T G I F

I don't know about you, but I'm glad the work week is over.  Let the weekend begin.  :o)   Maggie lives for the weekends as well, because she knows we will be home to spend time with her.  She loves her blankets!

There hasn't really been any new food action going on this week.  I did make this Chickpeas Rice recipe that I found over at Chef In You though.  The recipe can be found here.  I came across this after going to the Chef In You site to check out the Tofu Turkey recipe that Andrea made for Thanksgiving.  The chickpeas rice was good, but I think I will leave out the cloves the next time.  There was something about it that my taste buds didn't really care for, and I think that's what it was.  Other than that it was very good.  I personally think it would be better as a curry dish.    I made some baked tofu to go along with the rice.  I sprinkled a little BBQ seasoning on the tofu for a little different flavor.   I didn't really taste the BBQ flavor for some reason though.  That doesn't mean that it wasn't good.  It hit the spot and oddly enough it went great with the rice.

One night I had a couple of Boca chik'n patties with marinara sauce on them along with some roasted Brussels and sweet potato fries.  This is always a favorite for me. 

Don't our animals just have it made...I know Maggie sure does....she knows how to spend her time.  :o)

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend! 

Weekend Eats........

Hey everyone! I've been pretty busy, so I haven't taken the time to blog over the past several days. Here's a few pics of what I've been eating. First up is my favorite....a mango green smoothie. I had to post it, because the bubbles on top look like two eyes and two little nostrils. :o)  Do you see it?

 

Last night I made a sweet potato casserole for two.  I was watching the Food Network channel Sunday and saw Anne Burrell make a sweet potato casserole that sounded so good.  I tried to remember her secret ingredients, so I could make it last night.  I didn't want to make a large batch just in case it didn't turn out good.  It turned out wonderful though.  I loved addition of the citrus!

1 large sweet potato
2 tbs vegan butter
1 tsp cinnamon
juice of one Clementine (Ann used an orange, but a Clementine was all I had)
the zest of one Clementine  (Ann used the zest of an orange)
a splash of almond milk

  TOPPING
1/4 cup old fashion oats (I may have used a little more, I didn't measure...sorry)
1 tbs vegan butter
2 tbs brown sugar
a dash of cinnamon

Peel and chop the potato then boil for about 20 minutes or until tender. Once tender, transfer the potatoes to a bowl and mash with a fork, then mix in the butter, cinnamon, Clementine zest and juice. Add a splash of almond milk if the potatoes are to thick. Transfer mixture to a small casserole dish.
For the topping, put the oats, butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar in a small food processor and pulse until everything is mixed and lumpy. Sprinkle topping over sweet potatoes and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

I also made a veggie stir fry for supper last night....not the best combo...I know.  It sure was good though.

One night Tony cooked supper and made veggie fajitas.   They consisted of onions, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, and roasted chickpeas.  They were so good.  This was the first time that I put roasted chickpeas in my fajitas, and it won't be the last.  They were a great addition. Tony is now in charge of making fajitas, he just doesn't know that yet.

I did roast the chickpeas though.  I drained, rinsed, and dried the chickpeas, then put spread them out on a baking sheet.  I sprayed them with a little cooking spray and then sprinkled some chili powder, paprika, and a little salt on them .  I put those bad boys in the oven on 350 and baked them for about 30 minutes.

So far this is my favorite spice blend for the roasted chickpeas. The next day I added the leftover chickpeas to a salad and topped it off with some AWESOME Goddess dressing. I've seen Goddess dressing all over the blog world for a year now, and I just finally bought some the other day. Why do I wait so long to try things.....ugh I have really been missing out by not having Goddess dressing!

We went to Tony's parents house for lunch on Sunday for soup and chili.  She made some vegetable soup just for me.  :o)   She sent some home with me, so I added some kale to the leftovers for supper that night.  It had all kind of veggies in it.  Very Very good!  And, I have no idea why the picture ended up posting turned the wrong way. 



I hope everyone is having a good week!

~Peace~

Isa's Chickpea Cutlets.....YUM

Happy hump day....only 3 days until Christmas....yay! I hope you have all of your shopping finished. :o)

This will probably be the shortest post I've ever made, because this is a super crazy day. I just had to share with you that I finally made Isa's Chickpea Cutlets out of Veganomicon last night. Again I wonder....what took me so long to make them. I've really been enjoying this cookbook lately! I also noticed that the recipe is online at food.com and can be found here.

