the vegan ELVIS sandwich :)

this is what i made my hubby for lunch today. an epic elvis-inspired sandwich (served with a lil cup of amy's no-chicken noodle soup!)

Vegan Elvis sandwich:
 
ingredients:

-2 pieces of bread
-crunchy peanut butter
-banana
-tempeh bacon (homemade of course! recipe --> here)

1) fry the tempeh bacon,
2) construct epic sandwich
3) cook in cast iron skillet til crispy and hot
4) eat! yum yum yum

im still vegan and loving it

hello all. i've been neglecting my blog, and feel the need to explain myself a bit....

sometimes keeping up a blog feels a bit overwhelming. i'm definitely still vegan and still cooking lots of yummy food, but i don't necessarily feel like taking pictures and talking about it all the time.

i've noticed that my satisfaction in life has an adverse relationship with the amount of time i spend wasting online. i've officially quit facebook and my short lived relationship with twitter was definitely not satisfying in the least. i realized that i know how to eat super healthy, but haven't always made the best choices in terms of physical fitness, and thats what i've been trying to focus recently... you know, keeping active and trying to lose my chunk.

so i really do get a kick out of people reading about my food and i still love drooling at other people's pictures of food. but haven't felt motivated to share that part of my life recently...

im pretty sure when the winter hits and i can't do stuff outside, i'll come back to blogging and (hopefully) making readers drool over my food creations.

::muah::

peggy

vegan sausages- improved!!

homemade sausage w/ sauteed onion and peppers on a hoagie roll, and curried potato salad

I've really enjoyed vegandad's sausages, I've made them several times and enjoyed the satisfying meaty texture. The past couple times I've made them, I decided to start playing around with some additions/omissions.... (I LOVE playing with recipes) and well, the recipe keeps getting better and better! Today I used garbanzo beans instead of the pinto called for in the original recipe, and added in grated onion, the addition of the onion keeps them moister and allows for a much improved texture. I've definitely also upped the spices considerably. With the garbanzo beans coarse-ness, I think we've found that these are  the best sausages yet. Here's what I did:

homemade sausages

1/2 c. garbanzo beans
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 c. bean cooking liquid (or veggie broth or water)
2 Tb soy sauce
1 Tb olive oil
2 cloves garlic-crushed
1/4 c onion- grated
1 1/2 tsp fennel seed- crushed
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sage
1 tsp rosemary
1 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten

-turn rice cooker onto "steam" setting, allow to heat up
-crush/mash beans until none are left whole, stir in all liquid ingredients, then add spices, then add vital wheat gluten-- dough should be very moist and spongy
-cut 6 square pieces of aluminum foil
-separate dough into 6 even pieces, form log shapes, then wrap up in foil, twist in edges into seal off
-steam for 35 min
-allow to cool in fridge, then cook in variety of ways (in frying pan, on grill, chopped up in stir fries, etc..)

 Tonight I fried the sausages in some onions and peppers, and ate my hoagie with lots of ketchup. The hubby said mustard is only way to go... we agreed to disagree and stuffed our happy faces :) :)

homemade bagels with roasted garlic and herb cream cheez

When I woke up yesterday morning and looked in my fridge, it looked really sad and empty, so I spent my saturday catching up on a lil cooking. We're a lil broke right now, so going to the grocery store and stocking up wasn't really an option. So I cooked a big pot of chickpeas to last the week, I also saw that we're completely out of bread, and we had some silken tofu and roasted garlic to use up. I decided to make some bagels and  make up some cream cheez.

A couple months ago I found --> this recipe on vegweb.com, I've made these bagels three times now. The first time, I used white flour and chopped up sundried tomatoes, they were AWESOME. The second time, I tried to make them healthy, I used whole wheat flour... and well they were kinda torture bagels, sooo dense and chewy and really not enjoyable at all. So this time, I went with white flour again, and they came out chewy and bagely and perfect :) I added some flaxseeds on the top, mostly because I didn't have any other seeds on hand. Great recipe, but I definitely suggest going with white flour.

