Lasagna Lunch.

I used "no boil" noodles today and I didn't make enough sauce! The whole point is having lots of sauce to cook the noodles. My noodles were cooked but it wasn't all saucy the way I usually like lasagna. The flavor was good though. Insides are mixed veggies and almond tofu ricotta. The sauce was a homemade red wine bolognese made with gardein veggie ground.

Once a year lasagna!

I only make this once a year and I have no idea why! It's so delicious! This one has almond-tofu ricotta, spinach, peppers, mushrooms, onions, Follow Your Heart vegan cheese and tomato herb sauce.

I have to say that Follow your Heart cheese is better than Daiya for something like this. It melts without getting goopy like Daiya and it's milder in taste which works.

Recipe:

2 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 container cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 bag of baby spinach
1 jar of marinara sauce (Whole Foods tomato herb)
1 recipe of almond tofu ricotta (see recipe below)
12 lasagna noodles
1 bag of Vegan Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta as per directions. Add a little oil to the boiling water so pasta doesn't stick together. When finished cooking, drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, saute onion, garlic, peppers and mushrooms in olive oil in a pot. Season with salt and pepper. Add spinach and saute briefly until it wilts just a little bit. (Another option is to add the spinach raw while you are layering the lasagna.)
Coat a lasagna pan with some red sauce. Layer 4 noodles, half of the ricotta, then one half of the veggies, a little cheese and a little sauce, continue layering the same way until you end up with noodles. Pour the remaining sauce over and top it with the cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 1 hour.

Almond Tofu ricotta (adapted from the cashew ricotta from Veganomicon):
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 TB olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 container of firm tofu, drained
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp italian herb blend (or just dried basil)
Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor until creamy.

Cantalini's Express veggie sandwich and Black Bean Tortilla.

Yesterday, we headed out to a nearby take-out italian place called Cantalini's Express. They make a great roasted vegetable sandwich that had eggplant, zucchini, red bell peppers, mushroom and asparagus. I added the Daiya vegan cheese and got it all melty. So yum!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! This was my delicious black beans that were simmered with onions, tomato, chili powder and cumin on top of a toasted flour tortilla with lettuce, guacamole, hot sauce, lime and Tofutti sour cream. I have a ton of leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Once a Year Lasagna.

It seems I only make lasagna once or sometimes twice a year. I could be wrong but that's what it feels like. I don't know why because I LOVE lasagna. Making a vegan one is super easy and just as good as any other. The trick is to have a good creamy "ricotta" that will give you that cheese-like taste and texture. I use the cashew tofu ricotta recipe from Veganomicon. Today's lasagna has spinach, mushrooms, onions, carrots and a nice tomato basil sauce.


Out of the oven.


And plated. View 1.


View 2.

Self Saucing One Pot Pasta

Hey people, it's almost the weekend. Can't wait to have time to make fancier food than this. This is a perfect weeknight meal because it requires one pot and a few ingredients. You can find the basis for the recipe here. I made the pasta puttanesca version and did a few things different. I left out the anchovy of course and added mushrooms and one can 8oz. tomato sauce. This came out so good and was so easy to do. I can see this working with many different pasta shapes and whatever vegetables you have on hand. I highly recommend this for quick weeknight meals.

VeganMoFo: Veggie Lasagna and German Chocolate Cake

I don't make lasagnas often. I usually save them for either a special occasion, holiday or when I'm really craving one. I was really craving one today so I made this lovely thing this morning. It's got cashew ricotta, broccoli, spinach and mushrooms. I also sprinkled almond/miso/nutritional yeast mixture on top. It was perfect.


I had two pieces already!


Today is husband's birthday and he requested german chocolate cake. I've used this recipe before. Comes out moist and delicious every time. I can eat the coconut/pecan topping on it's own it's so good.


Recipe here.

Pasta with Pesto and Roasted Vegetables

Today's lunch was a breeze. I used yesterday's leftover pesto and roasted veggies and added them to pasta. I also added olives and lemon juice. Delicious!

Risi e Bisi (with carrots!)

This is the Rice and Pea soup from 1,000 Vegan Recipes aka "Risi e Bisi" in Italian. I only had "peas and carrots" in my freezer so I used them. The arborio rice is really creamy and gives the soup a comfort factor. It reminds me of Thai rice porridge. This is dinner tonight after an active day at work.

Weekend Food: Lasagna & Coffee Cake

I've been craving a lasagna forever. I haven't made one in months and months. All week I imagined this lasagna filled with creamy cashew-tofu ricotta with spinach, eggplant, zucchini and roasted red peppers.


First layer of noodles, sauce, sauteed eggplant and zucchini...


