English Muffin Bread

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  I had a wonderful first Christmas as a married lady with my hubby.  As much as I love Christmas, I'm a little bit relieved the holidays are winding down.  I enjoy the whole month of December, with all the decorations and parties, but it is a lot of work (and spending money and not eating so great!).  

One of my gifts this year to coworkers and family was English muffin bread.  If you haven't had English muffin bread before you are missing out.  My gift to you is that I will share my (veganized) recipe for you to enjoy yourself.

I used to beg my mom to make me a loaf of English muffin bread.  It tends to disappear quickly.  My mother's recipe is not vegan but the other week she gave us a loaf…a vegan one!  I didn't think it was possible, but it was so good, and my husband and I polished off half the load before breakfast time.  All it took was two simple substitutions and you too can have a (vegan) loaf of your very own.  

I'll admit.  It's a little bit of a pain in the butt to make and messy.  Well maybe I'm just messy.  Dylan had to clean the kitchen after I was done…flour everywhere.  Once you get the hang of it it's really not so hard to make.  Here's what you'll need…

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups four (spoon cups with a spoon to pack lightly)
• 2 packages of active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups unsweeted soy or almond milk (be conscious of allergies!)
• 1/2 water
• cornmeal
• vegan butter (for lining pans)

First you're going to combine 3 cups of flour, the yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda into a bowl.  Heat your milk and water in a separate pan until they are warm.   Since I was making these for coworkers I used soy milk because I wasn't sure if their kids had any nut allergies.  You have to be careful these days.  The soy milk came out fine and I used almond milk for my family at it was perfect as well.   After your water and milk are heated add this to the dry ingredients and stir in more flour to make a stiff batter.  I would recommend using an electric mixer for this.  Grease two 8.4x4.5 inch pans with vegan butter and sprinkle cornmeal on the sides.  Next you spoon your batter into the pans.  Cover your pans and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.  I don't have too many warm spots in my apartment so I keep it in the oven on the warm setting.  

Next cook your breads at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and you're done!  Remove the bread from the pans right away and let the loaves cool.  Make sure you toast this bread before you eat it!  I recommend slicing it nice and thin.  I've also used this bread to make garlic bread.  Yum.  

I have a couple more packs of yeast calling for me to crank out some more loaves of this bread while we are on winter break.  I think I'm in trouble.  As you can see from the meal above, we've been eating very well this holiday!

Sophie get's some mashed potatoes as well!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Vegan Meatballs

As you can probably tell by now, I love feeding people.  My husband and I had our parents over for dinner on Saturday night and I was super excited to cook for them.  I love having people over and you can guarantee I'm going to make way too much food (who doesn't love leftovers?).  Having people over (especially on weekends) allows me to really bring it to the waltz when it comes to meal prep.

Since our parents were our guests I'm made everything from scratch. I'm kicked the husband and child out of the house (don't worry they had fun seeing Santa) so I could really get to work (and clean this place up!).  I dressed the puggle up in her best Christmas outfit and got to work…

I mentioned my sauce recipe on here before so that was in the works because I'm made (drumroll) vegan  meatballs!  How do you make vegan meatballs you may ask, well I'll tell you.  The main ingredient for my meatballs is mushrooms.  Don't turn your nose up yet.  Mushrooms are a nice meat substitute because (not to be redundant but) they have a nice meatiness to them.  You've probably seen portobello mushroom burgers on menus before.  My husband it not really a big fan of mushrooms but he likes when they are disguised in a recipe.  I've tested these meatballs out on him before and he approves so stay with me...

Meatballs are fun to make.  Vegan meatballs are especially fun because you don't have to fret about contamination from meat or eggs.  You can really get your hands dirty (literally) with vegan meatballs (after washing them first of course!).