For the cream cheese, I looked in The Uncheese Cookbook, I didn't really have all the ingredients for the cream cheez listed in the book, so I took the general idea and created my own cheez. Here's what I did:

Herb and Roasted Garlic Cream Cheez

ingredients:
1 c. silken tofu
1/3 c. raw cashews
1/2 head roasted garlic
1 tsp agave nectar
1 tsp salt
1 Tb rice vinegar
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried dillweed
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried parsley
1 Tb nutritional yeast

-blended all up in a food processor, then chill in fridge 

This has a much lighter texture than vegan cream cheese that you can buy at the store, but quite tasty and I thought it tasted great on the bagels :)

steve martin is vegetarian!?!

Huffington Post- Vegetarian Comedians <-- great list of vegetarian/vegan celebs. I had already known about a bunch of people listed, but I'm super excited to find out that Steve Martin AND Bill Cosby are vegetarians. I love both of those guys! Especially Steve Martin, ahhh swoon... and he plays Banjo too!

clothes swap party, with lots of vegan yummy treats **peppermint patties**

  

hummus platter, with chips, crackers and salsa

 Yesterday, I hosted a bunch of my ladies for a clothes swap. Swap parties are a lot of fun, its a great way to get rid of cute clothes, jewelry, bags, shoes and other stuff, and you get cool stuff from your friends :) My friends always dress so cute, and I love to grab the stuff they don't want anymore. I had a blast yesterday hanging out with wonderful ladies, adorable new (to me) clothes and eating yummy treats. I made a lil snack station with goodies to keep everyone full and happy.

I made a lil hummus platter, with assorted chips and rice crackers. I didn't make the hummus, it was store bought Sabra roasted garlic. We love this brand of hummus in my house, so creamy and decadent!

veggie pizza

 I also put together one of my veggie appetizer pizzas. This is super yummy and always a hit. I love how colorful it is. It's basically cresent roll dough, covered with a creamy cheesy topping and veggies. Recipe --> here

lemon squares

I made some lemon squares, recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I feel like I've blogged about this cookbook a lot, but it's so dependable. These tasted just like lemon bar I remember my mom making, buttery cookie layer on the bottom, and tangy gooey lemon filling on top. Yum! I found the recipe posted online --> here. You should probably just buy this book though, if you like vegan desserts, it's the best!

peppermint patties

The snacky that got all my ladies the most excited were these peppermint patties I made. They were very convincingly "york." The recipe is easy and pretty simple. Disclaimer: yes, I actually bought corn syrup to make these, super gmo... but so yummy and I really didn't eat that many!! And everyone who has tried them, loved em. So I think it's okay to use corn syrup once in a blue moon, right?
I found the recipe on vegweb.com, recipe for the patties --> here

p.s. my friend nicole also blogged about the swap --> here

wow

http://www.thisdishisvegetarian.com/2011/08/1887mother-bear-kills-cub-then-self-at.html

knitting project :) baby turtle

this has been keeping me busy lately. i love knitting and especially making toys. this pattern for knit turtle consisted on many lil pieces. making all the pieces was fun, but sewing them all together was a bit of a pain in the butt. i procrastinated on this project for a long time, and im so happy i actually finished it. the recipient of this toy was our cute lil niece and she seemed to approve of it. i know i'm super happy it came out cute!!

does anyone have a cute pattern for a toy owl? i would LOVE to make one of those

pizza night!!!

It's been so nice to be cooking again :) Tonight we had a pizza night.. although it was definitely too hot and humid to have the oven on, we braved it and enjoyed some yummy pizza with family. This first pizza was a "german pizza," I got the idea from a recipe on vegweb.com (I love that website!), I followed the recipe pretty closely. I used my regular pizza dough recipe, topped it with some mashed potatoes (yukon gold+vegenaise+salt+pepper), sliced homemade sausages (pretty close to this recipe.. I love these sausages, but have added my own flare, of course), sauerkraut and cheddar daiya cheese.
This is a great idea for a pizza, so hearty and yummy. The hubby LOVED and we'll definitely make it again.

