Epic Lasagna - Whole Grain, Vegan and Delicious!

So that sauce that I made for my last post? It was pretty much made with this lasagna in mind. I have had lasagna on the brain for weeks for some reason. Of course I didn't wanna settle for a simple sauce-and-cheese lasagna with store bought sauce and Daiya - although I'm sure it'd be terrific. But I love the satisfaction of creating a meal from scratch. I control which flavours are in it, the salt content, and of course no preservatives to boot.

I wasn't about to make the noodles though, so I bought kamut lasagna noodles. I saw some brown rice noodles (which would have made a gluten free lasagna), but opted for the kamut for the protein content, and the fact that it wasn't pre-cooked (I don't know why but pre-cooked stuff seems a bit sketchy to me...don't ask me why I think so!). I used these, by Artisan Acres:

As I said, I posted the recipe for the sauce in my last post. I made a ricotta style cheese out of tofu, and I really liked it both on it's own and in the lasagna. I had leftover toasted nuts that I combined with nutritional yeast to use as a parmesan to sprinkle on top. 

I also included plenty of roasted vegetables to balance out all those heavy ingredients. Can't ever have a recipe without some vegetables!

Of course lasagna has a gazillion variations. Feel free to use whatever cheese, sauce, noodles, or other filling ingredients you wish. You can also use the ricotta in other things like pasta or on pizza. Like I said, it's quite lovely on it's own!

The Best Ever Vegan Lasagna

Ingredients:

-1 box lasagna noodles of choice, cooked according to package directions

For the tofu ricotta:

-1 block organic tofu, medium firm to firm

-3-4 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped

-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

-3 tbsp nutritional yeast

-1 tbsp lemon juice

-1 tbsp tahini

-1 tsp oregano

-1/2 tsp sea salt

For the sauce:

Use recipe here

For the veggies:

Use enough chopped vegetables, roughly the same size, to fill a large, lightly greased baking sheet. I used broccoli, bell peppers, red onions and zucchini. 

For the parmesan topping (optional):

-1/4 cup finely chopped toasted nuts (you can use a food processor and pulse)

-1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Directions:

*Note: I roasted my veggies the night before at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, until they looked "roasted enough", for lack of a better word. You can do this too to save time! Just toss with a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. No need to add oil, except to lightly oil your baking sheet.

1. Preheat oven to 375. If you haven't roasted your veggies yet, you can turn the heat up higher. Roast them for about 20-30 minutes, checking that they don't burn. 

2. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with water and a pinch of sea salt or a kombu leaf, and cook the noodles according to package directions. Rinse with cold water gently. Set aside.

3. Take your block of tofu and crumble with your hands into a bowl until it resembles ricotta cheese. Take half of it, along with the other cheese ingredients, and process in a food processor or blender until fairly smooth. Return to bowl and toss with other half. This gives it some texture. If you don't have a processor or blender, I'm sure you can just keep the whole thing chunky and combine the ingredients in your bowl manually.

4. If your oven was turned up higher, bring the heat down to 375. In a lightly greased lasagna pan, layer cooked noodles, a generous dollop of sauce, ricotta, and vegetables, followed by another layer of noodles. Repeat until you have three layers of noodles, but don't put veggies on the top layer. So it's gonna be like this from the bottom: noodles, sauce, cheese, veggies. Noodles, sauce, cheese, veggies. Noodles, sauce, cheese. Now you can mix your parm ingredients, then sprinkle it on top if you're using it.

5. Cover your lasagna with aluminum foil, and pop it in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 5-10 minutes. Gently remove from the oven, let it cool for a bit, slice, and devour!

You're welcome. :) I added more fresh basil on top of mine!

What a housewife... excuse my messy hair. It's part of the look...

 

High Protein & Oil Free Tomato Sauce

Happy 2014 to all!!! This is an exciting time to start fresh and reevaluate our priorities, as we head into another year of our lives. Of course we have all made some resolutions, big or small, realistic and maybe not so realistic.

