Vegan MOFO day 24- Lentil Loaf and Acorn Squash

So it's officially the last day of November, and therefore last day of the MOFO. This is my first year of blogging, and I think I did a pretty good job during Vegan MOFO. I tried my best to blog everyday, and I made it 24 out of 30 days. I'm going to keep blogging, but definitely not at a MOFO pace :)

It was super fun to have so many more readers that I used to have, and I appreciate every one of you that reads this blog. I definitely loved finding so many other blogs, and reading about the amazing vegan food y'all are cooking. I love vegan cooking a lot, and it's so rewarding for me to share my ideas/food with other people.

Tonight I decided to make a lentil loaf, as I haven't had "meat"loaf in a long time. I discovered that smashing brown rice and cooked lentil creates a very meaty texture a few years ago, and I thought it was time to do it again. Alongside the loaf, I cooked an acorn squash. My parents bought a whole bushel of squash, so I got some to take home when I was over there the other day. For this squash, I cut it in half, put a lil EB on the top and baked at 400 for 1 hr.

The hubby and I were very happy with dinner, and looking forward to cold lentil loaf sandwiches for lunch tomorrow!

for the lentil loaf:
cooked green lentils (made from 1 cup uncooked)
2 cups cooked brown rice
3 shallots- chopped
garlic powder
onion powder
chili powder
1 serious squirt of ketchup
1 splash of soy milk
salt and pepper
more ketchup for the top

-yeah, i didn't really measure much when i was making this, i just kept adding ingredients and tasting to see what else i thought it needed (serious perk of vegan cooking, uncooked food=not poison)
-i smashed the lentils and brown rice together with a potato masher, then added all the seasoning.
-i put it in a greased loaf pan, topped it with ketchup
-bake at 400 for 45 min :)

Vegan MOFO day 23- mofo survey time

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?
ice cream. but then i discovered So Delicious, and its amazing. so im good.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?
kalamata olives, coffee, and spicy food in general. i love spicy

What vegan dish or food you feel like you “should” like, but don’t?
um. this is hard, i like everything. oh i know, i don't really like swiss chard or kale... i feel like i should like them

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?
water :)

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?
hmm, people like my hot spinach and artichoke dip, and my vegan mac is also oft requested

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?
umm.. i used to hate it when peas were stirred into dishes, but ive gotten over that. i really can't think of anything..

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?
pasta. i love pasta. if i have leftover pasta, i eat way more than i should.

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?
tempeh bacon. we almost always have tempeh bacon marinating in the fridge. i like mine way better than the prepackaged stuff you can buy, and its way way cheaper

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?
earth balance, extra virgin olive oil, organic veggies (i try the best i can to buy organic on the dirty dozen)

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favorite snacks?
yep, im a snacker. i love tings. i also love crackers and hummus. or chips and guac.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?
onion!!!!! im pretty happy with just about any other topping, but it's just not pizza without onion

What is your favorite vegetable? Fruit?
favorite veggie: brussel sprouts, favorite fruit: avocado

What is the best salad dressing?
olive oil, balsalmic vinegar, fresh cracked black pepper

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?
earth balance and nutritional yeast. we call it noochy toast :)

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?
corn and potato chowder

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Frosting flavor?
um. i don't think picky about cupcakes. i probably make the jelly donut cupcakes for veganomicon the most frequently, but thats cause they are easy. i'll eat any vegan cupcake put in front of me

What is your favorite kind of cookie?
choc chip and walnut

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?
whole wheat pasta with peanut sauce and edamame

What is one dish or food you enjoy, but can’t get anyone else in your household to eat?
mushrooms. i really miss portobello mushrooms, but the hubby won't touch them, so i never buy them :( poor lil peggy

How long, in total, do you spend in the kitchen on an average day?
hmm.... i dunno. probably an hour. on weekends, it could be much much more

Vegan MOFO day 22- VEGAN THANKSGIVING!!!

(That's my dad.)

Yay! Yesterday was our first ever vegan Thanksgiving potluck! It was a super great time, full of good friends, cute kids and delicious food :) Thank you so much to all our great friends for coming, and to my parents for letting us all invade their house.

I didn't take as many pictures as I originally planned to, because I was having too much fun.

Above is my veggie appetizer pizza, this is always a hit and got gobbled up :) I like it when people like my food.

I also made some hummus, that I served on this cool platter that we got for our wedding last year and hadn't used yet :)
There was so much food!!! It filled up two whole counter tops. Items (from nearest to farthest): potatoes-au-gratin, spicy spicy soup, hubbard squash, gravy, stuffing/dressing and wine :)
On this counter top there is turkey roast (I made this, came out pretty good, not incredible.. I think next time I'd slice it thinner), cheezy potatoes, tuscan cauliflower, cranberry chutney, chickpea tart, mashed potatoes, cornbread biscuits and zucchini muffins.
This is the epic plate I made, absolutely everything was great. I didn't even get to try anything because there was so much food. I've never seen such a vegan feast in my life. There were definitely a bunch of desserts, I ate some vegan rugelach and some peanutbutter and jelly pie. I forgot to take pictures, oops!

