Comfort Food

These past few weeks, I've really been craving warm, comfort food, even though it hasn't been that cold. Last night, on Halloween, it was still in the 60s as the last trick-or-treaters came to our door! Today, the first day of November, however, is quintessential fall weather - cool, dreary, drizzling...which makes the leaves too wet to rake - oh well! :)

Last weekend, Mr. PLV wanted vegan meatloaf, so vegan meatloaf it was. He was out of town, so this was my project. I actually made it the day before, since, according to the directions, it is more firm after a night in the fridge. Well, I'm not sure that it was really that much more firm, but it was certainly delicious! It had a great texture, good flavor and tasted awesome with ketchup! Our only critique was that it was way too salty. I followed the first version of this recipe (from Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen, by Bryanna Grogan) which called for vegan "ground round." I'm not one much for using fake meat things, but this was pretty tasty! But I guess with all the salt in that, plus soy sauce and table salt, it was just too much. As you can see by the photo above, Mr. PLV also doused his with (salty) homemade (vegan of course) gravy. Oh well. It was easy, yum, and definitely comforting! Three solid stars ***.

By far our favorite dish this week was this Vegetable Soup with Corn Dumplings from Cooking Light. I made this when it was published in their magazine eight years ago (gasp!) and decided that (drum roll here)...I wanted to make it again. Yeah, yeah, I know - what a shocker - me making a meal twice! Actually, I think this could be the third time I've made this. It's not that difficult and has lots of veggies: corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, zucchini, onion, garlic...and of course the tender, chewy corn dumplings! These tend to fall apart in the soup, so be careful about the mixture (add more flour than called for and don't let it simmer too hard). We both agreed that this is one of our favorite soups ever! Spicy, salty, sweet, savory - just about perfect. Go follow the link and make it soon! Four stars ****.

Last but not least, I had a craving for grilled cheese and tomato soup. Unfortunately, Campbell's tomato soup contains high fructose corn syrup - yuck. But I made do for now. Chreese makes a very good cheese mix, which you cook up on the stove. Mine was a little thick, but once you reheated it, it was fine. On Ezekiel bread, toasted in the pan, it was perfect! Creamy, crunchy, gooey, warm, yum. Don't forget to dip it in the soup! Four stars ****. Tonight's comfort food? Creamy White Bean Soup and roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic. "Is it hard being vegan?" someone recently asked me. "No," I replied with a smile, "It's delicious."