Pizza for Grown-Ups

Recently I made pizza for the G, the Blessings and I again.  I used my typical pizza crust from my Quick Veggie Pizza recipe. I divided the dough in five balls, as usual, but this time for mine and G's pizzas, I decided to go for toppings that the sweet Blessings would not find appealing at all.  Not only could we indulge in spicy goodness, but it also assured us that our leftovers would be untouched by grubby, greedy littler hands.  I usually have a variety of toppings for us all to choose from, but I decided to pull out red onions and jalapenos, which I knew only G and I would have.  Whereas the Blessings top their own crusts, G just trusts my topping instincts to have me make his own.  He was delighted with the finished product.   With onions and hot peppers, at least in our home, this is definitely pizza for grown-ups!

Here's a shot of Pizza for Grown-Ups still on the baking pan after coming out of the oven.

A close up of all those delicious goodies.

Pizza for Grown-Ups

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 pkgs. or 1 and 1/2 Tbs. of active dry yeast
2 cups of warm water
4 cups of flour
1 and 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 Tbs. vegan or raw sugar

Grown-Up Toppings:

We used:
Organic pizza sauce
Daiya cheddar shreds
Daiya mozzarella shreds
Red onion, chopped coarsely
Sliced black olives
Mushrooms, sliced
Artichoke hearts, chopped coarsely
Pickled jalapenos, chopped small
Vegan pepperoni slices

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let rest for ten minutes. Combine the remaining crust ingredients in a large bowl, along with the yeast mixture, and mix well. Cover bowl with a damp towel, and let rise for 30 minutes. Punch dough down and divide into five sections. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll out one section of dough to about the size of a plate. Pick up and gently toss with your hands, until it's at least one and a half times its original size. Put on your baking sheet or pizza pan, and load with toppings. Bake for 20 minutes. While baking, make your next pizza. I can bake two pizzas at a time side by side; a bit of one baking sheet rests on the edge of the other, but it doesn't affect the end result. Remove from oven and let rest for five minutes before slicing. So good and easy! Feeds five hungry vegans or two vegan grown-ups and kid-friendly toppings for the rest of the gang.

Chili Cheese Burgers

This meal follows shortly after my Chili Cheese Dogs and is even easier to make than the dogs were!  I'm not going to apologize for using shortcuts.  Feeding a family on a regular basis, homeschooling my children, and keeping busy in so many other countless ways justifies me in taking a break every now and then in food preparation.  This is a kid-friendly meal, and we all gobbled them up.  Treat yourself to a break too, and make these soon.  :-)

Chili Cheese Burgers

Ingredients:

Vegan Boca burgers - enough to feed your family.  I use three boxes: enough for seconds for some and leftovers.
Canola oil for frying
1- 29 oz. can vegan chili beans or 2 - 15 oz. cans
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, sliced somewhat thinly
Your favorite burger buns

Directions:

Heat a couple of tablespoons of the oil in large pan that has a lid over medium heat.  (Don't put the lid on, yet.)  When hot, add four to six burgers, however much your pan can hold in single layer.  Brown on one side, three to five minutes.  Flip burgers over and add the slices of cheese to the top of each burger.  Add the lid to the pan and cook until the cheese melts, another couple of minutes.  In the meantime, heat the can of beans in a medium pot over medium heat.  When the burgers are done, place them on the bottom half of a burger bun, scoop a spoonful of chili beans over the top, and add the top of the bun.  Finish with the rest of the burgers.  Serve with a side of veggies for a complete meal.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Chili Cheese Dogs

This is strictly an old-fashioned, stick-to-your-ribs comfort meal.  I'm not promoting health benefits with this one, just guiltily happy taste buds.  Besides making a very simple chili, there is just a matter of opening up packages and doing minimal prep work to achieve this fun dinner.  Enjoy!

