Rosemary Potatoes & Collard Greens with Vegan Sausage

I'm so glad I had a couple of Tofurky Italian sausages in the freezer so I could make this dish. I found the recipe in Wild About Greens and it has my favorite greens in it-collard! 

I pre-cooked my potatoes a little too much and they started falling apart. 

Fresh rosemary, paprika and red pepper flakes give this a just right spicy seasoning. 

 ~ Rosemary Potatoes & Collard Greens with Vegan Sausage ~

My big cup of rosemary! I just transplanted it into this giant teacup; it had outgrown the little container it was in. 

We went to a neighborhood potluck this weekend and my friend made a vegan dish just for me! A curried butternut squash and brown rice casserole. So sweet! I knew there wouldn't be much else in the way of veggie food so I made a huge green salad with lots of veggies. I also brought containers of walnuts and dried cranberries to toss in the salad. I wanted something sweet to bring so I made a double batch of "Raspberry Apple Crisp" from La Dolce Vegan. Instead of just raspberries I used frozen mixed berries. Everybody loved the crisp (crumble). All of the other desserts were heavy, rich and sugary so it was nice to have a lighter dessert to offer.

Organic apples washed and ready for the crisp! 

Mexican Quinoa and Collard Greens

I'm all about quick and easy meals lately. I've had this One Pan Mexican Quinoa recipe printed out since October and am now finally making it. I paired it with Easy Vegetarian Collared Greens. I forgot how good this collard greens recipe is! I linked both to the recipes. 

I buy pre-washed quinoa so I don't have to mess with rinsing it. Lots of spicy flavors-jalapeno, fire-roasted tomatoes, chili powder, cumin. It also has corn and black beans in the mix. After it's done cooking you stir in some chopped avocado, cilantro, and lime juice. 

The collard greens are cooked in some vegetable broth with onions, garlic, smoked paprika, and apple cider vinegar. I also added a dash of liquid smoke and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. 

These two recipes go really well together. I'll be ready to make this again soon. 

September Craziness!

 ~ Happy Autumn Equinox! ~ 

We don't see too many leaves this color around here and the temps are still in the 100 degrees but things really get hopping this time of year. As you can see I didn't have too much success with Vegan MoFo! We spent a wonderful week in Iowa visiting my hubby's family; I have been busy making teas, incense and other goodies for a local craft show next month; babysitting grandkids and celebrating our oldest grandson's 4th birthday! The cooking I did do used a lot of convenience foods and whatever food I had left in the fridge and freezer after our Iowa trip. So, here's a rundown on the last two weeks! I did try four new recipes with mixed results.

 I found these StarLite cuisine frozen meals at Sprouts. They have a whole line of taquitos and enchiladas. I like to keep my freezer stocked when I don't have time to cook. Very tasty!

 ~ Sauteed Collards ~
I love collard greens! I'm always looking in my cookbooks for different ways to cook them. I found this recipe in Veganomican. Yum! I served the collards with some baked potatoes and Gardein Crispy Tenders.

~ Basic Guacamole ~
I had an avocado ready to expire! and this recipe is another one from Veganomican. Yes, it's really basic; lime (too much), onion, salt and pepper. But it was a quick, easy way to use up that overly ripe avocado. She does give optional ingredients to add like cilantro, jalapeno and garlic which I didn't have which would have spiced it up.

~ Spinach, Peppers and  Cherry Tomatoes with Penne Rigate ~
I was browsing recipes online and found this at vegetariantimes. I had some roasted red peppers I had frozen, so this was a quick meal to put together. Everything gets cooked in a skillet and then tossed with cooked pasta. I sprinkled some red pepper flakes on top for a little spice.

 ~ Hot Tamale Pie ~
I love a good tamale pie and sadly this one didn't turn out. The recipe is from Cookin' Crunk and sounded really good. I think I must have used cornmeal that was too fine because the cornmeal really never thickened up to the right consistency. The filling had pinto beans and lots of spice and was really delicious. I poured the cornmeal mixture over the bean mix and went ahead and cooked it. Not a success. It was like eating cornmeal mush mixed with chili. The flavors were good so that's the way I ate it. I would like to try this again with a different kind of cornmeal.

