Roasted artichoke, basil, tomato and garlic pasta

(Serves 2)
Ingredients:
Basil - about 15 large leaves chopped
Cherry Tomatoes - 10 to 15 tomatoes cut in halves
5 or 6 garlic cloves - use a garlic press or finely chop
1/2 teaspoon of no/low salt vegan chicken flavor boullion or vegetarian boullion
Roasted artichoke hearts - about 10 halves
olive oil
cooked pasta of your choice

In a large pan saute: garlic in olive oil, then add tomatoes and half of the chopped basil. When tomatoes start to get a little tender add in roasted artichoke hearts.
Sprinkle in boullion.
Lower heat to medium low & add cooked pasta and combine til all heated together. Take off of stove and top with remainder of fresh basil. Optional: freshly grated parmesan or vegan parmesan.
Enjoy!

Marinated & Roasted Artichoke Hearts

Clean fresh young artichokes to use hearts. During artichoke cleaning process, put cleaned artichokes in a large bowl filled with cool water, 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup of vinegar. When all are cleaned and marinade mixture is ready, slice the artichokes lengthwise in half.

In another large bowl (amount of ingredients based taste and amount of artichoke hearts) combine:
Dried basil
Fresh chopped Italian parsley
Himalayan finely ground salt
Fresh finely chopped garlic or garlic powder
lemon zest
lemon juice
olive oil

Toss in artichoke halves and make sure all are coated with marinade. Let artichokes sit in marinade for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Set oven or toaster oven to 425 degrees F.
Spread artichokes evenly across an aluminum foiled baking sheet (I use the nonstick variety).
Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until soft and lightly browned.

Serbian Style Oven Roasted Potatoes

Back in the late 80's I lived in the Detroit, Michigan area for almost a year. While I was living there, I got to know and spend quite a few of my evenings and weekends helping out an older Serbian lady, "Teta" (means auntie) Danica. I was always a naturally thin person and she, of course, tried to fatten me up on a regular basis. She served me some of the most tasty and heart cloggingly scrumptious Serbian food. I admit that I do miss her cooking , especially things like her hand cut chicken soup noodles which I have searched for over the years but just can't find anything made quite that tasty. I remember her guest beds covered with waxpaper with noodles drying to perfection and wish I'd picked up her special recipe. Another thing that I loved were her oven roasted potatoes, although they were so oily (I'm sure from some kind of meat drippings) that I knew they couldn't be "good" for me.

Today, I was reading through Ann Gentry's new cookbook "Vegan Family Meals: Real Food for Everyone" http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Family-Meals-Real-Everyone/dp/1449402372 and found her Oven Roasted Potato recipe which upon reading, immediately made me think of those Serbian roasted potatoes from many years ago. Ann's recipe inspired me to make a healthier version of Teta Danica's Serbian potatoes which I'm sharing with all of you who stop by my blog!

SERBIAN STYLE OVEN ROASTED POTATOES
(quick cook option)

4 to 5 potatoes - if you have organic potatoes, leave the skins on
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Canola Oil
1/4 tsp. Pink Himalayan salt or salt of your choice
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

The following spices are to taste:
Vegeta (this might be only available in a gourmet or ethnic grocery store. It's a product of Croatia & easily ordered on Amazon)
Hungarian Paprika
Dried crumbled parsley
garlic powder
onion powder

Preheat oven or larger size toaster oven to 375F
Prepare a baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper (this completely prevents scraping potatoes off the sheet!)
Chop potatoes into medium sized chunks and place in a medium sized Pyrex bowl
Cook in microwave uncovered on high setting for 3 minutes
Leave in Pyrex bowl and add oil and toss until coated. Then add all spices and toss until coated.
Spread on parchment covered baking sheet evenly and bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Healthy & Yummy Vegan BBQ Seitan Sandwiches

These super easy BBQ seitan sandwiches are something your "meat eater" friends or family would enjoy. I learned to cook a variation of these in the Food For Life vegan cooking classes I took last year and simplified the recipe to make it more kid/carnivore friendly.

