Vegan Lasagne

My Daughter....

Has been bugging me to make Lasagne... So I obliged her a couple of weekends ago. I made theirs.. Theirs being my husband, son and daughter.. 1/2 meat for the hubs and 1/2 cheese and spinach for my kiddos. But what was I to do being a new Vegan eater.. well I will tell ya..

I decided to make my own veggie lasagne. Unfortunately I only have 1 photo of a bite of this delicious creamy lasagne.

 I often times make things then think, "why didn't I take photos for the blog?" this was one of those times folks.. so sorry.. but I will totally share the recipe with you!

I know is doesn't look like much in this picture but YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT A TRY!!!

Vegan Veggie Lasagne

You'll need..
sauce of your choice ( I'd get 2 jars. you want to use the sauce liberally because you won't be cooking the lasagne noodles before layering them. The sauce will absorb and help them cook in the oven. Trust me.. I have never cooked my noodles before layering and baking any lasagne I've made. This is always how my mom did it)
1-2 Small Zucchini Shredded and squeezed
6-7 Sliced mushrooms
1/2 a brick of crumbled organic extra firm tofu.. if you get the stuff in water make sure that it has been  pressed between paper towels and is very dry.
Fresh baby spinach
lasagne noodles.. reg or whole wheat, your choice and like I said.. I've been vegan for about 2 mos. I do check ingredients and don't think the lasagne noodles had any animal products.. if I'm wrong kindly let me know what brand doesn't :)
Daiya Mozzarella shreds this makes the lasagne so creamy I couldn't believe it.
a little bit of Italian seasoning

This is how you assemble the lasagne....

I peeled and cut the ends of 1 small eggplant, then sliced it lengthwise in about 1/2 in slices then cut them in 1/2 to make for easier layering.. then I let them set between a couple paper towels to absorb the moisture, while I prepped the rest of my ingredients. 

I sauteed the mushrooms just a little to soften them and added in the crumbled tofu and a couple pinches of Italian seasoning and mixed it well, remove the mixture from the pan and add the eggplant into the pan just to brown a bit on each side. 

spray your baking dish with what ever spray you use.. then spread a layer of sauce, place your uncooked noodles in the pan, then layer the mushroom tofu mixture, some shredded and drain zucchini, a layer of eggplant, a layer of a couple handfuls of the fresh baby spinach and then a lite layer of Daiya Mozzarella. That's your first layer..

Next your gonna add another layer of uncooked noodles directly on top of the spinach layer then add a liberal layer of sauce. Then layer the rest of the ingredients as you did in the first layer.

Continue your layers like this until you've reached the top of your pan.. the last layer is going to be a layer of Mozzarella.

Cover with foil and cook in a preheated 350 degree oven. After about 30 mins check it.. when your fork goes in easily, with out any resistance from the noodles it's done.  You want to take off the foil when you've got about 15 mins of cooking time left to brown up the top or you can broil it for a few mins when it's done.

I had my sister and niece over for dinner that night who are non vegan and gave them a piece of my lasagne for leftovers the next day. They both said it was great. This is the text my niece sent me.

I hope that you will give this recipe a try.. it's so good. I shoveled it in like I was never going to eat again.. not gonna lie!! I will be making it again soon :)

So for now 

Sherice OXOXOX

Stuffed Eggplant

I don't know about you but I LOVE Eggplant!

On my recent trip to Trader Joe's a picked one up thinking I could make something yummy with it.. Something yummy? Yes indeed!!

I've been enjoying reading through this cookbook and I found a delicious looking recipe for an Braciole-inspired Stuffed Eggplant. In true Sherice fashion I changed a few things and had a delicious dinner!

Stuffed Eggplant

Start by cutting off the top and bottom of your eggplant. Then peel it or if you don't mind the peeling you can leave it on. I peel mine. Then cut the eggplant in 1/2 lengthwise.
scoop out the inside of the eggplant making a "boat" or shell like this..

First I sauteed...
1 onion chopped
1/2 Sm Zucchini cubed
1/2 Portabella Mushroom or 4-5 Sm Mushrooms
2 garlic cloves minced..
the inside of the eggplant cubed
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and some Italian seasoning.  I just eyeballed it.

Then add in..

a handful of chopped fresh Spinach
a handful of chopped fresh Basil
a handful of chopped fresh Italian Parsley
let that saute a few mins and then remove pan from heat add in
1/3 cup Nutritional Yeast
1 cup Panko flakes

Now time to stuff your eggplant boats...
I sprayed my baking dish with a little pam then set my boats in and filled them. As you can see I had a bit of the mixture left over so I just added it around the eggplant boats.

