Baked Monster Zucchini

We are growing zucchini for the first time this year in our garden. I've heard stories about mass quantities of zukes and how big they get. But, I figured people just weren't harvesting them, and that's how they got overgrown. Oh, how wrong I was! We will go out one day and see a tiny zuke, and think, okay in a couple of days it'll be ready to harvest. But then the zucchini fairy comes while we're all asleep and sprinkles special tnt powder on it to make it explode into a giant zuke the very next day! We've seen this time and again, so watch out for that sneaky fairy. So, one day we got this especially humongous zucchini, a monster if you will, that actually hung down to the ground. I thought it would be put to good use by baking it. I came up with my very own recipe, and I'm very proud of it, I might say! For the stuffing and for the cheesy sauce, I tried to think of good flavors, and I think it came out good enough to share with you. Now, I must confess, my children are regular kids, vegan or not, and they were not too thrilled with seeing a giant stuffed zucchini on the table as their dinner. However, they did like the stuffing and the sauce, so I got a passing grade there. One thing about super big zukes is their skin has toughened. I might recommend peeling your monster zucchini after washing it, and that might make for a more tender dish. Anyways, enjoy the pics and the recipe below!

Baked Monster Zucchini

JK, 3 y.o., trying to hang on to the monster zucchini in the garden. It was very heavy for him, but my super hero managed to do it for Mommy.

What the scooped out zucchini looks like. These are on a cookie sheet and completely take up all the room!

The stuffing smashed in the hollows and topped with the cheesy sauce.

With the red sauce right before being popped into the oven.

A hearty slice of Baked Monster Zucchini with some more cheesy sauce drizzled on top, with a simple pasta dish on the side with olive oil, garlic and parsley. Mm-mmm.

Baked Monster Zucchini
Ingredients:

1 super large, monster zucchini
Olive oil spray

Tofu Stuffing:

3 pkgs. extra firm tofu, frozen the night before and completely thawed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 Tbs. dried basil
1 tsp. onion powder
1 Tbs. garlic powder

Cheesy Sauce:

2 and 1/2 cups of water
2 Tbs. corn starch
1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
1/8 cup of soy sauce
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder

1 28oz. jar of Classico Spicy Red Pepper Sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash and trim the zucchini. Slice down the middle lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, being careful to leave the zucchini flesh in place on either end. This will serve as a barrier for the stuffing mixture. Lightly spray a large cookie sheet with olive oil and place the zucchini halves on it.

For the stuffing: Take the tofu out of their packages and press with your hands all the water out of them. This will be fairly easy to do once they're thawed. It doesn't matter if you squeeze them, since they will be mashed anyways. Place in a medium bowl with the rest of the stuffing ingredients and mash with a potato masher until thoroughly mixed. Take a spoon and fill the zucchini halves with the stuffing. All three packages will fit into one large zuke. I had to take my fingers and really mash it in, but it all fit, and you'll appreciate all that good stuffing.

For the cheesy sauce: In a medium pot, whisk together the water and corn starch. Turn heat onto medium and add the rest of the cheesy ingredients. Whisk frequently, until sauce comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low and whisk constantly for two minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Drizzle half of the cheesy sauce over the zukes, and leave the other half for the table.

Pour the jar of Classico sauce over the zucchini halves. Bake for one hour. The smells will ignite your taste buds! Let the zucchini rest on the stove for about five minutes. This will give you time to reheat the rest of the cheesy sauce. Transfer the Baked Monster Zucchini to a serving platter to make a nice presentation. Serve with a simple pasta dish. Feeds five hungry vegans for a few meals.

Soft Ginger Cookies and 4th of July, 2010 Part 2 with Pics

On my last post I mentioned that I made some delicious soft ginger cookies for dessert on the Fourth of July. These were so tasty and just light enough after a filling dinner to not let you feel painfully stuffed. They went along great with my mom's homemade soy strawberry ice cream. Some people's comments indicated that they think my parents are vegan, but actually they are just very supportive of me and my family's lifestyle. So, we are very blessed to have them in our lives and in family meals. Enjoy a couple of our family's holiday pictures and the recipe below.

