Scrambled tofu

This is a great dish to use up leftover potatoes.

Ingredients
1 pkg of tofu or nuts/seeds/lentils/chickpeas
2 tbsp of olive oil/coconut oil
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of any spices you like (basil/parsley/oregano/sage)
veggies of your choice (mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, broccoli, carrots) Just cut them up in small pieces

1. Fry up the tofu with the oil, garlic, salt, and spices for 2-4 min
2. Add in the veggies Cook for another 5 min
3. Add the potatoes and cook again for another couple minutes until warm

Add vegan cheese if you like.

Enjoy!

Balancing food and family

This is one wall in my kitchen. It is symbolic to me because it has a mix of everything. There are three different shelves with food on them, cook book shelves, food culture books, arts and craft stuff everywhere, and in some of the white baskets I have various gluten free flours. The organization of staple foods for us keep me sane. Is my jar of nutritional food yeast is 1/2 full or 1/2 empty?

This represents my life.

Kids and cooking. How to blend them all? Mix them all around. Dinner time will always be busy, and meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking will always be mixed around our schedule and children's activities.

I like my wall. I think it looks very pretty. I have my Grandmother's tea cups displayed on some of the shelves. The kids like to drink out of them when they are sick. I have candles that we sometimes put on the table, and the kids take turns blowing them out. (They came in handy a couple nights ago when we lost our power.)

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

What is your favorite space in the house?

Vegan Food blogs

So I love reading vegan food blogs. I try recipes out from time to time. This one was nasty!!! It looked good in the picture and then when I tried it out it made me want to gag.

I made this for my son who kind of ate it. He is into kiddy shaped rice noodles recently and I tried to make the "mac and cheese" that was on the site. My response...YUCK!

I would love blogs to have a tasting option.

I guess you win some and lose some. Everyone's tastes are so different, that is part of what I love about eating. We all take away something different.

I wont give you the recipe to this one, I just can't.

I should add some sort of tasting description to my blogs. Maybe like a food critic, or a judge from a cooking show. This could be fun. :)

Enjoy! Eating something else...

Vegan root vegetable ideas (gluten free and soy free)

This is acorn squash.

I baked it in the oven on 350F for an hour and scooped out the insides. I was doing this during a lazy Sunday morning. Then oven is doing the work not me. :)

Then when I was ready to do something with it, I purred it in my magic bullet with some maple syrup and almond milk.

I stuck some parsley in there just to class is up. :)

I would serve this with other roasted veggies as a dipping sauce, or with pickled beets. You could also dip warm bread in this, make this into a soup.

It's nice to have different textures when you eat.

This really took no time at all, and it was just a matter of doing different parts of the cooking when I had time.

The leaves are changing in my area and I have this beautiful tree that turns bright red just outside our bedroom windows. This morning I noticed we have one whole branch that is red. I love the fall!

Enjoy!

Vegan pizza party!!

My daughter had a birthday party with vegan dinner and cupcakes. Not only does she have one friend who is vegan, but another friend cannot eat eggs, and another friend cannot eat dairy. So, vegan food includes everyone.

Below is my daughter's request for wheat pizza as well with Daiya cheese on it. She had 5 friends over and all of the 5 friends liked the cheese. So, it was a success. 

My son who cannot eat wheat, dairy, and soy had his own gluten free pizza with Daiya cheese. I didn't have the energy to be making two different doughs both from scratch so I bought him Udi's already made pizza crust, and he likes it so he was happy.

Here is the dough. This was killer dough. It was amazing and the big tip out of this was I put in a bit more yeast than what it asked for, and I gave it LOTS of time to rise. It's been a long time since I have made wheat pizza dough. I am so used to gluten free pizza dough. But this was fun!

3 1/2 cups of flour
2 tbsp of active dry yeast
2 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of oil
1 1/2 cup of hot water

1.  Put the active dry yeast in 1 1/2 cups of warm to hot water and let it sit for at least 10 min
2.  Mix the water with the flour and and oil
3. Add in the salt
4. Stir and then need with your hands. Take your rings off and get right in there. It's fun.
5. Let it sit for 2 hours until it doubles in size. (This is key for chewy bread)
*** You can make the dough in advance and then freeze it or keep it in your fridge
5. When you put it on a pan you don't need to roll it with a pin, just push it out with your fingers and the dough will spread. 


This is what it looks like while I am needing it. You may need to add some flour or water as you go to perfect the texture. 

The dough at the end will look like this

I sprinkled garlic powder and Italian spices on it before I put the pizza sauce on.

Put your sauce on and then any cheese or toppings you like.

