Spinach and Cheeze Scramble

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 medium shallot, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • ¼ cup diced cremini mushrooms, stems removed
  • 1 pound firm or extra-firm tofu, drained* (we used firm tofu)
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon paprika (we used smoked paprika)
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 to 3 handfuls baby spinach (about 2 cups) (we went with the 2 cup measurement)
  • 1/3 cup nutritional yeast

Directions

  1. Pour the oil into a large skillet, setting the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, toss in the minced shallot, stirring for a minute. Add the mushrooms and garlic to the skillet, continuing to stir constantly for another minute.
  2. Take the tofu and crumble it into the skillet (the tofu should be crumbled into a small or medium size). Once all the crumbled tofu is in the skillet, add the following ingredients to the skillet, stirring until the tofu is coated in these ingredients: paprika, turmeric, thyme , cumin, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and the salt.
  3. Continue stirring for another 5 to 10 minutes or until the tofu has reached your desired texture.
  4. Add the spinach into the skillet, stirring just long enough for the spinach to get wilted (they say this will take between 2 to 3 minutes). Turn the heat off and add in the nutritional yeast, stirring until it’s equally distributed throughout the dish. Serve immediately.

*When you drain your tofu, make sure to leave a little bit more water in the tofu than you normally would. This extra water is supposed to help the tofu absorb the flavors from the herbs, spices and seasoning.

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This is going in our favorites, it tasted that good ! You definitely get some heat in this but you also taste a cheesy flavor in this thanks to the nutritional yeast. This was filling, delicious and will definitely be something we make again in the future for breakfast ! Hope y’all will enjoy this as much as we did !

This recipe came from the cookbook “Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food” by Alicia G. Simpson.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote the cookbook.

Take care everybody !

Red Lentil Thai Curry

Ingredients

  • Nonstick cooking spray
  • 2 cups red lentils (we rinsed our lentils after measuring out 2 cups worth)
  • 3 Tbsp. green curry paste (such as Thai Kitchen) (we used Thai Kitchen brand)
  • 6 cloves chopped garlic
  • 2 Tbsp. soy sauce (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
  • 2 Tbsp. chopped ginger
  • 2 tsp. sugar
  • 1/8 tsp. cayenne (we used ¼ tsp.)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 ½ cups carrot juice
  • 1 cup halved yellow cherry tomatoes
  • 1 cup coconut milk (we used full-fat coconut milk)
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
  • 4 cups cooked jasmine rice (we used brown jasmine rice)
  • Lime wedges, for serving

Directions

  1. Take a slow cooker out (we used our 4 qt. slow cooker) and spray the inside of it with the nonstick cooking spray. Add the following ingredients to the slow cooker, stirring to combine: lentils, onions, green curry paste, garlic, soy sauce, ginger, sugar, cayenne, water, carrot juice, and yellow tomatoes. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 3 hours on HIGH. Stir in the coconut milk and cilantro, serving the curry over the rice with lime wedges on the side.
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This was such a warming dish to enjoy ! We tried a bite of this before the coconut milk was added in and you could tell there was a definite spiciness to it. Once the coconut milk was mixed in though and the curry was served over rice, the heat just became a nice background note. The tomatoes were so tender by the end of the cook time that they practically just melt in your mouth as soon as you bite into them. We couldn’t taste the cilantro but it did add a nice pop of color to the dish. The dish tastes good on its own but the lime juice makes it even better. Overall this is a warm, comforting dish we’d be happy to eat again, especially on a cold day !

This recipe came from Family Circle.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Thai Kitchen or Family Circle.

Take care everybody !

Peanut Satay Stir-Fry

Ingredients

  • 2 (9 oz. each) bags of Beyond Meat Beyond Chicken Strips Grilled, cooked (we cooked the strips in extra-virgin olive oil) and cut into 1-inch cubes afterwards.
  • Ground black pepper (we used freshly ground black pepper)
  • ½ tablespoon canola oil or vegetable oil (we used canola oil)
  • 2 cups frozen stir-fry vegetable blend (we used 2 cups of vegetables from a package of Bird’s Eye Broccoli, Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas & Water Chestnuts)
  • ½ cup frozen peas
  • 1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened light coconut milk
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter (we used smooth peanut butter)
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt (we used kosher salt)
  • 4 cups hot cooked noodles or rice (we used whole wheat fettuccine)

Directions

  1. Take a medium-sized mixing bowl out and add the following ingredients to it, stirring to combine: coconut milk, peanut butter, ginger, crushed red pepper, a light sprinkle of pepper and the ½ teaspoon of salt. Set the coconut sauce off to the side for now.
  2. Pour the oil into a wok or large heavy skillet (we used a skillet), setting the heat to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot, toss in the vegetable blend and peas, stirring constantly for 2 to 3 minutes or until all the vegetables are heated through (took us longer than 3 minutes). Add the cubed chicken and coconut sauce to the skillet, stirring to combine. Cook just long enough for everything to get heated through. Serve immediately over the noodles.

Serves 4.

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Originally this recipe used actual chicken meat but we decided to turn this into a vegan dish ! You can definitely taste the coconut milk and peanut butter in the sauce and there’s a little bit of heat at the end of the bite. This isn’t bad when it’s at room temp. but it’s tastiest when the sauce is nice and hot. We hope you’ll try this and enjoy this as much as we did !

Recipe source unknown.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Beyond Meat or Bird’s Eye.

