Mini lentil loaves

As promised, here's the first of my Thanksgiving recipes, mini lentil loaves.  I bake them in a petite loaf pan, so they come out as little individually sized loaves - which makes it easy to freeze some for later!

Mini Lentil Loaves
Makes 8 mini loaves

1.5 c red lentils

3 c water

2 Tbsp flax

6 Tbsp warm water

1 c rolled oats

½ c diced onion

6 Tbsp ketchup

4 Tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp dried basil

½ tsp seasoning salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease loaf pan.

 2. In a saucepan, combine lentils & 3 c water.  Bring to a boil and simmer until cooked and most of water is absorbed, about 20 min. Mash.

 3. Combine flax & 6 Tbsp warm water. Set aside for 5 min.

 4. In a bowl, combine lentils, oats and onion. Add flax mix, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, basil and salt. Mix well, it should stick together and not be soupy (if it’s soupy, add more oats).

 5. Spray mini loaf pans with cooking spray. Evenly divide up lentil mixture. Even out the tops with a spatula or fork.

6. Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes or until top is golden and crispy.

If you want a normal loaf size, you just need to increase the cooking time another 15-20 minutes.  When I'm not eating it smothered with holiday gravy, I like to eat it meatloaf-style with a drizzle of ketchup or sliced up in a sandwich.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

A lot has happened since my last post over a year ago. I started my new job, which constantly threatens to swallow me up into the vast workaholic void where I'll never see my loved ones or kitchen again. But I sneak away when I can.

I got engaged. To an omni, Mr Pescador. But he eats what I cook for him and always tells me it's delicious, so we make it work. Last month we moved in together. I love our new place - it's closer to work (yay sleeping in 15 min more!) and the kitchen is huge. There's even enough cabinet space for all my gadgets.

Which brings me to Thanksgiving dinner. Mr Pescador's mom hosted on Thanksgiving day and she seems to take it as a personal affront if I bring my own meal, so I ate what I could and planned for my own totally veg Thanksgiving on Friday.

I'll be posting the recipes in a series of posts, but here's the menu (apologies for the horrible camera phone photo, much of my photography gear is still packed):

Mini lentil loaves (pictured), sage and onion stuffing (pictured), mashed potatoes with holiday gravy (pictured), green bean casserole (pictured), garlic and mustard glazed Brussels sprouts, sweet potato saute with pecans and cranberries, spiced cranberry sauce, and pumpkin-pecan pie. I like both pumpkin and pecan pies but I didn't want to bake 2 whole pies so I figured why choose?

It was great to spend time with family Thursday, but also to be able to cook and eat my version of a Thanksgiving feast Friday. I think I started a new tradition.

MoFo Day 16: Breakfast

Witches' Brew (aka mocha oatmeal)

Halloween is almost here!  Chocolate and pumpkins and haunted houses and candy apples and trick-or-treating and costume parties and all that fun!  As you might have guessed, I love Halloween so this week my recipes will all have a Halloween component.

When I saw Vegan Yack Attack's recipe for mocha oatmeal, I knew I had to try it.  Caffeinated oatmeal?  Sign me up!  I used a scant 1 Tbsp of agave plus a scant 1 Tbsp of brown sugar for the sweetener.  This would also be awesome with some cinnamon in it.

MoFo Day 4: Snacks

I've been super busy with my new job, so although originally I'd planned to post a photo and description of one of my usual snacks, I'll give you the link to PETA's list of accidentally vegan foods instead.  This is a great resource if you like to have quick and easy to find snacks around for when hunger strikes.  I also like to use it when I shop for road trip/vacation food.  If you have a smartphone, you can even look it up while you're wandering a gas station in search of food.  Not that I've ever done that before... ;)

MoFo Day 3: Dinner #1

Oven roasted portobello cap topped with chipotle mashed sweet potatoes

Dinner tonight was pretty simple.  I used a recipe from Supermarket Vegan: 225 Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Recipes for Real Peoplein the Real World, served with a salad.  To cook the mushrooms, I just brushed with olive oil and baked in a 375F oven for about 30 minutes, until tender.  The sweet potatoes I made according to the recipe, except I didn't have any canned chiles in adobo on hand, so I used chipotle chili powder to taste.

MoFo Day 2: Lunch #1

Minestrone with a toasted hummus, spinach, tomato and avocado sandwich

I live alone (well, at least as far as cooking goes - otherwise I live with a cat and 2 cockatiels, all rescues).  And while I love to cook, I don't have time to cook a meal from scratch every day.  My solution has been to freeze individual-sized portions of recipes - I don't get stuck eating the same thing every night for an entire week, and I can quickly pull a homemade meal out of the freezer on my more busy nights or to take for lunch.  When I made minestrone last week I knew I'd be freezing some of it for later.

To make the soup, I combined the 2 minestrone recipes from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen (because I wanted to use canned beans, but liked the spices better in the classic recipe).  For the beans, I used Great Northern and shelled frozen edamame.  I cooked the pasta separately.  When ready to serve, I put the pasta in the bottom of the bowl and ladled the soup over it.  I only froze the soup (without the pasta) because pasta gets really mushy when frozen and thawed in liquid.

For the sandwich, I just toasted 2 slices of bread, smeared each with hummus, and layered on the spinach, sliced tomatoes, and avocado.  Perfect for a fall lunch!

MoFo Day 1: Breakfast #1

Breakfast burrito

Most mornings I don't want something sweet for breakfast, and I'm not a morning person so it needs to be quick and easy.  What could be easier than reheating some tofu scramble and wrapping it in a tortilla?  I usually make a batch of tofu scramble during my weekend, then use it throughout the week - over toast, on a bagel with cream cheez, in a burrito, etc.  My tofu scramble recipe is based off Vegan Dad's, with a few changes to suit my tastes.

Basic Tofu Scramble

1 Tbsp oil

1 lb firm or extra firm tofu, drained, pressed & crumbled

¼ c diced onion (or ½ tsp onion powder)

2-3 cloves minced garlic

¼ tsp turmeric

1 Tbsp soy sauce, or more to taste

¼ c nutritional yeast

½ Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp nondairy creamer or milk, unflavored

salt & pepper, to taste

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over med-high heat.
2. Saute onions until softened; add garlic and saute until fragrant.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (except the creamer/milk, salt, and pepper) and mix well.
4. Stir often, lowering the heat if the tofu begins to stick.
5. Cook 10-15 minutes more, or until most of the liquid released by the tofu has evaporated and the tofu firms up.
6. Add the creamer/milk and mix well. Allow some of the liquid to evaporate, then remove from the heat.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Variations (use one or mix and match several or all!):

• Mushroom-spinach: Add 1 c thinly sliced cremini mushrooms and 1 c baby spinach leaves when adding the garlic in step 2.
• Bac'n: Add 3-4 strips chopped cooked bac'n when adding the ingredients in step 3.
• Salsa: Add 2-4 Tbsp prepared salsa (or more to taste) and ¼ c (or more to taste) chopped cilantro when adding the ingredients in step 3.

The pictured scramble has mushroom, spinach, and bac'n - tofu scramble is pretty versatile, so don't be afraid to make changes and try whatever sounds good to you.

Happy MoFo!