Scrumptious Banana-Nut Bread & Ninja Turtle Power Smoothie

One of the few recipes from La Dolce Vegan I hadn't tried yet. I have a plastic bag full of frozen overripe bananas so it was convenient to thaw one out for this yummy bread. The recipe also calls for 1/2 cup silken tofu. I opened up the aseptic package took out 1/2 cup and then used the rest in my smoothie for the morning. We were babysitting the grandsons all day and knew they loved banana bread. All of the liquid ingredients are blended up in the food processor and then added to the dry. This bread was gone in two days! Time to make some more. 

~ Scrumptious Banana-Nut Bread ~

My smoothie~Vega One powder, maca powder, coconut water, kale, frozen fruit, silken tofu, mint leaves, and powdered wheatgrass. The grandsons love smoothies and I tried to convince them this was a ninja turtle power smoothie but they wanted nothing to do with it! hehheh 

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?!!

Breakfast Banana Smoothie~pg. 52

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

Since I am allergic to raw bananas I'll call this "Breakfast Mango Smoothie". After I whipped this up in the blender I calculated how many calories I would consume if I drank this whole glass. . . . . . . 602 whopping calories!!! It would have been even more but I used only 2 Tbsp. of tahini. Wowie~I drank half for breakfast with nothing else. I sipped on it throughout the day and tried to watch what I ate for lunch and dinner. Well, that certainly wasn't worth it.

On the Run Breakfast Smoothie~pg. 53

La Dolce Vegan! Challenge:

The recipe calls for a frozen banana and I'm allergic to raw bananas so I used 1/2 C. of plain soy yogurt. Since I didn't have that extra frozen fruit in mine it was just more like a breakfast drink. I used frozen mangoes and orange juice and had to add a little stevia since I didn't have the sweetness of the banana. It reminded me of an Orange Julius drink I used to get when I was a kid. I'll have to make it thicker next time.