Soft Ginger Cookies

Soft Ginger Cookies with my mom's homemade soy strawberry ice cream.

My parents, also known as Gamma or Grambo and Poppy, with 10 y.o. GR. Everything on the table was vegan except for my parents' burgers and mayonnaise.

Left to right: 12 y.o. SR, my husband, G, 3 y.o. JK, me 15 pounds lighter since I started my new food plan in May, and GR.

Soft Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

4 and 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. baking soda
1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 cups shortening
2 and 3/4 cups raw sugar, divided
1 Tbs. egg replacer
4 Tbs. water
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the first six ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, cream together the shortening with two cups of the sugar on low with an electric mixer. Add the egg replacer, water and molasses, and beat on medium low until well mixed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with a wooden spoon. Sometimes at the end of mixing, I just take my hands and do a sort of knead to make sure the dough is thoroughly mixed. Put the rest of the sugar (3/4 cup) into a shallow bowl. Take heaping tablespoons of the cookie dough and shape into rough balls. Roll the balls in the sugar, trying to get some around each ball as much as possible. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet an inch apart and bake for 14 minutes. Place cookie sheet on cooling rack for five minutes before transferring the cookies to a large aluminum foil or wax paper sheet. Makes about 4 and 1/2 dozen warm and soft cookies that definitely feeds five hungry vegans and a couple of grandparents. Yum, yum.

Kids Love It! Potato Salad

Here is my world famous (okay, my home famous) potato salad that is the absolute bestest, most favoritest, most gobbledededed up salad in our home by our children. Now, I have some other salads that come a close second, like my Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad, but this one takes the cake, er, kid-fork. I think why it goes over so well is its simplicity. The higher the number of ingredients in a dish, the higher the likelihood that my children will turn up their noses at it. Plus, I have one outright potato addict - thank you, S.R. Anyhow, I made this for the Fourth of July, and I will list our menu below. Also, just a tip from my mom - yes, I still get cooking tips from my mom: In the past when I drained the potatoes in a colander, they inevitably got mushy. And then they got even mushier when I added the ingredients and stirred together. Mushy potato salad really doesn't cut it, even when you're a kid who likes it. So, my mom suggested I put a lid on the pot, leaving a slight crack, like I do when I drain green beans or such. Then, just drain the water into the sink, leaving the potatoes in the pot. Once drained, let them completely cool on a cookie sheet. I tried this a couple of potato salads ago, and it worked perfectly, so I highly suggest that method. Also, the quantity of this recipe is enormous, but with my kids, it is gone in a couple of days, if it even survives the "taste testing." How come they never seem to know on the first or second or tenth taste, if the salad is right? Hmm. Anyways, onward with the menu and the show!

Fourth of July menu with my parents:

Chips and Salsa
Burgers with all the fixin's
Kids Love It! Potato Salad
Three Bean Salad from my mom
Pasta Salad from my mom
Relish tray from my mom

Dessert:

Soft Ginger Cookies (recipe on next post)
Homemade Strawberry Soy Ice Cream from my mom!

Kids Love It! Potato Salad with a pickle friend.

Boiled potatoes cooling on a cookie sheet.

