Taco soup!

When I visit Sunshine at school, I stay in a hotel room with a kitchenette. There, I can prep food for her to store in the freezer. Her favorites are veggie noodle soup, taco soup, and chicken/black bean enchiladas (not vegetarian). This isn't the most appetizing photo, but it's my little prep kitchen during a recent visit. Taco soup recipe below. It's a winner!

I have been making variations of this taco soup for years. My kids devour it. Honestly, I've never seen anybody turn it down.

Ingredients:

1 can corn, drained
2 cans diced or crushed tomatoes (whatever you prefer)
4 cans beans (black beans, pinto, or tri-bean blend: drained and rinsed)
1/4 cup taco seasoning (store bought or make your own)
1 T dehydrated onion
2 cans of water

Put all ingredients in Instant Pot, high pressure for 4 minutes. Manual release. Top with cheese and/or sour cream and tortilla chips. Also freezes well, and is GREAT as leftovers.

Stove top alternative: place all ingredients in a soup pot and simmer on the stove top until flavors meld and onions are rehydrated.

The Veggie Queen's Black Eyed Peas and Greens

We started the new year off right with this amazing recipe from the Veggie Queen. Y'all, it was so good I made it again the next day!

Vegan *Chicken* & Dumplings

It's winter in Texas, which means we have random cold weather sprinkled into the normal January days. Time for some comfort food! Daddio requested chicken & dumplings, and instead of my regular recipe I decided to try something new. I used the instant pot and the stove top, mainly because I was running behind (what's new?) and wanted to speed the process. With some very minor adjustments, this stove top recipe turned into a mixed IP/stovetop meal.

Ingredients:

3-4 carrots, sliced
3-4 ribs of celery, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 white potatoes, large dice
1/2 t rosemary
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper, freshly ground
1 bay leaf
3 Not Chick'n bouillon cubes (divided)
6 c water (divided)
seitan (rinse and chop to preferred size)
8 oz white mushrooms, rough chop
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c corn meal (I prefer Bob's Coarse Grind for texture)
1 T baking powder
2 T parsley (optional)
1 1/2 c almond milk

Place the following in the Instant Pot and give a stir. Set pot to 5 minutes at high pressure. Manual release.
3-4 carrots, sliced
3-4 ribs of celery, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 white potatoes, large dice
1/2 t rosemary
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper, freshly ground
1 bay leaf
2 Not Chick'n bouillon cubes
3 c water (enough to just cover veggies in the IP)

--

While the IP is working its magic, bring the following to a simmer on the stove top in a large soup pot:

seitan (rinse and chop to preferred size)
8 oz white mushrooms, rough chop
1 Not Chick'n bouillon cube
2 c water

--

After manual release of pressure, pour contents of IP into soup pot on stove top, add 1 cup of water ( for a total of 2 cup per bouillon cube). Bring this to a boil.

While soup is coming to boil on the stovetop, mix dumpling batter:

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c corn meal (I prefer Bob's Coarse Grind for texture)
1 T baking powder
2 T parsley (optional)
1 1/2 c almond milk

When soup is boiling, drop batter by spoonfuls into soup. DO NOT STIR. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. DO NOT STIR. (PS: It is inadvisable to stir, even though you really, really want to. Trust!)

Serve immediately, but also makes for good leftovers!


Some notes worth mentioning:

-I am not a fan of meat substitutes, but like to try them from time to time in certain recipes since we have omnivorous friends & family over for meals often. My family liked the seitan in this dish, but we likely won't use it again unless we make this for non-family members.

-I enjoyed the potatoes in this soup, but I also like my dumpling base to be creamier instead of brothy (is that a word?). Next time, I may add one more potato but mash it to try to adjust the consistency of the broth.

-Served with a hearty green salad (leaf lettuce and spinach) topped with hard boiled eggs for a protein and B vitamin boost.

Dinner for a busy evening

I am a homeschooling mom of 3 with a pilot husband.  We are busy, just like so many other families.  Last night after Punky's gymnastics class and before Sunshine's martial arts class was dinner time.  I menu plan every week but sometimes I'm just not feeling it.  Last night was one of those nights.  The menu said spinach fettuccine.  This is a family favorite (it used to include shrimp but is absolutely delicious veganized) but I wanted to change things up.  Plus, I was avoiding the grocery store (forgot to pick up the noodles earlier in the week).  Anything to avoid the grocery store, right?

