Meta: Vegan

I added a new category for “vegan” recipes.

I pretty much never intend to make vegan food but in the course of making vegetarian food I do make plenty of vegan food as well. This tag will include recipes that are vegan (naturally!) or ones that would easily be vegan by replacing the cooking fat (usually butter) with oil or honey with sugar in places where it won’t too significantly change the recipe at all. Most of these don’t EXPLICITLY say to replace these products so but I will attempt to suggest it in future posts I plan to tag as vegan.

While in a technical way you could make my Broccoli-Cheddar Soup with vegan milk substitutes and vegan cheese, the consistency of the recipe would likely be pretty heavily changed and you’d have a way better time finding recipes already geared around those ingredients.

Most recipes of course can be adapted to be vegan, some by simply removing meat or replacing it with a meat substitute or by using vegan substitutes for butter, milk, and eggs but you might notice I don’t really eat meat substitutes and I’m not a fan of things like seitan and tofu in place of meat so I’m going to just trust you’ll make your best judgements about recipes and I’ll keep trying to helpfully tag recipes.

Happy cooking!

Bento: Comfort Foods

This week the theme was basically just nice hearty comfort food to herald in the cold weather. There’s plenty more delicious comfort foods in our future, chicken and dumplings comes to mind but that’ll have to wait for another week.

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Breakfast Roll Up, Roasted Sweet Potato, Side Salad, Apple

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Homemade Spaghettios with meatballs, salad, bread, apple

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Baked Chicken, Green Beans and Tomatoes, Spiced Rice, Chocolate and an Orange

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Spinach Mac and Cheese, Sliced Orange, Coleslaw

Menu: Blustering Snow

It’s very cold and snowy now so it’s time for delicious winter food even though it’s not yet technically winter.

Saturday scrambled eggs with toast
out @ Milan’s

Sunday grilled turkey and avocado wraps
onion and goat cheese tart, tomato soup

Monday onion and goat cheese tart, tomato soup
lentil falfel with yogurt sauce, couscous

Tuesday baked rosemary chicken with apples, rice, salad
vegetable lasagna

Wednesday lentil falfel with yogurt sauce, couscous
squash, white bean, and spinach saute, cornbread

Thursday vegetable lasagna, salad, fruit
baked rosemary chicken with apples

Friday squash, white bean, and spinach saute, cornbread, fruit
lentil falfel with yogurt sauce, couscous

Things to Make

baked rosemary chicken with apples
squash, white beans, and spinach saute
lasagna
cornbread
tomato soup
onion and goat cheese tart
lentil falfels

Shopping List

apples
grapes
kiwis
squash
tomatoes
mushrooms
zucchinis
avocado
cheese
canned tomatoes (2)
white beans
onions
lentils
bread
milk
butter
ricotta
mozzarella
puff pastry
goat cheese
cat food
TP

Bento: Simple is Best

Just a few simple ones from the week. Sometimes you gotta just keep things easy and moving I suppose.

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Pasta with vegetable sauce, side salad, rye bread, apple

13087652_10104042115544983_2536992853439285024_nMini homemade vegetable pizza (zucchini, pepper, onion), chocolate, carrots and hummus

20161027_093636Chicken tikka masala, rice, grapes

20161028_104038Minestrone, side salad, white bread

Menu: Skipped One

Despite the fact that menu take literally 10 minutes to post somehow last week I forgot to post one. I’m just going to let that go gently and wave goodbye to it because it was a fairly boring week anyway with only one new recipe. Because of that I decided to make this week a little more exciting though.

Saturday leftovers from the past week
out @ ??

Sunday pancakes and eggs
baked chicken tenders with green beans and tomatoes

Monday Eggy Breakfast Wrap, candided sweet potatoes, fruit
vegetable yakisoba

Tuesday homemade spaghetti-o’s with mini meatballs, white bread, spinach salad
homemade pizza

Wednesday creamy mac and cheese with spinach, apple, coleslaw
baked chicken tenders with green beans and tomatoes, salad, apple

Thursday out with coworkers
creamy mac and cheese with spinach

Friday vegetable yakisoba, plums, miso soup
homemade spaghettios, bread

Things to Make

Homemade Spaghetti-Os
Baked Chicken Tenders Tray
candided sweet potato
lavash egg wrap
mac and cheese
vegetable yakisoba

Shopping List

chicken breast
green beans
cherry tomatoes
spinach
sweet potatoes
oranges
plums
apples
turkey (ground)
white bread
pasta sauce
lavash
canned tomato puree x 2
cream
elbows
cheddar cheese
milk
yakisoba noodles
frozen veg
muesli
butter
coleslaw mix

Recipe: Stir Fry Noodles

You could easily add whatever you want to this but to make it as straight forward as possible all I did was add a bag of frozen “stir fry” vegetables, making this meal take all of 10 minutes to come together without bringing out any chopping board. It does take 2 pans (one to boil and one to fry in) but you could probably do it in one large sauce pot if you were really lazy.

Stir Fry Noodles

Bento: Five in One

I actually made all 5 days of lunch this week instead of 4 just on a whim. I don’t think it’s any harder or easier to do so but I feel pretty satisfied about it anyway.

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Turkey sandwich, kiwi, boiled egg, pickles, carrots and red peppers with hummusimg_20161020_095308

Roast Drumsticks with Potatoes and Carrots, Salad, and Apple20161017_181526

Creamy Broad Beans, Rice, Hot Sauce, Greens with Orange Segmentsimg_20161017_113945

Chickpea Curry, Rice, Appleoup

Creamy Chicken Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Rice, Bread, Pickles, Kiwi and Orange

Bento: A Little Boring

These are pretty uninspired but hey, sometimes you just eat so you don’t die. That said at least I made four distinct bentos over the week so it’s a win anyway!

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Apple, edam and crackers, pasta with spinach14724391_10103993355779943_9091358416943948918_n

Turkey, potato, and cheese casserole, cucumber salad, banana14657324_10103993355809883_8304891924579069377_n

General Tso’s Cauliflower, rice with grated carrot and sesame, Banana and Oranges14720336_10103993355834833_8558790329457092161_n

Goat cheese, pear, and black pepper scone, cucumber salad, boiled eggs, pear and apple

Menu: Take Pictures

This weeks menu is influenced mostly by the fact that I forgot to take pictures of a bunch of recipes lately and so now I have to re-make them. Yay! It’s no big deal because they were delicious the first time around but it does make me feel a little silly. After this week I should have recipes queued out to the end of the year which is amazing, it means I’ve made over 100 recipes this year!

Saturday leftover casserole
takeout (maybe Hesburger)

Sunday pancakes and eggs
vegetable and chickpea red curry, rice

Monday creamy white beans, rice, salad, fruit
drumsticks with carrots and potatoes

Tuesday out with coworkers
vegetable and chickpea red curry, rice

Wednesday cold cut sandwiches, pickles, carrots + hummus, fruit
creamy chicken, rice, sweet potato soup, crackers

Thursday drumsticks with carrots and potatoes, salad, fruit
salmon, couscous, salad

Friday creamy chicken, rice, sweet potato soup, crackers, fruit
quick miso ramen with boiled eggs

Things to Make

drumsticks with carrots and potatoes
creamy white beans
quick pickles
creamy chicken soup
veg and chickpea curry

Shopping List

fruit
sweet potatoes
cucumber
peppers
zucchini
carrots
salad
chickpeas
white beans
baking powder
paprika
crackers
bread
hummus
milk
butter
muesli
cat food x 2
chicken thighs
drumsticks
salmon

turkey coldcuts*
miso*
ramen noodles*