Sophie's Cosmic Cafe

Usually breakfast is my least favourite meal of the day when it comes to dining out.  My usual fare of hasbrowns and dry toast gets pretty boring after so many years.  A lot of places offer a side of fruit, but it's usually melons and grapes that have been marinating in lemon juice and water and pretty devoid of taste.

So this morning when Mr. Carnivore and I went out for breakfast, I picked the place: Sophie's Cosmic Cafe.  When we first arrived, there was a bit of a line-up spilling out into the sidewalk and Mr. Carnivore grumbled a bit, but we only had to wait a few minutes before being seated.

As you enter, you're greeted by hundreds (maybe even thousands) of knick-knacks and figurines which are affixed to every nook and cranny. My favourite is the pair of glittery silver high-heel boots near the front counter.

Sophies Cosmic Cafe has a really great selection of vegetarian options on the menu, including a Mexican tofu scramble, served with salsa, tortilla chips, 2 flour tortillas and black beans.  And the portions are ridiculously huge.  I barely ate half before my pants were begging to be loosened.  Mr Carnivore had (non-veg) French Toast with berries and was sufficiently stuffed as well.  He'd be happy to go to Sophies again, and that makes me happy :)

Blue Corn Tacos & Laptop Lunch #2

I bought these beautiful blue corn tacos (Whole foods 365 brand) because they are so pretty.  I baked some corn bread from La Dolce Vegan, chopped up a bowlful of peach salsa, and served them with refried beans.  It was a super yummy quick and easy dinner.

Unfortunately I used almond milk in the cornbread recipe, so I couldn't put any cornbread in Preciosa's lunch - there's a strict no-nut policy at her daycare.  I made her a little burrito filled with the peach salsa and refried beans, left yesterday's corn & beans in the hopes they would get eaten, a packet of oatmeal and some apple slices with a squeze of lime, and some gummy vitamins completed the lunch.  The corn and beans came home for a second day in a row.  Strange, because she has eaten them before.  I guess she just isn't in the mood this week.

Soy-free lunch and wannabe Mexican dinner

Happy cinco de mayo!  While I really wanted to whip up an amazing Mexican meal tonight, I was in a hurry because I had to meet my training partners for a run.  It's our last practice before the 10k run we're doing this Sunday.

I did manage to make Spanish rice, with some veggie ground round and a side of steamed veggies with "melted" soy cheese.  There's also some perfectly rip avocado on top.  I just adore avocados!  Did you read my haiku about avocados? If I had a can of black beans I would have added it to the veggies before I put them in the oven to melt the cheese. 

And here's a pic of Preciosa's soy-free lunch:  oatmeal, animal cookies, brown rice pasta with tomatoes & mushrooms in olive oil & garlic sauce, fresh pineapple, a sunflower butter &  mango jam sandwich, and chicpeas with corn.  If it seems like a lot of food for a 2-year old, it is both breakffast and lunch.  All of it was eaten except a couple of animal cookies.

Torrrrrrrrrtilla Soup

I can't say "tortilla" without rolling my r's.  And I can't stop eating this delicious soup!  It's the perfect thing to warm up with during this rainy cold spell we're having.  It's a hearty soup that is a meal all on its own.  I didn't follow a recipe but it tasted pretty close to some tortilla soup I had at a Mexican restaurant recently.

1 can tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans (black beans would be great too, but I didn't have any)
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 white onion, sliced thin
1/2 cup red pepper, sliced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup textured soy protein
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp onion powder
salt & pepper to taste

In a medium or large pot, saute onion in olive oil until transluscent.  Add tomatoes and kidney beans.  Fill the kidney bean can with water and add that to the pot, along with the rest of the vegetables, soy protein and spices.  Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes.  Garnish with sliced avocado, a generous dollop of tofutti sour cream and some torrrrrrrtillas.

Feliz cinco de mayo!!!

Last year I made cornbread with black beans and rice for cinco de mayo.*  This year in keeping with the Mexican theme for the day, I had beans and rice for lunch, and then for dinner we made the same tacos that we had for Easter.  It had to be a quick dinner because Tuesday nights I have Spanish class.

* Cinco de mayo is the celebration of the victorious battle in 1852 where 2,000 Mexican peasants defeated the 6,000 man French army to reclaim their independence. 

Sorry I don't have any pictures of today's meals, but I do have some photos of other recent meals:

A delicious shepherd's pie:

 

A Thai noodle salad with brown rice noodles:

 

 

And my little gordita who is so cute I could just eat her up:

Easter Feaster

Happy Easter everyone!  Okay, seriously I think I have eaten enough today to keep me full for the rest of the week.  Breakfast was inspired by something I remember eating a long timed ago when we had a Hard Rock Cafe in Vancouver - a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Then for lunch, I went for sushi with some girlfriends.  I didn't take any photos, because I eat sushi all the time and you can only take so many pics of avocado rolls which I've done here and here.  It was raining and blah outside so instead of going for a nice walk, I went home and took a nap with Gordita. 

But the best meal of the day, our Easter dinner, was a mexican-inspired fiesta!  We had crispy tacos filled with spicy refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes and cilantro, with a side of spanish rice, and of course, my favorite guacamole salsa.  Sorry about the blurry picture, I was in a hurry to chow down on this.

