Happy Herbivore Rave and Review

I have NOT been feeling very creative lately! So not creative I wont even try to tweak my tester recipes! When I start feeling this way I go and try out new recipes by people who inspire me. See how that works? I read Lindsay's blog Happy Herbivore for the advice and fun recipes geared toward people such as me - vegan! This week I made it a point to try out 4 of her recipes! So far I have made three with one waiting in the side lines since my organic bananas are a week old and still green as the day I bought them! That's a first for me! So, black bean brownies go on my list for next week but I will get them done!

Here is the Lidsay's Hippie Loaf. The hippie loaf in my opinion is veggie twist on the classic meatloaf. In this recipe she calls for black beans as the base mixed with veggies. I love black beans so I really enjoyed eating this plus its fat free! I topped it off with some vegenaise (not fat free), ketchup and chopped chilled tomatoes! This particular recipe is the "best" veggie loaf I have tried and I have tried many.... none worth posting about until now! I had this the next afternoon for lunch as a sandwich and it was still tasty being cold! I love recipes like this that you can re-use the next day in a different way.

 

Next, I made her tofu chilaquiles! This dish is a fat free Mexican meal, all in one! My kids ate this dish with no fuss which was surprising since the dish had a little kick to it! Lindsay suggests serving with chips but we skipped them since I knew the chips would be the only thing eaten. Instead, I topped it off with chilled tomatoes. avocados and vegenaise. I will be making this dish again and next time making it as a taco/burrito filling served with my taco sauce... oh my, I'm already to make it again! I LOVE tacos!

Last and certainly not least I made her vegan spinach artichoke dip. Some foods such as spinach artichoke dip has always held a special place in my heart! TRULY! I can still recall going to a restaurant, ordering spinach artichoke dip and eating the whole thing unwilling to share! Unfortunately, I thought that would never happen again! But, what did happen is this recipe! HELLO! I made a double batch and used it all week on everything from sandwiches and rolls as a spread, salad dressing, I ate it cold with veggies as a dip, I warmed it up again and ate it with chips! This recipe is super versatile and stayed fresh for 5 days in fridge. I could have stretched it out longer but I was really feeling this recipe!

Don't let the picture fool you, I am not a professional photographer!!!!

Wheat Berry Salad Review

This recipe was on the Food Network. I usually only watch for ideas and inspriation but since most everything is not vegan I usually pass on experimenting! This Elli Kriegers recipe is all about CRUNCH and accidentally VEGAN! Of course it was calling me saying.... make me.... and I did, of course, I can't say no to good food!

Alright, this recipe was really easy to make! Here in California it is finally summer with temps going over 90 finally! With that in mind I really choose not to cook or cook as little as possible. With this recipe I just boiled the wheat berries and chopped up some veggies..... and dinner was done! 

What I love, love, LOVE about this recipe is all the texture and layers of flavor! It was crunchy and chewy yet somehow melted in my mouth! If that is even possible and though this recipe was meant for de-stressing with all the crunching and chewing, in way it felt like comfort food because it was so satisfying to eat!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups uncooked hard wheat berries
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 stalks celery finely chopped
1/2 cup tart dried currants
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chia seeds
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot combine the wheat berries and enough water to go a couple inches over the wheat berries. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for until tender, about 1 hour. Drain and let cool.

Toast the walnuts in a skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the wheat berries, currants, celery, walnuts, parsley, chia seeds, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Chickpeas A’la King Review

I found this recipe at the FatFree Vegan and here is the link to the recipe if you feel inclined to try it out! I love reading Susan's blog since everything is healthy, low or fat free and VEGAN! Now, I would like to say I did not look forward to making this recipe! Every evening I would look at what I had planned for the week and this would go to the back of the list! Boy, do I regret that choice! This recipe is like an open faced chickpea pot pie which my family LOVES. You can fool around with the recipe and any veggies you like as long as they are proportioned to the recipe, I bet it would still be great!

Some things we are eating this week...

I am planning on making portobello and pineapple teriyaki burgers, wheat berry salad (really this time I know where the wheat berries are!), classic vegan quiche and from the Happy Herbivore black bean brownies, hippie loaf, tofu chilaqules and spinach artichoke dip!

YUM!

Vegan Potato "Gatto" Review

This recipe was flavorful but I felt it was missing something. Oh, wait maybe it was the mushrooms I forgot to add? I am posting it anyway because overall this dish is healthy, fat free and well from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen which I love so, here ya go!

