Typical Tuesday...

So finally, after too long, my husband’s day off is now Tuesday, which is one of my days off! It’s almost happened before, but then the same week his day off got changed to mine, my job told me that my days would be changing….this happened twice! As if the great forces of Nature didn’t want us to have one day off together! But now, *knock on wood* we actually have one FULL day off together and I’m so excited. Since the big day change, I try to cook breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert (unless we’re out somewhere and eat). Yesterday I got to do breakfast, dinner and dessert (and a dessert I’ll be posting about tomorrow when they’re readyyy )

 

Breakfast Bake: (From Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook)

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (you could use olive oil, which I will next time)

1/2 onion, minced

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced (I used three)

12 ounces soy sausage or tempeh, chopped (I used tempeh sausage from Vegan With a Vengeance, recipe follows)

1/2 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 cup vegan cheddar cheese, grated (I used follow your heart, next time I think I’ll use Daiya, or real cheese, because the FYH was too strong, and too….neon)

Preheat oven to 400. Chop up your onion and garlic.

Mince them up…. especially if you’re feeding it to someone who doesn’t like the texture of onions…NOT me!

This garlic clove was screaming to be turned into a heart! How cute is that!?

Add the sausage . Cook until browned. Add the potatoes. Saute for 5 minutes. (Next time, I’m actually going to saute the potatoes for a good 20 minutes BEFORE I add the sausage, to give them more of a homestyle potato texture, because some of the potatoes were still a tiny bit raw from only being sauted the 7 minutes.)  Add in the rosemary, salt, and pepper, continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Pour mixture into 9×13 baking dish (I put mine in a little 8×8 dish and it was fine, and that was with 3 russet potatoes).

Here it is before going into the oven…

Bake 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft. During the last few minutes of baking, sprinkle the cheese over the potato mixture and bake until cheese melts.

Here it is after….YUMMM

This is making me hungryyy!

Gotta have some ketchup on it!

 

Tempeh Sausage Crumbles:

8 oz package tempeh
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried margoram or oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon

 

Start by cutting up your tempeh (I do this, just because it makes it easier to crumble).

Then you can grab 4 or 5 pieces at a time and crumbles them with your fingers, and they break apart much easier.

This is what it should look like crumbled.

 

Once it’s crumbled, add the tempeh to a saute pan, and add enough water to almost cover it. Over high heat, steam the tempeh until most of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Drain the remaining water and add the rest of the ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Here’s what it looks like all cooked! And it was gooood.

 

You could always use store bought vegan (0r non, obviously) sausage, but I like to make my stuff from scratch when I can!

No lunch today, we had to many errands to run!

Dinner, oh dinnerrrr….I will definitely be making these again…

 

Curried Chickpea Cakes: (Recipe from Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook)

1 (15-ounce/430 g) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup (20 g) sliced green onions, both white and light green parts
1/3 cup (75 ml) light coconut milk
2 teaspoons evaporated cane sugar
2/3 cup (75 g) breadcrumbs, plus 1/4 cup (30 g) for coating (Something I didn’t do, and it turned out fine)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup (130 g) brown rice, cooked
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) grapeseed oil or toasted sesame oil, for pan searing

In a large food processor, combine the chickpeas and green onions.

Pulse until combined.

This is how much I ground it up, I think you want it even more though….because some of them fell apart as I seared them. Next time I’ll ground them up to almost a paste, because the rice gives it texture.

Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the coconut milk, sugar, 2/3 cup (75 g) of the breadcrumbs, curry powder, nutmeg, and cumin, brown rice and salt, and stir, until well combined.

Here is everything all mixed together.

Mold into 10 patties.

I know I look like I’m doing Vanna White here, but I’m really just pressing the sides in lol. You want your patties to be about this size.

In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat (you want to heat the oil for a while so its completely hot, that you won’t get oil logged patties). Add the chickpea cakes to the pan and sauté until there’s a nice golden sear on the bottom. Flip and sear the other side as well.

Here are ones that I flipped, and ones that I had just put in…it took about 4-5 minutes per side.

Drain on paper towels. Serve with mango salsa.

Mango Salsa: (Recipe from allrecipes.com)

1 mango – peeled, seeded and chopped

(I also added half of an avocado!)
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 fresh jalapeno chile pepper, finely chopped (I didn’t add this)
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice

If you don’t know, an easy way of getting an avocado out of its shell is to just go around it with a large spoon, and it pops right out.

See, nice and neat, and easy to dice up!

 

Also, people have asked me how to cut up mango, so I’ll show you how I do it…

Cut off a little piece from the bottom like this…

That way it can stand up easily, like this.

Using a chefs knife, or paring knife, shave off the skin.

Finally, cut around the pit.

 

Combine all your ingredients…

How pretty is this?!

 

And plate!

Mmmmm, this dinner was SO good! I have the extra patties in the freezer for another day!

And FINALLY, last but definitely not least….my icebox(kinda) cake!!

Kinda an icebox cake, because this time I made my own wafer cookies, so I DID need to turn the oven on. But I usually make it with the wafers from cream filled cookies (Trader Joe Joe Joe’s are my favs). I scoop out the creme and save it for……..peppermint patties!! That’s right, nothing around here goes to waste….;) This cake couldn’t get any easier!

 

My Choco-vanilla Icebox Cake:

Chocolate wafer cookies

2 cans of coconut cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar (or more, if you want it sweeter)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

So, for the wafer cookies, I used this recipe. And after those are all cooked and cooled, all you have to do is get your cream ready. I use canned coconut cream. I’m obsessed with it. You can’t use the low fat kind, or else it won’t have the thick cream on the top. So for this particular cake, because I made it in a small 6in x 3in round pan, I used two cans of coconut. You just want to scoop out the cream, it’s okay if you get some of the liquid in, but not too much. I save the liquid for smoothies. Combine all your ingredients in a bowl (I use my kitchen-aid mixer, but you can also use a hand held mixer. You could whip it by hand, but that will hurt a lot and it won’t get as fluffy.)

WHENEVER adding powdered sugar to anything, you want to sift it, look at all the large pieces of caked up sugar I had at the bottom of my cup. That would make whatever you’re putting it into all lumpy and gross looking, and we can’t have that!

Mix on high speed for about 5 minutes, until nice and fluffy.

Get your pan ready by lining it with plastic wrap. (Not necessary, but just makes it easier to remove later.)

Put a layer of cream down (depending on how big your pan is, you want a good 1/2 in layer), and a layer of cookies (I think I may try and start it off with cookies next time I make it, so if you try that, let me know how it comes out!). If you need to break them apart to make them fit, that’s fine.

It looks ugly, but it won’t matter once they’re all covered. Promise!

Repeat, until no cream and cookies are left.

I like to crumble some wafers on top to make it look all nice and cute

Stick it in the fridge for a good 6 hours, or overnight, so that the cream softens the cookies.

This cake is SOO darn good!!! And how easy was it to make!?!

 

And, just because my sister complained of no Roscoe picture….here ya go

Always watching me

Until tomorrow!!!