Day 84!

Hello all!

I have been so swarmed with work lately, its now bridal shower and baby shower season, and with Easter coming around the corner it has been absolutely insane!  I have been hording recipes like there is no tomorrow, I have a ton of soup recipes going on. Its funny, I have little scraps of paper all inside my wallet and purse with recipes and ideas I have jotted down everywhere...to bad I don't label them to find one recipe is like finding a needle in haystack!

Also, 84 days of being a vegan, this honestly has been one of the best choices I have ever made in my entire life.  I have been slowly losing weight little by little, I mean I also go the gym now, but just from taking cheeses, milk, etc.  from my diet it has made me healthy.


Today I am going to share with you two recipes.  First one is a vegan mushroom rosemary soup and than a peanut dressing.

Vegan Mushroom Rosemary Soup:
1 Cup Shitaki mushrooms-Sliced
1 Cup Crimini Mushrooms-Sliced
1 Cup Portobello Mushrooms-Sliced
1 Idaho Potato- Peeled and Diced
3 Sprigs of Rosemary
1 Can of good quality coconut milk
Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Get a pot of water boiling on the stove for the potatoes, salt the water.  Cook potatoes until 3/4 way done, drain, set aside.

In a separate pot on the stove, put on medium high.  Coat the bottom of the pan with oil, add the mushrooms and cook down for 15 minutes or so until tender.  Once the mushrooms are cooked,  add the coconut milk and the rosemary.  Let cook down for another 5 minutes, turning down to low and stirring so it does not burn.  Add the potatoes and cook 3 more minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Wicked easy to do.

Its so creamy and hearty.

This peanut dressing I made is a variation of a African peanut dressing, which is eaten on mainly cucumber and tomatoes, when I made a salad for it... I did use the cucumbers and tomatoes  but I added kale, bok choy and spinach to it.  You honestly can do whatever you want with it.  Also this recipe calls for peanut butter, you can use either home made or store bought,  I made homemade because mainly I had a useless amount of peanuts around.  I will also share with you how to make peanut butter after the recipe.  It is actually extremely easy, it does come out a bit thinner than a jar of peanut butter, but since you are making it for a dressing, it is actually a good thing.  So onto the recipe.

Vegan Peanut Dressing:

2 Tablespoons Corn Starch

1/2 Cup Cold water

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce - Less Sodium Preferably

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter - Homemade or Store Bought (If Store bought use the smooth kind)

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Fresh Chopped Cilantro

2 Tablespoon Peanut Oil

1 Cup Warm Water

Dissolve corn starch in the cold water, set aside.

Whisk together soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, white vinegar, peanut oil and the warm water in a pot over medium heat.  Simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Stir in corn starch into the mixture.  Simmer until the sauce thickens about 1 to 2 minutes.  Pull of heat, stir in the cilantro.  Let cool before use.

Beyond easy!  Okay so here's how to make home made peanut butter.

Peanut Dressing!

Homemade Vegan Peanut Butter:

1 Cup of raw uncooked peanuts (I actually shucked all my own peanuts, just because I had so many, but you can just buy some uncooked ones at the super market)

2 Tablespoons Peanut Oil

Put the peanuts on a baking pan and put in the oven at 350 for about 5-10 minutes, do keep an eye on these, they will burn pretty easy and every oven is different.  

Once they are roasted, you have to let them cool.  Once cooled down place into a food processor and turn on.  Slowly stream the peanut oil in, it will still be a bit chunky, do not fret!  At this point you are going to leave the food processor running for about 5 minutes.  You can not over process this, so if you walk away for a few minutes that is fine.  you want it to be wicked smooth, and if its a bit runny, that's perfectly fine!  

Let cool before you use to make dressing!

I wanted to take a moment to talk about this video that I was shown by my cousin who is a personal trainer/vegan.  This video was found from www.whitneysickler.com  she is a mostly raw vegan and has beautiful insights on veganism.  She is a nutritional coach. 

Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/es6U00LMmC4  

This video honestly, makes so unbelievably proud of being a vegan.

Super easy everything is to make!  Enjoy!  I will hopefully be sharing some more recipes with you all either tonight or tomorrow morning!

Namaste,

V

Day 61!

Hello!

I can not believe I have been a vegan for 61 days, it doesn't even feel like it.  Today I am going to be sharing with you a vegan pot pie recipe, vegan spring rolls, and tomato chutney!  I do really hope everyone is enjoying my recipes and maybe even making some of your own.  I would love to hear about it.

So anywho.

Vegan Pot Pie:

For the filling:

1 Sweet Potato, Peeled and Diced

1 Idaho Potato, Peeled and Diced

1 Serrano Peeper, Small Diced (Be careful not to touch your face or eyes while cutting!)

1 Carrot, Peeled and Diced

2 Stalks Celery, Peeled and Diced

1 Ear of Corn, with the corn taken off the cob

2 Sticks of Heart of Palm, Sliced

6 Marinated Mushrooms, Quartered (Can use uncooked, I just like the marinated

1 Onion, Peeled and Diced

1 Head of Broccoli, Taken Apart and Quartered

1/2 Cup Firm Tofu, Small Diced or Crumbled

2 Cups Almond Milk 

2 Tablespoons cornstarch in 1 Cup of Water

Salt and Pepper to taste

For the crust: (This is pretty much the same recipe as my pizza, I recycled the leftover dough!)

