Vegan Mac 'n Cheese

http://www.vegkitchen.com/recipes/pasta-and-noodles/pasta-dishes/vegan-macaroni-and-cheese/

Above is where you can find this recipe. I added thawed frozen peas, topped it with "buttery" (Earth Balance) bread crumbs and baked it for 20 min. Man oh man. This is excellent. Tastes very comforting and rich.

"Beefy" Mac and Cheese Revised from Food Network Magazine

In my quest to make all things vegan, I thought I'd try this recipe from the October 2012 issue of Food Network Magazine called Beefy Mac and Cheese.

8 oz pasta medium (This makes a ton of pasta. Feel free to use 1/2 this amount.)

3 tbsp unsalted vegan butter

1 small onion chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp chili powder

8 oz soy crumbles (I used Boca)

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 cup soy milk

2 1/2 cups Daiya Pepperjack cheese 

2 tbsp panko

1 cup frozen peas

Cook the pasta.  

In a pot that you can also transfer to the oven, cook the onions in 1 tbsp melted Origins "butter."  Once they soften add the tomato paste, chili powder and a little salt.  Stir and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the soy crumbles and peas until heat through, stirring to break up the frozen bits. 

Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, melt the remaining 2 tbsp of butter and add the flour. Whisk to for about a minute and then add the soy milk. Whisk until the flour/butter mix has dissolved then add the cheese and stir until cheese has melted.  Add pasta and salt to taste.  Preheat the broiler. 

Add the cheesy pasta to the top of the beef mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs mixed with cheese. (I forgot that part and just put on the panko. Oops.) Place the pot under the broiler until the breadcrumbs are golden. Warning! That happens fast. 

 Oh so creamy pasta, with a spicy finish. I loved this. So very hearty and filling. The only "complaint" was that the pasta amount was too much for me so next time I will only use half a box. 

Creole Style Vegan Pasta

PASTA CREOLE WITH VEGAN SAUSAGE

Source: www.vegkitchen.com

Course: Main Course

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 ounces pasta any short shape
• 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
• 8 links vegan sausage sliced 1/2-inch thick
• 1 large onion quartered and sliced
• 2 large celery stalks diced
• 1 medium green diced or red bell pepper
• 28 -ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon each: dried basil and thyme
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley or more, to taste
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook the pasta, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat half of the oil in a large skillet. Sauté the sausage slices over medium heat, turning gently to brown on both sides. Remove to a plate.
3. Heat the remaining oil in the same skillet. Add the onion and sauté until it is translucent. Add the celery and bell pepper and continue to sauté until the mixture is golden.
4. Add the tomatoes, basil, and thyme. Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
5. Combine the cooked pasta, sausage, and skillet mixture. Add the parsley and toss well to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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I had no idea how good Tofurky brand sausage could be! I used the kielbasa and it was wonderful in this. This would probably fool a meat eater. I used one can fire roasted diced tomatoes and half a box of Pomi tomato puree rather than one large can of diced tomatoes. It still wasn't very saucy. The flavors were perfect. It made a ton of pasta.

Sun Dried Tomato and "Chicken" Stuffed Shells

Wow. This was SO good. I found the original recipe at Maplespice.com and tweaked it to suit my needs. It's vegan and just wonderful.

Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients I used:

1 box of jumbo pasta shells, cooked to package instructions. Drain and cool.
Galaxy Nutritional Foods Vegan Mozzarella shreds.

4 Gardein "chicken" scaloppini, defrosted.
A handful of fresh basil leaves.
8 pieces of sun dried tomatoes in oil
1/2 cup diced onions
1/4 teaspoon of smoked sea salt

Pulse all of the above in a food processor until creamy and blended. It had the consistency of cream cheese once done. Stuff the shells with the mixture and place in baking dish.

For the sauce:
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning blend of dried spices
1 glug red wine
1 teaspoon sugar

Heat all in pan and simmer for 20 minutes (while the noodles are cooking and you are making the filling.)

Cover stuffed shells in sauce and cover with Galaxy Vegan mozzarella cheese shreds.
Bake for 30 minutes.  Place pan under broiler for  few minutes more to "melt" the cheese.

1. Delicious and very satisfying. Didn't taste like "fake" anything.
2. The sauce was a bit liquidy in the pan after it was cooked. But I think this will help keep the leftovers from drying out.
3. The cheese didn't melt as I'd hoped but it tasted good.
4. Next time I'll add spinach.
5. This is a weekend meal as it required more time than I can afford to spend in the kitchen during the week.
6. My picture isn't so pretty but boy is it good!

Chicken Parmesan

Guiltless Chicken Parmesan

According to Clean Eating Magazine, this recipe was created by Robin Miller. I've enjoyed her show on The Food Network (TFN) and I love her cookbooks so it was an easy decision to make this. It's a bit more time consuming than the recipes I usually make, so I saved it for a weekend night. It still didn't take much time to put together.  One tip I learned from TFN was to get everything I will need out before I start. I can't believe how much time I wasted going around my kitchen looking for things in the past. I realize this is a "duh" tip but as someone who didn't really start cooking until her late 30's, this was pretty eye opening. (I cooked but mostly pre-packaged things like...gulp....Hamburger Helper.)

We enjoyed this. You notice the mustard but it doesn't taste as weird as it might sound. I felt it was missing something but I concluded that it was the fact that I didn't use an obscene amount of cheese, as I would have in the past. I do like cheese.  But this was still very good. Quite filling.

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil cooking spray
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup white onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp dried oregano, divided
• 1 28-oz jar crushed organic tomatoes
• 1 tbsp organic tomato paste (mine was with roasted garlic so I only used 1 clove garlic)
• 1/2 cup  panko bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp reduced-fat Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 4 4-oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1-inch thickness
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 8 oz cooked whole-wheat penne (or your favorite pasta)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic and saute 3 to 5 minutes, until vegetables are soft. Add 1 tsp oregano and stir to coat. Cook 30 seconds, until oregano is fragrant. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, partially cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a shallow dish, combine panko, Parmesan, remaining 1 tsp oregano, thyme, salt and black pepper. Mix with a fork to combine. Brush both sides of each chicken breast with Dijon. Transfer each breast to panko mixture and turn to coat both sides. Arrange chicken on prepared baking sheet. Coat surface of chicken with cooking spray. Bake 20 minutes. 
4. Top each chicken breast with 2 to 3 tbsp tomato sauce and 2 tbsp mozzarella. Return chicken to oven and bake 10 minutes more, until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbly. (Mine took 15 minutes instead of 10 and came out perfectly.)
5. Arrange pasta on a serving plate and top with remaining tomato sauce. Serve chicken with pasta on the side, garnishing both with basil.