Vegan Mofo: My 5 Favourite Kitchen Tools

Well, I had good intentions, but life got in the way, and I didn't share as much as I had planned to for Vegan Mofo.  To be honest, I haven't made anything super exciting for the last while anyway.  I thought I'd wrap up the month by talking about things that I found useful for me in the last year or so since I decided to follow a vegan diet.

My 5 Favourite Tools:

1. Hot-Air Popcorn Maker:

OK, so this one is a no brainer--I use it for popcorn.  I figured out that by putting in a little extra popcorn, the kernels move a little more slowly and have a better chance of popping in the machine rather than flying out of the chute and popping in the bowl, leading to popcorn flying around my kitchen.  I use about one and a half of the measures and it turns out well (you don't want to over do it, or it will burn!  Yes, this is the voice of experience).  Sometimes I use a vegan margarine on it, but I also like to give it a spritz of canola oil spray instead.  My ultimate I need something sweet and I have no vegan chocolate is to put some vegan chocolate chips in the bottom of the bowl before I make the popcorn.  The popcorn warms them up, they melt, and everyone is happy, or at least I am.

2.  My Blender:

I love my smoothies, so my blender gets a regular work out.  I had a Magic Bullet, but I ended up breaking that sucker (note to self remember to check on warranty).  Smoothies can be complicated, or they can be pretty simple.  I generally go for simple because I am not a morning person and I'm not going to try to figure out a complex recipe while my eyes are not completely open.  I throw in some fruit, usually a banana and some frozen berries, or fresh fruit, depending on what I have on hand.  Pour in some non-dairy milk (currently using almond milk-yummy!), pop the lid on and blend.  When I feel a little more creative, I add peanut butter or chocolate chips (no, they don't blend well, but hey, it's chocolate!).  I started adding chia seeds to my smoothies too.  They don't affect the taste and they're crunchy, so what's not to like?

3. Rice Cooker:

Love my rice cooker.  I tried to cook brown rice on the stove and every time I made it, it was crunchy.  We got a rice cooker, and suddenly I'm cooking brown rice perfectly.  It tastes good and the kids even ate it without questioning anything.  We eat a lot of different kinds of rice and they all cook well in the rice cooker.  I have also used it to cook quinoa.  Last time I did, I don't think I had enough water and it was a little dry and crunchy, and I may have burned some of it.  I still liked it, but I will have to experiment with the water levels a little more.

4:  Crock Pot:

When I talk about cooking, you may notice that I tend to "throw" a lot of things in to what ever I'm making.  I do this with the crock pot too.  I cook what I have on hand.  I'm not going to go digging for a recipe only to find that I don't have whatever is needed.  I make a lot of soup in the winter months in my crock pot.  Vegetable soup stock, water, chop up some veggies, add some spices, put the lid on and let it do it's thing.  You don't need a recipe.  It's soup.  Smell it.  Taste it.  If it doesn't seem right, try adding something else.  I like to finish my soups by adding vegan dumplings to them before serving, but my kids don't like them, so I don't make them as often as I used to.  (What kid doesn't like dumplings?  My brother and I used to love eating them!).

5:  Electric Frying Pan:

Last but not least is my electric frying pan.  I used to have an electric wok, but we never used it.  This is the way to go.  It's great for sauteing some vegetables, making a sauce, for pancakes and French toast and lots of other things.  Last night, I used it to fry up the pumpkin seeds out of my daughter's baby pumpkin.  (she got it on her field trip to a farm).  This is another tool I use to throw together a meal.  Toss a can of beans, some veggies and some seasoning in, heat it all up and pop it on your plate with a side of rice or quinoa.  Yum yum!

How great is this Vegan pumpkin?

Vegan Mofo: Crockpot Soup

If you've read my blog before, you know that I love my crockpot.  It's so easy to throw things in, push a button and leave it.  You come back a few hours later and dinner is ready.  Easy-peasy!

I used my crockpot before I was vegan, but I think I use it more now.  Soup is one of my favourite things to make, especially on days like today--it was a rainy, dark day and soup would hit the spot.  We also had a chiropractor appointment that meant that we'd have to leave as soon as the kids came home from school.  By the time we were able to get home, I knew the kids would be hungry and cranky, so I made soup in the crockpot.

