Thrive Diet

I've just finished reading Thrive Fitness, and have started reading the Thrive Diet, and this was my first recipe from the book: coconut curry chickpeas and greens. It was so simple to put together, and very tasty.

I'll do reviews on the books once I've finished the Thrive Diet.

some food highlights of the week

Butternut squash and parsnip soup was on the menu on the night that we had the wind storm. It was a miserable day being cold, rainy, and extremely windy. Stanley Park was closed as was the Lions Gate bridge. Our backyard was scattered with small branches that had blown from the trees. It's quite something to watch those very tall trees sway back and forth in the wind. The wind blew right through me, and I felt like it would take hours to get warm again. I needed to make something quick and warming. We also had a butternut squash that had been sitting on the counter for a couple of weeks. Soup is such a simple meal to put together and is so rewarding.

More cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. These are Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies. I have perhaps an unrealistic goal of baking every cookie in this book. There are 100 recipes. I've now made 9 recipes from this book. Hmm. It could take a while. db figured out that it might take me 2 years to make every recipe. I think I can do it in less. He may have been saying that to see if I would bake more cookies more often since it's his favorite sweet treat.

I'm also trying the gluten free flour mix from the book to make my cookies so I can enjoy them without too much worry. These were loaded with chocolate chips and cocoa so they were very chocolatey.

Okay these aren't mine. I'm not a maraschino cherry fan so that's one sign that I didn't make these (no offense to the cupcake maker though. They do make them look beautiful). Another indication would be that I could never frost and decorate a cupcake to make it look so beautiful. I guess a third give-away would be the packaging. They are packaged in a take-out container.
These were chocolate (note the past tense because they didn't last long) cupcakes with vanilla icing. Actually, I would call them a Black Forest cupcake because there was a cherry filling in the middle.

They were very generously given to me from the baker. She came into the store yesterday to load up on some vegan goodies, and mentioned that she'd just come from the market. I found out that she goes to a few markets on the weekend and sells vegan sweets including cupcakes. She asked me if I liked chocolate. That's an easy one to answer. Then she dashed out to her car and came back with 2 containers of cupcakes. She also gave me some mini chocolate cupcakes with a mint frosting that I shared with customers in the store. It was so kind of her. I got her card that has her website and reads, "Sweet Delights from the kitchen of the Vegan Vixen." I think I'll be seeking out which market she's at on the weekends, and try to make it to one. We have the best customers.

Vegan Soul Kitchen

For Christmas I bought db Vegan Soul Kitchen
and then eagerly awaited for him to crack it open to discover a recipe that would inspire him.

Well, it finally happened and db did not disappoint. He pulled several recipes together to create this tasty colourful dish. What we have here is Blackened Tofu with Succotash Salsa (there were many Sylvester impressions of "sufferin' succotash" being said whenever the word came up). db served the Blackened Tofu with Citrus Collards, Brown Coconut Rice, and Grilled Asparagus with Rosemary Sea Salt (that didn't quite make it into the picture).
It was a colourful and delicious plate, and everything went together so well. It felt like a real treat to be served such fine food. 

One of the unique aspects of this book, Vegan Soul Kitchen, is that each recipe has a suggested soundtrack. So with each recipe db worked on, I found the accompanying song and played it while he cooked. I'll have to do a review of this book once I read it and we make a few more recipes from it. So far so good.

Food this week.

Brrr, it's cold! Snow is on the way for us. This will be the first weekend of snow, which means unploughed streets, cars getting stuck on hills, buses re-routing or not showing up at all, and all of that fun stuff. Hopefully, my commute to and from work will not be too disrupted.

So that's the outside. Inside, we've been keeping toasty warm of course, and have been eating warming foods.

db made a stuffed focaccia; something he hasn't done in a long time (as in ever since I and then he gave up cheese and became vegan). Now that we have daiya in our life, he realized that it was possible to make a stuffed focaccia. He also put chanterelles (did I mention he found more a couple of weeks ago in our trusty spot in the woods?) and pine nuts in the bread. Oh yum.

