Tonight's Dinner | Quick Quesadilla

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First and foremost, thank you to the new Bloglovin' Followers for deciding to keep up with my random, weird, all-over-the-place blog! You guys are the bomb dot com, seriously! 

Secondly, I decided to add yet another element to this blog: art. I liked writing up my last blog post about Jan Ironside, and I know I've brought art related topics up in past posts about my own personal art and what I've been working on, but I think every Tuesday will be dedicated to sharing a new artist with you guys - whether it's an old favorite of mine, or a new one that I just found out about. I think it's important to continuously look for inspiration in life, and this is going to be my way of doing just that. Let me know what you guys think! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I already have two Artist Focus posts scheduled for the next two upcoming Tuesdays.

Alright now. Quesadillas. They're easy. They're delicious. They're what I had for dinner tonight. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to throw a quesadilla together, but I thought I would just share this one with you guys since I have been lacking in the recipe department.

1 whole wheat quesadilla (check the ingredients! Some torillas have FISH GELATIN in them! Gross!)

1/2 bell pepper, diced

1/4 onion, diced

1/2 tomato, diced

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice (use soy cheese to make this vegan)

1 tbsp of your favorite hot sauce

some extra virgin olive oil

Set a large skillet over medium heat with some EVOO. Saute the onions and peppers for a few minutes, then add the corn and combine to thaw - about 2 more minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add half of your cheese to one side of the tortilla, then add your veggie mixture, tomatoes, and hot sauce. Top with the remainder of the cheese. Fold over to form a half-moon shape and throw it on the hot skillet for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the cheese is all melted and the tortillas is golden brown.

Serve with guac, salsa, sour cream, or just eat the whole thing on it's own in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

Enjoy!

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Recipe | Vegan Veggie Melt with Crispy Tempeh

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This recipe will yield one sandwich for a super hungry person who hasn't eaten in about 8 hours :)

about 1/3 of a baguette - you can use whatever bread you like, this is just what I had on hand. If the baguette is HUGE then just use 1/4 or whatever looks like a decent size for a sandwich for you.
4 oz tempeh (1/2 of an 8 oz. package is usually 1 serving) cut into slices
A couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 bell pepper, sliced
1/4 onion, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 avocado, mashed
2 oz soy mozzarella, sliced
1 tbsp or so of your favorite hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

I used a toaster oven to melt the cheese, but you can go ahead and use a regular oven. Set it to 450°F before you start cooking.

Set a skillet to medium heat with some extra virgin olive oil. Begin browning off the slices of tempeh on both sides - about 3-5 minutes on each side.

When they're done browning, take them out of the pan and begin sweating the onions and peppers. Add some salt and pepper and cook them down for about 5-7 minutes.

While the peppers and onions are cooking, you can get started on preparing the bread part  of your sandwich. You're gonna want to cut the loaf in half, but don't bring the knife all the way through to the other side. You want one side still intact so your filling doesn't fall all over the place when you're eating it later. Then just gut out the bread-y part so you can fit alllllllll the fillings inside. My bread was a little stale so I just popped it in the toaster oven after I did this to toast it up a bit. If your bread is fresh, this toasting step isn't necessary unless you want it extra crispy.

When your peppers and onions are done cooking, you can start assembling your sandwich. Try not to drool all over it while you're doing this though. Especially if you have guests... I found this part especially difficult to avoid.

You don't have to assemble yours like I did. I'LL NEVER KNOW. I just found this way was best to keep everything all nice and glued together once the sandwich is finished.

Start off with the peppers and onions on one side of the sandwich and the mashed avocado on the other side.

Then, go ahead and add the strips of tempeh to the peppers and onions side, and the slices of tomato to the avocado side.

Top off the tempeh, peppers, and onions with your soy mozzarella.

Sprinkle the whole thing with some salt and pepper. Toast it up in the toaster oven, or an actual oven, for like 5-10 minutes... however long it takes for the cheese to start melting and the bread to crisp up. Top it off with your favorite hot sauce and enjoy!

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Recipe | Embellished Boxed Mac and Cheese: Recipe 1

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I love mac and cheese, but the boxed kind isn't very exciting or containing of any nutritional value, really. So I decided to take my favorite brand of boxed mac and cheese and embellish it a little bit. Not only does this stretch the box to more servings, but makes it more interesting with more ingredients and more nutritious and substantial.

1 box of your favorite mac and cheese. I use Annie's deluxe mac and cheese

2 soy sausage links, cut into half-moon shapes

1/2 cup vegetable stock

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 avocado, mashed

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large skillet to medium heat and set on high a large pot of water for the pasta. Start by browning off the sausage pieces in the olive oil. This should take around 5-7 minutes.

Remove the pieces from the pan after they've browned and set aside. Add the chopped peppers and onions to the pan and begin to sweat them. Again, this should take around 5-7 minutes. Add some salt and pepper.

(I forgot to photograph the rest of the recipe, but I think it's all pretty easy to follow)

At this point, the water for your pasta should be boiling. You can go ahead and salt the water and drop the pasta in. Meanwhile, in the skillet, add the vegetable stock, mashed avocado, and the cheese sauce that comes in your mac and cheese box. If your mac and cheese comes with a powder, just add some milk along with the other ingredients. Stir everything together until the avocado and cheese sauce has incorporated into a creamy mixture.

Add the cumin, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes to the sauce. Stir to disperse the spices throughout the whole sauce. Add more salt and pepper if necessary Let this simmer until the pasta is done cooking (8-10 minutes). Drain and Add the pasta to the sauce along with the chopped tomatoes. Combine everything and enjoy!

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