Vegan Meatballs

A friend heard that we were on a vegan diet, and let us borrow one of his favorite vegan cookbooks called Ecological Cooking. It's one of those hidden gem cookbooks that is not by anyone famous/celebrity or well known cookbook author/chef, and has over 500 meatless, dairy-free recipes! It's only $4 on amazon, so if you want to try some fun vegan recipes, I would highly recommend this one. I quickly bought my own copy after I tried a couple recipes in it.  

Vegan Pasta Sauce

This was such a simple, basic pasta sauce that I had to share it. One of my favorite meals as a kid was Spaghetti Bolognese. I loved "slurping" the long spaghetti but now as a mother I can see how that can get quite messy with my kiddos, especially with the noodles covered in tomato sauce. Good thing they are old enough to clean up after themselves. :) 

Vegan Veggie Loaf

We've had a busy last couple of days! My daughter decided she wanted to try out for her school's talent show. Lot's of practicing involved, making sure her costume fits just right and more practicing! Plus, our family car wouldn't start yesterday and my son has a bad cold. Thankfully, my husband was home from work yesterday, so we were able to use his car to get to the talent show, have the family car towed to a mechanic to get fixed the same day and my son was able to stay home the whole time with daddy and rest...so it all worked out! Counting my blessings for sure! 

Vegan Tortilla Soup

One of our favorite soups of all time is tortilla soup. The kids love it because they get to chop up all the toppings that go in it (tomatoes, avocado, etc), then they pick out what items they want in their soup. I love it because I am teaching my kids how to properly use a knife (and stay safe while using it) and they are getting an intro on how to chop veggies.   

Vegan Mac and Cheese

I was very intrigued by this recipe. We are big fans of Mac and cheese and I wanted to find something where the "cheese-sauce" was thick and hearty but didn't skimp out on flavor. This was one of the only recipes I found that didn't have tofu as the first ingredient. Now just to be clear, I'm not against tofu. I have been enjoying it lately in a lot of different meals, but to be honest, we are eating a LOT of of soy products lately (soy milk, tofu, temph, etc) and I wanted to find something different. 

Roasted Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts

My favorite way of cooking vegetables is roasting them in an oven. Drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper, place them on a baking sheet into the oven...DONE! They cook in the oven, while I have time to prepare the rest of my meal. 

Berry Oatmeal Muffins

Happy Monday! I just did my meal plan last night, and am very excited about this week's meals. It's been almost a week since our family has gone vegan, and overall it's been a good transition. Switching to almond milk vs cow's milk has been the easiest transition for us. I'm still trying to find a good substitute for cheese, and don't know if I will ever find one. Looking back, we probably had some kind of cheese in our diet every single day, so that has been the hardest food item to stay away from. 

Pumpkin-Quinoa Chili

I went overboard this past Fall and bought 6 different gourds at the pumpkin patch. My reasoning at the time? I wanted to sample each of the different pumpkin puree's to see which one would make the best pumpkin pie. A couple of our favorites were the white pumpkin, kobocha squash, and sugar pie. What turned out to be the best puree was when we mixed a bunch of them together. 

Portobello Tacos with Tomatillo Salsa

These tacos were absolutely amazing, especially the Tomatillo Salsa! I don't have a lot of experiencing cooking with tomatillos, but making this salsa encouraged me to try more recipes that have this fresh but slightly tart ingredient in it. 

Mexican Rice

This has been a favorite side dish that I've been making for our family for several years now, and it's a great complimentary meal to burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and anything else you can think of.

Butternut Squash and Sundried Tomato Soup

First day of Vegan eating was a success!  My main goal the next 60 (now 59!) days is to make this process as simple for my family as possible, and to do that I have to be an organized meal planner and make sure all my food is prepped and chopped ahead of time. 

Vegetable Broth

One of the main staples in Vegetarian/Vegan cooking is a good broth recipe. Making your own broth for soups, stir-fry's and many other meals is essential if you want to get the best flavor, less sodium, save you money and eliminate any icky preservatives in whatever you are cooking. 

Happy New Year!

 

Hope you and your family have had a wonderful 2012 and are excited about the possibilities that await you in 2013. What kind of New Year's resolutions have you made for this year...or do you even do a resolution every year?