Vegan: Savory Pasta Bake

This dish started off as a couple of tomatoes and trying to figure out what to do with them. I decided I wanted to make a fresh tomato sauce so I started with that.

I have only seen one person ever make fresh tomato sauce but never really done it myself. Taking a nonstick pot I poured in my tomatoes with a tiny bit of peanut oil, then I let it simmer for a couple of minutes. After it started getting soft I put in about 3 tablespoons of tomato paste (The amount depends on how many tomatoes you are using). Stirring in the paste I started to break up the tomatoes and then season them. I put in garlic,basil, Oregano, paprika, sazon (its a seasoning mix) and pepper. Since I made this at night I stored it in a container in the fridge for later usage. 


Knowing that I had tomato sauce already made I wanted to make some kind of pasta but I wasn't sure what kind. I'm not that big a fan of pasta but I figured I would make something that had several components. I settled on Pasta Bake since I had "cheese" and "ground beef".
Boiling the pasta in one pot (I used rotini) I cooked the meat in a different pan. I pretty much use similar seasonings for most of what I cook so I seasoned it the same as the tomato sauce, minus the sazon and basil. I did add instead some salt, nutritional yeast, flax seed and spinach.

After draining the pasta and putting it on a baking dish I poured in the meat then the sauce on top.

Then I mixed it all together, added some Daiya Mozarella cheese and covered it to bake.

Since Vegan cheese takes a little longer to melt than regular cheese I left it covered with aluminum foil in the oven for about 15 minutes or so. 

I mixed it all together and served in a bowl.

Serve it with a side salad or some garlic bread and enjoy. It was really savory and definitely hit the spot. I will definitely be making this again in the future.

Sponge Cake

I've had this strawberry preserve sitting in my fridge for some time and I wanted to use it with a cake. I decided to make a sponge cake even though I have never made one before. In the end it came out too thin because I didn't make enough batter for my baking pan but it still came out fine. I put strawberry preserve as a topping and then sprinkled crushed walnuts on top. I tried to make some vanilla frosting but it did not work out at all, so maybe next time. 

It sort of looks like pizza in the pictures

Peanut Noodles

I haven't made these in so long, but since I have had a craving for Asian food I wanted to make it again. It's pretty simple to make all you need are; carrots,broccoli,peanut butter, soy sauce, cilantro, garlic, pepper, paprika and noodles (I used whole grain spaghetti, linguine will work fine).


Step one: Bring a pot of water to a boil to cook your pasta. I used a double boiler to cook my noodles on the bottom and then steam my vegetables on the top. 


Step two: Taking a small bowl mix up your peanut butter and soy sauce so that the peanut butter isn't as thick (you can use some water to thin it out as well if you don't want to use too much soy sauce).


Step three: Mix in all of your seasonings to the soy and peanut butter mixture.


Step four: Taking a pan or pot (nonstick, or if not then lightly oil it to prevent sticking) and pour in your spaghetti (of course they should have already been boiled and cooked previously).


Step five: Pour in your mixture onto the spaghetti, mixing it together for a couple of minutes. 


Step 6: After I've stirred the spaghetti for a couple of minutes insuring that it absorbs the flavors I then throw in the vegetables I steamed (cutting them smaller before I put them in). Stir everything for another couple of minutes and then determine when its done. 

I ran out of soy sauce so my noodles came out more thick than I had wanted but it still tasted good

Serve by itself or with some rice if you'd like and you will have a fulfilling meal. I have made it in the past with other ingredients like onions, lettuce and the like. You can pretty much put in whatever you'd like. It's such a simple meal but tastes good and fills you up. I added some grounded up flax in mine and nutritional yeast but that is completely optional.


Try this out and enjoy!

Eggplant Stacks

I wasn't sure what to make but then spying some eggplants figured I would make something with those. Normally I like to make eggplant Parmesan and I fry the eggplant, this time I decided to bake them. I again wanted something that wasn't very heavy or too difficult to prepare. 


