This was my very first attempt at making a vegan lasagna and I’m happy to report that it is the #1 best lasagna I have ever made! I made three ‘un’cheeses for this dish: a tofu ricotta, sesame seed parmesan and a soy milk mozzeralla.  Last year my fabulous boyfriend bought me “The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook” by Jo Stepaniak and those recipes were from there.  The cheeses needs to be made the evening before the lasagna because the recipes require an overnight chill in the fridge. The rest of the vegetable lasagna was my typical style: whole wheat noodles cooked just before they reach al dente in a large pot with salted water, sauted onion, green pepper, mushroom and zucchini, shredded carrot and spinach.

In a sprayed casserole dish (or lasagna pan) arrange your lasagna as follows:

• put a light layer of sauce (either homemade or store bought-amount weighing approx 2 lbs, 13 oz)
• a layer of noodles (4 across and 1 vertical to make up for the gap (you will tear about 1/4 of the length off the noodle to fit the pan))
• cover these noodles completely with sauce (not thick but make sure all of the noodles are covered)
• put a layer of tofu ricotta on top of the sauce (you’ll use 1/2 of the ricotta)
• cover cheese with a thick layer of spinach and a few droplets of sauce on top of the spinach
• put some mozzerella and parmesan cheese on top of the spinach/sauce
• another layer of noodles but this time starting them across on the side that the last row was vertical and the vertical noodle where the last ones were across (press down on the noodles so the spinach is being weighed down)
• cover noodles with sauce and the rest of the tofu ricotta on top
• put a light layer of shredded carrot and then a heavy layer of your sauteed veggies (you’re sauteing them first because your mushrooms and zucchini hold a lot of water and it will result in a watery lasagna)
• cover these veggies with chunks of mozzerlla and some parmesan cheeses
• another layer of noodles (doing the same trick as last time by switching the sides of the vertical noodle)
• cover the noodles 100% with sauce and sprinkle some red pepper flakes, oregano, parmesan cheese and some mozzerella
• cover with alumminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven (preheated) for 40 minutes, uncover and bake for another 5 minutes

I served my lasagna over a bed of spinach and some sauted asparagas. I sauteed the asparagas in a little extra virgin oil, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, handful of pumpkin seeds and the remaining 2 T of sauce.

Tofu Ricotta

• 1 lb firm regular tofu (drained)
• 3 T fresh lemon juice
• 2 t mild sweet syrup of your choice (I used raw agave nectar)
• 1 t dried basil
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1/4 t garlic powder

Break the tofu into large chunks.  Put it in a medium sized skillet or sauce pan and cover with water.  Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.  Drain well and chill uncovered in the fridge until it’s cool enough to be handled. Crumble and place in a bowl with the remaining ingredients.  Mash and blend until the mixture has reached a ricotta/cottage cheese like texture.  Cover and let sit in the fridge overnight for the flavors to combine.

Parmezano Sprinkles

• 1/2 c white sesame seeds (or blanched almonds)
• 2 T nutrional yeast flakes
• 1 to 2 t chickpea miso (I used a brown rice miso…same diff)
• heaping 1/4 t sea salt

Grind the sesame seeds into a fine powder in the bowl of a food processor.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse until combined. Store in an airtight container in the fridge remembering to shake before using.  This will keep for a month or longer if you freeze it.  I doubled this recipe and now I have plenty left over for other dishes.

Buffalo Mostarella

• 2 c plain soymilk
• 1/2 c nutrional yeast flakes
• 1/3 c quick cooking rolled oats (oatmeal)
• 1/4 c tahini
• 1/4 c arrowroot
• 3 – 4 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 T onion powder
• 1 t sea salt

Lightly oil a container that holds at least 3 cups of substance. Combine all ingredients into a blender or food processor and process several minutes until completely smooth. Pour this mixture into a saucepan or large skillet and cook and stir over medium heat unilt very thick and smooth. Pack into the prepared container and cool uncovered in the fridge.  When your cheese is completely cool, cover and chill overnight.  When you’re ready to use it the next day, turn over the container (cut along the edges of it first) and the mixture will come out.  It will be soft and sticky to cut using an oiled or water moistened knife. The leftovers will last between 5-7 days in the fridge.

Green smoothies are the perfect way to start your day.  Not only are they super energizing but they are filling and very good for you too.

In your blender (per smoothie) put: 1 banana, handful of blueberries, 2 cups spinach, ice cubes, 1/2 T coconut oil (optional). Hit go on the blender and let run until everything is ground up and mixed together.  You can also add peach or frozen berries if you’d like. The spinach taste comes through but isn’t too powerful; the sweetness of the fruits help to balance out the taste.  The result is a super delicious, healthy and slight earthy tasting treat!

