Things you (should) already know about me:

• I LOVE Mexican food
• I LOVE Italian food
• I love to combine things that I love to make one big love fest (in my mouth) (thats what she said).

There are many names for what I’m calling Mex-agna; Mexican casserole, Mexican lasagna, Latin Lasagna, etc. Call it what you want, but I’ll call it delicious.

To get this dish started, preheat your oven to 375 degrees, grab a skillet, some heart healthy oil to sauté with, can-o-black beans, 1 corn on the cob, your favorite salsa, vegan cheese (with melting ability) and some fresh vegetables. I sauteed sweet onion, shredded carrot, green pepper and mushrooms with some cumin, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and cayenne. Do a light sauté to take the tiny bite out of the onion, soften the carrots a tad and to take some of the reserved water out of the mushrooms (the salt with help with this task). Set the sauté aside and sprinkle it with some fresh lime juice. All you need to do to prepare your black beans is open the can and then drain and rinse them. To prepare the corn; cut it free from it’s cob. Spray the sides of your cooking dish lightly (<–seriously) with olive oil, sprinkle a light layer of salsa at the bottom to coat and start building your Mex-agna! I used organic whole wheat big tortillas and ripped them into quarters. My casserole pan was a deep square so I layed out each piece of tortilla so the bottom of the pan was covered. I traded off each layer of the Mex-agna between sautéed veggies with salsa to black beans, corn and cheese. Once you have completed building the Mex-agna, make sure the top layer of tortillas are covered with salsa and then sprinkled with cheese. Cover your baking dish with foil and cook for 35-45 minutes depending on the quality of melty cheese you have. You’re basically warming the dish but also ensuring the tortillas soak up the juices of the veggies and salsa and melting the cheese. I plated mine on top of a bed of spinach with sliced avocado on the side.

Have you guys heard about Gardein? I’m a little weary of fake meat and haven’t used any in a long time but I decided to give it a chance. So far I have used the Pulled Pork in enchiladas, Beefless Tips in a quinoa/vegetable mix, Chick’n Scallapini with veggies, Chick’n Good Stuff on top of spaghetti, Crispy Tenders in a taco, Buffalo Wings in a sandwich, and I think that pretty much makes me a full on fat ass. It’s a good addition to any meal…the consistency is what you would expect. Be sure not to overcook it and let it rest for 1 minute after cooking for it to firm back up. If you avoid fake meats when cooking, cook for you. I feel it’s my job to review them and let you know.

There was a article published yesterday regarding a harmful chemical called ‘hexane’ which is being used to process soy protein in a lot of popular veggie friendly foods (i.e. Morningstar Farms, Amy’s, etc). Read about this chemical here as well as find out if your favorite veggie food is effected.  One of Gardein’s active ingredients is soy protein….whether or not they use hexane to process it is unknown. They are not listed on the good or bad side.  What I got from reading the article is that most fake meats labeled organic are hexane free but the others are not.

When you think about your favorite foods, does your mind automatically go to pizza or hummus? I often think about both of these foods so I thought, “Why not combine them and make one promiscuss victus?”

Behold! Hummus Pizza!!!

I buy my whole wheat pizza crust at the Dekalb Farmers Market.  It’s $2.50, organic and vegan so you really can’t beat that with a stick. I cook the crust in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes depending on how much it poofs up. I want the crust to resemble soft pita so I avoid over cooking by constantly checking up on it.  Once its done I let it cool for <5 minutes and apply my sun dried tomato hummus and a variety of raw vegetables (usually cucumber, spinach, carrot, red onion, sun dried tomato, tomato, olives, banana peppers).  Cut and serve with some crushed red pepper flakes and oregano.

Recipe coming soon…..

i know…i siked you out. i’ll put the recipe up soon and notify you via Twitter once i do. if you’re not following us on Twitter already, do so here!

During these cold winter months, nothing tastes better than a piping hot bowl of vegetable soup.  On this particular Sunday night dinner at my parents house, my ma and I planned on making a vegetable soup but didn’t have any direction with it.  I’m going to give you the order in which we made our soup and if you have any helpful ideas you’d like to add, drop me a note at the bottom of the post!

The vegetables we used are as follows:

• 1/2 a napa cabbage cut into chunks
• 3 large carrots cut into discs
• 3 celery stalks chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 butternut squash cut into little squares
• two 15 oz cans of organic diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• the corn cut off of 1 cob
• frozen peas (we just kind of poured them in)
• diced fresh green beans
• 1 large zucchini sliced and then cut into quarters

We emptied two boxes of organic low sodium vegetable broth and some water into a large pot (water amount depends on how much broth vs veggies you want–always use a least 1 pint’s worth to dilute the broth a little).  We added the carrots, onions, squash and cabbage and brought it to a boil.  We seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper, covered the pot and let it cook for about 15-25 minutes until the squash was soft but still a little firm to the bite.  We then added the rest of the ingredients, seasoned again and turned the heat down to medium high and cooked for another 15 minutes (still having it covered).  Consider the squash to be your taste tester to make sure everything is cooked through.  We ladled our soup into the serving bowls and let them cool for about 5 minutes before setting them down at the table.  Cheese eaters should freshly grate some parmesan cheese on top of their soup after the 5 minute cool down.

