Category Archives: Recipe

quicktom0

This wasn’t a planned recipe for the blog. I was making a shopping list at the beginning of the week and I always plan a “oh crap dinner.” It is something brainless for me to do and get made in a jiffy, just in case I work late, or just feel tired. This week I figured I would make a creamy tomato soup. I am not sure what possessed me to do so since I am very particular about my tomato soup.

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The end result was an absurdly easy soup. It didn’t take long at all, possibly 20 to 30 minutes. I used canned tomatoes, so the only thing you need to chop are onions and garlic (which I chopped poorly since, you know, blending) Although this dish doesn’t adhere to my ideals of cooking with fresh ingredients it is still more healthful than having a can of campbell’s tomato soup.

It also keeps spending money down. The broth was homemade, and could be made with homemade milks. It also uses mostly shelf stable ingredients, so if you can easy make this without preparation (depending on how well stocked your pantry is). This makes a lot of soup so you have lots of extras for lunches or for freezing for another dinner.

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What I love about the soup is that it begs to have bread dipped in it, or to have some sort of grilled sandwich in it. And if you are feeling up for it that night, you can easily make some hot crispy sandwich while the soup is boiling. 

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applepiesorb0

Finally getting around to posting a new recipe. I wanted to post it before Christmas, but I had lots of family gatherings to get to. So I was in the kitchen often cooking a bunch of foods, some were huge family hits, such as Angela’s Crowd Pleasing Chickpea Caesar Salad. I even had a cookie! My childhood friend Justine baked some vegan snicker doodle cookies which made me really happy.

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So this dish started out as an idea for Christmas day breakfast, but soon fell apart since it wasn’t a good dish for sharing. But instead really yummy for a single serving. It is easy enough to make, just a little planning. Just bake some apples, let cool, freeze, and blend. Simple enough right?

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It also tastes amazing with the gingerbread granola I posted earlier this month. But you can honestly use any type of granola. I put pomegranates on top, but you can use whatever you want. I thought the pomegranates added a nice sweetness, but didn’t have too distinctive of a flavor.

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gingergran0

Remember how I mentioned I’ve been a little bummed lately? I am trying to be a little proactive about it. Tonight I am going try out a run in Philadelphia with my friend. Hopefully all goes according to plan, it is suppose to snow on and off all day. I am a little nervous since my running has been pretty null lately. I’ve been much happier sleeping in or lifting weights inside.

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This granola is a great way to add a little bit of a christmas flair to any normal dishes. Add a little granola on yogurt, now you have GINGERBREAD yogurt. Add a little to your chia pudding, BAM Christmas-a-fied. I have big plans for this granola, and if all goes according to plan, I will posting the recipe on here.

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This recipe was a big labor of love. It happened to use a lot of Thanksgiving leftovers, so there were lots of pecans, walnuts, and cashews in there. There is also home dried apples. I figured I would give it a try since my husband picked 16 pounds of apples before our local orchard closed down for the year. I couldn’t even tell you what types of apples are in there. I just kind-of grabbed a bunch from our bags, diced and dehydrated. They are pretty yummy in oatmeal or chia pudding. If you don’t feel like making your own diced apples, you can easily just chop up dried apple rings.

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I remember the first time I had green bean casserole. I didn’t have it until I was in my 20s, it was never a Thanksgiving staple in my family. My brother in law grew up eating it and requested it for the dinner spread. My sister read the can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, frustrated by the simplicity. Really just a can? What are “french onions”? We all gathered around the table and tasted the dish. My sisters and I all agreed it was a mistake and voted off the dish from future dinners.

I didn’t listen. I couldn’t shake off has a very classic dish could be so bad. This prompted me to make a 100% from scratch version of the dish, and made it vegan. Each year I kept tweaking the recipe, and trying out new methods. This year, as I made a pre-Thanksgiving testers batch, I found the perfect match.

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I debated posting this dish since the photos didn’t turn out so great. I thought I could wait till after Thanksgiving and post it with better photos. I mean, this is a dish you could make for Christmas, right? But then after discussing Thanksgiving dinner with my Mother-in-Law, it seemed that she had plans for her own green bean dish. Posting the dish was a now or never deal.

This is a great dish if you are the guest invited to Thanksgiving. It isn’t hard to make, but it does take some time and planning. First you have to roast the onions, then you have to cook the green beans, then you need to make the sauce, then combine into the casserole dish. So it is great to make, getting all the messy work out of the way of the host. Even better is that it is a vegan dish that doesn’t seem “healthy.”

