Breakfast Pizza

Happy Friday!
It's going to be a great weekend, minus the bit of rain we are supposed to get by tomorrow morning.
We have a concert to go to tomorrow night..... Folsom Live, 5 stages and one of my all time favorite bands
The English Beat is playing!  I can't wait!!!

Yesterday morning while my stomach was growling I noticed in my refrigerator that I had a little bit of pizza dough left.  Light went off.  Breakfast Pizza!  I had some cashew cream chipotle sauce leftover as well.  So this is how I put it all together! It got a huge thumbs up from my husband.

Preheat oven to 450. While letting the pizza dough warm to room temperature I sauteed up some fresh spinach.  Next I cooked up some scrambled tofu (tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, onion powder) in a bit of oil.  Then I heated up some Soyrizo.  When the dough is ready I rolled it out and put on my pizza stone,  sprayed some olive on it and put in oven for 5 min. to partially cook.  Took it out and spread the cashew cream on it, spinach, tofu scramble and Soyrizo.  Put back into the oven for about another 5 min or until the pizza crust started to turn golden.  A couple of nice additions would be to top it off with cilantro and avocado, which I had neither on hand.
The end result did not disappoint!  It tasted as good as it smelled.

My go to pizza crust:
from Organic Style
1 C. warm water (110-115 degrees)
Pinch of sugar
1 Pkg.(1/4oz)active-dry yeastt
3 C. all purpose flour, plus more as needed
(you can substitute 1C. whole-wheat flour for 1C. all purpose flour)
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

1. Pour water into small bowl.  Add sugar and sprinkle yeast over the top.  I like to do a quick stir to mix it all in. Let it sit in a warm spot until the mixture proofs, is bubbly and active, about 8min.
2. Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl.  Add the yeast mixture and olive oil, mix to combine scraping down he sides with a rubber spatula.  The dough should form into a ball.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead 10-12 times with your hands, until dough is no longer sticky and appears smooth and elastic.  Shape the dough into a ball.
3. Transfer dough to a large bowl coated lightly with oil.  Turn dough to coat.  Cover with a clean dish towel .  Leave in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. Punch dough down and knead 3 or 4 times.  Divide the dough in half or if you really want a thinner crust you can divide it into 3 balls.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface and use as you wish or you can pat each disk and wrap  in plastic wrap, place in freezer bags. You can freeze it up to 3 weeks.  (I usually use it all so freezing isn't an option for me). Before using the dough from the freezer, let it sit at room temperature until it becomes springy and pliable 1-2hrs.

Chipotle Cashew Cream
from Veg News
adjusted by dreaminitvegan

1 C. raw cashews
1 C. filtered water( you can add a little more water at a time to make thinner)
*1 canned chipotle pepper with seeds taken out
1/4 C. nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp. sea salt

In a blender, puree all ingredients until smooth.

*note: canned chipotles can be very hot so add according to desired heat. You may only need half a pepper or maybe more due to the heat.
You can also make this sauce without chipotles.

Have an amazing weekend!

Vegan Cooking Show!!!!

Happy New Year!

This year has started out crazy with lots of changes.

How is yours starting out?

 

Speaking of changes if you  haven't already heard there is a new vegan cooking show premiering tonight on main stream cable!  How to Live to 100 airing at 8p.m.ET and 5p.m. PST on The Cooking Channel.  I've already set up my DVR.

Check out who the chef is and a little bit about him here.

 

Simple Thai Tofu and Veggies 

It started raining pretty good out last night and it continues so I think I may just whip up this immune building delicious meal that I found at melomeals a while back to warm me up and has become one of our favorites.  It's inexpensive to make and very flavorful.  It's a great recipe if you are starting to add greens such as chard or kale into your diet because the flavors of the spices and coconut milk are what stand out.

A note on the recipe.  I don't always have cumin seeds on hand so I just  add more cumin and if you don't want to use any oil just add the spices when you are sautéing the onion. 

Enjoy the rest of your day! 

MoFo#6/Balsamic Tofu w/peppers & onions

I hope everyone's weekend has started off to a good one.  The sky is cloudy and grey.  One of the perks with raining is that my water bill is a lot less money.  Bring on the rain!

Thanks for all the get well wishes for Keaton.  He woke up yesterday feeling alot better.  He still has a cough that's lingering but it's random now.

