Pastitsio

Happy New Year everyone - I'm sorry for the extended absence but the holidays have kept me hopping. Hopefully I'm back on track. I found this recipe in one of my magazines and located the Quick Pastitsio online so that I could provide the original. Below is my vegan version. I'm going to serve this pasta casserole with some garlic bread and red wine for a filling, warming dinner. Serves 4-6

Pastitsio with Garlic Bread

• 8 ounces uncooked penne (I had partial boxes of Rotini, Penne and mini wheels and used them all)
• Cooking spray
• 1 package Gimme Lean Ground Beef
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of your favorite unsweet vegan milk
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 8- ounce Toffuti cream cheese
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) Diaya mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add Gimme Lean to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove beef from pan.

Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add garlic; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Add beef; sprinkle with salt. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently.

Stir in milk, tomatoes, 1/2 of the mozzarella and cream cheese, stirring until smooth; bring to a simmer. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Stir in pasta.

Spoon pasta mixture into a baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Sprinkle with the rest of the over top.

Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes until it's nice and bubbly. Enjoy!

Stuffed Mushrooms

We love mushrooms, big ones, little ones, button ones, baby bella ones, shitake ones, oh well you get the idea. I had two 8-ounce packages of baby bellas and wanted a fast and yummy appetizer. I've made these before we went vegan and just by using vegan cream cheese and parm these were simple to veganize (is that a word?). The amount of mushrooms you will need for the filling depends on the size of the shrooms. If you have leftover filling just stick it in the frig until you can get more shrooms.

• 12 whole fresh mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 (8 ounce) Toffuti cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup grated vegan Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet alumiinum foil that has been coated with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. 

Set aside to cool.

When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parm, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. 

Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps. 

Mango Coffeecake

I promise after Christmas I'll get back to my two post a week average, there has just been so much going on I've cooked but not had time to photo each step, etc. This is a delicious, moist coffeecake from an old Better Homes and Garden's issue that I made vegan.

I forgot to take a pic when it came out of the oven, or when we had some on our plates. But this is what it looked like after everyone had some!

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegan butter

1 cup sour milk (put 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a measuring cup, add you favorite non-diary milk to equal 1 cup. Let stand for 5 minutes.)

2 Ener-G egg replacements

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups coarsely chopped seeded and peeled mangoes (about 3)

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, the 2 cups sugar, baking powder, soda, nutmeg and salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumb. 

 

In a small bowl combine sour milk, eggs and vanilla. 

 

Add to flour mixture all at once; stir just until moistened. 

 

Fold in mangoes. 

 

Spread in prepared pan. 

 

Combine the 1/3 cup sugar and the cinnamon. 

 

Sprinkle evenly over batter. 

 

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. (Mango pieces will sink to the bottom of coffee cake.) Cool slightly. Enjoy!