Miche Bags! Vegan Purses!

Don't you hate it when you want to change purses and you have to take the time move all your stuff from bag to bag? I have a dozen purses in my closet each half filled with junk I didn't want to move out of it when I switched bags.

My good friend Ashley is a Miche rep and turned me on to these great bags. This is such a fantastic concept, you don't change purses, just the outer shell! So no transferring of junk from bag to bag, and the bases are designed to keep all your stuff neat and organized and the shells are avail in all kinds of fabulous stylish designs!

BEST OF ALL MICHE BAGS ARE VEGAN, made from 100% man-made materials!

There are some GREAT SALE prices right now and awesome anniversary bundles as well. Click on the link below to check out the fab bags and GREAT DEALS, I think the sale prices are good until the end of July.

If you have any questions at all please leave a comment and I'll do my best to get you an answer. Now go check them out and get yourself a fab new bag or two for summer!

https://ashleyhuth.miche.com/Shop?partyId=58436

Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo - VEGANIZED!

Kinda slacking here I just realized I never posted the Vegan Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo dinner I made for my husband for Fathers day, yikes!  I promised a few people this recipe, so sorry it's late but here ya go!

I make it my mission to keep my husband a happy vegan, when eating out that is often not possible because he thinks he requires more than just a veggie sandwich or side salad and here in our town vegan eats are slim, although looking up with the recent opening of not one but TWO very vegan friendly spots! Anyway... aside from eating out, when we are at home I think I've got it nailed down pretty good.  As I said a few posts back there has not been one meal  from our prevegan life that I have not been able to successfully veganize, that does not mean there have not been a few misses here and there, there have definitely been some misses! But you know... if at first you don't succeed and blah blah all that jazz...  So I try try again and in the end I almost always end up with exactly what we were trying for.  Vegan fettuccine has been one of the misses for me in the past, I tried several different versions and none of them had that creamy, saucy, fettuccine taste I was looking for, so it's been on the back burner for a while.  Well this Fathers Day I wanted to knock my hubby's tastebuds right out of orbit!  So... I got to thinking about things he loved before we were vegan that I have not tried to make yet or have not perfected yet... fettuccine popped in to my head and then, you know because figuring out how to fix something you failed at in the past was not a challenge enough, I remembered about the Blackened Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo he used to order all the time and quickly devour at our fave Italian place.  If you have never had this before it's popular at a lot of Italian restaurants, basically it's fettuccine alfredo served with a chicken breast that has been blacked with cajun spices and some of the spices sprinkled on top of the noodles as well.  It was one of my husband's absolute FAVORITE dishes so it was time to give it the vegan treatment.  

I set about googling vegan alfredo sauce to get some ideas and I found lots of recipes that looked an awful lot like the ones I had tried in the past, I wanted something new... something I hadn't failed at in the past and then I found one that used cashew cream as a base instead of soy milk and I knew I had a winner!  I love cashew cream, it makes EVERYTHING fabulous and it's so easy to make.


I made a HUGE batch of this because I knew my husband would love it and I wanted him to have leftovers for lunch the next day.  The recipe below is going to give you enough for dinner for a family of five with fairly large portions (hey it was Daddy's day... let em eat!) and seconds (and eat... lol) AND to have some left over for lunches the next day.  If you don't want that much food cut the recipe in half and you should have just enough for dinner for a family of 4 or 5 :) 

This recipe uses a Cashew Cream identical to the Cashew Cream from the Vegan Fried Chicken post.  You will need some presoaked cashews for this. 
Cashew Cream Recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups raw organic cashews
• 2 1/2 cups water

Soak cashews in water overnight or bring the cashews and 4 cups of water to a simmer.  Remove from heat and let soak 1 hour.  Drain and rinse the cashews. 

This makes like 5 cups of cashew cream, you will need need all 5 cups for the alfredo sauce but if you make up a double batch you can save it and use it to make vegan fried chicken! The cream can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 2 months.

 *TIP* I keep presoaked nuts of all kinds in gallon ziploc bags in the freezer.  I buy nuts in bulk and soak them in large quantities over night, then rinse and fill up the bags and freeze.  When I need some I just take out what I need they are presoaked and I'm all ready to go without waiting for the nuts to soak.

