Vegan MOFO Day 2- Brings Sausage Gravy with Biscuits & Homemade Pasta Sauce

Biscuits and  Sausage Gravy

Today I had a craving for an old favorite and so I made the vegan version that I have blogged about in the past but everytime I blog about it I end up making a change to the recipe. Here is a link to the Gravy Recipe I posted. The only change I made today was I used Unsweetened almond milk.. It made such a difference that I ate two biscuits and the combo was dellish!! Using the Unsweetened takes the background sweetness that I never liked out of the gravy. Makes it taste almost exactly like the gravy I grew up with.

These biscuits turn out good everytime.
 I always use the Recipe from
Sarah Kramer's book How it all vegan.

Gravy

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce


I have tried many homemade sauces. Some I really liked, problem is I didn't cook those... and others I really haven't liked. Since becoming vegan I have had a really hard time trying to find a pasta sauce that I like the taste of. I don't like sauce that have tons of spices and that way down the tomatoes. So I found 2 new sauce recipes the other night on Allrecipes.com. I decided to try one and ran right out to the store to pick up the one item I didn't have.

This sauce is easy to make.. But prep does take a couple minutes.

Browned the Yves veggie burger, and cooking the veggies down.

I always use my mortar & pestle to grind up all my herbs. I don't like leafy
dry herbs straight into my food. Its just a picky pet peeve of mine.
So the basil and oregano It turned to powder.

Right after grinding all the tomatoes together and adding the powdered spices.

Starting to cook everything together. Smells so yummy.

Right before serving after cooking for about an hour. It looks and tastes really yummy.
 I loved the sauce by its self but I wasn't very found of the peppers and onions.
Maybe if they had been chopped a little smaller. 

Garlic Bread

I love garlic bread with my pasta. But I really don't like that soggy stick in the oven or just let the butter melt bread. I don't like soggy bread at all! I normally use a hard Italian bread but this night all I had was whole wheat sliced bread. Italian bread does have alot better texture.

Smart Balance

Bread Slices

Butter

Powder Garlic

Whats spaghetti without garlic bread.

Links to recipe later...

Vegan "Sausage" Gravy and Buckwheat Cakes

When I was young my Grandmother and Mother would make biscuits and gravy and I always loved it. Although I always picked out the sausage... Ground meat was never my thing. When I became a vegan I missed gravy and while soy milk will make gravy I never liked the flavor of it. But we started using Almond milk a while back and it makes a nice gravy! We started just made Pepper Gravy but have now started using  LightLife vegan Sausage. It works really well in leaving that "sausage" flavor in the background making it a heartier gravy as well. I was actually surprised at how the taste was so satisfying. As I mentioned above I never liked ground meat when I still ate meat but this is a really good alternative and I really like it.

1/2 pack Lightlife Vegan Sausage
2 to 3 cups Original Almond milk
2 to 3 tbsp oil/vegan butter (I use a mix)
2 to 3 tbsp Flour
Set burner on Med.
Start by making a roux. Add the oil and/or butter to the pan to melt/heat. Then add the flour. This will make a thick paste. Right after it comes together let cook for a minute to cook out the flour flavor. Don't let it cook to long. The longer you cook a roux the less effective it is. Than add a small amount of milk and whisk till it thickens.  If it isn't thickening turn up the heat some. It may boil a little and that is fine. Keep adding the almond milk till you get it to the thickness you are looking for. Keep it heated without burning it till you are ready to use it. If it has thickened to much while waiting just add some extra milk and whisk.

Buckwheat cakes has also been one of my favorites since I was younger. My Grandfather would always pick my Mom up a back close to the fall and we would enjoy yummy Buckwheat cakes for the rest of the year and into the new year. When I moved out he started picking up that specific brand for me. About a year and a half ago he past away and although I don't use the brand he used to pick up for us I do think of him every time I eat a buckwheat cake. Its a kind of comfort in a loss I suppose. I do make them a little differently these days. Instead of cows milk I use almond. I don't use eggs. And I purchase the small Arrowhead Mills Organic Buckwheat Pancake & Waffle Mix which is Vegan.

Check your brand to make sure there isn't any dry milk or milk fat in it. Make sure you pick up Buckwheat Mix not Buckwheat Flour if you just want to use it straight for cakes. and if you  have never had a Buckwheat cake you are missing out. Try them. They are the texture of a pancake but more savory.  :)

Breakfast for Dinner- Potato hash & scramble & Almond milk gravy

Tonight John and I buckled down and got the kitchen cleaned up. So I decided to make a big dinner of breakfast. It took about 30minutes to make and was so good.. But John and I both over ate and fell into a food comma and about an hour and a half later.... fell to sleep...

This recipe is enough for 4 to 6 people at one setting. Or 2 to 4 people for dinner and breakfast the next morning :).

