Tag Archives: Tablespoon

Tabouli Quinoa Salad (Sammy’s WF Pizza Copycat)

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My mother-in-law introduced me to this salad and it’s my new favorite! You can find this salad at Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza restaurant… with a whopping 1/2 cup of oil and 2 tsp of salt. Yikes! I decided to recreate this salad WITHOUT that nonsense, turned out even better than the original!

My hubby was a bit skeptical but devoured an entire plate full! I served this with romaine leaves and a few flatbread crackers. I also added a couple cooked/chopped Gardein Chick’n Scallopini filets, per my hubby’s request. I try to stay away from fake meats as much as possible so this was a rare occasion.

Tabouli Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

  1. 1/2 cup of shredded carrot
  2. 2 cups chopped parsley
  3. 1 cup chopped mint
  4. 1 cup diced onion
  5. 1 cup diced fresh tomato
  6. 1 cup diced cucumber
  7. 2 cups shredded lettuce – romaine
  8. 1 cup cooked quinoa
  9. 1/2 cup bean liquid – from canned beans or home made 
  10. 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
  11. 1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt
  12. 2 tsp black pepper, ground
  13. 1 tsp allspice, ground
  14. *OPTIONAL: Saute up a few Gardein Chick’n Scallopini fillets, chop and add them in. 
Directions:
  1. Cook quinoa according to package and let cool completely. 
  2. Combine all ingredients, mix well and serve with flatbread and/or romaine leaves. You can wait to add the veggie/mint/onion/etc mixture to the chopped romaine until you serve it if you need it to last longer. This makes a ton of salad, I saved the mixture and added it to chopped romaine the next few days. 
  3. Serves 6

Add cooked/cooled quinoa with all other ingredients – I added all ingredients EXCEPT romaine lettuce together then combined them before we were ready to eat

Now combine with chopped romaine. If you’re only serving a few people and want leftovers, reserve some of this mixture to combine with more chopped romaine later

YUMMY!!! I added chopped Gardein Chick’n Scaloppini filets

 

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

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I haven’t made any sweets for A LONG TIME (as you’ve noticed on the blog) so I figured it might be time to dabble in a little sweetness. These cookies are really good and really easy to make. I think they taste best when warm so make sure to warm up the leftovers before eating, if you prefer. I tried to bribe our daughter to go on the potty with these cookies and it worked! Well… it worked one time anyways. Potty training is rough!

These are grain-free, gluten-free, white sugar free, oil-free, flour free…. all sorts of FREE!!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

I found this recipe on Texanerin Baking site. I can’t wait to see what else she has in store!

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups canned or cooked chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup honey OR 1/8-1/4 cup agave, if you prefer
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn’t have salt in it
  • 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they’re combined. Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky. With wet hands, form into 1 1/2″ balls. Place onto a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly before baking

Process ingredients until smooth, scrape sides along the way

Add chocolate chips, pulse a few times to combine

Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet to bake

Yummy!

Ancho Lentil Bowls with Low-fat Cashew Nacho Cheese

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This is one of the best meals we’ve had in awhile! It’s so good, I’m trucking the kids to the store in the morning to make it again for a party tomorrow night. No joke, it’s that good!

Ancho Lentil Bowl with Low-Fat Vegan Cheese

I’ve made the Ancho Lentils a few times now and they’ve always turned out great. The original recipe (from Post Punk Kitchen) is for Ancho Lentil Tacos but you could use this on just about anything – tacos, burritos, nachos, collard wraps, etc.

I have a ton of fake cheese recipes but this Lowfat Nacho Cheeze from Happy Herbivore is my new favorite! Together they make an awesome meal! I served it over brown rice tonight but next time I’ll try these ingredients in a collard wrap. YUMMY!!! I also topped this with tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro, sliced avocado, a squeeze of lime and our favorite Habanero Sauce, our favorite Mexican food topping!

P.S. Our toddler loved this! I took out a scoop of the lentils before I added the hot sauce, figured she may not like it so spicy.

“Um… Mommy… What is this?”

“Mmmmm! I like it”

“Hey there sis, this banana is kinda boring… wanna share?”

Ancho Lentils

* 1 Tbsp water or bean cooking liquid (for oil-free sautéing)
* 1 small onion, minced
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 1/2 cups cooked lentils (from about 1 cup dried) – Brown or green work great. I used a package of Trader Joe’s cooked lentils this time
* 3 tablespoons tomato paste
* 2 tablespoons hot sauce (preferably Cholula)

Spice mix:
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
* 2 teaspoons ground ancho chile
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

First combine all of the ingredients for the spice mix and set aside. Also, keep a cup of water within reach, you’ll need to add splashes as you cook.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sautee the onion and garlic in the water or bean liquid with a pinch of salt (optional) for about 3 minutes, until lightly browned. Add spices and toss them for 30 seconds or so to toast.

Lower heat to medium, add lentils, a few splashes of water, tomato paste and hot sauce; use a spatula to mash them a bit as they cook, until they hold together. If your spatula isn’t strong enough to accomplish this, just use a fork or a potato masher (I used this).

