Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Since becoming vegan I haven't been too creative in the sandwich department other than PB&J or grilled vegetables with pesto. Things like that. Pretty simple stuff. I have a few books with sandwich ideas but they all are pretty involved and unless I have hours to kill in the kitchen I look more for simple sandwiches that will last for a week's worth of meals. 

Enter the chickpea salad sandwich...

This isn't the best picture, and I meant to get one of all the ingredients I used, but I forgot, so I shall just tell you what they were. In the filling was cooked chickpeas, chopped celery and red bell peppers, some earth balance vegan mayo, salt, pepper, and celery salt. Mashed together until I got the consistency I wanted and then plopped it on some whole grain bread with lettuce. I even added chips to the inside of the sandwich posted above because I like the crunch. I make this every couple of weeks and I make a batch big enough that it makes at least 10 sandwiches, so when I am hungry and don't want to cook I can just make myself a sandwich easy peasy. 

Thats all she wrote. 

Eating Out: Tee Pee Mexican Food

One of my favorite places to eat Mexican food is Tee Pee Mexican Food in Phoenix. I have been eating here for so many years. I even had a birthday party when I was a kid here. I remember that one of my friends, who is the pickiest eater I know, ordered a hamburger there and I couldn't imagine why anyone would order American food at a Mexican restaurant. And then she squirted what she thought was ketchup on her burger which ended up being hot sauce. I always think of that story when I end up here to eat. There aren't many options for me, obviously, but there is one that I get every single time just because I love it so much. Even if there was something else I could eat, I wouldn't want to since this is the only reason I keep coming back here. Beware: The picture of this dish looks quite gross, but I guarantee it is quite delicious.

What I get is a bean chimichanga with no cheese, and no sour cream. Then I order all beans on the side and no rice. I have never asked, but I am pretty sure the rice is made with chicken stock, though I was never crazy about the rice here anyways. And surprisingly the beans are not made with lard, which is hard to come by in a Mexican restaurant. It is then topped with red sauce and guacamole. I hardly ever finish the entire thing, and I never take leftovers home because it doesn't reheat well. But every once in awhile when I am feeling like I want to eat something gross and full of calories, I come here and enjoy this meal. 

 YUMMERS!

Mexican Salad

I love salads. Especially ones with lots of flavors and goodies. I have never been one of those people who has enjoyed the "house salads" of iceberg and boring dressing served at restaurants, though I haven't come across too many of those since becoming vegan. Since one of my favorite styles of foods is Mexican, I decided to take the flavors that I love in those foods, and make them into a salad! This salad consists of home made pinto beans cooked with bay leaves and cloves of garlic, cooked frozen corn, cherry tomatoes cut in half, and diced avocado over chopped romaine lettuce. A spicy lime vinegarette is then drizzled over top. The recipe for that is:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons chili powder (I prefer a hot blend)

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl or a glass cup measure (as can be seen in the photo below). Once blended, drizzle in the oil and mix until combined. 

Most of the time I end up adding more of the spices depending on how spicy I want the dressing to be on that particular day. I then drizzle it over the salad by the tablespoon full until I have reached the desired dressing amount. Usually two or three tablespoons. I LOVE this dressing. It is so fresh from the limes, and I love how the chili powder and cumin make the salad so much brighter. 

Now for a montage of salad pictures: 

Served with an ice cold Corona with lime, and this is the perfect dinner!

Eating Out: Jason's Deli

I don't often eat at Jason's Deli, mainly because the options are limited, but there weren't many other choices the day I decided to go here since I wasn't close to home and figured that this would probably be a safe bet. The sandwich that I go was the Zucchini Grillini, which was grilled zucchini with other vegetables, roasted red pepper hummus, and olives on whole grain bread. This usually comes with cheese but I had that removed for obvious reasons. 

I really love sandwiches, but I tend to find the ones at Jason's really boring and bland. They always sound and look better than they actually taste. There used to be a portabello muffaletta on the menu awhile back, but it looks like it is no longer there, which is sad. That was the reason I considered Jason's on this particular day. 

I do like though that they at least have a vegetarian specific menu with vegan options on it so there isn't any kind of a guessing game on what I can eat. So even though I am not crazy about the food here, at least I know that I can always find something here and not be left starving.

Oatmeal

I am probably the worst with meals when it comes to breakfast. Usually I don't have any time to make anything half way decent, so I end up eating toast with earth balance and jam or a quick bowl of cereal, or most often than not, nothing at all. When I do manage to drag myself out of bed early enough I make myself some oatmeal. Not the fanciest of breakfasts but I doctor it up so that it is as nutritious as it can be. I simmer some quick cooking oats on the stove, usually I do 1/3 of a cup of oats per person eating, so I make 2/3 cups of oats when I am cooking for my husband, with enough water to cover the oats plus a bit more. While that is simmering I add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts to a bowl, 2 tablespoons ground flax, and a couple teaspoons of brown sugar for a little sweetness. When the oats are almost cooked I add a 1/2 teaspoon or so of cinnamon to the pot and then spoon it into the bowl on top of the other goodies. I then add chopped bananas and eat! 

