Pizza Potatoes

Comfort food at its finest. It's probably the only Irish-Italian marriage your great great grandmother would approve of: PIZZA POTATOES.
I got this recipe from a Whole Foods app on my iPhone, but they only had the vegetarian version (basically they used cheese that was made from animal milk, so its not much of a stretch to grab some Daiya instead).

Now I know you're excited so, here's what you'll need:

(makes 6 servings)

minus the potatoes, all these veggies are optional

6 medium sized potatoes
1 cup of freshly cut broccoli
1 small/medium sized zuccini, cut in bite size pieces
1 cup freshly cut mushrooms
1/4 - 1/2 of an onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup of peas (I used sugar snap peas)
2 cups of spinach
2-3 cups of Red Sauce
1-2 cups of shredded diaya mozzarella "cheese" (I found some right at Wegmans)
salt & pepper to taste
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

casserole dish
large frying pan
measuring cups
measuring spoons
spatula or wooden spoon


First Preheat the oven to 375.
Then stab your potatoes all over with a fork and stick them in the microwave...I can't help you with for how long, because my microwave just has a baked potato setting, but I'm sure it wont be hard to find out!
While your potatoes are microwaving, chop up all your veggies and stick them in the frying pan, with salt & pepper and olive oil. (This includes garlic.) Put the veggies on medium-high heat and stir occasionally for about 15 minutes. I put the top on for a good 10 minutes within that 15 minutes.
When your potatoes are done, let them sit for a minute so you can pick them up (until your veggies are done cooking.) When your veggies are done, turn the burner off and put the top on. Put a little bit of your sauce and put it on the bottom of your casserole dish then grab the potatoes and put them in the dish. Split the potatoes open (cutting about 1/3 of the way down) and pour a little bit more sauce on the potatoes. Take your vegetables and evenly distribute them on top of the potatoes and add the rest of the sauce. Put your cheese on top of everything and then put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until your cheese is melted.
Now eat up! Just don't burn your mouth off :)

Garbage Plate!

A Vegan Garbage Plate?? Crazy, I know. But it IS doable. And sooo good! For those of you who don't know what a garbage plate is, its like if you went on a picnic and threw the left overs in the garbage. But instead of throwing them in the garbage, you throw it all on a plate. Its great for if you're planning on fasting for a month....well I promise you wont be hungry for at least 72 hours after eating. Makes 2-3 HUGE garbage plates

Here's what you'll need:

For The Beans...

2 cans of red beans, drained

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 cup ketchup

6 tablespoons mustard

1 teaspoon salt

For The Hash browns...

6 potatoes, scrubbed clean & diced in 1 inch cubes

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

pepper to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

hot sauce to taste

For The Pasta Salad...

5 cups mini shell pasta, cooked

1 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

paprika to taste

2/3 cup veganaise (vegan mayo, and more or less can be used if wanted)

2 tablespoons mustard

For The Burgers...

4 veggie burgers (make sure there isn't any egg in it!)

4 slices of soy based cheese (i used pepperjack flavored)

Sauce pan

Casserole Dish

2 Frying pans

Measuring cups & spoons

1 medium bowl

Mixing spoons

Spatula

Tin Foil

Small bowl

Ok, so first. Preheat the oven to 300. Put all the ingredients for the beans in a casserole dish, mix together & cover with tin foil. Bake for 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Put your cooked pasta, coated with a little olive oil, in the fridge to cool.

Uncover the beans for the last half hour they cook.

Clean & chop the potatoes and put them in a large frying pan. Add spices and cook, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes.

Half way into cooking the potatoes, start cooking your veggie burgers based on package instructions. During the last 2 minutes, add the cheese.

Don't forget about the beans!! Take them out of the oven after the 4 hours.

While you're waiting to flip your burgers & in between stirring the hash browns, add your spices with your veganaise into a small bowl and mix them all together. Add the mixture to your chilled pasta.

Once everything is done, pile it all on one plate, however you like and then drench in ketchup.

You'll probably have lots of leftovers, but the best part of it is that its even better as a left over! Good luck finishing a whole plate!

