The best vegan cesar salad dressing!

This tastes exactly like the best cesar dressing I have ever had!!

I didn't realize how much I missed cesar dressing until this recipe hit me while making a side salad for dinner. 

2 tbsp of Veganniase (soy free vegannaise is an optional for those avoiding soy)
1 tbsp of Newman's own oil and vinegar dressing
sprinkle some vegan Parmesan.

** You can play around with the amount of salad dressing in the Vegannaise, depending how much flavor you want. 


You can sprinkle on the fake bacon bits or add gluten free & vegan crutons if you like.

I find the croutons from Thrifty's or Planet organic. Any place that has well stocked gluten items should have these items.

You can add nuts or seeds, or any other veggie of your choice to bulk the salad up to a meal.

Enjoy!! Yummy!!!!!   We were all very satisfied. :)

Roasted parsnips and leek in a ginger-lime sauce

Previously I had made a ginger-lime sauce and kept in the fridge wondering if I was going to use it on tofu or not. I was also in the mood for a parsnip and leek soup. But with two kids, a dog, and job, I had no time for that.

So....naturally I combined them. Very yummy!

The flavoring from the dip wasn't strong, but it gave them a very nice flavor.

Here is my sauce.

I changed the recipe a bit. I found that the soy sauce was too strong and I wanted to taste more of the ginger and lime.

So, here is what the final ingredients where:

Ingredients
1 green onion
2 tbsp of ginger (for convenience I used pre-minced ginger from a jar)
1 tbsp of garlic
1/2 cup of soy sauce (gluten free soy sauce is available)
1/4 cup of lime juice (it calls for fresh, but I used lime juice from a bottle)
2 tbsp of sesame oil
/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 tsp of sugar or natural sweetener (I used agave syrup)

** I recommend you let it sit in your fridge so that the sauce can really have time to mesh. I tasted it right after I made it didn't taste very flavorful. After sitting in the fridge for 24 hours it tasted much better.

The recipe made enough to fit into a small canning jar.


Directions

1. Just combine all of the ingredients and stick it in the fridge.
2. The next day just pour the sauce over chopped parsnips and leek and roast in your oven
3. Approx 30 min at 375 degrees C

Enjoy!

Roasted pumpkin and vegan pumpkin soup

This is just sliced up pumpkin in the oven at 350 for 30 min. I rubbed some olive oil on it and sprinkled some Thyme.

Roasted pumpkin
- pumkin
-olive oil
-spices

I made a pumpkin soup with all of the pumpkin.

This is cooked pumpkin with 2 tbsp of cinnamon, and 1 tsp of nutmeg.
I purred the pumpkin with a can of coconut milk. 

Pumpkin soup
- pumkin pieces
- 1 can of coconut milk
-cinnamon
- nutmeg

To dress it up you can stick a piece of roasted pumpkin into the soup as something extra. It would make the dish look fancy. :)

Enjoy!

Scrambled tofu

This is a great dish to use up leftover potatoes.

Ingredients
1 pkg of tofu or nuts/seeds/lentils/chickpeas
2 tbsp of olive oil/coconut oil
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of any spices you like (basil/parsley/oregano/sage)
veggies of your choice (mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, broccoli, carrots) Just cut them up in small pieces

1. Fry up the tofu with the oil, garlic, salt, and spices for 2-4 min
2. Add in the veggies Cook for another 5 min
3. Add the potatoes and cook again for another couple minutes until warm

Add vegan cheese if you like.

Enjoy!

Balancing food and family

This is one wall in my kitchen. It is symbolic to me because it has a mix of everything. There are three different shelves with food on them, cook book shelves, food culture books, arts and craft stuff everywhere, and in some of the white baskets I have various gluten free flours. The organization of staple foods for us keep me sane. Is my jar of nutritional food yeast is 1/2 full or 1/2 empty?

This represents my life.

Kids and cooking. How to blend them all? Mix them all around. Dinner time will always be busy, and meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking will always be mixed around our schedule and children's activities.

I like my wall. I think it looks very pretty. I have my Grandmother's tea cups displayed on some of the shelves. The kids like to drink out of them when they are sick. I have candles that we sometimes put on the table, and the kids take turns blowing them out. (They came in handy a couple nights ago when we lost our power.)

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

What is your favorite space in the house?

Vegan Food blogs

So I love reading vegan food blogs. I try recipes out from time to time. This one was nasty!!! It looked good in the picture and then when I tried it out it made me want to gag.

I made this for my son who kind of ate it. He is into kiddy shaped rice noodles recently and I tried to make the "mac and cheese" that was on the site. My response...YUCK!

I would love blogs to have a tasting option.

I guess you win some and lose some. Everyone's tastes are so different, that is part of what I love about eating. We all take away something different.

I wont give you the recipe to this one, I just can't.

I should add some sort of tasting description to my blogs. Maybe like a food critic, or a judge from a cooking show. This could be fun. :)

Enjoy! Eating something else...

Vegan root vegetable ideas (gluten free and soy free)

This is acorn squash.

I baked it in the oven on 350F for an hour and scooped out the insides. I was doing this during a lazy Sunday morning. Then oven is doing the work not me. :)

Then when I was ready to do something with it, I purred it in my magic bullet with some maple syrup and almond milk.

I stuck some parsley in there just to class is up. :)

I would serve this with other roasted veggies as a dipping sauce, or with pickled beets. You could also dip warm bread in this, make this into a soup.

It's nice to have different textures when you eat.

This really took no time at all, and it was just a matter of doing different parts of the cooking when I had time.

The leaves are changing in my area and I have this beautiful tree that turns bright red just outside our bedroom windows. This morning I noticed we have one whole branch that is red. I love the fall!

Enjoy!