Category Archives: Lazy Vegan

Jul 24 2012
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Lazy Vegan

Lazy Vegan: Vegan French Toast

For a lazy Saturday with friends, there’s nothing like French toast. Our local baker, Karin, makes spelt müseli bread that’s got almost as much fruit in it as whole grain and that’s basically a dog whistle for vegans like me. I used a product called Mom’s Vegan Kitchen French toast mix along with some almond coconut mix.

I found this product straightforward and easy to prepare. I combined the mix with almond milk and grapeseed oil as recommended on the package and soaked sliced bread in it.

In the pan it created an egg-like film on the surface of the bread and had a beautiful toasted look and smelled DIVINE. It didn’t have the bitterness of dairy milk or the sulfur flavor and odor of egg but all the other delightful flavors you’ll find in French toast.

We topped it with Rivermede farm maple syrup (above) alone and with frozen wild blueberries (below).

It was all delicious. I would definitely buy this product again. I don’t know any carnists that would turn this down either. This is a perfect comfort food for when you’re feeling a little lazy but want something decadent. We bought this for just under $6 which I thought was very reasonable for what you get at Vegan Essentials. This website was instrumental when I first became vegan and I totally recommend them. They research all of their products so you know it’s vegan and they are independently owned. I’m about to mow down some more French toast.

This is Melissa, Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jul 20 2012
9 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan, Snacks

Hipster Chic Volume I : Peanut Butter Pickle Time

Growing up, my father introduced me to what would become a life-long obsession. And today, in this post, I will share the secret family recipe for this small slice of gourmet culinary nirvana. I present to you the peanut butter pickle sandwich.

Ingredients :
Bread
Peanut Butter
Pickles

Prep Time :
1 Hour (Without Instagram, 5 Minutes)

First, slice your bread. What we have here is an artisan gluten-free muesli loaf hand crafted locally here in Miami. Slice as many starchy canvases as you deem necessary. For this post, I will be making it face ouverte.

Next, take your peanut butter, and spread a generous layer on top of the bread prepared in the previous step. Don’t be shy with your peanut butter as it will be the mortar holding together what will become your masterpiece.

For the third step, take your pickles and slice them if they are not pre-sliced (as pictured here). This slightly sour ingredient will be what makes your sandwich sing. It compliments the creamy sweetness of the peanuts nicely.

Finally, enjoy the effing crap out of that sandwich. Treat it as a secret lover you meet with for a secret tryst after months of longing for its soft, lusty buss.

*Smugness in this post powered by Instagram

 

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Jul 17 2012
11 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan

Lazy Vegan: Stuffed Peppers!

Stuffed peppers aren’t uncommon in our household.

These are campesino and poblano peppers. When you cut them in half, they’re a great little natural bowl for delicious food and this adventure is no different. This was a last minute dinner.

We just mixed a can of black beans with some flake red pepper and some Dixie Diner Ham (NOT!), stuffed the poblano peppers, and baked them for 30 minutes. Then we sprinkled some Daiya over it and baked for another 10 minutes.

Then we ate them with some salsa verde and Dixie Diner Chicken and Cheese Fajita soup. We’ve been trying a lot of their products, which are mostly flavored textured vegetable protein (TVP to veterans). So far, we’re fans.

We hope you get to try them. Let us know what your favorite Dixie Diner products are… so we can EAT THEM!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jul 08 2012
4 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Other Lazy Vegans: Natto!

This is my second time trying natto and Brent’s first. Natto is a traditional Japanese preparation of soybeans that has been around for several thousand years (up to 12, depending on which historical reference you lean toward). There are several compounds in natto that make it a dietary source of unusual bioactive compounds. First on the shortened list is pyrazine which has been studied as a known antibiotic and diuretic with anti-tumor activities. Second spotlight goes to vitamin PQQ which has been studied extensively for its antioxidant and neuroprotective effect. That means it has been implicated in preventing neurodegeneration. Who doesn’t wand that? Last but not least is nattokinase and enzyme with properties suggesting it may be helpful in treating heart disease and neurodegenerative disease by preventing clots and preventing hemorrhage in the brain. Okay… that was a lot of talking, let’s get to the food. Here it is in our freezer. It comes frozen in nifty little polystyrene containers with little packets of sauce. I have no idea what the packaging says… except for that little part in English. Be careful when you buy it because several varieties contain fish sauce.