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The plan is simple. Bread and bake onion rings in the oven. Cook the green beans by boiling them for 5 minutes, or use frozen beans (fresh will give the best results). On a stove top make a mushroom-miso like gravy. Cover the green beans with the “gravy” and top with onions. Heat again in the oven. Simple enough.

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I just came home from my trip to Sebring Florida for my Nanna and Pappy’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. And I have to point out, when the average American cuts out meat and dairy from their diet, they are stuck with carbs and sugar! As all vegans do, my husband and I packed a lot of clif bars and snacks, and I was shocked how close we were to eating all of them. Oddly I think it would of been easier to go vegan for the trip if we didn’t have to spend it was family. Then we could of had free reign over restaurants and breakfast.

But when I came home I scarfed down lots of proteins as I didn’t really eat what I normally would during the trip. Then decided I would go on a detox afterwards. And man, did I really need a detox. I am a little hesitant to talk about detox or cleanses, since they have earned themselves a bad rep. I am not really a fan of extreme cleanses where you juice all day or drink lemon water. I prefer cleanses that involving eating more whole foods. In fact my most common detox is a smoothie cleanse, drinking smoothies and soups throughout the day. I like this approach because I don’t deprive my body of calories and fiber that keeps me full. I usually add salads after a few days, and transition into raw foods.

I’ve mentioned my detox diet in the past. I posted an recipe for a Kimchi Detox Soup, which I am thinking I should make pretty soon.

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Well, this smoothie was like a slice of summer in all this cold weather. I used cantaloupe that I got from my CSA during the summer. The cantaloupe was so ripe it was pretty mushy, and didn’t really taste great by itself. Freezing it was a perfect decision, as it was just the texture I needed for a smoothie. 

I use to drink juiced carrot, cantaloupe, and orange all the time. So I thought that carrot would give a great flavor to the smoothie. It is only a small amount but it gives depth to the flavor. It also helps with the body of the smoothie, preventing too much a slushy texture. Plus, you are adding a veggie to your breakfast! You can also add a handful of green to the smoothie, it will just not be such a pretty color.

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sloppyjoe1

Oh man! I am so excited to be back! Our host had too many sites on their server, which is why our page was taking so long to load. So for one week the site was locked, and we couldn’t make any changes, but it was still viewable. Then we had to spend another week with the site being 100% down. It was awful and I was itching all week to work on the site. 

But now the site is back up, and everyone can see our new link buttons on the side, and our big ass blog directory! But first let me share this super easy recipe.

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This recipe I’ve been holding on to for awhile now. It just seemed a little boring. I mean sloppy joes? With lentils? I mean don’t all vegans know about this? Surely?! Well, I gave some leftovers to my husband for work and everyone at his work commented on how clever it was. Sometimes when you are drenched in a subculture, you forget what is or isn’t common.

So even though this dish isn’t something uncommon with vegan blogs, I think it can still reach others to give inspiration. The recipe is also really non-vegan friendly- meaning if you are a non-vegan and you making something for your vegan guests, this is a great option. Quinoa and lentils are pretty frequently used in recipes, and the only “hard” work is reading the buns ingredients to make sure there aren’t any eggs or milk in them (which milk is often added to pre-made breads!) I used sprouted buns, but they taste best with the cheap fluffy white buns.

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spc0

Everyone is pumpkin crazy anymore. It is pretty much pointless to deny it any longer- you need more pumpkin in your life. I think our current obsession might be because all the kids who grow up loving Halloween. So we reach and grab things vaguely related to Halloween that are more adult- like horror movie marathons. Or costume runs in graveyards. I feel like we clutch to pumpkins because of jack o’ lanterns. Maybe not. But I am not going to stop eating them.

I thought I would take it up a notch and make a drink just for vegans with pumpkins: The Spiced Carriage. There are two secrets to the cocktail- homemade pumpkin spice syrup and Snap. Snap is a spirit made by Art in the Age of Reproduction. They have several spirits that are inspired by old practices or traditions from American settlers. Snap has the perfect mix of spices that give the drink an extra depth. You can buy it online with Hi-Time Wine or you can search their store locator.

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Alexa came down to visit, and I knew I had to give her this cocktail. I also wanted to brainstorm names. I haven’t been too creative with food names, and cocktails usually have names that are more fun. Alexa came up with “The Spicy Ginger (Babe)” but my husband voted for my more fairytaled themed “Spiced Pumpkin Carriage”

I think I can safely say this is sort of like a Pumpkin Spice Latte in cocktail form. Okay there isn’t any coffee elements to it, but has that similar creamy and warm pumpkin feeling to it. Though I am now seeing that I could of put in a little Kona and gotten some yummy results. Oh well. Maybe next year…

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You’ll have to turn on the stove to make this cocktail. Well, you don’t have to, but if you want it to taste the best you should. I made a custom syrup for this drink, which can be used in coffee, or to sprinkle on top of desserts. Below is the recipe and you totally will want to make it ahead of time.