Homemade Vegan Sauce

I saw this recipe (in: Skinny Bitch in the Kitch) for sauce and I thought I should try it. Steve loved it and, like always, I altered it a bit. Its really easy, and you can make it taste however you want which I love. I decided I wanted to make mine sweet, but if you'd rather have it spicy just omit the agave nectar. You can freeze it for up to 2 months, or you can keep it in the fridge for a week or so. From this recipe, for the two of us, I used it with about 4 dinners. The book says it makes 7 cups.

Here's What You'll Need:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice

8 to 10 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups of fresh mushrooms, diced (optional)

2 (28-ounce) cans crush tomatoes

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

1/4 cup fruity red wine (optional)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)

1/4 cup agave nectar (optional, more or less can be added to taste)

4-6 Quart Stockpot

Wooden Spoon

Heat the oil in the stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the Onion and Mushroom and cook until tender. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in wine, basil, oregano, salt, hot sauce and agave. From here, I let the sauce stay on the stove on VERY low heat for a couple hours, stirring occasionally, but you can serve right after you mix in the last ingredients.

I served this over Quinoa (keen wa) which is pretty much the best grain on the planet. They have it at WalMart now too, so there's no excuse not to try it!!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You Will Ever Have

I wasn't really sure how vegan chocolate chip cookies would work. I've been holding off on making them because vegan chocolate chips aren't exactly the easiest thing to find. So when I found them the other day I decided why not? I'll only use half the bag and if worse comes to worse I can melt the rest of the chocolate & have fondue for dessert one night.

I got the recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, and I was not at all disappointed. I had to change a couple things based on what I had in my cupboard. But whatever I did worked and I cannot wait to make these again!

Here's what you'll need:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I just used all purpose)

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 1/2 cups evaporated cane sugar (I used sucanat)

3/4 cup dairy free margarine

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup ice water

1 tablespoon molasses

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

6 oz vegan chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts

*the original recipe calls for 1 1/4 refined coconut oil, but I don't have coconut oil so I substituted with the margarine and oil

Medium Bowl

Large Mixing Bowl

Mixer

Rubber Spatula

Measuring cups & spoons

Bakins Sheet(s) (greased or non stick)

Cooling Rack

Preheat the oven to 375. In a medium bowl, sift together salt, flour and baking soda (I didn't have a sifter, so I just whisked together the ingredients and it turned out fine) and set aside.

In your large (or mixing) bowl, combine the sugar, butter and oil and with your mixer, beat until creamy. Add the water, molasses and vanilla and mix until everything is combined. On a low speed, mix in the flour mixture gradually. Add in the chocolate chips and mix until just combined. The dough will seem like its too sticky, but its fine! Maybe its just because I used sucanat, but I added another 1/2 cup of flour and it really didn't change the dough's texture much so I just let it be sticky and baked them. You want to put about 2 tablespoons worth of dough on your baking sheet and have them be about 2 inches apart. I fit 12 on each of my sheets. Then bake them for 13 to 15 minutes, or until the centers are set. I baked my first batch for about 12 minuted and then the rest for about 10. Take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes before moving to the cooling rack (or just eat one after that, they're way too good to wait that long for!) My husband says they're the best cookies he's ever had...aww! Enjoy!

Brownie Cake Things That Just Taste Good

Sometimes having chocolate isn't an option. My body just screams for it. Whether this is healthy or not, I don't really care. I just know that Brownies are the best way to settle the craving. (That and I was looking at Alecia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet, Which have PB cups....and I will be trying those soon!)

So I found this vegan brownie recipe on Allrecipes.com and I changed it (of course) to make my own delicious brownie/cake type things. You'll love them. And they're just about the easiest things on the planet to make. I don't have a picture to share for these yet, they just go too quickly!

