image via veggiebelly

I’m sure you’ve all heard of cake in a mug – but did you know you can make it vegan? Of course – you can make anything vegan it seems. It wasn’t as sweet as I expected, but both David and I agreed it was still good – and it’s always better not to have too much sugary goodness!

adapted from Eat’n Veg’ns Recipe

Vegan Cake in a Mug

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 flax egg
3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
3 tablespoons oil
dash vanilla
1 tablespoon mini-chocolate chips, optional, but recommended

First, get the Flax Egg started so it can sit for 5 minutes (mix 1 tbsp of milled flax seed with 3 tbsp of water, let sit for 5 minutes) while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Mix all the dry ingredients first, then mix in the wet ingredients. Cook for 3 minutes in the microwave or until done. I just sprinkled the top with some chocolate chips (not mini) – but next time would mix in some mini chocolate chips. We served it with rice cream on top.

PS – mine looked nothing like the photo, but it’s pretty isn’t it?

When we first got married (over 3 years ago now!) the only form of cooking I did was frozen pizza, mac and cheese, grilled cheese and maybe whip up some Betty Crocker brownies (but I’ve been known to ruin those too). Slowly, I’ve evolved into Megan the (almost) Vegan. It is pretty strange actually that I would be trying to go vegan, given my history with food. But I am adjusting to it well, and beginning to love cooking and baking, and becoming quite a foodie!

For my birthday my thoughtful husband got me MacGourmet – the best gift he’s ever gotten me (so far!). At first I wasn’t so sure (I’m a nerd at learning new computer programs and take a bit to adjust) – but once I caught on (not long) I LOVED IT! Basically, David saw that I was always using my laptop as my ‘cookbook’ and this gives me a way to ‘import’ my recipes into MacGourmet where I can create meal plans, search for ingredients, etc. And, perhaps the best feature, is the “Chef’s View” which goes full screen to 50 font (or something) so I can see it really big from across the kitchen (which is great cause my laptop is old and has to stay plugged in and there’s limited outlets in our kitchen).

And as I’ve been browsing online for vegan recipes, I came across Vegalicious which not only has great recipes but they also have an import file for MacGourmet on the bottom of each recipe – I’m in love! Just click and it’s all ready to go in MacGourmet.

So the point of this story: If you like cooking and have a Mac, get MacGourmet.

PS I swear I wasn’t paid to write this, I just thought I’d share with you one of my “tricks of the trade” that I love!

Biscuits and gravy is one of my husband’s favorites, and we regularly eat it as a meal (easily once every 2 weeks). It’s such an easy, fast, and cheap meal – I would keep all the ingredients on hand and be ready to go – so I knew I had to turn this meal vegan.  Unfortunately I used to always use the ‘canned’ biscuits (so not healthy) so this meal isn’t as ‘quick’ as it used to be – but I’m going to experiment with making the biscuits ahead of time and freezing them.

Gravy

• 1 lb./roll Soy Sausage (I used Gimme Lean Sausage style)
• 2 tablespoons of vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
• 6 tablespoons of all-purpose flour (I used unbleached organic white)
• 2 1/2-3 cups of soymilk (depending on the thickness you’d like)
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt (or more, I just sprinkle it in)
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper (or more, depending on taste)

Cook the ’sausage’ on lower heat in a little oil. Once it is browned, stir in the butter until melted. Sprinkle in the flour a bit at a time, keep stirring. Gradually stir in milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes until to desired thickness. Serve over biscuits.

Yield: 5-6 servings

Biscuits

Today I used, Half Whole Wheat Biscuits from My Vegan Cookbook. Next time I’d like to try Basically Buttermilk Biscuits from Vegan Baking.

Megan’s Review
I thought it was pretty good. I’d still like to experiment with different biscuits – that was the main ‘taste’ difference we noticed (probably because I always used the butter flavored canned biscuits before). Maybe I’ll try using Earth Balance butter instead of the oil next time to get the ‘butter’ flavor we want – and keep experimenting with the other vegan biscuit recipes. But definitely a keeper! I really wouldn’t have guessed it’s vegan. Could easily be made vegetarian by making the gravy recipe above (even with real milk) and using store bought biscuits.

This was the first time I veganized a recipe on my own – and I liked the results! Sorry, no pictures – but we’ve all seen alfredo before right?