I've seen quite a few recipes for vegan meatballs online, and I took inspiration here and there depending on my family's preferences.  My (now vegan) husband always talks about his nana's meatball recipe and how they had oatmeal in them.  Of course I couldn't make vegan meatballs without oatmeal so I incorporated that into mine.  Here's what I did…

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/4 cups oatmeal (uncooked)
• 10 ounces of sliced mushrooms 
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 shallot (you don't really need the shallot, but I love them!)
• 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
• vegetable oil (for frying)
• salt and pepper to taste

First in a pan I sautéed the onion, garlic and shallot in olive oil until they were lightly browned.  I then added the veggies to the Vitamix (you can use a food processor if you don't have one).  I added my flour and oatmeal (add spices here!) to the mix.  

You should get a sticky brown mixture and you should not be able to differentiate between onion, oatmeal and so on.  This mix is going to be pretty hot after sautéing the veggies so let it sit in the fridge for a little bit.  Once it's cooled I scooped out about two tablespoons at a time and rolled it into a ball.  You can really make you meatballs any size (tiny ones would be great for sliders!), plus you don't really have to worry about internal temperature (since it's vegan!)

You know I like to be healthy, but sometimes you need to fry…these meatballs are a perfect example.  I put my meatballs in a pan with some vegetable oil.  I cooked and flipped them over medium heat until the meatballs were browned on the outside.   

I then added my meatballs to my homemade sauce and served over pasta.  I know they're not your traditional Italian meatballs but everyone seemed to enjoy them!  Cheers!

Happy Holidays Sangria

My husband and I had a major milestone this weekend…we hosted our first party together.  Hosting can be a tad stressful, but it's a heck of a lot easier when I have someone else I can tell to clean the bathroom and take out the trash.

Check out Sophie's festive sweater.

The holidays are a great excuse to eat and drink too much.  One of my favorite drinks to make is sangria.  I've been exposed to some quality sangria and some subpar sangria, and I've come up with what I think is a pretty solid combination.  It doesn't involve the most quality ingredients in the world (as you can probably tell by the box of wine) but it's tasty and it's great for a party.  Plus it's super easy to make!

I think the trick with sangria is that you need to make it ahead of time.  That way the fruit, juice, and alcohol really become one.  It's science trust me.

I recommend making your sangria 24-48 hours in advance (just make sure you're not going to sample it too much!).  We had our party on Friday night, so I made my Thursday evening after work.  There's nothing like making a big batch of sangria after a long day at work...

Ingredients:

• One box of white wine (I think they're usually about 3 liters)
• 2 cups of triple sec (more or less depending how potent you want your sangria to be)
• 3 cups of pineapple juice
• fresh fruit 

With the fresh fruit you can really get creative here.  You can use whatever is in season (or on sale!).  My favorite combo is a fresh pineapple chopped up, one orange cut and squeezed, and two limes cut and squeezed.  I throw everything together in a pitcher and 24-48 hours later…magic.

Happy holidays!

Chorizo Rolls

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  I certainly did and now I am avoiding pants with buttons for the next few days or so.

We had a great weekend.  Jim the Elf arrive to completely creep out our five year old (but also keep him in line), we set up our Christmas tree, and we relaxed and ate some great food.  Today was absolutely beautiful out so I took our dog out for a nice long walk at my favorite spot.  

Speaking of great food, I think I found a new favorite for my husband.  Best of all…it's two ingredients!

Ingredients

• 2 packages of puff pastry (Pillsbury is vegan!!!)
• 1 package of Trader Joe's soy chorizo 

* The two packages of puff pastry will finish off the entire package of chorizo, but if you have just one puff pastry the extra chorizo makes a great contribution to sauces or vegan tacos!

I have some Portuguese ancestry so I have a soft spot for chorizo (well soy chorizo).  A friend of mine used to bring in a non vegetarian version of these to work and they always were a hit.  She would make chorizo rolled up in a puff pastry and those things would disappear quickly.  I realized I had all the ingredients in my refrigerator and thought I'd give it a shot at making a vegan version.   

Super simple.  I put about 2 tablespoons of the soy chorizo on the crescent roll and roll them up.  As you can see some come out prettier than others...

I cooked the rolls at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.  And about 12 minutes after that half of the rolls were gone…

The hubby and I are hosting a Christmas party this weekend and I plan on making a big batch of these.  I'm looking forward to sharing more recipes/reviews for the holiday season!

Vegan Cheddar Biscuits

I love Thanksgiving.  I love everything about it.  Except for the turkey that is.

Thanksgiving can be a nightmare for vegetarians and vegans.  There's meat and gravy everywhere and lots of relatives asking you questions about where do you get your protein.  Therefore, it's not uncommon for veggies (and some of their non veggie friends) to gather together before Thanksgiving and have their own feast.  I've done with before with my friends and this weekend with got together with my husband's college buddies and had a blast.

One of my contributions to this gathering was my vegan cheddar biscuits.  Here's what you do...

Ingredients 

• 2/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup Bisquick mix
• 2 tablespoons vegan butter softened
• about 1/2 cup Daiya cheddar cheese shreds
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste

First you need to make yourself some vegan buttermilk.  Take your almond milk and lemon and whisk it together in a bowl.  Let this sit for about five minutes.  I threw all the dry ingredients in a bowl and added the "buttermilk" once it was ready.  I cooked it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I made another batch of these babies but with peppers and garlic chopped up and mixed in.  I honestly think you could add anything to these biscuits and not go wrong.  The possibilities are endless.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Review: Gardein Chipotle Line Crispy Fingers

Review time.

So lots of things have happened since the last time I posted…the Patriots almost gave all of New England a heart attack, my husband and I discovered Game of Thrones, and I've been sick.  It's that time of year and it comes with the job, but I've been down and out and it's never fun.  

I'm finally starting to feel better and I realize we have so much frozen food in our kitchen.  I'm making it a goal this week to use up as much of our frozen food a possible, which brings me to my review this evening.  Gardein's Chipotle Line Crispy Fingers.  Yummy.

We picked this baby up at Whole Foods when my husband and I went there pretending to be rich.  Well I guess we deserve a trip there once in awhile…What kills me about Whole Foods is I can find a lot of the food their cheaper other places (such as Gardein products) but they carry things I can't seem to find anywhere else, such as these "chicken" fingers.  

My mom made us a vegan pumpkin bread this weekend (amazing!) and also sent me home with some minestrone soup (I have yet to confirm if it was homemade or not).  So tonight I made a soup and salad combo.  

So back to the "chicken", it was good!  There was a subtle southwestern taste to the chicken, and it was nice and crispy on the outside.  I loved it on the salad but I think it would be great in a wrap as well with some vegan sour cream.  

I heated up our minestrone soup and stuck some Daiya cheese and bread crumbs on top.  Then I put the  bowls under the broiler for a minute or two.  Soup is best served on a rooster tray.  

Happy end of the weekend!

Review: Trader Joe's Hot and Sweet Chili Jam

So it's Friday, hence it's pizza night.  There's only so much I can tell you about vegan pizza and I'm pretty sure I've told you everything I know.  So I'll share something else...

So tonight I'm doing another review.  I took another trip to Trader Joe's tonight, and it's amazing what you find when the store isn't packed like it is on the weekend.  I came across a new hot and sweet chili jam.  I've pretty much drawn to any sort of spicy food.  I picked it up and read the suggestion that this jam can be served with cream cheese on a cracker.  Easy vegan fix.  I'm super indecisive so of course I put it down and came back to it later.

I paired with with our favorite vegan alternative to cream cheese, Tofutti, and served the jam on a Ritz cracker.  It was awesome!

My plating leaves something to be desired, but this would be an awesome appetizer.  And super easy of course.  The jam is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, and goes great with the cream cheese to cool everything down.  

Review: Daiya Mac and Cheese

Can you believe I never really liked macaroni and cheese until I was in college?  I know right?  It's two of my favorite things; pasta and cheese.  

Tonight I'd like to introduce you to Daiya's version of macaroni and cheese.  We love the Daiya products, especially their version of shredded mozzarella cheese we use on our pizza.  My mom picked up a package of this once for us and we loved it, so when I sent my husband out on a rare trip to the grocery store for him, he came back with this mac and cheese, "alfredo style."  

This is definitely one of our favorite instant vegan alternatives to macaroni and cheese.  Daiya is a little bit different from other versions of vegan mac and cheese we've tried.  Instead of a powered cheese, the Daiya version had a creamy "cheese" you add to the pasta.  It tastes JUST like regular mac and cheese (I swear!).  

Mac and cheese is fun too because you can spruce it up.  I made mine tonight with vegan beef crumble, roasted red pepper, and tomatoes.  I mixed everything together and crumbled Ritz crackers (yes those are vegan!) and nutritional yeast on top of the mixture.  Then I added a little Daiya shredded cheese. I cooked it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees in the sweet casserole dish we got as a wedding gift over the summer.  

Family approved.  Or at least the dog was begging for some.  

Chili II

My husband and I have a lot in common.  We're both special education teachers, we're both terrible at putting away laundry, and we both make a mean chili.  Those are actually the three reasons why we got married…

Okay not really, but I think it's nice to have a friendly rivalry when it comes to cooking.  We're having friends over next week and we're planning on making both of our chills.  I've introduced my version on here before, but my hubby's is very different (hence why we can serve them at the same time without being redundant).  His is very…let's say "collegey"???  And not in an educational sense, more like poor college kid throwing everything in his fridge together and some how amazingly making something that tastes good.

.  You'll know what I'm talking about when you see the ingredients…Also, please notice how the dog is stalking my husband in the picture above...

Ingredients

• 1 can vegetarian baked beans
• 1 can black beans (drained)
• 1 can red kidney beans (drained)
• 2 packages of veggie crumble
• 1 onion chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 red pepper
• 1 can diced tomatoes (with the juice)

All you need to do is mix everything together.  We made ours in our crock pot and cooked it on low for six hours.  I was skeptical, but it was delicious.  We threw some sliced jalapeño peppers and Daiya cheese on there and in the words of my husband "BOOM"!

It's certainly a hardy chili with all the protein varieties.  The baked beans add a unique flavor too.  It's something that would satisfy vegetarians and non vegetarians alike.

We'll see who makes the better chili next week though...

Cast Iron Fun

So as I've mentioned before, Friday night is homemade pizza in our house.  It's pretty much my favorite night of the week.  Last night I tried to experiment a little though.

My husband and I both bring pizza stones into the relationship.  Thankfully, when we moved in together we hung on to both.  However, last night I broke out the cast iron skillet to make pizza.

It was awesome, and allowed for a thicker crust (who doesn't love more crust?)  I covered the bottom of the skillet with my corn meal and flaxseed mixture and then spread out the dough.  I don't' have a picture of the final product because I think we were too excited to eat it.  We thew some veggie chicken  nuggets and olives on top of the pizza above.  So good.  

The hubby and I had some Contadino pinot grigio with our pizza.  I'm usually not a huge pinot grigio fan, but this wine has a little bit of carbonation to it.  It's delicious.  It's a more expensive wine for us ( and by that I mean this was $6 dollars).

Happy weekend!

Review: Tofutti Cuties

Growing up we always had ice cream sandwiches.  Well maybe not always, but it seemed that way.  I'm not a huge dessert person but I always can appreciate an ice cream sandwich.  

I've found a vegan alternative that reminds me of my childhood.  Tofutti Cuties.  

And they are exactly that.  Cute.  They come 8 to a box and are "snack" size (aka the perfect size according to my mom).  

If you appreciate a good ice cream sandwich, but can't do dairy (or are vegan) I recommend these 100%.  They honestly taste just like the ones I had as a kid. I really love the Tofutti brand, so many vegan alternatives can be pricey, but I always find their products to be very reasonably priced.

