Vegetable Lasagna

I happened upon this recipe on Pinterest recently and it sounded so good I decided to throw it into the running for our 2013 Christmas dinner. I've made a few different vegan lasagnas before and though they've all turned out okay, I wasn't thrilled with any of them. SO instead of jumping right in on Christmas day I thought this time I would test it out in advance in case it was underwhelming... and I'm so glad I did! But not because it turned out badly, just the opposite in fact! It was SO tasty I can't wait to make it again! I was surprised to find it tasted very similar to it's non-vegan counterpart! I made just a few changes to the original, here's the recipe as I made it.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 Cloves Garlic, minced
• 8 ounces Mushrooms, sliced
• 4-5 cups veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)
• homemade pasta sauce (I left out the spices called for in the original recipe because my sauce already had them in it)
• 1 pound Lasagna Noodles, cooked
• 3 Large Sweet Potatoes, baked and mashed
• about 1/2 cup Daiya shredded non dairy mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Start by baking your sweet potatoes. Scoop out and mash with a fork. You can do this ahead of time or use left overs (which is what I did). 
2. Steam broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, then saute mushrooms and garlic in olive oil. In a bowl combine all of the cooked veggies.
3. Cover the bottom of your pan with your pasta sauce.
4. Add a layer of noodles and sweet potato.
5. Next add half of the vegetable mixture, sauce and cheese.
6. Add another layer of noodles and sweet potato, followed by the rest of the vegetables, more sauce and more cheese.
7. Finish it off with a final layer of noodles, topped with sauce and cheese.
8. Cover and Bake for about an hour in a preheated oven to 400 degrees. The last 15 minutes of baking time take the foil off. Let it rest about 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

It was delicious! Though my youngest son wasn't a big fan, my 16 year old ate three big pieces and I liked it so much I was thrilled to have leftovers for lunch the next day! :) The only thing I found it was lacking was a pinch of salt (because I don't add salt to my homemade spaghetti sauce) but sprinkling a tiny bit on my own individual pieces fixed that issue. I look forward to not only making this again on Christmas day, but adding it to our regular meal rotation for sure!

Creamy Potato and Corn Chowder

This is my second shot at a corn chowder recipe, the first turned out to be QUITE spicy, so the mild flavor of this chowder was refreshing. The original was a vegan recipe to begin with so I only had to make a few small changes to suit our personal tastes and it was just what we needed on this COLD snowy night! :)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4 ribs of celery, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 4 cups organic vegetable broth
• 5 large russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 3.5 cups frozen corn
• 2 cans creamed corn
• 3 cups rice milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• sprinkle of salt, pepper, garlic powder (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat a skillet on medium heat with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the celery and carrots to the skillet and saute 8-10 minutes, until carrots and celery have softened. Add the salt, pepper and garlic powder if using.
2. Meanwhile, bring the 4 cups of vegetable broth to boil in a large pot. Add the peeled and chopped potatoes and boil for about 8-10 minutes, until fork tender. Once the potatoes have cooked, add in the sauteed vegetables.
3. Next, add in both the frozen and the canned corn. Whisk the flour together with the rice milk in a liquid measuring cup and add to the rest of the soup. Return everything to a light boil and stir in the flour. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens, reduce heat and simmer a few minutes more to bring all of the flavors together.

Voila! That's it! The result was a nice, thick, hearty soup with a great flavor. I love that it uses ingredients I pretty much always have on hand so we will definitely be adding this one to the regular Fall/Winter rotation! :)

Christmas dinner 2013

Speaking of Christmas dinner... I've pulled together my list for this year and it looks so darn good I kinda wish it was Christmas tomorrow! :) Like last year, my family has agreed to a completely vegan meal so I'm excited! We'll be down four people for dinner this year (my sister's kids will be with their dad), but I'm still cooking for a group of nine so hopefully most everyone will like what I've chosen.

Here's my list...

APPETIZERS: 

• Hummus and Pita Bread
• Breaded Zucchini Sticks

MAIN COURSES:

• Lasagna with Sweet Potato and Cauliflower
• Lentil Shepard's Pie

SIDES:

• Mushroom Bread
• White Beans and Artichoke "Bliss in a Dish"
• roasted veggies (broccoli, carrots, etc)
• salad

DESSERT:

• Cranberry Orange Pecan Cake
• maybe a pie of some sort - apple cranberry?

I may also make some cookies but it just depends on how many days I have to work leading up to Christmas and how my arthritis is feeling at the time. Can't wait for dinner this year! Only 16 days away!! :)

Mushroom Bread

I had a bunch of leftover mushrooms from Thanksgiving that needed to be used up before they went bad, so I went on a search for recipes and decided to go with this one. The original wasn't vegan, but it was super easy to swap out for non dairy ingredients. This is the recipe, as I made it...

