More Sucessful Cooking & A Great Shopping Find

This past month, our Vive le Vegan cookbook has been well-used!

- When you want a dish that's flavorful and well-liked by friends and family, just browse through Vive le Vegan; you'll definetely find something worth talking about.

- When you want to give pizazz to your favorite sandwiches and vegetables, just choose one of the delicious dressings and sauces in Vive le Vegan.

- And, when you want a quick and healthy sandwich or burger, choose Vive le Vegan!

We've had such successful cooking, making Vive le Vegan's Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole, Lemon Zinger Vinaigrette, Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce, Cumin Lime Vinaigrette, Ginger Dipping Sauce, Lemon Herb Tofu, and Pumpkin Seed Lentil Patties!

When we visited our mom two weeks ago for our grandparent's anniversary, we made our Mom dinner. She loved the Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole, which had great flavors and textures. Sweet potatoes, apples, onion, celery, green beans, and chickpeas in a subtle coconut ginger curry sauce. A great filling meal and great leftovers!

Dreena's dressings and sauces are so easy to whip up and add flavor and pizazz to rice bowls, sandwiches, and veggies. The Cumin Lime Vinaigrette had a subtle Mexican flavor; we enjoyed it tossed in a salad with tomatoes, zucchini, and chives. It would also be great over black beans or in wraps. We used the Ginger Dipping sauce in rice bowls, tofu, and stir-fried veggies.

We loved the Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce - a great creamy rich sauce, yet mellow in flavor. Good warm or chilled. We mixed the sauce with pasta shells, tofu, peas, and broccoli, and for leftovers we had a chilled pasta salad. Other ideas to use the sauce: in a potato salad, as a tofu ricotta sauce, in a casserole, or in grain bowls.

We also loved Dreena's Lemon Zinger Vinaigrette over broccoli, snap peas, and salad. Alongside the broccoli-snap pea salad, we made Lemon Herb tofu, which was absolutely delicious! Great as "steaks" but also good on sandwich bread with lettuce, avocado, and cucumber. Both dressings would be good to use over anything!


Another great meal was the Pumpkin Seed Lentil Patties. We didn't have breadcrumbs, so we used oat bran and cracker crumbs. Delicious subtle curry flavor with a great texture. We ate it with avocado and lettuce in homemade pitas and had potato fries on the side. This would be really good with a balsamic dressing, or to flavor it with a different spice instead of curry, such as a Mexican flavor. An easy and quick dinner when you can take a patty out of the freezer, reheat, and eat!


Today we found a great find! At our downtown, there was a festival, and all the vendors on 3rd St. were having sales. At one of the stores, called Found Objects, we found a cookie/flour jar, and sugar and creamer set for just $8.50 (originally $40!). We are using them as utensil holder and tea jars!