Memorial Day Weekend

Hope you all are having a happy Memorial Day weekend. The rain, for a little while, has finally ended in the Tampa area. No need for us to think about building arks, just yet, anyway. However, I really should not complain since we really do need the rain. The drought has caused very draconian watering policies to be enacted, and they are not going away any time soon. However, hurricane season starts in one week and if we can get some tropical storms through that are rain events, that would help.

I didn’t do a lot of cooking this week, due to still recovering and also starting back at work. This was dinner on Monday. I had gotten some quinoa pasta as an experiment, due to a suspicion that the TeddyBear has some gluten intolerance issues. He didn’t like it, but I thought it wasn’t that bad. Here I am having it with some kale and diced tomatoes that I made over the weekend. I was just looking for something quick and easy to make that would also be nutritious. It was a nice filling dinner after a long day at work.

The Fronch Toast was my breakfast on Saturday. The topping is a Cinnamon Spiked Blueberry Sauce (along with some maple syrup) that I found over at FoodTV from Robin Miller. She uses it on frozen yogurt, but I like it on the Fronch Toast (VwaV) and it would be good on pancakes or waffles as well. An easy way to eat some fruit at your breakfast or brunch, and if you don’t like blueberries then the cinnamon is a nice touch.

Rice Milk Recipe and Some News

Rice Milk Recipe and Some News

I had high hopes for this week. Unfortunately, they got waylaid due to me catching either a really bad cold or possibly the flu (don’t know which one) from a recruiter when I went on an interview late last week. So, except for a few smoothies and odds and ends, I really have not eaten much at all. I didn’t even have coffee for most of the week. However, I am better now.

I did manage to get the rice milk recipe perfected before I got ill. Good thing, since I have been using so much of it that the mix is just about half gone already. And I just made it on Monday. The revised recipe is below.

Rice Milk Base

3 3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup rice flour white
1/2 cup heaping, almond flour
1/2 cup light agave nectar
2 Tbsp coconut oil

Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan.

Add the vanilla and rice flour to 3/4 cup water, stirring thoroughly.

Once the water boils, stir in the rice flour mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Turn heat to medium-low and boil at least five minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and no longer gritty.

Depending on equipment available:

No high powered blender:

Put almond flour, agave nectar and coconut oil into blender and blend till smooth (a Magic Bullet is fine). Add to rice flour mixture and mix with stick blender or regular blender until smooth.

High powered blender (VitaMix, etc.):

Let rice flour mixture cool. Add rice flour mixture, almond flour, agave nectar and coconut oil to blender and blend till smooth.

Once mixture is smooth and cool, pour into covered container and place in refrigerator.

Yield: 5-6 cups, probably closer to 5 ½ on average

To make rice milk:

8 oz
1/4 cup base and 3/4 cup water: mix till combined

16 oz
1/2 cup base and 1 1/2 cup water: mix till combined

It will separate in the refrigerator, but will remix quickly upon shaking.


This recipe mixes up quite smooth once blended and the almond flour is now emulsified enough that it blends easier into the rice flour mixture. The “milk” is rich enough that I drank it plain (no chocolate) and was quite satisfied. I have also used it in some cooking this week, for pancakes and some of Bryanna Grogan’s soy free mayonnaise, and it worked as well as commercial rice milk.

I had planned on doing my entry for the Tried & Tasted event, being hosted by Vaishali at Holy Cow!, featuring recipes from SusanV at the Fat Free Vegan blog. However, it is a month long event, so next week will have to do. At least what I had planned on making works for both my schedule this week and also my schedule for next week. If you would like to join in, check out the details over at Vaishali’s blog. This is the first time for me to join in one of these blog events, but to help show all the good things that Susan makes, and that she makes dishes that are either soy free or can be made soy free easily was a no brainer for me.

Now that I have kept you in suspense; the news is that as of Monday, I have a long term temporary assignment. It is at the same place where the TeddyBear works, but not in the same department. The pay is decent and due to this department being behind, I have to do a minimum of 8 hours of overtime a week, which will greatly help the paycheck. But it will greatly affect my cooking. Expect to see more quick and easy dishes. I have a feeling that the Chick-fu will become a more regular part of my diet, since it will be easy to make a meal around that in the evenings. I might also start to feature my lunches as well.

And in case you are curious what a bunny does to celebrate a new job. Why she goes grocery shopping and buys her new favorite ice cream, Coconut Bliss Hazelnut Fudge. It is quite nutty, chocolaty and satisfying.

See you all next week.

100th Post

Well I made it, 100. Does that mean I am now a serious blogger?

Sorry I haven’t posted this week, but I had to clear out the refrigerator first. There was no room for any new food. So I am giving you a bonus today, both lunch and dinner.

