Tag Archives: penne

Jan 12 2013
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Cooking, Recipes

Vegan Pasta Bake

This was an uncharacteristically un-lazy dish for me to make. It turned out pretty good considering that I was winging it from start to finish.

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You may not be able to easily make out the veggies in the bake from the photo above, but I assure you that they’re there. The veggies used can vary, depending on what you have in your fridge or what you’re simply in the mood to eat. I went with zucchini and carrots. Everything from the pasta to the sauce to the ‘cheese’ that you use can be varied. Below are the ingredients that I used.

Vegan Pasta Bake

8oz penne pasta
2 cans tomato sauce (you can use 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce)
1 block firm tofu, pressed and crumbled
1 pack Teese mozzarella vegan cheese
1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 carrot, julienned
1 medium onion, minced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian herbs
salt and pepper

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While the water for the pasta was boiling and the oven was preheating to 350 degrees, I mixed my tofu crumbles with the spices and olive oil, and cut up the veggies, onion, and garlic.

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After the pasta was cooked and drained, I started placing the ingredients in a casserole dish. I tried to do it in layers: pasta, onions and garlic, tofu, veggies, teese. After all the veggies and pasta were in the dish, I poured the sauce over everything. I should have layered in the sauce as well. Duh. But it still turned out okay, so, yay!

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I was only about 95% happy with how this turned out, but I learned a lot of lessons making it. I hope to try it again with other veggies like spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, squash… and I’ll plan to have more veggies than pasta in it next time. –Melissa

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Dec 24 2012
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Thoughts

Christmas Pasta

This holiday season hasn’t felt very holiday-ish. I definitely wasn’t feeling very festive until a couple of days ago. What happened? The weather got frigid, I walked into the State Street Marshall Field’s Macy’s and got overwhelmed by the decor and the crowds, was given a candy cane by a bartender, and then listened to some Christmas carolers over by Cloud Gate. Yay! Christmas! All that’s missing is snow!

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Now, whether or not you celebrate or care about Christmas, I’m willing to bet that you’re gathering with family or friends or, at the very least, getting inundated with baked goods by co-workers. It’s been a challenge for the past couple of weeks. I’ve given in to the cupcakes, the cheesecakes, the coffee cakes, the scrambled eggs. Today is Christmas Eve and it won’t get any easier — but I’ve planned ahead in order to avoid falling into traps. After all, there’s no excuse for me to break my vegan diet if I have perfectly delicious vegan food to eat instead.

I’m going to a gathering tonight and there will be plenty of food, none of which is vegan. So I made some pasta which I am calling Christmas Pasta! Next time, I’ll add spinach or some other green veggie so that it actually looks Christmas-y.

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It’s still in draft mode until I serve it tonight. I hope everyone at the party tries it and likes it! It’s penne in a marinara sauce with lots of garlic, sliced onion, and eggplant. I’m pretty excited about it. Everyone else can have their turkey or beef or whatever!

Happy celebrations, you guys! Stay safe and don’t eat cows. Santa said so. –Melissa

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Nov 21 2012
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Thoughts

Celebrating Our One Year Anniversary With Easy Penne!

Some of my favorite recipes are the ones that are the result of desperation: there’s lots of little things leftover in the fridge, half a box of pasta, nothing new or exciting, just random ingredients and your brain!

 

I cooked some about a cup and a half of penne. Then, I heated up some olive oil, garlic, onions,  and about 2/3 cup of marinara that I had leftover. I added a bit of balsamic vinegar and then I seasoned it with crushed red pepper and Italian seasonings and topped it with some capers. It was easy and delicious and I was able to finish off some of the things I had sitting in my kitchen and fridge.

On another note, today is the one year anniversary of our first post on Turning Veganese! It came up really fast and it’s been a wonderful year of learning and bonding with friends and cooking and eating and getting healthy. We have an exciting giveaway coming up to celebrate this fantastic year! But first, we shall celebrate the US Thanksgiving holiday. We at Turning Veganese are grateful for YOU! Thank you for your support and for all the fun.

