Using my love for Soyrizo

Last night it was pretty warm here in California so I decided a salad was in order for dinner. I went to the store to pick up some lettuce when a brainstorm hit me!

Soyrizo Taco Salad! I did this on the easy and cheap. This recipe could be easily veganized.

What you need:

1-Bag of salad mix. I did a mixed greens and baby spinach leaf mix

1-tube of soyrizo

1-bag of taco chips

1-cup of shredded cheese (or vegan cheese)

1 1/2 cups of sliced olives

1 1/2 cup of salsa

1 green bell pepper

2 cups of chopped green oinions

sour cream or vegan sour cream

salad dressing of choice. (I used Kraft Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette with Roasted Red Pepper)


Preperation:

Chop the bell pepper and oinion, saute in a wok with a touch of salsa and some of the olives until the bell peppers are tender. (I also thew a handful of Frenchs Dried Oinions in for texture and flavor and a dusting of garlic sea salt.)

Take a skillet and heat soyrizo to texture preference. Cook it longer on higher heat if you want a firmer, crisper, texture.

Turn both pans down to low to keep warm.

Take taco chips and crumble. Toss salad with taco chips, cheese and the remaining olives.

Lay salad out on plate. Top with soyrizo and bell pepper garnish. Add dressing to taste. Top with sour cream and a dollop of salsa. I topped the boyfriend's sour creme and salsa mix with a little olive to make it pretty. You can also sprinkle some of the shredded cheese on top for color.

Easy Breezy Beautiful Covergirl Shepherds Pie

I'm Irish and lord knows many traditional Irish recipes call for two things: booze and meat. So last St Patricks Day, I was newly veg, and planning a party. I had no idea what to make until I came across a recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Now I'd had the meat version before at a pub in Santa Monica and thought it was pretty delicious and filling and would make a nice dish for the party. However all of the recipes I found were really time consuming and too much work to feed to a house full of drunks who were probably just going to complain about the lack of meat. So I went on a mission to make it just a little easier...

What you'll need:

For the topping:

Mashed Potatoes. Yes you could totally go boxed on these, but gross. I made my own and I'm a lazy bitch, so let's assume you're going to need real ones. To make mashed potatoes you need:

1 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered length-wise
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tbsp heavy cream (or milk substitute)
2 Tbsp butter (or vegan butter substitute)
1 Tbsp milk
Salt and Pepper
1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1 Put potatoes into a pot. Add salt. Add water until potatoes are covered. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15-20 minutes, or until squishy and mashable

2 Warm cream and melt butter, together, either in microwave or in a pan on the stove. Drain water from potatoes. Put hot potatoes into a bowl. Add cream and melted butter. Use potato masher to mash potatoes until well mashed. Use a strong spoon to beat further, adding milk to achieve the consistency you desire. (Do not over-beat or your potatoes will get gluey.) Salt and pepper and garlic to taste.

Okay now set that aside, you'll need it in a little while.

Most Shepherds Pie recipes require you to make the filling yourself. But when I'd like to be drinking Guinness with my friends, I'd rather not be constructing what amounts to a vegetable soup all flippin day. So I called on Amy... Amy's Kitchen that is.

You'll need about two cans of Amy's Organic Soup. I used chunky vegetable (pictured below) but she's got a few interesting veggie combos brewing in her kitchen, if you know what I mean. I chose this brand because they have an easy to read "key" on their products that tells you if it's veggie or not. If you're new to the vegetarian game as I was last year, you might not know a lot of the "vegetable" soups that are on the shelves still have meat products in them. So be careful if you're using another brand.

Anyway take the two cans of Amy's Soup and combine them in a large pot. Add one pint of Guinness Beer and cover to simmer. I threw in some more garlic and pepper just make sure there was a kick to it.

Traditional Shephard's Pie does have meat in it and some people use artificial crumbles or whatever to replicate that texture and flavor, but I'm not really a faux meat crumbles girl, so I skipped it.

After heating the soup up and waiting for the Guiness to cook off, pour the soup into a pyrex dish. Wait a second for it to cool, because it will give the soup some "tackiness" which you will need.

Take the mashed potatoes you made earlier and spread them across the top of the soup, like a frosting or pie crust. You can also add some cheese or vegan cheese sprinkles over the top of the potatoes once you get them sprinkled in.

Put in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. If the potatoes are browning and the "cheese" is melting, your dish is done.

