Vegan Mexican Lasagna!

Today’s post is going to be a recipe challenge, where I am going to take a traditional recipe and make it vegan.

This recipe actually comes from my boss, who frequently makes this quick and easy meal for her family especially on week nights when everyone is coming in from work, school, or whatever activates they are doing.

Let’s get started!

________________________

Vegan Mexican Lasagna

You will need:

Coconut Oil

1 package of BOCA Crumbles

1 can of corn

1 can of vegan refried beans

½ cup of your favorite salsa

3 flour tortillas

Dairy free cheese*

Directions:

1. In a deep frying pan, put a large spoonful of coconut oil & let it melt in the pan. Place in the crumbles and let them begin to brown.

2. Open the can of corn and drain off the water in a separate bowl. Mix in the corn, using some of the excess liquid to help break apart any chunks of crumbles.

3. Mix in the salsa and continue to brown until most of the liquid has simmered out. Remove from heat & set aside.

4. In a round casserole dish, layer a tortilla in the bottom. You may have to cut the tortilla in half, allowing it to overlap in the middle. Then using a spoon put a thin layer of the refried beans on top of the tortilla.

5. Then layer on a thick layer of your crumble mixture and top with your cheese.

6. Repeat steps 4 & 5, twice. Giving you three total layers.

7. Bake in the oven @ 350* for 8 minutes or until warmed throughout.

Slice and serve with some warm cornbread.

*I’m using half Daiya Peperjack Style Cheese & Daiya Mozzarella Style Cheese 

Join the conversation on facebook.

A Vegan Review: Honest Hummus Plate at Red Robin!

I’ve written about my not so secret love affair with Red Robin before and it should be no secret why I love them so much. They were one of the first chain restaurants to serve an intentionally vegan meal and label it one their menu, and it happens to be a delicious burger. 

In fact you can check out my review of my favorite burger here.

Mr. Not-So-Vegan and I eat here quite a bit, because they have something that we can both eat. Sometimes though, it is not all about burgers, they have great appetizers and a full bar too! 

One of my favorite appetizers it the Honest Hummus Plate. It comes with a delicious bowl of super creamy hummus and it includes carrots, cucumbers, and made in house potato chips all for your dipping pleasure. The hummus comes drizzles with a bit of garlic and olive oil, making the perfect garnish. 

Doesn't that just look delicious?! 

It is a really great bar food, that is perfect for sharing with a couple of friends over drinks. One of my favorite newly discovered drinks it a shot called the Four Horsemen. There are many variations of this drink, but the Red Robin version is equal parts Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker, and Patron. 

Totally check out the Red Robin Royalty club too! This awesome card entitles you to a free burger the month of your birthday, every 10 burger you order free, and a slew of other random prizes. 

As always, keep up with all things vegan on facebook.

A Vegan Review: HomeSlyce Pizza

Several weeks ago, Mr. Not-So-Vegan & I took a mini vacation to Maryland. This trip started out as just concert tickets to see our favorite band on Saturday night, but it turned into a two-night/ three-day trip that was amazing.

Being a new city is exciting; there are new places to go, new things to see, and of course new restaurants to try!

I want to share with you all a review of one of the restaurants that we tried while we were in Baltimore.

We spent the Saturday afternoon before the concert exploring the Federal Hill district of Baltimore, where we stumbled upon the first new restaurant that we tried, a quaint little pizza bar called HomeSlyce.

I actually found this restaurant on my ‘Happy Cow Veggin Out’ App, which is available for free on both the Apple App Store and the Android App Store. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I definitely recommend it. It allows you to check for grocery stores and restaurants nearby your location with vegan and vegetarian options.

HomeSlyce features made to order pizzas and a large selection of beers and liquors.

Found on the corner of Light Street and Barney Street in the midst of a neighborhood of row houses, Homeslyce has a great neighborhood bar feel. It has a great wooden bar, equipped with matching bar stools, and several tables scattered throughout the restaurant area. They have a pool table in the bar, but they advertise free shuffleboard. I didn’t take advantage of these sports, because let’s be honest I don’t know how to play shuffleboard, but I bet they would be a whole lot of fun. Especially while having some drinks with friends.

While we were eating, we only saw two other tables of people and they both were local families with children; so I think it is safe to say they are an all ages restaurant, at least during the day.

While they do provide you with a menu for pizza and sodas, all of the alcohol options are written on large chalkboard panels on the wall, which I always think looks really cool.

On their menus, they have very clearly listed what the vegan options are in bright red lettering. I always appreciate when restaurants go out of their way to label their menus with vegetarian and vegan options. This allows for easy menu reading on my part, plus I feel like I don’t have to bother the restaurant staff with all of my questions.

Now, let’s get down to our orders!

For any of you who know Mr. Not-So-Vegan, he isn’t so keen on vegan food. Therefore he was overjoyed to see meat & cheese options. He stuck with the traditional half cheese and half pepperoni pie.

