Thursday, June 28, 2012

Avocado, Dill and Radish Salad with Portabella Mushrooms

The only thing that I really set out to make was the Avocado, Dill and Radish salad; the mushrooms were supposed to be just an added delight.  However, the mushrooms ended up sucking and I ended up throwing it away. Red wine and spices DO NOT make a portabella taste anything like a steak!  Next marinade to try is a Worchestershire and herb combination.  BOOO!  This mushroom really made me feel like I need to stop trying to make something taste like a steak and just eat a big ole juicy steak. 

What I set out to make, Avocado, Dill and Radish Salad, turned out Fabulous.  I made my own mayo which involved cashews, lemon juice, dry mustard, salt and pepper all blended smooth. 

I mashed up 3 avocados and pulled some fresh dill from my garden that the caterpillars have not yet eaten but had to use fresh store bought parsley because for some unbeknownst reason, my parsley did not want to grow.  I then cubed a bunch of organic radishes, sliced up 3 scallions and 2 sticks of celery.  I added a 1/2 cup of my mayo to the avocado mash and then mixed all the ingredients together.  The recipe didn't call for garlic but it was missing something so I added garlic to it.  I placed it in the fridge to chill out for about 1.5 hours while I started my fire and watered my garden.

I love to grill and even though there is a heat advisory out and a high risk of wild fires starting due to the lack of rain. I loaded my grill with charcoal and firewood. 

Once I got done being all outdoorsy, I put the mushrooms and asparagus on the grill to cook.  Ohhhhhh, I was getting excited and the anticipation was relentless. 

Typically, I would stay out by the fire all night and just watch the fire and perhaps even take a little dip in the pool but this girl had things to do. 

I plated the Avocado, Dill and Radish Salad over baby greens and added the mushroom and asparagus to the side. 


Avocado, Dill and Radish Sandwich

As I said, the mushrooms tasted like crap but the asparagus and Avocado Salad were delightful.  In fact, I brought the avocado salad with me for lunch and will make a yummy sandwich.  I do plan on adding alfalfa sprouts and perhaps a slice of tomato on top.  MMMM MMMM MMMM...!

This recipe really doesn't have a rating or a Vegan yes or No because this meal started out being Vegan and was always intended to be vegan.

8 Avocados up for the Avocado, Dill and Radish salad but a giant garbage can for the portabellas.  (I'm sure the marinade will make all the difference.  If the marinade had been different, then the mushrooms would've been delightful.)

Saturday is Vegan Pizza day where I will be trying to create my Favorite Dewey's Pizza but in a vegan styling.  This means making my own goat cheese and making my own pesto.  Watch out Green Lantern, there's something lighter coming your way!  Stay Tuned!

Enjoy your day!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Vegan "Chicken" Parmesean with Spinach and Avocado Salad!

You must be thinking that all I do is cook!  When it's something that you love to do, it's so easy to just do it.  Like I've said in prior posts, I'd rather create a wonderful meal than have someone cook for me at a restaurant.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind going out to dinner on occassion but I like to test myself to see if I can create that wonderful, succulent meal! 

Friday night was girls night for my girl so I set out to create one of my most favorite meals.  This meal is one that I get requests to make on a regular basis.  Chicken Parmesean with Bow Tie Pasta.  Now, as you know, this is going to be the Vegan version of this meal. 

First was to make the salad in which I threw together some baby spinach, avocados, mushrooms, black olives and diced onions.  I added some yellow squash and zucchini, homemade "feta cheese", added my spices and made my dressing which consisted of oil and Apple Cider Vinegar.  YUM!





 
I had some Gardein Scallopini in the fridge so I cooked a couple of those up in some no-chicken chicken broth and added some fresh herbs which included Basil, Thyme, Dill and Oregano.  After they cooked for about 15 minutes to soak up the flavor I added them to my baking pan. 

I started by preheating my oven to 325 and moved on to making my pasta sauce.  I added crushed tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and let simmer for about 1/2 hour.

Once the sauce was heated through and the oven was preheated, I covered the "chicken" breasts with my sauce and added daiya mozzerella and vegan parmesean to the top and put it in the oven for 1/2 hour. 