Potato Hash & Tofu Scramble

3 Potatoes, Cut into small cubes (Leave a potato out if you want to cut the recipe down)
1 to 2 Sweet Peppers, Chopped ( I used some organic frozen peppers that I froze a while ago.)
1 onion, Chopped
1 Light Life Veggie Sausage pack
1 pack fridge tofu in water (Drain well)
1 or 2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Turmeric, for color
Olive oil
Vegan Butter of choice
Salt
Pepper


Chop up all the veggies and set aside. Heat large skillet w/ Olive oil. Add onions & peppers. If peppers are frozen let the water cook off of them before you add the potatoes. When onions are translucent & peppers are getting soft add the some butter, potatoes & paprika. After you add the Potatoes add a Lid for 7 minutes. Until half ways cooked through. You can add the sausage straight to the pan to break apart & brown at that point. If your skillet doesn't have enough surface space get a big pot and brown the light life sausage then add to the potatoes and peppers. Start letting the potatoes brown. You can either use your favorite tofu scramble recipe or just use the ingredients in the recipe and through the drained tofu in with the potatoes and peppers to cook. Or you can cook it separately and then add it back to the mix. Then heat everything together for a few minutes. Thats what I did. So that it gets cooked and not mushy & doesn't break apart. Chuck your tofu like an egg would look. Add salt & pepper to taste.

• You could also wilt some greens into this. If I would have had fresh spinach I would have.

• Could also add mushrooms

• Tons of different options for something like this :)

I also made Biscuits from Garden of vegan. Which is just a simple regular biscuit recipe. I even left out the vinegar. And we also had Almond milk gravy. which is quick and simple.

Almond Milk Gravy

4 Tbsp Flour
4 Tbsp Butter or/ and oil
2 to 2 1/2 cups Plain Almond milk
Salt
Pepper

Put Oil & butter in pan to heat. Add the flour and whisk together. Cook a minute or so then add a little milk at a time. I normally add about half a cup and whisk till it gets thick. This way you won't have chunks or flour/butter floating in the gravy. I add the pepper and salt. After the first half cup of almond milk. This is basically a pepper gravy so add a good amount of pepper. But it would also make a great sausage gravy if you started out with the lightlife veggie sausage. Add the half a cups of milk till if is the consistency that you want. Don't let boil. It may separate or spoil. I always leave it right under boiling.

4th of July, Strawberry pie, Blueberry cobbler, vegan hot dog sauce, boiled peanuts, coffee cake

The fourth of July, although different for us this year, went over really well and we all had a great time. We have always had company but this year we didn't have any company. But thats ok. We still cooked &watched the parade. Then John, Chey, and I went to See Ice Age in #D.. It was pretty good. Chey loves 3D movies but they keep raising the price. It was $7 then $8 now it is like $9.50 per person.. Thats just getting a little to high I think. But the movie was cute. Then after the movie even though I said said we wasn't going to go to the Concert at the park... We wnet.... I couldn't help myself... It was free... It was a really good concert. I don't really listen to contry music at all ... and it was on all country.. But it was really nice. Even can I say.... good music... lol...But I didn't have my camera.. All I had was the cell and It took horrible blurry shots.. So I am so sad I didn't get any pictures... But Nana Sharp, The Davidson Brothers, And to top it all off w/ a cherry Billy Ray Cyrus was there. And I was a huge fan when I was little... He did songs from his past and present albums.. and the old songs brought back some memeries.. But good ones... The concert lasted for over 5 1/2 hours. But it was awesome... Deffinalty have to go to some more concerts. That was my first but it won't be my last. We then stayed and watched most of the fireworks In Fairmont. But Since John had to work today we decided we should come home. We didn't get home till almost midnight..so we didn't let off our fireworks. But thats ok...

Now back to the food. This year I didn't make cake although I did make dessert. I made a Strawberry Pie, a Blueberry cobbler, & a coffee cake. I also made some boiled peanuts & vegan hotdog sauce.

The Strawberry Pie was my fav dessert this year. It was nice and sweet but had that tang at the end from the lemon. It was nice. I wish I would have had some rhubarb though.


Preheat oven to 425F
5-7 cups of strawberries (depends if you want a pie that
domes or is flat.)
2-3 T Lemon juice
1 T Lemon Zest
1/2 - 3/4 C Sugar
3 T Corn Starch
2 Pie Crusts

I used half frozen half fresh but you use which ever works best for you. Thats just what I had on hand. If you use frozen let the berries thaw and dump the water off of them. Then put mix all ingredients and let them set for 10 -15 minutes before you dump them into the pie. After the 15 minutes dump into the shell place top shell on. Make sure you cut a vent hole.