This pizza is topped with basil, red onion, garlic, tomato slices and daiya mozzerella. Pretty yummy, but not as good as the german guy :)

all my lil animals

 this is shorty, he's the dude of the house (all 19 lbs of him)

 this is georgie fraggle, she's the baby of the house (and a yorkie-poo)

this is booger, despite her name, she is the sweetest lil kitty ever, she believes that all visitors to our house arrive with the sole purpose of cuddling with her, so be warned if you ever come over :)

more baking :) chocolate cake for the MIL

i've been doing a little more baking, and this is totally NOT the weather for baking!! here's a cute lil cake that i made for my mother in law, i did bake it a couple days ago when it wasn't quite so ungodly hot :) it's a chocolate cake, recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking (can you tell that i totally love this cookbook?? all the recipes are easy and delicious, i can't help loving it).

i topped the cake with an indulgent cream cheese frosting, i found the recipe --> here, and the hubby made the cake pretty by arranging some raspberries on the top. the cake came out cute and super yummy! and my mother in law loved it, so yay!

venturing back into the kitchen :) with some peach macadamia nut muffins

i've been off my feet for several weeks now due to ankle surgery. im starting to feel better and have energy again and i've been venturing back into the kitchen (yay!) all that time stuck on the couch made me miss being in the kitchen. the hubby did a great job feeding me, but i totally missed the experience of cooking.

on a trip out the house this week, we picked up some peaches at a farm stand. i thought maybe i'd throw them in some mufins :) i used the blueberry-lemon muffin recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking , but did a little tweaking. i was out of baking soda, so i just subbed 3x as much baking powder,  left out the lemon zest, and blueberries. and i added in two chopped up peaches, a handful of macadamia nuts, some 2 Tb of chopped up crystallized ginger and a 1/4 tsp coconut extract instead of lemon extract. this is such a great and versatile muffin recipe. i loved that it doesn't call for any specality ingredients like egg replacer powder. makes super yummy muffins. i've used the same basic recipe in the past and thrown in dried cranberries and flaked coconut. yum yum.

vegan sausage and pepper spaghetti

For tonight's dinner, I decided to use up some leftovers from yesterday's party, I had made a double batch of vegandad's sausages, there were three links leftover.. just enough for some pasta :)

I made a chunky tomato sauce with the chopped spicy sausage, leftover veggies (grilled peppers, eggplant and one lone mushroom), a box of chopped tomatoes, some onion, garlic, agave and spices.

I stirred the sauce into some whole wheat spaghetti, added some starchy cooking water to coat the pasta, and spinkled on top some Rawmesan (found that stuff up at a health food store in Saratoga, super yummy!). Delicious dinner :) I really liked how the sausages worked in the sauce, chewy and spicy, reminded me of eating out at a Italian restaurant. I'll make this again!

family party time!

I hosted my first ever family party this weekend. I was quite nervous about cooking up a vegan feast, for my non-vegan/gigantic family. I put a lot of work into a family friendly menu and the whole party went off without a hitch.

Vegweb.com is such an amazing resource and I found some great recipes on there for the party. As usual when there are too many people around, I forget to take pictures of food... but I do think I documented the dishes that came out the best :) I've made vegandad's sausages before, and they do NOT disappoint. They got gobbled up, along with lots of other goodies, that I made and were contributed :)

On the menu:
-Potato angels (pictured below).. these came out so yummy and the "deviled egg" job amazingly. The whole platter was cleared within minutes
-Red cabbage asian coleslaw.. I made this with cabbage, carrots, slivered almonds, ramen noodles and a sesame dressing
-Marinated chickpea and artichoke salad
-Spicy sausages
-Grilled veggies (eggplant, red, orange and yellow peppers, and porcini mushrooms)
-Pineapple Upside-down Cake (super easy recipe, SUPER delicious cake, i highly recommend!)
-homebrewed iced tea

sweet potato-chickpea curry with mellow yellow rice

Have I ever told you how much I love Indian food? Well I do, but I have NO CLUE how to cook it authentically, my lack of knowledge doesn't stop me from trying! I think my attempts are yummy :)

Last night, I satisfied the Indian craving.. I made a curry with a sweet potato, chickpeas, onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder and coconut milk. (I also added in other spices... like cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper). I basically started with the aromatic veggies, added in the spices and coconut milk, chopped sweet potato and chickpeas.. then let it come together on the stovetop for 45 minutes.