I had cooked a Sugar Pumpkin with intentions on making a pie, but...of course...my busy schedule kept delaying the inevitable.

My co-worker, jh, had mentioned how someone had brought a pumpkin soup to the potluck, and how much she enjoyed it. Just her talking about the soup made me want to make my own.

I even had Sour Supreme on hand to put a little in the center to help cool the soup's heat. It turned out quite well, and was perfect on a chilled night in whoville.

Now if I can just get to the baking!

A yummy week

Taco time. I came home from work one night and had a craving for homemade tortillas.

 

They're so simple to make and so delicious. db made a refried black bean filling and we added sliced avocado, spicy enchilada sauce, and lettuce to complete the tacos. We also tried it with teese nacho sauce. The teese sauce was okay. I never ate nacho cheese when I was vegetarian, or ever, so this nacho sauce idea was a little foreign to me. I prefer the firmer style teese cheeses. 

 

Next new vegan cheese to try was the delicious daiya. We made pizza. db make separate crusts since I prefer a gluten free crust. Then we top our pizzas with our favorite veggies that are barely visible under that cheesey covering. The daiya melts really well and it's taste is superiour to all others. I actually prefer it uncooked, sprinkled over some pasta.

My next food adventure this week was to make my own burgers. We had fresh beets in the fridge from pw's garden and I was searching for something new to do with beets (something other than borscht, or roasted beets. or grated or sliced thinly into a salad). I came across a burger recipe in our rebar cookbook. Grated beets, carrots, sunchokes, and squash (these last two I subbed for some other veggies) are blended with almonds (recipe calls for hazelnuts, but I had to use what I had on hand), nutritional yeast, tarragon, garlic, and onions. There were some other seasonings in there as well.

These burgers were fantastic! I also seasoned a little vegenaise (the vegan answer to mayo, which is oh so good!) with lime and tarragon. The picture only tells a piece of the story. We were so impressed with these burgers that we had seconds, which is something we never do, but since we had a little salad on the side we had room for more. They were delicious.

I don't have photos of the stir fry or the apple pie db made, but sometimes I just get carried away eating that I forget to take photos.

Friday night Rainforest Stri-Fry

It's hard to tell from the photos but the sauce for this dish is now my favorite sauce, a spicy mango sauce.

The recipe is from refresh. It called for veggies I didn't have on hand (bok choy) so I used beet greens and broccoli instead.

The sauce couldn't be easier since everything is simmered in a pot for 20 minutes and then thickened with cornstarch before adding it to the veggies & tofu. Lesson learned? A sauce made from scratch is 50 times better than anything you can buy in a bottle.


Our garden Tumbler tomatoes provided the red colour in the dinner and added another sweet flavour to go with the spicy jalapenos. I also opted for the round flavour of Soba noodles instead of rice noodles.

It turned out to be a success. db suggested that I make gallons of the sauce to have on hand. So...I think he liked this dish.

(It looks like the tofu and that one slice of jalapeno pepper are trying to escape in this picture, but I think they were just a little camera shy. I ate them first. Delicious.)

more of the detox diet

Root vegetable soup. The colour is from the carrots and butternut squash. It also had sunchokes and celeriac as ingredients.
Saturday I was back on other starches other than rice so db made pizza. My crust is rice, tapioca and sorghum flour based. It was a nice treat.

Yesterday I could introduce legumes back into my diet and I was craving chickpeas. I requested spicy chickpeas with basmati rice. I chopped up some fresh chard for the top.
Wait a minute, this isn't part of the diet. Gigi stretched out on the floor for a nap. What you can't see in the picture is the heater she's flaked out next to.

20 more days

Day 8 of my detox. It's going pretty well. I can definitely tell that my sugar cravings are gone. Now when I see db eating cookies I have no interest at all.

