"Sausage" and Peppers over Polenta

After a five day vacation in New Orleans, LA and falling off the bandwagon on eating well (It was New Orleans, after all!), I needed to dive back into some healthy but tasty recipes STAT. I'm not sure I ever wrote about this, but the book 'Skinny Bitch' by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnoun is what changed my entire viewpoint on eating. They give realistic accounts of the meat/dairy industry, as well as provide multiple research studies to back up why the vegan lifestyle is so healthy. I recently picked up the accompanying cookbook, 'Skinny Bitch in the Kitch' which is filled with a mixture of easy/quick meals as well as some innovative recipes, all vegan of course.
I first tried the 'Roasted Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and Garlic over Soft Polenta' which is a different flavor from what I'm used to cooking. That being said, I thought it was so simple, and so delicious! I have been eating off it for three days now, so definitely worth it!
I began by preheating the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, and chopping the onions and peppers. I placed the chopped veggies into a 9x13"pan and added the garlic, salt, and pepper. I placed in the oven and cooked for 20 minutes.
Next I diagonally cut the sausage and stirred them into the peppers/onion mixture and cooked for an additional 15-20 minutes. While the sausage/peppers mixture was cooking I made some quick polenta with vegetable stock, and then stirred in the vegan Parmesan cheese.  I spooned the Polenta onto a plate and placed a good serving of the sausage/pepper/onion mixture on top (and sprinkled a little more parmesean on top!) The result was this wonderful dish:

The brand/flavor of 'sausage' I used was a bit spicy, but the flavors (especially the polenta!!) were incredible. I would highly recommend this dish as it is SIMPLE (I folded laundry while the oven did the work!) and and surprisingly TASTY!

Roasted Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and Garlic over Soft Polenta (from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch)
4 teaspoons garlic (I chopped mine)
4 peppers any color (I used two green, one red, and one orange)
2 onions
4 italian vegan sausage (I used Tofurkey brand, flavor: Sweet Italian with Tomato and Basil)
4 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup dry polenta
1/3 cup vegan parmesean cheese (I used galaxy brand)
salt and pepper to taste

Eggplant Rolls

I am definitely on an eggplant kick, and just have to share this recipe because I honestly can't believe I just made this myself. It's a light dish but left me feeling pleasantly full, and the taste is lingering in my mouth and I am fighting the urge to get a third serving.
I began by preheating the oven at 350 and cutting the eggplant lengthwise in 1/4 inch slices, salted them and put them on a cookie sheet. I put in the oven for 10 minutes, turned the eggplant over and cooked for 5 more minutes.
While the eggplant was cooking I diced the onion and sauteed with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and an Italian seasoning blend. Once the onions were translucent I diced the celery and added it to the saute pan and cooked for 5 minutes before adding the tomatoes and butter substitute. I left the sauce to simmer while I made the filling.
I used my Vitamix to cream together the silken tofu, mayonnaise substitute, cream cheese substitute, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and heavily added the Italian seasoning blend.
Once the filling was blended, I began the assembly. I took a slice of eggplant and covered the entire slice with the filling, then added some spinach and rolled it up. I placed the rolls in a 9x13 in baking pan, and poured the marinara sauce over the top. I put the pan back in the oven for ten minutes for the flavors to meld and then let cool. (OK, I didn't actually wait until it was cool, it smelled way too good to wait!)

This is the eggplant slice with the sauce and spinach ready to be rolled up.

Here are all the rolls in the 9x13 pan.

And the rolls with the sauce on top.  YUMMY!!

There was a lot of extra filling which would be PERFECT for a lasagna "ricotta cheese" layer, and extra sauce which was great to spoon on the rolls and save for some quick spaghetti later this week.


Filling
1lb silken tofu
6 tbsp cream cheese substitute (I used Tofutti)
3 tbsp mayonnaise substitute (I used Vegannaise)
6 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt, pepper
3 tbsp italian seasoning blend

Marinara
1 yellow onion
2 celery stalks
1 24 oz crushed tomato
12 oz diced tomato
1 tbsp butter substitute (I like Earth Balance)
2 tsp garlic
salt and pepper

A New Feature

My friend Mansi (hey girl!) suggested that I post pictures of the recipes and process of cooking, and sweetly helped me figure out how to put pictures on each of my blog posts! So for today all I have for you is a green smoothie (simple spinach/banana/frozen peach/almond milk). You can see all the yummy goodness that goes into the smoothie and the vibrant green color the smoothie turns out to be.

I know they can look intimidating, but green smoothies taste so fantastic and are packed with so much goodness that I think everyone can benefit from!

