Creamy Vegan Chicken Alfredo

Well this comes from  talking about alfredo with my buddy last night and it made me hungry for some, so when I got up I knew what was gonna be for supper. I used this recipe here as a base here is what I did,

Creamy Alfredo

1 1/2 cups raw cashews 

2 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup coconut cream ( about half the can)

2 tbsp veggie stock

4 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

  

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp onion powder

All that you need to do is add all the ingredients to the  blender and blend (now I added my nutritional yeast and onion powder after it was blended only cause I forgot to toss it in) . Now my mixture looked very watery so don't be alarmed, put on the stove at a med to low temp stirring almost constantly with a wire whisk. DO NOT BOIL this is very important cause it will get funky very fast. It will take about 10 min to thicken up the way to tell when its at its perfect creamyness is dip a spoon it, it should coat the spoon run your threw it it should leave a path.

Don't forget the nutritional yeast and onion powder like I did

All blended up.

Adding the left out ingredients.

Thickness test.

Perfect thickness.

Now you can cook up your favorite pasta and have have great meal or you step it up a notch and follow me on this one, chicken and green peas is the perfect combo with alfredo.  You can thank another one of my buddies for learning me about that, all I do is talk about food all the time. The next step some might say optional but i am saying its a must.

You need

1/2 pound chicken sub (your choice Delight Soy is the best one)

1 cup frozen peas

1 tsp oil

Heat your oil and toss chicken and frozen peas (the peas will be crackling so don't freakout). Cook till chicken starts to brown the turn down the heat add a ladle a scoop of the sauce into the pan to de-glaze it.

Now just cook what ever pasta you want serve it up.

Ladle the sauce on first then the chicken mixture.

Have fun and Enjoy!!!!

Earth Balance Vegan Aged White Cheddar Puffs-review and opinion

 Well I know these have been out for a while but I have just gotta put my 2 cents. If you have not tried these yet then you need to run not walk to your local WholeFoods and grab a bag and a bottle of what what ever you drink( water is the bestest thing to drink). Trust me when I say to be careful not to get your fingers in the way, don't attempt to share with some cause it will end up in a fist fight.

The texture is perfect just like any cheese puff you have eaten as a kid, the crunch is the awesome then the puff spread the flavor all over you tongue it's almost good enough to bring a tear to my eye. The flavor taste just like a white cheddar popcorn I used to eat when I was younger. In fact the this is so close to the original flavors that I remember it makes the hair on the back of neck stand up making me feel like I am doing something wrong but it's oh so good. If you need feel like your need a cheesey escape from reality then this bag is for you. Any time I get to go somewhere that sells these crunchy puff of goodness I always load up on them. At night if they are in my lunch they are the first thing I grab usually with in the first 5 miles of my trip they are gone and have turned my sandwich baggie inside out and I am licking the baggie like I weirdo.

They need to start sells these products at the grocery locally to me I can't wait for every 2-3 weeks to get some of these.  There was once we drove an 1.5 hours to Cleveland Oh.  to get some supply's having these in our list once we found out they were sold out I called every WholeFoods within 3 hours of me and found that the Wexford Pa. location had a whole case of them,  I said I was on my way. Leaving my buggy sitting there we loaded up for the 2 hour drive there and then we still had 1 hour drive home from there that's 4.5 hours of driving just for the puffs ya I might need help but I won!

To summarize someone at Earth Balance should be given raise, medal, promotion for coming up with these puffs. These things are out of this world, don't pass up any opportunity to grab a bag just remember sharing never works so buy 2 or a whole case.

Enjoy and Have Fun.      

Vegan Shepard's Pie with a Sweet Potato Mash with Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake

Well 18 yrs ago today my fiance became my wife I can honestly say that was the best choice I have ever made. Although everyone around us told us we were nuts and crazy but look at still going. I asked her what she wanted for supper and these items are amount her favorite recipes. The Shepard's pie and the raw blueberry cheese cake came from the Vegan Zombies web site you can see them here and here. I follow these real close only making a few changes here and there.

The Appetizer 

Blackbean Guacamole  

1 batch of my guacamole found here

1 can black beans rinsed 

Add the black beans to the guacamole and serve it up with some chips

Shepard's Pie

4 cups veggie broth

1  cup Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup Mix

2-4 small red potatoes diced 

1 tsp French thyme 

1/2 tsp rosemary 

1/2 pound Delight Soy Mock Beef 

Bring the veggie stock up to a boil add the soup mix, potatoes, thyme, and rosemary let simmer for 30 min. Stirring every 10 min the potatoes will start to break down and make your broth thicken like a stew add the mock beef and cook for 20 min then remove from heat it will really thicken up. 

Now the sweet potato mash is real easy

Sweet Potato Mash

2 large sweet potatoes chopped

2 large regular potatoes (your choice) chopped

2 tbsp vegan butter ( earth balance is the only good one)

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tbsp dried parsley 

Boil the taters for 10-15 min till tender, drain and add the rest of the ingredients and mash them up. If you are wonder why not milk you want these to be stiffer than normal mashed taters. 

Pre heat oven to 400.  Now scoop the filling into 4 separate small romulets and I put a thin layer of frozen peas on that's is something I saw on TV and its awesome. Scoop sweet tater mash on top and bake for 15 min. When you pull them out of the oven they are ready to eat or you can man up and pull out your blow torch and hit real quick for a little char action. And dig in just remember it is gonna real hot watch you tongue.

Finally dessert this one is straight from the Vegan Zombies play book

Raw Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake

The filling 

2 cups raw cashews soaked overnight 

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 agave nectar

Mix all in the blender till smooth make sure to scrap down the sides. 

The crust (I had to do some subbin due to lack of ingredients)

1/4 cup raw cashews 

1/4 cup raw almonds

1/8 cup raw pumpkin seed

1 tsp virgin coconut oil

2 pitted dates 

Toss all ingredients in a food processor , And rough chop by pulsing them together.

Now I don't have those size spring molds (yet) so I grabbed what I got oiled them up with some coconut oil, press down the nut mixture pack it down tight ( you may have to wet you fingers to keep them from sticking) then scoop the filling over top, cover and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours. Remove from mold while still frozen and place in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.

I almost got my head stuck in the blender.

Now just plate it all up and enjoy it.