I had about 1/3 pkg. of fine, whole wheat spaghetti noodles that I cooked to al dente.  In a large pan, I melted about 1 T seasoned Earth Balance spread and 1 tsp olive oil.  I added about 5 oz. fresh spinach and the grape tomatoes (halved) that I had on hand.  The spinach wilted down and the tomatoes swam in the seasoned "butter".  As soon as the noodles were ready, I strained them and added them to the seasoned veggies and tossed.  Delicious!

We used an extra sub roll to make garlic toast under the broiler (more Earth Balance spread, olives, and non-dairy cheese of your choice), and our busy evening meal was complete!

Tip: Add freshly ground pepper, to taste, after plating the food.  My Punky does NOT like pepper in her food, so we use it sparingly during the cooking process.

Bún Chay

Tired of the same old lunch menu (PB&J, hummus & dippers, chickpea salad sandwiches, etc), I decided to google "vegan lunch recipes" during my menu planning last week.  It's been fun reading through new recipes, but I was most excited about this one!  I have been looking forward to it since I typed it in on Sunday.

Bún Chay (Vietnamese Noodle Salad) was a hit with the kids!  I did find rice sticks and we tried those today, but decided that we don't care for the texture so we won't be using them again.  We also sautéed the tofu bits instead of deep frying.  Otherwise, we pretty much followed the suggested items and then I let the kids choose how much of each item they wanted in their bowl.

I was proud of my littlest sidekick, who tried everything and only turned her nose at the cilantro. ;)  My 10 year old didn't care for the mint or cilantro, but was the only one of us who liked the rice sticks (noodles).  My 13 year old liked everything except the rice sticks.  Their favorite was the dressing...mine too! :)

Comfort Food

Our family's comfort foods have slowly started evolving as our menu has changed.  One thing that has remained consistent: our kids find comfort in a warm bowl of soup.  Taco soup, noodle soup, veggie soup...we love soup!  Soup that cooks in a crock pot is even better!

I decided to switch things up a bit and check out a new recipe for lentil-veggie soup.  This is a crock pot recipe, but I had to finish it up on the stove top.  If I had it to do all over I'd soak my lentils overnight, and make sure my veggies were chopped small enough to cook in a crock pot in the time allotted.  Otherwise, the flavor was wonderful.  The kids loved it and have already asked when I'm making it again.

Alongside our big bowls of soup were steaming, delicious corn muffins.  One of the girls helped me whip these up from a box mix.  We used applesauce in place of the eggs.  They were delicious!  Very dense and moist.  Yum!

Comfort Food: Veggie Pot Pie

This morning I woke up and smelled it, last night's dinner.  You know when you bake something and can still smell the delicious aroma the next day?  That's what happened.  I immediately started daydreaming about leftovers at lunch.  Sad, huh?  But it was that good.

My family loves a good pot pie.  I hadn't made one since we jumped on the vegan wagon in August.  I don't typically make them in the hot months of the year, so as soon as it started cooling down our cravings picked up.  We needed pot pie.  A google search and some recipe reviews turned up some great ideas.  This one was the most inspiring, but I already knew it would have to be tweaked.  I planned on using store-bought crust and only the veggies that I already had at home.  My stomach is growling right now, and I'm starting to wonder if we really need to save those last two slices for Daddio (who was, sadly, overnighting in the The Bahamas and missed out on this delicious dinner!).

Without further adieu...

Veggie Pot Pie

Ingredients:

Cashew Cream
1.5 c raw cashews (*soaked)
1 c. veggie broth
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 t. nutritional yeast
1/4 t. salt

Veggie Mixture
1 t. olive oil
1/2 onion, finely diced
hashbrowns**
frozen mixed veggies (my medley included corn, carrots, peas, green beans)**

Cashew soaking:  Four to eight hours before you need them, place the cashews in a bowl and cover with piping hot water.  Allow to soak and then drain immediately before processing.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Pour olive oil into skillet on medium-high, add onions as oil begins to heat up.  Sauté until they begin to caramelize.  Add hashbrowns and allow to begin browning before dumping in mixed veggies.  Sauté for a few minutes to get the cooking process started.

