Posts tagged Recipes

I’m Back!!!

September 20, 2011 · Filed under Me, Recipes, Vegan Life · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Yeah I know, it’s been a while.  I’m not going to pretend I have some really great excuse for being gone for such a long time.  The truth is I was busy (did I say was?).  My already limited amount of free time has recently been tread upon by training for the Chicago marathon.  For the last few months, any “extra” time was squandered on such frivolous luxuries as bathing, eating and sleeping.

I did try to use a little of  my time away to learn a bit more about this new lifestyle I have adopted.  Over the past three months I have experimented with new recipes, watched some very interesting documentaries and read up on the nitty gritty and important details of vegan diets.  Though I know I am far from knowing everything I need to, I feel like I have gained some very important knowledge about how to live a life based around a whole foods plant based diet while still meeting my nutritional needs as well as fueling my marathon training.

Going forward, I really don’t see any opportunity for my schedule to allow me any extra time… so I will just have to make time! I plan on making some changes to the site as well, I have a few things in mind, including making the recipes I use available to print (you’re welcome Jennifer!).

For now… I will leave you with the delicious soup I made for lunch today!

Creamy goodness!

Ingredients:

1/2lb Dry Lentils
3 Cups Veggie Broth
2 Medium Onions, Chopped
6 Cloves Of Garlic, Chopped
3 Stalks Of Celery, Chopped
2Tbs Olive Oil
1tsp Salt
1/2tsp Ground Cumin
1/2tsp Ground Tumeric
1/2tsp Ground Coriander
1/4tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4tsp Ground Mustard
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

Directions:

1.  In a medium sized pot, bring the veggie broth to a boil.  Rinse the lentils and add them to the pot.  Reduce heat to a low boil, cover. Meanwhile heat olive oil in a large pan.  Add the chopped onions, celery, and garlic to the oil and cook until onion becomes translucent (about 3 minutes).  Add the mix to the pot of lentils.

2.  Add all spices to the pot and cook all ingredients together, covered for 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally to keep the soup from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

3.  Once the soup is done cooking, use a stick blender to  blend everything together.  If you don’t have a stick blender, transfer the soup in batches to a regular blender or food processor.  Once everything is thoroughly blended, stir in lemon juice.

4.  Serve hot and enjoy!

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Amazing No-Bakes

June 16, 2011 · Filed under Recipes · Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Occasionally I have a sweet tooth.  It’s not too often that I get a craving for chocolate or sugary items, but last night was one of those occasions.  After a great curry dinner, I needed something soothing to put out the fire.  I didn’t want to spend the entire night making something, so I did what I usually do, I found something quick, easy and delicious.

Growing up, my mom made no-bake cookies often.  She detested cooking and to this day tries to avoid recipes with more than 5 ingredients.  No-bakes were an easy treat that were fun to make and we always got to help.  I was excited to try the veganized version of one of my childhood favorites and I am happy to report that this recipe will be appreciated by vegans, vegetarians and carnivores alike!

No-Bake Cookies

Ingredients

1/4 Cup vegetable oil

1/2 Cup soy milk

4 Tablespoons cocoa

2 Cups sugar

1/2 Cup peanut butter

3 Cups oatmeal

Directions

1. Mix the oil, soy milk, cocoa and sugar together in a large pan and place over low heat

2. After a while, the mixture should start to bubble, let it do so for 3 minutes and then stir in the peanut butter until is melts, once it has completely dissolved, turn off the heat and add the oatmeal

3. Scoop the cookie mixture (best to use two largish sized spoons) onto wax paper and allow to dry

That’s it!  Could it get any easier?  Trust me when I say that this one is worth a try, but be sure you have friends around or you are in danger of eating them all!

 

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Orange Chicken Style Tofu

June 14, 2011 · Filed under Recipes · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Has it really been that long?  Sorry guys!  Didn’t mean to leave you for such an extended amount of time.  Life just got away from me a little (as it tends to do so often!).  Anyways, in honor of busy schedules everywhere, I have decided to share with you my favorite recipe of all time.  Originally, I found it on Vegweb.com (of course!) and I am so glad I did!  I have been making it for a long time now, tweaking it every now and then when I need to, and I consider it to be the ultimate “fall back” meal in my house on those nights that I am too tired, too pressed for time or simply too lazy to cook anything else.

Now I know it seems like a MASSIVE list of ingredients, but if you read through, you will see that the majority of them are small amounts of sauces that you most likely have in your fridge.  In reality, it usually takes me less than 15 mins to make this meal all together.  Give it a try!  You’ll be glad you did!

Orange Chicken Style Tofu

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 Pound extra firm tofu, pressed and chopped(this is where you can vary it if you need to.  Don’t have tofu?  How about Tempeh or Seitan?)

