Veg of the Week

... Yummmm.

I'm posting from my phone again, so please excuse the lack of the Veg of the Week banner. The pics below are of a quick easy breakfast sandwich! I first heard of Gimme Lean veg "sausage/beef" in the Skinny B*tch in the Kitch vegan cook book. I finally decided to try it one day. So I cut a slice from the tube, formed it into a pattie, and cooked over medium heat in a pan until browned. Then I just grabbed two pieces if bread, spinach, nayonaise, and vegan Daiya cheese. Put it all together and enjoy! This takes no longer than 15 minutes at the most. I cut up a few fresh strawberries for a fresh springy feel. Eating vegan is oh so yum. :). Have you ever tried Gimme Lean? The only thing I didn't like it that it looked so much like real sausage, it felt weird! But it was very good, and cruelty freeeee. See pics below!

Browning in pan...

Love Nayonaise!

A fresh filling meal, perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Shadow approves. If you dont believe her, her eyes will get even bigger, hehe.

~Trying new foods, -Anna (&the Pooches)

Veg of the Week

...on the go.

I'm not saying it's good to always eat frozen meals.....but what I can say is that sometimes you just gotta make do, and there are some really cool vegan "on the go" options. Since this past week has been so much GO GO GO, I thought I'd share with you one way I made dinner quick, easy, and vegan.

Step 1: Stopped at the grocery store across the street from my work.
Step 2: Rushed inside and grabbed an Amy's frozen dinner.
Step 3: Microwave via directions.

...devoured food. :)

I found myself tired and lacking motivation, and also craving a tomato verde sauce smothered on something. I could have caved and bought a jar of tomato verde salsa and a bag of tortilla chips and eaten the entire contents of both, but I knew there was something better out there!

I had a faint memory of an Amy's brand burrito I had eaten a long time ago... I thought it was tomato verde related.....and it was! Score!
It is good even cooked in the microwave :)


And it's healthy! And vegan!


And in keeping with the "taking it easy" theme, that's all I got for ya. Goodnight :)
~Keepin' it simple and veg, -Anna (&And the Pooches)

Veg of the Week

...healthy super bowl food (minus the super bowl!)

I didn't actually watch the super bowl, but I wanted the food that comes along with it.

The first dish I made was the healthy vegan spinach artichoke dip from Daily Garnish, here: http://www.dailygarnish.com/2011/02/healthy-vegan-spinach-artichoke-dip.html

It's another great vegan recipe blog!

Getting all the ingredients out! Here's what you need:

5 cloves garlic
1 14oz can artichoke hearts
1lb bag frozen spinach
2 tbsp Nayonaise
2 tbsp Tofutti cream cheese
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup Daiya cheddar style shreds
pinch of salt



So first take 5 cloves of garlic and mince them. Put them in a pan on med-high heat and brown them for a few minutes.

Then add in your drained can of artichoke hearts and cook for a few more minutes.

After that, add in the whole bag of spinach and cook for about 10 minutes.

When you've cooked it for about 10 minutes, put it in the food processor. My processor is what I like to call "vintage" :)

Add in all the other ingredients (nayonaise, tofutti, daiya, almond milk, nutritional yeast, salt) and mix in the processor for 30-45 seconds.

The recipe then says to put it in a 1 quart baking dish but I only had a 2 quart dish, so that's what I used. Use what ya got!

Sprinkle a little cheese on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and then EAT with yummy chips.

I actually took this to my parents' house and made it later in the night, so I just refrigerated it until I was ready to bake it.

The other dish I HAD to have was pizza, but I didn't want it to be an unhealthy pizza. I used a recipe from a magazine, changed a couple things based on what I had on hand, and veganized it! Here's what you'll need:

(Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications)

3 English muffins (whichever ones you like best), split and toasted

Approx 1 cup Pizza sauce

1/2 cup Fresh spinach (the recipe calls for arugula but I had spinach)

fresh tomato, diced

4 pieces of Morning Star veggie bacon, cooked to crispy and crumbled up

1/4 cup of vegan mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup vegan Daiya cheddar shreds

Getting my stuff together...

Get your broiler started on the oven.

Then toast the english muffins to desired crispyness, and set them on a lightly greased pan.

Spoon 1-2 tbsp (or however much you like...) of pizza sauce on each piece of english muffin

Then put spinach leaves on, covering the surface of the english muffin

Then put the diced tomatoes on

THEN sprinkle the bacon pieces on

And finally sprinkle the cheese on. Just have fun with it and put however much of the toppings you want really....

Broil for 1-4 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Just watch them so they don't burn! When the cheese is melted, they are ready to eat!

I was so excited to try this stuff that I forgot to take a picture until half way through eating... YUMMMM!!!!

For dessert I had a macintosh apple cut into chunks with a tbsp of peanut butter melted and drizzled all over the apple pieces. Peanut butter makes my day :)

So I got to have all the "super bowl" type food-veganized and healthy-without the super bowl. A pretty nice relaxing Sunday if I do say so myself :)

~Having fun veganizing pizza, -Anna (&The Pooches)