Favorite Vegan MoFo Themes

Hello on the 29th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today's wrap-up post is a list of my favorite monthly themes this Vegan MoFo. Quick post of my dinner before we get started... 

Tonight I had my peanut butter brown rice and broccoli, along with carrots and bottom-of-the-bag scraps of lentil chips. Simple and delicious. 

And look who I found making his way along my sink after I'd finished dinner...

Cute little green caterpillar. :)

Wouldn't have been a Vegan MoFo without a picture of an insect (Vegan MoFo 2013, Vegan MoFo 2012)!

OK, on to the wrap-up as promised...

I always admire the bloggers with monthly themes, so I'd like to acknowledge some of my favorites here. Three cheers to all these blogs for having such awesome themes!

Favorite Vegan MoFo Themes:
 
Entertaining Me at Detroit Made
 
Food Friends at Food Feud
 
Bizarre and Outdated Cookbooks at Hasta La Vegan
 
Robin Robertson Rocks at Kittens Gone Lentil
 
Recipe Roundup at Lisa's Project: Vegan
 
Vegan Finds At Target at MissMuffcake
 
September Harvest at Self Sufficient Cafe
 
Tea at Tea and Sympatico
 
Vegan Month of Food... & Gravy! at Tofu Mom
 
Carbs & Recreation at V for Vegan
 
Food from Harry Potter at Vegan Knyquol
 
Vegan Nom Noms Does America at Vegan Nom Noms
 
Vegan Around the World at Vegan Sweet and Simple
 
International Cheese & Chocolate Month at vegan.in.brighton
 
Will My Kids Eat It? at Veganopoulous
 
But where do you get your protein?! (And calcium, and iron, and…) at vegga

Vegan Month of Burgers at Zsu's Vegan Pantry
 
Next, here's my quick Cuteness Addendum to yesterday's post: Check out Chewy over at East Meets West Veg and Marco at Self Sufficient Cafe. What cuties!

And, finally, this one fits under both cuteness and favorite themes: Food That Looks Like My Cat, which took place on Thursdays at Panda With Cookie.

(I'm sure I missed some awesome themes, so let me know in the comments if you had a favorite that you didn't see on my list!)

Buttons wanted to play hide-and-seek today with Leela.

Leela agreed to count slowly to one hundred, but she refused to close her eyes in case Buttons was playing a trick on her. 

P.S. Bonus post coming later tonight!

Peace. :)

Some Food Since Vegan MoFo, Book Recommendation

Hello everyone! For my third post this week, I thought I'd share photos of some of the food I've had since the end of Vegan MoFo, as well as give a book recommendation.

Spinach, Daiya cheese, and Lightlife pepperoni pizza

Peanut butter brown rice with peppers

Daiya frozen cheese pizza that I split with Zach (the instructions on the box called for it to be baked a) at way too high a temperature and b) for way too long a time; we took it out early). It was good, though the crust was really thin.

Brown rice with squash (yellow & green) and onions, also turmeric, cumin, salt, and I forget what else; I had this with shiitake bacon, but took the picture before it was done baking.

Plain "chicken" broth with rotini noodles and crackers (to help me get over a cold)

Baked beans with wild rice and broccoli

Ingredients:

2 cans beans (I used 1 can dark and 1 can light kidney beans)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp mustard

1/2 cup ketchup

Directions:

Mix brown sugar and mustard. Add half of mix on one can of beans in a baking dish. Add second can of beans and remaining mixture. Pour ketchup over and bake at 325°F for two hours (I usually stir it every half-hour). I think I'm going to start making these with less brown sugar because they seemed a bit too sweet to me.

To utilize some of the leftover baked beans, I made a quick burrito (baked beans, Daiya cheddar, sautéed onions, salsa).

In other news, if you are looking for a sweet story about an adorable cat, I'd recommend reading Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper, a book about a blind kitten she adopts.

It's a quick read with lots of short chapters and several photos; kinda wish it had been longer! I really enjoyed the funny and cute stories about Homer's various adventures, quirks, and interactions with others. (Note: I personally could have done without the "None So Blind" chapter where the author discussed meeting her future husband. To me, it just seemed to drag on; the only way it related to Homer was that he inspired her to "take the leap" and start dating this individual.) Now for the sad part, the only reason I heard of this book in the first place was that I saw an article about Homer having died at the age of 16 years old. In the book, however, he is very much alive and his story is one that I'll definitely remember. You can find the book here on Amazon.

Mystery, resting on the floor (she doesn't do this much, usually prefers to rest on the couch or bed)

Yesterday, I noticed Mystery just standing on the floor, in the sunlight coming through the window. She seemed hesitant to lie down but was enjoying the warmth of the sun, so I set a folded-up blanket on the floor beside her in case she wanted a little "bed." She climbed on top of it, climbed off, and then laid down next to it! I didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, but I'll definitely try to if she does it again.

Peace. :)

Peanut Butter Brown Rice

Hello on the ninth day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today is a simple recipe that makes for a quick and easy meal.

Peanut Butter Brown Rice

Ingredients:

--3/4 cup water

--1/2 cup Minute brown rice

--soy sauce

--broccoli (cut into small-medium pieces)

--peanut butter

mmm, broccoli :)

Bring the water to a boil, add the rice, stir, cover, and lower heat (medium-low). Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over; stir occasionally. After about five minutes, add some soy sauce, stir, and re-cover. When the majority of the liquid has been absorbed, drop the broccoli on top of the rice, and re-cover to allow the broccoli to steam for a couple minutes. Put heat all the way to low, add a nice big scoop of peanut butter, stir in evenly, and re-cover, turning off the heat. Once all the liquid is absorbed, stir once more for good measure and serve with baby carrots and lentil chips. (I like the Cracked Pepper Baked Lentil Chips by Mediterranean Snacks.)

Here is a photo of a sleeping Mystery curled up in a comforter.

Peace. :)