Easy Vegan Fried Rice with Hoisin Smothered Soy Balls

I needed something easy and healthy that would fill our tummies. This one is a bit soy heavy, there are soy nuggets and tofu involved, but why not load up on protein once in a while. There are lots of veggies to balance it out. My husband really liked the hoisin smothered soy nuggets. It's a great recipe to use up left over rice which we always seem to have kicking around. Soy chunks are cheap and full of protein so I have been looking for a chance to experiment with them. I am averse to dishes so I just used the one wok but you can fry the rice and the soy chunks in separate pans if  you like.

What You Need:

• About 1 cup of Dried Defatted Soy Chunks, soaked for 15 minutes and squeezed out. 
• 5 sliced mushrooms, cremini was used here
• 1 sliced zucchini
• 1 cup of snap peas, tips and strings removed
• 1/2 a package (about 200 grams) firm tofu, mashed with a potato masher
• 1 cup of cooked brown rice
• 2 tbsp tamari or real soy sauce (MSG free)
• 1-2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• cooking oil as needed

What To Do: 

1. Add some oil to the wok and set it on medium heat. Fry the soy chunks until golden then transfer to a bowl and set aside. 
2. Add a bit more oil to the wok then add the peas, mushroom, tofu and zucchini. Fry on medium to high heat until the tofu begins to dry out and the veggies cook a bit. Then add the rice and soy sauce and continue to cook until the vegetables are cooked to your liking and everything is well mixed together. Transfer fried rice to plates. 
3. Add soy chunks back to frying pan to warm up, add hoisin sauce to taste and stir well. Serve on the side of the rice and enjoy.  

Easy Vegan Pasta Salad

This is an easy, weeknight meal. I also served corn on the cob that night because corn was on sale so we had this a more of a side dish I suppose. I also had it for lunch the next 2 days. If made 4-5 servings as a side dish, probably 2-3 servings as a dinner.

What You Need:

• 2 cups of dried pasta. Most shapes will work for this, I use noodles made of durum semolina because they are vegan and cheep. 
• 1/4- 1/2 cup of vegan mayonnaise. I would recommend Earth Indian (green lid) or homemade mayo because they are good and most vegan mayonnaise is gross. Very gross. 
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Three Batches of Stuffed Pasta Shells. High Protein, Low Fat and Good for Picky Kids

About a month ago I tried this great lasagna recipe that had this tofu based ricotta that was a real hit with my son and husband. I hate working with lasagna noodles because they break and I seem to waste them. So this time I opted for shells. Shells still break but in fewer numbers I find and I can often piece them back together. My picky little eater ate has whole plate then came after mine so this was win. I cooked the whole box of shells, took two pots, then stuffed 'em and topped 'em with sauce. I split them between three pans but if you have a larger or more hungry family your may want to split them between two. It depends how many shells survive I guess. I ended up with 35 shells in the end, then we ate one pan worth and froze two. And I served it with garlic toast.

Recipe

Ricotta Mix

-block of frozen spinach, thawed with water squeezed out

-one package of firm tofu

-one package of soft tofu

-1 TB sugar

-1/2 tsp garlic powder

-2 TB lemon juice

-1 tsp basil

-2 tsp salt

-One package of Pasta shells, large

-One Jar of Pasta sauce

Shawarma Style Roasted Veggies on Rice

Schools done for the summer! So I am right back to doing what I love; cooking, baking, experimenting and homeschooling my little munchkin. All of which is going great. With regards to experimenting, I really like this one dish at a Greek restaurant so this is my attempt to copy the idea of it. I am not going to the trouble of putting the vegetables on skewers like they do. I want something easy that can be thrown together.

How to make it:

1. In an oven safe baking dish, mix together ...

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp tomato sauce

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp paprika

a pinch of ginger

a pinch of nutmeg

2 tbsp olive oil

2. Chop up a bunch of veggies in big chunks, add them to the dish and mix until coated. I used the following veggies but I am sure any mix would do fine providing you cook denser veggies a little longer. 

2 shallots

1 zucchini

1 bell pepper

A handful of cherry or grape tomatoes

1/2 cup of cauliflower

1/2 cup broccoli

2 big mushrooms

3. Let the veggies marinate for a few hours if you like or just mix them well and pop them in the oven, preheated to 400 F for 30-45 minutes. This goes well with brown rice. 

Making Brown Rice

Brown rice can be tricky but this method works well. Add 2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water to a pot with a tbsp of oil. Bring water to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and add a lid. Simmer for 20 minutes then turn off the heat and let the rice sit undistributed for 20-30 minutes. Then it is ready. Makes 2-3 meals worth for us (us being 2 adults and a toddler). Also you can half the recipe and it still works out fine. 

Finished Product:

Asian Inspired Warm Black Bean Noodle Salad

This is what a had for lunch today! It was a nice, light and healthy salad. I cheated a bit by using bottled black bean sauce. If you are a purist you could probably substitute in any type of sauce.

