Muffin Meals

No, these meals won't be muffins but Muffin is one of my nicknames. Besides, it sounds cute! After viewing the Vegan Lunchbox site, religiously, my Husband wants me to post my own menu. I will try to post one meal each day. I hope I inspire people to have creative and healthy home cooked meals. I think that even if you aren't a vegetarian, you'll like the meals I present. I do feature dairy products and eggs in my food from time to time, but will try my best to present vegan dishes as well.

Monday, August 28, 2006

We are experiencing....

We are experiencing technical difficulties at the time being. I am posting this from a friends computer as ours isn't running at this time. Honest, we have not forgotten you!

Thanks for viewing and thanks for your patience!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Vegetable Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ok, today I decided I would make soup! What kind of soup, I wasn't sure. I knew I wanted a cream based soup, but not just potato, and not just corn chowder. I also didn't have enough of anything to make a "cream of" soup. SOOOO, I decided to make an everything soup!

I sauteed one half onion diced, one half carrot sliced, a ear of corn (cut off the cob), and 3 baby red potatos. I covered all that with soymilk until it covered it by about an inch or so. I cooked that for a bit. I added basil, oregano, thyme, garlic salt, and paprika. Then I sliced up 3 mushrooms, and two scallions. I added those to the pot and then added soymilk til it seemed like soup, instead of milk covered veggies LOL. I cooked it till the mushrooms looked cooked and shrunken....I did add some cheese, but that is optional. Then I just had to wait for Muffin Man to be ready to eat. When he got home he requested to have Grilled Cheese Sandwiches as well, but I didn't take a picture of those.

Then it was time to dig into the soup. Mini Muffin has this thing for soup....she's not terribly fond of it at first. But she LOVES to dip her sandwiches and bread into it...so she gets some into her system. So, she only had a small amount, and some of the veggies. But....oh man....was that soup awesome! I couldn't BELIEVE how great it was. Muffin Man had to give the last bowl to Corn Muffin, when she came to babysit Mini Muffin this evening because he said "You've got to have some of this soup...its AWESOME!" Now how's that for a compliment!

Try it, you'll like it!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The return of the Pizza

As I'm sure you all know, we love pizza. And now we have passed that love on to Mini Muffin. Yesterday, she was trying to help me decide what to eat. She was pulling out stuff for stirfry....but I didn't really want that yesterday...I was hankering for a good homemade pizza. So I asked her if she wanted Pizza....she said no, then realized and added a quick YES! and started helping me get pizza stuff out of the fridge!

Crazy baby, she's not even 2!!

So Pizza it was, this time the fun ingredient was chopped Chik'n Nuggets. I used half whole wheat pastry flour for the crust, along with my pizza herbs, thyme, oregano, basil, and rosemary...and garlic!!!

Mini Muffin ate almost her whole slice, the size of one up on the picture! She then fed the rest to the dog, who was immensely grateful! Muffin Man took some for lunch, and I finished up the rest for breakfast this morning, and let me tell you, it was just as yummy today!

Monday, August 21, 2006

Morningstar Farms Veggie Bites - also, a review

Tonight we tried MorningStar Farms new Spinach Artichoke Veggie Bites. They only have 9 in the package, so I decided to add red potatoes and carrots to the meal. Basically it was a meal made completely of side dishes....sometimes those the best. This was NOT one of those times.

The plan was to have parsnips and carrots mixed....The parsnips were slimy and nasty, I had bought them at the end of last week. So, just carrots and scallions. The potatoes were good, however. The Veggie Bites were ok....I wish we had baked something a bit different, like the chik'n nuggets, but alas, we had wanted to try something new. Mini Muffin did eat almost all of one...so that was great! She shunned her potatoes and carrots today...might have had something to do with her cold. And yes, she does seem to get those every few weeks....

All in all, the food wasn't horrible, but it wasn't the best meal I've prepared in the past. Hey, I'm allowed to have one not so great meal once in a while!!

Breakfast!

Yesterday, Muffin Man had a craving for some hashbrown casserole similar to the one we had in Georgia. So I made my own recipe, with tator tots, broccoli, mushrooms, and onions, and then poured 6 beaten eggs over it and put cheese on that.

I also made pancakes and blueberry sauce. MMMM.

Mini Muffin loved her pancakes and blur bears (blue berries). She had a few bites of the tator tot casserole. Muffin Man loved breakfast!!

I'll get a pic soon!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

What do you do when your fridge is almost bare?

I go shopping!!! I don't know about you guys. But since I hadn't gone shopping yet when I had to make supper, I grabbed what I could. Tonight I made cheese/tofu lasagna and fried green tomatoes. Yah, Yah, a lot of tomatos....but it was good!