Kids Love It! Potato Salad
Ingredients:

8 lb. bag of russet potatoes (or approx. 15)
Water to cover
1 and 1/2 cup chopped baby dill pickles (quartered lengthwise and then chopped)
1 cup of McCormick's Bac'n Pieces, Chips style - UPDATE: I now use SmartBacon fried and chopped, instead, to avoid the artificial colors
2 and 1/2 cups of Vegenaise
1 and 1/4 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions:

Peel the potatoes, and cut them into bite-sized chunks. Put in a large pot with water enough to cover the potatoes at least an inch. Bring to a boil. Continue boiling for eight to ten minutes, or until the chunks are fork tender. Drain water out of pot into sink, carefully holding a lid about 90 percent in place. Be very careful not to get a steam or hot water burn. Spread the potatoes on a cookie sheet, and let cool completely. When the potatoes are cool, add them and the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Sometimes I will put everything in the boiling pot instead of a bowl to do my mixing, so I can be sure that nothing will fall out of the bowl. This also ensures that your serving bowl won't be super messy. Once all the ingredients are in the bowl/pot, gently stir them together. If you've got kids around, count your fingers if they were near the salad while the kids were taste-testing! Feeds five hungry vegans, plus a couple of grandparents.

Broken-Lasagna Casserole

About a year ago, I was at a discount store when I saw something unique, something I've never seen before in the way of pasta: a bag of purposely broken lasagna noodle pieces! I stared at that, amazed that the simple act of breaking those long noodles into chunks could inspire a new dish spinning through my head. Being strictly a budget-minded girl, though, I couldn't buy them that day - they didn't fit in that day's wad of cash. And then I never bought them, I don't know why. But, oh broken noodles, I've never forgotten you! So, I recently went out and bought a box of lasagna noodles and broke them up all by myself. It was fun being destructive like that. Thus, the Broken-Lasagna Casserole was born. He may not be the most handsome boy in the room, but he is sure is nice and smooth talkin'! See if you don't like him too.

Broken-Lasagna Casserole right out of the oven.

A chunk of him on my plate next to some steamed asparagus.

Broken-Lasagna Casserole

Ingredients:

1 pkg. lasagna noodles, broken in chunks
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 pkg. Smart Ground, original
1 pkg. extra-firm tofu, drained and diced small
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 green bell pepper, diced small
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 - 28oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1 - 15oz. can tomato sauce
1 - 4.25 oz. can chopped olives
1 cup of frozen corn
1 - 6oz. can tomato paste
15-20 fresh basil leaves cut into thirds or halves, depending on their size (if extra small, leave whole)
1 - 10oz. pkg. Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack cheese, finely grated, divided

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the broken noodles according to package directions. In a large pot, heat the oil on medium heat. Saute the Smart Ground and tofu until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the seasonings, bell pepper and garlic and continue cooking for another five minutes, being careful not to burn. You can add a touch more oil or a little water, if the food starts to stick. Add the canned tomato products, olives and corn. Turn heat down to medium low and let simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the fresh basil. Add the noodles to the pot and stir. Set aside one cup of the cheese and thoroughly mix the rest in the pot. Pour the ingredients into a large casserole dish. Sprinkle the remaining one cup of cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn broiler on high, and broil for about five minutes to finish melting the cheese. Check to make sure the casserole doesn't burn. This was a fun variation to lasagna or an ordinary pasta dish. Everyone liked it - hope you do too. Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.

Cheatin' Curry Tofu

This is one of my favorite curry dishes that I make a couple of times a year, but I can't take full credit for it. I'm cheatin' with a box! However, I can't help myself because the end product is this saucy gravy concoction that I just love. The spice comes in three heat levels, and when I cook for the whole family, I use mild. I kick it up to medium or hot, if it's just going to be my husband and me. But, I'm well aware that anything beyond mild is going to send my uber-masculine husband into a hiccup fit. So, I just sit back and chuckle at him when that happens. You gotta give me a break, though - the man hiccups from eating slightly spicy mustard! The spice is called Golden Curry and is made by S&B. I hope you like it, too.

Cheatin' Curry Tofu

It looks like this in the beginning, and you break it into individual bars.

The end result, with a salad on the side.