Cutting up the eggplant in wheels I coated them like I would if I made fried chicken. Only difference is I didn't use egg or milk, instead I used plain soy milk to soak them in. I ground up plain cornflakes with the seasonings of my choice; paprika,basil,salt, pepper,onion powder,nutritional yeast, flax-seed. I mixed up all the dry ingredients in the blender to get them mixed and get the cornflakes smaller. One by one I dipped and coated and then spread them onto a pan to put in the oven. 
While that cooked I cooked the filling for my stacks;ground soy crumbles. Lightly greasing a pan I added some salt pepper,onion,garlic and paprika with the soy crumbles. Then as that started to cook I washed some fresh baby spinach and threw it in with the crumbles to soften. When the spinach was soft I took the pan off the stove and checked on my eggplants. 
After taking out my eggplants I got a plate and started building as much as I would eat. I put one eggplant wheel down and topped it with the "meat" then took a tiny amount of "mozzarella" cheese and sprinkled it on top. To give it a little moisture I poured a little bit of tomato sauce on top (spaghetti sauce will do) and then covered with another eggplant wheel.

Since the cheese wasn't melted I would have to put it in the microwave for a couple of seconds. Next time I will just assemble the stack and let it cook together in the oven.

And so that was my lunch, topped off with an apple and some water on the side

This is a good option for Lunch or Dinner, you can pair it with whatever you wish and its good for you.

Vegan Diet:It's a wrap

I had been craving wraps for some time after having a really delicious one last month. It was a hummus,bell pepper,avocado and cheddar cheese hummus. It was such a simple wrap and tasted so good that I needed to recreate something like it. 
Unfortunately I had no avocado when I made it the first time and then the second time there was no avocado left. I made this for dinner because I wanted something fulfilling that wasn't heavy.

                                    I used a whole grain tortilla, some white bean hummus, daiya 
                                 mozarella cheese, ground flaxseed,nutritional yeast and a tomato. I seasoned
                                         the tomato with a little bit of lime juice, salt and pepper.

I served it with a side of unsalted corn tortilla chips.

I guarantee if you tried this out you would love it. I made one for my sister only using real cheese on hers. Its such a simple meal but it tastes so good that its worth it. My sister even said "Its so good and I don't even know why." Its a healthy simple meal that works well for lunch or dinner.

Vegan Diet: Dessert

Ever since giving up dairy I haven't really been able to have any dessert. The most I've had has been teddy grahams with chocolate soy milk. I missed chocolate and cakes, so I finally bought what I needed to bake. This was my first time ever baking from scratch and surprisingly it was very simple. Rather than make a whole cake I decided to just make cupcakes, I made some plain and others chocolate chips. The chocolate chip ones were my favorite. The batter was moist, a little bit chewy but not raw. My only complaint would be that it was a little too sweet for me so next time I'll use less sugar. 

                                               They came out so nice and golden

I had my cupcake with a side of chocolate soy milk just to get a little more chocolate in :)

The ingredients were as follows; Baking soda, Flour, salt, sugar, soy milk, vanilla extract, vinegar, oil.

Instead of using oil I subbed it in for some vegan butter. Also because I ran out of vinegar I used lime juice instead and it wasn't noticeable

Vegan Diet: Lunch

I have been craving lasagna for weeks now and when I attempted it twice they ended up being massive fails. I was off my cooking game then but I'm happy to say i'm back. It tasted sooo good just like regular lasagna. I've made vegetarian lasagna before but never vegan so this was my first time. I used some soy crumbles,spinach and mozarella "cheese". The only thing is that the sauce was a little too sweet for my liking but it still tasted awesome. With the seasoning playing a big role.

                                     I only made two layers so it was pretty thin but still satisfying,
                                              I didn't want to make a lot and have it go to waste.
                                            I had this with two slices of avocado also on the side.

While that was cooking I decided to have my fruit intake for the day and decided to make a smoothie. I sliced up a banana, 3 slices of pineapple, a handful of frozen strawberries and some vanilla soy milk. I don't usually care for smoothies when I make them because I can never get a good consistency. This time it came out pretty good, it was a good mix. 

After serving myself a cupful there was still some left over