July 21, 2012- Brie and Apple Croissants with Toasted Almonds

Brie and Apple Croissants with Toasted Almonds

A few weeks back Nick and I went to a little cafe and had a brie and apple croissant with toasted almonds. It was good but I thought to myself, "I could make this at home." So I did. And it was so yummy. We got small croissants so it wasn't so big and we had a salad on the side. I toasted the almonds myself because I had raw sliced almonds at home. We bought a Granny Smith apple because it contrasted well with the creamyness of the brie. It was really delicious. I can see cutting these in half and having them at a party. An easy to make and very grown up sandwich. 

July 27, 2012- Wet Burritos with Chickenless Strips

Wet Burritos with Chickenless Strips

A few weeks back I made some homemade enchilada sauce and we had the tortillas that we needed to use. We always have some beans in the cupboard so I thought of making a wet burrito for dinner. A few years ago I tried these chickenless strips that Trader Joes sells. They are packed with protein and low in fat and calories. So I bought a package and sauteed some in olive oil, lime, cumin, and chili powder. I added them along with some beans, rice, and cheese to our flax and oat tortillas and topped it off with some enchilada sauce and a little cheese and voila we had homemade wet burritos. They tasted really good and we still had some of the black bean and roasted corn couscous salad left so I added a little lime to that and we had that on the side. 

July 26, 2012- Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Sandwich- Vegan

Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Sandwich- Vegan

This was a really simple sandwich to make and consisted of only a few ingredients. This is the week of avocado and beans by the way. It had a can of chickpeas, an avocado, and some lime juice. It tasted really fresh and good and the texture was slightly chunky but also creamy. This was supposed to be vegan but we had some sliced swiss cheese that needed to get used so we use a slice of that and also a piece of romaine each. We used oat nut bread which is my favorite! We also had some grapes and I had half a bag of zesty ranch veggie chips. It was a hearty and delicious sandwich and dinner.

July 25, 2012- Roasted Chickpea Fajitas- Vegan

Roasted Chickpea Fajitas- Vegan

Nick and I have a recipe for roasted chickpea tacos but I thought that this recipe sounded really yummy and different so we decided to try this one out. You marinate the chickpeas in some various spices like cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, and bake them. They tasted really good. We also sauteed some mushrooms and had some rice to go with the fajitas. I also had some baked tofu that we added to the fajitas. I made a roasted corn and black bean couscous salad to go on the side.

July 24, 2012- All You Can Eat Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette- Vegan

All You Can Eat Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette- Vegan

Salad #9 This is another salad from vegetarian times and is the same vinaigrette we used from the July 20 recipe. The salad had a mixture of lettuce, carrots, celery, and peas. I also had Nick make some baked tofu earlier that had a light soy sauce marinade for some added protein and flavor. It had the lemon basil vinaigrette which has fresh lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and chopped fresh basil. It is a yummy dressing and easy to make.

July 23, 2012- Creamy Avocado Pasta- Vegan

Creamy Avocado Pasta- Vegan

This pasta was so easy to make! It only required a few ingredients: pasta, an avocado, lime, olive oil, and pepper. You need a food processor or blender for the sauce. You use the avocado to make the sauce. We used some olive oil the thin out the sauce a little. It was a tangy sauce because of the lime but still a very creamy pasta because of the natural creaminess of the avocado and super fast to make!

July 22, 2012- Layered Pizza Pie

Layered Pizza Pie

Tonight we had a layered pizza pie which is a recipe we have had once before. You use refrigerated pizza crust and put it on the bottom of a pie plate then you use a mixture of pizza sauce and mushroom and put that next. Then you sprinkle some mozzarella and then a layer of frozen spinach that has been thawed and squeezed (to get the excess water out). Then you sprinkle more mozzarella. You put another layer of refrigerated pizza dough on top. You brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly grated parmsean cheese and bake it. It is a really yummy and easy dish to make.

July 20, 1012- Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette- Vegan

Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette- Vegan

Salad #8. We we had been having a lot of cheesey and bread stuff so we wanted some light and healthy. We made a salad that had a mixture of lettuce, jicama, carrots, and grapes. We used a recipe for a lemon basil vinaigrette that was simple and used fresh basil and a hint of Dijon mustard. It was a really yummy salad and I really liked the vinaigrette. 

July 19, 2012- BATMAN!!!!!!!

