Chickpea Ratatouille

This is the Chickpea Ratatouille from Vive le Vegan, served over whole wheat couscous. I've been meaning to try this for so long and I'm glad I finally did! I've never made more traditional ratatouille (eggplant and zucchini prepared in such a fashion aren't really appealing to me, although I love eggplant in Indian and Chinese food), but I really enjoyed this variation. This was really simple to make, too (minus the fact that I started from dried chickpeas, so the dish took a bit more planning for me...but this time the chickpeas turned out really well in the pressure cooker). Everything is prepared in one large casserole dish and it goes in the oven, only taking it out to stir once during the cooking time.

BBQ Pomegranate Tofu and Mellow Millet Quinoa Pilaf

I finally got to try the BBQ Pomegranate Tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance. I'm SO glad I did. Yum! I have leftover BBQ sauce from it, so I'll definitely be making some more. I would like to try it with some seitan or maybe with frozen tofu. Vegan with a Vengeance recommends serving this with coconut rice, but I decided to try out the Mellow Millet Quinoa Pilaf recipe from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan. We bought some millet at the health food store awhile ago because I was wanting to experiment with some new grains, but it's just been hanging out in the pantry ever since. I'm glad I finally found a use for it! The pilaf wasn't quite as umm....pilaf-y as I was expecting. Because millet is sticky, the pilaf had a little more of a creamy consistency. Had I realized that, I probably would have served the broccoli and cauliflower separately. Next time I make this, I'll probably spice it up a bit more, but I'm glad to have found a new recipe that uses whole grains (well, quinoa is a grass and not actually a grain, but close enough for me!).

Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another cookie recipe from Vive le Vegan. I've made these many times before; they are really awesome. We were grocery shopping this weekend and we walked past the maple syrup. My boyfriend asked if I needed any. I said I was all out, but that it's expensive so it could wait until I really needed it for something. "Or...we could have some more cookies." So the maple syrup went into the cart. And the rest is history.

Coconut Lime Cookies

One word sums up these cookies: yum! The recipe is from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan and boy are these some addictive cookies (especially for my boyfriend. He would close the container and tell me he was done, then I'd turn around a little while later and catch him eating another one). They are light and fluffy cookies. My boyfriend dubbed them albino cookies, as he said he'd never seen a cookie turn out so "white." We're weird, what can I say? We are also in love with the chocolate chip cookie recipe from Vive le Vegan. Boy does Dreena know how to make some awesome cookies. My only complaint is that they tend to use quite a bit of maple syrup. She's Canadian, so I want to say that maple syrup is just cheaper there, but she lives in British Columbia and I've never known that province to be famous for it's maple syrup or anything. Then again, I've never been there, so what do I know?

For so long I didn't eat chocolate....

And then one day I just decided that I wanted to again. I have to say, it sure is good.


These are peppermint patties; I got the recipe from SDGvegan's blog, Vegan-licious (recipe here). These were AWESOME. Mint+chocolate=heaven.

This one is candy cane chocolate bark. I found organic candy canes at the local health food store--yay! The recipe is the Sublime Chocolate Bark recipe from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan, but I subbed the candy canes for the dried fruit and nuts. I had fun taking a hammer to the candy canes, and I kind of wished that the noisy guy who lives downstairs had been home to be annoyed by it (but I checked and he wasn't--I wouldn't seriously have sat there banging on the floor if he'd been home. Even though he is rude, I just can't be that rude back.).