Layered Mexican Cornbread by Cris S.

Heat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare an 8 X 8 or 9 X 9 square pan, or 10 inch round pie plate with butter or spray.  Bread is thick and layered with the peppers when finished baking. Also it is very moist.

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2/3 cup Almond Breeze dairy free milk
2 eggs (or egg replacement to equal 2 eggs)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil (more if using egg replacement)
1/3 cup sugar (optional)
1/2 cup chopped onion, red is fine
1 14oz can creamed corn (I used frozen corn that I heated and put into food processor until about finely chopped and with a gritty consistency; about 2 cups chopped.)
1 cup grated, non-dairy, cheddar/jack combo
1 cup jalapeno peppers, seeds and membranes removed then chopped. Canned is fine. And quantity is negotiable.

Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, milk, eggs, salt, oil, and sugar until blended. Stir in onion and corn. Pour 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Top with the cheese and the peppers. Pour the remaining 1/3 batter over the cheese/chili layer. Place in oven for about 35 minutes until top is golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

This is soooo good!!!!   I used eggs, and the corn does add additional moisture.....this is very very moist and yummy.  Be sure that some of your cheese peeks out along the top edge of your bread before baking as it turns a beautiful dark orange after baked.

You will like this Alfredo

Vegan Alfredo is really cool because its so easy and so hard to tell that it's vegan. Its super creamy and has tons of flavor if you follow this technique I discovered. I usually have almost all these ingredients on hand so it shouldn't be a big expense to make.

Ingredients:
1 bag pasta
1 box extra firm silken tofu
4 or more garlic cloves minced
1 veg bullion cube
2 T Nutritional Yeast (optional)
1 1/2 C unsweetened soy milk
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 T Earth Balance margarine or vegan butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Add ins: broccoli, portabella, fake chicken strips

So you need a blender or food processor for this. Throw in the tofu (must must must be silken) and soy milk. Set aside.

Star boiling pasta. Add broccoli to boiling pasta during the last couple minutes of cooking time. This saves a step if you use broccoli. Dump the pasta and broccoli in the strainer together.

Melt the Earth Balance in a large skillet or wok and add minced garlic. Don't brown the garlic, just let it simmer for 2 minutes. Squeeze in lemon juice and add mushrooms and/or "chicken" strips if using. I highly recommend the portabellas though. Saute for 3-4 minutes until mushrooms are soft. This is when the flavors get really good. The lemon, garlic and mushrooms explode with deliciousness. Now add the tofu/soy milk mixture and bring to light simmer. Add bullion cube and let dissolve. Taste the sauce and add pepper, salt, lemon as needed. Add the noodles to the sauce and mix. Serve immediately.

Makes a ton of food and awesome left overs! This is one of our many favorites.

Stuffed Swiss Chard, submitted by Cris S.

8 large leaves Swiss chard
1 cup cooked white rice
2 (about 1/2cup carrots,coarsely grated)
1/2 fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup cucumber, seeded, peeled and coarsely grated
2 green onions, chopped
3 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp agave syrup or white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-ground pepper
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp red-pepper flakes
Directions
Prepare Swiss Chard:
Fill a large bowl with ice water and set aside. Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Blanch chard leaves by submerging in the boiling water until the rib is softened and the leaves become limp -- about 1 minute. Transfer to the prepared ice bath, drain cooled leaves, and stack between sheets of towel until dry. Cut out the rib on each leaf and set leaves aside.

Make the Rolls:
Combine the rice, carrot, mint, cucumber, 1/2 the onion, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ginger, agave or sugar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Place about 1/4 cup of filling in the center of a chard leaf and roll into a cigar shape. Repeat with rest of filling and leaves. Keep chilled until ready to serve.

Make the Dipping Sauce:
Mix the rice vinegar, sugar, remaining soy sauce, remaining onion, sesame oil, and pepper flakes in a small bowl until combined. Serve alongside rolls.

Hello , Cara....from yo' mama...