Batman

Well we had decided over a month ago that we were going to the midnight premier of Batman. So we were going to get food at the mall where we were seeing it. We decided to go to CPK and get food there. We got a tuscan white bean hummus with pita bread and a mushroom and cheese pizza that we split. It was plenty of food and we treated ourselves to some Coldstone. Considering we got to the theater at 6:45 and didn't get home until 3:15:am I think we deserved it.

July 18, 2012- Veggie Bll Subs

Veggie Ball Subs

A while back we bought some veggie balls from Costco that are still in our freezer. They are really convenient to pop in the microwave and add to spaghetti or other meals. We had an idea to make our version of a "meatball" sub using these veggie balls. So we bought some french rolls and lathered on tomato basil sauce then used 5 veggie balls and drizzled more tomato basil and sprinkled on mozzarella cheese. OH MAN! So good. I could eat these every week they were delicious.

July 17, 2012- Carrot and Hummus Crunch on Sourdough- Vegan

Carrot and Hummus Crunch on Sourdough- Vegan

It's been a white since we had a vegan recipe and this one comes from our MFM cookbook. This was a really simple recipe to make and was really quite delicious. You take a piece of sourdough bread, spread on some hummus, you saute some carrots and onions in olive oil and put that on next. Then we added some sliced cucumber and spread some Greek yogurt on top. It was a simple meal but was really quite delicious and healthy. I think we will definitely have it again. If taking this for lunch you just make a sandwich and put another piece of bread on top. My friend Cristina came over for dinner so I roasted the asparagus we were supposed to use for the risotto and we had that on the side too. Yum!

July 16, 2012- Holders

Holders

We were supposed to have an asparagus risotto tonight but I think I took a longer than usual nap (it's summer and time to catch up on sleep) so when I woke up we didn't want to cook so we went to Holder's for pancakes. This is our favorite place to go for pancakes. So yummy! We usually get the buttermilk short stack and split it but this time we were different and got the blueberry pancakes! Yum!

July 15, 2012- Brown rice, beans, and cheese

Brown rice, beans, and cheese

Again trying not to use the oven we used the crock pot. This is one of our favorite recipes to make because it is really simple. It requires only a few ingredients: brown rice, black beans, cream of celery, vegetable broth, cheddar cheese, and some chips for dipping. We also sprinkle some lime juice on top for added flavor. It is a subtly tasty dish and quite filling. We bought some sweet potato chips from Trader Joes that are quite delicious. 

July 14, 2012- Yummy Salad with Marie's Ranch Dressing

Yummy Salad with Marie's Ranch Dressing

It has been really hot and we have been trying not to use the oven so we decided to make another salad. Yay! So salad #7 I believe. This one had lettuce (a mixture), a cucumber, homemade croutons, peas, kidney beans, cheddar cheese, and Marie's ranch dressing. This is our favorite ranch dressing. It is so yummy. So we made a big salad and we really quite satisfied with dinner :)

July 13, 2012- Cafe Gratitude

Cafe Gratitude

Today we went kayaking in Santa Cruz. It was my first time ever kayaking in the ocean! So scary! I was so scared of sharks in the water and tipping but none of these things happened. What I ended up being more scared of was disturbing the peacefully sleeping otters. They were so cute! We went to take a picture and our battery was dead! This tends to happen to us often. Oh well. We had a Groupon deal to go kayaking and also one to go to a restaurant we love called Cafe Gratitude. It is vegan, organic, and raw. They do have some cooked food. I got the tacos and nick got the polenta puttanesca. So delicious!

July 12, 2012- Summer Arugula Salad- Vegan

Summer Arugula Salad- Vegan

Salad #6! I was surprised to find another arugula salad on the menu. Maybe Nick is finding a liking for arugula after all? This salad is very simple and has only a few ingredients: arugula, fresh corn (off the cob), diced avocados, diced tomato, lemon juice, and olive oil. Well we had a situation and our avocados were too ripe. So we decided to add a small apple and some celery. I like that it is a light dressing. Since Nick isn't completely sold on the arugula and it actually really is quite strong, we also add spinach to the mix (also for the extra iron).

July 11, 2012- Crunchy Cauliflower and Macaroni

Crunchy Cauliflower and Macaroni

This is another recipe from MFM. The recipe has elbow macaroni, cauliflower, and mushrooms so it is a hearty mac and cheese. It is not a very cheesey mac and cheese and only really calls for cheese on the top, but of course Nick and I being the cheese lovers we are put some cheese in the sauce as well. It was quite flavorful due to the cauliflower and the mushrooms and I could taste both distinctly so that was nice. I think we will probably have this mac and cheese again but it is nice to have a regular homemade mac and cheese every now and again.

