Baked Penne Pasta

This weekend, while we were kid free, Mike and I decided to try a new baked pasta recipe.  I had a recipe, but then I didn't follow it at all, so I'll just post my own recipe.  I forget where the inspiration came from.  I think it was vegweb.  It was really simple to make and tasted delicious! 


Ingredients:
1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 recipe cheeze sauce
1 box penne pasta
1 tsp Italian seasoning (more or less to taste)
1/2 medium onion
5 cloves garlic (I love garlic so you can adjust this if you're not a garlic lover)
Bread crumbs (optional)
Nutritional yeast (optional)
Salt (to taste)

Before baking

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Saute the onions until translucent.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant.  Add in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and Italian seasoning and let simmer.  While it's simmering prepare cheeze sauce and pasta according to package instructions.  Make sure you don't over cook the pasta.  Dump cheeze sauce into the skillet with the tomato mixture. 

Just out of the oven

In a casserole dish (or a 9"x13" cake pan) place a layer of the cheeze/tomato mixture so the pasta doesn't stick.  Next add a layer of pasta, then a layer of sauce on top of the pasta.  Repeat. In a small bowl or baggie, mix bread crumbs (1/2-3/4 cup), nutritional yeast (1/4-1/3 cup), and salt.  Add on the top of the top layer (which should be sauce).  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until top is golden brown and it is heated through. 

Plated for dinner (sideways sorry)

Weekend of Baking

K spent the weekend with my parents so I took the opportunity to do a little bit of baking.  I made a dozen banana muffins, a loaf of banana bread and apple crisp.  It was all amazingly delicious!  

I had a whole bunch of bananas that really needed to make into banana bread so I used the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.  I used Ener-G egg replacer instead of eggs, but followed the rest of the recipe.  I made a triple recipe (I had a TON of very ripe bananas). 

 I also made apple crisp.  The recipe for this is also from Better Homes and Gardens.  Now is the perfect time to make Apple Crisp (or anything with apples).   

 Next time I make this, I'm gong to try to use dates instead of sugar.  I'll post the recipe if/when I get it.  I think we might need to finish what we have before I make any more.  

If you want either of the recipes just leave a comment with your email address and I'll email it to you.

Happy Fall and Happy Eating! 

Cheezeburger Mac

Recipe for Cheezeburger Mac

Ingredients:
Cheeze Sauce (Recipe HERE)

1 pkg ground meat substitute
1 box small shells

Method:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Make cheeze sauce while pasta is cooking. Drain pasta, dump the pasta, cheeze and ground meat into a pan (I used the one that the pasta had cooked in) and mix on low heat until all ingredients are heated through.

"Cheeseburger" Macaroni

We made a new dinner tonight. It was so wonderfully scrumptious Cheezeburger Mac. I served with broccoli (K and Mike had their broccoli on the side and I mixed mine in with my Cheezeburger Mac). I'm gong to try to be better about adding pictures to my blog, but I didn't get a picture of this meal. There's too much to do tonight before bed to stop and take a picture. Find the recipe HERE

Z man, who is now 8 1/2 months enjoyed some homemade sweet pea puree' and organic applesauce. In a little while he will also enjoy some delicious (not really) soy formula. It's not totally vegan, but at least it's not made with cow's milk! There's nursing story here somewhere if you really want to hear it let me know. :)

Have you tried anything new recently? What was it? How'd it turn out?

Ice Cream

I know, it's been ages since I last posted on here. Things have been busy in my world. Anyway, the other day I made peanut butter, banana ice cream! It was delicious and so very easy!

Ingredients:
Soy milk (~1/2 cup)
bananas 4 large
peanut butter (~1/2 to 3/4 cup)

Method:
Throw everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and start the ice cream maker. Wait until it's thick and then eat it all up!

It was great the first day when it came out of the soft serve ice cream maker, but the next day it was pretty solid. It was fine once it was a bit melted.

I'll try to be better about posting...I know, I know, I always say it. Maybe I'll actually do it. haha :)

Bread

My family goes through about 2 loaves of store bought bread every week. We buy what's cheap and vegan (and it says whole grain, but it's not not good for you bread). I've tried multiple times to bake bread for us that will work for sandwiches and toast, but I haven't had much luck...until today! I found a recipe (somewhere on the internet) for 1 hour whole wheat bread a few weeks ago and this morning when I awoke to one slice of bread I decided I should try it out. What I made today won't work for sandwiches, but it is amazingly light and fluffy, whole wheat, AND it really only took about an hour! The loaves were kind of small and didn't rise a ton, but I think I could bake it without a pan and it would hold its shape pretty well. I'm anxious to see what meat man thinks about it. There were some pretty cool bonuses to making my own bread today that I think are worth a mention. 1. I got to spend some great quality time with my daughter. She helped me knead the dough and measure the ingredients. She had a great time, and I know we made some memories! 2. It's a good upper body workout. 3. The house smells heavenly!! :-)

Do you bake your own bread? If so, what motivates you to continue doing it?

Finding Time

It's been a few weeks since my last post, and a lot has happened in my world since my last post! I am now the proud mommy of 2 kids! My beautiful daughter Miss K is an amazing big sister to a wonderful little boy. He was born on Jan. 14th. He was 6 pounds 8 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. Everyone is doing well and we're starting to adjust to life as a family of three. My wonderful husband stayed home with us for 2 weeks and my mom came and stayed for almost a week after that. It was great to have all the help at home and around the house, now I'm on my own (during the day anyway). Things are much more difficult now. Mr. Z is a marathon nurser so from 4ish- 5ish I'm feeding him (which is when I normally fix dinner) so Mr. M (my husband) has stepped up and started cooking more meals, but there are some things he's just not that comfortable cooking. I haven't tried anything new in the kitchen, although I have a lot of ideas of things I want to try...now to find the time and energy to do it! I'm sure that the kitchen will get back in order and I will wake up enough to make more than boca burgers and tater tots, but for now, we're getting (processed, convenience) vegan food on the table. And I am trying really hard not to feel guilty about not cooking as much as I was before the arrival of Mr. Z.