Thanksgiving isn't about eating a big ol' turkey, its about spending time with good people sharing good food :)

Vegan MOFO day 21- Product Review: Tofurky Pizza

So, yesterday was Thanksgiving, we saw lots of family and went out to eat for dinner. Dinner at the Desmond was quite nice, but we're mostly excited about tomorrow, our real feast with Thanksgiving-y food. I promise to take lots of pictures. We have lots of good friends coming to enjoy a yummy potluck meal, with promises of lots of yummy food.

Today was a super lazy day off, we enjoyed taking it easy, spending time with the puppy and preparing for tomorrow. We decided on a lazy kid dinner. I was super excited when I finally found Tofurky pizza at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany last week. I've seen it advertised online and talked about in so many other blogs. Most of my meals are made from scratch, but it is so nice to have lazy food around.

I bought the cheese pizza, but felt the need to add a lil something on top. I'm a fiend for onions on pizza, so I heated up this pizza with lots of red onion all over the top. Me and the hubby devoured it. We both enjoy Daiya cheese and thought this pizza really hit the spot. My only complaint would be the thin-crust, I really love chewy pizza crust. Also, it wasn't super cheap... $8, and wasn't the biggest pizza. Box says it would feed 3, 2 of us finished it off easily. We'll definitely be buy it again, not for gourmet dinners, but as a great frozen vegan pizza.

Vegan MOFO day 20- Charbroiled Butternut Squash and Cheezey Spinach Spaghetti

I didn't do the greatest job packing myself lunch today, so by the time I got home, I was starved! I decided to make some Charbroiled Butternut Squash recipe by PPK. This came out super yummy! The squash became super sweet, and very tender. Really easy recipe too!

I also wanted to make some pasta, as I crave it when it's cold and I'm grumpy/hungry (grungry). I cooked up some whole-wheat spinach spaghetti, tasty and nutritious! I topped the pasta with some sauce from 'The Uncheese Cookbook,' this is the Ultimate Mac and Cheez sauce, definitely not my favorite uncheese sauce, but tasty regardless. I think I liked the Melty White Cheez that the hubby made last week better....

Vegan MOFO day 19- Borscht

The hubby requested soup today. He actually requested a butternut squash soup, but I decided to make borscht because I had some beets and some cabbage that needed to be used up. Borscht has always been one of my favorite foods, I love the deep flavor of the beets and how tangy the soup gets. This soup brings out the Ukranian in me. Soup is pretty foolproof, you just let it all hang out on the stove for a while, then its yummy!

Here's what I did for the soup...

ingredients:
1 large red onion- sliced
1 tsp peanut oil
5 beets- peeled and cut into matchsticks
8 small carrots- peeled and cut into matchsticks
1/4 head cabbage- sliced and cut up into similar sized pieces as other veggies
1 cube veggie bouillon
dill weed (~1 T), salt and pepper
1/2 lemon

-add the onion to a large pot with a lil oil, cook for several minutes until starts to soften. add in all the other veggies. when the veggies start to cook, cover with water and add in the bouillon cube, dill weed, salt and pepper to taste.
-bring pot to low simmer, allow to cook for 30 minutes until veggies are tender and broth is bright red. taste. add salt and pepper as necessary.
-squeeze in lemon juice of the 1/2 lemon. the soup will now be tangy and wonderful
-i liked this with a dollop of vegenaise on top.

Vegan MOFO day 18.5- out to eat again!

We went out to lunch today to our favorite quick bite. We go to this place maybe once a week, because its cheap, filling and satisfying. We went to Hot Harry's on Union St. in Schenectady. This is one of the only places in Schenectady to get a good vegan meal, it has a great selection of different burrito, taco and salads that can be made vegan. The employees are always very friendly, and make the food right in front of you. The spanish rice (the only rice that I've seen on the bar) is made with veggie broth, there is a yummy marinated tofu, and two kinds of beans. There are tons of toppings there too, grilled veggies, guacamole, onions, salsa, lettuce, olives, etc.. I've mention to employees that they should carry vegan cheese, but no sign of it so far.

They also have a salsa bar with five different salsas. My favorite is the one above the "cowboy caviar."

This is my favorite burrito, the Thai w/ Tofu. Mine had spanish rice, grilled tofu, grilled veggies, peanut sauce (housemade- and vegan, I asked one of the employees who told me he made it himself with all vegan ingredients), lettuce, red onion and tomatoes. Yum yum yum! The hubby got his fav- veggie fajita with grilled veggies, tofu and guacamole.

Vegan MOFO day 18- Stuffed French Toast

Today I made breakfast for my friend Kaitlin's birthday. She requested French Toast, but I decided to try to make a vegan version of the MAD Irish Toast from the Miss Albany Diner. We used to love to eat there in our pre-vegan days, but haven't been there in a long time... I can't think of anything vegan on the menu. This French Toast at the Ms. Albany comes stuffed with a walnut cream cheese and topped with Maple Syrup, which I remember having Whiskey in it.

