Monday, January 01, 2007

Holy Food Post, Batman!

Happy New Year, folks! I'm ready for some serious blogging! I have a backlog of pictures, I'm listening to Sam Cooke (what better music to blog to!) and I'm just going to jump right in!

Some raspberry muffins:

These were a part of a holiday gift basket I made. I used whole wheat pastry flour to keep them light, but not as unhealthy as all-purp.

Last night we rung in the new year with Chris and Kate. We watched "The Big Lebowski". Jim and I have been living a life of shame, having not seen it, when everyone we know has. We made pizza, one with an herbed pizza dough and another with the Oatmeal Pizza Dough recipe from Diann's blog.

They were topped with red sauce, pesto, VwaV tempeh crumbles, eggplant, mushrooms, olives and artichokes. YUM!

New Year's Eve dessert:

I know I have Leslie's approval on this one: banana splits! Bananas, strawberries, chocolate and vanilla soy ice cream, chocolate sauce, Dreena's caramel sauce, almond slivers, sprinkles and Soyatoo whip. OMG, I fell in love with banana splits again. This could be dangerous.

Dinner tonight: We used up some leftovers and had soup and a sandwich .

Tomato soup that I whipped up using pantry staples. A large 28 oz can of diced tomatoes was pureed in tiny batches in my handy chop, because in continuing the demise of my appliances, my food processor died last week. This was added to one medium sauteed onion and 2 cloves of garlic. I then added 1 1/2 cups water, a healthy shake of dried oregano and basil and half of a pureed avocado. Creamy and delicious. The sandwiches were my take on a sandwich we had at Chaco Canyon Cafe in Seattle. They had a layer of avocado, some leftover pesto from the pizza and a slice of Tofutti cheese, toasted. They were great dipping sandwiches and the pesto and soup naturally complimented eachother. And I was able to use up some random odds and ends from the fridge.

Earlier this week, burgers, sweet potato fries and steamed veggies.

Dave's Killer Bread with a quick veggie patty and all the fixin's. Jim's actually on a nutrition kick and is forcing down veggies, albeit drenched in Veg-It. He wants me to buy some Spike, but I refuse to lose my husband to Spike, like so many of you have! What is it with them!?

Pumpkin Pecan Bread loaves from Susan's blog.

Two of these were in a gift basket with the raspberry muffins, also made with whole wheat pastry flour. I love these little paper loaf pans, they are cheap, very pretty and make gift-giving loaves decorative and easy.

Some "cheezy" veggie soup I made last week, with some tahini, chickpea miso, and nutritional yeast.

It was based off of a soup I used to love eating in school years ago called "California Medley". It's funny to me how anything that has veggies, avocados, sundried tomatoes or is just sans-meat is labeled "Californian" on menus. Anyhow, this was to help out Jim's lunches while he's into eating his veggies. I pureed some white beans to make this creamy and more nutritionally balanced.

Burrito bowl! Or at least, that's what we call it.

Black beans dressed up with some cumin and garlic, some salsa, Tofutti sour cream, and quick guac (mashed avocado with some sea salt and a splash of lime juice). I like this dinner because it's super satisfying and can be whipped up in 10 minutes tops.

Last Friday, breakfast for dinner.

We featured Leslie's Blueberry Grunt as a breakfast food instead of pancakes drenched in maple syrup. It was so fast and easy, Jim could have made it! We used WWPF and they were so moist and delicious. We ate them with the tempeh white bean sausage patties from VwaV. OMG. If you like the tempeh sausage crumbles, MAKE THESE! They will rock your socks. I made the grunt again the next day with raspberries. It was good, but the flavor was a little overpowering, so I think blueberries are optimal, or maybe a fruit blend.

What a long, blabbering post without a cute kitty picture? Linus was hanging out on Jim's lap during breakfast yesterday and was such a little chubber I had to take a picture!

He was sinking into Jim's legs and was happily purring his butt off while kneading the air. Linus is definitely a lover, not a fighter!

18 comments:

NightOwl said...

Yay, a nice long blog with lots of great pictures and a cute kitty one thrown in for good measure! What better way to start the new year? HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! May it bring peace, health, and happiness to all living beings.

Anonymous said...

A cute kitty pic gets vote for #1, then that great sandwich. Can't get a good veggie sandwich around here at all, boo-hoo.

Caty said...

