Seitan and Broccolini with Clementine Teriyaki

This is from one of my favorite blogs, Vegan Yum Yum.  This was not, however, a favorite recipe.  Actually, we thought it was terrible.  Maybe we just aren’t that keen on seitan?  We have had several seitan strike-outs lately, so maybe we could blame it on our palette.  Sadly, the broccolini wasn’t that great either.  The teriyaki was too sweet, too sticky.  Nope, nope, and nope.

Acorn Squash, Pear and Adzuki Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes

This soup was so excellent. The pears and squash gave it an excellent flavor.  The Shiitake mushrooms were the best part.  There weren’t enough- even though I got the kid’s share.  The kids barely tried the soup either.  It wasn’t a hit with them, but it was an amazing hit with the adults.  It was pretty simple to make as well.  If you don’t have Veganomicon, get it.

sauteing the Shiitake Mushrooms

Spinach-Noodle Kugel and Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes

We had a really nice family friendly meal with these two recipes together.  The baby ate his weight in sweet potatoes and kugel.

Spinach-Noodle Kugel page 151 Veganomicon is a little bland.  It had a very creamy firm texture from the firm tofu and nice dill flavor, but needed something to zing it up for the adults.

Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes with Pecans and Raisins page 156 Veganomicon was a really hit with all of us.  I loved the crunchy pecans and the sweet potatoes.  Instead of baking it we fried it in a cast iron pan and it worked really well- since the oven was occupied with the kugel.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Pecan Streusel

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Pecan Streusel from Veganomicon turned our really well.  I think I could have crushed the pecans instead of lightly chopping them as the directions suggest.  The cake was nice and moist.  Our oldest took a bite, then proceeded to pick off all the pecans and then finished the cake.  Our middle son followed his sister and picked off all the pecans, but never ate any of the cake.  Our little one was perfectly happy to eat his brothers cake.

Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits

I was really thinking that a cassoulet sounded so fancy… I guess it is just a french for hotdish. You bettcha. That said, Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits from page 173 of Veganomicon was a really family friendly meal.  The oldest picked out all the beans and carrots and ate the biscuits off the top, obviously.  This was especially good the next day as leftovers.   It is really quite like a pot pie with the biscuits on the top, so really great winter comfort food.  It also has supermarket friendly ingredients.  Very simple and tasty.

French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme

French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme from page 141 Veganomicon was really tasty and different.  We don’t do a lot of cooking with tarragon.  It was a nice change and has a peppery taste.  This is the first thing that we have ever made with the little green speckled french lentils.  They have a distinct taste as well, so this was a nice to change it up a bit.  It is soy free, gluten free, low fat and supermarket friendly… and oh so delicious.

We made a loaf of bread to eat with it, so the kids ate a lot of that.  They do love fresh bread.  Who doesn’t?

Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Bake

We absolutely loved this meal from Vegan Yum Yum’s new book, page 49.  Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Bake has become a family favorite.  This is the second time that this has been a huge hit with the whole family.

I had run out of nutritional yeast, so I used flax seed meal. Last time I used the nutritional yeast and the cashew “alfredo” sauce was certainly a lot creamier and smoother, obviously… the flax seed meal did help as a suitable replacement and since it has lots of omega-3 fats and fiber, I thought it was a healthy addition and something to add some more substance to the “alfredo.”

The kids ate is all up.  Our six year old girl loved it and so did our 10 month old did as well.  Anything with ketchup is a hit, frankly.  Our 3 year old boy typically only picks at supper, but he did eat some of it.  Mostly just ate the ketchup part off of the top.  I “sold” it as just like mac and cheese… but the macaroni looks like rice (the orzo).  Also, I had help from both of them in the kitchen prepping things- so they always like things more when they help prepare things that you can’t tell what the original ingredients look like.

For the first time we put the peppers on the top, which really helped make this look more attractive and added a nice fresh crunch.

Spicy Coconut Sweet Potato Soup with Collard Greens and Crispy Tempeh

On page 230 of Fresh Food Fast in the winter meal section, we found this awesome soup.  It really seems a lot like a curry, actually. It has a really nice, rich flavor.  The fact that it has sweet potatoes and collard greens is always nice so that we get  lots of vitamin A and K.  We are always looking for more dark greens in our meals because of they are so rich in calcium as well.

I accidentally over-fried the second half batch of tempeh, so we made due with half of recipe’s amount.  This seemed like an adequate amount.  The whole meal went together really quickly and easily.  I will need to start the kids food earlier, because the soup and everything was done and we waited a while for the kids food to be done.  I left out the jalapeño specifically so that the kids would try the collards, but that didn’t seem to work- so next time that spice is going in and we can figure out something else for the kids greens!

The kids had sweet potato fries and Quorn nuggets.  They were pretty into these two things and didn’t have any of the collards.  We will have to do something to make them more appealing, since they really didn’t have or try any.  They are typically into kale and spinach if there is honey mustard or something, but raw collards might not fly.  Maybe quickly cooked as simple side?  They did eat their weight in sweet potatoes.   We had rice with the soup, so that is always a hit with the kids- but again, not compared to sweet potatoes.

I could really see this being a family favorite.

Vegan Yum Yum's Italian Rice & Beans

This recipe has quickly become a favorite of our family.  It is a Vegan Yum Yum miracle.  We had followed Lauren Ulm’s blog for a while, but I hadn’t seen this recipe before.  We first made it when we got her book last fall.  I would say we have made it 5 times since.

I followed the recipe on page 59 of her book (exactly, I thought) but managed to mess it up the first time… because apparently I didn’t read it… it was a good lesson for me to read the whole recipe first.  This is a bad habit that typically leads to issues.  The website has nice step by step instructions, which I love, but following her book version I somehow got screwed up.  Fortunately, this recipe can also be found on her website: Vegan Yum Yum’s Italian Rice & Beans.

We followed Lauren’s advice and got a Microplane grater for the lemon zest.  Lemons and limes seem to wind up in almost everything that we make, so this was a really great purchase.

The kids eat the rice and beans and ignore the rest, but they typically do pretty well with it.

White Bean & Mushroom Ragout with Polenta Cutlets

I made this ragout from page 73 of Moosewood Restaurant’s Simple Suppers. It was really good, very Italian.  The polenta in cutlet form (I followed the instructions on page 184) went over slightly more than regular polenta does with the kids.  For whatever reason, I haven’t gotten them convinced to really try polenta… they just sort of pick at it.  Beats me.  I hear that it is typically a kid favorite, but not our kids!  Our oldest picked out all the beans from the ragout, but after trying a tiny bit of mushroom- was done with that.  After seeing his big sister eat the beans, our 2 year old did as well.

We had some left over “real” Parmesan cheese, so I used a tiny bit of that.  The other reason is that after lots of experimenting with cheese alternatives- I don’t know of one that would be considered acceptable.  We have never tried a Parmesan substitute though.  I would rather go without cheese than do a cheese alternative, personally.

Next time I am going to do fresh polenta with more flavorful herbs (not pre-made plain polenta) and do thinner cutlets.

Maybe sweet polenta would be more of a hit with the kids (versus savory). Does anyone know of any kid-friendly polenta options?