2 Garlic cloves, minced (you all know my love of garlic, I usually use 3)

2 Green onions, chopped

1/4 Cup + 1 Tablespoon water

1 Tablespoon orange juice

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 1/2 Tablespoons vinegar (I use white rice vinegar)

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 Cup packed brown sugar

1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes (I NEVER use that much, but seeing as how I can barely chew cinnamon gum, you might have a higher threshold for spice than I do)

2 Teaspoons cornstarch

1 Tablespoon water

Cooked rice and stir fry veggies already heated

Directions:

1.  Fry the tofu on low/medium heat in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small frying pan

This time I used Seitan

2.  In another small frying pan, saute the garlic and green onion in the remaining oil until garlic starts to turn brown (if it is done before the tofu, don’t worry, just turn the heat off and it will get heated up later).

3.  In a small bowl or glass dish mix together the water, orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and red pepper flakes

4.  Add the mixed sauces into the garlic and green onion pan, bring to boil and reduce to simmer

5.  In a small dish, mix together the 2 teaspoons of corn starch and the 1 tablespoon water

6.  Add the cornstarch mixture a little at a time to the sauce mixture, stirring constantly until sauce thickens and remove from heat (I don’t like mine to be as thick as glue but some people do, just get it to the consistency you want)

7.  Add the tofu to the sauce mixture and coat well

8.  Serve with rice, veggies and maybe even some vegan pot stickers if  you happen to have them lying around!

Like I said, I know it LOOKS complicated, but it really isn’t.  Once you have this one down, you will be amazed at how often you will make it!  It’s just so quick and easy…. and DELICIOUS!  This is one of the meals my carnivorous husband actually requests and gets excited for me to cook!  I hope you all love it as much as I do!

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Super Easy Vegan Muffins

June 4, 2011 · Filed under Recipes · Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

I absolutely love to bake.  I have been making cakes, pies, cupcakes, muffins, cookies and other such tasty treats for as long as I can remember.  Since I have become a vegan however, I have had to tamper with some recipes to “veganize” them.  For those of you who would are new to baking in general, this is a great recipe to start with.  It is quick and very easy, oh, and VERY yummy!

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 Cups flour

1/2 Cup sugar

2 Teaspoons baking powder

1 Teaspoon salt

3/4 Cups soy milk

1/4 Cup vegetable oil

1 Cup blueberries (I used fresh, but you can use frozen as well)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Fill a muffin tin with paper liners (if you don’t have paper liners you can also grease and flower each cup individually)

I used mini muffin tins, but the regular size ones work just as well!

2.  Sift (or stir with a fork until well blended) the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a medium to large size bowl. Add the soy milk and vegetable oil.

I love the way it looks when the oil floats on the top

3.  Blend all ingredients well.  You can use the fork to “smoosh” out the lumps, but don’t worry if you miss a few.

It should be pretty smooth after you mix it, but a few lumps won't ruin the mix

4.  Add the blueberries to the mixture and fold in with a large spoon.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

5.  Fill the paper liners about 3/4 of the way full (don’t fill it all the way or your muffins will spill over the top!)

The blueberries will shrink up a bit

6.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before eating.

If you try to eat them hot, the paper will stick to the muffins

Enjoy!

Though this recipe is technically for blueberries, there is not reason it can’t work with other fruits as well.  I plan to try it with strawberry, apple and cinnamon, raspberry and any other interesting fruit I find at the farmers market this summer.

In other news, you may have noticed that there is an addition to the right column of the page.  I have created a facebook page for TheShellyBelly.  Please “like” us if you would like to be up to date with posts, recipes and vegan living thoughts and ideas.

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Meal planning – vegan style

June 3, 2011 · Filed under Vegan Life · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

I believe in meal planning.  It saves time.  It saves confusion.  It saves effort.  And above all, it saves money.  Do you ever notice that when you shop for the day, you can easily spend $20 at the grocery store per meal?  Well, when you add that up, even if you only do it 3 times a week, that is $240 per month for only 12 meals!  Even though I am now eating better quality and more costly food than I have ever eaten, with meal planning, I have been able to keep all my meals, and I do mean ALL, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for two people for two weeks to around $200 per shopping trip, $400 a month total. More than saving money, it also saves our health.  When you have a plan to eat, it makes it easier to avoid quick fix foods and trips to Dunkin Donuts in the morning for breakfast.

Every two weeks, I sit down with my recipes and plan the next two weeks worth of meals.  After I decide on what recipes I will make and on which days I will make them, I write down my list of supplies.  Then, in an effort to streamline my grocery shopping trips, I type up my grocery list into categories (fresh produce, canned items, refrigerated section, freezer section, etc.).  Armed with my OCD list and a pen, I grab Kiel and head to the store(s).