He's bummed because we didn't let him go to Magic Mountain with his friends but that's just a long day and

when Dave was giving him a hug this morning he noticed he was warm.   He'll be fine, rest is all he needs.

There was this meal I used to make for Dave, not myself, in my pescetarian days. It was a balsamic chicken with pepper and onions. This was one of his favorite meals. I gave it a go from memory and it was delicious! If you want to impress dinner guests but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, this is it. I served it over mashed potatoes. You can adjust the recipe for a single serving to or just make more and just have it for left overs.



Balsamic Tofu w/peppers & onions

Recipe

4 servings

Olive Oil

14oz. Firm Tofu, sliced into strips

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 C. yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 1/2 C.  Red Italian or bell peppers, sliced

1 tsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1/4 C. White wine

1 T. balsamic vinegar

s & p to taste

Heat up skillet(I use cast iron) and add olive oil.  Once heated up add the onion, garlic and peppers to skillet and saute until soft.  Next add in the rosemary and a bit of salt and pepper, continue to saute for about 2 minutes.  Once done take out vegetables and put into a dish and set aside.  Next add a bit more oil to the skillet and add the tofu strips, sprinkling a bit of salt onto the tops.  You want to sear the tofu on both sides until they start to turn brown and get a bit of a crust on them.  Once the tofu is done add the vegetable mixture back in with it and add the wine.  Stir for about a minute or so until completely warmed through.  Then stir in the balsamic vinegar.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over mashed potatoes or pasta.



Using a good balsamic is real important.  My mother-in-law always makes sure I have balsamic vinegar handy and luckily she knows which ones are best.  This one is from Oliviers & Co. and tastes wonderful!  It's more syrupy but not too much and a bit sweet instead of real acidic.  This is the kind you can drizzle over pasta or veggies before serving your guests or yourself.

Helen's Kitchen, Tofurky and Quinoa Salad

Hey I just found out I was the lucky winner of the cookbook giveaway of Viva Vegan at Chow Vegan! I can't wait to start cooking recipes from it because I'm reading awesome reviews on it. 
As you can see I'm still here, my mind just hasn't been into blogging for the past week for some reason.  School has been out for almost a week now for Keaton and we are on summer mode.  Yesterday we did a nice family bike ride yesterday, 22 miles or so.  It felt great!   I feel pretty lucky to be able to bike ride in such pretty scenery, although the hills are turning brown, the trees and vineyards are all green.  We get to see cows, horses and other animals all along the way.  One thing I wish for is to be able to save all of those cute cows!  Maybe one day!

I was recently contacted by a company, Helen's Kitchen, a family owned brand, to try some of their products.  I had never heard of them before so I was delighted!  The products are all GMO, MSG free.  They are  frozen and offer vegetarian and vegan items which are all very clearly labeled on the packaging.  The items they offer are tofu steaks, veggie ground, burrito's and frozen entees.They are also lower in sodium than most frozen foods. Our local healthfood store only had 2 vegan options to try so I tried the vegetarian steaks, which are sliced tofu steaks infused with herbs and the Indian Curry entree, which I still have yet to try. The tofu steaks are very flavorful and you just throw them on the skillet to reheat. I actually used these tofu steaks to make a recipe that I used to make for Dave before I was vegan.  Since this tofu is firm and already flavored it was a good choice to use.  The recipe is below and the leftovers I used to make a sandwich the next day which tasted excellent! 

 Yummy sandwich!  The tofu steaks alone would be great by themselves on a sandwich, wrap or salad.

The products work well together with Turtle Island Foods or better known to many as Tofurky.  I'm really excited to tell you that Tofurky now makes 3 different  pizza's using  Daiya non-dairy cheese!  You can now purchase a cheese pizza, sausage/veggie, pepperoni/cheese or heck try all three why not!  Unfortunately, my local health food store doesn't carry this pizza yet so I'll have to wait until they do or make a trip to another store.  When I do try I will be sure to post and if you all happen to get your hands on this new product let me know how you like it.  

Cornflake Crusted Tofu Steaks

serves 4

2 C. organic cornflakes, crushed

1/4 C. Veganaise or other non dairy mayo.

1 Package of Helen's Kitchen Tofu Steaks (or other extra-firm tofu)

3T. whole grain mustard or dijon

1 garlic clove

herbs of your choice are optional as well as salt.

3Tbsp. Melted Earth Balance or(olive oil or spray oil)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a plastic bag crush cornflakes then poor in a bowl.  In a smaller bowl stir together the veganaise, mustard and garlic. 

