Microwaved Potato Chips? September 30, 2009

That is what I was thinking. I’ve been under some stress, hence all the posts lately and the lull before, therefore I needed some comfort food. Like most people I’m trying to make better food choices and when I saw this recipe on a food blog I was in disbelief. Today I tried it, with much success. The times are dependent on the microwave and the thickness of the chips.

Soo thanks to Vivacious Vegan (again) and her blog and her blog (http://vivaciousvegansrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/05/microwaveable-fat-free-potato-chips.html)… I’ve made more use out of my microwave in this one afternoon then I have in its whole lifespan.

Vegetarian Sausages September 7, 2009

I love the Tofurkey brand sausages they are great to barbecue and slice up in pasta for a nice change form TVP or veggie dogs, so when I came across a recipe for them I jumped at it and it was fantastic. Again I can’t take even the slightest ounce of credit for this recipe BUT I did vary up the spices a little. I added a little liquid smoke and next time I would substitute the olive oil for seasame oil to give it a little flavor, also I didn’t have nutritional yeast on hand so I used 1.2 cup of TVP and I think it added even more to the texture.  Here is the original recipe to do with what you please but please try it, it really is a simple process with outstanding results.

This recipe comes from Everyday Dish which I encourage you all to visit. It also has a handy video to go with it proving how easy it is, please visit http://www.everydaydish.tv/index.php?page=recipe&recipe=109 .

Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages

Makes 8 links

2 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup chickpea flour
2 tbsp Bills Best Chik’Nish Seasoning (if using another brand which is salty, or saltier than Bill’s Best, you’ll want to greatly reduce the amount you use)
2 tbsp granulated onion
1 to 2 tbsp fennel seed, optional
2 tsp coarsely ground pepper, preferably freshly ground
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp dried chili flakes, optional
1 tsp ground smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground allspice
2 1/4 cups cool water*
6 to 8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce

1. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. Whisk together the water, garlic, olive oil and soy sauce and using a fork, gently stir into the dry ingredients. Stir just until ingredients are mixed. If dough mixture is too dry, you can add another tablespoon of water or as needed.
2. Scoop 1/2 cup dough mixture at a time and shape into logs. Place logs on piece of aluminum foil and roll up, twisting ends. Place sausages in steamer and steam for 30 minutes. Once sausages have cooled, remove from foil and refrigerate until ready to eat. After cooling, the sausages may feel a bit dry on the outside. Don’t worry, as they will soften and firm up considerably after chilling.

Variation: You can shape the dough into little patties instead of links. If you don’t want to use aluminum foil, you can wrap the links in damp muslin or tea towel and tie ends with cotton twine.

Copyright © 2008 Julie Hasson

Seriously THE Best, Vegan Brownies September 7, 2009

Ok so being a vegetarian a long time and trying to convince meat eaters to at least try to scale down how much animal products they consume I figured I should take my own advice. I am not vegan but have the utmost respect for people who can live the lifestyle so noticing where I consume the most animal products in my diet is in baked goods I needed to find some cruelty free options. I’ve been baking since I was a little girl and do so with a passion and brownies vegan and non-vegan alike are a very recipe protected venture. However, yesterday as I was drooling through multiple vegan baking websites I came across these brownies who many people were up in raves about. I decided I had to take the plunge and boy was I totally impressed. The problem I find with most brownie recipes are due to the heavy ingredients, even though it  was a really moist fudgy brownie the baking part of it was the secret, you can’t bake them too long because they get dry can’t under cook them because the egg  needs to set.  Vegan brownies gave me a fool proof concoction, no egg to set wooo but I was worried about them being dry…I was sooo wrong. I omitted the nuts in the photo simply because I was too impatient to get my butt to the store but they turned out FANTASTIC I suggest you try, amazing!

Just to note this is in nooo way my recipe it is all thanks to The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley which I found only because of this blog http://vivaciousvegansrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/05/best-vegan-brownies-ever.html

AMAZING Vegan Brownies

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup soymilk
1.5 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi/sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8 inch square GLASS pan.
2. Put the oil, maple syrup , soy milk and vanilla in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture with a rubber spatula. Don’t overmix.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Put the batter in the pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 35 minutes.
7. Don’t over bake.
8. Cool before cutting.

