Vegan Week (a week late)

I know I know I know, vegan week was LAST week, but we had some goofy stuff happen and we're doing family vegan week THIS week! Hubby's doing well. He doesn't seem to mind too much and munchkin, well, she had to have a waffle this morning that had milk and egg, but she's been completely vegetarian. At least we're making an effort. I guess I should say at least THEY'RE making an effort. I'm just eating what I normally eat. I think the biggest change for munchkin is the milk. She's a HUGE milk drinker and I've made her go to soy milk. She really really really didn't like it, so I bought chocolate and plain and I mixed them (about 1/2 and 1/2) and she LOVES it! I think I'll keep increasing the plain and decreasing the chocolate and maybe eventually she'll get used to it. We might have a money issue if they both give up milk though. We typically go through a gallon of cow's milk a week and 1/2 gallon of soy milk. If we switch that gallon of cow's milk to a gallon of soy milk we add a few dollars to our already tight grocery bill. Maybe we'll have to cut something out. Anyway, that's about all I know right now. I'll keep updating how the vegan week is going.

Happy Eating!

Alfredo Sauce

It's been too long since I last blogged. SORRY! This week I made a really tasty Alfredo Sauce. Here's the recipe (I actually almost measured things. Shocking I know!)

Ingredients:
1/2 block of firm tofu
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1/2 TBSP Garlic powder
1 TBSP Onion powder
1 or 2 Dashes of Nutmeg
2 heaping TBSP nutritional yeast
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:
Put tofu, milk, garlic, onion, and nutmeg in blender and blend until smooth (add more milk if needed). Dump the sauce in a saucepan and heat. Add nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.
Serve with whatever makes you happy. :)

Happy Eating!

Seitan and Dumplings

It's our weekend without munchkin (my parents are watching her) so we fixed a "nice" dinner. A few weeks ago I made a big batch of seitan and froze it so today I pulled it out of the freezer and made dumplings with it. It's nothing difficult.

Ingredients:
Seitan w/cooking liquid - I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but you use store bought seitan and add veggie broth or mushroom stock (if using veggie broth add some soy sauce)
Bisquick heart smart
3 TBSP soy milk

Method:
Simmer the seitan in liquid
Mix the Bisquick and soy milk
Drop dough into seitan and simmer until cooked
Serve with mashed potatoes (or whatever you want, we really like it with mashed potatoes)

Tonight we also had peanut butter apple pie. It was a new creation and still needs some work, but as I said when I tried it "oh my crap!" It was gooooood. I'll get a recipe up sometime. I need to get the proportions right before I post it. Look forward to amazingness.

Happy Eating!

Tater Tot Casserole (that hubby will eat)

OK, so this isn't the healthiest meal in the world, but it's tasty and my hubby eats it, so that's a bonus for me. There are healthier variations that I'm working on and I'll post them as I try them...well maybe I'll post them as I think of them and you can post how they turn out when YOU try them. :)

Ingredients:

Fantastic World Foods Sloppy Joe mix
1 can of tomatoes
1 carrot (shredded)
½ onion (diced)
1 batch of Cheeze sauce
Tater tots (actually I use Tater Rounds – they’re like smooched tater tots)

Method:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Puree the tomatoes in the blender (I do this because my family doesn’t like chunks of tomatoes. If your family doesn’t mind chunks, skip this step)
Put tomatoes, onion, carrot, and package of Sloppy Joe in pan and simmer.
In a saucepan make the cheeze saucePut the “sloppy joe” in a 8inx8in dish, cover with cheeze, top with tater tots.

Bake for 20-30 mins until tots are cooked and cheeze is slightly browned.

My thoughts for making it healthier.

1. Make your own sloppy joe instead of using the box mix. I think I've made it with TVP and that's pretty good.

2. Use shredded hashbrowns or shredded potatoes and mix everything together before baking it.

3. Add in more veggies

4. Use lentils instead of the sloppy joe (not sure about this one, but I really want to play with lentils, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and cheeze...)