Rainbow Natural Foods is a grocery store in Decatur that is very similar to Sevananda.  Rainbow has a hot and cold bar and even a little room where you can sit and eat once you’ve purchased your items.  It has mostly vegan food and the selection is outstanding (I saw Tofurkey jerky!)! There are prepared raw meals in the deli section (even raw granola bars!), as well as vegan and vegetarian ones.  It’s a small place and is very organic and natural.  If you use your debit card you should try to purchase at least $10.  They get charged more from the third party when the purchase is under $10–they’ll still run but they will let you know for next time. Anyone who is in Decatur should check it out!

Nachos are always on my mind….I’m serious. They’re definitely my “food of the moment”.  I could eat nachos every day of the freaking week and never be sick of them. Well…maybe after a week of them I’d finally be sick of them. The best thing about nachos is that you can use every single chip in the bag–even the bottom crumbs; that is exactly what I did for these nachos.  We had three partial bags of chips that had been sitting on top of the fridge for a hot minute and I was sick of looking at them so I spread them out on top of some aluminum foil on top of a cookie sheet.

Well, let’s not let me get ahead of myself.  Before I started any of this I submerged a bag-o-brown rice in some water on the stove top.  Instant rice is super quick–its amazing (10 mins tops).  I added some cumin and cayenne to the water while the rice was cooking in hopes that it would soak up some of those flavors. When the rice is almost done, preheat your oven to 350 degrees (you want it hot enough to melt your vegan cheese).  In a small skillet I put some extra virgin olive oil spray and about 2 T of soy sauce and heated to medium heat.  To it I added 1/2 a block of tempeh cut into cubes. You want to cook the tempeh until its colored throughout (from the soy sauce).  It’s going to get some more heat added to it once you put the nachos in the oven.

On top of the chips I put some black beans (opened the can, drained and rinsed them), diced jalapeno (fresh out of the garden!), the brown rice and the tempeh.  Then I sprinkled some vegan cheese (pepperjack and mozzerella).  After the last sprinkle of cheese, I added a light dose of cumin and cayenne pepper and put the nachos into the oven, keeping my eye on them…you just want the cheese to melt slightly.  Vegan cheese has a tendency to get really rubbery if cooked for too long.  It will string if you catch it at just the right temperature.  While the nachos were heating, I diced up some red onion, banana peppers, tomato (out of the garden!) and kalamata olives to put on top once they came out of the oven.

You can make a good set of nachos in my vegan kitchen–all of the above ingredients are staples.  When I go grocery shopping I’m simply replacing the staples.  In the near future I’m going to post “Vegan Kitchen Staples” as well as a “Raw Kitchen Staples” and “Vegetarian Kitchen Staples”. Should be helpful for those of you who are trying to eat healthier and stay away from the fatty convenience foods.  Don’t get me wrong, there are a TON of fatty vegetarian and vegan foods too; the trick is to know what you’re looking for and what you’re NOT looking for.  Like I said before, reading ingredients is a very important part of buying and eating food.

Eating veggies out of our garden is our favorite thing in the world! Our eggplants didn’t stand a chance; we ate 3 in about a week. Now we’re waiting for our plants to slllooowwwlly fruit more. It’s painful…it really is!

Before you saute anything to make the sauce, you need to get to choppin your veggies. I cut up one Japanese eggplant into thin discs, 1 jalapeno pepper into small pieces, quartered a handful of baby portabella mushrooms (washed) and then sliced two thick rings off a yellow onion and chopped them into medium size pieces.

In a medium sized skillet, saute the eggplant, jalapeno and onions on medium low heat in some extra virgin olive oil. I seasoned these veggies with some sea salt, fresh ground pepper and oregano. Once they cooked for about 4-5 minutes, I added the mushrooms, MorningstarFarms ground “beef” crumbles and a can of organic diced tomatoes. I turned the heat up slightly to medium, added some Italian seasoning and some red pepper flakes.  Watch this sauce, stirring occasionally so nothing burns at the bottom.  Once its cooked for about 5 minutes, turn the heat back down to medium low and cover.  You can let this cook like this until your noodles are done.

Once plated I topped with some fresh basil leaves from the garden as well as some broccoli that I ran through the food processor and some vegan parmesan cheese.

Finding the perfect raw applesauce recipe has been fun.  I can finally put the Rustin seal of approval on this one.

If you’re like me and you buy apples every week, sometimes you have one or two sitting around from past weeks that are a little too soft in spots for your liking (I like my apples cold and crisp!).  My solution is to make raw applesauce with those apples.

