Mean Gene's Pepper Steak

Back in my meat eating days (I know, I know, it's hard for me to even talk about it) there were a few meals that were on constant rotation in my house. Tomatoey chicken with peas and potatoes, chicken with mushrooms and rice, burger nights, and, of course, pepper steak. This was my dad's dish - Mean Gene the Dancing Machine himself - and even though I was never a big red meat eater even back then, it always provided that warm comforting feeling that I didn't want to miss. I have fond memories of leftovers smothered with cheese and ketchup on sub rolls.

So when a craving for this hit me the other day I knew I had to try and veganize it.

What you will need:

1 package Gardein beefless tips or other meat substitute of your choice
1 package baby bella mushrooms
2 peppers (*you can use whatever colors you want, but I used an orange and a red*)
1 cup diced onion
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 tbsp tamari
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp Bisto (*For those of you who don't know, Bisto is a gravy granule mix from England that is fantastic. You could use the equivalent amount of your favorite gravy, but I used to live in England so I'm partial to Bisto.*)
1 package instant brown rice (*You can use slow cooked rice or whatever type you want here, but I was all about making a quick dish so the instant rice was my best friend.*)

How to get it done:

Start by preparing your veggies.

Core, de-seed, and slice your peppers into thin strips.

Slice your mushrooms.

Chop up 1 cup of your onion.

I happen to have a little fancy mini chopper that I always put to work when it comes to onions since I hate them so much and am seriously sensitive to their tear-inducing power. With that said, I recognize that sometimes I have to use onions and in these cases I have a routine to decrease the amount of pain. I chop off the part of the onion I'll need, throw it into the mini chopper, throw the onions wherever they need to be, then quickly put the chopper in the sink and fill it with water and soap. It's probably hysterical to watch this happen since I freak out and run around trying to get it done before I'm forced to wrap a scarf and sunglasses around my eyes so I don't die from the onions. But regardless, it works.

Mince your garlic.

Prepare your rice and set aside in a covered pan to keep warm.

Heat your olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.

Throw in the onions and garlic and saute until the onions take on a slightly translucent look.

Throw in the mushrooms and peppers and saute for another 5 minutes.

Add in the can of diced tomatoes, the Bisto, soy sauce, and water. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes so that the flavors can mix together.

Add in your Gardein beefless tips or whatever other protein you are using and allow to cook for another 5 minutes or until the beef is completely heated through.

Serve over cooked rice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Voila! Super quick and easy pepper steak!

This was pretty tasty for a thrown together meal, but next time I would probably saute the Gardein first to get it a little bit firmer and crispy on the sides and them mix it in at the very last minute since it was a little bit soft for my taste. Seth, however, had no complaints. I think this would be pretty delicious on a sub roll with some melted Daiya on top and some ketchup (you'll learn that I add ketchup to most things). It wasn't exactly like I remembered, but I think with some tweaking it could be pretty freaking fantastic.

Next up on Dance Vegan Dance:

A small Wonton Wednesday and the beginning of my 13 Days of Halloween!

La Bella Italia and Lasagna Rollups

As someone who lived in Italy for four years, studied abroad there, and still tries to desperately grasp onto some vague knowledge of the language, I frequently get cravings for Italian food (*also read as, my excuse for posting A LOT of pasta recipes in the future*). Unfortunately thinking about Italian food results in visions of mozzarella balls, parmesan cheese, and rich pasta dishes dancing in my head, which obviously no longer really appeals to the vegan side of me. Nevertheless, once a craving hits you, it's impossible to resist. And so, with the lure of melted mozzarella and thick tomato sauce pulling me in, I decided to make a vegan version of the lasagna rollups my grandmother makes every year for Christmas. This one includes a ricotta/bechamel combo to help keep things nice and creamy which isn't exactly traditional for my gma, but I'm sure she wouldn't be too offended by my adding it.

Buon Appetito!

What you will need:

1 package lasagna (*I used whole wheat, don't use the no boil kind here since you need to be able to roll it*)
2 jars tomato sauce of your choice or comparable amount homemade
2 cups shredded vegan mozzarella (*I used Daiya, of course*)
1 recipe Alison's macadamia nut ricotta from her Za Za Ziti recipe (*which is also fantastic btw* NOTE: you will need to soak the macadamia nuts for at least four hours before making this so plan ahead)
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tbsp flour
1 cup unsweetened original almond milk (*you can substitute soy milk here, but I like the creaminess of the almond milk for this recipe)
2 tbsp vegan margarine (*I used Smart Balance*)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
nutritional yeast for sprinkling

How to get it done:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Spray a large casserole dish with nonstick spray or lightly oil it with olive oil.

Make up the batch of macadamia nut ricotta and set aside.

