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Showing posts with label squash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label squash. Show all posts

Friday, July 27, 2018

Squash Casserole, Tofu Scramble, Bagels, and More

Hi everyone! I tried two new recipes this week and lots of other good food as well. First up was the squash casserole from Vegan Crunk; I made it on the stovetop and mixed in crushed Ritz crackers instead of topping with breadcrumbs and baking it. It turned out really well – I used two big yellow crookneck squashes from my garden – and the leftovers were awesome, too. I had it with a vegan chickenless patty from Aldi, which was really good. 


On Tuesday, my sister Alena visited and we did a lot of cooking together, including the second new recipe, which was the herbivore’s tofu scramble from Eat Like You Give a Damn. It was super simple and quite tasty, paired with a hashbrown (also from Aldi). 


We also made nachos with Tostitos scoops and Daiya pepperjack shreds for a snack (not pictured), and then we dug out my bread machine to make bagels, which turned out quite nicely due to Alena’s bagel-forming skills! 


Dinner was a bagel with pasta.

Yesterday I threw together a random lunch because I’d harvested more corn and wanted to have some; it was great! 

Hashbrown, black bean burger, corn, and carrot sticks with Daiya ranch.

And I also tried these blackberry sorbet bars that Zach picked out; he said he had to get them because of the name…


Yum!

Here are a couple fruit sketches I did this week…


gooseberries (original photo)

ground cherry (original photo)

And here’s Leela with her toy mice in the background…


P.S. The themes & prompts have been announced for this year's Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MoFo), which will be taking place in September, and sign-ups are open until August 24. I haven't decided what specifically I'm going to do (I'm debating the idea of creating my own theme this year), but I know I'll be participating -- will you?

Peace. :)

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Oatmeal

Hello on the 13th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today is the final day of my dollar store vegan week, so this morning, I used three items from the dollar store – oats, soy milk, and raisins – to make my super simple breakfast.


Quick to prepare; just combine 1/2 cup oats with 1 cup soy milk, heat in microwave, and add a handful of raisins and any other toppings you'd enjoy (my additional toppings were cinnamon and chia seeds).





A warm, filling breakfast; can't complain.


Overall, I didn't notice much difference in taste with this soy milk, but comparing it nutritionally to the soy milk I normally get, this one isn't as great. While it does have the same amount of calcium, more vitamin A, less fat, and less sodium, it also has less vitamin D, less protein, less potassium, less iron, less riboflavin, and no B12. So, I think I'll stick with my usual soy milk.

During the day, I had a variety of snacks: A banana, some trail mix, hummus with pita, and chips. And then dinner was a quick quesadilla with tortilla chips and salsa.



Bonus pic of the cute squash from my mom:



Tomorrow begins my health food store vegan theme, so stick around to see what fun foods I discover in the third week of Vegan MoFo!

This morning, Leela enjoyed snuggling into the shallow box I set out for the kitties to try.


"Thank you, human; this will do just fine..."

"...much better than that silly bed you bought me."

And Buttons was very leery of the bird puppet Zach brought home later today...


*sniff sniff* “What's this?”

“Oh **** no!” *backpeddles*

Peace. :)

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing

Hello everyone! Here's a new fall recipe I tried out last week.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing


I found the recipe here (just use a vegan butter & the recipe's vegan). My other changes included leaving out the shallots and celery, only making a third of the recipe (one acorn squash/two halves), and roasting first at 400°F for 15 minutes and then another 15 minutes, filled with the stuffing.

I had to poke the squash a couple times with a knife and then microwave it for a couple minutes to make it easier to cut in half. 

Cute little seeds.
 
Then I scooped out the seeds and the pulp (I later roasted the seeds).


The roasted acorn squash turned out OK, but not as good as I was hoping it would be. When I had the second half the next day as leftovers, it was a bit better, though. I think if I were to make it again, I would cook the rice in vegetable broth, add the celery back in, use less brown sugar, and leave out the cranberries as well (maybe use raisins instead?). (It was a bit too sweet for me.)


I also had a spinach salad and baby carrots with vegan ranch dressing.

 
As promised, here's the first picture I got of Mystery lying in the sun.


Peace. :)

Friday, October 18, 2013

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. :)

Monday, September 30, 2013

Kabocha Squash Soup

Hello on the 30th and final day of the Vegan Month of Food! Today's food post is a quick and easy dinner since I wanted to focus on my round-up!

Kabocha Squash Soup


My mom found this for me (she's always searching for vegan goodies), and it looked like the perfect fall soup. 

(The chunks of squash sunk to the bottom of my soup instead of floating at the top...)

I just warmed it up on the stove-top and had it with some crackers and the leftover fries from yesterday. 


It was really good, though I might add in some rice next time.


This month has gone by so quickly, but it has been a lot of fun! I posted each and every day (30 posts total), and I finally attempted some themes. I enjoyed the randomness of the first two weeks, but having themes for the last two (Nostalgia Week and Parks and Recreation Week) was nice in that it gave me a specific focus and was a creative challenge.

OK, now prepare yourself for lots of lists and links!

My five most-viewed posts this Vegan MoFo:






I discovered & started following so many great blogs:
























And I bookmarked lots of recipes that I want to try:

















I intend to keep up with my blog in between now and the next Vegan MoFo; Zach suggested doing one post a week, and I think that sounds like a good idea. One of my plans is to blog about the above recipes when I try them out. I think it would also be fun to do some posts about Mystery here and there since people seemed to enjoy her photos. Anything else you are interested in seeing in future blog posts? Let me know in the comments. :)

Thanks so much to everyone who read my blog, who commented, and who shared my posts with others! And thanks to my fellow bloggers for inspiring me throughout the month with such amazing recipes! It's great to see all this delicious vegan food, but I think one of my favorite parts of Vegan MoFo is getting to "meet" so many lovely vegans and the non-human animals with whom they share their lives. Seeing pictures and videos of others' companion animals during Vegan MoFo is a really encouraging thing, and it serves as a simple reminder of why we are vegan: For the animals.

If you aren't vegan but would like more information, I'd recommend the Vegan Starter Kit. Check out the resources section in my blog's sidebar for additional links, and of course, I'm here if you have any questions. :)

Here's Mystery saying bye for now; it's time to get some rest after all this excitement!


Peace. :)