A few of my meals...

My version of the Dragon Rice Bowl from "Refresh" by Ruth Tal, that sauce on it is a Miso Gravy and I can tell you that it was super yummy.  There is rice under the veggies, seared tofu, seared zucchini and grilled tomatos.  The recipe called for cilantro, but I am not a fan, so I used green onions.  Here is a picture from the recipe book, well maybe not quite the same, but you get the idea.

For today I plan to make the Spicy Tofu in Coconut Cream.  Although the hubby is a bit hung over today (department Christmas party), not sure if the cream will go over well.  Might have to make him some udon soup instead.  Hmmm, will look up a recipe for that.

I bought some hemp seeds this past grocery shopping trip and am going to be looking up some recipes to use them in.  I saw in one of Dreena Burton's cookbooks that she raved about the benefits of hemp seed, I did some searching on her site for some suggestions and this is what I found,  http://trueslant.com/dreenaburton/2009/08/17/super-foods-hemp-seeds/.  I also signed up with Manitoba Harvest, that is the brand of hemp seeds I bought and they have quite a few recipes on their website http://www.manitobaharvest.com/.  Again another attempt to get some good nutrients into the picky son.  I am going to start with muffins, see what happens, wish me luck

That is all I have for today, have a great one!

How I've done so far and what's coming up

Well a quick review of how yesterday's dinner went, my Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl didn't quite go as planned.  First, I couldn't find a ripe avocado for the life of me, second, I forgot to cook the rice for the dish and then I noticed I had no yoghurt.  So my dish ended up being a spicy tofu salad and it turned out pretty good.  For lunch yesterday, Leya and I had President's Choice Meatless Chicken Strips in a quesadilla. All in all, the meatless chicken strips were not bad, so far the best I have tasted.  And we had carrot sticks with Ranch dip, I am looking for a vegan Ranch dip if anyone has any suggestions, please pass along.  So today I am going to make some home made bread, and the polenta lasagna.  Might be a little more work then I would like, but I am anticipating that it will be pretty good. 

Nov. 19th, is pizza night, I make home made pizza dough and freeze it.  A whole bunch of veggies for me and the daughter and salami and cheese for the son.  Dad is at a meeting that night.

Nov. 20th is curry night, I LOVE CURRY!  This to me is a no brainer vegetarian dish.  You can add what ever you want.  We love Deep Fried Tofu, which I can only find at Superstore and some great rice.  Unfortunately my husband only likes white rice.  I am going to start making brown rice and freezing it for myself.

One of my favourite cookbooks for Asian cooking is Wok It.  It was a $4.99 discount special at Chapters and I use it all the time.  I constantly substitute deep fried tofu for the meat in most of the recipes.  It has a wonderful vegetarian spring roll recipe that I have tried and my husband (Chinese) says it's not too bad.  A great compliment coming from him. 

Well that's what I got for today, any comments would be great, any recipes as well.  Have a great day!

A little history of the why

Well today I am going to start with a little history of why I decided to become a vegetarian. I was always raise a meat and potatoes girl, my family had to have meat, potatoes and some sort of boiled to bits vegetable for dinner. For about the last two years the thought of cooking meat has made me sick, I remember opening a package of ground beef and being grossed out by the blood that was at the bottom of the tray. Then I started getting mental images of the cow it came from and that was that for beef, but I still ate chicken. Then one day I was making some sort of dish with chicken thighs and when I bit into it I hit a small piece of bone, gross, again. So that was it for chicken. Now all I had left was seafood, then I got a bad bit of shrimp and there goes the seafood. I still eat some dairy, real cream for my coffee, the odd bit of cheese, mostly Goat Cheese and some Brie. I don't eat eggs as well and that stems from cracking open an egg to find blood and other bits inside and I thought I was going to throw up right there and then. That is when I decided on being a veggie, I read alot of books as I knew this was going to be a major change to my life and families as well. We have a very picky 6 year old and if he doesn't eat meat he would get no protein, so for now I am keeping him a meat eater. My husband, doesn't like alot of meat, but occasionally likes his double cheese burgers or meatloaf, I actually make a pretty good meatloaf (which I will now have to show him how to make).
My favourite book is "Becoming Vegetarian by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis", the bible for me. I wanted to make sure I was going to get all my correct nutrients, protein, calcium, etc. and this book had it all. Then I started, I went to the grocery store, stocked up on what I thought I would eat and away I went. It has been a bit difficult in the sense that the rest of the family still eats meat, so I try to make dishes that I can substitute tofu for the meat or I'm cooking two separate meals. Not always fun. Also I am a mother of a 6 year old and a 18 month old, so I need fast and easy recipes, nothing fancy here. I have a few good cook books, but rely on the Internet for alot of recipes as well. But I am finding it difficult to find fast, easy and inexpensive recipes. So, here starts my journey of blogging what I eat, hopefully I can help others out there that need some meal plans.

Here is what I have going to have for dinner for the next couple of days, I thought I would start with dinners mostly, as breakfasts for me are pretty simple, I need to get a 6 year old off to school. I eat mostly cereal, oatmeal, waffles, fruit that sort of thing, so nothing special in the vegetarian world there.

Nov. 17, I am going to have the Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl that is in this month's Vegetarian Times, it looks super yummy and if my version looks half as good as the picture, it's going to be great.

Nov. 18 I have planned a Polenta and mushroom lasagna, another Vegetarian Times recipes.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10175?section this is the recipe for the Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl, tell me that doesn't look yummy.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9770?section= here is the polenta lasagna, yum.