3.  While veggies are sautéing, put cashew cream ingredients into high speed blender or food processor and liquefy.  Add more nutritional yeast and/or salt to taste.

4.  Combine veggies and cashew cream and stir well.  Season to taste.

5.  Pour veggies & cream mixture into pie crust.  Cover with another crust and pinch edges to seal.  Poke holes or designs in top crust to vent.

6.  Bake for 40 minutes.  About 1/2 way through baking, cover edges of pie so they don't burn.  I have a crust shield, but foil works well, too.

7.  Remove from oven carefully and allow to sit for 20 minutes.  This will help the cream thicken up and allow the pie to cool a bit.  It will still be very warm when you cut into it.

**Add veggie amounts based on your personal preference and what dish you're planning to use.  If I could keep mushrooms long enough to use them, I would've put those in this dish to add some meatiness.  However, we absolutely didn't miss them or the meat!

Unfortunately, this picture doesn't do it justice.
I'll be totally honest and say that I couldn't spare the time to make it pretty
and take a good picture because the smell was so enticing.  :)

Sick day!

Last night about dinner time, our littlest herbivore got sick.  UGH!  As soon as I got her settled and felt comfortable leaving for 30 minutes, I ran to the grocery store for rations.  Lemon-lime soda, little noodles, cleaning supplies (we try not to use paper towels but when somebody gets sick I have no problem using disposables), bananas, bread, etc.  You know, stuff to follow the BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) diet.  There went my plan of using up pantry food and not hitting the store again until payday.  Oh well, going with the flow!

Fortunately, the bug seemed to be very short-lived (knock on wood) and Punky was up for some solid food by lunch time today (we tested her stomach this morning with saltines).  I relied on an old standard, what my mom always made us when we were sick but able to stomach solids: little noodles in chicken broth.  But, uh, no chicken broth, right?  Unless you use these awesome little nuggets of goodness:

I wanted to make a substantial amount of broth, so I used 4 cubes to make 8 cups of broth.  As soon as it came to a boil I added angel hair pasta that had been broken into small pieces.  The pasta now mimicked the "little noodles" my mom used to make us (Skinner Fideo Mediano, but our grocery store didn't have any in stock).  My kids have learned to appreciate a mug of little noodles as fantastic comfort food.  They were all delighted to slurp their noodles down with some saltines on the side.

Review by the kids:  They all ate happily, and said the "Not Chick'n" broth tasted just like the real thing.  They actually used straws to slurp their noodles and said it was the perfect way to warm their bellies on our first fall day (yay for Texas cold fronts!).  There was nothing left in the pot or their mugs after lunch.

Review by the mom:  The broth was fantastic, and I'm glad we found it at our grocery store and decided it would be a good pantry item (it was also endorsed by a v-friend, who said she orders it from Amazon).  The angel hair was a great sub for the little noodles.  I'm glad I didn't get discouraged when I couldn't find the old standard. 

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: the best ever ranch dressing!

Our kiddos are ranch dressing lovers.  Okay, let me be honest, we are all ranch dressing lovers.  One of the initial priorities when starting this journey was to find a delicious replacement.  We hit the jackpot on our first try.  While standing in Whole Foods, Daddio did a google search for vegan ranch dressing.  We made the first one that came up.  The kids loved it so much, I think they would've had it as a drink.  We have tried one other variation just to double check and we were not nearly as happy.  This recipe is so good that I've even told several non-vegan friends to try it.

Store leftovers in a mason jar and use within a few days.  This is also a really good base for vegan, creamy jalapeño dressing/dip.  Slurp!

Bring on some vegan Tex-Mex!

Daddio was on the road (in the air?) for five days, maintaining his goal of a vegan diet, and it was a challenge.  I'm hopeful that I can convince him to blog about it because I think it will be interesting to look back on this point and think about how far he's come...some day.

On his last day out, I sent him a text: What do you want for dinner? Anything you want, I'll make it.  Just name it.

