Spaghetti Squash Pancakes

I will admit that I did not measure anything when it came to making these, so the amounts are pretty much just estimates! The finished product was pretty tasty though! The mister had baked a squash and we wanted to do something fun instead of just eating it plain, so the squash pancakes were created. I made a HUGE mess while forming the pancakes with my hands, so just beware that you are most likely going to get messy! Feel free to add more flour if the mixture is not sticking together.

3 cups of baked spaghetti squash insides
1 1/2 cups of flour
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp of nutritional yeast flakes
Olive Oil for pan-frying

Set a frying pan to medium heat and add a small amount of oil. Mix all ingredients together until combined. Form the pancakes with your hands. Fry each for about 4 minutes and then flip over. They should look golden brown on each side when done. I cooked several pancakes at a time and it took about 30 minutes for all of them to be done. The mixture should make about 15 or so pancakes. We had enough to last us for 3 different dinners! They tasted great with a little bit of wholegrain mustard.

I hope that everyone enjoys this recipe! I think it would also taste great with a little bit of Daiya cheese melted on top! : )

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a delicious and healthy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone is enjoying all of the cruelty-free options out there. There are so many delicious meat alternatives and side dish recipes out there right now. Today we will be enjoying a Tofurky, corn, peas, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, spinach salad and some vegan pumpkin pie! I was concerned about us overeating so I suggested adding a salad to our menu in the hopes of not eating a pound of potatoes each! : )

We may post recipes later, but our food wasn't too complicated. The stuffing is delicious though, so I may have to beg Andrew to post that recipe. : ) Happy Thanksgiving!!

Nicole

Easy Vegan Sausage Crescent Rolls

We found a package of vegan crescent rolls and I knew that I had to try to make a version of pigs in a blanket. I used to love them when I was growing up and these were absolutely delicious and SO easy to make! 

1 package of crescent rolls(hopefully your local Whole Foods or grocery store will carry some)

1 package of Tofurky sausages

1 package of Daiya cheese slices(we used Provolone & they were on sale at Whole Foods this week!)

So this was extremely simple and pretty quick. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees per the directions on the package of crescent rolls. I used 2 crescent rolls per Tofurky. Place two crescents together to make a larger triangle to wrap around the sausage. Place the sausage on the wider end of the crescent roll. Break the cheese slice in half and place both slices down the length of the sausage and roll the crescents. Bake in the oven per the instructions of the crescent roll package. Take out of the oven when golden and enjoy!

Banana Puffed Quinoa "Truffle"

Craving something sweet but knowing that we shouldn't just eat a whole bunch of chocolate, I decided to use some puffed quinoa that I had made earler (that recipe may come later) and bananas. This little "truffle" is just sweet enough with a little bit of bitterness.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup dates pitted
• 1 cup puffed quinoa
• 1 banana
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spices
• 12 chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions

Add all ingrediets (except chocolate and cocoa powder) to a food processor and pulse until all ingredients have been combined. For the mixture into balls one tablespoon at a time. Take the chocolate chips and push into the center of the balls. Put the cocoa powder in a smal bowl or wide bottomed mug.One ball at a time, put the balls into the cocoa mixture and swirtl until fully covered. Refrigerate in anairtight container or enjoy immediately.

Garlicky Heirloom Bean Spread

This is a delicious hummus like spread. Instead of using garbanzo beans, this spread has a mix of heirloom beans. These beans were originally dry beans that were soaked for 12 hours and then simmered until tender.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups heirloom beans
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (we only had chunky)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon lime juice

In a food processor, puree the heirloom beans until mostly smooth. Add peanut butter and olive oil and pulse to combine. Add water a tablespoon at a time until smooth, there may be a little extra water or you may need a little more). Once smooth add the mustard, garlic and lime juice and puree again until smooth consistency. Serve immediately or let set in the fridge for the garlic flavor to deepen.

Quick Dinner

Hello,

I just wanted to share our dinner from last night because it was super simple and tasty! I was pretty hungry so I didn't even take a picture of the finished meal, but this took less than ten minutes to make and only had a few ingredients involved.

