Baked Polenta Casserole

This was the first time I made polenta and it was delicious! Not taking credit for making the actual polenta - Trader Joe's did that! LOL This is what I did: I sliced and fried the polenta in a little evoo w/ a little garlic powder & sea salt on top and then layered it in a pan w/ eggplant marinara, vegan parm. & FYH mozzarella. I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes and then set the oven on broil for a few minutes so the cheese on top melted. Seriously good! :)

Can't wait for leftovers tomorrow! :)

Smoothies!

I just made one with a frozen banana, vanilla soy milk, flaxseed meal and oats.  It was delicious!  I've added spinach to a smoothie making it a "green smoothie" and you don't even taste the spinach and you're getting all those vitamins!  Some people add pumpkin to smoothies which is something I want to try next!

What are your favorite smoothies?

Not Your Mamma’s Meat Loaf

Another great recipe I made from Christina Pirello - ChristinaCooks.com

Not Your Mamma’s Meat Loaf

1 cup brown or green lentils, sorted, rinsed well  (I used brown)
3 cups spring or filtered water
1 bay leaf
1 small red onion, finely diced
2 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
1 small carrot, finely diced
2 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup grated vegan mozzarella ‘cheese’
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I used a slice of Ezekiel bread toasted and ground)
5 ounces tomato sauce
1 tablespoon barley malt (I used 1 tbsp. Agave syrup)
1 teaspoon dried basil
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper

Place lentils, water, bay leaf, onion and garlic in a sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until lentils are soft, about 35 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf and drain away any remaining cooking liquid. Transfer lentil mixture to a mixing bowl.

Preheat oven to 350o and lightly oil a standard loaf pan.

Stir carrot, oats, mozzarella and bread crumbs into cooked lentils. Whisk together tomato sauce, barley malt, basil, salt and pepper to taste and fold into lentil mixture.

Spoon lentil mixture into prepared loaf pan and press the top firmly with a spatula. Bake 35-45 minutes, until the top of the loaf is firm and beginning to brown. Remove from oven and cool for about 10 minutes before inverting loaf onto a platter.

Makes 6-8 servings

I served it over brown jasmine rice.  You can top it with a yummy vegan gravy too!

Coconut Water, Recipes, Christina Pirello...

Sipping a delicious coconut water right now (did you know this stuff has more potassium than bananas? I just read this really cool article all about it!) and thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner.  I still have a huge savoy cabbage to do something with.  I'm thinking of just slicing it really thin and sauteeing it in some soy free Earth Balance and a little grapeseed oil... add in a little fresh garlic and maybe a drop of white wine.  Put it all over some udon noodles I have.... possibly some pine nuts too??  Hmmm... could be interesting!

Christina Pirello (ChristinaCooks.com) made something last night (I record her cooking shows daily) that looked delicious.  It was a segment on antioxidants... it was a pasta dish that had artichoke hearts (that are especially loaded with antioxidants),  black olives, pine nuts, leeks & capers.  She had sauteed them in avocado oil and added some white wine to the dish... I'm definitely going to make it!  I love her show!

Aaahh... I guess I should stop daydreaming about recipes I want to make and get back to work. :(  Hope everyone is having a great day!

Whole Wheat Bread/Pizza

I finally got around to making the bread this weekend and it came out amazing!  This is the recipe I used:
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/01/finally-no-knead-crusty-almost-all.html

It made 2 loaves, plus a larger piece of dough that I used to make a pizza out of.  Here are some pics:

I'm sitting here having a piece of the bread with some garlic hummus and it's just delicious!  The pizza doesn't have any "cheeze" since I ran out of  Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella; I put on some soy parm. and it was still yummy! 

It's raining like crazy over here!  I can't wait for the Spring to come!  Hope everyone is having a great day!

Vegan Veggie Lasagna

Made my first vegan lasagna today and OMG, was it amazing! I made my own tomato sauce w/ tons of mushrooms and then a tofu-ricotta which I was a little hesitant to try (it came out really good!)... added some whole wheat lasagna noodles, spinach, soy mozzarella and you have:

My hubby even had seconds!  I really can't believe how great it was!  I never thought this was going to be a good substitute for my beloved "real" lasagna!  I'm just ecstatic!! Wooooo Hooooooooo!!!!

I didn't get to make the ww bread I was planning to, but I will definitely do it tomorrow!  I also bought a big head of savoy cabbage ... anyone have good recipes for that?? 

Hope everyone had a great day today!  See ya tomorrow!

First work-related party being vegan...

My boss is throwing a belated holiday party for us on Thursday and she's ordering in from a pizzeria.  I heard her ordering pizza and wraps.  She doesn't know (or care) that I don't eat meat/dairy/etc.  I don't know if I should say something or just eat something beforehand and not eat anything at the party.  I don't want to look anti-social, but I hate talking about my choices to her since she can't understand why I won't eat meat since she loves it.  That's what she said the last time I told her I was a vegetarian.  Now she really won't "get" that I'm vegan.  NOT that I care about her opinion, but I hate having to defend my decisions.  Maybe I'll just write her a quick email tonight from home telling her and be done w/ it.

**edit ... I emailed her and told her about the food issue and she said that there will be a cheeseless pizza.  I'm going to call the place she's ordering from to find out if they use any meat in their sauce.  So, it looks good so far!

Hope everyone is having a great day!  TGIF!!  Too bad I still have to work tomorrow, but at least I have Sunday to relax.  I have a few recipes I want to try out this weekend.  I bought premade, organic polenta from Trader Joe's and I'm thinking of making a tomato sauce from crushed tomatoes, baby bella mushrooms, shallots, fresh garlic and just letting it cook for awhile and then making a casserole out of the whole thing.  Taking the polenta and layering it w/ the sauce and soy mozzarella and then baking it.  I also want to make a lasagna w/ tofu-ricotta and spinach.  I've been craving comfort food like crazy!  Of course, I have to bake something too!  LOL  Not sure what yet though!  OH!  I'm also going to bake a ww bread that I have a recipe for - it's one of those no-knead breads.  I'll post pics of everything!

I'll check in again later!