I was so excited to see these frozen tamales at Sprouts!

Easy to steam in the microwave.

 I served the tamales with some homemade Spanish rice and Smoky Collard Greens with Vegan Bacon from Betty Goes Vegan. Another convenience foods success!

I made some Chili Dogs one night using Yves vegan hot dogs and a can of Sprouts spicy vegan chili. I had some hot dog buns in the freezer! and used those. I topped the chili dogs with some chopped onion and Daiya cheddar shreds and served them with some sweet potato fries!

My new favorite frozen "chicken". I used the Southwest Style to make some Chicken-Free Fajitas.

I sauteed a little red and yellow bell pepper in some olive oil along with the chicken-free strips. I would have used more peppers but that was all I had.

~ Chicken-Free Fajitas ~
I layered the sauteed chicken-free strips and bell peppers in a warmed flour tortilla then topped them with Daiya cheddar shreds, cilantro, green onions, chopped tomatoes and romaine lettuce and a few dashes of Tabasco sauce for some hotness! YUM!!!

Here's to a new week (hopefully with more fresh ingredients incorporated-hehe). Well, I did do some green juicing so that counts!

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. 

Lentil Stew & Mess O' Greens

It's been a busy week! We welcomed a new granddaughter into the world; little baby Blake Lynn. She joins her big brothers James-3 1/2 and Max 2 1/2. Grandma is going to be busy babysitting! 

I found this Slow-Cooked Lentil Stew recipe in the McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook. So easy to add everything to the Crock Pot and let cook all day. 

Ingredients for the lentil stew. Instead of a vegetable broth it uses 5 cups of V8 juice. 

This makes a Big pot of stew! The first night I served it over some brown rice. The V8 juice gives it a nice hearty flavor. I added 4 cups of chopped spinach for some contrast and extra nutrients. 

The next night I made this recipe for Mess O' Greens from Cookin' Crunk. Collard greens, liquid smoke and turnips.These are really tasty! You let them cook for a good 35 to 40 minutes. 

The Mess O' Greens tasted great with the Lentil Stew and brown rice. I still had some stew left so I put it in the freezer. Three nights of leftovers is too much for me!

This week I also made a favorite cool salad using buckwheat soba noodles.


~ Asian Noodles with Black Vinaigrette ~
from Crazy Sexy Kitchen

I thawed out my previously frozen black beans and made a quick dinner along with some garlic bread.


~ Black Beans ~
from Give Them Something Better

Stir-Fried Collard Greens with Soba Noodles

I'm always looking for ways to cook collard greens and this recipe in Wild About Greens is perfect. She gives you the basic recipe to cook the greens with garlic, shallots and a little apple cider vinegar. Then she lists several different variations to add in to the cooked greens. 

 Thinly sliced collard greens cooking with garlic and shallots.

I love buckwheat soba noodles and they really complement the flavor of the collard greens. After cooking the noodles I tossed them with the greens and added a little Bragg's and hoisin sauce. 

Collard Greens with Buckwheat Soba Noodles

I garnished the greens and noodles with chopped green onions and served them with Gardein Crispy Tenders. I wanted a little more heat to mine so I added some Sambal Oelek.

Hoisin-Glazed Collard Greens & Sweet Potatoes

A new favorite collard greens recipe! 

Wild About Greens has lots of inventive ways to use greens. 

The hoisin-glazed sweet potatoes offset the bitterness of the collard greens. I spiced it up a little with some dried red pepper flakes. 

I served the collard greens and sweet potatoes with a Gardein Turk'y Cutlet and some sliced mini peppers. 