2 Tofurkey kielbasas, in half-inch slices
1 cup of kale
2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne
1 cup of cooked cous cous (we had some leftovers)
1 tablespoon of oil

Add the kielbasa slices and oil to a frying pan and sauté on medium-high heat for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the kale and sauté for another two minutes. Toss in the rest of the ingredients and lower the heat to medium. Cook for about two or three minutes and mix together well. Serve in two bowls and enjoy!

Kale Salad with Black Beans, Polenta & Avocado

1 package of polenta, cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 handfuls of kale leaves (about one bunch)
1 can of black beans
1 avocado, sliced
3 cloves of garlic
Olive oil for pan frying


Sauté the garlic in oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the polenta slices to the pan, frying on medium-high heat. Fry for 4-5 minutes on each side, until they are a golden yellow color. While the polenta is cooking, wash and rip up a few handfuls of kale for each bowl. Add the polenta slices on top of the kale. Drain and rinse the can of black beans and heat the beans in the pan for several minutes. Add the beans and avocado to the salad and serve! We had some Daiya shreds in the fridge so I added those also.

This was a quick and tasty meal and we both enjoyed it. I hope that everyone else is pleased with the results! : )

Butternut Squash Soup

Hi there! I love autumn for so many reasons, and soup is definitely one of them. I honestly wasn't much of a soup person until we started making them. As someone that had a lot of processed food while growing up, there is definitely no competition when it comes to a homemade soup versus something from a can. Anyways, here is a simple recipe for a vegan butternut squash soup that we made the other day. This could be made in about half an hour and tastes delicious! I hope that you all enjoy it!

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup

3 Cloves of garlic

1 shallot

2 tablespoons of Olive oil

1 butternut squash

6 cups of vegetable broth

Cut up the garlic and shallot. Sauté the garlic and shallot with olive oil in a large pot. Peel, deseed, and cube the butternut squash. Add the squash to the pot and cover with the vegetable broth. Boil until fork-tender. Remove the cubes to the blender and puree. Add the squash back to the broth on medium and stir. Combine well and serve!

Enjoy!

-Nicole 

Vegan Chili

Hi there!

So, it has been awhile since we have actually posted a recipe, and I thought I would share an easy autumn recipe with everyone. I honestly don't usually measure or even keep track of what I put in my recipes most of the time, so this is somewhat estimated. I do believe that cooking should be fun and you should adjust things according to your own taste, which is definitely what I always do. It usually turns out great unless it involves baking, which should have slightly more science than creativity.

Anyways, one of my favorite fall meals is chili! So here is a recipe for chili that I made recently. I was craving chili and decided to make some even though I didn't have all of the ingredients that I usually use. I was happy with the outcome and hope that you will be too! Please feel free to mix things up and let us know what you think of the recipe :)

1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 can of kidney beans, rinsed
1 can of pink beans, rinsed
1/3 cup of sliced sun-dried tomatoes
1/3 cup of TVP
1 cup or more of water
1 tablespoon of chopped scallions
1/2 teaspoon of dill
2 tablespoons of amino acids
2 tablespoons of red wine
1 cup of cooked quinoa

Heat a large pot on medium-high. Add about half an inch of water to the pot along with the carrots and scallions. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the TVP, aminos and dill. Add some more water if needed. There should still be some moisture, so as to avoid anything sticking to the bottom of the pot. Stir in the wine and let cook on medium heat for about five minutes. Be sure to stir and add small amounts of water if necessary. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, quinoa & beans. Cook on low to medium heat for another 10 minutes. Serve hot with your choice of toppings! We enjoyed ours with avocado, Daiya Havarti, and vegan sour cream.

Enjoy and let us know what you think if you get a chance to try out the recipe! We hope to add some more recipes soon including our classic chili recipe and some tasty quinoa burgers that we had last night!

Nicole

Engagement Spot

So, I had no idea where I was going to propose at but once we were at The Rock of Dunamase I knew that it was the spot. We didn't realize until after we got back to Connecticut that our engagement spot was in the movie Leap Year. Not a bad movie, but seeing the spot in person made us much more appreciative of the actual area. While you see the video, you will see some Celtic crosses (not there in real life), there is a second level to the strucutre (not really there in real life), a train station (not there at all), and a lake (that's really just countryside fields and not a lake).

Past Months...

