Kale Pesto

1 small shallot

1 clove of garlic

1/8 cup slivered almonds

2 cups kale

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

8 fresh basil leaves

1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes

2 ounces Daiya Jack Wedge Style Cheese

1.     Dice the shallot and garlic and add to a dry heated pan on medium-high heat with the slivered almonds. Stir occasionally until the shallots are translucent.

2.     Add the 2 cups of kale and stir occasionally.

3.     Once kale has wilted remove pan from heat and add the almond milk.

4.     Add the mixture to a blender or food processor. Add the fresh basil and pulse until smooth.

5.     Add the mixture back to the pan and stir in the nutritional yeast flakes.

6.     Add the Daiya cheese and stir until melted.

Grape Tomato and Daiya Sauce

1 cup grape tomatoes

1 small shallot

1 clove of garlic

1/8 teaspoon liquid aminos

½ cup almond milk

2 ounces Diaya Jack Wedge Style Cheese

8 fresh basil leaves

1.     Dice shallots and garlic.

2.     Cut the grape tomatoes into quarters.

3.     Add the shallots and garlic to a dry preheated pan on medium heat. Stir occasionally until the shallots are translucent.

4.     Add the tomatoes to the pan and continue to stir occasionally.

5.     Add the liquid aminos when the tomatoes have softened.

6.     Add the almond milk to the pan and stir continuously for 3-5 minutes until the milk has thickened slightly.

7.     Add the Daiya cheese and stir until it has melted.

8.     Roll the fresh basil leaves together, cut into ribbons, and top the sauce. 

Zucchini and Summer Squash Noodles

We both love pasta, but wish that it were healthier. We decided to try making noodles out of squash. We used summer squash and zucchini to make our noodles and love the way they came out. 

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini
• 1 summer squash
• Pinch of salt
• Olive oil

1. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the zucchini and summer squash.
2. After peeling, use the peeler to create ribbons of squash by peeling one layer at a time. After each ribbon turn the squash a little bit, stopping when you reach the seeds.
3. Heat a pan to medium-high heat. Add just enough olive oil to coat the pan.
4. Season the squash noodles with a pinch of salt, and add half to the pan. Cook while stirring for 2 – 3 minutes until the squash is translucent and begins to bend easily. Then transfer the noodles to a serving platter.
5. Repeat step 4 for the remaining noodles.
6. Toss the noodles in sauce or add your favorite pasta toppings.

Vegan in Virginia

Hello,

We have been vacationing in Virginia for the past several days and would like to share our eating experiences. Our favorite eatery is one that we just discovered today, and would love to have them relocate to Connecticut. : )

We ate at Yorgo's Bageldashery in Norfolk, VA today. While it isn't completely vegan, there is a great variety of vegan options available. We ordered The Peterman- which includes tofu scramble, hash browns, vegan sausage and onion; a vegan meatball sub special- which included vegan meatballs, sauce, and Daiya cheese; and a chocolate gingerbread cookie.

Our lunch was so amazing that we ordered some more food to go for later. For dinner we ordered the vegan Buffalo Chicken which included chick'n strips, lettuce, tomato, onion, herb veganaise, and buffalo sauce; vegan Pulled BBQ Chicken with Gardein chicken, vegan slaw and BBQ sauce; vegan potato salad; and a soup of the day which was the vegan potato soup with Daiya and tempeh.

I would definitely recommend visiting this bageldashery if you are in this area in Virginia. It was very tasty and the environment was very friendly.

TVP "Sausage" Milk Gravy

I remember in 5^th, before I was a vegetarian, being on vacation with my parents and grand parents in Colorado. For breakfast we had homemade sausage gravy on top of biscuits. There’s not much more exciting in the morning than fresh warm biscuits right out of the oven. To then slather that with creamy sausage deliciousness is then even better. I remember those breakfasts as being some of the most delicious and recreating a vegan version to enjoy with Nicole is even better.

Using her biscuits and some TVP mixed into milk gravy is the makings of a great breakfast on a shared day off. This gravy is a little heartier as the TVP soaks up some of the milk, so if you wish to have creamier runny gravy you could use half as much TVP. This version we found to be nice for a cold winter morning.

• 1 heaping cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• ½ tablespoon dill
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 cups almond milk

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. In a small bowl combine TVP, Italian seasoning, dill, and black pepper.
3. Add 1 cup of boiling water and stir to combine. Set aside to absorb water.
4. Add butter to a pan or wide pot on medium heat.
5. Once butter is melted, whisk in flour and continue mixing for about one minute letting the flour and butter combination toast.
6. Add milk and continue whisking. Increase the heat to bring the mixture to a boil constantly whisking.
7. Reduce heat to medium and allow to simmer 5 minutes whisking occasionally.
8. Add TVP and mix to combine.

Nutty Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

While shopping at Target recently we noticed in the Christmas section we noticed something amazingly unhealthy. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – in a one-pound package. That’s an eight-ounce cup. Such an unhealthy snack but it sounds so delicious. We love chocolate and peanut butter but seeing such a large chunk of chocolate and peanut butter is a little sickening. But, it is still inspiring. We decided to make these nutty peanut butter bars with chocolate as a viable vegan choice. Yeah, it’s not really that much healthier, but when the mood strikes you just have to go with it sometimes (that happens a lot for us).

• ¾ cup walnuts
• ¾ cup cashews
• ½ cup almonds
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbs flour
• ¼ cup rolled oats
• 4 tbs vegan butter
• ¾ lb fresh ground peanut butter
• 12 oz vegan chocolate

1. In a food processor add all of the nuts, cinnamon, flour, oats, and 2 tablespoons of vegan butter and pulse until the nuts are chopped.
2. In a microwave safe dish heat the peanut butter so it is a little more workable. Stir the peanut butter every 30 seconds until warm and melted.
3. Add the chopped nut mixture to the peanut butter and stir to combine.
4. Line a square pan with foil and add the peanut butter mixture and smooth out across pan.
5. Melt chocolate with 2 tablespoons of butter. This can be done in a double boiler or in the microwave in a way similar to the peanut butter.
6. Pour the melted chocolate on top of the peanut butter and nut combination.
7. Let the peanut butter and chocolate cool in the refrigerator overnight before cutting into bars (as long as you don’t mind a slightly melted snack you can shorten the time a little bit, we are impatient people).

Simple Butternut Squash Soup

During the fall and winter nothing is better than a nice warm cup of soup; except maybe soup with seitan that has melted cheese all over it. We love this recipe because it is super simple and quick to make. Recently butternut squash was on sale for $0.49 per pound, so it was also really inexpensive to make.

• One medium sized butternut squash
• 6 cups of vegetable broth (ours was the leftover broth from a batch of seitan)
• 5 leaves of kale
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

1. Peel the butternut squash. We found the best method to be cutting off the top and bottom of the squash. Then you stand the squash up on a cutting board and just use a knife to cut away the skin. We don’t have any peelers that seem strong enough to take on a squash.
2. Cube the butternut squash and boil in a pot with the vegetable broth until fork tender.
3. Remove the butternut squash from pot and add to a food processor and pulse until pureed.
4. Add kale and pulse until mostly combined (we like big chunks of kale, if you don’t you could substitute for spinach, collards, chard, or just omit the greens altogether but they add a great flavor).
5. Add mixture back to the broth.
6. The soup should still be warm, but you can continue to warm the soup on medium heat.
7. Mix in nutritional yeast flakes and serve.