Grab a tofu steak and coat with the mayo mixture then coat with the cornflakes and put on to a baking pan.

Once all of the tofu steaks are on the baking pan, drizzle on the Earth Balance.

Cook for about 30-35 minutes until brown and crunchy on both sides.

Okay, this is my new favorite salad.  I use quinoa for alot of things but cold quinoa salad is my favorite!  This one above is a yellow quinoa using this recipe here from HLife.  I took this to a track meet at Keaton's school for my lunch, so I added some garbanzo beans to be more filling.  It definitely did the trick and was so refreshing!

Here are some interesting facts about  Quinoa to those who may not be to familiar with it.

1.  It is actually not a grain but a seed from a leafy green related to a spinach or swiss chard. 

2.  It was called "the gold of the Incas".  They found it helped out with the Stamina of the Inca Warriors.

3.  It contains all nine of the essentail amino acids.

4.   It is a great for those who suffer from migraines, diabetes and atherosclerosis, cardiovascular health, menopausal women and many other health issues.  It contains a huge amount of maganese, magnesium, b2 and other minerals.  Magnesium helps to relax the blood vessels which is a wonder for migraine headaches.

5.  It's very easy and quick to make.

This salad I used black quinoa and I have the recipe down below.  I made this for dinner the other night and in my bowl, not pictured here, I added some chopped avocado and served along with a vegetable.  The next day for lunch Keaton and I had some with chopped avocado as well and diced, sauteed tofu strips.  Yum!  It's just so versatile.

QUINOA SALAD

1 C. dried quinoa, rinsed

1 1/2 C. water

1 red bell pepper, diced 

1 yellow bell pepper,diced

3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 large cucmber, peeled and diced

1 very small red onion, chopped

2 spring onions, chopped  

1 1/2 C. spinach, chopped

1/4-1/3 C. fresh basil, chopped

1/4 C. pine nuts, lightly toasted

Dressing:

1 Lg. Meyer Lemon or( regular lemon), juice of

2 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar

2-3 Tbsp. Olive oil

1 Tbsp. Raw Agave

1 Garlic clove, minced

salt to taste

In a medium saucepan add the rinsed quinoa to 1 1/2 C. water.  Bring to a boil and cover.  Continue to cook for about 20min until water is evaported.  Take off stove and let cool to room temp.

While quinoa is cooking, chop all of the veggies and put in large bowl. 

Next, make dressing by adding  all of the dressing ingredients and whisk until combined, set aside.

To toast pine nuts.  Heat a skillet to medium and toast pinenuts just until they start to turn color.  This only takes about 3-4min.

When quinoa is cooled add to the veggies and pour over dressing.  Stir until combined.  Eat room temp or refrigerated. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

More reviews in the future.

Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Vegetables, cookies, etc.

Today is the start of another beautiful & warm day out here in California.  We need to enjoy this because cooler temps and rain our coming our way again.   I know we need more rain so I can deal with it, but these warm and sunny days like the ones we've been having are very enticing.  Bring on spring and summer, I'm ready!   Okay enough about the weather. 

Years ago I checked out from the library The Voluptuous Vegan cookbook by Myra Kornfeld  and tried quite a few recipes.  You should really check out that book!  Some have alot of steps but the end results are delicious!!!  This is the inside, obviously, of Chickpea crepes with grilled veggies(asparagus, zucchini, bell pepper and scallions) a layer  tofu cheese and topped with a spinach/basil pesto sauce. 

This is how it looks when it's all rolled up.  I was actually planning on making this for Valentines but hey the next day worked.  It's been so long since I've made this and the boys(husband and son) loved it as much as I did.  The chickpea crepes rock!   

I'm trying to take out as much wheat from Keaton's diet again. He's been complaining of his stomach and I asked him how long it's been hurting.  He said "It's been hurting, I just try to ignore it. "  I told him he shouldn't have to live with pain( he's only 12! but no one should live with constant stomache pain) and we'll just have to get a handle on his food situtation.  Anyways, I saw these gluten free coconut chocolate chip cookies from Jessy at Happyveganface and tried them out.  These are fantastic, both of us loved them.  Thanks Jessy!  Check 'em out on her blog.  The only change I made was replacing the chickpea flour with sorghum.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Stir fried rice w/herbs de provence and recipe testing!!!

