15 May 2011

This Week in My Kitchen: Vegan B.L.T., Gnocchi n' Cheeze, Spicy Szechuan Stir Fry with Quinoa

I'm finally starting to get back into the habit of cooking at home. For a few months we ate out all the time, which is disastrous for our waistlines and our budget!

Vegan B.L.T.
Lately I've been having more of an appreciation for fake meats. I was never huge on them, and I don't know what brought this on, but I'm going with it. Yves Veggie Bacon (which I've never tried before) was on sale at Safeway this week, so this morning I made a B.L.T. for breakfast. I toasted two slices of Silverhills Squirrely bread in the toaster oven with two slices of bacon on top of each. That way the bacon cooked with minimal effort and dishes, and it kept the bread from toasting on both sides, which is how I prefer it for sandwiches. I put mustard and Spectrum Eggless Canola Mayonnaise on the untoasted sides and layered the bacon, some sliced tomatoes and salad greens in between. It was delicious!

Gnocchi n' Cheeze
Kirk and I are big fans of gnocchi. It's light and fluffy and yummy, and best of all, cooks up in no time! For dinner one night I whipped up some of this cheeze sauce and served it with mini gnocchi. Yum! Definitely not a nutritionally-balanced meal, but great comfort food.


Spicy Szechuan Stir Fry with Quinoa
The stir fry is a vegetarian staple, isn't it? I can't even count how many bad or just bland sir fries I've been served at dinner parties, restaurants, and even weddings! But at home it's a different story - you can experiment with ingredients and flavours to your heart's delight. One night this week I realised that we had some veggies in the fridge that we needed to eat before they went bad. I washed and cut up some green beans, an onion, an orange bell pepper and some mushrooms and stir fried them with garlic and Szechuan sauce. Near the end of cooking I added some chopped spinach. Since I didn't add any protein to the veggies, serving it over quinoa was an obvious choice, and I sprinkled black and white sesame seeds over the top. Bam - a healthy, cheap, nutritious meal in 20 minutes.

6 comments:

  1. Have you tried the fresh gnocchi you can get from The Ravioli Store on Commercial Drive? They have a couple different kinds, and we LOVE the yam gnocchi. Fresh is a huge improvement on the packaged kind, which are already pretty good.

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  2. I haven't tried it (somehow we rarely make it over to Commercial), but I have made it from scratch. It was fabulous fresh! Yam sounds delish.

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  3. Wow, from scratch! I'm impressed - that is a fair bit of work. I'm far too lazy to attempt that!

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  4. Wish I could find ready made vegan gnocchi in the UK, it always seems to have egg in it :(

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  5. There are a couple brands here that are vegan, though most have egg. You could make some - it's not really that hard - here's a good recipe: http://veganyumyum.com/2008/03/gnocchi-with-thyme-vinaigrette-and-lemon-cashew-cream/

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  6. fuck look at all the tasty goodies I missing being away from town

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