Easy Vegan Sausage and Pepper Pizza and Avocado Caesar Salad

We have semi-officially made Sunday nights pizza night around here (well, this is our second time in a row :) We really enjoyed this pizza by Minimalist Baker last week (see my post about it here), so we decided to do a variation this week using Tofurkey Italian sausages. We used the refrigerated dough from Trader Joe's last week and planned on using it again, but they were out this time and it was a bit late for me to try to make my own, so we went with the pre-shaped frozen dough instead:

It turned out really well and made the process even easier! Plus it came with two crusts, which is perfect for this recipe.

Vegan Sausage and Pepper Pizza Recipe (adapted from Minimalist Baker): 

Ingredients:

• Frozen pizza crust from Trader Joe's (both crusts in the package)
• 1 jar of pizza sauce from Trader Joe's
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 package of baby bell peppers from Trader Joe's, sliced (or about 2 regular sized bell peppers, your choice of color)
• 1/2 a red onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. each of dried basil, dried oregano, and garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 2 Tofurkey Italian sausages, sliced into pieces
• 1/2 cup or so vegan parmesan cheese (made by blending together 3/4 cup raw cashews, 3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. garlic powder in a blender or food processor until mealy, or about the same texture as the packets of parm you get with pizza. It keeps in the fridge for about a month, and I use ours all the time!)

1. Preheat oven to 425 F degrees, with the rack in the middle of the oven.

2. Unwrap the pizza crusts and allow them to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes while you prepare the veggies.

3. Bring large skillet to medium heat. Once hot, add 1 Tbsp olive oil, onion and peppers. Season with salt and herbs and stir. Cook until soft and slightly charred, 10-15 minutes. Set aside.

4. Place each crust on a flat, lightly floured cutting board or baking sheet before assembling. Spread desired amount of pizza sauce on each crust (I used about 1/4 of a jar for each pizza and refrigerated the rest), avoiding the outer crust so it can rise properly. Distribute the sauteed veggies and the sausage slices, half on each pizza, and sprinkle vegan parmesan on top.

5. Carefully slide the pizza off of the baking sheet or other flat surface into the oven so that the pizza is directly on the oven rack. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes until edges are lightly browned. (Note: one pizza serves two people, so I bake one that night and put the other one, fully assembled on a baking sheet and covered with saran wrap, in the fridge to bake the next day).

6. Serve with extra vegan parmesan and red pepper flakes, if desired.

I also thought it would be fun to have a salad on the side, and found this recipe for an avocado-based vegan Caesar dressing. It came out great and Daniel absolutely loved it! Just a warning that it is very garlic-y with 4 cloves, which we actually liked, but you could probably easily reduce the garlic to 3 cloves instead of 4-5.

I made us each a simple salad of chopped Romaine lettuce, a dallop of dressing, and some of the vegan parmesan on top. Delicious! There was quite a bit of dressing left, so I am keeping it in a jar in the fridge for leftovers tomorrow night.

This was a great combo and we're looking forward to having it again tomorrow! I hope that you enjoy your own pizza night!

Easy-Peasey Homemade Microwave Popcorn!

Microwave popcorn is one of my very favorite snacks, but like everyone else I have been reading about the yucky chemicals found in typical microwave bags bought at the store. I'll admit that this didn't stop me right away from enjoying them, but I recently came upon a link on Pinterest describing an easy way to make your own microwave popcorn with a paper lunch bag (unfortunately I can't locate that original link). I found it hard to believe that it could be so easy, but I decided to buy some popcorn kernels and try it out, and not only was it incredibly easy but the popcorn came out perfect, and my husband and I both liked it even more than the store-bought version!

Below I show you all that you need. I use a "giant" sized paper bag (mine are Target brand) to allow plenty of room for popping, standard yellow popcorn kernels (mine are organic ones from Sprouts, but you can find them pretty much anywhere in the snack aisle), some vegan Earth Balance butter, and some sea salt or whatever type of salt you have.