Noodles and Greens

Looking for recipes to use my new shipment of udon and soba noodles from Eden Foods and I found this one in Vegan Vittles by Jo Stepaniak. I've had this cookbook a long time and I still keep finding great recipes to make out of it. I'm challenging myself to not buy any new cookbooks! I've got so many that I have never even used yet. That's part of my New Year's resolution; I'm focusing on reading all of the books I have stashed in cupboards, bookcases and drawers and not buying any new ones. I've been using my local library again, too. So far, I've done really well. Yay! 

This is such an easy recipe, yet so tasty! The recipe calls for collard greens or you can substitute kale. I had some lacinato kale I used this time because I couldn't find any organic collard greens at the store. Instead of umeboshi vinegar I used plain rice vinegar. I've never tried the umeboshi but the rice vinegar worked just fine. Instead of the smoked tofu I used Cajun Baked Tofu. You shred it in the food processor and top the noodles and veggies with it. It was nice and spicy! 

Gingered Collard Greens

Vegcookbookclub January:

I think February is going to go by in a blur. I'm still working on cooking recipes from January's list! 

I'm always looking for ways to cook greens and this one is from Everyday Happy Herbivore.

Lots of ginger, red onion and red pepper flakes. I added a dash of liquid smoke and let the greens simmer awhile.

Gingered Collard Greens with some chipotle habanero sauce on top! I served them with sliced potatoes, mixed veggies and Gardein Turk'y Cutlets. 

Spicy Greens & Cajun Fries

Vegcookbookclub January 2014

~ The Happy Herbivore: Spicy Greens; Cajun Fries

~garlic powder, onion powder and flakes, paprika and cayenne~ 

So easy to make these potatoes and so yummy. I found some cooking spray that doesn't have propellants in it. Yuch! This grapeseed oil spray only has the grapeseed oil in it. I found that I didn't need alot of oil for these potatoes to get nice and brown and tasty. 

Sauteeing the collard greens, garlic and onions in water. Love me some collard greens! 

I browned some sliced Tofurky Italian Sausages for the Spicy Greens. These sausages have a little spicy kick to them!

Cajun Fries and Spicy Greens with Tofurky Italian Sausage

Hubby enjoyed everything tonight. I'm surprised since it was all a little spicy! 

Smoky Collard Greens (Chard) with Vegan Bacon ~ pg. 281

VegCookbookClub August recipes from Betty Goes Vegan by Annie & Dan Shannon:

Aww~I missed posting on my 2nd year blog anniversary yesterday. Well Happy Anniversary to me today! I know I just have a basic simple blog but it serves my purposes well. I originally started it to join in the La Dolce Vegan Challenge and cook through that cookbook in a year. I made almost all of the recipes! Now I use the blog as a way to keep track of what I've cooked and to easily find a recipe by looking up an ingredient and what cookbook it came from. It also helps me stay accountable to what I put into my mouth! So, here's to another year of great vegan cooking! 

I was so excited to try this recipe because I love collard greens. Well, I had all my ingredients ready and grabbed the bag of greens out of the fridge. After unwrapping them I discovered I had inadvertently picked up green chard at the store instead of the collard greens. Duh! I decided to try this anyway and I had great results. Of course the chard doesn't need to boil for 30 minutes like the collard greens so I adjusted the recipe directions. 

I sauteed the onion, spices and my Pig Out Bacony Bits in the olive oil first and then added the chard and 1 tsp. lemon juice (I didn't have any white wine). 

These are crunchy little bacony tasting bits!

Since the chard didn't have the bulk of the collard greens there was plenty of seasoning on these. I didn't need to add any more salt or pepper. I'm glad I had chard instead of the collard greens. What a happy mistake. I found a new way to cook chard now! Delicious!

Smoky Green Chard with Vegan Bacon, roasted asparagus, Gardein Chik'n Scallopini and loaded baked potatoes (Earth Balance margarine, Daiya cheddar, vegan sour cream, chopped green onions and Bac-o's.)

I used this awesome seasoning on my roasted asparagus. This is made locally here in Arizona. The Slavo Salt tastes great on everything!