Chili Cheese Dogs

Ingredients:

For the chili:
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 pkg. SmartGround
1 29oz. can pinto beans, drained
1 29oz. can diced tomatoes
1 packet of chili seasoning mix (found in the spice section)

2 pkgs. SmartDogs
2 pkgs. favorite hot dogs buns
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely grated

Directions:

In a medium pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the soy ground and cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the remaining chili ingredients, and cook over medium low heat for another twenty minutes, until all the flavors are blended.  Meanwhile while the chili is cooking, fill another medium pot two-thirds full with water.  Bring to a boil.  Remove the hot dogs from their packaging and place in the boiling water.  Remove the pot from the heat, and let the hot dogs sit in the water for two minutes.  When chili is ready, gather your hot dog buns.  Slide a dog in the bun, top with spoonfuls of chili and sprinkle liberally with cheese.  (You can omit the cheese for simple chili dogs, if you wish.)  A hit with the whole family!  Feeds five hungry vegans.  Slurp.

Classic Pickle and Cheese Sandwich

Here is a sandwich that we like to have when we have all the ingredients handy.  Even though there are only a few ingredients, sometimes I just don't have pickles and cheese at the same time.  I grew up eating this and love its simplicity.  GR and JK are learning to appreciate it, too.

Classic Pickle and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:

Several slices of your favorite bread: we used sourdough
Vegenaise or Nayonnaise
Sliced dill pickles or bread and butter style pickles: we used Bubbies bread and butter chips this time around
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, sliced into strips

Directions:

Spread a layer of vegenaise or nayonnaise on your bread, a little thicker than usual.  Cover with pickle and cheese slices.  Top with the other slathered bread, and bite.  Mm-mmm.  Serve with chips or homemade fries for a real take-you-back-to-childhood lunch or dinner.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Salad Bar Night!

As most of you probably do, we eat plenty of salads with and for dinner.  With children, I like to keep it as fun as possible, for even though they're vegan, they're still kids and don't always want to eat a salad every day.  So, Ill make a variety of salads from different regions, or have big individual salads loaded with their favorite toppings, or like this version: I'll have a salad bar with familiar and unfamiliar things to top whatever greens are the base that night.

My dear mother, bless her heart, gave me three heads of iceberg lettuce.  Just like home, ah, the memories.  The only time we usually eat iceberg now is when we're over at my parents or when she drives over to bring me three heads of it.  So, there it is, the star of our show, and it's thumbing its nose at Romaine, red leaf, butter, endive, and radicchio.  Let it have its crunchy glory, I say, surrounded by all sorts of goodness!  Below, I'll list the toppings left to right, just to give you an idea of what you can have.  Add or take away at your taste bud's pleasure. 

The Salad Bar

What my plate looked like loaded up.

Salad Bar Night

Ingredients:

Nice big bowl of lettuce, chopped
A variety of ingredients with proper handling tools provided.  We had:
  Pear tomatoes
  Finely grated Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style
  Green onions, sliced
  Carrots, grated
  Celery, chopped
  Raw turnip, grated
  Radish, grated
  Green bell pepper, diced
  Parsley greens, chopped small
  Sliced almonds
  Marinated artichoke hearts

A variety of dressings, olive and sesame oils, red wine and balsamic vinegars and lemon juice

Directions:

Top lettuce to your heart's content with the goodies.  Add the dressings to season lightly.  Eat!  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Sausage and Cheese Muffins

I developed this recipe a few weeks before Christmas to see if they would turn out, and they did.  So, I presented them on Christmas morning for my family, including my parents, to enjoy.  They are hearty and a tasty way to start the day.

Just a note: You'll see that I'll be using flax seed thickener, instead of EggReplacer, in my savory dishes.  Just trying to incorporate more flax in our diet.

