Breakfast Burritos!

My honey has been asking for this for years. Don't know why I never got around to it because these are really good! He used to enjoy the Sonic breakfast burrito. This is an homage to fast food burritos, but without as much fat, and without the animals. The recipe has a couple components, but you can make several burritos, so you get a lot out of your effort.





-Use your favorite tofu scramble that uses one block/1 lb tofu(I used VWAV), adding Follow Your Heart Jack cheese/other vegan cheese if you want.
-Bake some tater tots.
-Saute 1/2 tube Gimme Lean sausage style. I fry up fennel seed first, add the sausage and smash with a spoon. I also add a tiny bit of liquid smoke and about 1-2 tsp. brown sugar
-For a bit of a greasy factor, saute onion and pepper in some Earth Balance.

Put it all together in a burrito:
Microwave or put over the burner the tortilla. It makes it pliable. Fill with tofu scramble, onions/peppers, sausage, and tots and roll up- sides first, then roll up.

I like salsa and vegan sour cream. Don't forget..you can add jalapenos, olives, hot sauce, whatever you want.

Pork Wonton Soup

Yum! I found this tasty, cheap "pork" gluten at my local Asian market. So far we've done hot BBQ pork/cucumber sushi. It's delicious grilled with sauce. So I decided to make wonton soup. I wanted the soup to be simple and the dumplings to be the star. Have I said a million times that I love dumplings of all sorts? You can also make these dumplings (do a simple triangle) and pan-steam them. Yum!





"Pork" Wonton Soup
1 can Wu-Chung fried pork, drained and pulsed to crumbles in food processor
2 cups small-chopped green cabbage
2 cloves garlic
1 small dried chili pepper, chopped very tiny
small piece ginger, minced (1 tsp)
2 green onions, chopped
2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 pkg vegan wonton wrappers
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
6 cups water
6 tsp/2 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon vegan "chicken" broth, or vegetable broth.

-Soak mushrooms in hot water for 20 min. If using fresh, saute and set aside. Chop small. Can use water in broth for soup if desired.
-Heat a large skillet and add 1 tsp peanut/other neutral oil. Fry garlic, ginger, and chili pepper for about 30-45 seconds. Do not burn garlic because burned garlic will make everything bitter and it can't be fixed.
-Add "pork", soy sauce, and sesame oil and saute about 2-3 minutes, until mixture is not too wet.
-Add cabbage and a small handful of chopped green onions. Cook until cabbage is tender and wilted. Cool to room temperature or colder before making dumplings.
-Shape dumplings as desired, using 1/2-1 tsp filling per wonton. Do not overstuff.
Here is a great demonstration with 3 different folds, from Cmtoy on Youtube. Video posted with permission.
-Heat water to dissolve bouillon; boil and add dumplings. Add mushrooms and rest of green onion. Cook about 2 min or until dumplings are not starchy-looking, and wrappers have tightened around filling. Finish with sesame oil and extra soy sauce to taste in the broth.

Green Stuffed Shells

I made these shells with more veggies in mind. It was actually supposed to be a lasagna but I didn't have lasagna noodles. I made it with Mean Green Spinach sauce, but about 1/2 the recipe was used, so if you are *just* making this, then 1/2 the recipe.



The Mean Green sauce is VERY spinach-y. If you don't like spinach a lot, then I would suggest to pick another sauce or omit.

Green Stuffed Shells w/Mean Green Spinach Sauce

1/2 recipe Mean Green Spinach Sauce (recipe follows)
1 small batch white sauce (recipe follows)
1 recipe tofu ricotta
3-4 med size piece seitan, chopped, cooked and seasoned (maybe 3/4-1 cup)
pasta shells (I used about 12 but used 10oz tofu. Adjust for your ricotta recipe)
spaghetti sauce for pan
hand full (1 c) chopped broccoli

*Make whichever tofu ricotta you like. Chill in refrigerator.
*Cook seitan until crispy and mix with ricotta. Chill while you prepare dish.
*Cook large pasta shells as directed, and rinse with cold water. Set aside. Do not drain water. Throw broccoli in boiling water and cook a few minutes until tender but not mushy. Chop and set aside.
*Make Mean Green Spinach Sauce and white sauce while shells are cooking (or make spinach sauce the day ahead and chill).
*Pour a little spaghetti sauce in a small square nonstick baking pan.
*Fill cooled shells with ricotta mixture. Top with broccoli.
*Place each shell in pan, and top with Mean Green Spinach Sauce, White Sauce, a little more shapgetti sauce, and optional vegan cheese.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until well-heated through. Broil to melt cheese the last couple minutes, if using. Keep an eye on it.