I don't usually follow a recipe when I make soup.  When I say that I throw things in the crockpot, I'm not kidding.  I start with a vegetable broth cube and water.  Then I open the fridge and see what vegetables I have available.  Today I had some cauliflower and carrots.  I also tossed in some frozen mixed vegetables and a can of beans. Now that I think about it, I should have added some potatoes as well. Oh well, there's always next time.

I had planned to make some vegan dumplings, but I was out of non-dairy milk and almost out of margarine, so I didn't get my dumplings tonight.  I'll just have to make some soup again soon because I love dumplings.  My kids can't stand them, so I don't get them too often as it is.

Vegan Mofo: Banana Loaf

Monday is Thanksgiving here in Canada and my extended family had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight.  Sometimes it's hard to be vegan at an Italian gathering.  I love pasta, but it was canaloni, so it was stuffed with cheese.  No pasta for me.  But that's OK because I had lots of great veggies to eat.  I even ate some rapini even though it's not my favourite vegetable.  I find it very bitter, but it wasn't too bad tonight. 

Anyway, even though I'm one of the kids and I'm not "supposed" to bring anything, I wanted to bring some dessert.  You know if there is one thing we Italians do not have enough of, it's dessert.  (sarcasm intended, people!).  I bought some bananas that were marked for discount this week because they were veeeerrrry ripe--so perfect for banana bread.  I looked at some banana bread recipes, but alas, I forgot to pick up vanilla when I was shopping and I ran out last week.  Not to worry, I found a recipe.

I made this Banana Loaf.  It was really easy to make.  I was all set to put it in my loaf pan when I read in the recipe that it needed a cake pan.  Surprise for me!  It was more of a cake than a bread, and that was fine.  I really liked how it turned out.  The cake was very moist and quite tasty.  One thing I learned is that it's probably better to cut the loaf into pieces before the sugar on the top crystalizes.  It's really hard to slice the loaf without cracking the topping once it has cooled, and it makes it look a little messy.

I didn't mention that it was a vegan dessert.  I figured I'd just say it was dessert.  I did make sure that the diabetics knew it wasn't a good option for them to have it.  Too much sugar!  My aunt told me she quite enjoyed the sugar coating on the top.  I quite enjoyed it too!

I've got another Thanksgiving dinner on Monday with my husband's family.  I get to bring the veggies, so I know that I'll have plenty to eat, even without the turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vegan Mofo: Buckwheat Pancakes

It's been a crazy week and today was another crazy day. I had a lot of running around to do, so by the time I got home with two hungry kids in tow (and a hungry hubby), I needed a quick dinner. We've had pasta twice this week (I love leftover sauce!), so that was out. So, I went with quick and easy and made pancakes tonight. Apparently I make pancakes a lot, because on my Klout score, pancakes is my highest ranked topic of influence--sad, I know.

There are a couple of recipes on Veg Web that I've tried and really like, so I chose the one I hadn't made for awhile. Grandma's Buckwheat Pancakes were delicious! I just realized that I forgot to put in the regular flour. I only used the buckwheat. Hmm...that may explain why the pancakes where thinner than I expected. Oh well, they still tasted great! Normally, I'd serve them with fruit, but tonight we just had pancakes. Now, the recipe says that it feeds 2-4, and I'd say that you'd want to double the recipe if you are serving more than 2 people. Only the kids and I ate the pancakes and we had 2 1/2 small pancakes each. They definitely would have eaten more if I had made more.

I enjoy using Veg Web for new recipes because they are uploaded by regular folks and you can read reviews before you try to make anything. The reviews are helpful because sometimes other cooks will say, "This was good, but I made these slight changes and then it was great!" It's a good place to get some good basic recipes and some more complex ones too. You can read more about how I use Veg Web here. If you like pancakes, give them a try!
 

Vegan Mofo: Carrot Fries

I thought I'd try something new tonight.  I had been looking for recipes last week to use some of the carrots that I had on hand, and this one caught my eye.  I started with a recipe from www.vegweb.com.  You can find it here:  http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=15346.0.  I didn't have everything listed in the recipe, so I winged it.

I peeled and cut the carrots using a Pampered Chef tool that I never get to use to make them crinkly.  I tried to cut the pieces fairly thin so that they would cook.  Put them on the baking sheet and sprayed them with olive oil.  I sprinkled them with a spice mix that I made in an empty spice jar.  I used some paprika, garlic salt, parsley and oregano.  Popped them in the oven and let them bake.