So, I made some French Toast from a recipe I found on vegweb.com, and served two slices with some walnut maple "cream cheese." Here's the original recipe --->here. I didn't quite stick to it. Here's what I did..

ingredients for the french toast:
1/3 c. Vegenaise
1/2 c. unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 T nutritional yeast
cinnamon- a couple dashes
nutmeg- i grated some in, maybe 1/4 tsp
8 big slices nice white bread- i used Heidelberg French Peasant Bread
earth balance for the pan

ingredients for the stuffing:
1 tub Tofutti cream cheese
dash cinnamon
1-2 T maple syrup
3 T - 1/4 c chopped walnuts
(stir this all together, works good with room temperature cream cheese)

for the french toast: combine vegenaise, almond milk, nooch, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg , i find this works best with a fork, it becomes a thick mixture, almost a egg-like consistency

dip the slices of bread in the batter, and fry in a skillet. i fried over med heat. i kept the cooked slices warm in the toaster oven, as i cooked all the slices (on the "keep warm" setting)

i took two slices, and spread some of the cream cheese in the middle. then poured a lil maple syrup on the top. we ate these with some tempeh bacon on the side

Vegan MOFO day 17- out to eat!

We had a satisfying dinner out to celebrate a good friend's birthday tonight. We all went to the New World Bistro Bar in Albany. We've been there a couple times now and have been quite impressed with their vegan options. Tonight, we again ordered the 'cajun blackened string beans,' these were totally awesome! Super spicy, fresh beans, with a tangy remoulade sauce.
Recipe for this is posted online ---> here :) :)
Kaitlin, the birthday girl, ordered this appetizer of 'seitan wings,' they were very yummy pieces of seitan. We didn't quite get "hot wing" from them, but yummy nonetheless. They were spicy but not in a buffalo-hot sauce way...

This was the hubby's entree served a long platter: black beans, brown rice and daily veggies. Everything on this plate was yummy! I know as I kept sneaking bites of it, I especially liked the roasted garlic, parsnips and carrots. He liked it all, as his plate was cleared off :) What a beautiful presentation too...
This was the entree I got. It was a veganized version of the Yellow Curry Shrimp over Fat Noodles. My version had orecchiette pasta and tofu instead of Shrimp or Fat Noodles... I bet there was an egg aspect. I ate the whole thing too (I ordered the small), the flavor of the sauce was great. I think I would have enjoyed a more asiany noodle with the tofu and curry, but I really can't complain too much. I appreciate the diligence of the cooking staff to substitute with a vegan pasta.

Overall, a very yummy satisfying dinner. New World Bistro Bar has a great atmosphere and very interesting menu. We definitely recommend!

Vegan MOFO day 16- Smokey Cheez Sauce, Yellow Cauliflower, Broccoli and Brown Rice

Tonight we really wanted to get some burritos with friends, but they needed to reschedule, so we decided to save money and make ourselves dinner instead of going out just the two of us. The hubby and I had one of those back and forth conversations.... "What do you want for dinner?" "I dunno, What do YOU want for dinner?" UGH! After a completely unproductive 5 minutes, we looked in the fridge and decided to heat up leftover brown rice and eat some vegetables.

We decided to cook up some veggies we got at the Greenmarket, we bought a beautiful head of broccoli and some yellow cauliflower. I've never had yellow cauliflower before, but our farm stand guy said it was creamy and sweet and delicious, so we bought some.

I steamed up the veggies while the hubby whipped up some cheez sauce. He used the Smokey Cheez recipe from 'The Uncheese Cookbook,' this recipe was a variation of the Melty White Cheez. This sauce called for no added oil, so we weren't convinced that it would be cheesey and satisfying, but it totally was. It thickened up and had a nice complex flavor, perfect on the veggies. I told the hubby he is officially the cheesey-sauce cook of the house :) This would be really good on some macaroni. ::hint hint::

Vegan MOFO day 15- Sloppy Joes

Tonight's dinner is one that I wouldn't normally blog about, but it's MOFO and I am trying to blog everyday. I made sloppy joes and I'm not particularly convinced that I like what I did. I used reconstituted TVP and a bunch of other ingredients... they were definitely edible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make them again. The hubby liked dinner and said that I'm too harsh of a critic. I think I don't love the taste of TVP, and since it is highly processed, I doubt I'll be running out to buy any more when this bag is used up.

I started with cooking up a lil onion and garlic, then I added canned tomatoes, Bragg's liquid aminos, bbq sauce, ground black pepper, chili powder, hot sauce, some spicy mustard.... and the TVP. We ate it on some bread.

If anyone has a good vegan sloppy joe recipe, please pass it along to me....

I also made coleslaw, that came out super yummy! (shredded cabbage, salt, pepper, sugar, apple cider vinegar and vegenaise, I didn't measure anything but wish I had, because this was tangy and yum yum yum!)

