Fun With Food !

No, my life is not ALL about food but I am a self-proclaimed "foodie" so it's a pretty significant portion of my daily routine. :) I have been having lots of fun with food since my last entry ... I should have taken better mental notes though because some of it is escaping me at the moment. I will start with this morning and work my way back ... or try to anyway. ;)

A recent thumbing-through of old PETA materials brought a few dark horse products to light for me ... things at the regular old mega mart that I wouldn't normally look twice at ... pizza crust in a tube being one of them.

1.) This morning I pulled out the Pillsbury Original Pizza Crust, unrolled it , pressed it out a bit, and brushed it with melted Earth Balance. Then I sprinkled on a mixture of cinnamon + sugar that I keep on hand for toast, rolled it up, sliced it into rounds, and placed it on my Silpat lined baking sheet. :) After about 25 minutes at 350 degrees I had my very own cinnamon rolls ! Yes, they were simple and less nutritious than other breakfast foods but they were nostalgic ... memories of making cinnamon rolls from scratch with my Grandma Gobin flooded my mind. Other than the time and labor involved in the original these were also not laden with lard. :)

2.) Recently we used the Pillsbury Thin Pizza Crust for making pizza as a family. My FAVORITE pizza sauce (hands down) is Muir Glen ! I hate to even admit it but until we discovered theirs my favorite pizza sauce was one that came in a kit ... you know the one with the chef on the box. ;) Sad but true. Anyway, we made a simple one with just "cheese" and one with 1/2 pineapple + 1/2 mushroom,olive, and fresh basil with garlic. So so so YUMMY ! Our oldest son (and the only one old enough for pizza) likes pizza that has "orange & white cheese" so we used both the Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet(R) Mozzarella style and Cheddar style blocks which I threw into the food processor to shred. Everyone enjoyed it more than words can express! Yes, we could have gone to the new pizza place that offers Vegan pizza but we would have missed out on the bonding experience ... and our wallets would be much lighter. :)

3.) We had a friend and her son over three times since my last post, once for a snack and twice for dinner. She is in transition from a healthier version of the "standard American diet" to a Vegetarian diet. In this time of change I feel it's important to support her ! So, we had meals that are easy.

The first meal was pasta with sun dried tomato pesto & olive/mushroom tapenade (super-quick in the food processor) with broccoli romanesco and garlic bread. I am drooling thinking about how tasty it was !

The second was a simple meal of spring rolls (purchased at Costo) with a few dipping sauces and an Asian spinach salad with edamame, sliced almonds, and mandarin orange segments with a soy-ginger dressing. YUMMY !

To break the ice (food wise) on our first play date I made the very best peanut butter cookies I have ever tasted ... and they were Vegan. Even my husband who doesn't eat cookies ate 3 or 4 !

I used the recipe I found on the Earth Balance site and just added peanut butter chips. Between 3 adults and 2 little cookie monsters we ate 2/3 of the cookies that afternoon ... and the remaining dozen were split between my cookie jar and a goodie bag for the road. :)

That's all I can think of for now but you better believe it's a daily joy to discover awesome shortcuts to incredible Vegan edibles !