I think your pictures are great! Further, I strongly support your decision to become vegan. Little by little, I am trying to eliminate the eggs and milk from my diet. It is very possible that I will not be as diligent as you, but I am becoming more aware - primarily through you. You do know when I gave up meat and I have been diligent about that, for sure. So I have been watching the food channels, and learning some interesting techniques, and getting reacquainted with cooking. I baked a lot when I was young and after we moved to "electric stove" country, I haven't been able to produce expected results with the electric oven. (Maybe I should put an imu oven in the backyard ???) Anyway....I look forward to exchanging recipes with you and your wonderful contributors. But as you know, the area where we live is more "retro" so finding bolognie and white bread is no problem....milk-free cheese isn't as easy to find. Much love......Cris S.

Spring Food

More than anything, this is just a bad ass picture. I am starting to figure out how to take good pictures of food. Problem is, it requires natural light, rather than a flash and I usually cook at night when it's dark.

So these portabella burgers turned out pretty great. I made a marinade with balsamic vinegar, a touch of olive oil, a squirt of agave, a few drops of liquid smoke, a dash of thyme and minced garlic. I marinated the shrooms for about an hour and kept spooning the liquid into the gill side. I roasted them at 350, gill side up for about 20 minutes. Checking often.

The green beans are just steamed grean beans with some sauted shallots and toasted almonds with a squeeze of lemon.

Nice spring dinner.

Vegan Omelette Time!

So I have been curious about vegan omelettes for awhile now and finally decided to give it a try. I havent found too many recipes for this so I used Susan's recipe from her Fat Free Vegan blog. I have made this 2 days in a row now and I really like it. Its pretty close to what I remember an omelette tasting like. I put mushrooms, spinach and follow your heart monterey jack in it. You should try it. Here is the recipe.

Artichoke Pesto Pasta

So I am really getting anxious for winter to be a thing of the past and I was craving something kind of springy and decided to try a pesto of some sort. I looked online at some recipes and got the idea to use artichokes as a pesto and I thought I'd try it. This turned out pretty stinkin awesome!


1lb pasta. Penne or ziti or anything
1 or 2 15oz cans of artichoke hearts in water
1 can of black olives
1 can of diced tomatoes or 2 or 3 diced fresh romas
1/3 cup of pecans or walnuts
1/2 lemon juice
1/4 olive oil
1/4 nutritional yeast (optional)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
handful of fresh basil (or 1 package you get at the store)
salt and pepper



Boil the pasta as you normally would.

Drain 1 can of artichokes and put in blender or food processor. I used a blender and it worked fine. Put lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, basil and pecans in the blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add salt and pepper as needed

Drain the noodles and put back into the pot you boiled them it. Stir in DRAINED diced tomatoes, sliced olives and chopped artichokes from can number 2. Stir and reheat until heated throughout. Thats all you do!

Now you dont have to add the 2nd can of artichokes. I thought it worked well. Also, make sure you drain the diced tomatoes. You just want the chunks, not all the juice. You could also add capers or sauted mushrooms and zuchinni.

Andréa's Moroccan Inspired Organic Chili

This recipe is courtesy of Miss Andréa Woods. Andréa does a lot of ethnic cooking with lots of fresh organic vegetables. I haven't tried this chili yet but it looks fantastic! Love the garbanzo beans and all the spices. I'll have to make it and take a picture, though I am sure it looks as good as it sounds.

You will need the following organic ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
variations: dash in cardamom, fenugreek, mitmita, or curry to taste. sub sweet potatoes for carrots. add a handful of golden raisins or chopped medjool dates.

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in cumin and next 7 ingredients (through red pepper); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cups water, tomato paste, chickpeas, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in cilantro and juice.

enjoy!
andréa

Easy, Cheap and Quick Garbanzo Bean Sandwich

This sandwhich is kind of like a tuna salad sandwich in a way because you make the garbanzo beans into a spread that slightly resembles it. The bread I used in the picture are these little flat multi-grain "Sandwich Thins" that I found at the regular grocery store. They aren't too bad. I prefer fresh local bread but these were cool.

1 can garbanzo beans

1/4 cup veganaise

squirt of mustard (I used brown spicy)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder

2 tablespoons relish or chopped dill pickle

salt and pepper to taste

You could also add celery, chopped red onion, black olives, dill, etc

Use a potato masher or a fork and smash the drained beans until smooth, leaving some beans unsmashed for texture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Taste and add more seasoning as desired.

Put a little more veganaise on both sides of bread. Put sliced tomato, lettuce, sprouts, avocado as desired.