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 loaf French or Italian bread
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance buttery spread, softened
• Daiya shredded non dairy mozzarella cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Slice bread in half horizontally.
3. Mix together mushrooms, garlic and butter. Spread the mixture on both sides of the cut bread. Place the bread, cut sides up, on a baking sheet. Sprinkle preferred amount of Daiya non dairy cheese over mushroom mixture. 
4. Bake in preheated oven until cheese has melted, about 10-15 minutes. Cut in wedges to serve.

My boys looked at this as I was putting it together and said, "gross, I hate mushrooms!" When it came out of the oven they both ate multiple pieces.  Apparently mushrooms aren't so bad after all. ;) Personally I loved it! I think I may even add it to my Christmas menu this year. Delish! Will make this one again for sure!

Vegetarian Kale Soup

I've never had kale before. After being vegan for about a year, and hearing SO many people raving about kale this and kale that, the health benefits, the flavor... I decided it was time to finally give a try. So a few days ago when I made my grocery store run, I picked up a bunch of kale. With no idea or plan on how I was going to prepare it. Last night, while searching for a recipe to use up my broccoli I came across this vegetarian kale soup recipe on AllRecipes. I figured, why not... and got started.

I always read the reviews before getting started on a new dish. A lot of times I find helpful tips that aren't in the original recipe but really improve the flavor. What I learned this time was that I would need to adjust things just a smidge to get a spicier soup (because my kids are big fans of the heat). So here is my slightly altered version of the above recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8-10 cloves garlic, minced
• pinch cayenne pepper
• dash red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
• 1 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used pink himalayan)
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 large bunch kale, stems removed, leaves chopped
• 1/2 Hungarian hot pepper, diced
• 8 cups organic vegetable broth
• 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 2 cans white beans (I used great northern)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot, cook the garlic until browned. Stir in the kale and cook until wilted, approximately 3-5 minutes. 
2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook over med-high heat (lid on) for approximately 1-2 hours or until potatoes are tender. 

My 14 year old and I both ate two bowls. I really liked the taste and texture of the kale, I'll definitely be making this again. Though the next time I think I'd like to add some chopped carrots, a couple more potatoes (or just larger ones, mine were pretty small) and maybe some corn. 

Corn Chowder

I've been craving corn chowder since I went to Panera for lunch earlier this summer and saw they were offering it. Unfortunately the Panera variety has dairy in it so I knew I'd need to make my own. I bookmarked a few recipes and chose this one for dinner tonight because I had pretty much everything on hand. I substituted where necessary but basically followed this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced (I subbed yellow)
• 2 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno (I subbed 1/2 hungarian hot pepper)
• 2 cups non dairy milk (I used coconut)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon salt (I used pink himalayan)
• additional salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot bring broth, potatoes, corn, bell pepper, jalapeno and garlic to boil. Turn the heat down to low and put the lid on. Let simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. 
2. Add in the non dairy milk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep cooking on low heat until warmed through. Or longer until desired soup has reached desired thickness. 

I like my soups on the thicker side so I cooked it on medium heat (lid on) for about an hour after adding the milk. Even my 16 year old (who loves spicy food) had to stop halfway through bowl #2 to blow his nose! ;) You can definitely taste the heat of that hungarian hot pepper! My lips and tongue, even the roof of my mouth, were burning when I was finished eating. Six thumbs up from the three of us who ate it. Carter mentioned he thought it tasted a lot like the Cauliflower, Carrot & Potato soup I made in December. I totally agree, though tonight's dish was definitely spicer thanks to that hungarian pepper!

Spaghetti with Broccoli, Chickpeas and Garlic

Made this last week and never posted the recipe. I found the original here, had all of the ingredients on hand so I thought, why not! I made a few very minor changes to what was written, and it was good, though it would be slightly better with a couple more changes so I'm going to post it here with those changes in case I come back later to make it again...

INGREDIENTS

• 12-15 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large bunches fresh broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (15 oz) can chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 pound spaghetti noodles
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• pinch cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cook garlic and red pepper flakes in oil over moderate heat, stirring until garlic is golden, approximately 1 minute. Add broccoli and salt and cook stirring occasionally, until broccoli is crisp-tender, about 7-10 minutes. Stir in chick peas and cook until heated through.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water, then drain pasta. Add pasta and reserved cooking water to broccoli and chick peas and cook over moderate heat, tossing until well combined. Stir in lemon juice. Serve drizzled with additional olive oil.

We happened to have some (ick) parmesan cheese, that was left here by my dad, so the boys sprinkled some on their bowls. I didn't actually drizzle with additional olive oil at the end like it said to, but I think it needed it so next time I definitely will. When I made this I doubled everything, except for the broccoli because I only had one bunch in the fridge, but including the chickpeas. All four of us were in agreement that it was just too many chickpeas and not enough broccoli. So the version I've posted here has been adapted to reflect that. Other than that the flavor was quite tasty and it was a great way for me to use up my broccoli before it went bad. ;)