I love herbs de provence!  Instead of using asian flavors for a stir fried rice this recipe uses herbs de provence.  It so flippen good!  Again very quick to make.  I found the recipe once again at Vegetarian Times

and I added brocolli, of course any veggie you want to throw in would work.  I also used crumbled frozen tofu which was perfect for this.

So I've been doing some recipe testing, which kind of slacked do to the holidays, for the wonderful ladies who just released a cookbook last year called 500 Vegan Recipes and are working on another one.  The very talented Celine-Have Cake Will Travel and Joni Marie Newman- Just the food blog and author of Cozy Inside Cookbook.  It's quite fun and I'm so honored to help out with the recipe testing.   So the salad you see up above is an un-tuna salad(it's not yet named as of yet)consisting of tempeh and lots of goodness!  This is a great salad mix that would be great in a sandwich, on a bed of lettuce(like I did) or with crackers even.  I will definitley be making this again and again.

This here is a breakfast pumpkin muffin bar.  Lovely with coffee or tea in the morning.  It is just sweet enough and is gluten free!  My son loved this bar and I packed one per his request in his lunch until they were gone.  He's pretty excited that I get to test recipes out. lol! I have some more photo's of other recipes i've tried so far but my computer isn't letting me down load them right now.  So I'll share those later.   See ya next post!
Oh for all of you Californians, keep try we should have a break this weekend!!!  yipppeeee!

Gluten free noodle kale soup and new products

This soup is made with Tinyada brown rice elbow pasta, kale, tomato, carrots, onion, celery, veggie broth, white wine and herbs. Nice & warm.

I decided to give these treats down here to the left
from Mary's Gone Crackers Sticks & Twigs Sea Salt a whirl since they were on sale.My first bite or two I wasn't so sure about the taste so I put the bag away. Then later when my son got home and I
took out the bag for a treat I tried it again and I changed my mind it's pretty good. They are real crunchy and have a ton of good stuff in them like flax seeds, amaranth, quinoa, chia seeds, etc. I would love to try some of there other flavors.

Then check this out! I found this new product from Wild Wood, it's tofu made with Sprouted Soybeans! How cool is that!!! It doesn't really taste any different from other tofu and since this one is superfirm it would be great grilled or used sliced up as tofu steaks. Now you can feel alot better about eating tofu!

spicy, sweet and crunchy

I'm loving all of the squash available right now. Yum......! Not the greatest pic but I made the Southwestern Corn Pudding from VCON and I decide to fill half an acorn squash with half the mixture and them bake. Oh it was so good!

To complete the creamy corn pudding, I made the cornmeal crusted tofu from VCON as well. For the spices in the cornmeal coating I used a creole spice so it had a real nice kick to it. Any leftover tofu from this makes a great sandwich the next day.

Grilled Blackened Tofu Sandwich

Last night I wasn't in the mood for cooking dinner and my pantry and fridge. are running low on food items, so not too many options. I decided on a sandwich with baked fries and a salad. I thinly sliced up a block of the extra firm tofu that is vacuum sealed, no water. The marinade I used for the tofu slices is the Blackened Tempeh recipe from The Real Food Daily Cookbook .

I love love love this recipe, I just cut down on the oil and cayenne that is used and I use maple for the sweetener. Let this marinade for a couple of hours, the longer the better. Then I grilled up the tofu, yellow bell peppers, onion and some zucchini's, since I'm overflowing on the zucchini's right now in my garden I use them any chance I get. hee hee. Once grilled layer up on toasted bread and enjoy!

Savory Tart w/zucchini & roasted tomatoes

My inspiration for this meal came from 101 Cookbooks blog and the recipe is called a Lasagna Tart. It's a twist on lasagna but without the noodles. She uses ricotta as a filling then layers it with zucchini and a marinara on top of a crust. My version: First of all I didn't do any layering. I started with a pinenut crust, then I made the tofu filling I use for my savory tarts or "quiche." I grilled up some zucchini rounds and spread them on top of the filling then topped the whole thing off with roasted tomatoes. For the roasted tomatoes I chopped up quite a few roma tomatoes, threw in some chopped garlic, olive, sea salt and roasted until most of the liquid was gone. Then I mixed in some chopped basil. Next it went into the oven for about 35 minutes.

Wallah! A savory tart with grilled zucchini & roasted tomatoes. It was a nice change from a lasagna or the usual tofu tart. We all really enjoyed it, served with a large green salad. It also tastes really good the next day right out of the refrigerator.

