Thai Coconut Curry Stew!

This was another easy one to make, with lots of tasty leftovers. In a large pot I mixed together 2 cans coconut milk, 1 cup vegan creamer, and 4 cups veggie broth. This was heated to medium and once mixed I added 1/3 cup Thai red curry paste, 2 TBsp ground ginger, 3 TBsp garlic, and 3 stalks of diced lemongrass. This mixture was brought to a boil. Then it was simmered and I added 2 large red bell peppers (in strips), 4 large sliced carrots, 1 bag frozen peas, and 1 container of tofu cut in to cubes. This was simmered for about 15 minutes and then served over rice. The only weird thing about the recipe was the lemongrass- I love ordering things with lemongrass usually, but I have never cooked with it before. The small pieces of lemongrass in the stew had an odd texture and did not fit well, though they added to the flavor.

Southwestern grilled cheese with chili

The chili in this recipe was super easy to make as I make it every year- just some black beans, garlic, crushed tomatoes, chili powder, and vegan ground beef in the slow cooker, as well as the staple cashews. But the new recipe here is the grilled cheese: First I took one chopped up sweet potato, 1 sliced yellow and 1 sliced red bell pepper- I heated these up in a skillet in some olive oil. Once cooked I set aside. I also mixed a bowl of 1 can kidney beans and 1/2 cup salsa, mashed together. Using Daiya's havarti wedge I sliced thin pieces of cheese and placed on either side of two pieces of bread, then on top of one I placed the sweet potatoes and pepper mixtures, on the other some of the bean-salsa mixture. These were then placed together in sandwich from and grilled in a skillet with vegan margarine. Spicy!

Thanksgiving sandwiches!!!

This was a great leftover sandwich that I was able to make with tofurky slices. Just make a sandwich with wheat bread on either side, and for the center you can make some mashed potatoes as well as vegan stuffing. The layers went like this: Bread vegan mayo tofurky stuffing mashed potatoes cranberry sauce bread I also served it with some gravy on the side.

veggie tahini pizza

I used some tahini in a recipe earlier in the week and wanted to use up the container, so found this unique recipe and modified it. I had some made up pizza dough rolled out. First I made a pesto for it: I combined 1 package spinach with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 TBsp lemon juice, 2 TBsp water, 2 TBsp garlic, and 1/3 cup almonds in a food processor, making the pesto base. This was smeared over the top of the pizza. Then I sprinkled black olives, sliced green tomatoes, and left over spinach over the top of the pizza. Lastly I mixed up 4 TBsp tahini, 1/3 cup water, and 3 TBsp yeast for the cheesy sauce. This was poured over the top and the whole thing was baked at 425 for 15 minutes. super healthy and flavorful pizza!

butternut squash pizza

This was a great fall recipe. First I had Mark finish roasting the squash while I was at work. He cut up one butternut squash and 1 red onion in to 1 inch chunks, and placed on a baking sheet, sprinkled with oil, then some salt and pepper, and lastly roasted at 400 for 20 minutes. This was done by the time I got home, so I finished it up by taking out some pizza dough, sprinkling the squash and onions over it and then dolloping a lot of ricotta (vegan) over the pizza. This was baked at 450 for 25 minutes. Super sweet and tasty!

Fake Chicken Pesto Lasagna

More lasagna, loving the tofutti ricotta I have been cooking with! For this recipe I did a couple things for the ingredients. While a box of lasagna noodles was cooking, I fried up some TJs vegan chicken strips in a little oil. I also wilted one bag of spinach and arugala in a small amt olive oil with 1 tbsp oregano and 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes. And for the pesto I used a food processor and combined 2 cup fresh basil, 3 cups spinach, 2 TBsp garlic, 1 cup toasted pine nuts, 1 TBsp lemon juice, and 1/2 cup olive oil. Once all these components were done I assembled the lasagna: First a layer of pesto, then noodles. On top of the noodles went another layer of ricotta, then fake chicken, then spinach, then daiya mozzarella cheese. Then another layer of noodles, a layer of pesto, some fake chicken, the spinach, topped this time with a layer of daiya mozzarella. Finally one more layer of noodles, then pesto, then ricotta again. Once done assembling it was baked at 350 for 45 minutes. The spinach with red pepper flakes added a little kick to it!