My order on the other hand, was a little more adventurous. I loaded up my pizza with vegan steak strips, spinach, pineapple, red onion, mushrooms, and of course vegan cheese.

 I personally think my pizza looks way better, but of course that's just my opinion! 

Give them a like on facebook, & of course, stop in for great pizza sometime! 

Join the conversation on faceboook!

Fourth of July Nice Cream Pops!

Fourth of July is a day to celebrate all things America, which for most people means spending time with family, cooking out, and of course red, white, and blue themed everything.

My neighborhood is having its traditional BBQ Block Party and because we have awesome neighbors, there will be vegan options; but I always like to make something delicious for everyone to enjoy.

This year’s red, white, and blue treat is going the help beat the heat! It is suppose to be 86* by like 6 am. It’s going to hot hot HOT!

These nice cream treats are sure to be a hit! Let’s get started…

This recipe makes about 10 treats.

Things You Will Need:

Paper Cups, I recommend the small bathroom variety

Wooden popsicle sticks (I got these from my local craft store)

6 bananas

Blueberries

Rasberries

Tablespoon

Food processor 

Plastic bowl with a great seal

Directions:

1. Peel you bananas, cut them in half length wise, then slice them. Place them in your bowl. Freeze them for several hours or until they are frozen throughout. 

2. When they are frozen, take a third of them out and put them in your food processor. Add in some of the raspberries, which will give you ice cream a red color. Blend until smooth. 

3. Spoon out one tablespoon of this ice cream into the bottom of all of your cups. Be careful about making sure to not get any on the sides of the cup! 

4. Clean the food processor and make a batch with just bananas. This will be your white stripe. Repeat step 3.

5. Repeat steps 2 and 3, this time using blueberries. This will be your blue stripe. 

6. When you have all three layers of ice cream in your cups, push one stick down into each cup. 

7. Freeze them for at least 2 hours, I froze mine over night! 

When you take them out of the freezer, peel the paper cup off, and serve!

Here's a tip! Add a lot of blue berries and raspberries for a deeper darker color. I thought I added enough, but after being in the freezer the color lightened significantly. 

I think they turned out quite nice. They were super easy, extra  tasty, and 100% fruit! 

If you try them, comment below and let me know what you think! 

Kitchen Remodel & Blog Relaunch!!

It has been a really long time since I posted anything, in fact I think that we can all agree that it has been to long. These last few months have been really hectic as my family and I have been getting our kitchen re-done.

I am happy to report that it is almost done. The only things to be done are all minor details.

After several months of not being able to cook a decent meal, it sure is nice to have my kitchen back.

A few of you have been asking for pictures of my kitchen transformation, so I decided to oblige! 

Let's get started! 

This was what my kitchen looked like pre-renovation. Well, to be more accurate, this was the day that the renovation started. The cabinet on the far right actually had a drawer it, by the time I remembered to take a picture we had already started to take out the first few cabinets. 

My parents and I (read: mostly my parents) did a lot of the grunt work ourselves. I worked on taking off some of the wallpaper. We took out the half wall, the floors, and of course all the cabinets. 

That left us with this: 

This was what was left of my kitchen for several months while different contractors were coming in and taking measurements, drawling up plans, and filling orders. 

While my kitchen was nothing more then a pipe in the floor, we moved our essentials into the family room on to a make shift continental cart. 

Here is our little kitchenette, complete with a microwave, coffeepot, toaster over, and all the throw away plates and silverware you could imagine.

It was really hard to do any amount of cooking here. If it couldn't be toasted, microwaved, and completely prepared on plastic dinnerware then it probably had to be take-out or eat out. 

It had been an exciting couple of months, but I'm excited to get back into a real functioning kitchen. 

Here's some shots of the new kitchen, I think it looks fantastic. 

It's so nice to finally have my work space back! Here is my favorite part of the kitchen, my new pantry. :) 

I can't wait to do a whole bunch of cooking in my fabulous new kitchen, which of course I will being sharing with all of you! In fact you can be on the look out for new posts every Tuesday and Thursday!

You can keep with all things vegan, by following & YES, it's Vegan! on facebook and pinterest!

Meatless Monday: How to Survive a Non-Vegan Cookout!

This weekend I went to my first cookout of the seson, which may seem a little early but the weather was perfect and it was a birthday celebration of a very long time friend of mine.

I live in a neighborhood where cookouts and back yard parties are very common and because I am blessed to have some awesome neighbors, so as soon as the weather gets warm its constant cookouts.

When most people thing of a cookout, the first thing many think it hotdogs, hamburgers, potato chips, coleslaw, and potato salad. None of these things generally lend themselves to being vegan and it can sometimes be hard to find food at these events.

Tonight I want to focus on how to eat vegan at a cook out! Here’s my 3 biggest pieces of advice!

1.  Find out what they are going to be serving and bring something similar for you. This weekend they were serving chicken, so I brought my own vegan chicken patties. I just discreetly cooked them and ate with everyone else.

