Weekly Wednesday Round-Up – Raw Pasta, Pita Pizza, and Whole Foods

I want to start doing a weekly Wednesday roundup of yummy meals I’ve made. Basically anything I’d put in the PPK’s Food Porn section, but doesn’t deserve an entire blog post.

One of my first raw food meals ever (not counting salad)! Spiralized zucchini and rich marinara sauce.

The mini restaurant inside our local Whole Foods has a vegan sandwich! It’s toasted sour dough bread with balsamic tomatoes, arugula, onions, and basil hummus. Served with a side of roasted red skin potatoes.

Fried tofu (from Whole Food’s hot bar) and mashed cheezy bacon potatoes.

Pita pizza with mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, and nutritional yeast.

Veggie stir fry with kale, tomatoes, onion, bell peppers, zucchini, and mushrooms all piled on top of brown rice.

Puttanesca > Roast Beef (Vegan MoFo #6)

The Series of Unfortunate Events – The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket is about the beginning of the very unfortunate story of the Baudelaire siblings. I will let you know, as the author does on the first few pages, that this story does not end happily. The three children are Violet, the inventor, Klaus, the knowledgeable book-lover, and Sunny, the infant who loves to bite things. Due to a terrible and mysterious fire, the trio become orphans and are sent away to live with a distant relative, Count Olaf. Although optimistic about their new lives with Olaf, they soon learns that he is a villain that will stop at nothing to gain the fortune their late parents left them.

This book is full of mysteries within mysteries. Who started the fire that killed their parents? What does VFD stand for and who are its members? And why are all these terrible things happening to the Baudelaire children? Some of these things are answered throughout the thirteen book series, while other mysteries are left up to the reader to decide. Either way with its macabre content and Snicket’s unique writing style, it is a good and easy read.

“For most of the afternoon, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny cooked the puttanesca sauce according to the recipe. Violet roasted the garlic and washed and chopped the anchovies. Klaus peeled the tomatoes and pitted the olives. Sunny banged on a pot with a wooden spoon, singing a rather repetitive song she had written herself. And all three of the children felt less miserable than they had since their arrival at Count Olaf’s.” – The Bad Beginning (paperback) page 44

A famous part of the first book (and the movie based on it) is when the children finally serves the aforementioned puttanesca to Count Olaf and his theater troupe, and the adults demand roast beef instead. Of course, because of this the poor orphans are punished for yet another thing out of their control. But I would prefer a pasta dish any day over a slab of carcass, hence the chosen title for this post.

The puttanesca was delicious! I followed a recipe based on the book ingredients, except without the anchovy paste. It was very simple and fast, but amazing. The olives added saltiness while the capers added a nice bite. I’ll definitely be making this again.

End of Summer Meals

This summer has been very busy, but full of fun. Since school is starting up soon and I’m enjoying my last two weeks of summer break, this will probably be my last post until September when I’ll be participating for the first time in Vegan MoFo!

A few weeks ago I got to take a local canning class and made spaghetti sauce. It was my first time actually canning myself and it was really fun. I’m hoping to invest in some canning equipment soon and then I’ll be able to make my own jams, relishes, and such.

The sauce was a bit chunky, so I ran it through a food processor and used it in eggplant parmesan. I wasn’t too crazy about the cheese sauce, but the eggplant cutlets were delicious.

Fresh salad with fuji apple dressing and olive sundried tomato hummus from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan.

Brown rice and veggies with red curry paste, soy sauce, and a slight drizzle of agave.

I’ll be back and posting again in September, so I hope everyone else has a great rest of the summer!

Summer Food Lovin’

Summer is upon us! So now is the time to be free and spend my days cooking, baking, crafting, blogging, and playing with my new kitten (who shall get his own post later).

I moved out from the dorms and into a lovely apartment with my friend, Ryan. We have a nice kitchen with plenty of space, and I plan on trying at least one new recipe a week over the summer break. This should give me plenty to blog about and, hopefully, add a few good recipes to my repertoire.

Below are the meals I’ve made from the last two weeks of school up until I moved into the apartment (except the last one).

Chilled rice salad made with brown rice, corn, carrots, tomatoes, and water chestnuts, all tossed in an olive oil and vinegar dressing and placed on top of mixed greens.

Spaghetti with “meaty” marinara sauce, and a side salad.