Vegan MOFO day 14- Roasted Veggies, Peanut Sauce and Brown Rice

Tonight's dinner wasn't the most photogenic, but it tasted fantastic. We went to the Greenmarket this morning, and I knew I wanted to use some of the veggies I had in the fridge. I decided to roast up a butternut squash and some beets. I cut them up into like cubes, tossed with a lil olive oil, sprinkle of salt, and generous fresh ground black pepper. These roasted at 400F, for about an hour.

While the veggies were in the oven, I tried to figure out the rest of the meal. I threw some brown rice in the rice cooker, and decided to make some sort of sauce to go over this all. I decided to make some spicy peanut sauce :) I really like peanut sauce, I wasn't convinced that this would all taste good together, but in the end I was quite impressed with how the sweetness of the squash and beets played off the spiciness of the peanut sauce.

We eat peanut sauce fairly often, as it comes together so quickly, and requires no cooking. I used my standard peanut sauce recipe, that I posted here ---> on vegweb.com, I smashed up, then stirred in, half a baked sweet potato that was hanging out in the fridge from the other night. In the sauce, I skipped the thai curry paste and didn't use much brown sugar, as the sweet potato was so sweet.

Not the prettiest dinner, but the flavors were great, and it was filling and nutritious!

Vegan MOFO day 13- Cinnamon Buns!

So I decided to try the Cinnamon bun recipe from "The Joy of Vegan Baking," and holy crap, these were amazing. I had one for breakfast this morning, and I still am on a sugar high. We don't usually eat all that much sugar, and these were LOADED with sugar. I guess all the earth balance, sugar and white flour is why they tasted so darn decadent.

I have to say that "The Joy of Vegan Baking" has not let me down once, everything I've made has come out fantastic. These were definitely a little bit of work, I made the rolls last night, and baked them in the morning. I made the dough, let it rise, then rolled it out, made the filling, rolled it up, then sliced them, and let them hang out in the fridge over night. I woke up early this morning, let them do a 2nd rise, and baked them. Then of course, I topped them with the optional icing... which made them ridiculously tasty!

I don't consider myself a baker, I usually like to cook more than bake, but these were well worth the effort, and definitely within my skill set.

what the buns looked like before i stuck them in the fridge for the overnight

Vegan MOFO day 12 - Down-home cookin', y'all!

My wife Peggy is something else, if you didn't already know. She makes a one-time vegan nay-sayer say "DAY-UM! THAT WAS SCRUMPTIOUS!" That's right, I say scrumptious. Tonight's dish: down-home cookin' a la Peggy. BBQ "chicken", cole slaw, and baked sweet potatoes.

-"Chicken": Gardein 7-grain nuggets tossed in bbq sauce and baked at 400F for 17 minutes

-Sweet potatoes: baked for about an hour, also at 400F (Convenient, no?) and topped with a little EB and cinnamon

-Cole slaw: food processor-sliced cabbage with red onion, then some Vegenaise, apple-cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and a tiny bit o' sugar.

I usually blog right after eating, to get the mood just right. And the mood is: stuffed and happy. Happy Friday!

Vegan MOFO day 11- Sunshine burger and Potato nuggets

Tonight my hubby made me dinner :) I like it when that happens. I think he was happy about his lunch, so he wanted to me nice to me. He made our favorite kind of veggie burger SUNSHINE burger. These are the only frozen burgers you can buy without weird ingredients, they are also an independent company, which is totally awesome. Tonight we had their 'southwest' burger, topped with some Daiya cheddar, some roasted garlic hummus, red onion and some bbq sauce. We also ate some potato nuggets.

Definitely not a fancy dinner, but I'm happy :)

Vegan MOFO day 10- Lunch To-Go

Tonight's dinner was a seriously boring one, so I didn't feel like blogging about it. I was home alone without the hubby, and I never do very good cooking anything special if I don't have anyone to cook for...

After I ate my dinner, I got a flash of inspiration to get the hubby's (and my) lunch ready for tomorrow. Danny is a pretty serious tempeh fan, so I figured I'd make him a tuna-ish tempeh salad sandwich. I didn't use any sort of recipe, just kinda threw a bunch of yummy stuff together. I think the end product will make him happy at lunchtime tomorrow

tuna-ish tempeh salad
ingredients:
1 block tempeh
1/4 red onion- finely diced
sweet relish (~2-3 T)
kelp flakes- a couple shakes
kalamata olives, chopped (~2 T)
pumpkin seeds, chopped (~1 T)
salt and black pepper
vegenaise (~ 1/4 c)

-i steamed the tempeh on the stovetop for about 15 minutes, then i smashed it up with a fork.
-i combined all the ingredients in a bowl, i didn't really measure anything... then i moistened it up with vegenaise and put it on bread for a sandwich

I packed the hubby's lunch up in our cool To-Go Ware two-tier. I packed up some cut up carrots, a honeycrisp apple, a Larabar and some walnuts. I'm good to the boy :) My lunch wasn't as cute in the To-Go Ware three-tier, so I'm not gonna show it to you...

all packed up

Vegan MOFO day 9- Taco Tuesday!

