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2 Minute Vegan Parmesan Cheese

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Vegan-Parmesan-Cheese Have you ever stumbled across one of those recipes where, after you read it and make it yourself, you think: “why have I not made this before?!”? I have – and this is that recipe. Vegan-Parmesan You see, before going vegan, parmesan cheese was my bestie. We did everything together. Sometimes I would grate parmesan directly into my mouth, I loved it that much. So imagine how heartbroken I was when it was time to go our separate ways. But than – THEN I found vegan parmesan cheese. A friend shared this recipe with me, and if you can believe it – it’s just as good as the dairy-based stuff. Except it’s free of animal products. And I can make it myself. Because you certainly would never have caught me making cheese out of cow’s milk. No way, no how. Homemade-Vegan-Parmesan This vegan parmesan takes just 2 minutes to make. That’s it. I’m not kidding. 2 minutes. Set a timer if you don’t believe me. All it is, is nuts (I use almonds, but many others would work, such as cashew or walnut), nutritional yeast and salt. Put it in your food processor, process and them BAM. You’re done. Sprinkle it on everything. For a nut-free version of this cheese, combine 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds with 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Homemade-Vegan-Parmesan-Cheese

2 Minute Vegan Parmesan Cheese
 
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Recipe type: Vegan Cheese
Serves: 1 cup
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup raw almonds, unsalted
  • 1 tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and process until powdery (I like mine with just a bit of texture and not super smooth of a powder).
  2. Store in the refrigerator in an air-tight jar for up to 2 weeks.

 

Loaded Vegan Strawberry Spelt Muffins

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Vegan-Strawberry-Muffins
The best way to wake up in the morning? With muffins in your face. Duh. Strawberry muffins were on the menu for me last week, since we had just scored a huge lot of strawberries from a local farm for next to nothing. We threw a ton in the freezer for smoothies, and I also whipped up a batch of these delicious vegan strawberry muffins. Strawberry-Muffins-Vegan I used spelt flour for these muffins because I love the mild nutty, sweet flavour that it gives to my baked goods. It’s also much better for you than many other flours on the market! These muffins were just begging for strawberries so I loaded them up, even adding a bunch more on top, right before baking. This ensured that you got a taste of strawberry with every bite you took. Deeeelish! If you’re looking for a yummy breakfast to wake up to, try these strawberry muffins. Make them the night before and store them at room temperature, and when morning comes – dig in! Strawberry-Muffins

Loaded Vegan Strawberry Spelt Muffins
 
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Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water, mixed together)
  • 1½ cups spelt flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • ½ cup coconut sugar
  • 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
  • ½ cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups strawberries, diced
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400F and grease a muffin pan, or line with paper or silicone cups.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and coconut sugar.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix together the milk, butter, vanilla and 2 flax eggs.
  4. Add your liquid ingredients to your dry ingredients and stir until everything is combined well. Do not over mix.
  5. Fold in 1½ cups strawberries.
  6. Scoop muffin mix into your muffin pan, filling about ¾ of the way full. Add more diced strawberries to the top (the ½ cup you have remaining).
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins from pan.
Notes
*Use soy-free vegan butter to make this dish soy-free.
*Use soy, rice or hemp milk to make this dish nut-free.

Strawberry-Vegan-Muffins

Homemade Croutons in 20 Minutes

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Vegan-Croutons

Do you ever wander the aisles in the grocery store and come across items where you think – “people actually buy this?”. I do. A lot. But that’s probably because I make pretty much everything from scratch and it’s weird to me when I realize other people don’t do that too.

Cause’ homemade is the way to go, people. There’s nothing better!

Homemade-Croutons

If there’s one item in the grocery store that is absolutely and utterly pointless, it’s croutons. Actually, bread crumbs too. These are the EASIEST things to make yourself. So, so easy. Even a 5 year old can make these croutons (and mine has – supervised, of course!).

In just 20 minutes (or less!), you can have your own batch of homemade croutons to serve with salads. Or you can be like me and just eat them on their own, as a snack. Only cool people eat croutons as a snack.

Homemade Croutons in 20 Minutes
 
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Recipe type: How-To Guide
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 loaf day-old French bread
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp basil (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F.
  2. Chop bread into cubes. Make sure they're bite-sized!
  3. Add bread cubes, olive oil, garlic powder and basil into a large bowl. Mix well, so that all bread cubes are coated nicely.
  4. Arrange bread cubes on a baking tray, lined with non-stick spray or a Silplat baking mat. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until firm to the touch and lightly browned.
  5. Allow to cool completely, then stick them in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer until needed. Thaw for 5 minutes before use.

