Vegan/Lactose Free Manicotti

Every Wednesday I will be bringing you what I will be calling Cutting Board posts.  I will be creating and showing recipes that cut back costs and calories.  Healthy food does not have to be expensive!  So here we go...

In another desperate attempt to get my family to open up to the idea of tofu as an edible food option, I turned to my latest copy of Everyday with Rachel Ray, which was showing a vegan stuffed shells recipe in the early pages of the issue.  The recipe below is an adaptation of that recipe.  Believe it or not, this is actually cheaper to make than the cheese version!  The tofu cost $5.98, while the 4 cups of mozarella and the ricotta would normally run me approximately $9.00. The tofu is much lighter on the calories, and you also will not have the calories from the eggs, which normally get blended with the cheeses! 

I serve stuffed shells way too often, and my family knows the taste like the back of their hands, so I opted for manicotti, which I don't make too often - mostly because I hate filling them (there is a tip down in the recipe)! I figured they wouldn't notice the new flavor and will just think that I am seasoning them differently. 

I nearly got away with it this time.  They scarfed them down piping hot, and dad went back for seconds!  They later realized, I suppose upon reflection, that something was not "right" and forced the secret out of me, because, well, I am just a horrible liar!  What it comes down to, is that these were delicious, especially piping hot out of the oven!  My family would have loved them, and I could have made them again if they hadn't been so suspicious...oh well!

Vegan/Lactose Free Manicotti
Yields 5 - 6 servings

Ingredients 
2 pounds firm tofu
2 sprigs fresh oregano
4 medium garlic cloves, chopped
Juice of two lemons
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
1 jar of meatless spaghetti sauce
1 package of manicotti noodles, cooked, drained, and run under cool water.
1 Ziploc bag with a corner cut off, or a piping bag


To Prepare the Manicotti
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor, puree 1 pound of tofu, the leaves of 1 sprig of oregano, 2 garlic cloves, and the juice of 1 lemon.
3. Repeat the process in step one with the remaining tofu, oregano, garlic, and lemon juice.
4. Combine both batches of tofu in a large bowl, and add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Pour half of the jar of spaghetti sauce into a large casserole dish, and spread it out evenly. 
6. Pour the tofu mixture into the Ziploc or piping bag, and squeeze the tofu into the manicotti.  The most effectively way to fill the manicotti is to fill the pasta half way from one side, and then fill in the other side.
7. Continue this step while laying them in the saucy casserole dish.
8. Once you have filled all of the manicotti, top them with the sauce.
9. Bake them for 20 - 30 minutes, or until they are bubbling and hot.
10. Sprinkle the entire casserole dish with some fresh oregano before serving!

Vegetable Puffs

Another Meatless Monday has come and gone! 

I wanted something different this week that was not going to be a production, and considering how much we have been going out to eat, I definitely wanted to kick up the healthy factor!  What I really loved about making this dinner was all of the beautiful and rich colored foods that go into it - it was a real pick me up for a gloomy day!  This recipe makes 6 thick slices if you are serving them along side something else, but if you are eating them on their own, I would say it makes 3 generous servings.

I was also beyond excited at the grocery store when I came across two new products that helped this dish along - Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cooking Cream and Pillsbury Seamless Crescent Roll Dough!   So with that being said, let's get to the recipe and pictures!

Vegetable Puffs
Yields 6 hearty slices

Ingredients 
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 broccoli crown, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
6 ounces of spinach leaves
10 ounce container of Philly Cooking Cream in the Italian Herb and Cheese Flavor
2 rolls of Pillsbury Seamless Crescent Dough

To Prepare the Puffs
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Pour the bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, onions, and black beans into a large skilled over medium heat. 
3. After approximately 10 minutes of cooking, add the spinach.  It will look like A LOT of food, but the spinach will cook down quite a bit! 

4. Cook for approximately 10 more minutes, being sure to stir it often. 
5. Add the cooking cream, and coat the veggies completely.

6. Shut the vegetables off. 
7. Spread out one of the crescent dough sheets on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet.

