Turtle Mountain products

I must be the only person in the planet that didn't like ice cream, but I'm joining the rest of you today with this So Delicious Mint Marble Fudge goodness.
Check out other Turtle Mountain's products if you haven't. The Sweet Nothings bars are a favorite here. Definitely not health food, but much more wholesome than the others I've seen.

Daughter's Food Blog!

My daughter, Aliyah, got in the act, too and is now an "official food blogger.'' Check out her blog to see what I'm talking about. That's all her own, food, picture and all.

Midweek Munchies

A Veg*n Meme What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store?

Midweek Munchies: What KAIVEGAN is contributing for the week These photos don't reflect my list at all. I took these with the previous post and thought to add it with my MM for this week. Yes, the fridge needs cleaning up! See the parsley on the top right corner? That was on my April 5th MM post! And it's still there. Okay, I'm pulling it out of there as soon as I get done with this post. I feel naked now... on to my list: (*) stands for ORGANIC *bananas, *oranges, grapes, strawberries, mangoes *kale *cauliflower peapods, green beans *red & green bell peppers bok choy, baby bok choy, chinese broccoli broccoli slaw, *bag of greens portabellas, button mushrooms *yams red bean buns *soymilk, vanilla and chocolate IN BULK: *apple rings papaya spears dates maple syrup, brown rice syrup SPROUTING SEEDS: *chickpeas, *green peas & *lentil mix *barley, *oat groats & *buckwheat groats (breakfast mix) *alfalfa I'm yet to go to the store tomorrow. These are small runs to the co-op and the asian market. I had some break from cooking for a few days and am just trying to get back in the flow of things again.

Click here for Harmonia's blog

Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

"Behind Closed Doors"

Or should I say open doors?
My blogging has been sporadic and I haven't been around so I decided to post this to break the ice. I have missed visiting and reading favorite bloggers' thoughts but I'm still not certain I could visit on a regular basis.

Lately in blogdom, we've seen kitchen tours, a cleaned refrigerator, cupboards, bookshelves and all kinds of interesting places that I really enjoyed perusing. Here's my share, though nothing so unusual yet I had a lot of fun taking these photos and sharing them with you!

Aliyah calls this part of the cupboard the "bulk section." She enjoys making trail mixes for her and little sisters.

a closer look...

and below that...

Now, let's turn around.

Aliyah call this the "baking cupboard." Whenever we bake, I have her read the recipe, get all the ingredients (plus bowls, measuring cups, baking dish, etc.) and put them away for me. Easy baking, I call it!

one shelf up...

and last but not the least...

a place for my teas.

A Different MM this week (Miscellaneous Munchies)

***MIDWEEK MUNCHIES***
I will not have an MM post this week. (Sorry, Harmonia!) We have a busy 3-day weekend coming up that starts early Friday morning with a 2-day Homeschool conference. We're also having a birthday party for my daughter and then there's that EarthSave potluck. I just really want to gear myself up for these now.

Since I haven't posted in a week and unable to upload pictures, I thought I should just post these recipes I played with and enjoyed in the last two days.

Ratatouille Shepherd's Pie... not!

This dish was inspired by a recipe from Vegetarian Times. I didn't have some of the ingredients (like baking potatoes, eggplant, tomato paste, fresh basil and thyme) but thought that something similar and good could be made with what I had on hand. I was right.

5 cups peeled and coarsely chopped red potatoes
1 large onion, chopped
2 zucchini, diced
2 portabella mushrooms (my choice), diced
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
2 cloves garlic, minced
fire-roasted diced tomatoes, about 1 1/2 cups
dried basil
dried thyme
1 1/2 T balsamic vinegar
soy sauce to taste

1/2 cup plain soymilk
olive oil, drizzle

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Cook potatoes in medium saucepan with enough water to cover them. As the water boils, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, sautee the onion in a skillet until translucent. Add the zucchini, mushrooms, peas, corn and garlic and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the diced tomatoes, herbs, vinegar and soy sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes or so. Transfer to a medium baking dish.

Drain potatoes and mash, adding soymilk and oil gradually as you mash. Spread evenly over "filling." Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbling hot.