 

Vegan Cheesy Dill Popcorn

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I used to visit this popcorn store near our house all the time before I switched to a plant-based diet. Kernels. That was their name – and they sold all different kinds of… you guessed it – popcorn. They often had buy one, get one free deals doing on too, which made my decision to stuff my face full of popcorn even easier.

Since all of their popcorn is coated in butter, I can no longer visit them and buy copious amounts of popcorn. Sad face.

vegan-cheesy-dill-popcorn

My favourite flavour was cheesy dill. It was finger-lickin’ good, and I don’t say that lightly. That stuff was addictive. I couldn’t get enough! Once I quit cheese and butter, this delicious treat was off the menu for me.

And for months, I just sulked and whined about it. I want my cheesy diiiiiiiiiiiiiiill. I NEED it. I can’t survive without it! I’m going to dieeeeeeeeee…

Ahem.

cheesy-dill-popcorn-vegan

Thankfully, I [kind of] know my way around the kitchen, so I thought I’d try out my own homemade cheesy dill popcorn – a vegan version that I was actually able to eat.

And I did it!

It is:
Cheesy
Dill-y
Satisfying
Healthy (ish)
Delicious
Mouth-watering
Crunchy
Full of flavour

dill-and-cheese-popcorn

Now I can stuff my face whenever I want! SCORE.

Seriously, if you’re a popcorn love and cheese and dill are your thang, give this popcorn a try. I dare you not to stuff your face, too.

cheesy-dill-popcorn

Vegan Cheesy Dill Popcorn
 
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Recipe type: Snack
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • ½ cup popcorn kernels
  • ¼ cup vegan butter, melted (I used Earth Balance)
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Pop your popcorn and place into a large, brown paper bag.
  2. Drizzle half of the melyed butter, close the bag, and shake and about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining butter. Do the same with the apple cider vinegar.
  3. Sprinkle the fresh dill, nutrotional yeast and sale over the popcorn. Close the bag and shake again - for 15-30 seconds, or until all popcorn is coated well.
  4. Dump popcorn into serving bowl(s) and serve immediately.

 

cheese-dill-popcorn

 

20 Minute Garlic & Tomato Pasta

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Tomato-Garlic-Pasta

My love for pasta cannot be put into words – it’s that strong. If I could eat breakfast for every meal of the day, I’d be one happy girl (I’ve been known to cook up a pot of pasta for breakfast on really cold mornings! I’m weird, I know.).

Alas, this is not possible, so I indulge whenever I can. And when I do make pasta, I try not to complicate things. Simple is often best. Like this pasta here, for example.

Pastas

There is very little added to it (just tomatoes, garlic, basil, parsley, lemon juice and some herbs), and it tastes amazing. Also, because there are so few ingredients, it takes no time at all to prepare!

I love simple pastas!

Vegan-Tomato-Garlic-Pasta

Isn’t it pretty?

Use any kind of pasta you want for this – it will work with almost all kinds, but I love linguine. Spaghetti and spiral noodles work well, too. This was just an organic white pasta, but I usually use spelt, whole wheat or brown rice pastas – and they all work well in this recipe!

Garlic-Tomato-Pasta

Garlic & Tomato Pasta
 
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Recipe type: Pasta
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 8 oz. pasta (or ½-1 cup per person)
  • 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
  • ½ cup tomatoes, diced
  • 2 tbsp avocado oil
  • 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • ½ tbsp lemon juice
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Boil pasta according to package directions.
  2. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Once warm, add garlic and cook until lightly browned, then add in the tomatoes and cook for another few minutes (3 or 4).
  3. Drain your cooked pasta and add it to the pan. Mix everything together, and then add in your basil, parsley, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Mix again.
  4. Serve immediately.

 

Raw Vegan Breakfast Parfaits

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Raw-Vegan-Parfait

YOU GUYS. This breakfast? AH-MAZING.

And I don’t say that lightly. This is one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a very, very long time.

The best part? It’s super easy, extremely healthy, and it’s raw (I’ve been trying to get more raw meals/snacks into my diet)!

Vegan-Parfait-Raw
The creaminess of the cashew cream works so well with the crunchy nut/seed mix and the soft fruit.

Just delicious!

I’ve also made these parfaits with strawberry & kiwi, mango & kiwi, and blueberry & raspberry. It never disappoints!