I have to say...these were awesome! To go along with the cutlets, I had fresh Silver Queen corn, and a baked sweet potato with cinnamon sprinkled on it....YUM!

~Peace~

Cinnamon Maple Roasted Chickpeas & Mexican Pizza

A while back I found a recipe for honey roasted chickpeas. I didn't think that sounded so hot, but as time went on, I really wanted to try it. Since I cooked a big batch of chickpeas over the weekend, I decided I would try to make some maple roasted chickpeas instead of honey roasted.
The outcome was a success! Tony tried one, but made the worst face ever. He doesn't like chickpeas to begin with, so I wasn't surprised that he didn't like them. The whole texture thing gets to him...ha. For me though, I thought they were excellent!

2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons organic sugar

Lay the drained chickpeas out on a towel to dry for 15-30 minutes. Spray a nonstick cookie sheet with a nonstick cooking spray. After the chickpeas have dried, transfer them to the cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake on 325 for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium size bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, agave, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. In a grinder, grind the 2 tablespoons of sugar until it is in a powder form (I used a coffee grinder). After the chickpeas have cooked for 45 minutes, transfer them into the maple syrup mixture and stir until all the chickpeas are coated. Once the chickpeas are coated, sprinkle with the sugar, gently stirring until all the chickpeas are coated. Transfer the coated chickpeas back to the cookie sheet and put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Watch closely though to make sure they don't burn. Take them out of the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet. I couldn't wait until they had completely cooled. I had to eat a few while they were still warm. They were the perfect afternoon snack today!

Last night for dinner, we had pizza. It's been a few weeks since we made pizza, so it was time. I used my leftover fajita veggies for my pizza. I added some spinach, tomato and veggie mozzarella cheese to it. So, I guess you could say that I had a veggie fajita pizza, and Tony had a chicken fajita pizza. :o) Left over Mexican veggies make for a great pizza topping!

~Peace~

Chickpea Salad and Oatmeal, Walnut, and Dried Plum Cookies

I made several new things this past weekend. Some tasted great and some not so great. First, we have Friday night's meal. I made the Sesame Asparagus from the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook. This was the dish that was not so great. It tasted really bitter. If I was to ever try this recipe again, (which is doubtful), I would most definitely cut the soy sauce in half and possibly the rice vinegar.

I also used half of my soy chorizo that I bought a few weeks ago. I sauteed some onions, yellow, red, and green bell peppers, then I added in the chorizo and continued cooking it for about 10 more minutes. I could tell by the smell that it was going to be good, and it was.

I cooked some basmati rice and put the chorirzo over it...yum!! I also cooked some fried zucchini and silver queen corn on the cob. Everything was great except for the asparagus. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have more recipes that I won't care for. You never know until you try them though, right?

Saturday, I made a chickpea Salad. When I was in NJ, Jenn bought a carton of chickpea salad, from the local deli, that was out of this world. I knew I had to find a recipe for it when I got home. I found a recipe that sounded really close to what she had bought, but I did make some changes to it. Here's what I ended up with, and to me, it tasted really close to what I had in NJ.

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 small onion finely chopped (I’m not a big fan of red onions, so I used yellow)
1/4 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/4 red bell pepper, chopped
1 celery rib chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste.

Combine chickpeas with onions, peppers, celery, garlic powder, and rosemary in a medium bowl. Stir in the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper.

Sunday night for supper, I had a salad with the chickpea salad on it. I added a few dried cranberries, carrots, and cucumbers to the salad. I topped that off with a red wine vinaigrette, which just made the salad all the more delish!

I mainly fixed the chickpea salad so I could have something different to take for lunch this week. So today, I had a chickpea salad wrap with some added spinach. I am beginning to really love veggie wraps of all kinds. As you see, I left some saran wrap on the bottom half of my wrap...that's because my wraps always fall apart for some strange reason. I also had some falafel chips and cashew cheese. What a yummy lunch!

Sunday afternoon it was raining, so after church we decided to come home and be lazy. After watching a movie, I decided we needed something sweet to eat, so I made Alicia Silverstone's Oatmeal, Walnut, and Dried Plum Cookies. Her recipe called for all purpose unbleached flour, but I used whole wheat pastry this time.. If you have not tried these, you must! They are so good. Here they are cooling after coming out of the oven.

Wait...where did this partially eaten cookie come from? I must have a mouse in the kitchen.

Yep....and this would be the big mouse stealing the warm cookies.

Hope everyone has had a great Monday. :o)

~Peace~