Vegetable Fried Rice

olive oil
3 cups cooked brown rice
2 cups baby corn
1 cup green peas
1 cup button mushrooms (I cut them in halves)
3 green onions, sliced thin
2-3 T light soy sauce
sesame oil
freshly ground pepper

Sautee the vegetables in olive oil for 3 or so minutes. Add the rice, soy sauce and sesame oil and cook for another 3 minutes.
This is really good with kale sauteed with garlic, soy sauce and fresh lemon juice.

We should be getting our new camera on Thursday. Yay for that! So yes, more pictures in future blogs.

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Midweek Munchies

A Veg*n Meme What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store?

Midweek Munchies: What KAIVEGAN is contributing for the week Leslie of Eat Peace Please, Harmonia and I have agreed to use (*) to indicate which products are ORGANIC. I never realized how much more organic stuff I take home compared to conventional until today when I started using the symbol! *8 lbs. oranges (on sale) *3 lbs. gala apples (Whole Kids bagged, I've never seen A. eat that many apples a day!) *mangoes *bananas *cauliflower *2 bunches of kale *portabella mushrooms *peach slices, frozen *peas, frozen *asparagus, frozen mangoes, dried (for Aliyah) *tofu, extra firm *kamut spirals *Annie's Naturals organic BBQ sauce (for Aliyah) Thai Kitchen rice noodle bowls (Spring Onions for Ron ; Hot & Sour for A.) *veggie broth (I also made my own stock this week, but I like to keep this in my pantry) *kids' CLIF Z bars IN BULK: *blueberries, dried *medjool dates *apricots *raisins strawberry vanilla hemp granola *quinoa onion flakes Tom's of Maine toothpastes (1 for mom, 1 for the kids- yes, it's food related!) $3.00 total coupons + bag refund, woo hoo! I didn't get that many veggies this time because I just went to the store a few days before this. Aliyah anxiously told me yesterday that we hardly have any veggies in the fridge. So today, I have to do another Whole Foods run. I might update my list later on, we'll see.

Click here for Harmonia's blog

Special thanks to Running2Ks & Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

I'm still hungry!

Lunch of kale sauteed in garlic, with soy sauce and lemon juice
(I dare not mess with Aliyah's favorite, so I cooked it by itself!)
stir-fry of snow peas, red bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, soy sauce and fresh lemon juice
and brown rice.
Simple, yet very satisfying. The taste of spring.


I thought a skilletful of Pancit (noodles) for dinner would be sufficient, but the whole family had a big appetite and everyone loved this dish so check out the second skilletful that I had to whipped together while the children patiently sat at the table and played with daddy. Same noodles but different veggies.
No complains. I love when everyone has this big of an appetite!

Aliyah's plate... isn't she sweet?

...and some

My own version of bulanglang (Batangas style) with whatever veggies I had on hand, and using water, fresh lemon juice, tomatoes, garlic and onion as the broth base. Yeah, you got to love your veggies to be able to enjoy this one.




"Yum, ginataan!"
seems to be what I always hear when this sweet medley of good things is served at Filipino gatherings. You should have seen how Aliyah's face lit up when I mentioned that I would like to make ginataan at home. We bought plantain to use here, but they are still so green and Aliyah, in her eagerness, convinced me that this ginataan would be good without that.
She made the white balls from glutinous rice flour dough. As the coconut milk boiled, we added cubed yam and sugar. After 5 minutes we added jackfruits and the dough balls. Once the balls rose to the surface, we turned the heat off and enjoyed this goodness.


Okay, don't let the color and texture gross you out! I just want to show you how the pichi pichi looked like after steaming it for half an hour or so. The final product looks much better, though I must admit I have never seen green pichi pichi before! It has to be the pandan water that I used instead of good ol' plain H2O.
It turned out really good. It actually tasted better than the ones that inspired me to try making it, but I must admit that I still need some hands-on coaching.

