Recipes

All Purpose Mushroom Marinade

October 4, 2012 by Holly Yzquierdo 13 Comments

Some nights you just need an easy, kid-friendly meal; and nothing is easier than pasta.

We used gluten-free pasta because my 20 month old is gluten-free. He loved this pasta and the mushrooms.

This was his first time successfully feeding himself. He normally eats with his hands but he always tries to use the spoon. He totally rocked spooning this pasta into his mouth. He had seconds of this by the way.

I’m not typically a mushroom lover but my marinade really takes them to a whole different level. So if you don’t like mushrooms you will want to try them this way; if you like mushrooms this may become your favorite way to prepare them.

Mushroom Marinade

Ingredients

1 Tbsp Braggs
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce (vegan)
1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
1 Tbsp Balsamic vinaigrette
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp Cooking Sherry (optional, I use in Italian dishes but not Mexican)
1/2 to 1 cup of water
Mushrooms of your choice, we prefer Portobello

Mix all liquids for the marinade in a large bowl and stir to incorporate them all.
Wash mushrooms and pat dry.
Slice them then add to marinade.
Let them soak 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cook the mushrooms however you prefer. I simmered these with onions for the pasta but will often grill them for fajita’s.

Serve

This marinade is extremely versatile. I use it, adjusting where necessary, for all of my mushroom recipes. I’ve had people who didn’t like mushrooms tell me they really enjoyed them this way. It’s a lot easier than the recipe I came up with for my Portobello Fajita’s. My Portobello Burgers are pretty good too if you are in a Portobello kind of mood.

I served this with a big ol’ garden salad! Yes that was just MY salad, in a serving bowl. My husband and 3 year old had their own. 😉

Just in case you are wondering, the Pumpkin Bread from yesterday’s post does make a delicious breakfast, especially with a cup of coffee.

Mushroom Marinade

All purpose, plant based mushroom marinade

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

1 Tbsp Braggs
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce (vegan)
1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
1 Tbsp Balsamic vinaigrette
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp Cooking Sherry (optional, I use it in Italian dishes but not Mexican)
1/2 to 1 cup of water
Mushrooms of your choice, we prefer Portobello

Instructions

Mix all liquids for the marinade in a large bowl and stir to incorporate them all.
Wash mushrooms and pat dry.
Slice them then add to marinade.
Let them soak 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cook the mushrooms however you prefer. I simmered these with onions for the pasta but will often grill them for fajita’s.

Notes

Serve over pasta or salad or any way you like to eat mushrooms!

Pumpkin Bread

October 3, 2012 by Holly Yzquierdo 31 Comments

I know, it’s that time of year where pumpkin starts to take over. I stood my ground as long as I could but I am not immune to the pumpkin fever that is sweeping the land. Once I gave myself over to the unrelenting force of the pumpkin the only real questions is: What to make?

I thought about all kinds of pumpkin infested recipes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin granola, but I finally decided on good ol’ fashioned Pumpkin Bread.

I ran into a little hiccup when I grabbed all of my baking supplies. I was out of whole wheat pastry flour so I subbed organic stone ground whole wheat flour and unbleached all purpose flour. I think you could use whole wheat pastry flour with good results.

Ingredients

1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 ground cloves
2 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c maple syrup (agave or date syrup would work too)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F and prepare loaf pan.
In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together except nuts.
In a medium bowl mix together all wet ingredients.
Dump wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until mixed.
Stir in nuts if using.
Scoop batter into loaf pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until done.
Let cool 20 minutes then remove from pan and place on cooling rack until completely cook.
Slice after it is completely cool.

Serve

This is perfect for dessert or as an accompaniment to warm cup of coffee or chai. It is not really sweet, if you’re looking for a sweeter bread add more maple syrup or raw sugar. This would also be good with a glaze on top if you are serving it for dessert. I’ll probably be eating this for breakfast tomorrow too. If you’re a chocolate fanatic like me you could add vegan chocolate chips, you can never go wrong with chocolate!

Pumpkin Bread

Vegan pumpkin bread with or without walnuts

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 ground cloves
2 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c maple syrup (agave or date syrup would work too)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 walnuts (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F and prepare loaf pan.
In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together except nuts.
In a medium bowl mix together all wet ingredients.
Dump wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until mixed.
Stir in nuts if using.
Scoop batter into loaf pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until done.
Let cool 20 minutes then remove from pan and place on cooling rack until completely cook.
Slice after it is completely cool.

Notes

Nuts are optional
For a sweeter bread, add maple syrup or raw sugar
Add vegan chocolate chips to make it chocolate pumpkin bread

Party Worthy Parfait

October 2, 2012 by Holly Yzquierdo 19 Comments

Welcome back to day 2 of the Vegan Month of Food, a.k.a The Vegan MoFo. Today I’m setting my sights on the parfait.

Making parfait’s are super easy if you have kids they can help or make their own. If you own a large glass bowl or trifle dish they can make a perfect center piece for a party or make these in individual glasses like I did. These are healthy enough for an on the go breakfast but tasty enough for dessert too.

Parfait

Ingredients

Vegan yogurt (I use coconut, almond or soy milk yogurt)
Diced fruit of your choice (apples, berries, or bananas)
Granola
Nuts and/or seeds
Vegan chocolate chips (hey I’m not judging)

Layer granola, yogurt, nuts/sees, then fruit.
Repeat step 1 two to three times to fill your container.
Refrigerate until ready to serve

Serve

This was a big hit at my Healthy Cravings group served as a dessert. We ate the leftovers for breakfast and lunch for a few days after. A few of my favorite variations include Cinnamon granola with diced apples, Almond granola with mixed berries, granola with vegan chocolate chips and bananas. I like to top this with chia seeds right before serving. My son thinks they are sprinkles! 🙂

This recipe is kid friendly, omni friendly, and gluten-free if you use gluten-free granola.

What is your favorite parfait combination?

Brown Rice and Broccoli Casserole

August 23, 2012 by Holly Yzquierdo 20 Comments

I’ve mentioned a Brown Rice and Broccoli dish that my husband and teenage daughter LOVE. I’ve even given an unofficial recipe. Today I’ll give the official version.

I’ve made this with millet and it wasn’t a huge hit with the family but I like it. It would be great with couscous, noodles, or even quinoa. I don’t bake this one because it is still to hot for me to use the oven most days so I guess this isn’t really a casserole. Once it cools down I’ll try an oven version but for now I cook the rice, steam the veggies, and make the sauce in separate pans so it is a little dishwashing intensive.

In our meat-eating days I would make a chicken and rice casserole that used cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soups AND a stick of butter. Bleck! We loved it then but now I can’t imagine! So unhealthy! This is our stand-in casserole.

Brown Rice and Broccoli Casserole

Ingredients

4 Cups Cooked Brown Rice (More or less for depending on the number you are serving)
3 Cups steamed, chopped Broccoli (other veggies could be added)
1 recipe HH Brown Gravy (I use brown rice flour to make this gluten-free)

Pour cooked rice into a large casserole dish.
Add broccoli or other veggies and gently mix.
Prepare HH Brown Gravy recipe and pour it over rice and broccoli. Stir until everything is incorporated.
Enjoy!

Serve

This is so easy to make. It re-heats well so I’ll often make it early in the day and reheat it for dinner. It is a great potluck dish. Many of my readers are the only one’s in their family who are plant-based, this recipe will work for you. Simply set aside half for you and allow your family to add chicken to their portion. This would also be good with a faux cheese sauce instead of the Brown Gravy sauce.

UPDATE!

Try my latest version of this that is easier and tastes even better! The Crock Pot Broccoli and Brown Rice Casserole will knock your socks off! It’s one of our favorite recipes!

Black Bean Goodness

June 27, 2012 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

I finally did it, I made Black Bean Soup. I had never eaten it but had it on my Meal Plan several times. About a month ago I finally got a taste of Black Bean Soup from Paradise Bakery. It was lovely and I decided I would make it soon. This was the week. I put it on the Meal Plan, bought beans, and finally made it. Since I have been working out (almost daily) I’ve been needing more food. I was craving a huge bowl of fuel so I made Potato Soup on Monday and Black Bean Soup on Tuesday! They were both delicious!

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

6 cups soaked beans, 3 cups unsoaked
water to cook beans
2 onions
2 jalapeno peppers
2 tomatoes (optional)
4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder (of more to taste)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
a few tbsp of Better than Bullion Veggie broth (optional)

Measure out 3 cups of dried black beans, sort them (look for random rocks to remove), the rinse them.
Put in a pot or large bowl and cover with water (overnight or for several hours).
Discard soaking water and rinse beans. Place beans in a pot with clean water that covers beans.
Cook the soaked beans on the stove (medium heat) for about an hour. Test beans for doneness by tasting or by placing a few beans on a spoon and lightly blow on them. If the skin cracks and starts to peel back they are done. If they are not done cook for an extra 30 minutes or more.
Take approximately half the beans and place them a food processor or blender along with some of the water and blend until smooth.
Add the onion, jalapeno, garlic and tomato to the blender and wiz, chunky is ok.
Pour this mixture back into the bean pot and simmer.
Add chili powder and cumin. I added the Better than Bullion Veggie Stock here. Why didn’t I add it to the beans when they were cooking? So I could save some unseasoned black beans in case I make Black Bean Brownies.
Simmer until flavors are incorporated.

