Feast Your Eyes On All Of These Meals!

So,

Time flies by, especially when your studying non stop in a five week summer school class!

We've been taking some pictures of our delicious meals, but have not had time to post any blogs! So here goes on our meals over the last few weeks.....

One night for dinner we made Italian White Beans Stuffed Bell Peppers - an Italian spin on the usual Mexican black bean stuffed bell peppers. It was so wonderful and creamy, with a large can of white beans, short grain brown rice, Italian herbs, tomato sauce, onions, and garlic. Will make again! So filling, healthy, and easy.

The next picture is of delicious and quick Vegetable Pita Pizzas! A simple way to make pizza by using whole wheat pita bread. Just spread garlic, tomato sauce, soy cheese, fresh basil and vegetables (sauteed prior to pizza assembly) and bake in the oven. I love any meal with tomato sauce and herbs!

Another evening we got to make and eat Fantastic Food's Vegetarian Sloppy Joes http://www.fantasticfoods.com/catalog/vegetarian-meals-c-30.html, on whole wheat Mrs. Baird's buns. We enhanced the Sloppy Joe mix with some sauteed mushrooms, celery, onion, and bell pepper dices. Unfortunately, we didn't have tomato paste like the mix called for, but next time we will add alot of tomato sauce/paste to make it more like Italian sauce Sloppy Joe flavor versus more chili-ground meat flavor. Overall the mix is great to have on hand, even though it does have alot of sodium and is processed. It is nice to do because it is easy and has the "meat" and some spices already ready for you. Our philosophy - try something new and have all things in moderation! Maybe next time try making sloppy joes with Garden Burger "Chicken" cutlets, diced and crumbled into pieces and mixed in a spicy tomato sauce for a different way.

Along with talking about Fantastic Food's Sloppy Joes, we recently tried their hummus mix, which was really great. It lasts so long and you mix in how much you want. We love eating hummus with avocado, cucumbers, red bell peppers, and tomatoes, and spread on pitas or crackers.

We are hooked on these new unique crackers we discovered - Mary's Gone Crackers Black Pepper flavor. http://www.marysgonecrackers.com/ns/intro.php. They are really crisp, an addicting crunchy snack! Also great with avocado, hummus, or cheese! Other variations include Original flavor, Herb, Carraway, and Onion. We've tried carraway and it is tasty, too.

Our last great meal post for the night is Apricot Tofu and Vegetable Stirfry! Very sweet and addicting sauce made of all fruit apricot jam, mustard, soy sauce, and water, which is mixed in with dried apricot peices, sauteed tofu, and sauteed vegetables (fresh green beans, red bell peppers, onions, bean sprouts). The sauce was sweet and tasty, but rich after a while. We served it over whole grain and flax couscous, which is so easy to make. For variations, you can have asparagus, spinach, pineapple, tomatoes, etc... instead. This meal was adapted from Crescent Dragonwagon's "Passionate Vegetarian" cookbook. http://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Vegetarian-Crescent-Dragonwagon/dp/0761128255/ref=sr_1_1/102-6622881-5172935?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182560481&sr=1-1

We will end tonight's blog with a talk about our delicious Maple Almond Oatmeal Cookies we made from scratch for our birthday (June 18), from "One Smart Cookie" cookbook by Julie van Rosendaal! (another great favorite from this cookbook is the Peanut Butter Cookies!!) http://www.amazon.com/One-Smart-Cookie-Favorite-Brownies/dp/1579549446/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6622881-5172935?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182561042&sr=1-1. This cookbook of healthy desserts is one of our top dessert cookbooks! The oatmeal cookies we made are definitely a keeper, as we have experimented over the years with a good chewy, not cakey, and hearty, spiced oatmeal cookie. The oats we used were some hearty and chewy grains that enhanced the texture. We also modified it and incorporated graham flour and whole wheat pastry flour. I wish we had a picture, but we forgot to take some! Oh well, just imagine the devine cookie!

Oh, and just a thought if you're interested - I can't believe we're 21 already! Time flies by, and it makes you feel so old. Just looking back though, I see how great my life is and has been, and how much we've matured and learned!

Sharing our joy for vegetarian and healthy food!

-LK

Meals and Products

It's finally Friday! Busy week with studying for an exam and adopting two beautiful cats, Emma and Noah! We enjoyed this week making meals and then having leftovers the next day - it relieved us of work and gave us more time for studying.

We made Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables:

We used 4-5 gold all purpose potatoes (similar to red potatoes), 1/3 of a large cauliflower, about 1 cup of baby carrots, and some onion, garlic, olive oil, and lots of rosemary. With it, we made homemade wheat rosemary bread (used Hodgson Mill Honey Whole Wheat Bread Mix and added rosemary) in our bread machine, which was a time saver, although we prefer making 100% whole wheat bread from scratch.

We also made Mexican Vegetable Enchiladas (well, more like baked tacos):

We sauteed about 1 cup of mushrooms, 1/2 cup diced onion, 1 cup zucchini, 1 garlic clove minced, and 1 cup of diced red bell pepper. We also added some flavor - some jalepeno, chili pepper, and black pepper. We used whole wheat tortillas and put the vegetable mixture in the tortillas and baked at 350 (not sure how long, maybe 15-20 minutes). We liked the crispy tortillas (although lots of juice from the vegetables reduced the crispiness). Served with our favorite baked blue corn tortilla chips and salsa and mexican diced tomatoes. Yumm!

This week we received Sun Flour Cookies, and so far we've tried the Carrot Spice cookie which tastes somewhat like a cinnamon pumpkin cookie. We are originally ABC vegan cookie fanatics, but saw these and we are currently trying them out (although so far we still like ABC best). We also ordered at Pangea Vegan Store, which we really appreciate their food and business. We bought Larabars (great snack bar!), McDougal's Oatmeal (best oatmeal ever!), and Sensible Foods crunchy apples (great healthy snack!). Just some great food products worth trying out!

Until next time, LK.

Vegetables Galore!

Ok, so the first week of summer school has passed, and we are already busy. We happened to take two photos of two meals we did make this week, though.

The first meal we made was balsamic vinegrette tofu with sauteed vegetables and whole wheat couscous. Tasty!

The next meal was whole wheat bowtie pasta. Simple and healthy, with lots of sauteed vegetables, olive oil, and garlic.

Anyways, we can't believe it has been one week since we moved into our first apartment! It is alot of fun - great to cook, to have your own space and have it quiet, to decorate, and to be responsible!

Now, we are into the next phase - adopting cats!

God bless, LK

Our First Blog

Hi fellow vegetarian food fanatics,

We are LK, twin sisters who love everything about food and good health! This is our first blog, and we are ameteurs at this, but are eager to post healthy vegetarian recipes, organic food products, and other ideas on food.

So here goes...

This past week we made date coconut balls from vegweb.com:

We did some additions and revisions, which made it excellent: Zested half of a lemon and added it to date mixture in the end. Lemon adds a great touch! An even tastier alternative - spread a little date mixture onto a graham cracker (use whole wheat MirDel) and topped with coconut! Very easy and cheap, especially for us students who don't have much time or money!

That's it for today - enjoy!

- LK