Cooking This Week!

I made a few old favorite recipes this week along with a couple of new ones.

I made this yummy bread for my daughter's family; the grandsons love this. I just bought some more zucchini to make two more loaves.


~ Zucchini Apple Bread ~
Betty Goes Vegan

I had a pound of fresh organic green beans and this recipe I found here. These remind me of my favorite green beans I order at P. F. Chang's. Yum! They could use a little more heat for my taste; a sprinkle of red pepper flakes would be good. 

~ Dry-Sauteed Green Beans ~ 

I served the green beans with another long green veggie-some roasted asparagus; a loaded baked potato and Morning Star Farms BBQ Riblets. 

I've had this cookbook Peas and Thank You for about a year now and I have to admit this is the first recipe I have made out of it. Hmm~I wonder if I have too many cookbooks! It looks like there are lots of delicious recipes; so I'll be trying a few of them soon. 

This smoothie recipe sounded so tasty I had to try it.

Ingredients for smoothie ~ blackberries, lime, basil, ginger and soymilk with stevia to sweeten. It took alot of stevia to sweeten this to my taste. Kind of tart and tangy! 

~ Blackberry Basil Smash Smoothie ~ 

This made enough for two servings so I poured the rest into some popsicle molds for the grandkids. 

Another favorite recipe I like to make is the "Mock Beef & Rice Noodle Toss" from La Dolce Vegan. I have made so many variations of this using whatever veggies I have on hand. The Teriyaki Marinade really brings it all together. I usually end up using all of the marinade and thickening it with a little cornstarch for the sauce. This time I used Gardein Beefless Tips, broccoli and snow peas over quinoa. 

~ Mock Beef & (Rice Noodle) Toss ~

La Dolce Vegan

The lasagna recipe from Chloe's Kitchen is the best! This is the second time I have made this. It's so easy using no-boil lasagna noodles. My brother and his family came to visit the day after I made this. He ate the leftovers and wanted the recipe! I couldn't believe he wanted to make a vegan recipe; I was so thrilled and he wanted to make it for company!

before baking

~ Ooh-La-La Lasagna ~

Chloe's Kitchen

I was so excited to see Beyond Meat chicken at my local Sprouts. They have all the different flavors of chicken but no other products yet. I knew just what I wanted to try it in. Give Them Something Better's cookbook has so many homey, comforting, familiar recipes. I wanted to try the Chicken Stew and Easy Biscuits. 

Easy Biscuits hot from the oven.

 You use whole wheat pastry flour and make them in a muffin pan. They were flavorful but I still like light, airy cut biscuits better. The Chicken Stew tastes just like my grandma's (well, almost!) I should have put the chicken pieces in at the end of cooking because they did get a little spongy but it didn't affect the flavor at all. This makes a big pot of stew; I need to remember to start halving these recipes. 

~ Chicken Stew & Easy Biscuits ~
Give Them Something Better

Now, what to cook for this week?!!

Szechwan-Style Chicken with Asian Salad

Love the recipes in this cookbook! They are all so easy to prepare with familiar ingredients. 

This recipe uses my favorite faux meat-Soy Curls. The meaty texture holds up even after cooking and simmering. The szechwan sauce is a mixture of tomato paste, lemon juice, Braggs, sugar, ginger and cayenne. It could have used a little more cayenne for my taste. 

The Soy Curls with snow peas, water chestnuts and green onions. 

Szechwan-Style Chicken and Asian Salad

I served the chiken over brown rice and added a little Sambal Oelek to mine for some hotness.

I had a lovely photo of my Asian Salad but somehow it got deleted. Anyway, the salad has romaine, cabbage, cilantro, green onions, cucumbers, carrots, edamame and chow mein noodles. It is served with a dressing made with sugar, lemon juice, Braggs and oil; kind of a sweet and sour taste.  This recipe made so much we had leftovers for three days! 

Breakfast Burritos

Another favorite tofu scramble to add to the list! This one is from Give Them Something Better. I turned this one into a breakfast burrito. 

I had some frozen hash browns I wanted to add to my burrito. I seasoned them with some Onion Onion seasoning from Tastefully Simple and then cooked them until they were nice and crispy brown. Perfect amount of seasoning. I could have eaten the hash browns right out of the pan instead of waiting for my scramble to get done!