It has been a long time since we have posted anything - far too long. We have been cooking and traveling and eating a lot of food... too much food. In the time that it has been since we last posted we celebrated my birthday and Nicole's birthday. Both of which we spent in Rhode Island finding vegan treats along the way. It is definitely not the last time that we will be going there and enjoying tasty food. Another exciting thing that transpired was our trip to Ireland (in April). While there we visited the Rock of Dunamse.

And we got engaged! Up until this point I was not sure where I was going to propose at. I was carrying the ring around with me while we traversed Dublin and took sunrise walk in a cemetery. Once we were here though I knew that it was the right spot. We walked all the way up to the top and saw magnificent views of the countryside. It was a very special and very exciting day. I was glad to have this trip with my future wife and am excited for many more.

Hopefully we will be a little more active in the coming months with posts and news wedding goings on.

Cauliflower Puree and Steaks

 Tonight we decided to put a little more effort into dinner than we usually do. We made cauliflower steaks with a cauliflower puree and purple mashed potatoes. This was a surprisingly filling and delicious dinner. The cauliflower puree wasn't completely smooth but it had a great texture to it. As for the potatoes, who doesn't love naturally colored produce? The potatoes came out a nice deep blueish-purple, and when lemon juice is added to the top it becomes a vibrant pink. (Picture to come).

Ingredients

1 large head of cauliflower

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ cup original almond milk

2 ounces pepper-jack shredded Daiya cheese

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.     Remove any excess lower leaves from the head of the cauliflower and cut in half.

3.     Cut about ¾ of an inch slices of cauliflower from each half of the head. We were able to get two cauliflower steaks out of one head.

4.     In a pan on medium heat add 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Cook each steak for about 3 minutes on each side and place on a baking sheet.

5.      Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until fork tender, flipping after about 10 minutes.

6.     Cover the top of the steaks with Nutritional Yeast Flake and Avocado sauce and set oven to broil. Leave in oven until the edges of the cauliflower are golden brown.

7.     While the cauliflower is baking, cut the remainder of the head into smaller pieces and boil until tender.

8.     Strain the cauliflower and add to a food processor.

9.     Add ½ cup original almond milk and blend together until smooth.

10.  Transfer to a bowl and stir in 2 ounces of pepper-jack Daiya (or more if you wish) and 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes.

Nutritional Yeast Flake and Avocado Sauce

Ingredients

1 avocado

¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes

2 tablespoons maple barbeque sauce

1 teaspoons hot sauce

1 teaspoons liquid aminos

½ cup water

1.     Slice avocado in half, remove seed and cube the fruit of the avocado.

2.     Add all ingredients to a food processor (if your avocado is ripe enough like ours was you could just use a blender bottle that you would normally make a protein shake in). Blend or shake your mixture until you have a smooth consistency and enjoy.

Purple Mashed Potatoes

1 pound purple fingerling potatoes

2 tablespoons vegan butter

½ cup original almond milk

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1.     Boil potatoes until tender.

2.     Drain potatoes and mash with a potato masher.

3.     Add butter and continue mashing while potatoes are still warm.

4.     Stir in almond milk and salt.

5.     This step is optional, but after you have plated your mashed potatoes you can add some lemon juice to the top. This not only adds a surprising flavor, but it also changes the purple color to a vibrant pink.

Vegan cheesy cookies

Vegan cheesy cookies

1 cup white beans
1 cup corn meal
1 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon chipotle
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together.

Roll the mixture into little balls, about half inch balls would be great. Place on to a non-stick cookie sheet, flatten slightly, and bake for 10 minutes. The dough should yield about 36 cookies depending on the size.

Let cool for a few minutes and ten enjoy!

Three Tier Salted Caramel Chocolate Crunch Cake

Thank You Made Just Right! We were one of the Bake-Off Special Prize Winners. Check it out, and here's the recipe:

This cake is a little complicated, but so tasty. This delicious three-tiered vegan cake can cure your salty and sweet cravings at the same time! The caramel sauce is very sugary, and I think that the pretzels are the perfect little extra touch. I love peanut butter so this features a chocolate peanut butter frosting. Enjoy. : ) A note with the ingredients: Apple cider vinegar is the last ingredient for the actual cake batter. The next two ingredients are used to lightly coat the pans. The next five (sugar through coconut milk) are for the caramel mixture. The remaining ingredients, excluding the pretzels, are for the frosting. I chilled my cakes overnight in the fridge, but that's mainly because I made them late at night. You should let them cool about 30-60 min, but they work well when cooled overnight too. There was some extra caramel sauce which you can use on the individual pieces of cake, or you can halve the caramel recipe if you aren't too big on sugar. I used three different sized round pans(9, 6, and 4 inches), but you could always change that if you don't want to do three tiers.


