Jul 7, 2012

The Vegan Oxymoron

Again, because the fresh veggie market in Florida slows down for the summer, we don't have as interesting meals as we used to. Being an amateur, at home cook, the one thing I really enjoy about starting a vegan, plant based, whole foods diet (besides taking care of my health!): finding and trying new recipes! So I have dug up some older pictures from sometime during the spring when the veggies were flowing.

But first, the vegan oxymoron: Can you have vegan animal cookies?
I found some really awesome woodland creature cookie cutters at Ikea one day and I just had to make cookies. I used this vegan sugar cookie recipe. They weren't the best cookies I have ever had, but they worked and they are vegan!

Beets did really well in our garden (as well as the local farms). Coming up with good recipes for beets is hard for someone who really isn't a big beet fan (Mike on the other hand loves beets!). This doesn't look very appetizing:
But it was quite tasty and very simple. It's a roasted beet salad. The vinaigrette that I made to go with the salad had chopped fresh green onions. Highly recommended if you are testing you beet palate.

This was a made up recipe (Green Lentils with Rainbow Carrots and Collards):

Once you get the hang of it, coming up with your own vegan meals can be very easy. This recipe consists of green lentils, rainbow carrots, and collard greens. As the green lentils cook (according to the packet or these directions), saute the sliced carrots and sliced collard greens in a little olive oil until both are tender (you will need to start the carrots first, depending on how big your slices are, and then add the sliced collards). As for seasonings, you can add what you like. I added ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and a little ground nutmeg (I like collards with nutmeg for some reason). Just mix together when everything is fully cooked. It wasn't too bad :)


I forgot why I was alone one night, but Mike was out doing something, so I wandered out to the garden and pulled one turnip and two beets for my dinner that night:
On top are the simple glazed turnips. No matter how I cook turnips, I really don't like them. Mike loves them, so I keep trying to like them for him. The recipe sounded good, and if you like turnips then you may enjoy it. As for the beets, I modified this beet casserole recipe. I didn't have fresh ginger, so I used ground. And instead of grated onion, I used onion flakes (since I had no other onion in the house). I do really enjoy this recipe. It has graced our table plenty of times since. 


And last for today, something spectacular:
Homemade rosemary bread! You can make this vegan by using a vegan butter in place of real butter, it still turns out the same. This is sooooooo good! If you are thinking about making your own bread, but think it's too hard, try this recipe. It is very, very simple and a great starter recipe. 


Until next time, please enjoy this photo of Pineapple trying to figure out who is in the mirror: