Mushroom Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

I love this dish for its simplicity in preparation and its complexity in taste. I try to buy peppers from my local farmer's market when they are in season, but when I can't these sweet mini peppers from Kroger's are SO clutch! They come in a bag for around $3 and are delicious.

First preheat your oven to 375, then prepare your filling:

1 Cup quinoa
2 Cups water
1 cube not chikn bouillon
1 Cup chopped mushrooms
1 Cup chopped kale
2 Tbl Braggs liquid aminos

In a medium saucepan, bring the quinoa and water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Then, add the bouillon and simmer, covered, for another 5 minutes. Drain any excess and remove from heat.

Next heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium for 2 minutes. Add the Braggs, mushrooms and chopped kale and sauteé for about 2 minutes. Add the quinoa and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Take your peppers and slice off the tops. Remove any seeds and toss in 1 Tbl olive oil. Stuff with your quinoa mix. Replace the tops of the peppers once they are stuffed, place in a shallow casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Yay! Easy peasy!

Broccoli Corncake Stacks with Red Pepper and Creamy Garlic Thai Sauce

Whew! This one was a doozy but I am so thankful we got it done.

Not sure if I've mentioned this (lol?) but I work two jobs. Most of my meals aim to be quick, easy and hangover-friendly. But I rarely get to host dinner parties so intentionally I made this dish work-intensive. I don't really get many opportunities to do that anymore so here we go!

I've been really into stacks lately - an easy way to make simple ingredients elegant. Here's what's in this one:

layer one - broccoli corncakes
layer two - kale and mushroom
layer three - seasoned quinoa
layer four - cashews and red pepper
layer five - creamy garlic thai sauce

The kale and mushroom are relatively self-explanatory, so today I'll just focus on the broccoli corncakes and the toppings.

The corncakes were naturally the first layer I worked on, because they required the most prep and cook time. Here's how I built them:

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped broccoli
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 Tbl white sugar
1/4 Cup almond milk or soy milk
1 Tbl canola oil

Combine all dry ingredients, then mix with the soymilk and oil. Fry in a cast iron skillet with 1 Tbl heated olive oil, flipping once golden brown. Let sit on a paper towel to dry.

Once you have your other layers made, let's look at the creamy garlic thai sauce. Here are the ingredients:

2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1 Tbl red curry paste
2 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan sour cream (I use Tofutti sour cream because it's non-hydrogenated)
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl chili garlic sauce

Whisk together all ingredients.

The last layer I prepared in this dish was the cashews and red pepper, because it's more important that those are served hot. Here's what I used:

1 cup roasted, salted cashews
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 Tbl olive oil

Heat the olive oil on med-high in a skillet, then toss in the peppers once you can see the currents in the oils. Give the peppers two minutes to release their aromas, then toss in the cashews, and stir until the cashews are toasted.

See this post on layering and stacking and being all fancy pants.

Easy Avocado Bruschetta

I love this dish! It is a perfect quick, elegant appetizer if you are ever entertaining. I don't get to have many dinner parties, so I made sure to make this particular one super special. This was my first course - super easy to prepare while you're working on your main dish. And who can resist avocado?

Here's what you need:

1/2 loaf french-style bread
1 avocado, diced
1/2 tomato, sliced
Roughly 15 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 Tbl olive oil;

Preheat your oven to 350. Slice french bread diagonally, so that the surface area of the dough is a few inches. Brush with olive oil and bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes.

While your bread is toasting, toss together the avocado, tomato, basil and olive oil in a medium-sized bowl.

When your bread is finished, spoon the tomato mixture onto the bread slices. Serve with a fancy pants cocktail while you're frantically putting together your main dish!

Spicy Cashew Miso Tofu

I've been really into stacks lately. They just look so gee-dee fancy. So simple and yet so elegant. Like this dish: simply sliced tomatoes, seasoned quinoa, steamed kale and spicy cashew miso tofu, plated with sriracha. Most elements to this dish are relatively self-explanatory, so let's dive into the tofu.

First and foremost, always press your tofu. This can be done overnight in your fridge, for an hour while you're doing laundry or updating your blog, or in ten minutes with a paper towel while your'e downing your first working-PBR.

This isn't quite a marinade tofu dish, so go ahead and preheat your oven to 400.

Here's what you'll need for the mix:

1 cup cashews
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup chili garlic sauce
3 Tbl miso paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

In a food processor, process the cashews with water until creamy. Then add remaining ingredients to the processor and pulse until thoroughly mixed.

Lay out your tofu flat in a casserole dish, and pour over your cashew mix over the tofu.

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes, then remove from oven and flip the tofu with a fork. Return to oven and bake again for another 25 minutes.

To assemble a dish like this, I use a ramekin. I just layer each piece of the dish into the ramekin, obviously putting the top layer in first, and making sure everything is packed tight into the dish. Then flip it over onto a plate, and top with toppings and/or sauce. Easy peasy and elegant to boot!

