Dinner With Parents: Part 1 and 2

We hadn't seen C's parents in ages, or at least, I hadn't seen his parents in ages. C had been working with his dad on a project for work so I think they likely saw enough of each other. I used to hang out with my mother-in-law quite often before I started my new job. When we'd worked on the house as a family, her and I would often be sent to pick up material from Home Depot together, which would turn into either complete frustration in the plumbing aisle, or easy-peasy in any aisle but that one (and don't even get me started on how awesome I am in the ducting/ventilation section, hoo-boy!). On our drives, we'd talk about life and what was going on in each of our brains. What was aggravating us or things we wished we could change. We would commiserate, offer advice, and solve problems. Aside from just car talked, we'd have tea together, maybe cook together, occasionally shop. While I definitely hung out a lot with my mother-in-law, I also get along great with my father-in-law. I was his apprentice while working on the house while C was out of town. He taught me to wire pot lights and outlets and looked like a proud dad when I caught on and could do it on my own. He'd been a shoulder to cry on when things got to be too much, he'd let me take on big projects on the house with his help, and he'd try all sorts of new dishes that I would cook up. I have to say that I am amazingly blessed with the family that I married into. I love my second set of parents so much and couldn't have asked for better in-laws. Unfortunately, now that C and I have been married for a year and work on the house has come to a stand-still, we haven't seen my other parents very often. C's brother has started dating a beautiful girl who he is very into and who is very into him and they have sort of taken our place at the in-law's. I suppose it's part of the cycle of getting to know someones significant other and integrating them into the family. It's their turn to spend more time with the parents now and we're finding ourselves as a couple and as our own little family.

So, since I was missing my in-laws quite a bit, I decided to invite them over for dinner. Since I was still on a vegan diet, I was excited for the challenge to make a meal that would be omnivore friendly but vegan.

I had a big plan. I had found a recipe for a vegan Thanksgiving dish. It was called Seitan Stuffed with Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, and Mushrooms.  I had all of the ingredients and knew that it was a bit of an intensive recipe but I figured when I could start cooking around 4pm and that I would have dinner for 6:30/6:45pm. Unfortunately, when C called his parents to tell her what time they should come by, they thought that was too late to eat and wanted to have dinner around 5/5:30pm. I felt trapped because I really wanted to make the stuffed seitan but I also wanted to accommodate my guests. Sigh. Planned dinner, out the window. I had planned to take a nap before making dinner but that was also out since I had to come up with a new menu. Luckily, since most of what I do in my spare time is reading recipes and food blogs, I already had an idea. I checked the recipe to be sure I had everything I needed and I did. So, the replacement recipe was going to be Mushroom, Lentil, and Wild RiceTimbales (thanks Fat Free Vegan Kitchen!!) with the Impromptu Mushroom Gravy found at the same link (just scroll down a little further).

Alright, time to cook! A couple slices of vegan whole-grain bread went into the food processor to be turned into fresh bread crumbs.

look out bread, you're about to become crumbs!

With the breadcrumbs done, I started saute-ing the onions. There is nothing like the smell of onions cooking in a high quality oil, mmmm.

cooking onions

Oh, hello fresh breadcrumbs!

fresh breadcrumbs, so easy to make!

Now, rough chopped mushrooms, garlic, tofu, sherry, and water get added to the food processor and pulsed until almost smooth but not so much that the mixture loses all texture.

mushroom mixture

This was a wild rice timbale (a custard like dish baked in a drum-shaped pastry mold - in this case, a ceramic ramekin), but I didn't have enough wild rice in the pantry and there was no time to buy more. However, my mom had bought me some red rice that I figured would be dense and chewy enough to make up the rest of the amount I needed. After cooking and draining the rice, it was stirred into the mushroom/tofu mixture.

red and wild rice mix

With the filing done, the mix just needed to be spooned into the ramekins (5 in this case) and then the tops smoothed down. Before spooning the mixture into the dishes, I carefully cut a nicely shaped mushroom into thin slices and placed a cross section of each on the bottom of the dishes so that when the timbales were tipped onto the plates, the top of the custard would be decorated.

timbale mix done

Like a custard, these main dishes are cooked in a similar manner. The ramekins are placed in a larger pan and then boiling water is poured carefully around the dishes. The water should be filled to just below halfway up the cups: enough to help steam the custard but not so high that the heated water could get into the dishes.

timbales, ready to bake

Ok, timbales in the oven and now it's time to prep the sides. I wanted to make this a real family-style dinner. When I think of an old-fashioned family dinner, I think of mashed potatoes, gravy, cooked carrots, and peas. While vegan timbales are likely not old-fashioned, the homey taste of the meal would be satisfying to anyone.

