beating the fast food cravings

I've only been eating and cooking vegetarian for about 10 months now, so sometimes I get cravings for certain fast food things I used to eat when I was a meat eater. Namely the snack wraps at McDonalds. Gross, I know, but I was on the go a lot and there was a McDonalds right off the freeway near my old apartment.



Late for work? Grab a snack wrap! Going out and need some food? Snack wrap. After doing some grocery shopping the other day I figured out, that yep, I had the thing ingredients to make myself a "snack wrap" at home and I was pretty over joyed. It turned out pretty good and you can make it as simply or as complicated as you want. This recipe isn't Vegan, but it is entirely meat free.

What you'll need:

1-Morning Star Chikn Fingers (or another brand. I tricked my meat eating boyfriend with these though.)

2-Package of flour tortillas (or corn if you prefer)

3- Shredded cheese

4-Lettuce and whatever veggies you would like to throw in

5-Sauce of your choice. I made mine with honey mustard

What you do:

If you're looking to duplicate the McDonalds style snack wrap, you'll need one chikn strip per wrap. These can be microwaved, but honestly I prefer mine baked in the oven, it gives the faux chicken a crispier texture.

After your chikn is cooked, warm up your tortilla. Add the sauce of your choice, sprinkle in the lettuce and veggies and cheese. Add chickn piece and viola, you have something fast and easy, that you might miss if you're a recent vegetarian. Good drunken munchie food.

Also as an alternative, if you're a former Jack in the Box devotee, I suggest constructing your snack wrap in a pita to mimic their newest little "healthy" choice for the menu.

Vegan "Chicken" Fajitas

Not only am I vegan, I am also gluten intolerant. So cooking for me is always an extra difficult task. Nothing I cook is "fancy" but it all has to be from scratch, and it has to be quick and easy due to my busy schedule. Did I mention it also has to be cheap? I live on an extremely tight budget. Combine that with the fact that I only cook for myself and it gets to be a REAL challenge trying to add some flavor and live off on anything other than plain boring rice. I like to choose a theme for the week. For instance this week is mexican. A bag of corn tortillas can be used for numerous different recipes and leftovers can easily carry over to spice up new recipes the next day. It saves money and diminishes waste. For nothing irritates me more than having to toss out food. With that said, this is one of my favorite recipes.

Ingredients:
1 Package Tempeh (found next to the tofu)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Small Onion
1 Small Green Pepper
1 Package Fajita Seasoning Mix !!Always read the ingredients on the back to ensure it's vegan!!
Corn Tortillas

optional:
Tofutti Sour Cream
Vegan Gourmet Cheese



Slice onions, peppers, and Tempeh into thin strips. Heat up olive oil in a frying pan on medium high. Add onions, peppers, and Tempeh. Heat, stirring frequently until Tempeh is a golden brown. Add one cup of water and immediately mix in fajita mix. Turn heat down to a low to medium heat. Stir frequently until the water has boiled down. Heat up tortillas, fill with fajita mix, add cheese and sour cream if you so desire.

Quick, easy, and tasty! I like to later use the left over fajita filling to top nachos.

-Jen Wa

my baked mac and cheese

I made this the other night because my boyfriend was craving baked mac and cheese. I did not make it vegan however. This is just a meat free recipe.

I made this early in the day and left it in the oven to keep it warm. I knew we were going out for cocktails later that night so I said "hmm, better make this now" as I generally don't like to handle boiling water when I'm drunk. I'm just sayin...

What you will need:

1-Can of Condensed Cheese Soup

Milk

3 cups of shell shaped macaroni

shredded cheese

crutons. I used ranch flavored.

I used two pans to get this done faster, but if you're trying to save dishes, you can easily prepare this in one pan.

Step 1:

Boil your macaroni. I don't boil mine down to exactly to the softness I would like because they will cook more when you bake the dish. I leave my noodles slightly al dente.

Step 2:
Heat the soup on stove. The can of soup I had asked to me to add a can full of milk as well. I've served condensed soup without the milk before and it's just richer. However I wanted to make sure I had enough cheese, so I used the milk this time around. Also if you want to add cheese to melt in the soup, its pretty tasty. I also added butter and garlic to it. Delicious!

Step 3
Strain the noodles and put them in an oven safe pan or pyrex dish.

Step 4:
Take your desired amount of crutons and crush them down. You can also use bread crumbs, but I like the texture of the crutons better.

Step 5:
Pour about half of the cheese soup into the pan with the noodles. Stir around until your noodles are covered.

Step 6:
Add layer of crutons and shredded cheese to the noodle mixture.

Step 7:
Add more of the cheese soup to the pan, making a layer over the crutons and shredded cheese.

Step 8:
Add more crutons and shredded cheese.

Step 9:
Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Obviously this might change depending on your oven. I cook with gas in pyrex and 400 is perfect.

After 20 minutes, you have a nice cheesy dish, which actually reheats very well. Good comfort food. And since it's all foggy and rainy where I live today, I might be making it again.