More Good Food Plus a Pumpkin!

Hi everyone! Zach and I got takeout from SuTao Cafe last Saturday for dinner; I got vegetable lo mein and fried tofu again! 

On Sunday, I tried Upton’s Naturals pad see ew for my lunch; it was pretty good! 

And I made another zucchini cake, this one with 2 tablespoons flax meal, which is now my new favorite!

And then my two big batch meals that got me through the week with all the leftovers: Vegetable noodle soup with gluten-free shells and soy curls…  

And another yellow squash casserole (this time using Chao’s tomato cayenne slices), with more BBQ tempeh… 

This little pumpkin grew all on its own in my garden! 

And here’s the rest of the harvest from that day… 

Plus a backyard bun… 

The French Creek after all the rain we had on Tuesday… 

And last but not least, Rogue making biscuits on my belly! 

Peace. :)

More Good Food and Kitties!

Hi everyone! For breakfast last Saturday I made myself the pumpkin oatmeal from Food for Dissertating, and it was so good! 

And then for lunch we went to the Great American Pub (Phoenixville), where I got the garden vegetable quesadilla from the vegan section of the menu, and that was delicious as well! 

I found some goodies on sale at Giant this week – I grabbed the Kite Hill strawberry (good) and blueberry (OK) yogurts. My favorite yogurt brand is still So Delicious, but it was fun to try something new! I haven’t gotten to try the Morningstar Farms cheezeburgers yet, but I’m looking forward to it!

And here’s my favorite version of green bean casserole so far (makes four servings), which I made this week: Cook 1 cup rice in 4 cups mushroom soup, stir in 1 cup TVP near the end and remove from heat, letting sit for about 10 min. Then add in 1 cup of a mix of green beans and yellow wax beans (I prepared mine from the garden the day before by cutting them up, boiling them for about 30 min, and then running them under cold water). Top each serving with ¼ cup of crispy onions. 

And now for the kitties! Here’s a sketch I did this week of a sleepy kitty…

I caught Leela sticking her tongue out for a second and managed to get a picture; she says that’s what she thinks of her medicine, hehe! But it does seem to be helping – her mouth still bothers her now and then, but she is eating much better!

And Cringer says, “If I fits, I sits...” 

Peace. :)

Baked Pumpkin Walnut Rotini (AfroVeganChick)

Hi everyone! This week I tried the baked pumpkin walnut rotini from AfroVeganChick; it turned out great, and the leftovers were wonderful, too! I used spinach instead of broccoli and added an extra ¼ cup each of pumpkin puree and soy milk (which I used instead of almond milk) in order to get the sauce ingredients to blend together in my stubborn blender, haha! 

Here’s Daisy in the sunshine with Leela… 

Peace. :)

Pumpkin Spice Cake (Walks, Talks, & Eats)

Hi everyone! Yesterday I made the pumpkin spice cake from Walks, Talks, & Eats; it turned out great! 

Small harvest this week; my garden is pretty much done for the year… 

Here are a couple kitty-themed Inktober sketches… 

Leela’s doing much better this week; she’s transitioning onto her prescription food, and she seems to be enjoying it, hooray! Today she decided to take a nap in the cat bed and snuggled in with her favorite toy mouse! 

The other kitties don’t want to be left out, though, so here they are… 

Daisy was joined by Cringer on the loveseat for some snuggling.

Rogue did some posing during a exploration of the house while the other kitties were closed away.

Peace. :) 

Bookmarked Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin & Barley Soup (Walks, Talks, & Eats)

Hi everyone! Today I made the spiced pumpkin & barley soup from Walks, Talks, & Eats (Vegan MoFo 2017); it came together really easily and was such a nice comforting meal! 

Leela says hello… 

Peace. :)

Bookmarked Recipe: Pumpkin Rainbow Mac (rainbow soup)

Hi everyone! Today I made the pumpkin rainbow mac from rainbow soup (Vegan MoFo 2012); it turned out great and was such a fun recipe! And even though it’s not clear from the picture, I did use tri-color pasta, haha! 

Daisy got squished into the corner of the couch by Cringer… 

Peace. :)

November MiniMoFo

Hi everyone! After cooking something new pretty much every day of Vegan MoFo, trying only three new recipes in the past week counts as “lazy” to me.

Last Friday night, I made pumpkin cookies for an early holiday party with Zach’s family. They turned out really well; here’s some of the leftovers since I forgot to take a pic right after I made them. I couldn’t find the recipe online to link to here; my copy of the recipe looks like it was scanned from a cookbook. The ingredients were brown sugar, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and raisins. 

On Wednesday, I made the sweet potato cheese sauce from My cat loves Daiya! It turned out really well; my only change was using soy milk instead of canned light coconut milk. 

And then last night, I made pumpkin applesauce (inspired by Tracy’s Living Cookbook). I peeled & chopped five Granny Smith apples, boiling them in a little more than 3/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. I turned it down to simmer, added ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and stirred it every now and then. I added ½ cup canned pumpkin and ½ tsp vanilla near the end. It turned out pretty well.
 

So those are my “lazy” (and quite orange) new foods I’ve tried since MoFo ended. I’ve also been keeping busy with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), motivating myself, of course, with Victory Smarties.

Here are the kitties this morning…

Leela

Daisy

Cringer

Peace. :)

Pumpkin Mashed Potatoes (Steamy Kitchen)

Hi everyone, and Happy Halloween! "Halloween" is of course the prompt for today, the last day of Vegan MoFo, so I made pumpkin mashed potatoes, veganizing this recipe (use vegan butter; canola oil & soymilk in place of the heavy cream; and vegan Worcestershire sauce). 

I had been a bit skeptical about this dish at first, but it was actually pretty good!

Here's my Inktober sketch; it looks super scary lol…

And here's the kitty crew saying they hope you don't get too frightened on this spooky night…

And a throwback photo of Buttons from around Halloween 2014…

Peace. :)

MiniMoFo #3: Welcoming Fall

Hello everyone! For the third MiniMoFo challenge, I made Coconut Pumpkin Bread, another recipe from House Vegan: Fall FoMo No More. It turned out really well; coconut and pumpkin are such a perfect combination! This is sure to become a traditional fall recipe for me!

I realized the other day that I haven't shared any of my sketches here recently, so here's the fall-themed art I did on Tuesday night when I went out with Zach and some of his soccer friends. The "tablecloths" were brown paper and they provided colored pencils in a jar on the table, so I decided to art the night away...

gourd

sunflower

pumpkin

corn

And now for some major cuteness...

As fall settles in and the nights grow colder, cuddles are certainly called for, so Cringer has been diligently working on softening Buttons up to the idea. One night she was bold and pressed her nose into Buttons' side, but that didn't last long (I tried to get a picture but Buttons moved before I could). So, on Wednesday night, Cringer settled for just resting her head on the corner of the purple blanket...

...but by Thursday night, something clicked, and they finally they settled in, side by side!

Daisy, on the other paw, works on getting close to Leela during the day. This endeavor is going to be more of a challenge because Leela really only likes to cuddle humans, not fellow kitties. But Daisy can be patient...

P.S. Less than one week left to sign up for Vegan MoFo! I signed up last night; have you?

Peace. :)