We made it vegan: Korean Beef

I'm a sucker for a simple, kid-pleasing recipe.  I stumbled across this Korean Beef recipe on Pinterest a while back.  I made it once and the kids loved it, so it quickly became a favorite.  Other than making sure I had beef in the freezer, it was a pantry item menu filler.  At least at our house.  I did modify it just a bit to make it more pleasing to my kids (they don't like green onions) and hubby (he loves water chestnuts) and me (not a fan of ginger).

Ingredients:
"beef" crumbles
1/4 c. soy sauce (organic, low sodium is our preference)
*1/4 c. brown sugar (or sugar and molasses)
hoisin sauce (1-2 T)
1 tsp sesame oil
small can water chestnuts, drained & chopped
crushed red pepper (I usually leave this out, but you can definitely add it to desired spiciness)
green onion (see above)
ginger (see above)
**cooked rice

Put sesame oil in skillet with garlic for a minute on medium.  Add soy sauce, brown sugar, and hoisin sauce.  Stir carefully.  Add "beef" crumbles and water chestnuts (and optional ingredients as you wish).  Allow crumbles and water chestnuts to soak up the delicious sauce and warm through.

Serve over cooked rice.  Garnish with green onion if desired.

*I used the information in the sugar & molasses link to make a substitute for light brown sugar using vegan sugar.
**I use a rice cooker to make life easier.  I always burn stovetop rice. ;)

Recipe review: Banana muffins!

I got lucky.  I googled "vegan muffin recipe" and this one was the first on the list.  That seems to keep happening.  The first one I tried is the one that we're going to stick with.  I did find one other one, but the muffins fell and were too dense.  We still ate them, just took us a bit longer to scarf them down.  This one is the one I went back to when Punky had to take snack to preschool.  I love that my kids want to help, and we had fun baking these vegan banana muffins.

(The first time I made them I added pecans to half of the muffins, and I loved them.  This time we left the pecans out completely because I wasn't sure how the kids would feel about them.)

Punky couldn't wait for the muffin to cool so she could gobble it up!
She had one as a bedtime snack and one for breakfast the next day.
Then another for school snack.  They were delicious!

Recipe Review: Portobello Pizzas!

Oh, pizza!  How we love you!  The kids were happy to try this pizza recipe that was recommended to Daddio by one of his colleagues.  Yummy!

Portobello Pizza

A few days ago we became vegan.  Yesterday, we had portobello pizza.  It was amazing!  It is basically mushroom pizza.  I enjoyed it.  It had vegan cheese, pizza sauce, and sautéed zucchini.  I liked the zucchini the best.  Also, the mushroom we had it on was chewy and slick.  It gave the pizza a meaty flavor.

Written by Belle, age 9.

Portobello Pizza

Recipe adapted by Moma

Ingredients:
-5 portobello mushrooms
-pizza sauce (we actually used organic spaghetti sauce)
-zucchini, quartered & sliced
-vegan cheese
-olive oil

1.  Gently twist portobello stems to remove them, and scrape the gills out with a spoon.  Wipe gently with wet towel.

2.  Rub olive oil on both sides of portobellos.

3.  Place the mushrooms, gill side down, on the grill for 8 minutes (ours was set about 400 degrees).

4.  While the mushrooms are heating on the grill, sauté the zucchini pieces in olive oil on the stove top.

5.  Remove mushrooms from heat, place gill side up on a baking sheet.  Top with sauce, cheese, and sautéed zucchini.

6.  Place mushrooms back on the grill, topping side up. ;)  Close lid and allow grill to work like an oven, melting the cheese and toppings into gooey goodness.  This takes about 5-7 minutes.

7.  Remove portobello pizzas gently to a baking sheet and allow to sit for a couple of minutes.  This helps everything kind of thicken up so it's a bit more manageable.

We ate our portobello pizza alongside roasted asparagus, a family favorite.

**This recipe was a hit with everyone, including our 3 year old!**