veggie pot pie

I think I've eaten one singular pot pie in my entire 24 years of life. My parents never made them, I never order them while out, and I've never had the thought to make one myself, until tonight! For some reason I got a mad pot pie craving while sitting in the office today, and instead of being productive and going to the gym, I promptly came home and fulfilled my pot pie desires. I loosely based the recipe off this one from Betty Crocker, but used what I had in the cupboards, and completely vegatized it!

Stuff you need: 1. Any veggies for the inside 2. 1/2 cup Bisquick Heart Smart mix 3. 1 egg white or egg replacer 4. 1/4 cup milk or milk substitute

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees while you get everything else ready. For the vegetable filling, I found in my kitchen 2 carrots, 1 zucchini, 2 tomatoes, 1 cup mushrooms, and a handful of frozen corn. Sauté the veggies in a little olive oil just until they begin to soften. Sprinkle the mixture with a little salt, Italian seasoning, and anything else you think might be nice.

Meanwhile, combine the Biquick, egg white, and milk in a bowl, and whisk all the ingredients together. When the oven is preheated and the vegetables are slightly tender, place the veggies into a small casserole dish that you've lightly greased. Now pour the Bisquick mixture on top of the vegetables, and make sure everything is nicely distributed and coated in batter. Look good? Great! Pop it in the oven for 20 ish minutes, and then dig into that tasty little pot pie.

For the second pot pie of my entire life, I'm pretty pumped! The hot, juicy filling is so nice with the warm, fluffy pastry top. I skipped the soup from the original recipe, so it definitely wasn't creamy, but the tomatoes gave off juice, so the filling was still plenty moist. My only thought for next time is more spices and longer cooking time! I was so excited for my dinner and a new episode of Project Runway, that I pulled the dish out of the oven before the top was super golden. Otherwise, it was a damn tasty meal, and one that came together surprisingly quick and easy. It may have been my second pot pie, but it most certainly won't be my last :)

chorizo & sweet potato enchiladas

A few weeks ago, I was lurking over at Budget Bytes- one of my favorite blog haunts- and I came across the recipe for chorizo and sweet potato enchiladas. My initial thought was, all that crap? In enchiladas? No way. I think I've gotten too comfortable in my cheese and black bean enchilada rut. I sat on this thought for a week or so, and finally decided to be bold, and to try out this dish on a couple friends for dinner last night.

I stuck to the recipe pretty closely, except I used regular sized whole wheat tortillas for jumbo enchiladas, substituted Old El Paso sauce for Las Palmas, used Anaheim peppers since the store was out of Poblanos, and finally, used vegetarian chorizo instead of the meaty kind! That's right. Those chorizo enchiladas got vegatized!

So I chopped and sauteed everything according to direction, and pulled out a casserole dish. Budget Bytes says to coat the pan with non-stick cooking spray, but if you cover the bottom of the dish with a little enchilada sauce, it works just fine. I rolled the enchiladas, popped them in the oven, and 25 minutes later, I was rewarded with an outrageously delicious meal.

Oh my, doesn't that look amazing? Trust me, they taste even better than they look! I told myself I would only eat 1, but that didn't happen- I ate a few :) The sweet potatoes give this dish a great chewy bite, and the Anaheims + faux chorizo give it just the perfect amount of spiciness! All three of my carnivorous friends said they were damn good too! This is a dish I will definitely make again. And again. And again.

Oh! And if you're looking for a meat-free chorizo, I used Field Roast's Mexican Chipotle Sausage, and I highly recommend it! The texture is dead on - it even comes in a casing- and the flavor is great. Moral of the story is that the vegatized version of the sweet potato and chorizo enchiladas were a huge hit, and I can't wait to make them again! Yum!

boca beef tacos

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: you can put just about anything into a taco, and it will be delicious. Last time, I think I used Boca chik'n patties with a hodge podge of random things I found in the kitchen. Tonight, however, I went over to Michael's house, where we vegatized the classic beef taco!

If you haven't discovered Boca ground crumbles yet, go to the store and purchase them right now! They're a meatless version of ground beef, but way better. I usually use them in marinara sauce over pasta, but tonight, we mixed it up and used it in tacos.

Stuff you need: 1. Boca ground crumbles 2. a taco seasoning packet or your spices of choice 3. corn tortillas 4. taco extras- salsa, avocado, onion, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, cheese, etc.

Start by browning/warming your Boca crumbles in a skillet with a little olive oil. When they're totally defrosted and warmed through, plop in your taco seasoning packet according to the directions on the side- there are tons of different brands, but ours was mixed with 2/3 cups water, added to the "beef" and then simmered for a few minutes.

When the meatless meat mixture is all gooey and ready to go, chop up your taco extras. Tonight we had 505 salsa, a little bit of shredded cheese, black beans, avocado chunks, and red onion. Nuke the tortillas in the microwave for a hot second, and then fill to the brim with everything!

It looks like a legit beef taco, right? The seasoning packet was a great idea. The mixture may have been a little salty since we only used half of the crumbles- the entire bag would have distributed the flavors better- but otherwise, a tasty meal! This is definitely one of those dishes that hardcore carnivores would happily devour with no complaints. Another delicious use for Boca crumbles is a success! :)

funfetti cupcakes

It's been far too long since I've made a fun, healthy, creative meal. When work gets busy, and the groceries get sparse, it's always the dinners that fall by the wayside. A person can eat only so much pasta.

Last night I had the pleasure to host a birthday dinner for one of my favorite ladies, Kelly. We ordered in Chinese food, drank far too much wine, and devoured some vegan funfetti cupcakes. That's right. Vegan funfetti. Now, when you buy the funfetti cake mix, the instructions tell you to add oil and eggs, but my friend Christy and I vegatized it!

So here it is, super simple. For every egg that the recipe calls for, replace it with a little over 1/4 cup of applesauce. That's it! The cupcakes turned out super moist, cakey, and delicious. Our frosting skills are seriously lacking, but more importantly, the sweets were tasty.

Making a recipe vegetarian or vegan is actually surprisingly easy. Here is one of my favorite articles on vegan baking substitutes from the Post Punk Kitchen. Vegan baking is great, because your meals will be delicious, and you'll feel good about eating them too! Highly recommend you try it out :)