You will need the following:

• 2 packages vegan fettuccine noodles *I dream of making my own pasta some day like these... but for now store bought noodles will have to do*
• 2 packages Gardein Chick'n Scallopini
• 5 cups of premade Cashew Cream from above

Blackened Chicken Spices:

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp ground fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder 

Mix all together in a bowl and set aside.
*Note this is only enough spice to cover 1/2 of the chicken patties (4 of them) and sprinkle a bit on the grownups plates because I didn't put the spices on the patties I was serving to the little ones.*

Fettuccine Alfredo Sauce: adapted from munchin with munchkin

• About 1/3 cup evoo
• 1 lb sliced or chopped baby bella mushrooms (the little portobellos) *how small you chop em up depends on whether or not you have to hide them from your kiddos!*
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 smallish or 1 large leek thinly sliced
• 1 large shallot chopped
• 1 head of minced garlic 
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper 

I served my main course with oven roasted asparagus and crescent rolls brushed with vegan butter.  If you want to do the same you will need:

• 2 bunches of organic asparagus
• 1 head minced garlic *yes! we like garlic here!* 
• Salt
• more evoo for drizzling
• 2 packages of crescent rolls *yes they are vegan* we used the ones from Trader Joes
• some melted Earth Balance or other vegan butter for brushing on the tops of your rolls

If you are anything like me and you are obsessed with making sure everything comes out of the oven/off the stove at exactly the same time to serve everything piping hot and perfect you are going to be a busy bee in the kitchen for the next 45 minutes or so :) Get the kiddos set up with a Disney movie, baby yoga dvd... coloring books or whatever will keep them out from under foot for about an hour, gather all of your ingredients on to your counter and...  

Ready?  Set. GO!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 (or whatever your package of crescent rolls calls for).
2. Blend your cashew cream as stated above.  Set aside.
3. Premix your blackened chicken spices and set aside.
4. Wash/chop/dice/mince all your veggies set aside in small bowls.
5. Drizzle some oil on a baking sheet, wash and chop off the bottoms of your asparagus and place in a single layer on baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little salt and 1 head of minced garlic set aside.
   
   
6. Prepare your pan and roll your crescent rolls per the package instructions, and set those aside with your asparagus pan.
7. Set a large pot of water to boil for your noodles. 
8. Put your asparagus and and crescent rolls into the oven with the asparagus on the top rack and the rolls on the middle.  Set a timer to bake these for 15-20 minutes, or whatever the instructions on your package of rolls says.
9. Drizzle a large skillet with some additional evoo and heat to med.  Pan fry any of the Gardein you are not going to put the blackened chicken spices on according to the package directions, and set aside on a plate near or on your stove to stay warm.
10. Sprinkle most your blackened chicken spice on a plate.
11. Moisten the Gardein patties you are going to blacken with a little water and then coat them with the spices, then pan fry according to the package directions.  Set aside with the other ones to stay warm.  *If your little ones are as sensitive to hot spices as mine are you may want to put them on a separate plate or put a paper towel in between them so none of the spices rub off onto theirs*
12. For the alfredo sauce:  In a large stock pot heat a little less than 1/2 the evoo over med heat and saute your mushrooms until they are tender, deglaze the pan with 1/2 the white wine.  Scoop out your mushrooms and set aside. 
13. In the same pot heat the rest of your evoo over med heat and add your leeks and shallots.  Saute about 5 minutes, until tender.
14. Right about now the water for your noodles should be boiling, so while the leeks and shallots are sauteing add your noodles to the water and cook according to your package instructions. 
15. Back to the alfredo sauce... Add your head of minced garlic, and then drizzle with the remaining white wine.  Cook for a minute or two then whisk in your 5 cups of Cashew Cream, stir well.  Add lemon juice, onion and garlic powders, pepper flakes and nutmeg, stirring well.  Let it come to a simmer stirring CONSTANTLY until it thickens.  You will be able to tell right away when it is thickened, add in the nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper to taste, add back in the mushrooms.
16. Your noodles should be done, drain and then pour the noodles into the sauce pot.  Use tongs to toss the noodles and coat with sauce.  
17. Your timer on the asparagus and rolls should be beeping at you so take them out.  
18. Plate your masterpiece!  Twirl fettuccine into nests on your plates, sprinkle the grownups noodles with some of the blackened chicken spices, rough chop 1 chicken patty on top of the noodles, add some asparagus spears and a crescent roll or two and you are done! 
19. Sit back and enjoy your meal and bask in all the ooohhhs and ahhhs of all your hard work :) a glass of wine would be great right now too!
20. Get someone else to do the dishes!

My husband's face when he saw the special meal I had veganized for him was soooo very worth every minute I spent over the stove making this for him!!

