What came AFTER the chicken and the egg???

The TOFU OMELETTE!! 

Ladies and Gents...I present you with the worlds first vegan omelette!  Ok, ok...not the first...but the BEST!  Hold your applause....Its no secret I'm not really a vegan...just 99% of the time.  I eat backyard chicken eggs for the nutrition they provide, but only seldomly as to not clog my beautiful arteries.  The thing was, even though I ate eggs, I would only eat 1 at a time and maybe once a week, or less.  So, my days of delving into a cheesy veggie filled omelette I thought were over.  I used to make a damn good omelette.  In fact, I had perfected the art of it.  I am convinced I have now finally perfected the art of the vegan omelette as well. 

As far as I know this has not been done...so I'm pret-ty damn proud of this recipe.  I knew tofu would have to be the 'egg', but I couldn't figure out how to hold it together so it wasn't just another tofu scramble.  Then in came to me....drum roll please....

.....DAIYA CHEESE!!!  Its cheesy.  It melts.  Its stretches.  It binds.  Its perfect!

And what could be more perfect???  How about a recipe that only had FIVE ingredients?  You are only 5 ingredients away from the best vegan omelette ever made!  I know, I know...where have I been your whole life? 

As for the veggies, be creative!  The thing about most of my recipes is that it allows for you to use what you have in many of them.  Many times Ill be following a recipe and realize I forgot something...here...if you don't have onions, use garlic, or peppers, or whatever you find in your fridge.  The recipe calls for 3 C of veggies.  I am personally a GIANT fan of the onion, mushroom and pepper combo, but use what you have.  Spinach is great.  Zucchini or yellow squash would be good.  Yellow onion, white onion, red onion...whatever you have available will do. Also, if its time to head to your farmers market because you're low on veggies, you could also use Cheddar style Daiya as a filler, or some vegan deli 'meats', chopped up. Thats one of the reasons I loved omelettes to begin with!  They're so easy and you can throw in whatever you have! 

So...without further adieu...
....the worlds first Perfect Vegan Omelette
PERFECT VEGAN OMELETTE
1 Block FIRM tofu, (NOT silken) drained
2 Tbsp prepared yellow mustard
1/3 C Daiya mozzarella style cheese
1 Tbsp vegan butter
3 C veggies for omelette (I used onions, mushrooms and bell peppers)
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste (optional)

In  a food processor fitted with an S blade, process the tofu until smooth, stopping several times to scrape the sides and push clumps down.  Add mustard and process again until it is a faint yellow color.  Add the Daiya and pulse until just combined and slightly chopped...you don't want chunks of 'cheese' but you don't want to pulverize it so much that it doesn't do its job to bind. 

Now you can do both the omelette and veggies at the same time like I did, but if you suck at multitasking in the kitchen, do your veggies first and set the tofu mix aside until ready to cook. 

Heat vegan butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Add your veggies and cook about 8-10 minutes until softened.  Remove from heat.

Now heres the fun part: Coat an omelette pan with non-stick cooking spray and turn the heat to medium-high.  Before it starts smoking (Cancer alert!  No smoking oil!) but is hot, add 1/3 C of the tofu mix.  Now, it wont fall and spread like an egg does.  It will fall into a pile.  Use a spatula to spread it out to cover the pan.  Holes will come through from the heat, but gently use your spatula to move the 'egg' to cover the holes until its a solid circle.  I promise, once you start, its easy...its just fair warning that your not going to pour it into the pan and it spread like a normal omelette. 

Allow it to sit there and cook over med-high heat (about 6-7 on an electric stovetop) for about 8 minutes.  Using a spatula, you can test the sides to check that its ready...when its not liquid anymore and more pancake-like as far as 'flipability' goes, lol.  When its done, pile your veggies onto one side of it.  Then, using your spatula, carefully flip the other side over onto the veggies.  Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes while the tofu mix covers and cooks into your veggies.

Voila!  I swear...Its divine!!  Try it!

Ain't No Spring Chick'n

So I've had the plan to veganize a favorite childhood casserole that my mom used to make and is likely the only time I would eat broccoli as a child. I've been dying to recreate it but was intimidated by the list of non-vegan ingredients that I would have to make substitutes for. Well, my friends...I have officially veganized cream soups for cooking with! If jarred and refrigerated they even get gelatinous like the junk Campbells crap.

