1st Vegan Lasagna

My husband and I always loved lasagna. But when I stopped eating cheese I also stopped making lasagna because I thought I would really miss the cheese & because my fave Pre-made Pasta sauce had cheese in it and most store bought pasta sauces have cheese...So I gave up on red sauce with pasta all together really....

But my husband has been asking me to make one for some time. So the other day I bought a couple containers of pasta sauce that I thought I would hate... and decided I could always eat something else if it didn't turn out good.

I boiled the pasta (whole box),  Browned the Yves veggie burger (used 2 freezer packs) and added some light life sausage { 1 whole role) , then added the pasta sauce to the burger (whole jar plus some of the next jar) . (I never used veggie burger in my lasagna before, I always used to just use cheese, sauce, and pasta... )

Layered the sauce, pasta, burger mix, small amount of Daiya cheese, and a small amount of vegan parm. Made three layers than throw it it in the oven.. It smelled so good while it was cooking... We couldn't wait to try it....

Ready to go into the oven for 45minutes.. Covered with aluminum foil

And..............Success... It was really good. It filled my husbands craving and even with my husbands appetite we had left overs for the next day... Well two pieces and they were finished for breakfast. Plus I got to use one of my new Friendship casserole/cake/dishes....

All done and ready to go to our tummies! Yum!!!

Next time I will add less Yves, No light life sausage, and add some veggies. I really missed having veggies in it!

And I am also thinking about trying the Spinach Lasagna  recipe in The Vegan Table (Link includes the Spinach Lasagna Recipe) So maybe thats what I will make next time.

This one was my Fave.

As for the pasta Sauce, Surprisingly it was Muir Glen. I have never liked their pasta sauce before but I had never tried their Organic products until that day. It was really good and will now be my pasta sauce of choice!

Vegan MOFO Day 24- Baking with the in-laws and our first Thanksgiving Dinner

Every year my husbands family starts the Thanksgiving celebration out the day before with a day of baking. I went to the first one 4 or 5 years ago and hadn't been to one since. But I like to bake and I like to be around people who like to bake. And in my family no one really does. So I decided to go spend some time at his families which we never get to do. I took Chey with me and she played while I baked.

I made a Cherry pie and an apple pie.

Here they are after they cooked. Sadly they were not vegan. Nothing was that day so I couldn't try any of it...
O well. 

Here are all  the kids sitting down for lunch. Johns family have alot of kids and we had  10 or 11 with us that day.

This is Dale... He was supposed to be shaking the chocolate peanut butter 

chex mix but didn't check the zip lock first so.... lol

Then I went home to start cooking for John and I. we was supposed to eat at my parents house. So I started out making the vegan cream cheese filling for my first vegan pumpkin roll.

I used my moms pumpkin role recipe and just took the eggs out and added 2 yogurt eggs and a flax egg. It came out flat...
So next time I will have to try another egg replacement. But its flatness didn't stop of from eating it. It was still really tasted.
I love pumpkin Roles!!!
Then I made a pumpkin pie... wish I would have used libbys and not the organic brand. I try to eat all organic. But when you grow up with a brand its funny that it just doesn't taste right when you just use a different brand of pumpkin.

Recipe for the pumpkin role will post soon. I have to get it again....

It set up pretty good. And the homemade crust was good. But I couldn't find my good rolling pin so the crust was super thick.. which wasn't a bad thing.

John finds this when he walks back to the kitchen... Guess what it is?

That is a paw print. I am not sure which gat did it.. but... someone stepped on my pretty pie.
But It was still tasty none the less. Even with the wrong pumpkin.

O..I have a picture of the crust! See how thick it was....

Here is the rest of our dinner. We all kinds of vegan yumminess!  A Tofurky, Roasted Glazed sweet potatoes,
 stuffing, and Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli. Everything was so good!

and check it out. I even got to use the new antique set of Friendship Pyrex I got on ebay. I really love these bowls.

The tofurky turned out really yummy. I glazed it with Oil, soy sauce, sage, like it said on the box. That is the version I always use. But this time I added some brown sugar to it for just a touch of sweetness and it turned out really tasty! I will make it like that for now on.

