Leek, Scallion and Fennel Gratin

This lovely, light dish came from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison. We had amassed a collection of fennel from our produce deliveries and were on the hunt for a recipe to utilize both the bulbs and the greens. It was so tasty and light, it left us very satisfied but not full. The leeks, scallions and fennel all together were very flavorful and adding some of the fennel greens really added to the depth of flavor. I'm sure we'll be revisiting this dish.

Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

My lady made this delicious, decadent bread out of the March 2007 issue of Vegetarian Times. We had been wanting to make some banana bread and when this recipe showed its head, we knew she had to make it. Plus she is the baker of the family and we hadn't baked anything in a while. She used natural peanut butter and high quality chocolate chips and it turned out awesome! One slice was very satisfying so we didn't overdo it at one sitting.

Black Bean and Carrot Enchiladas

These delicious enchiladas came from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson. We had made some tofu enchiladas from the same book not that long ago. The filling consisted of carrots, black beans, spinach, & onion. The sauce also came from the same book and is very flavorful. The carrots added some sweetness and we just gobbled them right up and enjoyed them as leftovers the following day.

Medley of Greens with Potatoes and Leeks

The recipe for this yummy dish came from the produce farm. It wasn't so much a medley of greens as I only used chard. It was quite tasty! Baking the potatoes, greens & leeks in some veggie stock really lent a nice flavor to the whole dish. I'm sure I'll be making this again. I used Yukon Gold potatoes as they are mighty good.

Stir-Fried Tofu with Asparagus

This tasty, and spicy, recipe comes from The Big Book of Vegetarian by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley. It consisted of garlic, asparagus, chili peppers, tofu, soy sauce, a teaspoon of sugar and fresh basil. The basil and chilis complimented each other very nicely and the sugar toned the heat down a bit. I ended up getting chili in my nose and eye as I wasn't careful about washing my hands after dicing them, or as the book suggested, wear gloves. Next time, I will be wearing gloves I'll tell you that! The kitchen got quite smoky and spicy as well as it was cooking but at least it tasted good after all of that, although I think it was a bit too hot for my lady.

Bubbles and Squeak

Another recipe I got from our produce delivery farm. We received brussel sprouts in our delivery so I thought I should find a recipe for them and found this interesting named one. The story with the recipes says it's British. It was quite simple. Steamed the brussel sprouts and then sauted them with some Yukon Gold potatoes. Pretty tasty although I think I could have steamed the sprouts just a bit longer.

Egg Thread Soup with Asparagus

I got this recipe online at recipezaar.com. I was on the hunt for aspragus recipes and this one popped up. It was really good and fairly easy to make with just broth, a small amount of pastina, eggs, asparagus and lemon juice. It kept really well for leftovers so I think we'll be making this again.

Roasted Root Vegetables

Another yummy dish from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson. The vegetables I used were: potatoes, baby gold beets, carrots and parsnips. Added some thyme and another herb I can't remember right now and they were quite tasty, nice & sweet.

Roasted Garlic, Potato, Leek and Fennel Soup

This soup was very tasty. I got the recipe from the farm we get our produce deliveries from. The roasted garlic and fennel gave it a very unique flavor while the potato gave it some creaminess when processed in the food processor.

Chard & Brown Rice Casserole

I made this dish from Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson again today and it was just as tasty as I remember. Great leftovers too.

Roasted Asparagus

This asparagus was quite tasty. I marinated it all day in olive oil with spices and then just baked it for a short time.

Irish Potato Soup

Yum. This recipe came from an email I received but says it was inspired by Witch in the Kitchen by Cait Johnson. We have that book and I looked through it after I saw this recipe and couldn't find it. But I digress. This soup was mighty tasty, but probably not the lowest fat soup we could have made. I sweated some onion & leeks in butter, added some sliced potatoes, then some veggie broth, then the greens, kale & parsley. I then processed it in a couple batches in the food processor to make it nice & smooth. Topped it off with some chives and cheese and ta-da! A nice filling, flavorful soup with plenty of leftovers.

Tofu Enchiladas

These delicious enchiladas, and the sauce, came from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson. We used our favorite low-fat, low-calorie green chile corn tortillas to make them with. The sauce was outstanding. Very flavorful. Some tomato puree, a minced onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder and oregano. Delicious! We're already looking forward to having it again. The enchilada filling was diced tofu, zucchini, corn and onion. The actual filling was a bit bland on its own but with the sauce & tortilla being so flavorful, you'd never know. A very tasy meal and they really hit the spot. We hope to make another enchilada recipe from the book (black beans, brown rice & kale) with the same sauce and tortillas in the near future.

Scrambled Eggs

We had some leeks leftover from our weekly produce delivery so I decided to make us this scramble with eggs, leeks, fake bacon and a small amount of cheese. It was pretty tasty! A good way to start out the day as it kept us full for a while. We normally wouldn't be eating breakfast so late but since daylight savings time started this morning, we were a bit off all day.

Salad

We had this salad with our roasted beets. This time we threw in a couple craisins and my lady had some avocado in hers, as you can see. She also made a simple dressing with oil, vinegar, garlic and salt & pepper.

Roasted Beets and Onions

I believe I got this recipe from the company where we get our produce delivered. We had gotten two bunches of baby gold beets and I was unsure as to what to do with them! The recipe was easy enough; take the beets, onions, and garlic cloves, toss them with some olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and stick in the oven. Our oven sucks; it usually runs hot so as you can see, some of the beets and onions got overcooked. And we even turned the heat down in order to try and avoid that. What we did eat was quite tasty; the beets were somewhat sweet which I wasn't expecting and the roasted garlic cloves....yummy! I am glad we tried this as neither my lady nor I had ever cooked with beets.

Salad

Another delicious dinner salad with the basic ingredients of leaf lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, sprouts, sunflower seeds, shaved parmesan and pepper. My lady captured a great pic of the salads this time.

Stir-Fried Tofu with Greens and Cashews

This dish was taken from the May 2000 issue of Vegetarian Times and had a nice taste but it came out extremely salty. I followed the directions in steaming and salting/peppering the greens in batches but I think we had less than greens than the recipe called for so the salt was just too strong. So salty in fact that we couldn't eat much of the greens, and after a moment, the tofu absorbed some of the salt when we put them together; it was a shame it turned out as such as I could tell the underlying flavor was quite nice. We used both kale and chard as the greens. I hope to try it again someday, but I will be holding back on the salt by a lot!

Omelet with Leeks and Irish Cheddar

This deliciously naughty butterific dinner omelet was based on another flat omelet I had made from Vegetarian Supers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen by Deborah Madison. I softened up some leeks and grated the cheese and mixed them all up with the eggs and cooked til the bottom was golden, slid it out, flipped it over and cooked til firm. It wasn't quite as flavorful as the previous omelet since it had basil and smoked mozzarella, but it was still decadent goodnesss....

Seitan "Chicken" and Cashews

This dish was really tasty! It was the first time I'd use seitan, let alone "chicken style". It came from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olsen and had lots of great fresh veggies in it; such as onions, bell pepper, carrots, cabbage and corn. We made the sauce with a small amount of veggie stock, soy sauce, arrowroot powder and red pepper flakes. It was quite flavorful and the texture was good. Upon opening the seitan, straining it and ripping it into bite size pieces, it felt like I was handling meat which was kind of weird, but it all worked out. I had some leftovers on some steamed rice and it was super yummy! I would definitely like to make this again and also make some more seitan based dishes.