Simple Tofu Scramble by Eat Within Your Means

Sometimes you just need some breakfast for dinner!

When I came across this delicious-looking tofu scramble by Eat Within Your Means, I knew that I needed to try it. It looked easy, healthy and filling.

Find the recipe here.

I didn't have any vegan sour cream on hand, but it was still fantastic! It was amazing how much the tofu ended up looking like scrambled eggs from the yellow of the turmeric. The flavors were absolutely delicious.

In order to make it even easier, I bought pre-sliced mushrooms and pre-cut broccoli from Trader Joe's.

We also decided to add some Field Roast vegan sausage. I had been wanting to try it and was able to find it at Whole Foods: we had the smoked apple sage flavor and it was absolutely wonderful with the scramble. Incredibly flavorful and yummy! All you need to do is brown the links in a pan over medium heat for a few minutes.

Daniel likes everything I make (or at least says he does; he's a sweetie ;) but he was particularly enthusiastic about this meal. Give it a try for a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Prevent a Cold (Naturally!)

I know that this is supposed to be a cooking blog, but I wanted to share this great tip for stopping a cold in its tracks using apple cider vinegar (which is food related! ;)

I started to feel that dreaded tickle in my throat last week, which was quickly escalating into a runny nose, headache and fatigue. I decided to do a search for a natural vegan-friendly remedy, and came up with this

great post about apple cider vinegar as an all-out cold preventer. I picked up some raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar right away (Bragg's has a great one and seems to be available in lots of stores--as she notes in the post, make sure it is raw and unfiltered rather than the cooking type such as Heinz, which has filtered out the helpful enzymes). I got mine at Sprout's.

I also picked up some apple juice (I'm sure that other types of juice would be fine too, or just water if you don't mind the taste--just do dilute it somehow before drinking), and filled an 8 oz. glass with about about half apple juice, half water, and 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (shake up the vinegar first). If it tastes too sharp, you can sweeten it with some maple syrup. It doesn't taste bad to me, just a little sour and spicy, but I know that some people are more sensitive to vinegar.

She recommends doing it every 8 to 12 hours: I took mine that evening, then the next morning and evening.

When I woke up the morning after my first glass of it I felt like I was recovering, and the cold never materialized! It could just be a coincidence, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. 

I have been reading about the many other benefits of apple cider vinegar, such as being good for your skin and for heartburn prevention, so I may start doing this every day.

*Please note that I have no medical training; just sharing a tip that worked for me!

Avocado Toast

This is really less of a recipe than a tip :)

I have seen the idea of avocado toast floating around Pinterest, and decided to give it a try. Daniel was working a later shift the other night and it seemed like it was a good option for a lighter late dinner.

It was very yummy and surprisingly filling! I also had it the next day for lunch with some canned lentil soup, which was awesome. I am trying to think of really easy dinners for my upcoming crazy semester at school, and I think this would be great either on its own or with some soup or vegan sausage.

All I did to make it was toast 2 slices of bread in the toaster, drizzle on a little bit of olive oil, slice an avocado and place each half on a piece of toast, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

So yummy! The crunchiness of the toast and the creaminess of the avocado compliment each other nicely.

Daniel's Birthday Dinner: Herbed Tofu Tomato Salad and Vegan Stuffed Shells

Even though we went out to dinner earlier in the week for Daniel's birthday, I wanted to make him something special for his actual birthday tonight when he came home from work. I had seen an amazing-looking marinated tofu salad on Vegan Yack Attack's site, and knew that I needed to try it. Before I went vegan one of our favorite things to eat was caprese salad with fresh mozzarella, and this looked like a wonderful replacement. I can tell you that it did not disappoint!

You can find the recipe here: make sure that you have your ingredients the morning that you want to eat it for dinner, as you need to marinate the tofu for several hours. I did make a few changes based upon what I had available: I used super-firm tofu since Trader Joe's was out of of extra-firm; therefore, I didn't need to press it. The texture was great and just like mozzarella! I used 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar in place of the coconut vinegar, vine-ripened tomatoes instead of heirloom, and a spring mix instead of baby arugula. Again, these were just changes of convenience. She notes that the tofu, which you can marinate between 4-6 hours, gets saltier the longer you marinate it: I did the full 8 hours and it was a little too salty for my taste (though still wonderful!). Next time I will try 4-6 hours instead. Although she did not specify, I marinated it in the fridge (in a sealed container). I couldn't believe how similar it was to fresh mozzarella...I honestly don't think I would have suspected it wasn't if I didn't know! I can't wait to try it in other recipes such as pasta salad.

 

For our main dish, I wanted something classic, filling and yummy (and not too complicated). I saw a recipe on Pinterest for stuffed shells and thought that would be perfect. Although I liked the simplicity of it and the use of veggie ground beef (which Daniel really likes), I wasn't crazy about the use of a lot of vegan shredded cheese; I had also seen another recipe which used a tofu ricotta and spinach, which I liked the idea of...so I just decided to combine the things I liked from both recipes! I was astonished at how delicious they came out! I actually felt a bit guilty eating them because they tasted so authentic...the tofu and cashew cream was an amazing replacement for ricotta. The photo below is from before they went in the oven: not terribly photogenic, but trust me, they were amazing!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 package jumbo pasta shells (I got mine at Fry's)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 package veggie ground beef (I used Trader Joe's brand)
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 package extra-firm tofu, drained (I actually used super-firm since that was what I had)
• 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for about 2 to 8 hours, then rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 jar marinara sauce

1. Cook the jumbo pasta shells in salted water (I added about 1 Tbsp. of salt) according to package directions. Drain and set aside so that they are cool enough to handle.

2. Preheat the over to 350.

3. Preheat a medium pan over medium heat for a couple of minutes, then add the 1 Tbsp. olive oil, the onions, and the garlic. Cook for 5-7 minutes until softened. Add the veggie ground beef and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the frozen spinach and cook for about 5 minutes, or until heated through. Set mixture aside.

4. Place your block of tofu in a large bowl and mash with a fork until crumbly (note: this will be a little more difficult if you use super-firm tofu like I did; cutting it up a bit with a knife first helped!)

5. Place the soaked and drained cashews in a blender and add the water: blend until smooth, adding a little more water if you need to get the blender going. Add the cashew cream to the crumbled tofu and mix together.

6. Stir the tofu/cashew cream mixture into the onion/ground beef/spinach mixture and add the salt, pepper and dried basil. Mix well.

7. Coat the bottom of a 9"x13" pan with some of the marinara sauce. Stuff each shell with the mixture and place in the pan (I ended up having some leftover shells). Pour the remaining marinara sauce over the top.

8. Bake at 350 uncovered for 15 minutes.

The recipe makes a lot: we ate probably 1/4 of it for one dinner, so we will have it again (along with more of the salad) tomorrow night, and there will probably be a couple of lunches for Daniel too!

If  I do say so, I was blown away by this dinner! Luckily Daniel absolutely loved it too, and had seconds of everything :)

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!