Earl Grey Amaretto Palmer

Time for a little mixology - this is #veganista, after all.

This has been my favorite midday cocktail the past few days (my go-to changes every week). It's an earthy/sweet twist on an old classic. Here's how you make it:

1. Brew half a pitcher of Earl Grey tea using 5 tea bags to make it extra strong. When it's finished steeping (4 minutes), stir in half a cup of sugar until it's all dissolved. Next, water it down with ice until the pitcher is full.

2. Fresh homemade lemonade: mix together juice from roughly 5 lemons (1 cup juice), 1 cup simple syrup (heat 1 cup water with 3/4 cups sugar, let cool), and 3-4 cups cold water. 

3. 1 oz. amaretto

4. 1.5 oz. vodka

5. Mix all ingredients together in a shaker. Shake with ice and serve with a lemon wedge.

Bourbon Butterscotch Monkey Bread

EEEEEEEEEEEEE THIS.

Again, I apologize for the processed food post but COME ON it's monkey bread! And it's vegan. We're allowed to have a few cheat days here and there, yes? Even as vegans, we're allowed to run naked through the streets and get a little rowdy and wave our Kentucky flags high and drink midday cocktails and read gonzo literature and for goodness sake eat a little monkey bread too sometimes, right? Are we not human? Have we no souls? Ain't I a Woman?!

That said, here's my obligatory reminder for this recipe:
This is NOT good for you.
But it is vegan.
So let's run naked through the streets with monkey bread in our bellies.

Kay so here's what you'll need for the bread:

3 tubes of refrigerated biscuit dough (ALERT: not all biscuit dough is created equal - a lot of this stuff is pretty sketchy, containing hydrogendated oils and what have you. Many are not vegan. Of course, you could simply make your own biscuit dough, but hey I work two jobs so here we are.)
1 Cup white sugar
1 Tbl cinnamon
1/2 Cup chopped walnuts and pecans
1/2 Cup golden raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a bundt pan. But of course I should note that we are free radicals and we dont' own bundt pans, so feel free to use a glass mixing bowl with a Pom Juice glass in the middle to make it look like we used a bundt pan.

Dump the white sugar and cinnamon into a one-gallon plastic bag. Next, cut the biscuit pieces into quarters. The goal here is to coat the biscuit pieces in the cinnamon sugar mix, so drop about 6-8 pieces in the bag at a time, until they're all coated. Once you're done coating the biscuits, place them all jigsaw-puzzle-like into your "bundt pan". In between each layer, sprinkle the nuts and raisins throughout.

Now it's sauce time! Here's what you'll need:

1 Cup brown sugar
1/3 Cup light corn syrup
1/2 Cup Earth Balance
3 Tbl bourbon (I used Heaven Hill 6 Year - our house cheap bourbon)
1/2 Cup soy creamer
1/4 tsp sea salt

In a small heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, Earth Balance and 2 tablespoons of the bourbon. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture of golden brown and your whole kitchen smells like Kentucky.

Remove from heat and slowly stir in the soy creamer. At first, the mixture will bubble furiously like a Kentucky Derby infielder drunk off hooch with stained red hands who lost $7. But don't be afraid! Stir in the salt and the remaining bourbon, stirring until the mixture is silky smooth like a shot of 10 year Evan Williams.

Pour your sauce over the biscuit dough mixture, and bake for 35 minutes. IMPORTANT: let cool for 10 minutes! Then turn over onto a plate and VOILA.

Viva la Monkey Bread Revolution!

Spicy Sweet Potato Fritters

Yes!!!!! Is there anything better than having the morning off and getting to make lunch at home??????

It's the little things, y'all.

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS.

So these were delicious, and required a little more time than my typical quick lunch, but well worth it. The process is simple - dip slices in egg replacer, dip slices in flour mix, then fry in vegetable oil and nom nom nom nom.

Here's what you need if you're chopping up 1 sweet potato (feeds about 2-3 people):

2 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbl black pepper
2 Tbl red pepper flakes
2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt

So there are your dry ingredients for the batter. Sift these together and then prepare 4 egg replacer solutions. I use Ener-G Egg Replacer. Then, pour about 1/4 an inch of vegetable oil into a cast iron skillet, and heat on med-high while you slice your tater.

You'll need to slice your sweet potato pretty thin I did mine about 1/8 an inch. Once you have your slices, dip these in the egg replacer one at a time, then coat thoroughly in the dry flour mix. Toss these into the cast iron (NO wait don't actually toss these, because hot oil) one at a time, and fry until crispy golden brown.

Let dry on a paper towel.

I served mine with a jalapeño mustard sauce, made with yellow mustard, honey and pickled jalapeños. #yumtown