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.

This Week in My Kitchen: Gnocchi, Lasagna & Cake

Gnocchi with Veggies and Pesto
Gnocchi is the go-to meal in our house when neither of us feels like cooking. Unfortunately we generally rely on the packaged variety, but one of these days I plan on making up a bunch of fluffy little nuggets of dough from scratch and freezing them for quick & easy use. Until then, packaged gnocchi it is... This week I had some oyster mushrooms on hand, so I sliced them up and sauteed them with bell peppers, garlic, shallots and sundried tomatoes. I tossed the gnocchi with some basil pesto and the veggies and chowed down. Not bad for a 15-minute dinner!

Veggie Lasagna with Daiya Cheese
So I finally got some Daiya vegan cheese in Toronto (I've only seen 5 lb bags here in Vancouver, and that's just ridiculous!) and I decided to use it to make lasagna, the only dish that I really miss making with cheese (the top always gets dry without it). I layered some cooked whole wheat lasagna noodles with homemade tomato sauce with onions and tvp, thinly sliced mushrooms and spinach leaves, and used the cheese only on the top. It turned out really good! The best vegan lasagna I've made so far, and the cheese wasn't yucky like most vegan cheeses. Kirk even liked it! I think next time I'll chop up the spinach so I can add more, but my lasagna pan is fairly shallow, so there's only so far I can go...

Chocolate Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting
My sister-in-law's birthday was this week, and last night we all went over to my mother-in-laws for a celebratory dinner. I brought cake, because what's a birthday without cake? I made two chocolate cake layers using this recipe, which turned out beautifully moist and rich. I made a batch of Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but added some coconut extract. I also put shredded coconut between the layers and some toasted coconut on top. Add some pink candles from the dollar store, and you've got a festive treat! It was scrumptious!

Just ignore my uneven frosting...