Vegan MOFO - Day 7 - Piot's Cheezy Potatoes

Day seven and I'm wishing my friends and family had low fat favorites. It just is not the American way. My Biggest Loser challenge is very challenging with recipes like this one.

This recipe is busted out regularly during our combined family get togethers. My friend Piot sent me her recipe for Cheezy Potatoes. Her daughter Rachel loves these and requested them for her birthday dinner last weekend. This is a very quick and easy dish to put together. It packs a very high-cal punch, so proceed with caution. Whenever these are busted out, there are never many leftovers.

The original version includes lots and lots of dairy and butter. The butter is replaced by Earth balance, the cheddar is replaced with Daiya cheddar style, and the dairy based cream of mushroom soup is replaced with this vegan recipe.

Piot's Cheezy Potatoes

1 pound frozen hash browns, partially thawed

1 1/2 cups cream of mushroom soup

4 tablespoons Earth Balance, melted

1/2 onion, chopped

4 oz. shredded vegan cheddar (I highly recommend using Daiya for the right texture)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Plain potato chips to crumble on top

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter in small saucepan. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except for potato chips. Pour mixture into oiled 8 x 8 pan. Crumble potato chips over the top. Bake for 35 minutes.* Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

****Version Dos****

My friend at work is very allergic to onions. But I didn't want her to miss out on potato goodness. I decided to modify the cheezy taters so she could enjoy them. As a bonus I think this version is just as good or better!

1 pound frozen hash browns (preferably O'brien style, chunks rather than shreds)

1 1/4 cup Tofutti Sour Cream

1/4 cup strong vegetable broth

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

4 oz vegan cheddar (again I recommend Daiya)

4 tablespoons Earth Balance, melted

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Salt and pepper to taste.

Plain potoato chips to crumble on top.

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter in small saucepan. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients well except for potato chips. Pour mixture into oiled 8 x 8 pan. Crumble potato chips over the top. Bake for 35 minutes.* Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

* cooking time will vary slightly depending on how frozen the potatoes are. Begin the professional that I am, I use the finger test to see if it's done. You can also use a thermometer inserted into the middle most portion of the taters. They should be at about 150.

**As another side note, this recipe doubles nicely. Just use a 9 x 13 pan and up the baking time 5-10 minutes.

Vegan MOFO - Day 6 - Fred's Tuna-ish Helper-ish

First I want to start off by talking about communication breakdown. Many times I am running at a frenetic pace for no apparent reason. I think I have to fit a million things in to each day. To add to this I have this tendency to hear things one way when they are actually said another way. I can't remember what Myers-Briggs pesonality type this is: but I tend to jump right in and do something, then correct things later if I screw something up.

Such was the case with this conversion. Fred described this favorite from his childhood to me. Somehow I got it in my silly clutered head that he was describing tuna casserole. I promptly went on the internet and found a vegan recipe for said casserole. I got to work and did some tweaks and got that bad boy in the oven. As kitchen karma would have it, it was an utter disaster. While it looked picture perfect, it was anything but. The texture was like thick paste and had no flavor. Fred hates to waste anything, but even he wouldn't eat this. Major FAIL!




Two lessons here. Lesson one: listen carefully when people speak to you. It is uncool when you half listen. It can save you a lot of time and grief in the long run. Lesson two: trust your inner chef. When you read a recipe and it looks like it won't work, trust your gut. Modify that bad boy so you don't end up with something so nasty even the wild javelinas won't eat it.

I've ranted long enough about my failings as a communicator and kitchen disasters. On to what Fred really wanted! This is an easy, quick, filling recipe. It won't win any culinary awards, but hopefully it will make your family happy and full.

Fred's Tuna-ish Helper-ish

6 Servings
1 1/2 cups dried pasta (elbows or other small-ish pasta)
Water for cooking Pasta
1 cup Butler soy curls
1 cup vegetable broth, hot
1 Tablespoon Kelp powder
2 Tablespoons Earth Balance or other vegan butter
1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 1/2 cups cream of mushroom soup (vegan of course)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pour hot broth over soy curls to re-hydrate. Let soak for 5-10 minutes. Drain. Dice soy curls and sprinkle with kelp powder. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta and transfer to large mixing bowl. Add earth balance to HOT pasta. Mix soymilk and nutritional yeast in small saucepan. Heat until slightly thickened. Pour onto hot pasta. Heat cream of mushroom soup in same saucepan and add heated soup to the pasta mixture. Add soy curls and mix. If pasta has cooled of it can be re-heated quickly in large pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Update: Fred has spoken. He says this is supposed to be soupy. Easy enough. To eat this Fred style you will have to add more cream of mushroom soup just before serving to your liking. If you add the soup ahead of time, the noodles will soak it all up and it will be very sad. Hee hee.
Now this is the recipe in it's original form. For me, I like to get more of a nutritional bang for my buck. As an option you could add some steamed spinach or kale to up the nutritional value.