Mean Green Spinach Sauce
1/2 c packed cilantro (or if you are a hater, just double parsley)
1/2 c packed parsley
1/2 frozen block spinach (makes 2-2 1/2 Tbsp spinach when thawed and squeezed). You could probably also just use 2 lare handfuls fresh spinach
1 c vegetable/vegan "chicken" flavor broth
2 Tbsp. soy milk
1 Tbsp. vegan margarine
1/2- 1 tsp. cornstarch

Blend everything very, very well in a blender and place on low heat until thickened and just barely boiling. Makes a crazy bright green sauce. I would suggest to eat it with another sauce. It's strongly flavored, but good in applications like this.

White Sauce
1 Tbsp. vegan margarine
1 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1/2 c soy milk
salt and pepper.

Melt margarine in a saucepan, then whisk flour and nutritional yeast until crumbly and toasted. Do not burn. Add 1/4 c soy milk and break down chunks. Add other 1/4 c soy milk and keep stirring until thickened but not too thick. Set aside.

White Butternut Seitan Lasagna

This smaller-pan lasagna includes butternut squash, chicken-style seitan, mushrooms and creamy ricotta, but don't let that scare you. You can make all the components while the others are cooking, and clean up while it's in the oven.







8 average lasagna noodles
1 c chopped chicken-style seitan
8-9 regular button mushrooms, sliced
1 recipe tofu ricotta*
1 1/2 c mashed butternut squash**
2 c béchamel sauce***
1/3- 1/2 shredded vegan cheese, such as Follow Your Heart

Make the ricotta first- you can use any type you like. My general recipe is
1 lb firm tofu, pressed, then mixed in food processor with olive oil, vegan mayo, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Next, make the butternut squash:
Peel and cube, either baking or boiling until tender. Drain very, very well and mash with salt, pepper, and a touch margarine.

While the butternut squash is cooking, saute the seitan and the mushrooms until mushrooms release the liquid and the liquid evaporates. You can season this mixture with a little of the seitan broth. Cool slightly and pulse in food processor. Small chunks are okay.

While squash is draining well, cook lasagna noodles and make bechemel***. I like Bryanna Clark Grogan's. When noodles are done, drain and rinse in cool water, so you can handle the noodles

Layering:

Spray a 9"x9" pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Layer:
Spread 1/3 of the bechemel sauce
3 noodles, cutting off excess and setting the small piece aside.
1/2 of the ricotta
1/2 of the mushroom-seitan mixture
1/2 of the squash,
then 3 noodles again (cutting off excess).

Layer again in the same fashion, and cover with the 2 full noodles, and the noodle remnants. Cover with remaining sauce and sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees 20-30 min, broiling the last couple minutes to melt the cheese. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes and serve with a vegetable.

Curry Udon StirFry/ Seitan Piccata

I used 2 Cookbooks for the last 2 Dinners we had. The Curry Udon StirFry is from Veganomicon (also sometimes called "V-Con"). The Seitan Piccata (with White Wine and Caper Sauce) recipe is from Candle Cafe Cookbook. The twice baked potato pictures with the Piccata is below.

I cut the fat in both: for the Stir Fry, I used 1 Tb.+ 1 tsp. oil for the roux, and 2 tsp. oil for the whole stir fry. For the piccata, I didn't use as much oil to saute the seitan, and I cut the margarine by 1/2. It was still very tasty.

First, the Curry Udon. I knew the items featured in this dish would make a pretty plate set up, plus you are supposed to do your mise en place, anyway. With stir fries and the like, I actually do :)


Spices

Ginger

Oh goodness, all together!


Next, the Seitan Piccata, Twice-Baked Potatoes, and Broccoli




Twice-Baked Potatoes (The amounts of everything are totally up to you!)
Desired # of potatoes
Vegenaise
Earth Balance Margarine
Tofutti Sour Cream
Follow Your Heart Cheese (I did about 1/2 c chopped, for 3 potatoes)
"Bacon" bits
Chopped onion (scallions)
Salt
Pepper

Wash potatoes well, and poke holes into them with a fork. Place in preheated 350-degree oven for about one hour. (Right on the rack is fine, no foil or anything).

