Vegan French Toast, "Chicken" Nugget Salad and Pesto Soup, oh my!

This is a rarity in that I usually don't post all three meals that I make in one day... but a lazy Sunday will do that to you. Actually, the day wasn't all that lazy... hubby and I went to see Wicked the musical, which was just wonderful! We started off the day with a vegweb.com recipe for vegan french toast. My omni hubby loves this recipe... says it's the best french toast he's ever tasted. I'll post the recipe below because I couldn't find it on vegweb, even though I know that's where I got it. I love vegweb... when I don't have my nose in a cookbook, I'm browsing recipes on vegweb. Lots of great recipe finds there! Give it a visit!

Lunch was a quickie... just salads with greens, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, shelled pistachio nuts, dried cranberries, veggie cheese and leftover/reheated "chicken" nuggets chopped up... all that topped with Newman's Own Lighten Up Raspberry and Walnut dressing.

For dinner, I made Fat Free Vegan's "Purple Pesto Soup".... minus the "purple" because all I could find was the green basil. It was delicious and low fat! My hubby said he would've preferred some "chunks" left in the soup instead of all pureed. And, I'm curious as to what it would taste like if I used veggie broth in place of the hot water. Definitely worth some exploration! :)

Here's that vegan french toast recipe, originally found on Vegweb.com:

2 cups vanilla soy milk
4-5 tablespoons flour
3 teaspoons sugar
dash of cinnamon
bread slices (your choice)
sugar to taste

Mix together the flour, milk, sugar and cinnamon to form a batter. Dip bread and fry in a lightly greased pan until golden brown. The original recipe suggested sprinkling with vegan powdered sugar, but I never have. We top it with pure maple syrup instead!

Basil-Mint Orange Pesto with Pasta

Found the recipe for this yummy dish in my local newspaper today. It was submitted by a reader named Bonnie Brines King of Plymouth, Mich. It's the first time I've made pesto from scratch... and it didn't turn out too bad! :) Loved the fresh taste of it. I mixed it with whole wheat penne pasta for an easy dinner.

Basil-Mint Orange Pesto

Makes: 1 cup

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

1 cup packed fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup walnuts

2 tablespoons frozen orange concentrate, thawed

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup olive oil

In a food processor, blend the basil, mint, walnuts, orange juice concentrate and garlic until almost smooth. With machine running, gradually add olive oil; process until smooth. If pesto is dry, mix in more oil by spoonfuls. Press plastic wrap onto surface, cover and refrigerate up to 2 days. Freezes well.

I've been wanting to make a dish for Presto Pasta Nights... and this is my first one! Wooo!

And, many thanks to my mom, who recently handed down to me her rarely-used older food processor. I originally requested it because I had planned to shred some of my cold-processed soap and turn it into laundry soap. However, I found it much more useful for making food instead! Thanks, Mom! :-D