Mini Muffin ate half of her slice of lasagna, which was roughly half of one of mine, as well as trying to eat half of a slice of green tomato. She's growing up so well, she ate most of it without help, just had to cut it for her.

DH enjoyed his meal and ate to the stuffing point, as did I!

Just so you know, we didn't forget about you guys, we just haven't had a chance to sit down for a real family meal until last night!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Apology

I am sorry. I was not able to post to let you know I was leaving on vacation. I"m back now!!! We went to a family reunion Thursday - Monday.

Will post this evening!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Chili Rellanos

Tonight I had invited my mom and my grandmother over for Chili Rellanos. I tried an eggwhite batter, which tasted good with the enchilada sauce on it, but not so good without the sauce. Next time I'll use my passover breading. Everyone commented that the matzo meal was the best rellanos breading yet! But hey, I had to try.

The chili's were roasted under the broil setting and turned periodically until their skins were black. Then I put them in a glass bowl and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. Their own heat steamed the skins loose, which I just peeled off. I stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese and chedder cheese. I battered them and baked them at 350 until golden brown. I bake them rather than fry them because it is healthier that way.

As with any good Mexican meal, beans and rice to compliment. The beans were thanks to Grand Muffin, who brought vegetarian chili beans, with vegetarian meat inside.

Everyone, except Mini Muffin, LOVED their chilis. Even Muffin Man enjoyed his, after he put enchilada sauce over it. The beans were good too, of course. Mini Muffin was more than pleased to eat her beans and rice, and leave her chili. She's still not used to it. One of these days I'll get her to eat it LOL.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Sandwiches

Yesterday I was out for most of the day and then had to make cookies when I got back. SOOO.. I made some simple.

I layered my sandwich with spinach, green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and one slice of cheese and some of that infamous vegetarian turkey. It was a very good sandwich.

Mini Muffin ate some tomatoes, and cucumbers, and a few bites of her little piece of turkey, but then apparently gave the dog the rest.

Tonight I'm making macaroni and cheese....mmmm

Monday, August 07, 2006

Patty Pans

I apologize for the blurriness of the image. Last night we had Stuffed Patty Pan squash! I stuffed it with a mixture of the removed Patty Pan squash, shredded carrots, scallions, mushrooms, bread crumbs, and italian herbs and seasonings. I also added two eggs. I did not measure, but I only had 3 patty pans, big, medium, and small. The amount of stuffing I had far exceeded the squashes and I cooked it in a tiny dish as well.

I coupled that with some cooked brown rice and green beans.

Mini Muffin didn't feel brave enough to try the squash! She did however eat as much rice as is on the plate there, and 3 green beans!

Muffin Man enjoyed his food, although he wasn't sure about the Patty Pan. Looked a little odd to him. It was very good though. I was warned that these squashes don't always taste as good as other summer squashes, but these ones were delicious this way. I was very surprised and delighted to find that this recipe really was good. Here are some links for Stuffed Patty Pan Squash you might enjoy.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

MMMM Quiche!

Yesterday my mom and I made some meals for my friend again. Incase I didn't mention it before, she owns Special Thai, the local Thai food restaurant that I go to so much, and Vege Thai, the Vegan Thai food restaurant across the river. I've enjoyed getting able to cook for her, as she's always cooking for us! Today we made her a salad and quiche, so I made the same thing for us. I layered spinach leaves on the bottom, and added steamed carrots and broccoli to the top. Then I used the my usual egg/soymilk mixture and put a bit of cheese on the top.

Very good! Muffin Man was very pleased, and most of the quiche was gone. So was most of the salad. Mini Muffin ate some raw veggies, and a few bites of quiche. She wasn't too hungry because our friend gave her a banana.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Update post

I had a meeting last night and didn't really make supper. I did make Muffin Man a pasta salad, but there's no pictures. Sorry about that.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Tofu Eggplant Lasagna

I made lasagna tonight! Only, I switched it up a bit. This time, instead of just my usual vegetables, I added slices of eggplant. I also added rosemary and garlic to the italian seasonings I added to the tofu.

MMMM MMMMM. Tasty! Muffin Man and I enjoyed our immensely, and together managed to eat half of the 9 x 13 inch pan!

Mini Muffin is sick, either still or again. So double that with tiredness and yah. She was a mess. However, she enjoyed enough to TRY to eat. But poor thing was too tired, cranky, and sick to eat.

I had planned on having corn, but I forgot. I also planned on making bread sticks, but when I had to take the Muffin Pup to the vet, that idea was thrown out the window! But hey I put a TON of vegetables in this lasagna! 2.5 carrots (the other half went into my friends' salad, they had a baby last weekend), one eggplant, one small stalk of broccoli, and a half of an onion. So I don't feel guilty at all about the nutrition of this one dish meal!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Been super busy, will post soon

Really, I promise I will post soon!