I plated with bow tie pasta and enjoyed this Vegan version of one of my favorite meals.  However, on a scale of 1 to 10... This only gets about a 7 because it just wasn't the same!  But it is a healthy and cruelty free way to enjoy this meal. 


Vegan Yes or Vegan No????  Eh, Vegan Maybe!



Stay tuned for this weeks Date Nite Veganization where we grill Portabella Mushrooms and I am making an avocado/dill salad. 

The Vegan "Chicken" Quesadilla with Homemade Pico

Recently, I have noticed that the majority of my day is spent thinking about what I'm going to eat for dinner and to some people this is quite annoying but I don't like to get home from work and not know what I'm going to be having for dinner.  Yesterday was not an exception.  I stewed over this for quite some time and finally decided that what I was craving was a quesadilla.  Now, it would've been easier for me to have just gone to some mexican restaurant and picked up a non-vegan chicken quesadilla but I wanted it vegan.  So, you guessed it... Kroger had a visit from me after work. 

I was a little concerned with how it would turn out simply because the daiya cheddar doesn't seem to really melt like regular cheese.  Imagine that!!!!  It's not real cheese so why would it melt as such? 

The first call to order was to dice up the Light Life Chicken and simmer in no-chicken chicken broth for about 15 minutes.  While this was in the making it was time to make the pico just perfect.  The last time I tried it, it was not as tasty as I would've liked so I tried again.  When you crave pico you want it to be just right.  I diced up 2 tomatoes, 1 tomatilla, 1/2 white onion and a heaping of cilantro.  I added these ingredients to a medium sized bowl and added a few shakes of lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper.  It was now time to try the pico...  I got my trusty bag of scoopables and dove in.  MMMM MMMM MMMMM Good!  It was perfect.  Unfortuately, the pictures that I tried taking of them were just not doing it justice so you will just have to take my word for it.  :-)

Next in the process was to move on to the guacamole.  I was never a huge fan of guacamole since I didn't really know much about it.  I hadn't really started into avocados and never was really interested in doing so.  Recently, however, I have grown to love that buttery fruit.  So much so, I usually have at least a few slices on my sandwich everyday.  Anyway, I mashed up 1/2 an avocado and added some diced tomoato and voila!  Guacamole.  Into the fridge that and the pico went to chill out for a bit while I contstructed my quesadilla. 

I sprayed my pan with PAM cooking spray and let that heat up for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, I diced up some more tomatoes, green onion and a jalepeno slice to add to the inside of my quesadilla. 

It was now time to add the tortilla to the pan and add the daiya and the other ingredients.  I, also, added a few shakes of chili powder because I like my stuff hot!  Keep in mind that when you are making a quesadilla, you only put your ingredients on 1 half of the tortilla as you will be folding the other half over to cover.  I covered the pan and let brown on each side.  To my satisfaction, the daiya melted perfectly... 

So to plate this meal, I shredded some lettuce, put a scoop of guacamole, a scoop of pico and a scoop of Tofutti Vegan Sour Cream! 

It was so delicious and a defintie VEGAN YES!

This one gets 10 out of 10 cilantro leaves!

 

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Vegan Dixie Chili Dogs

Sometimes you just get that craving for some Dixie Chili Dogs (Coney’s)!  At least I do!  A lot of you will say that Skyline is the best chili and I will wholeheartedly disagree!  Quite honestly, I can’t stand Skyline, however, I know many people do, including my girlfriend and in which she has corrected me in stating that she prefers Gold Star.  Anyhoo…  Yesterday was one of those days in which I was having that craving.  So, I decided I was going to make Chili Dogs for dinner.  Yes, it was about 100 degrees in my kitchen and after I physically removed about 200 pounds of dirt from my yard, I came in to make dinner.  Not after, however, guzzling about a gallon of water.  It’s important to stay hydrated in this nasty weather.  I’ll be glad when the pool is up and functional. 

Oh yeah, back to the veganization….

First, I couldn’t eat the actual Dixie Chili because it’s not vegan as I’m sure you are very much aware.  However, Vegan Chili is actually really simple to make.  It’s all about the spices, as in everything else.  I took about a cup of water and put it in a pan, added ½ bag of Boca Grounds and my chili powder, a touch of red pepper powder, a touch of cayenne pepper powder, salt, pepper, garlic and oregano and let simmer for about 35 minutes.  I also added some fresh diced onion.  Upon first taste of the chili, I had recreated a Vegan Dixie Chili and had a very hard time stopping myself from dipping into it each time I went into the kitchen!!!!! 
 