Peanut Butter, Brown sugar, cinnamon roll ups

I got this idea from somewhere and I don't remember where. If I stole it from you, or if you know from where I stole it, please let me know so that I can give the creative genius credit!

Ingredients:

Bread
Peanut butter
Brown sugar
Cinnamon


Method:
Roll out the bread with a rolling pin until it’s smooshed flat.
Put a thin layer of peanut butter (roughly the same thickness as the bread)
Sprinkle on brown sugar and cinnamon
Roll it into a log

Cut the log into small rounds

They make great desserts and kids LOVE them! (Well, at least my kid loved them). I used whole wheat bread and not very much brown sugar (maybe 1 tsp) so they weren't all that unhealthy (at least as desserts go).

Happy Eating!

"Cheezy" Risotto

Tonight for dinner we had Cheezy Risotto w/corn and Boca "Chicken" (well I had Boca the rest of the family had dead chicken chicken). The Risotto was really good. As normal, I don't have a real "recipe" just ingredients and approximations. We've made this a few times before and the last time we made it there wasn't enough so we made a TON. Here's what I've got.

Ingredients:

Risotto Rice (2 cups uncooked)
Water (6 ½ ish cups)
Veggie broth (if you want) (we used veggie bullion stuff-I know, not very specific, but I’m too tired to get up and look at what it’s called.)
Onion powder (to taste)
Garlic powder (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Vegan Cream Cheese (this was new and I’m not sure that I loved it)
Nutritional Yeast (1/3 cup ish)

Method:
Cook the Risotto according to the package directions. When it’s almost finished, add the onion powder, garlic powder, nut. yeast, and salt. Simmer for a few minutes.
We normally add broccoli to this, but we were out. The only other green thing I had was spinach and hubby really doesn't like spinach. It was pretty good without veggies, but it’s much better when the broccoli (even hubby thought so).

Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake

Doesn't the title alone make you hungry? It did me. Check out this awesome website: http://veganyummys.blogspot.com/2009/01/chocolate-oreo-cheesecake.html?showComment=1255560500932#c3330749959218164209

Actually it made me so hungry that I sent my dear husband to the store to buy me Oreos so I could make it tonight. Unfortunately it also calls for chocolate chips which I didn't have him buy, but that's OK. It can be topped tomorrow. I don't have pictures or anything wonderful (because it's in the oven) but here's what I've learned tonight about Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake (and my blender).

1. It's difficult to make chocolate cookie crust (apparently we don't own a pie pan which made this task a little more difficult).

2. You should add the margarine a little at a time instead of dumping it all in at once. You might not need it all.

3. 2/3 cup of chopped Oreos is LESS then 15 cookies...a LOT less.

4. My blender, when on high, destroys Oreos. Even if you just pulse it a few times. (Way to go cheap blender!)

I think that's all I've learned thus far. I might have to update this post tomorrow when I finish the topping and actually TASTE it. :-)

In other news, (I know, stupid, but I couldn't resist) my dear meat eating hubby made VEGAN peanut butter strips. How cool is that? If you've read some of my previous rants about my sweet hubby you'll know that he's not always the most accepting of the vegan goods. Also, I'm working on getting him to agree to try veganism for a week during "National Go Vegan Week" (Oct. 25-31). This is VERY exciting to me!

OK, enough of my crazy ramblings for one day.

Happy Eating!

Rice and Tofu (It's tastier than it sounds)

Rice and Tofu doesn't sound all that appetizing to me, but it was really good tonight. I kind of made it up as I went along, so there aren't measurements exactly, just ingredients and guesses. I'm sure you recipe followers love that. I'm sorry, it's the way I cook, and it allows you to be more open to making things taste the way YOU want them to!

