Apple Cider Glazed Brussels Sprouts, Tempeh, and Greens

Sweet, warm Fall flavors. Filling and healthy. This dinner is a variation on a tempeh & Brussels sprouts dish I've made a few times before, but with plenty of fresh apple cider mixed in - perfect for a cool Fall day.

White Acorn Squash with Sweet Tempeh and Mushrooms

I love "squash bowl" meals. Give me a fall squash and I'm happy. Add some more veggies to it, even better. There are a million variations to stuffed squash dinners- here's another tasty one!

White Acorn Squash with Sweet Tempeh and Mushroooms
Serves 2
Ingredients:

• 1 white acorn squash 
• 8 oz shittake mushrooms, sliced
• 1 package of tempeh, cubed
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
• A few dashes of sriracha (I used about 6-8 drops)
• 1 tsp fig jam
• handful of almonds, chopped

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Slice squash in half and remove seeds. Place face down in large dish with a few inches of water. Cook for 30-35 minutes, until tender with a fork.
2. After putting the squash in the oven, mix together the maple syrup, soy sauce, sriracha and jam in a small bowl. Place the tempeh in a bake safe dish and pour the sauce over it; toss to coat. Place in the oven with the squash for 15 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, place the sliced mushrooms with 1 Tbsp soy sauce and toss.  After 15 minutes of cooking the tempeh, add in the mushrooms and sliced almonds, stirring to mix around the sauce. Add more maple syrup and/or soy sauce if needed, and cook for until 10-15 minutes, until tempeh is browned.
4. To serve, place the tempeh mix inside each half of squash and enjoy warm. 

Deeeeelish. The sweet tempeh, mushrooms, and almonds go so well with the acorn squash.

Other squash bowl meal ideas:

• Acorn squash stuffed with roasted veggie quinoa, rainbow quinoa with cranberries, nuts, and spinach, or quinoa with cashew butter and apples
• Butternut squash with farro or wheatberry salad
• Spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, broccoli, and mushrooms

Gotta love those fall squashes! 

Rosemary Socca with Roasted Eggplant

Since our anniversary dinner, I've been wanting to make socca at home. If you haven't ever had or heard of socca, it's just a chickpea "pancake," almost is a little like polenta in texture and consistency. Socca is simple to make, and can be varied in a bunch of ways, so it's a great addition to quick weeknight meals. Perfect for enjoying a restaurant-style dinner, right at home in your warm & cozies.

Fall Coconut Curry

This dish is a warm bowl of goodness, a blending of my farmer's market veggies this week. Sweet Fall squash, seasoned tofu, cauliflower, and kale all stewed in a blend of coconut and curry spice.

Dreamy Creamy Tofu, Pickle, and Pea Salad

Sometimes I go weeks without eating tofu. I go through phases. Beans...tofu...tempeh. And repeat. Cycling through proteins. Today, I seem to be back to tofu. I was craving a little tofu salad for lunch, so I whipped this up in a snap. Tangy and creamy but still light, and perfectly paired with some fresh greens or rolled up in a soft wrap.

Pineapple Quinoa

Flavorful pineapple quinoa, served right out of the pineapple... definitely a good dinner party dish. This is easy to make, delicious, and filling. A great side or main for a summer pot-luck or BBQ! Yes, I realize it's now fall. But indulge me for just 2 more recipes...

Tropical Black Bean Sliders

Trust me when I say this is a recipe everyone should have. Notice how I didn't say every vegan. Or every vegetarian. Nope, everyone. I made the massive mistake of just making one batch of these suckers for our housewarming party this weekend, and if I wasn't a few drinks in, I would have been seriously concerned about an uprising. They are good, and they go in a flash. And they are MINI! Which means, not only are they tasty, they are CUTE. I love all things mini almost as much as I love all things mango. Speaking of which...

Vegan Egg Pancakes with Sunburst Squash Sauté

Last week brunch was sweet, so this weekend I was craving savory. Hearty, eggy-tasting fluffy little rounds paired with plenty of greens, mushrooms, and beautiful sunburst squash, sauteéd in olive oil and seasoned with fresh thyme...

BEST Tofu EVER: Vegan Yum Yum's Pineapple Baked Tofu

Sweet pineapple and rich coconut soaked, perfectly glazed, browned, flavor-coated in every bite tofu. This recipe is for anyone who ever called tofu bland. I DARE them to eat this and then even TRY to say tofu can't be delicious. I double dog dare them.

Honestly, I ate this meal and after my first bite, thought it was the best tofu I'd ever had. Ever seen that Food Network Show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate? Can't you just imagine a "the best tofu I ever ate" episode? No. I guess I can't either. But if those meat-eating Food Network Stars ever did do that episode, this tofu would be on it. Ok, I think I've talked it up enough.

