~ MMMMMM Meatless Meatball Hoagies :-) - and Creamy Cole Slaw

The other day Franc and I came home from work exhausted and starving. We had some fresh buns from our favorite local bakery (Vibo's) and I remembered we had a bag of meatless meatballs from Trader Joe's in the freezer. We made dinner in less than thirty minutes and it turned out Fab! We had not tried these meatless meatballs before and they turned out super quick and convenient. I made a reallly basic sauce onions, mushrooms, garlic, italian seasonings, and a can of red pack brand plain tomato sauce with a splash of Francs home made wine :-) Let that simmer about ten minutes and added the frozen balls directly to the pot. They took about ten minutes to heat all the way through. Spoon the meatballs and sauce  onto the buns and top with white Daiya brand cheese. While I was doing this Franc was making a nice colorful coleslaw recipe.

Meatless Meatballs

                                                                            xoxo,
                                                                            Betty

Here's my quick and easy Creamy Vegan Cole Slaw Recipe:
Use one bag of pre-shred coleslaw mix.I also added about half a cup of diced diakon
Add 2 cups of Red Cabbage chopped and about 1/2 of one onion chopped up fine.
Whisk up 3/4 cup of Veganaise, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Pour over slaw mix. You can add a little salt and pepper to taste, if you like. If you like your dressing more creamy add a little more Veganaise, a little more runny and sour add a little more vinegar. This recipe make a big bowl of slaw so you can put some away for later in the week. Of course you can shred your own cabbage and carrots if you like - this is just the quick version.

Franc & his slaw

Yummo - Franc

~ Betty and Franc meet the author of The Happy Herbivore Cookbook!

Lindsay Nixon, the Author of The Happy Herbivore did a book signing in Pittsburgh this past weekend. Franc, myself, and the small fries, were able to get our copy signed and say hello! Yeah we were SO excited! Here is our pic:



Betty&Franc and family with Lindsay Nixon

                                                            

~ Betty's B T A ( Bacon kinda, Tomato, Avocado)

 So I had a really nice looking tomato and it made me hungry for a BLT. Instead, I made a BTA, hey why not? We have a fabulous local bakery so I picked up some buns, fresh tomato, Avocado, Veganaise and some non bacon bits and Voila' the perfect lunch for Franc and I.

Betty's BTA

                                                                     Now that is a good lunch ,
       PS                                                               Betty
      We just bought a box of
Toffutti Cuties. They are mini
non-dairy ice cream sandwiches
if you havent tried them you MUST! OMG :-)                                                             

Caramelized Onion, Walnut and Pear Salad. Franc

I made Betty a tasty salad for lunch today and it turned out great. I actually learned this recipe from my cousin who is the executive chef at Grouse Mountain Lodge  - which happens to be a great resort and a fabulous restaurant in Whitefish, MT.I made just a couple of small modifications to be sure it was Vegan. Enjoy!

Francs - Caramelized Onion and Pear Salad with Walnuts. (Makes 2 large dinner salads)

Slice up 1 cup of Red onion and saute in a pan with about 2 table spoons of Veggie oil. Your going for long skinny pieces of onion, not diced bits.You want the onions to cook over medium heat until the sugars come out and they begin to caramelize and get soft and sweet. It will take a good 10 min till they get to the right point. Stir often and be sure they don't burn. You want a nice golden brown color on them but not a burnt, black color.

Next dice up one ripe pear and add to the cooked onions. You want these to soften up just a bit and start to release some of their juice. You still want the pears to have a little firmness to them, so don't cook them so long they turn to mush. This step should take just a couple of minutes. If your pears are not very ripe (like mine were today) you can sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over them as they cook.

Once you have your onions and pears ready. Plate up a large dinner plate with some spring mix. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of walnuts over each salad. Next put half of the pear and onion mixture over each salad. I dress the salads with Balsamic vinegar (a heavy drizzle to taste) and just a little extra virgin olive oil (about 2-3 teaspoons per salad).

Francs carmelized Onion and Pear salad

You'll really love the different textures in this salad. The crunch and richness of the walnuts, the softness of the onions, the sweetness of the caramelized onion and the pears plus the sourness of the balsamic vinegar. Enjoy with a little crusty Italian bread, if you've got it!

