it!

Homemade vegan lasagne!

Brian decided last night that he wanted lasagne!  SO... he sautéed a bag of stir-fry veggies, and added pasta sauce to them.  I came home and made tofu ricotta (so easy, just took a fork and stirred up the tofu with basil, oregano, salt and pepper).  Brian layered the tofu ricotta and the sauce with the noodles and topped with Mozzarella and Cheddar Daiya.  We baked it for about a half hour or a little more.  It was delicious!  Nice job, Brian!  We will definitely have this again!

Spinach-bean quesadillas and a short update

http://vegweb.com/recipes/spinach-and-bean-quesadillas

These turned out really well.  It was nice and simple and didn't take too long.  I used fresh spinach instead of frozen, so it was a bit on the bitter side.  I also used the pepperjack variety of Daiya, and omitted the salsa.  Still a good dinner.  I will definitely make this again.

Slow going on practicing clarinet and doing water aerobics.  I have not felt well recently, and am just plain tired.  When I went to the doctor, they did a urinalysis and lo and behold I have a bladder infection.  I am now on a course of Bactrim, so hopefully that will clear up in a few days.  Hopefully I will feel more like exercising on Monday.

Teens cooking vegan

My son Brian and daughter Amy made a delicious shepherd's pie last night.  A nice touch was the topping of Daiya, which was Brian's idea.  Mmmm.  I would like more of it tonight, but I doubt we have time.  I could eat shepherd's pie just about every night of the week if I had to.  It is so easy to make, I only had to give them minimal instructions (I was ill last night when I arrived home, and still had to take my other teen, Chris, to the pharmacy to pick up some meds).  We have grown used to cooking vegan - to tell you the truth, they don't like overdoing the meat these days, though Brian & Amy still eat it.  Chris has been vegetarian now for, oh, I believe 7 or 8 years.  He still hasn't taken the vegan plunge.  He's very resistant to that.  Oh well, give him time.  I know it took a lot of years for me to take the plunge.

Spaghetti For Peanuts - VEGANIZED!

I did it!  And it worked!  I took Diet For A Small Planet's Spaghetti For Peanuts and made it vegan.  It worked beautifully and tasted pretty good.

You can find the original recipe on page 254 of the 20th anniversary edition.  For copyright reasons, I don't want to reproduce my veganized version here.  My substitutions were as follows:  for the margarine I used Earth Balance (note to self: use a different kind of EB.  The whipped stuff was kind of greasy); for the low-fat milk I used soy milk (2 cups; worked beautifully and the sauce wasn't quite so heavy); and for the cheese, Daiya.

Now, I don't know about anyone else, but when I have cooked with Daiya before, it didn't melt all that good.  I decided to up the temperature of the oven from 350ºF to 360ºF.  And instead of baking for 25 minutes, I baked the dish for 40 minutes.  This seemed to do the trick; the Daiya Cheddar Style melted pretty good.  However, you want to eat this before it gets cold enough for the Daiya to get gooey, because when it cools off, it gets a rubbery consistency.  Hopefully the food chemists out there will eventually make a vegan cheese that is a lot more like real cheese.

Results:  Well, it tasted good.  The peanuts were a bit old; I will use fresh roasted ones next time.  Something else I need to do is process the peanuts longer so they are more of a mealy consistency.  I don't like them to be peanut halves.  And I won't use quite so many of them.  (FYI, I did not stick with the proportions in the printed recipe; I added a lot more of everything because we were hungry.)  Another thing I'd like to try is cashew cheese instead of the Daiya.  Or maybe Follow Your Heart vegan cheese.

In a nutshell:  I'll do this again.