Today is Tuesday, so we decided to have tacos. We mostly used the 'Baja Tempeh Taco' recipe out of the Veganomicon. We didn't make the suggest lime-creme, and I made the cabbage slaw a lil different, I didn't use jalapenos, and I added a lil dollop of vegenaise. I'm not very good at sitting right to recipes. We stuffed organic blue corn taco shells w/ chili-Beer marinated tempeh, a spicy cabbbage slaw, some salsa, and our friend Kaitlin made a pineapple guacamole! Seriously yum :)

Vegan MOFO day 8- vegan mac w/cauliflower

It's the first slushy snowy day we've had this year. The kinda of day that makes me crave comfort food. While I was at work today, I was thinking about what I wanted for dinner, I knew I wanted some of the cauliflower that we bought at the Greenmarket yesterday....but I wasn't sure what else. Then I realized that vegan mac and cheese sounded super yummy. When I got home from work, the hubby had cookbooks already opened up in the kitchen, one was open to cauliflower, and my cookbook was opened up to vegan mac!!! Talk about a mind-reader! We did a little dinner teamwork. We boiled the cauliflower and tossed them into my standard vegan mac recipe --> here. The hubby had a genius idea to top the casserole with some daiya cheese and breadcrumbs. Satisfying and cozy! Now... its cuddletime.

Vegan MOFO day 7- Buffalo Chik Pizza and Falafel

So, we celebrated with friends last night and ate MORE junk food! Alot of our recent posts have not been the healthiest food.... we've been eating what we call "fat kid food"... haha.... I promise we're not terrible people!!! But, for real, there were like NO vegetables in this dinner.

This was a falafel appetizer, made by Al-Baraki and purchased at Honest Weight Co-op, we toasted them in the oven for a couple minutes. They were super delicious!

We also decided to make some pizza, this is our best pizza recipe, it's super greasy and so amazingly yummy. Oh, and I made whole-wheat pizza crust, so that kinda makes up for the all the grease and lack of veggies, right?


Here's what we did (we made two pizzas):

For the pizza dough:
ingredients:
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 1/3 c. very hot water (run the tap for a minute to get it as hot as possible)
3 c. white whole wheat flour
1 T vital wheat gluten
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil

-combine the yeast, sugar and hot water in a bowl, stir to combine, the let sit to activate for 5-10 minutes, until its all foamy
-in a food processor, combine the flour, wheat gluten and salt, turn on and combine
-when the yeast mixture is ready, turn processor on, and pour in the yeast mixture, let the processor run until a dough has formed, it'll turn into a ball, that will start to run around the side of the machine (you'll know)
-take dough out of the machine and knead for 5-7 minutes
-put a lil olive oil in a big bowl, put the dough in the bowl, and turn over until its all coated with the olive oil, cover dough with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hr.
-punch dough down, knead a lil, return to bowl, cover, let rise another 1/2 hr.
-divide into two pizza, or you could make one really big one i guess, roll out and make your pizza!

We topped our pizza with homemade "blue cheese" dressing, vegan cheese (we used FYH monterey jack & daiya cheddar), sliced red onion and buffalo chicken. For the chicken: we used "chicken" nuggets, cut them up into pieces, tossed them with Frank's red hot, then cooked on stove top until warmed through.

blue cheese dressing: (this makes way more than you need for the pizza)
1 c. vegenaise
1/2 tsp tahini
1 squeeze fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
dash garlic powder
1/4 block firm tofu crumbled- to make it chunky

After assembling the pizzas, they cooked in the oven at 425 for about 15 minutes, until all the cheese was melted. They were super greasy, and totally yummy. One of our very non-vegan guests remarked that it was better than regular buffalo chicken pizza! yay!

Vegan MOFO day 6- Tempeh bacon and avocado breakfast sammy

A delicious, warm, hearty breakfast sandwich on a brisk fall day. Threw some frozen sesame bagels (just make sure your bagel is vegan) in the toaster oven, spread some Earth Balance, and stuffed with tempeh bacon and sliced avocado. Super tasty and filling!

Vegan MOFO day 5- Nachos Grande!

Holy wowza! This, ladies and germs, is THE end-all, be-all reason to believe in veganism. "Wait... you don't eat meat or cheese or ANYTHING?" Feed those nay-sayers these super delicious nachos and watch the jaws drop and the plates get licked clean. This was a team effort, Peggy and Danny nacho party night.

We started by putting a bunch of your favorite brand of tortilla chips on a pizza pan. Put some Amy's re-fried beans with mild green chiles all over them chippies, then covered with shredded Daiya cheddar and Follow Your Heart monterey jack. Then covered all of that yummy stuff with half a chopped up red onion and some sliced kalamata olives. Baked in the oven at around 375F until "cheese" was melted. Took out of oven, covered with Follow Your Heart sour "cream" and a chopped up avocado. If anyone needs proof of some kind of higher power, just eat a perfectly ripe avocado. That's right. Nature MADE it! Unbelievable! It's like nature butter. But I digress. Served with a side dish of salsa, but I don't even know if it needed it. Dios mio!

