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. 

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?!

Chickpeas on Chickpeas

I decided to trial the length of an average bike ride to work. I thought it was going to be something ridiculous like 30 minutes- but it was actually only 15 minutes! That makes me so much more motivated to bike to work. 

I've been trying to keep positive spirits lately because I feel like there's been so much negativity around me. I want to be a happy-go-lucky kinda gal. I want to make better of life. I don't want to dwell on bad- happiness is bliss, baby!

For today's post, I made some semi-homemade chickpea soup! Usually, I work long days and when I come home, I don't want to spend a great deal of time cooking- I just want to eat! one of my favorite soups is Wegman's Moroccan Chickpea and Lentil Soup. I love this soup so much because you can jazz it up any way you want it. For mine- I simply warmed it up on the stove top and added:   -1/2 can chickpeas (drained)                       -A big heaping bunch of kale or spinach (I get kale from my mom's boyfriend's garden-but I've tried spinach and it works just as good!)                                           -1 teaspoon sriracha and a pinch of cumin and crushed red pepper flakes.

Let the chickpeas simmer for approximately 10 minutes and garnish with whatever you want- I garnished mine with some sprouted garbanzo (chickpeas) beans, some cup up scallions and a few more drops sriracha. In little than you know, you have a faux-gourmet meal! So easy! BUT WAIT- it gets better

One of the most frustrating things about not using a whole can of chickpeas is that you'll feel obligated to either A) throw it out B) throw it in a boring salad C) Make Moroccan Lentil Chickpea Soup again. I love the soup, but variety is nice, ya know? What I like to do is premake my lunch for work the next day and make a wonderful CHICKPEA SALAD! What? That's right-- another recipe that is just as fast and you can save some time in the morning before bolting to work (might I say, you might be able to enjoy that cup of coffee). And- this recipe is so versatile you can tweak it any way you want- in 10 minutes or less :]. All you need is:

Chickpea Salad

Serves 1

- 1/2 can chickpeas, drained

- 2 T lemon juice

- 1 T fresh basil

- 1/2 teaspoon EVOO

- 1 Plum tomato, diced

- Few sprinkles Vegan Parmesan Cheese

- 1/4 teaspoon paprika

- salt and pepper

• Toss gently right in your to go container for work and store it in the fridge for the next morning!

Beans and Cheeze Enchilada Salad

It's been such a busy week at work, now that the season of summer has begun at Lake Naomi! Bring on the mupfers! Working at a pool that fries all their food, it is nearly impossible for me to eat or even trust food! I usually pack a bunch of goodies throughout the day, but the rushes at Lake Naomi get so busy that I can find myself not eating for 6 hours! YIKES! When work is done, I'm usually so starving, and it's almost too late to start making a delicious dinner. So the question is, how can you make sure your diet is healthy on such a busy schedule?

My best answer: semi-homemade! I always have backup microwave meals just in case I have these days. Microwave meals aren't always the best option, but I trust Amy's and Helen's Kitchen microwave meals so much- not only do they use recyclable, biodegradable products, fresh ingredients, and non-GMOs, they are amazing and most are gluten free! These two brands are the best also because they don't add preservatives and extra sodium in their meals. 

Have you noticed the SIZE of microwave meals? Uhm....no. It's not gonna curve my cravings. With a lot of microwave meals, I love to put it over a salad, because salad is so filling and satisfying and then I add even more veggies and sauté them for a real homemade flavor- it really makes the difference.

Because of this, I love to get some bean burrito bowls, veggie bowls, and mostly bowled-microwave meals. The Helen's Kitchen Beans and Cheeze Enchilada was awesome because there were tortillas that I used as a good starch! On top of my salad for additions I:

          - Sauteed some corn 

          - Sauteed some peppers and onions

          - Let it simmer in leftover salsa

          - Topped it with some cilantro and lime sour cream (vegan and semi-homemade)

Here are some other ways to semi-home-make microwave meals:

          - If you have a veggie bowl, use brown rice instead of salad for a heartier meal

          - Steam some vegetables like broccoli, peas, carrots- whatever vegetables you like!

          - Top it with some store-bought or homemade kale chips for an awesome crunch

          - Add some sunflower seeds, pepitas, or hemp seeds

          - Make your own dressing! I made a cilantro-lime dressing, recipe below

Cilantro and Lime Dressing

1 Serving

Juice of 1/2 Lime

2 spoonfuls of Sour Cream (vegan, non-vegan, whatever you want)

1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

not even a pinch of salt and pepper

a little baby squirt of sriracha

mix all these ingredients together and then use it as a creamy dressing for anything!

Tempeh Tacos for Megan Campbell!

If you haven't noticed, I love tacos. Any kind of tacos. And I'm always down to make a different type of tacos. A while ago, I made Happy Healthy Tofu Tacos, but this time I decided I wanted to change it up and use tempeh! Personally, I love tempeh a LOT more than tofu. It has a lot of flavor, and when you marinate your tempeh overnight you get an amazing flavor! Be wary, though, because there are tempeh out there that is NOT gluten free- the ones that aren't gluten free usually have names like "3 grain" "5 grain" and such. But garden vegetable and soy tempeh are perfectly gluten free! 

My favorite marinade for the tempeh is either a buffalo sauce or a teriyaki sauce- both of which are amazing. But for these, I marinated them in buffalo and then sauteed them in my Homemade Taco Seasoning, and they were da BOMBA. This taco seasoning can go far, and it's sooo good. 

The other great thing about tempeh is that it cooks so fast and when you sautee it, you don't lose your marinade- it cooks in it much more! Only 20 minutes and dinner was ready! ugh I wish I had some more! IT WAS AMAAZZINGG.

It's our last week of finals and we're all in a hurry to begin our studies! And if you couldn't tell from this picture, Bil obviously wanted to inhale his burrito if he could. Bill loves to make his into tacos, but I love salads. Next time, I'm probably going to try and make a burrito bowl and see how that tastes- I bet it is going to be orgasmic.

For this recipe, I'll just give you a quick guide on how to handle the tempeh

For the Buffalo Sauce:

1. Cut your tempeh into small strips, not the long-way but the shorter way (you'll understand when you buy the tempeh)
2. Marinate it in your buffalo sauce for 2 hours-overnight: 
        - 1/4 cup buffalo sauce of choice (I used the chili lime by cholula hot sauce)
        - 3 Tablespoons minced garlic
        - a dash of salt and pepper
        - 2 Tablespoons Honey or Maple Syrup


To cook the tempeh:
1. Preheat a saute pan over medium-high heat with 2T canola oil
2. Pour in your tempeh mixture (marinade and everything) and let it sizzle and cook (make sure your tempeh strips aren't over top of each other- let every piece have a portion of the bottom :])
3. after 3-4 minutes, turn your tempeh over and let it cook another 3-4 minutes on each side until it is nice and crispy
4. Throw in 2 tablespoons taco seasoning and just coat everything
5. Put it in a wrap, on a salad, or over rice!


Some awesome additions:

• corn
• sauteed onions
• sauteed poblanos 
• black beans
• spinach
• tofu sour cream

Bon appetit! Oh, and here's a nice little photo for all you people studying for finals! This guy here took a 20 minute power nap and snores like darth vador (courtesy of ally carmona)