This is one of my good pro cookie sheets I used for baking syrup and brown sugar on the sweet potatoes. Instead of scrubbing it I took out of the oven put some hot water on it and stuck it back in the oven for some easy deglazing. This way You don't scrub the pan to death and it doesn't take forever for the hard sugar to some off.

Well after all that cooking my parents decide hey wanted to eat so ... I didn't get to have dinner with them. John got home 15 minutes later. I was annoyed because we said 7:30 and he was home by 7:30 but I guess thats just how things work out sometimes. 

 

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.  :)

Tofurky Philly Steak Sammi w/ Caramelized onions

I tried the Tofurky Philly Steak Slices and although they really don't taste like real Philly steak they have a pretty good flavor. I sliced them up thinly and caramelized some onions with them. Then toasted the burger buns in the same pan to pick up the onion flavor.

The sammis turned out really good. But I wish I would have cooked some green peppers too.

Finally Cooking- Vegan Vittles & The 100 Best Vegan baking recipes

I have finally been cooking again. Trying some recipes from the cookbooks that I don't use often enough and some new cook books. In 2 days I tried out 5 new recipes. Some of them I liked some I wasn't to impressed by while some that I didn't like John loved. As always. Even one that surprised me that grew on me. So the two books I have been using this week are Vegan Vittles & The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. All these recipes were pretty quick in active time.

Some of the links below go to the book some of the links go to the recipes.

I once again looked through Vegan Vittles and made a huge list of recipes I want to try. So I figured I would start with a pasta called Igors Special for Breakfast/lunch. Recipe on Page 167. I wasn't sure about this recipe because it had balsamic vinegar and curry powder. Two ingredients I'm not to fond of. But I was surprised after I took a few bites that the salty background was really nice. The tangyness of the vinegar reminded me of the edemame, corn, and tomato salad that I really like. So I guess I shouldn't judge balsamic vinegar just by the Portabello & onion recipe from one of Sarah Kramers books. I do like that recipe too. But I'm not a big fan of to much balsamic vinegar on the onions... Anyways. I didn't add the green onions the recipe called for. I don't like raw onions. But the walnuts, tomatoes, curry, Cayenne, soy sauce, and what ever other ingredients were in the recipe turned out nice. I kept the sauce in a separate bowl so when I heated the pasta back up the sauce stayed cold and was a nice topper. The warm pasta warmed the mixture just enough. I did heat it up all together once and I didn't like it as much. After you eat a few bites you also feel just a touch of the Cayenne. A nice background feel.


Click Link for Recipe.
The next recipe I tried was Not you Mamas Meatloaf. Recipe on page 150. My husband had been wanting me to find a meatloaf alternative. Even when he did eat meat when we first moved in together I would never fix meatloaf for him. yuck... And before this I had never had any meat loaf vegan or meaty... I had really high hopes for this recipe. But when I mixed up the sauce I really wasn't sure how everything would taste. One simple ingredient was what turned me away from this recipe.... Peanut butter. This I think is used for the sticky texture to hold the loaf together. And it does work in the flavor. My husband liked it but I didn't. I couldn't get around the peanutbuttery flavor. I have a really strong since of taste & smell. So to me if any one ingredient sticks out it can ruin a meal for me. But for someone with a normal since of taste or small like my husband he really likes it. He had half of it for dinner and took the other half for work. So I would still call it a success but I will be looking for a different "meatloaf" recipe. The outside of this loaf also got really crunchy and almost burnt when left in the entire time at the given cooking time.


Click Link for Recipe.
And the next recipe I tried was Messy Mikes. Recipe on page 98. These were not bad. We haven't had Sloppy Joes or it equivalent in a while. I used to purchase the Manwich mix and mix it with the Boca Crumbles but I stopped doing that a few years ago. So I really wanted this to work out. I used TVP as the meat and made the recipe. It was pretty good. I am just used to the stronger taste of the manwich. Plus to me it wasn't messy enough. It needed more sauce. The recipe said to cook it for 10 minutes after you place the sauce in but I had to take it straight off the burner because of the lack of sauce. But it tasted pretty good just a little bland. Needed more tangyness. John again really liked it and finished off the rest of the meal. I forgot to take a picture of these till John was eating the last one. oops

I will say I still do like this cookbook. One of my favorite comfort recipes is in Vegan Vittles. When I am sick its almost like Chicken Noddle would be for other people. That recipe is called Creamy Potato kale Soup & its on page 127. Check this book out on amazon and click the "Search inside this cook " and "surprise me" link. Many recipes can be seen and tried.