New Lasagna Variations

Had some lasagna noodles to cook and made some interesting vegan variations, and have one more recipe to try later this week once my vegan tofutti ricotta comes. Recipe #1: I veganized Rachel Ray's all-American lasagna.

I was a little lazy and used the no-boil lasagna sheets. For the tomato sauce: in a large pot heat from olive oil and then add in crumbled vegan beef crumbles. Cook until browned, and then add 1 can of 28 oz crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup ketchup, and 1.5 cups water. Mix together and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. I also boiled one frozen bag each of peas and broccoli while I was working on the tomato sauce. For the cheese sauce: melt 4TBsp maragarine in a large saucepan, then mix in one bushel of chopped scallions. After the scallions are wilted mix in 1/4 cup flour quickly, and then start pouring in 2 cup soy milk slowly, whisking it in. Once the sauce seems like it wants to thicken pour in one bag of Daiya mozzarella cheese and stir, taking off heat as the fake cheese melts in. To arrange the pasta: grease a casserole dish. First pour some of the tomato sauce, then a layer of noodles, then a layer of tomato sauce again, then cheese sauce. Next do noodles, then tomato sauce, then the veggies, then the cheese sauce, then more noodles. Lastly I topped the noodles with some daiya mozzarella. I baked this at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. This was a really creamy and delicious, hefty meal. Recipe #2: I normally am not a fan of squash, but am glad I tried this lasagna dish, though it took a lot of work.

I ended up using whole wheat noodles; cook these as per the instructions while working on the other ingredients since there is no baking involved, just assembly at the end. The layers? 1. wilted spinach- easy enough. 2. Acorn squash, roasted at 400 for one hour with some olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar on top (this is the most time consuming part). Once roasted this was cut in to cubes without the shell. 3. Sauteed mushrooms: I used a mixture of white mushrooms and shitake. I first heated them up in a little olive oil until browning, and then added 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and a dash of liquid smoke. 4. The sauce- this was the toughest part. First I pureed about 2 cup fresh basil, 1/4 cup basil, 2 TBsp garlic, and 1/4 cup oilve oil. This was a little chunkier than I wanted, so I then added 1 cup soy yogurt. Lastly I made some tofu ricotta- this involved crumbling a block of tofu and mixing it with 2 TBsp tahini, 2 TBsp garlic, 3 TBsp yeast, 1 TBsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 2 TBsp dried parsley. Of course this would not all fit in the blender with the stuff I had already pureed, so I mixed about 3/4 of it in, and ended up with a creamy cheese like sauce. For the lasagna assembly, first line the plate with the sauce, then spread the noodle on top using about 1/3 of it; on top of the noodle, place another layer of sauce and some chunks of squash, then fold it on itself in a 1/3 again; next apply more sauce and some mushrooms, and lastly on top apply the sauce and top with the wilted spinach. It took quite a while to assemble but smells and tastes wonderful, just like fall.

Eggplant pizza

It's funny how sometimes I buy a particular veggie or product, only to remember I never really liked it and not sure why I would try to now. Butternut squash, bananas, and eggplant are the two things that fit that category most. Sometimes I see it in the store on sale and I feel inclined to buy it, only to remember I am a fan of many recipes i have made in the past with those products. Well, I bought some eggplant last week, and then as I searched for new recipes nothing looked good. Vegan versions of eggplant parm looked gross as I thought of the texture of the eggplant, which makes me nauseous. I quickly realized I was an idiot to buy it, but then I found an eggplant pizza recipe that looked reasonable. It involved grilled eggplant, and since I didn't have a grill I ended up chopping my eggplant in to tiny cubes instead, and frying it in a little olive oil first.

Then for the pizza I first put a layer of pizza sauce on the dough, then topped it with chopped up eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, and black olives. The original recipe I had called for provolone on top, and since i had these new slices of daiya vegan provolone in the fridge, I sliced the slices into thin strips and topped the pizza with it. This was then baked at 450 for 10 minutes. Mark and I loved the result. I had too many toppings to fit on one pizza, and so today I made a veggie wrap with the remaining toppings and a little italian dressing, which was also good. I think the fact that I made the eggplants tiny little cubes allowed for me to appreciate the flavor without the texture, so maybe I can like eggplant afterall.

