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Blueberry Muffins

When Ken and I first started dating, we took a trip to a blueberry farm in Illinois. We spent hours picking (and mostly eating) berries, until I got tired and lost our group. I ended up trying to call him multiple times from a stranger’s cell phone and surprisingly there’s very little cell reception on a blueberry farm in the middle of nowhere. After waiting awkwardly on a bench for an hour, we finally found each other, and we left that farm with a cooler full of blueberries. Most were frozen and eventually made their way into loaves of banana bread, but some turned into these excellent muffins.

I made a huge batch of these to freeze before having my baby, so feel free to do the same. You can even substitute chocolate chips for the blueberries and pretend like it’s a healthy breakfast. I promise not to tell.

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Tags: blueberry, dinner, food, muffin, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories breakfast, desserts, vegan

Mushroom and Onion Risotto

13 Dec

A while ago I challenged The Friendly Fig to face her fear of making risotto, and I would do the same. It’s been over a month now, and I finally figured it was time to attempt a recipe. I’m so glad I did!

This was delicious and creamy and wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I discovered the trick to making risotto is not leaving the stove for very long, but it didn’t require the constant stirring that I had been previously afraid of. I added a little almond milk and nutritional yeast to give it a flavor boost that dairy would normally give. I served this with a batch of chickpea cutlets, another Post Punk Kitchen recipe.

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Tags: dinner, food, italian, mushrooms, plant-based, recipe, risotto, vegetarian

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Categories casseroles, gluten-free, grains, Italian, vegan

Spanakorizo

6 Dec

When we visit my husband’s family, we often go out to dinner at a restaurant called Greek Islands. One of my favorite sides there is the spanakorizo, which translates to spinach rice. This can be made with or without the tomatoes, either way is delicious.

This dish is much better with fresh dill; use it if you have it. My dill plant didn’t last the summer, unfortunately. We like to serve this with a squeeze of lemon, a little olive oil, and some fresh pita bread.

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Tags: dinner, food, greek, meatless, recipe, rice, side dishes, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories gluten-free, greek, vegan

Dukbokki with Vegetables

1 Dec

One day while doing our biweekly grocery shopping, my husband came across rice cakes in the freezer section at one of our stops. He made a comment about how he remembered eating them after school at a friend’s house growing up. He said they were in an orange sauce and I remembered seeing a recipe on I Eat Food for something similar.

Fortunately it wasn’t hard to find gochujang, however I’ve had difficulty locating vegetarian fish sauce. Normally dukbokki has fish cakes added, although I think it’s delicious without them, I originally tried cooking dashi in the water for a fishy taste. It didn’t add enough flavor for me to do regularly, but if you need to get that fishy flavor, try using dashi stock.

I’ve discovered that this is best if the rice cakes are just slightly undercooked, so be careful with your cooking times. Gochujang can be found in most stores with a decent ethnic aisle, but it might be labeled “sweet and spicy korean sauce.” It’s seriously good stuff, it’s tasty on a lot of different foods, so if you end up with a giant container of it, it doesn’t have to go to waste. Use it in place of ketchup for dipping or in recipes.

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Tags: dinner, dukbokki, food, korean, meatless, recipe, rice, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories asian, korean, vegan

Ham Style Seitan

26 Nov

One of the things I miss most from my meat eating days is ham. Not the cruelty and death that comes with it, or even the texture, but the smokey, sweet flavor that’s perfect on pizzas, in salads, or with Sunday dinner. I’ve been on the lookout for a ham seitan recipe for a while, and this recipe seemed to combine all the good flavors of ham in one place.

We ate this sliced into rounds on pizza, but I think this would be a great alternative to Tofurky at a thanksgiving dinner. It would be perfect baked with a glaze and slices of pineapple. This seitan is a bit soft as is, but if you bake it in the foil for 30 minutes at 350° F it comes out perfect for snacking and slicing.