The pizza then needs to be in the oven on 500 degrees F and will take about 30 min.

Enjoy!

Kid friendly vegan snack (gluten and soy free)

These are balls of peanut butter, gluten free rice crisps, and shredded coconut. (I put sprinkles on them to insure they would be eaten) The kids think these are dessert. :)

I mixed them all up and shapped them into balls with two spoons.

Then freeze....about 10 min. I actually keep them in the freezer and pull them out right when they want to eat them. They are cold but still easy to eat.

They loved them!

Very simple, no bake snack.

These are vegan, gluten free, soy free but certainly not nut free. Feel free to experiment with different nut or seed butters.

Enjoy!

Travel packs for gluten-free soy sauce.

TOO COOL!

I grabbed these up when I saw them on the shelf at Choices. These will make life a little easier. :)

Seaweed, a healthy snack. Vegan, gluten free and soy free.

A great snack!

These I eat either as a snack or I use them to put balls of sushi rice in them and make easy single serving sushi balls. I use up leftover veggies that way too.

You can get them in all different flavors. These ones that have squares large enough to stuff them with rice and veggies I get from Cosco. They come in a big box.  

This info is from http://www.envirohealthtech.com/sea_vegetation.htm

 

Sea vegetables provide all 56 minerals and trace elements required for your body's physiological functions in quantities greatly exceeding those of land plants. 

● Calcium (for skeletal health, heart health, nervous system function)
● Magnesium (activates enzymatic activity, essential for heart health)
● Potassium (naturally prevents high blood pressure, provides cellular energy)
● Sodium (essential for the correct balance of body fluids - our internal "ocean")
● Iron (as hemoglobin, transports and distributes oxygen to all your cells)
● Iodine (thyroid health)
● Chromium (works with insulin to regulate blood sugar)
● Copper (protects nerve sheaths, builds supple arteries, required for iron absorption)
●  Absorbs and naturally reduces or eliminates radioactive elements and heavy metal contaminants from our bodies.

Enjoy!

Cheesy rice and bean dish. (Vegan, gluten free, and soy free)

Yesterday was my son's first day of kindergarten. I took so many pictures that I ran out of batteries when it came to taking a picture of my dinner.



So here is the one picture I was able to snap before I camera of rechargeable batteries shut down.

Before we get down to the meal, for the Mom's of the group, I cried when I dropped him off. I stood there alone and realized I walking home by myself. My little sports boy was off to school. Who would obsessively beg me to take them to driving range? Or want to play tennis with me for 2 hours? Or tell me my pitch needed some improvement?  Anyways, I am ready to move onto the next stage of life. 2 kids in school. eeek.

This means two things. One, the summer is over and I am back to blogging regularly. Two, next time I will have batteries in my camera. At least until gymnastics and soccer starts. :)

The kid version of the meal I'll have to describe.

So this dinner is brown rice, canned mixed beans, salsa, salt, pepper, Daiya cheese and broccoli.

After this picture I put the food in the pan, which is cast iron, and put it in the oven on broil. The cheese bubbles, and will get crispy on the outside. Yum. 

What inspired a cheesy rice dish was the person who I happened to meet on my street. I am outside playing with my kids before dinner and a man with his children walk by with their dog. He works for Daiya foods. I couldn't believe it! Cool! So, of course I had to make something cheesy.

The kids version didn't have the spicy salsa, it had Earth balance margarine, baby corn (which they LOVE), and broccoli with melted cheese. My son had 3 servings of it, and my daughter had 2. Not bad! My son cannot digest beans along with lots of other things, so the kids had leftover organic chicken.

As you can imagine there was lots of chatter around the table talking about school. I have leftovers now for my lunch, and leftovers for my kids lunch in their thermos. 

Now for the next dinner. Tomorrow's Friday so that means....PIZZA!!!! (Gluten free and vegan of course!)

Enjoy everyone!

Vegan Indian food. What are you in the mood for?

So I really didn't have a plan with this meal. I roasted a bunch of veggies that I pre-mixed with spices and oil and roasted in the oven.

Once they were done roasting I let them sit in a pan to keep warm and I threw in some fresh tomatoes and cilantro with some lemon juice.

Yum.

Sometimes not have a plan works out!

For those who are knew to Indian meals, I suggest you start off with 1/2 tsp of different spices when experimenting or following recipes exactly.

Common ingredients in meals that will make it a success are:

Garlic
Ginger
Curry powder
Turmeric powder
Cumin or mustard seeds
Lemon grass or lemon juice

Those combinations are a great base. Add some onions and stir in what you like.

Enjoy!