We  made strawberry-banana margaritas to drink.  Olé!

 

And for dessert I made strawberry/pineapple/banana "empanadas" by stuffing wonton wrappers full of mashed banana and fruit and baking them in the oven. Sooo delicious!!!

I hope you all had some great meals this weekend and enjoyed time with family & friends.  Happy Easter!

Taco Soup, Omega Crunch, and Dark Chocolate Dreams

I have really wanted to blog for the past couple of weeks but taking care of a very sick little Gordita took precedence.   There were many  meals of store bought soups or cereal & almond milk which didn't seem blogworthy anyway.  Baby girl is on the mend now, so here's a roundup of some of the more interesting things I've been eating lately.  

First up, I made a batch of Nava Atlas' Taco Soup as seen in VegNews Magazine.  I followed the recipe EXACTLY, yet somehow my soup looks nothing like the VegNews photo.  It was good, I loved the spiciness of the cumin and chili powder combined with (my favorite) cilantro but I ended up adding some fresh ground sea salt which wasn't called for in the recipe.  When I think of tacos, I'm thinking salty & spicy.

 

Here's my uber quick breakfast of organic bananas, strawberries and tangerines, with some Omega Crunch roasted maple shelled flax.  Super Yum!

And, saving the best for last - PPK banana bread (I subbed 1/2 cup agave nectar instead of the 1 cup of sugar called for in the recipe) slathered in sinfully delicious chocolate peanut butter!  Yes, Dark Chocolate Dreams from Peanut Butter & Co lives up to its name and does not disappoint.  Ohhhh...I think I'm in love!

Change is good...

...that's what I keep telling myself after I accidentally saved some random blog template instead of backing up my template.  Big difference.  Duh!.  Oh well, like I said, change is good.  Anyways, on to more interesting stuff like food!  I had lots of vanilla cream left over from the eclaires that I had to use up, so I made trifles with strawberries and blueberries.  (I ended up liking this even more than the eclaires!) 

We have a new Thrifty's supermarket in or neighborhood that just opened a couple of weeks ago.  I usually just recycle flyers without giving them a second look, but I accidentally caught a glimpse of some recipes that they printed and I was very pleased to see that one of them was vegetarian!  And not only that but it sounded like it would be really tasty:  Tex-Mex Bean Burgers.  I whipped up a batch of them today and shared them with a friend, and we both agreed that this recipe is a keeper.  The patties might not hold up well on a barbeque as they are quite soft, but they were great in a frying pan on the stove.  We skipped the bun and ate it on a bed of lettuce, topped with some guaca-salsa.

Mexican Stirfry

Rain, rain, go away...I don't even remember the last sunny day we had. I guess the only heat around here is going to have to come from a combination of the thermostat in the house and some spices in the food. I'm hesitant to go too spicy though because I'm still nursing the baby, so I added just a scant few chili flakes to this Mexican-inspired medley of rice, beans and veggies.

This recipe serves one, as I was just cooking for myself, but really, sautéing some extra veggies and beans for another few people is very easy. The only thing I would suggest is that for the rice, don't use the usual 1 part rice + 2 parts water because there will be too much liquid once the tomato boils down. I used an equal rice to water ratio and it turned out fine.

Rice
1/4 cup brown rice
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup red onion
1/8 cup cilantro
1 tomato, diced
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/4 cup water


Sauté rice, garlic, and onion in olive oil for 2 minutes on medium heat. Turn heat up to max, add tomato, chili flakes, cilantro and water and bring to a boil. Cover and turn heat down to simmer for 45-55 minutes, until rice is tender.

Stirfry
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup sliced yellow bell pepper
1/4 cup sliced orange bell pepper
1-2 button mushrooms
3/4 cup broccoli
1/2 cup pinto beans
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp lime juice (or juice from 1 lime wedge)
fresh ground salt & pepper to taste

Sauté veggies, beans and chili flakes in olive oil on medium-high heat stirring occasionally until broccoli is a nice bright green - about 7 minutes. If it looks like it's about to get a bit dry, add a splash (1 tsp) of Braggs or plain water. Serve on a bed of rice. Squeeze lime juice over the veggies, grind up some salt and pepper on them, and enjoy!

Cornbread & Black Beans with Brown Rice

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Today in 1852 a group of 2,000 poorly trained peasants defeated 6,000 french soldiers.

We celebrated the day by having fajitas for lunch, and then cornbread with black beans and brown rice for dinner. The cornbread recipe was from La Dolce Vegan, which got 2 thumbs up all around our dinner table. Once the baby is sleeping I think we're gonna mix up some margaritas! Arriba!

Guaca-Salsa

My version of a guacamole & salsa fusion. I have been making a batch of this every other day it seems like. It tastes great on polenta or tortilla chips. You can easily double or triple this recipe if you have company coming over.

2 ripe avocados

2 cloves garlic, pressed (or finely diced)

2 stalks green onion

3 tomatoes, diced and drained

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

3/4 tsp lime juice

sea salt & fresh ground pepper

In a small bowl, mash avocado with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughy. Season with salt & pepper to taste.