Vegan Pizza at The Foundry in Westport

So B and I have been putting off going to The Foundry for quite awhile because we just figured it was some scenester joint that probably didn't have good food and service like McCoy's does. We finally went last Saturday and were extremely happy. They have a TON of vegetarian/vegan things on the menu, including 5 vegetarian pizzas and vegan tacos. They even have veg sloppy joes! The highlight though was the vegan pizza. I saw it on the online menu but it wasn't on the menu when we got there. I asked the guy if they had it and he said it all depends on the availability of the vegan cheese they use. He said its hard to get and that's why it's not on the menu. They are waiting to see if people actually order the vegan pizza before they commit to it. So he checked with the kitchen and came back and said they could do it. I was super excited.

So here it what it looked like. It was so delicious! It had fake Italian sausage, fresh basil and delicious Daiya vegan cheese.


Much better than the only other vegan pizza you can get in town that includes cheese. So if you are vegan or even just vegetarian, go order this pizza so they will keep it on the menu! You will love it. Its super good.

Ridiculously Easy Greek Pizza

This pizza kicks ass. Its so easy and wonderful and very flexible. You can use whatever toppings you like. I use the pillsbury classic pizza crust because I really dont know how to make pizza crust from scratch and usually I dont have time or patience to be making dough. I will master this one day, I'm sure. But for now, I like the pre-made thing. Its absolutely vegan and pretty dang good. I know its probably loaded with hydrogenated oils and other weird stuff but I try to balance all that out by eating a lot of fresh veggies and things. I cant be perfect. I also didnt use pizza sauce for this. I made a garlic, basil spread instead.

So here is what you'll need for this pizza

1 pkg pillsbury classic crust (check ingredients to make sure you are getting the vegan one)

2 small roma tomatoes

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

kalamata olives (just use black if you dont like these)

1/2 can of artichoke hearts, roughly chopped

Vegan Mozzarella (optional)

For the spread:

1/4 cup vegan margarine (Its pizza, its not supposed to be healthy)

2 cloves garlic, minced

handful of fresh basil (I used jarred basil but fresh would be better. You could used dried too)

Melt in microwave for 30 seconds or until melted.

Spread the crust on a cookie sheet. It will be in the shape of the square. The pillsbury thin crust is also vegan and its a circle. Spread the garlic/basil on the crust. Add toppings, including vegan cheese if you are using it.

Throw in oven at 400 for 10 minutes.

This is good! I promise! You wont even notice that its vegan.

Peanut Sauce with Rice Noodles

This is a nice light, yet filling dish. We love Thai food and its one of the hard foods to make if you dont have the right ingredients. This is pretty easy though and kind of Thai inspired. It requires a few steps, but well worth it. Use whatever veggies you like. You can use a peanut sauce already prepared or you can make your own. We added baked tofu to this too. Baking tofu is easy. Just cut into cubes, toss with oil and put in 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, flipping a few times. You can also fry the tofu in 1/2 inch of oil in a frying pan. Flipping until golden brown. Baking is much healthier.

1 package of Thai Rice noodles

1 cup peanut sauce (see below if making your own)

2 shredded or thinly sliced carrots

1 small head broccoli

1 bunch green onions (chopped)

handful of bean sprouts

1/4 cup cilantro

1/4 cup crushed peanuts

Peanut Sauce:

1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy works good)

1 cup soy milk

a few splashes of tamari or soy sauce

1 Tbs curry power or paste
1 Tbs sriracha (hot chili sauce, optional)

1 lime

Blend all ingredients with a wire whisk and set aside.

Chop all your veggies. The last 4 ingredients get stirred in at the very end. Set them aside. Saute the carrots and broccoli just enough so that they are slightly tender.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles but only long enough to soften them. They are going to do some more cooking later. Drain and run cold water on them.

Add noodles back to pot with peanut sauce. Dont add all the noodles at first. Slowly add them a handful at a time because you may not need all of them. Stir and simmer over medium heat until noodles become tender to your liking. Stir in broccoli and carrots until heated throughout. Right before serving, stir in green onions, cilantro, bean sprouts and sprinkle peanuts on top.

That lentil soup from the Mediterranean Cafe

Here in KC, we have a couple places that serve some amazing falafel, hummus, baba ghanoush, etc. Aladdin Cafe being the best and Jerusalem Cafe being the other. Both of these places serve Lentil Soup as a starter that we always look forward to. It has a ton of flavor. I have been trying to recreate this soup for awhile and I think I got it. Its super easy.

