Pad Thai

Looks are deceiving. Although it looks yummy, this Pad Thai was soooooooooooooooo disappointing! The lime was way too overpowering (the lime in the image is solely for looks, we didn't add any more juice). I even used just under the amount the recipe called for. We got the recipe out of our newest cookbook, The Big Book of Vegetarian, by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley. We only took a few bites each and neither of us could stomach it. I've been on a mad Pad Thai taste testing frenzy so I was very excited when the cookbook had a recipe. I have one other recipe for Pad Thai that I've made and it was really good. I definitely won't be making this one again though. Even without the lime overload, the under flavor wasn't as good as the other one either. :-(

Shepherd's Pie with Potato Topping

This "pie" actually has no crust. Just veggies & soy crumbles topped with mashed potatoes. It's the first recipe we've made from our newest cookbook, The Big Book of Vegetarian by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley. It came out really good and the bonus was that I got to use 3 out of 4 of our new pots. It was great! I really enjoyed being able to cook multiple aspects of the meal at the same time. The dinner was good. The canned tomatoes really helped give the soy crumbles a nice hearty flavor. The potatoes came out great, used the new stockpot and added some veggie broth, mustard & seasonings then my lady whipped them all up. The veggies consisted of fresh corn, frozen peas, canned tomatoes, fresh onion, fresh garlic. An easy dish to toss together with whatever items may be on hand. The leftovers kept extremely well, always a plus.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

This was a really good cold dish. All the veggies (bell pepper, cucumber, onions) were raw and the noodles cooled right off while being tossed in the peanut sauce and veggies. A great, hearty meal when it's too hot to think about warm food, etc; plus the only cooking was of the noodles. This is another recipe we used from the April 2006 issue of Vegetarian Times. I love that; actually using the magazines and books we buy. We will definitely be making this again and adding more chile paste since I used the smallest of the recommended amounts this time. My only "gripe" would be that although there were leftovers, the meal is best served room temperature and it is hard to recreate that once the food has been refrigerated. I did bring it to work with me once and let it sit out for an hour before eating it, it was meh, alright. But fresh, it's excellent.
Note the nice new chopsticks we received as a wedding gift.

Herbed Tofu Lasagna with Zucchini

We had this delicious lasagna for dinner this evening. The recipe is from the April 2006 issue of Vegetarian Times. It turned out really good; the only problem we had is that our blender isn't much of a food processor so most of the pine nuts were still whole, which was okay of course. There's a ton of leftovers too. We even used the fancy new lasagna server we received as a wedding gift.

Strawberry Margaritas

We had some strawberry margaritas this evening. I used the mixture we normally use but we added a handful of fresh strawberries along with a fresh kiwi. As you can tell by the picture, it was nice & fruity with kiwi seeds sprinkled throughout. It was very good. Our goal is to eventually make all our cocktails by hand, no more pre-mixed mixers. They normally taste so much cleaner, crisper when we're in charge of the ingredients.

Sesame Tofu

Tonight we had Sesame Tofu from the cookbook Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers by The Moosewood Collective. It was excellent! Prep and cooking time was minimal. It was supposed to be served on a bed of baby spinach leaves, but unfortunately the spinach had gone bad when we went to make it. We opted to make it anyways and it was really yummy. Quite flavorful with just a few ingredients; sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce and a splash of hot sauce. The leftovers kept really well too, which is important in this house. We will definitely be making this again, with the spinach. I don't know if it's because this was the first healthy thing we made since we got back from the honeymoon or what, but we both liked it very much.

Naughty Luinda

Well as you can see, not many home cooked meals have been made this past week+. We had our wedding and then the honeymoon. We did make a couple of ok meals while gone (easy stuff like soy sloppy joes, tofurky sandwiches and egg scrambles) but we ate a lot of crap we hadn't been (snacks, donuts, lots of soda, etc etc). My poor body was very angry with me when we got back. I'm still recovering I think!
You will see new dishes here soon, I promise!

Slow Pho

My lady did the prep for most of the soup (I did the last bit after all the yummy ingredients simmered together). It was quite tasty. The 2nd item we've made in our slow cooker. The recipe is out of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. The soup was really tasty. More noodly than I expected, but very flavorful. It was also the first time that we used seitan in a dish. It was good; sauted/browned it before adding it to the stock. We even got to use our new onion soup bowls we got as an early wedding gift. Topped it with some green onion & bean sprouts. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures of the soup; our schedule was thrown off with our impending handfasting and having an out of town guest staying with us. Would like to make the soup again, it was good.

Spinach Artichoke Risotto

This dish was very disappointing. Nothing we did wrong in preparing it, but the dill was way too strong for either of our likings. Neither of us ate much of it and unfortunately the leftovers went to waste. It was from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers by The Moosewood Collective. With spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, scallions & feta, I thought it would be very good. We may make it again but cut back on the feta and half the dill (or omit it completely). This is the first herb that I've run across that I just don't care for much. Maybe it was just too much at once. I will try & keep an open mind and allow the possibility of using dill in the future though; give it a chance to let us enjoy it.

Frittata Rice Bites

These were taken from a recipe I found online. Now whether it was some sort of vegetarian recipe group or website, I know not.
Prep took awhile although we were able to prepare everything else while the brown rice was cooking.
They consist of rice, eggs, zucchini, red pepper, garlic, onion, mozzarella, milk, plus seasonings.
They weren't bad, although they didn't come out of the pan very neatly. In fact, a good third of them stuck in the pan. Unfortunately, it killed the pan, which was not new by any means, but still, we soaked it, ran it through the dishwasher, soaked it some more.
Anyway...the dinner was good although next time we make something like this, I think we're going to use metalic cups rather than directly in the pan. The bites could have been a cooked some more, they were a little loose I think, but still tasty.

