Lunches

Wedding Pasta Salad with Marinated Tofu (vegan)

It’s a fact. This pasta salad is a favorite. Even people that tell me they don’t normally like pasta salad love this pasta salad! I’ve served it at burger cookouts (yes mine were veggie), baby showers, potlucks, wedding showers, picnics by the lake…and…(drum roll please)…..it was even served at my wedding!!! (No, don’t look at me that way! 😉 We had an awesome spread of picnic style food!)

If you don’t believe it, just try it – and well, I’m pretty sure you’ll love it! Maybe you’ll even make it for…well I’ll let you fill in the blank with your upcoming adventure!

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Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry (slow cooker) (vegan)

I’m going to let you all in on a little secret!! Slow cooking is an art. I mean a really simple art, but still! Letting the food cook slowly with little ‘disturbance’ (read ‘attention’) on my part is a wonderful thing! The flavors resulting from low continuous heat are just superb. This curry is an absolute dream! I have to add here that if you have recently acquired an instant pot (like me!) you can also use the slow cooker setting on that. From my research, it appears that the ‘high’ setting on my dear old crockpot and my shiny new instant pot match! Yeayyy! Continue Reading “Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry (slow cooker) (vegan)”

Curried Vegan Potato and Tofu Salad

Just cannot wait for you all to try this potato salad! I mean, there is so much to love. Rich, flavorful, satisfying, and dare I say it? Original. Maybe I should go and google vegan curried potato tofu salad. It’s probably out there somewhere. But truthfully, this is amazing!! Hubby pronounced it almost perfect. He wanted more pickles. 😉 (See me doing a little jig!) I mean, he actually thought something with curry in it was yummy? Practically miraculous! (Btw, I upped the pickles in the recipe – I think it’s enough now! 😉 )

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Favorite Summer Edamame Salad

Those little green beans in the picture? Yeah, they are edamame!! This summer salad is one of my hubby’s oft requested dishes and I think I know why!! 😉 If a salad could be manly, this one is!! Immature soybeans that haven’t had a chance to harden, edamame is packed with protein, iron, and calcium. Available in most grocery stores in the frozen section, you can easily purchase already shelled/cooked edamame for this quick and tasty salad. (We usually buy ours from Trader Joe’s and I was afraid my husband was going to empty the store’s stock last time he got some – yeah he loves this salad!)

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Roasted Chickpea and Cauliflower Pesto (vegan) Pasta

Vegetable prestige is real. I mean, at least is my mind. 😉 And on my vegetable hierarchy cauliflower rules. Then I recently met purple cauliflower. It practically called out to me in the veggie section of my grocery store. ‘Take me home!’ Yeah, I couldn’t resist. And then I found out that this little royal crown of lavender cauliflower is even more nutritious than it’s white cousin! Who knew?!

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Hickory Quinoa Burger

Smoky, savory, texture-rich, power-packed – these hickory quinoa burgers have a lot to offer. If you could have been a fly on my wall the last few days, you would have seen a great variety of people both small and great scarfing these patty wonders down in a bunch of different ways; on the bun, off the bun, dipped in ketchup, swathed in gravy, etc. So far, everyone who has tried them has loved them, and that does include my two-year-old!! 😉 (Yeay for this mama!)

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Bacon (Vegan) Baked Potato Wedges

If you’ve been following my blog posts, you’ll notice that this recipe is similar to my last post about breakfast hash browns. Besides having to admit that I do LOVE potatoes in most forms, and that I do eat potatoes ~~at least once~~ several times a week, I must tell you that these are really a side-dish for my next post. Ever heard of a burger and fries? 😉 Don’t hold your breath, but do get ready…to… cook!!

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Vegan Feta with Spinach, Tomato and White Bean Pasta

That’s a long name for a dish. Vegan Feta with Spinach, Tomato, and White Bean Pasta. Way too long! But I had to try to describe it to you!! Really, at our house, it was always just called, ‘The Feta Meal”. Because it’s really all about the feta. Not that the rest isn’t good – it’s great! But the feta is the ‘piece de’ resistance’ – the finishing touch. (I at least looked up the spelling for that, but the accents and my keyboard are not cooperating. Oh well, you get the idea!)

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Vegan Baked Tofu and Black Bean Street Tacos

It all started when I saw them… Those mini street-taco tortillas. I mean, isn’t the grocery store a great place to fall in love? And day-dream? 😉 Fellow shoppers were probably eyeing me strangely as I contemplated what these were going to be. Little palm sized bombs of flavor – like you would buy at the beach in Belize! Somehow I finished shopping and got home and then the real magic happened. And now vegan baked tofu street tacos can be part of your dreams too! Ohhh, yes!

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Garlicky Green Beans n’ Baby Chicks

This post is really about Garlicky Green Beans but first…

I promised. And I really try to keep my promises! So here are a few pics of my kids n’ chicks! Before getting the chicks I begged my husband to please tell me if chicks are a lot of work (he had chickens as a child). I mean, years ago when I told him I wanted to have a baby, he ~~warned me how much work they are~~ tried to share about the responsibilities parenting involves – he’d had several much younger siblings while I’m the youngest in my family. But I didn’t want to listen and thought I was ready for anything! So you can see we had (wonderful) kids, and you can guess what I’ve learned (and how much I love it 🙂 ). But now I wasn’t sure… would chicks be a lot of trouble?

Husband said no, they’re easy. Well he was right again – at least so far. 😉 So much fun and so so cute.

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