BBQ Burrito

Still catching up on life, still cooking...

Adapted from Weekly Vegan Menu

Saute up some onion and red bell pepper strips with:

• lime juice
• garlic
• rice vinegar
• soy sauce
• bbq sauce
• liquid smoke
• chili powder

stick all of this in a wrap, along with some seitan, avocado, and still in a panini press for a few minues to crips up the wrap.

Corn Chiliiiiii!

Dude.  I am so exhausted, but also couldn't be more content with my life.  (Ok, so I got some bad grades today, but that was not unexpected...)  I won't disclose why I'm feeling like this, but life has just gotten better.  Let's just go with... I have some EXCELLENT friends :)

Alright, and now the food!

Adapted from 86 Lemons

Veggies

• Onion
• Carrot
• Sweet potato
• Frozen corn
• Canned diced tomatoes (no salt)
• Celery
• Red bell pepper
• Garlic

Seasonings:

• Cumin
• Chili powder
• Home made veggie broth powder

Beans - any kind will do.
Corn starch slurry
Seitan, of course.

'Zza with B-Nut Squash

Crust: mix together

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• scaaant 1/2 cup soy milk
• 2 tbsp apple sauce
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt (opt)

pour onto a baking sheet, and bake until firm at 420, about 11 minutes

The 'sauce' was roasted butternut squash blended with nooch
Toppings were goat cheese, dried dates, roasted red bell pepper, onions, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes.
This was DA BOMB!
Adapted from The Socially Akward Vegan

Paella (Thingy) with Chorizo-Seitan

You know what?  I'm tired, I wanna go to bead, and this stupid internet isn't uploading the other two pictures that I got.. so.. yeah.  I just won't fight a battle not worth fighting...
Ok, really, I'm not in that bad of a mood... life is good.  (Aside from physics, but that is a whole different topic that I don't care to breach at the moment).  Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving?  Wow!  Time flies!

Adapted from Vegan Fur Ninja

For the seitan, mix:
1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
nutmeg
stevia + molasses (as brown sugar replacement)
paprika
fennel seeds
3/4 cup water + vegetable broth powder
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cloves finely chopped garlic.

Mix, adding water as needed.  Plop onto a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until it becomes scarily poofy.

for the Paella:
Saute chopped onion, bell pepper, carrot, and garlic.  Add in enough rice to make the amount of food you want, and 1.5 times water as rice.  Seasonings are smoked paprika, bay leaf.  Other stuffs included fire roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, white beans, frozen pean, roasted red bell peppers, cloves, liquid smoke, butter extract, chili powder, and olives (all stirred in after the rice finished cooking. 

Two Serving Veggie Pot Pie-Thingy

Hey.  I got up at 4am this morning, and couldn't go back to sleep.  Bleck.  The worst part of it is I didn't get to sleep until 10 or so last night, since I was working on an English project, then had to come home and make soup, salad dressing, pizza, and salads (the pizza was AMAZING, by the way.  but more on that later).

 

 

Anyhoo, here's a lovely little dish that makes 2 servings... in an effort to get though all of my saved recipes I am cutting most things down to 2 servings... 

I added a gravy sort of thing, and I think that made this dish taste SOO much better than the original recipe.  But to each his own, I suppose.

 

Adapted from Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes

 

For the crust:

mix 1/4 cup flour, 1 tbsp applesauce, and 2 tbsp cold water.  Spread into 2 ramkins coated with nonstick spray, and bake for 10 minutes, until firm.

For the Tofu:

Mix crumbled tofu, stemmed/wilted spinach, nooch, lemon juice, and garlic.  You should total about 3/4 cup-ish tofu mix

For the veggies:

Peel, cube, and boil a very small sweet potato until tender.

Saute bell pepper, red onion, and mushroom until almost tender.  Add chopped rosemary, paprika, vegan worchestire sauce, home made vegetable broth powder, a few drops butter extract, and a small corn starch slurry.  Add a few tbsp water as needed to make it a sort of gravy.

 

Add the tofu mix to the ramkins, then top with veggies.  Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, until heated through.

Chilli Quesadilla

Good gosh, I'm so sleepy right now.

 

 

Thus I will leave you with a yummy quesadilla and then call it a night...