-Franc

Here's an easy alternative to Pancakes and it's Vegan! - Franc

As a certified big "American Breakfast" lover, one of the things I had to adjust to when going vegan was no more bacon, eggs, and fatty pancakes. While my waistline thanks me, it took a little while for my tastebuds to adjust to more lighter fare. So here's one small alternative to Pancakes that I've actually been eating since I was a kid... Corn Meal Mush Cakes. My dad and uncle made these ever so often in my Italian American home. Oh memories.... Here's what you do -



Corn Meal "Pancakes" - Vegan Baby!

 Buy one package of Corn Meal Mush. Mush is very similar in taste to Polenta. You usually find mush in the dairy section near the eggs. It comes in a tube shaped package. Slice up the mush into 1/8 inch thick rounds. You want all the slices to be as uniform as possible so that they cook evenly. In a large fry pan melt about 2-3 table spoons of Vegan Butter (we like the Earth Balance brand), then add the mush rounds in a single layer. Flip as needed. Simply cook till the mush is soft and cooks through. I personally like it when the edges get just a little tiny bit crispy. Serve on a plate with a little extra vegan butter and natural maple syrup. They are yummy and a nice alternative to pancakes. Yes, I fatten them up a bit with the butter, but you can use less if you like ;-)   I also like to serve this dish with a little fried potatoes on the side. Makes a great meal on the weekend when you have the time to do a big breakfast for the family.

- Franc

~Betty and Franc at Primantis

Vegan style Primantis sandwich

We're from Pittsburgh. If you've ever lived or visited here then you know about Primantis Bros. If you don't you must go! Primantis is a place unique to the area that makes HUGE sandwiches on Italian bread with meat, cheese,vinegar based Cole slaw, and french fries piled onto this enormous sandwich. They also have awesome pizza with fresh hand tossed dough and many other delicious offerings. We love to go there and have a few beers and a feast. I think were getting to the point after about 5-6 weeks of eating plant based that we are able to feel confident eating at the places we normally ate prior to our switch and knowing we can tweak the menu. We ordered a pizza with extra sauce, mushrooms, onions, and banana peppers (hold the cheese) we also had a sandwich with tomato, fries and coleslaw. Everything was great and we've been eating here forever and never missed a thing. If we can eat at Primantis than we can pull this off any where...



Betty at
 Primantis

                                                                                    

                Chowing down in the Burgh'

                       Betty & Franc

~Betty cooks some Harmony.

Once again I have cooked  more recipes from The Happy Herbivore cookbook. As you can tell I have found this cookbook to be very easy to use and exceptionally useful. I keep making more recipes and loving them all. I made the 5-Spice Harmony Bowl

5-Spice Harmony Bowl

Do you ever get the feeling after an evening out with friends when you have eaten way too much food and you really need something to just balance you out? Well its not called the Harmony bowl for nothing. This was a very simple and healthy dish that made my girls come running into the kitchen to see what smelled so good. The sweet potato in the 5-spice atop turnip greens and rice was light and filling and simply delicious. What a beautiful lunch. I Had enough left to save for the next day.

 As you all know from our blog posts Franc and I like veggie burgers ALOT! We eat them all the time because they're quick and easy after working all day. We top them with everything we can think of, most recently we discovered daiya cheese which melts fantastic on our veggie burger with some onion, mushrooms, veganaise and as a side dish we made Baked Onion Rings!





Baked Onion  Rings

These were quick to make and are virtually fat free since they are baked and not fried. I think their my new favorite companion for my veggie burgers.... 
                                                                        
                                                                       Peace and Harmony,
                                                                               Betty
                                                                       

Franc does Italian food

Hi All -

I decided to make some yummy Italian food for Betty and I tonight. I love to cook it up when I have the time and this meal was really tasty. Plus I was able to make it with some items I needed to use up in my fridge. Try it out!

Cherry Tomato and Garlic Sauce over Fettuccine:

Boil some water and add a heavy pinch of Sea Salt. Add 1/2 pound of fettuccini or your favorite pasta and cook till it's aldente. Drain and keep back about a 1/2 cup of the pasta water to add to the sauce at the end.

Here's the sauce: Add about a cup of whole cherry tomatoes, 1-2 table spoons of minced fresh garlic, 4 table spoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 teaspoons of Italian Seasoning, and 1/2 cup of green scallions finely chopped  to a large frying pan and simmer till the garlic and scallions start to soften. Take a fork and smash each cherry tomato. Be careful because the tomatoes will want to squirt everywhere! The juice from the tomatoes will add to the mixture and start to form a light sauce with the oil. Once you have a basic sauce, toss in the cooked pasta with the extra pasta water and mix well. At this point you can add some garlic salt to taste, if you like. Plate up and serve. I also like to drizzle a little extra EVOO on top just to make it extra rich.

