Tofu "Chicken" Nuggets

These tofu chicken nuggets got the disappearing plate of approval from my gang last night.  They didn't take that long to put together and were fairly simple to assemble.  These have a "skin" just like the Vegan Fried Chicken using rice paper wrappers.  Which makes them extra crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Tofu "Chicken" Nuggets

• 2 packages of extra firm tofu - frozen, thawed, pressed and then sliced into 6 slabs each (for a total of 12 slabs).
• 12 rice paper wrappers
• 1 cup non dairy milk
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tbsp paprika 
• 1 tbsp salt 
• 1 tbsp garlic powder 
• 1 tbsp onion powder 
• 1tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp dried basil

Heat your oil.  I use our fryer at 350. (I am working on making a healthier baked version of these too)

Mix all the seasonings and spices with the flour into a shallow bowl.  

Pour the milk into another shallow bowl.

Now we need to put on the "skins."   One at a time soak the rice paper wrappers in a plate or shallow bowl with 1 cup of warm water in it.  Soak for about 20-30 seconds depending how warm your water is.  When it starts to get soft carefully take it out and spread it on your working surface, then place one tofu slab in the center and wrap it up like a burrito and set aside.  Repeat with all remaining pieces of tofu.

Now dip the wrapped pieces into the flour to coat, QUICKLY into the milk and then back into the flour and set aside.  

Once you have them all coated, I fried them 6 at a time for 3 minutes each side in our fryer at 350.

Let cool and serve.  We had ours with mashed lentils and some corn. 

My kids loved these!  If you wanted to add some extra flavor you could marinate your pressed tofu in some not chicken or veggie broth for a while before you start, that would make the inside have that "juicy" chicken feel (which grosses me out! but others seem to appreciate) and impart a lot more flavor to them.

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Happy Thanksliving!

We are late to the party as usual... :)  We had our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday instead of Thursday so we could have some extended family and friends join us.  It was so nice to have a house full of people relaxing and celebrating!  Over the last month we have had a multitude of changes in our lives, I recently went back to work and we are currently in the process of moving (Staying local just moving about 5 minutes from where we were), but going back to work means my daughter had to go to enroll in preschool which is a big change for her and add all the fun and jitters of a new job for me and stress of moving... Ugh!  It was so nice to set all of that aside for one day and just relax and hang out, even if I did have to go sifting through unpacked boxes for my potato masher and the kids had to eat picnic style in the living room because we don't have furniture in that room yet... it was all good!

So on to the feast!

 
I made a homemade seitan roast similar to this one from the PPK  and silly girl that I am I was worried it wouldn't turn out and we would be left with nothing to eat so we picked up a store bought Tofurkey roast,
for a back up, as it turns out I worried for nothing the roast I made was delish and even pleased the palates of our non veg friends.  The Tofurky roast was bland and over chewy in comparison to the delish homemade one... lesson learned!



I was lazy with the gravy and just went with the store bought Tofurkey brand gravy which was so good over my garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing and the roast.  Big fluffy dinner rolls were perfect for dipping the the yummy yummy gravy.

I did roasted veggies to go with the roast which were brussel sprouts, cauliflower and carrots they were tossed with bunches of minced garlic, seasonings and olive oil and then roasted until soft, about an hour. 

My special occasion green beans are always included at holiday meals and were so easy to make vegan, simply sub the butter for Earth Balance.  Take about a pound of fresh green beans, you put 1/2 a stick earth balance into a large heavy skillet and once melted and bubbly throw in a 1/2 cup shaved almonds and 1/2 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) toast those for about 5 minutes and then toss in your beans combine them really well so the earth balance is well distributed and let cook for around 5 more minutes or until the beans are as soft or as crisp as you like them, add salt to taste.

Candied yams are a Thanksgiving staple and were crazy easy to make vegan, just sub the marshmallows for vegan Dandies brand marshmallows and you're done!

My sons' birth father was in town and this was the first time in about 5 years that he has gotten to spend Thanksgiving with his sons so it was important to us to put off our feast until he could join us.  He is DEFINITELY not vegan, though when he is here he does try to be supportive of his sons' choices.   He made us a delish tart homemade cranberry sauce and whipped up a vegan cornbread stuffing with tempeh in place of his usual choice of sausage. 




For dessert I made my traditional chocolate pudding pie,  I've been making this pie every year for Thanksgiving since I was like 14.  For years I have made this pie using an Oreo cookie crust, Jello chocolate pudding mix and Cool whip on top.  But this like just about everything else is so easy to veganize.  I couldn't find a cookie crust at the healthfood store I was shopping at so I just decided to  go with a traditional pie crust and found some that were vegan in the freezer case.  I used organic chocolate pudding mix, and mixed with Silk's organic soy milk, topped with Soyatoo stick it in the freezer for 2 hours or so and then... revel in the amazing simpleness that is my favorite pie :)
 



I also made this crazy simple pumpkin pie from The Lunch Box Bunch that disappeared quickly and a raw vegan cheesecake , we were not in love with the cheesecake.  I used almonds instead of walnuts for the crust as my little dude is allergic to walnuts and it was just too nutty for us.  The texture of this cheesecake was spot on, it just didn't have enough of that "cheesecakey tang" so I want to try to work with it some more.  We are not raw by any means so I think pairing this filling with a vegan graham cracker crust and maybe doubling the lemon juice in the filling and we will get that "tang" we were missing.  






