Cooking & Baking, and Back To Reality...

While I thoroughly enjoyed my vegan-dining adventures in Chicago recently, it's always nice to come home and resume my "normal routine"; which of course includes cooking and baking! Here is a just a quick look at what I have literally been "cooking up" in my kitchen, since my return from Chicago:



I decided to forgo baking more loaves of my Carob-Chip Banana Bread, and the Maple-Banana Loaf, and go for a new sweet-bread recipe that incorporates one of my favorite Autumn vegetables: pumpkin. Already having the ingredients stocked in my cupboard, I went ahead and baked Dreena's Pumpkin-Raisin Loaf, from The Everyday Vegan. As with all of the baked goods I make, I omitted the oil from the recipe; and the bread still came out extremely moist and tender! The fusion of flavors from the cinnamon, pumpkin, nutmeg, and raisins certainly made for one delectable sweet-bread; and thankfully my family wholeheartedly agreed :0)



After slicing the bread and distributing it to all of my family members, I managed to get a bite of it as well - with all of those aforementioned flavors and ingredients, it is no surprise that the taste and texture of the bread were sensational (especially when paired with a nice, cold glass of hempmilk). With half a can of pumpkin left, I can guarantee that I will be using the leftovers for another pumpkin-raisin loaf!



For "Family Dinner Night" this past week, I tried yet another new recipe (I'm starting to get more and more adventurous with my cooking and baking!): Using a recipe from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook as a guideline, I served whole-grain rigatoni pasta with swiss chard, diced tomatoes, red onions, garlic, and navy beans. This particular rendition of one of my all-time favorite Italian meals was positively spectacular; and I am glad that I ate pasta with different ingredients, for a change (as I have mentioned in earlier posts, I always consume the same vegetables and sauces on pasta, regardless of whether I am cooking it at home or enjoying it in a restaurant). My parents especially loved the addition of the beans and swiss chard to this pasta, and have requested for me to make this meal for another "Family Dinner Night" in the near future. Sounds good to me :0)



When my sister-in-law and one of my nieces came over for a short visit, I wanted to treat them to a special vegan dessert. Since this would be their first time experiencing vegan sweets (aside from my baked goods), I wanted to keep it simple, in order to encourage them to purchase these products on their own. So, I filled bowls with scoops of So Delicious Chocolate Velvet and It's Soy Delicious Raspberry soy "ice creams," and finished each bowl off with two Enjoy Life Double Chocolate Brownie cookies. I am pleased to report that my sister-in-law and niece fell head-over-heels for the nondairy "ice creams" and cookies, and would like to try other flavors as well! By the way, the other vegan dessert bowls in the picture were prepared for my parents - while they have had (and enjoy) the "ice creams" and cookies before, I did not want to leave them out while my sister-in-law and niece experienced these vegan delicacies for the first time :0) I did take a picture of everyone at the "vegan dessert event," but unfortunately the photo would not download onto my computer for some reason!! Just imagine four happy people savoring their bowls of nondairy goodness, and that is basically the photo, haha.



For this easy-to-prepare weeknight meal, I once again referred to that pasta recipe in my Student's Go Vegan Cookbook (the one that I used for my most recent "Family Dinner Night") for the cook-time on the vegetables and beans, but slightly altered the ingredients to create a new dish: nestled on a bed of whole-grain couscous sits a medley of broccoli, garlic, tomatoes, onions, swiss chard, and chickpeas. Although this dinner took very little time to prepare, it tasted as if it took hours; and since the amount of ingredients that I cooked made enough for three meals, I was able to enjoy this delicious dish again and again, with even LESS prep- and cook-time :0)

While I will undoubtedly continue cooking and baking my favorite "go-to" recipes, I will also keep trying new recipes and ingredient combinations, to further improve my skills in the kitchen (and to keep my taste-testers coming back for more, as well). For instance, I am definitely going to make some of the incredible dishes and baked goods from The Chicago Diner Cookbook (which I had the pleasure of purchasing after enjoying a flavorful meal at The Chicago Diner), very soon. I cannot wait to share those results with you (which I am hoping will be successful; but we will just have to wait and see)!

After a long, restful, and exciting summer, with no major responsibilities or work to complete, it is time to return to reality and head back to school. This past Monday, I entered my second year of college, with a high level of anticipation and nervousness; and despite feeling a bit stressed out with assignments, I am enjoying my classes and schedule so far (I am done with classes by 1:00pm everyday, which is perfect for me). Although I will have less time to bake and cook than I did this past summer, when I started this blog, you do not have to worry about me abandoning the blogging world. I will still be posting as regularly as I can, featuring the latest in my culinary adventures, as well as other thoughts, experiences, and tidbits. So never fear; VeggieGirl will still be here :0)

For those of you living in the United States, I hope you have a great Labor Day Weekend - and for those of you overseas, I hope you have a fantastic weekend as well!