Now you are asking what I used for the actual “Hot Dogs”.  Well, I'm going to tell you.  I trusted my friends of Light Life and bought a package of 5 super Smart Dogs.  At first they seem to have a similarity to a bit of rubber but that quickly goes away as you realize just how close they have gotten to achieving the real taste of a “Hot Dog”!  At this point in our lives, we should all know what real hot dogs are made out of… NO THANK YOU!!!!  You actually cook these “dogs” just as you would regular dogs.  Boil for about 15 minutes and put on your prepared bun.  I like a layer of mustard, then my “dog”, then the “chili” and then the diced onion and to top, I used Daiya pepperjack cheese!


Vegan Yes or Vegan No?  A Definite VEGAN YES!!!
Oh, and my tester, who is not vegan, couldn’t tell the difference at all!

For a super quick and super easy recipe, it’s a 10 out of 10 thumbs up for me.
 

 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Everything Pizza


Let me start by saying that 9 times out of 10 you will find me in the kitchen cooking something up.  I prefer to cook than to eat out.  Not only can eating out get expensive but there’s not a lot of variety out there for Vegans.  So, this weekend was not unusual for me to be sweating away in my 95 degree kitchen (I really need to get AC).



Pepperoni is a huge favorite of mine and I have been missing it so I bought some fake “pepperoni” and was quite pleased.I was craving pizza, since that’s one of my all time favorite meals and I didn’t feel like driving to Dewey’s or Mellow Mushroom so I decided that I would make my own.




The first step in the process was to make my spaghetti sauce which consisted of crushed tomatoes, herbs and spices.  While that was simmering I grabbed my bowls, flour, yeast and spices and began to construct the crust.  Since my herb garden is finally becoming very abundant, I clipped off a few oregano, basil and dill leaves and mixed it in with my dough.  The dough process only took about 20 minutes to set-up.  I was feeling a little bit of everything so I chose for my toppings- Avocado, green peppers, red peppers, artichoke hearts, garlic cloves, pineapple, fresh spinach, mushrooms and fake “pepperoni”,   As you can see by the picture, it looks mighty tasty.



Next in the process was to roll the dough to form the crust.  Once patted down on a pizza sheet, I added a thin layer of sauce and then my toppings.  I decided that I was going to make some “feta” cheese in which ended up delightful as well.  Feta is simple to make by using one package of firm tofu.  Crumble, add red wine vinegar and herbs and mix; Breaking the tofu into little chunks.  I added this to the top of the pizza and finished with daiya mozzarella “cheese”.  I brushed the crust with garlic “butter” and stuck in the oven until the crust was golden brown.  (about ½ hour)  It was delicious!  I served with a side of sauce for dipping the crust and enjoyed 3 slices.




My non-vegan friend said it was a taste sensation!



11 out 0f 11 Veggies on this one, folks!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

"Steak" and Potatoes

I used to be a steak and potato kind of a girl and at every chance I would get, I would be grilling out a nice juicy steak; and it really does sound delicious to me right now but I’m moving toward a more vegan lifestyle.  So I set out to find something that tastes like steak or something that I could make taste like steak.



If you read my last blog, you know that my attempt at Seitan, regardless of how much it was enjoyed by others, was way below my expectations.  However, to a true vegan, apparently it tasted a lot like what I had set out to do.



Sunday was a busy cooking day for me.  It was father’s day and the family was getting together for a grill out. Dad requested that I make some sushi so since it was his day, I did!  I ended up getting 10 rolls out of the batch and was able to share the leftovers with the one person who absolutely can’t get enough of my sushi.



The family was grilling out Hamburgers, Metts and Brats.  I didn’t want a veggie burger or a “fake” hot dog!  I wanted STEAK!  So, instead of giving into the craving, I made Grilled Portabella Mushrooms, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Grilled Asparagus with a mushroom gravy drizzled on top.