Broccolini Cheddar Melt

Tonight we had Broccolini Cheddar Melt from the book Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers by The Moosewood Collective. It was pretty tasty actually, but....next time I think we'll double the recipe as it was only one melt each (one slice of whole wheat bread with the stuff on top). Also, the bread got a little over done in the broiler. Will have to note that for next time around. The stoneground mustard really gave it a nice undertone beneath the garlic-sauted broccolini and cheddar. And it was the first time I've cooked broccolini. Very tasty and tender! Will have to use it some more I think. I was unable to snap a picture of the dinner as our rechargable batteries were all deader than dead at the time. Oh well, there's always next time, and hopefully the edges of the bread won't be burnt!

Baked Barbecue Tofu & Peppers

This dish was fairly easy to make. It's from the book The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet by Nava Atlas. It was, meh, ok. We've had a similar dish from the same cookbook that we both liked better. I think the other one was sauted and this one was just baked. Felt like it should have been cooked more, I think. Not bad though, and Amy's Honey Maple BBQ Sauce added a nice flavor. Probably won't make this particular dish again as there are so many more recipes to try and ones we know we really like already.

Cheesy Garlic-Stuffed Artichokes

This is our first dish with our new slow cooker. It's from our, yet again different, newest cookbook, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. It didn't take very long to prep and cooked for 4 hours on low. Make sure you snip all the pointy ends of the leaves before shoving the stuffing in between them. The stuffing was super tasty. However, the artichoke was overcooked unfortunately. I'd like to make the stuffing again but this time stuff bell peppers with it and bake them. It consisted mainly of soy crumbles, garlic sauted in olive oil, whole wheat bread, parsely, parmesan & asiago chesses and just a couple dashes each of cayenne, salt & black pepper.

We're aiming for a nice bean-based soup to try in the slow cooker next. It was kind of nice just to have dinner ready and not have had to prepare it right then. However, it was also odd not to be "in charge" so to speak of when the meal was done, having done all the prep work 4 hours earlier. That'll just take some getting used to on my part and working out the timing better.

Tomato Tortilla Soup

We made this yummy soup tonight from the book Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers by The Moosewood Collective. It was different, not what I expected from a tortilla soup. We blended the chips into a portion of the soup and then added it back to the rest of the stock. We topped it with various things: the bowl on the left has cheddar cheese and cilantro while the bowl on the right has advocado, cilantro and just a sprinkling of cheddar cheese. Some ingredient must have reacted with the cheese as it was an odd texture and stuck to everything; such as our teeth, the spoons, the bowl. All in all, a good soup. I even used our new wok to make it; the large soup pot we currently have is severely lacking in quality. Looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow evening.

Red Bean Ratatuille

Tonight was Red Bean Ratatuille from the book 150 Vegan Favorites by Jay Solomon. It was very hearty and flavorful! The leftovers kept really well too. The beans added a nice texture and some protein to the veggies. We topped it with some mozzarella, what a surprise eh? You know Luinda loves her cheese!

Cashew Tofu

We had Cashew Tofu tonight, adapted from the book Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler. The original recipe is Almond Tofu, but we both prefer cashews.
We've made this before, and liked it. Tonight I used peanut oil to brown the marinated tofu to see if it would add a deeper peanut taste (the marinade has peanut butter in it). I think there was a tad more peanut taste. It's a good dish and I'm sure we'll have it again when we have an easy day (prep takes a while as the tofu has to marinate for 2 hours) ~ would like to try it with rice one time too.

Rarebit Risotto

Tonight we had Rarebit Risotto from the book Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers, our newest cookbook. It was pretty yummy! Very different than most of the stuff we've been making and a lot richer too. Had a very unique flavor with the beer and mustard. The tomatoes and broccoli gave it a nice splash of color. I'm amazed that the 1 1/2 cups of risotto soaked up 5 cups of vegetable broth and 12 oz of beer! All in all, pretty tasty.

Sweet and Sour Tofu with Vegetables

Tonight we made Sweet and Sour Tofu with Vegetables from The Compassionate Cook. We've made it before and really like it. The sauce is quite good and very flavorful. The strips of veggies and tofu add a nice visual touch as well. Prep is fairly straightforward. We're going to have the leftovers tomorrow night, I'll probably make some rice to put it on.

Broccoli with Five-Spice Tofu

Tonight we finally made this dish! We've tried twice but have run into ingredient issues. It was good. Very hearty and flavorful. The anise gave it a most unique flavor, as did the ginger. Had a very different flavor than most of the other dishes we've been making recently. We made it without mushrooms as I don't care for them and the broccoli may have been slightly overcooked but other than that, I'm pleased with the results.. The recipe, taken from the Vegetarian Times website, was written in a not-so-fluid manner, but it was manageable. And as with most vegetarian dishes, there was enough for leftovers for me tomorrow!

Stuffed Bell Peppers con Chili

Tonight we made "Stuffed Bell Peppers con Chili" from the book Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler. Prep took a bit longer than I had anticipated, but with both of us preparing, it didn't seem too bad. It is a very flavorful dish! The recipe called for 6 bell peppers, we used 5, so now have 3 leftover + some filling. The filling part alone will make a great meal too. Hopefully the leftovers will keep well and we can have them for dinner tomorrow. That's one thing about vegetarian recipes; they normally yield so much food!