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Tags: dinner, food, ham, recipe, seitan, Thanksgiving, vegan, vegetarian

Comments 11 Comments
Categories american, breakfast, meat alternative, pizza, vegan

Alfredo with Sausage, Caramelized Onions, and Tomatoes

25 Nov

I just tried the recipe for seitan sausage from Post Punk Kitchen and I couldn’t wait to make something with it. The recipe for the sausages is linked below-I didn’t make any changes and they turned out perfect. I love the smell of fennel and these have the perfect amount of spice in them. If you can’t go through the effort of making them feel free to use pre made sausages.

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Tags: alfredo, dinner, food, pasta, plant-based, recipe, sausage, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories grains, Italian, meat alternative, pasta, vegan

Eggplant Parmesan Quinoa Casserole

20 Nov

I was inspired by a post by Princesses and the Peas and I just had to try this recipe. I love quinoa right now (but seriously, who doesn’t) and eggplant is still abundant in my garden. This was a delicious recipe that’s super filling and healthy. I added some zucchini and tomatoes from my fridge. I loved the big bursts of sweet cherry tomatoes in between bites of quinoa. You could easily use regular diced tomatoes or even a can of tomatoes if that’s what you have.

This was perfect with my coconut milk cheese, especially blended into the mixture-I kept finding big chunks of cheesy goodness as I was eating. It was even better the next day, as most casseroles are.

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Tags: casserole, cheese, dinner, food, marinara, plant-based, quinoa, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories casseroles, gluten-free, Italian, vegan

Orzo with Sausage and Zucchini

13 Nov

One of my favorite side dishes to make is orzo with basil and nutritional yeast. It’s cooked slowly in broth which achieves a creamy texture, similar to risotto. Nutritional yeast gives it a cheesy taste and tang, like grown up mac and cheese. I’ve always liked small pastas like orzo and ditalini, they’re much more fun to eat to me.

The sausage and sage make this dish a fantastic fall meal, great for lunch or dinner. It’s hearty and rich enough to be an entrée but could easily be a side for a larger meal.

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Tags: dinner, food, pasta, recipe, sausage, vegan

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Categories grains, meat alternative, pasta, vegan

Vegan Banana Bread

10 Nov

We always buy bananas at the beginning of the week for packed lunches, so inevitably at the end of the week we have a few very ripe bananas leftover. Because of this, I’ve been baking this banana bread almost every week for months. We always have a loaf on the counter to snack on after dinner or with coffee. The recipe is originally by Isa at Post Punk Kitchen, and it’s become our favorite. I love adding chocolate chips, blueberries, or topping it with struesel topping.

A trick I’ve learned recently is that if your bananas are not quite banana bread ripe, but too ripe for normal eating, you can toss them in a 350°F oven until they are black and mushy.

If you love your family, make this bread. I promise they will love you back.

Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup vanilla almond milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Cream together the coconut oil and sugars. Add bananas, almond milk, and vanilla.
2. Mix in flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
3. Pour batter into greased 8×4 pan. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes at 350 ˚ F.

Tags: bananas, bread, breakfast, food, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories american, breakfast, desserts, grains, vegan

Mapo Eggplant

3 Nov

This could easily be called sichuan eggplant, but I prefer to think of it as mapo eggplant, as that’s what inspired the recipe. I’ve expressed how much I love mapo tofu in my previous post and this dish runs a close second. I came up with this to use up our abundance of eggplant in our garden this year; my desire for spicy foods prevailed over traditional dishes like moussaka.

The eggplant gets a perfect soft and chewy texture when fried, and soaks up the sauce perfectly. I use mushrooms and seitan to mimic the pork in traditional mapo tofu and add some green onions for color. I usually grind my own sichuan peppercorns and make my own chili oil, but you don’t have to go through all that effort if you can buy them both. The fermented black beans and chili bean paste are key in this recipe; you can make it without them, but they add a depth you can’t get without them.