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 | Roasted Eggplant and Sweet Potato Quinoa Burger

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As promised, here's the recipe for the burgers I used for my burger-bar set up for me and Chris on Valentine's Day.

Yields 10-12 burgers, depending on how big you make them.

1 small eggplant, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
1 large white onion, roughly chopped,
1/2 cup quinoa cooked in 1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp chipotle hot sauce
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350°F

Spread your chopped sweet potatoes on a lined or greased cookie sheet. Season with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and half of the paprika. Pop that in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When the sweet potatoes start to soften up, remove them from the oven and add the chopped eggplant and onion to the mix. Season with some more olive oil, the remainder of paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook together for another 15-20 minutes.

While your veggies are cooking, prepare you quinoa - 1/2 cup dry quinoa to 1 cup of water (or vegetable stock). Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

When the sweet potato and eggplant mixture is cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before adding to the food processor.

Once cooled, Add the veggie mixture to a food processor with the 1/4 cup vegetable stock. Pulse until the mixture is at your desired consistency. I liked mine to be slightly chunky, but this step is totall up to you.

Add the veggie mixture to a big mixing bowl. Throw in the oats, cooked quinoa, hot sauce, mustard, and some more salt and pepper. Mix together thoroughly and form into patties.

Now, you can either bake the burgers off in the oven, since it's already heated up. Or you can sear them up in a pan with some olive oil. If you choose the former option, they'll take about 10 minutes on each side in a 375° oven to get a nice golden brown color. On the stove, they'll take about 5 minutes on each side over medium heat with about a tbsp of olive oil.

Enjoy!

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Recipe | Vegan Apple Pumpkin Muffins

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Makes 12 muffins

2 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup raw cane sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2-3 tbsp plain, unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
*optionl* 2-3 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 325° F.

Combine all of the dry ingredients (brown rice flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt) in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients (pumpkin, applesauce, almond milk, canola oil) in a separate mixing bowl.

Once both are separately combined, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients gradually until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The batter will be relatively thick.

You can either lie your muffin tin with muffin cups, or you can just spray the tin with some canola oil cooking spray to ensure that the muffins don't stick when you try to take them out. Scoop the better into each muffin mold about 3/4 of the way up.

*If you want, you can top each muffin with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds before you bake them off. The pumpkin seeds will roast in the oven a little bit and provide a nice contrast in flavor with the slight sweetness of the muffins*

Pop those bad boys in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes. Just keep checking on them after the 15 minute mark by sticking a toothpick or a knife or fork through the center of a muffin to see if the inside isn't a gooey mess.

Enjoy! :)

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Recipe | Chunky Vegetable Soup with Cannellini Beans

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This recipe yields roughly 7 pints (I stored all my leftovers in handy pint-sized Mason jars- I suggest you do the same to portion everything out and have easy, quick dinners for the week!)

1 quart of Vegetable Stock (you might want to get a low sodium one so you can control the saltiness level of your soup)
a couple tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
4 cups water
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 zucchini, cut into fourths, length-wise, and then chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped (use whatever colors you have - I had a green and a red so that's what I used)
2 cups frozen broccoli
1 15oz. can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.
1 cup pasta (I used broken up pieces of linguine)
1 tbsp hot sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce (not photographed - this was a last minute addition)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp turmeric
Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large stock pot over medium heat and add some olive oil. Sautee the carrots for about 7 minutes. Then add the chopped bell peppers, zucchini, and garlic and sautee for another 5-7 minutes, or until they start getting tender. Add some salt and pepper and the cumin, turmeric, and hot sauce. Stir to incorporate the spices and then add your stock and water. Add your broccoli, beans, and soy sauce to the pot. Cover with a lid and bring the soup up to a boil. Once at a boil, drop your pasta in and cook until the pasta is al dente (or of desired consistency). Adjust seasonings to taste and enjoy! The soup gets better the longer it sits - so left overs are GREAT :)

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Recipe | Spicy Lettuce Wraps with Seitan and Sauteed Peppers

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Okay, so they're not really wraps because they're small... but I didn't know what else to call them. They're delicious, though, and that's all that matters.