Day 6-13 requires that I eat only fruit, veg and rice from the starch group while I up the dose of my protein powder. I was a little unprepared since I hadn't really read ahead on my chart, so db and I did a little grocery shopping to pick up more variety of veg.

I had leftover rice from last night and tossed this salad together using avocado to bind it all together with some olive oil and apple cider vinegar. It was delicious. Rather than feeling limited by my diet, which is how I felt at first, I am feeling more creative. I rarely use rice in a salad, but I think I'll do it more often.

***

A new wool shop opened in our neck of the woods, which makes it the only wool shop in our neck of the woods. I feel a bit like I missed my opportunity to do it first, but then I would actually have to have a plan and work towards that business wouldn't I.

The shop is small and carries some fine wools. It's mostly wool as I expected (too bad) but there were some nice cottons and cotton blends with soy and bamboo that looked inviting. There's not a huge selection, but hopefully they'll start to carry more. It also looks like it's set up for courses to be held there so I may look into that. It'd be fun to fine tune the skills I have and learn something new.

Vegetable Love

Fat Free Vegan had a contest to create a Vegetable Love dish for Valentine's Day. The dish had to include at least one veg and be low fat vegan to go along with the blog hosting the contest. Readers get to vote for their favorite. I've been reading the blogs and recipes and am so inspired and in awe of the fabulous vegan cooks out there that are never afraid to try something new and unique or put a tasty spin on something traditional.

You really should check out the entries because they are so inspired. I really want to make the Spiked Sweet Potato Truffles and the Parsnip Dumplings. Oh yes, also the Eggplant Marsala and Vegetable Tian looks delicious etc etc. They all look good!

I wish I'd known about the contest earlier. Maybe next year if she holds the contest again I'll prepared something.

As for my cooking...

yesterday I did make
Double Chocolate Cookies from Veganomicon
They are delicious! Camino dark cocoa and camino chocolate chips make this recipe fair trade and organic as well.
I modified the recipe so it could be gluten-free. I'm starting to get the hang of mixing different flours (in this case I used: rice, sorghum and tapioca) for baking to acquire the right flavour. The All Purpose Gluten Free flour you can buy contains mostly Garbanzo flour which imparts a strong flavour so it's not the best for cookies.

Living Without magazine has guided me in the right direction for the best flour combos.

I've been snapping photos but not posting what I've been cooking.

These nut burgers were something I made a couple of weeks ago from the Nut Gourmet. Red Jane gave us this cookbook one year and it has some delicious recipes.

db and I were craving nut burgers and anything we've found on the supermarket shelves is not vegan. I said, "that's it. I'm making my own. How hard can it be?"
It's not hard. I did modify the recipe a little make it bind better, but that may have also made it too soft. I'm not sure. The burgers were a little soft even after cooking, but I think I can remedy that next time.

While I made the burgers, db made sweet potato fries. They were perfect.


I usually have my burger on a corn tortilla. I couldn't photograph that version of the burger though because you couldn't see the burger since the tortilla covered the whole thing so I snapped a photo of db's burger between some naan bread.

This recipe would probably make a nice non-meatball for some pasta as well.

I went to the Running Room group run tonight. There was a huge crowd of people when I arrived. The warmer drier weather sure brings people out. That's why I was there. I admit I'm a fair weather runner. I still know no one except H who I gave a nod to when I arrived. We were broken into our groups and I learned that we'd be running tempo run. There were two groups and I was shuffled into one of them, given directions and off we went.

I didn't know the streets that well and it was a pretty darkly lit area. A couple of people had headlights on. I stuck with the group, but wanted to keep near the front pacers. I followed not far behind one guy wearing a flashing bike-type light on his arm. There were two women further up ahead. I had to keep pace with them all just so I could make sure I was going the right way. The group had thinned out quite a bit by then. I couldn't hear anyone behind me anymore. Then suddenly we were stopped and one of the women was checking the directions. We started up again and then realized we were running the same loop we had just done. We stopped again to consult the directions and then we were relatively okay.

