All The Foods!

Some food pics to get you hungry for the weekend!

Dinner a movie. A brand of fake chicken I found at Target. I think it was called Simply Balanced or something. The frozen chicken strips looked weird but once you cook it up and add the teriyaki sauce, it looked nice and tasted nice too!

Another dinner and a movie. BBQ Chicken sandwich made with Boca Chicken burger with bbq sauce and homemade coleslaw.

Good vegan snack or otherwise known as meal in a bag. I can eat this all in one go.

Delicious veggie burrito from Tacomiendo!

More vegan snacks that are too good to only have one.

Carla's Vegetarian sandwich at Bossa Nova without the goat cheese spread. Was delish.

Comforting mac n cheese made with leftover sausage gravy and Daiya.

Mac & "Cheese" & Sauteed Zucchini and Mushrooms

Well this was certainly delicious! I made the Veg News mac today and it was so good. The sauce is so velvety and creamy. The Veg News "cheese" sauce is basically tender vegetables (shallot, carrot and potato) that are blended with cashews, margarine and flavorings like garlic, mustard etc. I made my sauce with onions, potato, carrot and red bell peppers. Came out more orange in color because of the peppers. I added a side of simple sauteed zucchini and mushrooms in garlic.

Roasted Butternut Alfredo

The perfect fall vegetable...

Makes the perfect fall dish. This is a recipe I got from The Post Punk Kitchen. Seriously delicious, creamy and comforting. Make it today! Find the recipe here.

Baked Pasta with Veggies and Sausage.

This was a "use what you got" recipe where I wanted to use what was in my fridge and pantry. I loosely based this off of the pastitsio recipe from The Olive and The Caper cookbook. Mine has no dairy and no eggs. It's damn good too. It's layered with veggies, vegan sausage, tomato sauce and topped with a creamy vegan bechamel sauce. It is TASTY.

Recipe:

4 TB olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large zucchini, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
a small 1/2 head of broccoli, chopped, stems and all
2 Tofurky tomato and basil flavor veggie sausages, chopped
1 tsp oregano
1 jar Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Marinara
1 lb. macaroni, penne or ziti pasta
1/2 cup to 1 cup Daiya vegan cheese

For bechamel sauce:
3 TB Earth Balance margarine or other non dairy margarine
3 TB white flour
1 1/2 cups plain almond milk
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of nutmeg

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. I cooked mine for about 10 minutes.
2. While pasta is cooking, saute the veggies in olive oil over medium heat until veggies are almost tender. Add oregano, sausage and continue cooking until veggies are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. Make the bechamel sauce: Heat the margarine in a pot until melted over medium high heat. Add flour and start whisking until it gets smooth and creamy. Slowly add the almond milk and keep whisking. Keep on medium heat and whisk until thick and creamy about 12 minutes. Whisk in salt and nutmeg.
4. While you are making the bechamel sauce, the pasta will be done. Drain the pasta in a colander. Pour a bit of olive oil into the empty pasta pot and then add the drained pasta back in along with the cooked veggies/sausage. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Spread about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce along the bottom of a large greased baking dish. Pour a third of pasta mixture over it and then add more marinara on top. Repeat with a couple more pasta layers and marinara sauce. At the end, whisk the bechamel sauce again and then pour over the top of the pasta. Sprinkle with Daiya cheese and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes with foil on top. After 30 minutes, remove foil and bake uncovered for 15 to 20 more minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for at least 15 minutes prior to serving.

One Pot Chili Mac.

I love easy cooking, especially on a Friday night after a long work week. I just want something fast and instantly gratifying. This one pot chili mac was the perfect thing. It was completely made up on the spot with a few ingredients. I love that you don't have to cook the macaroni seperately, it all goes in the same pot with the sauce!

