Posts Tagged ‘pasta’

Warning: this post contains full-frontal squash

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

veganmofo-iii

Yeah, I missed a couple of days. I promise to make up for it soon, and starting tomorrow hopefully my posts will be more interesting. Not that MORE ISA TESTERS isn’t interesting…

Linguine with Edamame Pesto

Linguine with Edamame Pesto

What a fantastic idea. Delicious, green, fresh tasting pesto, without all the fat. I love love love this recipe. Paired here with linguine, mushrooms and onions, this was a very satisfying meal.

I had pesto leftover, but I wanted something a bit lighter at lunchtime - what’s a girl to do? Spaghetti squash was the perfect solution. If you’ve never cooked up one of these gems, I highly suggest you do. I just cut mine in half (it was fairly small), put it cut-side down on a baking sheet and put it in a 375ºF oven for about 30 minutes, until it was nice and tender. Larger squash will take a bit longer - you’ll know it’s done when you can easily  pierce the flesh with a knife.

Now the fun part! Just take a fork and run it along from stem to stern, the flesh will separate itself into lovely spaghetti-like strands all on its own.

Spaghetti Squash!

Spaghetti Squash!

Edamame Pesto with Spaghetti Squash

Edamame Pesto with Spaghetti Squash

Then just use it like you would spaghetti! It was really fantastic topped with Edamame Pesto and crushed red pepper flakes, eaten out on the back patio on a cool day.

Last, I’ll leave you with a picture of Fauxstess Cuppies (from VWaV). I made these ages ago but never got around to posting the photo. And with all this healthy food I’ve been posting lately, I feel the need to balance it out with a hefty dose of sugar.

Fauxstess with the Mostest

Fauxstess with the Mostest

And it was good

Monday, October 5th, 2009

veganmofo-iii

Time for another MoFo post, also know as the next installment of: “Look! I made testers for Isa’s weight loss cookbook! And they were awesome!”

Cannellini Walnut Croquettes

Cannellini Walnut Croquettes

I’ve actually made these twice, they were so damn good. Oh, and they freeze really well, too.

Garlicky Mushrooms and Kale

Garlicky Mushrooms and Kale

Garlic! Mushrooms! Kale! What is there not to love?

Marinara Olivada

Marinara Olivada

I also learned that olives and marinara belong together, forever and ever, in holy matrimony, amen.

Catching up

Thursday, March 19th, 2009
I know it’s been a few days, but I have been cooking, I promise! Here, I’ll prove it…

First off, yummy shepherd’s pie. It looks a mess on the plate, but is so yummy. We ate it two days in a row.


Next up, roasted potatoes! Oh, how I love them with an unreasonable passion. Oh yeah, there’s also chickpea cutlets, roasted carrots, peas and bread sauce. But look! Roasted potatoes!
 



I loved Bianca’s chicken fried tofu wafflewiches so much last time, I had to make them again. This time I kept the sauce on the side for dipping (I made extra for that very purpose!).


I also made a sort of stroganoff type thing. It had sherry in it, so it was good.


Lastly, today’s lunch! Asian marinated grilled tofu from VwaV, pineapple quinoa, glazed carrots and green beans. 


I cooked the quinoa in half water/half pineapple juice, with a dash of soy sauce - it was so good that way! I also took the leftover tofu marinade and added some pineapple juice to it, and cooked it down to make a glaze. This was my first time grilling tofu (I know, what?!) and I was super-happy with the results. Yummilicious.

I grilled the tofu inside on my cast iron grill pan, but it was so nice outside we decided to eat it on the back patio. It almost felt like spring!

Old cake (pictures)

Thursday, March 12th, 2009
I know it’s been a few days, but I have been cooking, I promise! I made a really yummy sweet and sour the other day with ‘meat’balls, but I didn’t get a picture. Oops. 

At least I remembered to snap a picture of lunch yesterday - Vegan Dad’s Best Ever Vegan Alfredo! with whole wheat pasta, peas and Morningstar Chik’n Strips. The Brit didn’t really like it so I probably won’t make it again, but I thought it was really good.


Today we had a favorite in these parts, my vegan meatloaf. This time I divided it into six individual portions (in a jumbo muffin tin) for easy serving and freezing. Served with peas and mashed potatoes and gravy, of course!

Last but not least, some photos that I just found that I realized I never uploaded (oops again!). These are from my family’s joint January/February birthday party, which included my own.

First, the generic ‘Happy Birthday’ cake:


Next, my little sister (who turned twelve!) wanted a chocolate cake with a horse on it. I was a little pressed for time, but I managed to come up with this:



And last, I wanted to make something a little different for my birthday, so I decided on lemon lavender almond cuppies:


Some people were afraid to try them, but I thought they were great… and that’s all that really matters, right?

Stacked food tastes better

Friday, March 6th, 2009
It’s pretty late so I’ll keep this entry short. It’s about time I updated though since it’s been a couple of days.

Tuesday was The Brit’s birthday so we had planned ahead of time to go out to eat for lunch (we didn’t go out last week for that very reason). We headed out to his favorite Indian place Golden India. It was awesome as always! 

We had planned on just having sandwiches for dinner, but my parents offered to buy us dinner at a restaurant of The Brit’s choosing to celebrate, and we couldn’t really pass up a free meal, now could we? He picked P.F. Chang’s, and it was really good too.

Because of eating out twice in one day(!), I don’t have any pictures from Tuesday. I do have a couple of old ones that I never posted though. I’ll share them now.

Behold, tofu scramble:


 

And here’s one of some spinach pesto pasta. I made this before our trip to Texas in an effort to use up a bag of spinach that was going to go off. It’s mostly spinach, a little fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I decided at the end to blend in some soft silken tofu to make it creamy. It certainly did! This was rich and yummy.


I did end up using the leftover tempeh from my last post in sandwiches. It was much better like this than on it’s own, by far.


And last but not least, yesterday was my one year veganniversary! To celebrate I made some stacked food. Pan-fried polenta topped with walnut white bean puree and mushrooms sauteed in white wine, served with garlicky spinach. Yum!


Peace out, yo!