Yet more cheap and easy stuff

First off, a shout-out for Happy Herbivore's new cookbook Pudge Free
Holidays. If you haven't gotten it, or the last Sneak Peak book, go
right now! They're both full of awesome, healthy recipes (several of
which I've happily tested). I really need to make that pumpkin bread again...

Another blog shout-out for the Chocolate Covered Vegan. Her recipes
are so clever, I ended up eating two of them yesterday! I've been
blending up my oatmeal all the time since this post, and I adore it in all
kinds of ways. I've always liked oatmeal as-is, but now that I can make
it into a rich creamy pudding I've become a full-on oatmeal addict. A
couple weeks ago I was making dessert oatmeal with cocoa powder and
MimicCreme. Yesterday for breakfast I cooked the oats in unsweetend
almond milk and blended them up with a big dollop of pumpkin, half a
banana, and some pumpkin pie spice. Wowza. For dessert, I tried my
hand at apple pie pudding. I've never used agar before, and was a bit
skeptical that this would work, but it really does! Another yummy,
creamy (and super healthy) treat. I made two servings and had one for
breakfast this morning. CCV gets my undying admiration for coming up
with two dishes that reach that elusive goal of being both healthy
enough and tasty enough to qualify as both breakfast and dessert.
Since I've told you so much about what I ate yesterday, I might as well
tell you about lunch. I've had a can of small white beans sitting on my
shelf for too long, so I made a salad out of them. I mashed up the
beans with 2 tsp of flax oil and added dried basil, salt, rosemary,
garlic and onion powder to taste. Plus a handful of dried cranberries,
this actually makes a really good sandwich on whole wheat bread with
lettuce. Economical, too!I brought my sandwich and cup o' raw veggies (organic celery, tomatoes
and carrots this week) to work, and ended up taking it with me to a
restaurant with my co-workers. It made me realize how far I've come
since going vegan back in January. I didn't feel self conscious at all,
and certainly not deprived - watching them eat their super-greasy pizza
(with pepperoni, blech) just made me feel a little queasy. Not too long
ago the situation would have raised some anxieties for me, but I'm much
more comfortable now. Yay! I like that I've been vegan for long enough
now that people accept that it's not just some phase I'm going through.

Give a girl a sugar pumpkin...

...and she'll be eating pumpkin all week. One little pumpkin goes a long way!

For dinner the other night I made Curried Pumpkin Cream Sauce. It came out super rich and creamy, like an autumnal vegan alfredo.

Ingredients:
-flesh from 1/2 of a roasted sugar pumpkin (about 2 cups)
-1 cup unsweetened MimicCreme (you could substitute any non-dairy milk, but you'll lose the richness)
-1 tbsp curry powder
-1/2 tsp ground coriander
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp salt
-dash black pepper
-1 lb. fettuccine (I used whole wheat)
-4 vegan sausage patties (I used Whole Food's brand)

1. Slice the pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds and stringy stuff and put on a lightly greased baking sheet, cut side down. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes, until very soft.
2. Scoop out flesh from one half and place in a medium saucepan(save the other half for another time).
3. Add all other ingredients and blend with an immersion blender. Add more creme if you want it thinner.
4. Simmer the sauce at medium-low for about ten minutes, till heated through.
4. While the sauce is cooking, boil pasta and heat sausages in a pan.
5. Mix sauce with pasta. Crumble sausage with a fork and mix in.It kind of looks like barf, I know. But I swear it tasted awesome. And MimicCreme is my new favorite thing - so so rich with such simple ingredients!

With the leftover pumpkin I tested an iced pumpkin bread recipe for an upcoming Happy Herbivore cookbook. If I didn't know better I'd swear this had a cup of oil in it. Way too good to still be so healthy!Slice being devoured. Hee.

I still have about 1/2 a cup of pumpkin left!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I know I'm behind the times, but how awesome are Lindsay's carrot cake cupcakes?
Sooo yummy, with gobs of cream cheese icing. It really doesn't seem possible that these are vegan, whole wheat, and low fat. Can't wait to make them again!

Kibbeh and Cherry Tofu

I'm back! I've been cooking a lot, but haven't had time to post. Hopefully I'll get through the backlog soon.

Tonight's dinner was Kibbeh from the Happy Herbivore's upcoming cookbook. Thanks for letting me be on your test squad, Lindsay!
As a side dish/dessert, some cherry tofu (easy fake soy yogurt). Fresh cherries blended with silken tofu, plus a touch of agave and vanilla extract. Next time I'll add a little cherry juice to make it more sour. It's hot and muggy here now, and cherries seem like the perfect thing to eat.