Quick & Tasty Dinner

Vegan Creamy Tomato Soup & Grilled Vegan Cheese Sandwich

I've been on a soup kick this week.  Yesterday, I made Southwestern Black Bean & Corn Chowder from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. It's one of my most favorite soups.  It comes together quickly, simmers for a half hour and is ready to eat.  It's forgiving when I don't have all of the right ingredients (like only 1 can of black beans, so I subbed 1 can of great northern beans and no fire roasted tomatoes, so I used organic tomato sauce).  I've used many different combinations of almost the right ingredients (no chopped mild green chilies? use dried jalapeno instead) and it's delicious every time!

Southwestern Black Bean & Corn Chowder

Today, I picked up a small container of Creamy Tomato Bisque soup and put it in the fridge at work.  I'm thinking you can guess what happened tonight when I was in the car driving home.  Yep! I left the soup at work.  My son still wanted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese, so I went online searching for soup recipe.  And, I found a good one ... Panera Creamy Tomato Soup Copycat Recipe by The Novice Chef. 

It was an easy fix to veganize this recipe.  I switched out the half and half for SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer.  I also added a few things based on the suggestions in the comments of her blog.  The result was a creamy soup that mimics the taste of Panera Bread's Tomato Soup. Here is the slightly altered recipe below. 

Vegan Creamy Tomato Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves (run through a garlic press0
1 large onion, sliced (I used 2 small)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (add more for a spicy soup)
1 tablespoon Earth Balance
2 (28 oz.) cans San Marzano peeled whole tomatoes with juice
1 to 1½ cups water 
1 vegan chicken bouillon cube
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer
1 small package of organic basil leaves (in the produce section) sliced in ribbons
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat pan, add olive oil and then add garlic & sliced onions at the same time.  Cook over medium to medium low heat stirring frequently for 4 minutes.  Add smoked paprika, red pepper flakes and Earth Balance.  Continue cooking another 4 minutes or so until onions are translucent.

Add the tomatoes with juice, water, bouillon cube and sugar.  Turn the heat to medium until soup starts to bubble.  Simmer for 12 -15 minutes.  Add the vegan creamer, basil, oregano and salt & pepper to taste.  

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it's smooth with no large chunks of veggies or spices.  Serve with crusty bread or grilled vegan cheese sandwiches. Can be frozen for up to 3 months.

This is definitely enough to feed 4 people.  My son and I both had a generous helping and I'm freezing the rest to eat another week when I need "fast food" at home. 

Catching Up Here

Soooo ... about a week ago, my older son told me that the PC wasn't working.  He was right; it wasn't.  When booting up the PC, we get a black screen with a blinking cursor.  This is NOT good.  Luckily, I have another PC tower.  My younger son blew the motherboard in his PC, so I had it replaced and something else replaced (goodness, I can't remember what, only that it cost me $150).  BUT, in the mean time, my younger son begged me to buy him a new "gaming" PC that would be better for gaming, so I did.  He used his old PC for about a week before he received his new one.  Then, it sat in my dining room until a week ago when my PC died. 

Did I back up my PCs?  Well, yes, I did.  Did I do it recently?  Ummm ... no, I didn't.  It's been a year.  I'm afraid my hard drive is corrupt, but I'll still take it somewhere to try and get the pictures and documents off of the hard drive.  :::sigh:::  In the meantime, I'm trying to get my son's old PC up to speed with the programs I need.  It's actually a faster PC, with 4 gig of RAM.  My old PC only had 1 gig. I finally installed the picture software I need so I can blog again. :)

This holiday weekend, I was determined to be productive, and I have been.  Today, I did some laundry and cleaned out my pantry.  I dug deep to the back of the shelves and threw out all of the old canned goods, sauce mixes, etc. that were in the pantry.  It's amazing how much space there is when I threw out the old/expired stuff.  After that was done, I made a vegan apple crisp.  It's quite tasty, too!  I converted a recipe that I got from my ex-mother-in-law.  Here it is.

Apple Crisp

4 to 5 apples, pared and sliced thin (I used Fuji)
3/4 cup oatmeal (quick or old fashioned)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Earth Balance (I used 1 stick cut in 1/2" squares)

Preheat oven to 350º.  Put apple slices in ceramic baking dish.  (I didn't grease, but you can.)  Combine oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, and Earth Balance in a food processor.  Pulse until crumbled.  Spread over apples.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Enjoy warm plain or with vegan vanilla ice cream.

