Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Homemade Chick'n Salad

Where did this week go?! I signed up for Vegan MoFo 2014 starting in September. It seems like I just finished doing that! 
I found this recipe for some chick'n salad at FettleVegan.com. I used Beyond Meat Grilled Chicken-Free Strips. The texture of the chick'n really holds up in a salad. It doesn't break down and get all mushy. 

~cubed chick'n, celery, onion, almonds and parsley~




 The dressing recipe calls for way too much salt-2 teaspoons! I foolishly added the 2 tsp. and found out the hard way. I had some sweet pickle relish, so I added about 1/4 cup to the mix. That fixed the saltiness and was a great addition. I think I'll add the relish from now on. 


I toasted some Veganic Lentil Grain bread for my chick'n salad. This is the second time I've tried this bread; still not too sure about it. It kind of has a rubbery texture unless it's toasted. I still like Ezekiel bread better. 

 ~Chick'n Salad Sandwich with romaine~

The rest of the week I made some favorites:

I added some mixed veggies in this time. 

~ Light and Fluffy Pancakes ~
Give Them Something Better
There is a recipe for making up a mix which uses powdered soymilk. Great to have on hand. I needed to restock the freezer with pancakes! 




~ Cherry Almond Cookies ~
Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar


~ Lentil and Chard Ragout ~
Crazy Sexy Kitchen

Friday, August 15, 2014

Red Lentil Dal with Red Beans & Greens


Another "greens" recipe from Wild About Greens. This calls for some curry powder or garam masala. I was out of my homemade garam masala so I mixed up some more. It's an easy recipe out of  La Dolce Vegan


Six ingredients for the garam masala. 
~coriander, cumin, cardamom, ginger, allspice and pepper~


My favorite vegan naan bread from Sprouts. I like to keep a bag of this in my freezer. 

~ Red Lentil Dal with Red Beans & Greens ~
The red lentils and seasonings get cooked down to a mush for easy dipping. Then you add in some kidney beans and greens; I used spinach and arugula. The recipe calls for 8-10 oz. of greens but after adding about 4-6 oz. I couldn't imagine adding another 4 ounces into the dal. That was a lot of greens! Of course this wasn't spicy enough for me and it seemed kind of bland so I had to add some more salt, cilantro and sriracha sauce. 




Thursday, August 14, 2014

White Bean & Collard Soup and Cornbread


I had a bunch of collard greens I needed to use and I'm always looking for new ways to cook them. I love collard greens! I found this soup recipe in Cookin' Crunk. She also suggested serving the Jalapeno-Corn Buttermilk Cornbread with it. 


I used my cast-iron skillet to bake the cornbread. It has chopped pickled jalapenos and corn in the batter. You make a "buttermilk" with soymilk and cider vinegar.  

 ~ Jalapeno-Corn Buttermilk Cornbread ~
Nice and crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. 


Topped my cornbread with some Earth Balance margarine and my favorite Bee Free Honee! I was so excited to see the honee in my local Sprouts. I don't have to order it online anymore. It has the consistency and taste of bee honey. It tastes better than using agave as a honey replacement.

~ White Bean and Collard Soup ~ 
This soup used dried Great Northern beans. I never cook with dried beans so this took a little preparation. I just put my beans on to soak in the morning and they were ready to cook in the afternoon. She didn't specify, but I waited to add the canned tomatoes and salt after the beans were cooked. I've read that the beans won't get done with the acid and salt in them. They turned out perfect. I like the addition of ginger, red pepper flakes and a little nutmeg for the seasonings. You cook the collard greens separately and then add them in to the cooked beans. Yum! I froze the leftover soup and cornbread for a quick supper later. 

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Cheesy Broccoli-Rice Casserole

This recipe from Cookin' Crunk reminded me of the cheese laden casseroles I used to make so I had to try it to see if it measured up. The only negative is some advance prep before you can eat! 


The day before I went ahead and cooked the brown rice and made the Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe. It makes 4 cups so I halved the recipe as the casserole only uses 1 cup of it. I still had some leftover soup so I froze it in 1 cup size. Hopefully, it will thaw alright and I can use it in another recipe. It will be really convenient to have on hand as I can never find vegan cream of mushroom soup at the store. 


For the cheese component you have to make the Basic Cheesy Sauce. Again, I halved the recipe since I only needed one cup. Very flavorful cheese sauce using nutritional yeast. 

 Saueeting the broccoli and onion. 

Finally, on to the casserole! Really easy to mix everything together now and put in a casserole dish. The mixture is topped with some breadcrumbs. The recipe called for whole wheat but I used some panko. 


After baking, the breadcrumbs get golden brown under the broiler. 

~ Cheesy Broccoli-Rice Casserole ~

Yum! A very healthy, tasty substitute for my old-style broccoli cheese casserole. 

Monday, August 11, 2014

Zucchini-Corn Cannelloni

It seems like the days are just zooming by. If I get up early enough in the morning I can feel a hint of fall in the air. If I wait too long it turns into a blazing inferno! 
I haven't tried many new recipes lately but I found this pasta recipe from Vegetarian Times. You can find it here


I replaced all the dairy ingredients with some vegan parmesan, Tofutti ricotta and Daiya mozzarella.  



 The mixture of sauteed zucchini, onion, corn and creamy ricotta.
The sauce is so simple to make using a can of fire-roasted tomatoes. 


The recipe makes an 8-9 inch pan which is nice; not a ton of leftovers! 

~ Zucchini-Corn Cannelloni ~ 

Mmmm~delicious! 
The hubby said it had too much ricotta in it; what is he thinking?!