Vegan Veggie Lasagna

Veggies (yellow pepper, red pepper, spinach, onion, jalapeno, zucchini), check. Filling (guacamole, Daiya chive and onion cream cheese), check. 

Preheat the ol' horno to 375C. Spread a little tomato sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish, and start layering on the THINLY-SLICED zucchini. I did mine in rounds, since I can't slice zucchini length-wise to save my life.

Top with a layer of cream cheese (I mixed mine with the guac), and then the peppers, jalapeno, and onion, which had been chopped up together. Repeat. Each layer of veggies took about a half a pepper, quarter of the onion, and half the jalapeno (I like 'em picantes). 

The top layer also included spinach and then I threw on some mozzarella-style Daiya shreds to hold it all in place. 

Half hour with the casserole dish lid on, then a half off. 

Below: Lunch for tomorrow (topped with more guacamole); SUPPER! (topped with Sinai Gourmet Habanero, one of my top three hot sauces). Due to the mix of the cream cheese and guacamole, it turned out creamy, amid soft zucchini and the other veg. 

Make your own, add garlic, parsley, turnips, go nuts- be sure to share your pictures, wherever you are!

Silky Smooth Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

MMMMMMMMMM. Simple as pie. Simpler, really.

I had trouble finding vegan pb cups so just went for my own.

First, I melted a sprinkle of chocolate chips with a dollop of coconut oil to keep things shiny.

Next, threw in and simmered a few tablespoons of almond butter, and about a cup and a half of peanut butter (Kraft, as we were running low on Jif, my all-time favorite (aside from Skippy with the peanut on top, but that's for another time...))

When all was runny and soupy, I lined a bread pan with aluminum foil, poured it in (none too careful, as shown below) and froze it overnight. The next morning's result was a creamy yet frozen lustrous delight to the eyes (and nose). 

Plopped them out, gave them a quick few chops ... 

... divinity (keep frozen unless noshing).

Potato Carrot "Cheese." Meh.

The rage right now seems to be potato carrot cheese, at least among the online groups I frequent. Everyone exclaiming left, right, and centre how amazing this stuff is. Being quite familiar with the ingredients, I was cautious, but assumed the carrot had some magic up it's sleeve.

Two cups potato, one cup carrot, olive oil, a half cup of water, some lemon juice, cayenne, nooch and onion powder. Boiled the carrot and tater until soft, threw it in the blender with everything else. I should've known right now this was a bland waste of time, except that carrot man. I never put a carrot in my sauce like that before. I expected more.

It tastes like runny potato soup with nutritional yeast. I ended up boiling some pasta and used it as a sauce for that (with lots of hot sauce for kick).

Spicy Avocado Cheese Dip

Crappy last couple of weeks, weekend is here, time to unwind. A lovely gal at work brought me a block of Daiya cheddar, so of course I melted it in a pot, threw in half an avocado, a Serrano pepper, some Frank's® and a healthy dash of el Yucateco. 

Ingredients!

Adding the Serrano to the Daiya.

A lil bit o avocado. Only a few minutes on LOW heat + stirring until ...

The money shot.

Once the picture was taken, I flooded the plate with Sriracha, though it really didn't need it. Hot damn.

Homemade Pierogi

A cup of warm water, 3 cups of flour (all-purpose, and some whole-wheat for sprinkling/rolling), a dab of oil, and you've got dough.

Mash them taters with Earth Balance, Daiya, a raw onion,
and black pepper, and you've got filling, son!

Drink a beer to relax - here comes the fun! I don't have either a rolling pin or a proper cutting tool, but use a drinking glass for both.

I halfed the dough and stuck some in the fridge to keep.
Filling and pinching takes me some time. 

Too little filling ... too much ... the one in-between was just right ...

You MUST PINCH! Keep that filling IN!
Boil for about 5 minutes each, however, I prefer pierogi fried. A few minutes on each side. I threw in some Tofurkey kielbasa while that was going on.

By the time the dough was almost out, I was tired of making little ones,
so I finished off with a giant one, half the size of the frying pan.

Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up...

Serve with mustard, pickles, and hot peppers for sexiest results.

Cauliflower + Chickpeas with Turmeric

There are so many recipes for this obviously-delicious meal online, and I can't resist the included suggestion of quinoa. 

Quinoa (I make about a half a cup at once), 4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp turmeric, exactly 100 chilli flakes, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp cayenne, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 a head cauliflower, bit of water to thin out the herd.

Spread all this fine ess aych eye tee single layer style on a baking sheet. Chickpeas were canned but drained, and cauliflower floretted. All the liquids and spices were mixed together and coated on the veggies as the quinoa cooked.

Drool. Oven set to 400 for one length of an episode of TMNT from the 90s.

The next day, the leftovers paired nicely with a mushroom and pepper salad.

Animal-free Ginger Snaps

I made cookies, enough for five people. I tried one. It was very good. Hubby had one. Dad took the rest when he was leaving. So ... Good sign?