The recipe on SusanV's site can be found here. Her pictues makes this look amazing, my picture makes this dish look ordinary. I am NO photographer, that's for sure!

I made minor changes like forgetting the mushrooms, oops! I added 4 times the garlic she called for since we LOVE garlic here and used red, yellow and red bell peppers. My family of 5 ate half the casserole and I froze the rest for another time. When I defrost this dish I will make potato cakes out of them and serve with a salad! Overall for the cost of this dish and getting two meals out of it makes the effort worth it to me!

Some things we are eating this week....

I am planning on making chickpeas a la king and potato grato from the Fat Free Vegan, sweet potato burritos, baked potatoes topped with veggie chili and baked tofu crusted with teriyaki panko crumbs.

Eggless "Mmmm" Muffin

This is an easy one! Everyone (well people who don't or can't eat eggs) has made one of these but I am posting anyway since it is yet another family favorite.

Ingredients:

Vegan cheese of choice

Muffins

Olive Oil

Extra firm tofu

Garlic powder

Nutritional Yeast

Tumeric

Salt 

Pepper

Veganaise

Directions:

Cut a block of tofu into 4 or 5 square thin pieces. Place on towel to drain.

Once the water is mostly gone from the tofu, lightly oil your frying pan and turn onto medium heat. Place tofu onto pan and start to fry. 

Sprinkle a bit of any or all of the nutritional yeast, garlic, turmeric, salt or pepper. Heck add some cajun seasoning if you like but just make sure you use enough so your tofu tastes like something. Fry about 3 minutes.

Turn the heat down to low and flip the tofu over and add some seasoning. If you are adding vegan cheese do it now so it can start to melt a bit. (I can't stand most vegan cheese so I skip it).

While the other side is heating up on low put your muffin in toaster to heat up. Once warm add some veganaise and place tofu on muffin. 

Most people put smart bacon or add some morning star sausage but I feel this recipe is great without adding anything else.

Spring Rolls

My son is allergic to peanuts and sesame seeds which are used primarily in dishes such as spring rolls or pad thai and obviously I can't go out and pick some up for him to try. Since my son is still so young I think it is important for him to try new things even though we are limited to what we can eat. I feel even though it just food keeping an open mind in everything you try is a good virtue! So when I find something I think he may like such as spring rolls I try to make them so he can try them! I thought after reading all the recipes and comments on many sites that this would be a daunting task but I did it anyway! I'm not posting "my" recipe since it was pretty bland for my taste and isn't worth sharing. What is worth sharing that it was super easy to make spring rolls! All you do is place the wrappers in warm water until the soften up. I got in a mode where while I was filling and rolling one the other wrapper would be soaking and I filled 20 up pretty fast! They may not be perfect but I was pleased to see my son trying something "new"!!!

Avocado and Garlic Noodles

This dish is inspired by my nieces grandma who has the best recipe for garlic noodles! I love making this meal when I'm in a pinch since all I really need to do is mince some garlic and cut up avocados! Everyone in my family loves it and we never have left over!

Ingredients:

1/2 pack angel hair pasta
1/2 pack rice noodles
2 ripe hass avocados
6 cloves garlic
olive oil

Directions:

Rehydrate rice noodles in a bowl with hot water.

Cook angel hair pasta according to package directions.

In the mean time mince the garlic and lightly in fry in wok with a bit of oil until the garlic starts to become fragrant and barley starts to brown. Turn off stove.

Drain cooked angel hair and rice noodles in colander and place in wok.

Cut avocados into squares and mix well with everything in the wok.

This dish goes great with raw macadamia nuts, tomatoes or even wilted spinach! YUM!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Quinoa Burger Review

This is another recipe found on the fabulous FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog. I think I'm addicted to finding new recipes for burgers or maybe I'm looking for the perfect veggie burger and haven't found it yet but here is yet another burger recipe.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures. Why, you ask? Well, I am not quite sure but the kitchen was crazy the day I made these and everyone gobbled them up so fast I didn't have any left over for pictures! 

 To say the least I really enjoyed eating this recipe. I used english muffins instead of buns for something different and they were a hit! I will defiantly make these again and take pictures! Here is the recipe.

Some things were eating this week....

I am planning on making spring rolls, grilled avocado sandwiches, pasta with avocado and tomatoes, egg-less mcmuffins, huluski (cabbage and noodles), carrot spaghetti!!!!!!!