Take care everybody !

Takeout Orange Tofu

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups water, divided
  • Zest of 1 medium orange (we got 2 teaspoons of zest from our orange)
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • ½ cup rice wine vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons light soy sauce (we used reduced-sodium soy sauce)
  • ¾ cup brown sugar (we used light brown sugar)
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • ½ teaspoon grated ginger
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed (we used a big garlic clove)
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • ½ cup flour (we used all-purpose flour)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (we used table salt)
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper (we used freshly ground black pepper)
  • 1 (16-ounce) package firm tofu, drained and cut into 1″ pieces (we used a 14-ounce package and cut them into 3/4″ pieces)
  • Oil (for frying) (we used peanut oil)
  • 2 green onions, chopped on the diagonal

Directions

  1. Add the following ingredients to a medium saucepan, stirring to combine: 1 cup water, orange zest, orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, pepper flakes, ginger, and garlic. Turn the heat up high enough so that the mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally during that time.
  2. Whisk the cornstarch and remaining water together in a small bowl, pouring the mixture into the saucepan afterwards. Once the sauce is boiling again, turn the heat down to medium-low and let it cook for 5 minutes* or until the sauce has thickened, taking the saucepan off the heat afterwards.
  3. Take a shallow dish out and mix the flour, salt, and pepper together in it. Add the tofu to the dish, tossing to coat.
  4. Pour around two tablespoons (we used 3) of oil into a large sauté pan, setting the heat to medium-high. Cook the tofu in batches, making sure each batch is golden and very crispy before taking it out and placing it on a paper towel-lined plate.
  5. Once all the tofu’s been cooked, add it and the green onions** to the sauce, tossing the tofu to coat, serving immediately.

Supposed to serve 4 but only made 2 servings for us.

*We lost track of how long we cooked our sauce but we know that it reduced down to 2 cups.

**We never mixed the green onions into the sauce, we just sprinkled the green onions over the tofu afterwards.

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This orange sauce tastes so good you’ll want to drink it up ! The tofu does lose it’s crispiness after tossing it in the sauce but you still get a little bite from the green onion. If you’re not a fan of green onions, you can omit them and still love eating this dish thanks to the sauce. The orange sauce is sweet, tangy, a little spicy and you can still taste the orange even with all the other ingredients combined. We enjoyed the sauce so much, we’re already thinking of other possible ways to use it !

This recipe came from “Vegan Junk Food”.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote “Vegan Junk Food”.

Take care everybody !

Mushroom Ragoût with cheese ravioli

Ingredients

  • Kosher salt
  • 2 ½ to 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil; more as needed (we used Colavita’s extra-virgin olive oil)
  • 12 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced about ¼-inch thick
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 small yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 ½ tsp. tomato paste
  • 1 ½ tsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ tsp. chopped fresh thyme leaves
  • Pinch crushed red pepper flakes (we actually used 2 pinches)
  • ¼ cup dry red wine (we used Cabernet Sauvignon)
  • ¼ cup lower-salt vegetable broth (we used Swanson’s organic vegetable broth)
  • 10 oz. fresh or frozen cheese ravioli or other cheese-stuffed pasta (we used fresh cheese ravioli)
  • 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
  • Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano (we used Parmigiano-Reggiano)

Directions

  1. Fill a large pot with water, salt well (we used table salt). Bring water to a boil.
  2. Pour 1 ½ tablespoons (we used 2 tablespoons) of the oil into a large skillet, setting the heat to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot, add in the mushrooms, ¼ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper, stirring just to combine. Spread the mushrooms out as evenly as you can and let them cook (without stirring them) for 3 minutes or until they look well browned on one side. Stir continuously for another 3 minutes or until browned all over and any liquid has evaporated (if the mushrooms look dry and the skillet begins to scorch, drizzle a little bit of oil into the skillet). Take the mushrooms out of the skillet and place them on a plate for the time being.
  3. Pour another tablespoon of oil into the skillet, setting the heat to medium. Toss the onion in and stir constantly for two minutes or until the onion looks translucent. Throw the garlic in and continue stirring for 30 seconds or until you can smell the garlic. Add in the tomato paste, stirring it around for a minute. Add the mushrooms and any accumulated juice back into the skillet. Now add in the flour, thyme and pepper flakes, stirring frequently for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the wine in and stir until it looks like it’s thickened, pouring the broth in afterwards and letting the mixture simmer until it’s reduced into a light sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  4. While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta in that boiling water according to the directions on the package that they came in until they have an al dente texture. Drain and transfer the pasta into the skillet with the mushroom sauce, stirring to coat over low heat (we turned the heat off, knowing we’d have residual heat left). Serve individual portions, topping with cheese and parsley afterwards.

Serves 3 to 4 (maybe it’s because we had to use a 9 oz. pkg. that only had 10 ravioli but this only made 2 portions for us).

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As soon as we took our first bite of this, we knew there wasn’t going to be any leftovers ! The heat was nice at first but near the end it did start to be the predominate flavor so we’ll try a single pinch of pepper flakes next time. The sauce was delicious but felt a little sparse after tossing the ravioli in it so next time we make this (and there will definitely be a next time), we’re going to double the sauce. The sauce and ravioli taste great together but adding that Parmigiano-Reggiano took it to the next level of yumminess !

Recipe source unknown.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Colavita or Swanson.

Take care everybody !