Hearty White Bean Stew

(Finally got my camera fixed, so hopefully no more cameraphone pics!)
With the weather getting colder by the day, I am finding my mind and body to be drawn towards warm, hearty meals….soups, chilis, etc. Yesterday, I had about half of our “turkey” loaf left from Thanksgiving, so I decided to make a nice stew with it. Now, if you have ever read anything on this blog, you know that I’m a lazy cook. I like to put things together, but I like for something else to do the hard work for me. Which is why I’m so in love with my crock pot. Seriously. I can throw a bunch of stuff in it before work, pop that sucker on low, and when I come home not only does the house smell amazing, but dinner is already ready! Which, on a night like last night (I had a hysteroscopic resection of two fibroids so needless to say I was sore and a little out of it) it was nice to come home to dinner already made so I could eat and go straight to bed. The only prep on this meal is soaking some beans the night before.

Hearty “Turk’y” Stew

1 cup of dry navy beans
5 cups strong vegetable stock
2 tablespoons basil
1 tablespoon marjoram
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (or less if you don’t like spicy)
1 onion, diced and caramelized
½ “turk’y” loaf or one package of seitan, chopped into bite-sized pieces


The night before making this, take your one cup of navy beans and soak them overnight.

Rinse the soaked beans, and add them, the stock, basil, marjoram, garlic powder and cayenne to your crock pot. Place on low for about 7 hours or high for about 4 hours.

When you have about 30 minutes of cooking time left, add your caramelized onion and seitan/loaf.

Salt and pepper to your liking (don’t add salt while it’s cooking, as this makes the beans harden and crumble), garnish with some chopped basil, and enjoy on its own or poured over brown rice. Yummy!


Seriously folks, it doesn’t get much easier than that!

Thanksgiving Feast

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and spent some quality time with all of your friends, family and loved ones. After a rocky start (5.5 hour car ride that ended up being almost 12 hours!), and a broken phone (had no idea how I was going to call all my family that I don’t live around), I was a little stressed for the holidays, but all in all, it turned out to be okay! And aside from a few snarky comments from my anti-vegan, vegetable loathing father, it really wasn’t as terrible as I had imagined it could be. And, once he realized, after telling my man how “disappointed” he was in him for not eating meat three times and receiving no response, he finally gave up and decided to leave him alone. But, enough about big bullies who think they know everything, let’s get to the food!


I must say, our KIND food was absolutely delicious! My dad’s wife had invited her brother and his three kids, and they all tried and loved my super delicious vegan goodies…including my “turkey” roast, which I will be getting to today. The vegan spread included: Vegan Turkey Loaf, Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom gravy, Cranberries, Stuffing, Vegan Green Bean Casserole, “Butter” rolls with Earth Balance, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. A kind feast fit for a king!


I’ll be putting up the recipes as I have time this week, but I’m going to start with the Turkey Loaf, as it was my first time ever making anything like this, and it was absolutely delicious, and fairly simple, too! The recipe is from Ellen Degeneres’ website, and I hope it will be part of many of your celebrations to come!

Ellen Degeneres’ Vegan Turkey Loaf

Ingredients:
4 Cups vital wheat gluten
1 Cup bread crumbs (I make my own by toasting three slices of my favorite bread then throwing them in the food processor with some herbs)
1 Cup nutritional yeast
3 Tablespoon dried thyme
1 large onion small dice and caramelized
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ Cup extra virgin olive oil
4 Cups strong Vegetable Stock
1 full sheet of cheesecloth
Butcher's twine
Blackening spices
Earth Balance butter

Instructions:
Caramelize the onions over medium heat until they are golden brown. Add the onions to the dry ingredients and mix.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until a loose batter forms. Shape the batter into a loaf.

Unroll about 24" of cheesecloth on to a clean dry surface. Unfold the cloth completely and then fold it in half to form a two-ply piece of cloth.

Place the loaf in the middle of cloth and roll it up, leaving enough space to tie off at both ends.
Now tie two more pieces of twine over the center of the roast.