 After the Apple Crisp was done baking, I got really serious about dinner.  I peeled some potatoes for mashed potatoes made with unsweetened Almond Breeze.  I served those with some Tofurky gravy. It's my first time having Tofurky gravy and it was pretty good.  I also threw 6 ears of corn into the oven to roast at 350º for about 30 minutes.  I used the instructions that I found on Susan Voisin's blog for Oven-Roasted Corn-on-the-Cob, but really, it's just literally throwing the corn in the oven.  I pan fried some vegan Chicken Scallopini to go with it.  Finally, I threw some rolls into the oven to warm.  The entire meal was very tasty!

Earlier this week, I made a vegan veggie pizza.  First, I cleaned and sliced some baby bella mushrooms and sauteed them.  Next, I cut a yellow bell pepper into strips and some black olives in halves.  I used half of a container of whole grain pizza dough I had bought at Whole Foods.  I rolled it out very thin.  I drained a jar of the Bruschetta in a Jar that I canned a couple of weeks ago and put it on the pizza.  I followed that with some fresh spinach leaves, the mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, black olives, and the Zuma Grape Tomatoes that I had roasted and frozen a month ago.  I let it bake at 400º for about 20 minutes.  It was mighty tasty!

Tomorrow, I think I will cut the seedless watermelon into cubes and made Watermelon Sorbet with half of it.  I really enjoyed that.  It is quite the refreshing frozen dessert.

Since I may have lost all of my pictures from last September until now (yes, it's been a year since I backed up my PC ... I've learned my lesson!), I thought I'd take some more pictures of the girls, but from their level.

Jordan, trying to ignore me

First I took Jordan, and she wasn't really happy about it.  She really HATES getting her picture taken. :)  But she posed pretty and looks so regal, that the picture is a winner!

Kobe, trying to ignore me because she was licking her paws.

Kobe usually doesn't mind getting her picture taken, but she was upset with me, so she wouldn't look at me.  After Kobe's anterior crucial ligament surgery, she was still limping a bit and the vet put her on DuraMaxx to control the pain.  DuraMaxx has some less desirable side effects.  One is depression or restlessness.  I believe Kobe has that and licks her paws to relieve some of it.  I think she's been licking them until they are raw.  I had been fussing at her to stop licking her paws right before I snapped the photo. 

I've taken her off of the medication for now and will keep her off of it for a few days (she only takes 1/4 pill, so she's on the minimum dosage).  She didn't have this problem until she was on this medication for such a long period.  If it stops the problem, I will ask the vet to change her medication to something else.

Jordan trying to back up on Kobe, while Kobe pays no attention and licks her paw.

Here's a classic picture.  One, Kobe is licking her paw ... ugh!  But the reason this is a classic is that Jordan is always backing up on Kobe and putting her behind in Kobe's face.  I swear it's an act to try to establish dominance.  Jordan is a nut!

I hope I can recover all my pictures from the last year.  bah!  PC problems!  They drive me nuts! :)

BBQ Tofu, Bruschetta in a Jar, and a Stupid Move

Hot Lemon Peppers in the lower left corner and Tabasco Peppers in the right half of the picture

My pepper plants are still producing.  Actually, I haven't picked any of the Tabasco peppers yet.  I have harvested some of the hot lemon peppers and two habanero peppers.  I've been waiting for the rest of the habanero peppers to turn a deep orange, but it's slow going. :)

Habanero Peppers

This week, I made a great dish.  I made BBQ Tofu Cubes from VegWeb.com.  The tofu was absolutely fantastic!  I ate part of it the night I made it.  I put it on a high fiber (12 gr.) tomato basil tortilla with some romaine lettuce.  Wow!  I took the rest of it to work to have on another tortilla for lunch.  I definitely recommend this recipe if you like BBQ.

Later in the week, I had a meatloaf burger from The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Marie Newman. I made the burgers earlier this summer and threw a couple in my freezer.  I put some of my Bread and Butter Jalapenos on the burger and MAN OH MAN!  It was one good burger.  I think my Bread and Butter Jalapenos are a complete success.  Thank you, Darlene!!!  (My canning mentor!)  They are a bit spicy, but not too hot and oh so yummy!  I'll be making these every year.

I finally ventured over to the Homewood Farmer's Market yesterday in the POURING rain.  I'm so glad I did, too, as I found many delightful veggies.  I bought 4 pounds of tomatoes, 3 heads of garlic, a red onion, cauliflower, and some mushrooms.  I already had 2½ pounds of Roma tomatoes from my CSA box, but I needed a bit more to make some Bruschetta in a Jar. The link is to the basic recipe, but the directions I followed (via Darlene, of course) are a bit different.  Just before I made this, another poster in our Yahoo! canning group said that one of her jars broke in the hot water bath.  Darlene thought it was because she didn't use hot tomatoes, but packed the jars with room temperature tomatoes.  Needless to say, I followed Darlene's recipe.

