Recipes that Make My Life Easier

I've been compiling a few of my favorite, quickest recipes after getting a considerable amount of emails from people just getting into the vegan lifestyle that were a little intimidated by cooking. The truth is, cooking vegan food isn't harder than cooking any other type of food. Of course, some vegan cookbooks can be overly complicated and require a lot of specialty ingredients. It's no wonder you feel like you're entering into a whole new world and you don't speak the language. In all honesty, the only specialty ingredients that I think I ever have in my kitchen are nutritional yeast, agave nectar, Earth Balance and Daiya vegan cheese. Not everyone may find that they use those ingredients enough for them to become your constants, but you just have to search around a bit to find the ingredients that become staples for you when embarking into vegan cooking.

Unfortunately, the truth is that unless you live in a major city, eating out as a vegan isn't always convenient. So, it really is beneficial for you to learn to cook for yourself if you haven't already started. I know I really didn't start getting into cooking until about 2 years ago when I went vegan... I didn't even cook this much when I was a vegetarian. But the reality is, not everyone loves cooking or is particularly skilled at it. Here are some recipes that are really simple, can help to segue into vegan cooking, and can easily become staple meals for every week... I know they already are for me!

But wanna know the best news of all? They ALL only require one pot or pan!


Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal


Pots/Pans Used: maybe one

Sad but true, I rarely ever get two minutes for breakfast. Usually I just pop Vans maple infused frozen waffles (vegan AND gluten free!!!) into the toaster and drizzle some agave nectar on top, throw a Luna bar in my bag on the way out the door, or just go without. I know, I need to work on that. Anyways, one morning when I had ten whole minutes for breakfast, I decided to make this jazzed up oatmeal. One of my besties, Lindsey Mills of Soul Food, specializes in what she calls "Fancy Oatmeal". She's mixing up oatmeal on a regular basis. I've had her carrot cake oatmeal and lemme just say, it was delicious. I decided to take a stab at it and came up with this super easy and quick breakfast, Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal.

All you need is oatmeal and.... Dark Chocolate Dreams (peanut butter blended with rich dark chocolate) You can find it in most health food sections at Publix.



Prepare oatmeal according to instructions and then add 1-2 TBL of the chocolate peanut butter spread and mix up. That's all. If you're looking for other ways to use this spread, it's great on a slice of toast or for dipping strawberries in.

Pizza


Pots/Pans Used: maybe one

Pizza is one of the easiest things to make for dinner. Plus, it's fun to make with your significant other on a cozy night in. Or if you have kids, let them pile the toppings on so they feel involved. The nice thing about making pizza is that you can really work with what you've got. All you really need is pizza dough which you can pick up in the bakery section of most grocery stores (Pillsbury brand of pizza dough is vegan too), a jar of tomato sauce and various veggies.

For this pizza, I first rolled out the dough, and pre-baked in a 450 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, you can saute whatever veggies you want to use. In this case, I sauteed some mushrooms with soy sauce and garlic, added some artichokes and topped with kale (which gets crispy as it bakes!). Take the dough out of the oven, spread out tomato sauce, sprinkle some Daiya mozzarella cheese on top (optional!), and pile high with veggies. Bake in the oven until the cheese melts or the crust seems thoroughly cooked. By the way, I HIGHLY recommend getting a pizza crisper. I got one as a Christmas gift and it really gives you a crispy crust that just can't compare with a regular baking sheet. But by all means, if you're just testing the waters, use the baking sheet!

Spanish-Inspired Grits


Pots/Pans Used: one

When I REALLY don't feel like cooking or am short on time, I make grits. Usually I just season with a little butter, nutritional yeast and s&p. Then I serve vegetarian baked beans and sauteed kale on the side. And if I'm really lucky, I have some veggie bacon in my fridge to toss in the mix. But let's get real, I'm never that lucky. The other night, I didn't have baked beans, but I did have black beans... so I decided to make Spanish-Inspired Grits. This certainly isn't the prettiest dish I've ever posted, but that's no indication of how it tastes. I was actually surprised by how yummy it was!

You'll need:
grits
3 TBL veganaise
3 TBL Earth Balance
4 tsp taco seasoning
2 TBL nutritional yeast
1 can black beans, drained
s&p to taste

All you have to do is cook the grits according to their instructions, then add the butter and veganaise and mix well. This will get it nice and creamy. Then mix in the taco seasoning and nutritional yeast. Finally, add the drained black beans and season with salt and pepper. Done and done!

Sushi

Pots/Pans Used: one!