PHENOMENAL quesadilla casserole

This one was superb, not gonna lie, one of my favorite new dishes. I had some boca fake beef crumbles that I heated up in a little olive oil first. Then in a large bowl I mixed together one can black beans, one can diced tomatoes, and one can of kidney beans (all rinsed and drained). Once the fake beef was cooked I stirred that in. And Trader Joe's had this pre-roasted frozen corn kernels that I had thawed out of the fridge earlier in the day, well I mixed that in to the bowl with the bean mixture along with 2 TBsp cilantro. In a large bowl I then whisked together 1 jar enchilada sauce with 1 jar salsa together. Then in a circular casserole dish (a glass pie dish works best) I sprayed some PAM, and placed a flour tortilla. I then topped the tortilla with the bean mixture, then the sauce, then a layer of Daiya cheese. This was repeated with another tortilla on top, and topped lastly with a final tortilla. I ended up using Daiya cheddar and mozarella on the bottom, and then peperjack and mozarella on the second layer, and lastly pepperjack and mozarella on the top of the last tortilla. This was then baked at 350 for 30 minutes. It was SO FREAKING GOOD. I served it with 1/2 an avocado. Delicious left overs too.

green curry thai dish

This was a super quick, 10 minute meal to make, and was quite tasty. Basically I made some rice and while that was cooking I steamed some broccoli and spinach. Lastly I fried a block of tofu in peanut oil cut in to 1-inch chunks. This was all mixed together with Trader Joe's Green Curry sauce, and served over rice.

melt in your mouth vegan peanut tofu dish

This dish took quite a while to prepare but was well worth the effort. The dish is served on top of rice, so start cooking that while you prepare the rest. I had the TJ's high protein tofu that I cut in to 1 inch thick triangles first, and tossed in a mixture of 2 TBsp garlic, 1 tsp pepper, 2 tsp cumin, and 1/4 cup peanut oil, all in a tupperware container. This was then placed in the fridge while I continued cooking. In a saucepan I mixed up 1 TBsp peanut oil with 1 TBsp ginger powder, 1 tsp onion powder, and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. Then I added 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter to the sauce pan along with 1 TBsp lime juice, 1 can coconut milk, and 2 TBsp soy sauce. This was heated at low for about 15 minutes, with lots of stirring. While this was simmering I cooked up two bags of prepackaged broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower in a wok with a small amount of canola oil. Once these were cooked I put them aside in a large bowl and then took out the tofu and fried that up with all the sauce it was soaking in in the wok. Once browned, the tofu was removed and mixed in with the veggies. Once all this is done you serve the tofu and veggies over rice with some peanut sauce. You can also sprinkle some ground peanuts on top if you have them.

More "clean the cabinet" pasta dishes

This pasta dish involved me cooking up some rotini I had sitting in the cabinet. And in a wok I just heated up some sliced asparagus, spinach, broccolini, and halved grape tomatoes in some veggie oil. Once those were all cooked placed them as well as some pine nuts in a big bowl and made up the sauce for the pasta: The sauce was 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar whisked together with 1 TBsp brown sugar and 1 TBsp olive oil. It made for a nice light summer dish as well.

Hawaiian Pizza Vegan Style

This pizza surprisingly took a little bit of time to make, but was rewarding as Mark said it was one of the favorite pizzas I have ever made of his. For the toppings, first you should make the vegan bechamel sauce: Heat 1/4 cup margarine, 1 TBsp onion powder, and 2 TBsp garlic in a large pot. After a couple minutes add 1/4 cup corn starch and quickly stir to form a paste, then add 2 cups soymilk and 1 TBsp lemon juice. Lastly mix in 1 Tbsp yeast, and a pinch of salt, pepper, and nutmeg each. As the sauce is taken away from the heat it will start to thicken quite a bit. I then spread the sauce over the pizza crust we were using, put the remaining ingredients of pineapple chunks, diced green bell peppers, and sliced vegan ham on top of this sauce, and topped that with vegan mozzarella. I baked it at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

BBQ Mac and Cheese dish

I know, I know, I have said it a thousand times, but I do truly believe that everything is better with BBQ sauce. So this dish involved just that, as well as leftovers again while we tried to use up all the food in our fridge before moving cross country.