Chick'n Broccoli Casserole
10oz bag frozen organic broccoli florets
2 Tbsp vegan butter
8oz white button mushrooms, sliced
1 C Imagine No Chicken broth (or other vegan chicken flavored broth)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp curry powder
3 Tbsp non-GMO cornstarch
1 C soy creamer
1 Tbsp high heat cookin oil
1 package Gardein Chick'n Scallopini
1/3 C Vegenaise
1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 C Daiya cheddar shreds
1 C organic vegan stuffing mix


Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Steam broccoli until fork tender. Set aside.

Pulse sliced mushrooms in a food processor a few times until they are chopped small.  Likewise, you could use a knife to chop them fine. 

While broccoli is steaming, melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms soften, brown an release liquids. Turn heat to medium high and add broth and seasonings. In a separate bowl, whisk cornstarch into soy creamer. When broth and mushrooms begin to boil, add the soy creamer mixture. Whisk constantly until thickened. Remove to bowl to cool slightly. In the same skillet, heat oil and add Chick'n Scallopini. Season with salt and pepper (optional). Cook both sides ad when it softens, use your spatula or a knife to cut them into bite size pieces in the skillet. Continue to cook until lightly browned. Remove from heat.

Layer broccoli in bottom on 9x9 square baking dish. Layer Chick'n on top. Mix vegenaise and lemon juice into the mushroom mixture and pour on top of chick'n. Spread a layer of Daiya on top of that and finally, top it off with the stuffing, lightly pressing on top to set it in there.

Bake in preheated oven for 30minutes.

Enjoy!!

Taste the Rainbow

So it seems I have several people looking for quick go-to meals to help them transition to a plant centered diet. Below is my absolute favorite go-to meal. I literally eat it at least 4-5x a week because I love it so much. I created after having the ultimate Stare Down competition with the fridge. I eat mostly fresh food so cooking and preparation are a must with nearly every meal. No Heat & Eats here! The sauce is so simple and if you have the ingredients in front of you, will whip up in 60 seconds or less. The most time consuming part is cutting veggies, unless you fancy yourself a Quick Draw McGraw with a knife like I do, in which cutting the veggies is not only super fast but therapeutic if you need to release any pent up aggression! This can serve about 4 lunch portions (unless you me, it only makes 2! Yum Yum) or as a side dish o compliment a meal, can serve 6-8. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!


Warm Quinoa Salad with Wilted Kale & Veggies
2 C Water
1 C rinsed organic quinoa
2 stalks curly kale, ribs removed and chopped (makes about 2-3 C)
2 1/2 C Chopped assorted veggies! *See Note Below1 Recipe Sesame Dijon Sauce (Recipe Below)


*Time to clear our that produce drawer in your fridge! Eat a rainbow. In the one pictured I used red cabbage, red and orange bell peppers and yellow summer squash. Other good add-ins are frozen peas, frozen broccoli, zucchini, shredded carrots.

Bring water to a boil in large saucepan. Add quinoa and return to boil.  Cover and simmer 10 minutes.

Remove cover of saucepan and dump in all your veggies on top.  Cover again and continue simmering 5 more minutes.

Remove from heat, uncover, mix veggies into quinoa.  The hot quinoa will continue to cook the veggies for a couple of minutes so don't fret if their not soft enough yet! 

Mix with sauce.  Enjoy!

Sesame Dijon Sauce
3 Tablespoons Tahini
3 Tablespoons Braggs Liquid Aminos (or tamari or shoyu)
3 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
3 Tablespoons filtered Water

Whisk all ingredients together. 

...or is that the smell of exhaustion and baby poo?  Oh well.  In an effort to post a Valentines menu BEFORE Valentines Day, Ryan and I had an early Valentines dinner.  I had this idea in my head of stunning pictures of my romantic table spread where the vibrant colors of the raspberries in the parfait glowed and the lemon twist on my martini glistened against the backdrop.  Let's just say I failed miserably! 

We put the kids to bed early and I started cooking.  We set our romantic bistro table up with candles and set out the food - only to be insanely disappointed by the pictures.  I am apparently not a photographer!  (Soo..the pics here are my leftovers in the daylight!)

