Nana's Shepard's Pie

This is by far one of the easiest comfort food recipes that is perfect for a chilly evening. Most of the ingredients are usually on hand, and I always think of making this in advance so that I can use the leftover mashed potatoes from a meal earlier in the week. This way, I get to eat mashed potatoes twice, which is never a bad thing! My mom, who is now referred to as Nana in our house, handed this recipe down to me, and now I am passing it on to you! Feel free to substitute the meatless crumbles with a homemade version of ground beef (e.g. tempeh, seitan, or tofu), but keep in mind that this meal is to be easy J Enjoy!

 

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp of olive oil

1 package of frozen meatless crumbles

½ c of chopped onion

½ c of chopped celery

¼ c of chopped green pepper

1 can of tomato soup

1 small can of whole kernel corn

1 small can of mushrooms

4 c. of mashed potatoes (instant or homemade)

 

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.       Heat oil in a large pan over medium/high heat. Brown the crumbles, onion, celery, and green pepper for 5-10 minutes until everything is cooked through, and veggies are tender-crisp. Stir in the soup, corn, and mushrooms with the crumble/vegetable mixture and remove from heat.

3.       Pour the mixture into a greased casserole (I use an 8x8 square casserole)

4.       Spread the mashed potatoes over the top of the crumble mixture

5.       Place in preheated oven, and bake for 45 minutes

6.       Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving

Harvest Hash

The cool weather brings out all of the cravings for comfort food, so I took some items from one of the last farmers’ markets of this year, and made this delicious brunch hash. Serve this with an egg, and you have a meal that will hold you over for the entire day! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

One bag of cranberries
1 small to medium size butternut squash
3 small Yukon gold potatoes
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
5 fake sausage links (store bought or homemade) thawed
1 honey crisp apple
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Eggs (optional)

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 400

 

1.       Cook cranberries as per bag instructions. Set aside to cool

2.       Cut squash and potatoes in inch size cubes. Toss with olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Roast in preheated oven for one hour, shaking every 15 minutes

3.       Meanwhile, in a medium size pan, melt 1 Tbsp of butter over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic, and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add apple and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

4.       Cut “sausage” in inch size cubes. Add to onion, garlic, apple mixture. Add another tablespoon of butter if beginning to stick.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour in a large bowl and set aside

5.       When potatoes and squash are finished roasting, add to the sausage mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon, careful not to smash the squash and potatoes.

6.       Spoon some of the hash on top of a plate. Spoon some cranberries over the top. Serve with an over easy egg if desired

Mock Pulled Pork Sandwich

One of my favorite chefs made an eggplant pulled pork sandwich, but he did not give a recipe. Unfortunately/fortunately for me, I had bought a large eggplant at the farmers’ market, and thought, I can do this on my own. So I did, and here is the end result. I can tell you now that I have never been so proud of a dish. I hope if you try it, you enjoy it too!

Ingredients

1 Large purple eggplant

1 c. flour

1 tbsp. corn starch

1 ½ c. soda water

Oil

Bar B Q Sauce

Premade coleslaw (optional)

Buns

Directions

1. Peel the eggplant and chop of ends

2. Shred the eggplant “guts” in a food processor or hand held shredder

3. Place eggplant in colander, and salt the shreds. Let sit for one hour

4. Take the salted eggplant and wring it out in a dish towel or flour towel until most of the moisture is out.

5. Mix the flour, corn starch, and soda water in a medium bowl

6. Heat about a ½ c of oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add eggplant to flour mixture. Once coated and the oil is heated, fry the eggplant until crisp on both sides, continuously separating so that you do not have one large piece. This may take two batches. Once all of the eggplant is cooked, allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.

7. In a saucepan, heat about 1 c. of Bar B Q sauce. Add the cooled eggplant and cook until heated through on low heat.

8. On each bun, place a heapful of eggplant and add coleslaw over the eggplant if desired. Serve with fries and pickles.

Garden Curry

It is hot, and so is this dish! Ha! Did you see what I did there? No? Yes? Ok, anyway, I think I took in too many pepper fumes, but it was worth it for this splendor of curry vegan cuisine. I love curry, and I love spicy, and in my state of utter exhaustion, I pulled together this meal. If anything, you need to try it at least once and tell me what you think! I loved it, but I haven’t eaten a full meal in two days as I juggle work and an 8 month old.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp of olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

