Comments (4)

By laviyah, August 30, 2009 10:28 PM

These potatoes are the sole reason why my backside refused to reduce as quickly as it should have after baby number four. It’s the end of the summer and I am just now able to get back into a size 4. It usually doesn’t take this long, but for the last three babies, I didn’t have someone making gravy (okay incredibly delicious gravy) every other day!

I had a decent mashed potato recipe. (I never take the skins off because red potatoes are my religion and I like the taste of the skins and a little skin never hurt.) However, I got the inspiration to tweak my smashed potatoes when I saw this recipe. I never knew as a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, NY that I would have more in common with a housewife living in the country than my next door neighbor.

Back to the reason why you should be putting a 5 pound bag of red potatoes on your shopping list.

Wash and scrub a 5 pound bag of red potatoes and dump them in a pot of salted boiling water. If the potatoes are not even sizes cut the larger to match the smaller pieces.

After the potatoes pass the fork test (this means that the fork presses easily into your potato with no resistance), drain, return the potatoes back to the pot and start to smash.

Add a stick of salted vegan margarine and mash into the potatoes.

Here is where it gets a little unorthodox! Open that container and get ready to make these potatoes memorable.

Dump in the entire contents of the 8oz container of cream cheese and mash it into the potatoes with the margarine. Yes, if it’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right! I forgot to add a picture of adding the milk so pretend I did and add 1/2 a cup of plain soy milk. At this point you can flavor these however you want. Our good friend Ree adds Lawry’s. I of course, think Spike works well here…

Do it! You know you want to!

No animals were harmed in the creation of this dish!
With love,
Laviyah

Comments (8)

By laviyah, August 27, 2009 12:08 AM

My husband and I watch Food Network often. One show that I enjoy is the Barefoot Contessa, she did a white mushroom lasagna and it looked delectable. Because this recipe is so simple, it is quite easy to veganize.

Giving credit where it is due, the original recipe can be found here.

Boil 3/4 box of lasagna, drain and set aside. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Chop up 1 1/2 pounds of mushrooms. I used a combination of Oyster, Shitake and Cremini.

Saute the mushrooms in olive oil and season with salt to taste. Set aside and get ready to make the white sauce.

Heat four cups of plain soymilk until scalding hot and set aside.

Melt a stick of vegan margarine.

Add a half a cup flour and a half a cup of nutritional yeast.

Pour in the hot milk and add a tablespoon of salt, a teaspoon of fresh nutmeg and a teaspoon of black pepper. Stir well and simmer for about five minutes and take off of heat.

Pour a layer of sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.

Add a layer of noodles.

Pour another layer of sauce over the noodles and then top with a layer of mushrooms and then repeat. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture before putting it in the oven, but you will forgive me when you make this dish!

Comments (1)

By laviyah, August 24, 2009 11:16 PM

It’s been over ten days since I spoke to you all. Since that time I have turned a year older and my birthday weekend was awesome. Let’s just say that my husband knows me so well!

Anyway, when you juice carrots, do you ever wonder what to do do with all that leftover carrot pulp? Besides freezing it all for carrot cake, there is a way that you can get some immediate use out of all that carrot pulp instead of waiting for the off chance that you might make some carrot cake.

Get a 5 pound bag of organic carrots. Rinse them well, don’t peel, trust me you need the fiber.

Cut the tops off of your carrots.

Juice the carrots.

Open up your juicer and scrape out all of that pulp.

Dump the pulp in a bowl and then add 2 tablespoons of fresh dill.

3-4 cloves of garlic

Add half a chopped red pepper.

A liberal sprinkling of kelp (to your taste),

Strain your carrot juice through a fine mesh strainer and dump the pulp in a bowl along with 1/2 a cup of relish.

Add a cup of vegan mayonnaise.

Stir it up and add salt to taste. Add more mayo if necessary to increase the creaminess factor. I like my carrot salad extra creamy.

Enjoy this salad as a sandwich on wheat toast with your favorite soup or on crackers or just eat it tossed with some baby spinach. It’s that good. You will find yourself making all types of excuses to make carrot juice after tasting this.

Comments (1)

By laviyah, August 12, 2009 6:02 PM

So simple and delicious!

This is certainly a comfort dish for when you are in need of the barbecue flavor without the flesh that is usually involved. On this particular night, we at our BBQ tofu with stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy.

One block of firm or extra firm tofu will do. I like to slice mine in triangle slices. Do a diagonal slice across the tofu and then take each piece and slice about a 1/4 inch thick slices.

In a skillet heat up some vegetable oil for frying. While your oil is getting hot. Dice or chop half an onion. The onion does not have to be red, it’s just the only kind of onion I had on hand.

Put the chopped pieces in a oven safe pan.

Pour barbecue sauce over the onions.

Fry up your tofu.

Stick your fried tofu in the pan and immerse it in the sauce. Do this for all pieces and make sure each piece of tofu is covered.

The tofu should be swimming in sauce!

Cover and bake at 350 until the smell of barbecue permeates each layer of paint on the walls. About 30-40 minutes or so.

Ain’t it purty!

Comments (2)

By laviyah, August 6, 2009 6:23 PM

Pesto traditionally is not a vegan dish, but who in their right minds would deprive themselves of this deliciousness if of course it can be veganized soooo easily?

First get a simple list of the above ingredients together. Then take two pounds of linguine and dump it in boiling salted water. (I have a big family!)

Pull your basil out of the package and rinse it well and pat it dry.

Add the basil to your food processor with the S blade and 5-6 cloves of garlic. Add 1/2 cup of pine nuts, 1 tablespoon of salt and half a cup of Nutritional Yeast. Turn your food processor on and pour in 3/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil while the processor is running.

This is what you should have!

Drain your noodles.

Put your noodles back in the pot.

Pour that green goodness over the noodles!

Start plating! Invite some friends over, trust me, there won’t be any leftovers.

No Animals Were Harmed in the Creation of this Dish!
With Love,
Laviyah