Squirrel’s Vegan Kitchen

I’ve been dreaming of potatoes au gratin lately, so tonight I said “Kris, you’re making potatoes”. And gosh darn it, I did. I made a really simple “cheese” sauce by sauteing a medium onion, diced, with a tablespoon of crushed garlic in about 2 tablespoons of my recent oil of choice, grapeseed oil. When the onions looked clear I added about 2 tbsp of flour and mixed it to a paste. Then I added 2 cups of unsweetened soy milk and cooked it on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes, until it thickened. Then I whisked in half a cup of nutritional yeast and a teaspoon of sea salt, mixed it well and removed it from the heat. I made 4 layers out of the potatoes, with a layer of sauce between each layer, in a 9×13 pan, greased. Baked it at 400 for about 30 minutes and mmm, it smelled great. On top, to counteract the starchiness, I steamed a bag of frozen veggies. A simple mix, some cauliflower, broccoli, green beans and carrots and then added a blob of spinach on top of that, for good measure. It made a great, comfort-foody dinner. And there are leftovers!

For dessert I had to indulge in my new vice, mango vanilla soy ice cream. SO GOOD. I made a little puree of some softened frozen papaya, mango and pineapple with the ice cream on top. Very yummy. Next time I think I’ll add a little agave nectar drizzle on top of it all. Ooh and a sprig of mint, wouldn’t that look pretty…

Okay, I’m off to daydream of food, but I’ll leave you all with a picture of Bindhi and Linus watching Moussa the hamster this afternoon. Silly kitties…

Tonight I threw together a quick pizza, thanks to a stop at Trader Joe’s. They sell premade pizza dough. All you need to do is let it warm up to room temperature, stretch it, dress it, and pop it in the oven. It doesn’t quite bake up like homemade, but when we don’t plan ahead it’s a nice safety net to have for those pizza binges. I picked up the Italian Spices one this time. We used tomato sauce, some pesto, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes. On Jim’s side there’s a healthy sprinkling of black olives as well.

For dessert we had an uncheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust. The cake was topped off with some canned Morello cherries that I also picked up at TJ’s today. This is an early incarnation of a vegan cheesecake that I’m working on. It’s still missing something, good but not great. Poor me, I’ll just have to keep making more cheesecakes until I perfect it!

Sorry it’s been awhile, the past 2 nights I’ve tried to use Blogger the picture upload hasn’t been working.

This morning we had Peaches n’ Cream French Toast Bake. I used some homemade cinammon bread that I made last night. We also needed to use up the last of the huge bag of tangelos I got at the farmer’s market last weekend, so we had some fresh juice that I made with our Champion Juicer . I love our juicer, it is very useful, easy to clean and we can make all sorts of things in it, nut butters, ice cream, I even saw a tutorial on making chocolate liquor from cocoa beans and they used this juicer! It’s the best.

Last night, dinner was sprouted wheat pasta from Trader Joe’s with marinara, zucchini, mushrooms and black olives. Mmmm. A fairly basic meal, but always good. I held back from getting some ciabatta and having bruschetta too (can you have too many tomatoes in a meal?) because I picked up my new vice, vanilla mango soy ice cream, for dessert. An odd pairing, but it’s so great. I could eat it every day. I got a bag of frozen mango and papaya chunks to serve it over, but for last night we just had regular ice cream.

Today we’re eating Chinese at my favorite local Asian food spot, Tott’s Asian Diner in Tempe. If you’re local and you want some very friendly, delicious veggie food that is cheap and has huge portions check this place out. A Pei Wei (boo! hiss!) just opened kiddy corner from them and they are stuggling. Mmm, Tott’s. This will be a delicious afternoon.

We’ve been eating boring quick meals the past two days, take out Chinese and Caesar wraps again, nothing too interesting to report, so I thought I’d post a pic of the only cat not yet represented, Linus, the drag king kitty himself. Linus is a grey Maine Coon that we got from a shelter in Minneapolis. He’s been with us for 4 years, almost, and is known as the cat ambassador. If someone thinks that they don’t like cats all they need is one afternoon with Grey and they’ll be singing a different tune.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a pic of another creation from my upcoming vegan baking book: brownie cheesecake muffins. Mmm… warmed with a spoonful of Tofutti ice cream on top…. drool….

Also, long overdue, I just updated the recipes section with recipes for the chocolate pudding and shepherd’s pie! Yay!

Yikes! Our weekend has been nuts and it’s gone by super fast. I gave notice on Friday. Not nearly as scary as I thought it would be, but I certainly did a good job getting myself all worked up over it. It’s nice to have it out in the open now, so I don’t have to be secretive about things anymore. I hate lying and I’m really bad at, so I’m glad it’s all over.

I had to work yesterday and we had a potluck so I made this key lime pie. I will admit, I’m a bit squeemish when baking recipes call for tofu. I have had some nasty experiences, but this recipe has such great reviews I decided to give it a go and I’m so glad I did! It was just heavenly. Very creamy, sweet but not too sweet so you could still really enjoy the lime flavor. Oh yeah, and that “I hate lying” thing? Well, that doesn’t apply when it comes to co-workers asking me “what’s in this?” No way was I going to say tofu! Like they’d eat it then… hehehehe.

I also made a batch if my killer vegan brownies, which will be in my upcoming cookbook. They are chewy, slightly fudgey and have that thin little crust on top of them, just like the “classics”. Mmmm.

When I got home yesterday I helped Jim make falafel. It was from a box mix (remember, he’s taking baby steps). It was an okay mix (Near East) but I think I like the Fantastic mix better. I was too tired/lazy to whip up some tahini sauce, so we just used some hummus and filled up our pitas for movie night.

This morning I had a nice, leisurely morning, which I haven’t had in a long time. It was great. I slathered up with some sun screen, grabbed my iPod and walked up to the farmer’s market that’s near my apartment. On my way there I freaked out a little, wondering if it was already done for the season, since it’s getting warmer here and the growing season is coming to an end. Thankfully it was still there, albeit smaller than normal. I ended up with a grand array of yellow/orange colored fruits, some tangelos, Fuji apples, a pomello and one large navel orange. I have been on the biggest citrus kick since it started warming up, which is strange since the most citrusy I normally get is drinking lemonade. The tangelos are wonderful. I love citrus that you don’t have to struggle to peel, unlike most oranges.

So yeah, busy weekend and now I’m getting ready to start my work countdown! 2 weeks and counting!