Spiced Pumpkin Soup

It's that time of year again, when the pumpkin madness begins! I know, this kinddaa looks like Applesauce, but it's actually pumpkin soup. Yup. Pumpkin Soup. Creamy, deliciousness. The secret ingredient to its thick density? Chickpeas. 

Spiced Pumpkin Pie Soup

gluten free~vegan 

Servings: 6

1 pumpkin (sugar pumpkin works)

8 cloves garlic

2 tablespoon EVOO

1/2 onion, diced

1-15 oz can chickpeas, with water

6 tablespoons soy/almond/any non-dairy milk

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1) First, preheat your oven to 350 F

2) Stab your pumpkin 6 times around, so that it punctured through the inside. Drizzle 1 Tablespoon EVOO onto your pumpkin and rub it all in!

3) Put your pumpkin on a deep dish baking tray (like one you would use to make brownies) and roast it for 1 1/2 hours (Mine took a little less, so check after an hour- it depends on the oven, and my oven is small in my apartment). 

4) When pumpkin is tender and easy to put a knife through, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes.

5) Cut your pumpkin in half, and take out the stringy stuff in the middle (save the pumpkin seeds to roast for later!). Spoon out the roasted pumpkin remaining that will be for your soup! (I began doing this part when I was ready to put it in the soup)

6) Next, begin making the soup! Add the remaining tablespoon to a 4 quart saucepot and add in your whole cloves of garlic and diced onion over medium-high heat. Cook for 3 minutes.

7) Add in the pumpkin as well as your can of chickpeas (with water), pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. Bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, let it simmer for 15 minutes. 

8) Take it off the heat and either use an immersion blender or a blender to your desired consistency. 

9) When serving, add in 1 tablespoon of soy milk for each serving and swirl. Sprinkle cinnamon on top to serve!

Per Serving:

165 calories ~ 25g CHO ~ 5g FAT ~ 6g PRO

My mom made some corn muffins for the soup- followed the recipe from the back of the box of a corn muffin mixture, and substitute buttermilk for Soy + Apple Cider Vinegar, and ENER-G for Eggs :] such a sweetheart. And topped it with some vegan butter? Perfeecctttttt

My little Iggy try to catch some dreams :]<3

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!!!!

Birthday Celebration!

It's my...humph..22nd birthday; definitely not as enthralling as my last birthday. But the good news? My mom came to visit penn state! I'm so blessed to have an awesome group of friends as well as a wonderful family that is always there for me.

My lovely friend Anna from Dolce Vita made me the MOST.DELICIOUS.PIECAKE.EVER. Oh She Glows was her inspiration...and my oh my I'm in love with this blogger! She's pretty awesome, and I'm sure if you read my blog you definitely have seen "oh she glows".

My mom went to Zola's in State College and I got a coconut lentil dish, espresso, and a cake made of ALMOND FLOUR. gluten free, and vegan. Say WHATTT. It was an awesome, delicious evening- and the best part? My mom got me gift cards to WEGMANS- literally the best birthday present you could give someone turning 22 <3 <3 <3

Bills sweet potato mash with a lattice chip <3 #vegan #glutenfree

Coconut Lentils with Grilled eggplant #vegan #glutenfree

made with almond flour, and absoultely DELICIOUS. #vegan #glutenfree

Momma Luzz's Baked Ziti Casserole

My mom is so precious! While I was at Penn State, my mom snagged one of my vegan recipe books and found an awesome recipe for Baked Ziti Casserole that she made! And- she made it with gluten free pasta! So here it is, inspired by the recipe book "Vegan Bites" by Beverly Lynn Bennett.

Baked Ziti Cazzerole

vegan~gluten free

8 ounces gluten free ziti

8 ounces extra firm tofu

3 T nutritional yeast flakes

4 t freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons agave or coconut nectar

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1.5 teaspoons onion powder

3/4 t dried basil (my mom used fresh!)

3/4 t dried oregano (she used fresh for this too!)