I've always wanted to plan a Valentines Day meal.  We usually go out and I was excited at the challenge to create a visually appealing meal that was also not too rich or heavy on the belly and contained a plethora of popular aphrodisiacs.  The aphrodisiac food I included in the meal are: avocados, almonds, asparagus, garlic (Yes!  even garlic is an aphrodisiac!  Your partner wont care about your garlic breath is you both have it!  It cancels each other out.), raspberries and last but not least: ROSE!

The menu: (items in pink are believed to be aphrodisiacs!)

Spinach Salad with Bitchin' Dressing, Avocado slices and slivered Almonds.
Portobella Asparagus Pasta (Gluten Free - with Red Pepper Flakes & Garlic!)
Raspberry Cheesecake Parfaits
Lemon Rose Martini

Mouth watering yet?  Here are the recipes:

Spinach Salad with Bitchin' Dressing, Avocado slices and slivered Almonds.3 C fresh organic spinach
1/4 C Bitchin' Dressing2 Tbsp raw slivered almonds
1/4 of one haas avocado, sliced into 4 sections

Toss dressing with spinach and divide among 2 plates.  Top each with 2 avocado slices and 1 Tbsp slivered almonds.  To kick it up even more, use baby arugula instead of spinach.  (I would have if my husband liked arugula!)


Portobella Asparagus Pasta
2 Tbsp high heat cooking oil (Canola, coconut or avocado)
1 C sliced baby bella mushrooms
1/2 lb asparagus, broken in half, woody ends discarded
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more to turn up the heat!)
1/4 c red wine
1 package Gluten Free Linguini (I like quinoa linguini), cooked according to package
1/4 C Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (of good quality!)
S&P to taste

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and add mushrooms, asparagus, garlic and red pepper flakes.  Stir occasionally about 5 minutes until mushrooms and asparagus begin to soften.  Add red wine and cover another 5 minutes.  

Turn heat off and toss veggies with pasta and olive oil.  Serve immediately.

Raspberry Cheesecake Parfaits
1 Package Soft Silken Tofu
4oz (Just eyeball and cut down the middle of the tub) Vegan cream cheese
1/3 C powdered organic sugar
1/3 C organic sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/3 C Graham cracker crumbs
1/2 C frozen organic raspberries

In a food processor, combine all ingredients except for the raspberries and graham cracker crumbs. 
Put 2 Tbsp Graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of each of 2 wine or martini glasses.  Top each with about 1/4 of the cheesecake filling and then with several raspberries.  Top each with the remaining cracker crumbs, and then another layer of cheesecake filling and raspberries.  Chill in the fridge for several hours, or if serving sooner, chill in the freezer for 30 minutes or so.



Now for the fun part!  BTW: I took about a dozen pictures and couldn't get a damn one to look good in the lighting!  Also - the lemon spiral was quite a fiasco and something I need to work on!  Lol

Lemon Rose MartiniJuice of 2 lemons
3/4 C Organic Vodka
1 Tbsp Raw Agave Nectar
1 tsp Rosewater
2 Tbsp Raw sugar or organic sugar

In a cocktail shaker over ice, add lemon juice, vodka, agave and rosewater.  Now shake it like a salt shaker!  Then, for the perfect rim job, use the leftover lemon to run along the rim of each martini glass.  Then, with the sugar in a shallow dish, dip each glass in.  Voila!
Garnish with a lemon spiral.

Eat Your Heart Our Paula Deen!

Although I didn't stay true to the entire recipe veganizing along the way, it is similar and got great reviews from my husband, daughter and friend! Then, it's followed by the yummy drink I concocted and am sipping now!

Gumbo
Serves 6

2 Tbsp high heat cooking oil (I used organic canola)
1 package Tofurky Smoked Sausage Style, quartered lengthwise then sliced
1/2 Medium onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
3 celery ribs, sliced
1/2 Tbsp dried parsley
1/3 C unbleached flour
2 Tbsp vegan butter
1/4 C Worcestershire sauce (vegan)
2 Tbsp Braggs or tamari
3 C Imagine's 'No-Chicken Broth' (or other faux chicken broth or veg broth)
1 Not-Beef bullion cube
1 Can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes (in liquid!)
2 C sliced frozen okra

Heat oil in Dutch oven. Add Tofurky sausage and cook over med/high heat until it starts to brown. Add onion, garlic, celery, pepper and parsley. Cook about 5 minutes over medium heat until they begin to soften. Move veggies with spatula to one side of Dutch over and add flour to the other side. Whisk flour to 'toast'. Add vegan butter to flour side and whisk together about a minute or so and then start to whisk with some of the veggies and sausage to incorporate. Add Worcestershire and Braggs and whisk together. Add broth and bullion and continue whisking until gumbo thickens a little bit, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and okra, stir, cover and simmer for about 20-30 minutes for flavors to blend. Optional: add hot sauce to taste! (I have a 4 year old so heat is always optional an added at the end).

