I didn't include a single salad recipe in my cookbook for two reasons. First, there is this awful stereotype that vegans and vegetarians live on salads. Any time someone says something along the lines of "so what do you eat, salads?" I die a little inside. Or even worse, "Of course you can eat here, we have a salad on the menu" because a bowl of iceburg lettuce is so delicious and filling!

So... with a little attitude, I intentionally …

Remember when I featured the Quick Queso from the cookbook (on day 18) and mentioned we were slightly addicted to it? Well, the addiction continues.

On Tuesday, my MIL flew here to SXM and I needed a quick & easy no-fuss dinner ready when she arrived... the solution, of course, was a casserole.

This Enchilada Casserole comes together in a snap and even though it uses two other recipes: Quick Queso and authentic Enchilada Sauce, you still can have …

Admittedly, I am not a soup person. I actually went five years (hell, maybe longer) without even a spoon of soup getting past my lips. 

I re-discovered soups when I moved to Boston because they were cheap (and I was a poor law student) and they warmed me up when it was impossibly cold outside... so I'm sure it goes without saying that soups were once again a thing of the past when we moved to Los Angeles... 

But then …

My Mother-in-law flew into SXM today and brought some vegan goodies from the mainland and a copy of my cookbook (which I had yet to see in person)!!

Even though I saw it laid out (in full color) on my computer months ago -- it's even far more beautiful than I anticipated in person. I'm in love with my cookbook...

Here are some of the goodies she brought:

Miso & Daiya cheese.... 

and lots and lots of vital wheat …

Not too long ago I told the story of my seitan woes. To make a long story as short as possible: I was really sucking at making my own seitan so I set out to make a fool-proof recipe for my cookbook...and here it is. It's a dead ringer for country fried chicken.

In fact it's so chicken-like that my friend Andrea couldn't eat it... that was actually kind of comical. Andrea had come over for dinner …