2 Cups Flour
1 Pinch Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Salt
1 Single Package Yeast

Pizza sauce of your choice (You can use the above recipe for sauce, that's what I used)

Preheat oven to 400.

Directions For Dough:
Place flour, sugar, vegetable oil, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl, stir with your hand just to incorporate everything.  Then add the water, mixing again with your hands, work the dough in the bowl moving around in the bowl for about 10-15 minutes, until the dough stops sticking to your hand.  You may need to add a bit more flour to it, just keep an eye on it.  After it is mixed and not sticking, let rise for 30 minutes, cover with a damp paper towel.

Once it is risen, punch down again and roll out to fit the bottom of a pie pan.  Roll out another section for the top crust of the pie.

Directions for Filling:

Get a pot of water, add sweet potato, Idaho potato, carrots. Bring to boil, salt the water.  Add onion and celery.  Add the broccoli near the end to cook, you want to cook everything about 3/4 of the way.  Strain.  Dice up the tofu, Serrano pepper, heart of palm, corn and mushrooms and put into a mixing bowl.  Add the just drained items to the mixing bowl as well.  Get a large sauce pot on the stove add the almond milk, bring up to boil.  Whisking in the cornstarch when hot, whisk for about 30 seconds.  Toss the vegetable mixture in the sauce.   

Once the crust is placed in the bottom of the pie pan, add your filling and then cover with the top crust dough.  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 400.  Check on the pie periodically, every oven is different   Serve hot.

So amazing!  Enjoy!

I have found myself cooking a lot of food lately Asian inspired.  So here is the Vegan Spring Roll recipe.

Vegan Spring Rolls:

1 Package Spring Roll Wrappers

1 Red Pepper

1 Yellow Pepper

8 Shitaki Mushroom

3 Scallions

1 Zucchini

1 Red Cabbage

1 Cup Soy Sauce

1/3 Cup Sesame Oil

1/2 Cup Seasoned Rice Vinegar

Vegetable oil to coat pan

Flour/water mixture (About 1 Cup Total, just used to brush the spring roll wrapper with)

Oil to fry the spring rolls in.

Take out a mandolin.  If you do not have one just julienne (about the size of a match stick) the vegetables.  Julienne the red pepper, yellow pepper, zucchini.  I took out a cheese grater and grated about 1 cup of the red cabbage.  Julienne the shitaki mushroom.  Thin slice the scallions.

In a pot on the stove add a layer of vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan on medium heat add the red pepper, yellow pepper, shitaki mushrooms, scallions, red cabbage and zucchini.  Cook for 3 minutes until soft.  Add to the pan soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.  Cook for another minute until the mixture has not to much liquid left.

Place the spring roll wrapper down in front of you with a point facing you.  Get a flour/water mixture going doesn't have to be a lot, and brush all the spring roll with it.  Place a small amount of the mixture down onto the spring roll, and roll them nice and tight.  Remember practice makes perfect.

Get a pot of oil on the stove to fry them with a total of 2-3 minutes.

Serve hot and with sweet chili sauce!

So I am also going to share with you a tomato chutney recipe.  A Chutney is of Indian origin

For some reason I could not place the picture at the bottom of the recipe, so here it is at the top! Here is the definition for chutney I found google. "A spicy condiment made of fruits or vegetables with vinegar, spices, and sugar, originating in India." Well I find that this chutney I made is more of a relish, I used it as a topping on the veggie burger I shared with you on my last post.  This can be served on virtually anything.  It would be really nice during the summer on a veggie burger. Vegan Tomato Chutney: 1/2 Can Kitchen Ready Peeled Tomato 1 Large Onion, Diced 1 Red Pepper, Diced 1 Yellow Pepper, Diced Zest of 1 Lemon 1/2 Cup Sugar in the raw 1/2 Cup White Vinegar 1 1/2 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds 1/2 Teaspoon Celery Seeds 1/2 Teaspoon Salt 1/4 Teaspoon Chili Powder 1/4 Teaspoon Coriander 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper 1/4 Teaspoon Dried Anaheim Pepper (Omit if you do not have.  I just had on hand.) 1 Teaspoon Cumin Oil to coat pot On a pot on the stove get the oil hot about medium-high heat.  Add the onions, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes, lemon zest.  Cook down for about 10 minutes, when stirring the mixture kind of chop up the tomatoes.  While that is cooking get all your spices together in a bowl.  Add the sugar to the spice mixture.  Add to the pot the sugar/spice mixture and the white vinegar.  Cook for another 5 minutes, until it has the look of a relish.  So easy to make.  Let it cool before serving. That is all for today and for next time I had a peanut dressing, great for salads! Namaste, V