Hey.. here's a quick post to let you know I haven't completely forgotten about this. Even though I really haven't been taking pictures of what I'm eating lately. I have about a million other things going on right now.. and on top of that I just moved to a small remote community in northern Alberta (aka beef country) so.. meals are about to become interesting. Especially considering there's a serious lack of fresh vegetables here, and what is available is very expensive.

But.. for now I will leave you with some highlights from NS. In no particular order..

Tofu scramble with tabouli.. a classic, and I was really craving it after not eating it for 2 months.



Pumpkin soup with roasted pumpkin seeds.. you'll see a theme here soon.



I made some "nutella" out of hazelnut butter someone gave me.. it was so good. I technically should have added oil but decided not to, which made it a bit dry, but I didn't mind.



I got veganomicon a couple weeks later and noticed a recipe for nutella in there, I'll have to try that out next time.

Thai stew (or something like it, I definitely modified this) from The Everyday Vegan.. it was delicious.



The vegan breakfast from Pyramid Cafe in Halifax. I ate this many times.. so good & so cheap. Though their falafels are a little bit disappointing (Too dry - I'm still missing Falafel Place in Winnipeg). Overall it's amazing though, got a little bit of everything.



VwaV peanut sauce and udon noodles with tofu.. another classic.



A big ol' pot of chocolate chip cookies. This pot was also my only "cake pan", because I had no cake pans, so I'd line this with parchment instead.



Pumpkin muffins with freshly roasted pumpkin. The first time I tried this, I mixed up the sugar with the salt... not a good idea.



Pumpkin cheesecake from Heartwood Cafe & Bakery in Halifax. Yes, I am crazy about pumpkin. This was alright but nothing like a cheesecake, I am not sure why they called it that.



Anyway.. that's all for now. I may hibernate for winter.. so if you don't hear from me, just assume I'm too busy trying to scavenge for vegetables in this land full of meat.

Thanksgiving and then some.

Last weekend was thanksgiving in Canada. I actually remembered to take some pictures. Generally I haven't been eating anything fancy and therefore I don't bother.. even some of these are things I've probably posted before. But, it's comfort food, and I like it.

The homemade tofu roast, from La Dolce Vegan, with roasted onions on the ends. There were some skeptics before it was made, but everyone loved it in the end..



Stuffed spaghetti squash (sauteed onions and mushrooms for stuffing)..



My dinner plate, roast & stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots (it was a very roasty sort of day.)



Pumpkin pie and tofu chocolate silk pie, which was a lot better than it looks.



And now on to non-thanksgiving food.. baked tofu and vegetables:



Mozzarella mac n cheese:



My favouritist french toast ever, from VwaV:



aand last but absolutely not least, "Heavenly Brownie Torte" from Sinfully Vegan.



As a side note, the delicious scones from the potluck that everyone wanted a recipe for? VwaV recipe, with some spices added in to taste and vegan cheese. Go figure.

You are probably sick of hearing about how busy I am, but it's the truth. This is what I've managed to squeeze in the past week..

An attempt at "omelettes". In defense of the recipe, I didn't entirely follow it - I was supposed to pour the egg in with the veggies, but that's not my definition of an omelette, so I tried to keep it separate. It ended up more like a veggie filled pancake. Next time I'm going to try my own thing instead, I have some ideas. This was still tasty, just.. not even close to what it was imitating.



Quinoa custard and date-toffee pie, with a quinoa-coconut cream. Though it had been chilling for twice as long as recommended, it wasn't completely set yet when I ate this piece. Lots of unusual flavours mixing in this.. coffee, carob, lemon and lime, coconut milk, banana, soy and rice milk, quinoa, dates, molasses. You can't tell here but there's three layers to the pie. If I made it again, I would leave out the banana, which overpowers everything, and add more coffee.



Some cauliflower curry soup I threw together last night, using whatever I needed to use up in my fridge.



Mocha "vice cream", with a couple of chocolate covered coffee beans on top. Sooo good.

Chickpea spinch curry from VWaV, on brown rice, tahini sauce in the middle. I find it makes this really nice and creamy..



Alongside garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, these are Matt's seitan "ribs" that turned out more like steak this time. I actually had trouble eating this whole thing, partly because it was huge and partly because it reminded me of steak, which I obviously don't care to eat. Though I usually find seitan very tasty..



And now onto easter food.. Matt's family and my family got together for dinner on sunday, which was nice. I was being distracted from doing my schoolwork before the meal due to the huge delicious smelling pies sitting on the counter right behind me.



His mom made us vegan paska! yum yum. I was going to try to veganize my aunt's recipe, and may yet, because I like my paska pretty orangey, and this was not so much (though still very good).



My dinner plate, consisting of (closkwise from top left): roasted onions, asparagus and green beans, tofu roast & stuffing (from La Dolce Vegan) and mashed potatoes with cream corn.



Saskatoon Rhubarb pie. Soo good.

Winter Salads

Winter is a sad, sad time for produce. I guess I've sort of lucked out until now - trips to the grocery store have usually produced at least one or two bonus fruits or veggies, something I wouldn't normally buy but happens to look good and not cost too much. Lately, the produce gods won't even give me that much. I wander the aisles aimlessly, looking perhaps a bit lost and forlorn. Or perhaps just melodramatic. Not even my "regular" veggies are looking hot right now. What's even sadder is that I mourn more for my birds than myself, who eat a fresh mix loosely based on this, which, on a good day, can look something like:



Looks actually pretty good, but that's probably because I hadn't added the seed and mashed beans yet..
Anyway, they are especially deprived. It's sad when I can't find two different kinds of green leafy veggies that don't look like crap.

Back to my original point: grocery shopping, typically something I enjoy, lately something to further depress me. I walked by the kohlrabi and thought of this salad, and decided to give it a go. There was really not much else to satisfy my giant-salad needs.

I decided to make my own dressing, half "veganized" from someone else's recipe and half of my own invention. It gave me another excuse to use up that carton of soy creamer in the fridge. Also, I used organic gala apples instead of granny smith, because that's just what I had.


Dressing:
1/4 cup soy creamer
1 1/2 t dijon mustard
1 t maple syrup
1 T lemon juice
1 T fresh parsley (I threw this in the salad instead, actually)

Not sure if the lemon juice would cause the creamer to curdle, I whisked the other ingredients first, let it sit while I prepared the rest of the salad, and added the lemon right before I was ready to mix it all up. The excess dressing hasn't curdled yet, so I guess it's ok. A delicious lunch, either way.