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.

MmmmmmmMmmMm! I was so excited for the return of True Blood (on HBO) that I took to the kitchen and made some vegan cupcakes! Yes, I know they’re not red, but it’s cool….they’re delicious!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and either grease a cupcake pan or use paper cupcake liners.  In a medium bowl combine 2 1/4 c flour, 1 1/2 c sugar, 3 1/2 t baking powder, 3 T unsweetened cocoa and 1 t salt and stir together.

In a large bowl, mix (using a hand mixer) 1/2 c creamy or crunchy natural peanut butter, 1 1/4 c soy milk, 1 ripe banana (mashed),  and 1 t vanilla extract.

Add the dry mixture to the wet and stir (by hand) until combined.  Spoon the batter into the liners or greased cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes. You can frost them with your favorite icing or do what I did: crunchy peanut butter with a sprinkle of cocoa powder! If you are going to frost them, be sure to wait until they’ve cooled.  I got 12 big cupcakes out of this recipe.

This was totally awesome.  It was quick to make and was made from an almost empty fridge.  I made a spinach salad base with shredded carrots, avocado and red onion…you basically want to use everything that would be good on top of a black bean burger.  When the black bean patty was done cooking, I melted a piece of veggie cheese on top, placed it on top of the salad and then lined yellow mustard, organic ketchup and sriracha across the top.

This idea would work with anything, really; you can switch it up and use a chik’n patty or a veggie burger.  It was the perfect amount of food for our late night dinner.

This was a recipe in the making for about a week.  Every time Loren asked what was for dinner I always threw a “peanut butter jelly tortilla” in with the other options but he never bit.  The night I added “french toast-adilla” into play, he bit.  To make this crazy awesome dish, smear peanut butter all over one side of a whole wheat tortilla.  Add your favorite jelly to one half as well as sliced bananas.  Fold the tortilla over so that the peanut butter is on top and bottom and use it to seal the edges together.

Prepare an egg wash with 2 eggs and a dash of soy milk.  Pour the egg wash over the sealed quesadilla, moving it around so the entire thing is covered in the wash.  Place the quesadilla in a medium sized skillet (sprayed with some olive oil) on medium heat.  Flip just like you would with French Toast.  At one point, we positioned the half moon section of the quesadilla directly against the pan (as shown) and poured some of the leftover egg wash on top of the quesadilla so it created a thick egg outside to it.

Once it’s cooked to your satisfaction, cut into 4ths and sprinkle some cinnamon on top.

I surprised Loren with a nice breakfast this morning to start his day with a bang! Inside a whole wheat tortilla lies spicy scrambled eggs, spinach and Veggie Shreds cheese.

To make spicy scrambled eggs, crack two eggs into a small bowl with a little soy milk and whisk until mixed.  Next drop in 2-3 T of hot salsa and stir. Pour into a small skillet (that’s been sprayed with olive oil) and then add some Morningstar Farms Italian sausage crumbles and a dash of freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.  Every one has their own scrambled eggs method…I like to keep mine moving with a rubber spatula.  Once the scramble is completed, I put down a bed of spinach on top of the tortilla, then then eggs, then the Veggie Shreds.

Another good non meat to use, is to cook a black bean burger and then break it up into pieces and use that instead of cooking ’sausage’ in your eggs.  You get the same amount of spice and meat.  If you’re vegan you can use crumbled tofu instead of the eggs.  Put it in a skillet with some olive oil, salsa and veggie shreds cheese and cook (moving frequently).

Delicious!

Pasta at its best! As my beach trip quickly approaches, I’ve been letting the food run out in the house and only buying things that Loren will eat while I’m away (so my house is seriously lacking in my fruits and veggies). This dinner started with some salted boiling water for the noodles and then started building itself as I ventured through my cabinets and fridge.

Bring 3 T extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic (1 large clove) and chunks of red onion (about 1 cup) to medium heat in a large skillet. Keep this moving so you don’t burn the garlic (very important in making sauce…if the oil is too hot and the garlic turns brown, you’ve burnt it).  After you’ve cooked this for about 4 minutes (you’ll smell the onions and garlic) add the broccoli (I used a bag of fresh broccoli).  Let this cook for about 5 minutes (you may need to pour some more oil on top of the broccoli so they cook down a little) but while it’s cooking,  add 2 cups of halved grape tomatoes, 1 cup of raw sun dried tomatoes (not in water or oil…just dried in the sun) and 1 cup of tomato sauce.  Once the tomatoes have heated through, they will begin popping (or breaking)….you can speed up this process by squishing them with a fork into the skillet.  I then added some Morningstar Farm veggie Italian Sausage crumbles, some fresh rosemary from my garden and turned the heat down to low and covered (stirring occasionally).  Once the veggie sausage heats through, your sauce is done.  I poured the sauce over my cooked noodles, mixed and added some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.  Once plated I topped it off with some fresh basil leaves.

This is one of my newest favorite pasta dishes! It goes very well with some Cabernet.