8. Spoon the vegetable mixture onto the dough, being sure to leave a one inch border. 

9. After all of the vegetables or spooned on, fold the dough up onto the veggies to create an edge or barrier.

10. Place the other dough sheet on top of the vegetables, and tuck and pinch it under the puff. 

11. Bake the puff at 350 degrees until it is a deep golden brown color!

 

Vegetarian Stew

Last night my grandmom had our family over for dinner.  We had a DELICIOUS enchilada casserole, and will be posting that recipe soon!  That being said, Meatless Monday had to be put off until tonight!  This week, for Meatless Monday, I made a vegetarian stew.  With my favorite produce store going out of business, I was forced to buy frozen vegetables.  When I am put in a bind like this, I always opt for frozen over canned.  Frozen veggies are a smidgen better for you and retain a good portion of their nutritional value!  If you are using frozen veggies for this recipe, be sure they are defrosted, and if you are using canned veggies, be sure to strain the excess liquid off of them before adding them to the pot! 

Vegetarian Stew 
Yields 6 generous servings


Ingredients 
1 small onion, peeled and diced
2 large potatoes, washed and cubed
1 carrot, washed and diced
8 ounces corn kernels
8 ounces green beans
8 ounces peas
28 ounces pureed tomatoes
3 cans water
8 ounces of whole wheat pasta (I used fusilli) 
Salt
Pepper
Paprika

To Prepare the Stew
1. In a large stew pot, add the onions, carrots, and potatoes.  Heat them over medium heat while constantly stirring. 
2. When the onions have started to become translucent, add the corn, green beans, and peas. 
3. Stir everything together well. 
4. Add the pureed tomatoes and 2 cans of water. 
5. Cook over medium heat.
6. When the liquid comes to a boil, season with the salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. 
7. Add the pasta. 
8. Add the last can of water as needed to make the stew as thick or runny as you prefer it to be.  
9. When the pasta has cooked through and the potatoes are soft, your stew is ready!

Cranberry Sauce and Meatless Monday

Over the years, I remember my mom and I having a few failed attempts at making delicious tasting cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.  We always ended up reverting back to the classy stuff that jiggles out of the can for the big day!  This year I finally got smart about it, and got it to not only work, but also taste pretty delicious!  I have actually ended up serving cranberry sauce more since figuring out how to make it, and love roasting chicken breasts in it - in fact, that is what I made it for tonight!  We will be enjoying it tomorrow night alongside some chicken and a salad.  This sauce is best served the next day after it has chilled in the fridge overnight!

Cranberry Sauce 
Yields approximately 3 cups of sauce

Ingredients 
Approximately 12 ounces of cranberries
2 cups of orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
6 ounces of Craisins
1 teaspoon of cornstarch or flour

To Prepare the Sauce 
1. Pour the cranberries, sugar, and orange juice into a saucepan and turn on high heat.

2. Boil and stir it.  You will start to see and hear the cranberries pop!
3. Once most of the cranberries have popped and started to break down, pour a few teaspoons of the liquid from the pan into a small bowl and mix it with the cornstarch or flour until it makes a paste.

4. Add the paste to the saucepan and stir well.  This will help your sauce thicken and turn a nice consistency.

5. Cook over medium heat for a few more minutes, and then stir in the craisins.
6. Turn off the heat and leave on the stove to cool off.  Your sauce will thicken and turn that deep, clear color as it cools!  Cover it and move it to the fridge overnight! 

Tonight was also our forth Meatless Monday.  So far, they have been going well, and there have been no complaints from my dad or sister!  This week, I let my sister pick the meal and she asked for a huge garden salad!  I mixed 3 kinds of lettuce - iceberg, green, and red!  We used provolone cheese as our protein.  We had bell pepper, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, red onion, tomato, broccoli, mushrooms, and black olives as our toppers!

Meatless Monday - January 3rd

This week brought the first Meatless Monday of 2011 and, much to my surprise, my family gulped down their plates of vegetarian fare!  I have had a bit of a struggle serving vegetarian food at the house for a few reasons.  My dad and sister feel that meat is an essential at EVERY meal, so they look forward to it, while my brother and I could care less either way.  My sister is also a bit of a picky eater, so I struggle finding vegetable heavy meals that she will eat.  Usually I can consider tomatoes, mushrooms, any cucumber or zucchini type veggies, onions, and peppers out of the question!  My dad and sister are also extremely against tofu.  I have to sneak things into food all of the time, but I accept their challenge!  Game. Set. Match.