-El Danny

Vegan MOFO day 4- Curried Chickpeas w/ Couscous and roasted Brussels Sprouts

Tonight we ate some more of my favorite veggie ever--- BRUSSELS SPROUTS! These were simply tossed with a lil olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper, then roasted in a 400F oven for 25 minutes.
I made some curried chickpeas and couscous for the main dish tonight. I made this recipe up in my head... I was craving chickpeas and curry.. and I was short on time, so I didn't want to make brown rice. Couscous it was! This was nice and filling and super easy :) This recipe made a gigantic pot full, definitely enough for like 5 people.

ingredients:
1 T peanut oil
1 small red onion- diced
1 inch ginger root- grated
salt
2 small carrots- peeled and chopped
1 big can of chickpeas (30 oz)- drained and rinsed
2 T curry powder
splash- Bragg's liquid aminos
1 1/2 frozen peas
2 cups whole wheat couscous
2 cups water

-Sauteed the onion in a lil oil, add in the ginger once it starts to cook. Salt this. Then add in the chopped carrot (if I had red pepper that would have been good too, add that and other veggies at this step). After a couple minutes, add the chickpeas and curry powder. Cook for a couple minutes until everything starts to come together. Season with some Bragg's (or tamari). Add in the peas and couscous, stir around a lil. Then add in the water and bring pot to a boil. Put a lid on the pot and remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff up the mixture and serve with a lil mango chutney if you want.

Vegan MOFO day 3- Spaghetti Squash w/ Tomato Cream Sauce

Dinner tonight introduced me to a new favorite vegetable! We bought a spaghetti squash at the Greenmarket last week, and hadn't gotten around to cooking it. I've never actually cooked (or eaten) any spaghetti squash before, but I'd heard so many times that it tastes super yummy and very spaghetti-y. I don't think I really believed people, but DAMN! yum yum yum! This was a really good dinner!

Spaghetti Squash:
Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and other funky junk. Place on baking sheet, cut side down. Then roast in oven @ 375F for 45-50 minutes. When it's done the skin will be a lil golden and the flesh will be easily pierced with a knife. To make the spaghetti strings, just scrap the flesh with a fork, and long strings will form.

Tomato Cream Sauce: (I used lots of stuff I had left in the fridge, so I don't really have exact measurements)
1 medium onion- diced
2 cloves garlic- finely diced
1 Tb olive oil
1 Tb tomato paste
1 26 oz. carton diced tomatoes
onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and dried basil to taste (maybe 1 Tb each)
1/4 block extra firm tofu
3/4 cup coconut milk.
3 T nutritional yeast
salt and pepper
hot sauce

I sauteed the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until tender, then I added in the tomato paste and a shake of red pepper flakes. I cooked this over medium heat until fragrant (*sniff* what's cookin, good lookin?). Then added in the diced tomatoes and seasoned it up with the onion powder, garlic powder and dried basil. I simmered this on the stove while the squash was cooking in the oven.

In a separate bowl, I combined the tofu, nutritional yeast and coconut milk. I blended this together to a frothy cream with my immersion blender. When creamy, I stirred this into the tomato sauce.

I seasoned the sauce with some hot sauce, salt and pepper.

I topped the spaghetti squash with the yummy cream sauce. Then we ate it and were very happy.

Vegan MOFO day 2- beer!

So Danny and I haven't been vegan all that long, but we've been very dedicated since April of this year. We're both quite Irish and enjoy ourselves a good beer or five. We've only recently learned that some beer and wine aren't vegan and are made with super gross ingredients... like isinglass... made from fish...ew!!!!

We found this cool website that has researched lots of different beers and tells you how vegan-friendly they are. Check it out --Barnivore

We bought ourselves some yummy AND vegan Yuengling :) We like it because its an independent, still owned and operated by the Yuengling family (and supposedly America's oldest) brewery, super yummy and cheap! woot woot!

Vegan MOFO day 1 - "Steak" and potatoes a la hubby

The name of this blog is Vegan Yummy by Peggy (in case you forgot). Yet tonight's entry *GASP* is brought to you by me, Danny (aka "hubby" in previous posts). Peggy had a tough day and I wanted to cheer her up, so I decided to cook up some yummy (heh) marinated tempeh and baked potatoes. I kinda doctored a recipe I found in the Veganomicon and made my own vegan equivalent of a hearty steak-and-potatoes feast.