First I cooked up some macaroni noodles as well as fried up some vegan trader joes chicken strips in a tiny bit of oil. I added a little cayenne pepper and garlic powder to the fake chicken while frying it. Lastly I boiled some peas that were hanging out in the freezer while this was all occurring. Once the pasta was cooked I placed it in to a casserole dish and mixed in the fake chicken and peas. Lastly I made the cheese sauce. In a sauce pan I boiled 4 TBsp margarine and once melted whisked in 4 TBsp flour, 2 cups soymilk, an 1/2 cup soy cream. Once this was all mixed together I added one package of daiya mozzarella cheese and 12 package daiya cheddar cheese. I continued to mix that in for about 30-60 seconds, as it melted really quick in the boiling mixture. This was immediately poured on top of the casserole and mixed in with the remaining ingredients. Finally I sprinkled a bunch of bread crumbs as well as some vegan parmesan cheese on top, and placed the dish in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. The finishing touch of course was the barbecue sauce, and this was the most amazing comfort food I have made in a while.

Vegan Sausage Pizza

This was a leftover pizza that turned out just right.

I had some pre-made mini pizza crusts as well as frozen broccoli, italian flavored seitan, and mushrooms. I cooked them all up in a tiny bit of olive oil first, then topped on top of a pizza with marinara and a new vegan mozzarella cheese substitute I found at the store, Follow Your Heart Brand. Mark and I both loved this dish.

new vegan quesadillas

While in San Diego for my conference I did do a day of sight seeing in Old Town, and randomly came across a little recipe book for quesadillas. It was not a vegan cook book, but the pictures were beautiful and I instantly knew I could make a lot of the recipes veganized so I bought the book. This quesadilla was my first experiment and was pretty simple. I sliced up several tomatoes and placed the tomatoes on a paper towel, sprinkled with salt, and let sit for 15 minutes first, then soaked up the excess liquid from them before cooking with them. To make the quesadilla I first took a tortilla and sprinkled it with mozzarella (Daiya) as well as sliced Daiya jack cheese. Then I topped this with the tomato slices as well as whole basil leaves, and then one more sprinkling of daiya mozzarella on top before frying up in a skillet with a titch of oil. Super delicious.

Sundried tomato pesto pasta

Sorry it has been way too long peeps! But I spent the last month moving cross country after taking a hell of an exam to hopefully become DACVECC board certified (news to come on that when I get the test results). Of course with moving and being at conferences I did not have a lot of time to cook, but have several recipes I meant to post and now will do some back logging. Let's start with this refreshing summer pasta.

Basically I made up a package of farfelle and while that was cooking I made some pesto. For the pesto combine in a food processor: 2 TBsp Garlic, 1 package fresh basil leaves (remove the stems), 8 TBsp water, 6 TBsp walnuts, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 a jar of oil packed sun dried tomatos, 1tsp red pepper flakes, and 1 TBsp yeast. Then once the pasta was cooked I mixed it with the pesto as well as the remaining jar of sun dried tomatoes. (And since I had osme fresh tomatoes in the house I needed to cook with I also chopped them up and mixed them in as well). Very refreshing for a first meal that I could have in Cali on the porch as the sunset.