Roasted Tomatoes September 7, 2009

These are wonderful and with tomatoes season upon us it’s a great way to use up some extra you might have form the garden. This works best with plum, cherry or grape tomatoes. You’ll find yourself just snacking on them but they are great used anywhere you can think of. I recently made a pizza with these and goat cheese and roasted garlic, delish!

Roasted Tomatoes

• 2 pints of cherry or grape tomatoes or about 12 plum tomatoes
• olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

Pre-heat over to 225 C

wash and half the tomatoes, placing face up on a large cookie sheet brushed with olive oil

sprinkle with sea salt and crack black pepper and drizzle with a little extra olive oil

let back for up to 3 hours until mostly dehydrated

let cool and enjoy

Spinach Pesto July 6, 2009

Pesto is one of my favorite things. It’s good as a sandwich spread, as a dip for grilled veggies but best of all it’s great tossed with hot pasta. This version is a take on Michelle’s recipe which I absolutely love.  What is the most awesome about this recipe is that it’s cheaper than making classic pesto and is sooo much better than buying it pre-packaged! Michelle also likes to make it lower in calories by subbing some of the oil for veggie stock. I also am curious what it would be like substituting the parmesan for nutritional yeast (nutch), let me know if you try it out.

Spinach Pesto

Spinach Pesto

2 cup baby spinach washed and dried

1 cup of fresh basil leaves washed, trimmed and dried

1/2 cup cilantro leaves washed trimmed and dried

2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (rennet and lipase free) or “nutch”

2/3 cup Walnuts

1/3-2/3 olive oil (can use veggie broth to cut the fat, I like all the oil)

3 garlic

sea salt and fresh black pepper

a box of a hardy pasta, ones that are tubes or have grooves suit pesto the best

A word to the wise Michelle uses a hand powered food processor, which gives this pesto a wonderful chunky and inconsistent texture. I used a food processor but realizing early on it would not give me the same texture I left out a handful of the spinach and herb mix as well as some of the walnuts and roughly chopped them, adding them to the mix right before I tossed with hot pasta.

That being said the prep is pretty easy, wash all the greens and pat dry, save a handfull to put aside if you are using a mechanical food processor.

Using the food processor grate the garlic and cheese, add the greens, nuts, and oil, and blend until you like the consistency.

If you are like me and like it a little chunky, remove and add hand chopped remainign greens andnuts, mixing in a large bowl adding salt and pepper to taste.

While that sits boil the pasta in salty water, drain (but don’t run water over it) and toss with sauce, serve hot. YUM!YUM! Enjoy!

Chewy Coconut Squares July 6, 2009

Tastes almost like a mounds bar, but better. Super easy to make but you have to wait for them to cool.

Chewy Coconut Squares

Chewy Coconut Squares

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Crust

1 1/2 cup of chocolate cookie crumbs

1/3 cup of melted butter

In a medium bowl melt butter, add cookie crumbs and combine well. Turn into a 8×8 inch greased pan and pat down evenly to form crust.

Topping

1 1/2-2 cups of unsweetened dried coconut

1 cup of chocolate chips

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup of nuts optional

1 tsp vanilla

In a medium combine ingredients and using a spatula spread evenly over cookie crust. Bake in oven until golden borwn ontop, approximately 25 minutes. Don’t worry if it’s not set in the middle as it cools it comes together. Cool completely, cut into bars and serve.

Potato Salad May 31, 2009

I love potato salad in the summer, this is a quick, easily “veganized” version that really is low on ingredients and big on taste.

Potato Salad

Potato Salad

4-5 medium sized new potatoes washed well, cut in half with skin on(red skins work well too)

2-3 green onions

1 small clove of garlic grated

3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped fine

1 tbsp  Dijon mustard

3/4 cup (up to) of light “real” mayo or veganaise I love the garlic version but I’d suggest omitting the garlic if you use this, also I often split the mayo with sour cream as well to make it lower fat but when i make it vegan JUST veganaise

Salt and pepper to taste

Scrub new potatoes and cut in half, I like to leave skins on but it’s up to you. Boil until tender when pierced with a fork, drain, cube and  set aside to cool.  In a smaller bowl, mix green onions, garlic, dill, mustard,  mayo/veganaise/sour cream and salt and pepper. When potatoes are cool combine and roughly mash  so there are cubes and smaller poatyoes pieces as well. Chill for about 30 mins ot an hour and serve.