Thaw the frozen spinach in your microwave or by running water over it in a colander in the sink.

Squeeze and drain the spinach until most of the water has been removed. Set aside.

Cook the lasagna according to package directions. (*I like to do this in small batches since it makes the noodles easier to work with and then I used tongs to remove them from the hot water so I could keep the water going. I'm sure there's an easier, more refined way to do this, but I don't know it so there you go.*)

Place a long sheet of aluminum foil across a flat surface in your kitchen.

Spray lightly with nonstick spray. This is so your noodles won't stick when you lay them out.

As your lasagna noodle batches are cooked, place them flat across the aluminum foil.

Get to work on the bechamel.

Heat the margarine in a small pot over medium high heat.

Add the flour and mix until you form a roux and the mixture is smooth.

Continue whisking for several minutes (about 6-7) until the mixture turns a light sandy color. This is a pretty subtle change, but it's noticeable.

Add the almond milk slowly, continuing to mix as you do so to ensure that there are no lumps.

Continue cooking until the mixture begins to thicken (about 10 minutes), whisking fairly constantly so it doesn't burn.

Once thickened enough, add the nutmeg and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Combine the drained spinach with the ricotta until fully mixed.

Add in the garlic powder and Italian seasoning and season with freshly ground black pepper.  Stir til well combined.

Start assembling the rolls by spreading 1.5 - 2 tbsp of the ricotta mixture across the sheet of lasagna. Repeat this process until all of the sheets are covered.

Add 2 tsp of beschamel sauce on top of the ricotta mixture and spread across the sheet of lasagna.

Sprinkle lightly with nutritional yeast.

Spread enough marinara sauce across the casserole dish to cover the bottom completely. (*You can use homemade in this case, but I happen to have found jars of Barilla's Marinara sauce in my local Target, which just so happens to be the jars I used to eat when I lived in Italy and that I am insanely obsessed with, so I went with that and was not disappointed*).

Start rolling those babies up!

Roll the lasagna sheets up, placing the seam down onto the layer of sauce in the casserole dish. Continue until all of the rolls are complete (*I didn't have a big enough casserole dish so this ended up being one 9x13 and one 8x8*).

Ladel tomato sauce across the tops of the rolls until fully covered. (*I ended up with about half a jar left from the two jars after this stage which was perfect for heating up to serve alongside the rolls at dinner*).

Sprinkle the mozzarella across the top of the tomato sauce.

Cover tightly with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the tin foil and sprinkle generously with nutritional yeast. Place bake in the oven to cook for another 5 minutes.

Mangia!!

Wonton Wednesday - First Edition

The other day I was taking a much needed break from life by perusing Pinterest when I came across one of the cutest things I have ever seen - mini taco salads made with wonton wrappers. I immediately knew that I wanted, no NEEDED, to make these and so sent poor Seth out on a wonton wrapper run (try saying that one 10 times fast). Loving to make tacos as often as I do, we already had all of the other ingredients we needed to make up these lovely little things and voila - 16 miniature taco salads ready to be eaten in 2-4 bites! And let me tell you, these were just as cute and delicious as I imagined they would be. Check them out for yourself:

These were super easy to make. All you need are a package of wonton wrappers, a can of refried beans, and any other taco toppings you would like. I used shredded lettuce, a mix of cheddar and mozzarella Daiya cheese, chopped up tomatoes mixed with canned corn, salsa, and sour cream that I mixed with taco seasoning.

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly spray your muffin tins with nonstick spray and push the wonton wrappers into the cups. Finish by lightly spraying the tops again.

Bake in the oven for about 7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and let cool.

Assemble the tacos by placing shredded lettuce in the bottom of the cup. Top with refried beans, the tomato/corn mixture, the sour cream mixture, salsa, and finish with shredded cheese. Little bites of heaven.

Here's a closeup of one in all its glory:

While I was super excited and happy with how these turned out, using only 16 wrappers for these babies means I now have A LOT left. Searching on Pinterest again I realized just how versatile wonton wrappers are...and thus began Wonton Wednesday!

Each Wednesday I'll post one or two new things I've done with my wonton wrappers...that is until I run out of ideas or the wonton wrappers are gone, whichever comes first!

So here's another one for you - mini wonton breakfast bites!

I woke up on Saturday morning with a serious craving for an egg mcmuffin. Obviously since I no longer eat cheese or eggs or bacon for that matter, I had to improvise. I decided to use the omelette recipe on The PPK and made up a delicious little morning treat that Seth and I gobbled up. But since the recipe makes enough for about 4 omelettes we had leftovers - enter my idea for mini breakfast bites!

I only had enough omelette mix for about 6 so I preheated the oven to 350, lightly sprayed my muffin tins, and sprinkled on a thin layer of vegan cheese.

