I love food.  Let me clarify – I love vegan food.  So when I agreed to participate in Vegan MoFo I thought, “easy peasy.”  I mean, I cook every day.  It’s just a matter of taking a picture, right?  Well, that’s what I thought anyway.

There are some MoFo’ers that are posting every day, some are posting only on the weekdays.  I thought I’d be one of the weekend posters, but it’s just not going to happen.  So, I’ll try to do a bit of a recap for y’all on Mondays so you get an idea of how delicious the weekends are/were.

On Saturday I participated in Farm Sanctuary’s Walk for Farm Animals, so I didn’t get a chance to cook.  I did eat a thousand cookies that day since they were provided at the walk, it would be like…rude not to stuff my face….right??  Okay, maybe not a thousand- but I did eat quite a bit.  So that was my lunch.  Well, that and a package of Tofurky Jerky.  I love that stuff.  Dinner was eaten out at a local vegan restaurant.  I had pizza with hot peppers, gardein steak and tomatoes.  Mmmmmm!!

Sunday’s dinner was pretty awesome as well.  I made vegan gyros, which I’ve posted about before.  It’s one of the few things that I always craved as a new vegan, so I’m stoked I found a replacement.  They turned out yummy and were gone in about 15 seconds flat.  Good stuff.

Today, it’s minestrone soup.  Minestrone soup is a thick Italian soup made with vegetables and pasta.  The best part about it is that there is no such thing as a “proper minestrone soup recipe.”  It’s traditionally made with whatever vegetables are in season, so it’s something that you can always make.  It’s a very filling soup and cheap to boot.  I make it all the time, especially since I live in Ohio where the cold months far outweigh the warm ones.

For this minestrone soup I used prepared foods to help me make it quick-like.  The base is simply tomato soup.  I used frozen vegetables and canned beans.  Not my usual “make everything from scratch,” but it is Monday and I’ve got a full plate today.  So my soup has red kidney beans, carrots, peas, edamame, zucchini and penne pasta.  I dumped a ton of black pepper (I likes it spicy!) and tarragon in my soup to make it extra yummy.  Once I had everything in the pot, I let it simmer for a good 20-30 minutes so that the pasta would soak up the base.  Just a bit of a warning- the pasta will soak up a ton of broth so you really need to be cognizant about how much pasta you put in.  Oh!  And cook the pasta first till al dente.  The base will cook the pasta all the way, flavoring it as it cooks.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to eat a bowl right now.  So easy and so delicious, just like I like it!