The bottom line is that it’s soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilus resulting in beans with a strong cheesy odor, burned hair/plastic taste all stuck together with gooey snot.

Now… why would anyone eat something that they just describe the way I just described that? It’s certainly an acquired taste. There was a time when I didn’t eat Brussel’s sprouts because I thought they tasted like tire rubber.

It comes with sauces: mustard, soy, hotsauce and other typical options that you mix into the natto until it gets extra gooey.

Often, once it’s mixed up with whatever sauces people prefer, they’ll transfer it to hot rice. Brent and I threw ourselves on it headlong. Here’s a shot of Brent trying to like it. Just kidding… he did.

We’ve kind of got a bunch, as you could see from our freezer so we’ll be trying it again and maybe we’ll both acquire this acquired taste. Personally, I’m surprised to say that I really like it… with enough hot sauce and soy sauce. I’m looking forward to trying it with green onion and hot quinoa!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jun 29 2012
12 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan

Vegan BLT… like a party in your face!

This is so simple I feel like I’m cheating by posting it.  We wanted BLT this Monday. We’ve got a reliable source of vegan gluten-free bread so the next step is to make it awesome.

All you need is some smoky maple bacon tempeh. We bought outs pre-flavored but a tablespoon of maple syrup and drop of liquid smoke or pinch of smoked paprika works perfectly. We sprayed a pan lightly with some olive oil and sauteed it until it was browned lightly.

We mixed up some chipotle lime mayo by combining the juice from 1/2 a lime, a heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast, a pinch of vegan sugar, 1 carton of silken tofu and 1 8 ounce tin of chipotle peppers (this will make it REALLY spicy) use 2-3 peppers for an amusing kick of spice) in the food processor and blending until smooth.

I spread that on a piece of bread, added some tomato and spinach, so technically it’s not really a BLT, it’s a TST but who’s counting anyways.

These babies disappeared really fast.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off.

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Jun 19 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan

The other Lazy Vegans: Macaroni and “Cheese”… and PEAS!

This is a post about a product that I really love:Leahey Gardens Mac&Cheese. I love this product because it’s quick, easy and delicious.

They make gluten-free and regular and it’s the answer for your friend who “can’t live without” macaroni and cheese in a box. Brent and I have a twist on this recipe because even though it’s pretty good for you right out of the box, we like vegetables.

I add peas… about 1 and a half cups. I also add a generous dash of flake red pepper and Italian seasoning when preparing the cheese sauce. This recipe is also very good prepared with water, for the record. This means it’s great for travel anywhere with a microwave.

This is the finished product, ready to be enjoyed. It’s already rich in B vitamins thanks for nutritional yeast in the sauce and the peas add a whollop of protein. Enjoy!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jun 14 2012
4 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Lazy (Filipino) Vegan: Soy Curl Sinigang

Since I started eating soy curls, which have to be one of the best things about being vegan, I’ve gotten lots of bright ideas: soy curl kalbi, smoked soy curls, soy curl caldareta. I’ve been pretty excited about the idea of making soy curl sinigang and soy curl kare kare.

I had soy curl sinigang today, but I’m not going to elaborate because I didn’t do any actual cooking. I just baked some soy curls and then added the sinigang broth and veggies that were already prepared by my parents.

This looks pretty tasty (and it was) but I gotta say that our sinigang is usually a lot more exciting. We usually put lots of eggplants, long beans, and taro root in it. The veggies today consisted of only some “wild spinach” from the backyard. The broth has a sourness to it that is oh so good.