Chinese grilled tofu, veggies with brown rice

The other night when my husband asked what we were having for dinner and I told him a stir fry, his response wasn't very enthusiastic. Stir frys are so easy to make, especially when I don't really feel like cooking, but I do try to change up the veggies & sauce, spicy or sweet, depending on my mood. You see I shouldn't have said stir fry because it's really not what I was going to do, it's grilling the vegetables and tofu that have been marinating in a chinese sauce. I got the idea from, again, The New Vegetarian Grill by Andrea Chesman. When everyone sat down and looked at their plate and said "this looks good" and then they started eating making pleasant grunting sounds, I knew this was a winner! They scarfed it down and wanted more. I would definately make this one for company, it's a nice twist to chinese food.

Here are the vegetables I used and the ingredients for the marinade:

1 head of broccoli, trimmed and sliced

2 Lg. carrots, washed and sliced into long wedges

1 bunch asparagus, washed and trimmed

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1/2 bag of sugar snap peas, washed

1 block of extra-firm tofu,(the vacuum sealed kind), sliced into strips about 1/3 inch thick.

Marinade for tofu:

2 T. sesame oil

1 T. soy sauce

2 garlic cloves

1 T. fresh ginger

In a small casserole dish whisk together marinade then add tofu. Flip tofu every so often to completely coat.

Marinade for vegetables:

3 T. mirin

3 T. soy sauce, tamari or braggs

3 T. sesame oil

1 T. rice vinegar

2 garlic cloves

1 T. ginger

Whisk together marinade then add vegetables. Marinade for at least an hour.

Prepare barbeque on medium heat. Barbeque the tofu until you see nice grill marks. BBQ/grill the vegetables just until done, you still want them crisp not burnt. Mix together both left over marinades and set aside.

To assemble serve vegetables and tofu over brown rice, drizzle with remaining marinade and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

A change in diet and Pan fried Tofu, Kale w/rice noodles

A change of diet in our house. Yes we are still vegan, get those thoughts right out of your head!According to my sons symptoms his doctor said he has IBS. He said he had to eliminate dairy(already done), cut down on animal protein(well he said meat and we don't do anyways), cut down on fruit(bummer!), up vegetable intake, add more fiber, fiber, fiber foods and cut out junk food. Okay, so I told him we were vegan( I know there are those junk food vegans out there but we are not those) and he gave the head nod of approval and said I wouldn't need to go to a dietician. Cool! The prescription was a diet change and to let him know how he was doing. I'm thinking the only diet change would be to lessen fruit intake(the sugar in fruit is fructose and many IBS sufferers react to fructose)and it wouldn't hurt for him to eat more veggies.

Anyways, I went home and started to do more research and my conclusion is it has to be a food allergy right? He gets so much fiber already it can't be that. So again more research and I found out that wheat is a big time trigger with those who have this syndrome.

So the first ingredient we are taking out of his diet is wheat. Yesterday did a little shopping for him, rice crackers, none of the breads looked good, they were very dense and didn't have very much fiber so I bought a gluten-free bread mix and I'll post about it when I make it. He loves raw veggies so that's a great snack. Now i'm a food label reader and I usually have tamari or's bragg's on hand but when my husband went to Trader Joe's last time he picked up soy sauce from there. So as I was getting ready to make dinner I took out the soy and you know what is listed WHEAT! I totally forgot that it has wheat in it. Why do they need wheat in soy sauce? I know tamari doesn't have wheat as an ingredient or Bragg's Liquid Aminos. So I had to jam back to the store to get a wheat free version. This is where a whole foods diet comes into play. The less processed, the less ingredients, the better for you. But come on soy sauce with wheat what's the deal! Okay, breathe....

Continuing with the diet change my husband and I figure in about a week or so I'll call the doctor and see if we can make an appointment to get a food allergy test done. Until then we will all be on a wheat free diet for the next, at least, couple of weeks and I welcome all comments or advice.

Now let's get onto what we had for dinner last night. So it had to be wheat free and tasty. I opted for the the Pan Fried Tofu, Kale and Rice Noodle recipe from vegan yum yum which was great the first time I made it and was just as tasty his time. The way the Kale is cooked is really good and I sprinkled a bit of sesame seeds on top. Try it out for yourself!