• 1 large paper lunch bag
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1 tablespoon vegan butter
• 1/2 teaspoon or so of salt (more or less to your taste)

Measure out 1/2 cup of the popcorn kernels and dump them into the paper bag. Fold the top of the bag over tightly several times (3-4) so that it fits upright in the microwave but there is still enough room for popping. (Note: you can put it in the microwave flat, folded side down, but I have read and have found myself that it will not pop quite as much and there is more risk for burning. When I set it upright, it is always perfect). 

No need to seal the bag otherwise. Set the microwave for 3 minutes and pop as you would with a normal bag! (We use the one-two-pop-STOP! method, so basically stopping it when it slows down to a 2-second interval between pops).

Pour the popcorn into a large bowl (1/2 cup makes a very large bowl of popcorn). Melt the butter in a small bowl or ramekin in 10-second intervals in the microwave. Pour it evenly over the popcorn, then sprinkle with salt. Mix it around with your hands a little bit to evenly distribute the butter and salt.

That's it!

You will have a beautiful, delicious bowl of popcorn :)

The beauty of this method, besides being inexpensive, healthy and delicious, is that you can customize it however you want! You can do 1/4 or 1/3 cup popcorn if you want a smaller bowl, you can make it with no butter or with melted coconut oil for an even healthier version, you can do 2-3 tablespoons of butter if it's movie night and you want it nice and buttery, or you can try different seasonings such as nutritional yeast, cinnamon and sugar or Italian herbs and garlic powder (I am a popcorn purist, so I stick with the butter and salt :)

I hope that you love this method as much as I do. Let me know if you have any other tips or come up with a great seasoning combination!

Tempeh Meatballs and Spaghetti from Isa Does It!

I had been hearing about this vegan cookbook "Isa Does It!" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz for a while, so I finally went for it and ordered it. I am so glad I did! She has a great, fun approach to cooking and uses a lot of satisfying, accessible ingredients in her recipes. When I was first flipping through it after it arrived on Wednesday, my eyes stopped on the Tempeh Meatballs and Spaghetti with Spicy Slurpy Spaghetti Sauce and I knew what we were having for dinner that night!

Another thing I like about this book is that it is meant for weeknight recipes, though she admits that this one is a bit more time-consuming than some. I still found it to be pretty easy though, and it made us a big dinner for two nights. I think I would keep it for a weekend night, but she suggests that you could boil the tempeh the night before to speed the process, and if you also used store bought marinara it would be even quicker.  It looks like a lot of ingredients, but most of them are pantry staples and it all comes together pretty quickly! Definitely worth the bit of work involved and the homemade sauce was awesome! I have included the recipe below with some of my own tips to make all of the elements come together smoothly in the kitchen.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 package spaghetti

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound tempeh (I got 2 8oz. packages from Trader Joe's)
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. tamari or soy sauce (I used my Bragg's Liquid Aminos)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• several pinches freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup very finely chopped yellow onion (about pea-sized, for the meatballs to stick together)
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs (got mine at Trader Joe's)
•   Olive oil, for panfrying

For the Spicy Slurpy Spaghetti Sauce:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (I just used the other half of the onion from the meatball recipe)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (I did 3/4 tsp. because I'm a wimp ;)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 24 oz.can crushed tomatoes with basil (mine came in a 28 oz. can)
• 1 tsp. salt

Note: I would recommend  doubling the sauce recipe if you like a lot on your pasta, like we do. It was still awesome, but I'm going to double it next time.

1. I started out by prepping: getting all of the ingredients out on the counter, chopping the onion finely and dividing it into two bowls (one for the meatballs and one for the sauce) and peeling 5 total garlic cloves.

