Easy (But Oh, So YUMMY) Vegetable Couscous

This simple dish only takes about 10 minutes to prepare and it is one of my favorites!

Vegetable Couscous

• 1 Cup Couscous, dry
• 1 2/3 Cups Water
• 1 tsp. Vegetable Bouillon

Put the dry couscous in a bowl with a lid. Boil water with bouillon in microwave (about two minutes). Pour the water over the dry couscous and cover with a lid for 10 minutes. In the meantime:

• 2-3 Cups Fresh or Frozen Vegetables
• Tofutti Sour Cream

Combine as many different vegetables as you like (I usually use corn, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and green beans) and steam or microwave until thoroughly heated/soft.

When the couscous is done, add the vegetables. Stir in Tofutti sour cream to taste.

The creaminess of this dish reminds me of stroganoff - so yummy! And it's an easy way to get in a variety of veggies :)

*Pics to come...

FAVORITE Ignorant Comment for the Day

I couldn't fit this on facebook, so I just HAD to post it here! My favorite ignorant comment for the day:

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

—South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (R), arguing that government food assistance to lower-income residents, including food stamps or free school lunches, encourages a culture of dependence, Jan 24. 2010

Whole Wheat Waffles

I'm not a big fan of pancakes or waffles. I was...back when I consumed white flour and refined sugar by the fist fulls, but "healthy" waffles just don't taste the same. IHOP knows it, Village Inn knows it, Denny's knows it - they all advertise whole wheat or multi-grain waffles but really they just add extra cinnamon, nuts, or a couple of tablespoons of whole wheat flour to the regular mix so that we can think we are eating healthy but still swallow the food and tip our servers.

My six year old has been requesting pancakes/waffles for dinner for two days in a row, so tonight I begrudingly agreed to make them. Unable to bring myself to look at the bland, heavy whole wheat mix that I usually use, I looked through my recipe books and online in search of a winner. The original recipe (which is very close to the one I'm posting below) can be found at allrecipes.com - one of my favorite sites.

Whole Wheat Vegan Waffle Mix

2 Tbs. powdered Egg Substitute + 6 Tbs. Water

1 3/4 C. Almond, Soy, Rice, or Grain Milk

1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/4 Cup Applesauce, unsweetened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1/4 Cup Wheat Germ

1/2 Cup Flaxseeds, whole or ground

4 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbs. Turbinado Sugar (or sweetener of choice)

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Wisk the wet ingredients (egg substitutes, milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla) together in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients and blend together just until mixed.

Using a pastry brush, apply a thin coat of coconut oil to a hot waffle iron. Pour batter into hot waffle iron (about 1/3 Cup per waffle).

These were great with pure maple syrup (they really didn't need much) or fruit sweetened jelly.

*Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest - I wasn't originally planning to blog about them, but they ended up being SO yummy that I had to share!

Vegan Cake Using a Mix

Back when I made wedding cakes (a short lived phase), I wish I would have known how to use a cake mix without using eggs. I tried pretty much every egg substitute out there, but my cakes always fell while they were baking (cake and brownie mixes don't really ever do well with egg substitutes).

I ended up making all of my cakes from scratch using expensive vegan recipe's or, on occassion, I bought eggs from a local farm (which I didn't feel the greatest about). Since I wasn't neccessarily catering to vegan clients, I couldn't increase my prices to cover the extra costs and still compete with other cake decorators. *Sigh*

But NOW (ha, ha, ha!) I have found something that while being totally unhealthy, is inexpensive, vegan, and oh, so yummy!

Vegan Cake Mix Cake

• Using a cake mix that doesn't have eggs, milk products, or lard in it (such as Duncan Hines, Cherrybrook Kitchens, or Dr. Oetker Organics), omit the eggs and water and add 12 ounces of lemon-lime diet soda instead. Bake as usual.