Makes 12-15 lettuce wraps

A couple tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 12oz package of Seitan strips
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 tomato, diced
1 head of any sturdy lettuce. I used bib lettuce, but romaine would work fine too. Just pull off the leaves, wash them, and pat them dry. Keep in mind that iceberg lettuce has basically no nutritional value, so try and stay away from that if at all possible
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp Chile Lime hot sauce (I used Cholula brand)
Salt and pepper to taste

Feel free to add more or less of the hot sauce. I enjoy spicy foods, so I was pretty generous with it.

Set a large skillet coated with olive oil to medium heat. Start browning off your seitan to get it nice and crispy. This should take around 7-8 minutes. Keep the seitan moving in the pan so it doesn't burn. Once the seitan is crispy, go ahead and add the pepper slices. Sweat them for about 5 minutes and then add the cumin, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Spoon the seitan and peppers into your little lettuce cups and top with your chopped tomatoes. I topped mine with some honey mustard as well to balance out the spice.

Enjoy! :)

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Update + Recipe | An Apology and a Quick Recipe

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I haven't blogged in quite some time, and it's mainly because I've been prepping to move out of my old apartment and into a new one for the past couple weeks. I haven't had any new recipes because I haven't been grocery shopping to make any remarkable dishes for you guys since I'd end up having to lug all my new groceries to my new apartment (it was bad enough transporting the little groceries I DID have in the scorching heat).

So, just a little recap on my life: I am finally all moved into my new apartment. I'm living alone now because my roommate Rachel graduated and to be honest I just can't tolerate living with anyone other than her, so this is the best option for me, lol.

Last Monday was Memorial Day and I got to go home and spend it with my family, and Chris came over which was nice. My sister visited from Virginia with the baaabbbbbyyyyyyy which was awesome since I hadn't seen her or Liam since Easter weekend. I made quiiiiiite a large spread for just my mom, my sister, my aunt, my sister's friend Dana, Chris, and I but I was too frazzled to photograph anything. I was cooking a bunch of things at the same time and I didn't have the time nor energy to capture all the steps and outcomes. I did write down the recipe to the vegan black bean and avocado burgers that I made, but again, I didn't take any pictures of the finished product. But I'll still probably make a post about the recipe soon.

I did, however, make the chickpea and avocado dip, which went over quite well with everyone who tried it! So that was nice :)

Now I'm back down by school for the majority of the summer. I babysit down here and I soon will be starting to work with a professor as a reading and grading assistant on campus, AND on Monday I have an interview at a coffee shop about 25 minutes away, so I'm hoping that goes over well. I might be biting off more than I can chew, but we'll see how everything goes :)

Tonight I had a simple dinner but it was delicious enough to be blog worthy :) It's not really a recipe... it's more like an idea: Vegan BLT

So for this I just took 4 slices of smokey tempeh, sauteed it over medium heat in some extra virgin olive oil in a skillet to get it crispy on both sides (about 5 minutes on each side). Then I added those crispy slices to a club roll from my supermarket's bakery with some slices of fresh tomato and some red leaf lettuce. The whole thing was gone in about 5 minutes. That's how good it was.

If I had more options in the fridge I probably would have added some sprouts or used kale or spinach instead of the lettuce. I was also gonna add some avocado but mine just wasn't ripe enough to slice.

Enjoy! :)

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Recipe | Smokey Avocado and Chickpea Dip

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1 15 oz can of Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 avocado
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large food processor and pulse until the desired consistency is achieved. My food processor was small so I processed the garbanzo beans, added them to a bowl, then processed the garlic and onion and added that to the bowl, then I just added the avocado straight to the bowl without processing, added the spices and olive oil and mixed everything together with a spoon.

Serve this as a spread on a sandwich or just dip your favorite pita chips in it. I won't judge you if you decide to just eat it with a spoon, though

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Recipe | Another Simple and Delicious Warm Barley Salad

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Makes 4-6 servings, depending on if you're eating it as your main meal or as a side dish

2 cups cooked barley
a couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
2 small zucchini, cut in fourths, lengthwise, and then chopped
1 tomato, chopped
6 slices of Smart Deli baked ham, chopped
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

I had my barley already cooked from when I made a huge batch earlier in the week. I suggest cooking your barley ahead of time, because the other steps of this recipe don't take much time to cook so you might end up over cooking your veggies while you wait for your barley to finish cooking. Do whatever you feel most comfortable with because this "salad" can be eaten piping hot, room temperature, and even cold.