2. Crumble the tempeh into very small pieces in a medium-sized pot. Add the 1 cup water, Bragg's liquid aminos (or soy sauce or tamari), and olive oil. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer, with the lid slightly ajar to let steam escape, for 15 minutes. Most of the water should be absorbed; if it's not, drain it. Place the tempeh in a bowl and place in the freezer to cool for about 10 minutes, giving it a stir after 5 minutes to help it cool evenly.

3. If you are making your own sauce, I started mine while I was waiting on the tempeh to cook and cool. To make the sauce: Preheat a medium pot over medium-low heat and add the olive oil. Saute the chopped onion for about 5 minutes, until slightly brown (mine took more like 10 minutes). Add the garlic and sautee until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar and cook for about 1 minute, until it is dissolved and coats all of the onion. Mix in the thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Add the tomatoes and salt and stir everything together. Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar to let steam escape, and cook for 15 minutes. Note: I left the sauce over low heat while I got the rest of the meal together.

4. Once the tempeh is cool, add the garlic, ketchup, mustard, oregano thyme, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Mix in the onion. Now add the panko bread crumbs and use your hands to mix until it holds together very well. You can add extra bread crumbs by the tablespoon if it seems loose until you can form tight, compact balls, roughly the size of golf balls (I did add some extra bread crumbs and sort of gently squeezed them in my hands for a minute to form them. I had to handle them delicately, but they came out great!)

5. Get your pasta water boiling.

6. Preheat a large nonstick pan (she recommends cast iron to get a nice char to them, which I didn't do this time but will next time!) over medium heat for a few minutes. Coat your pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Add the meatballs one by one, rolling them in the pan to coat in oil. Cook them in two batches. Panfry for about 10 minutes, rolling them frequently to cook evenly. (I used a metal slotted spoon to very gently roll them around and brown all sides. I then lifted them out one by one with the metal spoon and put them on a plate lined with paper towels).

7. Since my spaghetti took 9 minutes to cook, I started it cooking at the same time I started my second batch of meatballs.

To serve two very hungry people, put about 1/4 each of the spaghetti and sauce on each plate, plus 5 or so meatballs each (mine made about 20 meatballs). I also topped ours with homemade vegan parm (see this post) and it was the perfect finishing touch. A salad and/or bread on the side would be great and make the pasta go even further, but we just went for it!

This was a real winner and will definitely be happening again soon! :)

Note: You can also find a lot of Isa recipes on the website the Post Punk Kitchen. They're all vegan!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

Although I have my typical green morning smoothie on regular rotation, I am trying to branch out with different ingredients and flavors. One hot summer day recently I decided to try a chocolate peanut butter smoothie (I found a recipe for it here). The only change I made was using the entire banana instead of half. I would also like to try it sometime with chocolate almond milk! Here's the recipe I used: 

• 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 tbsp. peanut butter

• 1 banana, 

• 1 cup almond milk 

• ice  

Delicious and refreshing!

Simple Vegan Pizza from Minimalist Baker

I thought it would be fun to do a pizza and movie night last Sunday night and had been eyeing a vegan pizza (recipe here) by Minimalist Baker. Those sauteed veggies just looked irresistible and I was intrigued by the idea of homemade parmesan cheese. Turns out, the pizza was amazing and the parmesan added a really nice extra flavor and texture; we both loved it!

 And the parm is super easy: all you need to do is blend 3/4 cup raw cashews, 3 tbsp. nutritional yeast, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. garlic powder in a food processor until it looks mealy (about the same texture as the little packets of parmesan you get with pizza). 

I like that the pizza calls for the refrigerated pizza dough from Trader Joe's so you don't need to make your own (we used whole wheat because our TJ's was out of the recommended garlic-herb, but definitely trying that next time!) I also used Trader Joe's pizza sauce. Luckily I have done a bit of pizza slinging in my day (I worked as a cook at a pizza place for about 5 years), so I can handle the stretching part ;) Oh, and since the recipe only calls for half of the pizza crust, I cut it in two, doubled the other ingredients, and made 2 pizzas so we could have leftovers.