Test potato done-ness: if a knife easily slips in and out, it's done. If not, place back in oven in increments of 5-10 minutes. PLEASE BE CAREFUL. Use tongs, for the love of all that is holy.

Carefully cut almost all the way through, open, and allow to cool enough to handle. Scoop out potato insides with a spoon, and place in a bowl. Set skins aside. Mash insides with all filling ingredients until smooth. Season to taste.

Spoon mashed potatoes back into skins. (I used my hands, it was easiest). Place back in oven and bake 10-15 minutes more. If you'd like to be super-fancy, whip potatoes with a mixer and pipe back in with a frosting bag.

Thanksgiving, Pumpkin Rolls, Veganomicon, DEOTS

Haven't posted in a while!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My mom is a great cook and made everything vegan-friendly (that could be). She made:
Knot rolls
Stuffing
Home-made cranberry sauce
Butternut Squash
Carrots
Green Beans
Mashed potatoes
Sweet Potatoes

I made Green Bean casserole, Smlove Pie, and Tofurkey.

Table spread


Tofurkey


My plate


Smlove Pie



Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk (aka DEOTS)


This next dish comes from
Veganomicon (VCON). Chickpea cutlets with red wine roux. I made lemon-butter noodles as well.



Rough recipe for lemon butter noodles:

Cook up 1/2 bag egg-free noodles, drain. In same pan (dry), heat 1/2 c vegetable stock, 2 Tb. earth balance margarine, and let simmer a little. It will thicken slightly. Add a 1/2-1 Tbsp. or more lemon juice and add noodles back in, coating well.

Chili

This is a variation on my mom's recipe. It's pretty loose, as you can add what you want to it. Choose whatever extra protein you want: 8oz tempeh, tofu, seitan, TVP, lentils, homemade crumbles, etc. or just omit all together, as there are beans in it. Here it is served with fresh raw corn and vegan sour cream.





-1 large onion, minced*
-2-4 stalks celery, with leaves, minced*
-1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced*
-3 cloves garlic (more/less to taste), minced*
(*Easiest way to do this is to chop small and pulse in food processor.)

-1 (14-16oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
-1 (14-16oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1 (14-16oz) can tomato sauce**
-1 (14-16oz) can diced tomatoes**
(**Can use two cans of either. You can also start with a 28oz. can and see if you need more)

-1 8oz bag Morningstar Farms "Steak" strips or other protein (see note about proteins above)

-A-1 Steak Sauce
-Tabasco Hot Sauce
-Chili Powder

Heat a little olive oil in a large pot with tall sides, saute minced vegetables until tender. Season with salt and pepper.
Add beans and tomatoes/tomato sauce, A-1, chili powder, and Tabasco, to taste

Meanwhile, sauce steak strips in a little oil (in separate pan) until crispy on the outside. Cut into small pieces (can pulse in food processor).

Simmer chili until thickened a little, about 10-20 min (it is ready to eat at any time but simmering makes the flavours come out). You can even simmer on very low for a couple hours. Make sure to keep an eye on it and stir.

Add "steak" to chili before serving. Stir until well-combined and serve with rice, pasta, biscuits, or corn bread and a salad.

Low-Fat "Cheeseburger" Pasta + Make-Your-Own-Crumbles Recipe

This recipe has about 30 grams of fat for the entire batch, which makes 4-6 decent servings. Use whole wheat pasta if available. (I can't find vegan WW ribbons)

"Cheeseburger" Pasta

1 small onion diced
1 c crumbles (see recipe below!)
Handful mushrooms, chopped (if you don't like mushrooms, omit)
1 tsp olive oil
Tony Chachere's brand** or your favourite multi-purpose seasoning

4 c uncooked egg-free pasta ribbons (less if using a denser pasta, like macaroni)

1/4 c nutritional yeast
1/4 c flour (I used whole wheat pastry)
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 Tbsp margarine (earth balance)
1/4 tsp. (wet) mustard
1/4 tsp. dijon mustard
salt to taste
dash garlic powder
few turns fresh ground black pepper


Heat a small pan and add the olive oil. Saute mushrooms and onions until onions are translucent. Add crumbles and seasoning and cook until moisture is gone.

Cook pasta and drain. Set aside.