Next comes cashew-tofu ricotta with spinach, more sauteed eggplant and roasted red peppers, yum!


After an hour in the oven. Topped with Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella.


I had so much leftover noodles, sauce and filling that I made another smaller pan of it. Anyone want this?


This was so good.


For dessert, Vegan Brunch's East Coast Coffee Cake with fig jam swirl. Deelicious with tea!

Pizza Pizza.

Pizza day. Made this a half hour before the game on tv (Dodgers vs. Rangers). I was in the mood for two kinds of pizza. I made a hawaiian style on one side with vegan pepperoni, pineapple, onions and olives...and the other side sliced tomatoes, kale pesto (that I had in the freezer) and olives. There's also some vegan mozzarella underneath everything. This pizza was absolutely delicious! I was a pig and had about 3-4 slices.


You can see the cheese better in this shot.

Dee Da Doo Day...

I'm bored. I know I should be getting to bed early (have to wake up at 6am for jury duty tomorrow!) but I don't feel sleepy. I've been going through old food pictures I took before I started this blog. Some of the yummy dishes I made I almost forgot about! I'd like to share them here with you.


This is Eggplant and Chickpea Kibbeh that I got from a book called "Vegan Planet". This was really good. It has bulgur, tomatoes, eggplant and chickpeas of course. I made a lemony garlic sauce to go with it along with roasted asparagus and boiled potatoes. i have to make this again soon.


Pineapple Tofu. So so awesome. I like to fry up tofu cubes after dipping them in cornstarch and then drowning them in a pineapple sauce. The recipe for the sauce is here.


Oven Herb Roasted Tomato Pasta. Now this looks very plain and almost boring but wow, does it taste good. The recipe is from "The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen".


How did I forget about these Grilled Yuca Tortillas??? Recipe is from Veganomicon. These are so gorgeous. It's mashed up yuca with lime, jalapenos and corn. I've made this a few times with fresh guacamole.


Cashew Coconut Curry Casserole. Wow, I remember this. It was soo rich and so delicious. Recipe is here. It's one of those throw in a baking dish and bake kind of recipes.


Szechuan Noodles. Easy and cheap and yummy. Recipe here.


Sexy Lowfat Vanilla Cupcakes from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World". This book rocks.

Ok now, off to bed. Good night!

Kale Pesto Linguine and Thai Coffee Agar Dessert!

I've never made pesto with kale before. I've made it with basil of course, broccoli, arugula, cilantro and spinach. I had two big bunches of kale in my fridge that needed using up so I decided to give it a go. I processed fresh kale with walnuts, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and a little bit of salt. It came out nice and creamy but was quite bitter. I was a little disappointed. I ended up sauteeing some tomatoes and garlic in olive oil and added the pesto to the pan to cook it out a bit. It lost a lot of the bitterness as a result so I was good to go. I tossed it with hot linguine and topped it with "Parmezano Sprinkle" (almonds, nutritional yeast, miso, salt).

For dessert I had Thai coffee flavored jelly agar dessert. If you remember the last one I made, this is the same thing just a different flavor. It was so delicious. I like coffee flavored everything so this was a treat. This flavor worked much better with the sliced bananas.

Lasagna Rollups Recipe + Holiday Gifts

The family bash was great. Had loads of fun being surrounded by my gigantic family. They are such a happy bunch. I brought a Lasagna casserole to the party which got eaten up by lots of folks. I think there were only 2 rollups left at the end! This recipe was a last minute idea. I was originally going to make a shepherd's pie but thought better of it and made this instead.





Lasagna Rollups

1 box of lasagna noodles
Filling:
1 recipe of Cashew Ricotta (recipe from Veganomicon but you can find it online here.)
1 10oz. box frozen spinach, thawed and drained of all water
2 TB olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6-7 mushrooms, chopped
Sauce: (you can used jarred sauce if you want!)
2 TB olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 8oz. can tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp italian herbs (or just oregano)
1/2 to 1 cup plain unsweetened soymilk (optional)
vegan parmesan (optional)

