Vegan MoFo Day 7: Heroes

Jackson is my hero because he will try and try until he can do anything and everything he wants to do. Like blowing bubbles. The determination contained within this small body is unstoppable.

Olivia is my hero because she thinks she is six feet tall and made of steel. Do not mess with this girl. As you can see, she is also literally a superhero.

Lauren Ulm is my hero today for introducing me to Japanese 7-spice, via her recipe in Vegan Yum Yum for Udon Noodles with Japanese 7-Spice.

She calls it Shichimi Togarashi, and all I could find was Nanami Togarashi. As far as I can tell they are the same thing except the Shichimi contains poppy seed, and Nanami doesn't. So maybe mine is Japanese 6-spice? It's unclear. But the resulting meal was awesome(x7.)

Yeah.

Vegan MoFo Day 4: Cool as a Cucumber

That's my girl. Nothing like chilling out after an arduous HEB shopping trip, with cucumber slices on your eyes.

Dinner was Broccoli Almond Sweet and Sour Tofu from Vegan Yum Yum. Subbed pecans for the almonds and I think it was even better that way. I love the texture of the tofu in this recipe. Like real Chinese restaurant tofu.

For dessert, No Mallow Rice Krispie Treats from Vegan Chocolate. A recipe so good, we made it again within the week. Jackson requested no chocolate (!?) so I subbed Lieber's butterscotch chips. 

Game of Thrones Feast

So, I've fallen behind in posting, and the Game of Thrones season finale has come and gone. But my viewing feast was too good not to post about. I made dishes in honor of each of my favorite characters from the show.

First, Oberyn's Eyeballs (Roasted Grapes with Thyme on Ricotta French Bread). Ha! Kinda gross, I know. But I could not resist.

Next up, Davos the Onion Knight's Missing Fingers (grilled polenta fingers with caramelized red onion chutney.)

Then, the Hound's Chicken. Don't mess with his chicken, for reals. (Gardein chicken tenders with honey mustard/Veganaise dipping sauce.)

Finally, Sansa's Lemon Cakes (Lemon Maple Scones with Vegan Clotted Cream, from Vegan Yum Yum.) That girl loves her lemon cakes. I'd been wanting to make scones, and this recipe was so easy and rewarding! Aren't they cute?

The full spread.

This was my first time making a themed spread in honor of a TV show and I have to say it was pretty fun! Have you ever done a viewing feast? 

CSA - Our First Box!

Much to my delight, we've finally joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) program with Johnson's Backyard Garden. We are getting a box every two weeks to start with. Here is the first week's bounty!

I'll break it down -- sweet potato greens, spinach, basil, okra, eggplants, butternut squash, pattypan squash, summer squash, onions, potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, bell peppers, and cucumber.

We started out by slicing some hot peppers on a frozen pizza.

Then I planned my weekly meals based on the veggies we recieved, and went grocery shopping. This is a new method of meal-planning for me, but I think I can get used to it.

One evening I made a lovely Mediterranean feast, full of farm-fresh vegetables.

I made hummus topped with more of those wonderful hot peppers.

I made a pesto quinoa salad using basil, onions, and cucumber, as well as tomatoes from our own garden.

I roasted the eggplants and made some lovely baba ganoush, sprinkled liberally with smoked paprika.

Finally, I sauteed the sweet potato greens with garlic and a pinch of salt.

It was all so good. I'd never eaten sweet potato greens before in my life. That's one benefit of joining a CSA -- getting to try veggies you've never even seen at the supermarket!

Another benefit is that, when you pick up your box, you know everything is fresh, having just been harvested at the farm -- possibly that very morning. Also, it feels good to have my money going to local farmers. Local food is becoming more important to me, as I learn about the necessity of helping the local economy and reducing environmental pollution by cutting down food transportation costs.

I was feeling under the weather today. Tony has passed his summer cold on to me. For some reason, summer colds make me so much  more miserable than winter illnesses. To aid my recuperation, I made one of my all-time favorite comfort food recipes -- the Chard Florentine from Vegan Yum Yum. Except, I used spinach instead of chard, since that's what came in the CSA box.

Are you a CSA member?

Vegan Heritage Press is hosting a giveaway of several of their awesome cookbooks -- check it out!

Invasion of the Alien Flowers

Some weekends, it feels like we are barely home at all. Which is fine because I am not a homebody. This weekend, however, we purposely kept our plans to a minimum so we could get stuff done around the house.

I made a curtain for the guest bathroom.

I also worked in the yard, and noticed some crazy-looking purple flowers that have bloomed almost overnight. We don't know what they're called, so we've christened them "alien flowers."

We did go out to dinner on Saturday, with a couple we met in our childbirth class when I was pregnant with Jackson. It was really neat to see our two little dudes, born one day apart, now nearly three years old and playing side by side. It's amazing how fast you go from this...

to this!

For Sunday dinner I made the Tamarind Tofu Cabbage Bowl from Vegan Yum Yum.

I wanted to use up the last of my terrible, seedy tamarind paste.  Now I can buy a different brand and enjoy the sweet and sour flavor of tamarind without having to pick out rock-hard seeds. 

Tony and I enjoyed the flavors and textures of this dish, but the kids were not into it. Jackson ate some tofu cubes, but neither he nor Olivia would touch the cabbage. I guess I need to serve cabbage more often and get them used to it.

I had a hard time cooking this meal with Jackson, too. I'll be honest -- as much as I love having the kids in the kitchen with me, it doesn't always work out. There were many steps to the recipe. Making the rice. Pressing, cubing, and sauteeing the tofu. Chopping and sauteeing the cabbage. Making the sauce. Toasting the almonds. Jackson is good at adding things to a bowl or stirring a pot, but he does not have much patience for waiting around while I get everything out and do the prep work. I want to come up with a solution for this that doesn't involve sending him in the other room to watch Cars while I get everything ready. But he is still just a little guy.

For dessert we had rice pudding with pineapple. So good! Rice pudding on its own is not that exciting, but there is something about the addition of pineapple that makes it pretty amazing.

Have a good week!