What you'll need:

2 cups of all purpose flour

2 cups sugar (I used sucanat because it's what I had)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil (plus a little extra to grease the pan)

3/4 cup apple sauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Measuring Cups & Spoons

A Large Bowl

A Rubber Spatula

9 x 13 Pan (greased)

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl until it basically looks like the brownie mix you buy out of the box. Then add all the dry ingredients and mix until everything is wet. The batter should be thicker than a cake batter!! Pour the batter into you greased pan and make sure the batter is spread out evenly! Now stick it in the oven for 20-30 minutes! I know, annoying that it could be anywhere between those 10 minutes that your delicious brownies could be done. I only put mine in for 20 minutes and they were perfect! Then let them cool for at least 10 minutes before you start to cut and serve! Soo easy!

Christmas in July Stovetop Hot Cocoa

Today the sky was overcast all day and my AC had to be on AT LEAST 50 because I was freezing! So I tricked myself into thinking it was October or something and got a hankering for some hot cocoa. I remember when I was little my mom used to occasionally bring out the big stockpot and make hot cocoa on the stovetop and I loved it! So today I decided why not try it myself?
This recipe makes six cups, which is perfect for me because I love hot cocoa for breakfast! Its also super easy and tastes MUCH better than those packets of powdered crap.

Here's what you'll need:
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 sugar
1/3 cup water
dash of salt
4 cups vanilla almond milk (or soy milk, and if you only have original, just add some vanilla extract...about 1 teaspoon)

Supplies:
Stirring spoon
Sauce pan
Ladle

First you'll want to mix all your dry ingredients in the sauce pan & add in the water. On medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and then boil for about 2 minutes. Turn down the heat just a little bit and add in the milk. Then just keep heating until its warm enough to serve (this is a great time to sample!) and enjoy! (Just don't let it get to a boil again!!!)

See?! EASY! feel free to play around with the amount of sugar (less is more sometimes) and the type/amount of cocoa you use.

Long Live Lasagna!

I knew that at the beginning of the week I would not want to do anything. There was way too much stress the week before and I was all out of energy. So I enlisted my wonderful husband to help me make the next 3 nights dinner. Lasagna. In a family of 5, lasagna probably wouldn't last past Dad's lunch the next day. But there's only two of us here and we made it last from Tuesday until Thursday night. And some how I just never got sick of it!

I got this recipe from Skinny Bitch In the Kitch. Yeah Yeah, I know. Ridiculous name. But its got some really great vegan recipes in there. And Steven loved every bite, which couldn't make me happier...and I used to hate lasagna but I couldn't get enough of this!

So what you'll need:

1 package of Lasagna noodles (try to get whole wheat! and watch out for some pastas, they have an egg base. gross.)

3 table spoons of sea salt

5 cups red sauce (you can make your own or buy vegan)

10-12 ounces vegan shredded mozzarella "cheese"

12-14 ounces vegan ground beef (I used Smart brand)

4 cups of tofu "Ricotta"

28-32 ounces extra firm tofu, crumbled (the tofu i get comes in 14 oz packages, so 2 packages)

6 cloves garlic

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh oregano (or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Supplies:

8-10 quart stockpot

foil

13 x 9 inch pan

cookie sheet

Food processor

Mixing bowl

Measuring cups/spoons

So lets get started...preheat the oven to 350 F

In your stock pot add about 6 quarts of water (I have no idea how much that is, so I just did it up to the handles on the pot and it seemed to do the job) and the sea salt and start boiling! Then add the lasagna noodles and cook according to the packages instructions.

While the water is boiling/you're cooking the noodles, why not get the ricotta out of the way? So throw all your ingredients into your food processor, process and bam! (sorry, emril) you've got vegan ricotta! If you don't have a food processor, don't worry! Just chop up your garlic VERY FINELY and throw it all in a bowl and mix until creamy! Perfect. Then throw it in the fridge until you need it.

So the pasta is done! now drain it and rinse (I know, I was always told not to rinse my pasta too!) to cool it off so you can actually touch it. Then lay it out on the tinfoil so they don't all stick together.