1. Make filling: Prepare the cashew ricotta. Defrost spinach in microwave and squeeze out all the water from the spinach. Mix spinach with the cashew ricotta and set aside. Heat the 2 TB of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the red peppers, onion, garlic and mushrooms until soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add this mixture to the ricotta/spinach mixture and combine well. Place this mixture in the fridge while you prepare the lasagna noodles and sauce.
2. Prepare lasagna noodles al dente according to package directions. While they are cooking, prepare sauce. (If you want to use jarred pasta sauce, you may do so.) Heat the 2 TB of olive oil in a pot. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar and herbs. Bring to a boil then simmer on low. Add about 1/2 to 1 cup of soymilk to make it a creamy tomato sauce if you want. Otherwise leave it out and keep the sauce as is. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
3. Spoon some of the sauce into the bottom of a baking dish and set it aside.
4. Roll 'em up: Take the ricotta filling out of the fridge. Take a sheet of aluminum foil and lay it flat on a table or counter. Spray with some oil. When lasagna noodles are done, drain them and lay them flat on the foil. Spread about 2 TB of filling along each noodle. Roll up and place them seam side down in the baking dish side by side. Cover the whole thing with sauce. Cover with a sheet of foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with vegan parmesan and bake for another 5 minutes.

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I got some great cooking related gifts! Took pics to show you.


Let's say it all together: "OMG!" I've always wanted one of these. Pancake puffs here I come!


Three great looking cookbooks that I can't wait to cook out of!


And my non-cooking related gifts only because I'm so flippin' happy that I got them! TV on DVD is the best.


Some good reads.

Not pictured: a beautiful vintage purse, chocolates, pretty washcloths and other great things...

Pizza Pie!

Seems like there's an italian theme going on here with pizza casserole and spaghetti in the past few days. It's pizza nite tonight. I wanted to use a ready made pizza dough* that I had languishing in the freezer for the past week or so. I also had a Tofurky sausage to use up so I made this yummy pizza. It also has lightly sauteed onions, squash, red peppers and black olives. I cut some thin slices of the pepper jack "uncheese" that I made a while ago and added them to the pizza. It melted quite nicely to a gooey-liquid consistency which reminded me a lot of Follow Your Heart soy cheese. Next time I will forgo the sausage and just overload it with veggies as that's more my style even before I went veg.




A perfect slice with all the colors of the italian flag.

*you can get a lump of pizza dough at Trader Joe's for a buck and some change.

Spaghetti and "Meatballs".

For dinner tonight I decided to try something from a new cookbook I just got called Country Life Vegetarian Cookbook. Along with some tempting loaf recipes (I dig veggie loaves so much.) there are also a few "meatball" recipes, one of which are made with tofu. I decided to try that recipe and use them for spaghetti and "meatballs". This afternoon I made a quick marinara and let it simmer while I made the tofu balls. While they were cooking in the oven, I was able to catch the Dodgers on tv. Yes, they won! (And Casey Blake is still my boyfriend.) Here is a picture of the meatballs cooling out of the oven.


Later on at dinner time I just reheated the sauce and meatballs and put a quick salad together with the "Sauce Rouge" dressing from the same cookbook. Sorry about the quality of photo, it got darker by this time.


It all went deliciously well. The tofu balls were very nice and surprisingly filling. They reminded me of mini tofu loaves. Three balls on top of the spaghetti and sauce was enough for me. Lots of leftovers for tomorrow!

Sharing at family gatherings.

Went to a family shindig yesterday (to celebrate 2 birthdays) and it was a great opportunity for me to bring a dish to share. I usually freak out a little when something like this comes up because I want to impress them with my vegan cooking skills and show them that I still eat great tasting food with lots of flavor and variety. I also didn't want to scare them away with 'weird' ingredients (like tempeh or any kind of fake meat) so I decided on a vegetable lasagna. Something familiar and comforting yet a little different from the usual. This one had a creamy white sauce instead of the usual marinara. To put this together, I used two compenents of two different lasagna recipes. I took the spinach white sauce preparation from the Florentine Lasagna in 'The Vegan Family Cookbook' and the creamy herbed tofu and soy cream cheese filling from the Cheesy Lasagna recipe over at vegweb. I thought it was ok for me to use tofu in this dish (which to some people is still weird) since it was going to be hiding inside the layers of lasagna.


Some of the ingredients. Cremini mushrooms, zucchini and carrots, tofu and soy cream cheese for the filling. Onions, garlic and a bag of spinach for the white sauce.

This is what the filling looked like as it bubbled away. See, you can't see the tofu!


After boiling the noodles and making the spinach white sauce (forgot to get a photo of this), it was just a matter of layering it all together. I had this idea to peel thin slices of zucchini to decorate the top. I think it worked well.


Before going into the oven...


And just out of the oven. How beautiful it looks in the dappled sunlight!


I also made Thai coleslaw which was really good except probably not that great as a potluck dish. Because it was sitting out most of the day, it got warm and wilty and lost it's crispness.

So the verdict? Everyone loved the lasagna and I was happy to see pieces missing as the day turned into night. The coleslaw, not so much but that's ok. The cookie dough brownies I made were a hit with the kids.