Cheatin' Curry Tofu

Ingredients:

Brown rice
1 Tbs. canola oil
2 pkgs. extra-firm tofu, drained, cut into triangles

1 and 1/2 cups of veggies - we used:
2 medium zucchinis, sliced diagonally
2 celery stalks, sliced diagonally

1 green onion, sliced diagonally

1 pkg. S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix with heat of your choice

2 and 1/2 cups of water

Directions:

Cook brown rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the tofu, and cook until partially browned, about 20 minutes over medium high heat. Stir occasionally. Add the veggies, and turn the heat down to medium. Cook for another ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the water and bring to a boil. Break up the big bar into its smaller bars and add to the sauce. Turn the heat down to medium low, and stir constantly until the bars are dissolved. This will thicken up into a wonderful curry gravy. Serve the tofu mixture over the brown rice. A salad on the side rounds out the meal. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Caprese Salad and a bit o' other info - come and see!

This is a super simple salad that I like to make for my family. It's quick and easy and tastes great too! Hope you like it.

Also, just to give you a quick update on a couple of things: When my husband and I got back from our anniversary a few weeks ago, we started a "food plan" for chubby vegans, erk. Yes, I may like my food a bit too much. Thankfully, this is a perfect post to display a salad recipe! Anyhow, I'm incorporating a recipe of mine about once a week for my family to practice portion control with my recipes, and also to have something to blog about. :-) So, that's why I've been coming on weekly, instead of every three days. I hope you'll be patient with me during this time. When I'm fit and trim and where I want to be, I'll have more posts. If you're curious about the food plan, it's put out by http://www.vegfamily.com/ (an online magazine), and the website is http://www.veganweighdown.com/. I got lucky and am one of the testers, so I didn't have to pay anything, and I give feedback on recipes and the website. I don't know what membership costs.

Secondly, I'm going to be a tester for a blogger who just got a cookbook contract - yay! Kathy over at http://healthyslowcooking.wordpress.com/ has got just three months to come up with 150 recipes. I can't post her recipes on my blog, but I have permission to publicize her, like I'm doing now. How does this fit in with my food plan? Well, for the next couple of months, I'm going to have juggle both things and work on portion control. It doesn't seem like her recipes will be giving me problems with calorie-overload. So, all in all, it seems like my own cooking is sliding to the "back burner" (get it?), but I will post at least once a week. Thanks for understanding!

Now for the salad! Isn't it a purty picture?

Caprese Salad

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes, cut into wedges
Approximately 5 to 6 oz. vegan mozzarella cheese, cubed small
1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons (directions below)
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Directions:

To cut fresh basil leaves into ribbons, simply stack the leaves on top of each other, five or six at a time, roll up and cut into thin strips. You'll have nice thin ribbons of fresh basil - yum. Toss these with the rest of the ingredients into a medium bowl and chill for at least an hour. Bring out and toss again before serving. Feeds five hungry vegans.

Garlicky Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I've been fiddling with this recipe for years to keep trying to make what I think is a really good hummus. This is probably going to be my final product for quite a while. Hummus is so versatile: you can use it as a dip or as a sandwich spread. And, it's healthy and tasty to boot! Hope you like this version as much as I do.

Garlicky Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

As a dip with fresh garden picked radishes, whole wheat pita chips, baby carrots, zucchini and celery. Yummy!

As a sandwich spread for a nice lunch or an easy dinner with chips and one of my mom's homemade pickles, of course!

Garlicky Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Ingredients:

1 - 15oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained
1 Tbs. tahini
1 and 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 and 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup roasted red bell peppers - I usually buy jarred peppers, unless I'm taking the time to roast them myself. A little liquid that clings to the peppers is all right.
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp. of salt

Directions:

Simply pour all the ingredients into a food processor (I hope you have one) and blend until it is a nice, smooth consistency. I like my hummus pretty smooth, so it may take a minute or more to achieve that. (If you don't have a food processor, soften the garbanzo beans and garlic by cooking them in water for a few minutes, then drain. Try mashing with a potato masher.) Makes a fantastic dip or sandwich spread. Feeds five hungry vegans.