Author: V-Day Weekend Culinary Happenings (Recipes) 🍽️

This weekend I’ve been up to some cooking creations for the saint (vegan, veggan and vegetarian). I wanted to share a few photos and some recipe instructions for a few of the things I made. I’m not a professional chef.  I  learned to cook by doing research (usually on Google and YouTube) and experimenting in the kitchen through trial and error. I season to my taste and use fresh or organic ingredients whenever possible. This is how I learned to cook. Enjoy.

I’ve never made a cheese board before, but wanted to since the saint ardently admires and loves cheese. I added some vegan options to it so we could both share, and used what I had available.

Hummus and cashews are in the side bowls. I included two different types of crackers and a half of a sliced honey crisp apple in the middle for color and sweetness. I used colby, mozzarella, gouda and port salut. I put some kalmata olives up front. I think some purple grapes on the vine would have been another great add but I didn’t have any at the time.

This was my first time trying anything like this. I will change it up in the future a bit, but for a first shot I think it turned out pretty well.

The main course I made was Puttanesca (vegan). Cut up an onion and a good amount of fresh, minced garlic into some extra virgin olive oil. Cook a bit until the onion is transculent and the garlic sizzles. Add a big can of crushed tomatoes, a can of diced tomatoes (drained) and those delicious, heavenly things called capers. Add in kalmata olives last (I get the pits out before adding them). I season with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, parsley and basil along the way. I like to “layer” my seasonings this way. I also made some quick garlic bread by cutting up some french bread, adding some vegan butter, garlic powder and parsley and baking until crispy. For the puttanesca, I add everything to a pound of cooked spaghetti and add more parsley on top and serve hot. This makes a lot of leftovers and is delicious.

I made a few more items than these for our holiday dinner, but these are the main items.

And the third dish I’ve made so far this week was a simple omelette. Thanks to some tips I found online today, I mastered a basic omelette.

For my insides of the dish, I cut up broccoli, green onion (just the green part), mushrooms and halved cherry tomatoes. I cooked these in a pan coated with a little EVOO. I added some mixed greens at the end. Get a clean pan out and warm up with a little vegan butter. Crack three eggs into a bowl, add sea salt and fresh black pepper. Beat with a fork. Pour into the middle of your hot pan. With the handle of the pan, move the pan around so the egg levels out to the edges. Once the egg cooks a little, do this again so that the egg on top gets a chance to cook. Using your spatula, go all around the edge of your beautiful omelette to get the edges cooked and ready for flipping. Add your fixings in one half of the omelette (e.g., cheese, veggies, etc.) This will be the half you don’t flip. Flip the empty half towards your fixings and let cook a few seconds longer if you’d like to melt your cheese. If it’s veggan, you can just add nutritional yeast to your insides instead.

There you have it. Did you make anything fun for Valentine’s Day or did you go to a restaurant instead? Either way, I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

See you next time! 🥬