Raspberry MojitoServes 2

1/4 C frozen organic raspberries
1 Lime, quartered
2 mint sprigs
3oz white rum
1 12oz can organic or natural lemon-lime soda (I used Whole Foods brand)

Divide raspberries, lime quarters and mint evenly among 2 glasses. Muddle, ad ice and 1.5oz rum. Top each with lemon-lime soda. Cheers!

Harvest Apple

Ok...I know, I know. It's not fall anymore. Hell, it's almost not winter anymore either! But I have this amazing rum and was inspired by my organic apples to create this drink. It's delicious any time of year!

HARVEST APPLE

1oz Fireball Whiskey
2oz Kraken Rum
3oz FRESH Organic Apple Juice
Pinch of Cinnamon
Thinly sliced apples for garnish
Cinnamon Stick for garnish (optional)

Shake all liquids together with ice in cocktail shaker. Pour over ice and garnish with apple slices and cinnamon sticks. Mmmm

Dude Food

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I'll be honest...I couldn't really care less about football and I'll never understand whose bright idea it was to publicize a great all-American excuse for a party on a damn Sunday when all but the unemployed have to work the next morning and at least half of those that don't have kids to get ready for school. It's no secret I like to entertain and party, but on a Sunday? Geez. Anyhow, despite my lack of enthusiasm for a bunch of guys in tights chasing what can hardly be called a ball, I like to cook; And even if I do have a 4 month old who will undoubtedly wake me at 4am, I jumped at the chance to prepare some vegan food that I knew a small crowd of carnivorous guys would gobble up. I also threw in Rocky Road Chocolate Bark for my daughter and anyone else who might have a sweet tooth in between guzzling pints of craft beer.


Rocky Road Chocolate Bark

1/3-1/2 C vegan marshmallows
1/3 C walnuts, broken into small pieces
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 12oz bag vegan dairy-free chocolate chips

Line a cookie sheet or tray with wax paper or freezer paper turned so the waxy side is up. Scatter the marshmallows, walnut pieces and chia seeds on the paper. Heat a double boiler with chocolate. *OR* if you do not have a double boiler (I don't!), bring a small saucepan of water to a boil, place a metal bowl that fits inside without touching the bottom in the pan and lower heat to simmer. Put chips in the bowl and stir constantly until melted. At this point, you can even add a few Tbsp peanut butter if you like. Then, pour melted chocolate onto marshmallows and walnuts.


Spread out evenly and move any runaway walnuts and marshmallows back into the chocolate.



Place in fridge and allow to harden. Should take just a couple of hours. When it is hard, remove from wax paper and break into pieces. Yum!



Buffalo Tenders
Search blog or recipe archive for buffalo sauce. Mix with vegan chicken tenders or in a pinch, cut Boca chicken patties up into quarters like I did and toss in sauce. :)

Cheese Dip

1 can organic baked beans, drained but not rinsed
1 C salsa
8oz vegan cheese (I used Vegan Rella mozzarella

Mix all in saucepan until melted. Serve with tortilla chips.



Philly Cheese Steak Hoagie

2 Tbsp high heat cooking oil
2 Portobello Mushrooms, sliced
1/2 medium Onion sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Braggs, tamari or shoyu
2 Tbsp Worstershire sauce (vegan version if you are vegan)
Hoagie roll
Vegan mozzarella cheese (I prefer Daiya for this recipe)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat oil in skillet over med-high heat. Add veggies and cook until soft. Add sauces and season with s&p. While its cooking, slice hoagie (butter if you choose) and throw in toaster over for a couple minutes. Top with veggies and cheese and return to toaster oven for a few minutes until cheese is melted. I promise-this may be meat free but it is DAMN good!!!


Three Bean Salad

1 can black eyed peas
1 can black beans
1 can navy beans
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeños, diced
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1/4 C olive oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 C Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
S&P to taste

Toss all ingredients together in bowl and refrigerate overnight or for a few hours to blend flavors.