I kept pace with one woman who was at the front now. It felt good. I knew if I kept up with her I'd be okay. I also knew that if I was on my own I would have given up this pace by now.

In total I did just over 7 k with the partial run home as well.

The best part of a hard workout is the fabulous meal after, of course. db made a beautiful mix of roasted veggies, grilled tempeh, and steamed kale. It was a perfect meal after a great run.

Back to the gym today. I'm not really looking forward to it at all. C'mon rain melt that snow so we have sidewalks again. It will only be a couple of days I'm sure and then the sidewalks will be clearer.

Whining aside...

We had our staff Christmas party last night. Yes, I know it's January but it's apparently a tradition to go in January after the Christmas madness when everyone is a little more relaxed.

I don't usually want to go to the group work event, but this is the one big dinner that we do every year and as I've always said I like the people I work with so it's not as if it's a painful experience for me. I'm also usually a bit wary of set menus since the veg option can usually be disappointing. This year it was not.

We went to the same restaurant that we went to last year in historic Fort Langley. It's a nice little restaurant with a warm atmosphere. The waitress remember db and I as the "two vegans" from the previous year. Our meal was delicious. The food is very good there. I didn't take pictures since I didn't want to reveal the blog. So you'll have to take my word that it was beautifully presented as well.

db and I were served a creamy carrot soup, mixed green salad with cranberries and a raspberry vinaigrette, and our main dish was polenta with grilled eggplant, portabello with tuscan beans (cannellini beans in a tomato sauce) topping it all. There was a side of steamed veg and a zucchini in tomato sauce. We had a nice white wine with dinner that my co-worker chose. It was a viognier which I've never had and was nicely surprised by it. The whole meal was very very good. For desert we had fresh fruit in a mango puree. I really appreciate when a chef makes a nice effort to make a good meal and not just do a bunch of grilled veg with little thought put into making a meal. This was a beautiful vegan meal. Delicious.

I think db and I will have to make that dish one night. It was such a nice combination of flavours. Then I'll post some pictures.

This was my perfect Sunday morning. There's my knitting, my tea latte and db's cinnamon rolls. db pulled the recipe from Bob's Red Mill website and made them gluten free. I went for my run and when I came back there was db at work in the kitchen sprinkling cinnamon over the dough.
They were delicious.


Prima enjoyed her Sunday as well in her new basket. She was a bit hesitant at first, but then realized it really was comfortable afterall.

It's hard to tell by the photo but dinner was Mushroom and Butternut Squash lasagna with a vegan bechamel sauce.

Oh, I love Sundays!

Fall Colours

The smokebush in the front yard is a fiery orange.

The fall colours are in full bloom (except for my toad lily) and are amazing. They are mostly yellows mixed amongst the evergreens that look so vibrant on our overcast days. However, I fear that the past two days of rain may have caused all the leaves to fall before I take anymore pictures.

I realized that the food we've been eating are not unlike the colours outside.


db's yellow tomato sauce from our garden tomatoes. We're pretty happy to still be making fresh tomato sauces from our garden in November.


Vegan cupcakes take over my world. Caramel Apple Cupcakes with a Caramel Penuche (fudge-like frosting).

Not only are these vegan, but I made them gluten-free as well. They are divine, soft and moist with a fudgey frosting. Oh my goodness. I think I'm going to have to get Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Here they are in the frosting area.

Simple Squash Soup

A few years ago I was at a favorite restaurant in T.O. and picked up their lunch menu to browse. On the back of the brochure was a recipe for one of their soups, Creamy Sweet Potato.
Here is my re-creation of it.
Saute garlic, hot pepper, carrots, celery
Add squash (I used delicata, sugar pumpkin and a little butternut -- this is what I had on hand). Cover with water and cook until soft. Then add coconut milk, and a little salt and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth and creamy.
Simple and delicious.