Love you guys! –Melissa

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Aug 30 2012
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Cooking

Spaghetti and Hot Dogs

You may be thinking, “Isn’t this blog supposed to be about vegan food?” YES! Even non-vegans are grossed out by the idea of hot dogs and spaghetti, but it’s Filipino food gospel. After trying out some vegan frankfurters, I was anxious to use them in one of my childhood favorites. Oh, who am I kidding? I still prefer hot dogs as the protein in my spaghetti as an adult.

Making this dish is easy. All you have to do is add sliced hot dogs to your sauce when you’re heating it. This only works with marinara or other tomato-based pasta sauce (hot dogs and alfredo? yuck!). Clearly, it works with any kind of pasta. I had penne this time around so that’s what I used.

To prep these vegan frankfurters, I removed them from their casing and sliced them. I chopped some onions and garlic to add to the sauce because why not?!

First, I browned the hot dogs with the garlic and onion. Then I added some tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. You can also use your favorite jar of pasta sauce. Mix together and heat it through.

Not only was this tasty, it warmed the heart of my inner child. Spaghetti and hot dogs. Try it! –Melissa

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Aug 18 2012
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Cooking

Long Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes

Yay! Tomatoes are finally popping up in the garden. We have a nice crop of beautifully colored heirloom tomatoes.

I decided to throw some of these babies in with sauteed long beans.

First, I sauteed about a cup of long beans in olive oil with 2 cloves of minced garlic. Long beans are not meant to be eaten raw, so if you have them, make sure you cook them. They maintain their crunch even if they wilt, if that makes any sense.

I cut up one of the tomatoes. Unlike the other tomatoes that we grow in the garden, these are much more meaty, less juicy, but still sweet and tasty. I love that the tomatoes we grow in our backyard require little to no embellishment to be tasty. You can eat them like apples!

I boiled some penne, coated it in olive oil, and threw in freshly minced garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and nutritional yeast. I topped it off with the cooked beans and the raw tomatoes.

Easy, delicious, nutritious. The only thing missing is a glass of fine wine! –Melissa

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Dec 01 2011
3 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Penne with Portobello Mushrooms, Artichokes, & Spinach

I enjoy cooking, but I don’t do it very often. My parents always make plenty of food for the entire family. Therefore, I tend to eat a lot of Filipino food, which I LOVE, but Filipino food can be hard to vegetarianize, let alone veganize. Clealy, I need to start cooking to minimize cheating on my vegan diet. I can only eat so much tofu, so I decided to cook some pasta for dinner. I had portobello mushroom caps and a can of artichokes, so I thought about those two ingredients for a bit, and then went online searching for “penne portobello artichoke recipes.”

I don’t often impress myself when it comes to cooking, but I will happily brag that I knocked this out of the park! First, I need to give credit where credit is due, and tell you that I found the original recipe on Tastebook by way of Google.

Ingredients:
8 oz of your favorite penne pasta: I used whole wheat
1 can artichokes in water, drained
2 portobello mushroom caps
handful of walnuts
a bunch of spinach
“balsamic vinegar”: I didn’t have balsamic vinegar so I mixed together 1 tbsp red wine vinegar and 1 tsp sugar and used about half of the mixture
olive oil
minced garlic: I ended up using about 4 cloves
red pepper flakes (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta and drain. Clean and de-rib the mushroom caps and chop (I went to YouTube for a tutorial on cleaning and de-ribbing the mushrooms.) Saute the mushrooms and garlic in olive oil. Add the artichokes, spinach, and walnuts and stir gently until the spinach is wilted. Add the balsamic vinegar and red pepper flakes. Gently mix everything. Add the pasta and stir until it’s heated through. Put some on a plate or in a bowl and pig out.

Some notes: I added a bit of olive oil to the mix two or three times from start to finish, and threw in more garlic after adding the pasta to the sauce. The red pepper flakes actually infused their spicyness into the veggies while cooking, so every bite had a kick. I absolutely LOVED it, but you may want to consider adding at the very end or simply putting it on the table to add as you eat the dish.

I’m really happy because, not only was the end result delicious, I had a LOT of fun cooking this. I had a really good rhythm in the kitchen with this one. Yay!

xoxo and happy cooking… melissa

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