Enjoy!

Vegan cream sauce

I made Thanksgiving in a bowl tonight.  I cleaned out our freezer and some of our pantry veggies to make the ultimate vegan comfort food.  It's a cold rainy night here,  and it's been a long day so obviously it's no time to watch calories (not like we ever do).

I'll spare you the recipe of everything I made tonight to focus on what pulled this meal together, vegan creamed onions.  You can't go wrong with Thanksgiving in a bowl.  Everyone's Thanksgiving is different. Our family's usually includes creamed onions.

I made homemade mashed potatoes, squash, and added corn, peas, and green beans to our bowl version of Thanksgiving.  Instead of turkey we had Trader Joe's "chicken" nuggets.  Now here's the point of me posting thing, the cream sauce.

I texted my mom today, thinking about this meal and that I could probably easily make this sauce vegan.  It was super easy and honestly didn't taste any different than the non vegan version.  Here's what I did:

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegan butter 
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

First you melt the vegan butter over low heat with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and bubbly.  Next remove the butter and flour from the heat and add the cup of almond milk.  Put this back on the stove and bring it to a boil for one minute.  Cook the mixture for about ten minutes until it is thickened.  I chopped two onions and one shallot on the side and cooked in a separate pot with a little vegan butter.  I added this to the cream sauce once it was cooked.

I made this my top layer to my Thanksgiving in a bowl combo.  When we serve this as a side dish on that special Thursday we usually use pearl onions.  

Not the healthiest of meals but very tasty.  I'm so looking forward to the holidays!

Friday Night Pizza

Yes, I realize it's only Wednesday, but I'm behind and I'm already looking forward to Friday.  It's not so far away!

Pizza.

Friday night is probably my favorite night of the week, even more so than Saturday.  Friday night is full of promise and potential.  In our home, making pizza on Friday night is one of our special traditions.  I get my pizza dough at Trader Joe's.  I buy it earlier in the week and store it in the freezer.  I take it out the night before I intend to use it.  They have several varieties to choose from so I usually buy one of each.  It's even labeled "vegan" which we appreciate!

So here' the secret.  I use a pizza stone and I roll out my dough in corn meal and flaxseed meal.  I make sure the dough is covered in the mixture (I usually about 50/50).  I cover the pizza stone with the mixture and just throw my dough on top and use a rolling pin, flipping the dough at least once.  It makes for a crispier crust that does not stick to the stone, plus you get the nutritional benefits of the flaxseed.

The hubby and I love playing around with different combinations of pizza.  This last Friday I marinaded some Gardein chicken strips in BBQ sauce and threw that on top of the pizza with onions and garlic.  You can't go wrong.

Vegan Shepard's Pie

It's been a busy week for the hubby and me (did you know teachers don't just work 6 hours a day???)  There's been some late nights at work so I actually went on my weekly grocery shopping trip on Wednesday.  Felt a little weird.  

Friday night is pizza night of course and this weekend my college roommate is getting married, so I really only had to worry about Wednesday and Thursday night.  I went with Shepard's pie.  

Ingredients

• 4 potatoes (I used two regular and 2 sweet potatoes)
• 2 tablespoons vegan mayo (I used Just Mayo)
• splash of unsweetened almond milk
• 1 package of precooked lentils
• 1 shallot
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 six oz. can of tomato paste
• as many veggies as you can fit/like (I used fresh celery and carrots and added frozen green beans, corn and peas)  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

This was so good.  I wouldn't post anything on here that wasn't a hit of course.  Sometimes when you're a vegetarian you miss out of going to restaurants and having some good comfort food.  Shepard's pie is definitely one of those foods you typically don't see a vegetarian version of.  I have made veggie Shepard's pie before but I used veggie beef crumble.  Last night I experimented with lentils and I didn't miss the veggie beef at all.  Trader Joe's sells a precooked package of lentils, so I went with that to make my life a little easier.   