Spaghetti Alfredo

• 1/2 box of spaghetti (I’m not exactly sure how much I used)
• 1 container of Tofutti Cream Cheese
• 1/2 cup of soy milk (another non-dairy milk, unsweetened, could work too)
• Assortment of veggies, I used: peas, tomatoes, onions, spinach (optional)
• Little garlic
• Oil for sauteing veggies

First, get the spaghetti cooking. Then, if you’re using vegetables, saute them in a little oil (I used canola, could use coconut too, or Earth Balance) – I threw a bunch in – and next time would use a TON more – but cooked until the spinach was cooked through – stirring constantly. Frozen vegetables work fine. I added the tomatoes last. Once all the veggies are cooked – stir in the ‘cream cheese.’ When that is starting to melt well, stir in the milk. Keep stirring and cooking until it thickens up.

Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain it, and mix all of the alfredo sauce/veggies with the spaghetti. Serve warm. You could also laddle on top, but I liked mixing it ahead of time.

Megan’s Review
I really liked it! Next time I’ll throw in a ton more veggies and experiment with more spices.  I used too much spaghetti, so maybe slowly add in the spaghetti to the sauce to make sure you dont have too many noodles. So ours was a little more ‘dry’ because of this – but still good. This is a new ‘quick’ meal for our menu – and I’m super excited about it!

image via My Vegan Cookbook

From My Vegan Cookbook, new blog I found, and I am loving the recipes from it so far! It does have a long list of ingredients, but my friend and I made it together, so we were able to find most of it from our kitchens, and only had to purchase a few items.

Friday Night Vegan Meal
(my friend is going vegan with me, and we realized how nerdy we were that our idea of a Friday night is staying home and cooking, but it was fun!)

• Chick Pot Pie
• Canned Pears
• Spinach Side Salad
• Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (another post coming!)

Meal Served: 8 (half the pan was left for leftovers! Very filling)

Chick Pot Pie

• 1/2 14oz. Can Hearts Of Palm
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Onions
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Celery
• 1 Tablespoon Light Vegan Butter (we used Earth Balance)
• 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 3 Cups Water
• 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Poultry Seasoning (we used a ‘chicken’ seasoning)
• Dash Black Pepper
• 1 1/2 Cups Frozen Crinkle Cut Carrots (we used raw carrots and shredded them)
• 2 Cups Potatoes (cut into 1″ cubes)
• 1 Cup Frozen Green Peas
• 3/4 Cup Canned Chickpeas, Undrained, use entire can of liquid
• 1/8 Teaspoon Cumin
• 1/8 Teaspoon Coriander
• 1/8 Teaspoon Turmeric
• 1/2 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast (we finally found it in the bulk spices at our natural foods store!)
• 1 Tablespoon Corn Starch

Crust Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 Tablespoons CornMeal
• 2 Teaspoons Sugar
• 1 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 3/4 Cup Rice or Soy Milk (we used Westsoy, Dollar Tree had tons of it! I’ll be going back for more, $1 a carton is great!)
• 1 Teaspoon Vinegar
• 1/2 Tablespoon Canola Oil

Directions
Prepare the hearts of palm by cutting them in half, slicing half way into the hearts and slide your finger into the slice and pull out the tender middle of the hearts, shred them with your fingers. Put the outside of the hearts in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin to soften them up. Set aside.

In a large heavy pot, saute onions and celery with the butter on medium heat until onions are transparent. In the same pot add hearts of palm and soy sauce and cook about 3 minutes more. Add 3 cups of water, onion and garlic powder, seasoned salt, pepper, potatoes and carrots. Cover and cook on medium heat until potatoes and carrots are almost tender, Add green peas. Then cook until potatoes and carrots are done.

While potatoes and carrots are cooking… in a food processor put chickpeas with liquid, cumin, coriander, turmeric, nutritional yeast and corn starch. Process until liquefied. Pour into the pot with other ingredients and remove from heat.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees.

Spray 8X8 glass casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour ingredients from pot into baking dish.

Mix all-purpose and whole wheat flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. In a separate small bowl mix together rice milk, vinegar and oil. Then join the wet and dry ingredients together and stir. Drop batter by the spoonfuls, the size of biscuits on top. Spray top with non-stick cooking spray.

Place in oven and cook for 10 or 15 minutes or until top is lightly brown.

