Canadian-Style Tarts!

Dear Canada,
    Thanks for inventing the delicious butter tarts!
              Sincerely,
            Ryan & Shayna

P.S.-Please stop the seal slaughter!

Theres nothing better than bitting into a nice, sweet delicious tart! Thats why we're here to bring you our version of this Canadian classic.

Ingredients-

Pastry Crust
1-1/4 Cups All purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Tbs. Organic Sugar
1/2 Cup of Earth Balance margarine
1/8-1/4 Cup Ice cold water

Filling
1/3 Cup Earth Balance Margarine
1 Cup Organic Light Brown sugar
2 Ener-G Egg replacers
1 Tsp. Fair Trade vanilla extract
1/4 Cup Sweetened Mimicreme
A few raisins or pecans
For the Crust:
        Place flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and process until combined. Add the margarine and process until the mixture is crumbly. Turn on you food processor and and the cold water until the mixture turns into a dough ball. When dough can be pinched together, thats when it is ready to be chilled! Take the ball and flatten it into a disc, plastic wrap it and refrigerate for about an hour.
        When the dough has been chilled place it on a lightly floured surface and roll it out. Cut the discs into 4 inch circles (We used drinking cups to make them round). Place them into muffin pans and chill for 30 mins.

        While the dough is chilling, make up the filling! Cream the brown sugar and margarine together. Add the Ener-G eggs and vanilla extract and cream again! Add the mimicreme and mix thoroughly. Place some chopped raisins or pecans or both in the bottom of each tart and cover with the mixture. Bake for 15-20 mins on 375 F and cool until ready to eat!

With any left over dough you can make mini-pies with them using your favorite jams!

Lentil-Seitan Stew

Sorry for the break everyone! We've been real busy finishing up the semester at school and making the green to support ourselves! Heres a nice stew recipe that is sure to put a smile on your face when you're feeling down!
Nothing better than a nice hearty stew for a gloomy day! Our friends Justin, and Kelly gave us some delicious home made jerk seitan! Its nice and spicy, but you can use any flavor seitan for this stew as you desire!

Ingredients:
1 Pound dried red lentils
1 Large onion, diced
2 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Carrot, diced
3 Stalks celery, diced
1/4 Cup olive oil
8 Cups veggie stock
1/4 Cup tomato paste
1 Tsp thyme
1 Tsp ground cumin
1 8 oz. Package of seitan, or 2 servings homemade

Optional:
Vegan parmesan cheese for serving!

First your going to take your lentils, and put them in a large heat-proof bowl and cover them with boiling water for 15 mins and drain.
While your waiting for the lentils, add your olive oil, diced onion, minced garlic, thyme and cumin to fairly sized stock pot. Saute for about 20 minutes, then add carrots and celery and saute for about 10 more minutes.
After all of your veggies are done sauteing, add the drained lentils and veggie stock and bring to a boil.
When the stew has reached a boil, simmer for about 1 hour.
Serve nice and hot with vegan parm sprinkled on top!

Enjoy! No more breaks! We promise :)

Jalapeno Poppers featuring Teese!

The nice people over at Chicago Soy Dairy sent us some awesome samples of Teese and challenged us to go above and beyond and make something crazy! This is what we came up with! Hope you enjoy!!

Ingredients:
16 Jalapenos, halved and seeded
8 oz. Cheddar Teese by Chicago Soy Dairy
8 oz. Pack of vegan cream cheese
1 Tbsp. Bacuns (veg bacon bits!)
1 Cup original soy milk
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1 Cup vegan bread crumbs
Veggie Oil for frying

Pre-heat oil to 375.
First off, shred the cheddar teese and mix with bacuns and the vegan cream cheese in a medium sized bowl. Spoon the mixture into the jalapeno pepper halves.
Next, Put the soy milk and flour into 2 separate bowls, and bread crumbs on a large plate. Dip the jalapenos that you've stuffed into the milk and then the flour until well coated. Allow them to dry for about 3-5 minutes give or take.
Once they've dried a tad, dip them into the soy milk once again, then roll them in the bread crumbs until nice and coated. Pop them into the deep fryer.
Fry for about 2-3 minutes. When they appear to be golden brown, they are all set!
Serve nice and hot with a side of Vegan sour cream or your favorite dipping sauce!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Flapjacks With a maple vanilla cinnamon cream

Flapjacks are good. So are pumpkins. Why not put the two together? With some chocolate chips. Sounds good right? A nice breakfast item, but also sweet enough to be a nice dessert!

Makes about 8 medium flapjacks.