Kiddo sized portions

For dessert we had brownies ala-mode with chocolate ganache brownies, served over homemade almond ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce... can you say vegan dessert heaven!

 
   

Vegan Fried Chicken!

I have been checking out vegan cook books from the library like crazy lately, and loving almost all of them!  One that I have been very impressed with is Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin who is Ellen's personal chef.  The tagline is "Over 125 Recipes So Tasty You Won't Miss the Meat!"   Well I don't miss meat at all anyway but my husband definitely does so I decided to test out the fried chicken recipe from the book for dinner last night.  OH.MY.GOSH!  HUGE success, the kids LOVED it, hubs LOVED it, I LOVED it and the last piece that was left over got fed to the lucky pup who LOVED it too!  I was concerned that it would take a long time but once I got the Gardein thawed it was actually pretty easy and quick to get it all assembled and cooked.  I have a deep fryer so I used that rather than pan frying it like he suggests in the book.  Also I didn't put in the blackening spice, as with the addition of hot sauce I was worried the kids wouldn't eat it if I made it any spicier.

There are a couple things that need to be done ahead of time for this.  You need to have some soaked cashews, if you are going to use the blackening spice for the extra heat it takes a couple minutes to mix that up, and you need your Gardein chick'n to be completely thawed so you can shape it, either leave it out on the counter for a few hours or use the defrost option on your microwave.

Blackening Spice Recipe is as follows:

• 1tbsp paprika
• 1tsp cayenne
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and store in an air tight container

Cashew Cream Recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups raw organic cashews
• 2 1/2 cups water

Soak cashews in water overnight or bring the cashews and 4 cups of water to a simmer.  Remove from heat and let soak 1 hour.  Drain and rinse the cashews. 

Blend soaked cashews and water in blender until completely smooth stopping a few times to scrape down the sides of the blender and make sure you get all the nuts blended.  The book recommends straining the cream to make sure there is no unblended particles in your cream, I processed mine for about 3-4 minutes in my Vita-mix and there was nothing put perfect smooth cream so I didn't bother straining.  The cream should be the consistency of heavy cream.

This makes like 5 cups of cashew cream, you only need 2 for the fried chicken recipe, the rest can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 2 months.

*TIP* I keep presoaked nuts of all kinds in gallon ziploc bags in the freezer.  I buy nuts in bulk and soak them in large quantities over night, then rinse and fill up the bags and freeze.  When I need some I just take out what I need they are presoaked and I'm all ready to go without waiting for the nuts to soak.


Southern Fried Chick'n adapted from Vegan Cooking for Carnivores

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp blackening spice or Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic
  *Note* I left this spice out of the recipe when I made ours*
• 1 tbsp garlic powder *also I noticed at the last minute I was out of garlic power too so we skipped this ingredient too.
• 1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 2 cups Cashew Cream
• 3 tbsp Tabasco sauce
• 2 packages of Gardein Chicken Scallopini
• 1 package rice paper spring roll wrappers

If you are pan frying you need about 2 cups high-heat oil for frying.

In a medium bowl mix flour, blackening spice, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, onion powder, and salt until well mixed.


In a separate bowl mix the cashew cream and Tabasco sauce.











Roll each Gardein patty into a ball and then shape into a 1-inch-thick patty.

Now it's time to put the "skin" on the chicken! You need a dish is big enough for the spring roll wrappers to fit into and deep enough to hold about a cup of water, a shallow bowl worked well for me.  Check your wrappers and make sure they don't have any holes or cuts.  You need one wrapper for each piece of chicken, the package of wrappers I bought from my local Asian market had like 50 wrappers so I just stuck the rest in a Zipoc and put em back in the pantry.  Put 1 cup of water as hot as you can stand into your bowl and you are going to soak one wrapper at a time for about 20 seconds or so, do not let them get totally soft.  Soak your first wrapper, take it out and spread it out smooth on your counter or cutting board.  Then put your Gardein onto the wrapper and roll it up in the wrapper like a burrito.  Repeat this with all 8 pieces of chicken.

Put a little of the seasoned flour onto a large plate or baking sheet.  Dip a patty in the seasoned flour bowl and coat it all over, then into the cashew cream and then dredge it back into the flour bowl, then place it on the floured plate.  Repeat with all the rest of the pieces.