Adapted from Floral Foodie

Saute 1/2 small onion, a few slices of bell pepper, and 2 cloves garlic.  Add in 1/2 cup cooked kidney beans, 1/2 cup Soyrizo, 1/2 tbsp cumin, chili pepper, diced tomatoes, home made veggie broth powder, and 1/4 cup TVP.  Add in enough water so the TVP is rehydrated, and let simmer for a few minutes.  Spread inbetween 2 tortillas, and bake for a few minutes.  Easy and yum!

'Sausage' and Mushroom Cream Sauce over Rice

Well, as I should be studying for physics and french, I'll try to keep this short.

 

 

Heck, who am I kidding?  Studying is the LAST thing I want to do right now.

... well.  Yes.  This dish.  M reeeeeeeeeeally liked it!  Nice and wintery.  The sad thing is, it's been in my line-up for AGES, and I just now got around to making it.  But it's made now, and I have had the delightful experience of eating it.  My life just got that much better.

 

Adapted from Fat Free Vegan

 

Saute until tender:

• 1 small chopped onion
• 1 coined carrot
• 1/2 chopped bell pepper
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 4 cloves chopped garlic . 

 

 Add in:

• 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
• splash of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp thyme
• lots of chopped fresh basil
• 1 1/2 cups water + vegetable broth powder
• 3 tbsp whole wheat flour (whisk this in slowly)
• A good amount of chopped 'sausage' - I omitted the oil, and baked this at 350 for 30 minutes, until poofy and firm

 

Cook until thickened, and serve over brown rice.

It's Pizza... No, It's Quinoa... No, It's Pizzaquinoa!

So, I made this Pizza Quinoa casserole...

 

 

It was the PERFECT start to a 4 day weekend!  What flavour!  Excellent!

And, now since I have a bit more time to type tonight, I will take advantage of that and rant for a bit.  I think all of my friends, and I now that I think about it, have senioritis.  It's bad, and the year is not even half overwith yet.  I feel like my emotions inside are kind of rolling around, like a giant wad of tangled thread.  It's like of weird - I'm either laughing or about to cry or both.  I'll stop now, and move on to food...  so I don't get too depressed.

 

Adapted from Food Doodles

 

In a casserole dish, combine:

• 1/2 cup dried quinoa, cooked with 1 cup water
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped and sauteed
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped and sauteed
• 1/3 red bell pepper, finely chopped and sauteed
• 3 tbsp home made ketchup (heavenly stuff - use stevia for the sucanat to reduce calories)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp each freshly chopped basil and oregano
• 1 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 tbsp nooch
• a few drops liquid stevia

 

bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so

Corn Salad and ... Date-Coffee Pancakes

Well, I'm still catching up here, so I couldn't manage to dig up a picture for the salad.  Perhaps my camera ran out of power or something..

 

 

Anyhoo, I couldn't give you a post without pictures, now, could I?  So, thus, I give you pancakes and corn salad.  Which TOTALLY makes sense.  Right?  Right.

 

 

Pancakes adapted from The Tolerant Vegan

 

In a small bowl, mix together:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 tbsp baking blend stevia
• 1/2 banana, mashed
• 1 cup nondairy milk
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 1/4 cup chopped dates

Make like you normally make pancakes.  Makes 2, 322 calorie servings

 

Corn Salad adapted from One Green Planet

 

Mix together:

• Cooked corn from 2 ears
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips, cooked on a panini press
• 1 small onion, sliced, cooked on a panini press
• 2 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 tbsp vegetable broth
• a splash of cider vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• chopped fresh oregano
• liquid smoke
• 1 cup red kidney beans

 

Roasted Pepper & "Feta" Pizza

Featuring bell pepper made two ways...

 

 

And the fabulous feta cheese!  I swear, this stuff tastes like the Tofutti Herbed Cream Cheese.  Weird.  But good.

 

Pizzapizzapizza for me!  (And you, if you make it)

Adapted from Simply Scratch

For the sauce, blend:
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 roasted red bell pepper
Fresh basil and oregano
1/2 cup sauteed onion
1 clove sauteed garlic

Spread onto a pizza crust, top with bell peppers cooked in a panini press, feta, and fresh oregano leaves.  Cook until heated through.

Simple Soba Salad

You really can't get much more clean-out-the-fridge-before-vacation than this dish.

 

 

Man, you should have seen the inside of the fridge after this.  It was 99% empty!  Almost scary...

 

Adapted from Maple Spice

 

Sauce: blend

•  1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• a pinch of dried ginger
• stevia extract to taste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
 

Grill tofu slabs drizzled with sauce, broccoli, red onions, red bell peppers, and carrots.  Serve over soba noodles, topped with avocado and leftover sauce.

