Vegan Pancakes

:) Here's a link to amazing vegan pancakes. :) omnomnom

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Hello! :) I made these cookies yesterday and they seem to be going pretty fast. I made a double recipe, since an average can of pumpkin has about 2 cups of pumpkin in it. You can find the link here. I think it's originally from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I don't own the cookbook because I'm kind of a jobless high school student who does too much with her life and has no money. Soooo, if you can, please buy the cook book.  If you can't, then totally just make it from the link and enjoy.

TIPS:

• I made mine a little big, so I baked them for 20 minutes instead of 16. 
• The dough is a little gooey, but don't panic. They're softer cookies, so they're supposed to be like that.
• Make sure you grease the baking sheet enough. Since they're soft they might stick a little
• They're great with pumpkin spice coffee or hot chocolate. ;) yum.

Vegan Spinach Quiche

This is an amazing recipe. I made a homemade crust instead of buying a premade one. I also only used a pinch of Daiya because that's all I had and about 1 teaspoon of nutmeg instead of a 'pinch' and it tasted really good. Here's the link right here.

Basic Nooch Pasta Sauce

This is my quick and easy sort of 'cheez' like sauce for rotini. :)

2 TBS Olive Oil
1.5 TBS Nutritional Yeast
1 TS Oregano
1TS Basil

I stir all of the ingredients together, put in the microwave for about 15 seconds just to warm it up, then mix it in with a cup or two of rotini noodles. I love to mix a cup of mushrooms and 1/8 of an onion stirfried in olive oil and 1 TBS of garlic in with the rotini also.

Chinese Dinner

Hello! :) So, yesterday I made a Chinese food dinner with lo mein and orange tofu. It all got eaten so fast, I couldn't get a picture, but here are the links to the recipes.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/no-pain-lo-mein-recipe/index.html
This is just a basic lo mein recipe. I used angel hair pasta and liked the texture.I didn't have any fresh ginger or mushrooms, so I just used powdered ginger and added extra snow peas. I also doubled the soy sauce and sesame oil, as the stated amount didn't seem to cover all the noodles well.

http://melissaraydavis.hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Cook_Tofu_Like_the_Pros
I've been a vegetarian for years, but still haven't mastered tofu. However, this definitely helped. I 'dry fried' the tofu, then covered it in some of this marinade (http://www.food.com/recipe/spicy-orange-tofu-136875) and sauteed it. The tofu was firmer with a chewier, meatier texture that I really liked. I also subbed the pepper for a few squirts of hot sauce, just because I didn't have any on hand, and again the fresh ginger for powdered ginger. After dry-frying, I let the tofu sit in the marinade for about a half hour before sauteeing it. :)

So, overall not the most healthy meal on the planet, but really if you add more veggies than necessary to the lo mein then all you'll be 'overdosing' in would be sodium, and unfortunately with Chinese food it's hard to avoid that. :)

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegancookierecipes/r/chocchipcookies.htm
I added 1/3 a cup almond milk to the entire mixture and they tasted amazinggg!!! The perfect baking time is about 12 minutes.

Classy Vegan Mac and Cheeze

1 box pasta shells
1 package silken tofu
1/2 cup vegan mozzarella 'cheese'
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 cup baby spinach
1 tbs oregano
1 tbs garlic
Bread crumbs
Pepper

Boil water and start making pasta as you prepare cheeze sauce.
Put 'cheese', tofu, spinach, margarine, garlic and oregano in food processor. After processed to a creamy consistency, place in saucepan on low, stirring constantly until heated.
Preheat oven to 450.
When pasta is done, drain. Grease a glass pan with a little olive oil. Put pasta into pan, mix in cheese sauce. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, pepper and a little more oregano. Bake for 5 minutes. :) Serve.

Cashew Cheeze and Guacamole

Hello everyone! Today is burrito night! Here are my recipes for cashew 'cheeze' and guacamolee!!!!

Cashew cheeze is kind of like a vegan posh/gourmet version of that cheapy cheese stuff you dip your nachos in. It has a bite, so be warned. :) (Thanks so much to my ex-neighbor for this recipe!!!)

Cashew Cheeze

1 Cup Raw Cashews (soak them overnight if you want to... if not, it doesn't really matter)
1/3 of a red bell pepper (seeds removed, chopped a little)
The juice of half a lemon
3 aji amarillos (a type of spicy pepper)
Some salt (about 1/2 a tbs)

Cut the aji amarillos in half, remove seeds and stem. Do not touch your eyes, as this will KILLLLLL.
Throw everything in a food processor and process (I guess that's the word) until it reaches the consistency you want.
Serve on crackers, burritos or veggies. :)

Guacamole!!!

1 Avocado
1 tbs chili pepper
a drizzle of olive oil (about 2 tsp)
1 tsp of hot sauce
1/2 large white onion
1/3 bell pepper

Throw it all in the food processor. Add more hot sauce or chili powder to taste. :) Serve with chips, burritos or veggies.

