Taco Salad

I know, my avocados could have ripened longer

I am a sucker when it comes to a good taco salad. My co-worker always brought in this amazing looking gluten-free taco salad that I would drool over every day as I ate my measly can of soup, or whatever I dragged out of the cupboard, so I decided I HAD to make for myself. It was amazing. And the best part about it; is that it is good hot or cold so it is perfect for lunches at the office!

Taco Salad
INGREDIENTS: (you can really put whatever you want in your salad, these are just my favorites)

• 1/2 box white quinoa, cooked
• Tofutti Sour Cream
• Avocado
• Taco Sauce (this is like the dressing- could use salsa too)
• Shredded Lettuce
• Black Beans
• Diced Tomato
  
• 1 Small Can of Black Olives
• Approx. 1/2 Bag Frozen Corn
• Fake Meat (I used baked tofu, but ground crumbles or seitan or chik'n work well too!)

DIRECTIONS:

1. After the quinoa is cooked, I spread it on a cookie sheet and either pat it dry (if I am in a rush) or stick it in the oven, to dry it out a bit. I hate when quinoa is mushy and dense with water.
2. Then get a giant casserole dish or tupperware to layer your salad (any order is fine, just make sure the lettuce is at the top so it doesn't get soggy): Quinoa, corn, black beans, tomato, olives, meat, avocado, sour cream & lettuce!
3. You can either eat it now hot or put it in the fridge and eat it as a cold salad the next day!

This recipe is amazing because it is also SUPER protein punch! Between the protein in the beans and quinoa - any vegan is set for the week!

Roasted Chickpeas- A Healthy Alternative to Chips or Popcorn

Chickpeas for all!

Our apartment goes through chips and cookies like its our job. We love snacking, and usually... it is on the unhealthiest things. I needed to find a healthy alternative that still would fuel our craving for something salty and crunchy. Enter: Roasted Chickpeas.

Roasted Chickpeas
INGREDIENTS: (serving size: 4 large snacks)

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans- drained and patted dry;
• Olive oil;
• Salt to taste;
• Any spices you want to flavor your chickpeas with, I used: Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Pepper, Cumin, and lime.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 420.
2. Scatter your chickpeas on a cookie sheet (or 2) with a little bit of olive oil.
3. Place in oven and bake until they are dried out and crispy (anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how "done" you want them)

WARNING: Chickpeas like to pop in the oven...If they start to get out of control, or you like to keep your oven sparkling clean, turn down the temp and cook longer on lower heat. You can also cook them in a skillet but then you have to stand there the whole time!

4. Last, take the chickpeas out of the oven, and while they are still warm, toss in a bowl of your favorite spices. Then enjoy with your favorite movie. :)

I loved this recipe because it is ridiculously easy and cheap and also you can switch it up with Mexican spices, Italian, something sweet...whatever your taste that day is!

Very Blueberry Muffins

A very BLUEberry muffin!

This weekend I was trapped at home the better of Saturday morning waiting for the dreaded cable guy to come. To make the best of a bad morning, I whipped up these muffins for breakfast.

VERY BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (servings: 12 muffins)
**This recipe is modified from America's Test Kitchen

LEMON-SUGAR TOPPING:
(I made extra of this because I really wanted a lot of sugar topping on my muffins)

• 1/3 cup sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

1. Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

MUFFINS:

• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 1/8 cups sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• Egg Replacer = 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons Earthbalance, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup "buttermilk" = Soymilk + tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

MAKING JAM:

1. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar (I added more to my blueberries because they were bland store blueberries) to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes.
3. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes

THE BATTER

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.
   
2. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick.
   
3. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.
   
4. Whisk in "buttermilk" and vanilla until combined.
   
5. Fold egg replacer and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)
6. Divide batter equally among muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of jam into center of each mound of batter.
   
7. Using chopstick, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion.
   
8. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.
9. Bake 17-19 minutes until muffin tops are golden and firm, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking time.
   
10. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Breaded Eggplant

Breaded Eggplant & Linguine

Mondays are always rough, that is unless you come home after a late night meeting to find your wonderful boyfriend has a homemade dinner waiting for you! This post is brought to you by the amazing Mansoor, with the alternate title of "101 Reasons why my Boyfriend is the Best."

BREADED EGGPLANT - AKA Eggplant Parmesan minus Cheese
(Servings: 6 slices of eggplant)

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• Olive oil
• Bread crumbs
• All-pupose flour
• Egg Replacer (Equivalent of 3 eggs)
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Linguine
• 1 jar pasta sauce

Directions:

1. Cut the eggplant about 1/4in thick slices.
   
2. Then, season the eggplant slices with olive oil, garlic salt and pepper.
   
3. Set up 3 flat dishes: 1 with bread crumbs, 1 with all purpose flour, 1 with egg replacer.
4. Dip and coat each seasoned sliced of eggplant in flour, then egg replacer, then bread crumbs.
   
5. After all slices are coated, fry the eggplant in a pan until they are browned (2-3 minutes a side, depending on how thick the slices are).
6. After frying the slices, transfer them into a casserole dish with pasta sauce on the bottom, as well as a little sauce on top of the eggplant.
   