Pearl Couscous, Veggies, Tofu

I've had this little container of pearled couscous in my pantry for ages now.  It's actually expired... but the couscous totally tastes fine, and I'm not dead yet.  Just goes to show you that the labels are usually quite generous with their dates.

 

 

I don't know if you guys even CARE or not...

 

But I DO know that you care about a pile of carbs, protein, veggies and olives!

 

Gotta love those olives...

Adapted from Olives for Dinner

First up, press your tofu slabs - 2 per person

Cook some pearled couscous (aka Israeli couscous)

Mix together

• Mirin
• Soy sauce
• Rice vinegar
• Liquid smoke
• Dried thyme
• Lotsa fresh parsley
• A drop of butter extract
• Vegetable bouillon
• A few drops stevia extract

Place chopped onions, red bell pepper, and tofu slabs on a panini press, and drizzle some of the sauce over the tofu.  Cook for ~8 minutes...
Serve: couscous, veggies, tofu, leftover sauce, and black olives.

Nacho-Themed Quinoa

Weee!  Nachos!  Erm... nacho quinoa.  Nat 'cho quinoa! 

 

 

Did I just make any sense at all?  I made that traditional bad pun there, at the end.  Can you tell?  (sorry, I'm really tired at the moment.)

 

Anyhoo, this was fun to make and eat.  Can't beat quinoa and avocado, can you now...?

Enjoy!

Adapted from Sketch-Free Eating

Mix quinoa with a very generous amount of chili powder.
Cook chopped bell pepper and onion on a panini press.
Top with heated black beans, crisped (in the oven) tortilla strips, diced avocado, shredded lettuce, salsa, and the best cheese in the world.

Peach and Corn Tacos

Taco shells are like hamburger buns...

EVERYTHING that goes in them tastes good!

Oh, gosh, I'm loving this fresh corn, though...

Adapted from The First Mess

Cabbage slaw:

~1/4 cup thinly shredded green cabbage

Juice of 1 lime

Tacos:

~1/2 cup chopped onion

~1/2 red bell pepper

kernels from 1 ear of corn

cumin

chili powder

chopped fresh basil

a handful of dried brown lentils, cooked

1 peach, finely diced (peeling is optional)

taco shells

For the cabbage slaw, just mix the two ingredients together.  Doesn't get harder than that!

For the filling, saute the onion and bell pepper for a few minutes, and then add the corn.  Keep sauteing until the corn is tender, about 3 more minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients and heat through.  Spoon the filling into shells, and top with slaw.

Quinoa and Veggies

I think the pictures speak for themselves.

A light, refreshing summer dish.

Adapted from Vegetarian Adventures

Base: cooked quinoa (water : quinoa = 1.5 : 1) seasoned after cooking with
garlic powder
tofutti herbed cream cheese
chopped fresh basil
nooch
vegetble bouillon
Topped with panini-grilled red bell pepper, onions, and carrots.

BBQ Baked Tofu and Pintos

Ok, I have a confession to make...

I CAN'T GET ENOUGH BBQ SAUCE

Dang, that stuff is so addicting...

Adapted from That Was Vegan and The Wednesday Chef

Alright, first up, cut up enough 1/4 inch-ish tofu slabs to cover a 9*13 casserole dish.  This should be about 1 block, depending on what size you buy.  Then press the tofu.  Lay the tofu in a single layer in the casserole dish, and *smother* with bbq sauce (can you tell I'm trying to use it up?)  Bake for 20 minutes at 375, flip, bake for another 15 minutes, then broil for 3 minutes. 

While that is going, saute up a chopped small-ish red onion, and a chopped bell pepper - about the same amount of bell pepper as onion.  Mix the veggies with ~3 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans, 1/4 cup ketchup, 3 tbsp molasses, 3 tbsp sugar free maple syrup, ~1 tsp liquid smoke, 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp paprika, 1 tsp dried mustard, and a 4oz can of hatch chilis.  If you can get your hands on fresh hatch chilis, all the better, but I couldn't :(.  Anyhoo, spread this over the tofu, and then top with sweet potato tater tots (again, I WOULD link to a recipe here, but they turned out kind of bad...) - or, you could just smaaaaaaaaaall dice sweet potato and mix with cinnamon and call that done...

Bake this entire thing for about 20 minutes.  It should be nice and bubbly!

What's Up Wednesday #6

Interesting article about agave - Why I Never Use Agave Nectar.  I never knew this stuff!