Megan’s Review
This was really good!! I really, really enjoyed it and will definitely be making it again, perhaps trying to turn it into a freezer meal. Very nutritional, and we all just felt better after eating it – not overstuffed or groggy (pay attention to how foods make you feel after you eat them, this is a good sign that you should be eating different foods). A great winter comfort food.

Once again we didn’t eat until after 8pm, but since it’s a new way of cooking it takes us a bit to figure it all out! The longest part was chopping everything up, so we went ahead and chopped up the extra carrots/celery, etc. so next time it’d be ready to go!

Seriously – try this. Non vegans would have no clue! A great recipe for guests I’m thinking!

Some things we learned…

• Chickpeas are also called Garbanzo beans (good to know for us newbies!)
• Nutritional Yeast is very different from regular ‘baking’ yeast (that I’m used to), this kind has a ‘cheesy’ flavor and is in a lot of vegan recipes! We finally found it in the bulk foods section at our natural foods store
• Hearts of Palm we found at the natural foods store, but it was nearly $5 a can! I was the ‘chicken’ replacement (I think) and was good but next time I’ll look for it at Kroger’s or somewhere else to find a cheaper option.

image via The Farm Chicks

We’ve had a box of organic “o’s” around here for a while that we weren’t eating (aka, organic Cheerios). I found this recipe and thought it sounded like a nice, quick recipe to use them up and have a snack food (we dont have snacky foods around here unless I make something).

Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

(original recipe from The Farm Chicks)

1 1/2 cups peanut butter (I used Skippy ‘natural’)
1/4 cup agave nectar (sugar substitute)
1 cup raw honey (a great way to use the ‘crystallized’ honey I had!)
6 cups cereal
Optional: Mini chocolate chips, I threw in about 3/4 cup

Warm the peanut butter, sugar and honey over low heat until smooth and combined.  Pour over cereal and mix until completely combined.  Press into a 13×9 pan. Cover with plastic wrap and chill.  For best results, keep refrigerated.

Megan’s Review
Not the healthiest, but I did try to adjust a few things. Very peanut buttery, and the peanut butter didnt have added in sugar, so a sorta healthy recipe. They did fall apart, I think I used too much cereal, as I had a little over 6 cups left and just threw the rest of the box in. But turned into more of a ‘trail mix’ type feel – still good! David didn’t like them, but many of our friends did! A very simple, easy cleanup, non cooking recipe – good for the summer!

After our last few boxes of cereal are gone, I’m going to stop buying cereal. Not only is it better for our budget, and we’re not going to buy milk anymore, so it’s not the same anymore anyway – but reading up on the ‘health benefits‘ of cereal and I’d rather just do without. We did this about a year ago, and it worked great. We were eating oatmeal or smoothies for breakfast – by not having cereal around it will force us (me) to have healthy breakfasts planned out.

image via Joy the Baker

This original recipe is from Joy the Baker, I adapted it from a blueberry muffin to a cranberry muffin (cause that’s what I had on hand).

Oatmeal Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups oats
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used my homemade)
• 1/2 cup Kefir (or use buttermilk)
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 “egg” (I used Ener-G egg replacer)
• 3/4 cup frozen cranberries, chopped (and could’ve been chopped smaller)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Dice the cranberries or put through a food processor. In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg replacer. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in cranberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-18 minutes.

I made 12 regular sized muffins and 12 mini-muffins. I froze half and we ate the rest.

Megan’s Review
Next time I’ll try to use a non-dairy alternative (Kefir is a cousin to yogurt but has many health benefits) for the buttermilk – but they were so moist and delicious! I’ll also put the cranberries through a food processor next time, this will save me some time and chop them much smaller, which will especially be good for the mini muffins. I’ll also try to substitute agave nectar or another natural sweetener instead of the brown sugar – but this was a good start at getting healthy!

image via Happy Foody

One of my favorite bloggers, and greatest inspirations, is Sara from Walk Slowly, Live Wildly. Her Happy Foody blog has lots of great ideas for eating raw, vegan or vegetarian. This recipe is from her.

Vegan Meal Night Menu

• Vegan Sloppy Joes on whole grain buns
• Homemade applesauce (from my freezer)
• Sweet Potato French Fries (pre-seasoned, just throw in oven, would try making my own next time)
• Vegan Potato Salad (never got to it, since the sloppy joes took too long, basically a regular recipe using vegan mayo and no eggs)
• Mixed Herb/Spinach Salad

Meal Served: 5 (no seconds) – very filling!