Sweet Orange Tempeh and A Week of Asian Meals

Asian meals are great for summer because they are often light and quick to whip up. These noodle dishes taste great cold as well, so feel free to make the night before, have leftovers for lunch, or bring something more interesting than pasta salad to a picnic!

Vegan Dinner Party: Mango, Avocado, and Black Bean Quinoa Salad

We all know by now how much I love mango, so I will refrain from going on about it yet again. But needless to say, when I saw Kathy Patalsky's recipe for mango quinoa salad, it was pinned in seconds. We recently had a bunch of friends over for dinner, and since I didn't have much time, I whipped up this yummy dish (along with some new cookies) in no time. Uncomplicated, delicious dinner parties can be done! And yes, carnivores, vegans, and vegetarians alike were satistified (and went back for seconds).

Wheat Berry Fruit and Vegetable Salad

This is a slight variation on my Farro Fruit & Veg Rosemary Salad. Equally delicious! I love using the fresh grapes in this dish. Wheat berries are aptly named, I think, since they do remind me of little hearty berries (like a baby cranberry of sorts!). They go great in this dish (although so would other great grains!)

Tamarind Tofu Bowl

Another great recipe inspired by Vegan Yum Yum! This healthy tofu bowl has a sweet flavor from the tamarind sauce, but is packed full of veggies and balanced by heartiness from the brown rice.

FYI, to satisfy your veggieosity, tamarind is a pod-shaped fruit that's kind of like a cross between a fig, date, and legume (at least in packaging). It's very sweet and can make for good sauce bases and pastes, as in this recipe.

Lentil LOVE and Easy Cauliflower Purée

I don't want to sound like a total vegan cliché, but I love having a delicious fresh healthy meal after my yoga class. It just feels so good to eat something good for you after doing something good for you. And I have a new-found love of lentils. They are high in fiber, low in calories, totally filling, and I love their flavor. So after this week's class, I was going to just heat up some lentils and spinach, but there was a head of cauliflower in the bottom of my fridge just waiting to be used. I was tempted to simply steam it, but decided to do something a little more inventive, for minimally more effort...

Black Eyed Pea Dip/Salad

With the Superbowl coming up, here's a healthy alternative to chips & dip, and something more exciting than chips & salsa. Plus, you can use the leftovers on salad the next day for lunch.

This mix is quick and easy, and works well with scoops tortilla chips. Yum!

Maple Tofu & Eggy Breakfast Sandwich

This is a picture of me taking my foot out of my mouth. What, you don't see it? Oh, right, that's the completely delicious, amazing breakfast I had today. With.... wait for it.... cheesey, eggy tasting tofu "eggs." Yes, I said cheesey-tasting. And eggy tasting. REALLY.  My husband even liked it. You may recall me saying on more than a few occasions that vegans shouldn't call things "cheesey" because it never tastes anything like the real thing. But {removing foot from mouth}, this is me letting you know these tofu-omlette stacks that go into the sandwich taste deliciously eggy-cheesey.

Veggieosity: Tofu and Tempeh

I'm starting a series of posts designed to be helpful references. This post is for those of you not so familiar with tofu and/or tempeh.

I'm not a fan of veggie pho-meats (other than the occasional Morning Star Farms chick'n patty when I want a quick, easy, I'm too lazy to make anything and want to eat like an 8 year old meal). But I do really like tofu and tempeh. Yes, that's what I said. I really like them. Some of it is developing a taste for them, some of it is learning which variety and brand you like best, and some of it is learning how to best prepare them. So let's take a little stroll down soy-protein lane, shall we?

The Real Breakfast of Champions

Nothing fancy here. Just singing the praises of pumped-up oatmeal.

Pumped-Up Oatmeal Ingredients:

Tofu Crunch Salad

Delicious tofu salad

This is a recipe that should be a standby for any vegetarian or vegan - and one that is certain to liked by non-vegans too. It's kind of like a vegan egg or chicken salad, and is awesome as a dip, in a sandwich, or on its own.

I threw this together after a very long day, when the last thing I wanted to do was take a lot of time to prepare a meal. Usually, that means I either open a can of beans and throw a few things in a salad, or have the stand-by Mexican burrito. But, I remembered seeing this dish on Finding Vegan, and figured it couldn't be that time consuming. Just about 20 minutes later, I was enjoying a delicious, healthy dinner that was far more exciting than your average salad.

Recipe inspired by Tofu Crunch Salad from Kathy on Healthy Happy Life.

Ingredients:

• 1 package extra firm tofu
• 2-3 large pieces of celery
• 1/2-3/4 medium-sized Gala apple
• 1/8 cup chopped parsley 
• Optional add ins: lightly steamed asparagus or peas, halved red grapes, golden raisins, or sunflower seeds.