Sausage and Cheese Muffins
Ingredients:
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped small
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 pkg. Gimme Lean sausage style, diced small
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, shredded finely and divided
2 cups of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. flax seed meal
3 Tbs. water
1 and 1/2 cups plain rice milk
Non-stick spray
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and green onion, and saute for one minute.  Add the diced sausage to the pan, and cook for five minutes, until it has browned.  Stir occasionally.  Add half of the cheese to the sausage mixture and stir until it has softened and blended in, about one minute.  Set aside to cool while you work with the rest of the ingredients.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  In a small pot, mix together the flax seed meal with the water.  Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, about a minute or two.  Add this, along with the rice milk, to the flour mixture.  Using a hand mixer, blend on medium low speed until incorporated.  Add the sausage mixture, and stir well with a spoon.  Spray a cupcake pan's wells with the non-stick spray.  Fill wells to the top with batter.  Top with the remaining cheese.  Bake for 40 minutes.  An inserted toothpick will not come out clean because of the cheese and sausage inside the muffin, but after 40 minutes, they will be done.  Makes one dozen muffins.  These freeze great, as well, if you want to double the recipe.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Cheesy Saucy Bread

So sorry for the delay in putting out a post.  There's been a lot of personal stuff going on, so I really haven't been online at all except for financial necessities and homeschooling materials.  I'm hoping to get back to a regular schedule of posting about two times a week again.

Anyhow, on to the recipe: this is a completely indulgent bread, and I use that term loosely.  My family thinks it's simply cheese pizza, but no, I'm calling it Cheesy Saucy Bread, and that way it can be served alongside other dishes to make a complete meal.  It's super easy, too, so I hope you have fun making it!

Cheesy Saucy Bread right out of the oven

A slice of Cheesy Saucy Bread alongside a pasta dish and roasted veggies

Cheesy Saucy Bread

Ingredients:

1 - 15oz. can tomato sauce
1 Tbs. tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style, finely shredded

2 lg. loaves of ciabatta bread, cut into quarters or halves, depending on size.
Directions:

Heat top broiler in oven.  Put all the ingredients for the sauce (tomato sauce through pepper) into a medium pot.  Cook over medium low heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomato paste is well absorbed.  Place the sections of bread on large baking sheets.  Spread the sauce evenly over the bread.  Sprinkle the cheese over the sauce.  Place bread under broiler for four minutes, or until cheese melts.  Serve with pasta and roasted veggies for a complete meal.  Mm-mmm, good.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Classic Bean Tacos

One of my dad's signature dishes was tacos.  We had taco night about once a month or so, and he was always in charge of it.  This version of the taco was the first one I made when I stopped eating meat, and I use all the traditional toppings that we used at home.  It hits the spot and the heart.

Classic Bean Tacos

Ingredients:

At least one 29oz. can vegetarian refried beans
Canola oil
20 or more corn tortillas
Hot sauce
Ketchup
3 green onions, sliced
Romaine lettuce, chopped
Tomatoes, diced
At least one medium can of sliced black olives
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded

Directions:

Heat the refried beans in a medium pot until warmed through.  Heat one teaspoon of the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  When hot, add one tortilla.  When it starts to change shape or bubble (just in ten seconds or so), flip over.  Add a large spoonful of beans down one side of the tortilla.  Fold the other side over the beans.  Place on a paper towel lined cookie sheet.  Follow suit with at least one more tortilla before adding a bit more oil to the pan.  Finish with the remaining tortillas and beans.  Have the toppings ready at the table.  I like to add the hot sauce and ketchup on the beans, so they stay put, instead of falling to the plate.  Have fun, enjoy the food, eat to your heart's content.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Open-Faced Broiled Tomato and Cheese Sandwich

This was another sandwich born of opportunity, necessity and availability.  Hungry for lunch one day, I poked around, pulled out some simple ingredients and broiled a sandwich that we all appreciated.  Hope you do too, and enjoy it for dinner too sometimes.