last wine night in Boston

Had a great last wine night in Boston before shipping out to California this fall. We had a great turn out and mix of guests. Some people from Albany even made it! I made a rice salad and a tater tot casserole. For the rice salad: I took 2 cups of rice in a large pot, added 2 cans of coconut milk and 1 cup of water, and 1 tsp cinnamon to the pot. Boiled it then like you always do. Once the rice was done I added 1 two chopped up cucumbers and two containers of sliced mango, and 1 container of fresh edamame, mixing them in a turning the rice down to low heat. In a large wok I added chopped up tofu and fried it in a little oil with 1tsp coriander and 1 TBsp garlic. Once the tofu was done I added it to the rice mixture. I mixed it all up with some spinach. It was super tasty and like a lot of times it was better as leftovers the next day. For the main course I made a version of tater tot casserole from the Meet The Shannons recipe, just modified a bit. I fried up a 2 chopped red peppers, 2 yellow peppers, 1 red onion, and 2 green bell peppers in a small amount of oil. In order to use up some of the expendables in my fridge I also fried up a package of vegan boca ground beef and tempeh chunks. Then in a massive bowl I mixed up the peppers, onion, and fake meat along with one package of daiya cheddar cheese, 1 package frozen corn, 2 TBsp dried cilantro,2 TBsp Braggs, 2 TBsp cumin, 2 TBsp chili powder, 4 TBsp garlic, and two cans of diced tomatoes. This all went in to a large casserole, topped with one package of pepperjack daiya cheese, and 1 package of sweet potato tater tots from TJs. Baked then at 375 for 40 minutes. SUPER DELICIOUS.Goes great with guacamole or vegan sour cream.

super easy BBQ meal

I had some gardein vegan pulled pork in the house an threw this little sandwich together. The topping is just Broccoli Slaw from TJs with some added vegan ranch dressing that I make on a regular basis. Super tasty and simple.

vegan chicken pasta casserole

Being that Mark and I will be moving to Cali in about a little over a month, I have decided to start making dishes that reflect using up the random crap in our kitchen... I noticed the other day that I had 3 containers of vegan cream cheese (I must have bought it for a cheesecake or something and never made it). Well, I will be using 2 in a cheesecake I make for our going away party next week, but I used another in a recipe I found for a pasta casserole. I also conveniently had 2 packaged of TJ's vegan chicken strips, pasta in the cupboard, along with lots of pasta sauce, so only had to buy spinach for the recipe. First boil a box of pasta, whatever you have on hand (I had rotini). Then in a large sauce pan or wok, add a little oil and cook the fake chicken. Once browned, add 1 TBsp Italian seasoning 1 jar spaghetti sauce, and 1 can drained diced tomatoes. I had a bag of sundried tomatoes that I threw in as well at this point. Cook a couple minutes. Next add your spinach, helping it wilt as it gets mixed in. (I used one bag of fresh spinach). Lastly, start dropping chunks of cream cheese and mixing them in to the dish. I used one container of toffuti cream cheese. In a casserole dish first drain and pour the cooked pasta. Then top with the chicken sauce mixture. Then top this with shredded mozzarella, next a layer of plan sauce again from a different jar, and last with some mozzarella and some parmesan (obviously vegan versions of both for me). Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. I think I put a little too much sauce in, but it was tasty and even better as a leftover.

brussel sprout pizza you say? Why Yes!

I saw brussel sprouts at TJs this week and suddenly had a craving, so bought a bag of fresh sprouts, and then did not know what to cook them with... I searched and searched, and since I love making pizzas I made a brussel sprouts pizza. First I sliced all the BSps in half, and cooked in a dish with 2 TBsp sunflower oil, as well as sprinkled over 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I cooked on both sides about 5 minutes, until carmelized.

The hardest part was the cheese, which most recipes making bsp pizza use a goat cheese. I found this recipe and made it word for word for a vegan version of goat cheese. http://thekindlife.com/blog/post/vegan-goat-cheese-recipe

So that was made 2 days before. Once the BSps were cooked I set them aside, and sliced up fake bacon and fried in a little sunflower oil as well. Finally I threw all this on top of a TJ's middle eastern flat bread- the "goat cheese" first, then the BSps, bacon, i threw on some chickpeas, and topped with daiya mozzarella. I then baked for 10 minutes at 350. Really good, the leftover toppings I threw in mini salad containers and had leftover salad for a couple days (just used a little bit of TJs hummus salad dressing).

mexican flatbread

Trader Joe's has started carrying this Middle Eastern flatbread, which is a small, thick pita-like bread that happens to be vegan. I have been throwing things on it like a pizza for quick meals lately and love it! This one, I took 1 can black beans, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 bag frozen corn, and 1 bag of gardein beef chunks. I stir fried them all up together, mixed in 2 TBsp fajita seasoning, and then 1/4 cup each of daiya cheddar and mozzarella. Served over the bread. Super tasty. (Lots of leftovers, goes well with tofutti sour cream like shown here and avocado slices).