The one recipe that stuck in my mind from one of the new cook books I just purchased was Mocha Stripes Pg 38 of The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. I hasTh been eating at me... saying make me make me..lol. So I finally purchased some instant coffee and went for it. The dough was really really coffee tasting. Not bitter but very strong coffee like mocha without the chocolate. It was pretty yummy. Although I probably ate a little more than what I should have and ended up having heart burn from it. The recipe does have alot of butter.. 3/4 a cup. I tend to stay away from really buttery cookies. But I still had to make these. I cooked them up one tray at a time and ended up with 30 - 1tbsp sized nice cooking. The flavor of course kinda sobers after you bake it like most baked goods. So it was still good, a little less coffee tasty, but kinda oily to me. But they were nice and chewy while they were still warm and even still chewy when they cooled. I started melting the chocolate and put it into a pastry bag and went to squeeze it onto the cookies and it was super super hot through the bag. I didn't think of it at the time but you could put a towel around the bag and that would help some. With the chocolate it definitely finishes the Mocha flavor. I do really like them. I ended up having to put them in the fridge to get the chocolate to set. So I think next time I will make them like chocolate chip cookies and see how it works out. Less dishes, less clean up, less mess that way. Wish they were not so oily but I will fix them again. Nice alternative to a regular chocolate chip cookie for anyone who likes mocha. Coming from a person who doesn't like coffee... :) I will probbaly make these in the future for family events and bake sales.. I think they would be nice at a bake sale because I have never seen a mocha cookie at one.

These cooking would also be really good with some salty nuts cooked in. :)

I also made another Strawberry Pie this week. This is the third strawberry pie I have made in the last month or so. But this is the first one we got to keep for our selves.

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.

Morningstar Crmbles now include Milk & Egg

There is now another product that I will not be purchasing from Morningstar Farms. They have added egg & milk back to their Crumble product. I never liked them before when they had milk and eggs many years ago and I am not sure why they just ruined a perfectly good product but they did. So until they change it back... BYEBYE Crumbles.

Hey everyone write letters to them! When they see how many people want them back maybe they will change them. I hope so. I write them we aill see what they have to say. Probably the same thing that is posted on vegweb.

Boca on the other hand still have their Vegan crumbles. I used to be able to purchase them for $2.80 a box and now when I can find them I have to pay $3.99 a box. But I will pay that if I have too or back to making my own veggies substitutes... or just using TVP crumbles.

They have also been discontinuing some of their products...

Shame on their company for ruining everything!!!!!!!!

Here are some other web posting ....

Quarry Girl
Vegweb- With MS company response.
Crazy Vegan Mom
PPK

Vegan SloppyJoed Hot dogs w/ Omega 3's

I watch alot of cooking shows and covert alot of recipes. I was recently watching my DVR-ed Racheal Ray's talk shows and seen her make the Sloppy Dawgs. I was being lazy and wanted something quick to make. So of course I go cut up the Green Peppers & Onions and put them in the pan to cook and then looked up the Recipe. I didn't make it to her specks. I did start off the same but added some stuff to it. They turned out really good. Plus I was surprised when just the Peppers and onions were cooked with the hot dogs that alone was really good. I myself had never treid Peppers on my dogs... so that great!

Yes w/ Omega 3. I know weird for a recipe like this.. right? well I have been tring to get more in my diet. Because I have faces the fact that although I talk about eating healthy, I don't always do so. I get lazy and then I snack on Junk. So today I cooked.... Something easy :)

Vegan Sloppy Joed Hot Dogs w/ Omega 3

1 Pound/Pack Vegan hot dogs
1 or 2 Medium Green Pepper
1 or 2 Medium Onion

Chop all. Cook hot dogs till drown. Put in Green peppers & Onions. Cook till Soft.- Sauce listed Below.