Put flour and nutritional yeast in a (separate)dry pan, around MED heat. Whisk mixture until "toasted" and not raw-tasting. Be careful! Don't burn!
Slowly whisk in milk. Beat out any lumps.
Add margarine, mustards, garlic powder, and pepper. Mixture will thicken.

Add cooked pasta and onion/crumble/mushroom mixture. Mix well. Serve with a salad!

Make-Your-Own-Crumbles

This recipe is inspired by Boca and other crumbles, which are about $6-$8/lb. This is cheaper, though I have no idea how much it actually costs.

*3 c Textured Vegetable Protein/Textured Soy Protein
*scant 2 1/2 to 3 cups boiling water
*2-3 tsp. Better Than Bouillon Beef OR your favourite vegan beef broth powder/cubes, to taste
*1/4 c. A-1 steak sauce (it's clean, don't worry)
*Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce (optional, just for colour)

Add bouillon to water and whisk until dissolved. Add TSP/TVP and mix well. Add A-1 and a dash Kitchen Bouquet. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Use as directed. Best if sauteed with spices.

**If you click on the link, please ignore the monstrosity that is the TurDuckEn. I apologize that it exists.

"Meat" Loaf with Scalloped Potatoes and Veggies

Yummy!

I easily veganized this recipe by substituting soy milk for the whole milk, and Earth Balance for the butter. I used 2 c. soy mil instead of 2 1/4 c. (It also cut the fat in milk by about half.) A good addition to this would be vegan "ham" and/or very thinly sliced onions.

Out of the oven






The meatloaf recipe is here on my blog (scroll down)

Cucumber 'Noodle" and Carrot Salad/Spaghetti with Joni's Meetballs

I made this up today because I always throw away my cucumbers before they get eaten and I wanted something fresh and healthy. I am never on a diet but I do like to watch what I eat. Sometimes I am better and watching things as I eat them, but there are days where you just want something fresh!!






This Asian-inspired cold salad hit the spot. You may or may not be able to tell from the blog but Asian food is my favourite. I love Chinese, Thai, Japanese sushi, and Korean when I can get it. I made it up with ingredients from the cupboard and I really liked how it turned out. This dressing serves one, but you can easily get 2 good salads out of the vegetables. Adjust to taste. There are no measurements because taste is very different.

*1 cucumber, peeled
*1 carrot, peeled
*1 small dollop of Miso Mayo (1/2-1 tsp)OR light-flavoured chickpea or sweet white miso (1/4-1/2 tsp)
*1 small splash of tamari/soy sauce
a few drops of sesame oil
1 small splash of rice vinegar
black or white sesame seeds for garnish

I do not have a fancy-schmancy raw food noodle maker thing, but I DO have a vegetable peeler, a food processor, and a grater. I assume you have one of these also.

All you do to make the "noodles" is peel with a vegetable peeler, or you can grate/food process shred them. Be sure to rotate the vegetable (if peeling) so you evenly cut from it or it will be hard to peel.
If using the vegetable peeler, just stop when you get to the seeds. OR you can cut the cucumber in 1/2 lengthwise, scoop the seeds out, and try peeling that way.
Lay your cucumber "noodles" on a paper towel to dry or squeeze the heck out of them. You want to not have a lot of water, and cucumbers are wet vegetables.

As you can tell in the picture, I shredded the carrot and made the cucumber into "noodles". You can either shred all of the vegetables, make both into "noodles" or do a combination. Just use what you have. If your food processor has a blade, you can prep your veggies in under 30 seconds.

Whisk all of the dressing ingredients in a very small bowl, pour over carrot/cucumber and garnish.

Spaghetti with Joni's Meetball recipe!

Sushi, Ribz, Stuffed Mushrooms, Baked Potato + more!

This plate has Ribz, stuffed mushrooms (recipe on this blog), and baked potato with roasted garlic and onion, cheez sauce, Tofutti sour cream, green onion, and Bacos.











Pizza from Decent Pizza. I added FYH Mozzarella.


SUSHI

Setup: carrot, zucchini, roasted peppers, red and green onions, teriyaki mushroom, avocado, inari pockets cut into strips

Dinner Party!

Tonight we had a dinner party! I started on a lot of this late last night so I wouldn't be scrambling but I always scramble!

I like appetizer dinners. You get a little of everything, and a variety of tastes can be suited. Tonight the menu was:

Avocado Salad
Stuffed Mushrooms
Beer-Battered Onion Rings
Tempeh "Wingz"
Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Yummy Spread
Bread
Oreo Cheesecake!!