I tossed leftover veggies/setian on a bbq sauce - slathered bun, and called that dinner.  (Ok, so I had my usual soup and salad too...)

Friday was a MASSIVE cooking session for me! 
First up, I made Colby Cheese from Ordinary Vegetarian.  This was my first time trying agar... THAT STUFF IS SO WEIRD.  No kiddin'... I omitted the lemon juice (all my lemons went into making lemonade!), used 2 roasted bell peppers, cashews, and straight up sesame seeds instead of tahini.  It smelled fabulous...
Secondly was a strawberry bbq sauce, which also smelled really good.  I slathered it on tofu slabs, and stuck that on a sandwich.  Uh, YUM!  (Adapted from Vegan Yack Attack) Changed to the sauce: half recipe, 3/4 cup strawberries, add a bit of water, and ~1/4 cup sugar free blueberry jelly... I ran out of strawberries...

Lastly was this super-awesome-amazing salad dressing from Fat Free Vegan.  I followed it pretty closely, just doubled it, used a shallot in place of onions, and used sesame seeds in place of tahini.  Oh, gosh, this is the BEST dressing I have made in ages.. Susan is such a dressing genius.

And on Tuesday, I made a little army of vegan sausages!  OK, guys, repeat after me: I will read the instructions in the recipe and not blindly assume that all water goes directly in the dish.
I totally added the two cups of water to the gluten... and you can imagine how watery THAT turned out... -_-  Oh, well.  I ended up omitting the apple part of the sausages, using 1/2 cup oat flour in place of oats, 1 1/4 cup gluten, and 1/4 cup brown rice flour in place of rice.  They actually turned out realllllly good, though.  Although they did need about 45 minutes of baking time, not 30.  But, still, I think the flavour can best be discribed as 'calming', if that makes any sense at all...

One last thing... this morning I made Coffee Gingerbread Oatmeal... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Good stuff.  I made bottomless oats, and then added the banana and spices from this recipe (and stevia), using instant coffee powder in place of brewed coffee.

Oh, sorry, I lied.  HERE's the last thing... I made a coffee flavour of my b-fast tofu dip, which went very well with pizzerts.  Just blend silken tofu, almond milk, instant coffee grounds, and stevia.

Weeeird Pizza

Is there such a thing as a weird pizza?

Well, my friends, I think I found it.

Pizzas are like stir frys: you can pretty much throw anything on them!

Adapted from That Was Vegan?

(all is cooked on the panini press, except tater tots)

I used the normal crust.

Slathered with bbq sauce.

Topped with cooked setian, bell pepper and onion.

Cheese.

And sweet potato tots.  I WOULD link a recipe here, but the one I used didn't turn out all that great... they kind of fell apart.  But they were seasoned with chili powder and cinnamon - the flavour was excellent!



Rice, Black Bean Sauce, Grilled Veggie and Seitan

I very quickly learned that this was not a summertime dish.

But, after sweating through an hour of having 3 burners on (I made ramen soup on the same night)...

I was more than happy with the results!

The sauce was just right, and how I DO love paninied veggies!

Adapted from Meet the Shannons and Tasty Kaiti's

First up, cook up some brown rice.

Next up, saute a hefty amount of chopped garlic in a sauce pan, then add 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, 1/2 cup water, 1 scant tbsp nooch, generous tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp worchestire sauce (Annie's is vegan), scant tsp onion powder, 1 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp powdered ginger, 2 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tsp dried or fresh (remember fresh is better!) oregano, liquid smoke, juice of 1 large lime... whew, I think that's it!  Oh, right, mix up a corn starch slurry and add that too.  Then let your mixture bubble away for abut half an hour, until nice and thick.  It will taste veeeeeeery good, I promise!

Finally, grill up some sliced bell pepper and onion on a panini press, and add seitan strips (the first recipe) when they are about 2/3 done. 

Finally, plate everything up!

This looks really complex, but it's not, really.  PROMISE.

Stir Fry + "Deep Fried" Tofu

Oh, cornstarch...

How I love thee...

"Deep Fried" Tofu Stir Fry, adapted from That's So Vegan

For the tofu: press a brick of tofu, and cube.  Toss in corn starch, and bake 400 for about 25 minutes, until hard.

Veggies: Onion, broccoli, carrots, bell pepper

Sauce: Stevia, chili paste, mirin, maple syrup, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, pineapple juice, and (more) corn starch

Served over brown rice.