Citrus Agave Grilled Tofu/Portobellos w/wild rice

I was craving wild rice the other day and was thinking about how I could use it in a main dish as well as using the grill outside. POP! An idea popped in my head and the end result....it totally hit the spot! My son gave me a high five. This has a very light tangy, savory & lightly sweet flavor. It's really perfect for a Spring evening.

Marinating Tofu:

• 1/2 block of extra-firm tofu or( I use Trader Joes that comes in a two pack-15oz, I use one pack)
• 4 Tbsp. Agave syrup
• 3 Tbsp. Soy Sauce or Bragg's liquid Aminos
• 1 1/2 tsp. brown rice vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• juice from 1 small orange
• 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme

In a small casserole dish mix all marinade ingredients except for tofu, set aside. Next, slice tofu into 5 pieces, then with a paper towel or clean cloth towel press down on each slice to get as much liquid as possible out. Add tofu slices to marinade and coat. Every half hour or so flip tofu so marinade coats it well. Marinade for at least 2 hours, the longer the better.

Wild Rice Medley:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup Imagine No Chicken Broth or vegetable broth
• 1 cups wild rice medley(mixture of wild rice and brown rice)
• salt to taste

Bring 2 cups water to a boil then add the wild rice medley, stir cover for 45 minutes or until done.

Veggies:

• 5 medium portobellos, thickly sliced
• 4 oz. snow peas, cut in half
• 1 1/4 cup brocolli, sliced
• fresh thyme and oregano to taste

Slice portobellos and brush with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Set aside to grill.

In a small saucepan bring some water to a boil and blanch snow peas and brocolli, about 1-2 min. In a strainer rinse with cold water to stop cooking.

Heat bbq up and grill tofu and portobellos (reserve tofu marinade). This takes about 15-20 minutes. Dice tofu into bite sized pieces.

In a heat resistant bowl add the wild rice, snow peas, brocolli, portobellos, reserved marinade, thyme and oregano to taste. Stir thoroughly then add the tofu and gently stir. You can add a dash of salt if needed but unlikely.

Hope you enjoy we did!

Quinoa, basil and tofu / ALSO DON'T FORGET THE GIVEAWAY ONE POST DOWN FROM THIS!!!

This is so easy to make. Seriously. The original recipe is on the box of a

Trader Joe's Quinoa box that I saw years ago. Here's my version.

Quinoa, basil & tofu

1 C. Quinoa , dry

2 C. vegetable broth

1 bunch of basil, chiffanade

2 bell peppers, yellow, orange, red (your choice)

2 C. yellow onion, sliced

5 cloves garlic, sliced

8 oz. extra firm tofu

1 tsp. oregano

s & p

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp garlic, minced

In a small saucepan bring 2 C. water to boil then add 1 C. Quinoa. Cover and turn down heat to low and cook for about 25 min. Once done turn off heat.

Rinse, drain and dry tofu. Dice tofu and coat with a bit of olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. thyme and a bit of salt to taste. Broil on low in oven just until slightly brown. Set aside once done.

Heat up a large pan and add 1 T. olive oil. Then add the onions,bell pepper & garlic, cook until just starting to get soft. Add about 1 tsp oregano cook for another 1 minute. Next add the Quinoa, basil and tofu mix thoroughly and turn off heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. I drizzled a bit of basil olive oil on top.

Enjoy!

Green Curry with Vegetables

For those busy days and not alot of time to make dinner, sometimes a jar of sauce on hand does the trick. You can still lightly saute fresh vegetables and then pour in the sauce. I'm really not into premade sauces and I have to say I only have this one in the pantry every once in a while. It's Trader Joes Thai Green Curry Sauce. It's actually pretty good and has a nice kick to it. The veggies I used were sweet potato, russet potato, red bell pepper, snow peas & brocolli. A half block of tofu and the brown rice is under there somewhere. Enjoy!

Tofu Onion Tart w/Lentil Sauce

This Tofu Onion Tart is sooooo goood! I once made this for my in-laws when my son was going to stay the night at their house. No one knew that it was made with tofu. They loved it! The recipe comes from the cookbook The Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld , it actually uses leeks but I didn't have any on hand so I used onions. The lentil sauce goes so well with this. I served this with brocollini and salad. The nice thing is that you can change up the ingredients, once I made it with green chilli's, onion and corn, delish! There are alot of really good recipes in this book, and well worth the time spent.