The Perfect Fall Oatmeal

The Perfect Fall Oatmeal

Pardon the quality. Phone photos are just so much faster!

I know it's a little bit early to be thinking of fall, but I just love all the fall decorations and fall flavors; so I tend to jump the gun a little.  I'm already thinking about all the pumpkin goodness I can make!

I've been on and off trying to live gluten-free, but I failed a few times this week just not thinking or completely ran out of GF friendly food.  Today's recipe I believe is gluten-free, but I can't vouch all the ingredients were made in gf facilities.  It's a start!

The Perfect Fall Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1 c hot water (I took mine straight from the tea kettle after it boiled)

½ c Gluten Free Oatmeal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

¼ c Raisins and Dried Cranberries (I used about half each but you can use your preference)  

1 T cinnamon

dash of cloves

dash of nutmeg

1 T brown sugar

Put your oatmeal, raisins, and cranberries in a bowl (I recommend a non-plastic bowl due to the temperature of the water).  Boil the water and pour into the bowl immediately after boiling.  Stir and let sit until the oatmeal has absorbed most of the water.  Stir again and add the spices and brown sugar.  Mmm mmm mmm!  Would be perfect for a cool fall morning, or even in the summer heat of Florida with some air conditioning.  lol.  Enjoy!

 

Spicy Veggie Mix

Lately I find myself buying random vegetables at the Saturday Morning Market and just figuring out something to do with them during the week.  I love doing this because I add new vegetables that I normally wouldn't cook with to my diet and get a chance to experiment with cooking!

This week I had left over zucchini, yellow squash, and sweet potatoes and decided to mix them all together.

This is a really rough recipe to make however you want!

Ingredients:
Oil (I used Coconut)
Creole Seasoning
Zucchini, thinly sliced
Yellow Squash, thinly sliced
Sweet Potato, cubed

Put just enough oil at the bottom of your pan to coat it.  Cube the sweet potato and cook until softened.  Add zucchini and squash and cook until slightly soft.  Add creole seasoning to taste and mix.

The spices remind me of my mom's old breaded zucchini she used to make.  Mmm mm!

Simple Soup

My hubby has been feeling under the weather today and requested I make soup.  I didn't have much, but figured I could make something work with what I had lying around.

Ingredients
4c Vegetable Broth
1-14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1-15.5oz can Chick Peas (drained and rinsed)
2c frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, and green beans were in my mix)
3oz Rice Sticks

Directions
1) Add all ingredients except noodles into pot and cook covered on medium-high heat, stirring often.
2) After 25 minutes (or when chickpeas are tender), reduce heat to medium-low, add the rice sticks to the soup and cook for another 5 minutes.

Total prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 minutes

The noodles sucked up a lot of the broth.Might add more broth, more cooking time for the chickpeas and less noodles.

Quick Tofurkey Lunch

Looking for something quick and easy so I could get started on my Christmas baking; so I grabbed some Tofurkey I bought the other day (two for $5 on sale) and whipped something up. 

Ingredients used:
Two slices home made bread
Tofurkey Hickory deli slices
Slice of Tomato
Slice of Avocado

Side:
Sliced cantaloupe

Great quick lunch when you're in a hurry and quite filling.  Now - time for Christmas movies and baking.

Pretzel Dogs

Pretzel Dogs

Ingredients:
Lightlife Smart Dogs
Vegan Pretzel Dough

Super simple, fast, and tasty!  Make the pretzel dough according to the recipe above, wrap around some refrigerated hot dogs and bake for 13 minutes on 425°.  Add a little salt if you desire and serve with condiments and side of your choice - I like potato wedges and ketchup.

BBQ Sloppy Joes

BBQ Sloppy Joe on Easy Vegan Bread

Chef Assistant Paul and I found this amazing BBQ sauce and I decided to try BBQ Sloppy Joes.

15oz can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
¼c Quick Oats
¼c BBQ Sauce of choice

1 Green Pepper, chopped

½ Onion, chopped

Chop up the onion and pepper and saute on medium in a small amount of water until softened.  While those are cooking, put the black beans in a bowl and mash them.  Add the black beans, oats, and bbq sauce to the pepper and onion mixture and heat until warm.  Serve on bun or bread of choice.  

Tofu Sandwich

I had some tofu in the fridge and saw this recipe in an e-mail from Peta and had to try it.

Recipe: $3 Dish of the Day: Grilled Tofu Sandwhich

I used the recipe for the tofu but added tomato and avocado to the sandwich instead with my fresh made bread!

I don't think I drained the tofu enough before pouring on the soy sauce because it probably only absorbed an 8th of what it called for.  Next time I will press my tofu before adding the sauce.  Also the soy sauce made this dish VERY salty, so maybe lighter on the sauce wouldn't be such a bad thing.

For $3, this meal gets an A!

Mediterranean Spinach and Couscous

After a long day of work and meetings, I wanted something fast.  This was super fast and easy and quite yummy!

Recipe: Mediterranean Spinach and Couscous

Great for when you're in a bind (probably took 10 minutes tops for prep and cooking) and need to use up almost two boxes of couscous!  :)

Sweet & Spicy Rice

My roommate and I had a plan to make Bourbon Chik'n tonight, until we realized it had to marinate overnight in the sauce.  We had already started the rice in our rice steamer, and I was starving, so I decided to make something up and fast!

