Vegan Lasagna

This was SO good!! I made it for the fist time last night and it turned out better then I thought it would.
I also made some for a fellow veggie eating family that have been herbavores for a long time and they loved it too!

While I looked at this recipe, I got a little intimidated with all the ingredients but it was super easy! It's a recipes that only takes a few steps of cooking and the rest is blending and layering the pan.

My favorite part about this recipe is that you don't precook the noodles!!!

What??!?!  Did I just say that? Oh, yes I did!

 I've never heard of not cooking the noodles in lasagna. Craziness I tell ya!

I LOVE lasagna.
It's my favorite food, besides dessert, which my husband tells me isn't a food group. I beg to differ my friend. So when I found out that my daughter was allergic to dairy and eggs, I knew lasagna was out the door. This recipe came along and my non-dairy cooking life is forever changed.

Let get to it.

Ingredients:

Filling

• 2 Tsp EVOO
• 2 med. onions chopped (2 cups)
• 3 minced garlic cloves (1 TBSP)
• 1 10oz. baby spinach 
• 2 12oz. firm tofu, drained
• 1 8oz. vegan cream cheese, plain
• 1/2 C. fresh basil
• 1/4 C. nutritional yeast

Lasagna

• 5 1/2 C. sause
• 12 uncooked noodles
• 12 oz vegan sausage crumbles
• 1 C. vegan mozzarella cheese (3 oz.)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375C.
2. Heat oil in pan and sauté onions and garlic.
3. Add your spinach to veggies. I had to add a little at a time because it wouldn't all fit at once. Let it wilt a little add more and repeat until all spinach is wilted.
4. Put in food processor along with the tofu, cream cheese, basil, nutritional yeast. Blend until smooth. Salt and pepper to your liking.
5. Cook your vegan sausage crumbles. Set aside for later.
6. Spread 1 quarter of your sauce on the bottom of a 13X9 pan.
7. Cover with uncooked noodles
8. Cover noodles with half of the filling.
9. Add another quarter of the sauce.
10. Repeat that one more time. Noodles, filling and sauce.
11. Spread sausage evenly over the top and top with sauce.
12. One more noodle layer and sauce.
13. Sprinkle with Cheese
14. Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes.
15. uncover and bake for another 20 minutes. until noodles are fully cooked.
16. Let Stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
17. Eat it up!!

You can add more veggies to it if you would like. like mushroom or squash into the layers. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Potato Alfredo Pasta

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 C cannellini beans (drained)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2 Tbsp. vegenaise
• 1/3 C sweet onion
• 2/3 C potato flakes (the instant plain kind work great)
• 2/3 C Milk (Almond milk was my choice)
• 3/4 C soy creamer
• 1Tbsp. EVOO
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar 
• 1-6 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes ( optional. If you use it, it will change the color to yellow. The more you use the more yellow. I used 2 Tbsp and thought it was fine.)
• 3 dashes of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 Tsp. pepper 
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Cook Pasta of your choice.
2. Blend all other ingredients. ( I used my food processor but you can use a blender as well.)
3. Pour over hot pasta. (hot pasta gets the sauce hot)

Thats it. All done!! Super easy and really tasty. I also added some lightly steamed broccoli to my pasta.

Again we didn't have any leftovers:)

Enjoy!

Vegan Potato "Stew"

It was chilly here in Jacksonville on Monday, so, I figured it would be a great night for potato stew. I love this stew because it is chunky, thick and really yummy. It is also really EASY! If you want it to be more soup like, all you have to do it add more liquid.

I'm a sucker for a good stew. I like stew over soup....I'm thinking it's a texture thing.

Both kids tore this up. We also didn't have any leftovers if that tells you anything:)

Here is the recipe.


 Ingredients:

• 2 garlic heads
• 1/2 C. diced onion
• 1.2 C/ diced carrots ( I used the long matchstick style carrots because it's no cutting and I thought it was the perfect size.)
• 3 C. cut potatoes ( I cut mine into big bite size pieces. I know they would break up a little while cooking and I wanted it to stay chunky stew like.)
• 1 C. milk of choice (Almond milk was mine)
• 1/2C fresh chopped parsley (I've used basil as well and it was good too.)
• 1  bay leaf (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

1. Broil your garlic heads. I like to cut the top off of the head so the tops of all the cloves are showing. and then wrap it in aluminum foil. You can add a dab of EVOO if you'd like but it's not necessary. Broil them for 5-10 minutes.
2. While the garlic is broiling, sauté onions and carrots with EVOO in your pot that you will be making the stew in, until lightly brown.
3. Add your potatoes and milk to the veggies 
4. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes.
5. Turn burner to low and cover stew for 30 minutes or until your potatoes are cutting cooked. 
6. At this point you can add your bay leaf salt and pepper and your parsley if you'd like. I have added my parsley in the stew and I have just garnished each bowl with it. You decide what you think would be best.
7. Before serving find your bay leaf and take it out. You don't eat that part...just for flavor. One time, I could not find the dang leaf! So, it was a game of whoever found the leaf in their stew wins a prize, the leaf!!

