Tag Archives: Cooking

This week’s challenge ingredient is carrots. I love carrots but had no idea what to make. It was fun browsing through VegWeb’s website to find ideas.

I made きんぴら (kinpira)! It’s a Japanese side dish and it’s really good. I made a half serving and will definitely be making more in the future. For today’s recipe, I didn’t have regular sesame seeds so I used the black ones. To be quite honest, I’m not sure I can taste the difference!

I also want to try carrot fries (to go with my sweet potato fries) and taco carrots. I’m pretty sure I already have the ingredients for both recipes.

My husband and I finally started using our fireplace. I bought him a fire starter log and a lighter for Christmas so we built a fire right before opening the rest of our presents. As soon as we built the fire, I was reminded of an old childhood favorite – s’mores.

We found vegan marshmallows at Whole Foods,

…roasted them,

…and made a sandwich with graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows.

Yum!

For this batch, we used Whole Foods dark baking chocolate. I want to try another chocolate bar next time and hope to improve the s’more experience!

Judy, over at Patchwork Times has started a new cooking challenge. Last week, the challenge ingredient was sweet potatoes.

Slight problem… my husband hates sweet potatoes.

I decided to make sweet potato fries so that if he didn’t like it, our entire dinner wouldn’t be ruined. Smart idea! He didn’t like them, but I thought they were fantastic!

My fries

I followed these baking instructions. All I did was spray the pan with oil, lay out my sweet potato slices, spray the slices with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Then I baked according to the instructions. Yum!

It will take some experimentation to get the right slice thickness as mine were a bit crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. But they tasted really, really good. I can’t wait to make them again.

Next week’s challenge ingredient? Carrots!

Last week had some successful meals and some not so successful meals.

The successful:

Sloppy Joes

The unsuccessful:

Veggie Red Curry

As far as the Veggie Red Curry is concerned, I think it’s the red curry paste we don’t like. The rest of the recipe was quite good. We’re going to visit the Asian market next week and find a new curry paste to try.

This week’s menu:

Lunch
Tacos
Pitas with hummus, spinach, tomatoes, and fresh basil
Avocado sandwiches
Ramen
Leftover Thanksgiving

Dinner
Pasta
Homemade pizza
Breakfast burritos
Thanksgiving!
Green Curry
Orange-glazed Tempeh (new recipe, didn’t get to it last week)

I plan on posting my Sloppy Joe recipe this week. It’s simple and really tasty!

We are officially back from vacation and I decided to kick off the week with a menu plan. I haven’t joined this link up since January!

Lunch
Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Riblets
Pitas with hummus, spinach, tomatoes, and fresh basil
Sloppy Joes
Avocado sandwiches
Ravioli

Dinner
Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
Burritos
Mexican pizza (new recipe)
Veggie Red Curry (new recipe)
Orange-glazed Tempeh (new recipe)

We are most excited about the Mexican pizza. It sounds really yummy! Hopefully I’ll have some successful meals to report back about.

Orange Tofu
We are trying a few new recipes this week and are really excited about them! Last night we made Snazzy Baked Orange Tofu, pictured above. It was missing something but I really liked the idea of using mandarin oranges instead of orange juice concentrate. I’m still in search of the perfect orange tofu recipe!

The rest of the week:
Haystacks
Chili Mac – new recipe
Peanut Chicken Broccoli – new recipe, we’re subbing tofu for the chicken
Pasta and garlic bread
Japanese night – sushi, gyoza, udon noodles
Saturday night pizza!

Part of my moving prep is an attempt to use some of the ingredients that been sitting in my pantry for months.

Pumpkin pie

The pumpkin pie used up a pie crust, a can of pumpkin pie filling I bought on accident (thinking it was just canned pumpkin), and a box of silken tofu. Then I was in the mood to bake something so baked a loaf of whole wheat bread. Yum!

No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

Happy cooking!

I’m really excited about some of my dinner plans this week. I’m going to try a few new recipes! The past several weeks we’ve been eating a very simple menu but this week I wanted to mix things up a bit.

Monday – Tacos

Tuesday – Fajitas (bell pepper, mushrooms, onions) with cilantro lime rice and black beans

Wednesday – Hearty One-Pot Meal Miso Soup and sushi (cucumber and avocado) – Soup is a new recipe.

Thursday – Pasta and garlic bread

Friday – Basil/Lemongrass Tofu with Mushroom/Cashew Fried Noodles – New recipe.

Sabbath – Homemade pizza with pineapples, mushrooms, and black olives

Sunday – Stroganoff

Now I need to workout so that I can start making dinner. Happy eating!

I seem to be on a pumpkin kick today. Yesterday afternoon, I baked a pumpkin and stored it in the fridge, knowing I’d probably be using all of it today. Sure enough, all I have left is enough pumpkin to try making a pumpkin spiced latte!

First I made muffins. The recipe made two dozen. They are very good but I think next time I’ll cut the recipe in half and serve them as a dessert.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

And of course, I had to make pumpkin pie! I’m still testing recipes, trying to find one that we love. We’ve tried a few that we’ve liked and a couple that were nasty, but haven’t found the perfect recipe yet. Hopefully this one will be the winner.

Tofu Pumpkin Pie

Today hasn’t been all about baking. I also made a new dish for lunch – Basil Garlic Linguine. Even hubby liked it and he typically prefers expensive jarred sauces. I altered the recipe a bit, sauteeing the garlic and heating up the entire sauce. Then I stirred in the basil right before serving. Yummy! Definitely a keeper.

Tonight I’m trying this recipe for Mushroom and Rice Cheezy-Q’s. I’m so glad tomorrow is Sabbath and I’ll have a day off from all of the dishes!

The best part of it? I still have these beauties to bake into something yummy!