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 375. Keep an eye on the oven to make sure they don't burn (they cook really fast).
   

This made the perfect dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day. We both agreed the thin slices of eggplant would be delicious in sandwich form (similar to a meat ball sub).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

About once a month I get an extreme sweet tooth that forces me to bake something over-indulgent that I always regret eating. These "cookies" hit that sweet spot, especially since I am always looking for a vegan peanut-butter chocolate something to replace my past life love affair with Reeses.

The best part was too, that on a hot summer day, these are no bake!

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE DROPS (Serving: 25 pieces)
I am not going to list the recipe because I copied Chef Priyanka's recipe almost exactly. So go here, make these, and thank me/her later. (Hers came out prettier than mine (it is hard to get the nuts ground up really fine) but regarless of what they look like they still taste AMAZING).

NOTE: When rolling the 'dough' I was really tempted to make giant balls because they look so delicious- who wants such a small serving, right? BUT... these are VERY rich so the small balls are definitely the size you want.

Substitutions/changes I made:

• I could not find Hazelnuts in my grocery store, so I substituted Filberts.
• I used regular (not all natural) peanut butter because I am cheap.
• In the "Nutella" mixture, I added more soy milk and powdered sugar and oil. I made enough of the chocolate to make about 3 more batches of these suckers.

Fruit Dip

Healthy and filling fruit dip

I am worst with my diet when I am sitting at my desk at work. I seem to munch on everything I can find- which is usually potato chips, candy or something from 7-11. This fruit dip is a great snack (or breakfast) that really hits your sweet spot.

FRUIT DIP (servings: usually lasts about a week)

Ingredients
(these are all flexible to how sweet you want it, if you want it more yougurt-ey or peanut buttery...etc...)

• 1 24-ounce container of SOY vanilla yogurt (Silk, Whole Soy Company...)
  
• 1 16-ounce container of cashew butter (you can use any kind of peanut butter but cashew butter is DELICIOUS)
• 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon (add more/less to taste)
• 1/3 cup agave nectar

Making the Dip

This recipe doesn't really have any steps besides placing all your ingredients in the blender and pressing puree.

After you blend everything, put the dip in the fridge for a few hours to chill and thicken. I stick solely to apples for my dipping pleasure but I am sure any fruit would be good in this dip, or even just some granola mixed in.

Macaroni Salad

Creamy, refreshing macaroni salad

This weekend I was in the summer spirit (probably due to the 100-degree heat wave) and decided to make a macaroni salad to go with my Tofurkey Italian Sausage and corn on the cob. As mayo is the main ingredient in a macaroni salad, I was a little hesitant about the flavor, but this salad came out GREAT and I think if you brought it to a family bbq no one would know the difference.

Macaroni Salad
(Serves: an entire family reunion, this makes A LOT of pasta.)

Ingredients
Baked Tofu:

• 2 packages extra-firm tofu;
• 2 teaspoons black pepper;
• 6 tablespoons olive oil;
• 6 tablespoons lemon juice;
• 1 tablespoon liquid smoke (give or take depending how smokey you want your tofu); and
  
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce.

Macaroni Salad:

(This is a recipe you can modify based on what you have in your pantry, i.e. if you don't have peas, use carrots or corn, if you don't have tofu, use fake chick'n or potatoes.)

• 1 box macaroni, cooked and cooled (I added a pad of earth balance to my pasta as it cooled to prevent sticking.)
• Half a bag of frozen peas;
• 1 red onion, diced- small;
• 4 stalks of celery, diced- small;
  
• 1/4 heaping cup of sweet relish;
• 1 heaping cup Veganaise;
  
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder;
  
• 2 tablespoons cajun seasoning;
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast;
• 1 teaspoon celery seed;
• 1 tablespoon pickle juice; (I used spicy pickle juice to add a bit of kick- this ingredient is optional but I liked the relish flavor and was trying to add to it.)
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
  

This salad is broken down into 3 steps: Tofu, Macaroni, Dressing.

1. TOFU
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.

1. Cut your drained tofu into even slices.
2. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and marinate your slices in a shallow dish for at least an hour (flipping occasionally).
   
3. Once they are marinated, lay them out on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. DO NOT DISCARD THE LEFT OVER MARINADE- you will use it later.
4. Bake the tofu slices about 10 minutes on each side (depending on how thick they are and how well you drained the tofu- mine took about 12 a side).

After they are done, set them aside to cool, then cut into small pieces for the salad.

2. MACARONI

1. Cook the entire box of macaroni per the package.
   
2. Drain, add Earth Balance and place into LARGE bowl (this recipe makes a lot so make sure you have a bowl with enough space).
   
3. Add the peas and place in the fridge to chill.
4. Once it has chilled, add the red onion and celery.

3. DRESSING

1. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients: Veganaise, left over tofu marinade, garlic powder, creole seasoning, nutritional yeast, celery seed, relish, lemon juice and pickle juice.
2. Stir well to get out all the clumps and ensure the spices are incorporated.
3. Once all the components are ready, pull out your big bowl of macaroni from the fridge and mix in the dressing.

Once the pasta in coated, add the tofu last and you are done! I recommend refrigerating your salad overnight or at least a few hours to let everything set.