Lentils over Curry Rice

After a hard workout and realizing I had very little to pick from my refrigerator, last night I decided to try to make a curry sauce to mix into some rice and top with some lentils for a quick, high protein and high fiber meal. (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4338/2)

I began by making a large batch of lentils since they take a while to make, and it would help me have some quick meals this week. I put 2 cups of lentils in a big pot and added 4 cups of organic vegetable broth, stirring every 20 minutes for about two hours over low heat until the lentils were soft and had absorbed the liquid.  (this does take some time, but fortunately I used this long process to take breaks from the 3 loads of laundry I had to do! oops!)
I made the rice as indicated and fluffed with a fork when done. (I used 1 cup of uncooked jasmine rice)
After the rice and lentils were cooked, I made a very quick and quite tasty curry sauce in a small sauce pan. I began by adding the coconut milk along with the curry, turmeric, and paprika (I am very sensitive to heat, so feel free to add more if you can handle more!). After the sauce was whisked and began to simmer, I added the flour and continued to stir until it thickened slightly. I immediately poured the sauce over the rice and stirred to combine.
I served with the lentils over the curry rice and was surprised by the quality of flavor in the sauce. I bought some Seitan today and was thinking of making some sort of curry 'chicken' this week with this same sauce, should be good!!

Curry Sauce
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 tsp mild curry
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1tsp flour

Pasta Alla Norma

I have always been interested in cooking with eggplant, and have more recently been satisfied with the recipes I'm trying with the texture and taste of the eggplant. I saw a cooking show with their recipe for pasta alla norma and thought that it would be a really easy dish to make vegan, and make some changes I thought would be even better. 
I made this pasta last night and all of the prep took me about 30 minutes. Once the prep was done, it was about 15 minutes till i was eating. I began by peeling the eggplant. I cut one into 1/4 inch slices and the other into 1/2 inch cubes. I salted them and put them in a colander to help pull out some of the extra moisture. I then slices the onions and sauteed in a pan with olive oil until translucent, added the garlic, and then added the cubed eggplant and sauteed for about 10 more minutes. I then added the crushed tomatoes and seasoned with Italian seasoning blend from the farmer's market, salt, and pepper. I added 1 tbsp butter substitute to make the sauce a little richer. I left on low/med to simmer.
I boiled the pasta while I pan fried the breaded eggplant (flour, egg substitute wash, then seasoned panko bread crumbs).
Once the pasta was done I tossed the sauce in it, and served with a friend eggplant on top!
YUMMMMY!! The eggplant in the sauce was soft and almost melted into the sauce, and the fried eggplant added a perfect amount of crunch and depth of flavor....definitely making this one again!!!


Pasta Alla Norma:

2 med eggplants
1 1/2 white onion
1 pound pasta
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter substitute ( earth balance)
150g crushed tomatoes
Italian seasoning (or basil/oregeno)
flour
egg substitute (ener-G)
panko bread crumbs with italian seasoning and salt/pepper

Soy Ginger Vegetables over Quinoa + the perfect green smoothie

For the past couple of weeks I have been experimenting with different green smoothie recipes and I think I have come to the perfect recipe! I started using 'light' orange juice in place of almond milk, as well as using a brown rice protein powder for more daily protein since I have increased my weight workouts.  I have been experimenting with different frozen fruits (no sugar added of course) and for the past couple of mornings I've been hooked on the recipe at the end of this post!

For dinner I made a soy-ginger sauce that I used with vegetables over Quinoa. The carrots and mushrooms tasted amazing in the sauce, and I think either one alone in this sauce would be a great side dish wish any sort of food with Asian flavors.  I started out by cutting the carrots lengthwise and cutting the halves into 1/4 inch thick strips and placed them into a small saute pan with about 1 tsp of earth balance 'butter' to allow them to get a little soft. I added the broccoli and then the snap peas. I poured the sauce over the vegetables and covered them with a pot lid. I thinly sliced a portobello mushroom in half then made slices (1/4 in. thick or so). I tossed the vegetables and sauce and let cook for about one more minute before I removed from heat. It was delicious! The sauce is heavy in ginger flavor, so you might want to do a taste test before adding the full amount.


Soy-Ginger Sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
pinch of pepper
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Green Smoothie Recipe
2 large leafs of kale (or 2 handfuls baby spinach)
1/2 banana
1/2 cup frozen peaches
3/4 cup light orange juice
1 small tbsp brown rice protein powder
(can add 2-3 strawberries, or a small handful of blueberries too!)

Banana Pancakes

With all the bad weather and city closing because of all the ice, I have been very creative in the kitchen the past few days! This recipe is great because you can use whatever pancake mix you already use, and I'm sure it would turn out just as good as mine with the substitutes. The key is to chop the banana lengthwise, then cut 1/4 inch thick slices from there, and submerse the bananas in the batter (not just sprinkle on top)- this gives a great flavor as the banana cooks with the added spices.

Banana Pancakes
2 cups pancake mix
1 cup + 1/4 cup almond milk
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
2 tsp vanilla (Mexican vanilla is my favorite!)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg