Homemade Seitan Cheese Steak

Fucking yum.  This was my first try at making homemade seitan and it came out pretty damn good.  I might have left it in the oven for one too many minutes which made it a little extra chewy but otherwise the recipe was good.  I sauted the seitan with onions and bell pepper, slapped it in a bun and slatthered it in a nutritional yeast sauce. 

I am now officially on the hunt for the perfect seitan recipe so if anyone has one they use send it my way:) 

Note:  You don't have to be fancy pants like me and make homemade seitan you can just buy yours at your local grocery store. 

Vegan Cheese Steak

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced seitan
2 bell peppers thinly sliced (I used one green and one red)
1 onion sliced
1 recipe  nutritional cheese sauce or vegan cheese of your liking
4 french bread rolls
veganaise

1.  Heat oil on medium heat in a large pan.  Add bell pepper and onion and saute until they begin to soften.  Add the seitan and cook until heated through.

2.  While the seitan mix is cooking prepare cheese sauce.

3.  Once the seitan and cheese sauce is done assemble sandwiches.  Spread a thin layer of veganaise on roll top with a healthy amount of seitan, top with cheese sauce and ase easy as that your in vegan heaven:)

Butternut Squash Coconut and Ginger Soup

So as you may have noticed I have not been blogging much and there are a few reasons for this.  One, is I was working on an application for grad school... Yup, my ghetto ass is trying to go to grad school.  Also, to keep it real my cooking attempts have been straight flops lately... but not this one...

Soup on a rainy day?... duh!  This shit is the ultimate comfort soup.  It's carby and creamy with just a touch of spice.  This soup is also hecka easy to make, except for peeling and dicing the butternut squash.  I hate doing that shit!  I am the kind of person that passes the pre-chopped veggie section of the produce with disgust, like, how fucking hard is it to cut some zuchinni and bell pepper.  But after hacking away at the huge butternut squash for an hour tonight I might rethink my butternut purchase next time.  Anyways, once you get the butternut squash chopped its a breeze.  

Butternut Squash Coconut and Ginger Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion chopped

1 large shallot minced

2 teaspoons fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 medium sized butternut squash peeled, seeded and diced

6 cups veggie stock

1 can coconut milk

salt and pepper

1.  Heat large stock pan to medium heat.  Add olive oil and onion and saute for 5-6 minutes until onion begin to become translucent.  Add the shallot and cook for a minute.  Then add the ginger and cayenne and cook for 30 seconds or so while continuously stirring.  

2.  Add the butternut squash, veggie stock and coconut milk to the onion mixture and bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for 30 minutes.  Once butternut squash is tender and cooked through blend with a hand blender.  Taste and adjust spices to your liking and it is ready to go.

Simple Quinou Spaghetti

Another meal low in nutritional density to sooth my slowly subsiding hang over.  I ate WAY too much of it and am totally stuffed!  Spaghetti is like the king of comfort food, it's full of carbs, rich sauce and in my version tons of processed soy meat.  I don't even know what kind of soy meat I used because my dad gave it to me to try from Costco, yes, Costco has some kind of mystery soy meat (yeah for Costco!).  It was ok, but I have had better, I like Gimme Lean soy meat personally.  This is a real easy classic recipe for spaghetti and besides the quinou pasta its nothing fancy.  I personally despise  bottled pasta sauce and highly recommend you try making your own, it is super easy and once you get the hang of it you can pretty much do anything to it.  You can start off with my simple version below and then go from there, you can add bell pepper, mushrooms, basil... whatever you like.  Give it a go...

Simple Spaghetti

2 cans of canned spaghetti sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion chopped
6 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 package soy "meat"
1 package of quinou pasta
salt and pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta, salt liberally.

2.  Heat large saucepan on medium heat and add olive oil.  Once pan is hot add onions and saute for 4-5 minutes until slightly trancluscent and add the garlic.  Cook garlic until just fragrant and add the soy "meat" to the onion mixture as per directions on package.  Once "meat" is cooked add the tomato sauce and Italian seasoning, turn to low, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  While sauce is simmering add pasta to the pot of boiling water and cook per directions on package. 

3.  When pasta is done add the sauce to the pasta and top with a little parma or nutritional yeast if you like and your goo to go.

Beezie Loaf

Beezie Loaf is another long avoided but successful venture of mine.  It began as all other food missions of mine do, 6-8 months of online research of other vegan meatloaf recipes until I just can't live another day without it.  I was even more scared of making "meat" loaf than quiche.  I kept thinking "how the fuck is tofu going to to taste like deliciously baked ground beef covered in catsup and oozing with cow fat?"... and then after months of freaking out about it I gave it a go and guess what?.... pretty effing yummy.  So here is the recipe:

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion chopped

2 carrots chopped

1 bell pepper chopped 

10 mushrooms chopped 

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup walnuts

1 package tempeh

1 package tofu

1 cup bread crumb

1 tablespoon braggs liquid aminos (or salt to taste)

1/2 teaspoon thyme
Ketsup Glaze:
1/2 cup ketsup
3 tablespoons agave 

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Saute 2 tablespoons of oil with onion, carrots and bell pepper for 5-10 minutes on medium heat until they begin to soften.  Then add the mushrooms and garlic to the cooking vegetables for 3-4 minutes until mushrooms begin to soften.  The vegetables don't need to be fully cooked because they will finish cooking in the oven.

2.  While the vegetables are sauteing grind the walnuts down to a fine powder in the food processor or blender (I have a vita mix that I use for EVER THING) and place in a large bowl.  Then place the tempeh and tofu in the food processor and mix until smooth then add to walnuts.  

3.  Once the vegetables are done add them to the walnut mixture along with the bread crumbs, Braggs, thyme and last two tablespoons of oil.  Now comes the fun part, mix the rest of ingredients with your hands by grabbing a big handful and letting it gush out the sides and repeating until fully mixed.  

4.  Once the mixture is fully blended place the mixture into a greased loaf pan and press in firmly to form the loaf.  Then turn over on to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper if you have it or liberally greased.  Place in the oven for 50 minutes.  15 minutes before the loaf is done brush or poor the catsup glaze over the top of the loaf.  Enjoy!

Oh wait! This posting is not over!  Check out this extravagant bonus recipe...  Open Faced Beezie Loaf Sandwich and just to let you know the picture does not do the deliciousness of this dish justice.

Here is the recipe:

1 slice of bread, preferably crappy white bread, you know the kind that almost melts in your mouth but any bread will work, I used Alvarado sprouted whole wheat

1 tablespoon veganaise, yes it should be a nasty thick layer of mayo

1 -2 slices of Beezie Loaf depending on how thick you like your "meat"

1. Spread veganaise on bread and top with Beezie Loaf.  

Note:  This sandwich is best consumed under the influence of alcohol.