Sorry about the photo quality. I took it from my phone. Iwas too hungry to go get my camera. :)

Rice Ingredients:
Brown Rice
1 can diced tomatoes w/chilies
~3/4 can or black beans (hubby hates beans so I didn’t use a whole can)
~2 cups of corn (I used frozen)

Method:
I cooked things funny because my daughter doesn’t like anything in her rice and my hubby doesn’t like corn. Play with what works best for you and your family.
Cook the rice according to the directions on the package
Add tomatoes, black beans (rinsed), and corn (I cooked the corn before I added it)
Simmer until everything’s warm and flavors have blended

Tofu Ingredients:
Extra firm tofu (drained)
Nutritional yeast
Soy sauce
Oil (for cooking)

Method:
Heat the oil
Slice the tofu kind of thin
Splash some soy sauce on tofu, then cover in nutritional yeast
Fry in the skillet (I think the tofu cooked better in the spots with the least amount of oil. Next time I think I’ll just spray it with something)
(This was inspired by The Spicy Vegan. Check out her blog! http://thespicyvegan.blogspot.com/)

Happy Eating!

Cheeze Suace

I use this cheeze sauce on EVERYTHING! It works in casseroles, mac 'n' cheeze, on pizza...My meat eating, cheese eating husband even likes it!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup vegan margarine

1 1/2 cups veggie broth

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Soy sauce - to taste

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

~1/3 cup tofutti better than cream cheese

Method:

Mix veg margarine and flour in sauce pan

Whisk in veggie broth, garlic powder, onion powder, and soy sauce.

Mix well and simmer until thickened

When it's thick, add nutritional yeast and "cream cheese"

If you want something thicker, you can add more flour.

Vegan Cheeseburger Mac

I think I've posted this recipe before, but I made a few changes today. OK, so really I just didn't pull out the recipe and I made it from memory which made some changes.

Ingredients:
1 (12 oz) package of "Smart Ground" by LightLife (You could use any ground "meat" alternative)
1/2 of a 1 pound box of macaroni
15 oz of stewed tomatoes (pureed)
1 batch of cheeze sauce

Method:
Put "meat", tomatoes, and pasta in a skillet and simmer. While it's cooking, fix the cheeze sauce.
When the cheeze sauce is finished, add it to the skillet. Simmer until the pasta is cooked the way you like it.

NOTE:
I know a lot of vegans don't like prepackaged foods. I know a lot of vegans don't like fake meats. I understand where you're coming from. They're not really my favorite things either. With that said, my husband, who is a meat and potatoes guy, will actually eat this vegan meal. He likes it. He prefers it to Hamburger Helper (which used to be a staple for him). I would rather my family eat processed vegan "meat" then actual hamburger. If you don't like to use the vegan meat alternatives, you could use homemade seitan. I have a meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid and someday I'm going to try to make some seitan and grind it. I'll let you know how it turns out. :-)

Happy Eating!

Vegan MoFo Day 7: Veggie Soup

I made veggie soup tonight. It was great! Here's my "recipe"

Carrots
Celery
Onions
Potatoes
Canned stewed tomatoes (chopped in the food processor)
Red beans (which I would omit next time)
Garlic
Veggie broth
Thyme
Sage
Salt

I made enough soup to feed a small army (which is typical when I make soup) but it took FOREVER! I think I chopped veggies for 2 hours. OK, I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it felt like AT least 2 hours. Then it cooked for 3 or more hours. It seriously took me 5 hours from the first veggie to dinner time.

So here's what I learned:
1. Don't make soup on days when you've banned the TV from your small child. (My daughter's 3 1/2...it was difficult)
2. Soup takes a long time...plan accordingly
3. Red beans do funny things when they're simmered for 3 hours
4. There's no such thing as too much garlic
5. Biscuits are REALLY good with soup. Try these http://popvegonline.com/blog/?cat=24 (Thanks PopVegOnline! You ROCK!!)

So what do you put in your veggie soup?

Happy Eating

Best Chocolate Brownies!

