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

Last round at PSU & Momma Luzz's Favorite

This will be my fourth year at Penn State, and my last semester here. I can't believe how much time flew... feels like only a year ago I graduated from high school, and in 2 weeks I'm going to turn 22, and then in a couple months I will be a Penn State graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition- like seriously? I don't want to grow up!

Sylly week was unexpecting. This pitcher of just plain strawberry starburst is a good recap of it. I had to cut out early though and go home because of poor Hershey :[. The little dogs are going nuts without the big momma bear right now. 

Anna and I decided to make an awesome dinner! Her mom told her about beet greens and if you sauté them they make a great saladish side...oh my goodness they were heavenly. I'm never throwing those puppies away ever again! We also made some gluten free pasta with an amazing pesto- vegan of course! It was so delicious, the recipe for both the sauteed beet greens and creamy pesto spaghetti are on her blog : Dolce Vita. Check it out- she just posted an awesome recipe for mushroom burgers that look amazing!

 As for me, I don't have much recipes up for tonight- I'm still kinda bummin' over the Hershey shmeal. But hey- I made so many awesome treats this weekend- coming to a local blogger near you will be some banana chocolate chip brownies with a rich chocolate frosting, zucchini pizza crust topped with Anna's creamy pesto recipe, some zucchini fries (obviously there is going to be a blog post attributing zucchini), and an awesome cucumber "cumber" salad.

Right now, I have a simple little recipe that I recreated for my mom. My mom is so cute, she's trying to be a vegan! One of her favorite snacks when she was younger were tomato and mayo sandwiches. I cannot tell you how many times she told me this. So I decided that since she is trying oh so hard to be veganized, I decided that we needed to start on something she'd love. I made these as little appetizers for the Penn State vs. Ohio University game (don't even get me started on this game) and she fell in love. Not only was she astonished that there is such thing as vegan mayonnaise, but also at how tasty and delicious this was! And- it was gluten free. Bonus? Only took me less than ten minutes to chop the tomatoes, assort the crackers, and whip up this delicious herbed mayonnaise. Iggy loved it too- he hounded the leftovers and ended up snacking on the mayonnaise!

Tomato and Herbed Mayo 'tizers

vegan~glutenfree

Herbed Veganaise

1/2 cup veganaise

1 tablespoon minced chives

1 teaspoon stonground mustard

2 tablespoons minced basil

2 tablespoons herbes de provence

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Setup

3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced, then quartered for each piece

1 recipe of Herbed Veganaise

24 gluten free crackers (I used Mary's Gone Crackers- Herbed; but any works obviously!)

Himalayan Sea Salt (or any salt)

For the veganaise

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until creamy

For the preparation

1. Place crackers of choice on a serving plate

2. Dollop each cracker with herby veganaise

3. place 2-4 slices of tomato on each cracker

4. sprinkle salt on top of each!

Easy peasy :]

Grilling with a veghead- Vegan Pesto Mayo & Asparagi Fries!

The afternoon was so pleasant yesterday, that Bill, my mom and I decided to have a grillout! Poor Billiam has to stick with my mom and I- complete veg heads. The menu for today? Grilled portabello, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, grilled asparagus and some vegan pesto mayo! Absolute heaven. 

Thank goodness we started our grillout earlier, because it poured an hour later!

Earlier in the morning, I had to go to the dentist for the first time in three years to get my poor wisdom teeth checked out :[ 

Anyways, back to the real talk of the town- the Asparagus with the pesto. Everything about this meal was so simple- all you have to do is grill it and eat it! But this pesto was so decadant, I was dipping my asparagus in it and it satisfied my taste like fries and a special sauce! But, these are even healthier for you!

Vegan Special Sauce

serves 6 

1 cup basil leaves

3 tablespoons veganaise 

Juice 1/2 lemon

a pinch of salt and pepper

1/4 cup pignolis

- add basil leaves, lemon, salt, pepper and pignolis in a food processor (I used a tiny food processor to get the pine nuts extra fine)

- once it is all chopped up,fold in your veganaise, however much you want. I like a more basil taste, so I didn't use as much.

- put it in the refridgerator to get nice and firm and enjoy with anything!

        * use as a salad dressing

        * use as a mayonaisse substitute

        * dip it in asparagus!

And here's some wise words from my dentist :] <3