Muffin Meals

No, these meals won't be muffins but Muffin is one of my nicknames. Besides, it sounds cute! After viewing the Vegan Lunchbox site, religiously, my Husband wants me to post my own menu. I will try to post one meal each day. I hope I inspire people to have creative and healthy home cooked meals. I think that even if you aren't a vegetarian, you'll like the meals I present. I do feature dairy products and eggs in my food from time to time, but will try my best to present vegan dishes as well.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Hot Pockets!

I decided the other day to have Hot Pockets again. I love these! Its very simple really, for 5 pockets you'll need 2 batches of pie crust (vegan recipe at bottom of post), and a variety of vegetables and vegetarian meats/beans you want. This time I used Wham cut from the large log you can purchase, broccoli, onions, and mushrooms. However, you could also use any kind of bean, or vegetable, whatever your taste buds can conjure up.

MiniB Muffin ate half of her pocket, about the size of the small one in the picture. She hasnt' felt well recently, she's had a bad cold, so her appetite has been down.

Muffin Man ate his, and complained that I cook too good. I liked them so much I kept eating mine, even after I was full!!

Vegan Pie Crust
1 C flour
1/4-1/2 olive oil
1/2 tsp or so salt
6 T ice water

Add salt to flour. Mix olive oil into flour with a fork. Cut it in until it is coarse. One tablespoon at a time, add the ice water. Mix and roll out.

Voila....easy! And vegan. I actually don't know how to make pie crust any other way as I've done it this way for SOOO long.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Chickpea Ala King (VEGAN)

I'm sorry I haven't posted. Most evenings I'm so sore and tired its all I can do not to scream. Its too hard to type, so I don't get to post.

This is my chickpea ala king. We haven't had it in forever because the last time I made it I used soymilk. Don't use soymilk...use the cashews. Its much better!

Next to that is a stuffed tomato. The recipe is my own creation. We had blackbeans and rice last night, so I used some of the leftover beans and rice, added some cooked fresh spinach, a few mushrooms, and stuffed those tomatos. I did add cheese to the top, but that is optional.

The first time I had this was in Massachusetts. Some neighbors we had been getting aquainted with wanted to feed us a meal in their small one bedroom apartment (the same size as ours, but less sitting room as they had a baby). They served us this. MMMM it was good. I have been craving this for a while, so finally decided to make it. What I like best about this is the fact that not only is it tasty, its colorful!!

This time around I didn't have all the vegetables it called for, so I made substitutions, according to color. Since I usually use both red and green peppers, broccoli instead of green peppers, no mushrooms (lazy), and corn instead of peas, as I didn't have a yellow, but broccoli is green. Here's the recipe as written.

Chickpea Ala King

1 C onion, chopped
1 Red or Green Pepper
1/2 C mushrooms
1 C carrots chopped
2 T Oil
3 C water or substitute some with the garbanzo bean liquid
1/2 C cashew pieces
4 T sesame seeds
2-3 T McKay's chicken seasoning (vege)
1-2 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 T onion powder
3 C frozen peas ( I use less)
2 C cooked garbanzos or 1 can garbanzos
1/2 C blanched slivered almonds (optional)

Saute first 4 ingredients in oil. Combine cashews, sesame seeds, and enough water to cover in a blender. Blend til nuts are pureed. Add rest of water corn starch, and seasonings, and blend til mixture is smooth. Pour over sauteed vegetables and cook until sauce thickens. Add frozen peas and garbanzos, and almonds if using them. Cook until hot, and serve over rice.

That's it!!