Friday, November 30, 2012

Recipe 30: Vegan Chex Mix Galore

I'm getting ready for our first Ugly Sweater Christmas party that we will be having at our apartment in 2 weeks. I wanted to start practicing making some inexpensive, yet tasty treats for the party so I thought I'd try out a party favorite Chex Mix! I made a salty and a sweet recipe. They both turned out great, and I'm eating some as I type. It's quite addicting!

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chex Mix (Vegan, Gluten & Soy Free)

Takes about 5 minutes to make!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup vegan/gluten free chocolate chips (Try Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, which are Gluten/Dairy/Soy Free. I picked some up at Vons grocery store).
  • 1/2 cup organic creamy peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup Earth Balance
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 7-8 cups of rice Chex
  • 2 cups of powdered sugar

Method:

Melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in the microwave. Stir every 30 seconds until melted well, approximately 1 1/2-2 minutes. After melting, add in the vanilla extract and mix. Pour mixture over rice chex and carefully mix together. Transfer to a plastic baggie with powdered sugar. Shake up the bag well and it's ready to eat!

Vegan Original Chex Mix

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1-1/4 teaspoons garlic salt
  • 3 cups Corn Chex cereal
  • 2 cups Rice Chex cereal
  • 1-1/2 cups peanuts
  • 1-1/2 cups small pretzels

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Melt butter in a shallow pan. Stir in Worcestershire sauce and garlic salt. Add Corn Chex, Rice Chex, nuts (peanuts, pecans or cashews), and pretzels. Mix until all pieces are coated with the butter mixture. Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool...enjoy!




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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Recipe 29: Vegan Guilty Breakfast Sandwich

This breakfast sandwich will blow your mind!!! Guilty breakfast sandwich without the added fat of pork sausage or chicken eggs that are high in cholesterol.

Vegan Guilty Breakfast Sandwiches


YIELD: 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:

Method:

Sprinkle the tofu slices with a small amount of the spice mixture. Heat a pan over medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once it's heated, place the tofu into the pan, grill until golden brown on each sides. Place vegan cheddar slice on top and cover with a lid. Allow the cheese to melt and then remove from heat. In a separate pan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook 2 vegan sausage patties until browned. While sausage patties are cooking toast muffins.

Slice the muff in half, place a piece of tofu and sausage. Serve and enjoy!

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Monday, November 5, 2012

Recipe 28: Sara's Tofu Noodle Soup

This soup is great for a sore throat or cold! It's a hearty, vegan version of chicken noodle soup with kick of ginger. I made it tonight for dinner, because my boyfriend and I are both starting to get sick. I hope that the soup is a miracle worker, and we wake up healthy and not sick! Fingers crossed!!!

 

 

Sara's Tofu Noodle Soup

(Adapted from Sarah's Tofu Noodle Soup on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups of water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1-2 sliced carrots
  • 1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 3-4 cups baby bok choy, chopped
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 2 teaspoons of grated ginger
  • 2 cubes of vegetarian chicken-flavored broth (Try Not-Chick'n Bouillon Cubes)
  • 12 ounces of fresh rice noodles (Try Trader Joe's Fresh Rice Noodles)
  • 1 (14 ounce) container extra-firm tofu, drained and cubed
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
  • 1/4 teaspoon poultry or Italian seasoning
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons cold water


Method:

Heat the olive oil, garlic, and onion in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook for approximately 5 minutes or until browned. Stir in the carrots, celery, ginger, and bok choy and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes.

Pour ingredients from the saucepan into a medium-large pot with the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling add the tofu, seasonings salt and pepper. Dissolve the cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the soup. Return soup to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the rice noodles to cook for the last 5 minutes at medium heat.


Prep: 15 min
Cook: 40 min
Ready In: 55 min


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Recipe 27: Sweet and Sour Teriyaki Tofu in the Slow Cooker

This is my second slow cooker meal that I've tried from The Vegan Slow Cooker . This is super healthy and super easy to make. This dish is not as saucy as sweet and sour tofu is at an Asian restaurant, so if you are looking for a little more sauce to add on top before serving try this recipe here. I plan on making extra sauce to top it off next time! 



Sweet and Sour Teriyaki Tofu 

(Recipe Adapted from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester)
Ingredients:

  • 1 can (20 ounces) pineapple in juice
  • 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
  • 1 package baked teriyaki tofu (Try Trader Joe's Organic Baked Teriyaki Tofu)
  • 1 medium onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
  • 1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 2 large carrots, sliced
  • 1 medium-sized head broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons cold water

The Night Before:

Open the pineapple can and drain the juice into a small bowl. Add the soy sauce and ginger to the juice to make the sauce. Store the sauce, pineapple chunks, and cut-up tofu, onion, people, carrots, and broccoli in an airtight container in the fridge.

In the Morning:

Combine the sauce, onion, carrots, and tofu, in the slow cooker.

About 30 to 45 minutes before serving, turn up the slow cooker to high and add the pepper, broccoli, and pineapple chunks. Dissolve/mix the cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Then, add it to the slow cooker and mix well. It's ready when the sauce has thickens and the broccoli is tender.

Serve on top of brown or white rice.

Yield: 4 servings
Total Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Cooking Time: 6 to 8 hours



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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Recipe 26: Caramel Corn

Happy World Vegan Day!!! Today, November 1st, marks the start of World Vegan Month. World Vegan Month celebrates the coining of the term, ‘vegan’ and the founding of The Vegan Society in November 1944. Celebrate this month by trying one of my recipes!


I hope you had a nice Halloween! Now that Halloween is over I am ready for the holidays to start. I have some great recipes to post. I can't wait!

My boyfriend and I went to Disneyland the other night and we were both dying for some caramel corn popcorn. I decided I would make some homemade for us on Halloween night. It was super easy and turned out so delicious. We brought some to his parents and shared it with our friends.

 

Seriously Addictive Caramel Corn (Vegan)


(I found this recipe here at it's a Greyt Vegan Life, which they Adapted from Recipe Rhapsody)

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup organic popcorn kernels (about 12 cups popped)
  • 1 cup lightly salted peanuts or cashews (I like the sea salt varieties)
  • 1/2 cup non-dairy butter
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup agave nectar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 6 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 250F. Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.
  2. Use an air popper to pop the corn into a large bowl. Pick out the un-popped kernels, then sprinkle the nuts over the top and set aside.
  3. In a large saucepan, melt the non-dairy butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, agave nectar, cinnamon and salt. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly, then allow to boil for 4 minutes (reduce the time by half for higher altitudes) without stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda and the vanilla.
  4. Pour the caramel over the popcorn/nuts and stir well to coat. Spread the mixture out on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and stir the caramel corn, then return the baking sheet to the oven and bake an additional 15 minutes. At the end of the baking time, transfer the caramel corn to waxed paper on the counter and spread evenly.
  5. Place the chocolate pieces in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 45 seconds; stir. Heat in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth.
  6. Using a spoon, drizzle the melted chocolate over the popcorn and allow it to cool completely before breaking apart.
  7. Store in an airtight container or Ziplock bags.

I made my own popcorn on the stove top. Much cheaper than buying microwave popcorn bags. Click here to see how to pop popcorn on the stove. 



 One last picture of the yummy caramel corn!
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