Open-Faced Broiled Tomato and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:

Several thick slices of bread - I used my Basic White Bread  
Vegenaise or Nayonnaise
2 or 3 fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled if desired, sliced thickly
Salt and pepper to taste
At least 1 cup of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Mozzarella style, finely shredded

Directions:

Place oven rack second from top and heat the top broiler.  On each slice of bread, spread the vegenaise (or nayonnaise) a little more thickly than usual.  Top with three to five slices of tomato.  Salt and pepper the tomatoes to your taste.  Top with a sprinkling of cheese.  Place all the slices on a cookie sheet, and broil for three or four minutes, until the cheese melts.  Serve immediately.  Feeds five hungry vegans.  Perfect for that nagging hunger question.

Black Bean Mole' over Coconut Couscous

I cannot take the credit for the creativity of this dish.  I got this out of a newspaper clipping several years ago.  All I've done is veganize the toppings and bring out larger quantities of them, adjust some of the ingredients, give directions on how to toast the coconut, and make the directions in more my style, with slight changes.  But, my family, all of them (gasp!), loves this dish, and it's so fun and different, that I just had to share.

Black Bean Mole' over Coconut Couscous

Ingredients:

Couscous:
1 cup uncooked couscous
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mole':
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 - 15 oz. cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 - 16 oz. jar of mild or medium salsa
1 and 1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Toppings:
1 pkg. Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style, finely shredded
1 container of vegan sour cream
6 green onions, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced - we used a combination of red and yellow tomatoes

Directions:

For the couscous: Prepare the couscous according to package directions.  Set aside in a covered pot.  While the couscous is being prepared, take a small pot and heat it over medium heat.  Add the coconut and cinnamon and stir.  Continue to stir until the coconut begins to brown, or toasts.  It should emit a nice fragrance, not a burned one.  Once toasted, stir into the couscous and recover.

For the mole': Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook for less than a minute, until it releases its wonderful aroma.  Do not over cook - garlic is quick to burn.  Add the rest of the mole' ingredients and stir well.  Lower the heat to medium low and cook for another five minutes, or so, until all is heated through.  
Serve mole' over couscous and load up the toppings.  So, so good! Feeds five hungry vegans.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Cheesy garlic bread - what could be better than that?  I'll try to come up with something, don't worry.  But, in the meantime, here is cheesy garlic bread!  Yum!  So easy to make, so sinfully delicious too.  Makes the kids happy, what a bonus.  Here is my super quick, easy way to make these beauts.

 Cheesy Garlic Bread

 Cheesy Garlic Bread, sliced in serving bowl

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

2 lg. French loaves, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 head of garlic, all the cloves sliced
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style, finely shredded

Directions:

Put the top oven rack in the second position from the top.  Turn on broiler.  Put bread on large cookie or baking sheet.  Spread margarine evenly over all four halves of bread.  Press in sliced garlic into the top of margarined-up bread.  Sprinkle cheese over all the halves - don't forget the very ends and sides!  Broil bread for three minutes, until cheese melts.  Watch for burning!  (If you get a small portion that burned, wait a couple minutes for the bread to cool, and simply scrape off.)  Cool bread for five minutes, then slice.  Eat.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Leftover Pasta Delight

This was a meal created by the fact that I was tired of having lots of little containers with bits of leftovers in the fridge. There was not enough on their own to make a complete meal for one person, much less for a whole family. So, I just did my "garbage" trick and dumped them all together in a bowl and had myself an incredibly delicious lunch for one: me. But, this was so good and so satisfying that I'm going to attempt to offer portion sizes that will make a meal for a family, namely one that has five members in it. Enjoy.



Leftover Pasta Delight

Ingredients:

At least 3 cups of leftover pasta - I used bowtie
At least one cup of leftover steamed veggies - I used cauliflower, broccoli and carrots
At least one cup of leftover sauteed kale with red onions and garlic
At least one cup of your favorite salsa
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Mozzarella style, cubed small
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and pour into a casserole dish. You can either reheat this in a microwave for ten to twelve minutes, stirring every few minutes, or reheat in a 350 degree oven for thirty minutes. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Grilled Cheese and Tempeh Facon Sandwiches

Here is another twist on the grilled cheese sandwich. In the past I used Smart Bacon strips, and there's nothing wrong with them as an alternative to bacon. But, I'm trying to get away from processed/pre-made foods more and more, little by little, so I thought I'd just make a simple version of facon with tempeh. I will still use Smart Bacon and other meal-helpers in dishes, don't get me wrong - I'm not going to be hypocritical. But, for this sandwich, tempeh worked great, and I like knowing my family will reap the health benefits as well.