I also made a yummy mixed yellow rice. I had like 3/4 cup of brown rice and 2/3 cup of basmati rice left in the cabinet, so not really enough for a full dinner, I decided to combine them into a sort of pilaf. During my lazy sunday afternoon, I had cooked the rices separately in the rice cooker, then let cool. When it was almost time for dinner, I cooked up a lil onion in some earth balance, added a teaspoon of turmeric, then fried the rice in. I used my regular chinese fried rice technique, and it worked great! I think saffron would have been an awesome flavor, but I'm too poor and the turmeric did the mellow yellow job. I also steamed some kale for a nutritious side of greens.

I wish I could have posted a "recipe" for this... but whenever I make a curry I never measure, and just keep adding random spices until I'm happy with the flavor.

Watkins Glen- Perfect Vegan Getaway!

We had a great weekend adventure in Watkins Glen last weekend. My hubby planned me a birthday weekend away, my actual birthday was back in December, but I totally enjoyed celebrating in Springtime. Little did I know that Watkins Glen is a lil vegan paradise hidden away in central New York.

We stayed at this adorable little Bed and Breakfast, called "The Ginger Cat," the B&B is all vegan and super welcoming. When we arrived after our 3 and 1/2 hour car ride, we were greeted by the owner Gita, with a smiling face, she showed around and we found delicious chocolate cake waiting for us in our room.

We spent the weekend exploring local natural wonders, we were totally blown away by the beauty of the Watkins Glen gorge. We were able to hike the amazing pathway along the gorge, with waterfall after waterfall (a total of 19). The gorge is in a state park with amazing stone stairs climbing along the gorges, and wrapping under waterfalls. We even caught the perfect time of day to see rainbows over the water.

We were able to enjoy lots and LOTS of vegan cuisine. The breakfast feasts we enjoyed at the B&B were fantastic, the first morning we enjoyed quesadillas (w/ the new PepperJack Daiya), roasted brussel sprouts, fruit, muffins, and more. On Sunday, we enjoys chocolate-banana waffles, covered in strawberries, lemon-pepper tofu (holy yum!), scones, and more. These breakfasts left us totally satisfied and energized for days exploring the Fingerlakes region.

We also enjoyed eating out on the town :) After our hike at the gorge, we got some highly recommended vegan soft serve ice cream! Neither of us have eaten soft serve on a cone in a long time, and this place did not disappoint. I even got a brain-freeze!!! For dinner, we checked out the Rooster-Fish Brewpub. The menu included a whole vegetarian section, and the friendly server pointed out options that were vegan and/or easily veganizable. We also tried the sampler of home brewed beers, with a sweet potato fry appetizer. I enjoyed my soba noodle dinner, and the hubby enjoyed an avocado pizza pie. The high light was definitely the beer, super tasty, I think I loved them all… except for the really dark ones…

For one of our lunches, we grabbed some amazing subs right in downtown Watkins Glen at the Glen Mountain Bakery. This bakery has a huge selection, including bread, sandwiches and pastries (with LOTS of vegan options). We couldn't resist trying the seitan subs, and they did not disappoint. The sandwiches were huge, on amazing bread, with tasty seitan and fresh veggies.
Our innkeeper gave us some pointers on local vineyards that make vegan wine. We took an afternoon and decided to check out some of those vineyards. The first one we checked out had really tasty wine, but was full of "bro" types.. we were tasting wine at 2:30 in the afternoon, and were a bit put off by the obnoxious bachelor/bachelorette party crowd, I don't really love whooting with my Reisling. So, we headed on down the road to Rasta Ranch, a vineyard that we were told would be more our speed. We were welcomed warmly by a friendly hippy wearing tie-dye and drinking a beer. The clientele was warm, smiley, and the wine flowed freely. We were able to taste a huge variety and loved the decor and music. Along with wine, the Rasta Ranch sells incense, tie-dye skirts, etc.. We enjoyed our afternoon there and grabbed several bottles to take home with us.