Do this for about 5 minutes, adding splashes of water as necessary if it appears dry. Taste for salt and seasoning; you may want to add more spices or hot sauce. And that’s it, time to serve!

Time to make some Ancho Lentils! I cheated this time and used Trader Joe’s packaged lentils 😉

Saute your onion and garlic then add spices

Cook spice and onion/garlic mixture for 30 seconds then add remaining ingredients… smells so good!!

Ready for tacos, nachos, burritos, on top of rice or anything else you can think of!

Low Fat Vegan Nacho Cheese

 Ingredients
  • ¼ cup raw cashews – I soaked mine for a few hours first
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ⅔ cup non-dairy milk – I used unsweetened almond milk
  • 2 tsp yellow miso paste
  • ½ tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • ¼ cup roasted red bell peppers
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • a dash of cayenne pepper

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occassionally and allowing the cheese to thicken.

Combine all ingredients in your food processor, combing until smooth

Smoooooth!

Heat in a pan on the stove until thick, stir occasionally

Yah!! Ready to dollop on your favorite Mexican food!

 

Coconut “Bacon”

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Confession time. My favorite show on tv is Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives… there, I said it. It makes zero sense that I would love this show so much considering 99.9% of the food they make on there is NOT plant-based. That’s okay though, the recipes on there give me ideas for other recipes sometimes and on a rare occasion Guy Fieri features a plant-based dish on the show.

It’s my understand that Guy grew up vegetarian and HATED it so much that he rebelled at a young age. While he may not make the same food choices as myself, he’s a pretty good host of the show although his dietary choices are (in my opinion) atrocious.

He’s featured vegan burgers, a few curry dishes and a coconut club with fried tofu and coconut bacon. I’ve been thinking about that sandwich for awhile now and decided to try out the coconut bacon concept. I searched around the internet and found this recipe. It’s really easy to make, you could whip up a batch of this for quick BLT’s or add this to tofu scramble… honestly, you could add it to just about anything! I’m thinking salad topping, add to split pea soup or a pizza topping!

This recipe is from Vegan Good Things blog, another cool site I bookmarked to peruse later. Sorry for the lame photo, I haven’t had a chance to make anything pretty with this yet but I will soon!!!

My hubby and toddler LOVED this!

Coconut Bacon
makes about 3 cups (enough for 4 – 6 sandwiches, depending on how big you make ’em)

3 large handfuls of large flake, unsweetened coconut (bought mine at Sprouts)
1 Tbsp. liquid smoke – Colgin brand is plant-based, some are not
2 Tbsp. tamari – or soy sauce, coconut aminos or shoyu
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. maple syrup (optional, but recommended – I used it)

Preheat oven to 300. Place coconut in a shallow baking pan. Combine other ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over coconut. Use your hands to mix and make sure the coconut is evenly coated. Bake at 300 for 20 minutes, or until crisp. It will continue to crisp as it cools, and is best eaten at room temperature.

I used my Pyrex glass pan, worked great!

Mix sauce with coconut, spread evenly

Coconut “Bacon”

Orange Creamsicle Oatmeal

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I’ve been trying to think of a way to use up the drawer full of organic oranges in our fridge and came up with this oatmeal combo. We eat oatmeal almost every day (10-min Energizing Oats!) so it’s nice to vary up the toppings a bit. This keeps well so feel free to make a double batch and serve it for the next few days. Our toddler loves this recipe!

Orange Creamsicle Oatmeal

Orange Creamsicle Oatmeal

Ingredients:

* 2 cups water

* 1 cup rolled oats

* 2-3 oranges – I usually add in 3 medium sized oranges

* zest of one orange

* 2 Tbsp hemp seeds, shelled (optional)

* 2 – 4 Tbsp sliced almonds

* 1/2 – 1 tsp cinnamon, depending on how much you like

* 1/2 – 1tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add oats and turn heat to low. Cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Add all remaining ingredients, stir and cover for about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Yummy goodies!

Delish!

Toddler Approved!

“Where’s my food!?!?” (This is why my photos are taken in such a quick manner!)

“It’s all MINE” … says the 2 year old

Pizza Hummus

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I’ve been trying to make a new hummus flavor each week since we eat so much of it, the plain version gets a little old after awhile. I wanted to try a pizza flavored hummus since we loved the Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil “Cheese” so much. This turned out pretty good! I may use sun-dried tomatoes next time, just to see how that turns out.

Pizza Hummus

Pizza Hummus

* 2 cups garbanzo beans – I used cooked beans but I think you could use about 2 cans worth, drained and rinsed

* 1/2 cup tomato sauce

* 2-3 cloves garlic

* 2 T bean liquid – I use this instead of using oil. Try water instead if you don’t have bean liquid leftover from cooking or canned

* 4-6 Tbsp nutritional yeast

* 1 1/2 – 2  tsp dried oregano

* 1 tsp dried basil

* 1/8 – 1/4 cup fresh basil – I used a little under 1/4 but just add to your liking

* pinch of salt

– Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth, taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. 

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth

First taste…

I think it’s good now!

Ready to eat!

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