My personal resolutions have actually been the opposite of a lot of people's. I am NOT going to weigh myself or count calories any longer. I want to get to a point where I can just listen to my body. I eat whole and plant based foods, a lot of raw veggies (including a shit ton of leafy greens), so whatever size my body decides to be is gonna have to be okay. I am trying to lose some weight that I've gained, and truth be told it has been a huge mental battle, but with this strategy I think I'll win it. My "strategy" is to continue living a fit and active life, eat plenty of whole foods and drink tons of water. I do want to moderate desserts and definitely drinking alcohol. I know it sounds like a mixed message - to sum it up, I don't wanna care about my weight obsessively, but I'm hoping some comes off in this process. I'll keep you posted.

ANYWAY, to the recipe. I plan on making a lovely roasted vegetable lasagna from scratch this week, and I knew I had to bulk it up with some protein. I decided to add some fibre and protein by adding red lentils into my homemade sauce. The result was incredible. I licked my spoon with delight!

High Protein and Oil Free Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

-3/4 dry red lentils, rinsed

-1 796ml can crushed tomatoes (go for organic!)

-1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

-1 tbsp raw honey or agave

-1 tsp each parsley, rosemary and oregano

-1/2 tsp each thyme and paprika

-Handful of fresh basil leaves

-2-3 cloves roasted garlic*

*For an awesome tutorial on how to roast garlic, click here

1. In a medium pot, bring lentils and 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer on medium heat. Keep simmering uncovered for about 15-20 minutes, or until lentils are cooked. They will get mushy, and this is the idea!

2. While the lentils cook, soak the sun dried tomatoes in some water. 

3. When the lentils are done. transfer them to a blender and allow to cool for a couple minutes. 

4. Drain your sun dried tomatoes of water, and add them to the blender. Add in all the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. 

Enjoy over pasta, on a pizza, or off the spoon!

This will make a very thick sauce. When you wanna thin it out, just add a little water! 

Also note I did not add salt. I realized I (unintentionally) bought a can of tomatoes with salt added. If yours are salt free, you can add a little salt to taste.

Happy eating! I'll be making a delish kamut lasagna with this sauce, along with tofu ricotta and lots of roasted veggies. Stay tuned.

xo

Tij

Christmas Cookies, Oh My!

Hello, friends, and Merry Christmas! Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you are merry nonetheless. I personally just love holidays for the food... all holidays.

My favourite way to show people I care is with food. Surprised? Ha!

It's all about the Christmas cookies. I pondered what cookies screamed Christmas; Gingerbread and shortbread top the list, as well as thumbprint cookies, rum balls, and probably some sort of square like date squares or oat bars and such (didn't make those this time).

I made a shit ton of cookies to give to friends.

The thumbprint cookies were super simple and so good! I just mashed a bunch of banana, added almond butter, a bit of maple syrup, oats and baking powder, and an organic jam center. I also made some raw balls, which I intended to be rum balls, but I had no rum, so just ended up making these with what I had on hand. I used prunes ase my base, and I added coconut oil and tons of shredded coconut, as well as some maca, cinnamon and maple syrup. To be honest, I hadn't written down the recipe for those two, or I'd share those too.

The raw balls and the jam cookies were the only gluten free ones I made. I used fife flour as my flour for the following recipes, and I'm not sure how other flours would work, but I'm thinking a gluten-free all purpose flour blend would be okay if you're celiac or gluten intolerant. Feel free to sub, and let me know how they turn out.

Here is the recipe for the shortbread and gingerbread cookies. They were the biggest hit. I didn't use any margarine... they're all based with delicious and nutritious coconut oil.

Vegan Shortbread Cookies

-1 cup room temperature coconut oil
-3/4 cup icing sugar (you can make your own in a blender using just regular granulated sugar. I used organic cane sugar, but I think coconut sugar would be best)
-2 cups spelt or fife flour
-1/2 cup coconut flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the icing sugar and mix again. Add remaining ingredients and beat just until combined. Do not overmix.

If you want your cookie dough to be more manageable for shaping, put it in the fridge for a couple minutes to firm up. This can be helpful if your kitchen is quite hot.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. I found them perfect after 11. Enjoy!

Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

-3/4 cup room temperature coconut oil
-1/4 cup maple syrup (you can also use raw honey if you eat it)
-1/4 cup + 2 tbsp coconut sugar
-1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
-1 tbsp milled flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water
- 1 1/4 cups spelt or fife flour
-1/3 cup + 2 tbsp coconut flour (+ more for flouring the work surface)
-1 tbsp pumpkin spice (you can just use a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves)
-1.5-2 tbsp ground ginger
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flax "egg" and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the flax "egg" and beat again. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to mix until combined.

Flour your work surface liberally with more coconut flour. Kneed your dough over the flour, and spread it about a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick, if shaping into cookies using a cookie cutter (or shot glass). If you just want good old fashioned circles, just roll them into balls and put on a greased baking sheet, then flatten with your hands.

Note: You may want to refrigerate the dough before shaping, or add more coconut flour. The coconut oil may melt and make the cookies hard to work with.

Once your cookies are shaped and placed on the baking sheet, pop them in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Less time will result in softer cookies.

Enjoy! I had leftover cashew cream icing (no recipe for that today), and I sandwiched it between my cookies.




As a side note to end off, some random person who I don't know has made a website without my permission at www.missveggievibes.com. This is NOT me behind this! I'll be trying to resolve the issue. Just letting you guys know.

Have a great holiday. More recipes coming soon!

xo
Tijana

Ferrero Rocher.. the vegan and gluten-free way!

Remember those delicious Ferrero chocolates, with their golden wrapper, chocolate coating, and delicious nutty center? Ah, nostalgia. Well a lot of you probably still eat those, but alas they are not vegan, so it's been years since I've had one.

They are also full of modified whatever ingredients, and refined sugar and other stuff I don't wanna see in my food. That's why I decided to veganize them!

I got some hazelnut butter from a health food expo last weekend, and I've been hooked on hazelnuts since. I made porridge with it a couple times, and had it over mochi. Oh my god. I also had it on my protein pudding, which I didn't photograph.

For the recipes to these babies and more, go to my Instagram page: @missveggievibes

Without further a due, here is the Ferrero recipe! It's a lot of steps, but I've tried to make it as clear as possible. Comment if you have questions!

Vegan & Gluten Free Ferrero Rocher

Ingredients:

-1 cup whole hazelnuts

-2 cups crispy rice cereal (I used Enjoy Life brand, see photo below)

-3/4 cup hazelnut butter (I used Prana, which is incredible!)
-1/4 cup + 1/4 cup coconut oil, divided (measured solid)
-1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp coconut sugar, divided
-1/4 cup coconut flour
-1.5 tbsp milled flax seed
-1 cup vegan chocolate chips
-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (or other non dairy milk)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Place hazelnuts in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn. Remove from the oven, wait until cool enough to handle, then manually remove the skins. If a little is being stubborn on them, don't worry. The skins aren't too bad, but they will taste less bitter without them. Turn the oven off.

2. In a food processor, grind the cereal until it is not quite all crumbs, but a fine mix of crumbs and larger pieces. I took a picture, because that sounds confusing as hell. By the way, this is the cereal I used. It has honey, so if you don't eat that then try another healthy rice cereal! Rice Krispies are probably GMO ridden, so go for a whole grain or organic version.

3. Mix the flax with 4 tbsp water and let it sit. Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil on gentle heat in a small saucepan, then add the hazelnut butter and 1/4 cup of the coconut sugar. Add more sugar if your rice cereal is totally unsweeteened. Yea, you're making a dessert, so it needs to be sweet! Stir the hazelnut mixture into the rice cereal, along with the coconut flour, and mix it up well. Add the flax and mix again.

4. Put your mixture in the freezer for just a few minutes so it hardens a bit and is easier to manage.

5. Remove from freezer. This next step takes some patience, and I guarantee your hands will be covered in crispy hazelnut mixture, which you will want to lick like a hungry dog. Try not to. This recipe is probably for other people besides yourself, and having your spit in it isn't nice. ;) Take one whole hazelnut at a time, and grab a generous spoonful of the crispy mixture, and then use your hands to "wrap" the mixture around the nut. Try your best, and don't worry if it feels like it won't set. It will. Take your crispy nut balls and put them on the same baking sheet from before (save some dishes here). Return to freezer to harden a bit. Note: you will have some hazelnuts left over, so save those.

