Thai Mango Noodles

I have to say, I liked this recipe, even though it was a little boring. It is definitely very colorful, which gives me hope that it would be really yummy, but I think the ginger and garlic could have been pumped up a notch to give more substance to the flavors. Still I would make it again. It was easy to put together and makes for an easy lunch. Keeps well in the fridge.

The recipe is from Jennifer McCann, author of Vegan Lunchbox Around the World. Find the recipe here.

Plaintain Wraps with Black Bean Spread

We really liked this recipe. It reminds me of all the time we spent in the Caribbean. Plantains (Plan-Tains) are a member of the banana family. They are a starchy, low sugar variety that is cooked before serving as it is unsuitable raw. It is used somewhat like a potato would be used. Unripe plantains are green, just like unripe bananas, but unlike a banana they are at the peak of ripeness when they ripen thy turn black.

This recipe was super easy to put together. Any leftover the Bean Spread can be used as dip for chips. For myself, I would leave out the cumin in the bean spread next time and perhaps amp up the cayenne a tad. I'm not a lover of too much cumin. I think the smokiness of it is distracting. I did not feel it was necessary to add salsa or guacamole to the wraps, the plaintains turns sweet and crispy when fried and putting salsa on the wrap added too many competing flavors that took the spotlight away from the star of the show. Easy to make, easy cleanup and easy to prep in advance. I wish I could say they keep well as leftovers, but we ate them all! Will be making this again.

The recipe is from Jennifer McCann, author of Vegan Lunchbox Around the World.
Here is the link

Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes

I can't believe that these were really good. We like crab cakes and although I didn't use the nori, which would have made them a little "fishy", they had the texture of crab cakes without being mushy, as crab cakes can sometimes be.

I'm also not too familiar with tempeh. My only experience with tempeh until now was making Shannon's Facon Bacon. I failed to read the recipe and prepare in advance, then when I realized my shortcomings, I tried to "fake it" by substituting and skipping steps and ultimately ended up with a disaster. No fault of the recipe whatsoever.

I had been hanging onto this recipe for a while, and just hadn't gotten to it. Then I really hadn't been doing alot of cooking the past 3 months, because I had a baby in December. But after getting my body composition assessment done at the gym, I now realize that have to get back on the bandwagon.

I'm glad I did. These were quite excellent. Not too difficult to prepare either, despite the long list of ingredients. With few exceptions, any vegan should have these ingredients in his/her pantry already.

Its by my favorite vegan chef, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, of course. I can't stay away from that woman. Find it here.

Friday night

I am pretty good a meal planning. So, when I read articles that in order to lose weight or save money by meal planning I get annoyed. The way I meal plan is I go to the store on the weekend, get by during the week and then Friday night is whatever I can come up with. So, it was Friday afternoon, I really didn't want to go to the store, and I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Then I was reminded of this post from Peas and Thank You and thought, I have all those things!



I served it with sunshine salad and really didn't follow the recipe all that closely, but it was a hit and can't wait to make it again. Yay - Tempheh! I served it with sunshine salad.

Another feast?

This one was not quite as good as the one last week, but it did feature butternut squash and chickpeas as well.

I had some leftover butternut squash and some leftover wonton wrappers from the last time I made the vegan wontons. Since I did miss LNO, I decided to make my own butternut squash ravioli. I didn't really use a recipe, just came up with one.
- Roast 1.5 cups butternut squash with olive oil, salt and pepper for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.
- Process 1/8 cup almonds in food processor until chopped fine. Add the roasted squash and 2 leaves of fresh sage.
- Add TB to a corner of a wonton wrapper. Spread water on edges of wonton and fold over and seal.
- saute in oil of choice, adding a sprinkle of cinnamon and 1 tsp fresh sage when done.
- serve hot



I feel I over sauted them and I would have liked some kind of sauce, but it was pretty good.

I served them with another batch of roasted chickpeas, this time roasted with lemon and rosemary from peas and thank you. I didn't like these as much...they were just a bit too tangy. Perhaps I over marinated.

Rounded it off with a salad.