Prep for this meal was super easy.  The hardest part was the mashed potatoes.  I've actually never made mashed potatoes before so I'm sure many of you have a better way of doing it.  I did get to break out my new potato masher though that I purchased at Crate and Barrel.  It was fun!  I have a picture of it on my Instagram attached to this page.  

So yeah, make mashed potatoes how ever people who know how to make mashed potatoes do.  I did mine with half sweet potatoes, pretending to be healthier.  I also mixed them with a splash of almond milk and some vegan mayo (vegan butter would work as well but I wanted to experiment).  I sautéed the garlic, shallot, and onion in my cast iron grill.  Then I added the fresh and frozen veggies and sautéed those as well.  I added the tomato paste and stirred that into the veggies.  

I spooned the mashed potatoes on top and added a little Daiya cheese as well.  I want to say I cooked it for about 15 minutes.  Figure, the mashed potatoes are already warm as well as the veggies.  The beauty about the cast iron grill is you can stick it in the oven (thanks Kiel and Rudy!).  It came out looking like this.  

It was a hit and (obviously) we had some leftovers for lunch the next day.  It's a pretty healthy version of a Shepard's pie too.  I served it with some farm fresh squash from my parents'.  It's a great dish to bring to a party or to make for the token vegetarian at the Thanksgiving dinner table.  

Enjoy!

Vegan Alfredo Sneak Peak

Monday was a long day for the hubby and me.  Tuesday is going to be even longer, so might as well make Monday count right?  

For Christmas my mother-in-law got me Chloe' Coscarelli's Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen cookbook.  I love it and have used several recipes from it.  Her dishes are simple, use minimal ingredients, and are easy to follow.  I hate when cookbooks have seemingly simple meals that call for twenty different ingredients that you need to go to Whole Foods for, this is not the case with this book.  

I can't really post someone else's recipe on here, but I'll give you a hint that the alfredo sauce is primarily made of cauliflower.  

I followed Chloe's recipe (I'm sure there are other vegan cauliflower ones online) but I added peas and vegan chicken to it to make it a well-rounded meal.  

For dessert we had some decaf espresso (we're coffee snobs of course) with some vegan vanilla ice-cream.  If you have never put ice cream (vegan or not) in your coffee you are missing out.  I saw this first when I visited Charleston, SC and had to try it.  

I know this wasn't really a recipe, but I had to share.  It's a great way to sneak veggies in for kids or to enjoy alfredo without all the calories.  I'm hoping to post a vegan shepard's pie later this week and I'll also share my secret to for making a delicious homemade pizza.  

"Veganized" Banana Bread

My husband is a fan of many things, but bananas are not one of them.  Oh well, it's not all about him.  My mom gave me a bunch of ripe bananas over the weekend.  They were perfect for baking.

After the long weekend it was time to do some grocery shopping.  I went to Trader Joe's after work today and loaded up for the week.  I came across the Banana Bread Mix and thought what better to use my ripe bananas for.  The ingredients did not require a banana but it was mentioned you can add all sorts of fixing to the banana bread mix, including ripe bananas.  However, this recipe called for two eggs.

No problem.  I knew I could come up with a binding substitute at home, and thew the mix in my cart. 

I know I have used different egg substitutes here before, so I experimented a bit tonight.  Tonight instead of one egg I used…

one egg = 1 tablespoon flaxseed and 3 tablespoons of water

Of course we're earthy crunchy enough to have flaxseed laying around and I whisked it together with the water and added it to my wet ingredients.  Besides my egg substitutes I followed all the other ingredients and directions, adding a mashed ripe banana as well.  I don't know if it's my oven or not but I ended up cooking the banana bread about ten minutes longer than directed.  That may have something to do with the fact I didn't use real eggs. 

The result…a tasty vegan banana bread.  So my breakfast tomorrow.  Enjoy!

Tofu Scramble

Tofu.  It's a wet block of soy with endless possibilities.  Have I sold it yet?