Meat Lover's Lasagna...FOR VEGANS!

Had a bunch of people over for a wine night and made this amazing dish. The recipe was used exactly from this site: http://stemartaen.com/2009/11/vegan-meat-lovers-lasagna/

Vegan Indian Night

This was a fun combination of recipes I tried out. The Saag Paneer dish on the side was SUPER easy: In my wok I heated a little olive oil with 2TBsp garlic, 1 TBsp ginger, and 2 TBsp cumin. Then I added 1 bag frozen spinach and cooked it until it was heated through. Last I added a package of vegan chicken along with 3 TBsp margarine and 1 TBsp masala seasoning, and heated through. It was creamy and tasty. The samosa french toast was more of an issue to make (labor intensive) but totally worth it. First I boiled 8 little potatoes, then mashed them up in a large bowl (leaving the skins on) with 2 TBsp margarine. Then in a skillet I heated up 2 TBsp subflower oil with 1 tsp mustard seed, 1 tsp crushed coriander, 1 tsp tumeric, and 1 TBsp masala seasoning. Once heated I added 1 cup frozen peas and the potatoes from earlier. I cooked them together, mashing them up like they would be if they were the inside of a samosa. Towards the end I added 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp cilantro, and 1 tsp cumin and mixed that in. Once this was all mashed together I let it cool. In a separate dish I whisked together 1 cup chapati flour with 2-ish cups water (basically started with one cup and added more as needed to get a batter like consistency), 1 tsp tumeric, 1 tsp vayenne pepper powder, 1 tsp masala seasoning, and 2 TBsp sunflower oil. Then I took two slices of bread, applied the samosa potato mixture to the inside, closed the bread like a sandwich, coated it with the chapati batter, and fried in sunflower oil until done. It took a while but was well worth it, amazing meal.

inside out vegan fajita pizza

This is another example of a meal of mine that I threw together in to a pizza. I had some pre-made vegan pizza crust that was wood fried from Whole Foods. First I topped it with a little marinara. Then cheese- as you can see one half of this has real cheese for Mark, for me I used Daiya mozzarella and pepperjack shreds. In a separate skillet I fried up 1/2 a bag of frozen corn, 1 can black beans, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 bag Boca fake meat burger crumbles, and 2 TBsp fajita seasoning in a little olive oil. Once this was heated sprinkled it all over the top of the pizza and then baked at 425 for 10 minutes. Once cooked I topped it with a little sliced avocado. Super tasty, and the left over topping I was able to package up to use as taco filling later in the week.

great calzone and left over salad

I guess I do tend to just mix weird things together as salads or pizzas or calzones. For this one in a large salad bowl I mixed together 1 bag arugala, 1 can artichoke hearts, 1 can olives, 3 chopped up tomatoes, and 1 can mushrooms first. I had a package of tofurky italian sausages which I sliced and fried in a little bit of olive oil until toasty brown and then placed in the salad. Then I mixed it all up and placed some of it in a calzone with almond milk cheese. I topped it with a little balsalmic vinigrette and marinara sauce, rolled up the calzone with some holes punctured through the top of the dough, and baked at 450 for 10 minutes. Delicious calzone. Of course, with the leftover salad I just packaged it up in some tuperware, added a little of the almond milk cheese and marinara to each container, and mixed it up with balsalmic vingrette whenever I had it for a meal. Super tasty. I love the tofurky italian sausage.

new vegan ham egg and cheese

I posted a vegan recipe version of a ham egg and cheese sandwich earlier this year which was great. This is a new recipe I tried that was also quite good. I had a bunch of mini bagels I wanted to use so this worked out well making breakfast for almost 2 weeks with them. The tofu is the "egg"- basically take an extra firm block and slice it in to 3/4 inch square sections. In a separate bowl mix together 1 cup flour with 2 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp onion powder, and 1 tsp tumeric. Dust the tofu squares in the flour mixture and place on a greased baking sheet, then back for 10 miuntes at 300 degrees. Once baked take a skillet and place 6 TBsp olive oil with 3 TBsp worcestershire sauce and 3 TBsp lemon juice. Heat the liquids and then fry the tofu on both sides in this mixture. Then just assemble your sanwich! I had vegan cheese slices as well as vegan ham slices for mine, but vegan bacon would probably go well with it too.