Pot Pie

Who doesn't love pot pie? It could be the ultimate comfort food for me.

After reading Heathen Vegan's magical recipe for Cottage Pie I was inspired to duplicate the recipe. The idea of a layer of potatoes on top seemed like a good idea to avoid having to make a pastry crust. However, once I was in the kitchen and had the Candle Cafe cookbook open I decided to go for it.


Of course I didn't have all of the ingredients listed in the recipe, but just as the Heathen Vegan did I stuck with root veggies and added some tofu since I did have that ingredient.

I was worried about making a gluten free crust and did consult the web only to realize that I'm just subbing one flour for another; there's no secret ingredient needed to make a successful rice flour crust. In food processor I added brown rice flour, grapeseed oil, salt and some rosemary, oregano and basil. I also had to add a little water until I had the right consistency. It rolled out very nicely.

And when I placed it in my 2 qt pot (because I don't have a 1 qt pot as suggested in the recipe) it looked like it might turn out okay.

This was taken before I put it in the oven. The filling was more than the crust could hold, but I just crimped down the edges of the top crust as best I could.



You can see the filling overflowing here, but it turned out delicious. The crust was excellent. The photo seems a little out of focus (that's how my photos often turn out), but that's okay.

I served it with a roast chioggia beet and spinach salad. The idea for this salad came from my latest Canadian Running magazine.

This recipe will be added to the sp what's for dinner roster.

Comfort food and Run Vegans Run

The VeganMofo continues...

Friday was a busy day. I worked a half-day, did some blog visiting and writing, cleaned the apartment (cat sitter would be coming in and it really needed it anyway), packed, made copies of all the receipts (hotel, race registration, cat sitter invoice etc etc), and google mapped our destinations.

I had to whip up something quick and tasty. I went for the comfort food that would take little time and have me sitting down to watch the Blues as soon as possible.

Here we have garlic mashed potatoes, steamed kale, and glazed tofu. Not seen in the photograph is the mushroom gravy.


Someone at work asked me if I was having a Tofurky on Monday (Monday being Thanksgiving). I was surprised that they knew a Tofurky existed. Alas no I won't be having Tofurky since it's made with wheat gluten. My Tofurky days are over. We do have a yummy meal planned though, but I'll save that for another day of blogging.

***
What do two vegans do on a long October weekend (remember that one of them is Italian)? They buy grapes of course!

Before going to catch our ferry we picked up 6 cases of Zinfandel grapes. We'll be crushing them today. No doubt there will be photos that probably resemble photos I took last year.

***
Pre-race day!

We arrived in Victoria, picked up our race kits and booked into the hotel. I was a little sad when I had to trade in my marathon race number for a half marathon race number. I got a little teary and then let it go. I knew I couldn't do the full distance.

food for thought

Being in Victoria felt a bit like going home since I really loved living there. For me going home often feels familiar and yet somehow different. I felt connected and yet still apart from it. I can't quite reach the same comfort zone that I once had. Once I leave a place for a long time it's never quite the same when I go back. It's as if I've betrayed that place. This is where the nostalgia comes in because even when I'm back in that place, I still feel nostalgic for the place it once was.

food for us

We needed a few supplies for our dinner: some lettuce, a pepper and some dressing. Lifestyle markets was a dream come true when I moved to Victoria in the 90s. For a veg and then vegan I thought I'd hit the jackpot and I had.

db and I had a great time there picking up our supplies and then of course found all sorts of other foods to try out.

Back at the hotel, db made our corn pasta and bolognese. I tossed the salad together and we had a delicious pre-race meal.

Sunday and Race Day!

Too early in the morning I made my rice bread toast and had some decaf tea. We dressed and drove downtown in the dark to find a parking spot.

It was light out by the time the gun went for our 7:30 start-time. We were off and running. The weather was perfect: cool, partly cloudy and no wind. db and I ran together for a bit. There were over 5,000 half marathon runners (10, 400 runners total for a marathon, half marathon and 8 k). It was packed! I loved it. db and I split around the four or five k mark and went our separate paces.