Vegan Sloppy Joes

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked lentils
4 cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
1 green pepper, diced small (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced (we used jar kind, pre-minced)
1 Tablespoons chili powder (orig. recipe called for 3!)
1 1/2  teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1-2 tablespoons yellow mustard (wet mustard)

4 to 6 kaiser rolls or sesame buns

Directions
Put the lentils in a small sauce pot and pour in 4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until lentils are soft. Drain and set aside.

About 10 minutes before the lentils are done boiling, preheat a medium soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onion and pepper in the oil for about 7 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and saute a minute more.

Add the cooked lentils, the chili powder, oregano and salt and mix. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup and mustard and heat through.

Turn the heat off and let sit for about 10 minutes, so that the flavors can meld, or go ahead and eat immediately if you can’t wait.

Megan’s Review
For being our first ever vegan/vegetarian meal, it went pretty good! Although dinner was schedule for 6pm and we didn’t eat until 8pm, so a little behind schedule. I didn’t know whether to use red or green lentils -and first tried red (they’re smaller). I’m not quite sure what I did wrong, but they turned out like mush and stuck to the bottom of the pan and burned – so we threw that batch out. Then the second time we halved it with half red/half green lentils. It turned out pretty good, though I was so worried about them turning to mush I perhaps lightly undercooked them, as one guest complained about the ‘crunchiness.’

We also used a combo of red/green/yellow peppers (I already had sliced ones in the freezer) and we pureed them in the food processor after they were sauteed so they’d blend in more (so you’d get the flavor but not have big chunks on peppers).

We served them open faced on Ezekiel 4:9 hamburger buns (whole grain sprouted buns), and placed shredded vegan cheddar cheese on top (Follow Your Heart brand, was surprisingly good!).  Also served with mustard, ketchup and pickles.

David and I both liked them, this will be added to our regular menu! A success for the first ever vegan meal!

Well, I couldn’t stay away. This blog always calls me back…or maybe it’s just because I have SO MUCH TO SAY (or think I have a lot to say, if you know me, you know that’s true).

My main reason for bringing this blog back to life, is I want to share/document my journey to vegetarianism! And my ultimate goal, veganism – but I’m starting with one thing first.

There are many, many reason why I want to give up meat – it has been an ultimate goal of mine for the past few years. Without too much boring detail:

1)I dont really like meat anyway

2) Eating less meat is better for the environment

3) All the nasty chemicals that go into factory farming and what we’re eating makes me sick

4) and I know I can buy local, organic meat from great farmers, but that is very very pricey (around $6/lb ground beef here!), so it will save our budget

5) Vegetarians/vegans (especially) are so much healthier and I really want to improve my health even more!

My goals are to start eating less and less meat (which I was going already), and once the house is totally cleared of all meat it will all begin. No more buying/eating meat. Also, I want to significantly reduce the dairy products we eat. Once the milk is gone, it’s all soy/almond/or rice milk.  I’m going to strive to eat as close to vegan as possible at home, and then eat vegetarian when I’m “out” (or at a friend’s house, etc.).

A part of this also includes overcoming my addiction to SUGAR. I’ve already cleared the house of anything sugary (or with hidden sugars like corn syrup, dextrose, etc.) – and am gearing myself up to really give it up at Lent. We’re also significantly changing the flours/grains we eat and switching to whole wheat flour (which we did a lot already, and I only buy unbleached organic flour) and ultimately 7 grain flour. This means not buying white flour tortillas (even if organic) because of the white enriched flour. Really trying to fill our bodies with whole grains and fruits and vegetables. Taking ‘eating healthy’ to a whole new level.

I am very excited about it! And in fact, I haven’t eaten meat in nearly a week – but I know I need to not let the meat in our freezer go to waste, and prepare some meals with it – and when it’s gone we’ll start living meat free. I’ll start posting recipes as we go, and give updates on this new way of cooking – so this blog will begin to be very food focused.

Any tips from fellow vegetarians out there? Or any questions (not that I have many answers yet, I’m a newbie!), let me know!

If you hadn’t already noticed, this blog is on a hiatus – indefinitely. No promises on when I’ll be back. I’m just not sure I want to consume so much of my life blogging anymore. I’ll keep up with my shared items, so subscribe if you like!