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!