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. 

Tofu Scramble for Miniature Vegans aka a Tofu Scramble Your Kids Will Actually Eat

Ahhh tofu scramble... nothing screams breakfast more to me these days than a delish tofu scramble served with breakfast potatoes and a slice of toast.  However, my kids and I have VERY different ideas about what is delish... see to me this:


is a FABULOUS tofu scramble, but to my kids it is reason to run away from the table screaming.  "Ahhhh mom... what are all those bits!?"  "What are the yellow ones?"  "What are the red ones!?"  "Tomatoes, mom you know I hate tomatoes unless it's ketchup!"  "Mom you know avocado makes me barf!"  "Spinach!  Mom WHO eats spinach for breakfast!"


Sigh... so I decided to make a tofu scramble just for them with no "bits" of anything, no "barfy" stuff lol, no spinach... just a tofu scramble that in my opinion is scarily close to real scrambled eggs. 

It was super easy to throw together, only a handful of ingredients and the kids ate it all for breakfast this morning and asked for more!

Tofu Scramble Your Kids Will Eat 

• 1 Block of extra firm tofu
• 1/2 tsp tumeric 
• 1/2 tsp BLACK salt black salt is the key in making these actually taste like eggs!  It is sulfury and tastes like egg yolks!  I buy it in the bulk section of my local health food store. 
• 1tsp onion powder because the kids like the taste of food cooked in onions but not the oniony bits!
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• Some fresh cracked black pepper to taste  If your kids get wigged out by the little black bits from pepper in their food you can try white pepper which adds the same flavors but is sneaky invisible! 
  
• 2 tbsp almond milk, added in at the end I'm sure any non dairy milk will work, I just had almond on hand today

So I want to tell you first; DON'T freak out about pressing your tofu for this dish!  Somethings like tofu steaks and patties etc... yes you need to press out the water to cut it and maintain the tofu's shape, but with a scramble you are mashing the hell out of it anyway so it really doesn't matter.  The trick is to cook off the water!  So open your tofu, drain and hand squeeze what water you can out of it.  Then crumble it into your pan.  You want to heat it over a med high heat and you will start to see the water coming out of the tofu like in the photo below.

Once you start to see the water releasing you want to keep cooking it, stirring occasionally until all the water cooks off (about 3-5 minutes).  Then it should look like this:

Add the rest of your ingredients and cook for about 5 more minutes.  

It all looked a little dry to me so I added a splash of almond milk and stirred that around and cooked for like a minute or two more.  The result was this:

 A tofu scramble my kids actually ate!  And tell me that does not look just like scrambled eggs!? 

Plated with some breakfast potatoes, fruit and toast I was very pleased with what we put in their bellies this morning!

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!!

Oh the Thinks You Can Think

How does one go about opening their first blog post ever? How do you introduce yourself to the universe known as the blogosphere?  Do you walk in hand extended and introduce yourself, boldly?  Hang back in crowd and hope someone notices you?   I say throw a party and invite the neighbors!  HI NEIGHBORS!!  My name is Ashley, my hubs is the hairy guy you may see lurking in the photos here from time to time and rounding out our family are our children ages 8, 6, 3 and our furkids Sabrina the cat and Xira the pup.  Now pass the dip and lets party!

Well ok, perhaps "party" is a bit grander than how my first blog post came to be.  Technically what happened is my six year old told me at 6:30 last night that his class is having a birthday party for Dr. Seuss today and that he wanted to bring something to share at the party. Hmmm... a last minute something Seuss. How could I say no?  

You see, Dr. Seuss is our absolute fave author! Eric Carle comes in a very close second but the good Dr. always takes the top spot, whenever the kids get to pick their own bedtime stories you can almost guarantee that The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, or Red Fish, Blue Fish will be the first one they ask me to read.  We love all things Seuss!  Our whole family dressed up as characters from the Cat in the Hat a couple years ago for Halloween. My 3 year old had a pair of Red Fish, Blue Fish Converse that I actually shed a tear over when she out grew them and my oldest son was a Star-Bellied Sneech in a Dr. Seuss play a while back.  So now that you know how much we adore Dr. Seuss, you realize that I had to come up with something fantastic, did I mention it was only 2 hours before bedtime?  OY think mama!  THINK! 