This recipe made about a large pryex casorol dish and a half for us and served about 11 people. This could also be an excellent edition to your Thanksgiving table.

Vegan Cheese

Since Stephanie posted a recipe that uses vegan cheese recently, I had to pipe in with my 2 cents worth. Vegan cheese is difficult to use. Plain and simple. For the most part it's kind of a joke and not worth the hassle. It doesn't really melt, the flavor can be lacking and within a day it dries up in the fridge and becomes even more unmanageable. It's like working with a virgin who finally gives it up (which ends up be quite lackluster since they don't know what they're doing) and then decides to go back to holding off since it's just too much to handle. That is how I view vegan cheese. Sometimes it's a near neccesity though.

When using vegan cheese though, I only use "Vegan Gourmet" this shit actually MELTS! It's the only vegan cheese I've found that does so. It also has a really good flavor. It still dries out and gets nasty if left in the fridge longer than a day though. Which is completely wasteful and annoying as all hell. Recently I had one too many glasses of wine before making dinner and got a bit carried away with my cheese grating and grated too much. Nothing other than my drunken haze compelled me to make this decision, but I ended up freezing said cheese. I knew I wouldn't be using it again for a while, and in the state that I was, sticking it in the freezer seemed like a perfect solution. After all, when you pay as much as you do for vegan cheese, who the hell wants to waste it? Little did I know, it actually was the perfect solution! Freezing it allows it to hold it's moisture and you can just take out a little bit at a time as you need it. It completely eliminates the waste! So now everytime I buy it I cut a few slices out of it, then shred the rest, put it all in a ziplock bag and shove it in the freezer. When I need it, I just take out whatever amount I need, let it sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes and then it's all set use! It's the perfect solution and makes for no waste which saves you money that can be better spent towards booze.

Off to fill up my wine glass!
Jen Wa

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes? Oh yes, it can happen

A long time ago before I decided to become a vegetarian/pescetarian, I dated a guy who was a veg for the first year we were together. I wasn't, but that didn't stop me from eating loads of yummy vegetarian things to try them out. One night we were drinking wine in a bar in North Hollywood and he confided in me that he really really missed Sloppy Joes.

Coming from a white trash taste palate myself, I love me some Sloppy Joes. So I ran right out and figured something out for him.

Since I was drunk and it was late we went the instant route, which is what this blog is all about. And we bought two more bottles of wine in the process.

Anyway what you will need to construct these drunken deliciousness is this:

1-Can of Sloppy Joe mix. I used Del Monte when I made these last night. Yes you can make your own sauce if you're that kind of uppity cook, but the point of this recipe is the simplicity with which you can make and eat something while wasted. Check the ingredients on any canned item before buying it to ensure it does not have animal products in it.

1-box of Rice O Roni Spanish Rice. (Or substitute the Spanish rice of your choice. Trust me though, Spanish rice is the way to go, so stop being a rice racsist and get back on board.)

1-14 oz Can of Tomatoes. You can substitute salsa here as well if you need a bigger kick in your Joes. However the chopped tomotaoes give the sandwhich more depth and a better consistancy.

1-package of the hamburger buns of your choice

1-sliced vegan cheese

Preparation:

Step 1- Have a cocktail. Walk around the house drinking and swearing and turn on some music. I like to cook to Tom Waits and Billie Holliday. I know Jen Wa prefers Rancid.

Step 2- Have another cocktail. Put the Spanish rice on the stove and cook it how the freakin' box says to. Don't forget to add the tomatoes. This is going to take about 20 minutes, so you might as well have another cocktail.

Step 3- After the rice has simmered down to the right consistancy you add the sloppy joe mixture. Stir it around and cover the rice with it just like you would if you were making the meaty version.

Step 4- (optional) toast the buns in the oven or toaster. I have a gas oven so I just toast them in there.

Step 5- Take toasted buns out and add your vegan cheese slices.

Step 6- Add the "sloppy joe" mix on to the bun according to how hungry you are. Be careful, these are actually very sloppy. But delicious.

Step 7- Have another cocktail and eat this goodness

I found this Vegan Sloppy Joe mix on the internet you can buy as well. I've never had it so I don't know if it's worth the 7.95 though. I've also never used a subsitute meat product instead of rice. Most faux meats gross me out to be quite honest, but I'm sure if you really wanted to grind up a Boca Burger and soak it in sloppy joe sauce, you could.