Baked Ziti

I have just been so neglectful of my little blog. I could make excuses about how busy life has been but really, I eat every day so how can I make excuses? I made some awesome foods for Thanksgiving so expect some new posts coming soon. Now onto the ziti!

I grew up in a town with a very large Italian population, so suffice it to say that going out for Italian food was a common occurrence in my childhood. I really missed stuffed shells until I found Rising Moon and ravioli until I found SoyBoy. I never found a store bought baked ziti so I had to find a way to make my own. Ok well I don't eat any of those very often but it is a special treat when I get some good old Italian pasta dishes.

This dish isn't necessarily fast but it's pretty easy. I make a big batch of vegan ricotta and use it for different dishes over the next 1 1/2-2 weeks.  That is probably the most time consuming item to make, aside from bake time.

For 2-4 Servings of Baked Ziti:

1 1/2-2 cups (dry) of cooked ziti pasta
8 oz Tomato Sauce (store bought or homemade)
6-8 oz Vegan Ricotta (see recipe below)
4 oz Daiya Mozzarella Cheese (or any brand that you like)
2 Tbsp Vegan Parmesan Cheese (1 part ground sesame seeds, 1 part nutritional yeast)



*Preheat your oven to 375F.
*Cook the pasta as directed on the package. Drain well and place in a medium mixing bowl. add in the tomato sauce, vegan ricotta, and vegan mozzarella. Mix well using a rubber spatula.
*Lightly grease/spray a baking dish and place the mixture into the dish.
*Sprinkle the vegan parmesan on top and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Vegan Ricotta 
1/2 cup Raw Cashews (soaked for a minimum of 2 hours to overnight)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (slightly less if bottled)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 lb of Firm Tofu (I like the texture of Nasoya Light Firm Tofu for this recipe)
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
1 1/2 tsp salt

*In a food processor add the cashews, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Blend until creamy.
*Add remaining ingredients to food processor and blend until creamy again.
How easy is that?!

The 1st Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is being hosted by Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen. Join me vegans!

(I will have to find my camera battery charger soon)

Any votes on what kinds of cookies I should bake for my lucky recipients?

#fbcookieswap

Update: Oh boy, I got my matches and these people are real food bloggers. They have amazing websites, really. Fingers crossed that I can hang with the big boys so to speak.

Surprise!

I couldn't leave you with that ugly picture of tofu scramble so I'm giving you Surprise Cookies. I'm hardly a fan of Martha Stewart but she has some good recipes and tips. I saw a posting of this one and had to make it, particularly because I wanted to use my Sweet & Sara vanilla marshmallows for something fun before I ate them all. I had to act fast. Without further ado, I give you Surprise Cookies!

A little about marshmallows. I think most people know that they are not vegetarian due to the gelatin in marshmallows. If you want to find out what gelatin is really made of, click the link. Otherwise just take my word for it that they are not vegetarian.

Candy, including marshmallows, are among them most difficult foodstuffs to make. Therefore, I highly recommend using store bought marshmallows. There are two brands that I am aware of. Sweet and Sara marshmallows taste more like big, dense, homemade marshmallows and they are local so they are easier for me to get. Dandies are fantastic marshmallows that taste like the mini-marshmallows that you ate as a kid.

For the Surprise Cookies, I used Sweet and Sara marshmallows. Martha's recipe calls for cutting a large marshmallow in half so I cut the large Sweet and Sara marshmallows in half. If I make these again, I may try for a whole marshmallow because I think you lose that taste a little bit with half. Of course I'll update the post when I do because I know you are all just hanging on the edge of your seat waiting.

Really, these could not be easier to make.

A couple of tips:
*I used direct substitutions for butter, eggs, and milk using Earth Balance, Ener-G Egg Replacer, and Soy Milk.
*Keep the marshmallows at room temperature before baking.
*If your frosting topping is runny, add in more confectioners sugar to stiffen it up.

 

 

Enjoy!

My Food Isn't Pretty

I haven't been posting much because what I've been eating, although healthy and easy to make, isn't necessarily pretty to look at. Case in point...

Tofu Scramble with an Avocado & Sun-dried Tomato Spread
(also store bought veggie sausage which I think I've had twice in my life)

 Also you don't want to see pictures of a salad, that I eat everyday, consisting of lettuce, carrots, tofu chunks, and dried cranberries.

Have no fear, I have a backlog of desserts and fun things to post. Plus, it's fall! My favorite time of the year to cook and bake.

Do You Miss TooToos Too?

I really miss Too Toos. Why did Tofutti stop making them? I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and create some at home vegan ice cream sandwiches. After buying Vice Cream (ages ago) I discovered that you need an ice cream maker to use the book. Both apartment living and the fact that I don't eat ice cream often make purchasing an ice cream machine a luxury I do not need. So, my vegan ice cream sandwiches use store bought vegan ice cream. But the chocolate cookies are my very special recipe that I spent many years perfecting. While you can use store bought cookies I recommend using fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

Here's one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes:

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup all purpose flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons water, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
 
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix all dry ingredients together and create a well in the bowl. Place the wet ingredients in the well and mix. Add in chocolate chips.

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop cookies on the sheet with at least 1 inch between the cookies. Bake for about 14 minutes depending on the size of your oven. When I make these in my convection oven it only takes about 8 or 9 minutes but in my stove it takes about 14 minutes.

Let the cookies cool completely and add your choice of vegan ice creams between two of the cookies to make a delicious vegan ice cream sandwich.

MIA + Worldwide Vegan Bake Sales

I've been MIA for a while, I started a new job and I'm looking for a new apartment so life has been busy. I hope to be posting about new yummy vegan foods soon. In the time since I last wrote I've converted two people to liking vegan food. They won't become vegan but they've gone for vegan options when we've gone out to dinners.

In other news, worldwide vegan bake sales are in full swing. Today is the Long Island vegan bake sale at 3 Brothers in RVC and on May 1st you can find the NYC vegan bake sale at MooShoes. There are a few others around NYC and you can find that info, along with info on other world wide vegan bake sales, at http://www.veganbakesale.org/veganbakesale/vbs-where.html

Enjoy!

Sweet Dreams

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

Link to Recipe & Instructions

I have been seeing these all over the place lately so I decided it was time to make them now. I followed the recipe almost exactly except that I cut the recipe in half and baked them at 315 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes. They're a little bit time consuming but you really can't mess them up. It took me about a half hour from the start until I put them in the oven. One tip to make note of is that if you keep the dough at room temperature or slightly warm before you bake them there will be fewer cracks in the cookie when they're finished baking. 

Step 1 - Mix the chocolate cookie dough

Step 2 - Mix the peanut butter cookie dough

Step 3 - Roll the dough into a ball

 Step 4 - Bake and let cool before eating

Raw Option - I came up with 13 cookies so I tried the last one raw. It was quite good and would be an excellent option for raw dessert.

The only problem with these is that now I want to eat them ALL!

The entire batch is 60 WW points, or about 5 a piece. "Pricey" but well worth it.

Enjoy!