Bake these in the oven for about 5 minutes, or just until the cheese has melted and the wontons have a slightly brown hue (you're going to bake these again, so don't worry about them being done yet).

While these were baking I fried up a couple of slices of Lightlife's Smart Bacon.

When cooled, crumble the slices up and add them to your omelette mixture.

Fill the wontons up about halfway with the egg/bacon mixture. You don't want to fill them too high or the egg won't set before the wontons burn (I found this out the hard way).

Bake for another 12 - 15 minutes. Make sure you watch these so the wontons don't burn. You want the egg to set enough so that a toothpick will come out clean.

Drizzle with ketchup and enjoy!

Stay tuned next week for another episode of Wonton Wednesday!

The Ups and Downs of Writing

So I haven't mentioned this yet, but my sister and I are writing a book. It's a long and painful process that started two summers ago when my sister randomly had an idea for a book about fairies. Yes, you read that right, fairies. And for some reason writing a book about fairies seemed like the greatest idea ever known to man and we immediately and passionately started scribbling away at pages upon pages and hoping that one day we'd be able to piece them together into something vaguely coherent and interesting. The book was going to be done by the fall, then the winter, then the next summer, then the next fall... Queue an insane amount of wedding planning on my end and a new baby on hers and needless to say the book is still not done.

As anyone who has attempted to write a book, or really anyone who has started a project that can't be completed in one quick afternoon, can testify to, there are a lot of obstacles in the process. It seems to be a never ending loop of moments of extreme motivation (I like to call these the "We can totally finish the book in the next month if we just write and edit every day" moments, also known as the "Moments of Improbable Optimism") and those where you can't even stand to look at the pages yet alone pick up a pen to work on them (I call these the "Most Frequently Occurring Moments"). And to make matters worse, all the while, throughout this up and down, "I can do it", "I can't do it," never-ending saga, is an underlying feeling of guilt every time you even consider spending a minute doing anything other than working on the book.

And so, like any respectable underachieving slacker, you find numerous other things to occupy your time instead in the hope that avoidance will somehow result in spontaneous motivation.

For instance, creating a craft storage cubby area:

Or reorganizing all of the books on your bookshelf by color:

and all of the movies:

Or making an earring holder out of yarn:

Until you reach a point where you realize that if you don't work on the book more months will inevitably pass and the possibility of EVER completing the freaking thing will fly out the window as quickly as the idea first popped into your head.

But of course that's easier said than done. So in my final attempt at procrastination, I decided to make something that might actually help me become motivated to write again.

So, for your viewing pleasure, and inspired by a pinterest post by my lovely friend over at Make It Sing here it is:

In case you can't read it it says:

Write
Some letters make a word
Write
Some words make a sentence
Write
Some sentences make a page
Write
Some pages make a chapter
Write
Some chapters make a book

...and in its new home on my desk with Bobblehead Seth:

Potluck and A Moment of Silence

...and the Halloween themed potluck dinner finally arrived this past Friday and it was everything I had always dreamed it would be! Ok, well to be honest, it was a bit of a stressful event considering I happen to be the biggest overachiever and spent the entire week planning all of the genius Halloween themed finger foods I could make - but hopefully my craziness paid off!

Take one house full of Halloween decorations, add several bottles of wine and a large pitcher of homemade butterbeer, mix in a table full of food, and end with 5 lovely ladies and I'd say you have quite the recipe for success.

Enjoy!

Chipotle black bean and pumpkin sliders from Very Vegan Holiday

Spinach dip in a cauldron bread bowl

Candy corn shaped crudite display for dipping

Moldy cheese log made of Sunergia blue cheese and Tofutti cream cheese with black sesame seeds

Black bean and pepper quinoa salad (courtesy of the lovely Meg)

Spooky ghost tortilla chips with "dried bat wing" chips

Mini Halloween shaped cheezy crackers from Have Cake Will Travel

The poor pumpkin wasn't feeling so well and vomited up a heap of guacamole!

Shortbread witches' fingers with almond nails and jam from Chef Chloe and "Just Bitten" red velvet cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

The desserts and butterbeer (butterscotch schnapps and cream soda = heaven in a glass)

And the full spread:

Overall it was an awesome evening and I can't wait for Halloween!!

And now for the serious part of this entry. A tragedy occurred Saturday that I think needs to be brought to light. As a present for my friend's ho-down themed first birthday party for her son I spent hours slaving over the cutest vegetable themed cupcakes (adapted from Hello Cupcake) only to have them destroyed in a monumental accident involving my friend's mother, a cupcake tier, and a lot of broken glass.

And so, in their honor, a moment of silence for our fallen brethren and one last chance to see them in all their glory. Cue Will Ferrell and "Dust in the Wind".