I knew he was hungry.  

He replied:  Black bean enchiladas?  Or any Tex-Mex recipe.  Creamy jalapeño?  

My man has a thing for Tex-Mex.  He could eat it every meal.  I'm not kidding.  

I quickly set out to find some recipe options.  I have several enchilada recipes, but all would require too many substitutions to be a safe, homecoming dinner.  I knew this had to be a tried & true recipe.  And I found a couple.  First, I used this black bean enchilada recipe.  I doubled it because I knew it would be good and I wanted leftovers.  My mouth started watering as I was reading the recipe.  (Actually, my stomach is growling just thinking about it.)

I also stumbled upon this recipe for another version of vegan enchiladas and avocado cream sauce.  I decided to make the cream sauce to slather on the top of our finished product after it came out of the oven.

Bottom line: really good choices.  Both recipes were delicious!  Honestly, I can't think of anything that would've made them taste better.  We didn't miss meat or cheese at all.  

I served this with vegan creamy jalapeño (Chuy's inspired) and Corona margaritas.

Everybody was home with full bellies.  Moma was happy.  ❤

Recipe Review: Lentil Tacos

A couple days ago our family decided to go vegan.  A vegan is someone who doesn't eat anything produced by an animal (eggs, milk, cheese, meat, and animal fat).  The very first night we ate lentil tacos.  I wasn't sure how it would taste  Usually, our mom makes tacos that have beef or turkey and cheese, which we couldn't have.  Instead, we substituted lentils for beef, and soy-based cheese instead of dairy.  It was delicious, just like a regular taco!  It did have a yummy twist though, because of the lentils.  They had a smooth texture and slightly different flavor than beef.

I was afraid that I would miss the flavor of the foods that we're used to eating.  I think it's just a matter of finding delicious substitutes, like lentil beans and soy-based cheese.  It may be different but it still tastes great!

Written by Sunshine, age 13.

Lentil Taco

Lentil Tacos

Recipe by Moma

Ingredients

* 1 cup finely chopped onion
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1 teaspoon canola oil
* 1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth*
* 1 cup salsa
* 12 taco shells/tortillas
* 1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce
* 1 cup chopped fresh tomato
* soy-based, dairy free cheese

Directions

1. In a large nonstick skillet, saute the onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the lentils, chili powder, cumin and oregano; cook and stir for 1 minute. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Uncover; cook for 6-8 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Mash lentils slightly.  (To be totally honest, I usually have to add more broth and let it continue simmering to get the lentils to the consistency we like.)
2. Stir in salsa. Spoon about 1/4 cup lentil mixture into each taco shell. Top with lettuce, tomato, cheese and Tofutti sour cream.

*I used homemade veggie broth:  I added about 1/2 onion, 3 cloves garlic, 4 bay leaves, a cup of broccoli, two cups of carrots, and a head of celery to a large stock pot.  Cover with water and bring to a boil.  Cover pot, reduce to a simmer, let cook for an hour.  Strain veggies for purée, remaining liquid is your veggie broth.  Add salt and white pepper as desired.

In the beginning...

This morning was designated Documentary Monday.  We started out by watching animal fact videos on YouTube, and then moved into the documentary list on Netflix.  There were so many to choose from, and our second show was Vegucation (getvegucated.com).  I thought it would be eye opening, and might help me convince my middle kiddo to embrace our meatless meals (she has an aversion to legumes).  It worked!

We have talked many times about going meatless.  This documentary pushed us past vegetarianism into veganism.  This is something I've never done (I did have a pollo-vegetarian phase during high school and college) and while it is a bit daunting, I'm definitely up for the challenge.  I love cooking and trying new recipes, and now we'll be trying new recipes with new ingredients.

The first task was cleaning out the pantry, fridge and freezer.  We have several bags of food that we're looking to re-home.  We tried to eat pretty healthy before, so the kids were happy to see that a lot of our pantry items are still there.

We currently have veggies simmering into a delicious smelling broth for our lentil taco recipe, which will be our first, official herbivore meal this evening.

The next step is a trip to the grocery store.  As Daddio says, "Wish us luck!" :)