It’s Vegan MoFo!
To celebrate I’m starting a blog! Huzzah!
When I tell people I’m a vegan and that I’m raising my children as vegans I get a lot of questions. Some people are rude, some concerned, some just curious. Most often people ask me what we eat. So this blog is my answer. I’m going to blog about what our family eats, what works, and what doesn’t.
Tonight for supper we had a variation of this recipe from Oh She Glows, Sun-dried Tomato, Mushroom and Spinach Tofu Quiche. Now even though my children are wonderful in every way, and eat MOST things, they still have things that they hate. Beans who is three years old, in particular, can be picky. Sprout being 10 months old, less so.
So Beans despises cooked mushrooms. She’s fine if they are raw and in fact LOVES them raw, but the texture of cooked mushrooms is a bit much for her. She also dislikes sun-dried tomatoes. Which is sad since the Mr. and I are big fans. She will eat olives and capers, though, so not a complete flavour-hater.
Instead of mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes I used the recommended asparagus and broccoli. I also added chard. Because it happens to be my favourite of the leafy greens. It is ranked well above both spinach and kale in my heart. I also didn’t bother with gluten-free oats, since we are a gluten eating family.
Tofu Quiche – with an almond/oat crust.
And it was really great. Beans didn’t love it. But ate most of her serving with out too much persuasion. She thought the crust was yummy though, and ate that in it’s entirety. Sprout devoured hers. She is quite partial to all the leafy greens, and picked all her chard bits out first. Both the Mr. and I ended up going back for seconds and I found it especially tasty with a bit of Franks sauce. I do, indeed, put it on everything. I talked to Beans about what other vegetables we could put into the quiche instead and she came up with carrot, pepper and green peas. So we’ll try that next time and see if she likes it any better.
This afternoon we went for a walk around our neighbourhood. Beans had been bouncing off the walls since breakfast, but neither the Mr. or I was up for an ambitious trip into town. We debated a few local parks, but the occasional shower put a kibosh to that. Playgrounds are significantly less fun when all the equipment is wet. So we just decided to start walking and see how far we got. On our travels we walked past an amazing cake store, with tiered wedding cakes and birthday cakes in the window. We all immediately started craving cake, with Beans being especially vocal about baking on our return home.
A mental run down of my cupboards made me think that a quick cake was a bit out of the question, however I did have everything I needed for a baked rice pudding. The slight chill in the air and the light rain was making me think of autumn and cosy, comfort food and what is more comforting than rice pudding? My mother made rice pudding regularly throughout my childhood, it was her go-to dessert, and I’ve been searching for a decent vegan version. This is what I have cobbled together from various recipes.
Vegan Baked Rice Pudding
Vegan Baked Rice Pudding
1 15oz can coconut milk (full fat, but I think the low-fat could work too)
2 cups sweetened soy milk (or the non-dairy milk of your choice)
1 cup pudding rice
1 tsp cinnimon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 cup raisins (dried cranberries or currents would also be lovely)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (more or less to taste)
Preheat oven to 180 C or 350 F. Get a casserole dish. The one I used holds 3 Litres.
Throw all the ingredients into the dish, give it a stir and stick it in the oven for approximately an hour.
Take it out. Let it cool and then serve with a bit of non-dairy milk on top.
The Mr. said it tasted like Christmas, I think it tasted like home.
Bite Sized Vegans 