The true highlight of the weekend was our visit to the Farm Sanctuary, this is what truly brought us to the region. We were able to spend several hours meeting the staff and animals of the Sanctuary. We've been able to visit the Woodstock sanctuary in the past, and bond with the animals, and this sanctuary proved to be another beautiful experience. The land this farm sits on is absolutely breathtaking. We really lucked out with the weather and enjoys a mild, sunny morning to hang around the farm. Immediately upon arrival, I got lost in the gift shop, and wanted to take home all the vegan goodies that I've seen on blogs, but have never seen anywhere near Schenectady (vegan s'more cookie, what?!?). Once our tour started, I feel in love with the animal residents of the farm. We visited with the "special needs" cattle first, and I became friends with a calf named Blitzen, our tour guide told us that he was rescued from a cattle auction, and was being basically given away for free, because he was sickly and under weight, when he was rescued and brought to live on this amazing farm. I was hanging out with one of the other calfs when I felt a bonk on my leg, and it was Blitzen coming to say "hi", the same way my kitty at home says "hi", by slamming his head into my leg. He was super loving, and had the most amazing Dow eyes. I wanted to hang out with him all day, but our tour guide said we should go see everyone else. We were able to visit with the goats, turkeys, chickens, and pigs. I made another good friend when we visited the pigs, I spent a few minutes scratching the belly of this cutie Sprinkles.

Even though I am vegan, and don't feel guilty of supporting the meat industry that causes so much pain and suffering on part of animals (anymore). It is extremely powerful to visit with these animals and learn their histories and how their lives were on those other farms. The horror and suffering of their lives is so undeserved. Its almost amazing to me that these animals are so loving and forgiving to humans, after the way other those humans treated them. Do Blitzen and Sprinkles really know me any different than a farm hand? When I see battery cages, and see videos of the confinement that millions and millions of animals are forced to live their lives in, its amazing to me that there aren't more vegans out there and more of an outcry against their treatment.

Although the Farm Sanctuary is a very informative environment, I continue to learn more and more about animal rights… I did not leave there with a feeling of depression or guilt. I left with hope, and now I can't wait to go back. All in all, I think I fell in love with Watkins Glen this past weekend.. and lil' Blitzen…

paella success!!! :)

I tend to get addicted to watching cooking shows, even though I'm a lil grossed out everytime, because almost always cooking shows make meat :( I really enjoy watching cooking techniques and getting ideas for flavor combinations. Every recipe can be veg-inized...so the other day I caught a cooking show where they made a paella, it looked so yummy with that yellowy rice and pretty presentation. and I decided that I would experiment and see if I could make a yummy paella :)

I looked in my How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook, and a found this yummy looking and simple recipe, and I had tomatoes that needed to be used up. This came together really easy and was super tasty. I didn't have any saffron, so I skipped it, but I think it would definitely be even better with the saffron in there.

I made a lil aioli to top it off (vegenaise, chopped parsley, dried herbs and pressed garlic).

I'll be making paella again soon!

vegan crabby patties

There's been a serious lack of posting on here lately, we just moved into our first house, and we've been busy and frazzled. I've been cooking lots of yummy things, but too lazy to take pictures before I eat. I made these crabby patties the other day, and they were too cute and yummy to not share with y'all.

So... back in my pre-veg days, I definitely had a weakness for crab cakes. I've seen lots of recipes online for vegan versions, but hadn't gotten around to making them until this week. I found this recipe , on the super reliably delicious theppk.com. I followed the recipe pretty exactly, and used the suggested kelp flakes, for extra fishy-ness.

These came out super super yummy! The hubby and I are always happy with tempeh, and this is such a great use for it. They came together really easy, and once cooked, they disappeared within minutes. I'll be making them again real soon :)

fideo!!!

Today was a nice relaxing sunday spent with my hubby and animals. For dinner, I decided to make fideo again. I made this only last week for the first time ever, and I think it's my new favorite food. I've had a bookmark on this recipe for six months, and only just got around to making this it. Super simple to make, and super delicious. I barely ever eat white pasta, but this recipe is so yummy its worth it. I think I'll try it with whole wheat angel hair, broken into little pieces. Also on tonight's dinner menu, a bbq bean loaf and some noochy snap peas.

i made some cheez!

Last weekend, I decided to make some firm cheez, from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, I've seen other bloggers rave about the Colby Cheez, a firm cheez, good for crackers and grilled cheez sandwiches. I gathered all the necessary groceries for the recipe, the only weird one was agar powder. I've never used agar before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I followed the "Chedda" suggestion, at the bottom of the Colby recipe. The recipe was pretty simple to follow, and didn't take very long. I decided to throw some chopped walnuts in the bottom of the dish, to make the cheez look a bit fancier :) And, it sure looked fancy!