6. Meanwhile, melt your chocolate chips, almond milk, and remaining coconut sugar and coconut oil in a small pan on low heat. Stir frequently. When mixture is nice and uniform, remove from heat. 

7. Take your remaining hazelnuts and process into crumbs in your food processor. Remove the balls from the freezer, and then use a spoon to cover them in chocolate. I find leaving them on the baking sheet is easier, just roll them around as needed, to cover. Sprinkle the hazelnut pieces on top. Return to the freezer until set.

ENJOY!

Hearty Harvest Soup

I know it's getting chilly when I've made the first soup of the season. I used to really dislike soup. I only had it when my mom made me as a child, when I was sick or something. That was probably because it was the Knorr instant MSG-in-a-box kinda soup.

I love making soup now. It's the perfect way to clean out the vegetable crisper to make an easy one pot dish that can easily be hearty enough for a meal. Just add some grains (or pseudograins), some beans and peas, and you've got yourself a protein and fibre rich medley of deliciousness to go with your nutrient-packed veggie base.

I've had a huge bag of spelt berries sitting in my pantry for way too long... I tried making manna bread with them once, and it went moldy. I was just too sad to use them since then. (Just kidding, I just forgot about them and wasn't sure what to use them in.)

I also had a very attractive sweet potato squash from the farmer's market sitting in my pantry. Going with the colour scheme, I also had yellow split peas, which don't take very long to cook and make a perfect addition to a soup.

Here it is - a delicious "fall themed", nutrient-rich soup!

Ingredients:

-1/2 tbsp coconut oil
-1/3 cup each carrots, celery and onion, finely chopped
-1 tsp cumin
-2 tsp garam masala
-1/4 tsp sea salt (optional, add more or less, to taste)
-2 tbsp low sodium vegetable broth powder (I buy mine in bulk. You may also use 2 vegetable broth cubes)
-About 2 1/3 cups chopped and peeled squash, sweet potato or pumpkin
-1 cup whole spelt kernels/berries
-1 cup dry yellow split peas

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, heat coconut oil on medium-high heat. Add celery, carrots and onion and sautee for at least 5 minutes.

2. Add 6 cups of water, along with seasonings and broth powder (you may just use 6 cups of already made broth, if that's what you have.) Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

3. Add squash cubes, spelt, and split peas. Simmer on low heat, covered but with room for steam to escape, for 35 minutes.

4. Remove from heat. Take about half of the soup and puree it in a blender or food processor. You will want to wait at least a few minutes before adding it to the blender, just to make super sure your blender won't crack (it hasn't happened to me with a blender, but it has with a mason jar... and it sucks). After you're pureed half the soup completely, add it back into the rest of the soup in the pot. Stir and mix well. This gives your soup a nice texture. How much of the soup you puree is up to you!

You may substitute the spelt if you have another grain on hand or want to make a gluten-free soup, and just slightly adjust the cooking time.

Enjoy! I like mine with some Sriracha on top and some warm pita on the side.




Tijana

The Joy of Fall Food - Fresh Homemade Applesauce

When fall gives you apples, you make applesauce! A trip to a farmer's market this weekend lead me to make my own at home with my slow cooker.

I can't believe I've never made it before. It's ridiculously easy. All I added was cinnamon, and some apple cider to keep it from sticking to my slow cooker, and it's so sweet and delicious. And I used Cortland apples, which are not overly sweet. I am frazzled as to why anyone would add sugar to this beauty. Anywho, I will post that quick and simple recipe below. Is it even a recipe? It's too easy to be called a recipe!

I've been feeling so inspired by this season. Pumpkins, apples, warm foods, aromatic spices... I'm really playing up the whole fall theme. These days I've been trying to step out of my comfort zone in the kitchen. I love to experiment with recipes, but making a crappy or less-than-perfect creation is enough to leave me feeling really crummy about my kitchen abilities.

I don't like to follow recipes. I just read up on things I'm not familiar with, or if I want ratios of ingredients, that kinda thing... then I take different ways of making any given food into account and create my own recipe based on my knowledge. For example, I want to make granola. I start looking at blogs I like, using Google, and snooping around anywhere else I can see a granola recipe. I then see what each ingredient "does" in the recipe, what needs to be in it, about how long/what temperature it needs to be baked at, etc. I then make a "healthified" version with ingredients I'm happy with.