Serve

Eat this delicious soup with corn bread or corn fritters for a “southern” inspired flavor. This is also great poured over brown rice with a bit of avocado (lunch today). Although this is called spicy, my 1 and 3-year-old kids LOVED it. It was not too spicy for them.

My husband can’t eat seeds but loves spicy food. Instead of adding the jalapeno to the blender I just stabbed it with a knife a few times so the seed stayed in, I then added it to the pot to simmer for a while. The soup had a nice spicy, but not too spicy flavor.

My husband resisted black beans when we first began eating a plant-based diet. Even if you are not in love with the flavor you should eat them because of how good they are for you. I happen to love them!

A cup of cooked black beans provides 227 calories, 15 g of protein, 1 g of total fat, no saturated fat or cholesterol, 41 g of carbohydrate and 15 g of fiber. Black beans contain no saturated fat or cholesterol. One cup of black beans also provides 20 percent of the daily value, or general recommended amount for adults, for iron and 5 percent of the daily value for calcium. Black beans also provide significant amounts of the minerals magnesium, phosphorus and manganese, and the B vitamins thiamin and folate, or folic acid. LiveStrong

What’s For Breakfast

June 21, 2012 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

In honor of my friend Joye I’m gonna talk about breakfasts. She is transitioning toward plant-based but feels stuck in a rut when it comes to breakfast. The truth is I’m in a little rut myself.

Oatmeal

My go to breakfast is oatmeal. My boys LOVE it! I like it too but I’ve been eating several times a week for months and with the warm weather here it isn’t hitting the spot.

I buy rolled oats or steel-cut oats. Strangely they are more expensive than their over-processed instant counterparts. I highly encourage you to step away from the instant oats, they aren’t doing you any favors. And for the love of kale please don’t buy those little packets of sugary oatmeal evil. They take a perfectly good food, oatmeal and add stuff to it. Instead make your own oatmeal add fruits, nuts, seeds, and a bit of real maple syrup. Sometimes I’ll add banana, strawberries and raw pumpkin seeds and other times I’ll use dried cranberries or raisins. Try this recipe for Nutty Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal, YUM!

Overnight Oats

A lot of people enjoy the Overnight Oats method of oatmeal. I have not tried this yet but I will. From what I hear Angela at Oh She Glows is the QUEEN of Overnight Oats you can check out her recipe here.

Other Grains

Most other grains can be used just like oatmeal. We have eat Breakfast Quinoa many times. Breakfast Rice is another delicious option. You can use leftover cooked rice or just cook up a fresh batch. I like to cook it a long time so it gets a little mushier than I would prefer for dinner. As it is cooking I’ll stir in cinnamon and almond milk, coconut milk would be good too. My husband likes Breakfast Rice with raisins.

If you are a crock pot user you could mix some grains, water, and fruit together in the evening, cook on low all night, for a delicious breakfast when you wake up.

Bring on the Veggies

Veggie lovers can start their day off with a Breakfast Stir Fry. No special ingredients required just use what ever seasonal veggies are available. For my taste the potato is essential. Leftover veggies work great in this. I like to eat my Breakfast Stir Fry wrapped in a tortilla with a little salsa.

Bread and Pancakes

I love bread for breakfast. Toast is my friend, especially if it is covered in almond butter (peanut butter is my favorite but variety is a good thing). I top it with sliced apples or sliced banana’s most of the time. Since we are switching to gluten-free bread we don’t have it as often. Gluten-free bread is too expensive to eat for every meal. Before going gluten-free Ezekiel bread was my favorite.

I also love pancakes. As a kid I remember going to IHOP and eat so many pancakes I felt sick, only to be hungry again a couple of hours later. After going plant-based we switched to Whole Wheat Pancakes; of course I topped them with nut butter and fruit, just like my toast. As a family our favorite was Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes. I use Lindsay’s recipe at the Happy Herbivore you can find it here.

Sadly I have not had the best outcome with making Gluten-free pancakes and I broke down and bought a GF Pancake Mix so we could have them for Father’s Day. Don’t worry I’ll keep trying.

Here’s your chance? What did I forget?

« Previous Page