Posts Tagged ‘vegan’

It’s Spring! Beers, BBQing and Blueberry Pie

March 20th 2010 Posted at Recipes, Uncategorized
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Spring has finally sprung and that means BBQing, hiking, camping and lots of SUN! Last night was such a beautiful night we couldn’t pass up doing our 3.25 mile hike/walk at Hubbard Park. After that we came back for some BBQing and beers. I decided to prep our meal ahead of time so that when we got back from our hike/walk we could get right to grilling and I wouldn’t be in the kitchen getting things ready while Neil was out doing the manly grilling. We stood around and grilled up some yummy skewers of mushrooms and peppers, onion and sweet potato rounds and some Korean BBQ marinated tempeh. I love smelling like smoke after grilling on our charcoal grill….oh dreaming of camping.

We had a little Ezekiel Pita Bread on the side to catch all the yummy sauce drippings and a nice cold glass To Unibroue Trios Pistoles-SO GOOD! To end our yummy meal we shared a piece of Blueberry Crumble Pie

Blueberry Crumble Pie

You will need a whole wheat or spelt pie crust for this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350F

Filling:

3 cups frozen blueberries
1 T lemon juice
1 T arrowroot (you can also use cornstarch)
2 T palm sugar (you could also use sucant)
pinch of cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a medium pot over medium heat and cook until bubbly. The pour into a prepared whole wheat pie crust.

Topping:

1/4 cup almond meal (you could use flour)
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 T brown sugar
2 T vegan shortening

Using your fingers mix all of this together until it is crumbly. Then sprinkle over the blueberry filling. Place the pie in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Set to the side and let cool. While it is cooling make the Lemon Glaze.

Lemon Glaze:

2 Cups powdered Sugar
1 T lemon juice
1 t vanilla
2 T soy milk

Drizzle this on top of the cooled Blueberry Crumble Pie, save any remaining glaze to drizzle over slices when serving.

Product Review: Eden Organic Wild Berry Mix

March 17th 2010 Posted at review
2 Comments

Eden Organic gave me the opportunity to try one of their products and I chose the WIld Berry Mix. This Wild Berry Snack Mix has no added salt and is filed with organically grown roasted almonds, roasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, dried wild blueberries and dried cranberries.

This snack mix was delicious and I’m sad I don’t have more (I guess I’ll have to go to the store and find some). I ate this for dessert some nights with some mini vegan chocolate chips to it to make a yummy dessert. This would also be a great snack for hubz and I to bring hiking with us this summer. It is filled with protein and fiber and has a nice bit of sweetness.

Disclaimer: Eden Organic provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Product Review: Artisana Raw Organic Nut Butters

March 17th 2010 Posted at review
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Artisana Raw Organic Nut Butters sent me some teasers of their amazing raw nut butters. These cute little jars had one serving of nut butter in them just enough to get a taste and leave you wanting more. These handmade and raw gourmet nut butters are a great treat. Although they are expensive they are amazing and worth the money as an occasional treat. My absolute favorite of all the samples was the cashew butter; it was amazingly creamy, silky and smooth. The cashew butter was closely followed by the luscious macadamia cashew butter. Of course all the others were tasty too.

Disclaimer: Artisana provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Recipe: “Sausage” Stuffed Mushrooms

March 14th 2010 Posted at Recipes
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“Sausage” Stuffed Mushrooms

These mushrooms make a great appetizer for any dinner or cocktail party. You can make the stuffing ahead of time and fill mushrooms and bake before your guest arrive. The stuffing would also be delicious in zucchini boats and stuffed squash. You could also stuff portobello mushrooms and serve with your favorite sides as an entree.

: Makes 4-6 Servings

Ingredients:

16 white mushrooms
5 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
2 1/2 tablespoons Marsala wine (you could also use sherry or vegetable broth)
1 vegan Italian Sausage (I used Field Roast), minced
6 scallions, minced
2 garlic cloves minced
2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
4 tablespoons of vegan cream cheese
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them finely. Set aside. Place the mushroom caps in a shallow bowl and toss with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and Marsala. Set aside.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, mushroom stems, garlic and green onions cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the panko crumbs, stirring to combine evenly with all the other ingredients.
Turn the heat off and stir in the cream cheese until it has melted and made the sausage mixture creamy.
Place in a medium bowl and stir in the nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Cool slightly.
Fill each mushroom generously with the sausage mixture. Arrange the mushrooms in a baking dish large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a snug single layer.
Bake until the stuffing for 50 minutes, until the stuffing is browned and crusty.

Product Review: HURRAW! Lip Balm

March 8th 2010 Posted at review
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I recently posted a review for Crazy Rumors vegan lip balm. I have found another great vegan lip balm, HURRAW! a great all natural, vegan and made from premium raw and fair trade ingredients. One thing that I love about this lip balm is the shape, it’s oval versus round which helps to coat the lips better. I loved the Cinnamon Tinted Lip Balm; it was a great flavor and gave my lips a nice pink tint. My hubby loved the Vanilla Bean Lip Balm and he was also a big fan of this stuff. It’s great to find not only a vegan but also raw lip balm. I would definitely recommend these to any raw foodist or vegan looking for a new lip balm.

Disclaimer: HURRAW! provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Recipe Post: "Fried" Veggies

March 5th 2010 Posted at Recipes, Uncategorized
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My husband and I are headed to Boston this weekend for a leisurely weekend away and I had a bunch of produce to use up. This morning I decided since I was going to be out of the house all day that it would be good to get something prepped for dinner ahead of time. We have been trying to eat high raw now that our winter CSA is over and we don’t have ridiculous amounts of rutabaga and turnip to use every week. This recipe is almost raw with the exception of the nutritional yeast which gives it a yummy cheesy flavor.