Tempeh "Steak"
1 (8-ounce) package 3-grain tempeh
3/4 c. red wine (I used leftover cabernet sauvignon.. thanks Elissa!)
2 Tbsp bragg's liquid aminos
2 Tbsp bragg's apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp liquid smoke
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
3 cloves crushed garlic

I started by slicing the tempeh in half width-wise, then again into triangles. I DO love me a good triangle. This yielded 4 hearty triangles. Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Drop those triangles on in! Wait 10 minutes. What to do? Read a short story? File your taxes? No! Whisk together above marinade ingredients in a bowl large enough to fit 4 triangles of tempeh.

The tempeh plumped up quite nicely in the 10 short minutes. I let it soak for about 90 minutes, turning occasionally. Meanwhile....

Potatoes take forever. I threw these in the oven like, last week. Just kidding. Probably the same 90 minutes at around 350F. Not C. That'd be CRAZY hot. When they were done I topped them with a little Vegenaise and "bacon" bits.

Back to the land of tempeh "steak". Fry em up in a little peanut oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium/medium-high heat. Took about 10 minutes, turning occasionally and drizzling with remaining glaze.

Oh. I steamed some broccoli too, garnished with a little nooch. This whole meal was awesome. One might even say... YUMMY! And it made Peggy happy. :)

-Hubbs

Vegan MOFO

i'm gonna do my best to be part of the Vegan MOFO this year :)

tofu scramble

With these gloomy fall mornings, we've been craving substantial breakfasts. Today I decided to make the hubby a tofu scramble. There are so many different versions of this recipe online, I always just do my own thing with whatever I have on hand. Here's what I did today:

ingredients:
3/4 block extra firm tofu
2 T nutritional yeast
dash garlic powder
dash onion powder
dash turmeric
dash Spike seasoning
1 T peanut oil
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1 carrot, grated
salt, fresh ground pepper and hot sauce to taste

-crumble the tofu in a bowl and stir together with nooch, garlic powder, onion powder and turmeric. your mixture should be a little yellow and slightly fragrant
-in castiron skillet, cook up the onion with a lil oil, when the oil starts to get soft, add the tofu mixture in
-season with spike, salt and pepper
-cook until the mixture isn't so moist, maybe 10-15 minutes
-stir in grated carrot, top with a lil hot sauce

This recipe would work with a whole bunch of different veggies tossed in, and with lots of different spices. I was thinking this morning that it would be good with some curry powder in it. Very filling and satisfying breakfast :)

brussels sprouts with peanut sauce

This is one of my absolutely favorite dishes! Brussels sprouts have always been my favorite vegetable, even since I was a little kid. Much of this can be attributed to my earliest brussels sprout experiences being my grandma 'Bushie' cooking them for me. They were straight out of her garden and smoothered in butter... I fell in love right there.
Theses days I can't get enough of brussels sprouts anyway they are cooked. They are super yummy roasted, or shaved and made into a slaw. Mostly, I'm a sucker for my sprouts covered in peanut sauce and served on brown rice.

This is a dish authentic to no culture but my own, and I like it that way.. haha I used my standard yummy easy peanut sauce. I cooked up the brussels sprouts, cleaned, trimmed and cut in half, then steamed in a little water, when the water evaporated, I added a little EB to the pan and fried them til a lil crispy. Then I added in my peanut sauce and stirred until nicely coated.

pb stuffed cookies.

ive made these cookies twice in one week, that's how good they are! yummy chocolate cookies stuffed with sugar and peanut butter, yes please!
they are a little time consuming, but well worth the effort :)
i found the recipe here

spinachy fettucini alfredo

This dinner came out yummmmmmmy!!! Sometimes I get really excited about pasta, this was one of those dinners :) This recipe is a combination of a recipe I found on vegweb.com and a little of this, and a little of that.. Super healthy, filling and tasty! Here's what I did:

ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews
3 Tb nutritional yeast
1/2 large onion- chopped
2 cloves garlic- pressed
1 Tb earth balance (butter)
squeeze fresh lemon juice
1 tsp chickpea miso
salt and pepper
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1 lb. whole wheat fettucini
1 cup starchy pasta cooking water

-process cashews in food processor until cashews are in fine pieces, almost to a powder
-cook onions and garlic on stovetop in the earth balance, until slightly tender
-thaw frozen spinach
-add onion, garlic, thawed spinach, nooch, miso, and the pasta water to food processor.
-process until it becomes a thick creamy sauce, season with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon
-stir into pasta, and serve with vegan parmesan

holy yum yum yum

mac n' pepper-cheese

I convinced the hubby to buy me a copy of The Uncheese Cookbook when we were at the NY Vegetarian Expo a couple weeks back. This is the first recipe I tried from the cookbook. The recipe is for Baked Macaroni and Cheeze. I didn't quite follow the recipe exactly, I used more roasted red peppers than the recipe called for, and I didn't have a lemon, so no juice. The sauce consisted mostly of roasted red peppers, raw cashews, nooch and spices--all blended up. I used whole wheat rotini, and sprinkled homemade breadcrumbs on the top. Then it baked til bubbly and golden. I was surprised how orange and cheesey the sauce turned.