What I love about the busy, almost elbow-to-elbow run is that you're swept along with everyone. I find I think about my running less since I'm so aware of so many people and needed to move around or past them.

At the turnaround point I wondered if I'd see db and I did. We high-fived as we passed each other and I knew by my watch if I kept my pace I'd be running in around 1:50 or so.

The marathoners started an hour after us and just before I hit the last 4 k I saw the first elite marathoners fly by me. It was pretty exciting. I cheered them on.

I had no calf pain and pushed aside any negative thoughts my mind tried to send my way. After the last hill I knew if I kept my pace I'd be fine. I started to see those people who flew past me earlier; they were fading. And then there were others who found that extra push and kicked it into gear, passed me.

The last km always feels like 3 k for some reason (the fatigue, the excitement of reaching the finish line) but I pushed that thought out of my mind as well. I could see the finish and I was in the chute. I tried to go in between two other people, but ended up getting wedge between them and couldn't pass through. I heard the announcer call my name and where I was from. I saw the clock at 1:52. I crossed the line wedge in between the other two (more or less). I stopped my watch at 1:51 and that was my official chip time! A personal best! I took 3 minutes off my time from just two weeks ago which was a pb. I am thrilled!

The race director shook my hand and thanked me for "coming over" (from the mainland) which I thought was cool that he was able to hear and remember what the announcer said. I was funnelled through the chip removal area, the space blanket area and into the food area where I waited a bit for db. I missed him crossing the line in 2:04! A p.b. for him as well! We love Victoria!

***

My step-dad drove down from Nanaimo and we met up with him after the race.

Later I'll post more on our day in Victoria and the food we ate there. Plus, maybe some grape crushing photos and possibly some cooking photos.

db has been doing all of the cooking this week. I've been busy preparing my final assignment for my editing course that finished up this week. Plus two classes were this week since this coming Monday is the Thanksgiving holiday, so I've had little time to cook. However, that hasn't stopped me from making time to eat...
Monday

Since I was early for class I had some avocado sushi to get me through the evening. It was nice and fresh.

Sol Veggie burger night! After a full day at work, my evening class and the long bus ride home, I was so happy that db did something simple and made veggie burgers. I didn't get home until 10:15, but that' s not really a late dinner for us since we usually eat around nine anyway.

Sol's burgers are gluten free so I'm happy. I wrap my burger in a rice tortilla with all the fixings and dinner is served.

We're hooked on the Wire (thanks mom and sis!) and have just about finished season four. So Monday night was dinner in front of the t.v.

Tuesday

While I worked on my course assignment, db cooked up another delicious stir-fry with broccoli, red chard, sunchokes, mushrooms and zucchini in a sesame ginger sauce. There were some nice chunky ginger pieces in the stir-fry as well. Very yummy. I had leftovers for lunch the next day.

Wednesday

Last chance to get my readings done and tidy up my homework. I spent more time talking to my step-dad though. He's going to meet up with us in Victoria this weekend so we were trying to make some plans.

This meal I have pictures of:
Pseudo Caesar salad (Vegan Planet) and
Tuscan beans (fagioli all uccelletto) from Nonna's Italian Kitchen.

Just a note:
Soak your beans! It's so simple to do and I think so much tastier. We soak our beans in the morning and cook them when we get home. You could even go further and sprout them if you like.

Thursday

Back in class. At least I didn't have to work Thursday; I could finish my course work and start to get ready for the weekend and our trip to Victoria.

I ran midday and had a good run on my hilly route that I love. I had leftover pizza with fresh garden tomatoes for my post-run lunch. Very tastey.

Since I was home so late again, we had leftover fagioli and a kale salad with a sesame dressing. I'm not sure where db got that recipe, maybe he made it up, but it was fantastic. We watched the wire during dinner again. We had to since there's only 2 episodes to go!

