A Quick Dinner & Strawberry "Ice Cream"

Last night, I ate mainly leftovers... Seitan and Broccoli paired with some leftover fried rice.

I also had half a bag of cabbage and carrot coleslaw mix (About 5 cups) and a big zucchini (Cut into small pieces) that needed to be used up. I decided to make a quick Asian-style veggie stirfry by adding:

- 1 T Sesame oil
- 1 T Red Chili Flakes
- 1 T jarred Garlic
- 2 T Braggs
- 2 T Mirin
- 4 T Green Onions

Dinner was cooked up (And nuked up) in about 5 minutes!

For dessert I had some Strawberry Ice Cream and it was sooooooo good! The recipe I got off VegWeb always seemed sketchy to me because of the oil but it turned out excellent! The recipe is for Vanilla Ice Cream but I wanted Strawberry.

I doubled the recipe, added 2 handfuls of frozen strawberries, used canola oil (For the Slald Oil), raw sugar (For the fructose), 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (Didn't specify), and used vanilla almond milk (Instead of plain soy milk). It took about 20 minutes in my ice cream maker. Don't forget, I doubled the recipe!

Easy Peasy Szechuan Seitan & Treader Joe's Vegan Ice Cream

So I got home from Vegas around 7 PM with nothing in the fridge except a few Seitan "Steaks", some onions, bell peppers, and a half used bottle of Lawry's Szechuan Marinade. I also had a few other random side dishes: Vegetarian Baked Beans topped with green onions and Easy Elotes (Canned corn that has been heated + vegan mayo + pico de gallo seasoning)

I made a stirfry of course!

  

Ingredients:

- 3 cups worth of Seitan, thinly sliced or cut into small chunks
- 1/2 cup Cornstarch
- A few tablespoons of Oil for frying
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, thinly sliced
- 1/2 a White Onion, thinly sliced
- 1 8 oz can of Sliced Water Chestnuts, drained
- 1/4 cup Green Onions, thinly sliced
- 3/4 to 1 cup Lawry's Szechuan Marinade

Directions:

- Put seitan in a gallon-sized ziploc with the cornstarch and shake until the seitan is evenly coated.
- Fry seitan in a tablespoon of oil until golden (no cornstarch showing), then add the bell pepper, white onion, and water chestnuts. dd more oil if needed.
- Once the veggies start to turn translucent, add green onions and the Szechuan Marinade. Stir around until everything is evenly coated.

Trader Joe's Vegan Ice Cream, 2 more flavors: Chocolate and Chocolate Chip Cherry.

I bought these today at TJ's. The Chocolate was good but not as great as the other flavors. I tried the Chocolate Chip Cherry at my Dad's and it was just as yummy as I remembered!

Trader Joe's Vegan Ice Cream

So I tried this stuff at my Dad's just a few days ago and fell in love. Today I hit up Trader Joe's and got the delicious Mango Vanilla flavor I tried at my Dad's and Vanilla too!

Since I already experienced the deliciousness of the Mango Vanilla flavor, I decided to go for the Vanilla tonight. It is delicious on it's own but I decided to drizzle mine with some organic vegan chocolate syrup. Fantastic!

Vegan Hot Dogs + Strawberry Ice Cream

So I finally found some vegan hot dog buns made by Oroweat. They had been right in front of my nose the whole time! I was just too lazy to research some of the questionable ingredients (You know the ones that can be plant or animal derived). So my vegan homie, Natasha, called the company to ask and they assured her those ingredients were in fact plant derived. Score! I got hamburger buns and potato bread too!

So far I'm not a fan of vegan hot dogs, the ones I have tried have had a funky flavor to them, so I used my all time favorite Tofurkey Italian Sausages! Next time I might try one of the other flavors they offer but these, being my favorite vegan sausage so far, were obviously good.

Edit: I actually recommend that if you use vegan sausages instead of hot dogs use only 2 instead of 4 and slice them in half lengthwise because they're pretty huge or maybe my mouth is too small because I could hardly get it around this enormous thing! Cut in half was perfect.

Ingredients:                                     

- 4 vegan sausages/ hot dogs
- 4 hot dog buns
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1/2 a bell pepper, sliced
- Oil for frying

Toppings:

- Sauerkraut
- Mustard
- Mayo
- Ketchup

Directions:

Fry up sausages in a little oil. Once they begin to brown a bit on both sides add onions and bell peppers. Cook about 5 more minutes until onions and bell peppers are browned a bit and soft. Place sausage/ hot dog on bun (I nuked mine for 30 seconds), add bell peppers, onions, and toppings. Eat! I served mine with vegan baked beans and sweet potato fries.

I made some Strawberry Ice Cream for dessert and topped it with chocolate syrup :)

Perfect Chocolate Ice Cream

I've finally got it! The perfect recipe for some amazing, vegan, chocolate ice cream without the lingering coconut taste. I have been messing around with making chocolate ice cream for awhile now... This is it!

INGREDIENTS:

- 15 oz. can of coconut milk (Highest fat content you can find)
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 1/2 cup plain vegan creamer (I used Silk)
- 1/4 cup chocolate syrup
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 banana

DIRECTIONS:

- Throw all of your ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Add mixture to your ice cream maker and follow your ice cream makers instructions.
- My ice cream was ready in about 30 minutes.

*When my ice cream was finished I put it into a tupperware and let it sit in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then scooped it out. The texture was amazing this way, absolute perfection.*

Strawberry Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 can coconut milk (high in fat, mine has 14 grans per serving)
- 2 to 3 big handfuls frozen strawberries
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour in an ice cream maker and let it churn for 20 to 30 minutes... Walla! Vegan ice cream :)

I like mine melted a bit and stirred around! Pic below:

Banana Blueberry Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:
- 13.5 oz can coconut milk*
- 1 cup non dairy vanilla milk
- 2 frozen bananas**
- 2 cups frozen blueberries**
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

* Get the fattiest coconut milk possible (mine had 14 grams of fat per serving!)
** Bananas and blueberries do not have to be frozen but this will help cut down the ice cream making time.

DIRECTIONS:
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour blended ingredients into your ice cream maker and make according to manufacturers directions.
- My ice cream took 30 minutes to make.

Makes: 4 servings
Preparation time: Less than 5 minutes
Ice cream making time: 20 to 30 minutes.

Homemade Vegan Ice Cream

So, we all know vegan ice cream is super duper expensive... Like $5 for a pint... So why not make your own? Ice cream makers aren't really that expensive (under $100, I think mine was around $60) and are really easy to use.

I found this recipe: Coconut Ice Cream (base) on vegweb.com and it's amazing, the best vegan ice cream recipe I have found so far... I decided to make chocolate and recommend halving the recipe.

For some reason vegan homemade ice cream tastes perfect right out of your ice cream maker but turns rock hard after being in the freezer. You could always leave it out to thaw on the counter for about 5 minutes if you want to have leftovers.

Makes: 2 servings (if you halve the recipe)
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: Takes about 20 minutes in the ice cream maker