Some veggie supper ideas!

Oh how I missed this little veggie interweb space of mine! I just started a new position at work and the training is insane, so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying and napping. But I always managed to make time to keep my mealtimes healthy and free of any animal products.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to cook supper. (I usually don’t get the chance to do this during the week as my mom is a homemaker and supper is usually on the table by the time I get home–lucky me!) For 3 evenings I made yummy vegetarian meals that I’m going to share with you in this post!

First, I made a vegan macaroni and cheese! Guys, this recipe is so easy and I can’t believe I never thought of doing this before. I got the base recipe from Jackie at Vegan Yack Attack. She used her mac n’ cheese inside a deep dish pizza *drool* but I just made simple mac n’ cheese. My version has a few more ingredients, but I only added them to add to the cheesy flavour, as my recipe wasn’t being combined with delicious vegan pepperoni and tomato sauce. Here is my modified recipe:

1/2 cup of Daiya shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but use whichever flavour you like)
1/2 cup of raw cashews soaked for at least 30 minutes (mine soaked overnight)
1/2 cup of vegetable broth or water
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp of turmeric (for colour)
a pinch or more of hot sauce (the red colour deepened the colour of my sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
any extras you’d like to add (peas, diced tomatoes or peppers, broccoli or spinach, etc.)

Basically, just blend everything together. I had to add a little more broth to mine as I was using a blender and found it hard to get everything saucy using the exact amounts indicated above. (By the way, this recipe is very flexible and you can easily double all the portions, just adjust the seasoning to your liking.) Once this is done, cook your favourite pasta until it’s perfectly al dente, drain, put it back in the pot and cover everything with your sauce, stirring for 3-5 minutes. You can keep it on the burner on low heat: all you want to do right now is heat your sauce through. When the temperature of the sauce is perfect, start plating and voila: vegan mac n’ cheese!

I had used a whole bag of Daiya cheddar cheese shreds so I ended up with some extra mac n’ cheese sauce. What did I do with the rest? I added some spicy salsa and made some cheesy tortilla chip sauce! But I used it to top a hearty bowl of homemade bean chili. This was a real easy and delicious supper. Just make your favorite chili recipe (anything with a lot of beans and tomatoes will do) and top it with some warm salsa-queso sauce!

Last but not least, the piece de resistance: a roast. Yes, I’m serious. A Field Roast, that is! I won’t elaborate on the controversy surrounding Field Roast in Canada (I’ll save it for another post, hopefully this will all boil over by then) but I can tell you that their products are phenomenal. I try to stay away from processed food, which would include these vegan meats, but every now and then, I find these “meats” bring a little normalcy and old homestyle flavours without the cruelty and gross fat content. They have franks, sausages and a roast! (So cute.) I wanted to test out a typical cold-weather staple: oven roast and veggies. If it came out well, I would use it as my Thanksgiving meal. So here’s what I did:

2 peeled (or not) and cubed medium-sized potatoes
1/5 a chopped onion
2-3 peeled (or not) carrots
1 tbsp of olive or hemp oil
1 tbsp of dried sage, rubbed between your hands (wakes up the flavour!)
pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable bouillon

Mix it all up well, making sure all your veggies are coated in oil and broth. Put it in an oven-safe dish and don’t do like I did: put the roast on the veggies. I repeat, do NOT put your roast on veggies right away! I did that, and I ended up with a delicious roast and veggies that were 10 minutes away from being fully cooked. (My potatoes were crunchy. Let’s leave it at that.) Put the veggies in your oven around 375*F for 30-45 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost cooked through. Then, place your roast in the middle of everything and let it warm through another 15 or 20 minutes. Depending on how you like your veggies, you can add some extra oil and broth. This is what it should look like:

If you want to make a veggie gravy to go with it, use mushrooms! Chop 2 cups of mushrooms, cook them in a dime of oil. Once everything is cooked down, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, and some dried thyme if you have on hand (this herb goes so well with mushies!) but if you don’t have any, don’t worry. Then, add a 1/2 tbsp of organic corn starch to some cold veggie broth (about 1/4 cup), and add it to your mushrooms, stirring to get it everywhere and warming it up. Soon, the mixture will thicken and you will have a delicious mushroom gravy!

If you try any of these recipes and they go really well (or terribly wrong), let me know! I’d love to see some pictures too! 🙂

Creating plant-based amazingness

I’m sure I’ve already mentioned that I’m seeing a vegan dietician to help me with my plant-based nutrition transition. But it is so much more than that! Allow me to explain…

When I first started looking up info about diabetes-specific diets (beneficial ones, no diabetes-inducing ones) I stumbled upon a local young woman who was diagnosed with a rare form of diabetes, called MODY (maturity onset diabetes of the young) which she managed to control by diet alone! I found out that she was going to be at a local health and wellness conference and I made sure to be there so that I can meet her and ask her a ton of questions!

The day of the conference, I finally got the chance to speak to her, but she was so busy with signing her book and getting ready for her talk (and I was totally startstruck) that I didn’t manage to ask her everything I wanted to, but she suggested I give a certain dietician a call. This dietician, Anne-Marie Roy was at the same conference, so I took advantage of the situation and went looking for her.

When I finally found her, she was at a kiosk for the Montreal Vegetarian Association answering questions left and right. She was very approachable and explained to me that she ran a clinic called La Clinique Renversante (The Reversal Clinic in English) where she takes on 10 to 15 people who are either curious about living a plant-based lifestyle or who suffer from type II diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol problems, and she takes them on a 12 week journey through the world of vegetarianism and veganism. I made the decision right then and there to be a part of this and said, “Where do I sign up?” and that’s how my journey began and I haven’t looked back since.

The program is simple: we meet once a week for 2 hours and discuss nutrition facts (and fiction), learn plant-based nutrition basics, and we also discuss the ethical and moral dilemmas around food (GMOs, factory farming, etc.) During the 12 weeks, we have 4 cooking classes where we team up with professional and established plant-based Quebecois chefs who show us new and exciting recipes and flavours. So far, we’ve done 3 cooking classes and they just keep getting better and better! Here are some pictures I took along the way:

I look forward to these cooking classes! The food is fresh and organic (in fact, one of the chefs owns a farm and brings in a bunch of her own produce), the recipes are simple and delicious, and the ambiance is just amazing. Many people in the class are longtime vegetarians who are trying to transition to veganism and they still learn something new each time. It’s such a great feeling to work with all these people towards one common goal of health and compassion for ourselves and the planet.

If any of you are Montrealers who would be interested in following this program, click here to visit Anne-Marie’s website and inform yourself. It really is worth every penny, and if you read my last post and saw the progress I’ve made, you’d also agree that there is just no substitution for good nutrition.