I’ll get into detail when I finally make some of this myself. I love veganizing Filipino food! –Melissa

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May 08 2012
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Lazy Vegan, Snacks, Thoughts

The Other Lazy Vegans: SALAD!

We decided to give Follow Your Heart’s sesame miso dressing on some spinach, bell pepper and VegCuisine’s Mediterranean herb feta. We’ll tell you more about VegCuisine’s cheeses in the Cheese Post 2.0 because today we’ll tell you about the salad dressing.

Brent and I are both fans of the flavor. I do think that it’s terribly high in calories for ‘health’ food so I can recommend it for being vegan and having ingredients that aren’t too processed but I suspect most of you who are comfortable cooking can make something better and better for you at home. Munch away!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Apr 23 2012
7 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Lazy (and lucky) Vegan: Gardein and Surprises

Have I mentioned yet that I love love love Gardein products? I had heard of them long before I turned veganese because one of my favorite hangouts, The Yard House, serves their products. They have a Thai Chicken (or rather, Gardein) Noodle Salad and I fell in love with the ‘chicken.’ It was almost unbelievable how much it seemed like real chicken. Also great is their Firecracker Gardein ‘wings,’ which could probably fool a lot of carnivores.

The best part about Gardein is that I can find a variety of their products in just about any grocery store. WIN! At any given moment, I am sure to have Gardein something or other in my freezer. It’s perfect to have on a day like today when I don’t have any leftovers, I’m too lazy too cook, I’m low on ingredients, and I am too exhausted to stop anywhere after work. Gardein to the rescue!

These crispy tenders are AWESOME. I had three left in the bag, so I threw them in my toaster oven to cook.

 

Meanwhile, I chopped some tomato, cucumber, and green onion to make a salad. To spice it up, I finely chopped a pickled chili pepper. I finished off the salad with about a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt.

Then, my bro showed up with some Korean food. The spiced up cucumber is my favorite, but it is unfortunately not pictured because it went right into my belly. But I still had oh-so-yummy soy bean sprouts, a spiced up pepper, brocolli, and shredded asparagus, all seasoned very deliciously. Thanks, bro! You made my pathetic dinner super duper awesome!

Here’s an closeup of the Gardein crispy tenders. It’s also a closeup of my bright orange fingernail. I am in dire need of a manicure. What do you think of that color? I was trying it on so it’s only on my thumb. I’m thinking it’s a little too crazy for me. Oh, wait. Wrong blog. Sorry. Ahem.

Gardein products contain soy and gluten, which really sucks because some of my favorite people won’t be able to tolerate it. It is such amazing stuff that has saved me a couple times when I almost cracked under the pressure of a chicken wing craving.

Happy Monday Evening! And remember… Turning Veganese loves you. –Melissa

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Apr 09 2012
2 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Lazy Vegan: Veggie Burgers!

A couple months ago, I had an awesome veggie burger at a Josh’s, a fast food restaurant near where I work. It tasted great and fresh, but what I loved most about it was that it was, well… different. It wasn’t a completely bean- or soy-based veggie patty. Furthermore, I was able to identify chunks of actual vegetables in it. So I was pretty excited when I saw Don Lee Farms Veggie Patties at good old Costco.

Unfortunately, Don Lee Farms is a wholesale seller, so these patties aren’t available in your neighborhood grocery store. Even more unfortunate is that the company isn’t vegetarian and sells meat products as well. All that aside, this is one tasty veggie patty. It has a nice texture and the vegetables in the burger can easily be identified and tasted.

It was seasoned nicely with a perfect little kick to it. It’s mostly a softer texture, but it contains whole sunflower seeds that are both tasty and give it a nice crunch. It’s also pretty filling.

One patty is surprisingly only 160 calories. I wish it had more protein. The sodium content is fine; it helps that it’s tasty enough that no other spice is really needed. Zero cholesterol! Click the photo for a closer look at the nutrition facts and ingredients.

Homemade is best, but it’s great when I discover good pre-made or pre-packaged products. What are your favorites? Let us know! –Melissa

 

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