I did not take a picture, but I thought they looked pretty good!

The verdict:

I really thought the kids would like these, especially since they are like regular fries.  They did not.  On the other hand, I really liked them and I will make them again for me.  I'll try them out on my hubby when he gets home tonight.

Vegan Mofo is Back! Pasta & What's in the Fridge Sauce

October is the Vegan Month of Food, also known as Vegan MoFo!  Last year was my first year participating.  You can find a blog roll of all of this year's participants at www.veganmofo.com.

I've now been vegan for a little over a year and I'm very happy with the decision I made to move to a plant based diet.  I'm still learning as I go.

Tonight's dinner is going to be pasta and "What's in the fridge" Sauce.  This catchy title is something that I ame up with because I generally choose the ingredients in the sauce by opening the refrigerator to see what I have to work with.  Today I scored with zucchini and eggplant.

Not my pasta, but a close facsimilie

I start with a can of crushed tomatoes and add a can of beans.  Tonight I chose lentils because my kids seem to prefer softer beans, so I figured they would be more likely to eat them.  Usually I start with a bit of garlic fried in the pan, but I skipped it today.  I added a little water to the sauce and then chopped up some zucchini and eggplant.  Threw in some spices-orgeano, parsley, garlic salt and set it to simmer.

We'll be eating whole grain pasta tonight for a change.  The kids don't notice a difference in taste and I like being able to give them a healthier option.

I like to make my own sauce because know what is in it then.  When my father became  diabetic we found that many of the prepared sauces have a lot of sugar, so we started to do it ourselves.

Now for my not-so-secret secret: to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes, put a carrot in the sauce.  When it's finished, don't eat the carrot!  Compost it.  Trust me, the carrot will not taste good. And the verdict is in! Whole family enjoyed dinner. The youngest even asked for seconds (she's normally the one who does not like the veggies)!

Vegan Recipes on VegWeb.com

Last year, I found out about a lot of new things as a vegan.  One thing I learned about was the Vegan Month of Food (also known as vegan MOFO).  It was a neat way to join the community of vegan bloggers and find out more about different foods that vegans eat.

One Web site I found during this time was VegWeb.  I like this Web site because it has a lot of great recipes.  There are other features on the site, but I have to be honest and say that I haven't really looked at them.  There are lists of vegan substitutes as well that are very helpful when you might not have all the ingredients on hand.

What I find very helpful are the reviews.  It's nice to see feedback on any given recipe so that you know how it turned out.  Many users will also give suggestions like I changed this and added that or I cut the sugar in half, etc.  It really makes it easier to experiment when other people are willing to let you know how their changes worked out.

The have an iPhone app as well.  It was $2.99 well spent in my opinion.  I like that I can save recipes, browse through dishes and have everything in my hand.  I don't have to haul my laptop into the kitchen and try to find a spot to put it.  Now I can just use my phone to see all the details.

I thought I'd share with you a couple of recipes that I've tried and loved on VegWeb.

I'm a chocoholic and this can be a bit of a problem when you are trying to stay away from milk products.  Enter vegan brownie recipe.  This recipe is so easy to make and tastes delicious.  My kids love when I make these (which I do whenever I need my chocolate fix).

We also like Easy Pancakes.  They are exactly what they say--easy.  They taste great and you wouldn't know that they were made without eggs except for the fact that they are lighter than regular pancakes.  Even my omni-vore husband liked them and that's saying something!  You can add fruit or chocolate chips to these to make something different.  I've enjoyed thawing some frozen fruit and pouring it on top (with the juice from the fruit too) and adding a bit of syrup.

So, there you go, 2 of my favourite recipes from VegWeb.

Vegan MoFo: Prepared Vegan Foods & Meatless Meats

As much as I enjoy cooking, I also enjoy having a night off. I was very excited to hear from a vegan co-worker that one of the grocery stores in town offers vegan prepared foods. She was eating meatless nuggets the other day for lunch.

Well, we made the trek to the other side of town, and I found a nice selection of vegan foods. My husband joked that for someone who doesn't eat meat, I'm going out of my way to have food that looks and tastes like meat. He likes to call the meatless sandwich meats "phoney baloney". Of course, I told him that it wasn't balogna, it was salami!