2 cups of red lentils (rinsed)
5-6 cups of water (1-2 veggie bullion cubes added)
1 chopped yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon
2 Tbs curry power
1 Tbs cumin
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
(All spices are to taste)

Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Add lentils, water and bullion and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes until lentils have turned brown and have broken down. Add spices, juice of 1 lemon and stir. Pour half of soup in blender and puree. This gives the soup a nice smooth texture, leaving some lentils still whole for variety. You can always use a stick blender and blend until the soup is how you want it. About 30 seconds. This goes great with toasted pita bread and tabouli salad. So delicious and tastes just like the cafe!

Anything Goes Tofu Scrabble

Tofu scramble is a delicious breakfast that gives you tons of energy for your day and keeps you full for awhile. I make it on my days off with whatever vegetables I have laying around. I've gotten into the habit of saving odds and ends of vegetables that I dont use in other recipes. This is where that stuff comes in. The only thing you really need to have is tofu and potatoes and even the potatoes are optional.

1. fry or boil your potatoes until they are tender

2. add your veggies. such as: onion, bell pepper, broccoli, shredded carrot, zucchini, cabbage. It really doesnt matter.

3. once tender and starting to brown, add you seasoning. You can add cumin, tumeric, cayenne pepper, paprika, thyme or whatever you have.

4. this is an optional step but kind of gives it an eggy flavor that makes you feel like you are eating breakfast and not just some stirfry. Add about 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast and about 1/4 cup of water. Stir and let the liquid absorb. Add more if you want.

5. add the tofu. break it off into big chunks and stir it in. Break up tofu to your desired chunk size.

6. serve with salsa, tofutti soy sour cream (as pictured), guacamole, sirracha or nothing at all! Add salt and pepper as you desire. this is dish is all about using what you have and adding to taste.

Your new favorite potato soup!

Ok so I thought my first recipe could be my new potato soup that I have made a bunch of times now. I found a simple recipe for potato leek soup somewhere on the internet and kind of made it my own. Brian loves it. Its super simple and super tasty and takes just a few minutes to prep and a few more to cook. The only thing you really need is either a blender or a stick blender, which is what I use. Those little handheld things that are for shakes and things. This this is a must have for the type of cooking I do. Which is lots of soups! So here is the recipe:

4 big ol russet potatoes (peeled)
2 leeks white and light green parts
1 yellow onion
2 veggie boulion cubes
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of rosemary
a bay leaf (if you want)
salt and pepper
4 cups of water
a few drops of liquid smoke (totally optional but really great)

So first you need to prep your leeks. I just recently learned about the amazing leek. I have always wanted to use them but never really knew what to do with them. The best way to do it is to slice the green part off and then slice the light green/white part into 1/4 slices. You want a couple cups worth of chopped leeks. Put them in the strainer and rinse the heck out of them. They tend to have sand in them and the last thing you want is sand in your soup!

Then you want to saute the leeks in a little oil along with the chopped yellow onion and a few dashes of salt and pepper. Dont worry about cutting things perfectly because you are going to blend it all up. Saute for about 5-7 minutes until translucent and fragrant. Next, add everything else but the liquid smoke. Make sure the water just barely covers the potatoes. You dont want super runny soup. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are falling apart.

Blend the soup with the stick wand or put it in the blender in batches. Dont forget to take the bay leaf out before you blend! The soup I made tonight decided to hide the bay leaf and I blended it up in the soup. I had to dish out the little peices. OOPS! Its ok though.

Thats basically it. Put a few drops of liquid smoke to taste if you want. Add salt and pepper if you like. This soup is great with some crunchy sourdough bread. Brian likes to have peanutbutter toast with it. He is kind of weird/cool like that. Enjoy!

USDA cites KU Medical Center for violation of animal protection laws - KansasCity.com

USDA cites KU Medical Center for violation of animal protection laws - KansasCity.com

Well what do you know, I am finally starting my blog I have been talking about for ages! I am excited to start recording some of my creations and share them with some people. I have learned so much from the blogs of others and I hope this blog will do the same for someone. Even if its just my mom. So, more to follow!