Ingredients (makes 2 large portions or 4 sides):

2 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
8oz button mushrooms, cut in half (you can also try baby bella or portobello if you’d like)
1 red bell pepper, chopped into medium sized chunks
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (if you want to make this totally raw you can omit this ingredient)
1/4 cup cold pressed olive oil
3T lemon juice
1t onion powder
1t garlic powder
1/2t salt
1/4t black pepper

Directions:

Toss the veggies with the nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper; make sure everything is evenly coated.
Spread evenly onto mesh dehydrator sheets (I used 2 in my Nesco).
Dehydrate at 115F for 1-2 hours (this helps to reduce fermentation) then turn down to 105F for at least 10 hours but you could dehydrate these up to 24 hours if you want them really crispy.

Recipe: Skinny Blood Orange Margarita

February 23rd 2010 Posted at Recipes
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Skinny Blood Orange Margarita

Margaritas are generally filled with sugar and can be anywhere from 250-500 calories.

This recipe is great and only around 150 calories a serving so you can enjoy your margarita without the calorie guilt.

Ingredients: (makes 4-5 margaritas)

8oz silver tequila
splash of triple sec
1t agave nectar
3 limes, juice and zest
2 blood oranges, juice and zest
3-4 cups ice

Throw everything into the blender and blend to a slush.

Silly napkins my mom got us to go with our margarita glasses

Recipe: Vegan Lasagna with Red Pepper "Ricotta"

February 22nd 2010 Posted at Recipes
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Vegan Lasagna with Red Pepper “Ricotta”

Ingredients:

1/2 a box of no-boil lasagna (4 portions)
3.5 cups spaghetti sauce (homemade or jarred)
2T Nutritional Yeast
Red Pepper “Ricotta”
- 1 block of firm tofu, drained
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2t Italian seasoning
- 1t onion powder
- 1t garlic powder
- 1t salt
- 1/2t ground black pepper

Directions: Preheat the oven to 400F.

To make the ricotta: place everything in a food processor and process until crumbly/texture of ricotta. If the ricotta seems a little dry while processing you can add water a teaspoon at a time to loosen up the mixture.
To make the lasagna: in an 8×8 glass baking dish layer the lasagna starting with sauce, noodles, ricotta, sauce, noodles. You should have 4-6 layers and should end with sauce. Sprinkle with the nutritional yeast and cover with aluminum foil.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, or as the directions on the lasagna noodle box recommend.
Once out of the oven let the lasagna cool for 5-7 minutes. Then enjoy!

'SNice- Vegan Breakfast in NYC

February 18th 2010 Posted at Uncategorized, restaurants, resturant
3 Comments

This past weekend while we were visiting the Big Apple my hubby and I met up with some of my girlfriends for breakfast at ‘SNice in Chelsea. To our disappointment we were unable to get sandwiches (which all sounded amazing) until 11am and we were too hungry to wait an hour so we decided to start with some lattes. After sipping on our lattes for a while hubz and I decided to split the tofu scramble wrap which was not bad and pretty filling. The GF’s went with a bagel with cream cheese and the other granola with fruit, yogurt and honey.

Everything at ‘SNice is vegetarian and all vegan options are marked accordingly. The menu is mostly that of salads and sandwiches with bagels and breakfast sandwiches in the morning. The place was pretty quiet for the sit in crowd until around 11am however there was always a line at the counter for take out bagels and coffee. I really would like to return during lunch ours to try one of their yummy salads or sandwiches. There is also a location in Brooklyn which I understand has a similar menu.

Delicious Soy Latte

Tofu Scramble Wrap

Miya's Sushi- New Haven, CT

February 17th 2010 Posted at Uncategorized, restaurants, resturant
2 Comments

Friday night my husband and I had one of the most amazing meals of our lives. It was one of those meals that not only had amazing food but was topped off with the best service and experience at a restaurant that we have ever had. Prior to our trip away I had contacted Bun the owner of Miya’s Sushi about the vegan options as well as what was included in a vegan platter. He quickly responded back to me to give him to tell him how much we would like to spend and that he would put together a great vegan spread for us. Before we left he followed up on our reservation and told me to just let one of the guys know when we got there that we had a special vegan meal waiting for us. Much to our delight we were seated, ordered our drinks and then the food just started to come out. It was the best feeling to just sit down and not have to worry about what we were going to order and it was an exciting adventure to see what dish would be coming out next. Below are photos with descriptions of all of our dishes we had (we had 8 samples of vegan sushi rolls and I can’t remember what they all were):

sweet mother’s milk: a whole steamed artichoke served with our sauce made from spicy homemade middle eastern pureed jalapeno makdoos.

A vegan version of: tokyo fro- hip hop is the most popular music of japanese youth & has made the afro tokyo's most popular hairstyle; to have japanese hair processed into an afro costs over a thousand dollars at a trendy hair stylist. this recipe was inspired by the afro; it looks & tastes exactly like a japanese processed fro, drizzled with a delicious chef secret sauce.

Vegan version of Tokyo Fro: hip hop is the most popular music of japanese youth & has made the afro tokyo's most popular hairstyle; to have japanese hair processed into an afro costs over a thousand dollars at a trendy hair stylist. this recipe was inspired by the afro; it looks & tastes exactly like a japanese processed fro, drizzled with a delicious chef secret sauce.

Deep Fried Spinach

An assortment of amazing veggie sushi rolls - I think there were 8

A tasting of 8 vegan sushi rolls

Overall the food was amazing, the atmosphere was fun and the staff were great. Although Bun was not he created a magical experience for the two of us and I can’t wait to return for some more sushi.