Happy New Year! The pizza looks amazing, so much topping. The soup and blueberry grunt look delicious too. And your cat is gorgeous!

erica said...

Oh man, sorry about you food processor! We had burrito bowls at my house the other day, but without the tofutti sour cream (I've decided I can live without the hydrogenatedness).

Oh and thanks alot, I've already been kicking myself for not trying those white bean sausage patties, and now you've delivered the final blow. I think my butt is bruised now. Will I ever sit again?!?

Awwww Linus!!

Shananigans said...

Happy New Year!

As usual, everything looks gorgeous and has me drooling on my keyboard. I actually have everything on hand to throw together that tomato soup, might try that for a quick dinner tonight.

That really sucks about your food processor. I've been very attached to mine since I got it.

Hope 2007 brings you good health and happiness.

Anonymous said...

The one good thing about losing your food processor is picking out a new one! If I had known when I got mine just how much I'd be using it, I definitely would have chosen differently.

I don't even know where to start with all of your food. It looks so delicious. The banana splits are calling my name!!! I have no-bake black bottom peanut butter pie from VwaV in my fridge right now so I won't be splitting any time soon.

The soup recipe sounds so simple and delicious. I love recipes like this that are quick to prepare. And I never thought about adding pesto to a grilled "cheese" sammy. Great idea. Burrito bowls are very common at are house. They're just too quick. I like to add some shredded lettuce and lots of chopped tomato to mine.

Lovin Linus the lover. Too cute!

Happy New Year Kris!

Harmonia said...

Everything looks so amazing! The kitty is adorable, too!

Happy New Year! I'm back bloggin - same place - http://harmonia.bloggoing.com.

Missed your entries while I was away! Hope all is well!

Anonymous said...

those rasberry muffins looks so good...I love berried in muffins. I also love the look of that black bean dinner...and the sounds of it being so quick and easy.

Anonymous said...

i love your post but the longs are my favorites yum!

aTxVegn said...

Wow, Kris, everything looks so good! I hope you liked the oatmeal pizza crust as much as we do. Pizza and burgers in the same week - woohoo!

I saw your banana split and immediately craved something fruity. Boy, do those look great! Love the soups too. Thanks for all the great pics, and Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

YUM!!! I made the tomato soup and cheese sandwich for lunch today! Ok, I didn't have any avocado so I had to improvise.

For the tomato soup, I had used 1/2 onion earlier in the day so i had 1/2 ready to go. Rather than chopping up another, I added some diced mushrooms which I also had handy. For the creaminess factor, I used coconut milk (I had a bunch leftover from the peanut butter silk pie. Very good. Marty especially enjoyed it.

The sandwich was also very different. I put pesto on both sides of the bread. Then I used the spicy herb and tomato cheese from The Uncheese Cookbook. I (again) didn't have avocado so I threw in a handful of spinach. Crazy, I know. But it was really good. Marty didn't like it too much but too bad for him. ;)

Nikk said...

Linus is too cute!

The food looks good. Too good. I think my resolve to go macrobiotic has been broken after looking at all of the avocado & tomato goodness!

Ruthie said...

Wowie! I am so impressed!!! I especially love that whole grain seedy bread you've got there. And with yam fries, yum yum!!!!

I love the meow-meow pic!

Hope your 2007 is excellent! :)

Ruthie

laura k said...

Linus is one great-looking cat!

That's a lot of food! It all looks good--I like the "copy" sandwich with the avocado and pesto and cheese... it's so fun to re-create what we have in restaurants sometimes! And wow, that banana split is enough to make me flip right now.

Michelle said...

i want me some of your banana split :) i haven't tried dreena's caramel sauce yet, i'll have to try it!

Lena said...

I just have to say that I love your blog! I just checked out the link from vegan*core and you're very inspiring. I can't wait to try the tomato soup, since that's my favorite and I'm always up for a new twist.

Kris said...

Thanks for your comments, everyone! It's good to be back in the swing of things, post-holidays and it's good to be out there reading all of your posts.

Diann, we do really love the oatmeal dough, it's very tasty.

Crystal, your sandwich sounds great. The one we had in Seattle had pesto, FYH mozzerella and tomatoes on it. Here, I was just improvising and trying to use up stuff. I made another one the other day, with just Tofutti cheese and pesto and it was great. Defintely a new use for pesto!

Thanks for stopping by Lena! Welcome to blogger world, we're all here to cheer you on and welcome you to the wonderful world of vegan food!

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