Made a 5 course Vegan dinner last night to welcome my friend’s lovely girl into the “family” hehe…I am exhausted now! haha

Amuse-bouche:

Kale, Okra and Bell Pepper “Chips” with Nayomase and Artichoke Dip and Brussels Sprouts.

• Pre-Heat Oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil cookie sheets.
• Slice Okra in halves and Slice Bell Peppers (I used Yellow and Orange for the color contrast) into Finger-Food Size. Spread them out on Cookie Sheets as much as possible, and lightly sprinkle with Olive Oil and add spices of your choice. I used fresh ground pepper, fresh ground sea salt, organic basil, organic sage and minced garlic. Go ahead and place on bottom rack of oven.
• Rip Kale into bit sized pieces and place on oiled cookie sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil and add spices, I used the same ones as earlier, but I also added Vegan Grated Topping which is a Parmesan Cheese Substitute. Place in oven on top rack and baked all three items until fairly crispy. (Kale Chips will get very crispy, Okra needs to set for a little before being served and they will crisp, peppers will not become very crispy at all)
• Boil a pot of water and drop in Brussels Sprouts. Add a dash of grated sea salt and some balsamic vinegar. When soft, drain and slice up how you prefer. I cut some into quarters and others into halves and used them to decorate the serving tray. The quartered pieces I arranged around the bowl of dip and the halves I laid out like little fleur de lis.
• For the Dip, I purchased some Nayomase (it’s a brand name, basically mayo without eggs) and sliced up artichoke hearts, garlic, and spinach and added Vegan Topping, Agave, lemon juice salt, pepper and basil.

Hors d’oeuvre: Miso Soup and Salad with Tapioca Toast

• Make the night before. 1/4 cup Vegetable broth, 5ish cups of water, heat to a light boil. Take two large carrots and a carrot peeler and hold the carrot big side up and run the peeler across the bottom to make thin round slices and put into the pot. Chop up several chives and put into the pot. Also put in some dried shitake mushrooms and boil, add salt, pepper and garlic. Cool and set over night. About an hour before guests arrive, warm soup back up on medium heat and stir periodically.
• Roman lettuce, spinach, crunchy mung beans, grated almond cheese, sliced olives, antipasta garlic cloves (i found these at EarthFare), tomatoes, cucumbers
• Dressing-White Truffle Oil, Red Wine Vinaigrette, basil, salt, lemon juice, pepper.
• Toast-coat cookie sheets with vegan butter, place Tapioca bread (which is also gluten free) on sheets and butter the upsides. Bake until toasty.

Entree: White Wine Polenta and Eggplant Stacks with Pesto (Basil Paste)

• On Medium Heat, pour some white wine (preferably dry) in a cast iron skillet and 1/2 a cup of water. When hot, place polenta into pan and squeeze some lemon juice on top. Cook about 5 minutes and flip (flipping is a task, considering polenta can be really slippery, HAVE FUN, haha) and continue to cook until it becomes a brighter yellow color. Remove from pan and place on plate out of the way. Wash skillet.
• Peel the eggplant and slice into rounds. Some of the pieces you may need to cut down to the polenta’s size. Mix the rounds in a bowl with grapeseed oil and sea salt and brown on both sides in the cast iron skillet. Remove from heat.
• Place Eggplant round on cookie sheet, place polenta round on top, then put a slice of almond cheese on that, and then top with a slice of red bell pepper. Bake until cheese is slightly melty. Almond cheese does not melt like milk cheese, so do not be discouraged if its not melted all over the polenta, cause it won’t melt like that.
• For the sauce, I used a motar and pestle, if you do not have these items, a food processor will work, or else a spoon and a lot of arm strength. Basil leaves, antipasta garlic, white truffle oil, vegan topping, spinach, pepper, and salt. (i’m fairly certain that is all the ingredients, i could be missing something.) Just grind everything together and when completed, just plate on the side of the polenta/eggplant stacks. I also placed 1 antipasta garlic clove on the plate.

Glace: Green Tea Soy Cream and Fresh Mint Leaves

• I did want to make the soy cream fresh, but did not have the time. So, I bought some at EarthFare. It was pretty tasty. Gave each guest a bit with two mint leaves to cleanse their palates after all the garlic.