Sauce

1- 8 oz can Tomato Sauce
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
3 Tbsp Brown Suger- (Depends on desired sweetness. I don't add quit that much)
2 Tbsp Flax Seed- (You can add more or less- Its optional. But you don't even taste it!)
1 tsp Pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp hot sauce- I like them hot but my husband doesn't
1Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Worchisire sauce ( I was out so I used some steak sauce, John eats it on Vegan boca
burgers. lol. Strange I know. But I did miss the W- Sauce tang)

After the Hot dogs are brown and the Peppers & Onion is soft dump in the sauce. Let it heat up good then your done. Put on Toasted hot dog bun or toast and enjoy!

Taco Burger Roles

I have lived my whole life in WV. And so it will be no surprise that I grew up eating certain WV foods. One of those is peperoni roles. Just bread with peperoni cooked into it. I don't know of another state that makes them but they are a big thing here. I haven't had one in many years. But I have had one made with the Lightlife peperoni. It turned out pretty good. I have also made one with the boca smoked sausages, pepper sauce , and cheese when I used to eat cheese & eggs. But the other day I tried the Simply Organic taco seasoning with Morningstar crumbles.and after it had set in the fridge for a day it kinda reminded me of peperoni for some reason. So I decided to stuff it into a role. They turned out really good. But I didn't let the 2nd raise finish so they turned out a little flat. But they are simple and would be great for a lunch box or travel snack.

Recipe

Makes 7 to 9

1 loaf frozen bread or enough dough to make a loaf
1 packet simply organic taco seasoning
1/2 cup water
1 to 1 & 1/2 packs of morningstar or boca crumbles

Follow instructions on all packets. Then put the burger into the dough and fold around the filling. Grease baking sheet. Follow bread instructions for baking.

Variations:
Light life peperoni
w/ pepper sauce
w/ soy cheese
Burger crumbles
w/ ovean roasted tomatoes
Tofurky sausages
w/ peppers

There are a ton of different things you could try.

Knitting & Food

Well I have been trying to get a lot done lately. Trying to quit procrastinating. Which I am so bad about. I have tried a few new recipes which I am going to write about and I have been working on knitting some stuff and getting supplies for the stuff I am going to make for Etsy. There have been so many creative things running through my head it has been hard for me to concentrate on one thing at a time. Which is where my problems come in. Like today I spent 3 hours at JoAnn Fabrics trying to pick out fabric and notions. I had such a head ache from trying to get all of the items that I finally gave up and went home. At least I got my grocery shopping done first. Which I really enjoyed. I love grocery shopping.... I love to find new products to try and just stuff that I have looked for in the past and then someone finally gets it in. I will say after the fabric store (which I normally enjoy) I was so stressed out that I didn't go to the 2nd grocery store that I wanted to hit. O well. But on to the food.

So I have been trying some new recipes. I love trying new recipes and I am going to do more of that this year. As well as cooking in bulk to freeze stuff like pasta sauce, soups, pies, pastries, breakfast food, breads, etc. I will post those recipes or links on this website or my other Vegannatura.blogspot.com. So keep a heads up. This summer I will also be posting bulk recipes for garden veggies. Anyways....

General Taos Tofu turned out great.... I have not really cooked Asian food in the past and I would love to try some more recipes. I have always had a hard time cooking tofu and this turned out really good. I can't wait to make sweet and sour tofu!!!!!! I will post pictures of that soon. :)

I also tried the Chili recipe off of Vegandad.blogspot.com. It turned out pretty good. I am not much for chocolate and cinnamon in my chili though. But it was a good Change. With this recipe I made some cool Chili corn dog muffins with the vegan smart dogs. They turned out really good. John loved them. I used the corn bread recipe from PPK. It was good as well. For more info Check out Vegannatura.blogspot.com.

This week I have been trying to hit food items I have had trouble with in the past .. Like the tofu. The next Item I tried was another Vegan Mac & Cheese recipe from Veg web called Delightful mac & cheese. Well I will just say I wasn't a big fan and neither was John. I hate wasting food but everytime I try a new Vegan mac & cheese recipe it ends up in the garbage... This version had a kinda "chickeny" taste to it. Which like I said on Vegan Natura .. It has been many years since I have had any meat so maybe I am a little off on this but... I just could not stomach it.... But It does have a ton of good reviews at veg web.. So try it. You may like it... But by the end Copper kitty had to come check it out.... lol ....

But Check out more details of my cooking experiments, the recipes & substitututions and other food ideas and more about just food. On my food only blog Vegannatura.blogspot.com