The week's menu and other tidbits

I got a subscription to Cuisine at Home recently.  I must tell you...GET THIS.  It is chock full of great recipes, and no fru-fru ads or articles.  Just pure cooking.  I love it.  Anyway, when you subscribe there are some cookbooks you can buy too.    I of course, having major cookbook buying problems, got 4 (they are not that big).   2 were for quick meals and 2 were for light meals.  All are fabulous.  Of course right now as we are doing the plant based diet, there was only 1 or 2 recipes in each that would work for us at this time.  The rest of the recipes were very appealing though and will make an appearance once our experiment is over. 

So I found 3 of my recipes this week from these cookbooks and I am very excited.  The beans and rice recipe I found on vegweb.com.  The hubby wanted some beans and rice and oddly, non of the vegan cookbooks I got had a recipe.   

So this week we will have:
Tuscan-style Quinoa with orange spinach salad
Veggie Noodle bowl (with a peanut sauce)
Mulligatawny Risotto with coconut crusted tofu
and Beans and Rice

If the pictures from the cookbooks do these recipes any justice, we are in for a treat!

I also made Blueberry Bran Muffins (and will make more this weekend) this past week.  They were so good.  I used All-Bran Cereal and Wheat germ for the "bran".  It is funny, because I don't actually like fresh blueberries.  I have issues with the texture, but if you put blueberries in a muffin, they are just wonderful.  

As for the plant based diet, we are doing pretty good.  We tried Mimicreme, which is a almond/cashew creamer for the morning coffee and while the flavor was not bad, it just wasn't right.  It made the coffee look funny too and if I have to close my eyes to drink my "liquid cup of personality", I may as well go back to bed.   So we decided to be mostly plant based and continue with the very small amount of half and half we use.   And though I have not scarfed any meat or eggs this week, I have had some cheese.   My excuse is that I had some left in the house and didn't want to waste it, but really, I just love cheese.  I don't need cow milk, eggs or meat, but cheese makes me happy.  Oh, and I have tried several substitues.  SOY DOES NOT MAKE GOOD CHEESE!!!!!!!!  .  I almost hurled when I tried the parmesan sprinkle substitute.  Almond cheese is no great shakes either.    So I am going to have to cut out cheese all together, or just go light with it.    I think the latter will do.