I remembered a spanish rice recipe my friends mom used to make with rice and salsa. and I had just bought an interesting jar of salsa from Walmart that I wanted to try on my burgers.

Sweet & Spicy Rice (makes 1 bowl)
1½-2c White Rice, cooked
¼-½c Peach Pineapple Chipotle Salsa (I used Great Value brand)
Fresh ground pepper to Taste

Cook the rice however you'd like, I used a rice steamer. Mix in the salsa until all the rice is covered and add some fresh ground pepper for an extra kick.

Vegan On The Go

Not enough left overs in the fridge for today's lunch & only minutes to spare? That is my usual routine when it comes to making a lunch for work so this grab and go lunch works great!

Ingredients:
Wrap of choice (I used Flat Out Spinach Wrap)
Humus (I used Publix Roasted Red Pepper)
Bag of mixed greens

Grab a wrap, spread some hummus, wash a handful of greens and toss them on.

I usually just grab the whole packages of each and a spoon or butter knife and you're good to go!

Hummus Wrap

Last week at a green market in our town, I bought some hummus from a local vendor.  I ate part of it by dipping in some green peppers, but had about a half a tub leftover and decided to make something with it.

 

Ingredients

Mission Garden Spinach Herb Wrap

Market Fresh Spring Mix Greens

Hummus

Really this is a "wing it" kind of recipe so you can put as much of the ingredients as you'd like.  I didn't have many spare veggies on hand, but feel free to add some! Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers, Onions, etc. 

Day 10: Confetti Beans & Good News

Good News: Our oven is FINALLY fixed! Our awesome neighbor gave us a part and fixed it. What an awesome guy! He's definitely getting a gift card or an awesome home cooked vegan meal very soon!

Tonight was Confetti Beans again from the McDougall Cookbook (p228). I love this guys book for the simple fact that it's vegan (minus the occasional honey he ads, but I sub it for Agave Nectar) and the ingredients are cheap and easy to find.

We put the beans over pasta and it worked rather well. I did a slight variation.

Ingredients I used:
1 can Black Beans, drained & rinsed
1 can Kidney Beans, drained & rinsed
1 can Garbanzo Beans, drained & rinsed

1/2 Onion
1 Green Pepper
1 Red Pepper
3 Cloves Garlic

1 15oz can Italian Stewed Tomatoes
2 Tablespoons Chilli Powder

Cook the beans in a pan until soft. While beans are cooking sautee onion, peppers, and garlic until soft.

Combine beans & sautee mixture with tomatoes & chilli powder. Cook for another 10 minutes covered on low.

Makes quite a bit! Recipe only called for 3 cups of beans, but I wanted a variety and since the cans were already opened, I used them. Just more leftovers and less I have to cook.

With so many leftovers, I may have to hold off on cooking tomorrow, but I have a guest coming Wednesday through next Tuesday and I plan on cooking her wonderful vegan meals every night we are home (I even snuck in a recipe for dessert!).

Day 4: Bump in the road

After planning my meals for the week, I realized some will be rather difficult to make because our oven has bit the dust. The stove top still works, thankfully, but no oven. Out with my pizza and enchilada plans.

So today was another quick day of easy meals, goes to show being vegan doesn't mean being in the kitchen all day, although those meals are probably the healthiest!

Breakfast: For breakfast I had some oatmeal and cinnamon.

Lunch: 2 Yves vegan hot dogs w/ Arnold Select Wheat Hot Dog Buns, ketchup, mustard, and I finally got my relish.

Dinner: A quick stir fry with the cook-in-the-bag brown rice I forgot to use in my black bean burgers yesterday, and a bag of Great Value Deluxe Stir-Fry Frozen Vegetables cooked in a steamer. Added a few shakes of soy sauce and a super quick meal.

After Dinner: For dinner I had a super small portion of stir fry, so by 11:00P I was hungry again. We still had a lot of elbow noodles left, so I decided to make some more of the vegan mac & cheez. I have been addicted to that stuff since we first made it, just thinking about it now makes me want some more. Mmmm.

Not sure what is on the menu for tomorrow without an oven. I am debating attempting my enchiladas in a testy toaster oven tomorrow. We'll find out!

Day 2: Leftovers, Packaged Meals, & Potato Soup

Today I have been feeling rather lazy since I got up and didn't feel like making much.

For breakfast I had my leftover Granola Bowl from yesterday and a banana.

Lunch I ate 2 Yves 'Hot Dogs' with Arnold Wheat Hot Dog Buns, some Heinz Ketchup & mustard. Quick and very easy for the lazy days and I found both the hot dogs and buns at a Walmart Market near by. I LOVE veggie dogs and was excited to find them so close and cheap! Now I just need some dill relish to complete the meal. :)

For dinner I made a Potato Soup I found online some time ago. Super easy with minimal ingredients.

Easy Potato Soup:
1 medium red potato, cut into cubes
1/2 small carrot, sliced thin
2/3c celery tops and leaves, chopped
1c plain unsweetened soy milk
dried dill, garlic powder, and black pepper to taste

Boil the potato and carrot in water until soft (about 15 mins), drain. Lower the hear, add remaining ingredients, and simmer to combine the flavors

The recipe makes 1 big serving, or two small bowls; so I quadrupled the recipe, subbed soy milk for rice milk, and used parsley instead of dill since I did not have it. I think I put a little too much pepper in, but still turned out pretty good. Nice and simple meal to use up those leftover veggie parts.