It was a great evening, we all ate way too much, enjoyed some drinks, card games, the company of friends and family and the spirit of being thankful for all that we have.  I am thankful for my beautiful children, for my furry babies, for my amazing husband, for the best friend a girl could wish for, for my wonderful new friends to make new memories with, our new home and that I was able to find a job easily and quickly to ensure we will not struggle financially to keep this roof over my family's heads. I am also thankful that my family is vegan, that we opened our eyes and our hearts to the millions of animals that suffer daily for our choices and that I have learned that I can put on a spread like this... made with love without causing harm to anyone.

Wishing you all the the warmest wishes this holiday season.

Simple Dinners: Enchilada Casserole

Time is never on my side... as evidenced by the fact that is has been way too long since my last blog post.  Lately I need meals to come together quickly and taste good because I don't have time for dinner meltdowns over who doesn't want to eat what.  My oldest son for some reason absolutely hates enchiladas, any enchiladas I have made in the past have resulted in one of those dreaded dinner table meltdowns.  Not because the enchiladas are bad... (I know you were thinking it!) because everyone else in the house gobbles them up with relish.  He just has an aversion to enchiladas, which really sucks for him because the rest of us love them.  So last night I was craving enchiladas but really didn't want to go to the time and trouble of rolling them all up, plus I still have very vivid memories of my hands in flames from the last time I made some.  I made green chili chick'n enchiladas with jalapenos in the sauce and OMG my hands BURNED for two days after wrapping all those up.  So I wanted all the yum of enchiladas without the work... typical huh lol.  Then the answer came to me:
"Enchilada Casserole!" YES!! Enchilada Casserole!  It came together very quickly with about 10 minutes in prep time, there was very little clean up involved, NO ROLLING of enchiladas and best of all my oldest surprised the heck out of me and wolfed it down and asked for more!

So here you are Vegan Enchilada Casserole:

Ingredients:

1. 1 can vegan refried beans (Amy's has a good one)
2. 1 can black beans
3. 1 can or the frozen equiv corn
4. 1 can (the 15 oz one not the huge one) enchilada sauce
5. 1 can diced tomatoes
6. 1 package vegan tortillas/wraps whole grain/spinach... whatever you have will work.  The spinach wraps would add some pretty color.  You need about 12 if you use the smaller ones or 8 if you use the larger 10" ones
7. 1 package pepperjack Daiya
8. Olive oil for bottom of pan

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Heat up your refried beans (they are easier to spread around when warm) and corn in separate bowls in the microwave or pans on the stove
3. Put enough olive oil in the bottom of a 13x9 casserole pan to coat
4. Pour about 1/2 of your enchilada sauce into the pan
5. In a large bowl mix (or the pot you warmed the corn up in if it's big enough) mix the remaining sauce, drained black beans, drained tomatoes, and corn together.
6. Slice your tortillas/wraps in half (a pizza cutter works great for this) so you have a flat edge and then lay down a single layer to cover the bottom of your pan.  You can slice a few into quarters if you need to to cover the corners
7. Layer 1/2 of the refried beans onto the tortillas you just laid down
8. Do another layer of tortillas
9. Cover this later with 1/2 of the black beans/sauce mixture
10. Add a good handful of your Daiya over the layer (About 1/3 of the bag)
11. Add another layer of tortillas
12. Cover with remaining refried beans
13. Add another layer of tortillas
14. Cover with remaining black bean/sauce mixture
15. Add another 1/3 of the Daiya to this layer
16. Cover with a final layer of tortillas and then add the rest of the Daiya to the top
17. Bake for 30 minutes and let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing it up (the layers stay together better if you let it sit for a few minutes before cutting into it.

 You can top this with black olives, avocado slices, vegan sour cream and a sprig of cilantro for plating. 

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*

Spicy VEGAN Italian Sausage

Tonight I am making a favorite dinner of ours: our vegan version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana.  This soup is so good, it's creamy and rich and spicy!!  Check back tomorrow and I will share the full recipe for the soup.  Today I'm sharing the KEY ingredient in pulling this soup together.  Spicy Sausage!

SPICY Italian sausage is one of those things that we LOVED before we went vegan... and the store bought vegan replacements (Tofurky, Field Roast, etc...) have been passable but quite expensive and just didn't have the same spicy taste that we love.

I looked at couple different people's versions of  homemade sausages and sort of pulled from them what I liked and mixed and matched to make my version.  I really liked the idea of wrapping them in foil to maintain a uniform sausage shape, as anyone who has made seitan knows it just kinda does what it wants shape wise when you boil it.  The same person whose blog I got the idea about wrapping in foil also steamed them which I think really lended to the correct DENSE texture.