The Filipino in me

For a change, Aliyah and I experimented on Filipino dishes, more like Filipino desserts or kakanin, in the kitchen. Not that this should really be a big deal, but really it is, since I am not much of a Pinoy cook and clueless when it comes to the kakanin.
Oh boy, we haven't had this much fun in the kitchen in a long time! If you're familiar with all these food, you would immediately see the work of a novice, but hey, give this Filipina lady a break and appreciate the fact that she's actually making kakanin - for the first time. (so much for ordering.) Big yay!
If you happen to be foreign to this, I'd love to have you over and see what you think. For the longest, I was estranged to making these knowing they're just what they are - sugar, starch and fat. But switching to a vegan kitchen didn't leave me much room to work on my food heritage, and for the children's sake I got to do something about it! Realizing that a lot of the Filipino desserts (or food for mirienda) are unintentionally vegan, I thought this would be my link to keeping that pinoy thing going!

PALITAW is basically glutinous rice flour mixed with water to form a dough. While waiting for the water to boil in a large saucepan, we cut the dough to make balls then we gently flattened them. We dropped the dough pieces in the boiling water and as they floated to the surface, we 'fished' them out and let them cool. We then rolled them in a mixture of sugar, toasted sesame seeds and shredded coconut.
Aliyah couldn't believe how easy they are to make and how good they turned out. Even Zurielle got in the act.

Midweek Munchies

Midweek Munchies: What KAIVEGAN is contributing for the week mangoes,pineapples, strawberries bananas, apples, oranges, cantaloupe portabella and button mushrooms kale, parsley, baby spinach broccoli slaw, salad greens red bell peppers, zucchini green onions, yellow onions shredded coconut, unsweetened whole wheat pastry flour agave nectar strawberries, blueberries, frozen 4 boxes of CLIF Z bars (kids' new favorite on-the-go snack) IN BULK: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds raw almonds, raisins black beans red lentils apple cinnamon granola nutritional yeast bay leaves oregano, thyme, basil (my motto: never buy jarred spices!) FROM THE ASIAN MARKET: grated cassava, frozen glutinous rice flour pandan leaf extract chinese eggplant, baby bokchoy, plantains coconut milk, coconut cream My actual list is longer, but forgive me for not being so thorough this week. Happy MM-ing everyone!

Click here for Harmonia's blog

Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

I'm back...well, sort of

Hi, everyone! I'm back in the blog world, sort of, that is. Spring is always a busy time and a favorite season for us to be out and about and I'm planning to have as much nature and play time with the kids as I possibly can. Last week we celebrated Zurielle's 3rd birthday and the girl had a blast. I planned to make vegan cupcakes which turn out to be a dozen cupcakes and a small cake. I used the chocolate cake recipe recommended by SusanV and I am so glad I did! Weird as this is, I used silken tofu and vanilla pudding mix for frosting. Pictures will follow later.

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments in my previous post! The fast was a much needed one. I didn't do a total fast, haven't done that in a while since in the last 45 months (almost 4 years!) I'm either pregnant or nursing, but it was helpful nevertheless.

Foodwise: This is a soup from the McDougall Quick & Easy cookbook with a little modification. It was delicious and I'm really glad that everybody liked it. Zurielle normally doesn't like soup but finished her bowl this time. Aliyah asked if I could make this again soon and dh agreed that this would make a good lunch for him at work. We all loved the kale in it and I'm hoping I'll have more next time I make this soup again. Definitely kid friendly, quick and easy to make and here's everything that went in it:
veggie broth, onion, garlic
1c red lentil
canned tomatoes, with the juice (recipe calls for chopped tomatoes, but I wanted to use the left over whole tomatoes from my previous cooking, so I just diced them)
cumin, chili powder, 2 bay leaves
chopped kale (lots of)
2 c hash browns
1 c corn kernels
tamari
As you can see, other than chopping the onion, garlic and kale, everything else is just dumping ingredients in the pot. Five or so active minutes in the kitchen, the rest is simmering time, and the result? Yummy dinner!

I also made this Raspberry Cocoa Quick Bread which I thought was delish, but dh doesn't really care much for chocolate and I think it's too dark for the kids. So overall it is NOT GOOD, because what this means is that I get to eat the whole sweet, nutritionally deprived (white flour), cake-looking bread, with tea from Teavana.
I also had to take a picture of my teamaker (brewing rooibos chai) for Harmonia since I was so excited to hear that she liked the teavana tea that she got as a present. Here's to loose leaf tea! (raising my mug)


To the rest of you: I have a lot of catching up to do, and I must admit that in the last few days I've been reading your blogs (you mean, you didn't see me?) but have been keeping my comments to myself!