This week I opted for uncommon foods in common forms.  Burgers and chips sounded good, but needed to fit into the Meatless Monday theme, not to mention, I am out of propane for the grill.  I decided to replace the burgers with falafel patties, store bought buns with homemade organic white buns, a dressing plate of red onion, tomato, and spinach, and homemade yam potato chips. 

Falafel
1 Box of Near East mix yields approximately 4 burger sized falafel patties

Falafel is made of either fava beans or chickpeas that are mashed down and mixed with an array of herbs and spices!  As far as falafel goes, I have never tried making it from scratch, but it is definitely something I would like to try this year!  Since I don't make it from scratch, I use the Near East Falafel mix.  What I really love about this mix is that all you need to add is water.  I also like that it can either be fried or baked, and I opted for baking my patties!  I made the patties the size and shape of a burger, which helped with my dad and sister being more willing to eat them. 

Yam Chips
Yields approximately 5 servings

I had originally planned on making plain potato chips, but the selection of yams at the grocery store was great this week!  Since the falafels have such a savory flavor, I though the yams might be a nice contrast - just enough sweetness!  I try to keep in mind that the more colorful a meal is, the more vitamins and minerals are in it, so the yams just had to come home with me!  I ran two large yams through my mandolin slicer on the thinnest setting.  I then heated vegetable oil in a large skillet.  I don't use a thermometer for heating my oil, but rather water.  If you put a drop or two in the oil when you think it is ready it will do one of three things: Sit on top of the water which means that your oil is not hot enough, bounce once which means that your oil is just right, or skip several times which means your oil is too hot.  I cooked my chips until they had almost stopped bubbling, which means that most of the water has cooked out of them.  I then placed them in a bowl that was lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil!  They cooled quickly.  I put salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg on the table so everyone could season their chips to their own liking.  We all opted for cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg! They were great!  If you are looking to cut back on calories, you can also bake them.  Since I was in a bit of a time crunch, the oil was the quicker route for me!

Eggplant Parmesan

Many of my favorite vegetarian dishes revolve around pasta!  I knew when I started the menu for this week, the one dish that my dad would totally be ok with was eggplant parm!  He LOVED having this at home,  my sister (the veggie hater) on the other hand, was not happy at all.  I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad haha.  I liked this recipe because it actually came out with a crispy crust and didn't get soggy.  I think eggplant parm tends to go wrong when you feel like you are chewing on rubber...yuck!  I will certify this as a rubbery free recipe! 

Eggplant Parmesan 
Yields 6 servings

To Prepare the Eggplant 
1. Peel 1 large eggplant.
2. Cut the Eggplant into 1/2 inch thick rounds.
3. Place the rounds into a sieve and sprinkle some salt on them.  This will make the eggplant wilt, which essentially means that we are removing excess moisture, and they are going into a sieve so they are not lying in the juices!

4. After the eggplant has wilted for approximately 30 minutes, take it out the sieve and pat the pieces dry with paper towels.
5. While the eggplant is drying, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
6. Beat 3 eggs in a bowl, and set aside.
7. Pour 1 cup of bread crumbs onto a plate.  I used plain bread crumbs and seasoned them with some dry herbs, but you can definitely use the pre-seasoned!
8. Pour 1/4 inch of olive oil into a frying pan and start heating it on low heat.
9. While the olive oil is heating, dredge approximately 4 slices through the bread crumbs, and THEN coat them in egg.

All set up for dredging! From left to right: Eggplant, bread crumbs, egg, frying pan, casserole dish!

10. Fry the coated eggplant in the oil, and be sure to flip them once they brown on the first side!  When they are brown on both sides, remove them from the oil and place them in a casserole dish. Repeat this process until all of the eggplant is fried and in the casserole dish.

11. Evenly coat the entire casserole of eggplant with pasta sauce (it only should take 1 jar of sauce!).  If you want your eggplant to stay SUPER crispy, place it on a baking sheet, spoon a little sauce over the top of each piece, sprinkle with some cheese, and then bake it!

12. Top the sauce with 1/2 to 1 pound of shredded mozzarella, depending on how cheesy you want it!  I love cheese, so I used 1 pound!

13. Bake this in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

I served mine over pasta, but it would be good as an eggplant parm sandwich, or along side of some fresh steamed veggies!

