Vegan General Tso’s Chickn

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup House of Tsang General Tsao Sauce*
• 1/2 bag of frozen Quorn Chickn Strips/pieces
• 1 head of fresh broccoli
• cooked brown rice

How I did it:
In a large pan, on medium-high heat, cook carrot in 1 tsp sesame oil and a splash of water, for 3 minutes. Add onion and red pepper and cook for 3 more minutes. Add frozen Quorn Chickn pieces and General Tsao Sauce.  Everything should be coated, but not drenched. Cover and simmer on low for 10 minutes. In a separate pot, steam broccoli until tender (3-5 minutes). Toss cooked broccoli in mixture and serve over brown rice.

*If you can find a better brand, go for it. This was the first sauce that I found that was totally vegan. It’s definitely not something that I will eat frequently though. One of it’s main ingredients is high-fructose corn syrup and it’s lacking nutrients – but it does taste as if you got take-out, which helped fill my void. Portland needs more veg-friendly Chinese restaurants!

Black Bean soup & home-baked chips

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 4  cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups cooked black beans
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 cup fresh salsa
• 1 tsp salt
• Garnishes: sour cream, shredded cheese, fresh chopped cilantro, avocado, black olives, lime, green onions, corn tortilla chips, fav hot sauce

Throw it together:
In a large pot, cook onion in heated vegetable oil on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 3 more minutes. Add vegetable broth, diced tomatoes (include juice from can), black beans, liquid smoke, salt and cumin and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove 3 cups of soup mixture and puree in food processor until smooth. Return puree to pot, add a cup or 2 of water (depending on how thick a soup you prefer). Add salsa and frozen corn. Cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes.

Dish soup into bowls, leaving just enough room to add garnishes. Enjoy!

Home-baked Corn Tortilla chips
I hate store-bought tortilla chips. They are always crumbled, can’t hold up to dipping or soaking and lack any nutrients. SO – I get a stack of corn tortillas, cut, season and bake myself. I save about $3, a bunch of calories, and the chips don’t get soggy and fall apart in my soup…
1 oz of store-bought soggy chips: 7+ grams of fat, 141+ calories
1 oz of home-baked crunchy chips: 1 gram of fat, 100 calories

Cut tortillas

Season & bake at 350° for 10 minutes on each side.

Baked and ready for eatin'. Store in a air-tight container for up to a week.

Simple & light: Salad, cheese and bread

I’ve rediscovered how good cheese can be. Smoked Gouda and creamy Brie… I just can’t seem to get enough! A big nutritious salad, couple slices of fresh olive ciabatta bread and some cheese – pure gold in my opinion.

Another good accompaniment to bread, cheese and salad? White bean dip and roasted red peppers. Simple, quick and easy – just the way I like it.

*White bean dip: 4 cups of cooked white beans, puree in processor with 2 garlic cloves, 1tsp onion powder, 1tsp paprika, juice from 1 lemon. Season with salt.

Insanely Easy Dinner: Butternut massuman curry noodles

We made a dish the other night that only called for half of a squash, so the other half sat in our fridge and I couldn’t decide how to use it. After a long day, it was time for dinner and I was exhausted. Curry is quick to make, so it’s usually my go-to meal when I’m low on energy.  Asian markets have tubs of already made curry pastes for pretty darn cheap. If you’re vegan, make sure to check the ingredients list – a lot of pastes have fish oil or shrimp paste added in. I usually always have yellow, green, red and massuman curry pastes in the fridge, ready and willing for a night like this.

The butternut squash adds so much more creaminess to this dish, it’s like eating pure velvet nomminess. I was very surprised how amazing this dish was – especially since it seriously took 10 minutes to make, with little prep needed.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2  pre-baked* butternut squash
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 tbsp massuman curry paste
• 1/4 raw cashews, soaked in hot water for 5+ minutes
• rice noodles

How-to:
Prepare noodles according to package. Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

In a large pan, heat sesame oil on medium-low heat and add onion and carrot, cook for 4 minutes. Add drained cashews and cook for another 3 minutes.  Add coconut milk, squash and curry paste. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add a splash of water if you like it a little more liquidy. Serve over rice noodles.

*If you don’t have a butternut squash that’s already baked, slice squash in half, put open sides down on a cookie sheet, add 1/4 cup or so of water and bake until tender (375° for 40+ min).

Salads o’ plenty

I work downtown Portland, blocks from any kind of food cart and delish dish that I can dream up. On any given day, I can have a veggie burger, falafel, pho soup, spicy curry, yakisoba, veg burrito, spanakopita, bento, chili mac burrito or homemade southern cookin’ delights. Seriously, a veggie “mecca” is a small word for my lunch options. It’s a delightful convenience, but also it wears down on my wallet and adds to the growing waistline.

In an attempt to be more aware of my calorie intake, I started getting salads at a local salad buffet that weighs by the pound… and was finding myself spending on average $8 on a big salad. That adds up quick! SO – I started bringing groceries to work on Mondays. I store salad fixin’s in the fridges and make myself a super cheap and amazing salad everyday. It’s been a refreshing change and has been helping me save my $$.