1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3 cups stemmed and chopped spinach

2 T fresh parsley

1.5 cups tomato gravy/marinara sauce (my mom makes her own :])

1 package Daiya vegan mozzarella cheese shreds

1) To cook the ziti, fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the ziti and cook, stirring occasionally, according to the packet (I think ours said 8 minutes)

2) Crumble the tofu with your fingers into a large bowl. Add the nutritional yeast flakes, lemon juice, nectar, garlic and onion powder, basil, oregano, salt and pepper and mash with a fork until completely smooth.

3) Preheat oven to 375 F. Oil a 9" baking pan / casserole dish. 

4) Drain the ziti in a colander and add it to the tofu mixture along with the chopped spinach and parsley. Stir until well combined.

5) Place half of the ziti mixture into the prepared pan. Top it with hal fo the sauce and half of the shredded cheese. Repeat for next layer.

6) Sprinkle some nutritional yeast and mozzarella on top.

7) Bake for 30 minutes until browned on the sides and heated throughout. 

Cucumber and Tomato salad with 'rawnch' dressing

This recipe, is LONG past due! I've been meaning to put it up for quite some time but kept forgetting! Definitely, this one is well kept in my recipe book. My mom loves it extraordinarily so! In our garden, we have tomatoes growing as well as something called a "cucumber melon"- some type of misguided hybrid we created. woops. Well anywayyyzzzz, I wanted to make a cucumber salad with this cumbermelon. I've been dying to create a ranch dressing, and I finally did it EEEEEEE ^.^ 

Although this is probably a great summer recipe, I dare you to at least try to make the ranch dressing. It's too heavenly to pass up

Also another little tidbit- in my recipe, I use tarragon instead of dill (which is the usual for ranch dressing). I only did this because I had a terrible experience with dill one time and I refuse to ever use it again! The taste still scars me. Tarragon is a great option because it is subtler in the licorice taste. However, if you want to use dill- go for it! But for dill, use fresh!

Creamy Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Rawnch Dressing

vegan~glutenfree~can be made raw!

 For the Rawnch

1 block silken tofu (or a recipe of cashew cream if you want it raw!)

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

4-5 tablespoons dried tarragon, or 2-3 tablespoons of fresh dill

Puree all of the ingredients in a food processor. Voila! You have the easiest rawnch dressing that is gluten free and vegan!

For the Cucumber & Tomato Salad

5 tomatoes (we had some awesome plum tomatoes!), chopped 

2 cucumbers (or if you actually have cucumber melons, those work too!), chopped

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1) Put your chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and three tablespoons ACV into a medium sized mixing bowl. Combine, and let it marinate for approximately 1 hour (you should do this before making the ranch). 

2) Once it is done marinating, drain the vinegar really well then mix in the dressing (you might have some leftover- which is great for other uses!)

3) Let it chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, before you serve it!

Monsieur Iggy helping his mommy clean out the lint catcher while I do laundry- ISN'T HE THE BEST?!

My Mission to get Slimmin'

Bill took me out to an awesome New Orleans' oriented restaurant called Spat's Speakeasy. I LOVE this place so much- they have so many great vegetable meals and it warms my heart! This was one of them- a curried vegetable with some fresh greens on top of himalayan rice. Guh- SO DELECTABLE. Above the picture is an awesome sangria- that came in a pitcher....Let's just say I enjoyed that very much so.

I don't have much for you guys today and I'm SO sorry! All my recipe notes are at HOME :[. Thankfully, I'm going home this weekend to celebrate with my main squeeze, amanda, so I'll be posting some awesome recipes up- one of which momma luzz made specially for you guys!

PS- DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT GLUTEN FREE FRIDAYS on www.vegetarianmamma.com :]

Also! I don't really do this, like, ever, but I posted up a new little blog on tumblr! It's basically my daily progress of getting fit. Recently, I've been worrying about a few things concerning Celiac Disease symptoms, and it has caused me to gain some weight over the few months. I don't want to get into the upsetting details, but I'm not on a track to gettin' slim! So I've made a little blog that goes into depth about my daily life. Also on the blog there's so much nutritional facts of each! It goes into a lot more depth about kcals, CHO, PRO and FAT. Check it out! My Mission to Gettin Slimmin

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 :]