Before going in the oven

Vegan parmesan

The recipe for vegan parmesan makes quite a bit, so I stored mine in a jar and we have been using it all week for pasta and such. She notes on the site that it will last for a month covered in the fridge; I will definitely be keeping a batch in there at all times!

7-Ingredient Cinnamon Rolls from Minimalist Baker

My husband and I very rarely get days off together with our opposite work schedules, so when we do I always like to make us something special for breakfast. I have never made cinnamon rolls in my life, but decided that I could try this recipe for easy ones from Minimalist Baker last week. I am happy to report that they came out wonderful. I decided to make two batches so that I could share some with my parents, and they were a hit! They did take some time because you have to wait for the dough to rise, but overall they were quite easy and I will definitely be making them again.

I went with a mix of powdered sugar and a little almond milk for the topping, but I would also like to try her option for the dairy free cream cheese frosting.

So glad that my first cinnamon roll adventure was a success!

Superfood Green Monster from Oh She Glows

I've never really been a smoothie person. I don't really know why; I guess I'm just the type of person who would rather have something to sink my teeth into! However, I finally got a blender a few weeks ago after being without one for several years and decided to try making one; I just hadn't been feeling the usual cereal and almond milk for breakfast. I saw this smoothie recipe on one of my favorite sites, Oh She Glows (scroll to the bottom after the cookie recipe, although that looks great too!). It's been my and my husband's daily breakfast since. I feel really good after drinking it and it holds me over for the most part until lunch.

 I found the Garden of Life Raw Protein powder at Sprouts (I got Vanilla flavor). I "guess-timate" the proportions: since I make it to serve 2, I use 2 bananas and closer to 2 cups of almond milk, and I like using frozen mango and strawberries for the fruit. I think it's a great basic green smoothie recipe!

These glasses I got us at Michaels last week don't hurt either :)

Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Chickpea Salad from The Law Student's Wife

This is one of my very favorite dinners which I have made recently. It was just incredibly flavorful with the roasted veggies and the wonderful dressing. The recipe can be found here from the blog The Law Student's Wife. The only modification it needed to become vegan was the omission of the feta, and I really didn't miss it at all. I also changed the veggies a bit by doing mushrooms, zucchini and asparagus and leaving out the eggplant and yellow squash (I just like mushrooms more than eggplant, and didn't have a yellow squash). I made a little bit extra of the veggies because I like most of our dinners to have enough leftovers for the next day.

I served it over some couscous and also browned a couple of Tofurkey sausages in a pan and served one for each of us on the side. I am already thinking of making this again; it was so flavorful and filling without being heavy. Just amazing!

Welcome, and Perfect Vegan Pancakes from the One Ingredient Chef

Welcome to my blog! I am starting this as a sort of experiment. I have been vegetarian for about 12 years and became fully vegan last month. I have always enjoyed cooking but would not say that I have ever been particularly good at it. However, since becoming vegan I have a new-found enthusiasm for trying new recipes and experimenting with delicious plant-based foods. My idea for this blog is to document my favorite recipes from other blogs, websites and cookbooks and have them all in one place. I might also come up with a few of my own creations as I go along! I hope to refine my cooking skills through trying new recipes and maybe meet some other vegan food enthusiasts along the way! 

Please bear with me as I am not an experienced cook, and my photos aren't the best (I usually take them on my phone, and unfortunately our kitchen does not have a natural light source, but I do my best :)

I am going to start out by sharing these amazing vegan pancakes by The One Ingredient Chef. (Find the recipe here). I would recommend reading his entire post as he has a lot of great pancake-making tips! I used unsweetened almond milk for the non-dairy milk (it's my favorite). I followed all of his tips about mixing the batter very gently until just mixed and making sure that the pan was nice and hot.

We topped ours with Earth Balance vegan butter and pure maple syrup.

They were awesome, and my (non-veggie) husband thought they were delicious, vegan or not!

Definitely worth trying if you want a delicious breakfast treat :)