One Pot Chili Mac

3 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 a large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TB tomato paste
2 TB chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni pasta
2 1/2 cups boiling water (put the kettle on while you chop veggies)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce, any kind (I used Prego Veggie Smart)
1 14oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

In a large pot on medium high, heat olive oil and saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic until veggies get fairly soft. Add tomato paste and spices and stir to coat veggies in spices. Add the macaroni, boiling water, spaghetti sauce and turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Add kidney beans and stir. Lower heat to medium and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes and then stir pasta to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cover again and cook for another 7 minutes. Remove lid and stir for 3 minutes or so to make sure pasta doesn't stick to bottom of the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Miso Mac

Yes, the macaroni is green. And here's why, the sauce is made from broccoli! In The Veggie Lover's Cookbook, there's a recipe called Miso Macaroni that uses cooked broccoli and onions as a base for a sauce in which you add white miso, nutritional yeast, vegan margarine and tamari. I made a quick version by steaming broccoli, onions and sliced carrots in the microwave, threw them in the blender along with the other ingredients and blitzed away until smooth. Then heated up the sauce, added crushed chili flakes and tossed in cooked macaroni. Dinner took about 15-20 minutes.

VegNews Mac.

My second time making this delectable dish. It's one of the best vegan macs out there. Try it, you'll see.

VeganMoFo: Double Carb Dinner.

Hello! It's Friday! I'm so happy it's the weekend. We usually go out on Friday nights but tonight we decided to stay in and make dinner. I made the Miso Macaroni from The Veggie Lovers Cookbook. It has this unusual sauce made from miso, broccoli, veggie broth, onions and other stuff. It's very simple and tasty. I also made roasted potatoes wedges for some extra carbs yay!

New Farm Mac and Cheese

I've heard so many good things about the mac n cheese from the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I was at a used bookstore over the weekend and found a copy for $7 and tried out the recipe tonight. I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed. I mean it's really good and creamy and everything. It's just that it is very much like other nutritional yeast based cheese sauces that I've tried before. I don't know if I'll make it again: 1. because it's too similar to other sauces I've made before. 2. it has quite a bit of fat in it from the margarine to the oil. 3. I think if I'm going to go the fatty route, I'll use Vegan Dad's nut based cheese sauce.

But I'm not sorry that I tried this. The book is so hippie and fun that I look forward to trying other recipes from it.

Macaroni w/ Esme's Sauce and Roasted Veggies

If you haven't tried Esme's simple sauce, you must! It's equal parts tahini, miso, nutritional yeast (or mustard), soy sauce, lemon juice (or vinegar), olive oil and a little crushed garlic. Delicious on pasta as seen here. For best results, heat above ingredients in a saucepan and stir til thickened, adding a little water if too thick, then toss with pasta. (I use about 4 TB of each ingredient.)


I accidentally over-roasted my yellow squash, carrots and potatoes. Oops.


But it all tasted delicious anyway!

Gluten-Free Mac n Cheese

Sometime last year I went to Big Lots and found this gluten-free corn pasta at about $1.50 a bag. I should have gotten more because this pasta tastes great! It has a similar texture to that of wheat pasta and doesn't taste very "corny" at all, especially if it's covered in a creamy sauce like the one I made. The sauce is just a quick thing I whipped up that has garlic, olive oil, margarine, nutritional yeast, miso paste, water, salt, pepper, mustard powder, lemon and paprika. Duh-licious!

Four Alarm Chili

Ok so I had a bunch of mac n cheeze leftovers in my fridge and I had every intention of eating only that tonight but then I had this genius idea of making chili...


...the Four alarm chili from 1,000 Vegan Recipes that is...


...and combining it with the mac. Now it's Four Alarm Chili Mac! Super good. The chili is going to be even better tomorrow. I have used up all the mac so I might turn it into taco salad or just having it with cornbread. We'll see!

Food rundown.

Thursday night's dinner: macaroni with esme's special sauce (delicious!) with steamed carrots and kale. Haven't made this sauce in so long and so glad I thought of it. Husband approved!


Saturday's lunch: romaine salad with red cabbage, cucumber, homemade croutons and tahini dill dressing,


Saturday's dessert: parsnip-carrot cake with a mess of a cream "cheese" glaze (didn't set up at all!) Got the recipe for this cake in a bargain book I found at Borders called 'The Ultimate Book of Vegan Cooking'. I had problems with the batter because the recipe didn't call for enough liquid so I had to add some in increments. Good thing the cake turned out. It was wonderfully spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and very moist but the frosting recipe was a disaster. It didn't ruin the taste so I was happy enough.