Ingredients

• large hand full of thin Asian noodles (the kind that cook in 3 minutes)
• black bean sauce
• Flax oil (for omega 3's)
• sesame seeds
• Lettuce
• red pepper
• green onion
• peanuts (a kick of protein)
• salt n' pepper

Directions

1. Cook up the pasta and drain. Mix in a bit of black been sauce (not too much as the noodles are thin and easily flavoured), flax oil and some sesame seeds. Leave aside to cool a bit.
2. Line your bowl with lettuce leaves. Chop up the red pepper and green onion. 
3. Place your noodles in your lettuce bowl and top with the red peppers, green onions, peanuts, a few more sesame seeds and salt n' pepper. Enjoy!

Asia meets Italy: Pizza Dumplings!

 Most of the time when I try making a new recipe off the cuff, it needs a lot of tweaking. Recipes normally evolve for me slowly over time. Not the case with pizza dumplings. They were a hit right away. This is not the most "from scratch" recipe but it tasted good so I'm posting it anyway.

Ingredients
Dumpling wrappers
Vegan pepperoni
Daiya Mozzarella 'cheese'
Pizza Sauce

Directions
1. Lay out a dumpling wrapper. Add a teaspoon of pizza sauce, a slice of pepperoni and a sprinkle of 'cheese'.
2. Wet the rim of the dumpling with a little water.
3. Fold and squish the outer edges together to form a half circle as shown below.
4. When you have a good sized batch of dumplings ready, boil some water then add your dumplings. They will float to the top when ready.
5. Lay out the finished dumplings to dry a little while you heat a frying pan then fry dumplings in a bit of oil. I drained the finished dumplings on some paper towel. Enjoy :)

Goji Berry Freezer Fudge

I love fudge. It's not something I get to have very often anymore but I needed to use up my goji berries so I tried out this recipe. Unfortunately I could tell that this fudge was not going to set after it was done. It was just too runny. So I made a few modifications and as long as it is stored in the freezer, this fudge remains fudge.

1 cup tahini
4 TB cocoa powder
2 TB honey
2 TB coconut oil
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup goji berries
1/2 cup icing sugar
graham cracker crumbs

Directions
1. Blend all ingredients but the graham cracker crumbs in a high speed blender.
2. Place a thin layer of crumbs in a square brownie pan. Pour in the fudge and carefully spread out.
3. Freeze until set. Cut into squares, dust with icing sugar and eat while chilled. Store leftovers in the freezer.

Original recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-nut-fudge-180256#ixzz1jCr5KqPw

Super Healthy, Almost Instant Asian Soup

I threw this soup together today for dinner. I tend not to want to put a lot of effort into a meal if I am the only one eating it. This was really easy and really quick. The miso and the wakame make it quite healthy. I added toast because it is not the most filling soup. The wakame is extra awesome if your thyroid is sluggish as it contains a healthy dose of iodine. Most people get their iodine from seafood or table salt. I don`t eat fish so seaweed is a healthy way to get iodine in my diet. Miso, a fermented soy product, is a tasty way to get your B vitamins. I did not expect to like miso soup because it is so touted as a health food but it is surprisingly good.

Ingredients
1 pk miso soup mix
wakame seaweed
longxu noodles (any quick cooking noodle will do)
1-2 cups water

Directions
1. Add water to a small pot and set to max. Sprinkle in some wakame and add some noodles. Once boiling, boil until noodles are cooked.
2. Mix in miso soup mix. Enjoy!

A Great Recipe for Stuffed Tomatoes

I tried out this stuffed tomato recipe tonight and am very happy with the results. It's not my own recipe, it can be found here. There are a few steps involved in this dish but it was still pretty easy to make and it didn't take very long. What I like most about it is the potential to make the dish look pretty. Also, it tasted pretty good. The recipe made a lot more lentil stuffing than I had tomatoes to stuff but I suspect I can fry up the leftovers and it will make a good breakfast tomorrow. I added some dried parsley as a garnish though I would have used fresh if I had some as that would have been prettier. 

Raw Cookie Dough that Won`t Make You Sick

Cookie Dough!

I love cookie dough. When I was a kid I always wanted to eat it but I was not allowed to because of the raw egg. One year my mom bought a tub of white chocolate macadamia nut cookie dough and left most of it in the freezer. Little did she know that I was sneaking it little by little until the tub was empty. It was good dough, it had to be done.

Now that I`m an adult and can eat whatever I want I make cookie dough for the purpose of eating it raw. There is no egg in any recipe I make now but I purposely leave out baking ingredients because they are just not necessary. I also don`t measure the ingredients so these are approximations.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup of margarine
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
water
chocolate chips

Directions
Cream together first three ingredients. Mix in flour and chocolate chips. If too dry, add water to desired consistency  Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Potato Soup with Dumplings

I made this soup tonight and remembered just how simple it is so I thought I would post it. It's the perfect recipe for a weeknight because it is so quick, requires little prep and is nice and filling. My husband is a fan.

Servers 2-4

Ingredients for Soup

4 potatoes, peeled and chopped

4 cups of vegetable broth

1-2 cups water

1/2 cup soy milk (or other kind of milk)

Ingredients for Dumplings

1/4 cup soy milk (or other kind of milk)

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup of Flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Directions

For the soup, add broth, water and potatoes to a pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat if needed and boil until potatoes are tender. Mash potatoes with a masher while in pot. Its fine if the potatoes are a bit lumpy as that is just added texture. Add soy milk.

For dumplings, mix soy milk, oil and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl. Add flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix. Cut dough into 4 and drop into soup. Cover and let steam for 5-10 minutes and serve.