2. Let the host know what you can and cannot eat and maybe they can do something different for you! This past weekend my friends, who know about my vegan lifestyle, made cheesy pasta salad and baked beans, but she set some aside for me before adding the cheese to the salad or the meat to the beans!

3. Bring something vegan to share with everyone! This is my favorite thing to do because then I have food to eat and I can share it with everyone!

I hope this helps! If you have any other ideas, leave them below! 

Vegan Product Review: Nabisco Grahams

Tonight’s product review is a little silly, but it will be essential for tomorrow’s recipe and it makes a great snack for people of any age!

I’m talking about graham crackers.

Now most graham crackers have honey in them, which makes them not technically vegan, even though some vegans are not as strict on the honey rule.

Nabisco, the same company that makes Honey Maid Graham Crackers also makes a honey free alternative called Nabisco Grahams.

This is a picture of the box and they taste just like their honey alternative. 

A serving size is 8 graham crackers and each serving contains: 130 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and no cholesterol. 

You will definitely want to pick up a box for the amazing recipe that is headed your way tomorrow!! 

Pizza Rolls Go Vegan!

I keep seeing this commercial for Totinos Pizza Rolls and every time I start craving pizza.

Since know one has yet to create a vegan pizza pocket that is readily available, I decided to create my own!

_________________

Vegan Pizza Pockets

You will need: 

1 packet of crescent rolls 

1/4 cup of pasta sauce

1/2 cup of vegan cheese shreds

This is the cheese that I am using. I bought this cheese to try on a burrito, but it wasn't very good. I'm hoping it will taste better melted! 

Directions: 

1. In a small bowl, mix the cheese and tomato sauce. 

2. In an unrolled crescent roll, put a spoon full of the sauce and cheese mixture. 

3. Fold over and into a triangle and close the sides with fork. 

 Bake in the over at 350* for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Plus I'm happy to report that this cheese is delicious in his melted form!! 

I can't wait to show you guys all the new things I'm going to try with this new 'cheese'.

A Vegan Review: Olive Garden Soups

I’ve written about a Olive Garden in the past, but I recently went back for lunch. They have their unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks promotion for $6.99.

As I’ve mentioned before; the salad is vegan as long as you leave the dressing off, it has cheese and the bread sticks can be made vegan if they are made with out the butter.

To go along with this, I added the Minestrone Soup. It’s listed right on the menu as being vegetarian, but with further questioning and an inspection of the ingredients, it is in fact vegan! 

This soup is the perfect combination of noodles and veggies! If the weather is going to keep being cold, at least I'll have this to warm up with!!

Unfortunately this is the only soup on the menu that is vegan, but if you want to see any of the other soups get a vegan makeover, comment below & tell me which one is your favorite! 

Meatless Monday: St. Patrick's Vegan Shepard's Pie!

Saint Patrick’s Day some how losses part of it’s magic when the Leprechaun stops coming in the middle of the night and tearing apart your class room. At least until you turn 21, then it’s all about green beer and some kind of blue-ish concoction called an Irish Trashcan. In between, there is Irish food but corn beef and cabbage always steals all the thunder.

There is so much more to traditional Irish food, like beer bread, colcannon, and even potato & leek soup. With a few quick substitutions, all of these things can be made vegan.

Tonight I’m going to share with you my recipe for vegan Sheppard’s Pie. It’s delicious & I think that if you were to find a rainbow, a big bowl of this amazing dish would be at the end of it!

__________________________

Vegan Sheppard’s Pie!

You will need:

5 or 6 potatoes

4 carrots

1 can of peas

½ of a small onion, chopped finely

1 bag BOCCA crumbles

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup of soy milk

½ cup vegetable broth

¼ cup red wine

2 T of olive oil

salt, pepper, and parsley to taste

Directions:

1. Peel and boil the potatoes. When they are boiled, mash them with 3/4 stick of butter and soy milk.

2. In a frying pan, cook the onions and the crumbles together in the olive oil. 

3. Peel and slice the carrots. Put them in a bowl with water that fully covers the carrots and cook them in the microwave for two minutes or until soft. 

4. Mix together the onion and crumble mixture with the peas and carrots. 

5. Put the mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish and cover with mashed potatoes. 

6. Brush the top of the casserole with the remaining butter and sprinkle with parsley (it's green!). 

Bake for 30 minutes at 350*, serve, and enjoy! 

Just look how delicious this turned out!! 

Vegan Ricemellow Cream!!

Tonight’s product review is a little bit out of the ordinary; in fact it is definitely more of a treat! I’m talking about delicious and vegan marsh mellow cream!

Most marsh mellow cream contains gelatin, which isn’t vegan as it is made from boiling the skins, tendons, ligaments, and bones of various animals. YUK!

This delicious alternative is made from rice sweeteners and all natural vegetable gums. In addition to being vegan, this cream is also free of GMOs, artificial colors, refined sugar, preservatives, fat, and corn syrup.

I have had the most luck finding it at my local Food Lion, but you can check out Suzanne's Specialties website to find a retailer near you!