The chicken flavored seitan can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge for about 3 days. I haven't tried freezing the seitan so I'm not sure if the texture would hold up after being thawed out. Cooking the seitan ahead of time is a life saver if you know you'll have a killer busy day or week and still want a healthy fast meal option.

To make the chicken seitan, first you'll need to make some of the "Chicken" seasoning which I make in my Magic Bullet using the flat blade. The following recipe makes enough for you to have extra for several batches of the seitan or even some "chicken" flavoring for soup.

CHICKEN SEASONING
1/2 Cup Nutritional Yeast Flakes [ 3 cups ]
1 tsp. Onion Powder [2 Tbsp. ]
1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder [1 Tbsp. ]
1 tsp. Ground Celery Seed [5 tsp.]
2 tsp. Sea Salt or slightly less if desired ( I like Pink Himalayan salt too) [4 Tbsp.]
2 1/2 tsp. Italian Herb Mix [5 Tbsp.]

Blend all ingredients into a fine powder using a blender. A Magic Bullet type blender with a flat blade works perfectly. Store in an airtight container/spice jar. The seasoning does not need to be refrigerated. It is a great seasoning for soups, or the "chicken" seitan recipe below. This recipe should fill a typical spice jar. To make a larger batch of the seasoning use the amounts in the brackets following the ingredients.

"CHICKEN" SEITAN (gluten based)
1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
2 1/2 Tbsp. Unbleached white or whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. "chicken" seasoning
1 cup water

Prepare a pot with several inches of water at the bottom that you can use a steamer basket with. I use a spaghetti sized pot that has a steamer basket which sits at the top of the pot. Make sure the water level won't bubble up into the steamer basket or your seitan won't cook properly. Use a bit of canola spray on the steamer basket.

• Mix dry ingredients in a bowl (using a whisk works best)
  


• At this point, I start warming the water in the pot since the following steps are rather quick!


• Mix water into dry ingredients until well blended. Knead for just a minute or two.
  


• Shape gluten mixture by gently stretching into size that will fit into your steamer basket and place in the steamer basket.


• Get water to a boil, cover pot and reduce temperature but strong enough to maintain a good steamy simmer.

Cook for 45 minutes and voila it's done!

BBQ Sandwiches
Tear your seitan loaf into chunks and place in a food processor with the sharp chopping blade attachment. It doesn't take but a minute or so to get the seitan into a chopped meaty texture. Be watchful not to over-granulate the seitan.

Transfer the chopped seitan into a saute pan and pour your favorite BBQ sauce on it until it's just saturated. Heat and serve on toasty hamburger buns. Some of my favorite sides are a fresh vegan slaw, sweet potato fries, corn on the cob, salad or anything else you love with BBQ! Think healthy and most of all ENJOY!

I'll be adding photos at a later time, but wanted to share this easy tasty vegan meal with you right away!
TTFN - Yara

Super quick & easy Vegan Lavash Pizza

A Vegan Recipe I Love!

Lavash Pizza, Super Quick & Easy

by Yara Nash

Ingredients:

2 sheets of fresh lavash bread

olive oil spray

Pizza sauce - Trader Joe's variety was tasty

toppings of your choice

These are the toppings that worked amazingly well together for me:

Fresh chopped basil

Finely chopped fresh garlic

Finely sliced red bell pepper

Finely sliced tomato (on the vine variety is what I used)

Shredded Vegan Mozzarella cheese (I like Follow Your Heart brand), amount to your liking

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the lavash on 2 sturdy cookie sheets(I also used nonstick aluminum foil) and lightly spray lavash bread with olive oil.

Toast lavash in oven for about 3-4 minutes.

Take out and spread pizza sauce and add the toppings of your choice.

Put back in oven for 5-10 minutes but watch often as ovens do vary and lavash can toast up quickly.

Take out of oven and slice in squares with a pizza cutter. Enjoy!!!