So I brought this cheez to a family party, and served it with some crackers. The flavor was really quite nice and cheezy. The flavor was perfect with crackers, my only complaint was the texture, it wasn't perfect to me, a bit... gelatinous... I'm not sure if this is because I boiled the agar for too long. The directions said cook until completely dissolved, I didn't really see a change in the mixture that would be undissolved/dissolved. Alot of the cheez got eaten (by a bunch of non-vegans for the record). I think I'll attempt another cheez with agar, and see if I like the texture any better.

With the leftover cheez, we decided to make some cheezy-broccoli rice. I made a sauce with some plain almond milk, a splash of bragg's, a squirt of mustard, a lil sriracha and the rest of the cheez, all shredded up. I let the mixture come to a bubble, the cheez melted in completely. Then we added in some chopped frozen broccoli, and leftover white rice from Chinese delivery. This mixture came out GREAT! We definitely preferred the cheez this way :) We served it with some hot sauce glazed tempeh courtesy of The Veganomicon, and some steamed cabbage.

"egg" salad sandwich

I wanted a hearty healthy lunch today, so I turned to a cookbook that I haven't used in a quite awhile. I got American Wholefoods Cuisine several years ago when I first started cooking for myself. I found a nice recipe for making an egg salad with tofu. Basically, I pressed the tofu, then cut it into lil cubes, then mixed with chopped celery, vegenaise, mustard, dried dill and curry powder. I seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper. Great flavor and texture very similar to the egg salad my mom made me as a kid.

For my sandwich, I used Heidelberg multigrain bread, piled on shredded carrot, arugula, a roasted red pepper, the "egg" salad and some spicy mustard. Great lunch :)

We're still here!

So, I thought I'd take a minute to let everyone know that Vegan = Yummy by Peggy (and sometimes me!) is far from gone. Peggy and I just decided that we were spending too much time using Facebook and quit cold turkey (cold tofurky?). We will continue to provide delicious vegan recipes and images as often as possible, but solely on this here blog. Hope that's okay with y'all!

...

Now, what's for breakfast? :)

-Dan

diner-style breakfast

I haven't been inspired to blog much lately, mostly because we've been super busy, and posting little blurbs and pics on facebook is much lazier than posting on here :)

Today's breakfast was quite epic, so I thought I'd share with the blogosphere. Yesterday was the hubby's birthday (we were up late celebrating...) so when we woke up, we were in great need of a big satisfying breakfast. In our pre-vegan days, we would be off to Miss Albany diner on mornings like this. But as vegans in Schenectady, NY, we need to fend for ourselves when it comes to diner-y food.

The menu for our diner breakfast: hash browned potatoes, spicy tofu scramble, guacamole and EB slathered toast :) AND COFFEE!

We started the hash browned potatoes first. I used Adirondack Red potatoes from the Greenmarket. They aren't sweet like sweet potatoes, but have pretty red flesh all the way through. They are quite delicious and cook up a cool dark red/brown color.

for the potatoes:
-2 big potatoes (Adirondack Red for us)
-1/2 onion
-peanut oil
-paprika, s&p
-1 clove garlic

-cut up the potatoes REALLY small so that they don't take forever to cook.
-we started with some oil in a cast-iron skillet over med-high heat. cooked the onion a lil, then added the potatoes and spices (to taste).
-don't stir the potatoes around too much, and you'll get a nice crisp on the potatoes. stir every five minutes or so until they start to be nice and brown
-i think ours took around 2o minutes until i was satisfied. once i turned i heat off, i added the clove of garlic (minced or pressed), then stirred it around.