After a while of doing this, we have it down to a science.  Usually Kiel mans the cart while I fly around the crowded produce section, bags in hand, and select my fruits and veggies.  Once we are out of the produce section and into the regular grocery isles, we split up.  I take all the items from one isle and Kiel gets the items from the next.

I know it sounds a bit insane, but when you are planning for two weeks at a time, that much planning is necessary.  I have learned the hard way that when you go out without an organized list or a plan of action, grocery shopping can take hours!

The worst part of the trip is finding parking when we get back.  Because we live in the city of Chicago, we are sometimes forced to carry our groceries a very long ways.  That really really really sucks when you have an entire trunk and back seat full of groceries.  Once everything is inside, the last challenge is finding space in the fridge for all the veggies.  The crisper drawers all filled after the first bag and I hate it when the veggies get pushed back to the fan part of the fridge because they get all frozen and rotten in a day.

Don’t you just wish that they made a fridge for vegans?  It would have the standard door organizers, except instead of the part for the gallon of milk, they would allow for a carton of soy milk.  And instead of the part where you keep the eggs and butter, there would be slots for all your varieties of tofu.  The main part of the fridge would be drawers for fruits and veggies that had adjustable humidity levels and there would be one shelf area for misc. things.  That would be so nice… ah to dream.

Anyway, our marathon shopping trip was this week and I now have a new menu to share with everyone.

So sorry that it is late, but I was struck down with some serious sinus headache issues due to this crappy change in the weather.  I am currently working on making this a “clickable” menu so that you can get the recipes that I am making and not just the titles (great idea Jen!).  I hope to have this done soon, so if you can’t click on it now, I promise it is coming soon!

Please let me know if you try any of them!  I’d love to know about your vegan cooking experiences too!

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Curry-licious

June 1, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

I was recently informed by my mother that while my family was gathered for Memorial day, they voted.  It was a unanimous decision that they no longer minded my being vegetarian (a nearly constant source of badgering for the past year) so long as I wasn’t a vegan.  The main reason?  They all feel so bad that I have to eat the same dull food all the time.  Apparently, vegans lack variety and flavor.

And on that note, I give you last night’s dinner!  Chickpea, Tomato and Corn Curry!  Grab an ice cold glass of soy milk people.. this one will give  you a kick in the pants!

Chickpea, Tomato and Corn Curry

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon curry powder

1 Teaspoon ground ginger

1 Teaspoon ground tumeric

1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 Teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Tablespoon agave nectar or maple syrup (I used maple syrup)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

32oz Can of chickpeas (reserve 1/4 cup of the liquid)

16oz Can of diced tomatoes

8oz Can full kernel corn

Directions:

1.  In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine oil, spices & salt and cook for 2-3 minutes

2.  Add the maple syrup and lemon juice.  Stir thoroughly.

3.  Add the reserved chickpea liquid and cook for another 1-2 minutes

4.  Add strained chickpeas and add them to the saucepan.   Stir until well coated.

5.  Strain tomatoes and add to mixture.

6.  Bring the pan to a boil and reduce to simmer.  Cover and cook for 15 mins.

7.  Remove from heat and add the corn.  Allow to sit for 2-3 mins to heat up the corn.

A big thanks to NicoleGray at Vegweb.com for this one!

About half way through his first bowl, Kiel asked me with a full mouth “is there more of this?”  I on the other hand could only handle one bowl, though it was delicious, I felt like a fire breathing dragon by the end of my bowl.  Next time I make this I might take it down a notch on the cyan.  Then again, I am the type of person who can barely chew cinnamon gum, so the rest of you likely don’t have to worry.

If you get a chance, I would try this one out.  It’s really simple (despite the daunting looking ingredient list) and takes less than 30 mins.  I know I’ll be making this one again!

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Nutty Quinoa Hash

May 27, 2011 · Filed under Recipes · Tagged , , , , , ,

Super Yummy!

On Wednesday night, I went out to see Forks Over Knives with my friend Jennifer.  I can honestly say it was the most illuminating movie I have seen yet.  Though I do plan on writing a review on it, I am still letting it all sink in just a little bit more.  I will probably be able to get that written down for tomorrow or Sunday.  So today you will just have to settle for the super yummy, super easy vegan recipe I made last night with my good friend Kasi!

Nutty Quinoa Hash

Ingredients:

1 Cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed

2 Cups water

2 Medium potatoes, diced

1 Small onion, chopped

1 Small green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 Small zucchini, chopped

1 Can corn

Favorite seasonings

3 Tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

Chopped peanuts

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, boil the two cups of water over medium heat.  Add the quinoa, cover and reduce heat.  Simmer the quinoa until all the water has been absorbed.  Remove from heat and set aside.