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tofutillos0

I am a little sad that I didn’t post this recipe during Vegan Mofo. But I am glad I participated, because it was tons of fun. We hit 20 posts this month (whooo group effort!) and we will be back next year, with hopefully a better theme. Maybe we will make a month of just ingredient pages! That was something I wanted to make a big focus on the blog and just haven’t gotten around to.

I am thinking I should be making pages for Tomatillos and Gochujang since there are a few recipes that use it on the site. They aren’t fully normal ingredients. And try and find a recipe for tomatillos that aren’t salsa verde related? Forget about it! This year my CSA has some great tomatillos and I’ve been unsure what to do with them. It is quite possibly the most frustrating thing. I have made Tomatillo and Chickpea Curry, which was pretty tasty. Now I take tomatillos in a totally different direction- sweet and savory.

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I think the reason why I didn’t post this recipe during Vegan Mofo was that the photos kind-of sucked. I made it at night, so the lighting blew. And I was originally going to make the recipe for burritos, but it was a little oozy. And I was so hungry I couldn’t be bothered to take a bad photo. So I just decided to post the tofu, since I’ve eaten it with tacos, burritos, and it would easily taste great in sandwiches or as is.

The major downside is that the recipe takes a LOT of baking. It takes about 15 minutes of your time overall, but will take at least an hour or more of baking time. Then you add on another hour for pressing the tofu. But like I said, it leaves plenty of downtime so you can make whatever sides that you need, do the dishes, or read a book.

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korburg0

I am in love with a new Korean drama- Master’s Sun. It has one of my favorite actresses Gong Hyo-jin. She is an amazing actress, who can play a shy, kind-of hearted girl or a hard-ass gang master. Most Korean shows have various elements that make it hard for a Westerner to watch. They are usually a little sexist, slow moving, drawn out, and the girl AWAYS gets with the asshole guy. Master’s Sun probably will have the lead actress get with the asshole guy, but they set it up in a way that makes it understandable (and funny). The show is quite polished and well written. Heck, I even got my husband to say he would watch it with me.

The story is of Gong-shil, who sees ghosts. She found that being able to see ghosts has prevented her from leading a normal life, and finds herself as a maintenance woman at an apartment complex. One day she bumps into Joong Won, a rich and snobby business owner. Whenever she touches him, the ghosts disappear. It is a really good show, and I recommend checking it out on Hulu.

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Okay, enough gushing about the show and start gushing about these burgers! I had adzuki beans sitting in my cupboard for months now. I wasn’t sure WHY I had them, but they were sitting there, stewing in my mind for ideas. I finally thought burgers would be the best. And I figured I would make them with some gochujang paste for a kick.

I tried to keep it to ingredients that you would find in a Korean kitchen. Some might be a stretch but they are pretty accessible to Westerners. I was afraid that the burgers would fall apart, but they are actually more sturdy than the burgers I based the recipe on! I am guessing it was the mix of seaweed and short-grained rice.

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eggtom0

This recipe has been lurking for over a year now. I made a vegan eggplant and tomato soup over a year ago. It was amazing. So amazing I thought it would be something really nice to make my friends when they came down for my wedding. But I couldn’t find the recipe again. The soup was okay, but not quite the same as the first time. Alexa might remember this soup when I put alphabet noodles in it. Maybe not.

After a few trials I found the perfect amount to get the right consistency. This gives all the same vibes as the out of can tomato soup we all grew up with, but with a more adult twist. White wine, eggplant, and carrots give the soup a complex flavor that doesn’t take away from the tomatoes. I like to pair it was something rich and fatty. Like a vegan grilled cheese sandwich or bread with avocado spread on top.

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The only reason why it took me so long to post this recipe was the photos. I like to keep skins on when roasting and eating veggies. Needless to say red plus purple doesn’t make a pretty color. I eventually found time to peel the eggplant, giving a vibrant red soup. You don’t need to peel the eggplant, but if you like your food to be souper pretty, go for it (did you see what I did there?)

I wasn’t sure if I was going to even post this recipe on here since it was so simple. The flavor isn’t drastically different from normal tomato soup. The ingredients list is short. What does my soup have to offer?

Well, I am being a little selfish here. I am always loosing this recipe. So I am mainly getting it written down for my own records. So I don’t care what any of you guys think of this recipe. I am doing this for me. Side note, don’t forget the salt guys! The soup in the picture kind-of sucked since I forgot to add the salt and pepper. Ugh. Continue reading