Plat Principal: Sweet Potato Steaks, Veggie Bacon, and Asparagus

• Heat Safflower oil in the cast iron skillet and toss in some chopped shallots and place sweet potatoes into the hot oil. (there are two ways to cut the potatoes, either sliced like a ny strip or cut like filet mignon, if you like the potato blackened, do the round cut, if you like it light in color, do the strip cut, it has a shorter cook time.) If you can stick a knife easily into the potato, it’s done.
• Lightly oil a cookie sheet and spread the Asparagus out on it. Drizzle Olive Oil over it and add seasonings, pepper, salt, basil, tarragon, garlic, vegan topping.
• For the bacon, I did not do anything special…by this point I was out of pepper, so, it could have tasted better, but I just fried the pieces in the pan.

Sweets: Mixed Berry Cobbler (This is not exactly the one I served, since I totally lost my mind and left out a few ingredients, so I was not sweet like it should have been.)

• Combine a mix of fresh berries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and smush up,  add agave and some brown rice flour to thicken it. Also add in sliced coconut and sliced almonds.
• In a separate bowl combine oat meal, coconut milk, agave and vegan butter. Mix until all of it is slightly sticky. Cover the smushed fruit with the oat meal.
• Bake at 350 until the top is crispy.

Also, my roommate made delicious vegan red velvet cupcakes. I’m not certain where she found her recipe, so I cannot post it here. But they were GOOOOD…mmmm

Oh gosh. It’s been so long since I made this dish, but lets see if I can remember how it goes…haha

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms
• Bacon
• Parmesan Cheese
• Half n Half
• Butter
• Corn Bread Stuffing Mix

Items Needed:

• Sauce Pan
• Frying Pan
• Baking sheet
• Spoons

Okay. Fry the mushrooms. Melt butter in the sauce pan, add half n half and melt the cheese. Remove mushrooms from frying pan. Fry the bacon (you may want to use the long frying process), stems (cut up) and stuffing mix with butter, spices and mix in some half n half. When pliable, take off heat. Spread mushrooms out on a baking sheet with cup side up. Dollop Stuffing mixture into, pour cheese on top. Bake until top is crispy. ENJOY!

So, this is extremely over due. Made this dinner early May, I think. Room-mate Jenny and I had a couple of friends over, the married couple (you who know us personally know of who I am speaking), and I created this loveliness off the top of my head. Took forever to cook, but thankfully there was plenty of wine! HAHA

Ingredients:

Croutons

• 5 slices of whole wheat bread with nuts and seeds cubed
• Olive Oil
• Basil, Oregano, Tarragon, Salt, and Cracked Black Pepper

Salad

• Romaine Lettuce
• Spinach
• Cucumber
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Grape Tomatoes
• Very Thickly Sliced Parmesan Cheese

Salad Dressing

• Grape seed Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• White Wine
• Rosemary
• Mixed Pepper
• Garlic Powder, Sage, Basil, Tarragon, Oregano
• Lemon Juice

Noodle Water

• Water
• Grape Seed Oil
• Salt

Bread

• Fresh Baked Italian Bread (sliced in half like a hot dog bun)
• One Stick of Butter Sliced and Placed Symmetrically Over the Slices of Bread
• Grape Seed Oil
• Rosemary
• (LOTS OF) Sage
• Basil
• Oregano
• Thickly Sliced Parmesan Cheese

Sauce

• One Stick of Butter
• One Pint of Half ‘n’ Half
• Lots of White Wine
• Amazing Thickly Sliced Parmesan Cheese

THE DISH!!!

• Six Slices of Thickly Cut Bacon
• White Wine
• Two Garlic Cloves, Sliced
• Grape Seed Oil
• Cracked Black Pepper, Tarragon, Oregano, and Basil
• One Onion, Sliced
• Prochitto Ham
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Peas
• Rosemary, Sage, Basil, Oregano, Tarragon, Mixed Pepper
• Lemon Juice

Items Needed:

• Eh, Figure it out…there’s too much!

Start with the Croutons, Salad and Salad Dressing. Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees and cube the bread. Lay cubes out on cookie sheet and pour ingredients over it. Cook until crispy. Just mix all the salad ingredients together in a big bowl, cover and store in fridge until ready to eat. Stir all the dressing ingredients together or shake them in a tupperware container until thoroughly mixed, also store in fridge until ready to eat.

Noodles. Boil the water with oil and salt. Cook the noodles.