Slow cooker refried beans. Not particularly pretty, but delicious and much cheaper and healthier than the store-bought canned kind.

Homemade salsa verde made by blending tomatillos, cilantro, lime juice, and garlic in the food processor. Soft tacos with black beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, spinach, and salsa.

Homemade chick’n seitan patty with ketchup, a side salad, and Spanish rice.

And now I bestow upon you, my faithful readers, the most delicious vegan mac and cheese in existence. I tried the recipe on a whim, but this butternut squash mac and cheese is totally amazing. A lot of vegan cheese sauces are close, yet not exactly what I remember mac and cheese to taste like. But this recipe is so creamy and cheesy tasting, I bet you could even trick an omnivore. It reminds me of the Cracker Barrel mac and cheese I loved during my pre-vegan youth.

Veggie salad with saffron couscous.One of the first meals I made in my new kitchen was seitan tetrazzini, mashed potatoes and squash, and fresh corn on the cob (take note of the awesome pig corn holders). I changed the tetrazzini recipe by adding an onion, Mrs. Dash garlic and herb, and using Morningstar chick’n meal starter strips instead of seitan. It was good, but a bit dry after baking it. Next time I’ll probably skip baking it and just broil the Daiya on top.

Post of the S – Spaghetti, Sandwich, and Soup

Okay, so I have a hard time coming up with cute titles for these posts. So there are others meals in here that don’t start with S, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t just as yummy as the food included in the titles. 😛

I am way behind on posting regular food pictures, so don’t be too surprised when I mention Halloween in this post.

Tomato herb couscous (recipe coming soon!) and barbecue Morningstar chick’n strips

Mushroom spaghetti and salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

The glorious thing you are about to see below is an artichoke-bacon chicken salad sandwich. This is probably the best sandwich I’ve ever had. It’s not very healthy, so it will have to be only made on occasion, but anyone who likes chick’n salad should try this.

Peter’s family made a wonderful dinner the other day. I had a Boca burger patty with A1, roasted sweet potato, steamed broccoli, and fried green tomatoes.

The Family and Consumer Sciences Student Group at UM had a Halloween bake sale and so of course I had to make lots of vegan treats!

Carrot cake cupcakes with cheez cream frosting
Peanut butter cereal “bars”, which fell apart so I just mooshed them into balls

Cookie dough bites (from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) dipped in chocolate

Soy-Tan Dream Cutlets (which are amazing!) with buttery pasta
Potato soup with bacon bits

Adorable Pasta and Some Creepy Vegan Hamburger Helper

We all need a little cuteness in our lives. Whether it is provided by our pets, clothes, toys, or something else. The other day, I chose pasta to add something cute to my day. I was in Publix and when I saw this gluten-free rice pasta in animals shapes, I couldn’t resist buying it. Elephants, lions, giraffes, and rhinos all happily stared back at me as I prepared to eat them.

I decided to not cover up the pasta’s design with a heavy sauce, so I made BLT pasta salad. The recipe is one of my favorites from a blog that has since been deleted that was called Vegetarian Escapades. It was a perfect cool meal for the warm weather that day.

This week I also made pizza rolls and “pigs” in a blanket. I used some store-bought and accidentally vegan crescent rolls for both of those and they turned out super yummy. The pizza rolls were stuffed with marinara sauce, Yves veggie pepperoni, and Daiya mozzarella. The “pigs” were simply Yves veggie dogs rolled into the crescent rolls.

I saved the ugliest picture for last, but it was probably the most delicious of all the dishes in this post. A vegan version of Hamburger Helper cheeseburger pasta. I basically took the smoky mac and cheez recipe from The Vegan Slowcooker and added in salsa, veggie crumbles, and some extra seasonings. It was creepily similar to the processed boxed pasta I ate as a child and I’m glad I wrote down the ingredients for future reference.

Pasta, Totoro, and Some Fangirl Shoes

Slowly but surely, my counter tops are getting more crowded with ingredients and pots and pans for cooking, instead of more important things like textbooks and homework. But to make up for that, I have made some seriously yummy food over the past week. Midterms are over and now I actually have time to cook and not just grab something that I can microwave and grub on.

The first real meal I made was fresh veggie spaghetti (including farmer’s market tomatoes, onions, and spinach) and a salad with spinach, tomatoes, avocado, fried onion topping, and yummy thousand island dressing.