Tofu and Four Bean Chili Topped with Banana and Mango

You guys have probably noticed a trend this week of me trying to trick my family into eating vegetarian dishes, and tonight was finally the night it blew up in my face.  Don't get me wrong, the chili was delicious - I had a heaping plate, my dad had 2, and my sister whined the ENTIRE time she ate her bowl of it!  My dad had no idea until my sister got suspicious and dug through the top of the trash bag to find the tofu container.  He then proceeded to act disgusted while she ate a muffin and stopped eating her chili.  They have put their feet down that vegetarian week is over, but unfortunately for them, I bought the groceries on Saturday.  They are at my and the kitchen's mercy until Friday!  I guess it wouldn't have bothered me so much if they weren't so mean about it.  I mean really...is one vegetarian dish a day that horrible?!  Nonetheless, dinner was really yummy, and I enjoyed it!

Tofu and Four Bean Chili Topped with Banana and Mango 
Yields 8 - 10 servings

To Prepare the Chili
1. Start to heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan.
2. While the oil is heating, grate your block of tofu on a cheese grater.  If you don't want to grate it, you can break it up by hand, and then break it up more when it is starting to fry. I like grating because it makes the size of the tofu consistent...there's some mild OCD at work!
3. Add the tofu to the hot oil, and fry it until it just starts to brown a little.

4. Add a hot chili seasoning packet to the tofu and cook for a little bit longer.  Remember, when you are cooking tofu, it takes on the flavor of what you are cooking it with, so the more you cook the spices into it, the less it is going to taste like tofu!

5. Once the spices and tofu have started to brown, add a can of tomato puree or sauce (approximately 30 ounces worth).
6. Add a mild chili seasoning packet to the pan and stir well! 

7. Add in 1 can of dark red kidney beans, 1 can of pink kidney beans, 1 can of black beans, and 1 can of cannellini beans.

8. Stir everything together and let it simmer over low heat.  Be sure to stir it every now and then so it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn!

9. While your chili is simmering, dice one banana, and an equal bit of mango.  Serve this on top of the chili!  For some reason these two fruits manage to compliment the red sauce really well.  If you don't want to go the route of chopping the fruit, you could buy a pineapple or mango salsa to use! 

Pumpkin Coconut Cream Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

After perusing my new favorite grocery store (The Golden Mango), I found quartered pumpkins for cooking in the refrigerated produce section.  I obviously could not turn this offer down (especially when 3 pounds worth was only $2.00)!!!  With Vegetarian Week quickly looming on the blog, I opted for it, and figured I would find something to do with it.  I didn't want to go the obvious route of pie or bread, and finally remembered that there is such a thing as pumpkin soup!  I wanted to find a balance between sweet and savory though, especially since my dad and sister can be a little picky sometimes!  They really ended up enjoying it, and we are now looking forward to making it the week after Thanksgiving to have with leftover turkey sandwiches!  I also almost forgot to mention that this actually ended up being a vegan recipe!

Pumpkin Coconut Cream Soup with Cinnamon Croutons
Yields 6 servings


To Prepare the Soup 
1. Puree 3 pounds of pumpkin.  If you are going to puree them from scratch, you will need to cut the pumpkin into manageable pieces, and remove all of the seeds and goopy stringy bits!  Leave the skin on though, as it peels off much more easily after it is baked.  Bake the pumpkin in a casserole dish at 350 degrees for an hour and a half!  When the pumpkin is done cooking, cool it, peel it, and puree it either in a food processor or in a food mill.  If you do not want to go through this process, use 3 pounds of pumpkin from the grocery store!  Just be sure it is pumpkin puree and not the pie filling though!

2. Start boiling the pumpkin puree in a large pot.
3. Add in a can of cream of coconut (Approximately 16 ounces).  If you do not like coconut, you could use regular milk that is sweetened with a little brown sugar, or you could use vanilla or almond soy milk to keep this recipe vegan!
4. Add in a can of vegetable broth (Approximately 16 ounces).
5. Add in 1 heaping teaspoon of curry powder.
6. Add in 1/2 a teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
7. Add in 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon.
8. Add in 1/2 a teaspoon of ground ginger.
9. Let all of this simmer over medium heat.

To Prepare the Croutons 
1. Slice 6 slices of wheat bread into thirds.  Be sure to use a vegan friendly bread if you are keeping this recipe vegan!
2. Place them on a baking sheet.
3. Sprinkle them with cinnamon and sea salt.

4. Bake at 350 degrees in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are golden brown and crunchy!