Houston Farmer's Market

In an attempt to practice/improve my photography skills, I took my camera to the lunchtime farmer's market downtown. I also finally got to try Ripe, an instagram discovery. (The tempeh "BLT" did not disappoint!)

The Vegan Stoner

So this might be my new favorite blog. How adorable are these illustrations? I love the simplicity of the recipes too!
 
  

Broccoli Pasta Bake

Today for dinner I decided to make broccoli "cheese" pasta bake. This dish is completely vegan, so the cheesiness comes from tofu/nutritional yeast. It was so easy to make and so delicious. I felt like it could have been more flavorful though. It's probably because I ran out of mustard so I tried substituting mustard seeds. . . think it would've gone better had I used actual mustard, considering the seeds stayed whole! Oops. I will just have to remake it again. :)

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

My sister had been wanting to make a layered chocolate cake for the longest time, so after some searching, we finally found this recipe that we were happy with. We actually halved the recipe, so after mixing the batter, it was decided that mini cupcakes were probably a better idea. And I got to have some fun with icing them! 
One thing that could have been improved was the moistness of these cupcakes. After they spent a bit of time in the refrigerator, the cupcakes were still delicious, but a bit chewy and definitely not as moist as the cake that appears in the original recipe's picture!

OSG's Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch ‘Blizzard’

Oh. my. goodness. There are no words to describe how good this is. I read about this recipe earlier today, and knew I had to make it right away.

Lime Chia Seed Muffins

I had originally wanted to make these Wimbledon cupcakes for today. After realizing we didn’t have all the ingredients, I settled for muffins! I found this recipe awhile back and knew I wanted to try them soon.

I used lime instead of lemon, canola oil instead of coconut, and vanilla extract instead of lemon. The result were these nice fluffy muffins. The addition of chia seeds give them such a nice texture as well.

Nothing like some delicious muffins to go with some amazing tennis.

Another Veggie Burger!

Since my family went meatless a couple years ago, veggie burgers have been a common occurrence in our meals. Unfortunately, store bought ones are often really processed. I was really excited to discover the plethora of veggie burger recipes since I started reading blogs. For this dinner, I decided to make these Yukon Gold White Bean Basil Burgers. It was probably the easiest recipe I've tried, and I was surprised at how quickly it came together too.

While they were good, I thought they could have used a bit more flavor. It's probably because I omitted the garlic and just used garlic salt.

Take Two

I already have a recipe that I like for pot pie, but when I was looking through recipes for something to make for dinner, I came across this. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but it was close enough. ;) Best pot pie ever!

The recipe made a lot of dough, so my sister and I decided to get creative. She whipped up a spinach, mushroom, & Tofutti filling to make this calzone.


And. . day 9!

KERF inspired

I was scrounging around for recipes today when I discovered KERF's chilled roasted vegetable pasta. We didn't have a lot of ingredients, so I kept it pretty simple. Leftover tomato sauce, spinach, garlic salt, ground pepper, and a bit of nutritional yeast were pureed together to make a sauce. Roasted zucchini to top it off. So simple and good!



I also found this sweet potato gnocchi recipe. I tried gnocchi for the first time while studying abroad a few months ago. This version was definitely a nice twist of a typical gnocchi dish. 

Father’s Day Breakfast

Vegan Blueberry Chia Seed Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

4 tbsp raw turbinado sugar

2 tbsp agave syrup

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup melted Earth Balance

2 flax eggs

1 cup blueberries

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp chia seeds

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Add canola oil, 1/4 cup milk, vanilla, and eggs, and mix until combined.

Fold in blueberries.

Top with a sprinkling of raw turbinado sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

To be honest, I wasn't sure how these would come out since I kept throwing things in, but they ended up being delicious!



What better way to try out Happy Herbivore's quiche than breakfast for dad?



I halved the recipe, and made substitutions.

Ingredients

1/2 pounds extra-firm tofu

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 tbsp mustard seed

1/2 tbsp lime juice

handful of spinach

dash of red pepper flakes

From here, I just followed the rest of the instructions.

Absolutely delicious!

Homemade Vegetable Masala Burgers

Ever since this recipe was posted, I've been wanting to make it. I finally got around to getting all the ingredients today (except garam masala. neither of the 2 grocery stores I went to carried it!).

This recipe is pretty different from veggie burger recipes I'm used to seeing/making. There are a good variety of vegetables and no black beans! These are absolutely delicious, and I would definitely recommend them. I will be making these again!

I wouldn't really think to eat this with avocado, but my favorite blog has it in the recipe picture, so I wanted to try it out. Yummy addition!

Carrot Cake Squares

I love carrot cake, and when I saw LLE's recipe for these squares, I couldn’t wait to make them!

It was really easy make, and best of all, vegan! I substituted honey powder because we were out of sugar and left out the walnuts. These were really good, so they will definitely be made again! I'll probably follow the recipe exactly next time though.

Vegan Tofu Spinach Lasagna

I always enjoy marinara sauce more than any other kind of sauce, whether it's pizza, pasta, or lasagna. In Italy, I got to try a pesto lasagna, and while it was delicious, it's just not as good as lasagna with tomato sauce!

 
I've had this recipe bookmarked for awhile, and finally got around to making it.

I had to eyeball the "ricotta" and spinach spread, so there wasn't enough to put on the lasagna sheets, oops. Other than being a little dry on top because of that, it was pretty good! Seeing that it was the first time I've ever tried making lasagna, I would call it a success.

Best Veggie Burger

This is the most unique recipe I’ve ever seen for a veggie burger. It called for pasta and quinoa, AND it included “cheese”. I followed the recipe pretty closely, substituting brown rice for pasta, garlic salt for garlic, and omitted the Worcestershire sauce.

It was hands down the tastiest homemade burger I’ve had.
I also decided to try my hand at making some buns.

I followed this recipe, but halved it.

After they came out from the oven, I couldn’t figure out why they were so small! The funny thing is, I just now realized as I’m typing this is it’s because the recipe called for 6 buns, and I made 6 from half the amount of dough. Oops. Oh well, they were still really good! I would highly recommend this recipe because it was really simple, and the bread was delicious.