Next time I have a moment I'll blog a bit about my new adventure in cloth diapering.

Thanks for reading!

Potato Hash

Last night I made potato hash which I've been working on perfecting for awhile. I think I might have gotten it close enough to make a recipe. Let me know what you think. :)

Ingredients:
4-6 potatoes (depending on how hungry you are and how many you're feeding and the size of your potatoes)
1 medium onion
2-4 cloves garlic (or more if you're like me and LOVE garlic!)
1 Package smart ground crumbles (or 2 cups of seitan chopped very small - I haven't tried this, but I've been meaning too)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Italian seasoning (or whatever seasonings your family likes)

Method:
Dice potatoes, chop onions, and mince garlic.
Saute onions in a large non-stick skillet (or a large pot if you're making a lot)-about 8 minutes. I used water to saute them and it turned out great!
Add minced garlic - cook a few minutes until soft.
Add diced potatoes and put enough water in skillet or pot to cover the bottom. Cook covered until the potatoes are almost cooked through, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed.
Add the ground meat or seitan and cook until heated through.
Serve with ketchup and nutritional yeast. I sprinkle so nut. yeast on the top for added yumminess, but you wouldn't have to. I think the ketchup is a must (although I like ketchup almost as much as I like garlic). ;)

Happy eating!


Add diced potatoes

Cacciatore Noodles

This recipe is from Vegan on the Cheap, but I got rid of 2 ingredients, added a third and didn't follow any of the directions. I will say that you should go buy Vegan on the Cheap right this second. It's AMAZING!!

Ingredients:
Fettuccine (As much as you want to feed your people)
Olive oil - Enough to keep things from sticking in the skillet (You can use water if you're into fat free cooking)
Seitan cut into tiny pieces - About 1 1/2 cups
Onion - about 1/2 cup
Garlic - as much as you can stand (I used 7 small cloves and could have gone for more)
Dried basil - the recipe called for 1 tsp, I think next time I'll use 1 1/2 tsp
Dried Oregano - the recipe called for 1/2 tsp, next time I'll use more (1 tsp)
Dried Marjoram - about 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Canned crushed tomatoes - 1 (28-ounce) can
Canned Petite Diced tomatoes - 1 (14.5 ounce) can

Directions:
Cook the Fettuccine in a large pot.
In another large pot, heat the oil (if using) and cook the onions over medium heat until translucent. Add the garlic and cook a until fragrant. Add seitan, tomatoes, spices and sugar and cook until heated through.
Serve spooned over the fettuccine.

The original recipe called for green bell peppers and mushrooms. We don't really like bell peppers and I had mushrooms that I forgot to add. Oops! I'm sure it would be good with the mushrooms, but it was pretty good without too. Meat man and I both thought it could use more spice, so taste and adjust as needed.

Update and Weekly Menu

I have been neglecting my blog recently. Here's a little update on what's been going on with me. :)
I am now 38 weeks pregnant and looking forward to welcoming a new little man into my life anytime now! Munchkin, my 4 1/2 year old daughter, has started leaning towards a vegetarian/vegan diet which is very exciting for me! She still likes Taco Bell tacos and sandwich meat occasionally, but that's about the only meat she eats. I would love to say that I had a well thought out plan to get her to become vegan, but it just kind of happened. We have started talking about where meat comes from and that the chicken that she eats is the same chicken that she looks at in books. She didn't like that very much! She has a vegan heart already! :)
Recently I've been trying a lot of new recipes. For Christmas I got Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. I've tried her wheatballs (which I thought were fantastic, but my meat man wasn't too fond of), Big Stick Pepperoni (which is delicious), and Marinara Sauce (which meat man and I both enjoyed). It's been fun trying new things and figuring out what we all like and what we don't like (and how to modify them so that maybe we will all like them). I have an idea for Seitan balls in my head, I just need to find time to try it!
I think to help me get back to blogging, I'm going to start posting our weekly menu. If there are things that aren't self explanatory (like hot dogs and tots), I'll try to add recipes. Our goal every week is to try at least one new recipe so there should be at least ONE new recipe included every week.
Here's this weeks menu:
Sat: Lunch - Spaghetti with marinara and wheatballs (from Vegan on the Cheap)
Sat: Dinner - Seitan with Nutty Broccoli & Rice (Nutty Broccoli from How it all Vegan)
Sun: Lunch - Hot dogs and baked potatoes (although we ended up ditching the hotdogs and doing loaded baked potatoes)
Sun: Dinner - Breakfast (Scrambled tofu, garlic potatoes, biscuits and gravy)
Mon: Caccitore noodle Bake (from Vegan on the Cheap) NEW RECIPE
Tues: Potato Hash with green beans
Wed: Mac and Cheeze with broccoli
Thurs: Hot dogs & Tots
Fri: Pizza (with big stick pepperoni from Vegan on the Cheap)

I'll try to get recipes posted this week. I've changed up the seitan recipes that I've been using enough that I don't feel bad posting it as my own.

Hope everyone is doing great!
Happy eating!