Another notable dish made this week was Another notable dish made this week was mac’ and weenies! The trashiest dinner ever, macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs mixed in, veganized! I made the cheezy macaroni with Daiya, but did it different than my usual method. Most days I’ll just mix together cheddar Daiya, plain soymilk, seasonings, and margarine and heat it until it melts. This time I went through the trouble of making a roux then slowing adding the other ingredients. It was well worth the effort because it ended up being the creamiest and richest vegan mac and cheez I’ve ever eaten. Delicious.

Also I now have more time to craft (at least until finals creep up). In the knitting area I made this adorable Totoro hat for Peter (with this pattern). And I have also started to get into upcycling clothes and accessories. So as my first project I bought these $1, slightly ugly, golden shoes from a thrift store and painted on the band AFI’s name and the cover art from their latest album, Crash Love. I now proudly strut about campus wearing my fangirl shoes.

Recipe – Cheater’s Stroganoff

We’re gearing up to sell our house soon (fingers crossed!), so most free time is now spent cleaning and repairing our home. Saturday my boyfriend and I spent our afternoon clearing out the yard of sticks and pinecones. After working for several hours, we were starving. So I went into the kitchen and threw together a quick lunch. Much to my delight, it turned out wonderful and thankfully I wrote down the recipe as I went.

What came out was what I call “a cheater’s stroganoff”. Because I skipped the step of making a real sauce by using a can of accidentally vegan Campbell’s mushroom gravy. After mixing that with some “beef”, mushrooms, vegan sour cream, and pouring it over pasta, it turned into a delightfully yummy meal.

10 Minute Vegan Stroganoff

Printable Version

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups uncooked pasta (I used rigatoni, but you can use whatever pasta you prefer)

1 TBSP olive oil

1 cup Gardein home-style beefless tips

1 6.5 oz. can sliced mushrooms

1 can Campbell’s Mushroom Gravy

1 TBSP vegan sour cream

1/4 TSP coarsely ground pepper

Directions:

Cook the pasta according to directions. While that is happening, heat the olive oil in a medium-sized sauce pan, and add the beefless tips and mushrooms. Saute them until completely cooked. Add the gravy, sour cream, and pepper. Stir and let it simmer until the sauce thickens to your preference. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add to sauce. Serve with a side salad, and crusty rolls.

Delicious Daily Meals

With monies starting to get more tight around the household, I’m having to cut back on my usual vegan splurges. Less Daiya and Amy’s frozen dinners, and more of the cheap vegan staples like tofu and soymilk. But for now, I shall enjoy the leftovers I have stored in the fridge still until the penny pinching takes over.

So that’s why I made this tasty pizza. The open bag of Daiya needed to be used before it went bad, and pizza just sounded great. I made it with a whole wheat crust, topped with sauce, Daiya, freshly chopped tomatoes and onions, with some mushrooms sprinkled on top for extra goodness.

Here is some more delectable Italian food. I made a quick, but satisfying, dinner of spaghetti in tomato sauce, with some mushrooms, chopped onion, and freshly steamed zucchini slices mixed in.

I think sometimes I get caught up in the foodie rush to try and make lots of weird foods with different flavors and textures, and in that forget that sometimes the best food in life is the simplest.

For instance, take this tofurky sandwich pictured below. Kinda plain looking, not too special. But I was just as satisfied with it for my lunch as I would have been with some wacky casserole that used three different vegetables I’d never heard of. Though I made it extra delicious by adding some of my new favorite new sandwich spread, wasabi mustard. This is sooo yummy slathered on two slices of bread and paired with some veggie meat.

Recipe – Avocado Pesto

Finally, a new recipe! It’s been forever since I posted my last one and thought you guys deserved something new.

I love all pasta, but when it’s topped with pesto is when it’s in the perfect state, at least in my opinion. So try out this new recipe if you agree. Just be warned though, any leftover pesto will turn brown overnight because of the avocado in it. If that bothers you just add a squeeze of lemon juice and that should fix it.

Avocado Pesto

Printable Version

Makes about 3/4 cup

Ingredients:

1 medium ripe avocado

1 cup fresh basil, loosely packed

1/2 cup spinach, loosely packed

2 TBSPs pine nuts

2 TBSPs nutritional yeast

1 TSP minced garlic

1 TBSP olive oil

1/2 TSP salt

1/2 TSP coarsely ground black pepper