What I'm Making/Made this Week - June 25 through July 1, 2012

I have been cooking.  It's just that I'm doing it a little at a time.  One thing for sure is that our mourning process for one of our pug clean-up crew requires a lot of comfort food and sweets.

Here's what I've made so far:

Monday is Vegan Day and I found another recipe out of Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson that I wanted to make.  Then I added it to one of my favorites from the book that I already made.  I present to you Home-Style Loaf with Garlic Mashers...

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Home-Style Loaf with Garlic Mashers

What I Made: June 18, 2012

You know what today is?  It's VEGAN DAY!  All dishes came from "Vegan Diner" by Julie Hasson.  I'm about at the end of what I want to make in this book, so if anyone has any suggestions for a vegan cookbook, please let me know.  I want recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Back to the cooking...

I was supposed to make breakfast, but didn't get up early enough to do so.  Not feeling quite myself this week.  No matter, this dish is called Blueberry Loaf Cake and worked well for a late afternoon snack and dessert.

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Blueberry Loaf Cake

What I Made: June 15, 2012

Friday was one of those days that as I was running errands, I wanted to stop at every fast food place I could find.  I'm trying to recollect every place I squealed at when I passed, but here's a tentative list:

• Columbia Gyros
• Potbelly's
• Starbucks (which I did stop at and get a iced latte)
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Culvers
• Five Guys
• La Caretta (Mexican deliciousness)
• Subway
• Potbelly's
• Arby's
• The Bread Basket (some of the best homemade bread in the area)

Somehow, I managed to get home without over-indulging in anything other than a soy latte (with whip), but then my lunch seemed lacking.  I had planned a salad from the April 2012 issue of Food Network.

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Warm Butter Lettuce Salad with Hazelnuts

What I Made: June 14, 2012

Yesterday was another busy day that started off right... with breakfast!

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Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

These Strawberry-Banana Smoothies from Food Network's April 2011 issue were fantastic.  The creamy Greek vanilla yogurt was healthy for us and tasted great!  

What I Made: June 13, 2012

Yesterday I decided to take it a little easy on the cooking/baking and make a nice dinner with a drink.  For as little as I made, I sure did make one heck-of-a mess in my kitchen.

I've heard much bally-hoo about kale.  Everyone has wanted me to try it, cook with it, make it into chips... blah blah blah.  So this evening I decided to make a Pasta with a Kale and Walnut Pesto.  I got the recipe from Real Simple's May 2012 issue. I partnered it with another recipe from that same issue of Real Simple - Spring Lettuces with Avocado Dressing and Pistachios.

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Pasta with Kale & Walnut Pesto and
Spring Lettuces with Avocado Dressing & Pistachios

What I Made: June 12, 2012

I'm getting ready to make tonight's dinner and I can't stop thinking about what I made for dinner yesterday.  I'm worried I'm going to be disappointed.  Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself here... we're talking about yesterday's meals, not about my fears for tonight's dinner.

Did that make any sense?  Yeah, it didn't on this end either.  I honestly don't know what day I'm supposed to be writing about.  I think I'm getting punchy.

Okay, let's talk about June 12th's yummies, starting with breakfast...

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Chai Banana Bread

This is a Chai Banana Bread I got from Cooking Light's May 2012 issue.  It was moist, very "banana-y" and unlike the muffins I made the other day, had a great hint of chai.  I have half a loaf in the fridge and I'm really thinking about munching on a piece while I write this.

Side note: I got interrupted while writing this and when I came back, my last sentence read "...while I eat this."  I guess I really DO have that bread on my brain.

What I Made: June 11, 2012

After recuperating over the weekend, I got right back on track with my Meatless Monday.  Not just Meatless, but Vegan too.  I'm still making my way through Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson.

I do have a complaint about the book... not enough pictures.  I know that sounds silly, but when you're making your own protein/meat, it would be really helpful to know what the end result is supposed to look like.

Good recipes though.  Anyway...

I've already tried my hand at making meatless-meat and it tasted really good.  Today, I was going to make some homemade Rough Rider Barbecue Sauce and make Barbecue Ribz.

How did they turn out?

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Barbecue Ribz with Rough Rider Barbecue Sauce

They look good, right?  

What I Made: June 8, 2012

I was a cooking fool on Friday.  

I'd like to stress the "fool" part.

I slightly overdid it and then was out of commission for the weekend.  The good news is that I was back to cooking on Monday and I have a lot of delicious pictures for your consideration.

For breakfast, I went with Pistachio-Chai Muffins from Cooking Light.

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Pistachio-Chai Muffins

I have to admit, I'm more of a sweet breakfast muffin kind of gal, but my opinion isn't the only one that counts.  My husband took well over half a batch to work.  He returned with empty containers and said they got a big thumbs up.

What I made: June 6, 2012

Today I was like a crazy cooking ninja.  And there was some alcohol involved.  

That may explain why my notes are a little difficult to read today.  Oh well, let's get to the food.

I had a crazy morning and afternoon so my breakfast and lunch dishes had to be rescheduled.  It was time to start dinner, but I was parched so I made myself a Pink Lemonade found in All You's July issue.

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Pink Lemonade

What I Made: June 5

So 2 days in and I already fall behind.  Figures.

It doesn't mean I haven't eaten in two days.  Nope, I've been busily cooking, taking pictures, coating my pug in Fondant...  you know, the basics.  What?  You've never spilled melted marshmallow on your dog before?

For the record, I'd highly advise against it.

So this day, I made myself a little lunch.  I made Bacon Fried Rice from a recipe I got from Cooking.com.

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Bacon Fried Rice

If you don't read my blog regularly, let me let you in on a not-a-secret: I LOVE BACON!  I overcooked it a wee-bit this time, but it still was delicious.

What I made: June 4, 2012

Monday's are Vegan days and all my recipes came from Vegan Diner, by Julie Hasson!

Since I was making a sandwich, I decided to tackle making my own hamburger buns.  Why?  Because any vegan bread I've ever bought was dry and icky.  The bread I've made (and I've only made non-yeast breads) has been delicious, so I gave it a try.

It wasn't as hard as I thought and the results... well look for yourself:

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Old Fashioned Hamburger Buns