Set a large skillet to medium heat and add some extra virgin olive oil. Sweat the onions and peppers for about 5-7 minutes.

Add some salt and pepper and then throw in your zucchini. Cook everything for another 5-ish minutes. I didn't want the zucchini to get too mushy, so I cut the cooking time a little short for it so it was still a bit crunchy. If you want the zucchini softer, cook it closer to 7-8 minutes.

Add some more salt and pepper to the pan along with the red pepper flakes and then add your "ham" slices. Separate the pieces a little bit with your hands as you're adding them to the pan. You don't need to cook this as it's already fully cooked. So just stir everything to warm the "ham" through.

Combine your veggies and protein with your 2 cups of barley and then throw in your chopped up tomato and toss everything with a few more tbsp of olive oil. Adjust the seasoning if necessary. You can enjoy this as just a side dish or as your entire meal.

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Recipe | Vegan Single Serve Chocolate Chip Mug Cake

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(click the photo to go to the recipe)

Holy... oh my GOD is this cake delicious. I just stumbled upon the recipe on pinterest and, disregarding the absurd hour to eat something sweet, made it because my mom had all the ingredients on hand in the house.

THIS IS NOT MY RECIPE, but it's so delicious and fantastic that I NEED to share it with whoever reads my blog. PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.

Also, I am not a vegan, but I do enjoy making up and trying out vegan recipes whenever I can.

Here's how I tweaked this recipe a little:

I used oat flour instead of spelt flour
For the milk, I used almond milk
I used brown sugar for both the sugar portion and the Stevia part of the recipe
I omitted the oil and just used extra almond milk instead
The applesauce I used was unsweetened
I used more chocolate chips than a normal person probably should have used...

I also suggest you microwave this closer to 2 minutes... maybe even a little longer. Maybe my measurements were a bit off (I couldn't find the tbsp measuring spoon so I used 3 tsp for every 1 tbsp called for), but my cake came out quite gooey, which was totally fine with me. There's nothing that NEEDS to be cooked (it's vegan - no eggs, no dairy, no nothin'), but if you're grossed out by the gooeyness and would rather a firmer cake, make sure you measure everything as stated and maybe don't stray from the recipe as much as I did.

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Recipe | Vegetable Stir Fry with Chili, Garlic, Ginger Sauce

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Makes 4 servings

a couple tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 1/2 cups water (optional)
1 cup brown rice (optional)
1 package of fake chicken pieces (I used the Gardein brand, you could use anything, really - tofu, seitan, even a couple sliced up veggie burgers if you wanted)
1 onion, sliced
2 bell peppers, sliced
3-4 carrots, julienned (I only had baby carrots, so you're looking for about a cup of chopped carrots)
3 handfuls of saute greens (my mix had baby spinach, baby kale, and baby swiss chard)
1 zucchini, cut in half and then sliced
1 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen or canned corn
1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
3 tbsp raw agave
1 tsp chili garlic sauce (you can find this in the ethnic food section of your grocery store)
1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

FOR THE SAUCE:

Make this before you start cooking everything so the flavors have enough time to love each other and develop into a delicious sauce

Combine the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chili garlic sauce, ginger, and agave in a bowl. Whisk to combine everything and set aside. The reduced sodium soy sauce is important because you don't want your dish to turn out too salty - you should be able to control the amount of salt that goes into your cooking.

FOR THE STIR FRY:

I served mine over rice, so if you plan on doing this as well, and your rice isn't quick-cooking, start on that before you cook the veggies. For long-grain brown rice it's typically 2 1/2 cups of water brought to a boil. Add 1 cup of rice to the boiling water, cover the bot, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 35-40 minutes.

Side note: You want all of your veggies to be roughly the same size, so what I did was after I sliced the carrots and peppers, I cut those slices in half, like so:

The onions and zucchini aren't that important because they get very pliable when they're cooked so bigger pieces don't usually pose as an issue.

While your rice is cooking, set a large skillet to medium heat with some extra virgin olive oil. Start browning off your pieces of fake chicken. This should take around 3-5 minutes on each side.

Once your protein is done browning on both sides, start cooking the carrots. Cook them first for a few minutes because they will take the longest to soften up. After about 3 or so minutes have passed, add the peppers and onions. Cook for another 5-7 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

Once the carrots, onions, and peppers start softening up, add the zucchini and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add a little more salt and pepper but refrain from salting the dish again until the end of the cooking process.

