Dinner for the Fam, v2.0

Om nom nom! This dinner was even better than the last. Because it seemed to go so well last time, I went with a down-home southern type of theme again that Bianca Crunk would be proud of. This time it was vegan mac n' cheeze, yummy garlic kale, and curried acorn squash (okay, so that one's not so southern, but I'm a yankee. I don't know better.)
The 'rents loved it! Here are the omni-pleasing recipes:

Super Simple Vegan Mac

Ingredients:
1 box cooked whole wheat elbow macaroni
1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
1/3 cup veggie broth
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp whole wheat flour

What to do:
Combine your liquid ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add in the flour and nutritional yeast and whisk until homogeneous. Add to a skillet and warm your mixture over medium heat. When your 'cheese' sauce is warm, add in your noodles. And voila! Enjoy!

Garlicky Kale


Ingredients:
1 large head of curly kale
1/4 cup veggie broth
3 cloves of garlic
Parma, for sprinkling on top

What to do:
Sautee garlic in veggie broth on medium heat until garlic is fragrant. Add in the kale and cover the pot, allowing kale to steam for about 5 minutes. Serve with Parma sprinkled on top.

Curried Acorn Squash


Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen acorn squash puree (Cascadian Farm makes one)
2 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp Earth Balance

What to do:
Steam frozen acorn squash until heated through. Add in curry powder and Earth Balance. That's it! You're done!

In Which I Make Dinner for my Family

You heard right. The other night, I offered to prepare a vegan dinner for my decidedly un-vegan family. Despite the fact that my family is about as southern as a polar bear, I decided to prepare a traditional(ish) down home dinner of barbecue seitan and broccoli from the PPK, corn muffins, and my own 'recipe' for mashed sweet taters, which was just local yams mixed with maple syrup and cinnamon. This would also be delish in a casserole with Sweet and Sara marshmallows mixed in, just sayin'. 

The Verdict: The parental units approved! They asked me to make them dinner again! *fist pump*

Mmmm...Pancakes

Hey all! I'm getting back in the blogging groove, and to celebrate I made some pancakes to share with you guys! These puppies are whole wheat banana pancakes. I kinda made up the recipe as I went along, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were hella good, especially with some pure maple syrup on top. Sticky deliciousness!

I obviously couldn't wait to eat before taking a picture, as is evidenced by the big chunk cut out of the pancake on the left!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes:

Makes 8 small-ish pancakes

What you'll need:

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 big, ripe 'naner

1 cup of non-dairy milk

2 tsp of sugar

1 tsp baking powder

What to do:

Mix the flour, the sugar, and the baking powder together. Meanwhile, mash your banana up. If you like it chunky, just use a potato masher, but if you want it to be more of a puree, chuck it in the food processor quickly. Mix the banana with the milk, an add that mixture to the flour mixture. Stir it all up till it gets to be batter-like in consistency. If it has trouble getting to that point, don't be scared to add a little extra milk. When you're done mixing, lightly oil a griddle or big pan and pour your batter in, making your pancakes as big or as small as you want.

I'm Back, and I come bearing a Green Smoothie!

Hey, guys! I know, you're all judging me because I've been away for over a month, and that makes me a bad kid, right? Well, we all make mistakes. But I hope I can make that better with a green smoothie that is THE BOMB DOT COM! I woke up super sick this morning, which is actually why I have time to write this post. Anyway, I wanted something substantial but I didn't really feel like solid food. And thus began the adventure of my first green smoothie. I didn't follow a recipe; I just kind of made it up as I went along. I ended up adding almond milk, frozen mangoes, a Good Belly probiotic shot, and several leaves of romaine lettuce all together, and then I pureed them in my blender. It was so yummy and refreshing. Being sick, I didn't take a photo, but instead opted to steal one of the internets. But I promise, it looked just like this!

Another Nom-Worthy Recipe from (never home)maker

I made these delicious bars from another recipe at (never home)maker! This girl makes some darn good cookies. The ingredients are super simple but make you feel really accomplished and fancy. It's all my favorite stuff: chocolate, peanut butter, and Cheerios, aka the trifecta of awesome. These little guys are taste and budget friendly; you don't even need to have an oven to make them, just a fridge.

The obligatory pictures:

The chocolate-y, gooey goodness while it was still warm. I warn you, a lot of this went straight from spatula to mouth.

 The (almost) finished product. After this, I cut it into squares.

Oatmeal Trail Mix Cookies from (never home)maker

I was checking out one of my favorite blogs the other day, (never home)maker, and I found this AMAZING cookie recipe. I've never been a great baker, but I thought I would give it a try, especially since these seemed sorta Christmas-y, what with the cranberries and nuts. And they were dee-lish. If I can bake them, so can you. The only thing I subbed was hazelnuts for walnuts, because I hate nuts with skin. I hate anything with skin, actually. I'm a really textural eater.

Here are some pics of the down and dirty process...

Mixing in the oats...

and the choco chips, cranberries and coconut...

And finally the finished product! No pic of me shoveling them into my mouth, but trust me, that went down right after this photo was taken.

A recipe?

I know, I know. This blog is supposed to be lunches only. But when you make up your own AWESOME recipe, you just want to tell the world. Especially when it's vegan and gluten free.
So here it is: Balsamic baked tofu. So simple, so yummy. Served with a side of brown rice and peas, it's heaven. I cooked my brown rice in some veggie broth, just FYI. It gave it a really nice flavor.

BALSAMIC BAKED TOFU:

Here's what you'll need:
1 block of pressed extra firm organic tofu
about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
Salt-free spice bend, to taste (I used Mrs. Dash)
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Here's what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and Mrs. Dash together in a little bowl.
3. Slather (ew, icky word) it all over your tofu. Stick your tofu in the fridge and let it marinate for an hour AT THE LEAST!
3. Pop your tofu in the oven and let it cook for about 40 minutes, checking it periodically.
4. Enjoy!