Tonight I had a veggie patty and it was really good. It didn't taste anything like a hamburger, and that was just fine with me. I'll probably try the nuggets later in the week. I put the patty in a bun with some lettuce and had some baby carrots on the side. Finished up with some salsa and some whole wheat tortilla chips. Yummy!

The store also had different things like meatless ground beef and chicken and meatless Canadian bacon. Interesting.... I missed the vegan cheese. It turns out I should have looked in the cheese section, not the vegan deli meat section. Who knew? I'm just glad that I've found a store that stocks the type of foods I want to eat.

I had one of those moments that reinforced my decision to go vegan while we were shopping. My youngest daughter loves to look at the fish tanks in the store. She pointed out the lobsters to me and said, "Look Mama, crabs!" I said, "No, those are lobsters," and then it hit me that those poor creatures were going to be someone's dinner. It made me sad.

Vegan MoFo: Veggie Stew and Vegan Dumplings Comfort Food!

This afternoon, hubby was more than willing to make pasta for dinner again. Don't get me wrong, I love pasta. I'm half Italian, so I think there is some sort of rule about the fact that I have to love pasta. But even pasta lovers get tired of pasta. And since I feel like I have a cold coming on, I wanted some good old comfort food. Or maybe that is good new comfort food since I'm trying to find vegan comfort foods.

If you've read any of my other mofo posts, you'll already know that for a lot of basic stuff, I just wing it. Tonight's soup is another winged recipe. I like to check the fridge and pull out any veggies that haven't been eaten before they go bad and chop them up for soup.

Tonight I started with a clove of garlic and a little oil. Once it was cooked, I added some vegetable soup stock and water. The the veggies: potatoes, sweet potato, some turnip, some frozen corn, a bit of cabbage, some broccoli and a can of black beans (drained and rinsed) Added some whole wheat flour to thicken it up to be more like a stew. To do this, I put some flour in a bowl and whisked it with some water so that it didn't get lumpy. Spices I used were parsley and oregano.

Then I used the recipe I found here for vegan dumplings. (Heavens! I actually used a recipe!). This is one I've tried before with excellent results. The only substitution I made was to use whole wheat flour. These turn out really well and everyone loves them.

My youngest child is a picky eater and she tried her stew and said, "It's so good!"

This is not my stew, but I like the picture!

Vegan MoFo: Stir Fry and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Hello! Welcome to my life! I have gained a few followers over the last weeks and I wanted to say "Hi! I'm glad to meet you!"

I think the challenge I have with vegan eating is that it's not as easy to just grab something and eat it without thinking. I guess that is the point. I have become more mindful of what I am eating. This means spending more time reading labels, trying to figure out if something is actually vegan. Imagine my surprise last week when I discovered that the veggie cheese I was considering purchasing contained milk! How disappointing!

The fun part is trying new things. As a vegan, you can't be afraid of new foods. You have to be open to new foods and new ways of cooking foods. I really enjoy the freedom of gathering up some veggies, chopping them up and throwing them all together in a stir fry. I don't always have the best results, but most days, they are pretty good.

Today, I made a stir fry with bean sprouts, mushrooms, bok choy, cabbage and carrots (for the colour!). I started with a bit of vegetable broth, then added some soya sauce to cook the vegetable with. I made some brown rice (I think I have finally figured out how to make it well!) and then threw it together. OK, well not literally. I have been tempted to throw stuff around the kitchen, but tonight was not one of those nights. I knew I had done well when hubby had seconds (and he claims to dislike brown rice!). I've got two servings put away in the fridge for lunch this week too, so that's a little less stress for me in the morning. Now I don't have to try to figure out a vegan lunch at the last minute.

I'm attempting to make some oatmeal raisin cookies. The recipe I used seemed pretty good. I had everything on hand, so that was a bonus. They are not turning out very well though! The cookies are very sweet and have fallen apart when I take them off the tray. We'll see how the second tray turns out, because you never know.
I think that I'll try another recipe next time, one with less sugar for sure!