Ingredients:
2 Cups All-purpose flour
2 Cups Almond Milk
1/4 Cup melted margarine
1 Tsp. Baking powder
1 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Pumpkin puree 

For the Cream:
1/2 Cup almond milk
1/4 Cup maple syrup
1/4 Tsp. Cinnamon
2 Tsp. Arrowroot power
1/2 Tsp. Fair trade Vanilla extract


Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Mix the pumpkin, margarine, almond milk, together in another small mixing bowl, and whisk. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry and mix together.
On a medium heat pre-heated skillet, spray or oil it and add about 1/3 cup into the form of a pancake and cook When bubbles appear on the otherside, its ready to be flipped! Repeat for as many pancakes as you'd like.

For the cream, in a small mixing bowl, add the almond milk, syrup, cinnamon and extract and whisk together. In a small saucepan, bring to a boil. In a very small heat proof bowl combine about 1/8 cup of the cream mixture with the arrowroot and mix. Return to the saucepan and whisk. The mixture should thicken. Top these delicious flapjacks with the cream and enjoy.

Chana Masala!

We get cravings for Indian food quite often, and we talk about going out and getting some. Then we realize that we're broke. This is our delicious version of Chana Masala!

Ingredients:
2 Servings of basmati rice (about 1 cup dry)
2 Tbsp. Margarine
1-15 oz. Can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 Small roma tomato, diced
1/2 Red onion, diced
1 Clove of garlic, minced
1/2 Cup water
1/2 Tbsp. Coriander
1 Tsp. Cumin powder
1/4 Tsp. Cayenne powder
1/2 Tsp. Turmeric
1 Tsp. Paprika
1/2 Tsp. Garam Masala
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Ginger
Squeeze of Lemon juice

Instructions:
Get the rice going in the rice cooker, or your preferred method.
Melt the margarine in a nice deep sauce pan over medium heat. Once the margarine is melted, add the diced onion and begin to saute until they start to brown, about 4-5 minutes. Next, add the garlic and cook it up for about another minute.
Mix all the spices together in a small bowl, and add them to the onions and garlic, along with the diced tomato. The mixture will get a little thick, saute for about 3 minutes, and add the 1/2 cup of water with the chickpeas.
Bring the mixture to a boil. Once it hits a boil, hit it with some lemon juice, reduce the heat, and cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Once it's been 10 minutes, uncover and it should have gotten thicker.
Serve over a nice hot bed of rice and enjoy!
Its nice and tasty but not too spicy!

Chocolate Cake With Carmel Drizzle!

Got a sweet tooth? We do.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 Cups soy milk or almond milk
2 Tsp. white vinegar
1 1/2 Cups sugar
2/3 Cup Canola oil
2 Tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tsp. almond extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
2/3 Cup fair trade cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tsp. baking soda
1 Tsp. baking powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Frosting:
1/4 Cup soy creamer (french vanilla works great!)
3 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1/2 Cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
1/2 Cup non-hydrogenated margarine
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract

Carmel Drizzle:
2 Cups brown sugar
1/2 Cup Margerine (earth ballance)
3/4 cup Soy creamer
2 Tbsp. Arrowroot powder

For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 F
Combine the white vinegar and the soymilk in a small bowl and allow to curdle for a few minutes. Meanwhile, sift all of you dry ingredients together in a large bowl. After you have done this, add the canola oil, vanilla extract, and almond extract to the milk mixture.
Add the liquids to your sifted flour mixture and whisk! You can do this the old fasion way and build some nice muscle, or you can use electric beaters.
Spray two 9 inch cake pans and divide the mixture evenly. Pop them in the oven for about 25 minuets and check with tooth picks to make sure they come out clean.
Cool them untill they are cool to the touch.

Frosting:
Add the shortening and margarine to a large bowl and cream together with electric beaters.
Once the mixture is smooth, add the rest of the ingredients and cream together untill the mixture starts getting nice and fluffy, taste it to make sure its delicious! Once the cake is done cooling, put one cake patty on a nice, presentable plate, and frost it! add the carmel drizzle in between layers and on top once your done frosting! Decorate how ever you would like!

Carmel Drizzle:
Add the arrowroot powder and 1/4 cup of the creamer together and set aside
Add the margarine to a sauce pan and melt. Then add the brown sugar, and remaining soymilk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for about 5 minuets.
Remove from heat and add the arrowroot soymilk mixture and it will thicken up.
Add this to the cake while its still hot for easy drizzlidge!

Tex-Mex Chili!