Enjoy the stew!!

Vegan Harvest Cinnamon Rolls

I got this amazing recipe from here and it is really good!

I made it last night around 9:30 and popped it in the oven around 5:10 this morning. Her website is really good so check it out. I'll let you know what I did with mine.

• Added all ingredients to my bread machine. After it was done kneading and mixing, I kneaded it into an oval shape. Then lightly sprayed a bowl with EVOO and placed the dough, covered, for 10 minutes on my counter.
• Threw some flour on a rolling pin and on my counter. Rolled the dough into a rectangle about 15"X24".
• Brushed it with butter ( Vegan of course)
• Spread the filling over entire top of dough. I also added chopped pecans to my filling.
• Rolled it up smaller side to smaller side. 
• TIP: Don't' roll to tight or else the middle will pop out while cooking, The middle will cook faster then the rest of the roll. you don't want that...trust me:)
• I used dental floss to cut my rolled dough into 1 1/2" pieces. It makes a nice even cut without smashing the roll in and way.
• Placed them in a greased pan. DON'T let them touch. They will expand a little over night in the fridge or if you are letting them rise for an hour before cooking. When you cook them they will get even bigger.
• After they were done cooking, I immediately put the icing on them. It melts all over and is so yummy!

I will be using the recipe from now on. It was a hit at our house this morning!

The Best Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake EVER!!

I made this cake last week and it was amazingly....amazing!!
I'll be honest, I thought making a cake and frosting from scratch would be hard and time consuming. Add that it would be Vegan as well, was a little intimidating.
It was easy peasy lemon squeezy! If I can do it, anyone can do it!

Let's get to it!

Ingredients for Cake:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 3/4 C. sugar
• 1 egg ( I used an egg replacer)
• 1/3 C. EVOO
• 1/3 C. dairy-free chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 1/2 C. flour
• 1 TSP baking soda
• 1TSP baking powder
• 1/2 TSP salt

Ingredients for Chocolate Frosting:

• 1/2 C. non-dairy butter or margrine
• 2/3 C. cocoa powder ( I used Hershey's)
• 3 C. 10X powdered sugar
• 1/3 C. milk ( I used almond milk but you can use any milk)
• 1 TSP vanilla extract

Preparation: 

• Preheat your oven to 350C
• Mash bananas really well.
• Beat  the sugar, egg and EVOO in the mashed bananas
• Mix your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl
• Add your DRY ingredients to the wet ones and make sure you mix it REALLY WELL.
• You can fold in the chocolate chips if you want to at this point.
• Spray your pan of choice with cooking spray or wipe it down with a little butter and a paper towel. Whatever you have handy. Grease it up really well because you don't want it sticking. No one wants a sticky cake!! I used a bunt cake pan because I think bunt cakes are cool looking. I know, Nerd, but it's true. You can make muffins out of these if you want.
• Back until lightly brown on the edges and a toothpick or butter knife comes out clean.

Frosting Preparation:

• Melt your butter
• Stir in the cocoa powder
• Alternate adding your milk and powdered sugar, mixing until spreading consistency.
• Add additional milk if needed
• Stir in vanilla
• Makes about 2 C. of frosting.

Frost the cake once it has cooled.
Enjoy this really good, unhealthy, vegan banana chocolate cake!

Amazing Hummus without Tahini

This is the best hummus recipe I have made. Can't remember where I got this from but it is SO good! A big plus about it is that you don't have to use Tahini! Most hummus's have Tahini in it. I like it with Tahini just don't have that in my spice cabinet on the regular.

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz.) can of organic chickpeas (also know as garbanzo beans) drained
• 4 TBSP lemon juice (fresh is best but you can use the bottled if you have it)
• 1/4 c. EVOO
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic ( I used 4 because I LOVE me some garlic hummus)
• 1/2 TSP salt
• 1 TSP ground cumin
• 1/2 TSP cayenne pepper
• Fresh parsley to garnish

*Check out my notes and tips at the bottom before making.

Preparation:

• Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender until smooth
• Pour into your favorite dish (or your mouth like I do)
• Drizzle with EVOO and garnish with chopped fresh parsley
• Devour it! 

How easy is that, huh?

I love this recipe and make it multiple times a week. We eat it with veggies like carrots and bell peppers. Also with homemade pita chips, pretzels, put it on wraps and my favorite,  just my finger. ;)

*Notes and Tips:

• I have noticed I get a better consistency if I use my blender over my food processor. Don't know why, just do. I'm sure if you have a super duper awesome mixer, you won't have a problem with consistency.
• While blending the hummus I have had to add more EVOO. Add more if you need more but just a little at a time. As I tell myself while cooking all the time, You can also add more but you can't take away....unless it's chocolate. You can never have to much chocolate;)
• Taste as you go. Before I add in any other ingredient I always taste just to make sure it really does need more salt or cayenne etc, etc. 
• You can also add in roasted red peppers if you life. I have done it with both and it's really good.