Oh Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, you make my tummy smile. I tried out Isa’s recipe for Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter – Oatmeal Cookies the other day but made them small and added carob chips. Can I just say that these cookies are the bomb dot com? They’re the perfect cookie for me to pass out to all my friends and co-workers this Holiday season. Even non vegans cannot argue the deliciousness of this cookie.

To make these fantastical cookies you are going to need:

• 2 c flour (I always use whole wheat flour when baking…tastes incredible)
• 2 c oats
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt in a bowl

Toss these ingredients together making sure they’re mixed.

In a separate bowl mix together (using a hand mixer):

• 3/4 c canola oil
• 3/4 c chunky all-natural peanut butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c soy milk (you can use plain or vanilla…recipe calls for vanilla, I used plain)
• 2 t vanilla extract

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and continue to mix. The dough will be sticky and delicious (just the way we like it when we eat cookie batter). Drop little cookie dough balls onto your greased cookie sheets and cook in a preheated 350 degree oven until delightfully brown on top and bottom. Every oven and cookie sheet is different and cooking time really depends on what you’re working with. I believe my cookies were in the oven for around 20 minutes but I can’t be too sure.

…are incredible.  I’m obsessed with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the moment. Of course, you have to be careful when you’re buying these two things at the grocery store.  Beware of chemicals, additives, HFCS and other non necessary ingredients.  ALWAYS READ YOUR LABELS! Raw foodies–use almond butter and make your own jelly.  Simply smash your fruit together using a potato masher (you can add some agave nectar if you like it really sweet).

Spinach hummus is a given ‘duh’. It’s too delicious for words–I’ll let you use your imagination as I explain the ingredients.

Lately I’ve been adding sun dried tomatoes to my hummus (1 can drained and rinsed chick-peas, juice of 1 lemon, 1 [sometimes 2] T tahini, 1 [sometimes 2] garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, dash of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper) which has turned out fantastic.  I buy the sun dried tomatoes from the Dekalb Farmer’s Market that are not packed in oil and do not have added sulfates. They’re naturally dried in the sun and then packaged for my enjoyment.  The other night, however, I decided that the sun dried tomatoes just weren’t enough for my taste buds.  I opened the fridge and grabbed my 3.5 pound bag of spinach (also from the Farmer’s Market) and wilted it on the stove top along with some onion powder and garlic in some extra virgin olive oil (you can also use sunflower oil for the wilting process). Once wilted completely, I let the spinach cool and then added it into the food processor along with my other hummus ingredients (including the sun dried tomatoes).  After it was pureed, I dashed some oregano on top and served it along side carrots, cucumber, broccoli and cherry tomatoes.

As many of you know from my enthusiastic tweets, I got a dehydrator for my birthday.  As soon as the Paraflexx sheets arrived (a week later), I began uncooking! The first things I made were Matt Amsden’s “cheese sticks” from RAWvolution and some flax seed crackers based on Karen Knowler’s recipe.  I planned on dehydrating on Tuesday and knew we were leaving town Friday so I made two items I knew would travel well with us on our road trip.  I also brought along an avocado and the little package of soy sauce and dollop of wasabi you get in your grocery store veggie sushi containers. Using those ingredients, I made a quick car friendly version of guacamole to dip our flax crackers in.  This turned out to be the perfect ‘Atlanta-traffic-is-so-bad-you’ve-been-in-the-car-for-45-minutes-and-haven’t-even-made-it-to-the-interstate-yet” snack.

“Cheese sticks” are really, really good.  They are quite salty because of the soy sauce you use in the recipe but worth it.  I found that I had about 1 1/2 cups of leftover ground up sunflower seeds after I finished.  No biggie–I put them in an air tight container and will sprinkle them on top of some salads.  Oh…I also ground up all the sunflower seeds the recipe calls for instead of what the recipe actually says (maybe that’s why I had so much extra?).

Matt Amsden’s Cheese Sticks

• 4 3/4 c raw sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 c Nama Shoyu
• 4 cloves of garlic peeled

Grind 2 3/4 c sunflower seeds in the food processor.

Spread out 2 cups of the ground sunflower seeds onto a plate.

In a high speed blender (or a food processor which is what I always use), combine the rest of the sunflower seeds and the other ingredients and blend until smooth.  Transfer this mixture into a pastry bag (or a large ziplock bag cutting the corner off of one side so you can push the mixture out in the same way).  Squeeze the mixture out in 3/4 inch long sticks onto the plate of ground up sunflower seeds.  Roll the sticks around in the ground up seeds so they are coated completely.  Spread them out on your Paraflexx sheets and dehydrate for 18-24 hours at 100 degrees.  Serve with a raw marinara sauce, raw salsa or just eat them plain.  Store them in an air tight container.

