Recent dinners…
I’ve enjoyed making dinner, as I usually do, but it’s been extra fun with the changing of the seasons. I like the fall foods….it means cooking with pumpkin and squash and making more hearty, heavy, hot meals. 
Baked Beans and Dogs (The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook, p. 116). We had this with sausage cut up on top (grilled on George Foreman) and green beans.
Vegan Sweet Potato and Pecan Tamales with Amy’s Chili. I bought the tamales from Whole Foods in the refrigeration section (by the breads). The chili comes from the can (low sodium). Big salad on the side drizzled in balsamic vinegar.
Roasted Red Kuri Squash with Gnocchi (from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan, p. 141). This sauce is just amazing over the store bought vegan gnocchi I got. I could eat it by itself, and I did that too! I also ate it later in the week with other things, as you will see. Here I had a small salad and broccoli.
Tofu and Okra Stir-fry with Teriyaki and Hot Sauce. Throwing together a stir-fry is one of the most fun and delicious dinners to make and eat. It can be so satisfying and healthy too! This one was made up of tofu, okra, lima beans, carrots, tomatoes, and onions. With a side of hearty long-grain brown rice, this was awesome! I was feeling in a chopstick kind of mood (since that’s what I usually use when I get a stir-fry at Genghis). I managed to use the chopsticks until the last little bit. Then I switched to a fork so I could eat every little last bit. 
Leftovers Night. Have these at your house? I love leftovers!! I know it’s a personal thing. Eric doesn’t like leftovers at all. So when he’s not going to be around for dinner, I indulge in all the extra stuff left in our fridge. I had the Red Kuri Squash Sauce, baked beans, green beans, and broccoli. The squash and bean combo was awesome. I ate those two together. Yum!
State Fair of Texas for a vegan
Ha ha….it’s pretty hilarious actually. This year’s winning food was chicken-fried bacon. Obviously, that’s not vegan friendly. (Read all about the fried foods this year!!!) One can still enjoy the State Fair though and be vegan too!! (You just might want to have a bar or two in your pocket.) I enjoyed a BIG lunch from Spiral Diner before going (remember the seitan tacos in my previous post…that was my pre-State Fair lunch). I was set! I love going to the State Fair to see the shows, look at the cars, do the wine tastings, and pet the animals. Once dinner time rolled around, I was getting a bit hungry again. So….this is what I had…a giant baked potato (which I ordered plain), and a greek salad with no feta and no croutons. I piled the salad on top of the potato. Yummy olives! Perfect state fair dinner!! I was a happy girl.
This was a State Fair inspired dinner we had a couple of night’s later. Our friend Mikey, who went with us to the state fair, ordered a sausage and sauerkraut in a bun for dinner (when I had my baked potato). It made me crave it because it looked so good. I know we just had it recently (for a Cowboys game), but it’s such an easy dinner to throw together and so delicious. Eric made a good point at dinner that next time we need to just cut up the sausage and mix it with the sauerkraut (for a different variation). Sweet peas and broccoli on the side (both frozen). The peas were so good. I’m definitely going to have to buy those again! I’m becoming quite the frozen vegetable addict. It’s just so nice to have extra veggies ready to go and to not have to worry about things going bad before you eat them.
Football Season is Here!!!
To kick-off the first Sunday of football, we grilled vegan sausages with sauerkraut. We put that in an Ezekial sprouted grain hotdog bun with mustard and ketchup. I also made, for the very first time, Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas (from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan, p. 68). Oh my goodness…AMAZING!!! So fun and tasty to snack on. They are so different tasting. I love chickpeas by themselves, but when you roast them like this and add seasoning….to die for. The little bit that was leftover, I had for my snack the next day. Next time I make this, I’m going to double or triple the recipe. This would make an excellent appetizer for guests or to take to a party.
Supper Time
Here’s what we’ve been eating for dinner this past week…
Creamy Spinach Pasta from The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook and a lovely summer salad with fresh corn and carrots.
Field Roast vegan sausage, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes (made with soymilk and seasonings), and a wee little bowl of mixed beans and corn.
Spiral Diner to-go for fun in the middle of the week. Eric went on a long run, and I surprised him by picking up two wraps that we shared for dinner. The one on the left was the “Ate Layer Burrito”, and the one on the right was “Sweet Luv’Us Hummus”. These were both wraps that we had never tried before, and they both get thumbs up. The burrito was the best though! It had a chipotle mayo on it that was delish. I definitely recommend it and will get it again.
You just can’t go to Spiral without picking out some dessert. We had one of their famous brownies and a carrot cake cupcake.
This is one of my FAVORITE meals to make on a busy night. It is so delicious and simple, if you try it, you’re sure to make it a regular thing at your house as well! Corn tortillas with refried beans spread on top, baked or microwaved sweet potatoes, spinach leaves, and green salsa. Go ahead….try it! It tastes so delicious!! Fresh corn on the cob was for the side.
We usually eat out Friday and Saturday night’s, so this is what we feasted on this weekend. Friday night we went to Sushi Zushi , to get some great edamame and sushi. We got a veggie roll, a pickled plum roll, and Eric got a spicy vegetable tempura roll, which is not vegan because it has some mayo sauce on it (just to warn you). 
If you live in Dallas and are vegetarian, I’m sure you’ve heard of Kalachandji’s . If not, it is Dallas’s oldest and most renowned Vegetarian restaurant. It’s almost completely vegan too. They have a couple of things that aren’t vegan, but they are always marked. On Saturday and Sunday’s they even offer a vegan dessert. This time was apple crisp (sorry no picture of that). It’s a buffet offering mixed veggies, rice, various Indian curries, homemade vegan raisin bread, and an amazing salad bar as well (in the brown bowl). I took pictures of both of our plates. It was a feast! They have the cutest garden to eat around outside, and we loved listening to the live guitarist that was playing. Kalachandji’s does not disappoint.