Grilled Cheese and Tempeh Facon Sandwiches with roasted veggies on the side

Easy sandwich preparation

Grilled Cheese and Tempeh Facon Sandwiches

Ingredients:

2 pkgs. of tempeh, cut into strips
2 tsp. of liquid smoke
1 Tbs. canola oil
Follow Your Heart vegan cheese, cheddar style, cut into strips
Vegan margarine
Good bread

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large skillet that has a lid (but don't use the lid yet) over medium heat. Put tempeh strips in a shallow bowl and sprinkle the liquid smoke over them. Toss the tempeh carefully with your hands to get the liquid smoke over as much of them as possible; you can massage it in gently. Fry the tempeh strips for several minutes until golden on both sides (do not use the lid here). Drain on paper towels to get any extra oil off. Put cheese slices on bread, and cover each slice with a strip of tempeh. Top with the other slice of bread. Spread margarine on the top slice of bread. Add about a tablespoon or so of margarine to the same skillet, and put in each sandwich unbuttered side down. Cover with lid and cook for five minutes over medium heat. Carefully flip each sandwich over with a large spatula, so the margarine side is down now. Cover with lid again, and cook for another five minutes. Serve while warm. Can be served with a hearty salad or lots of veggies on the side. Tasty. Feeds as many as you want, which is of course, five hungry vegans!

Breakfast Potato Skillet

Years ago, there was a Sacramento restaurant that G and I went to for breakfast. SR was just a baby and toddler at the time, so she just nibbled off our plates. But, I loved to order their potato skillet. It was a big plate of home fries covered with veggies, ham, cheese and a fried egg on top. By the time I had them leave off the ham, cheese and fried egg, I was left with home fries and veggies. I still loved it, though, because we could actually go out to breakfast on a Saturday morning, a rare treat for a vegan! But, then my frugal mind started adding up the money that I was still paying for the invisible ham, cheese and fried egg, and I began to wonder if I could duplicate this at home, but even more awesome than theirs. And what do you think I did next? You got it - experiment in the kitchen! Yay for my guinea pig family! So, the trick was to get that secret, elusive home fry flavor down: you know what I'm talking about - crispy potato square on the outside with a fluffy center. Just frying potatoes wasn't cutting it. I had to haul out my Big Daddy deep fryer. I deep fry about once or twice a year, so I'm not ashamed, I tell ya! Anyways, the potatoes were perfect, and by adding veggie hot dogs, vegan cheese and just the right veggies, it did the trick. I now have my scrumptious version of the Breakfast Potato Skillet! (Imagine that name echoing a few times.) Mine ends up being baked, and I don't think the restaurant did that; hence their "skillet" name, but I've kept that moniker for some good memories. That restaurant is now out of business, but we're still in the business of chowing down in the Blessed Vegan Life home. Come share in our food!

Breakfast Potato Skillet out of the oven

A steaming serving of this delight

The serving bowl after being attacked by hungry vegans!