1 mild green chili pepper chopped

1 red Serrano pepper chopped

1 large red bell pepper chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 Tbsp curry

1 Tsp Turmeric

½ Tsp ground cinnamon

¼ Tsp Cayenne pepper

1 med-lg tomato chopped

1 cup of frozen green peas

Salt and pepper

1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed

1 14 oz can of coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium/high heat

2. Once oil is heated, saute onions until they sweat, about 2-3 minutes

3. Add chili pepper, Serrano pepper, and bell pepper to onion, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until tender

3. Add garlic to vegetable mixture and cook an additional 30 seconds

4. Add Turmeric, curry, cinnamon, and cayenne to vegetables, and stir until coated

5. Add peas and tomato, stir to combine, and remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste

6. In a separate 2 quart pot, add chickpeas, seasoned vegetables, and coconut milk. Return to heat and simmer for about an hour.

Serve with rice

Farners' Market Lasagna

There is no need to explain again. You know what happened. But, for my own piece of mind, can I just say that there is nothing like standing and talking to the farmer who grows and harvests your food! Why wouldn’t you buy an over abundance of tomatoes, zucchini, and onions?! Anyway, I did it again, and I make no apologies! Instead, I made what I consider a delicious, fresh, late summer treat.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp of olive oil

1 large sweet onion, chopped

1 zucchini, sliced thin

1 yellow squash, sliced thin

8 oz button mushrooms, quartered

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Béchamel sauce (recipe follows)

No bake lasagna noodles

1 Tomato sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; Grease an 8x8 pan and set aside

2. Heat olive oil over high heat. Add onions, squash, and zucchini and sauté until liquids are released and onion is translucent. (5-8 minutes)

3. Add mushrooms to the onion, squash, zucchini mixture, and cook until mushrooms are slightly browned (5-7 minutes)

4. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant. Add salt and pepper to taste, and set aside to cool.

5. Make Béchamel sauce:

                1. Melt 6 Tbsp of butter in saucepan

                2. Add 3 ½ Tbsp of flour to melted butter. Stirring continuously, mix the butter and flour until it becomes light brown in color (about 5 minutes)

                3. Slowly whisk in 2 cups of room temperature milk. Continue to stir until the sauce thickens (About 5 minutes). Set aside and begin to prepare lasagna.

Preparation:

1. Pour ¼ c. of sauce on the bottom of 8x8 pan

2. Add a layer of noodles (may need to be broken to fit pan)

3. Place ¼ of the vegetable mixture on top of noodles

 4. Top with a handful of mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of parmensan cheese

5. Top with ¼ c. of sauce
6. Add another layer of noodles

7. Repeat steps 2-6 for 3 layers ending with noodles

8. On the final layer of noodles, top with sauce, mozzarella, sliced tomato spread evenly, and a sprinkle of parmesan

Cover and bake for 30 minutes

Remove cover, reduce heat to 325, and bake an additional 30 minutes

Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving

Serve with bread and Enjoy!

What to do with tempeh?

I was asked tonight whether or not tempeh was 1.) a good source of protein, and 2.) what to do with it? Tempeh is most often used when making meat substitutes, from bacon to burgers. It is a great source of protein, and if cooked correctly, can be extremely delicious. Although I have yet to experiment with my own recipes for meat substitutes, here is one that I made for dinner tonight. These are amazing, and can be added to spaghetti sauce, served with bar-b-q sauce as an appetizer, or served on a sandwich with fries. Good luck, and if you come up with a tempeh recipe you think is worth sharing, please do!

“My Balls” from The Sexy Vegan Cookbook

4 ounces tempeh

1/2 cup raw walnuts

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp minced fresh Italian parsley

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp dried thyme

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/4 cup diced yellow onion

1/2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce.

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Steam tempeh for 25 minutes and let it cool.
• In a food processor, combine the walnuts, nutritional yeast, parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, garlic, onion, Worcestershire, tomato paste, tamari, water, and oil, and process until you have a semi-moist meal
• In a bowl, crumble the steamed tempeh with your hands until there are no big chunks left. Then add the mixture from the food processor to the bowl, plus a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper, and mash it all together with your hands. Form balls about the size of ping pong balls.
• Place on greased baking sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes (you may want to flip them half way through the baking!)