Here's a great and simple Vegan Bruchetta that goes well with this dish...

Take 4 slices of some fresh Italian bread, place on a baking sheet and drizzle liberally with olive oil. Bake at 375 for about 5-10 minutes until golden and very crispy. When the bread is toasted take 1-2 cloves of garlic and rub it into one side of the bread - this will give it a really fresh garlicy taste. For the topping I took 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes, 1/4 cup of mild onion or scallions, 2 cloves of fresh garlic minced, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and about a teaspoon of Italian seasoning and combined well. Top the toasted bread with this fresh tomato mixture and enjoy some awesome, home made Bruchetta. You'll love it!

Both of these dishes only took about a 1/2 hour to prep and cook, making this a pretty quick dish to prepare from start to finish.

                                                       Bon Appetito!
                                                         Franc

~Oprah goes Vegan

Oprah and her staff went vegan for 7 days and I thought it was a great way to get viewers thinking about what ingredients you and your family are consuming. It also brought to light some things regarding the meat industry that perhaps everyone isn't aware of, in all I think any opportunity to getting people to think about the correlation between their health and their diet is a positive one. Here's a link to the Oprah site that I think is kind of cool. I particularly like the shopping list that's easy to print out and could get you to just look for some of these items in the store the next time you are there.

http://www.oprah.com/packages/vegan-starter-kit.html

                                                                         All the cool kids are going Vegan,
                                                                                            Betty
P.S
I ordered the book Veganist by Kathy Freston that
they discussed on the show. I cannot wait until it
gets here :-)


Here's my (Franc's) quick thoughts on Oprah's vegan experiment..... As Betty mentioned, I thought it was great that Oprah at a minimum got people to think a little about where their food comes from and the health benefits of a Vegan or Plant-based diet. I think that asking her staff to try Veganism for 1 week was honorable, but I think that more time is needed to really understand this lifestyle. Heck, I still feel I have a lot to learn and I've been doing this for 5 weeks! I assume if she asked her staff to try it  for a longer period she would not have had the turn out she did. I really liked the idea that even small changes could make an impact on your health. The idea of going "Veganish"is a nice concept for those not willing to make the full switch to the Veg, I think that if people can incorporate some vegan choices into their diets, that perhaps we could see a decrease in Diabetes, Heart Disease and our countries weight problems. Thanks to Oprah for at least getting people to think about what goes into their bodies and for showing the vegan lifestyle in a positive healthy light.

Francs No-Brainer 5 min peach cobbler

HI Everyone. I want to share my super fast and oh-so delicious Vegan Peach Cobbler recipe. One thing that I found being vegan, is that when it comes to sweets and deserts it's usually easier to make your own than to try and find something at the store. This recipe will only take you about 5min prep time and about 30-35min to bake. Anyone can do it and you will love the results!

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons vegan butter
1 1/2 cup Bisquick mix (i used the "light" version, but you can use the regular if you like)
2/3 cups soy milk (again, I used the vanilla variety since that's what I had on hand, but I assume you can use non-flavored soy too)
7 table spoons sugar
2 - 8oz cans of sliced peaches in their juice

Take a 9x9 baking dish and melt the 3 tablespoons of butter in the bottom if the dish. Next mix the Bisquick, soy milk and 6 tablespoons of sugar together, then pour the mixture into the baking dish on top of the butter. Now add the two cans of peaches with the juice to the top of the dish. Make sure you spread out the peaches to that they are covering the pan evenly. You do not need to mix anything together in the baking dish, just layer it as described. Preheat your oven to 375 and bake for 30-35min until the top gets golden brown. FYI - It will smell great while you are baking! While the dish is baking the peaches will settle to the bottom and the batter will rise to to the top to create a nice crust for the cobbler. As soon as you pull out the cobbler, and while it's still hot, sprinkle the last tablespoon of sugar on top of the crust. This will create a little extra sweetness and provide a little sugary crunchy texture to the dish. Serve while warm and with a little soy non-dairy vanilla ice cream. You'll really love this and it's one of the fastest home made deserts you can make. Enjoy!

- Franc

~Betty makes BBQ!

