Backyard Picnicing

Yesterday was another absolutely gorgeous day. Yay for beautiful holiday weekends!! We spent the better part of the day outside, and decided to have a little backyard picnic at lunch time. Our lunch consisted of all left-overs from the graduation party, so I don't have any food to blog about, but I thought the photo was just too cute not to post.

And with this post I am now up to date. It took me all weekend, but I did it. Now I'm off to start on dinner and another dish to blog about later.

Graduation Day

On Saturday my baby brother graduated from high-school. As you can see, he's hardly a baby, but I still remember the day he was born just as well as I remember the days my own children were born. There are 13 years difference between my brother and I. I remember spending mornings laying in my mom's recliner, watching television, and letting that cute little baby boy nap on my chest. I also remember, surprisingly enough, all of the arguing we did. You wouldn't think that with so much age difference there would be a lot of arguing.....well, you'd be wrong. Teenage girls aren't too keen on little toddler boys getting into all of their stuff!! Anyway, reminiscing aside, I absolutely can not believe that he's graduated from high school.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday, and our family had a nice little cook out to celebrate the big day (and to celebrate my grandpa's 86th birthday!!). Now, apparently my mom isn't quite down with the whole vegan thing yet, and is seemingly unwilling to accommodate us, seeing as she didn't make one single dish that we could eat. OK, to be fair, she did have chips and salsa and some dinner rolls that were vegan, but I'd hardly call that a meal.

Luckily I didn't come empty handed. I brought the baked beans and orzo salad that I blogged about previously. I also brought along some Creamy Vegan Cole Slaw. I made this on mother's day and my grandpa just raved about it, so I decided to make some for him. I must admit, it is some damn good cole slaw. Rob and I also provided some huge portobello mushroom caps to throw on the barbie. And what celebration would be complete without dessert?? I made some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing to take care of that!!

Creamy Vegan Cole Slaw

3/4 cup Vegenaise

2 Tbs unrefined sugar

2 Tbs Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Tbs dry mustard

2 tsp celery seed

1 small onion diced small

1 bag Dole Cole Slaw Mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)

salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl whisk together all ingredients up to onion. Add onion and cole slaw mix to bowl and fold to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

Now that's what I call a meal!!!!

Vegetarian Times Recipes

I've been making a lot of recipes from Vegetarian Times lately. I went back through a lot of my old issues a few weeks ago, and was reminded of all of the recipes I'd wanted to try, so I decided to get started on them this past week.


First up was the Vegetarian Gumbo from the May issue. This was pretty good, but was lacking something. It was a lot better once we put a few dashes of chipotle hot sauce on it. I think next time I will make some vegan sausages to add to it. I served it with vegan cornbread and some sauteed Mustard Greens from our CSA basket. The greens were sauteed with garlic, and onion and just a dash of Liquid Smoke. Oh man, they were sooo good!!
Next I made the Spring Orzo Salad from the current June issue. The CSA basket had asparagus in it again this week, so this was a nice way to use it up. This was really good. Even my salad-phobic husband liked it. He liked it so much we've been eating it for 3 days now!! I altered the recipe a bit, so I'll post it here.

Vegetable Orzo Salad

2 cups orzo pasta

1 lb asparagus

6 green onions

2 cloves garlic

6 oz Portobello mushroom caps, diced

10 oz package frozen peas

1 14.5 oz can artichoke hearts, chopped

Vinaigrette

3 Tbs red wine vinegar

2 Tbs olive oil

2 tsp dijon mustard

2 tsp brown sugar

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside. Heat skillet over medium heat with 1 Tbs olive oil. Saute onions and garlic for a few minutes. Add asparagus and saute 3-4 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute until soft. Remove from heat, add in peas and artichoke hearts and stir to combine and heat through. Toss vegetable mixture with pasta. Whisk together vinaigrette and toss with salad. Serve warm or chilled.

Finally, I made the Fettuccine Alfredo from April's issue. I didn't have the mushrooms, so I didn't use those. Again, another VT recipe that didn't disappoint. This was some seriously good alfredo sauce. It's different than the "heart attack on a plate" sauce that most of us associate with fettuccine, but the flavor of this can't be beat. Rob again loved this one. He is a serious pasta man, and he said this was one of his favorite sauces. The cayenne pepper makes it a tad too spicy for the kiddos, but you could easily leave it out.

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit.........

I made 2 bean dishes this week. Typically we have more bean dishes than that, but 2 was all for this week. Stella practically lives on beans, so I always have a bunch cooked and frozen. I thaw them out and heat them up for her lunch. She likes them plain (especially black and cannellini beans), so they are a really simple lunch.

This week for lunch I spiced them up a little. I made a variation of a Red Beans and Rice dish from Vegan Planet. Robin's version is Caribbean Rice with Red Beans.......I spiced the beans instead of the rice, so my version is Caribbean Beans with Rice (clever name isn't it??!!)

Caribbean Beans with Rice

2 cups cooked red kidney beans

EVOO for sauteing onion

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp light brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

In a sauce pot heat olive oil and saute onion until softened. Add beans, and seasonings to heat through. Serve over steamed basmati rice.

Quick and simple lunch. The kids loved it, it had just the perfect amount of sweetness to heighten their interest, and the allspice and nutmeg lent a very nice flavor.

I also made some baked beans for a family function. These were probably the best baked beans I've ever had. Canned baked beans are full of stuff we probably shouldn't be eating, and also usually a little too sweet for my liking. These were sweet, but not too sweet (I could still taste the beans, which I like). Not to mention, I know exactly what went into them!!

Vegan Baked Beans

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup celery, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups cooked red kidney beans

2 cups cooked black beans

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup ketchup

2 tsp dry mustard

2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Blackstrap Molasses

Preheat oven to 350. In a large oven proof pan heat 1 Tbs olive oil over medium high heat and saute onion and celery until softened. Add garlic and saute about 30 seconds or so, until fragrant. Add beans, sugar, syrup, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, and molasses. Heat through, then transfer to oven for about 45 minutes, until liquid is bubbly. Serve hot.