Bake at 425F w/ edge of crust covered for 30 minutes. Then lower the temp to 350F for 40 minutes of until crust starts to brown. Don't let it burn. Uncover the edge of the crust about 15 minutes before you take it out.

The Blueberry cobler cake from the book " The Joy of Vegan baking" this was Johns fav. This link will take you to the recipe. This recipe I also used half fresh/ half frozen and it turned out great.









The Coffee cake came from " The Joy of Vegan baking" aswell. If you haven't guess thats my goto dessert book. All of the recipe I have made from it have turned out great. I made this primarily for my Non-vegan mom. She always goes out and buys dounuts before the parade on the 4th of Juky. So I thought if I made this it might hold her off of buying the not so animal friendly doughnets. It turned out nice and she really liked it.. and guess what.. No donuts were bought.. :) I should have got a picture after I took it out of the pan..oops.














Boiled Peanuts.... My husband was born and raised in Charelston, SC.. So that is were the peanuts come in. It has been I think 3 years since we have been down there. So to bring a little bit of the south to him I made him some boiled peanuts. We stop at the road side stands and convence stores everytime we are down there. At the convenace store they sit right beside the sweet tea just asking to be eaten...so he has me hooked on them aswell. It has been hard trying to find raw peanuts around here but just by luck last week we ran into them at an International Store in Morgantown. We bought 2 1/2 pounds. So I thought I would surprise John and make them for the 4th. They turned out really great. They are a little extra salty but I will cut that back in the recipe I post on here. They are super easy to make. So everyone should try these. And if you ever go anywhere Down south they are a big thing for locals so try them their aswell.

2 1/2 pounds raw shell on peanuts
1/2 to 3/4 cup salt

Rince all the peanuts in their shells.
Fill pot of water. I used the pot I make my soups & beans in. Its just the 6qt pot I think. The biggest pot that comes with a set. lol... Add salt and peanuts. Cover. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Then let simmer for around 4 hours. Check the bigger peanuts when they are soft not crunchy they are done. Check the little nuts aswell to make sure they are not getting to done. You don't want them totally mushy. But 4 hours should do it. Store them in your refridgerator in there liquid. If you think they are still a little salty put them in half their cooking water and half fresh water to set in the fridge.

You can also make cajun. They are really good too.

Vegan Hot Dog Sauce
When I was younger and still consumed meat I still didn't eat ground meat. So I never ate hotdog sauce. But I made this a few years ago but veganised and loved it. I even eat it like a sloppy Joe.

2T salt
1tsp Tabasco sauce
3tsp Paprika
2tsp Chili powder
1 small onion, optional
2 1/2 cups water
2T Vinegar
2T Brown Sugar
4T vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 small Bottle Katchup 12oz
1 small can tomato paste
2 packs Boca or Morningstar ground burger ( I used one of each). Brown, add 2 cups water & onion. Let the water cook out. Then add all other ingredents. Let cook till it thickens. Which shouldn't be that long. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes after it thickens. This makes 3 to 4 cooks. It freezes well.

Vegan White Bean Gravy w. Vegan Biscuits- Vegan with a Vengeance

I started eating white beans a about a month ago mixed with my wheat pasta. To add some extra fiber to my daily diet. I started to think that they would probably make a nice gravy so one day I decided to try to make a white bean pepper gravy. I oped my Vegan with a Vengeance cook book for a new biscuit recipe to bake for the gravy and ran into a white bean gravy recipe. So I was very excited!!! I made the recipe. added some extra water and a lot of extra pepper. I love pepper in my gravy! It turned out awesome! I loved it. So this is just a blog to say if you haven't tried a white bean gravy do it! You won't be disappointed. In VwaV its on page 26-27. O yeah and I didn't add the tempeh. I have never had Tempeh to tell you the truth. I have some sitting in my freezer but have never tried it.
I also used the biscuit recipe from VwzV from page 26-27. They also turned out great.

I love to try everyones randishin of everyday recipes along w/ new recipes everyone comes up with!

Vegan Pancakes,Waffles, & Muffins

Yes I am finally cooking again. I know it has been a long time since I have posted. Food or other wise. My house has been a total cyclone of papers, magazines, clothing, and the list goes on and on. Half of that stuff sad to say was laying on my stove and counters while "J" put in our new living room floor. But I love our new floor. Which I will have to post pictures of later. But to the yummy food. Yes it is a breakfast post. I decided to make breakfast foods to freeze for "J" to use in the mornings. I like having quick foods for the morning so "J" can have breakfast when I'm not awake. But to look at the ingredients in the pot tarts, frozen waffles, pancakes, and muffins you purchase at the store is disgusting and scary all at the same time. I know maybe a little overly dramatic but come on can you find one thing at a regular grocery store that does not have High fructose corn syrup? It would be hard. plus at the additives alone are freaky. Anyways. So my solution is make them myself. So Monday thats what I spent my morning doing. The first thing I made was pancakes. " The worlds best vegan pancakes" off of a website. They had really good ratings. I made about 13 of them 7 plane and 6 blueberry. I did not care for them. They have oats in them and I don't care for there taste. (I like oats just not i this). "J" said they were ok but he just does not like to waste anything, The next recipe I made was Chocolate- Chocolate chip pancakes from Vegan With a Vengeance (PG35). The are the best pancakes I think I have ever had. The are really chocolaty and decadent. The cake itself does have a slightly bitter almost espresso taste but then the sweetness of the chips. Next time I think I might try adding a little instant coffee or espresso just for that pungent taste.