Since most of my vegan recipes are found on blogs or I have saved them to Word documents, I often have to have our laptop on the counter next to me while I work, for quick reference. Having butcher-block counter tops definitely gives me a lot more workspace for when I need to chop. Red potatoes to be boiled then mashed, and carrots to be boiled.

sides, chopped

Once the potatoes were boiled until tender, I drained the pot and mashed them with almond milk, vegan margarine, salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary.

masher taters

The sweet golden carrot slices boiled until just tender and once they were drained, I seasoned them with a little bit of pure maple sugar, salt, chopped walnuts and dried cranberries. Since I wasn't able to make the Thanksgiving flavoured stuffed seitan roll, I decided to add the festive flavours to the carrots, almost like a stuffing.

glazed carrots

After about 50 minutes in the oven, the timbales were set and browned and ready to be served hot. Since they needed to sit for 10 minutes before carefully flipping them over onto the plates, I had just enough time to make the mushroom gravy.

mushroom and wild rice timbales

Chopped onion, mushrooms, and garlic get cooked in a saucepan until translucent and soft. Next, add in the broth, sherry, soy sauce, herbs, and nutritional yeast. To thicken the gravy, some flour gets whisked into a bit of soy milk until smooth and then added to the pot, once all the lumps are out. Now, the gravy just needs to come to a boil so it can thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Easy gravy and soo tasty! It's nice to know that a good gravy doesn't need to contain meat.

mushroom gravy

I carefully ran a long-bladed knife around the edges of the ramekins and tipped one dish onto each plate, gently shaking the cups until the souffle-like entree slid out, maintaining its shape. I was so happy with how the main dish looked! From the weight of each, they also seemed substantial enough to satisfy each guest.

finished timbale

While the gravy was coming together, C put the peas on to steam. Everything was ready and hot and the same time and the 4 of us sat down to eat. The dinner was a perfect comfort meal and definitely had a holiday flavour. While everything was vegan, nobody seemed to notice or mind. Everything seemed to be greatly enjoyed and we all had enough to eat. The timbales were perfect and I would definitely make these again for company. I think that these mushroom and wild rice souffles would also make a wonderful first course for a fancy meal. The blog also states that these can be used as an appetizer spread.

Tummy's full, good conversation, a nice visit and dogs cuddled, it was a wonderful visit. I would definitely like to try and do that more often. Love and hugs to my second parents, looking forward to seeing you again soon!

I am getting hungry again just looking at this photo

For birthdays, our family typically does a dinner for the celebrating party. Since C was celebrating his 29th birthday, I invited my parents over to our place to celebrate and enjoy a home cooked meal (ahem, vegan meal). I had decided on baking a Festive Chickpea Tart (I'm not sure why I am in such a festive flavour mood) courtesy of a recipe from Dreena's Vegan Recipes blog. You can find the recipe here.

Onions, celery, garlic, salt and pepper get cooked in a saucepan until tender.

step 1, saute-ing

 While the veggies cook, chickpeas, soy sauce, lemon juice, and sage all gets added into the food processor (this seems to be a vegan's best friend). I would also say that chickpeas are a vegan's best friend. More than just vegan friendly though, everyone can love these little jewels! Roasted and flavoured for snacks, added as protein and fibre for salad, blended into a dip for veggies...so versatile.

mmmm, chickpeas!

 Alright, I'll stop drooling over chickpeas. Once the veggies are done, they get added to the chickpeas.

almost ready for blending

 Aaaand, pulse!! Blend until smooth, oh the fun!

chickpea mix

Once this mixture is smooth, add in the toasted walnuts and oatmeal and pulse but leave some texture in the filling. With the blended tart filling mostly smooth and in a large prep bowl, whole chickpeas (for added texture - you don't want the tart to be completely smooth), dried cranberries, and chopped parsley. 

tart filling almost done

 Yes, I could have made my own pie shell, but I didn't. Yes, I feel a little ashamed, but not that much. The dough was made with vegetable shortening and not butter or lard, so I was reading the ingredients. Plus, the box came with 2 shells so I can bake another pie sometime! So, all of the filling was smooshed into the shell and the top smoothed out. There was actually quite a lot of filling and so I really pushed it down into the shell, hoping that none would spill over. The top was brushed with some soy sauce and olive oil and sprinkled with walnuts.

unbaked tart

 After baking for 35 minutes in a 400F oven, the tart was browned, fragrant, and hot.

finished festive chickpea tart

 My parents arrived right on time and the tart was cooling when they came inside, presents tucked under each arm for the birthday boy. I heated up some leftover West African Peanut Soup and they had kindly brought along a tossed salad. With a couple glasses of wine poured, our fantastic dinner was underway. 

