Quick Puff Pastry Pizza

This recipe is adapted from Donna Klein's Vegan Italiano. I made this last night for the first time and was sooooo pleasantly surprised at not only how quick and easy it was, but how incredibly delicious it was. I'm excited about this recipe because there can be so many variations to it. Really, it's not so much a recipe to me as it is the ingenious idea to use frozen puff pastry for pizza dough. YUM. Seriously.

Spicy Seitan "Pepper Steaks"

This is one of our FAVORITE recipes. And it's a real treat because we don't have seitan very often because it's a bit time consuming to make. This isn't really a recipe I would expect omnivores to make just because seitan is one of the "weird" things us vegans eat. The first time I had it I really didn't like it (I thought it tasted like play dough). But THEN, Isa Chandra Moskowitz came into my life via her recipe book, Vegan With A Vengeance and I discovered the best seitan recipe everrrrrr. In my opinion, the bottom line with seitan is as follows: Don't even bother trying it unless you're willing to make it from scratch. And then enjoy because it will blow your mind the way it does mine every time I have it.

Shepherd's Pie

This is not your typical Shepherd's Pie. It may even anger some people because of how non-traditional it is. But it doesn't anger me at all. In fact, just the opposite - it pleases me immensely. So I will continue to use this recipe and I will continue to call it Shepherd's Pie. The recipe is straight from Skinny Bitch In the Kitch. FYI, the Skinny Bitch books are not only filled with useful information, but they're also hilarious. I even find myself laughing out loud at recipes. It's nuts!

Anyway, this is what I made for dinner tonight. And it's awesome. I also made cupcakes and homemade applesauce because I'm a maniac. More on those tomorrow.

Thanks, Kate!

I just want everyone to know that my BEAUTIFUL header was made by my talented, gorgeous, and awesome sister, Kate! If you ever need anything awesome made for your website she's the person to ask!

Spinach Linguine with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes

This is the dinner I chose to make for my family when I went home to visit last week. I didn't want to scare them away with tofu or seitan or nutritional yeast or anything crazy like that so I stuck with something EVERYONE loves. You'd have to be nuts to think that pesto is anything less than divine. However, this is a basil-cilantro pesto which I know may not be agreeable to everyone but I promise, it's awesome. I had never made it before and was nervous that the cilantro could easily take over but it really didn't. It was delicious and everyone loved it. Oh, and I got this recipe from one of my absolute favorites, Veganomicon.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Joy of Vegan Baking. First of all, this cookbook is AMAZING. (Thank you Mom and Dad for such a great Christmas gift!) It is full of decadent deserts, mouth watering breads, and finger lickin' pastries and treats! Anyway, in this cookbook many of the recipes are made with Ener-G Egg Replacer. I haven't always had success with this stuff but as I learned from this book, blending it with water is absolutely KEY. It will do its job flawlessly. So don't leave this step out!! Anyway, these cookies are awesome, totally awesome. They're a hit everywhere I bring them. They're the perfect "I can't believe it's vegan!" treat. No one would ever guess! They taste just like those yummy Tollhouse cookies I used to bake with my mom. I baked these tonight for my neighbor who offered to watch our pets while we're in New Hampshire for the week. I know she and her husband will love 'em.

Super Yummy Vegetable Soup

This soup is one of my own personal creations. There's not a whole lot to it and I probably make it a little differently every time depending on what I have stocked in my kitchen. I made this for dinner last night for two reasons:

1. It was unseasonably cold for a South Carolinian April day.

2. I lost basketball brackets for March Madness (who knows why I participated in the first place). We decided the winner gets a free lunch from each of the losers. As I didn't want to spend any of my hard earned money on yucky fast food, I offered to cook for the winner. My boss won, and he requested some of my homemade soup.

Savory Tofu and Vegetables Over Tomato Couscous

This is what I made for dinner last night. This recipe is awesome because not only is it soooo delicious, but it's super easy, cheap, and healthy. What more could you ever ask for?? I got this recipe from an issue of  Vegetarian Times probably over a year ago. I clipped it and pasted it to some construction paper and it's been with me ever since.

Welcome!!!

Hello and welcome to my blog!!

I've created this blog to share some of my vegan recipes, tips, techniques, and insights. I'm hoping this will also be a place to not only share with the general public but more importantly with my friends and family who are curious about what goes on in my kitchen. I still have a lot to learn and skills to perfect so we'll just see where this takes me! And please, bear with me - I haven't the slightest clue how to make my blog beautiful and exciting. Hopefully it will come to me. 

Thanks for taking a look, and hopefully you will soon be impressed!