Breakfast Potato Skillet

Ingredients:

9 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
Enough canola oil for deep frying
Salt to taste
1 and 1/2 cups of broccoli florets, coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 - 6 mushrooms, sliced
1 pkg. of your favorite vegan hot dogs (use eight of them)
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded, divided
Salt and Pepper to taste
Hot sauce or ketchup, optional

Directions:

Prepare the deep fryer. Gently put in three of the potatoes, diced, in the deep fryer. Cook for 12 to 14 minutes, until golden. Drain on paper towels and salt according to your taste. Repeat two more times with the remaining potatoes. I will do this step often the night before so as to save time in the morning. Put potatoes in a large baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, put the broccoli, bell pepper and mushrooms in a medium pot with about an inch of water and a steamer basket. Steam for about ten minutes, just until the broccoli is fork-tender. You do not want to overcook them. When ready, put them in a medium bowl, along with the tomatoes. While the veggies are steaming, prepare the hot dogs according to package directions - I bring water to a boil, turn the heat off, add the hot dogs and let sit for two minutes. Slice the hot dogs into 1/2" rounds. Add the hot dogs and half of the cheese to the bowl with the veggies. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir the whole thing very well. Pour on top of the potatoes in the baking dish, and sprinkle the rest of the cheese all over the top. Cover with a lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and turn on the top broiler, and broil for 3 to five minutes to melt the cheese. Serve with hot sauce and/or ketchup. Mm-mm goo-ood! Feeds five hungry vegans with leftovers for lunch...maybe.

Monte Cristo Sandwich

A Monte Cristo sandwich typically is a ham and Swiss cheese grilled sandwich that's been dipped completely in an egg batter before being fried. I've never had one, personally, but I saw a recipe for one and thought I could make a vegan version of it. It was a complete hit with my family and is very simple. I had vegan cheddar on hand, so that's what I used, and it worked great. I took a picture of the garlic blend that I used for the outside, but it came out too blurry. We have a town a couple of hours from here called Gilroy, and it's known for its garlic; the blend comes from them and is amazing. If you don't have a good garlic blend, then you can use garlic powder blended with onion powder and pepper. In the end, the sandwich ended up being an upgraded grilled cheese. I'll show you how...




Monte Cristo Sandwich

Ingredients:

Sliced sourdough bread
Vegenaise
Mustard
Vegan ham "lunchmeat"
Vegan cheese, your favorite flavor
A good garlic blend, or your own blend of garlic powder, onion powder and pepper
Vegan margarine

Directions:

Spread the vegenaise and mustard on the bread, and add a couple of slices of the vegan ham and cheese. Heat a large pan over medium heat. In a small bowl, mix a ratio of 4 Tbs. of vegan margarine with 1 tsp. of the garlic blend with a fork. Spread on both of the outside slices of bread. Use this ratio as many times as you need to make as many sandwiches as you want. Place three to four sandwiches in the pan and cover with a well-fitted lid. Cook for five minutes, carefully flip each sandwich with a large spatula, cover with lid again, and cook for another five minutes. You should have a nicely browned sandwich on both sides. If you find that your sandwich is burning, add a touch of margarine directly to the pan. I think having the ham in the sandwich prevented the cheese from completely melting, but it was very soft, especially in the middle and was delicious! Serve with some steamed veggies for a rounded out meal. I made more than enough sandwiches to feed five hungry vegans.

Quick Veggie Pizza

This was my first time making pizza dough from scratch, and I really liked it! I found a recipe on allrecipes, changed it slightly and doubled it for my family. Even though it uses yeast, the rising time is only thirty minutes, which was fantastic for a weeknight meal. The only flour my recipe uses is all purpose, and I thought the crust came out great. The dough was incredibly soft to work with and a cinch to roll out. The girls really wanted to see if I could toss the dough, so I did, and to my amazement, it stretched out amazingly. The dough stayed uniformly round when I rolled it, but changed into interesting shapes when I tossed it three or four times. So, that was a fun twist. Some shapes fit on my pizza pan, and some had to be baked on a large cookie sheet. I thought by doubling the dough recipe that I'd have just enough for five mini pizzas, but instead, I ended up with five full-size pizzas, yum! It was the tossing that did it. After the short rise time, the dough already had a sourdough-y fragrance, and I found that very appealing. One thing I will do differently next time is to not make all the crusts ahead of time: even with plenty of flour in between layers of uncooked crusts, they all stuck together, and I had to re-roll and start over. But, it was so quick, it wasn't that big of a deal. There is sugar in this recipe, and some sort of sweetener in all the recipes I searched, so I just decided to put it in. I think I'll give it a try without the sweetener next time, and see if there's a marked difference. With the simplicity of ingredients and the quickness of the meal, I can definitely see me making homemade pizza frequently in our home!