Mmmmmm! Chili time. We all need something delicious and warm to make us feel like were at a beach in the Gulf of Mexico this time of year in Syracuse! Hopefully this does the trick! It does for us!

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Medium sized red onion, diced
1 Carrot, diced
3 Stalks celery, diced
3 Cloves Garlic Minced
1 Green and Red Pepper, chopped
2 Large or 3 Medium tomatos, chopped
1 28 oz. Can crushed tomato
1 14 oz. Can kidney beans with liquid
1 14 oz. Can corn with liquid
1/2 14 oz. Can blackbeans
1 Cup Textured vegetable protein (I use Bob's Red Mill)
7/8 Cup Veggie or Un-chicken broth
3 Tbsp. Red Pepper flakes
1 Tbsp. Chili powder
1 Tbsp. Cumin powder
1 Tbsp. Paprika
2 Tsp. salt
A nice crack of black pepper

Optional Garnishes:
Vegan sour cream
Vegan Cheese (We used Daiya)
Scallions
Avocado slices (If your feeling adventurous!)

       First things first, place your olive oil in a deep soup pot on medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onions. Sauté until tender and translucent.
       Next add the celery, carrot, green and red peppers. Sauté for about 5-7 minutes. While the veggies are sautéing, soak your TVP in the broth.
       While the TVP is soaking and after the veggies have sauteed for 5-7 minutes, add the crushed tomato, kidney beans with liquid, black beans, and corn with liquid to the chili. Stir it up, and add the spices! After all the spices are stirred in, add your soaked TVP (it should have doubled in size and absorbed all the liquid) and stir.
       Lower the heat to a low-medium, and simmer for at least an hour before serving. The longer it simmers, the more flavor! Stir every half hour.
       Garnish with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

General Tso's Tofu

This is an all time favorite of ours! This dish will satisfy anyones craving for asian food, especially when you don't have money :)! This makes about 2 Large servings or 3 medium servings.

Ingredients:
1-1 Lb. block of extra firm tofu
3/4 Tsp. sesame oil
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
1-2 Heads of broccoli
2 Scallions
White Rice!

For the Sauce:
1/2 Cup Un-chicken broth or Veggie broth
2 Tbsp. Cornstarch or Arrowroot
1 Tbsp. White cooking wine
2 Tbsp. Tamari or soy sauce
2 Tsp. Rice or white vinegar
2 Tsp. Sugar
2 Cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper (or more if you love spice!)

         First things first! Cook as much rice as you desire (if you have a rice cooker its way easier). Once the rice is all set and starts cooking, begin cubing the tofu into bite size pieces while the rice cooks.
         Next, mix 2 tablespoons of your broth and 2 tablespoon of cornstarch or arrowroot into a small bowl until smooth. Add the rest of the un-chicken broth, white cooking wine, soy sauce or tamari, rice vinegar, sugar garlic, ginger and crushed red pepper to the bowl and whisk. Set aside for now. Put the veggie and sesame oil in a wok or a decent size pan. Heat the oil on medium-high.
         Once the oil is hot and ready put the tofu in, but be careful! It's hot! Continue to fry the tofu to a nice crispy golden color. Or to your liking.
         Once tofu is done, remove from wok and place over paper towels to drain excess oil. Discard all but about 1 tablespoon of oil from the wok.
         Pour the sauce into the wok or pan and heat on medium and begin to thicken. Once sauce is thick, add tofu, chopped green scallions and broccoli. You can steam your broccoli ahead of time if you wish. If your adding your broccoli cover the wok or pan for about 10 minutes, mixing every few minuets.
         Serve nice and hot over the rice. Garnish with sesame seeds and more green onions if desired!

Summer salad! (Our First Post!)

This treat is delicous for a nice warm day. Or for whenever!
Its very easy and tastes yummy!

Ingredients:
A thin crusty bread such as ciabatta, or italian
2 Roma tomatos
About 1/2 a cucumber
1/2 Red onion
1/2 Red pepper

For the dressing:
A pinch of crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp of the following:
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Dried Thyme
Celery seed
1 Clove garlic
1/3 Cup Balsamic vinegar
1/4 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Olive oil
A nice crack of salt and pepper

        Give all of your veggies a nice bite-size chop, and place all of them into a medium bowl.

In a small bowl place all of your herbs, oil, water and balsamic vinegar and whisk them together.
        Add about half of the dressing to the veggies and mix to coat. Place on a nice slice of bread and enjoy!
        You can save the other half for a nice salad dressing or you can make it all over again!

         Try toasting the bread too!
This is our first recipe so go easy on us! :)