I have a huge sweet tooth. I love anything chocolate! When I first went vegan I had a dear friend, Nicole, whose son has milk and egg allergies and she helped me discover my first vegan chocolates. I started with Oreos and wacky cake. I now have an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe (from Vegan with a Vengeance) and a wonderful chocolate brownie recipe. Last night we made brownies and they're so good, I want to share them with you! OK, I know, that's impossible, but I can at least share the recipe. I got them from All Recipes. Here's the link to the best vegan brownies I've had!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vegan-brownies/Detail.aspx

Happy Eating!

Vegan MoFo day 5

My family doesn't like vegetables. They won't eat them. They hate them. It makes dinner difficult for me because I want them to eat their veggies. So on spaghetti night I trick them. There's a full serving of veggies in spaghetti sauce and I like to add some finely chopped spinach to the sauce. They think it's spices and they gobble it up. OK, so my husband's not an idiot, he knows I "sneak" spinach into his spaghetti sauce, but he doesn't mind it. Says he can't taste it.

So tonight was spaghetti night. We had Nate's Meatless Balls cooked in the sauce and while we were eating it my meaty husband said, "We should have this at Christmas time when my parents come." I like my in-laws, but they're not huge fans of vegan food, also they live over 1,000 miles away and we only get to see them once a year (unless someone dies) so the suggestion to serve them a vegan meal from my meaty hubby came as a bit of a shock. During the course of the conversation he told me that the meatballs that you get at restaurants were ALMOST as good as the vegan ones. Not better, not as good, ALMOST as good! Score one for the vegan team!

I'm still excited about the vegan win. Thank you Nate (whoever you are) for your amazing vegan meatless meat balls! You rock my world!!!

Happy Eating!

This week in our house...

I'm a food nerd. It's ok though, I like it that way. Every week before I make a grocery list, I plan out our meals. Here's what we're having this week.

Quinoa Mexican style (corn, blackbeans, salsa, and 'sour cream')

Veggie Soup

Chili (which we had last week too, but it wasn't very good so I'm modifying it...adding vegan sausage and more tomato juice)

Pizza (which is a weekly thing for us)

Spaghetti w/marinara, spinach and Nate's Meatless Balls

Vegan hotwings from VeganDad http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/05/vegan-boneless-chickenless-wings.html

I'll tell ya'll how they turn out as we eat them. I'll also let you know what (if anything) picky meat eating hubby eats. (I normally fix a seperate meal for him, although he really likes Nate's meatless balls and my chili)

Happy Eating!

Guilty?

Let me start with a little background. I'm a vegan mom married to a meat eating man, raising a meat eating daughter. Recently I've been thinking/researching/learning, a great deal about the health benefits of being vegan, and finding out that they are numerous. I had no idea that being vegan was so healthy. I just knew that treating animals the way that factory farmers treat them, wasn't something I was willing to support. I was a vegetarian when I met my husband 6 years ago, but I wasn't an advocate. Things are starting to change. I'm starting to change. I see the health benefits of being vegan. I know what it's done for me, both physically and emotionally, and I want my family to convert. I feel as if I've failed my daughter (who is 3 years old) by feeding her the garbage that she eats. She loves hot dogs and chicken sandwiches. (I know, I already said I feel horrible, stop looking at me like that :-)). I'm supposed to do what's best for her, but what do I do when what I know is best isn't accepted by my husband and her father as being the best? I'm working really hard on making vegan meals my whole family will eat and enjoy. I've even gone back to "fake meats" to fill in for my husband. I just feel guilty knowing that I have been feeding (and am continuing to feed) my daughter animal products.
I think maybe I can eventually convert them both...with time and patience (which I don't have an abundant supply of). I'll be posting updates. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

UPDATE: Tonight for dinner, my 3 year old ate a vegan hot dog. I know it's not the best, but it's better then a regular one! Maybe we're taking positive steps towards becoming a vegan household! :-)