A close-up of Quick Veggie Pizza

What my dough looked like after rolling.

How big it got after a few tosses!

Its fun, quirky shape straight from the oven! What was fun for the Blessings, is that everyone's pizza had a unique shape.

Quick Veggie Pizza

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 pkgs. or 1 and 1/2 Tbs. of active dry yeast
2 cups of warm water
4 cups of flour
1 and 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 Tbs. vegan or raw sugar

Your Favorite Veggie Toppings:

We used:
Organic pizza sauce
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded
Tomatoes, halved and sliced
Can of black olives, sliced in thirds
Dino kale, stripped from stems and torn or coarsely chopped
Mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let rest for ten minutes. Combine the remaining crust ingredients in a large bowl, along with the yeast mixture, and mix well. Cover bowl with a damp towel, and let rise for 30 minutes. Punch dough down and divide into five sections. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll out one section of dough to about the size of a plate. Pick up and gently toss with your hands, until it's at least one and a half times its original size. Put on your baking sheet or pizza pan, and load with toppings. Bake for 20 minutes. While baking, make your next pizza. (I did not try to bake more than one pizza at a time because I thought they may stay undercooked, and I wanted this first time to be a success. However, I may do that the next time I make these to test my theory.) Remove from oven and let rest for five minutes before slicing. So good and easy! Feeds five hungry vegans, with leftovers for lunch the next day!

Traditional Nachos

So, we finally had another nacho night. It's been too long since the last one. For those new to my nacho experiences, I make a big platter of nachos, put it on the ottoman in the living room, and we all sit on the floor and watch a movie while munching. It's fun, it's messy, and it tastes good! This time we watched an episode of NCIS off of one of SR's DVDs, her fave show. I like to make variations of nachos, but I stuck to the traditional kind for this batch. It was gobbled up very quickly.

Traditional Nachos
Ingredients:

Big bag of corn tortilla chips
1 - 29 oz. can of vegetarian refried beans (or homemade)
1 pkg. of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, cheddar style, finely shredded
Pickled jalapeno slices
1 15 oz. can of black olives, sliced in thirds
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
3 green onions, sliced
Guacamole
Vegan sour cream
Salsa

Directions:

Preheat the top broiler, making sure the rack is in the second position from the top. Heat up the refried beans in a small pot. In a large platter, cover the bottom with a few big handfuls of chips. Spread the beans over the chips, and sprinkle the cheese on top of the beans. Broil for three to five minutes, until the cheese melts. Bring out of the oven, and add the rest of the ingredients, amount to your liking. Surround the inside of the platter with chips, in a ring, and a few in the center as garnish. Tote along a second bowl of chips, and dig in! The ones on the bottom become deliciously soaked with the full flavor of the nachos, and are fun to eat, despite them being firm-challenged. Feeds five hungry, grabby, selfish vegans.

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas

I call this dish Beginner's Soy Enchiladas because I'm nowhere near an expert enchilada maker. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I made them, but I've been wanting to make them for years. For my first time in at least a decade, I decided to stick to the familiar tastes of the past. For me that meant using soy ground, vegan cheese, and yummy toppings. By the way, the cheese melted really nicely here - I did not have to use the broiler. I also used canned enchilada sauce because I've never dipped my toes in the territory of homemade enchilada sauce before, and I wanted this meal to be as successful as possible for my family without any of Mom's usual fiddling with ingredients. I had trouble with the corn tortillas cracking when I rolled them; I found that microwaving softened them a bit, or coating them in the enchilada sauce helped, although the latter made for a mess. When I can come up with a sure-fire way to fold corn tortillas without cracking them, I'll let you know. My family really loved these, and even though I made a lasagna-sized pan and a half, there were only two enchiladas left by the end of the night! G mumbled something about how lettuce doesn't taste as good the next day, mm-hmm. I think at the end, they were being polite in not taking the last of them. By the way, I only had two, so it wasn't me. Since these were so easy to make and required so few ingredients, I will be making these more often. If I come up with more creative recipes for enchiladas, I'll let you know. In the meantime, here's my super simple version.