The book recommends frying in a cast-iron skillet or heavy bottomed pan with sides that are at least 3 inches high.  I used our deep fryer heated to 375 and fried them for about 4 minutes.  I tend to burn almost anything I try pan fry, I can never get the heat right and always cook things too long, so using the deep fryer saves me from this issue the oil is all heated evenly and the timer beeps to let me know they are done.  If you are pan frying the recipe states to cook four patties at a time for about 2 1/2 minutes each side. 

After frying transfer to a paper towel lined dish.  Serve hot!  I served ours with smashed potatoes and baked white carrots.

So crispy and perfect!

Smashed potatoes and white carrots

The "skin" on these was sooo perfect, almost a little too realistic!

Perfectly juicy, crispy, hot and a little greasy... everything I remember fried chicken to be.

Princess portions!  My daughter's dinner plate was 1/2 a piece of chicken, 1 smashed potato and some of the baked white carrots.  She ate every bite of this!

OH!  I almost forgot!  Here is a coupon for Gardein products! 
*Tip*You can print the coupons twice from each compute you own*

DIY Uncrustables - Make Summer Easy and Cheap!

Uncrustables... I have never purchased them, they seemed wasteful to me.  The crust is perfectly fine and in my house you eat your sandwich crust and all, plus seriously if you don't have time to whip your kid up a PB&J you might want to rethink things a bit... It takes 2 minutes to make a PB&J, surely you've got 2 minutes to make your kid lunch?  Well those were my thoughts up until 2 weeks ago at the water park when we discovered they were open later than we expected and the kids wanted to stay and of course we hadn't had dinner yet.  So rather than drag 3 teary-eyed little ones out of the pool I wandered over to the snack shack to see what they had to offer, the pickings were slim:  Nachos (like the 7-11 kind), hotdogs, chicken sandwiches, burgers, all kinds of ice cream, chips and Uncrustables.   I asked to see the label on the Uncrustables and though full of crap they looked to be vegan to me.  So I bit the bullet and shelled out $2 for each of us to have a hockey puck sized frozen PB&J for dinner, and of course it was just my luck the kids loved the darn things!  Something about a frozen PB&J with peanut butter on BOTH sides and a jelly center... IDK I think it makes them feel like they are eating a doughnut or something.  Anyway they ask for them now everytime we go to the pool, after buying them a couple times I said to myself, enough!! I can buy a whole loaf of bread for the price of one of these sandwiches!  So I did some research checked Pinterest and it looks like I'm not the only mom whose kids love these things but thinks they are too expensive.  From my ahem *research* I was able to see that there were two ways of making them yourself, one looks exactly like the Smuckers original Uncrsutables and is made with a tool by Pampered Chef and the other is a different shape but the same basic idea made with a $2 tool found at Walmart, I'll take the budget version thank you!  Having not been in Walmart for a while (we try not to shop there) I was a bit lost trying to find the tool, turns out it's hanging on a strip right next to the PB&J!  So now I'm armed and making sandwiches!  I have found that the sandwiches cut and hold together better with a squishy bread like potato bread, and that bread that has been frozen and thawed tends to rip when pressing them.  So fresh unfrozen squishy bread, spread a circle of peanut butter in the center of both sides of bread and then a bit of jam in the center, put the breads together squish the jam around a bit and then cut and press.

Now I have several dozen of these sammies in my freezer ready to grab and go to the water park or anytime the kids want one.

There are fabulous step-by-step instructions available over at Unsophisticook.com, go check em out! 

Photo Credit:  Unsophisticook.com

I'm making some with chocolate peanut butter too!  Also be sure to check out the croutons recipe at the bottom of this post for a use for all those leftover crusts!

Easy Summer Treat and a Coupon!

Do you ever feel like life is going so fast you just can't seem to get anywhere?  That is so how I feel lately.  I have a million and one projects/chores/things that need to get done and I just can't seem to find the time to do any of them.  Of course right now a lot of that is because the kids are out of school for the summer and take up a lot more of my time and attention (as they should) so projects and messy house be damned... I got little ones to entertain!  I just wanted to share with you a crazy delish and SUPER easy summer treat we made.  I had some coupons (another new project of mine, I'm trying to learn how to be a couponer!) for the new Fruit and Protein drinks from Silk so I bought them to give em a try.  The kids did enjoy drinking them but we thought they were so sweet they reminded us of popsicles so we decided to freeze some and see what happened.  Well what happened was a frozen pop of YUM!

So run out and grab yourself some, there are a couple of different flavors, pour into your popsicle molds and ENJOY!

You can even get a coupon yourself from the link above, right at the top of Silk's page it says "coupon" just follow the links, click, print and save!!