Waffles were next on my agenda. I used another recipe from VwaV. Oatmeal-Banana-Raisin Waffles.. (PG 38) are quit tasty and the unfreeze in about 4 seconds then pop them in the toaster and they come out crispy. "J" likes putting the veggie sausage and Vegan butter and having them as a sami in the morning. So he can drive and eat. I just like to add a little syrup. Last but not least of the breakfast foods that morning I made muffins. Another recipe from VwaV.

Carrot-Raisin Muffins (PG47). They are definitely full of carrots 2 cups actually. It really fills the batter. I was looking for something a little sweeter. I know she said that muffins are not supposed to be sweet like cupcakes but I was looking for a little more sweetness. "J" said he can taste the sweetness so maybe it is just me. They come out with a really good texture and rise really well.

For all the people smirking at me because I used a cookbook for this easy post...No Smirking... :) lol. The only thing I have to say is I bought them for a reason. To use the recipes. To take a look from a different side. So yes I almost always try the exact recipe as is in the book. I might change it after that but its nice to see what others take the time to come up with and appreciate that time taken. These people sale thousands if not millions of books and have been cooking so much longer then I have. So I must give them there props. And I don't mean this in a snide attitude type of way. Just that alot of people don't even try the written recipe then they come online and gripe about the taste after they add or take out 2 or 3 things. Then they say the author is crap. Thats not right. You should not give false reviews. I hope others who read your reviews are not put off by them and understand that being naive & rude is just that and nothing else.

My New Waffle Maker

We got a new waffle maker and finally got to use it a couple days ago. I made plain waffles and blueberry waffles for J. They were yummy but Next time I think I am going to try either buckwheat or flax seed, or apple Cinnamon.

Biscuits (Vegan) Gravy (NV)

Vegan biscuit recipe I found online this morning. It wasn't very good though. I guess it was like a Baking Powder Biscuit.
The Gravy made the biscuits better. I am going to make it again tomorrow morning with soy and different biscuits. I also had 2 pieces of morning star veggie sausage.

I really didn't cook anything else today. I worked all evening so. I didn't even make dinner.

Breakfast Smoothie #1

Breakfast Smoothie #1. It was ok. I'm not much of a smoothie person but I need more fruit in my diet. So I figure this is the best way. Frozen Mixed Berries, 3/4 Banana, water, a little soy milk and you have it. But it made a pretty purple.. :)

Eggless French Toast & Potatoes in Batter

GREAT!!! I havn't had french toast in over a year. ( Thats when I stopped eating eggs). I have tryed other ways and finally came up with this and it doesn't stick to the pan! That has been my big problem I was about to give up when I thought this simple way up. Flour, Soy milk, Cinnamon, Sugar, Vanilla, Whole Wheat bread. It worked really really well. The potatoes should have been browned more but they were scrumptious too.

Chocolate Chocolaty Muffins

These turned out really good. Very Very Chocolaty.











1 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons Margarine, melted
1/2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Soy Milk
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Makes 10-12 Muffins

Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, then whisk in the Margarine, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla.
Quickly fold the wet ingredients into the dry with a rubber spatula. Just before the batter comes together, fold in the chocolate chips—don’t mix the batter too much or the muffins will be tough. Divide the batter among the muffin cups (1/4 cup of batter per muffin). Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Turn the muffins out of the tins, cool on a rack. Serve slightly warm with jam.

Cinnamon & Raisin Biscuits From Garden of Vegan

"J"s Breakfast & lunch

Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits

from Garden of vegan.

I have never liked raisins cooked into anything and I really like these. John loves them to. He eats them for breakfast and he takes them in his lunch.

I know I said no more late night cooking but for some reason that always seems like the best time. So again my measurements were a slight bit off on the first batch. I made these 2 times a couple nights ago. (Once at midnight and once at 3am) The first time I used the wrong measuring spoon. ( I know leave it to me to measure wrong.) and didn't realise it till I went to do the dishes. So I made some more. Both turned out tasting fine. The second batch was a little better. But both batches they were kind of flat and heavy. I probably kneaded them to much. O'well they were still yummy.