Vegan MoFo: The Dreaded Potluck

I had a potluck meeting at work today. I've never liked potlucks, because I never know what to bring. This was my first potluck that I had to go to since I went vegan. Not a problem, right? It took me awhile to figure out what I was going to make--who am I kidding. It took me a long time. And then I remembered that I bought some mixes this week at the grocery store. I had a hummus mix--just add water and stir. Easy. I had pita breads which I thawed out last night (I end up freezing them because otherwise they go stale before I can finish them. So, this morning, I mixed up the hummus this morning and cut up the pitas and then got the kids out the door to school. (my hummus did not look this good)

You won't believe what happened next, because I can hardly believe it happened! I locked myself out of my house. I had my keys, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't get in my house when I came home. My purse almost always hangs on the back of my door knob when I come home or I cannot find it the next morning when I leave for work. Well, this morning, for some reason, my purse held the door locked. So there I was with my keys in one hand and my phone in the other, calling my husband in a panic. Of course, he was on site with a client and couldn't help me and by the end of it, I was almost in tears (hey, I was stressed!). I was supposed to be picking up my friend too, and she left me a message while I was ranting at hubby and I couldn't return her call because her phone number was in my house phone and not in my cellular phone. My husband assured me that my day couldn't get any worse, and for the most part, he was right.

When I finally did get to work, (since I had my keys after all, even if I didn't have my purse or license or anything else), my vegan co-worker asked me what I ended up bringing. I told her my whole woeful story and ended up with, "Oh, and to answer your question, I made a lovely hummus dip with pita bread that is currently sitting on my stove at home." So the moral of the story. Please, don't ask me to make something for a potluck because things just aren't going to end well. Not that this has a bad ending--after all, I have some hummus and pita and I'll have some veggies and there's my dinner. Yay!


In other news, the book I've had on request since before I went vegan finally came in to the library! Now if I can find time to read it.

Vegan MoFo: Smoothies!

Sorry you haven't heard from me for a few days. November has been a crazy month so far and I have found that I don't seem to have enough hours in my days. That being said, I am putting my novel on the back burner because I realized I was stressing myself out about something that was supposed to be fun. I'll still write it, just not right at this moment in time.



Instead, I'll keep writing about vegan food. Because it's fun and tasty! Last week, I found myself having a smoothie every morning for breakfast. Usually a smoothie is my once or twice a week breakfast on days when I don't have time to eat at home or when I need something that will fill me up longer than cereal.

There is probably something you should know about me. I don't follow recipes often (unless it is baking!). I tend to take what I have on hand, throw it together and make something hopefully tasty. I'm not sure if this is because I am part Italian (no one in my dad's family uses recipes!) or because I am lazy.

With my smoothies, I generally use what fruit I have on hand. I find it is a helpful way to use up the bananas that the kids haven't eaten before they go completely off. So, I put my bulky blender together (I'm hoping for a Magic Bullet or some other fancy contraption for Christmas!), toss in a banana, cut up an apple (peel on), a few frozen strawberries and then pour in which ever non-dairy milk I have on hand. I've been trying a few different types and brands. So far, I think I like almond milk the best.

I also get creative, so I have made a pina colada type of smoothie: pineapple, banana, coconut and milk. I also made it once using coconut milk, but I suspect this is what gave me an allergic reaction.

Chocolate flavoured milks are also fun and I have been known to throw some carob chips in too. My youngest daughter can't get her head around the fact that Mama has to chew her drink, but I like my smoothies nice and chunky (and yes, I know that is basically an oxymoron).

I know I could and probably should make my smoothies more healthy by adding all sorts of green stuff to them, but this works for me right now. I've cut back on my smoothies this week, but talking about it makes me want one now.

Vegan MoFo Sweet Potatoes and Apples--Yum!

I've discovered a new love for sweet potatoes with a lot of help from Sassy at VeganCoach.com. If you have this food and you just don't know what to do with it, you need to check out her Web site. There are sections where you can choose a food such as sweet potato and find different ways of cooking it and foods to match with it. It's so handy! I discovered that I really like sauteed sweet potatoes with apples and brown sugar. I throw a few raisins in my part of the dish as well (no one else here likes raisins). If I can get the picture off of my phone, I'll show you how yummy it looks, but it won't do it justice!

That was a big part of my dinner tonight and I paired it with a romaine lettuce salad, just a basic one. I'm still figuring out what makes a complete vegan meal and what will fill me up for the night.