As a vegetarian, tofu is something I need to be well versed in.  It's loaded with protein and the options are endless as to what you can do with it.  

I've been extra inspired lately.  The hubs and I are lucky (for many reasons) but mostly because we live in walking distance (though we've never walked there) to an awesome Chinese food restaurant.  I measure Chinese food "awesomeness" by two criteria…

1. Does it make me feel disgusting after?
2. What are my vegetarian options?

First of all this place does not make me want to beach myself afterwards.  The ingredients are fresh and the food isn't greasy.  Second of all this place has an entire page of vegetarian/vegan options.  Awesome!

Last night we order a ton of food including two tofu dishes (they list it as "bean curd" mmmm bean curd).  They were both delicious as well as very different from one another.  That's the beauty of tofu.  

I want to share with you one of my favorite tofu go to's, the tofu scramble.  This is a dish my husband introduced to me (I use slightly less butter, and by slightly I mean not a whole stick).  Tofu scramble is super versatile, in that you can really do whatever you want with it, adding what ever veggies and sauces you wish.  I'll share with you our favorite tofu scramble.

Ingredients:

• 1 block extra firm tofu
• 1 pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 sharlot
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 crown of broccoli
• 2 tablespoon butter or olive oil
• 1/4 Bragg's amino acids

Again, you can use any veggies you want.  I try to make this for my family every Saturday morning and I use whatever I have on hand.  Below is a picture from one of my more aggressive Saturday morning family breakfasts since I don't have a good tofu scramble picture.  

Back to the tofu scramble.  Basically you're going to start with sautéing you're garlic and shallot.  Once those are cooked add the peppers and then the broccoli. 

 The most important part is the tofu.  Make sure you by the extra firm version of tofu.  There' are all different consistencies of tofu out there but the extra firm version is going to give you the most scrambled egg like texture.  Tofu is packaged in water, therefore it's important to wrap the tofu in a dish towel before using it.  If you can place a heavy-ish object on top of the wrapped tofu that is even better and will get a lot of the water out.  They do make tofu presses but we don't have one yet.  

Once your tofu is pressed crumble it up with your hands over the veggies and add your sauce.  Tofu scramble!

Super easy, as healthy as you want to make it (you can use more or less butter and oil), and super flexible.  You can't go wrong.  Once I added a cup of rice to our tofu scramble for fun and my husband loved it.  I hope you do as well.  

Here's Sophie doing what she does for 95% of the day.  Sleeping.  

Wednesday Night

Wednesday night.   It's a good night.  It's almost the weekend (emphasis on almost), the husband and I went for a nice walk since it was beautiful outside, and we had a delicious dinner.  

Here's Soph begging for some tofu...

We had a ton of fresh vegetables in our fridge so I decided to make another round of veggie lo mein.  I was feeling a little adventurous (and thin) so I decided to cut my veggie "noodles" with real pasta noodles.  No regrets.  

I cannot praise sesame oil enough.  It really made this dish.  If you're going to cook with an oil you might as well cook with something that's going to provide a lot of flavor.  Sesame oil is the way to go if you're cooking an Asian-inspired dish.  

I served our dinners in giant Fiestaware bowls my mom gave us to add to our collection.  My theory is you don't need portion control when you're consuming 80-90% vegetables.  

My one regret of the evening was with my chili paste.  Not for me but for my husband.  Sometimes I forget that I am genetically superior when it comes to consuming spicy food compared to Dylan.  He still tries to keep up with me though.  His first round of veggie lo mein was spice-free, the second round he added some chili paste.  He needed a couple of cans of seltzer water after that...  All in moderation my friends.  However, if you are a fan of spicy food I suggest you buy some chili paste.  It's spicy and it's zero calories and most importantly tasty!

We ended the evening with some fresh air popped popcorn.  If you don't have a popcorn maker you're missing out.  My brother got me this one years ago and I love it.  It's a great healthy snack.  I added some melted vegan butter and nutritional yeast to ours tonight.  Better than the movies!