Friend Having Baby: Suggestions Please

[Turquesa]

My vegan friend is about to have her baby. I want to bring her over a dinner when she does. In the past, I've made mamas chili, cornbread, green salad, and brownies. It's yummy, but I'd like to try something different, and I'm feeling uninspired. Any suggestions for a quick, yummy and portable vegan meal?

[smallmama]

Some ideas -

Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients
1 15 oz can black beans rinsed and drained
1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes, Mexican style
1 7 oz can diced green chilies
1 15 oz can whole kernel corn drained
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
8 corn tortillas
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl combine beans, tomatoes, chilies, corn, onions, cumin and oregano and mix thoroughly.

Spray 9" by 13" baking dish with vegetable spray. Line bottom of pan with 4 tortillas, spread on half of the bean mixture and layer remaining tortillas covering with remaining mixture.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, serve hot with vegan sour cream and salsa if desired.

Serves 6


BEST EVER VEGAN LENTIL STEW

Ingredients
6 cups of cooked lentils
5 medium carrots, diced
1 large diced onion
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 full bunch of celery, diced
1 large rutabaga, diced
1/2 head of green cabbage, diced
2 jelepenos, seeded and diced
2 cans of mexican style tomatoes
1 large parsnip, diced
2 cans of water (tomato cans)
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions
Tip: dice the veggies if you want or use the food processor, it only takes seconds; just don't over process, you want the small diced sized pieces so the stew will be beautiful to look at as well as tasty.

In a deep large heated skillet or teflon coated Dutch Oven, add olive oil and carrots, onion, celery, and garlic. Sweat them until they begin to become translucent, then add rutabaga, parsnip, jalepenos and cabbage; continue sweating and stirring until vegetables are just barely tender. Add the tomatoes and water and heat thoroughly through. Add the cooked lentils and bring to full heat again. Makes 8 big satisfying servings!

Number of Servings: 8

Vegan Lentil Loaf

Ingredients
2 cups cooked lentils
2 cups cooked brown rice
2 cloves (crushed)
½ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
2 stalks celery (diced)
2 carrots (grated)
One half teaspoon of peanut oil
Dash of fresh ground black pepper
One half teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons peanut butter (no salt type)
2 medium onions (diced)
2 sprigs fresh parsley to garnish

Directions
Serves 4 (unless you are really, really hungry)

* Heat oven to 350 degrees
* Combine all ingredients and then press into oiled loaf pan.
* Bake for 45 minutes. Do not over bake this dish
* Please check it often or it will be too dry.

Serve with big salad and you have a good meal. Enjoy


Number of Servings: 4

[eepster]

Hummus, pita, tabbouleh.
Guacamole and tortilla chips.

Both easy to eat one handed while nursing. No need to reheat if she doesn't eat it all in one sitting.

[Marlet]

Vegan Dad is great for inspiration! He's got some awesome "comfort food" looking items on his first page right now.

[Keeta]

Yeah, speaking of Vegan Dad, the first recipe that came to mind was this Cheezy Chickpea Shepherd's Pie. Just double the soymilk+flour gravy part, otherwise it's too dry. It makes a HUGE amount of comfort food!

[catnip]

Honestly, that sounds perfect. Just find a vegan black bean chili, make this cornbread: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbreci...hp?RecipeID=39, and ... well, vegan brownies are hard, so maybe a Magic Chocolate Cake?

Or to do something different, how about a minestrone soup, a loaf of focaccia bread, and a batch of these cookies http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.c...p-cookies.html

[EnviroBecca]

Burritos! Pack them with waxed paper between, in a heavy-duty plastic bag, so she can freeze them and reheat in the microwave or toaster oven. Make a bean filling and (if she'd like it) a filling of mashed sweet potatoes cooked with onions and chili powder and roll up one filling or a combination in a vegan tortilla; you won't even need cheese!

You can make Honey Baked Lentils with maple syrup instead of honey, and it's very good, easily reheated.

I came up with a vegan Raisin Bran Bread that is delicious with nut butter for breakfast or a hearty snack, and it's got lots of fiber and nutrition.

[Jenille]

I love the recipe for spinach pasta on this page from Dr. McDougall's website. There are several other yummy recipes there, too. And you can also browse their newsletter archive for tons of other quick, easy, and very tasty vegan recipes!

[Turquesa]

Thanks! Awesome ideas, and I love the Vegan Dad site! I'll probably end up doing the Vegan Lentil Loaf. Thanks for posting those recipes.