Saturday's dinner: glorious quesadilla with Daiya cheese, roasted red peppers and caramelized onions. This is a vegan copycat of Giada's Italian quesadilla recipe. Amaaaazing.

VeganMoFo: Weekend Cooking

I love to cook on the weekends. It's a leisurely thing I like to do on Saturday mornings. This morning I got up early and went shopping for ingredients to make the following:


Vegan Dad's mac and cheese! My favorite! With toasty panko bread crumbs on top.


With a side of beautifully roasted veggies: butternut squash, red peppers, baby carrots, onions, sweet potato and cremini mushrooms with olive oil, fresh rosemary and thyme.


I made these at 9pm last night to have for breakfast this morning! They are Vegan Brunch's "Bakery Style Berry Muffins". I used quebec wild blueberries and mango. They were perfection.


Buster likes to nap on the weekends. I tried to get a pic but he woke up and saw me!

Dinner in Bed.

After having breakfast in bed, then lunch I thought, why not dinner? So here it is. After a nice productive day at work I came home to this. Baked mac n "cheese", cucumber salad and a side of sweet melon. It was perfect.

Shells n Cheese please.

This dish was a result of a fortunate accident that happened at work. We make raw vegan kale chips covered in "cheezy" sauce and then dehydrate them, package them and sell them to health food stores (like Whole Foods!). Anyway, I was in charge of making the cheez sauce when I overheated the VitaMix and turned the raw sauce into a hot soup! So obviously the cooked sauce was unusable. So into two cartons it went and my coworker and I could do as we please with this cheez. I heated it up and cooked some pasta shells, tossed it all together and topped it with panko. It got baked for about 10 minutes and put under a broiler for a few. It was yuuuuuummy! (sorry can't give away recipe for cheez sauce!)

Peach Muesli and "Hamburger" Macaroni Dinner.

This is Jamie Oliver's "Pukkolla" muesli with freshly chopped peaches. I looove juicy peaches in summer!


Ok, so this came out of my craving for a childhood favorite "Hamburger Helper". It's funny because I don't really remember what it tasted like. Was it as good as I thought it was? Anyway, I went online and found a recipe for a dry seasoning mix that I adapted and used to flavor my dish. You'll see in the recipe below. I do have to say that this dish wasn't as "saucy" as I wanted it to be. Maybe next time I need to add more liquid or tomato sauce or something. But it was tasty and very very filling.

EDITED TO ADD:
I still wanted the macaroni to be saucier so when I came home from work I made up a quick thickened sauce of tomato sauce, water, ketchup and soy sauce and dunked the pasta back in to simmer for a few minutes. The result was much much better. I've edited the recipe to include these few extra ingredients.


Much saucier wouldn't you say? It was delicious. My brother came over and I served some to him. He ate two big bowls of it!

"Hamburger" Macaroni Dinner

1 cup dry textured vegetable protein (tvp) rehydrated with 1 cup hot water in a bowl, set aside. (or you may use a bag of Morningstar Grillers Frozen Crumbles -no need to rehydrate)
13 oz. macaroni
2 TB olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 a large green pepper, chopped
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
3 TB dry seasoning mix (Recipe at bottom of post)
1 tsp chili powder
1-14oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
2-8oz. cans tomato sauce
2 1/4 cups hot water
2 tsp red miso paste
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB ketchup
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with a little cold water to dissolve

Cook macaroni in water per package directions. Meanwhile...

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Saute onions, garlic and green pepper for a few minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until vegetables are tender. Add the hydrated TVP and then add dry seasoning mix and chili powder. Stir to combine seasonings and tvp. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and hot water. Bring to a boil while stirring. Add miso paste, soy sauce and ketchup and stir to dissolve. Add cornstarch/water mixture to thicken. Lower heat to simmer for about 5-6 minutes. When sauce is thickened, add cooked and drained macaroni to it and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper and let simmer for a few more minutes.

Here's my adapted dry seasoning mix recipe:

1 1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbs. garlic powder
2 Tbs. dried parsley
3 Tbs. onion powder
1 Tbs. salt
3 1/2 Tbs. veggie bouillon powder (or you can use nutritional yeast)
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp paprika