I wanted to make more than enough flax crackers so I doubled parts of Karen’s recipe and added some of my own tricks.

Flax Seed Crackers

• 4 c raw flax seeds
• 1 c raw sun dried tomatoes
• the juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 c cherry tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic (or 2 depending on the size)
• 2 T Italian seasoning
• water

In the bowl of a food processor I put all of these ingredients making the flax seeds last so everything else would have a chance to grind up.  I waited on putting water in until after everything had a chance to mix and then just poured a little, mixed, poured a little more, mixed and so forth until it was the consistency that I wanted.  You want the seeds and everything to be stuck together in almost a paste so you can spread it out over the Paraflexx sheets.  Careful not to add too much water though–keep your eye on your amounts.

When you spread the mixture out onto a Paraflexx sheet you want to make sure its evenly spread along the sheet (making sure parts aren’t too thick or too thin).  I split the mixture in half and did half on one tray and half on another. After it’s spread, score it so you can easily break your crackers apart.  If you are unsure about this process, check out Karen’s video.

Dehydrate your crackers at 115-120 degrees overnight. Flip the crackers over after about 5 hours so both sides dry. I started my crackers at 4 pm, flipped them at 9 pm and then took them out around 8 am.  Break them apart and let them cool for about 5 minutes before putting them in an air tight container.

Because I dehydrated my “cheese sticks” and crackers together, I kept the dehydrator at 115 degrees for the first 5 hours and then flipped it down to 110 degrees for the rest of the time.

**UPDATE : I have been creating new recipes for flax seed crackers these days.  The 2nd shot I had at them I used: 2 garlic cloves, juice of 2 lemons, 4 c flax seed, 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, a little water, 1 t Italian seasoning, 1 t onion powder, 1/8 c chopped onion. Those turned out stellar. I liked using less Italian seasoning than the first go round because I found it too overwhelming.

On my 3rd attempt at making them I used: 4 c flax seed, juice of 2 lemons, 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, 1 cup shredded carrot, 1 large garlic clove, a little water, 1 t onion powder and 1 t Italian seasoning. These are also excellent.

It’s fun being able to play around with recipes until you have them catering specifically to what you want them to be. I’m going to keep going with my flax crackers to see what other taste combinations I can come up with. These are delicious with peanut butter and jelly on, dipped in hummus and guac.

The other day I felt a little festive and wanted to try to recreate one of my favorite dishes from R Thomas (a local organic, veggie friendly restaurant). Its a lemon pasta which is really rich and creamy.  I know, this is not healthy in the least but every once in awhile you have to let yourself indulge. R Thomas’ dish is white noodles, lemon cream sauce and a LOT of parm cheese on top.  My dish was made using 1 box of whole wheat linguine noodles, vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, vegan butter, an eggplant out of my garden, Trader Joe’s veggie Italian Sausage, sweet basil out of my garden, cremini mushrooms, Vidalia onion, lemons and garlic.

To prepare your noodles, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. You’re going to cook these noodles al dente (soft but still firm to the bite).  While your water is heating up, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lightly spray a casserole/lasagna dish and set aside.  To get ready for the adventure ahead of you, zest 3 small lemons and juice 2 of them.  Then dice up a Japanese eggplant, mushrooms and the veggie sausage (comes in a pack of 4, I used 2).  Go ahead and put the ’sausage’, mushrooms and eggplant in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil and saute them (if you lightly salt the veggies they will cook faster…the salt will extract the water from the vegetable).  You don’t have to cook them long because you’re going to transfer all of these ingredients into the lasagna dish and bake it in the oven.

In a medium size pan, melt 4 T of vegan butter in 4 T of extra virgin olive oil on low heat.  Once the butter has melted, add 1/3 c diced onion and 3 minced garlic cloves and turn off the heat.  Add 2 t of Italian seasoning, the juice of 1 lemon and 1/3 of your lemon zest.  Now add in 2 c of vegan sour cream and the basil (I cut 6 or 7 leaves up) and mix slowly.  You can add some sea salt and vegan parm cheese if you’d like.

Once both pans and the pot of noodles have finished, start preparing your casserole. Put the noodles in the lasagna pan first, then the ’sausage’/eggplant/mushroom saute and lastly, pour the sauce right on top making sure you cover as much of the noodles as you can. Season the top of the dish with 1/2 of your leftover lemon zest, red pepper flakes and oregano.  You’re going to cover the dish with foil and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.  Uncover it and cook for another 10.

Once the noodles were plated I topped them off with some fresh parsley from the garden, a little more lemon zest and a couple drops of leftover lemon juice.  I poured the remaining lemon juice and zest over the top of the leftovers before storing them in the fridge.  Delicious!