Of course cookies came to mind, they are quick easy and everyone loves cookies.  Chocolate chip?  Nah... what is Seussish (yes I just made that up) about chocolate chip cookies?  Nothing, that's what!!  Oatmeal? No the kids hate oatmeal cookies.   SUGAR, of course!  But no Seussish cutters! How do I not own any Dr. Seuss cookie cutters, I own a couple hundred cookie cutters but no Seuss!  Think mama... think!!  Google, HELP!  Google provided me with lots of beautiful very intricate Seuss themed cookies, that if I had days and  time to order Seuss cutters, I would have been all over.  Then I saw THIS and I thought now THAT is doable! Pinwheels! It's been years but I remembered making red and white pinwheel cookies for Christmas once, so I was off and running. 

Have I mentioned yet that my family is vegan?  Yup, and we love it!  We don't just eat grass don't worry!  Vegan food is amazing! That is the main reason I started this blog to share vegan recipes FAMILY STYLE and show people that you can feed a large-ish family fabulously without breaking the bank or resorting to munching carrot sticks for the rest of your life (although we do love our carrot sticks around here!)

 So the vegan sugar cookie recipe is as follows:

This recipe will make 30 pinwheel cookie pops

Preheat oven to 350

• 5 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 soy milk - any nondairy milk is fine
• 1 cup of nondairy margarine/butter
  
• 1/2 cup of vegan buttery shortening (you can use all butter or all shortening, this is just the combo I like for crispy on the edges but chewy in the middle cookies)
• 1 tbsp vanilla  
• Food coloring
• Vegan sprinkles or sugar crystals

 *Note about ingredients - I always try to use organic products as close to their natural state as possible, meaning unrefined sugar, unbleached flour etc.  I also try to stay away from artificial food colors and flavors in most of my cooking and baking. These cookies do make use of food coloring though, so if anyone out there knows how to get purple/blue food coloring naturally let me know!

Cream together the butter, shortening and sugar.  Add milk, vanilla and baking powder, mix well.  Add 1/2 the flour mix until combined and then add the other half and mix some more.  It takes about 3-4 minutes with the hand mixer on med/high for the dough to come together.  If you want to just make plain sugar cookies, slap your dough in the middle of some plastic wrap, form into a log and freeze for about 30 mins.  Then slice and bake for 10-12 mins.  If you are still with me on the pinwheels lets get rolling! 

Take the dough and separate it into 4 equal portions in separate bowls and mix in the food colorings of your choice.  I chose orange, purple, yellow and green that combo seemed very Seussy!  Once you have your colors mixed in get some parchment paper and roll each color individually into a rectangle (or as close as you can get to one, I never have been good at rolling things into rectangles).  Keep the other colored dough in the fridge while you roll each one out.  I learned a trick recently about rolling dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and it kinda rocks!  No more dough that is too tough because of all the flour you rolled it in, AND having the rectangle of parchment kinda gives you a guide of how to shape what you are rolling out.

Green Dough with parchment underneath

 Once you have one layer rolled out put it on your baking sheet leaving the parchment on the bottom of it and peel off the parchment on top.  Set the baking sheet in the fridge while you get busy rolling out the next color of dough.

Orange dough ready

When you have got your next color all rolled out, pull the baking sheet out of the fridge and then peel the parchment off the top of the new dough.  Quickly flip the new one on top of the one already on the baking sheet.  *TIP* You won't be able to move or readjust this sheet of dough once you put it on there so try to line it up good!  Once you have it on there peel off the parchment off.  It may want to rip a little at first, just be gentle with it and once you get the whole edge off you should be able to slowly peel the whole thing off easily.

