Skillet Lasagna

Hello on the 17th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Tonight continues my health food store vegan week with a pasta mix that Zach thought would be interesting; I made it for our dinner tonight.

It's one of those simple toss-it-in-the-skillet kind of things: Combine pasta & seasoning, water, and crushed tomatoes (I used pasta sauce instead) in the pan, bring to boil, cover & lower heat to medium, & cook 20 minutes.

So I did just that, and then some... but even after 10 extra minutes, the pasta was still a bit stiff... Well, we were hungry, so we just figured, heck with it, and I added in 6 oz. of Daiya shredded mozzarella, stirred that in, left it to melt for another five minutes, and then we sat down to eat.

Another not-so-photogenic meal... whoops...

I don't know, I didn't think it was that great, but Zach was a good sport about it and said it was “okay.” We determined that it was the spiciness of the seasoning mix that made it less than ideal, plus the fact that some of the pasta was still a bit, ah, “crunchy.” So, my takeaway from this is that I'm just going to stick with making my own instead of using seasoned mixes. In the past we've enjoyed simple pasta dishes with Daiya-cheesy spaghetti sauce. No need for all the silly additional seasonings. Ah well... now to figure out what to do with the leftovers, haha!

Oooo, steamy...

Lunch today was half of the other ramen I bought (millet & brown rice ramen). I added some carrot slices and had my leftover tempeh from yesterday on the side. Didn't like this ramen as much as the first, though. The forbidden rice ramen is still the one to beat!

And for a snack, a gala apple from the health food store with some more dollar store trail mix, yum! 

Buttons and Leela continue to be cuties.

Buttons likes sprawling out at the top of the attic steps.

And Leela enjoys curling up in the corner next to my nightstand.

Peace. :)

Strawberry Butter Pancake

Hello on the second day of Vegan MoFo! It's a short post today, but seeing as how it's also Labor Day, I think it's all good.

Today I tried out a vegan pancake made by my parents. (They found a recipe that they used to make pancakes for my sister, who is also vegan, and they saved one for me to have.) I haven't gotten the recipe from my mom yet, but it'll probably be one that I'll end up using myself as the pancake was quite delicious, nice and fluffy. 

For some added flavor and sweetness, I spread some strawberry butter (ingredients: strawberries, white grape and lemon juice concentrate) on top. 

And then I cut it up and dug right in (with an organic gala apple on the side).

 

For the end of today's post, here is one of my favorite photographs of Mystery.

Mystery, in her "fearless warrior" pose

Peace. :)