For the DISH, you want to start with a low heat pan with wine, oil and bacon. Smoother the bacon in pepper and one garlic clove. Cover and cook until bacon is super crispy. Remove back and add more wine and oil to pan and start to simmer onions. Once onions are clearish looking, add in all the other ingredients including more wine, garlic and oil. Also crumble the cooked bacon into when almost done cooking. You’ll know it’s done when all the veggies and ham are thoroughly cooked looking.

In a sauce pan put the butter in and melt it, add in all the other ingredients and whip until purely white. (and you want to cook this on low low setting, constantly stirring)

Before you’re mostly done with the DISH put the bread in the oven, cook it more or less the same as the croutons.

Now that everything is cooked, keep the bread and main dish stuff warm while you enjoy the salad and a glass of wine.

Plating the DISH!

Take four spinach leaves and place them symmetrically on the plate.

Put the noodles in the middle of the plate so that the spinach leaves are visible

Pour sauce on the noodles

Make a line down the middle of the noodles using the DISH as if dividing a circle in half

Place a slice of bread on either side of the noodles

Cover everything in thickly sliced Parmesan Cheese.

BON APPETITE!

So, my friend and I were hanging out, watching Emma on PBS and became quite hungry, considering some hours earlier we had just split a sandwich, so, I introduced myself to her kitchen and tossed some items together. I must applaud Jenny for having a decently stocked kitchen. BRAVO Jenny! Here is what I made for us.

Ingredients:

• Frozen Pre-Cooked Chicken Strips
• Pinot Grigio
• Pinch of Currey Powder
  
• Half n Half
• Can of Mushrooms
• Salt
• Lemon Pepper Mix
  
• Garlic Powder
• Instant Rice
• Margarine and Olive Oil Butter Substitute
• Some Freshly Squeezed Clementine Juice (or you could use any sweet citrus)
• Blue Cheese Crumbles
  

Items Needed:

• Skillet/Pan
• Spatula
  
• Water
• Cooking Pot
• Lids to fit Skillet and Pot
• Fork
• Spoon
  

Turn one burner on high and allow skillet to get nice and hot. Once warmed, turn down to medium and put frozen chicken into the pan and let defrost while you peel the clementine and gather ingredients. Pour a bit of Pinot into the pan and sprinkle the garlic and pepper into the pan. Stir. Pour some more Pinot into the pan add the mushrooms (make sure they’re drained) and squeeze the clementine juice into the pan and a bit more pinot, stir in a bit of half n half and cover. Put the pot onto boil with some water in it. Once boiling add some rice and some salt. Cover for about five minutes and stir in a spoonful of the margarine stuff. Put the rice in a dish, put the chicken & mushroom with the sauce on top, and top off with blue cheese crumbles…MMMMMMMMM

I cleaned the kitchen, somewhat cleaned my bedroom and the hall bath, but still needed something to do, so i cooked some more pork. yum.

Ingredients:

• Nice sized Pork
• Water (fill the baking dish about 1/4 of an inch)
• Butter
• Onion Powder
• Honey
• Spicy Mustard
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Freshly Ground Pepper
• A Pinch of Salt
• Bay Leaves
  

Items:

• Baking Dish
• Knife
• Fork
• Tin Foil
  

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Pour the water into the pan until it’s a quarter of an inch deep. Toss a bunch of bay leaves in the water and place the pork in pan spaced as evenly as possible to each other. Make a slit down the middle of the pork and stick a slab of butter in the slit. Sprinkle the onion powder and pepper and salt all over. Shake some worcestershire sauce on the pork, and get some into the slit. Spread the honey and spicy mustard across the pork and get some of those into the slit as well. Cover and bake until done, I believe it took a little more then a hour. I served corn and fat mac n cheese since that was really the only options available at the time. Hope you enjoy!

Alright. This dish actually took me two days to prepare, because I had no idea company was coming and pizza was brought home, which is actually fantastic, because on the first day I had something different in mind. So, since this took me two days, I’m going to suggest that it takes you two days…the chicken was perfect.

DAY 1

Ingredients:

• Split Chicken Breast
• Salsa
• Olive Oil
• Minced Onion
• Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Hot Sauce
• Water
  

Items:

• Large Baking Dish
• Knife
• Something to Cover the Baking Dish (Tinfoil would work, we were out, so I had to use another baking dish which was smaller, and i had to squeeze all the chicken under it, which made a sucking sound…haha)

Prep:

Pour Olive Oil into the baking dish, try to cover the whole bottom with it. Place the chicken in the dish and make a small slit into the chicken breast. Pour some olive oil into the slit. Put the spices and the hot sauce all over, pour water into the dish so it rises up a bit around the chicken (not covering it) and douse the chicken in salsa.

