Easy onion dip (no dairy!)

Easy Onion Dip

ok so, I think in my last blog about snacking I may have mentioned how I love chips, and along with that, dips! I have found that many, or all of my most favorite dips were non-vegan (obviously they were already vegetarian, but they still had dairy). A personal favorite that I have been missing is the onion dip, but i have found a solution! And here is the way I made mine:

1 package of silken soft tofu
1 packet of Lipton onion soup mix
2 Tbsp of nutritional yeast (optional)


mix all of the ingredients in a blender and enjoy! SO easy right? The nooch (nutritional yeast) is optional in this recipe, but i find that it brings a richness and even "creaminess" to the dip, so for me it really completes it!

Mine is pictured with some polenta I had in my fridge and heated up. I would even use this on sandwiches, or add some soy milk to make it thinner and use as a dressing!

Enjoy!

Snack time!

So if you are like me, you are a snacker. My biggest weakness is chips, and or chips/ dip. Pre-"the change" (i really need a new name for this, its sounds like i just got my first period) nothing could top a good queso and chips. So what am I to do?!
I have a couple "go to" snacks I just love

Amy's fave vegan snacks
*hummus and celery, yeah surprisingly good! and it has that crunch to it that i love!
*dried fruits, like figs and raisins (dried figs rock my world, FYI)
*guacamole and anything really....guacamole is amazing enough to spoon into my mouth
*chips/salsa
*and a new personal favorite popcorn and nooch, with some garlic salt
(hmmm what is nooch you say? well its nutritional yeast, but dont turn your nose up at the gross name of it, its actually amazingly good and can be used in many recipes to acheive a buttery/cheesey flavoring in food, check this out: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/10/what-the-heck-is-nutritional-yeast.html )


of course there are a million fruits and veggies you can nom on throughout the day, and granola as well, but, hey, lets face it, sometimes you wanna dip something crunchy in something awesome. Just how it is!

What are some of your fave snacks? I will see if I cant help you find a vegan alternative!

Vegan Manicotti

 Garlic bread! (roasted garlic, 1 tbsp of soy milk, nooch, and sesame oil, just a dash, all spread on toasted whole wheat slices)

prep the pan with aluminum foil/sauce

 The mixture getting ready to stuff! and the noodles drained/cooled, I threw in the sauce I used as well.

Ok so Ingredients:

1 "tube" of fake sausage (got mine at sprouts)
1 bell pepper
some frozen squash
1 package of firm or extra firm Tofu (14 oz.)
2 TBS "noonch' or Nutritional yeast flakes
Manicotti Shells (1 package)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
garlic, salt, pepper to taste

The oven should be heated to 350 degrees (I roasted my garlic for the garlic bread, 400 for 30 min, so my oven was pre-heated)

Boil water for noodles, and cook until al dente or a little less, I did a little less. drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, brown the fake sausage, and peppers and squash in a pan, I cut my squash and peppers into very small pieces. Set aside to cool.

Mix in a large bowl, tofu, nooch, salt, pepper, and garlic. (I use my hands to crumble the tofu and mix it all together) after the sausage and peppers mixture cools, mix it in as well.

prep the pans as shown in the pic earlier, with aluminum foil and sauce on the bottom, leave half the sauce to pour over top

stuff the shells with the mixture, as you can see in the pictures, I used a bakers bag, and piped it into the shells, it was a great success and I totally pat myself on the back for thinking of it, hahaha. add them to the pan. Once the noodles are stuffed pour the remaining sauce on top and cover with aluminum foil tightly.

Bake for 30 min at 350 degrees.

take out and let cool for 5 min, then serve!

I give this 5 stars! and Jake exclaimed "oh wow" when he took the first bite.....so im guessing he would agree!

this makes plenty, so we will have leftovers, you could even freeze them and re-heat later!

Things I'd change next time; I'd add a bit more sauce on top....thats it!

Thanks for reading guys and gals, I hope you try this and if you do, let me know how it goes! I'm pretty happy with my recipe blog debute! I dont know if I can top this, next post!
~Amy

OH Hai!

So just to kick things off, let me introduce myself and my "story" the quick version!
I am Amy (vegetarian of 11+ years) and am married to Jake (carnivore all his life), we have been married for 10 years this September coming up!  We have 2 amazing children, Noah (just turned 4) and Chloe (1 1/2).

We recently decided to start eating "plant strong", there are SO many labels floating around, but the basis of our choice, is we want to eat healthier at home, start a good foundation for healthy eating for our kids, and to make ourselves eat our veggies! I was a vegetarian for 11 years before the "change" but let me admit....I was a terribly unhealthy veggie, who barely ate my veggies! Gasps all around, I know! Cheese, bread, cheese bread, meat substitutes, chocolate, some fruits and veggies sprinkled in for good measure <------ pretty much my diet before!

Jake, well its fair to say he would eat anything and everything, and most of the time did! he loves food, and culture, social settings, and the dinner table was a great place to explore all of those things! He ate mostly vegetarian at home with me the past 11 years, but occasionally I'd make him a meat version of whatever I was having or we'd be out and he would have meat. He never really considered giving meat up, and I never asked him to.

Well, recently we have gotten old....we both kissed our 20's goodbye with this last birthday, and simultaneously came across the food documentary "Forks Over Knives." It was a pretty interesting movie, we also watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", "Food, Inc.", etc. It became clear to us that we wanted to make a change. So since we dont live the vegan lifestyle, we dont label ourselves vegans (who knew that could be quite the controversial label?) instead we adopted the term "plant based" and "plant strong" to describe our diets from the "Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue" (the follow up to "Forks Over Knives")

This blog will feature our feelings on the journey (we have been at it for about 2 months now!) and recipes we make, as well as how we feel about the recipes, lol cause some have NOT been successes! lol. I am a visual person so you can expect pictures! Please note, I am not a write, I dont aspire to be, and I will make typos and grammatical errors........if that makes you want to strangle the nearest person, I suggest not reading any more....SORRY!

So welcome! I hope that this can help you out if you are looking for that sort of thing, or just fill your time, if thats what you are looking for!

~Amy