First, I gathered my ingredients and marinated the Portabella’s in Liquid Amino’s, Garlic, Oregano, Pepper and a dish of melted Earth Balance whipped “butter”. 
 I cut three diagonal slices (not deep) in the top of the mushrooms in order for them to soak up the marinade.  After about a ½ hour of marinating, it was time to throw them on the grill.  I grilled for about 15 minutes on medium heat and they were perfect.  We made a mushroom gravy with the remaining marinade and added a few slices of white mushrooms.



I plated the dish with a scoop of garlic mashed potatoes, then the portabella on top and then another dab of potatoes on top.  Gave a ladle full of gravy atop everything and added the asparagus on top.  I had a tomato slice as a side but the girl endulged in a salad that my brother had chopped up.   It was a heavenly meal.  Next time, however, less salt and perhaps a different marinade but I was looking for that steak taste and as my family could attest, “OMG, it tastes like steak!”









I give this meal 9 out of 10 mushrooms simply for the amount of salt.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Country Fried Steak


OHHHHH Seitan you tempted me sooo…

One of the yummiest meals ever is Country Fried Steak drizzled with gravy and served with mashed potatoes and vegetables.  It would only be natural for me to want to try and veganize this meal. 

I set out on Tuesday evening after an extremely long day at work to make something that wasn’t steak taste like steak.  In order to do this, I had to make Seitan which is Vital Wheat Gluten.  I used the gluten and added nutritional yeast and spices to try and replicate a sort of steak flavor.  Once the Seitan was formed into steaks, I soaked them in a broth which consisted of mushroom broth, liquid aminos, Worcestershire sauce, spices, herbs and other consumable ingredients for about 12 hours.  This was supposed to allow the seitan steaks to absorb the flavor. 

Wednesday, I fried up the seitan using flour, almond milk, and flour as the coating.  Grilled some asparagus spears, roasted yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes and garlic and made a delicious garlic mashed potato.

After plating, it was now time to dive in and taste this creation…



The girlfriend loved every bit of it and didn’t have anything left on her plate.  She even took the leftovers home because she loved it so…

But, for my journey and for this blog it’s about trying to make things taste just as good, if not better than the real thing. 

For me… this dish was a fail.  It tasted spongy and bland and regardless of what or how you treated this seitan, I feel that there is not a way to make this taste or fool your taste buds into thinking that this is steak.  For me, dinner was mashed potatoes, asparagus and roasted veggies.

This is definitely a vegan NOT for me.

I give this 3 devil pitchforks out of 10.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

The famous Lasagna.. Vegan yes or vegan no?

On the Menu:

A tossed Italian Blend Salad with alfalfa and bean sprouts, avocado with homemade Italian dressing

Vegan and Non-Vegan Spinach, Mushroom and Sausage Lasagna

Italian Bread with tomato and spinach and olive oil and herb for dipping

To drink:  Woodbridge- Cabernet Sauvignon

_______________

What Can I say?  My spinach lasagna is yummy, so much so that I have people asking me to make it for them when they come to visit.  I haven’t made this particular dish in quite sometime since it is a rather heavy meal and normally it’s just me and sometimes my roommate who are in attendance to partake of the meal. 

The non-vegan recipe is loaded full of fat, cheese, eggs and sometimes, I’ll add an Italian sausage to the mix.  Needless to say, it is packed with carbohydrates and when you get done enjoying a slice you want to unbutton your pants because you WILL, and I guarantee it, you will want to go back for seconds.



Word of warning- if you are a parmesan cheese lover such as myself you will be disappointed when you switch to vegan parmesan.  Again, what do we say?  They try but it’s a far cry from that ever lovely taste of real parmesan.  Your taste buds will get used to it if you are a faithful Vegan.  To give you a little back history of my dire love of parmesan, for Christmas my aunt used to give me a HUGE bottle of Parmesan as a gag gift.  It wouldn’t even last 6 months.  However, as I said, with Vegan food you concentrate more on the rest of the meal than the toppings that you add to it.


With that being said, let’s begin with the famous non-vegan recipe.  So, get your pasta press and creativity and sense of humor… and let’s do this! 

Prepare a 9 X 13 pyrex baking dish with a little olive oil and diced garlic glove and set aside; preheating your oven to 325.