Layering orange on top of green

Repeat this process for the remaining colors.

All the layers

When you have all four layers on it should look something like the photo on the right. 

So pretty!

Cut the edges to make it a rectangle.  I found it easier to slip it out of the sheet pan to trim it, just grab the sides of the parchment and pick it up. 

Don't toss those edges!  Just set them aside somewhere for now.  

Ok so now... the rolling this part can be tricky.  Have you ever rolled sushi, or at least watched someone else do it?  You want to use a similar method here.  Keeping the parchment on the dough you want to start rolling it (on the long side).  Tuck the first bit over and then use the parchment paper to sort of lift the dough for you as you go.  You want to try to roll it as tightly as possible.  You do not want any gaps between the rolls.  The dough may want to crack on you as you roll it, that's totally fine just keep the parchment paper over it and smooth the cracks out with your hands as you go, it won't be perfect yet so don't stress on it too much.  Once you've got it all rolled up slice the roll in half and set half aside in the fridge.  

Take 1 half and roll it with your hands on a piece of parchment getting the gaps out of the layers.  You can actually feel the gaps in the dough if you run your hands along it, it should feel like a solid log if you feel a part that feels saggy or poochy you can tell there is a gap in there.  Just roll it back and forth on the counter on the piece of parchment.  Kinda like making a playdoh log!  As you roll it the log will get longer once you have all the gaps out and the log is about twice as long as it was when you started wrap it up in that piece of parchment and set it in the freezer.  Get your other half and repeat this process.  They should look something like the photo when finished. 

Candy!

Now both of your logs should be in the freezer.  Get a tray or another cookie sheet and pour in your sprinkles/sugar crystals.   

Get the log that has been in the freezer the longest out and roll it in the sprinkles.  If you find your sprinkles are not sticking you can use a pastry brush to brush a dab of water onto the log and then roll.  The sugar crystals I used stuck pretty well on their own.

Now slice the log into 1/4 in thick rounds and stick a stick into them if you are making them into cookie pops like I did.  I just used popsicle sticks they are way cheaper than cookie pop sticks.  You want to be careful and make sure to stick the sticks about 1/2 way into the cookie right in the middle (don't let it poke out the back).  Then space them evenly on a parchment lined cookie sheet (I resused the same parchment sheets over and over when making these) and bake at 350 for 14 minutes.  

Leave them in the pan to cool for 10 minutes and then on the counter or cooling rack for another 15 or so.  Repeat with the other log.  At this point Dad gave the 10 minute bedtime warning so I had to do the last bit of packaging them without the kiddos.  But boy were they excited about the outcome of these cookies!  "They look like the Lorax trees mama!!"  Yay, that made my heart smile!! 

 

They look very Seussy to mee!!

And then I realized I had nothing to put these in! Our grocery store is like 3 minutes away so we run there... a LOT.  It was late and I didn't want to be gone long so heading over to Target was out of the question (time is a foreign concept to me once I enter the land of Target), so I was hoping that the grocery store would have those little cello treat sacks and something cute to tie them up with.  I was out of luck!  No cello sacks at all :(  So I grabbed a box of generic sandwich bags for $1.25 and a couple of these premade curly bow things from the card aisle and hightailed it home just in time to get my bedtime kisses!  

 Sideways photo!

With the little ones tucked in bed I enlisted hubby to help finish them off.  I cut the ziplock part off the baggies and cut the middle of the bows off where they were all stapled together so that I had all the long pretty curlies.  Stuck the cookie pop in the baggie and tied the curlies around the stick.  

From start to finish the whole thing took me about an hour and a half the bulk of which was rolling out the dough.

30 Seussy Cookie Pops all wrapped and ready to go

You didn't think I'd forgotten about those scraps did you?  Bake them as you did the cookies for about 12 mins and then once cool break them up into smaller pieces.  This way nothing got wasted and the other kiddos get to have some treats too!

               HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS!