last wine night in Boston

Had a great last wine night in Boston before shipping out to California this fall. We had a great turn out and mix of guests. Some people from Albany even made it! I made a rice salad and a tater tot casserole. For the rice salad: I took 2 cups of rice in a large pot, added 2 cans of coconut milk and 1 cup of water, and 1 tsp cinnamon to the pot. Boiled it then like you always do. Once the rice was done I added 1 two chopped up cucumbers and two containers of sliced mango, and 1 container of fresh edamame, mixing them in a turning the rice down to low heat. In a large wok I added chopped up tofu and fried it in a little oil with 1tsp coriander and 1 TBsp garlic. Once the tofu was done I added it to the rice mixture. I mixed it all up with some spinach. It was super tasty and like a lot of times it was better as leftovers the next day. For the main course I made a version of tater tot casserole from the Meet The Shannons recipe, just modified a bit. I fried up a 2 chopped red peppers, 2 yellow peppers, 1 red onion, and 2 green bell peppers in a small amount of oil. In order to use up some of the expendables in my fridge I also fried up a package of vegan boca ground beef and tempeh chunks. Then in a massive bowl I mixed up the peppers, onion, and fake meat along with one package of daiya cheddar cheese, 1 package frozen corn, 2 TBsp dried cilantro,2 TBsp Braggs, 2 TBsp cumin, 2 TBsp chili powder, 4 TBsp garlic, and two cans of diced tomatoes. This all went in to a large casserole, topped with one package of pepperjack daiya cheese, and 1 package of sweet potato tater tots from TJs. Baked then at 375 for 40 minutes. SUPER DELICIOUS.Goes great with guacamole or vegan sour cream.

super easy BBQ meal

I had some gardein vegan pulled pork in the house an threw this little sandwich together. The topping is just Broccoli Slaw from TJs with some added vegan ranch dressing that I make on a regular basis. Super tasty and simple.

vegan chicken pasta casserole

Being that Mark and I will be moving to Cali in about a little over a month, I have decided to start making dishes that reflect using up the random crap in our kitchen... I noticed the other day that I had 3 containers of vegan cream cheese (I must have bought it for a cheesecake or something and never made it). Well, I will be using 2 in a cheesecake I make for our going away party next week, but I used another in a recipe I found for a pasta casserole. I also conveniently had 2 packaged of TJ's vegan chicken strips, pasta in the cupboard, along with lots of pasta sauce, so only had to buy spinach for the recipe. First boil a box of pasta, whatever you have on hand (I had rotini). Then in a large sauce pan or wok, add a little oil and cook the fake chicken. Once browned, add 1 TBsp Italian seasoning 1 jar spaghetti sauce, and 1 can drained diced tomatoes. I had a bag of sundried tomatoes that I threw in as well at this point. Cook a couple minutes. Next add your spinach, helping it wilt as it gets mixed in. (I used one bag of fresh spinach). Lastly, start dropping chunks of cream cheese and mixing them in to the dish. I used one container of toffuti cream cheese. In a casserole dish first drain and pour the cooked pasta. Then top with the chicken sauce mixture. Then top this with shredded mozzarella, next a layer of plan sauce again from a different jar, and last with some mozzarella and some parmesan (obviously vegan versions of both for me). Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. I think I put a little too much sauce in, but it was tasty and even better as a leftover.