Next, get out your 13 x 9 inch pan, red sauce, "meat", "ricotta" and "cheese". Spread about a 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Then put a layer of lasagna noodles down so they're slightly overlapping (they don't have to be perfect!!!). Now we're going to start a cycle! Put down a 1/3 of each ingredient: "ricotta", "meat", "cheese", sauce, noodles, repeat (twice)! so you'll have 3 layers of goodness. Then I put some more sauce & cheese on top and stuck it in the oven on top of the cookie sheet for about an hour.

Then just take it out of the oven and let it cool for 10-15 minutes and serve! It should make about 10 servings give or take.

The Tale of Two Taters

So Steve and I decided to have dinner really early today. I was starving and he's always hungry so it worked out for me. I don't know if I mentioned this before but Steve is really picky about everything involving food. Its a miracle I got him to be a cheating vegan. An absolute miracle. Before I started cooking for him, he thought BBQ sauce was a food group. A food group that trumped the Grains on the pyramid. So when I do things like make dill mashed potatoes and he flinches, I don't get too offended. It takes time to bounce back from that much BBQ sauce. But that doesn't stop me from making it.

So along with our Boca Burgers and fresh green salad we had mashed potatoes. Not just one type of mashed potato. Two. As soon as I started chopping up the fresh dill (which is pretty much just a green flower) he started mock vomiting all over the kitchen. Lovely. So with my little taters boiling I got out another mixing bowl and a small frying pan and starting preparing garlic for my overdramatic hungry hubby.

Wanna know how I did it?! I'll tell you. (Because honestly, I had to google how to make mashed potatoes when I got here. Milk. Who knew?)

When I make mashed potatoes I aim for left overs. I love mashed potatoes and will indulge as much as possible. SO! For the two of us I had:

6 potatoes, washed, peeled & cut into cubes/chunks (you don't have to peel the potatoes, but not a lot of people like the skins in their mashed potatoes, including me)

1/4 cup of dairy free margarine

3/4 cup of almond milk (original)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Things you'll need:

Large sauce pan (filled with water to just above the potatoes, remember you'll need room for it to boil!)

Strainer

Mixing bowl

Hand held mixer/mixing spoon (I just just my mixer because its faster)

Measuring cups/Spoons

Put the potatoes in the sauce pan and then fill to the top of the potatoes and put on the stove top on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, depending on if you want your mashed potatoes lumpy or not.

Dump potatoes into strainer (over the sink, obviously) and then put the potatoes into your mixing bowl.

Add the butter, salt and pepper and mix. It should be still flakey, not creamy at this point, but I like to add the butter first to know where I stand with the milk.

Slowly and gradually add in the milk. You may need more or less milk depending on the size of your potatoes but make sure you don't over milk them! There's not much you can do with mashed potato soup.

Then add in the flavor of your choice! I added in about 1/2 a tablespoon of dill to my potatoes (which are pictured above and were delicious!). For Steven's garlic potatoes I sauteed 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil for about 6-8 minutes on low heat while the potatoes were boiling. If you don't have garlic cloves, a few dashes of garlic powder is fine. Just don't over do it. Garlic is very overpowering, especially in something bland like potatoes.

Enjoy!

Very Blueberry Grunt and Grumbles

This Morning I woke up starving. And Grumpy. But I'm grumpy every morning, so that's beside the point. All I wanted was some comfort food. My Husband had cereal, and for some reason that made me angry. So I grumbled my grumpy self to the kitchen and just stared at the fridge. Thats when I remembered that I have about 5 pounds of blueberries in my freezer and I should probably do something about it.

I have never been much of a blueberry fan. But I was starving and in no shape to go pick up anything for anywhere. So I decided I would use a recipe I found on an iphone app called vegan yum yum. A blueberry grunt. Now I am not going to pretend that while I looking through my app that I knew what a grunt was. I had no idea. But considering my mood it seemed appropriate. Plus its a really low maintenance recipe.

