April MiniMoFo: Rainy Day Food

Hi everyone! This month’s MiniMoFo theme is rainy day food, which was perfect for this week! I made this simple vegetable soup, which was warm and comforting…

(It was basically the soup I made for Easter but with rotini instead of farfalle.)

…and this spicy tater tot casserole, which was really good, with a manageable level of spiciness for me… 

(Instead of the usual can of corn, I added ½ cup crushed Blaze Doritos because they were way too spicy to eat plain out of the bag and I’ve been trying to use them up.)

Here’s Cringer after she finished “helping” me do yoga on a rainy day… 

Peace. :)

Marinated Tofu with Rice and Asparagus

Hi everyone! This week I made more marinated tofu, and it was another success, including the leftovers! For the marinade, I combined 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 1 tablespoon canola oil, 3 teaspoons Bragg liquid aminos, and 1 teaspoon sriracha. I baked the marinated tofu pieces for 15 minutes at 350°F, flipped them, and baked for another 10 minutes.

Served with quick-cooking brown rice, steamed asparagus, and some leftover marinade as a sauce.

Here’s Leela on her little pillow... 

Peace. :)

Easter Food

Hi everyone! Zach and I hosted Easter dinner again this year; I think I’m getting better at perfecting the menu, haha! For a snack, we had Treeline cheese (we’d been planning on Miyoko’s but couldn’t find any nearby) with crackers, and I made a vegetable soup, but I forgot to take pictures of them, so moving on to the main event, here’s my plate...

asparagus nut stir-fry, crescent roll with garlic powder and oregano, green beans (from my mom), corn and mac bake (from my sister), Tofurky vegan ham, and boiled potatoes with caramelized onions and dill

Dessert was a cake from my mom and a pie from Zach’s mom...

Bonus food: For dinner yesterday, I made yellow rice and asparagus, with some Gardein crabless cakes. The rice and asparagus were good, but the crabless cakes were just OK. I probably won’t get them again since there’s other Gardein foods that I enjoy more.

Here’s Daisy being a kitty loaf…

And then posing for her close-up...

Peace. :)

March MiniMoFo

Hi everyone! “Go green!” is the theme for the March MiniMoFo, and all the new recipes I’ve tried so far this month have included spinach – Brown Rice With Lentils, Mushrooms, and Spinach Stir Fry (AfroVeganChick); Marinated Tofu with White Rice and Spinach; and Creamy Raw Spinach Sauce (Vegan Vittles). This week I tried making the creamy spinach dip from Vegan Vittles, but it didn’t quite work out (*shakes fist at my food processor*), so I gave up and just threw all the ingredients into a saucepan with a bit of water, heating it up and mashing the beans as I stirred, ultimately mixing it in with some fettuccine. So, both a recipe fail (didn’t work as the dip it was supposed to be) and a recipe redemption (was very tasty mixed with pasta). 

Cringer loves using her sister as a pillow…

Peace. :)

Creamy Raw Spinach Sauce (Vegan Vittles)

Hi everyone! The creamy raw spinach sauce from Vegan Vittles was a very simple recipe to prepare, especially since I soaked the cashews overnight, which made blending a lot quicker. (After blending, I warmed the sauce for a bit on the stovetop since I’m not the biggest fan of raw foods, haha!) I poured ½ cup of the sauce over a serving of fettuccine and stirred them together. It was very tasty, and the leftovers have been great, too!

Bonus food: My sister Alena visited earlier this week and we made two different pasta dishes; both were delicious!

mac & cheese

peanut butter pasta

Leela says hello!

Peace. :)

Marinated Tofu with White Rice and Spinach

Hi everyone! After seeing lots of success with marinated tofu over at My cat loves Daiya!, I decided to give it a try. I used a modified version of the orange sauce from the veganized orange chik’n in Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food – I left out the canola oil and cornstarch (and the mirin, but I always leave that out) – as a marinade for a block of tofu that I’d cut into smaller pieces. Later, I cooked the tofu, still in the marinade, and used some of the leftover marinade as a sauce when I added the tofu to the rice & spinach. It turned out pretty good, and it was definitely an easier way to prepare the tofu, so I’m sure I’ll be making more marinated tofu in the future! Do you have any favorite marinade recipes/ingredients you’d recommend? 

Here’s Daisy, dozing dramatically… 

Peace. :)