As usual I forgot to take a picture of my bowl before I mixed it up so it looks half eaten here, so below is my husbands bowl. He likes his with mixed berries. 

Breakfast of champions!

Eating Out: Nami

There aren't many places in town, or at least close to where I live, where I can get a vegan treat. Nami is a bakery offshoot from the vegan restaurant Green, which I LOVE. Anyone who has been to Green knows about their famous Tsoynami's, and as well as those also being available at Nami, you can also get tons of other vegan baked goodies and coffee. If you go on Wednesday's and Sunday's, you can get vegan doughnuts!! Suffice to say they are freaking amazing.

Nami is so close to Gallo Blanco, that we almost always end up here afterwards, or any other time we end up on this side of town (don't tell anyone, but once I had a Tsoynami for breakfast). Today I decided on a cupcake they had on special, the cookie dough cupcake.

It is a chocolate cupcake topped with cookie dough flavored frosting dotted with chocolate chips. And just when you thought that was all....

There's a cookie in my cupcake!

There was a surprise nugget of cookie dough baked into the cupcake! So it was like eating a cookie and a cupcake at the same time! It was pretty great.

Eating Out: Gallo Blanco

By far and away, one of my FAVORITE places to eat vegan at is Gallo Blanco in Phoenix. I found this place a little under two years ago and fell in love with it. Happy hour is my favorite time to come because all of my favorite things are cheaper! Usually I start off with one of their classic margaritas, which are my favorite anywhere that I have found, but I didn't get one this time since my husband decided he wanted one. It is freaking delicious. I was jealous. Instead I started with chips and guacamole (no cheese).

I always forget to take pictures before I start to eat so excuse the messy half eaten bowl. I can tell you though that it is a pretty delicious guacamole. Along with all of the normal guacamole makings, they add citrus pieces, like oranges and grapefruits, which makes it pretty interesting. It isn't spicy at all, which I usually prefer in a guacamole, but I like that this one is a cool and refreshing take on guacamole. 

For my main I always get the veggie tacos, two or three depending on how hungry I am, and the beans with no cheese.

The veggie tacos come stuffed with fresh, local vegetables that change every time I come in depending on what is in season. Today it was some corn, mushrooms, squash, tomatoes, and spinach. They are then topped with some more guacamole. The beans are just a really tasty vegetarian refried bean. Usually they are more mashed than they were today, but I like to eat them with the chips so it doesn't really matter if they are mashed or not. 

If you have never been to Gallo Blanco I highly recommend you check it out. Even if you are not a veggie. My husband had the flapjacks for dinner tonight and loved them. 

Eating Out: Rubio's

There aren't many regular places we have that we eat out at, so basically we have about five or so that are on a regular rotation. One that we tend to go to a lot is Rubio's. My husband still eats fish, so he has more options than I do. With only a few different options I can get here, I usually end up ordering the same thing every time. A bean burrito, no cheese, whole wheat tortilla, add avocado slices. It comes with chips, which I always eat with the roasted chipotle salsa.

Special cause I'm special ;)

It isn't the most interesting meal in the world, but at least I know there is always something I can eat at Rubio's if family wants to go there.

Leftovers: Quesadilla and Fidello

Since my enchilada recipe only used five of the six tortillas I had, I ended up with an extra, as well as some Daiya and veggie mixture. So while my husband had the last enchilada, I made myself a quesadilla. I heated up the leftover veggie mixture...

And then warmed the tortilla. Once the tortilla was nice and soft I added the remaining Daiya. On top of that went the veggie mixture...

And then on top of that just went some salsa I had in the fridge. 

I then folded the tortilla in half and browned on both sides and until the cheese was nice and melty. 

I served that up with some freshly cooked fidello. 

Served with a nice cold Corona, this was the perfect leftover meal. Enjoy!

Mushroom, Bell Pepper, and Pinto Bean Enchiladas with Fidello

     Mexican is one of my favorite types of food to eat. I am mostly of Italian descent, but I love me some mexican! I try to make it at home as much as I can but I tend to eat it out at restaurants more often. As it so happened, I had some homemade enchilada sauce and pinto beans in the freezer, and since I have been trying to use up the contents of my freezer I decided to make some enchiladas. I used to make them more before I went vegan, usually filling them with just cheese and onions or ground beef, but I have only made them a handful of times since becoming vegan, probably because I mostly associate enchiladas with cheese and just haven't had any better ideas with what to fill them with. For this meal, I decided to fill them with lots of veggies and some vegan cheese.

