Veganized New Joe's Special (Tofu, Mushrooms, Spinach)

Have you guys ever heard of New Joe's Special? It comes from a restaurant in California called Joe's.  Joe's became New Joe's after it burned down. The special at New Joe's was a dish with lots of spinach and ground beef and egg. My mom figured out the recipe, and made it all the time. I grew up eating it. But ever since I've gone vegan I've craved it. Not in the OH I NEED MEAT kind of way but in the "this is a comforting food from my childhood" kind of way. So I decided to veganize it. Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces tofu
• 6 cups of baby spinach
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 2 cups water
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Mix the flax seed and 6 tablespoons water in a bowl. Put in the fridge to gel.
2. Drain the tofu by putting it between two paper towels and pressing out the water. 
3. Chop the tofu into cubes. 
4. Fry the tofu in the oil in a large pan on high heat.
5. Once it has browned, add the mushrooms and garlic.
6. Stir until brown. 
7. Add spinach and stir.
8. Take the bowl of flax seed water out of the fridge and add the nutritional yeast. Stir in the rest of the water slowly until the nutritional yeast/flax is dissolved. 
9. Move the spinach/tofu/mushrooms mixture to one side of the pan and add the nutritional yeast to the other side.
10. Slowly incorporate the two sides of the pan. 
11. Stir until the nutritional yeast is no longer sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper and serve!

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Homemade Raspberry Poptarts (Vegan AND Gluten Free!)

I didn't realize how much I missed poptarts until I made these. Oh man.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup vegan butter or margarine
• 4 tablespoons cold water
• 1 and 1/2 cup frozen raspberries (filling)
• 2 tablespoons water (filling)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (filling)
• 2 cups powdered sugar (icing)
• Raspberry water (from filling, used for icing)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Prepare baking sheet by covering with parchment paper.
3. For the filling, place raspberries in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of water. 
4. Once the berries have melted and broken apart, add the sugar and mix well. 
5. Drain the excess raspberry juice/water into a bowl (this will be used for the icing). Set both saucepan and bowl aside.
6. For the crust, mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until well incorperated and crumbly. (I didn't have a pastry cutter so I used a hand-held potato masher and that worked just as well).
7. Add four tablespoons of water and mix until dough is forms a ball.
8. On a lightly floured countertop, roll out dough using a rolling pin until it is only about a centimeter thick. 
9. Using a butter knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into evenly-sized rectangles (not sure of dimensions, but you know how big poptarts are, right? Also, clearly mine are not evenly sized. Oh well.)
10. Place half of the rectangles on the baking sheet. 
11. Spoon filling onto the center of the rectangles. 
12. Cover the filling with the other half of the dough rectangles. Pinch sides together to seal.
13. Poke about six holes in the top of each poptart with a toothpick or small skewer.
14. Spread a thin layer of butter over each poptart
15. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden-brown
16. Mix leftover raspberry juice with powdered sugar for the icing/glaze. You made need more sugar, depending on how much juice there was.
17. Glaze poptarts once they are cool.

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Kid-Friendly Chocolate Cupcakes

Kate asked for chocolate cupcakes for her birthday. I asked her if I could use the same recipe that I used for the raspberry chocolate cake and the answer was a very loud "NO." Although I loved how rich the chocolate raspberry cake was, she thought it was too bitter. So this recipe has a lot less chocolate and a lot more sugar. Very kid-friendly. And just look at these cupcakes, aren't they cute? They are a little melted-looking because I am impatient and iced them before they had cooled completely. Silly me. 

Ingredients :

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar (icing)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup almond milk (icing)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (icing)
• Food coloring (icing)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. 
4. Mix until the lumps go away.
5. Prepare cupcake pan with cupcake papers.
6. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop (I recommend the scoop. It's a little easier and it makes more evenly-sized cupcakes), spoon batter into cupcake papers. 
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. For the icing, mix powdered sugar, almond milk and vanilla in a bowl using an electric mixer until smooth. Add food coloring as desired.
9. WAIT TIL THE CUPCAKES HAVE COOLED BEFORE ICING. I didn't, and look how they turned out. 
10. Store in the fridge overnight or until served (this sets the icing). 

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Cashew Macaroni and Cheese

This recipe is perfect if you're craving Kraft mac n' cheese. Kids and adults alike, will love it. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cashews (I soaked them for 12 hours but it isn’t necessary, just use more almond milk)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 to 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/2 to 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, depending on the consistency of the cashews
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt, to taste
• Steamed veggies of your choice (I used carrots and zucchini but I’ve used broccoli, cauliflower, and mushrooms before. They’re all good)
• Pasta of your choice. It really doesn’t matter what kind. I’ve used elbow, spaghetti, and the curly kind. Gluten free works too, but is optional.
• 4 to 8 ounces tofu (optional)

Procedure:

1. Start the water boiling for the pasta.
2. Start the vegetables steaming.
3. Blend cashews in a blender until smooth, adding almond milk, vinegar, and lemon juice as you go. (if you have an awesome blender this should be easy. If not—like me—you might have to only put in a few cashews at first, and add a few at a time. I have a crappy blender).
4. Add garlic, blend
5. Blend in mustard, nutritional yeast, and salt.
6. The water will probably have boiled at this point. Put in the pasta.
7. Cook tofu however you want. I fried it in a little bit of olive oil. You can bake or grill it if you’d like. 
8. Once the pasta is done, drain. Put the pasta in a large bowl (or back in the pot you cooked it in. Add the cheese sauce, veggies and tofu to the pasta, mix well.

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Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Its time for the first recipe! This cake is to die for. It's so chocolate-y. It's pretty much just layers and layers of chocolate. Not even kidding.

Ingredients for the cake:

• 1 and a half cups of gluten free all-purpose flour (or normal wheat flour, if desired)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup cocoa (more or less according to taste)
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 tbs oil (canola or sunflower)
• 1 cup water

Ingredients for the icing: 

• 4 tbs coconut oil
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup agave
• 2 cups frozen or fresh raspberries
• 2 tbs corn starch/corn flour
• 1/2 tbs water
• 1/4 cup almond or soy milk

Procedure for the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, and cocoa. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, mix vinegar, vanilla, oil, and water.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well.
5. Prepare two circular cake pans by coating bottom and sides with a little bit of oil or vegan butter. 
6. Pour batter evenly into pans
7. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
8. Set aside to cool while preparing the icing

Procedure for the icing:

1. In a saucepan, melt coconut oil, cocoa and agave over medium heat until smooth. Stir often. Set aside.
2. In a separate saucepan, heat raspberries, water, and corn starch until thick, like a jam. 
3. Once cakes are cool, remove one from its pan onto the serving plate or platter. 
4. Spread a thin later of chocolate icing on the cake (use about 1/4 of what you have).
5. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over the icing.
6. Remove second cake from its pan and place on top of the other one (the raspberries will probably seep out. It's okay.
7. Spread a thin layer of chocolate icing (about 1/4 of the original amount) and raspberry jam on top. 
8. You should have half the amount of chocolate icing that you started with. 
9. Put the chocolate icing back on the stove over medium heat. Slowly stir in almond milk until the color has turned from almost black, to brown. 
10. Pour evenly over entire cake, making sure it coats the sides. It will most likely cover the plate as well. 
11. Cool in the fridge until dessert!

I, and my omnivore relatives, love this recipe. It isn't perfect, so if you feel like you need to change something, feel free, and let me know in the comments! I hope you like it!

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