Collect all of your ingredients which includes dry spaghetti sauce, 5 cans of stewed and diced tomatoes, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, eggs, spinach, mushrooms, lasagna noodles and anything else that you feel would make an incredible tasting lasagna.  In this instance I am using an Italian, mild, sausage because I like a little bite.

You beat two eggs in a large bowl adding the ricotta and cottage cheeses, spinach, diced mushrooms and parmesan.  Mix together well or until all is blended consistently.  I love how this mixture tastes so I sometimes will dip my spoon so I can have a taste.  Careful not to eat too much because there is raw egg and if too much you can get sick.  Set this mixture aside.

In a separate bowl you are going to add your dry spaghetti and the 5 cans of tomatoes.  Mix together until there is a spaghetti sauce thickness.  Sometimes I will heat the sauce up and add onion to the mixture to give it a bit more zing.  In your sauce add the desired spices.  My staples are usually garlic, oregano, basil, parsley, salt and pepper.  It’s all about your desired taste.  Fresh herbs are guaranteed to make a recipe pop so if you have an herb garden use those herbs.  Unfortunately, my herb garden is still maturing so I had to buy some fresh basil from the corner market.



Once your egg mixture and sauce are ready, take your baking dish and begin to layer”

Uncooked noodles

½ Egg /Cheese/spinach mixture

Mozzarella cheese

Sauce

And repeat the steps.  I usually have 2 layers of noodles and end with the sauce on top sprinkled with a little mozzarella cheese and fresh spinach on top.

 Bake for at least 1 hour.

While your lasagna is basking in the heat and preparing itself for your enjoyment, prepare your bread.  I usually make a home-made bread but just didn’t have time to do that this time.  I picked up a loaf of Italian bread and cut diagonal slices.  In the slices I add a garlic butter and on top I add tomato, spinach and cheese.  Set aside and begin preparing your salad.

Salads are simple.  Get whatever type of greens that you like and add the toppings that you like.  For our salad, I have an Italian leaf mixture and I will add alfalfa and bean sprouts, avocado, mushrooms and tomatoes with roasted almonds.



The dressing:

A little bit of apple cider vinegar

A little bit of vegetable or olive oil

Garlic powder

Italian herbs

Salt

Pepper



Mix together and serve.

After your lasagna is finished baking, sit aside and cool for about 15 minutes, otherwise you will get a big heaping glop of everything.  I’m about presentation, too, so if you come to my house for dinner, it has to look good as well as taste good.  While this is cooling, stick your bread in the oven and let heat.  Remove from oven and serve with your lasagna.

As you can see by the plated version- this non-vegan lasagna looks amazing and tastes even better.  Everyone will be sent home with leftovers.



Luckily for those Vegans and Vegans to be, there are a lot of items that are now available in your local grocery health food section or at your local health food store.  I remember when I was first attempting this when I was 18, there was hardly anything readily available.

In much anticipation, here is the vegan version and the review of how said veganization turned out.  Was it a success?  Was it a fail?

This is the most delicious lasagna that I have ever made.  There would be no way that anyone could tell that this was a vegan lasagna. I was a bit nervous because I know how my real version tastes and I didn’t want this to come out that much different.  

For the ricotta “cheese” I used a firm tofu and crumbled it in my hands in a large bowl.  I added lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic cloves, a bit of salt, ¼ cup of nutritional yeast, fresh basil leaves, chopped fine and black pepper.  After I was done mixing this together, I added the chopped spinach, chopped mushrooms, vegan parmesan and flax seed (egg replacer).  After mixing all of those ingredients together until nicely blended I added a touch of coconut milk to make it a little thinner.  I set the bowl aside and began to prepare my baking dish.  Layer upon layer, the lasagna began to take shape and into the oven to bake for about an hour.

The sauce had been simmering for a good ½ hour and it was decided that it would be best to add the “sausage” to the sauce instead of to the “cheese” mixture.  Sheri crumbled up some Light Life “sausage” and heated in a skillet until slightly brown and then added to the sauce.

