Monday, March 17, 2014

Easy Kid Friendly Vegan Healthy Rice Bowl





Easy Kid Friendly Vegan Healthy Rice Bowl

1 large onion
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen carrots
1/2 cup frozen mushrooms
1/2 can crushed pineapple 
3 bags of boil in bag rice
2 TBSP Soy Sauce 
2 TBSP Orange Juice 
1/2 cup lite brown sugar , divided
2 TBSP Smart Balance light
1 TBSP olive oil
*Food Processor or blender

1. Heat skillet with olive oil

2. Cut onion into small bite sized pieces and throw into skillet, season with salt and pepper

3. Start the water for the bag rice , put in bag rice when boiling low

4. Add the frozen carrots on top of the bag rice and let thaw out and cook til soft (quick, about 4 min)

5.  Onions should be browning so push them to side of skillet and add frozen mushrooms and peas

6.  Add the thawed and soft carrots to the food processor 

7. After the peas and mushrooms have thawed and fried up a bit in skillet (til soft), add to food processor

8. Stir around the onions and put 1 small spoonful of them into processor

9. Dump rice (and any carrots you've missed) into strainer and open each bag of rice and dump back into pot that you cooked rice in

10. Add soy sauce, pineapple, 1/4 cup brown sugar to food processor and blend all until everything is in small unrecognizable pieces

11. Dump food processor mixture into rice and stir in

12. Add orange juice, butter, and 1/4 cup brown sugar  and stir. 

13. Let sit for a few minutes to marinate flavors together, stirring often

14. Divide into four bowls, top with fried onions 

15. Salt and pepper!!

My son wouldn't eat big fried onion chunks on top so I omitted that from his bowl, but he loved the dish and asked for seconds


Eggless Vegan Quiche



                    

                   Eggless Vegan Quiche 
1 vegan pie crust (most are vegan at stores)
3 stalks of scallion (use all)
small/medium regular onion
7 small button mushrooms
2 wedges of a garlic knot
1 cup frozen spinach or kale
1 package Tofu extra firm
2 TBSP nutritional yeast flakes
1 TBSP Tahini
1 cup (loose packed) Daiya Cheddar Shreds / divided 
1/2 cup almond milk (can use soy)
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 TBSP olive oil 
Salt and pepper to taste 
* Food processor or blender

1. Cut regular onion in small pieces

2. Chop off bottom of scallion and small part of tops and cut into small pieces, use all of the white and green

3. Heat olive oil in skillet

4. Fry onion and scallions, add salt and pepper

5. Cut garlic into the smallest pieces you can and add to skillet

6. Open tofu and squeeze the block as much as you can to release as much moisture as possible.  I squeeze mine about 6 times, Crumble loosely in food processor 

7. Get out the pie crust and let sit until step 12

8. Chop mushrooms into small pieces and add to skillet

9. Add tahini , nutritional flakes, Italian seasoning, celery salt, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup off Daiya cheese, and almond milk, process until looks well blended but NOT runny liquid.  Pour into a mixing bowl, scraping sides to keep as much as you can

10. Add frozen spinach or kale to skillet

11. Once spinach or kale is cooked into the onion / mushroom mixture, dump it all into the mixing bowl with blended tofu.  Mix with spoon to evenly distribute the onion/mushroom/spinach mixture. 

12. Unroll the pie crust and put into a pie crust, pour mixture on top of the pie crust.  Add the rest of the Daiya cheese on top, roll sides of pie crust up towards the middle of pie. Salt and pepper over cheese. 

13. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.  The crust needs to be darker golden brown but definitely not burnt.  The longer you can cook it , the better the mixture seems to taste.

14. Let sit 15 minutes before cutting, it will be hot still!!

Make a double batch and freeze them individually or 2 in one freezer bag for quick meals!  These taste really good from the freezer too.  I love quiche and I finally think this tastes like the real egg version!! I tried the eggless powder substitute and it just didn't work out at all. 

Change it up and make it with red and green peppers instead of spinach or kale. Yum!!!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Spinach Olive Dip & Homemade Tortilla Chips




Spinach Olive Dip & Homemade Tortilla Chips
1/4 block Firm Tofu
1/2 cup frozen (thawed) spinach 
1/4 cup cooked broccoli (cooled)
1 cup Veganaise
1/4 cup Dayia Shredded Cheddar
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 Soft tortillas (wheat preferred)
1/2 can black olives pitted

Put all ingredients (except the tortillas and black olives) in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Put in fridge.

Cut tortillas with a pizza slicer into 6-8 even pizza sized wedges.  Sprinkle with salt and and pepper and bake on 350 degrees until just turning brown, turning them once or twice to check coloring.  

While the tortillas are cooking, slice the black olives in round slices and add them to the dip and stir. 

It tastes 1,000,000 times better than it looks!!! The Dayia cheese makes it have little lumps in it.  None vegan people liked this dip!!