Ingredients

• 4 cups Flour (I used whole wheat, but feel free to use all-purpose)

• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 1/2 cups cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1/2 cup Melted Earth Balance Buttery stick

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 2 1/2 cups sugar

• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 1/4 cups water

• 1 cup Earth Balance soy milk

• 1 teaspoon flaxseeds

• 2 teaspoons Apple cider vinegar

• 1 dash Cooking spray

• 3 pinches Flour for dusting the pans

• 2 cups sugar

• 1/3 cup water

• 5 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 6 tablespoons Earth Balance buttery stick

• 2/3 cup coconut milk

• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 tablespoons coconut milk

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance soy milk

• 1 1/2 cups fresh ground chocolate peanut butter

• 1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery stick

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Earth Balance shortening

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• 2 dozen pretzels

Directions

1. To prepare the cake, 1. In a large mixing bowl add the dry ingredients (4 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 ½ cup cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cardamom, and1 teaspoon salt) and stir to combine.
2. In a second mixing bowl add the wet ingredients (½ cup olive oil, ½ cup melted Earth, Balance Buttery Stick, ½ cup maple syrup, 2 ½ cups sugar, 4 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 ¼ cups water, 1 cup Earth Balance Soy Milk, 1 teaspoon ground flax seeds, 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar) together and mix well with a spatula until they are combined.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together.
4. Spray cooking pans with cooking spray and flour pans (we used three sizes: one 9 inch, one 6 inch pan and one 4 inch.
5. Add batter to pans so each pan is about half to two thirds full.
6. Bake at 350 degrees. The 4 inch cake will take 24 minutes. The 6 inch cake will take 30 minutes. The 9 inch cake will take 35. You can always check your cakes before these times, and they will be done when you can stick a fork or knife through and there is no uncooked batter.
7. Let the cakes cool completely before assembling.
8. Now for the caramel sauce: Heat a heavy sauce pan on medium heat.
9. Add 2 cups of sugar, 1/3 cup water and 5 teaspoons of vanilla extract to pan and stir continuously with a whisk.
10. Once the sugar has melted and has begun to boil, stir vigorously for about 2 minutes.
11. Add 6 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Stick and continue to stir vigorously until melted.
12. Allow mixture to return to a boil stirring occasionally, then stir vigorously for two minutes while the mixture is boiling.
13. Add 1/3 cup coconut milk to mixture while stirring.
14. Continue stirring until mixture returns to a boil and add the second 1/3 cup.
15. Stir for 5 minutes while mixture boils and then remove from heat.
16. Transfer mixture into a glass or metal pan and refrigerate for 20 minutes. **Wash all cooking utensils immediately**
17. After you've washed your pan and utensils that you cooked the caramel in, it is time to start the frosting. Cream the 1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery stick and 1 1/2 tbs shortening together with a hand mixer or standing mixer on medium speed.
18. Add 1 1/2 cup chocolate peanut butter and thoroughly mix with shortening and butter. Add 3 teaspoons vanilla and mix for about 20 seconds.
19. Add the powdered sugar and mix until combined, about 3-5 minutes.
20. Add the 1/2 cup Earth Balance soy milk and 3 tablespoons coconut milk and mix until combined, about 3 minutes,
21. Crush pretzels and set aside.
22. Now comes the time to assemble the cake! Make sure that the cakes are cool enough to work with. Place the 9-inch cake on a plate, top down. Add a scoop of caramel in the middle of the cake. Place the 6-inch cake on top of the caramel. Add a scoop of caramel to the middle of the new layer. Place the 4-inch cake on top of the caramel.
23. Frost the outside of the cake once to seal in the crumbs. Refrigerate for 5 minutes and frost again.
24. Add the crushed pretzels to the cake.
25. Drizzle caramel on top and sides of the cake – there will be extra caramel which you can serve to your guests just in case they don’t have enough caramel on their piece, before serving microwave the caramel just until melted).
26. Place two pretzels on top of cake for decoration. Serve and enjoy!