One large salad a day now costs me maybe $3 dollars and keeps me full up until dinner time. Here’s some photos of my awesome lunches:

Baby mixed greens & sour dough bread

"Dirty' Mexi Millet & black beans with sweet peppers and salad

Mushroom salad w/ baby mixed greens

Tofu salad with olive ciabatta bread

Bean and rice burrito with fruit salsa and salad

Thai salad w/ noodles

xo-mb

Tofullo Wings

Yesterday was a beautiful winter day here in Portland. It was so sunny I was able to eat my lunch out on the 16th floor balcony at my work. I made some super easy tofullo wings this weekend and they’ve proven to be a great side to my salad routine.

I’ve made these a couple times, the recipe I’ve used call for a load of earth balance veg butter, but this time I went without it. I didn’t notice the difference really – the other ones were a tad bit creamier with the butter, but it wasn’t that big of a deal and moving forward, I’ll continue to leave out the extra calories.

Cut firm tofu into 1/2 inch thick pieces, use cookie cutters for fun shapes, or go easy like me and cut triangles. Toss a couple pieces at a time in a medium sized bowl of nutritional yeast (I’ve found the powder kind works best). Spread out pieces on a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. In the same medium sized bowl, mix together Frank’s Red Hot sauce* and more nutritional yeast so it’s about the consistency of thick yogurt. Not runny or clumpy. Once the tofu is baked, add to the bowl of hot sauce mixture. Toss till every piece is covered. The end!

*I’d suggest only using Franks hot sauce. I’ve used a couple other sauces before and you can’t get the wings flavor without Franks.

These are pretty spicy, so pair with celery, carrot sticks and ranch. Makes for a great combo with a big salad!

xo-♥-mb

Lunch on a budget: 10 Burritos for under $10

Got ten bucks in your pocket? Go get some of these ingredients and make yourself lunch for the rest of the week. I can grab a frozen burrito before I leave for the day, let it thaw at my desk while i work, zap it in the microwave at lunch and scarf it down with a happy conscience. It tastes better than the bland individual wrapped frozen burritos at the store – and it’s a quarter of the price.

Generally the main ingredients are things from my pantry and fridge. This go-around was bulk black beans and brown rice, yellow onion, cheddar cheese, frozen corn, can o’ tomatoes, liquid smoke, cumin, salt and some hot sauce. Mix it all in a big bowl, plunk some in a flour tortilla, roll it up in some foil and freeze till you’re ready to eat it.

xo-♥-mb

 

Vegan & Gluten-free: flat-bread pizza

This flat-bread recipe was from a gluten-free friend. I tried it out and had some erroneous nasty happenings, then tweaked it a little more and I believe it’s finally ready to share! Huzzah for trial and error!

Vegan cheese, tomato, mushroom, fresh basil & onion with herb tomato paste pizza.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup garbanzo flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
Heat oven at 420 degrees. Put a 9″ pie pan in oven while it’s warming. Combine ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth – batter will be a bit runny. Carefully take the pie pan out of the oven, using a paper towel, wipe veg shortening or oil to grease pan. Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 15 minutes. Using a flat spatula, gently flip bread over to brown other side, bake for 5 more minutes. Remove pan and transfer flat bread to cookie sheet.

If using for pizza crust: Add pizza sauce and toppings. Bake for 7-10 minutes.

At first I just used a cookie sheet, but I was having a problem with the crust remaining goopy in the middle and dry on the edges. I ended up using a pie plate and it worked great! Plus it’s a perfect size for a pizza for 2. There’s something pleasing about a homemade perfect circle pizza.

This is probably the easiest pizza crust I’ve ever made. And the cheapest. 5 ingredients? Ya gotta love that.

Zucchini, orange pepper, mushroom, olives and tomatoes with cashew pesto.

 

 

 

Green juice!

I watched “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” this weekend and was inspired to bring out the juicer that was hiding down in the basement. Basically, the movie talks about food allergies and toxins we can build up in our bodies, resulting in fatigue, obesity, joint-pains, constipation, migraines and depression. Sound familiar? These are also symptoms of gluten allergies. While I’m not on board to do a 6week juice only detox, I’m inspired to have fresh veggie juice at least once a day.

I just throw in what I have laying around in the fridge. This ones compiled of:

• 3 apples
• 3 celery stalks
• 10 kale leaves
• 1 pear
• 3 carrots
• 1 lemon

Other recipe ideas and plans can be found on the show’s website: Join the Reboot

I have one of these bad boys before work and it tides me over till about 11 or so. I have a handful of almonds and then eat lunch about 1pm. Another added bonus – I don’t care for coffee when I awake to one of these.

Vegan & Gluten free: Tofu salad rolls and peanut sauce

My latest obsession? Salad rolls. Once I got the hang of the weird rice wrappers, it was pretty simple to make these. Extra bonus – they make great compact lunches and last a couple days in the fridge depending on what veggies you put in them. These have 2 wrappers per roll filled with rice noodles, zucchini, red onion, carrot strips, squash, cooked tofu & red leaf lettuce. There’s a ton of recipes for peanut sauce. I basically just scooped some peanut butter in a bowl, added a couple tablespoons of warmish water, a splash of tamari sauce, a tsp of rice vinegar & sri racha to taste.