refried bean pizza

This one was really tasty. I had a pre-made up pizza crust that I used. In a skillet I heated up one chopped up yellow onion in some olive oil until brown. Then I added 1 can refried beans, 1 jar salsa, and some taco seasoning. Once the mixture was warmed and cooked through I spread it on to the crust. The only thing I would do different next time is make two pizzas with this amount of beans (even though it was one can it was a thick mixture on top of the crust). Once spread over the crust I topped it with some diaya mozzarella and cheddar. Then on top of this I spread out one chopped green bell pepper and several diced tomatoes. I baked it for 10 minutes at 350 and then served with some tofutti sour cream.

simple Meatless Monday wrap

This was super simple and super tasty. I had a package of gardein chipolte lime chicken tenders that I cooked according to the package. THen it was just a matter of assembling it in a wrap- I had a spinach flavored wrap, I first put some mayo on it. Then I placed some sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. On top of this went the chicken, then some spinach, and finally some peanut sauce. THe hardest part was wrapping it up and not making a mess. But it was DELICIOUS!!

Hoisin sauce??

I must have bought this little jar of Hoisin sauce in my pantry before for a specific recipe and then never made it. I have been going through my pantry trying to use up all the things sitting in there and I found this jar of Hoisin sauce. I then googled several recipes with it and made this one based on a combo of several:

I basically took two packages of TJ's beefless strips and 2 small bags of fresh broccoli florets. I cooked the broccoli in a wok with a small amount of sunflower oil first. Before this I mixed together the jar of hoisin along with 2 TBsp sesame oil, 1 cup mirin, 9 TBsp soy sauce, 6 TBsp vinegar, 6 TBsp brown sugar, 1 small jar tomato paste, 2 TBsp garlic, and 3 TBsp ginger powder. I then put the TJ's beefless strips in it and let it marinade for 30 minutes. Once the broccoli was cooked in the oil I added this whole mixture and cooked in the wok for another 5 minutes. I then served over rice. It made a lot of food, but that was goal as it will be my lunch for my 5 day work week this week. :)

red pepper topped burger

sometimes I like really simple meals, like making a veggie burger that just has a really good topping. This veggie burger had some mayo on the roll and the topping was chopped up roasted red peppers and spinach. I basically chopped up one jar of the roasted red pepper, 2 cups spinach, and mixed them with 1 TBsp cumin and 2 TBsp lemon juice.

Vegan Chicken and Waffles!!!!

This meal was SUPER tasty. I stole the recipe from meettheshannons.com. http://www.meettheshannons.com/vegan-mexican-chicken-waffles/ Basically I bought premade freezer section vegan waffles and cooked them up in the toaster. For the chicken, I bought a package of TJs chickenless chicken, and in a skillet fried it up with 1 shot of rum, 1 TBsp lime juice, 1 tsp lemon rind pepper, 1 tsp hot sauce, 1 TBsp brags, 2 tsp olive oil, 1 clove garlic, and 2 tsp yeast. (I mixed all the ingredeints together in a bowl first then added to the skillet with the vegan chicken). As you can see, Mark and I loaded ours with toppings- on top of the waffles first we spread guacomole like you normally would spread butter, then goes the chicken, then some premade fresh pico de gallo salsa from TJs, then some sliced olives, and finally some vegan daiya pepperjack cheese. DELICIOUS!

Gardein Calamari sliders vegan style

I bought these frozen gardein mini sliders a while ago, they have been sitting in my freezer waiting for me to use them. Then I also had these vegan calamari rings that I needed to use. So I ended up cooking both according to the box instructions, assembled, added a tomato slice, and made some caribbean/cajun creamy sauce to go with them. It was quite tasty. For the sauce I mixed 1 cup veganaise, 1 TBsp of a pre-mixed carribean spice, and 1/4 cup ketchup. I ended up reusing the sauce as a dip for things later in the week too.