Back to the routine

So SXSW is over. My husband is back home (he works for SXSW and was gone the whole time working), my mom went back home (she was in town helping me out with the boys), and now we are back to our daily routine. Which means back to cooking!


While my mom was still in town I made us some Vegan Chicken and Dumplings. She used to make the meat version all the time when I was a kid and it was one of my favorites. So I was happy to find a vegan version a while back. I have the recipe typed into my recipe manager on my computer and just have the source written down as the internet. So I'm not sure where exactly I got it. It uses the Morning Star Farms chicken strips and the dumplings have rosemary, basil and oregano in them. It is easy to make and such a comfort food. Sorry I can't find the recipe to link to, but Here and here are some vegan chicken and dumplings recipes that look great. I would say the first one is the most like the recipe I have.

On Saturday I cooked up a really delicious recipe from The Vegan Gourmet. Beets and Greens wtih Bulgur and Miso Tahini Sauce. I have made beets only once before and I really like them. I had never eaten the greens until now though. I love greens. I always feel so good after eating them. The absolute best part of this meal was the Miso Tahini Sauce. So yummy! After the bulgur and beets were gone I ate it with sauteed spinach and then today I had some falafel smothered in it. I will for sure be making this again.

This meal reminded me of Diet, Dessert and Dogs post on meals in a bowl. She has lots of good ideas for grains/greens/veggies and sauce combos. Check them out at her new website and while you are there enter her giveaway for a big jug of maple syrup. I'm completely out of maple syrup, so I hope I win!

I also made Veganomicon's Corn Edamame salad for the first time last week. I was inspired by Two Vegan Boys--she made this a while ago and it just looked so good.

I mentioned in my last post that I went to a SXSW panel on foodblogging. So I wanted to write a little bit about that. There were 5 panelists from all ranges of food blogs. Here is a write-up from Gourmet about the event. What I learned from the panel was there are a lot of different kinds of food bloggers out there. Some that post a few times a week, some that post a few times a day. No one way is better then the other as long as you are consistent with what you do. Kalyn of Kayln's Kitchen stressed how important good pictures are. I'm going to have to work on both of those--consistency and good pictures. Most of the panelists actually made money from their blogs with advertising and such. So that was interesting to hear about. I don't think it is a goal of mine right now, but nice to see people doing what love and making money from it.

I have some good meals planned for this week. I'm so excited to be back to our normal routine.