Week 3 has had its ups and downs for the vegan challenge. While I've not actually eaten something that is dairy or meat related, I've thought about it. Perhaps because this week has been incredibly busy and stressful (so far) on a number of levels...like trying to wrap my brain around all the college classes that my two older will be starting in August (and making sure that their schedules conincide so transportation is kept to a reasonable minimum)...like driving to and fro every single day this week so far...like feeling as if I've stayed up all night for several nights in a row... I think you get the picture!
We did enjoy the slow roasted tomatoes which we used as a condiment for other foods as well as eating alongside and with a very yummy vegan pesto. I thought I'd miss the parmesan cheese, but the flavor of this pesto is so yummy that I never had a chance to miss it. And if you're wondering what is spread on that slice of bread (no, I didn't purposely rhyme that), it's supposed to have been a tahini dressing which ended up much too thick and creamy, so we turned it into a spread instead (sorry for the rhyme again...sort of reminds me of Dr Suess!)
I ended up 'veganizing' a favorite in the house by substituting* a few ingredients: rice milk for the cream and olive oil for the butter. Simple. It was tasty. Next time however, I may use almond milk or soy milk instead of the rice milk because the rice milk made it a little too sweet.
I made another big batch of sweet potatoes (some I froze) and used some atop a salad with toasted almonds, kalamata olives and a wee bit of vinaigrette. I think I should have used 2 baking sheets to roast the potatoes instead of 1 since this batch turned out a little too mushy rather than crispy.
When the weather dipped a little in temperatures this week, my husband and kids (at least most of them) liked the Black-Eyed Pea and Red Pepper Soup from the Vegan Family Meals cookbook. I spotted this 'new' cookbook at the library. It looks like a fun and informative book filled with many easy and quick recipes.
Here are two additional dishes from Heather's workshop: an eggplant and lentil salad and a baked tofu recipe (yes, I made the watermelon salsa that went with it, but since I'm not a fan of watermelon, I sent the salsa to my husband's work, and I ate the tofu without any topping). The tofu wasn't as crispy as I thought it would be, but was very flavorful with all that nutritional yeast and homemade veggie broth powder. I'm finding that with many of the recipes, I'm doubling them in order to...a.) feed the size of my family ...and b.) have leftovers so cooking and eating during busy times (like this week) makes for easier meals.
And of course, no week would be complete without some sweets! Besides nibbling on some dark chocolate and drinking red melon slush, we had to try out a new type of vegan pudding: chocolate. I made this and served it to the family without telling them the secret ingredient; they had to guess. It was so tasty, my 2nd son was disappointed that I hadn't made more!
Can you guess the 'secret' ingredient?
*edited - for the curried potato dish, I used red potatoes with skin on and omitted the corn starch simply because it needed no thickener