Today

I'm not sure what I'll cook up tonight. We've got lots of veggies since we just got our fresh box from Spud.

db is making Bolognese sauce tonight for our Saturday night meal in Victoria. We've booked a room with a kitchenette so we can prepare our own pre-race meal (we don't like to take chances). It'll be bolognese on corn penne (db is foregoing his wheat pasta so we can simplify and just cook one kind of pasta). We've traditionally had this meal before almost all of my races so why break with tradition? Besides I haven't had db's bolognese sauce in over a week, maybe even two, and it's one of my favorite dishes.

So I'll be gone for a few days, but then you must expect that of me by now. Monday it will be back to cooking. We've got some stuffed squash and roast veggies planned. I'd like to do poached pears but I don't have any pears yet. Hmm, must work on that. I expect there will be pictures of Monday's meal.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The post-run brunch.

db and I ran a little later this morning. The weather held off for the duration of the run -- except for the pouring rain that hit us while we were on the trail. At least we were on the trail and protected somewhat from the treed canopy.

At the end of our run, db and I split off since he wanted to get in a little more distance than I did. While I waited for him and did some stretches, I thought about brunch. Sunday's post-run brunch has become a tradition here. Today I referred to Vegan Planet for inspiration and got started.



In a little oil I sauted chopped zucchini, garlic, peppers and sliced mushrooms. Adding a little pepperoncino is always a nice.


I added a fresh tomato (peeled) and basil. Luckily we had both from the garden. Then I spooned everything into a lightly oiled oven dish. I used a 9 inch pie plate.

In the blender I combined silken tofu (I prefer the silken texture for this dish), tumeric (a little healthy colour), arrowroot, salt and pepper.
I covered the veggies with the blender mix, smoothed it out and added some pepper to the top.


After placing it in the easy-bake oven...
I had a frothy tea while I waited for it to cook at 375 for 25 minutes to 1/2 hour.
Voila! Vegan fritata.

The Cookbooks

Ah yes, my reference books, my inspiration, and my answer to anyone who ever asks "what do you eat?"

Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson is a gem. This book is my Joy of Cooking for vegan food. Anything you want to know is in here. There are no glossy photos, but that doesn't bother me since the recipe titles sound sumptuous enough. It also means I won't be disappointed when my dish doesn't look as good as the picture (impossible I know, but it could happen).

I've made many recipes from this book and have never been disappointed. Robertson has a wide variety of meals that are grouped into ingredient and cuisine. She has chapters that reflect ingredients such as Going with the Grain and The World of Beans, but she also has several chapters that offer a variety of cuisines such as, The Global Oven and New World Pizza.

My most recent successful recipe from this book was Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas. It may turn into one of those well-loved recipes like The Ultimate Shepherd's Pie which has completely separated from the binding and is frayed around the edges. On the flipside of this recipe is the Winter Vegetable Pot-Pie. These two comfort foods are well loved here in whoville and I guess the tattered page is proof. Unfortunately, the publisher's choice of binding for this book is not very sturdy and now my book is falling apart, but then I remember my mom's Joy of Cooking doing that as well. Perhaps it's a sign of a successful recipe book (or maybe it really is just poor binding).

Some of my favorites that are regular dishes around here are:

Pseudo Caesar Salad (hands down the best caesar around) Pesto Tossed Golden Potato Gnocchi Pad Thai Carribean Rice with Red Beans and Chili Sesame Soba Noodles Mac and "Cheese" White Bean Cassoulet Tempeh Goulash West Coast Chili Mom's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies - Only Better Chocolate Pudding Parfaits Ginger-Spiced Scones with Cashews and Dates


My latest cookbook addition is Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. If you know about VeganMofo then you know about the Post Punk Kitchen (PPK) and that Veganomicon is partly a product of this successful vegan foodie blog.

I've reviewed this cookbook before and as I've said before it is fabulous. There are glossy pictures as enticing as the ones on PPK. The recipes are tried and true and also varied as with Vegan Planet. Unlike Vegan Planet this cookbook is hardcover and solidly bound.

