Easter weekend, food fest

I know I'm posting this a little late but as I've been a bit under the weather this week blogging has taken the back burner. My family was sick over the past two weeks so I suppose this week was my turn. I'm finally starting to feel more alive, I'm sure the B6 and B12 shots I got yesterday helped!!

This past weekend was Easter weekend. As we don't celebrate Easter we thought of it more as a, let's eat good food weekend. But, aren't all weekends that way? I love to cook and have a lot more time on the weekends to do so!

The weekend started off with a sippy cup disaster! Friday night, nearing dinner time, my little one, J decided to throw her sippy cup down incredibly hard to the ground. Of course said sippy cup cracked down the side as water leaked on to the floor. We had recently purchased this sippy cup to give it a trial run, she, of course, loved it! So, having only the one sippy we were sure to have an issue. We had to make an emergency run to Target! Now, I realize Friday is a no cook night for me but often that means left overs. We had bean burgers still left from my little one's birthday party (no worries, they are frozen) which would have been dinner. But, the detour to Target would delay dinner past the little's bedtime. Thankfully, the in laws rescued our dinner/sippy debacle with food from one of our favorite Asian food restaurants! They got to the house as we returned from emergency trip to Target. Dinner saved! Sippy saved!
On a side note: she's already broken another. I do believe we should get her into shotput or something!

Saturday morning I decided to make a tofu scramble. I had some tofu I needed to use up before expiration.

Ingredients:
1 block of extra firm tofu, pressed
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or 1/4 cup vegetable stock
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil for potatoes
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
6-8 mushrooms, diced (I tend to like my mushrooms small)
3-4 mini bell peppers (any color) or 1/2 a red or yellow bell pepper
2 cups frozen potatoes (I use tater tots, hash browns would work too)
1/4 cup green onion, sliced (green and white parts)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus some to taste
1/4 teaspoon black salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Pepper to taste
I added seasoning by eyeballing, cumin, coriander, basil and oregano. I use my palm to measure. I will be sure to measure next time to give you amounts. I generally stick to 1/2 teaspoon or a bit more of each.
Kale (optional)
Avocado (optional)

Cooking steps:

Using a large nonstick skillet heat the oil or vegetable stock over medium high heat. Once heated add the chopped mushrooms and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook until they start to let go of their juices, 3-4 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, bell peppers. Cook until they start to soften, 6 minutes. Be sure not to let the garlic burn, you can turn down the heat as necessary.

As this is cooking wrap your drained tofu in two paper towels and press. I use a plate on top with a few cans of whatever I have in my cabinet.

Once the veggies have become soft remove them from the pan, set aside. Heat the remaining oil. Add your potatoes. Season with above spice, excluding the black salt and turmeric. Salt and pepper is to taste. Heat the potatoes through breaking them up as they cook. When they are all broken up and heated add the vegetables back to the pan. You can now unwrap your tofu. Break it up into pieces and, this part is fun, crumble with your hands straight into the pan. Add the turmeric and black salt. Stir and let cook, stirring as needed, for 5 minutes.

At the end of cooking add the cilantro and green onions.

To serve: tear some kale into bite size pieces, add your scramble and top with fresh sliced avocado. I do love tofu scrambles! I've been playing with the seasonings for a little bit now so please season as you would normally season eggs (if you eat or have eaten them).



For dinner Saturday night I made a potpie. Who doesn't love a pot pie? I remember eating the frozen pot pies and loving them until I stopped to read the ingredients. Wow, the processed stuff involved, it's not needed! Let Them Eat Vegan has a great potpie that seemed to be quite the hit! I found it to be flavorful, hearty, filling and so good! I topped mine on some rice. Rice has always been a comfort item for me.


This pot pie is FULL of veggies!!


Before adding the crust on top.


I thought it would be cute to cut bears into the crust. Of course the joke of the night was, how could we be vegan if we're eating bears? Haha!


My pot pie served over rice. I tell you, this was fantastic! It was a tad sweeter than I had initially expected (I'm not sure why, seeing as there are sweet potatoes in the recipe) but the sweetness was a great surprise. This recipe can be made any way as well. Add mushrooms, use different potatoes. So many possibilities.

After our lovely Saturday evening food coma we woke on Sunday craving another tofu scramble. Why not? I had one more block of tofu. I made it pretty much in the same manner but added some chili powder. I made some black beans to go on the side. To those I added cumin and chili powder. I have to say, I do believe I liked Saturday's version better. But, to make Sunday's better I added kale after I took the picture. :)



For Sunday night we decided on an Easter type dinner, vegan style of course, even if we aren't ones to celebrate. I chose to make the Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Vegetable Lasagna out of Engine 2 Diet. This is, by far, my favorite recipe from this book! It takes a little time so it makes for a great Sunday meal. We've been noshing on it all week. It makes enough for an army!


I absolutely love this lasagna! I don't miss the cheese or meat whatsoever. If you're interested in making only one night a week or one night a month vegan I highly recommend this lasagna!!


We had salad on the side.

I realize now, I did not get a photo of the Troll Cookies I made out of LTEV. These cookies were mostly healthy ingredients and were SO GOOD! The kids loved them, the adults loved them!! It doesn't call for white flour or even white sugar. How could it be any better.

With all the great food this weekend I'm surprised Monday held up to par!

Cheers and happy eating!