Almond Cheeze from GF Vegan Holidays

My mom found this awesome recipe by Flying Apron's Jennifer Katzinger. It's an almond cheeze recipe from her Gluten Free and Vegan Holidays Cookbook. This recipe is absolutely HEAVENLY. Serve it with her homemade crackers or any type of cracker, and you have yourself an amazing dip for any festivity. I told my mom that she should've probably made it into a prettier log, but we were so excited to try this, we just wanted it! I had Bill try it, and he said it tasted like cheese!! So here it is, Flying Apron's Almond Cheeze

Flying Apron's Almond Cheeze

1 Cup Almonds, soaked for 10 hours or overnight

1/4 Cup Filtered Water

1/4 Cup EVOO

2 Cloves Garlic

1/4 Cup Fresh Thyme, plus extra for garnish

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan Sea Salt

Pinch of Ground Black Pepper

1) Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and combine until the cheese has a smooth, creamy texture (you might need to add more EVOO or water if it is not). Place cheeze into a mold and put in the refrigerator until it is ready to serve. To plate: add garnished thyme to the top

Feta Cheeze for Amanda Pleeze

Lately, my cheese gone vegan addiction has hit the highest of highs. I know, it's bad, but sauces, soups, and condiments are my favorite things to recreate, because they can make any food taste amazing! I was instantly inspired to create something vegan after going to see "Vegucated" at our student union, the Hub. This one I have been wanting to do for awhile, considering the fact that if I liked any cheese, it was feta. And to top off this little story, feta is one of my closest friends' favorite cheese (she basically studied abroad at Greece for it!). So here ya go Amanda, not only does this taste better than feta, but it's sooooooo much cheesier. #Supersmashclub

Feta Cheeze

1 block x-tra firm tofu

2 T filtered water

1 teaspoon Himalayan Sea Salt

2 Tablespoons White Miso Paste

2 teaspoons Herbes De Provence (My favorite!)

1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 1/2 T Nutritional Yeast

1) Crumble tofu in a mixing bowl

2) Pour in all the other ingredients except your nutritional yeast

3) "Fold" - or mix all your ingredients together until it is coating your tofu crumbles

4) Let it sit for 15 minutes, then sprinkle on nutritional yeast to your desired consistency.

Ed weeks- If you see my blog, please find me and marry me. 

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites and Vegan Bleu Cheeeze!

So, I'm trying this new thing this week that includes making a new recipe everyday that also consists of cross-utilizing my "inventory" (sorry, I work too much in foodservice), and someone was saying it while we were doing a case study today in class! WELL ANYWAYS, part of my menu for the week consisted of the infamous Cauliflower. For today? Vegan Buffalo Bites Inspired by 86 Lemons. I saw this recipe on Veg News Pinterest board and I HAD to try it. Going veghead, I knew the one thing that I was going to miss would be buffalo chicken- it was my ultimate favorite. After seeing this recipe, I didn't even wait a week to try this out: it had to be done. The results? Ultimate awesomeness.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Bleu Cheeze

For the Cauliflower Bites

1/2 head Cauliflower, crumbled into nugget-sized pieces

1/2 Cup Flour

3/4 Cup Almond or Soy Milk

2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper, to taste 

1 Cup Sriracha (The Only thing Different, Really)

2 Tablespoons EVOO

For the Bleu Cheeze

1/4 cup X-tra Firm Tofu, Crumbled

1 Cup Vegan Mayonnaise ( I used the one for dressing)

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Juice from 1 Lemon (Use half, then taste to see if you need the other half)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

1) Preheat oven to 450 F

2) Whisk together the flour, milk, garlic powder, 1/2 cup sriracha salt and pepper until it is smooth (You might need to add more milk if it is too lumpy). Dunk in your cauliflower bites.

3) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or drizzle oil over it. Use a slotted spoot to pick up your cauliflower nuggets and place it on baking sheet. Drizzle the remaining dressing from mixing bowl on top. Bake for 20 minutes.