July 10, 2012- Asian Slaw with Lime Dressing- Vegan

Asian Slaw with Lime Dressing- Vegan

Salad #5! Yay for salads. This salad is a little bit different because it has a cooked element: onions. I actually really really liked this salad. I was surprised Nick suggested this salad because it has cilantro which he doesn't like and cabbage which he isn't a huge fan of, but we tried it anyway. The salad had cabbage, a granny smith apple, and carrots, as well as a carmelized onion. The dressing was lime, brown sugar, and soy sauce. It was really simple to make. The dressing cooks with the onion and you pour it over the cabbage and it wilts the cabbage down. I really liked the addition of the apple which adds a crisp tartness to the sour, tangy soy sauce. This was definitely a repeater for me. I also enjoyed having cilantro :)

Also, because we still had so many peaches, I decided to experiment and make a homemade peach cobbler for the first time. I usually make peach pies, but I thought a cobber would be something different. It was a southern style peach cobbler (not sure what differentiates southern from other styles) but it was delicious!

July 9, 2012- Mushroom and Celery Risotto

Mushroom and Celery Risotto

 This is a recipe from the MFM cookbook and Nick seems to like to pick risotto recipes without remembering how much work they take (i.e. the stirring). We made a mushroom risotto a while back and that was pretty good so we thought the addition of celery would be nice. We used cremini mushrooms instead of the called for porcini mushrooms. I have yet to experiment with using dried mushrooms in any recipe. I don't know what my trepidation is with using them. Anyway, after lots of vegetable stock and much stirring, we finally got creamy risotto. Lucky for me, Nick planned risotto for next week too! Yay!

July 8, 2012- Nachos

Nachos

 So when Nick and I went to Santa Barbara for our mini vacation we stopped off at the Apple Farm (delicious apple desserts!). We didn't want to eat anything too filling so we split an appetizer of nachos. These nachos had the usual chips, cheese, beans, guac, and sour cream. BUT they also had some enchilada sauce on them which just made them taste spectacular. So Nick and I decided to try to replicate or at least attempt such nachos. Of course ours were on a grander scale as ours were for dinner. For some reason whenever I make nachos my chips get a little soggy. I used the homemade enchilada sauce I made for the sweet potato and black bean enchiladas from June 27 (bomb recipe) and these nachos were ooey gooey deliciousness. I think we will be making nachos again for sure!















We had also bought a lot of peaches (15 to be exact) a few days ago and they were ripening quickly so we made one of our favorite summer desserts: roasted peaches with sweetened mascarpone cheese. Delicious!

July 7, 2012- Salad of Warm Vegetables with Lemon Vinaigrette- Vegan

Salad of Warm Vegetables with Lemon Vinaigrette- Vegan

Salad #4!! Another Vegetarian Times recipe! Woot woot! This is another recipe that Nick picked out, we can call him the salad man. This was a different salad but was fun to make. It consisted of poaching vegetable which is not something that I really ever do. The vegetables in this salad included fennel, carrots, asparagus, green beans, and snap peas. We also cooked some brown rice and it all lay on a bed of romaine lettuce. The lemon vinaigrette had lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, a little bit of dijon mustard, and some honey. I was interested to see how Nick was going to like this because he does not like mustard at all but he really liked it (I think because I put more honey and lemon than it called for). Also I ate fennel for the first time. Note to self: I do not like fennel. No matter how hard I try to like some things, aka: eggplant, I just don't. We will add fennel to this list of things. Well anyway, it was a fun salad to make and another repeat. Yay for finding new things to make and eat!

July 6, 2012- Hot Mozzarella Sandwich

Hot Mozzarella Sandwich

This was another recipe from MFM (this is the abbreviation I will not use for Meat Free Mondays cookbook). It was so incredibly easy to make and we actually did a variation of it. It is supposed to be a closed sandwich but we made it open faced. We used sourdough bread and you spread pesto on the bread, you then top it with mozzarella and it is supposed to be sliced tomato but I have a thing with seeds so we did diced tomato. We put it in the broiler on high for a few minutes so the cheese could melt. It was so tasty and delicious. We bought already prepared pesto so it was literally done in 10 minutes. We also had a salad on the side that had romaine, spinach, arugula, dried apricots, pecans, and grapes. We had our nephews over to spend the night and they liked everything so I was happy about that. We used the dressing from the night before but instead of brown sugar used maple syrup. It was really a great dinner. Definitely a repeat.

Sorry for the bluriness...don't know what happened.

