Salmon with Leeks and Asparagus

Yesterday was a cooking marathon!! Okay not really, but I did cook up a storm. It's crazy how long it can take to cook a big main dish and two side dishes when you have zero help in the kitchen.

My heart goes out to my mom on Thanksgiving, I don't know how you do it!! The husband has been working what seems like non-stop for a while now, and I made this meal back when we first got married and he loved it. I thought while he was at work last night I would take the opportunity to cook a big meal.

Vegan Chocolate Dipped Fudge Balls

So, lets start out by talking about these little balls of heaven I whipped up tonight. Many bloggers, vegan chefs, and vegan wannabe chefs (such as myself) have been making raw treats like these for years. Some call them earth balls, fudge babies, more commonly a Larabar. The list goes on and on, but the basic recipe for this raw vegan treat are as follows: 1 cup of nuts to 1 cup of dates, and whatever mix ins you please.

Breakfast Quesadillas

Woohoo Wednesday! I love Wednesday's, mainly because one of my new favorites shows Glee is on =D If you're like me, most days you probably have a pretty active morning. What I love? A good breakfast. When you think, "filling, healthy, balanced," most likely you aren't thinking of quesadillas (and for good reason). Add veggies, black beans, eggs and voila! You have a filling, healthy, balanced, and freakin awesome breakfast!

A Day of Favorites

Happy Monday everyone!! =P

Today I'm getting back on track, and doing it with my favorite things to help keep me motivated! Waking up later than I wanted put a slight damper on things this morning. Due to the fact that I was up until 2 am organizing my closet/jewelry/stacks of husbands papers I got up at 9 =/ It was okay though, I started the day with a little Rachael Ray and a cup of coffee and then worked out after! I worked out with my P90X and did cardio and shoulders and arms! My birthday is on Friday, and Saturday night we're going out to celebrate (looking good in my very short mod style dress is a must!), therefore eating right and working out hard are in order! After an almost 2 hour workout, I was hungry (read: starving). I cooked up my fave! Tofu Scramble!!! Yum yum yum. So nutritious, filling, and guilt free! I jazzed it up a bit with some fresh and very ripe avocado. It's also heavily seasoned with black pepper & cayenne, ohhhh I'm so daring.



For lunch I'm going to make another favorite of mine . . . Taco Salad!


So that's an older pic, but it doesn't matter it's going to look exactly like this and hopefully taste just as good! I don't make my taco salad in a big deep fried bowl either, it's fresh and healthy the only non-raw ingredient is the vegan sour cream I mix with my salsa and the tortilla chips I put around the salad. It's oh so tasty!

For dinner I plan on making Eggplant Parmesan. I've been wanting to cook eggplant for weeks now, and I'm going to follow Rachael Ray's recipe (with a few of my own additions/subtractions) and veganize it by using Smart Balance instead of butter, and Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese instead of dairy cheese =) OH! Also, I say no to frying. This will be baked and then put under the broiler for a few to melt the cheese and heat the sauce =) I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday, and wonderful Columbus Day! That's what inspired me to cook Italiano tonight . . . I'll leave you with this mouthwatering up close shot of my ridiculously flavorful breakfast, try not to drool all over your keyboard ;-)

From the Freezer, Straight to the Oven Kind of Meal!

Who doesn't love casseroles? More specifically, who doesn't love a casserole topped with mashed potatoes and cheese? I know I sure do! This is super simple to make; if you'd like you can put it into the oven straight away, or freeze it after it cools and leave it for a busier day during the week. If that's what you plan on doing, just wait for all of your ingredients to cool, place in an 8x8 casserole dish (or any oven safe dish it will fit into) and freeze for later. The cook time in the oven will be longer if you freeze it first, but I think it's much easier to leave something cooking in the oven and get on with your life rather than try to multitask boiling water, laundry, chopping veggies, kids homework (if you have children), sauteing veggies, hungry pets, and a hungry husband! Phew! Sounds like a lot to me, which is why meals like these can be perfect for those busy nights, they'll also save you a phone call to your local pizza or burger joint.

Tofu Jambalaya

One of my favorite websites, FatFree Vegan Kitchen, has the most amazing recipes that are healthy and usually pretty easy to make! Some require more skill and ingredients than others, but yesterday (at a loss for what to make that night) browsing the recipes I found one for Tofu Jambalaya. What drew me in, besides the picture and name of the recipe were the simple ingredients and instructions.

Spring Rolls

These are really simple and easy to make, and you can use almost any veggies (preferably whatever you have around the house that needs to be used up). For these rolls I used carrots, onion, and zucchini then topped with sesame seeds and fresh mint. To be honest, this was definitely not my favorite combo. The mint made them a little gritty and the veggies didn't taste all that great together. My favorite combo so far is red bell pepper and carrots and cilantro, instead of mint. I also used lemon juice because I thought I was out of lime, then realized I had a fresh lime in the fridge I could have cut up. Whoops! Also, I usually use the Asian Veggie Patties by Morning Star Farms, but I didn't have any so I used the regular veggie patties and it just wasn't the same! Those Asian patties taste so good!

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Usually when I have a block of extra firm water packed tofu in the fridge it either gets turned into tofu scramble, chopped up and thrown into something random, or cut into strips that I heavily season and place on top of a salad or whatever else needs flavor. Now, since this post is about barbecue sauce, I'll tell you my true feelings. I've never really liked BBQ sauce, at all. The stuff that comes on Arby's sandwiches that I remember eating as a kid, gross. The BBQ flavored potato chips, extra gross. The kind of BBQ sauce that comes in a bottle? You guess it, gross. All of those flavors remind me of poor little piggies being turned into sandwiches. However, what I do like is brown sugar and ketchup. I know, I know . . . those are pretty big ingredients in BBQ sauce, so why don't I like it? Probably because I like stuff better when I make it. So I decided to make some!

Potato & Pepper Stoup

I've been sick the past couple of days and things have been pretty lazy around here. No working out, no going out, lots of movies, naps, and most importantly hot tea! Although it isn't cold or rainy outside, that's how it feels to me which makes me crave my favorite rainy weather food: soup!

Ooodles of Noodles

This completes the sixth day of eating nothing but noodles for lunch, and sometimes dinner. I tend to follow recipe measurements pretty closely, or I half them. This particular recipe calls for a pound of spaghetti pasta, and without thinking I went ahead and cooked the whole pound =/ Obviously, a whole pound of noodles for two people is a wee bit excessive . . . With that, we've been doing some hardcore noodle eating around here! This recipe was adapted from Everyday Dish TV (an awesome vegan recipe website).