C's birthday dinner with his in-laws

 I would absolutely make this recipe again for company, or just for dinner for the 2 of us. The leftovers made perfect lunches to pack to work and the filling was dense yet light and satisfying. Maybe the 2nd pie shell would come in handy sooner than I thought...I could definitely go for another of these babies! With presents of new Henley shirts, a warm puffy vest, and a few other much appreciated and needed items, C was feeling much love. The dogs yet again had "grandparents" to lavish them in attention and watch them jump all over each other and play like little monkeys. It was great to spend another nice evening with family and again, I really wish that we could get together more often with my parents. I feel very close to them and we have a great relationship. I love you guys and we'll see you soon! Thanks for the birthday treats for hubs, he loves everything!

the perfect vegan dinner tart

What You've All Been Waiting For: Recipes!

My vegan diet has me eating a lot of the same foods. I just love the B.A.T's (bacon, avocado, tomato) so much though that I don't mind at all. I did want to try a new vehicle for the filling though and had been eyeing a recipe in one of my newer Taste of Home magazines for Homemade Tortillas.

Here's the recipe:

Homemade Tortillas

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup water

3 Tbsp olive oil

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Stir in water and oil. Turn onto a floured surface; knead 5-6 times. Divide dough into 8 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 7" circle.

In a large non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook tortillas over medium heat for 1 minute on each side, until lightly browned.

You can stack these on a plate under a clean slightly damp kitchen towel as you make the whole batch.

I made the dough and divided it into 8 portions. C rolled them out and cooked them for me because I was starting to get frustrated with the dough sticking to the counter.

They turned out sooo tasty! These tortillas made awesome B.A.T's.

bacon, avocado, tomatoe

 While the sandwich would have likely been enough for a light meal, I felt like having something more with the sammie. How about a steaming bowl of lentil soup?

lentil soup and sammie

 This is the best lentil soup EVER. It might actually be just one of the best soups ever. Period. The recipe is actually called "Lentil Soup You'll Absolutely Love. Trust Me." I don't remember where I found the recipe but it was on a blog somewhere. We gave a copy of this recipe to the chef at Terrace 55 so that he could make it for the appetizer at our wedding. They came served in shooter glasses with a breadstick straw. So cute!

Because I love you guys so much, I am going to share this much coveted recipe. My copy is crinkly, worn, stained, and well-used. Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. This is an easy recipe and it makes a lot. This soup can be frozen. Make sure you have an immersion blender and a large pot. You could use a blender to puree this in batches, but my preference is the immersion blender. Much easier and cleaner.

Please enjoy this and serve it to those people you really care about.

Healthy, easy, wholesome, and perfect for when you need a warm hug.

Lentil Soup You'll Absolutely Love. Trust Me.

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 tsp salt

5-6 large carrots, peeled (if not organic), and sliced

3 cloves garlic or 1 Tbsp chopped garlic in oil

1 Tbsp dried thyme (or 3-4 sprigs fresh)

1 - 14oz can Aylmer Accents Spicy Red Pepper tomatoes

1 cup red lentils, dried

cracked black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup dry white wine (or water or stock to make non-alcoholic)

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock (vegetable to make it vegan)

1 cup water (if you want to add 1 cup wine and 1/2 cup water, that works)

1-1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar, or a splash

Pour oil into a large pot set over medium heat. Add in onions and a generous pinch of salt. Saute for a minute or 2 and add in carrots. Cook about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for a minute more, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add in thyme, tomatoes, lentils, salt and pepper. Stir. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Retrieve any thyme stems if using fresh.

Pour in wine, stock, and water. Increase heat to medium. Cover partially and let simmer for about 30 minutes, until onions are tender. Use an immersion blender and puree the soup until smooth. Add in vinegar and stir. Serve or cool and freeze.

Enjoy!!

I have served this with chopped sauteed kielbasa and crimini mushroom dumped into each bowl and a crisp piece of ciabbatta on the side. Add a salad and you have a perfect meal.

red lentil soup

 The only difference between my workday breakfasts and my weekend breakfasts is the freshly ground coffee. 1 cup of dry oats, with boiling water poured over top. My breakfast almost everyday lately, which I love! My mom bought me a vegan ice cream making book for Christmas so I have been engrossed in the colourful tasty looking recipes many afternoons and evenings. My mom has a big pot of fresh rosemary (so jealous!) and she generously gave me a small ziplock full of the enticingly fragrant stems.