Place the roast into a large pot of boiling water and simmer for at least two hours (My dad’s kitchen is small and I wasn’t allowed to take up space cooking my “weird” food, so I was unable to use the stove for this part. However, I put it in a crock pot on high for the two hours and it worked just fine).

Carefully remove the cheesecloth and place the roast on a small sheet tray and rub the roast with Earth Balance butter and sprinkle with blackening spices. Bake roast at 350 for 20+ minutes or until golden brown (25 seemed to work well for mine). Allow roast to rest a few minutes before slicing.

Meat-Lovers Meat-Free Chili

This weekend, I was overcome with the Autumn-Spirit. From exploring apple orchards and pumpkin farms to sipping hot cider and playing in leaves, the spirit really hit…or maybe it’s just the fact that when I was in Los Angeles, we really didn’t have seasonal changes…I mean, have you ever seen a palm tree change colors? Yeah, didn’t think so! The nice, crisp weather has also gotten me in a soup-making mood…thick, hearty chilis and stews. The smell warms your heart and the taste warms the soul…those kinds of soups. So anyway, I threw together a chili this weekend that was better than any “meat” chili I’ve ever had…and since it’s a crock-pot recipe, there’s nothing to it! I threw all of the ingredients in our crock-pot before leaving to explore the pumpkin farms in the morning around 9:00, and when we got home from exploring and the farmers market at around 2:00, we had a late lunch waiting for us!

Meat-Lovers Meat-Free Chili

1 cup dried kidney beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
1 cup dried black beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
1 package Lightlife Grounds (I used the Mexican Spiced Verson)
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
½ onion, diced
4 cups of vegetable stock (or 4 cups of water with a veggie bullion)
3 tablespoons Hot Sauce
2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
(all spice measurements are approximate…use your own taste here and experiment!)


Combine all ingredients in the crock-pot. Set on low and cook 8 hours or high and cook for 4 hours, or until beans are firm but not crunchy. Enjoy!

The dollop in the middle is leftover “cheese” from our burrito meal the day before…it was PERFECT in this chili!!

Chicago-Style Italian "Beef" Sandwiches...Yummy!

Alright, so I had some seitan in the fridge that was just begging me to be used, and I wanted to try something different with it. I usually will incorporate it into a stir-fry or a tofu scramble, but I wanted to make something where it would be a “meat” stand-in, since my fiancé has now officially been “vegetarian” for 5 weeks now, and he was craving the meat! So, he loves Italian Beef Sandwiches. I know that one of my favorite restaurants makes an awesome Italian Beef sandwich using seitan, so I started scrambling the web to find a good recipe, when I happened along this one on www.vegweb.com. Let me just say, that this sandwich recipe has my personal stamp of approval…because not only was it delicious, but it is SOOOO Simple!!! You just toss everything into a slow-cooker and forget about it!

Chicago-Style Italian "Beef" Sandwiches

1 pound seitan, very thinly sliced
3 cups vegetable stock
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
2 tablespoons Hot Italian Giardiniera (if you can't find it, substitute 1/2 teaspoon red
pepper flakes, for heat)
2 teaspoons fennel seed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 sliced and seeded green bell peppers
French rolls

Directions:
Combine all ingredients and stir to incorporate. Cook on HIGH for 2 to 4 hours.

If using a stovetop: Place all ingredients in a large pot, stir to combine, and simmer, covered, over medium heat for 1 hour.

Lightly steam French rolls. Spoon seitan and peppers into each roll. Just before serving, spoon a few tablespoons of the "au jus" over each sandwich to somewhat saturate the roll. (In the best Chicago sandwich joints, they simply dunk the whole sandwich!)


(Photo credit to Opal_Moon on www.vegweb.com)

Beans and Toast the Queen Herself Would Adore

The other evening, I rinsed and soaked some navy beans even though I had no idea what I wanted to do with them. Did I want soup? Baked beans? Bean salad? No. Freaking. Idea. Well, regardless, I put them in a pot to soak overnight. Yesterday morning, before I went to work, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with them. So, I put them in the crock pot, added some stuff that I thought would taste good, and decided that, when I got home from work, I’d figure it out. Turns out, they were absolutely delicious, and I had the strange desire to put them over a nice, thick piece of toast. Delish! I seriously thought I was a genius. It looked super gross, and probably looked like something that even a bum would turn their nose up at, but man oh man was it ever delicious.

