Vegetable soup, cornbread, and some chocolately vegan goodness

I didn't do a lot of cooking this weekend. We ended up eating out on Friday night because I had some shopping to get done. Then on Saturday we took Mairin to see Arthur Live!, while my mom kept Stella for us. We again had dinner out with Mairin after the show.

Having had enough restaurant food for one weekend, I was really looking forward to eating at home on Sunday. Not to mention, it was 6 degrees here today, and there was no way in hell I was going to leave my house!!

For lunch today I was really feeling like having something light since we'd done so much eating out (although I did eat fairly light while we were out, except for those delicious fried mozzarella triangles last night.......mmmm, fried cheese!). Anyway, back to lunch. For lunch I just threw together a salad dressed with some balsamic-dijon vinaigrette, some hummus that I made for Saturday's lunch served with whole wheat pita, and some apple quarters. It was a great lunch. And look how colorful.

For the dressing I used about 1 Tbs dijon mustard, about 2 Tbs of balsamic vinegar, a few tsp of sugar and whisked in some good Italian olive oil until it was the right taste and consistency. It was a really good dressing. I usually make it without the mustard, but will be including dijon from now on.

For dinner tonight I made the vegetable-orzo soup that I've blogged about before. I made essentially the same recipe as before, only this time I didn't have any lima beans, and instead of using corn and peas separately I used a mixed vegetable mix that had peas, corn, and green beans.

This is a very good vegetable soup. Rob and I like it so much better than the usual tomato based vegetable soups that you usually see. This one is so hearty and so filling, and just what we needed to warm us up on such a frigid day.

****Dalai Mama, you'll get a kick out of this.....my friend just e-mailed me to tell me that she made this very dish for dinner tonight!!! Something very strange is going on!!!!****

To go along with our soup I made some cornbread. Since Stella can't tolerate most dairy and at the moment can't eat eggs I found this vegan recipe for cornbread. The only thing I did differently was to use rice milk instead of soy milk.

This cornbread was unbelievably good. I'll never make cornbread any other way. It was very moist, not dry and crumbly like a lot of cornbread I've eaten. It was also just right on the sweetener. Some mixes I've found are much too sweet. However, I don't like drab, bland unsweetened cornbread either. This one was as close to perfect as I'll ever get.

And finally, for a little sweet treat, I whipped up these vegan brownies. They are very good (maybe not as good as their traditional counterpart, but still, good). They are extremely moist, without having that "raw", uncooked feel to them. I searched the web for a recipe and couldn't come up with a completely suitable one, so I improvised and combined what I liked from several different recipes. The resulting recipe was this:

Vegan Brownie

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup original flavor rice milk

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients. Mix in liquid ingredients and combine until well blended. Spread in baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

We all know that vegan treats are usually healthier for us than their traditional counterparts. We all know that eating vegan treats is healthier for the environment. And, of course, we all know that eating vegan treats prevents unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals. But, do you know the BEST thing about vegan treats????????????

Your mommy let's you lick the (egg free) batter from the spoon!!!!