Veggie Pot Pie

Hello!! Here's a recipe I adapted for vegan pot pie. :) This actually makes 2 normal pie-size pies, because I made too much insides. Double the crust if you want a bottom too, but I like just making the top.


Crust:


2 cups flour


1/2 teaspoon salt


2/3 cup margarine, softened


5 tablespoons water


Insides:


3 Potatoes (chopped to about 3/4 inches)


2 Cups baby onions (frozen or fresh)


1/2 cup peas (frozen of fresh)


1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (portabellas fine, frozen or fresh)


1-2 carrots, chopped




Broth


2 cans mushroom gravy 


1 cup broth


2 tbs flour

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Mix flour and salt together, then cut in margarine. (Kind of hack at it with a pastry cutter or whisk), doubling if you want a top and bottom on both pies. Add water, then form into a ball. Set aside for later.
3. Heat the mushroom gravy and broth in a saucepan over medium heat. (if you want to add extra stuff like oregano, go ahead. :) Personalize it if you need to.) Add flour (or egg replacer) to thicken. If it's not thick enough, either continue to heat uncovered or, if you're impatient like me, stir in some more flour/egg replacer.
4. Grease two glass pie pans. (Put bottom of crust in if you're going to, if not: continue)
5. Mix together the veggies, then divvy them up into the two pans.
6. Pour the broth/gravy mixture into the veggies, dividing evenly. 
7. Split the dough into two balls, then roll with a rolling pin to make the tops of the pie.
8. Put the tops on, carefully cut around the edges to make pretty and if you really need to, poke little flowers in the top or something. :)
9. Bake covered with tin foil for about 20 minutes, then take it off for about 10 to make the top nice and golden brown.
10. Serve to hungry family.

Recipe adapted from: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=13661.0

Simple Spinach Couscous

This is a super basic recipe for those days when you want to make dinner fast. Makes one superlarge absurdly hungry Dad serving.

Handful of spinach (chopped small)
3/4 cup couscous
1 cup water
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic

Put half the olive oil, the marjoram, oregano and water in a pan on high. Brin to boil, then stir in couscous and remove from heat. Let it sit covered for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, sautee the garlic and spinach on medim until the spinach turns dark green and limp. When the coucous is ready, just mix in the spinach and garlic then serve!

Vegan Snickerdoodles

Yummmyy! Today I made vegan snickerdoodles. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but I'm going to the gym later anyway. ;)
Here's the link to the recipe I used: http://veganyumyum.com/2008/12/snickerdoodles/
They taste amazing and they're perfect for dunking in cookies or bringing to the beach as part of a picnic (which I might do later after I do my schoolwork. Yayyy!!!)
(Please note: I took this picture with an iphone, so please excuse my crappy photography. ;) I promise I get better. I have proof here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictureprincesspixie)
Thanks for reading!!! I might be making something yummy for dinner, so if I do I'll definitely post pics/recipes/reviews of recipes here!!

Vegan Curry

Yummyy! I just made this for dinner (I adapted it from another recipe, but I forgot where it was from). Sorry there's no pictures, but I promise next time I make something and I'm not just posting a recipe I remember I'll post some pictures too. :)

2 cups jasmine rice 
Chopped onion 
Chopped red Pepper 
2 Chopped carrots 
Extra Firm Tofu 
Olive oil 
1 tbs Ginger 
1 tbs Coriander 
1 tbs Cumin 
Pinch of red pepper flakes 
Squirt or two of braggs or soy sauce (to taste) 
2 spoonfuls of curry paste (Add more to make it more flavorful) (NOTE: Check for fish sauce, just in case... I know 'Thai Kitchen: Red Curry Paste' is vegan.) 
1 15 ounce can coconut milk 

Make the jasmine rice in a separate pot. Boil 4 cups of water, then add the 2 cups of rice and reduce to low for about 20 minutes. 
Meanwhile, chop the tofu (I kind of squished it too.) and saute for about five minutes in a pan or wok with 2 tbs of olive oil. Once it's a little browned, add the ginger, coriander, cumin, red pepper flakes and braggs/soy sauce. Saute some more. It's okay if it sticks to the bottom, just take a spatula or something and scrape the bottom while you saute the stuff. The tofu should get kind of crumbly here and that's fine. 
Add the onion, pepper and carrots and saute for about 10 minutes or until the onion turns a little brown and the carrots soften. Add the curry paste to preference.
Next, stir in the coconut milk and turn down the heat. Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes, or until you get bored and think it tastes good enough. Add more curry paste here if you want to, or any of the spices if you're a really flavory person. 
Serve over the jasmine rice. :) 

*NOTE:* Yes, it looks gross. But it tastes amaazzinnggg!! :D Plus it's really filling and I don't think it's that bad for you. ;) Also, my mom added some hot sauce to hers and thought that made it better, so do whatever you want.