This photos shows how I like to start my day.

oats and coffee

 I found a recipe for quinoa veggie burgers online so figured that since I had all of the ingredients, that this would be an easy dinner.

organic quinoa from Costco

 I followed the instructions on how to cook up the grain and then got to work on the veggies. Onions, mushrooms, shredded zuchinni and carrots all into a bowl. The quinoa was supposed to act as a binder, along with some cornstarch and egg replacer. I made the mistake of adding those 2 ingredients together and they just clumped. Ugh! Whatever. On with the show. The shredded veggies took a while to do so I wasn't making a new batch.

shredded and chopped veggies

 With the burger filling done, I was going to deal with the chocolate craving that I was having. I had given my mom a call and she told me about some vegan pudding that she makes all the time! I thought that was very cool and since this would use up the half carton of silken tofu from the omelet disaster AND hopefully curb my dessert craving, I was excited to give it a whirl. Did I mention that this recipe sounded super simple?

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

1 lb silken tofu

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2-3 Tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in a food processor, scrapping down the sides often, ensuring that the mixture is smooth. Spoon into serving cups and cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

vegan pudding ingredients

 Wow. This pudding is so simple and so tasty I will never buy Jello pudding again! Since you can substitute 3 Tbsp of melted chocolate for the cocoa powder, you could change up the flavour of the pudding if you like. White chocolate and orange extract, using agave syrup instead of maple, and you have a new pudding flavour! Go now and try this!

dark chocolate pudding

 With dessert in the fridge, I figured I should start on the burgers. With my screw-up with my egg replacer, these did not hold together well at all. We basically ended up just sautee-ing the mix.

quinoa and veggie burger

 Served with peas and roasted beets, and we have a meal. Ta-da! Despite how they looked, the burgers (or quinoa and veggie fry) was surprisingly tasty. I would make these again and be more careful with the recipe.

another vegan dinner

 I didn't feel like cooking the other night so decided to make something super easy. Cooked red lentils with reduced sodium taco seasoning added to it. Served warm over chopped iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and black olives and I had my quick and filling dinner for one.

lentil taco filling

 I needed an easy dinner because I had a lot of food packing to do. I was driving to Kenora Thursday morning to spend the next 2 days there working on their showroom. I would be helping to re-merchandise everything and make it look fresh and organized. Since I was still eating vegan, it was going to be really tough to eat out, so I wanted to be sure that I had enough food for my breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks packed with me. I made sure to have enough for 2 B.A.T sandwiches, fresh veg, raw nuts, water, fruit. The weather was cold and I left early in the morning with my fresh ground coffee, a giant bowl of oatmeal, food for the trip, my work laptop, clothes, my briefcase, and off I went.

Viva la Vegan: A Cheese Sauce by Any Other Name

Eating vegan doesn't mean that I want to give up all of my recipes that once contained meat. I was craving chili, the kind that would be poured over top of a Fatboy from any number of local greasy spoon burger joints (Mrs. Mike's, Superboys, Daly). Unfortunately, this kind of chili is all meat. Likely beef (at least I always hoped). I decided to give the dried TVP (textured vegetable protein) from Bulk Barn a try. I scooped out about a cup of dried TVP and put it in about 2 cups of boiling water to reconstitute the "meat". I chopped an onion and sauteed it with the meat.

meat for the chili

 I didn't have any peppers or red kidney beans so instead I added a can of white kidney beans and black-eyed peas, along with a can of crushed pineapple to add a Hawaiian taste. Some ketchup, a bit of mustard, brown sugar and let it sit in it's nice warm slow cooker pot to soak everything up. This would be a meal for another day and definitely lunches at work.

vegan Hawaiian chili

 Something else that I was missing with vegan eating was cheese. While I had found a site that showed how to make blocks of cheese out of cashews and other ingredients, I was dubious about this. I did find another recipe on Dreena's Vive le Vegan blog that had me very interested. It was called "Vegveeta" and was supposed to taste like the similarly named cheese-like food. You can find the recipe here.

The base of this cheese is raw cashews, which I had a big bag of from Bulk Barn just for this purpose, although it was quickly dwindling down due to my post-workout snacking. Nutritional yeast, tahini, lemon juice, white vinegar, almond milk, mustard, corn starch, paprika, salt, pepper, turmeric and canola oil were added with the cashews to the food processor. This vegan diet was giving our KitchenAid a real workout! After blending until smooth, the cheese was poured into a saucepan to heat through and thicken.