This was a very healthy recipe with barely any fat in the sauce. I think it came out quite yummy, not as cheesey-greasy tasting as my usual Vegan Mac recipe. I would definitely make it again. I think I just won't make this when I want comfort food. I admit.. I added some earth balance to the top when I ate the leftovers, I think I like my mac and cheese a lil greasey :) Cool cookbook though! I can't wait to try one of the firmer cheeze recipes.

pretty baked mac and cheeze

curried acorn squash soup with salad

This is tonight's veggie filled dinner. I realized that I have not been eating a ton of raw veggies lately, so I knew I wanted to have a big salad with dinner tonight. We got a bunch of salad veggies from the Greenmarket this morning. Here's the yummy salad I came up with: butter and red leaf lettuce, grated raw beets, sliced red onion, carrots, and pumpkin seeds, tossed with a lil balsalmic vinagrette. I really enjoyed the raw beets in the salad, their juiciness really made the dressing coat all the veggies.

I made a hearty soup for dinner. This was the kind of soup that warmed my soul, rich and flavorful, full of veggies too, so it was super healthy!

here's how I made the soup...

ingredients:
2 Tb olive oil
1/2 red onion- diced
1 large clove garlic- chopped
1/2 inch ginger- grated
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 small potatoes- cut into large chunks
1 acorn squash- peeled, seeded, then cut into large chunks
5 small carrots- peeled, then cut into large chunks
3 c. broth (i used 1/2 c. chickpea cooking broth, 1/2 c. kidney bean cooking broth, 2 c. water, 1 veggie buillion cube)
3 T curry powder
1 can coconut milk
salt, pepper and mango chutney to taste

-I heated the oil, in my big heavy soup pot, over med heat. I added the onion, garlic, ginger and mustard seeds, I cooked this together until fragrant (maybe 8 min).
-I then added in all the other veggies and the broth. I turned up the heat until I saw some small bubbles. I simmered this for about 25 min until the veggies started to get soft.
-I then added in the curry powder, and coconut milk. I used an immersion blender right in the pot, until the soup was completely smooth. I seasoned my soup with salt, pepper and 1 spoonful of mango chutney.
-I let the soup cook for about another 2o min.

We ate the soup with a lil dollop of EB on top and a slice of yummy bread. soup soup soup <3

roasted golden beets and fingerling potatoes with spicy tempeh

Well.. I bought some golden beets at the Greenmarket last sunday. Years ago, I ate some dish made with golden beets when my brother was a student at the Culinary Institute of America. (I got to eat lots of yummy vegetarian food in their restaurants while he went to school there yum yum!) Now.. I've always loved beets, but damn golden beets are amazing!!

I have never spotted golden beets at the Greenmarket or at Hannaford before. So when I saw these beauties at the market, I had to grab them up! We also bought some amazing fingerling potatoes from an adorable little girl. Her family has a little stand, and they sell no-spray heirloom beans, potatoes, and garlic. We bought a bunch of varieties of cute lil potatoes, some red ones, some yellow ones, even some blue ones.

For dinner tonight, the hubby and I used some teamwork. He cut up the potatoes and the beets, and tossed them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed fresh garlic, thyme and a lil Spike seasoning. We baked them for about an hour at 400. I added some red onion to the pan about half way through.

We also made some baked tempeh. We cut the block of tempeh up into triangles, steamed them for like 10 minutes. Then I coated them thoroughly with Frank's RedHot and a lil peanut oil. They needed to bake for about 2o minutes.

This dinner came out really yummy, and was totally satisfying. I love tempeh, it's so hearty. I like dinners when I have an excuse to use a steak knife (I could definitely have just cut the tempeh with the side of my fork, but I used a steak knife anyway!)

ps mustard and horseradish sauce added to the yum yum! WHAM-A-JAMA!

veggie pizza appetizer

This is a vegan-ized version of one my family's classic snacks, this was the go-to dish for my parents to bring to work parties,and it was a favorite snack at all our family holiday dinners. I made this for one of my work functions a couple of years ago, in my pre-vegan days. Someone requested that I make it again... so I decided to makeover the recipe. It really didn't taste any different than I remember, and I remember it being TASTY!

Here's what I did:

ingredients:
-2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls (the reduced fat version is vegan, full of weird ingredients, but vegan still)
-1 tub Tofutti cream cheese
-1/3 c. Vegenaise
-1 small red onion- finely diced
-about 1 c. fresh broccoli- cut into really small florets
-about 1 c. grated carrot
-about 1 c. tomato (i used cut up yellow and red cherry tomatoes)
-1/2 c. vegan parmesan cheese (i used 'almesan' from the veganomicon)

Roll out the crescent rolls onto baking sheet, meet end to end to form a pizza crust, bake according to package instructions. Allow to cool completely.

Mix together the creamcheese, vegenaise and onion. Spread mixture on the crust.

Arrange veggies on top, sprinkle with 'cheese.'

Tastes best after being refrigerated overnight.

pizza before being cut up :)