Vegan MOFO Day 5 - Tracey's Spaghetti Extraordinaire

Fred's sister Tracey sent me her and her daughter Nicki's alltime favorite spaghetti recipe. The original is chock full of beef and sausage, so she was not sure if it could be veganized. Well, thanks to my friends at the PPK, I no longer fear the meaty recipes and find them quite fun to veganize. I'm not going to kid you, the texture and flavor are slightly different, so you won't fool anyone into thinking this is the greasy, unhealthy, factory farmed meat used in so many dishes. But it is a hearty, delicious homage to the original.

I did have to make a few modifications to the original recipe. Of course I had to replace the ground beef. I did this by re-hydrating TVP with vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet to give it that deep "beefy" hue and flavor. Next the Italian sausage. This was a no brainer using Julie Hasson's Spicey Italian Sausage recipe. I always find that when I use meat analogs I must increase the liquids used in the original recipe. In this recipe I had to add a 15 oz can of crushed fire roasted tomatoes to the original recipe. The order of adding ingredients changed just slightly as well. All in all, this was pretty easy to veganize. As you can see from the picture below, it came out very nicely. It has that rich tomato flavor and a hearty meaty texture. I fed this to Fred last night. He inhaled it in no time. Great recipe Tracey! Thanks for sending it to me.

Tracey's Vegan Spaghetti Extraordinaire

1 Cup TVP (sub for 1 lb ground beef)
1 Cups Vegetable broth
2 links vegan Italian sausage
1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
½ medium onion, chopped
½ chopped green bell pepper or 1 Anaheim pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz white or cremini mushrooms sliced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon crumbled rosemary
32 oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted)
16 oz can tomato sauce
15 oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes

Spaghetti or Angel Hair pasta cooked, drained, and rinsed

Grated vegan parmesan for garnish (optional)
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Combine vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet. Re-hydrate TVP by pouring hot vegetable broth over it. Let sit for 10 minutes to re-hydrate. Dice Italian sausage into small chunks, approximately ¼ inch. This can also be done by pulsing in the food processor.

In a 4 quart saucepan brown TVP and sausage in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once browned, remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan sauté onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic in remaining tablespoon of olive oil until soft and mushrooms release their liquid, about 10 minutes minutes. Add dried herbs and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, crushed tomoatoes and tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add browned TVP and sausage and simmer for about 10 more minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Serve over warm pasta and sprinkle with vegan parmesan if desired.

Vegan MOFO - Day 4 - The Garden

More and more people are jumping on the buy local band wagon. I'm all for that because I like to support the local small farms. I still have no idea how they are actually growing their goods, because I don't actually visit their farms. There are a couple of people at our farmers market that bring absolutely perfect produce week after week. This makes me more than a little suspicious. I love buying from the farms that have dirty, odd shaped, and real looking veggies and fruit. They are the ones I visit week after week.


I wanted to get even more local...like back yard local. Fred and I were both raised in places where people always had gardens. We spent much of our childhood summers picking and weeding. There is nothing better than eating something fresh off of your own vines. Both our mom's canned and froze the goodies so that we could have home grown vegetables all winter long. Everyone on my dad's side of the family have magical green thumbs. My brother's garden is a wonder with all of his heirloom seeds and beautiful soil. Since moving to Arizona almost 20 years ago, I have never once planted a vegetable garden. I had a condo once where I had a small herb garden, but that doesn't count as the real deal in my book.

The soil here is very alkaline. This makes the task a little bit more challenging. Fred was up to the challenge this week. He dug out a 4 foot x 12 foot plot. He has spent the last couple of days preparing the soil with organic mulch, organic peat moss, and vermiculite for water retention and to keep the soil from compacting in to the hard clay that is so common here. The soil was ready to go last night. He is planning on transplanting the herbs from the pots today. He also bought some great organic plants to put in. My brother is sending us some of his coveted heirloom seeds this week. He has a couple of varieties that are supposed to do well in the desert heat. We are going to start them in the house and plunk them in early in the spring. We can usually put the tomatoes in by the end of February or early March here.



My poor little basil plant has been struggling for over a year in it's pot. Hopefully it will love it's new home and get big and beautiful.

If this planting goes well, we are going to add more to it in the spring or next fall. I'm so excited about having a garden again, I could just about pee! Fred is taking pictures while I'm at work. I'll post them when I get home so you can all see the before pictures.

Vegan MOFO - Day 3 - MMmm MMmm Cream of Mushroom Soup

I'm pretty certain most of the people who grew up in the US in the last few decades have a family recipe that included the famous red and white can of Cream of Mushroom Soup. Over the years this pantry staple has shown up on millions of Thanksgiving tables as part of the ever-popular green bean casserole. A dear friend of mine uses it in her cheezy potato dish - which I plan on veganizing later this month. My mom used to make a giant pan of pork chops and simmer them in cream of mushroom soup. It made them fall-off-the-bone (I know gross) tender. Fred made some type of tuna concoction with it. This was the experiment that failed miserably for me the other day. I'm hoping that with this creation, I can perfect that dish and re-claim my kitchen dignity.