(Recipes that I can give out are below)

Pictures of the guests and the food:










Group, clockwise from left: bf, Lauren and Zack, Luis, Sam, Jaime, Scooter, and Becky


Luis and me and the dogs


I wonder what John Cusack's up to tonight...


Bread pan battle scar!




Stuffed Mushrooms- I love stuffing and I love mushrooms so this is pretty much awesome for me. This recipe is based off of VWAV but I changed it a bit.)

30 large mushrooms, cleaned
3 Tbsp. olive oil
*1 small or 1/2 of 1 large onion (1 cup finely chopped)
*2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
*handful of your fav. herbs: I used a lot of basil, some oregano, and thyme, fresh
salt and pepper to taste
*1+ cup your favourite stuffing bread (I use bagged plain stuffing bread, not StoveTop type)
*bullion powder
*tad water

Preheat oven to 375 F
De-stem mushrooms, and finely chop stems and put stems in separate bowl
Bake mushrooms in oiled or sprayed large pan for 10 minutes.

While the mushrooms are baking, make stuffing: saute stems for 5 min, add garlic, onion, herbs, salt, and pepper and cook 5 more minutes
Add stuffing bread, water, and bullion. Add some water to fully hydrate stuffing, but give it time before adding water. Don't add too much. Just enough to hydrate bread. Set aside.

When mushrooms are done, drain liquid and place stem-side up. Stuff each mushroom and place back in oven. Bake 20 minutes more.

Beer-Battered Onion Rings*- I got this recipe here. *If you prefer to not use alcohol, chilled club soda will work fine.

Tempeh "Wingz" and Spinach-Artichoke Dip are both from "Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk". It's a cook-zine and it's only $2.50 and that includes shipping. You really should get it! I added some Follow Your Heart cheese to the dip but that's completely optional.

Yummy Spread is from Lolo at VeganYumYum. She has a book coming out. Her site is in my links. She is pretty awesome and really nice so when her books comes out you should buy it.

Bread. I made an easy bread from this recipe at Vegweb. Thanks M. Gorhon from PPK for the suggestion. I used about 1/2 and 1/2 white flour and Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. This makes 2 good size loaves, so feel free to cut in 1/2! With this appetizer dinner, no one will talk bad about you if you get storebought bread. I decided not to though, because I cannot really find a nice crusty bread that's vegan. All the ones a Publix have egg wash. Eggwash, you are dead to me. Soymilk works just fine!

Oreo Cheesecake (with raspberry sauce) This cheesecake is from Delicious Choices. I simply used a store-bought Oreo crust and added about 1 cup crushed Oreo-style sandwich cookies to the batter before baking. Since I believe the Delicious Choices recipes are no longer being sold, I will post it here. If you DO find them, please support the author and buy them.

Oreo Cheesecake

2- 8oz pkg Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
2 cups Sour Supreme Sour Cream
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 Tbsp (1 Tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp) egg replacer powder dissolved in 1/2 cup water
1 cup crushed Oreo-style cookies
Comb. cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar until fluffy.
Add vanilla, flour, and egg replacer/water, and cookies beating well after each addition.
Pour into prepared 8" springform pan. Set in 8" pan in a 10" springform pan.
Pour hot water into 10" pan until 1/2 of the 8" pan is submerged.
Place in preheated 300F oven and cook 1 1/2-2 hours until center is set and sides begin to pull away from pan.
Do not unmold cheesecake until completely chilled. Chill 10 hours or more.

Raspberry Sauce:
1 standard bag frozen raspberries
sugar
water
cornstarch
more water
maple syrup (opt.)

*Set bag of raspberries on counter and thaw. Place thawed raspberries (and juice) into a sauce pan and add sugar. The amount is up to you. I would say I used 1/3 a cup or less, but added some maple syrup. It's to taste.
*Add a little water (1/4 cup?) and bring to a boil, whisking often.
*Mix about 1 Tbsp. corn starch/arrow root starch in a couple Tbsp water and dissolve completely. Add cornstarch/water right before mixture comes to a boil. *Continue to cook and whisk until thick. Set aside to cool.
*optional for presentation: strain through a fine mesh strainer. Put strained sauce in a squeeze bottle and decorate anything you want. The seeds can be added to bread or yogurt for breakfast or whatever. Don't throw them out.