Making sushi is so much easier than you think! It seems like a really intimidating endeavor but seriously... it's actually kind of a no-brainer type recipe. I'm kind of a Japanese food freak and I could easily eat sushi every day of the week. My favorite roll? just a simple avocado roll. Seriously, you can't go wrong. However, the nice thing about sushi is you really can get creative and fill it with your favorite ingredients. All you have to actually cook is the sushi rice and the rest is assembly. I swear it's easy! Here is a previous sushi post that provides an instructional video on how to roll your own sushi.

You'll need:
nori sheets
sushi rice
sesame seeds
bamboo mat
saran wrap
veggie filling


Onion Dog

Pots/Pans Used: one

You'll Need:
Smart Sausages (Italian Style)
bun
onion
mustard
condiments

This is a great, quick lunch if you're craving something filling but want to put forth minimum effort. Dice up some onion and saute it with olive oil over medium heat until they begin to caramelize. Add some Dijon mustard and coat the onions in it (optional if you don't like mustard). While the onions are being taken care of, you can toast the hot dog bun. Set aside the onions and saute the sausages in the same pan. Just top the sausages with the onions and whatever condiments you like!

Quesadillas


Pots/Pans Used: one

This is absolutely the easiest of my recipes and the one I make most often. Sometimes I just crave that melty cheesey goodness that you rarely get on a vegan diet. This is when I turn to my trusty quesadillas. I can't deny it's been my favorite midnight snack on more than one occasion. All you do is place a tortilla in a pan, pile high with Daiya cheddar cheese, shake some hot sauce and garlic powder on top then sandwich with another tortilla. Let it get crispy on both sides and let the cheese melt completely. That's it!

Hope that was helpful! Even if none of these recipes suit your fancy, most of the recipes on this blog are just as easy. Good luck cooking vegan :)

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Seasons 52

My mom and I went out for lunch at Seasons 52 in Palm Beach Gardens, FL yesterday. It's not an exclusively vegan restaurant by any means, but if you ask your server, they offer a great vegan menu. You can check out their alternative menus here. Their specialty is preparing really fresh seasonal food. You wont find any vegan mac & cheese or cheesecake on this menu. It's more about preparing fresh and healthy food than replicating non-vegan favorites. So if you're watching your figure, craving lots of veggies or just looking for yummy vegan food without any guilt... Seasons 52 is a great option. My mom and I started out with the Edamame which were steamed and served hot with Japanese green tea salt. Green tea salt!!!!! I know, it was so awesome! I definitely need to track some down. It was significantly less salty than normal salt and packed a surprising amount of green tea flavor. Delicious!



For my entree, I got the Market Vegetable Plate. It came with a plethora of roasted veggies including asparagus, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, red peppers, onions, golden beets and broccoli. It was also served with corn on the cob, Ponzu-Glazed Tofu, and Almond Tabbouleh which had fresh mint, lemon, cucumbers, tomatoes and toasted almonds. It was absolutely delicious and so filling considering the fact that it consisted of mainly veggies. By the time I finished my meal, I felt like I had done something good for my body.



As of right now, Seasons 52 is located in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
They're also opening up new locations in:

Costa Mesa, CA
Plano, TX
Coral Gables, FL
North Bethesda, MD
Indianapolis, IN
Phoenix, AZ
McLean, VA

If you want to check to see if Seasons 52 is located in your city, check their website. Just fair warning, they're not a cheap restaurant, as you'll notice just from the picture. Still, you can easily make it an affordable meal. It's not ridiculously priced, I just don't want you to go expecting $6 entrees. Our edamame was only $5 and I believe my entree was $13. With two appetizers and an entree, our meal was a little under $30. So all in all, it's not like you have to spend a fortune. If any of you have been, or end up going, let me know what you liked that you ate!

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Mixed Fruit Kanten with Cream Sauce

Level of Difficulty: simple but with a fair amount of chopping involved
Pots/Pans Used: 2

Ingredients

1/4 cup agar agar flakes
4 cups apple juice
2 mangoes, skinned and diced
1 pint strawberries, sliced
3 plums, skinned and diced

Tofu Cream Sauce:

1 lb silken tofu
1/4 cup sugar
1 TBL vanilla
1/4 cup almond milk

Alicia Silverstone recently posted about a kanten with plums and blueberries she made on her site, thekindlife.com. If you are like me and had never heard of a this kind of dessert before, it's basically a thick jello type texture with fresh fruit floating throughout. I had been wanting to do a healthy dessert for a small dinner party I was throwing and this seemed to fit the bill perfectly. The only thing was that I didn't have her book on hand to look at the recipe. So I did a little searching on the internet at other Kanten recipes and improvised a bit. You can easily change up this recipe to fit the fruit you have on hand or for what's in season. Since I had mangoes, strawberries and plums in my fridge already, I went with it. It's not an incredibly sweet dessert, but I personally loved it. It's light, refreshing and would be perfect for dessert or breakfast. Agar agar is the only specialty ingredient in this recipe, and you can find it at Whole Foods. This is what gives the dish the gelatinous texture so it's an essential ingredient. If you're wondering, the dinner party consisted of my Broiled Stuffed Mushrooms, asparagus, salad, and Eggplant Parmesan. I felt I was craving lots of veggies so this meal was perfect.