Raw-Vegan-Berry-Parfait

 

Raw Vegan Breakfast Parfaits
 
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Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Nuts/Seeds
  • 1 cup raw almonds
  • 1 cup raw walnuts
  • ¼ cup chia seeds
  • ¼ cup flax seeds
  • ½ cup pumpkin seeds
Cashew Cream
  • 1 cup raw cashews (soaked for at least 2 hours)
  • ⅓ cup water
  • 1½ tbsp agave
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp salt
Fruit
  • Any fruit you'd like (I used strawberries & blackberries)
Instructions
Nuts/Seeds
  1. Put all seeds and nuts into a food processor and process for a few seconds. Don't process too much or everything will turn into a flour, which is not what you want. You still want some big chunks.
Cashew Cream
  1. Add all ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth (add a bit more water if you want to thin it out some more).
Putting it all together
  1. Add a layer of berries, then nuts/seeds, then cashew cream, then more nuts, then a ton of fruit on top.

 

Pineapple, Banana & Hemp Smoothie

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Pineapple-Banana-Smoothie

This is one of my favourite smoothies for 2 reasons:

1. It has pineapple, which is one of my favourite fruits that I don’t buy year-round because they taste best only when in season.

2. It’s fast. Most smoothies are fast, but this one is EXTRA FAST.

Banana-Pineapple-Smoothie

Pineapple-Banana-Smoothie-Vegan

Pineapple Banana Smoothie
 
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Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Smoothie
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond)
  • 1 large, ripe banana, cut into chunks
  • ¼ pineapple, cut into chunks
  • 4 ice cubes
  • 1 tablespoon hemp hearts
  • pumpkin seeds, for topping (optional)
  • hemp seeds, for topping (optional)
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth.
  2. Top with more hemp hearts and some pumpkin seeds, if desired.

 

Mini Vegan Tortilla Pizzas

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This past weekend was awesome for 2 reasons:

Sunshine. Lots of sunshine.

These mini vegan tortilla pizzas. Ohhhhhhh yes. They were good.

vegan-mini-pizzas
It’s as easy as cutting up tortillas, popping them in a muffin tin, throwing on some toppings, baking, and stuffing your face.

I’m not even going to tell you how many of these I ate, but believe me when I say it was MORE THAN I SHOULD HAVE.

Worth it, though. Totally worth it.

mini-pizzas

You can put on any kind of toppings you want – that’s what makes pizza so freakin’ amazing. It’s versatile.

My husband doesn’t like Daiya cheese shreds, so for some of his pizzas, I put our homemade vegan nacho cheese, and on some others, I didn’t put cheese at all – just loaded them up with sauce and veggies.

He approved. I approved. The kids approved. Everyone approved.

This was an awesome meal.

baked-mini-pizzas-vegan

I think these would also work as dessert pizzas, by just swapping out sauce, cheese and pizza toppings, and instead baking she shells, then putting melted chocolate and fresh fruit inside, freezing until semi-firm, and topping with coconut whipped cream.

Mmmm, yes, that is a good idea.

Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.

mini-pizzas-vegan

I made these babies for dinner, alongside a big kale salad, but they would also work well for lunch, as an appetizer (just halve the recipe), and even as a snack.

They would work  pretty much any time of day. Except breakfast. Unless you’re into pizza for breakfast. In which case – you could eat these pizzas any time of day and be happy and full and satisfied. Enjoy!

vegan-baked-mini-pizzas

Mini Vegan Tortilla Pizzas
 
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Recipe type: Snack, Lunch, Appetizer
Cuisine: Pizza
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 8 small flour tortillas (corn may work too, but I haven't tried)
  • 1 cup tomato sauce
  • cheese of choice (I used, vegan parmesan, Daiya shreds, and nacho cheese sauce)
  • toppings of choice (I used green lentils, green pepper, kalamata olives, and zucchini)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Spray 2 muffins tins with non-stick cooking spray (or use refined coconut oil) and set aside.
  2. Using a doughnut cutter or small drinking glass, cut out your mini pizzas from the tortillas. I placed mine over the muffin tin first, to see how big to make my pizzas. You want them to be a bit bigger than the opening of the hole.
  3. Place your tortilla pizzas inside your muffin tins, pressing down gently.
  4. Add a bit of sauce, then cheese, then toppings, to each tortilla pizza.
  5. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the tortilla is a nice golden brown color, and the sauce & toppings are warm and the cheese has melted.
  6. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. If you handle them too early, they may not pop out of the tins easily.
  7. Run a butter knife around each pizza, and pop it out - but only if it's ready. If it doesn't come out easily, let it cool for a few more minutes.