     I started with two yellow onions, three green bell peppers, and about a pound of button mushrooms. I chopped them into a large dice and sautéed them with olive oil until soft and just starting to brown. I then added two jalapeños and lots of minced garlic, and cooked until fragrant.

The steam gets in the way but you get the idea

Then I added about three cups of homemade pinto beans and just warmed them through.

It tasted so good just like this, it was hard not to just grab a bowl and get down. I had to remember what the ultimate goal was, so this is when I started to build the enchiladas. I like to use the Ezekiel 4:9 whole grain tortillas for just about everything I need a tortilla for, so I used the burrito sized ones here. I added a large helping of the veggie and bean mixture and then topped it with some cheddar style Daiya.  

I then rolled them and put them into a glass baking dish that was lined on the bottom with the homemade enchilada sauce I had. I did this five times (since that was all I could fit in the dish) and then topped the entire thing with more sauce and Daiya. I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes covered in foil, and during the last 5 minutes I removed the foil and turned on the broiler to get the cheese on top nice and crispy. I forgot to take a picture of it before I stuck it in the oven, but here was what it looked like when it was done.

YUMMMMMMMMM

     So while this was baking in the oven I started the fidello. I start with one whole yellow onion, cooked in canola until soft and starting to brown. Then I add lots of chopped garlic and cook that until the garlic just starts to get browned as well. Then I add one package of fidello (I use the La Moderna brand since that is the only kind I can find, and I get it at Fry's for 3 packs for $1) and cook until the noodles start to get browned and crunchy.

Next I add about one cup of tomato sauce plus 2 cups of water plus some salt, which I then let simmer on medium low until the noodles are cooked and the sauce is thick. You might need to add a little more water while its cooking depending on how long it takes the noodles to get soft. Just keep an eye on it. Then serve yourself and enjoy!

After Cooked

Before

The end result, not the most attractive looking meal but quite tasty all the same.

Linguini with Spicy Red Sauce

     Monday and Wednesday nights I take a Pilates class at Mesa Community College which doesn't get out until 8, so when I come home I am looking to make something quick and easy. Pasta is usually what I make when I am in a pinch since it doesn't take too long to cook. I make a different version of a pasta with a spicy red sauce I modified from the book "1000 Vegan Recipes", but I decided to go even more simple and scale down the number of ingredients. This version only includes four ingredients, not including basics like salt and olive oil. Before I get into it here is this...

A lovely picture of a mound of chopped garlic, my favorite ingredient in the whole entire world 

      So after starting with the mound of garlic, and while the pasta water was boiling, I sautéed the delicious garlic in olive oil with a very large handful of red pepper flakes until fragrant.

Then in went a 28 ounce can of tomato puree and some salt, which I then simmered for about fifteen minutes.

Once the pasta was cooked to al dente, I added it to the sauce to cook for a remaning one minute until completely done. 

I usually serve myself the correct serving size for pasta, which is one cup, but I was hungry today and decided to give myself a large bowl. I topped it with sliced basil leaves and ate it all up.

BEAUTIFUL!

White Bean Puree and Grilled Eggplant Sandwich

        A few weeks back I made a pot of white beans. It was the first time I had cooked white beans from dry beans, and I wasn't totally crazy about how they had ended up. They were a little underdone and I just wasn't thrilled by their flavor. All the same, I ended up freezing close to five cups of them. I knew that I didn't want to use them whole again so I was trying to think of ideas with what to do with them. I decided that I would make a puree out of them and possibly turn them into a sandwich. I make hummus all the time, so I figured making a white bean puree would probably be about the same so I researched a few white bean puree recipes online to get an idea on flavor profiles and then took to the kitchen.
       For the white bean puree I used about two cups of white beans, three garlic cloves, salt, pepper, the juice of one lemon, and some olive oil, which I then pureed until smooth. I added a little bit more salt after the first run and then pureed it again.

I also grilled some eggplant in the way that I enjoy best. Lots of chopped garlic mixed with low sodium soy sauce and olive oil and coated each eggplant piece on both sides. I heated up my panini press, which I also double as a grill, and grilled off all of the eggplant.

Then it was time to put together the sandwiches. I sliced some tomatoes, washed some arugula and baby spinach, and got out the balsamic. To put this together I sliced some ciabatta bread in half, slathered bean spread on both sides, added balsamic to one of the sides along with some fresh basil leaves, topped that with the grilled eggplant, sliced tomatoes, and fresh greens. After putting this together it went back into the press to be heated through.

DELICIOUS!

I am Vegan

Most people who know me know by now that I am a vegan. Have been for three years now and there is no looking back for me. I love to cook and I love to eat, so this is just a place for me to test out recipes or try new foods and restaurants and gives me a place to talk about all of the vegan things that I love to eat! I can't wait to get started!!