Mallows & More

Sorry I have been away for so long.  I just moved to a new apartment and am finally settled in and have an internet connection again.  I haven't been able to find the battery charger for my camera battery though, so lately my photos have been really quick snapshots with my fingers crossed that the battery stays on long enough to let me take the picture!  So I'll apologize in advance for the less than stellar photos you're about to see.

Anyhoo, I am very, very late in posting the July Daring Baker's Challenge.  Better late than never?  I hope they don't kick me out for posting it so late!


The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I can't even remember the last time I had marshmallow anything, so I was very excited about this challenge.  These chocolate treats remind me of Viva Puffs with the little strawberry jam suprise in the middle that I used to eat when I was a little girl.

I bought vegan marshmallows called Dandies from Vegan Essentials for this recipe.  I subbed flax meal for the eggs in the yummy lemony Milan cookies and I have to say, this was a fun recipe to make and I really like these mallow cookies.  They are a heavy and hearty cookie and one is definitely enough to satisfy any sweet tooth cravings.

Here's one cut in half so you can see all the layers.  YUM!!!!

When I ordered the Dandies from Vegan Essentials, I also ordered a book called "Benji Beansprout Doesn't Eat Meat"  It's about a little boy named Benji who gets teased by kids at school because he's a vegetarian.  I thought it would be a cute book to read to my little vegan Gordita at bedtime.  She is really picking up words quickly now, and just today I taught her how to say "tofu" while we were at the grocery store.  Here she is chomping on some watermelon during a visit with her great-grandparents:

And now for some random food porn:  Kashi Go Lean cereal with vanilla almond milk and chopped apple:

Brown rice elbow pasta with avocado, tomato and cilantro, in a light tossing of nutritional yeast and unsweetened organic soy milk

More brown rice pasta - this time shells with peas and a crumbled veggie patty.  Leftovers make a great lunch the next day which is what you see here:

 

 And now I'm off to bed.  It's going to be a busy weekend around here, so stay tuned for more vegan delights :)

Mock Tuna Casserole

I trust you all had a spooky Hallowe'en?  Ours was a little less spooky with this little butterfly fluttering around...

A few days ago Happy Herbivore posted a Mock Tuna Salad recipe and I just had to try it.  The last time I ate tuna was at least 16 years ago when my mom used to bake tuna casseroles for dinner.   Though I don't miss tuna at all, I do miss my mom so I made this dish with pleasant memories of cooking in the kitchen with her. 

I whipped up a batch of the mock tuna, and let me say that it is so tasty it barely made it out of the food processor! I tasted a spoonful which then became two spoonfuls, then three...

But I managed to save enough of it to add to a casserole dish full of cooked brown rice pasta and peas.  I combined the mock tuna with my favorite pasta cheez from Get Sconed's adapted version of New Farm Macacroni and Cheez.   I sprinkled some kelp granules and black pepper on top before baking it.

Oh my, this was extra delicious!  And since I loved the mock tuna so much, I later made it again and enjoyed it on some sprouted grain bread with romaine lettuce.  Equally scrumptious!

Garlic & Lemon Soy Bean Pasta

With 23 grams of protein per serving, soy bean pasta is welcome in my house anytime! And as an added bonus, it only takes five minutes to cook which makes it a very quick and easy meal.

Saute some garlic, onions and mushrooms in 1 tbsp of olive oil and then place it over the cooked pasta. Top it off with some chopped cilantro and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Cheezy Dill Pasta

I was inspired by the sauce on Vegan Dad's recently posted Irish Pizza thinking that it would be really tasty as a pasta sauce. Plus, I wanted to incorporate some of this fresh dill that I just bought which smells delicious. I think I've made enough substutions that I can post the recipe but I don't want to take all the credit.

2 cups uncooked pasta
3 tbsp earth balance
1.5 tbsp unbleached flour
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
3 sprigs fresh dill
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 cup peas
salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions, add peas during last 2 minutes. Drain and rinse pasta & peas.

In a small saucepan melt Earth Balance over medium heat. Add flour and stir for 1 minute. Stir in soy milk, add dill (I like to snip it with scissors over the pot), then add nutritional yeast, and finally season with salt and pepper. Bring to low boil, stiring constantly.

Pour the sauce into the pasta and stir gently. (I used organic brown rice elbow noodles here.)