July 5, 2012- Arugula Salad with Grapes and Cashews- Vegan

Arugula Salad with Grapes and Cashews- Vegan

Salad #3 is another one from Vegetarian Times. Sometimes I ask myself where I would be in life without this magazine and I'm really not sure where my cooking and eating life would be. But anyway...for salad number three we decided, well Nick surprisingly picked an ARUGULA salad! Shocker. Well we of course mixed spinach in with it but it was still delicious. We also had a cucumber that Nick's mom gave us fresh from her garden. So the salad had spinach, arugula, red grapes, cucumber, and cashews. Very simple. The dressing was red wine vinegar, some brown sugar, and olive oil. We really enjoyed this salad and will probably make it or a variation of it again. Yay for salads!

Spinach from our garden!

July 4, 2012- Portabella Burgers with Homemade Maccaroni Salad

Portabella Burgers with Homemade Macaroni Salad

Usually for Memorial day and the 4th of July Nick and I still try to feel "American" and have a "burger" obviously it is a veggie burger so we decided to go for a portabella mushroom burger this time. We bought some ciabatta rolls to serve them on and some swiss cheese. Nick marinated them in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and we cooked them on our make shift grill (meaning our flat plan on the stove) and I decided to buck up and buy mayonnaise to make some homemade macaroni salad. I don't really like mayo and I don't like having it in my house but I knew to make macaroni salad I needed to buy it so I did. The macaroni salad was pretty good. Our burgers were messy with an addition of avocado but delicious. We downed a cold glass of beer and enjoyed some good old fireworks that night. Happy 236th birthday America. We'll enjoy another burger next year.

July 3, 2012- Falafel with Tahini- Vegan

Falafel with Tahini- Vegan

We have a couple of recipes for falafel, one being our falafel burgers we make frequently but this one is from the Meat Free Mondays cookbook (recipe number 2!!!). So we decided to try this one. Typically falafel recipes call for parsley and we never buy the parsley but this time we did. I bought Italian parsley because we are, of course, Italian! So anyway, it also called for making a homemade tahini sauce which we have never done. We usually eat our falafel with hummus. So we decided to be brave and make a homemade tahini sauce. Well, the tahini sauce was thick and not so tasty by itself, think really thick kind of lemony sesame seeds...anyway. But all together it was a rather good meal and I will say that I do like this falafel recipe. We typically have our falafel in pita with lettuce and some cucumber so we still stuck with that. Probably will have the falafel again, maybe with hummus next time...who knows. Oh...no picture. :(

July 2, 2012- Avocado Spinach Panini- Vegan

Avocado Spinach Panini- Vegan

This is a recipe from a summer Vegetarian Times from 2011. We don't actually own a panini press, we own a George Foreman grill but it's practically the same thing, grill marks are grill marks right? This panini was super simple to make. We got sourdough bread, fresh spinach (not from the garden, we didn't have enough), sundried tomatoes, and avocado. Nick liked to mush up the avocado and spread it so it stays more nicely. So we spread the avocado on both sides put the sundried tomatoes on and put about a cup of spinach on and put it in the grill and left it there for about 5 minutes. And that was it. Very simple and yet tasty. A nice quick summer sandwich with lots of iron! We had ours with a few baby carrots and shared a bag of veggie chips.

July 1, 2012- Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Arugula Pesto

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Arugula Pesto

So for my birthday Nick bought me the Meat Free Mondays cookbook which Paul McCartney and his daughters wrote and I am excited to say that this is our first recipe from their cookbook. I was excited to try this gnocchi recipe, well hesitant and dreading it is more like it, because our last time making gnocchi was a DISASTER. It was more like soggy dumplings that we had to force ourselves to eat or we would have wasted 3 pounds of potatoes and too much good parmesan. Anyway, this time we knew we would do it right and alas we did! We completely followed the recipe and it turned our perfecto! Besides my first batch of cooking them because I cooked them for too long and we had another soggy mess but they were delicious and the arugula pesto was simple to make and Nick actually liked it. Side note: Nick does not fancy arugula much. I decided to substitute cashews for the pine nuts as I usually do in pesto because pine nuts are so expensive. But this recipe is definitely worth a try and it was exciting to finally get some pasta right. It was also a colorful dinner with orange pasta and green sauce. I also made a southern banana pudding for dinner. It has vanilla wafers on the bottom, with sliced bananas next, then vanilla pudding, then another layer of that. You put it in the fridge for a few hours and the vanilla wafers get soft like cake. It is really yummy and we served it with a little bit of whipped cream. Yum!