These are VERY easy to make, you can turn the heat on them up or down by adjusting the amount of pepper, they are CHEAP and most importantly they are DELISH and have a fabulous texture.

You will need:

Equipment:

• Large mixing bowl
• Small mixing bowl
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Fork or whisk
• Something to steam in pot/steamer/rice cooker.... whatever you use for steaming
• 8 pieces of foil that are about 8-10 inches long *hint* tear these off and set them aside before your hands get dirty ;)

Dry Ingredients:

• About 2 cups of gluten and 1/3 cup chickpea flour sifted together
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tbsp vegan chicken or beef flavor (I used chicken)
• 2 tbsp dried onion flakes
• 2 tbsp fennel seeds
• 2 1/2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 - 2 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how hot you want them)
• scant tsp oregano
• pinch of all spice

Wet Ingredients:

• 10 minced garlic cloves (I like a LOT of garlic, you can scale this back if you don't)
• 2 tbsp oil (I used olive)
• 2 tbsp tamari
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp liquid smoke (a little goes a LONG way with this so use sparingly!)
• 2 - 2 1/4 cups COLD water (MUST BE COLD!)

So mix all your dry together in a large bowl.  Then whisk all the wet together in a separate small bowl and add into your dry.  Combine this gently you do not need to over process this, do not knead it like you would for regular seitan.  You want it to come together easily and have a nice spongy texture, it should not be overly wet and should not be crumbly dry... you can add more gluten or water a pinch or two at a time to adjust if you need to.


Start your water boiling if you are using a double boiler type steamer like me. Lay out your foil and divide your sausages up into 8 pieces.


Then roll the foil around them tightly and twist the ends.  Don't worry about making them perfect sausage logs as they expand from the steam they will turn out perfect!


Place them in your steamer, cover and let steam for 30 mins.


After 30 mins take them off the heat and let them cool or you can be impatient like me and burn your fingers opening them up too soon because you are just so excited you can't wait to see and taste them lol!
Finished Spicy Italian Sausage

You can slice them and add to soups and sauces, serve whole over pastas, eat them as links on buns, or just be like me and sit there and revel in how delish they are until you look down and they are all gone haha
mmmm.... these taste better and cost WAY less than Field Roast!!

If your kids don't like spicy heat you can leave the red pepper flakes as the very last ingredient.  Once you have everything else mixed in separate out your sausages into spicy and non spicy, and then mix the red pepper flakes into the spicy ones.  Make sure you mark the foil on the ones without the spice!  You little ones will thank you :)  Be sure to check back tomorrow for our vegan version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana using these spicy sausages.

Cheesy Chick'n and Wild Rice Casserole

Some people have this crazy idea that vegans live on grass and tofu but the truth is your options for eating vegan are endless.  I love to challenge the thought that vegans don't eat good, trust me we eat and we eat GOOD!  To be honest we eat so much better since going vegan, the world of food just kind of opened up to us.  Before we were vegan we had about 5 or 6 meals that we ate all the time, it was pretty boring and we ended up eating out so much because we were bored with our rotation.  Now I have so many things I want to cook and bake I often can't make up my mind!  I love to take non vegan recipes and veganize them, I have a LONG list of dishes I want to make vegan and when I saw this pin on Pinterest I knew I had to add it to the list.  My husband loved Rice-a-Roni type dishes but in addition to being vegan we try make healthier choices which means staying away from most packaged processed foods so Rice-a-Roni type boxed products are off the table.  When he took his first bite of this dish he said "It tastes like Rice-a-Roni" and I knew I had a winner! 

We served this with a fresh salad and the recipe made enough for everyone to have seconds, and for lunches the next day.

Click here to see the original non vegan version of this recipe

Vegan Cheesy Chick'n and Wild Rice Casserole

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced (I used precut carrot chips about a cup and a half)

2 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic (I used a whole head, minced we LOVE our garlic!)

2 Cups shredded, cooked chicken breast  1 Package Gardien Chick'n Scallopini browned and chopped

4 cups of cooked mixed wild rice 

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cheese Sauce

4 Tablespoons butter Earth Balance

1/4 Cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 Cups chicken broth Imagine Not Chicken Broth

2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

Top with 1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 package Daiya Pepperjack Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large skillet or pot heat oil over medium heat.  Saute onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in chick'n, cooked rice, salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to low.

In a medium saucepan melt the Earth Balance over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour, salt and pepper then slowly pour in the not chicken broth whisking continuously.  Whisk until thick and nearly boiling then stir in 1/2 of the package of Daiya cheese until thick and creamy.  Pour cheese sauce into rice mixture then transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish. Top with the reminder of the Daiya and bake for 30 minutes.

Saute away!

Browned and chopped Gardien ready to be added

Add the rice and Chick'n to the veggies

So many tastes and textures!

Getting Cheesy!

Add the cheese sauce

Transfer to baking dish, top with the remainder of the Daiya and bake for 30 minutes