Spaghetti Salad

Here's the salad I was talking about yesterday.  I had some for lunch today, and it was pretty good! 

Base of 10 oz ww spaghetti.  Sauteed about 1 cup each red onion, red bell pepper, broccoli, and chickn nuggets.  The dressing was 3/4 cup fat free Italian dressing (yeah, I know, that's cheating... but I seriously can't figure out how to imitate Italian, and I was not about to make something up that night), poppy seeds, salt, paprika, garlic powder, pepper, and a smidge of cayenne pepper.  Mix it all together and let it marinade.

Erm.  Yeah, once again no picture.  It'll come soon, promise!

A Massive Cooking Session Today.

And only one thing that I actually ate... so I can only post one thing!  I made soup, spaghetti salad for M's lunch, and mac n cheeze. Here's the mac recipe, adapted from here, which I thought was really REALLY good.  Nice and creamy, and it tastes quite like cheese.

Blend together until creamy: 1 cup tofu, 3/4 cup almond milk, 1 medium-small sweet potato (peeled, cubed, and boiled), 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, 1/2 cup nooch.  Mix with about 5 cups cooked ww spiral pasta in a casserole dish.  Top with sauteed broccoli mixed with cilantro, 2 vegan hot dogs (coined), and a bit of caramelized onion (no oil, just cooking spray).  Cover with foil and bake until hot.

Serve with a dab of salsa.

 :)

Fail Ravioli, but Good Sauce

Yeah, I don't like boiled wonton wrappers.  I found that out tonight - I used them to make ravioli, but didn't like their slimyness.  But the filling/sauce was good over pasta, so here that is!

Adapted from WTHDAVEA

For the tofu mixture: wilt 1/2 bunch spinach.  Mix with 10 oz crumbled tofu, nooch, nutmeg, parsley, and pepper.
For the sauce: mix 2 tbsp corn starch with Silk, and add that to a kettle with more Silk and Toffuti sour cream.  Turn to medium heat, and keep stirring until it gets really thick.
Heat the tofu, and serve with the sauce over pasta.

Chickpea and Onion Patties

Sorry, no picture tonight.  It'll be up tomorrow!

This has been my lunch for this week, and it's YUMMMMYYY!  :)
I put one burger on this bread, which I slather with tofu mayo.  Shredded carrots go on the other half of the sandwich.

Adapted from here.

Mash 2 cups chickpeas, and stir in 1 small sauteed onion, 3 cloves sauteed garlic, parsely, cumin, nooch, coriander, sumac, pepper, lemon juice, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 cup Italian flavoured bread crumbs.  Add about 1/3 cup mirin and/or some water until it holds together.  Shape into patties and bake.

Lentil Sheperd's Pie

So, this was supposed to get mashed potatoes on top... but the soup from last night had used them all up!... so I ended up putting a crust on it instead.  And now, because of my stupidity, I have two almost-full bags of whole wheat flour open.  Oops... oh well, I think that means I will be making some bread tomorrow...

The pie was adapted from here.

Soak and cook 1 cup dried green/brown lentils (not the red kind).
Saute up 1 onion, a couple of carrots, and garlic.  Add the lentils, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 cup white wine, dried basil, Italian seasoning, Spike seasoning, and thyme and mix well.  Make sure to use lots of seasoning, because the lentils tend to turn out bland in my opinion otherwise.  Then fold in 1/2 bunch spinach.  Pour in the crust, and any leftover in a ramkin.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

For the crust, I used my no-fail super-easy super-healthy pie crust.  Spray a pie pan with nonstick spray, and then mix together (yes, in the pan) 1/2 cup each whole wheat flour, oatmeal, and sunflower seeds.  Then add about 1/2 cup applesauce to start, and add more until the mixture holds together.  Press the dough in the form of the pie pan, and then bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Soup, Salad Dressing

Yeah, ok, not so creative on the names.   You got a problem with that? 

I have made waaaaaaay too many soups to keep coming up with names... and the salad dressing, well, it's too good for a name.  We'll just call it Salad Dressing.

For the soup, adapted from here:
Veggies were equal amounts of onion and carrot (large piles), 1/2 lb green beans, tomato sauce, and potatoes.  It also got some red kidney beans.  Seasonings were 1 cup white wine, 1 tbsp each sumac and paprika, and vegetarian chicken bullion.  Thickened with cornstarch and finished off with vegetarian meat.  It was quite good, and chunky too...

The salad dressing happened because I opened a container of tomato paste for the soup, and then decided it was unneccessary (read: it wouldn't fit).  So I jumped over to AllRecipes, and saw this.

My version consisted of 1/2 cup each mirin and tofu mayo*, 6 oz tomato paste, 2 hefty tbsp brown sugar, a bit of apple cider vinegar, mustard powder, garlic and onion powder, caraway seeds, liquid smoke, and paprika.  It made quite a bit and was very tomato-y, but it was really yum!  I loved how it was different from other dressings that I have made.  The only thing that I would change would be to use tomato sauce instead of the paste, which might make it less tomato-y...

UPDATE 1/30: Ok, so I got a really bad grade on my precal test.  I feel the need to put this in here... I'm sulking.  Now for the actual update - this dressing thickens up A LOT.  A LOT A LOT.  So, I would advise dumping in more mirin and vinegar to thin it out... then do that the next day as well, because that's how thick it gets.

*Tofu mayo: half cook 18 oz silken tofu and blend with 1/4 cup lemon juice.

Broccoli, Rice, and Chickpea Casserole

Adapted from Fat Free Vegan.

Cook 1 generous cup brown rice.
Saute 1 medium, finely chopped onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1 small bell pepper, and 5 cups broccoli florets.  Mix in rice, and 2 cups cooked chickpeas.
In another small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup nooch, lemon juice, cooking sherry, smoked paprika or paprika.liquid smoke, 2 T Spike seasoning, dried mustard, and pepper.  Mix this into the rice mixture. 
Spread into a casserole dish and top with a thin layer of tofu mayo (18 oz silken tofu, partially cooked, blended with 1/4 cup lemon jucie).
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so, until you are ready to eat.