For the tofu cream, combine the tofu, sugar, and vanilla in a food possessor. While it's on, add the almond milk. Pour into a bowl and let it firm up a bit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
In a saucepan, combine the agar agar flakes, and 2 cups of the apple juice. Just set it aside for 10-15 minutes so that the flakes can soak. Meanwhile, combine the remaining two cups apple juice and mango chunks and puree in either a blender or food processor. If it's a little chunky, don't worry about it because mine wasn't a smooth puree either. Just set that aside for the time being. Now bring the agar agar flakes and apple juice mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Let it simmer until the flakes disintegrate completely. Next, combine the agar-apple juice mixture with the mango puree and process again. Pour into a large tupperware container and then drop the strawberries and plums inside. Let it refrigerate until it firms up. This happens somewhat quickly, within an hour even. This makes about 8-10 servings. It keeps great in the fridge so you can have it for breakfast the next day. Just serve with a couple spoon fulls of the tofu cream sauce and you're set!

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Gnocchi with Rosemary-Butter Sauce

Level of Difficulty: so simple
Pots/Pans Used: only two!

Ingredients

1 pkg gnocchi
1/4 cup vegan margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp rosemary, ground
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

The fact that I haven't been grocery shopping in at least a month is a testament to how basic and easy this recipe is. I managed to whip up this recipe with the few ingredients left in the far depths of my pantry. It's incredibly simple, only takes a few minutes to make, just sounds impressive AND it's delicious to boot! I used rosemary but you could easily experiment with a thyme-butter sauce or even a sage-butter sauce. Take artistic license!... Even if you're only doing it because you're out of rosemary :)



Prepare the gnocchi according to the instructions. It generally only takes about 2-3 minutes to cook. Meanwhile, in a saute pan, melt the margarine over medium heat. Then add the garlic and let it get tender and brown a little... about 4 minutes. I ground my own dried Rosemary with a mortar and pestle. I wouldn't recommend not using ground, otherwise the whole leaves get stuck in your teeth and overall it's just not a pleasant texture. Add the rosemary, salt and pepper and stir up for about 20 seconds. Finally, add the nutritional yeast. It will absorb most of the liquid and flavor and begin to clump up. Don't worry, this is supposed to happen. Add the gnocchi into the pan and stir up. You will see that the heat and moisture from the gncchi help the sauce melt a little and coat all the gnocchi. Keep stirring until you feel it is completely coated well. That's really all there is to it. Feel free to garnish with more s & p and nutritional yeast. I don't recommend garnishing with rosemary leaves like me. It was mainly just for the sake of getting a pretty picture. Enjoy your gnocchi!

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POM Wonderful

Sorry these posts have been going up slower than I would like lately, but I've been busy moving into a new apartment. No worries, that's over and done with and I have an even larger kitchen now to do my experiments in!
In other news...
POM wonderful was nice enough to send me a case of blueberry pomegranate juice in the mail to try out. Because I was already a fan of POM juice, I was really excited for it to arrive so that I could start trying it out in some recipes. I tested a few out, but these were definitely the favorites. Best part about them? You don't have to clean any pots and pans!

Pomegranate Vinaigrette


Level of Difficulty: no brainer
Pots/Pans Used: none

Ingredients

5 TBL POM blueberry pomegranate juice
3 TBL apple cider vinegar
1 TBL agave
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 TBL mustard
s & p

Combine all ingredients and whisk together. Serve over a salad with some sliced Gardein chik'n nuggets.


Pomegranate Lemonade


Level of Difficulty: see above
Pots/Pans Used: none!

Ingredients

(this is for a single serving)
1/2 cup lemonade
1/4 cup limeade
1/2 cup POM blueberry pomegranate juice
1/4 cup pineapple juice
fresh strawberries and mint to garnish

I recently went to Olive Garden and they're featuring these new fancy lemonades which was the inspiration for this drink. I got a strawberry-mango lemonade and it was pretty amazing. All you do is combine ingredients lemonade through pineapple juice and serve with ice. Garnish with strawberries and fresh mint. Depending on the flavors you like best, you can mix up the measurements. You can also chop up an assortment of fruits and add them into the drink. Enjoy!... this drink compliments the Florida heat pretty perfectly.

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