Now. Cover it and bake it at 400 degrees until white in the middle (about 2 hours)

Once done cooking and cooled off, put everything in the baking dish into something you can store in your refrigerator over night.

DAY 2

Ingredients:

• Rice
• Black Beans (already cooked, I used some from a can)
  
• Cheddar Cheese
• Water x2
  
• Hot Sauce
• Salsa
• Yesterday’s Chicken Mixture
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper
  

Items:

• Large Baking Dish
• Cooking Pot

Prep:

Oil the baking dish

Boil some water and then cook the rice in it. Once the rice is nice and fluffy, take it off the heat and spread it evenly on the bottom of the baking dish. Drain the beans of the water (if you’re using the canned kind) and spread them out evenly as possible on top of the rice. Salt and Pepper the rice and beans. Put hot sauce all over the rice. Layer the cheese on top. Take the chicken out of the fridge and place it on top of the rice mixture. Put more salsa and hot sauce on top and then pour all the juice left in the over night container on top of the chicken. Cover in cheese. Bake at 400 until all the cheese is melted. Hope you enjoy! (you may want to keep some antacids near by)

Last night, we had a really, beautifully cut slab of pork, thick and delicious, so I cooked two pieces, with an interpretation of green bean casserole and slightly modified mac ‘n’ cheese.

Ingredients:

• Pepper
• Pork
• Butter
• Minced Garlic
• Minced Onion
• Can of Green Beans
• Can of Campbell’s Roasted Garlic Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese
• Half ‘n’ Half
  

Items:

• Two Pots
• One Skillet
• Knife
• Stirring Spoons
• Spatula
  
• Plate

Prep

Heat a skillet and melt some butter with some water in the pan, start the water boiling for the mac ‘n’ cheese and start warming a can of green beans. With the pork, stab it a lot on either side. Once the butter is mostly melted, turn the heat down pretty low.

On the plate, mix the pepper, garlic and onion together and rub vigorously over all the pork. ALL the pork. Make sure spices get into cuts. Place the pork in the buttered and watered pan and cover. Once nice and crispy on down side, flip and re-cover. In about 15 mins, pork should be cooked through, check by slicing it open with knife, some juice will seep out.

Follow the directions for the mac ‘n’ cheese on the box, you know, once the water is boiling add the noodles and stir occasionally until done cooking, drain, put 1/4 cup half and half (instead of milk, it makes it creamier) in pot and melt the butter, then mix noodles back in and add the cheese sauce packet. Sometimes I add Parmesan cheese, but did not do so last night, but it is delicious to do so.

Once the green beans are properly warmed, drain the majority of the water out and stir in the soup and stir until smooth and hot.

When all is done cooking, put pork on plate on smoother with the green bean mixture. You may want to make two boxes of the mac ‘n’ cheese since it’s something that people generally can’t eat just one helping of. Hope you enjoy. I know this one isn’t that creative, but it was quick and easy and tasty.

Superb Chicken and Rice

This is based off of my grandmother’s recipe, but I’ve changed so much about it, she probably wouldn’t recognize it anymore. This can feed a lot of people, for very little effort and money.

Ingredients:

• Chicken (I find that boneless chicken works best as long as its thick)
• Rice (long-grain brown or wild)
• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Bouillon Cube (crushed up)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup (or cream of chicken)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Water
• Oil of your preference (I’m partial to Olive)
• Any other spice you’d like to try
  

Items:

• Large rectangular baking dish
• Tin Foil
• Cutting Board
• Knife
  

You’ll need to preset your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Poke holes in the chicken with your knife so it will absorb spices.

In your pan, splosh some oil around and add about 3/4 inch of rice. Cut up your vegetables and layer them as evenly as possible on top of the rice. Add Garlic, Bouillon and other spices. Spread soup all over, fill up soup can with water and pour over the ingredients. Layer Chicken evenly on top and add a dash of salt and as much freshly ground pepper you like. Cover with tin foil and bake for two hours or until rice and chicken are to you liking. ENJOY!!!