Bruschetta in a Jar 

Makes about 7 half pint jars (8 ounces)

5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup white wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp dried basil  (I used about 1/4 cup of fresh basil, chopped)
2 tbsp dried oregano (I used 2 tbsp fresh oregano chopped, and 1 tbsp dried oregano)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
9 cups chopped cored plum tomatoes 

Combine all ingredients, except tomatoes, in a non reactive pan.  Bring to a boil.  Add tomatoes.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, pack tomatoes into hot jars leaving a generous 3/4 inch headspace. Ladle hot vinegar mixture into jar to cover tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down tightly until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.  Process 20 minutes in a BWB. 

I got exactly 7 half pint jars from my batch. 

So are you wondering what my stupid move was this week?  I inadvertently deleted my blog.  :::gasp:::  I was trying to consolidate a Google account, since I had to make one for my android phone.  I deleted an old account not realizing that it controlled my blog.  So, when I deleted my Google account, I deleted my blog.  I think I did that on Thursday, maybe Wednesday.  I discovered it yesterday.  Yes, it did send me into a panic, but luckily, I was able to restore both my account and my blog.  :::whew!!!:::  Needless to say, I'll be a bit more careful in the future.  :::shakin' mah head:::

Kobe, looking disgusted but tolerant

My oldest son loves to torment the big girls.  He picks up their 70 pound behinds, twirls them around, and then sets them back down.  I got pictures of their faces as proof that they do NOT enjoy this exercise.  HA!

Jordan, equally distressed, but also tolerant

Finally, I don't think I've posted many pictures of Skittles.  So, I'm posting one of her, too.  She was just groomed yesterday and thinks she is quite pretty.  Skits will be 13 on Halloween this year.  She's the matriarch of the brood. :)

Linguine with Mushrooms, Onions, Heirloom Tomato, and Alfredo Sauce

Tonight's dinner was sauteed mushrooms, onion, and heirloom tomato in the Alfredo sauce recipe from the Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Foods cookbook.  The cookbook has two Alfredo sauce recipes.  I used the tofu based recipe as I had a package of silken tofu I had to use up.  I didn't want plain pasta and Alfredo sauce, so I decided to use a few things I had on hand.

My first step was to make the Alfredo sauce, which was quick and easy in the blender.  I wanted it to be ready and waiting to put into the pan after the veggies had sauteed.

I chopped an orange heirloom tomato that I had on hand.  It was very flavorful.  I could have eaten the entire thing off of the cutting board.  I resisted.  :::smile:::

Next, I sauteed the mushrooms and chopped onion until they were soft and full of flavor.  I added the tomato to the pan and sauteed it for a minute or two more.  I didn't saute the tomato too long as I wanted it to retain some firmness.  I poured in the Alfredo sauce and let it simmer a couple of minutes to warm the sauce.

After the sauce had warmed, I added the cooked linguine to the pan.  I let it simmer for just another minute and then, I dished up a bowl and enjoyed it.

All in all, I liked the Alfredo Sauce dish.  It's rich, so it's not something I'll eat frequently, but it would be nice for a holiday or special occasion with a nice slice of garlic bread (unfortunately, I didn't have any) and a nice glass of wine.

Tomato and Mushroom Calzone

Tonight, I made calzones for dinner.  My sons had non-vegan calzones, but mine was totally vegan.  I used pre-made whole grain pizza dough from Whole Foods and divided it into four portions.  I made my sons each a calzone and then made an extra one with just pasta sauce, herbs, and mixed cheeses for them for dinner.  

For my calzone, I diced a tomato and some mushrooms.  I spread some tomato, basil, and garlic sauce on the dough.  I sprinkled some vegan Parmesan on the sauce.  Next, I added the diced tomato and mushrooms.  I sprinkled some oregano and basil on top of the veggies.  Finally, I shredded some Follow Your Heart mozzarella on top of the veggies and herbs.  I baked it at 400º for 10 minutes, then turned the calzone around on the pan to make sure it wasn't sticking, and baked it another 10 minutes.  It was a light, fresh tasting calzone.  It wasn't overloaded with cheese, fat, or calories.  

Calzones are not something I make on a regular basis, but they were a nice change of pace.  The preparation takes a bit of time, but once the calzones are put together, it's a quick 20 minutes to chow time.  This was a nice early week dinner.