While the lasagna was baking, I prepared the bread- roasted garlic butter (Earth Balance whipped buttery spread), a loaf of Italian bread, fresh spinach and sliced tomatoes.  I cut four slices down to the bottom and stuffed each slice with roasted garlic butter, fresh spinach, tomatoes and sprinkled the loaf with daiya mozzarella cheese.  I, then, stuck it in the oven to broil for 10 minutes to get that crispy top.  It was delicious.

The salad, I discussed early but it was a lovely blend of Italian greens, alfalfa and bean sprouts, avocado, mushroom, carrot and tomatoes and topped with roasted almonds.  I added some fresh basil to give it that extra zing as well as fresh garlic clove.  Sprinkled a bit of olive oil and apple cider vinegar with a dash or two of salt and pepper and dinner was served.

Like I said, unbutton those pants because you WILL go back for seconds or Thirds in some cases.

Vegan YES or Vegan NO?  A definite VEGAN YES!






               Rating Scale out of 10 tomatoes:  a juicy 10 out of 10!!!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Blog 4- Recipe #3 Yakitori


In no way, shape or form am I any part Japanese.  I wanted to get that out of the way before I continue with this blog.  The girl and I set out this weekend to become a slight bit Japanese. 

For her blog, she veganized California rolls (sushi) and for me, since sushi just wasn’t enough for dinner, I set out to do Yakitori.  Yakitori is grilled chicken on speared sticks with leeks or green onions. 

After we got finished tasting and devouring the Sushi that we  had made, it was now time for me to Veganize this dish.  I rolled up my sleeves, put my apron and chef’s hat on and began my quest for the ultimate VEGAN YAKITORI- (mind you, I had no idea what it was until I was challenged with this recipe).

Of course, since the recipe is mainly focused around Chicken, I had to improvise.  And this was, really the only thing that I had to veganize.  I reverted back to my trusty Light Life “Chicken Strips but I tend to think it may have been a tad bit better with seitan.  I’ll try that, certainly, next time. 

The sauce called for a combination of soy sauce (liquid aminos), mirin or sake, sugar, honey or maple syrup and small wooden spears.  Since we already had an abundance of rice, we decided to make chow mein (thanks to the girlfriend) to be the side to our Japanese dish. 

After mixing the soy sauce, sugar, maple syrup and sake, I then put the mixture in a pot and heated.  After this was heated through, I added the chicken strips and let sit for a while, until all strips were soaked.  Once this was completed, I added the strips to the spears and alternated between the strips and the green onions.  I opted not to grill because it’s just too long of a process for just a few spears.  Into the oven they went and we relaxed for a few moments.  We plated the final product and as you can see... quite tasty.  However, I believe that there is much room for improvement on this recipe.






 I have fallen in love with making sushi so the next morning, we ran up to Kroger and purchased more Sushi making items.  My goal was to perfect the sushi roll.  Sushi takes a while to make simply due to the sticky rice and if you don’t have patience, then you might as well not even try.  My sushi rolls consisted of avocado, carrots and cucumber and I set out to make Crab stuffed sushi which had imitation crab (which is chock full of a variety of fish), avocado, carrots and cucumber.  They were a huge success and out of 4 veggie rolls and 1 crab roll, I have 6 veggie and 1/3 of the crab left.  Serve with a side of wasabi, pickled ginger and liquid aminos for dipping.  Liquid Aminos is a natural version of soy sauce and contains a lot less sodium.  I do prefer the aminos over soy sauce. 










I couldn’t call my blog “Vegan or Not” if I wasn’t going to make the actually non-vegan meals so last evening, I set out to make the real chicken version of the Yakitori and instead of chow mein, I made Thai noodles with Thai spice, topped with chives and served with the sauce from the chicken.  One word summed up the tasty treat and that was “Splediforous!” coined from my roommates stuffed mouth.  I, too, had to try the chicken for I don’t want to lie to my readers if I haven’t actually tasted the dish.  But, I only tried one chunk of the chicken and it was mouth watering delicious. 

I, also, have to confess that I have brought in a batch of the sushi because it’s so good and if I had any co-workers, I would let them try it.  But, for now, I get to enjoy these wonderful veggie rolls all by myself.  I can, truly, say that they are yummy!

So my Vegan or Not Friends… another success in my pocket and another challenge awaits me. 

For our Wednesday night date night, it is time for me to veganize my famous spinach lasagna. I am looking forward to this challenge.