Then, my ego got checked for real. I typed in “beans and toast” on Google to see if anyone else had ever thought of this…and I’m sure you can imagine my surprise and humiliation when I discovered that it is basically like, the national food of Great Britain!! Foiled again!! Well, although it wasn’t as creative as I thought it was, considering it’s been eaten by the Brit’s for hundreds of years, it was still awesome, and I think I came up with a pretty spectacular bean recipe, so I’m going to at least share that with you all.

Spicy, Savory Navy Beans and Toast

1 cup of Navy beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
4 cups of water
4 tsp. vegetable bullion
4 tsp. Onion Seasoning (I use Mrs. Dash salt-free onion seasoning)
3 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on Low for 7-9 hours or High for 4-5 hours, stirring every couple of hours.
Smother two pieces of whole-grain toast with Earth Balance Buttery Spread and cover with navy beans.

Simple, yet delicious, I promise!!! And if you’re on a budget, a meal doesn’t get much cheaper than this!!


(I got even more than what is in this stock photo I found online!! Amazeballs!!)


By the way, I want to give a huge shout-out to Earth Balance!! I think everyone should become a fan of theirs on Facebook, because they are quite generous! I recently won a contest on their Facebook page for a gift basket. Little did I know that this basket would basically be all the vegan butter tubs, sticks, almond and peanut butter I could need for a year!! Major props there, Earth Balance!!

Beans and Birthday Cake!!

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Meeee, Happy Birthday to Me!!

Okay, I had to do it! I’ve been feeling the love all day, so I had to give a little to myself! Yes, today is my birthday. I am trying not to celebrate my birthday so much as I am trying to celebrate the One Year Anniversary of my 25th Birthday, so I’m going to leave it at that!

Anyway, I’ve got an amazing recipe that I threw together yesterday that is probably now one of my most favorite meals! The best part…it’s probably also the EASIEST meal I have ever put together! Seriously, I threw it all in the crock pot before work, and when I came home I had some seriously delicious food waiting for me! If you like spice, and if you like good ole’ Creole food, than you’ll love these…


Spicy Red Beans and Rice with “Bacon”

2 cups of red beans, soaked overnight
4.5 cups of V8 plain vegetable juice
1.5 cups water
½ pack of Lighlife vegan bacon, torn into small chunks
2 cups of brown rice
3 Tablespoons of Garlic Powder
3 Tablespoons of Onion Powder
5 Tablespoons of Crushed Red Pepper (or less if you don’t like it spicy)

Combine rinsed beans, V8, water, garlic powder, onion powder and crushed red pepper in the crock pot. Set on “low” setting and let cook 6-8 hours.
When there is about 30 minutes remaining, mix in your veggie bacon.

Cook rice accordingly at this time as well (I use a rice cooker, but if you use the stovetop, cook according to directions).


Can you believe how simple this is?! Seriously, you don’t have to do ANYTHING and it is absolutely delicious!!! I couldn’t get enough of this, and this makes a very large portion as well, which is great, because I can’t wait to have leftovers for lunch today!

So there you have it. The world’s easiest and tastiest vegan recipe for red beans and rice! Although I felt kind of guilty just posting that, especially with it being my birthday and all! This is the first year in a long time that I didn’t bake myself a cake, but I just didn’t seem to have the time. But I couldn’t be without something sweet last night, so I hit up the local grocery store to see what kind of goodies they had. And this is what I came up with:

Super Delicious Chocolate Strawberry Marshmallow Creme Birthday Cake

Basically, its Amy’s Organic Chocolate Cake, which is found in the frozen food section (it is seriously the most moist, rich and delicious cake I’ve ever had!), some vegan marshmallow crème (found in the organic section of my grocer), and some strawberries! Pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes and experience pure *vegan* heaven!!

(I apologize for the poor photo quality. I have misplaced my camera so these pics were taken on my phone.)