Roasted Garlic May 31, 2009

If you are going to roast garlic, roast a whole bunch, you won’t regret it and you can freeze it. (I should make a note, if you freeze it make sure you have extracted it first otherwise you will have a soggy mess.)

Roasted Garlic

Roasted Garlic

Just cut off the tops, rip off a square of tin foil for each bulb drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper
and bake in the oven or toaster over at 350 for at least 20-25 minutes until brown on top and soft to  squeeze.

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Enchiladas May 17, 2009

If you are having a meat eater over for dinner this is a great thing to make, imitation ground beef is one of the most convincing soy products and with all the flavor added to this recipe there is absolutely nothing to miss.  This is Mags favorite new food and until this she was not a huge fan or mushrooms or peppers and had never had ground soy. You want to keep everything chopped small and relatively the same size and even picky veggies eater won’t know what they are eating.

Enchiladas

1 medium onion diced finely
2 small green, red or yellow peppers (I use a mix) diced into small pieces
1 package of mushrooms cleaned and chopped into same size pieces as peppers
1 package of veggie ground round ( Mexican flavor)
2 cloves of garlic peeled and grated
4 cups of baby spinach washed, dried and roughly chopped
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper the taste
12-20 small  tortillas
enough shredded sharp cheese to cover  about 2 cups or less
1-2  large bottle of medium salsa, I like to have two for extra dipping and a more saucy enchilada
1 250 ml tub of gelatin-free sour cream
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 and spray a deep rectangular baking dish(9×12) with cooking spray

In a large fry pan saute diced onion for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add peppers, mushrooms and cumin and cook for another 5-8 minutes. When veggies start to get a little soft add ground round and break up in pan until everything is combined. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, tasting to see if any salt and pepper are needed. Add spinach, 2 tbs of water, 2 tbs of salsa and grated garlic stirring well. Cover and set aside.

Spray your baking dish with cooking spray and cover bottom with about 1/2 jar of salsa , just enough to cover the bottom.

On a dinner plate place a piece of paper towel sprinkled lightly with water, place about 5 tortillas on top and cover with another piece of paper towel. Micro wave for 10-15 seconds to make them warm enough to bend easily.

Using one tortillas at a time add about 1/4 cup or filling  in the shape of a log under the half way point on the tortilla. fold edge over the filling using your fingers to slide it back until the filling is pressed firm within the roll. You can use your finger to push loose filling into the side while you fold up each edge and roll. Take note of the images as this is difficult to explain…sorry.

Once enchilada is rolled place edge side down in baking dish, repeat until all the filling is used up. Cover with remaining salsa making sure no edges are left dry.

Finally cover with cheese and bake for about 25-30 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbly.

Serve with more salsa and sour cream.

***note you can use enchillada sauce I just like the chunkier texture of salsa and usually have lots of it at my disposal**

Nancy’s Pancakes April 24, 2009

The most coveted recipe in my family household, one particular family member demanded these everyday for about 2 years which made me sick of them for about 3 years after but I keep coming back. For years I couldn’t make these properly even with the recipe so if it doesn’t work out for you the first time please try again, you will get it. I add blueberries but you can definitely omit them and top it with anything you like. This recipe makes enough for 3- 4 people on average.

Pancakes

Pancakes

1 cup of flour (I have done half each whole wheat and white and it works out great)
2 tsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1.2 tsp of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of oil

In a medium sized bowl combine all dry ingredients. In a large measuring cup combine all wet.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and combine well with fork. Let sit untouched while your griddle or large fry pan heats up, you should see bubbles rise to the top. Ladle small amounts into pan and cook on one side until you see air bubbles and sides look set, flip and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Both sides should be a medium brown and firm in the centre.

Optional….. Add 1/2 cup of blueberries, serve with fresh fruit, whipped cream and real maple syrup. Yum yum.