4) While it is baking, make the bleu cheeze- combine all the ingredients except your crumbled Tofu and mix with a fork. Taste to see if you need more lemon juice- it should be a sour yet blue cheeeezy taste. Once you have the right taste, add in your crumbled tofu and mix only to combine.

5) When Cauliflower bites are done, take out and add the 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons EVOO to the top and bake for another five minutes.

6) Serve with side of bleu cheese, celery and enjoy!!!!

ZucchiniFest!!

 Yayy! Over the labor day weekend, I went home to work and see my lovely mother and brother! My mom's boyfriend is the best because he brought me all these AWESOME RAWSOME vegetables! How many people do you know get this excited over something so silly!? Welp, these veggies warmed my heart and sure enough made my labor day a little better!

You see that one zucchini in the corner? THAT ZUCCHINI WENT A LONG WAY. For today, I have two recipes- one of which I already have a raw version- my garlicheezy zucchini fries! This time, I baked them and added a few more ingredients to my raw zucchini fries and they were so yummy! My other one is now my personal favorite- a zucchini pizza crust. Yes, I mean it- PIZZA CRUST made out of zucchini. The key to this zucchini crust is to make sure the zucchini is really dry. My first attempt was a mushy fail- I didn't let my zucchini dry long enough (because I was very anxious and hungry) and sure enough my crust was a wompwompwoommpp. 

Baked Garlicheezy Zucchini Fries

-1 zucchini, sliced

- 1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese

- 1/2 cup cornmeal

- 1/2 cup flax meal

- 1 tablespoon ENER-G Egg Replacer + 3 teaspoons water

- 1/2 cup nondairy milk (I used soy milk- it's much richer!)

-2 garlic cloves, minced

-1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

-1/2 teaspoon salt

- pinch of pepper

1) Preheat your oven to 425 F

2) Prepare your "dredging"- In the first bowl, put in your soy milk, in your second bowl, put your ENER-G Egg Replacer mixture, and then in the third bowl place all the rest of the ingredients except EVOO in the third bowl, and mix well!

3) Have your baking sheet with parchment paper ready and sprinkle the EVOO on the parchment paper and dredge in handfuls your zucchini fries- first place it into the soy milk, then the ENER-G Egg replacer, then your 'flour' and put it on the baking sheet. You should be able to get all your fries on the baking sheet

4) Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let stand for 10 minutes then enjoy!

Zucchini Crust with Pesto

gluten free~vegan

Makes 1 Medium-Sized Pizza

2 Cups Zucchini (Around 1/2-3/4 Zucchini), finely grated

1 Cup Almond or Flaxmeal

1 flax egg

1 Tablespoon Grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon herbes d'provence (or dried oregano)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 

1 teaspoon fresh basil, minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

For Toppings:

1 Recipe Anna's Creamy Vegan Pesto

1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese

2 tomatoes, sliced (mine are on the bottom!)

a handful of spinach (or even try KALE- so yummy)

1) Place your zucchini (already grated) in a strainer with a bowl underneath, and let it strain for 30-45 minutes! (I know, so annoying sorry guys- but you can snack on your zucchini fries while you wait :]) Sprinkle some salt and pepper on your zucchini.

2) Preheat your oven to 400 F. Place your zucchini in a dish towel and squeeze out the remaining water. Let sit for another 10 minutes. 

3) In a mixing bowl, mix all of the other ingredients together (NOT YOUR TOPPINGS!), then add your zucchini when it is dry to combine. It should be like a dough- kinda sticky, but it isn't too dry! If it is too dry, add some more oil. 

4) Line either a pizza plate-jawn or a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread your 'dough' into a circular-pizza-pie shape! 

5) Bake for 15-20 minutes- until the crust is a golden brown and the middle is not mushy

6) Take it out, and place all your toppings- I would recommend putting your pesto on bottom, then kale/spinach, tomatoes, then parmesan cheese, and bake on the uppermost rack in your oven for another 5-7 minutes. Make sure your cheese doesn't burn!

7) Let sit for five minutes and enjoy!

Iggy trying to sneak in my grocery bags! Silly iggers