saucy italian "sausage" and noodles thing

Continuing on the theme of my last post, this is yet another "lazy dinner." I had just so happened to randomly purchase Tofurkey Italian sausage during my most recent trip to the health food store, and remembered this recipe from Adventures in Vegetarianism sounding really easy. So, voila, dinner in about 20 minutes! It was very tasty, and very, very filling.

As you can see, this picture and the last both have garlic bread. I'm still perfecting my garlic bread recipe. I'd like to try the one from ED&BV, but I never have whole garlic cloves on hand. So what I do is take frozen Texas toast, spread on a liberal layer of Earth Balance vegan margarine, then spread on a light layer of crushed garlic, and top it with a little nutritional yeast. I always end up thinking it's a bit too dry, but I'm scared to put on more margarine. I mean, I know garlic bread isn't a health food, but I'm trying to find a happy medium.

dinner on a lazy night

This is what I make after I've had a really long day and am feeling frugal enough to not just say "hey, let's eat out." Although this dish looks extremely plain, it has a lot of flavor. Its the Lemon Garlic Pasta recipe from Dreena Burton's ED&BV. The first time I made it I thought it was just okay, but I've found that the key is to use fresh lemon juice. Yes, the recipe already calls for that -- but I thought it would be okay to use the kind in the little plastic bottle. Don't do that. Just give in and buy a lemon, it makes all the difference in the world. I still haven't quite figured out how to juice a lemon, though. I'm sure it would've been quite humorous if someone had been watching me attempt to cut a slit in the lemon and then stick both of my thumbs inside, pulverizing it all against the rind, with the juice dripping down my hands into the bowl. I'm sure there's a better way. But, it was a learning experience!

creative (or uncreative?) use of leftovers

This isn't the most exciting looking dish, but it was actually really good. The night before I'd made the White Bean & Walnut Bruschetta from ED&BV and I had a bunch of leftover cannelli beans, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Instead of pondering what to do with them until they went bad (which is what usually happens), I decided that the ingredients were good enough over bread, so they'd be good over angel hair too. I was right!