An Eggplant Lentil dish & another bread machine bread

Speaking of great websites, I should have mentioned Susan Voisin's Fat Free Vegan in my previous post!!! Not only does she have the most beautiful food pics out there but her recipes are always a success and sooo delicious!!!

She has a great recipe index too!

Since I had an eggplant in my fridge that needed to be used but not having a recipe from one of my (*cough*, many) books ready to pull out (i.e. not planned :o ), I googled and Susan's Skillet-eggplant-and-lentils-with-almond-parmesan

came up! It was super yummy!

Because I had some carrots on hand, I threw them in as well, but otherwise stuck to the recipe. (The only thing I didn't do, was make the almond 'parmesan' as I was short on time and my family members were complaining of being already! LOL)

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Now to the bread machine recipe, this one was really easy (aren't they all!?).

I tweaked the recipe for the Super Rapid version (1.5 lbs, ready in ~ 2 hrs)

by using as follows:

~* Wholesome quick bread*~ 

1.5 loaf size

*3/4 c warm water

*1 egg replacer (I used 1 Tbsp flax, 3 Tbsp water instead of Ener-G)

*2 Tbsp vegan butter

*1 c bread flour

*1.5 whole wheat flour

*1/4 c buckwheat flour

*3 Tbsp sugar (will reduce next time to 2 Tbsp)

*1.5 tsp salt

*2 tsp bread machine yeast (or use 2.5 tsp active dry)

Set the cycle on your machine and make sure the flour is all mixed well (I sometimes use a soft plastic spatula in the first mixing cycle to scrape the edges to make sure and add more flour if the dough is too sticky) and do something else in those ~2 hours that the bread is baking.

Once it's done, put on a rack and let it cool down (it's better to cut that way vs. when it's still hot).

Note: If you're not in the mood for a wholesome bread (my kids still don't like 'brown' breads too much LOL), you can simply use the entire amount of bread flour and have a nice soft sandwich style bread! ;)

I had it for lunch today with some baked tofu, lettuce, tomato and some avocado as well as a sice with some coconut oil and jam for breakfast! :D

Soups and more comfort food!

I might have mentioned before already that I'm a huge soup lover! Especially when it's getting cooler outside (well, here not so much yet *sigh*.. but hopefully soon!!!) it's just cozy to have a nice warming soup for dinner or for lunch! 

Have a slice of home made bread or roll on the side and a green salad and you've got a great meal going on!

Regardless of the not-so-cold-yet temperatures, I've been cooking a few more soups again these past days and am just going to share some pics with you! (I'm sure you all know recipes to those kinds of soups.. and if not, google it and you'll get tons of hits! ;) )

Inspired by Isa's AFR recipe (Susan over at FatFreeVegan has a great recipe too I use often: Curried Split Pea Soup )

Also inspired by Isa's AFR recipe.. though I will have to admit, personally I learned that including ACV (apple cider vinegar) is *not* my or my family's taste!!!..

The recipe called for 2 cups (!) of it, I only used ~1/4 c and that was already too much for our liking.. I'll omit the ACV from now on again!..

This is what our version of 'deluxe' salad looks like, which we had for lunch the other day when Hubby had off work. With a slice of bread it was seriously delicious and so filling!

Love, love, love (!) Lemon-Tahini dressing on my salads!!!

 Honestly, I cannot remember on which blog I've found the recipe (I'll have to dig through my tons of printed papers again!) but after having been on the pumpkin kick lately again, I had some leftover in the fridge, as well as some Silken soft tofu, so that recipe inspired me to mix it all up into a healthy, lower cal version of so many vegan 'Alfredo' sauces. Poured over leftover Spaghetti for lunch, it was perfect! (And I was ready for a nap afterwards! *lol*)

This cool looking purple cauliflower sadly didn't hold up too well after cooking as it was already on the limp side when Hubby came home from the market with it  (I used it in a stir fry) but I still wanted to share the pic as I just love the color! ;)

Next post will be about bread again; including the promised recipe for the sourdough dinner rolls! =)

Soups!

I love soups! I could eat them every day, seriously!

Thankfully my husband is the same way, so we have soup quite often in our house, especially now that it's starting to get cooler outside. (Well, here in Sicily not quite yet, but hopefully soon!..)

The other day I had some cabbage left over from making Dr. Fuhrmann's Cabbage Salad (which is delicious, by the way!!!) and decided to make cabbage soup! I remembered having seen a recipe for it on Susan's site over on Fat Free Vegan. I didn't follow it to a 'T' but more or less and it turned out awesome!

The best thing about that kind of soup is: If you're watching your waistline or possibly even want to lose a few pounds, with this one you don't have to worry! It's low in calories yet full of good stuff so you can actually eat a healthy portion (yes, even have seconds!) and not sweat it! ;) 

I will certainly post more soup recipes more often from now on! :)