I added some reduced salt taco seasoning to the cheese dip to give it a more Tex-Mex flair and served it with dinner to dip the potato wedges into. 

How was this fake cheese? OM NOM NOM!! So good! Definitely try this one, folks.

Dreena's Vegveeta

 Dinner was a slice of seitan, marinated in leftover "bacon" liquid and served on a slice of sprouted grain bread with vegenaise, tomato, and sprouts. The sides were roasted carrots, sauteed spinach, and potato wedges. Mmmm, crispy potato wedges dipped in creamy fake cheese sauce!!

vegan dinner

I was craving something sweet so decided to use up a bunch of our fruit to make a compote. Chopped apples, bananas, fresh cranberries and leftover crushed pineapple with juice. I poured the chunks into a casserole dish and put this, covered, into the oven at a lower temperature to slowly bake/steam the fruit.

Fruit compote, pre baking

 The next day, leftovers were on the menu. Leftovers and the chili that I had made the night before when I had time. The meal came together really quickly. All I had to do was lightly cook some broccoli then pour some reheated cheese on top and a bowl of heated chili. Wonderful and colourful!

Hawaiian chili and broccoli with cheese sauce

 Since I had really liked the soy slice stir-fry I had made earlier for myself, I decided to make it again for C and I. Broccoli, carrots, snow peas, soba noodles, and soy slices were stir-fried with some teriyaki sauce mixed in water. Some warmed cherry sauce dotted on top, yum! I love serving bowl foods like this in certain bowls I bought at Urban Outfitters in Ottawa and hauled back with me in my suitcase ages ago. They are perfect half rounds, vibrant colours, and fit so nicely in my hands. I love eating stir-fry with wooden chopsticks. These utensils force me to slow down and allow me to really savor and enjoy the meal. 

I call this thoughtful eating.  

a thoughtful colourful bowl of stir-fry

 After the success with Vegveeta, I was willing to give another one of Dreena's cheese recipes a try. This one was called Mac-Oh-Geez (I love the name!). Same idea with the processed raw cashews.

raw cashews

 Blend the cashews until they are as smooth as possible. Be patient.

blended cashews

 I didn't have any raw Brazil nuts so I just used more cashews in their place. The rest of the ingredients went into the food processor. I would recommend transferring the cashews to a blender though and then adding the rest of the ingredients since this sauce is very watery.

cheese sauce, uncooked

 I had bought a bag of cute curly pasta that was going to make the perfect mac and cheese.

curly noodles

 Once the noodles were cooked, I poured them into a strainer to drain the water, but didn't rinse the noodles.

cooked pasta

 I poured the noodles back into the same pot and then the cheese mixture from the food processor. This will be really liquid-y but trust the recipe. This all changes after being baked.

mac and cheese, pre-baking

 This whole mix was carefully poured into a greased casserole pan and then covered with foil for baking.

mac and cheese unbaked

 As promised, the cheese thickened during the baking process. The casserole looked puffy, like an egg bake of some kind. I was a little worried that this wouldn't be creamy at all.

mac and cheese baked

 I tentatively slid a serving spoon into what appeared to be a casserole and scooped up a bunch of the noodles to mix them up. Ohh! The pasta and cheese made the right squishing sound! You know the sound I'm talking about. Only pasta and cheese sauce makes this sound and it sounded right!

mac and cheese, stirred up

mmmm no cheese mac and cheese

 Well, since it sounded right, I just assumed that it would taste right as well. No sense in formalities since it was just me home this evening. A fancy fork skewered a few spirals and I popped them into my mouth, licking the cheese sauce off the spoon. Well, they don't taste like cheese per say, but the texture was spot-on to what I was hoping for and craving.  Something to keep in mind is that don't let the fact that this is vegan fool you into thinking that you can eat loads of it. Well, you can, but you shouldn't if you want to maintain your girlish figures. This dish is still full of pasta and cashews are high in fat, albeit healthier fat. So, all good things in moderation.

creamy mac and cheese

 To stop me from standing at the stove eating forkful after forkful of this awesome dish, I made a side of broccoli and mushrooms and pan fried the last piece of tofu bacon and added some mustard to it. I tossed on a bit of leftover taco seasoning to the mac and cheese and it was such a good dinner. I only wish that C had been home that night to enjoy it with me, but he would get a change to try it later when he came home.

a dinner with mac and cheese

A side note about the tofu bacon I've been making. I went to Boon Burger Cafe today for lunch with a friend and we tried the vegan "fish" burger and bacon cheeseburger. There was tofu bacon on the cheeseburger and we both decided that the recipe I used was much tastier!