Heaven sent . . . .

I made these Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars last night and shamefully, I ate two of them right away. I thought really hard about just hiding them in the fridge and not telling DH that they were there, but my conscience got the better of me. Oh so good. I could have just stood at the counter and eaten half the pan.

These are spectacular, super easy and would be a good project to make with your kids. Its from the Peas and Thank You website. Find the recipe here.

"sun-dried" tomatoes

I've been trying really hard to use only the ingredients I have in the house, so as not to waste any of it. Given my plethora of veggies from our CSA I had an opportunity to get creative.

It was actually quite rewarding. I didn't shop all week - nor did we eat out. I just carefullly managed our leftovers vs. making new things. I'm very proud of myself for not taking any shortcuts. If I was missing an ingredient, I improvised. Ordinarily I would have run out to the store and just gotten it. But no- I didn't allow myself to do that this week.

So why didn't I think of drying my tomatoes earlier? And who doesn't love sun-dried tomatoes. They are certainly a luxury to add to your salad, pasta or whatever. And they cost a fortune. I did (shamefully) have to throw quite a few tomatoes into the compost a couple of weeks ago. I just couldn't get to blanching, peeling, seeding, chopping and freezing them. When you're 20 weeks pregnant, standing in front of the kitchen counter for an hour half processing 10 lbs of tomatoes is no fun. Especially when you'd rather be laying down in bed.

So I gave it a go. This is the cheater method, but it works.

Two recipeas

I am double posting from my monthly challenge blog.

Thanks to the heat, my CSA share has dropped off dramatically. I am really not all that upset by it. It is nice to have a break, and to not have tomato guts all over my kitchen. Not only that, but I can make whatever I want, without having to include peppers, eggplant, or tomatoes in every recipe. FREEDOM!!! Finally got to make a few more recipes from my copy of Peas and Thank You. These are, well, Americanize Ethic, but I'll go ahead and count them.



The first one was Thai Veggie Burgers. I am having trouble finding a link to the recipe, but no worries, I was actually kind of disappointed in this recipe. I think there were two faults in this. It suggested using veganase as a condiment. Really, it needed a kick ass peanut dressing. Also, it calls for broccoli slaw. I have this thing about broccoli. I like it, but I don't like it in stuff. To me broccoli overwhelms the taste of any other ingredients, and I felt the same here. The good thing about this recipe was the texture. Michelle posted a similar burger but it was more old fashioned savory. If you are looking for a veggie burger this is a good one. Unfortuately, her "husband approved burgers" were consumed by my husband apparently when he was having a bad digestive day and he blamed it on those burgers. No way. They were great!



Next thing was Chipolte Lime Tacos. You marinade tempeh and then cook. I really liked this one. Tempeh is my new thing! You grate the tempeh and then marinade it. YUM!





The kids love the choices of what to top their tacos with. Well, it is usually cheese.

Cashew Veggie Korma

My favorite Indian dish is chicken Korma. But since I've been on the vegan kick, I naturally had to find a vegan version - very difficult to do. The traditional dish, aside from having chicken, has a cream/yogurt base to it.

But leave it to the Post Punk Kitchen to develop a recipe. I thought it was pretty close the original thing. You can find the recipe here.

I made only half the recipe and it still made alot. I ended up giving some of it away because it was just too much for DH and I to eat.

Although the recipe is long, it really wasn't that difficult to put together. I think I had it done during nap time.

A Pesto Pasta Dish

I love Pesto! There is just something about that basil-y, garlic-y sauce. However, not so healthy. Hard to make into a satisfying and healthy meal. Well, one of my easy fall backs is to put it over pasta. Duh. Tasty, but not satisfying. I use whole wheat pasta, and that helps. The next step is to slice some cherry or grape tomatoes and serve them with it. Serve it with a healthy salad and it ends up being a nice meal. I used the roasted eggplant pesto I made before.



Served the salad with orange cucumber dressing and egg (not vegan, but I get with my CSA)