This recipe called for some chicken style seasoning. I've never added that to my scrambles. I used my Butler's Chik-Style Seasoning. I like the extra flavor it gave the tofu. I also added some chopped green onions and topped it all with some Daiya cheddar shreds which I let melt into the scramble. 

Gotta have cilantro and hot sauce for your breakfast burritos!

I warmed up a flour tortilla in the microwave and then topped it with the scramble, some hash browns, cilantro and chipotle habanero hot sauce.

Perfect breakfast burrito~Yum! 

This made enough for extra easy breakfasts. 

Black Beans

I never cook beans from dried; I just always use canned. I had exactly enough dried black beans to make this recipe. I wanted to cook them up and cool them down so I could stock my freezer. 

Cute little black beans.

I used the Quick Soak method.You put the beans in a large pot, add water to cover beans and bring to a boil. Let the water boil about 2 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and let soak for about an hour. Then proceed with cooking the beans. 

This recipe has onion, green bell pepper, chicken style seasoning, cumin, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, salt, canned diced tomatoes and lemon juice. I used fire roasted with green chilis canned tomatoes for a little extra heat. I love these freezer containers. Each one holds 4 cups which is just enough for a meal. I'll be serving these black beans with some cornbread. 

Cauliflower Lentil Tostadas & Spanish Rice

 I love watching Jason Wrobel on "How To Live To 100" on The Cooking Channel. One episode was all about cauliflower. He made these Cauliflower Lentil Tacos but I baked up some corn tortillas and made tostadas instead.

You take a head of cauliflower and pulse it in the food processor until it is the size of rice grains. It's combined with cooked lentils and lots of other spicy ingredients to make this yummy taco/tostada/burrito filling. 

I also made Spanish Rice following the recipe in Give Them Something Better. It uses brown rice instead of white. It was kind of dry so I might add extra tomato sauce and water next time. I still like my own version of Spanish Rice better. 

Instead of the Guacamole recipe Jason uses I made the Avocado Tomato Salsa from La Dolce Vegan. Lots of lime juice and cilantro! 

Both of these recipes make alot so I froze the leftovers for a quick dinner on nights I don't want to cook.

Bar-B-Q Chicken Sandwich and Coleslaw

Two more delicious recipes from Give Them Something Better. I love BBQ sandwiches and coleslaw and when I attend a big event it always seems to be the usual fare along with pinto beans so I'm left with nothing to eat.  Now I can enjoy this meat-free version anytime! 

The pre-soaked soy curls along with onion and green bell pepper. 

This recipe makes a very tasty BBQ sauce for the soy curls without all the additives in a store-bought bottle. 

The coleslaw is very easy to make. After shredding the cabbage in the food processor you add carrot, vegan mayonnaise, lemon juice, green onion, sugar and salt. Yum! It tastes just like my grandma used to make. The hubby really, really liked this meal. It's a keeper. 

Light and Fluffy Pancakes or Waffles

My yearly sinus infection finally caught up with me. I looked back at my records and it was exactly a year ago in March that I had it before. Ugh! Drinking lots of green juice; I finally broke down and had to get some antibiotics to knock it out this time. I've just been throwing together easy meals when I don't especially feel like even eating. I did make these pancakes a few days ago to keep a stash in the freezer.

Give Them Something Better

Great cookbook~lots of easy, delicious recipes. 

A pile o' pancakes!

These truly are "light and fluffy" pancakes. They have an addition of a 1/2 cup of cornmeal to give them a little texture that an egg would do. I did add a little more water because the batter seemed a little thick. The hubby really enjoyed these; he said they tasted just like in a restaurant! 

Broccoli Salad

I wanted to contribute something to our Easter dinner last Sunday and I found this recipe for an old-time favorite I loved! Of course the original had lots of bacon in it but that was easily substituted by using Baco Bits. It's delicious; I could have eaten it all by myself! It has broccoli, red onion, raisins, sunflower seeds, and the imitation bacon bits. The dressing is made with vegan mayonnaise, lemon juice and sugar. I found this recipe while looking through one of my new vegan cookbooks; like I don't have enough of those! The cookbook is Give Them Something Better by Sarah Frain & Stephanie Howard. They are two Seventh Day Adventist women who wanted to share some of their favorite healthy recipes.