Now you can add the frozen broccoli, corn, red pepper flakes, and the sauce you made earlier. Cover the pan and let everything simmer for another 5-7 minutes. Uncover and add the greens. Turn the heat off and work them in until they're all wilted down. The sauce probably adds enough salt for the remainder of the dish, but adjust any seasonings to your taste.

Serve over rice, lo mein/rice noodles, or just enjoy on its own!

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Recipe | Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers with Stuffed, Oven-roasted Avocados

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FOR THE BURGERS:

1 15oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 egg, beaten.
1 carrot, shredded
1 zuchinni, shredded
1/2 onion, chopped
2 gloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
1 roasted red pepper
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese - save 1/4 cup for after you combine it in the food processor
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 cup flat leaf parsely, roughly chopped
the zest of one lemon
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp dried tarragon leaves
salt and pepper to taste
a couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil

(makes 8 burgers)

Add all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until everything is combined into a smooth-ish mixture. Transfer the mixture to a separate bowl and incorporate the reserved 1/4 cup feta cheese. Add more bread crumbs if the mixture feels too soggy. To make these vegan, just omit the cheese and use an egg substitute - like arrow root or a flax mixture (i don't know the exact measurements. just google it)

Set a large skillet or griddle to medium heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray or add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. Form the mixture into patties. Sear on both sides for about 3-5 minutes each. The burgers WILL be squishy and a little messy, this is OKAY! They won't fall apart, but they will be mushy.

FOR THE AVOCADOS:

4 ripe avocados, halved and de-pitted

1 cup button mushrooms, sliced

1/2 onion, chopped

1 soy sausage, diced

1/2 tomato, diced

some fresh mozzarella, diced

a couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 450°F. 

Scoop out the majority of the avocado's flesh from each half, mash up with salt and pepper, and set aside in a bowl.

Set a large skillet to medium heat and add some oil. Brown up the soy sausage pieces - about 3-5 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan, chop up into tiny pieces, and set aside.

Saute the onions in the left over oil for 3-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and some salt and pepper. Cook together for another 5-7 minutes, or until the onions get caramelized and the mushrooms soften up and brown a little bit. 

Combine the sausage pieces and the mushroom and onion mixture with the mashed avocado you set aside. 

Fill the avocado halves with the mixture... about 3 tbsp should fit into each. It really depends on the size of your avocados, though.

Stick in some pieces of the diced tomato and mozzarella in each avocado half. 

Bake at 450°F for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

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Recipe | Chiocciole with Garden Veg Sauce

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This makes approximately 3 servings, depending what you serve it with.

2 cups chiocciole
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 soy sausages, chopped into half moon shapes
1 1/2-2 cups button mushrooms, sliced
3 cups saute greens - mine had a mixture of baby kale, baby spinach, and baby swiss chard
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
a couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large pot of water on high to boil. Set a large skillet on medium and add  some extra virgin olive oil. Brown the soy sausages on both sides. I found that leaving them in bigger pieces for the browing process is easier than cutting them up before hand because you're going to remove the pieces from the pan after they're browned. Whichever way you decide to brown them, they'll take about 3-4 minutes on each side to get nice and crispy

When the sausages are browned, remove them from the pan and saute the peppers and onions in the left over oil until they begin to soften and caramelize a little bit. Salt and pepper them after about 7 minutes of cooking.

Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Take two of your tomatoes, roughly chop them (seeds and all) and add that to the pan. Reserve the third tomato for later. Salt and pepper your sauce and add the crushed red pepper flakes. Your water should be boiling at this point so drop the pasta in. Lower the heat under your skillet to about medium low or close to simmer, cover, and cook for 6-7 minutes. Uncover the pan, add some starchy pasta water (about 1/4 cup) and continue to simmer until your pasta is done cooking.

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Turn off the heat under your skillet. Add the saute greens (you may need to add them in batches, giving each batch a chance to wilt down so your pan doesn't overflow with greens), the reserved tomato, and the chopped soy sausages. Salt and pepper the dish if necessary.

I served this with a couple falafel balls, so it lasted me a couple meals. You could stretch it by adding more vegetables (like zucchini or eggplant or more peppers).

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