(This recipe will yield 3 servings) In the bowl of a food processor combine 3 apples (washed, cored and chopped), 1 cup water, 1 T cinnamon, 1 t nutmeg, 2 T raisins and a medium sized handful of raw almonds. Hit go on the FP, stopping every once in awhile to move the bits down from the edges.  Keeping going until you get the consistency you’d like.

The best part about the busted ass economy and being jobless is that I get to be super creative in the kitchen and make up new dishes that cost almost nothing.  This dish was made from some rice Loren’s mom gave us months ago (maybe even a year!), herbs from our garden, veggies from the farmers market and a green pepper I stole from my parent’s house (hehe).

The first thing I started was the rice because it takes around 30 minutes to finish.  I used a long grain brown rice that came in a box with a seasoning package.  You know the drill with box rice: empty contents of box into medium size pot with 2 cups waters, stir, bring it to a boil, cover and then simmer for 25 minutes.

When the rice had about 15 minutes left I heated a large skillet with some extra virgin olive oil (we’ll say 2 T) in on medium low heat and then added 1 garlic clove (diced finely), 2 thick rounds of white onion (chopped) and 1 jalapeno from our garden (washed, seeded and diced).  I sprinkled 2 splashes of ground coriander, a dash of sea salt and some fresh ground pepper (3 turns) on top of these guys while they cooked. After about 3 minutes, I upped the heat to just under medium and I added 2 big handfuls of spinach on top and 1/4 C raw pumpkin seeds.  You may want to add a little more oil on top of the spinach so the little guys down below don’t burn.  Keep flipping the veggies underneath with the spinach so that the heat from the veggies helps to wilt the spinach faster.  Everybody’s stove is different so use your brain and decide which heat is best for sauteing your veggies and wilting your spinach.  Once the wilt was completed, I added 2 more dashes of coriander, stirred and took these veggies off the heat.

Use the 10 minutes before you start cooking these veggies (while the rice cooks) to wash, cut and chop them. You can also prepare the pepper in this time as well or while you’re waiting for your extra virgin olive oil to heat.  To cook your green pepper, set your oven to 375 degrees and put a emptied out green pepper in on a piece of Pam sprayed foil, open top down. Make sure to poke a small hole in the bottom of the pepper (you can simply remove the bottom stem and that will be plenty of room for air to escape).  To empty out the green pepper, cut across the pepper just under the top stem and remove all the insides.  You can put the green pepper in the oven while it preheats–it’ll give it more time.  When the veggies and rice are done, your pepper will be done too.  You want it warm (hot to the touch) and a little soft but not completely soggy–it will still hold a little crunch cooking it this way.  Because there were two of us eating, I cut the one pepper in half (cutting across the pepper with a serrated knife).

When plating, I put down the wilted spinach/veggie mixture first, pepper on top and then filled the pepper with the rice.  I garnished with some chopped chives and parsley out of our garden.

My 3 Herb Pesto Lentil Salad is a really good summer salad.  The combination of the greens, lemon juice and pesto really make this salad the perfect meal after a long day at the beach or at the pool.  This salad can be made raw by sprouting your lentils but if you would rather cook them, do it to it! Unlike raw beans, lentils don’t need the pre-cooking soak so they are quick and easy to cook.

First things first! Put your lentils in a pot to boil (follow the instructions on the bag.  Be sure to rinse them off very well and inspect them).  Next get your food processor (or high speed blender) ready to make your pesto! I went out into my garden and picked some basil, Italian parsley and rosemary for my pesto.  Depending on how many you’re trying to feed, the amount varies (always use less rosemary than the other two herbs…basil and parsley are the main herbs for this pesto).  Honestly, I couldn’t tell you my exact measurements.  When it comes to pesto, it’s such a simple recipe that I just put all the ingredients into the food processor, hit go and then add more to get the amount necessary.  Remember, a little pesto goes a long way especially when you’re putting it on top of hot food (the heat helps to extend the pesto).  In the food processor I put the herbs from my garden, some raw pine nuts, some veggie parmesan cheese, a clove of garlic, juice of 1/2 a large lemon, a dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper and hit go.  While its mixing, lightly pour some extra virgin olive oil down the food processor shaft until your mixture starts to cream. It will happen quickly so pay attention!

For the base of the salad I laid down some spinach and raw sun dried tomatoes.  Once the lentils completed cooking, I mixed them with the pesto and spooned them on top of the salad.  I finished it off with the juice from the other 1/2 of lemon and some fresh mint from my garden.