Easter

We enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner.  

I thought of the Easter Bunny and incorporated carrots into our dinner in the form of maple glazed carrots (recipe from the Dinner Peace blog)--mmm, almost as sweet as those jelly beans the Easter Bunny left for us, and just a bit healthier ;-> 

Tyler wanted to use some of the fresh mint from our garden, so I found this recipe for Basil Mint Parsley "Pesto" from the Gluten Free Goddess website.  It was absolutely delicious when paired with spaghetti noodles, it tasted so fresh and spring-like.

We also made the amazing Ambrosia Salad I've made before, from How It All Vegan.

Finally, we enjoyed a vegan twist on the traditional Easter hot cross buns, courtesy of the Vegan Dad blog.  Mine turned out especially huge, but they were still tasty ;->

Happy Spring, everyone!  Hope you enjoy a season of good eating and some seasonal treats.

Vegetarian Vietnamese Cuisine

I haven't posted much since I've been busy, and spoiled.  My husband has been doing a lot of the cooking, though now that he has an exciting new job, I will probably end up doing a lot of the cooking again, so watch for more posts soon :->

Meanwhile, I wanted to share a few pics of the gorgeous, delicious dishes we found at Mon Chay  a wonderful Vietnamese all-vegetarian restaurant in Carmel.  Apparently the recipes were created by Buddhist nuns and all the faux meats, broths, sauces, etc are created in-house.  It was absolutely delicious and so much fun to be able to order anything on the menu (except the sweet teas that had milk in them). 

For our first visit, we tried an amazing "hot pot" recipe with tofu in the most amazing, delicate, flavorful broth I've ever tasted:

We also ordered the deep-fried oyster mushrooms (a huge splurge but worth it! they melted in your mouth. Mmm!) and the lemon "chicken" -- tasty, but not quite my favorite.  

The next day (yes, we went back!) we also tried spring rolls, eggplant stir-fry, and Tyler got the famous "pho" (sp?  it's pronounced "fuh") soup which he loved no end.  I was too hungry to bother snapping pics that day ;-)