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas (in the pan)

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas with a side salad (my plate)

Beginner's Soy Enchiladas
Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas
1 - 28oz. can enchilada sauce, or your favorite homemade version
1 Tbs. canola oil
2 pkgs. Soy Ground, Mexican style
1 block of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, mozzarella style, finely grated

Toppings:

Romaine lettuce, chopped small
1 - 15oz. can olives, sliced in thirds
Vegan Sour Cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pan, heat oil. Add the soy ground, and cook over medium heat until browned, about five minutes or so. Add 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce and stir into the soy ground. Put half of the finely grated cheese in with the soy ground and sauce, and mix well. Turn heat down to medium low, and cook for a few minutes, until cheese blends in. Set aside. Put a thin layer of enchilada sauce down in the bottom of a lasagna-type pan, about 1/2 cup. To soften corn tortillas, try microwaving a handful at a time for fifteen seconds. Put two to three tablespoons of soy ground mixture in the middle of each tortilla and roll the tortilla up the best as you can. Place seam down in pan. If it cracks, don't worry, it will still taste good. Do the same with as many tortillas as it takes to use up the remaining soy ground. I got about fifteen or so enchiladas out of this and had to get a second pan, which I partially filled. Once all the enchiladas are placed in their pan(s), pour the remaining sauce evenly over them. Sprinkle the second half of the cheese on top of the sauce. Cover the pan(s) with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Take out of the oven and cover with the toppings. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Spicy Quesadilla Spirals

Here is a simple quesadilla dish that's quick and easy to make. I decided to roll them up and call them spirals to impress my family! What do you think?

Spicy Quesadilla Spirals

Ingredients:

10 homemade or store bought flour tortillas
2 cups of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Nacho style, finely shredded

Directions:

Move the top oven rack down into the position second from the bottom. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Divide the cheese between each of the open tortillas, sprinkling over their full surface, not just on one side. Roll up into a wonderfully, seductive spiral shape. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for ten minutes. If there are any edges that are a bit too crispy, carefully crack them off. Blow and eat! So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Pumpkin and Kale Quesadillas

Here is the very first recipe I made with our pumpkin puree. It was actually a dish of necessity because I had to go grocery shopping, and our cupboards were down to their last. So, I made some flour tortillas, picked some kale from our garden, used up the last of our vegan cheese and didn't freeze one of our bags of pumpkin puree. And, ta-daa, pumpkin and kale quesadillas! They were pretty darn good, if I say so myself, and a bit on the elegant side for my clan.

Pumpkin and Kale Quesadillas
Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups kale, stems pulled and chopped
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 cup Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack cheese, finely shredded
10 homemade flour tortillas (or your favorite store bought brand)

Directions:

Set oven rack to second from bottom position. I have four positions, so if you have just three, set it on the bottom position. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. In a small pot, heat the pumpkin puree and spices on medium heat. If it bubbles too quickly, turn heat down to medium low. Heat until warmed through, then set aside. In a medium skillet, heat the oil. When heated, add the kale and saute until they turn a bright green, about five minutes or less. Divide the pumpkin mixture, kale leaves and shredded cheese evenly between the tortillas on one side. Fold them in half and bake for about ten minutes until the cheese is melted. Be careful not to burn the tortillas. If you have a couple of too-crisp edges, just crack those off. Cut each tortilla in half, so you have twenty triangular quesadillas. So good. Feeds five hungry vegans.