I did do this for granola, actually. I was going for the fall theme, too. Apple spice! I was kinda cheap on the oil, though, and it wasn't very clustery. It was also a bit well-done. Still good, but not worthy of a post on this round.

Some things in life don't deserve cheapness. Can't be cheap with a bit of oil and maple syrup in granola. And you certainly shouldn't be cheap with sweetener in your pumpkin cornbread!

Oh yeah, I made some of that too. I used fresh pumpkin puree I'd made the same day, and farmer's market fife flour! I also added a magic ingredient of some soy yogurt. However, although the texture was on point, sweetness was missed.

Enter my applesauce. Smothered it on the bread, added PB2, never looked back.

Here is the recipe for the applesauce. I left the skins on my apples, because a) ain't nobody got time for peeling over 5 lbs of apples, and b) why toy with nature? Organic apple skins never did anybody wrong.

Homemade Applesauce

Ingredients:
-5 lb bag of apples
-1/2 tbsp (or more, to taste) fresh cinnamon
-1/2 cup apple cider

Slice apples, removing the seeds and core. Put the apples in a slow cooker with the cinnamon and apple cider. Turn the slow cooker onto high and let cook for about 3 hours, stirring every hour. Throw your apples into a blender, and blend until silky smooth.

That's it!

Note: I wanted to add a hint of lemon juice, but I was actually out of lemons, so I may add some when I get around to it. This will help maintain freshness a bit longer. Also, you may add whatever spices you like. I think ginger, cloves, nutmeg or a hint of maple syrup would be fun. You be the judge!

As for what kind of apples you like, it's up to you. Sweet ones will make a sweet sauce, tart will make tart. A mix will be the best of both worlds.

Thive Kitchen Launch - Friends, Food and Fun

Recently my favourite company in the whole wide world, Vega, has launched a new chapter in their popular web series Thrive Forward called Thrive Kitchen. It has a ton of info about creating your meals with different staple ingredients, making healthy swaps for not-so-healthy ingredients, and some creative examples on how to turn your plate into a fun international affair or a rawsome dish.

As soon as I watched the video on international cuisine, I was super giddy and thrilled. One of my absolute favourite things is understanding different cultures through food. I love understanding which spices, tastes and staple foods make up a country or region's cuisine. If I had to narrow it down, I'd say Indian is numero uno for me personally. It's also the trickiest to "master" - lots of variance among the regions, and oh so many spices and flavours used to create a unique end result together.

For the new Thrive Kitchen chapter, there was a launch party thrown yesterday to celebrate. I was lucky enough to be able to attend. It was my perfect evening - tons of amazing food (provided by the lovely Marni Wasserman), even more amazing people, and some awesome speeches on what Thrive Kitchen and plant-based eating is all about.

I met new people, saw some old friends and acquaintances, and got to pick some people's brains on how they got into the field they're in. I'm personally very likely going the holistic nutrition route, so it was super exciting for me.

Oh, and I totally chatted with Brendan Brazier. No biggie. He's super cool, and I think I was less blabbery this time.

Here are some pics from last night's event.

 Such an honour to meet Peggy! She's a doll!

 The man himself who started it all - Brendan Brazier!

 Yeah, riding that bike in that skirt... not exactly ideal. Standing in front of it works just fine.

 Oh boy, my friend Luke (left) was juice fasting. He claims he was OK with being around all that delicious food. I think he's super-human!

 Lovely ladies! So down to earth and awesome. Michelle and Christina, runners and bloggers extraordinaire!

 Loved Jessica Morris' speech at the party. All about plant based eating and making healthy swaps.

Good old "Veggie Mike"! The brains behind the operation. Thank you for that awesome evening.

You can check out the new Thrive Kitchen chapter, as well as the entire web series, at www.thriveforward.com 

It's really amazing being in your own element. The feeling is out of this world.

Looking forward to posting some new recipes soon on the blog here, by the way. Stay tuned for cake balls!

Tijana