Leftovers, now what?

Sometimes when I make a soup or stew, I tend to make waaaay too much. Last week I cooked a pot that we didn't finish, so I came back to it a few days later (you can keep it in the freezer for as long as you like!). Here is a great example of how to utilize leftovers.

Original soup in a 'nearly home-made' vegetable stock with fresh thyme and red pepper.
Potatoes
Carrots
Celery
Kidney Beans
Cauliflower
Brussels Sprouts
 - Served with whole grain bread


When it had dwindled down to the final dregs, I added:
Stewed  tomatoes
Garbonzo beans
Lima beans
A bag of spinach
A bag of broccoli
- Served with brown basmati rice and had a completely new dish in less than 10 minutes without throwing anything out.

Vegetable Curry with Couscous

This is one of my go-to dishes when I am in a time pinch. Hardly any fresh produce here, so it isn't something I want to cook often, but it is definitely filling and is a tasty choice when you are in a hurry.

All you do is cook a box of Mediterranean couscous and saute a frozen bag of mixed veggies in Earth Balance with a can of Chickpeas and diced tomatoes. (organic, no salt added if possible)
I threw in a diced onion and some fresh zucchini and seasoned it with curry, chili powder, turmeric, oregano, ginger & black pepper.

Top it with green onion and the whole thing is ready to eat in 7-10 minutes....Probably faster if you have a better can opener than I do...half the cooking time was spent being pissed off at my dollar-store can opener and trying not to lose a finger.

Dark chocolate/walnut oatmeal cookies

A humongous thank-you to my sister in Ohio for this base recipe. I altered it just a tad and added some extra ingredients and voila! The best (and easiest) oatmeal cookie of all time.

Original Ingredients:
Slow-cook oats
Banana
Brown sugar
Melted Earth Balance
Vanilla
Baking Soda
Whole grain flour

I added few treats:
Bran
Flax seed (ground)
Dark chocolate chips
Chopped walnuts

Lemon Bundt Cake with Strawberry Sauce

So I discovered that a bundt cake needs a bundt cake pan for a reason.....it cooks quite differently in a 9" glass cake pan.....the middle didn't quite get to the right consistency, but the edge pieces were nice and tart! This is a rather lightly flavored cake and uses maple syrup instead of sugar so it becomes less sweet. I added a strawberry-lemon sauce (strawberries, preserves, lemon juice/zest, powdered sugar, cornstarch)....Overall, a pretty decent desert.

Fried Spring Rolls!

 

 

My younger sister and I made these spring rolls together last night! In my family, frying egg/spring rolls is definitely a tradition....and one that I have missed terribly since it is difficult to find vegan wraps in the area. However, we stumbled across a little Asian market the other day that had them and grabbed these right up! Also, with us being the cooks we had the privilege of eating the filling right out of the bowl as we were wrapping the rolls.....we maybe or maybe not ate almost half.........Yummmmmmmm!

We sauteed the filling in Earth Balance for the filling
      extra firm silken
      tofu,
      cabbage,
      carrots,
      broccoli
      seasoned with ginger, garlic, red pepper, black pepper, soy sauce, and a secret extra seasoning

We fried them in pure canola oil and served them with brown rice and crunchy lo-mein noodles.
Sauce: store-bought spring roll sauce

Boston Cream Cupcake w/ vanilla custard and chocolate gonache

So, I tried to recreate my memory of a good boston cream doughnut and it turned out very.....drum roll please............. MEDIOCRE!
Perhaps my expectations were much too high.....this is simply a challenge and I need to tweak it a bit.

So moist....so sweet....so coffee-ey?

Walnut/ginger coffee cake. The best coffee cake I have ever had....impossible not to brag about it.

LASAAAAAAGNA!!!!

Spinach and Broccoli lasagna wit a roma tomato marinara, olive oil, and vegan parmesan.