I turned Japanese for a few days but now it’s back to comfort and soul food.  Anyone who has tried my regular lasagna, knows that it’s going to be good!

Japanese rating from a non-japanese individual on the Yakitori Vegan or NOT:



6 out of 10 chopsticks


Sushi Scale:

4 Carrots, 4 Avocados and 2 Cucumbers

Monday, June 4, 2012

Blog 3- Recipe # 2- Jen’s Mexico Chicken


One of my favorite recipes that I love to make and have found is a hit with most of my friends is my Mexico chicken.  It is delicious, quick and super easy to make.  Your taste buds will jump up and down after indulging in this meal. 

Keep in mind that this is one of my recipes that I have made a Vegan friendly version for myself and all of my vegan friends, who see a picture of the non-vegan dish and say…”That looks really delicious!”  I would love to offer them some but prior to the vegan version,  had everything that the Vegan can’t eat. 

First, I’m going to start off by saying, Vegan Sour Cream is much like vegan cheese- it tries but just doesn’t have that natural taste.  Again, you get used to it and with everything else that is going on in this dish, you can barely even tell. 

I’ll start with the Non-Vegan recipe of which calls for chicken breast, rice, cheddar cheese, sour cream and basically whatever else you would like to add. 

Step 1 in the process, you tenderize your chicken breast and bake for about 45 minutes in a 325 degree oven.  I usually add some cayenne pepper, chili powder and garlic clove while this is baking.  At this time, I prepare the rest of the ingredients.   I usually add boil-in-a-bag rice, jalapeno’s, black olives, cheddar cheese, sour cream, chives, tomatoes, salsa and onions.  Again, this is all to your taste and what your preference is when it comes to a meal as such.  Once the rice is done, put your desired amount on a plate.  Place the chicken breast atop the rice and add your ingredients.  I prefer my meal super spicy so I add a lot of jalapeno’s and extra hot salsa.  Yes, it burns the heck out of my mouth but to me, the spicier the better. 

Below is a picture of the Non-Vegan version of this dish which is scrumptious.




Last evening, I successfully, made this dish vegan friendly and it was so delicious that there wasn’t a crumb left on the plate.  Again, it goes back to the part where vegan food is less filling than a meat based diet or it was just THAT good! I side with a little bit of both.

So, I started out with Light Life “chicken” strips and simmered those in water, chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic and oregano; don’t forget the salt and pepper.  Use your best judgment as to how long you feel you need to let this simmer.   While that was doing its thing, I made some quinoa instead of rice and prepared the rest of my toppings.  In this case I decided that I was going to add some black beans to the mixture to add a different variety. 

I plated the quinoa, “chicken” strips, chipotle salsa, super hot jalapeno’s, black olives, black beans, tomatoes, onions, daiya cheddar “cheese”, tofutti sour cream and fresh cilantro for a garnish.  To make the presentation a little more eye pleasing, I surrounded the dish with tomato slices and tortilla chips.  As you can see, it turned out wonderfully and there was but 1 tomato slice left on my plate. 

As, my journey continues toward the vegan lifestyle, I’m learning that there really isn’t anything that you can’t turn vegan friendly.  I’ve found that it’s whether or not you want to take the time, care and concern to prepare such a lovely dish so that your vegan guests can enjoy something similar to what your non-vegan guests are enjoying. 

Note:  I was always the person who would love to add extra sour cream to a dish because it just made everything that much better, however, I have discovered with this meal, especially, that you don’t need a lot of sour cream in a vegan meal .  Whereas I used to use at least 2 scoops of sour cream, load it up with cheese, I find myself, now, using a teaspoon of sour cream and a half handful of daiya cheese.  Amazingly, I feel it tastes better than the non-vegan version because all the flavor was right there and not just one ingredient was perfecting the dish. 

***If there is a recipe that you would like to challenge me with, please message me!  Like I have stated, I love a great challenge and if you are struggling to move away from the Meat based diet and onto a more friendly Vegan diet and just can’t seem to perfect that one meal that you can’t live without, I would love to help!


And so folks in wrapping up this installment:   Some like it VEGAN and Some like it NOT!

On my rating scale:
9  out of 10 vegetables with a side of cilantro