While this was cooking we got our tofu scramble ready. Tofu scramble only usually takes about 10 minutes to cook... so we overlapped our cooking times.

for the scramble:
-1/2 block extra firm tofu
-onion powder
-garlic powder
-turmeric
-s&p
-1/4 onion, chopped
-2 marinated hot peppers, chopped (we used some leftover peppers that were from the bulk olive bar at the grocery store, use whatever is on hand)
-handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
-2 carrots (we used purple carrots), shredded
-nutritional yeast
-vegan cheese

-in a small bowl, crumble tofu and season up with some with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and turmeric. i don't really measure, but i am usually pretty conservative with the turmeric (only 1/2 tsp would be enough). stir this mixture around and set to the side.
-in a small frying pan over med heat, add a lil oil, and cook the onion a bit. once onion starts to cook, add in veggies (hot peppers, tomatoes, or anything you want). cook this for a minute then add in tofu mixture, cook this around until bright yellow and it starts to firm up (7-8 min)
-once it looks like firm scrambled eggs, stir in shredded carrot and a handful of nutritional yeast, it should be sticky and almost cheesy.
-we topped ours with some shredded vegan cheese (FYH monterey jack). i put it on top, turned the heat off and put a lid on the pan. the "cheese" was melty in about a minute.

The scramble came out super spicy, so we ate it with some guacamole :) We both gobbled up our breakfast and while we ate, talked about how cool it would be to own a vegan diner of our own some day...

parsnip and sweet potato au gratin!

So a couple weeks ago, I found a recipe online for a Gratin dish--> here. So I went to the farmer's market, and bought a whole load of parsnips, I got home all excited to make the Parsnip Gratin, looked online for the recipe, when I realized it was RUTABAGA gratin! I got all grumpy and was like "what the heck am I gonna do with all these parsnips???" The hubby told me to calm down, and I reluctantly decided to make the dish anyways.

I had lots of second thoughts as I was preparing the sauce and the parsnips, I believe I even canceled dinner once or twice. When it started baking, it started filling up the house with a rich cheesey smell... Then we ate it, it had great texture, and the cashew cream sauce was fantastic as a "gratin." We did agree that parsnips are a pretty strong flavor, and this gratin would be improved upon by adding other veggies. So I decided to improve upon the gratin last night. Here's what I did and, by the way, it came out great!

ingredients:

1 3/4 c. boiling water
1 c. raw cashews
1/2 c. tahini
2 T chickpea (light) miso
1 big parsnip
1 big sweet potato
1/2 small red onion
salt
pepper
thyme
nutmeg

-cover cashews with boiling water, let sit for 20-30 minutes.
-using immersion blender, blend cashews (with water), tahini and the miso. this should be super creamy and smooth
-prepare veggies! i used the food processor to make thin discs of the parsnip and sweet potato. i also chopped up the onion into lil pieces
-coat baking dish with oil.
-then layer your gratin. i started with one layer of parsnips, then a lil salt, pepper, thyme. then a layer of sweet potato and a lil onion, then more salt, pepper, thyme. then added about 1/3 the cashew cream sauce. then more veggies, spices, etc... until you've used up all the veggies, and topped with the last of the sauce
-cover the dish, and bake at 400 for 50 min. use a knife to check for tenderness. if the dish is almost done, top with garlic breadcrumbs and bake for 10 more min until golden.

Buffalo "Chicken" Dip

Sorry for lack of blogging lately, December always gets so nutty and busy, and truthfully, I was a lil burnt out from Vegan MOFO, but I'm feeling inspired to share my food again, so here goes...

Today we were invited to a New Year's Day party at the hubby's Dad's house. I wanted to share a snacky..

I have never actually eaten Buffalo Chicken dip, but I've seen it brought to many parties, and it sounds like the type of food I'd like, you know.. creamy, spicy, salty. So I decided to attempt to make my own vegan version. Made with processed food, for sure, so not healthy at all.... but I wasn't really going for healthy anyways.

ingredients:
Gardein Frozen Buffalo Wings
Vegenaise
Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
Frank's Red Hot
powdered garlic
powdered onion
Chipotle Parma (vegan parmesan cheese)

-I prepared the buffalo wings, on the stove top, as suggested on the package. I ended up using about 1 and 1/2 packages of wings, as that's what I had in my freezer. Once the wings were all cooked, I added one of the sauce packets that comes with the wings to the pan, then coated the wings. I then put them in the food processor, and pulsed several times, until the "chicken" was shredded.
-I combined the shredded "chicken" with 1 tub of Tofutti, ~1/2 cup of vegenaise, a couple dashes of hot sauce, with garlic, onion and Parma sprinkled in.
-I put this in a baking dish, topped with a lil Parma, and warmed it up in the oven til hot.

So, this was amazing, maybe nothing like other versions of Buffalo Chicken dip, but yum yum yum!