Look! Pasta! Yay!

It's sideways...but you get the picture...it looks delicious and tasted delicious too!

Sideways banana pudding! :)

June 30, 2012- Birthday Party

Birthday Party

Tonight we had a birthday party to go to so unfortunately we have no pictures to post. But I will tell you that it was a 1920s party and we did have a fantastic time :)

June 29, 2012- Dinner with the Family- Sweet Tomatoes

Dinner with the Family- Sweet Tomatoes

Tonight we had a birthday celebration for Nick's Mom, our nephew Riley, and our sister-in-law Joanie's parents Mimi and Ray. Needless to say it was quite a few people, 17 or 18 so we all got together at Sweet Tomatoes and ate a lot of food. Fourth or fifth servings for some! I like this place because I can get a huge salad and a slice of pizza and some mac and cheese and a sundae. Perfecto!

June 28, 2012- Southwest Rice and Bean Salad- Vegan

Southwest Rice and Bean Salad- Vegan

Salad #2 is a southwest rice and bean salad that Nick picked out. This salad is on a bed of romaine lettuce. It contains a mixture of pinto means and lime and tomatoes. It is topped off with some rice as well as some crushed sweet potato tortilla chips. Finally it is dolloped with a scoop of salsa. It was a salad that was refreshing because of the lime and fresh tomatoes as well as the salsa. I liked the addition of the rice to the salad which gave it a little something extra. I also liked the crunch of the tortilla chips which was not originally included in the recipe but we decided to add anyway. I think we will have this salad again.

June 27, 2012- Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

I have been eying this recipe for months now because it was on the cover of the December 2011 Vegetarian Times for the holiday issue special. It is a substitute main course for Christmas instead of a traditional meat main course. And boy were these delicious. I made a homemade enchilada sauce for the first time and besides the fact that I didn't have some of the spices, it actually tasted like a lot of the enchilada sauces I have had before. This dish was healthy and tasty and definitely a repeater! We look forward to potentially serving this at our family holidays!

Enchiladas right out of the oven!

Enchiladas with all the toppings: fresh tomatoes, avocado, and sour cream. Delicious!

June 26, 2012- Veggie Salad with Dill Green Goddess Dressing

Veggie Salad with Dill Green Goddess Dressing

So Nick and I decided that this summer was going to be the summer of trying lots of different types of salads and this was our first one. It was a delicious salad and was light but still very filling. It had a bed of romaine lettuce and included steamed potatoes, steamed cauliflower, radishes, and cucumber. We also added some fresh diced tomato. The dressing was made out of greek yogurt and had cucumber and dill as well as some lemon. It was really a nice dressing. It was a very healthy salad and we both enjoyed it.

June 25, 2012- Singapore Style Rice Noodles- Vegan

Singapore Style Rice Noodles- Vegan

This is a recipe that we had about a month earlier at Nick's parents' house. Our version was a little different because we included different vegetables. We didn't actually use rice noodles but we used cappellini pasta instead (because we're Italian!). We also only used corn, zucchini, and peas. We also added some red pepper flakes to give it a kick. The sauce is basically vegetable broth, soy sauce, and some brown sugar. It is very simple but still very tasty, and also vegan!

June 24, 2012- Tapas Dinner

Tapas Dinner

For tonight I wanted to make a special dinner to celebrate Nick's Mom's birthday so I planned a special tapas style dinner (small meals). We had a gazpacho, avocado hummus, brussel sprout pizzas on flatbread, and portabello fries with a basil aioli sauce. Everything was so delicious but we forgot to take a picture! We did manage to take a picture of our cupcakes all decorated. And there are also some pictures of the cupcakes in stages.

Here are the vanilla agave cupcakes out of the oven.

Here is the strawberry compote cooling in the fridge.

This is the balsamic reduction cooking away on the stove.

And the final product: a vanilla agave cupcake with a strawberry compote filling, a mascarpone frosting, fresh strawberry on top and a balsamic reduction drizzle. YUM!

June 23, 2012- Pasta with Leftover Sauce

Pasta with Leftover Sauce

We didn't need leftovers for the next day and we had some spaghetti sauce that I made earlier in the freezer so we unthawed it and then had it over some corkscrew pasta. We also were prepping some food to bring over to celebrate with Nick's mom for her birthday so there are some pictures of some homemade flatbread that I made for some brussel sprout flatbread pizzas. We also made things for the cupcakes I designed especially for her but I will post those for tomorrow. :)

Flatbread!! Yum! :)