Lunch was very simple, a peanut butter sandwich and some of the Brooklyn Deli Macaroni Salad from VCON. The peanut butter is from Smart Balance and if you haven’t tried this yet, it is really good. The macaroni salad was a bit of disappointment. It tastes fine, but my mayo set up a bit too hard once the dressing was mixed into the pasta and vegetables. I am going to have to try this again with Bryanna Grogan’s soy-free mayo and see if that makes a difference.


Dinner was my latest attempt at the fish. I had hoped to announce that it was perfected, but again the base mix is to thin, even after mixing in 1 cup oats ground to flour. However, it did thicken up significantly when I mixed a portion of it with some breadcrumbs. The taste is just fine; it just needs to be stiffer. I have some other things that I want to work on, so this is going on the back burner for a bit. But don’t worry; I will come back to it.

All of you that are gluten free, maybe you can give me some help. Will gluten free bread crumbs act as a thickener like regular bread crumbs can? If they can, then I would be more prepared to say that this is mostly perfected. If not, then back to the drawing board.

Before I go, I would like to let everyone know that I am going from a 5 day post week to maybe once or twice a week. I don’t know yet if it will be done on set days, or just when I cook something new. Right now I am leaning to just putting up a post on Fridays, covering what I ate during the week. I am changing the schedule, since I think that at this point, I have shown that one doesn’t need to eat either tofu or tempeh as a vegan. Also since I do eat so many leftovers you will be saved from all of my leftover makeovers.

Have a good weekend.

Burritos for Dinner

Tonight was about using two of my leftovers in the refrigerator. One of these is made with the Southwest Sweet Potato mixture. The other is made with some of the lentils and peppers that I cooked with some of the Simple Mole. In each of them, I used a slice of the Galaxy Naturals Rice Vegan Cheddar Cheese slices. I am glad to report it melted from the heat of the fillings alone, which is good to know. This will make them very useful in wraps and sandwiches. On the side is some corn, just to round out the meal.

Southwest Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Just using up some more of the Southwest Sweet Potato mixture, this time in a quesadilla. I used some of the left over “Vegveeta” spread also. Unfortunately, I discovered that my blender didn’t make the cheese base as smooth as it should be, will have to remember to run it longer the next time. However, now that it has cooled and set up, it did re-melt nicely on the tortilla. It makes me wonder how this sauce would work for a mac and cheese.

And Vegetation, I am getting over my food “blahs”. I think what is causing them is that summer has now and I think finally hit Florida for good. Heat really trashes my appetite for some reason. I might have to start looking at eating more salads, since that is the only raw food easily made in my small kitchen.

Taco Salad

I made this using an adaption of a recipe that has been in my file for some time. When I found the Southwest Sweet Potato Chickpea Delight on Vegweb, it sounded like a good dish. Unfortunately, I have very little need for casseroles and am not able to find shredded Pepper Jack vegan rice cheese; so this has been sitting till I could figure out either what to do with it or to make it for a potluck. However, last week it occurred to me that if the chips and cheese were omitted, then it could be cooked on the stove top and used in various ways. So that is what I did. The only other alteration to the recipe was the omission of the hot pepper flakes in the ingredients, since that would make it to spicy for my tastes.

It cooked up quite well on the stove top and the salad went together easily. All I had to do was put some lettuce on the plate and surround it with the tortilla chips (Tostitos are vegan, just to let you know). I then put the sweet potato mix on the lettuce, dotted it with some of the Warm “Vegveeta” Cheese Sauce (from Dreena Burton, don’t great minds think alike, Vegetation) and then a dollop of the Cashew Sour Cream. While it may not sound like all this would go together well, it sure looks good and tasted good as well. I have been in the food blahs lately for some reason, but this sure got me out of them. Look for me to use this a few more times this week, along with the “Vegveeta” as well.

Smoothie for Dinner

Didn’t feel hungry so just had a banana-peach smoothie made with some raw cashew milk. There are times that my Magic Bullet is a nice thing to have and this is one of them. The cashew milk was really simple, ½ cup of cashews with 1 ½ cups of water. I ended up with a bit to much, so had to put some of it in the refrigerator for later. Then I just put in some frozen peaches and sliced bananas and ran it again till done.

The bananas I used were some of the new frozen, sliced bananas from Dole. After using them this once, they don’t seem like a bad ides. You get nice, even slices that are individually frozen so that they don’t stick together. And the slices are also perfectly ripe, so it won’t discolor your smoothie. But considering, how much a bag costs, I may start just buying more bananas. At least now I have this nice bag to use in the freezer for them after they are frozen.

P.S. Sorry the picture is so blurry. Just tried to get to close to the container.