So here it is:

for the blueberry filling:

4 cups of blueberries

2 tablespoons of lemon juice (or if you have a lemon just squeeze half of it into the pan)

1/2 cup of sugar (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup but even 1/2 was very sweet)

1/2 cup water (if you're using frozen blueberries i recommend NOT using this much water. Try 1/4. I used 1/2 and it took way too long for the mixture to thicken and the berries got too prun-like for my taste)

for the "grunt":

2 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons of dairy free margarine

3/4 cup of soy/almond milk (I always use almond milk)

make sure you have:

a deep dish frying/sauce pan (sorry i have no idea what to call it. i'm really a novice i guess)

a mixing bowl

measuring cups/spoons

a fork

a wooden spoon

corning ware dish(es) (if you're making individual ones you'll, obviously need more than one)

OK! so lets get started.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

Throw all the blueberry ingredients into your pan. (It doesn't really matter what kind of pot/pan it is as long as it goes on a burner & it fits all the ingredients with room for the mixture to boil.) Mix it all together and let it come to a boil on medium heat, then let it boil for about 15 minutes, still on medium heat (more or less time depending on how thick you want it to be. I wanted mine thick so I did it for more time. don't freak out because i'm not giving you a definite time. you don't want it to be soupy, but you don't want your blueberries to resemble raisins. so just play with it. you'll be fine! promise!)

While thats coming to a boil, put all your dry ingredients into a bowl, and if you really want to be organized, you can measure out your butter & milk and throw it in the fridge until you need it too. Once the blueberries are almost done (like have 1-2 minutes left) take your butter & with a fork mix it into your dry ingredients until you can't really find any chunks of butter in there anymore.

When the blueberries are done, put the mixture on simmer (this next part wont take long at all, promise, so a simmer will be fine. if you're really worried you can turn it off!)

Pour in about half of you milk and WITH YOUR FORK still, mix it in. Don't mix or handle the dough too much or it'll get tough. Pour in the rest of your milk and mix it in again as little as possible. just until none (or most of) the flour is dry.

Then take your blueberries and pour them in to your dish(es) (try not too go too much over half way) and break up the dough into bite size chunks and put them on top of the blueberries. If you want you can put some sugar on top of the biscuits and then put the dish(es) in the oven for about 20 minutes.

I had a LOT of left over dough, so i just made (about 8) biscuits and baked them at the same time as the grunts.

When they're done let them cool for about 5 minutes and then enjoy! I put powdered sugar on mine when they were ready to serve and that made them very very very sweet lol but really its all based on preference.

If you want to make blueberry syrup! add more water in the beginning (about 3/4 cup) and go about everything the same way. then when you're dishing out your blueberries just use a draining spoon and whats left in the pan is your syrup! my very picky husband loves it!

Once Upon a Time...

I've always loved cooking. Especially baking. I would rather stand over the stove for an hour than pour myself a bowl of cereal most mornings. And when it comes to dinner, no matter how tired I am I always want to make it myself, even if its just to see how many helpings my husband will devour.

But when I got married I didn't realize that cooking for two didn't mean I had to whip up 3 family size meals a day. And we got a little chubby. And on top of that I learned that my body decided on its 21st year on the planet that it no longer could have dairy.

So! We went vegan. Yes. VEGAN! Everyone I've ever talked to has something against vegan eating. Even Vegetarian eating. You need protein blah blah blah what about calcium blah blah blah b12!!!!! blahblahblaahblahblah. Well I did some research. Not "WHY IS VEGANISM GOOD" research or "WHY SHOULD I EAT MEAT" research. I looked at food. Allll types of food and found out that if I eat my fruits and veggies like my mommy always told me (and throw in some beans/nuts) I'll be justttt fine! Even better than fine! I'll be very healthy. So if you're just here to tell me why I shouldn't be a vegan, shove it. I've heard enough. You can eat all the meat and dairy you want. And if you live longer than I do, congrats. But I do what I want. And you can't stop me!

Obviously I'm not here to tell you that you need to be a vegan and THINK OF THE ANIMALS! and what not. I'm just here to provide you with some good food recipes. That happen to be vegan. (and actually healthier, but just as tasty as the alternative...just sayin!)

So just enjoy and don't preach to me about what I'm missing out on, because if you try these recipes you'll know that I am not missing out on a THING! :)