In a larger skillet, heat up olive oil on medium heat.  Add the potatoes and cook until potatoes are completely cooked (they should be  a bit crispy).  Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper.  Continue cooking until each veggie is slightly soft.  Add the zucchini and the corn, cook until the zucchini is soft and the corn is completely heated.  Add your seasonings and remove from heat.

Add the peanut butter to the quinoa and stir it up!  Add the chopped nuts to the mix too.  Then add the quinoa mixture to the veggie mixture and mix well.

Enjoy!

Thanks a bunch to Jeana at Vegweb.com for this amazing recipe!

This would be a great recipe for anyone looking for a quick weeknight meal that is a bit out of the ordinary.  The texture is what really sets it apart from other dinners I have had recently.  Give it a try!  What do you have to lose?

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Eggplant Pomodoro

May 24, 2011 · Filed under Recipes · Tagged , , , ,

What a fun weekend it has been!  I spent some quality Skype time with my cousin Peter and I even found some time to get in some Spring cleaning and organizing!  Kiel and I munched on leftovers because a. we had a lot and b. I was too lazy to cook.  Plus it was in the upper 80’s and since I am making a valiant effort to keep the central air off until July, using the oven was out of the picture.

Tonight though, with my house clean (isn’t it SO nice to start cooking in a clean kitchen?) and my leftovers gone, it was time to try another recipe.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Eggplant Pomodoro.  It’s another recipe I found at vegweb.com and this one comes to us from Drgnwrtr.

Eggplant Pomodoro

Ingredients:

1 Cup vegan mayonnaise

1/4 Cup mustard

1 Eggplant, sliced into 1/2″ rounds

1 Cup Italian style breadcrumbs (I used WAY more than that, so have some extra on hand)

3 Roma tomatoes, diced

10-15 Freshe basil leaves, chopped

2 Cloves garlic, crushed (I used 3, but  I am a HUGE garlic fan.  I would have used more, but Kiel isn’t so much of a fan)

1 Teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and coat a cookie sheet with foil (I brushed olive oil on the foil to keep things from sticking).  Combine mayonnaise and mustard in a bowl until well blended.

Mix it up!

2. Coat each slice of eggplant with the mayo/mustard and then coat with the vegan breadcrumbs

Get it on nice and thick!

3. Arrange coated eggplant slices on prepared cookie sheet and bake for 45mins

They look good enough to eat!

5.While eggplant is baking, saute diced tomatoes, basil, and garlic in olive oil until well heated, and set aside.

Chop chop chop!

5. Serve baked eggplant with a generous portion of tomato mixture.

Nice and crispy!

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

I also made some vegan mashed potatoes and a nice portion of sweet corn to go with it.  All in all, I think this was an amazingly delicious meal that Kiel and I both enjoyed.  It will certainly be kept in my recipe files under “must make again”!  I hope you all give this one a try.

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Mash This

May 19, 2011 · Filed under Recipes · Tagged , , , , , , ,

One of the many things that has caught my eye as I have browsed through countless vegan recipes is the large number of them that call for you to “mash it all together” at the end.  These were usually reserved for “mock” salads (chicken, tuna, etc.).  I decided to save a few of those recipes for a lunch to pack for work or for a Sunday afternoon when I didn’t really feel like cooking.

Last night, however, I was left without an ingredient for my scheduled dinner.  I think it would be a little hard to make the Chick’n bake without the Chick’n.  It’s not like I didn’t buy the ingredient, I just didn’t realize that the particular kind of faux-chicken that I purchased contained re-hydrated egg whites.  So I opened up my recipes to find something quick and easy that I had all of the ingredients for.  Luckily for me, I stumbled upon this little gem that was as easy as 1,2,3.

Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Ingredients: 

2 Slices Whole Wheat Bread

1/2 Can Chickpeas

2 Tablespoons Mustard

2 Tablespoons Soy Mayonnaise (I use Nayonaise)

2 Tablespoons Pickle Relish (I used sweet)

1 Tablespoon Vegan Soy Cheese

Lettuce

Tomato Slices

Onion Slices

Directions:

1. Place the chickpeas, mustard, mayonnaise, vegan cheese & pickle relish together in a bowl.

Chickpeas, mustard, mayonnaise, vegan cheese & relish

2. Mash all ingredients with a fork into a lumpy consistency.

Mash it!

3. Serve on the slices of bread with lettuce, sliced tomatoes and sliced onion.

Yummy!

Many thanks to Schmndrck8 at VegWeb.com for this one!  I really enjoyed it and will definitely be making it again soon.  I might try some different variations in the future… perhaps some celery?  We will have to see!  Overall though, a great meal for someone in a hurry and made from ingredients that are found in most vegan pantries.

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