For the dressing/mayo:

• 3.5 Tbsp Vegenaise (vegan mayo)
• 2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 Tbsp agave syrup
• ~1 Tbsp garlic & dill seasoning powder (see notes below; can sub dried dill instead)
• Shake of mustard powder
• Shake of celery seed
• Salt & pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Drain the water out of the tofu using a paper towel. As Kathy notes, the more water you drain out, the more flavor the tofu can soak in- that's good advice, so I'm passing it along here! Cut the tofu into bite-sized chunks after draining. I cooked my tofu in a pan with a little olive oil until lightly browned, though the original recipe calls for steaming; either way works! 
2. Mix together the dressing ingredients.
3. Chop up the desired amount of celery, apple, and parsley.
4. Add all ingredients together in a bowl and toss to coat. 

Notes: The dressing is so delicious in this salad, and the apple and celery add such a nice crunch! I also really like the asparagus in it, but I only added it in because I had some from the night before; it is also good with peas (especially if you are having it in a wrap), and I'm sure grapes would go really well in here also. For the dressing,  I didn't really measure the items out, other than the vegan mayo, and just kind of went by taste. I have this great garlic & dill dip seasoning that worked really well as a spice to add to this mix, though Kathy had some other seasoning suggestions. I just edited things to work for my palate, but I think it came out really well! Definitely light, flavorful, a tiny bit sweet & tangy, and just really good.

This is my new stand-by tofu salad. Try it!

Broccoli, Mushroom, and Tofu Salad

Getting right back on the vegan wagon, I made another new vegan dish recently, and this one was a total keeper.

Delicious healthy broccoli salad

This recipe, did, though, include another "weird vegan" ingredient that was a first for me: Vegenaise. Yup, vegan mayonnaise. Now, I don't even like regular mayonnaise. In fact, I pretty much avoid it at all costs. So it was a real leap of faith for me to try this. BUT, the link on Finding Vegan said "the best broccoli salad EVER." Ok, fine- you've got me. I'll try it. (I did, however, take my own advice and decrease the amount of vegenaise used in the original recipe).

Recipe adapted from/ inspired by 'Vegan Broccoli Salad' on Namely Marly.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 1 block extra firm tofu, drained and cut into bite-sized cubes (to drain tofu, not only remove all the package liquid, but also press with paper towels until excess water is removed)
• 2 large heads of broccoli, cut into florets (about 4-5 cups worth)
• 1 package of shittake mushrooms, sliced and washed
• 1 Tbsp EVOO (for pan to cook tofu)
• Sea salt to taste

Dressing ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegan mayo (I used Follow Your Heart brand Vegenaise)
• 1.5 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• scant 1/4 cup agave syrup (you could do 1/8 cup plus a Tbsp)
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds

Steps:

1. Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl; it's ok if it's runny, as within 15 minutes the chia seeds will start to form their gel and the dressing will thicken a little.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add in the tofu cubes. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, and then stir & turn, evenly cooking each side until the cubes look lightly golden brown (this should take about 10-12 minutes). Add in the shittake mushrooms and cook about another 2-3 minutes, until mushrooms are tender.
3. Steam the broccoli, making sure you DO NOT OVERCOOK. This is key. The last thing you want is mushy broccoli- it would completely ruin the salad. The broccoli should only steam for about 3 minutes, and when you stick a fork in it, you should be able to insert the fork but it shouldn't just slide through. It will change color slightly from that light raw green to just steamed darker (but not deep) green.
4. Drain the broccoli and run under cold water in a colander to ensure it doesn't continue steaming. 
5. Transfer to a large bowl and pour in some of the dressing - you may not need all of it, just enough to lightly coat the broccoli. (I only used about 1/2 of my dressing! But it's good to have on hand later for salads, wraps, sandwiches, or even for a little dip- it will thicken a bit over time bc of the chia seeds).

Notes:
I was definitely skeptical of the vegan mayo. But, once I found out it's made of natural ingredients - canola oil, brown rice syrup, soy protein, mustard flour and lemon juice, I figured it was worth trying. The dressing was a little tangy & sweet, and just a tiny bit creamy but still very light. This was a delicious, easy salad, and there is plenty of room for variation. I like the shittake mushrooms in it, but chick peas, regular peas, raisins, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds would all be good additions/substitutions. You could also sub tempeh for the tofu (as in the original recipe, which called for smoked tempeh 'bacon' - I avoided because I don't like smoky flavors), or probably even cannellini beans would work for protein too. This is also a good make-ahead dish, as it's meant to be served cold, and stores well for at least a few days. Hellooooo good lunch leftovers!