I don't want to break my arm patting myself on the back, but this was teh bomb. It was darn close to the original. The parsley makes it look slightly different, but the flavor is just about spot on. I'm still doing my Biggest Loser Challenge, so sadly I only had a little taste. I don't know how long I can hold out. I may just need to hit the gym for an extra hour or two this week.

Without further ado, I bring you:

MMmm MMmm Cream of Mushroom Soup

6 - 1 cup Servings

2 Tablespoon Earth Balance or canola oil (Earth Balance will give a richer flavor)
1 medium onion, diced fine
1 stalk celery, diced fine
2 cloves garlic minced
8 oz sliced white or cremini mushrooms
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
½ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon white pepper
Pinch nutmeg
¼ cup all purpose flour
(if you like your soup thicker use 1/3 cup)
(if you are substituting in a recipe that calls for condensed undiluted, use 2/3 cup)
3 cups vegetable broth, hot
1 cup soy creamer

Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

In a 2 quart sauce pan heat Earth Balance or canola oil and add onion, celery, and garlic. Sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add sliced mushrooms and cook until liquid is released, about 5-10 minutes. Make sure there is still a bit of liquid from the mushrooms. Add dried spices mixing thoroughly. Sauté for about another minute, until herbs are fragrant. Stir in flour and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, adding a small amount of the broth if needed. Slowly pour in hot vegetable broth, whisking frequently. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes until thickened. At this point you can use an immersion blender to puree if you like a smoother soup before adding soy creamer. Add soy creamer and simmer for 5 more minutes being careful not to boil.

**If you use this recipe for blogging or posting, I just ask that you make sure to link to this post.

Vegan MOFO - Day 2 - Daiya Cheese to the Rescue

Well, today I was going to post a conversion of one of Fred's childhood favorites, but it was an utter failure. Like totally nasty I could use it as a paste failure. What a drag! So I'm going to have to rework it and post it another day.

I'm working 12 hour shifts this week, so I'm not cooking anything complex to speak of. Simple and quick will be the order of the week if I'm in charge of the cooking. However, I'm hoping Fred will be my pinch cooker this weekend. Maybe if I'm really nice, he'll hook me up!

Anyhoooooooo. I'm going to go back to my childhood repertoire for today. After my miserable failure in the kitchen last night, I had to do some quick thinking. Fred had been working on our new garden most of the day and he was starving. After he choked down some of the paste casserole, I offered up something a bit more tasty. When I was in high school, I worked two jobs and went to school, so I was pretty busy. I figured out a few things I could always make on the fly. I practically lived on eggs over easy and toast, boiled frozen corn, french fries, and grilled cheese. Don't worry, there were vegetables in the mix too. My dad was quite a gardener.

Grilled cheese was one of my ultimate comfort foods. I loved the gooey, creamy, rich cheese oozing out of the bread. Oh yes, and the bread, whole grain, perfectly browned and crispy. Wow, I'm drooling and it's only 630am. Fred used to love Velveeta and I was a big fan of Kraft Deluxe Singles. EW! I know...like one molecule away from being plastic or something like that. Still, I loved the stuff. I wasn't very hopeful about finding an ample sub, but then came Daiya cheese. It was love at first melt. I bought some the other day for another recipe I am hoping to convert next week. I was psyched I had this lovely container of yellow-orange joy in the fridge. I whipped out the iron skillet, slathered some yummy multigrain bread with Earth Balance and made the perfect grilled cheese. It was late, so we shared. It was so freaking good that next time there will be NO sharing!!! Ah thank you Daiya for bringing one of my all time favorites back to life.

I promise, when I have days off, I will get more creative.

Vegan MOFO - Day 1 Farina Remake

Yay! It's time for vegan MOFO (month of food). I am going to do my best to remake family favorites of my friends and family...time and submissions permitting. I've had a couple of recipes sent to me that I am excited about converting!

But today, I'm going to be selfish and go down my own memory lane. When we were kids, both of my parents worked. My mom was prone to some very serious migranes. Many times we were left to fend for ourselves food-wise. When I was very young, my older brother often would have to find ways to fill our bellies. He was a domestic terrorist to me when we were kids. I usually tried to stay away from him because he was so mean. Every so often, he would be very kind. A couple of my fondest food memories are of those times he was kind and cooked for me.

I have a very distinct memory of a big snow storm. There were drifts in our front yard. It was so early it was still dark out. We came in from the cold and my brother made us Farina. This was one of my favorite breakfasts as a kid. I totally forgot about this stuff! I bought it some time back for a test recipe. I found it in the pantry last night and just had to make it!!!

In the day, we had it with whole milk and real butter and sugar. The vegan conversion was pretty simple. I used the recipe on the box and used almond milk for the water (or milk). I put a dollop of Earth Balance on top and sprinkled it with a little sugar. It was the warm creamy comforting stuff I remembered. Oh the simple goodness brought me back to those cold wintery days of my youth. Wouldn't it be fun to go sledding? I better go call my brother.

I'll post the pic later tonight. Happy MOFO-ing!