 Next I added about 1 1/2 cups Marinara sauce on top of the stuffing and sprinkled a little leftover Mozzarella Daiya cheese and some Vegan Parmesan on top..

Cover with foil and put into a preheated 350 degree oven.. let cook about 1/2 an hr and remove foil. continue cooking until the top browns up

In my haste to scarf down this incredibly delicious meal I forgot to take a photo of the finished product before I dished it up.. Sorry!

But as you can see the top is melted and the middle is cooked and delish..

I paired my eggplant with steamed french green beans and made some garlic bread using Earth balance original spread

This dish is entirely Vegan.. Hooray!!

If you make this dish let me know what you think!

Sherice oxoxo

Coconut Butter

Hey Hey ~ 

How's everyone? Good I hope. 

There have been a few changes around Potter Palace..

Potter Palace.. is my home, domain, kingdom, castle, safe haven.. well you get the point!!  

For about a year now I've been thinking about a vegan diet. When I began doing research about getting fit and healthy, I started watching documentaries and reading books. Everything from Food Matters to The Gerson Miracle. And reading books like Organic Manifesto and You Are Your Own Gym.

The more I started reading and absorbing the information I was finding, the more it got me thinking. 

I'm not going to go into why you should become vegan or change your diet. It's a personal choice But I think that if you start doing some research, you can figure it out! 

 I cut out meat and dairy from my diet 3 days ago, I'm not vegan as I still eat eggs and use honey. I can see myself giving up eggs in the future but honey is just to good and I don't think that the local raw organic honey I'm getting is hurting the bees. I did choose to cut out meat and dairy for health reasons. But of course I am a compassionate animal lover too! 

I do have a background in a vegetarian diet. My family being most my aunts, uncles and grandparents are Seventh Day Adventist and growing up did not eat any kind of meat. I've always been very picky about the meat I ate and would often times choose a vegetarian dish over a meat dish. At a young age I was introduced to Textured vegetable protein (soy) and gluten steaks and all kinds of different "fake" meats by Loma Linda, Morning Star and Worthington. 

Some of my favorite meals are meals made with TVP or "fake" meats.. Shamburgers, Steaks deluxe, I love the scallops made by Worthington, dipped in Nutritonal yeast and fryed in a little EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil),red pepper flakes and sea salt. The veggie links have a soft spot in my heart.. roasted like a wiener or mashed in a sandwich like my Grandma used to make. And the only sausage I will eat or my kids for that matter are morning star links. 

I know that Soy is a huge GMO crop in the U.S. I really try to get Non GMO and Organic when possible and I don't eat a lot of soy. It can mess with your thyriod and estrogen levels. I plan on eating a lot of plants, fruits, legumes, Quinoa, Tempeh, Tofu, and some "fake"meats.

I'm looking forward to experimenting and feeling good about what I'm eating. So that's a little bit about the changes going on in my kitchen. I'm sure I will continue to have wonderful delicious healthy recipes for you! 

On to the recipe I have for you today!

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Recently I began hearing about Coconut Butter. So I did some research and thought "I wonder if I can make it?"

We have a great Co-op organic market Called Main Market. You can read more about it here. They have a wonderful Bulk section so I got some unsweetened organic shredded coconut and today I made some Coconut Butter. 

Because I used unsweetened coconut I added in some agave and vanilla.. it turned out yummy.
Definitely is different but good. Since I have never bought any from the store I don't have anything to compare mine to so it's fine for me. I am curious about what the store bought kind tastes like and it's texture. I imagine I will buy some eventually.

Coconut Butter...

What you will need
Food Processor
2 cups unsweetened organic coconut
1 Tbls melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
a couple squirts agave

I put the coconut into my food processor and turned it on. I let it process for about 5 mins stopping once to scrape down the sides. Then I added in 1 Tbls melted coconut oil, 1/2 tsp vanilla and a couple squirts Agave. Started it back up and let it go for about 7-10 more mins stopping periodically to scrape the sides. 

 This is what it looked like at the end.. 

it still has a little texture, so it's not smooth like regular butter. but it's oh so yummy!! and instead of costing me almost 10 bucks, the coconut cost me about $5 for a lb. I had all the other stuff in my cupboard!

2 cups made 1 pint of butter.

I made a dip of Chocolate PB2 and Coconut butter to dip my banana in and OH. MY. HOLY. GOODNESS!!! 

But that's a post for another day! 

OX Sherice