I have a little celebration to share as well. I know I'm losing some weight because my pants are becoming so loose, but it's always nice to hear from someone else. My husband put his hand on my hip yesterday and looked at me and said, "That's your bone!" I gave him a look that clearly said, "Duh! What else would it be?" He said, "I didn't use to feel your bone here, you're losing weight!" Very nice to hear. I need all the encouragement I can get.

Vegan MoFo -- Leftovers

photo by 10 rosso via flickr.com


As someone who is organizationally challenged, being able to spend time cooking is a rare treat--and so is having everything I need for a recipe on hand! I'm still adding to the ingredients I have on hand slowly.

One thing that has been helpful is that the vegan recipes I have used to make new meals are generally family sized recipes. I'm the only vegan in the house. Hubby will eat vegan food if it is made, but the kids generally won't try it once they hear the word vegan. This means that I usually have lots of left overs. Such was the case today.

Lunch was leftover vegetable stew from last night's dinner and supper was pasta with left over sauce. The great thing about leftovers is that they usually taste even better the second day!

Pasta sauce is something I generally make from scratch. We were gifted a whole box of jarred tomato sauce this fall, so we are making the most of it. I start with a bit of garlic heated in vegetable oil (I use an oil that is part Canola, part olive), then add the tomatoes. I add vegetables that I have on hand. This batch had eggplant and mushrooms. Spices usually include oregano, pepper, and parsley. And a trick I learned from my aunt--put a carrot in the sauce while it is cooking to take out the acidic taste. Do not eat this carrot as it absorbs the acid flavour. By doing this, you avoid having to put sugar in your tomato sauce. I let it all simmer together for awhile, then make the pasta.

What I especially like about left overs is that there is the opportunity to freeze portions individually for use later. This becomes my "fast food" option. On those nights when I don't have the time or desire to cook, I can thaw out a meal, add a salad and I'm good to go without having to try to find something quick and easy. This way I'm not stuck having something unhealthy just because I'm hungry and it's quick.

Vegan MoFo--Vegan Month of Food!

After tossing some ideas around for the last couple of days, I signed up for nanowrimo--National Novel Writing Month today. It starts tomorrow. 50,000 words in 30 days. I actually have a story plot in my head and I think I could go somewhere with this one, so we shall see. Hopefully it will get me better trained to be writing everyday.

Well, today I saw some posts on Twitter for VeganMoFo and had to look it up. It's Vegan Month of Food and it was started by some vegans who were also doing Nano from what I can see. Anyway, I figured, you know, since I'm already going to be writing 50,000 words, what is a blog post or 20 about vegan food? Yeah, I know. I'm really just crazy. I signed up for VeganMoFo too.

So, what can you expect from me this month? Hopefully a daily post about vegan food. It will probably just be about what I've made each day. I'm still fairly new to vegan eating, so I'll share my recipe sources with you and hopefully you'll enjoy what I've found.

We'll start with this weekend. Friday, I made a great vegan banana bread. I used a recipe called Mel's Vegan Banana Bread from vegweb.com. It turned out really well. I usually find that banana breads come out pretty dry, but this one was nice and moist and my kids loved it. They had no idea it was vegan.

Today I made a vegetable stew. I used some mixed canned beans, a can of mushrooms and a can of sliced water chestnuts (the whole ones are too big), some vegetable stock, lots of water, half an eggplant, some potatoes, a sweet potato, a couple of carrots, and I think that was about it. Basically, I used all the veggies I had on hand and threw in some spices--garlic salt, some pepper, some parsley. Pretty standard stuff. Then I made some vegan dumplings. I found a recipe on a blog and it worked out really well! The recipe is Vegan Dumplings for Stew. My youngest wouldn't eat them (she is leery of new foods), but my oldest did and asked me what was in them. If you could have seen her face when she heard I used soy milk! "I can't believe I ate soy and liked it!"

Then this evening, I made some carob chip cookies using a recipe from vegweb.com again. Happy Vegan Cookies were pretty easy to make. I liked that the recipe said to use as much carob or chocolate chips as you wanted too. The cookies did not spread out like traditional chocolate chip cookies and they taste a little strongly of the brown sugar (I didn't have any raw sugar, so I used what was on hand). And, let's face it, carob is not chocolate, but they are still pretty tasty. I might even make them again.

So, that was my weekend in vegan food. I've got two big pumpkins I'm looking forward to cooking up and making into pumpkin bread this week!