  Hello everyone I decided to experiment with tempeh last night and it turned out really well. First, off we had never eaten tempeh in any dish but wanted to give it a try. I read many recipes and finally settled on BBQ tempeh sandwiches. I combined several recipes and came up with my own version. Here is how it turned out:

Betty's BBQ Tempeh

Here is how I made it:

Take one 8 Oz package of tempeh (I used Trader Joe's brand)

Crumble it up a bit and add a cup of your favorite BBQ sauce

Let that sit

Saute half an onion and one green pepper until they are soft and reduced

Add tempeh BBQ sauce mixture

Heat and serve

I used Fresh Italian Bread

I was surprised when I just happened to glance at the ingredients of the frozen French fries that we had in our freezer. It said they may contain small amounts of eggs and milk? Why would they add eggs and milk to steak fries? Ridiculous, so I made us some baked fries with season salt which was quick and easy anyway.

Make sure your hungry if you make this it is SUPER filling!

                                                                                     xoxo,

                                                                                     Betty

~Bettys veggie over biscuits

Hello everyone,
 Here's a recipe I made recently that Franc and the girls just loved! It is a spin on my moms chicken over biscuits recipe *disclaimer-This recipe is in no way considered low fat . I made it exactly the way my mom makes her chicken over biscuits but used soy milk, butter and veggie base and vegetables.

Take 2 tablespoons of earth balance and melt in a pan add 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour and cook for a few minutes (this makes your Roux)

Next add 2 1/2 cups give or take of soy milk original flavor

Stir constantly as it comes to a boil. Add a tablespoon of veggie broth base to taste(I ended up adding 2 total)

Continue to stir until it thickens, this will take awhile about 10 minute or so and you will think its never going to thicken but it will. If you would like to expedite the process you can add 2 teaspoons of cornstarch

Add a frozen bag of green beans, corn, and carrots after its thickened up and bring back to a boil

For my biscuits:

 I used 3 cups of biscuick (i used the low fat version)
 1 cup of soy milk
Mix this together and drop large spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 5-7 minutes
You can also sprinkle a little garlic powder or salt on them before you bake them if you like
And voile Vegan veggie over biscuits!

Bettys vegan veggie over bicuits

         This  makes great snowy day comfort food and I hope you like it as much as we did!

                                                               xoxo,
                                                               Betty

~30 Days~

Well we have made our original goal of 30 days. We are  feeling more aware of the ingredients of the things that we eat. I am very happy with the physical changes (losing a few pounds) and the general feeling of well being and happiness that we are experiencing by going plant based for thirty days. We have unanimously decided to go another 30 so I'm changing the blog from 30 to 60 days. This is going so well that we are really hoping to make this a life long change but after one month it may be too soon to tell. We will continue to keep you updated on all of the fabulous things we are eating.....

                                                                                     Rockin out another 30,
                                                                                         Betty and Franc

Franc on the road and eatin' vegan

Hi Everyone. This past weekend I had to travel to NYC for business, so I had to prepare a little ahead to be sure I could find stuff to eat. Before I left I Googled vegan restaurants and of course there are a bunch in New York. I decided to try The Organic Grill because it was near McSorley's Ale House in East Village, and I love to stop at McSorleys for some "lights and darks". If you've never been to McSorley's, you have to check it out. It's the oldest bar in New York, still has saw dust on the floor and they only serve two types of beers, light or dark. The atmosphere is friendly and the decor is classic to say the least. Go see it, you'll have a blast.
After a few rounds at the Ale house we stumbled two blocks away to The Organic Grill on First Ave. It's a cozy little spot and the food was goooood. Three of us tried the vegan perogies. They were stuffed with a creamy cheese like sauce and had spinach in them as well. They were more like a ravioli than a real perogi, but over all they were good and they filled you up. We also got a side of mashed sweet potatoes and they were sweet and creamy and just fabulous. My non-vegan friend that was with us was able to get a nice Tilapia dish, so all were happy. The check for four people and 1 round of drinks only came to $100, which I felt was pretty good for dinner in NYC. The breakfast menu looks great too, so I'll have to check that out the next time I'm there.
Over all traveling and eating in the city was pretty easy. Even at the airport I was able to find some nice salads and side dishes to get me through. The one night I went across the street from my hotel and ate a large vegan burrito at Chipolte. It was really filling, fresh and only cost me like $10. The longer I am vegan the more I realize that it's really not as hard as I expected it to be. Even when traveling, which was one of my biggest concerns early on, I'm able to find good choices with just a little planning and creativity. Plus I think it's fun to force yourself to try new places and go a little out of your comfort zone to experience new things.