Sicilian Bread Pie

Have I mentioned how much I love all of Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipes? Well, I do. For Italian food, Nonna's Italian Kitchen is the best vegan cookbook out there. Okay, I guess I haven't actually tried all the vegan Italian cookbooks out there, but this one has everything!

Sunday night I made Sicilian Bread Pie. It was filled with a broccoli and vegetarian Italian sausage filling. The 'crust' is pizza dough. Here is a picture of the inside before I put the top crust on. It is steamed broccoli and crumbled spicy Italian sausage (a recipe from the book). This sausage is really great. It is tvp and tofu based with lots of great spices like fennel and garlic and crushed red pepper. I usually make a double batch so that I have plenty for all kinds of things. Like pizza or adding to pasta sauce. Back to the pie...I then topped the filling with halved yellow pear tomatoes and a generous sprinkling of Cashew sprinkle (soy parm substitute) from the cookbook. On went the top crust and into the oven. It took a while from start to finish, but it is so tasty and now I have leftover sausage to use. The pie is good hot or cold and goes well with some marinara sauce to dip it in.

Speaking of pizza dough, I think I've finally found the perfect thin crust pizza dough recipe. I was browsing the New York Times food blog, Bitten, and came across this post and recipe. It made a beautiful thin and crackery crust. Just what I've been looking for. Now I just need to find a vegan soy cheese I like. I used Follow your Heart on this one, but not a big fan. I need to order some Teese and try it.

Perfectly Simple

A big pot of beans is so simple and filling. But top it off with some sauteed greens, some Tahini Miso Sauce and a tortilla on the side and it is perfect!

Yesterday I made a 2 lb bag of pinto beans. That's a lot of beans. I sauteed up some spinach with garlic and red pepper flakes and made some more Tahini Miso Sauce from Vegan Gourmet. Yum!

I love buying kitchen stuff from the restraunt supply store. Not too long ago I got these condiment bottles which are perfect for holding sauces and dressings. It also came in handy yesterday for putting the Chocolate Ganache onto the cupcakes.

cupcakes and stuff

First off, I would like to wish my wonderful Brother-in-law a Happy Birthday!!!! I am so happy he and my sister found each other those many years ago. He is a great brother-in-law and a terrific Uncle to my boys. These cupcakes are for him. Now hopefully they will make it to his house before we eat them all.
They are Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting inside and Chocolate Ganache on top. And you gotta have sprinkles for a birthday celebration. All the recipes were from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

I made car shaped 'cupcakes' earlier in the week for no reason at all. Just really wanted to use my car pan. I made Vegan Cream Cheese Icing for these and we just put icing and sprinkles on as we ate them.
I bought some tempeh my last grocery trip planning on making Tempeh Meatballs to go on top of pasta and tomato sauce. However, as I started simmering the tempeh in the soy sauce/water mixture I realized I did not have any tomato sauce. I thought about making some, but I was just not feeling that dedicated to being in the kitchen a long time. So, I searched around on the Internet for something to make with my tempeh and found the Tempeh Wingz from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk. These are something I've always intended on trying, just never go around to it and forgot about it. Plus, my husband does not like tempeh, so I don't buy it very often. Well, he used to not like tempeh. After trying these he said if it tasted like this more often, he would eat it. I had to make a few slight changes to the recipe, but nothing major. As I said, I was already simmering the tempeh in a water/soy sauce mixture so that was different. And I didn't have any Panko, so I crushed up some Matzo crackers instead. And finally, I didn't have any agave nectar for the sauce, so I just used some leftover barbeque sauce I had. It was all very good. Like I said, even my tempeh hating husband liked them.

And finally, a little Work In Progress for you:
These are some Rock Babies that I made for a friend of my son's that just turned 3 years old. They have been in a weekly playgroup together since before they were 2. His mom blogs over at Savvy Source and has all kinds of great ideas for activities to do with your preschooler. There is a tutorial for the rock babies on Resurrection Fern.
I had planned on joining the stitch-a-long this month, but didn't quite get around to it. I got the patterns drawn onto the fabric, but I still need to stitch them and sew them into little softies. I still plan on doing it by Easter as gifts for my boys, so I'm sure they will turn up on my next W.I.P. Wednesday.

What we've been eating

On the menu this past week and weekend was a lot of old favorites. The dish to the left is actually a new one, but it was similar to a typical pasta salad I would make. It was Orzo with Olives, Broccoli, and Basil. It also had mushrooms and tomatoes in it. The recipe was from Vegetarian Planet.

We've been eating on the lasagna below all week. It is Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It makes a lot and is very dense. I actually just ended up freezing half of it for later.













And last but not least, some delicious junk food. Nachos! These had refried beans, Boca ground meat substitute, spinach, tomatoes, salsa, and cheeze sauce. The cheeze sauce is called Awesome Nacho Dip and is from a website called Veganism for the Meat Eater. I don't even remember how long ago I found this recipe. Before I started reading vegan blogs, so a few years ago. For the nachos I made the dip without using the rotel, but I make this a lot with the Rotel and just use it as a dip. I've tried many other cheeze dips and this is the one I always go back to. It is easy to make and I always have the ingredients.

Sunny Sunday Meal

Last Sunday was such a beautiful spring day I just had to cook outdoors again. Well, a lot of this was made indoors, but I did use the grill for some of it.
I made Susan V's Barbeque Seitan Ribz. I love these things and make them often. They start off in the oven and then you finish them on the grill. To go with the Ribz I made baked potato and sweet potato fries (these were in the oven). And on the grill I made some asparagus. Both were simply seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Happy Vegan Face posted a Kung Pao Tofu recipe a while back. Kung Pao is my favorite chinese dish. I think I went overboard with the amount of veggies and rice in proportion to how much sauce I made, but the flavor was great. Just could have used more sauce.
I made some onsies for a friend of mine having a second baby soon. I used the freezer paper stencil technique which always turns out so nicely. My mom drew the pictures (Thanks Mom!). I only took a picture of the robot, but the other one was a duck pull toy. I have a few other friends having babies soon, so I might be making some more. I have lots of crafty projects I need to work on. A birthday present for my brother-in-law, a birthday present for a friend, those new baby gifts and the WIP stitch a long bunny and bear which I was planning to make for boys for Easter gifts. Better get going!

ABCs in 123

What is fast and easy to make, has veggies in it, and is gobbled up by my 3 year old?
Alphabet Soup!

Alphabet Soup

1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen veggie mixture
1/2-3/4 cups alphabet pasta

1. Combine the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, broth and water in a large saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil
3. Add frozen veggies and pasta and rapidly simmer for 8-10 minutes.

See, I told you, as easy as 1...2...3.

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.