What I really enjoyed about this book after receiving it for Christmas was that I could actually sit down and read it for enjoyment. The writing entertains as it guides you through what's-what in ingredients, how to prep those ingredients, and what are essential and useful kitchen utensils to help you with said ingredients. I've never read a cookbook in this way before, but the writing is just that good. And the recipes match.

Veganomicon (a clever name referencing one of my all time favorite movies) has consistently tastey recipes. Often the recipe will offer variations of ingredients you can add. What I also appreciate is the appendix listing recipes that are gluten-free. Now that I'm a gluten-free vegan this is very helpful ("farewell, Chickpea Cutlets it was a good run!"). Of course I'm getting use to adapting recipes to be gluten-free and I've done so with recipes in this book including Blueberry Corn Pancakes and the Mushroom Gravy (the best Mushroom Gravy recipe I've tried).

Some of my favorite recipes that I've tried from this cookbook are:

Herb-Scalloped Potatoes Roasted Portabellos Cheezy Sauce Broccoli Polenta Easy Stir-Fry Leafy Greens Mexican Millet Potato and Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chile Sauce Eggplant-Potato Moussaka with Pine Nut Cream (oh the pine nut cream!) Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry Mac Daddy (with variations) Crumb Crust (for desserts) Berry Coconut Crisp

I hope to find a gluten-free way to make the Coconut-Lemon Bundt Cake because it sounds divine.

Those two books are regular references for me, but I also am starting to use Nonna's Italian Kitchen:Delicious Home-Style Vegan Cuisine more often.
There are some classic Italian recipes adapted in this book and the author, Bryanna Clark Grogan, goes the extra step offering substitutes if you want to make the recipe soy free or gluten-free. She'll adapt measurements for you depending on if you're using rice flour or not or soy or almond milk. I find this very useful. Her cashew cream is the best way to make a dish creamy without using soy and her Eggplant Parmesan turned out very well. I also use her recipe to make my favorite Tuscan dish Fagioli all' Uccelletto (white beans and sage in a tomato sauce).

Our favorite recipe from this book is her Parmesan made with almonds, nutritional yeast and miso. So simple and it adds another texture and flavour to top our pasta. Mostly I prefer to sprinkle it on my salads.

These are the most prized cookbooks in our kitchen, but we have others that we refer to as well when needed (the Candle Cafe cookbook, A Celebration of Wellness)or for special occasions (the Artful Vegan cookbook).

We do collect cookbooks(two years ago I bought Robin Robertson's Slow-Cooker vegan cookbook, but have yet to get my slowcooker!), but really the three above are the most used and most treasured in our kitchen. I'm sure there will be references to these books during VeganMofo, maybe even pictures.

Uh-oh it's VeganMofo time and I'm not even cooking tonight!

First an update on the run. It went great. I felt good with no pain in my calf. I pushed it really hard and knocked five minutes off last years time which means I managed a 1:54 finish just as i did this past May in Vancouver. I'm happy with that result.

Tonight I had more physio and she thinks one more session should do it. I'm happy with that result too.

Now how to start my VeganMofo? An introduction?

Vegan food is part of my vegan lifestyle. The way I like to cook is mostly by feel. By this I mean, some days I can look in the fridge and pull together whatever is in there and create something quick and nutritious (nutrition is important and not just because I'm vegan, but also because my running is important to me), or on other days I'll look at an ingredient in the fridge and flip through my vegan cookbooks to find something that appeals to me. If I don't have all the ingredients I don't sweat it, because I'll sub in another ingredient which often results in something new and wonderful .

Tonight db is cooking a stir-fry that I'm about to sample. It's one of those what's in the fridge meals. db is the champion of "winging it." He'll go into the kitchen and say "I'll just wing something" and turn out a beautiful meal in no time.

Tomorrow's topic:
My favorite cookbooks.