Pizza

Buying pizza is a rare treat for my family, I guess I should say it's a rare treat for me because it means I get hot food that I didn't have to work all night making, but for my husband it means dry dough sparsly covered with overcooked veggies and a large bill since the meat lover's pizza was only $5 but the vegetarian was $14 plus the $1.50 per extra veggie, per pizza. Another great shortcut to pizza is simply topping english muffins, but the most inexpensive (and tastiest) option is to make our pizzas from scratch.
Now, I've done a lot of experimenting with pizza dough, my bread machine over worked it, most doughs require lots of kneading and time to rise, and a ton of recipes yield dough too elastic to work with, but I've finally landed on a recipe that works well for me.
We purchased 2 pizza pans on clearance at our local grocery store, they're thin and cheap in quality, but sprayed with non stick cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal, the pans release nicley and cook the pizzas evenly.
Quick pizza dough


1 package (2 1/4 te) active or quick rise yeast
1 te sugar
1 Cup warm water
2 1/2 Bread flour
2 TB oil
1 te salt
* garlic powder, rosemary, or italian seasoning to season crust optional

• Dissolve yeast, sugar, and water for 10 minutes
• Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth (I use a stand mixer with a dough hook)
• Let rest for 5 minutes
• Preheat oven to 450º
• Lightly grease pizza pan *a dusting or cornmeal is optional
• Roll out pizza dough on a floured surface to the approximate size of your pan, then place the dough in your pan and use your hands to form the pizza to your pan
• Top your pizza then cook for 15-20 minutes

Picture courtesy of wannabeavegan.wordpress.com

The dough will look more like a sticky mess than a dough ball when it's done mixing, but with floured hands and a floured surface, it becomes a malleable dough and lends itself easily to be stretched out. This crust yields one pizza, but I like thinner crust so I make two batches at once and divide it by three.

Toppings-
I'm a traditionalist, I prefer "meat" and "cheese" over spinach and mushrooms, but That's what's so good about making this dough, everyone gets their own pizza to top any way they like. My husband likes it simple homemade chorizo sausage cut up like pepperoni, onion, and Daiya cheese (a once a week splurge). My kids like pineapple and olive, homemade chicken that I whirl up in our food processor, and a spicy cheese spread my husband makes.


Variations-
I've made this dough into calzones before, you can fill them with almost anything, but my family likes seitan or chicken cut into cubes and marinated in equal parts melted butter and hot sauce for a hot wing calzone. We then cook it up the same as you would a pizza and dip it in homemade ranch sauce.


You can make this dough into bread sticks as well, roll the dough out and cut into bread sticks, place on  a pan that has been covered in foil and lightly greased. Bruch the bread sticks with melted butter and cook the same as you would a pizza, but keep an eye on them so you don't over cook

Bake Sale

Son #1 goes to a really great, small school. The teachers and faculty are all really nice and have never said anything negative about Son #1 being vegan, but in my head I always feel like people think vegans only eat salad and seeds and my poor son can't eat any of the sweet treats all the "normal" kids get to eat. So when I heard that our school was having a bake sale, I just HAD to show that I could make vegan treats that weren't just good for being vegan, but just good. My dilemma was baking a large quantity of something then packaging them in an appealing way, all while on a budget. I decided to make 160 (4 batches) of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. Except for two runs to the grocery store to re-up on some brown sugar, I had everything I needed for 160 cookies already stocked in my pantry.

I went back and forth about weither or not to label the cookies as "vegan". I would have loved for people to try them and maybe change their minds about vegan food, but on the other hand I worried the word "vegan" might scare people away from buying them. In the end, the bake sale was all about raising money for the school, and that's what was most important.

Here's how I did it:

Labels- I found free label templates online and changed the color and font to what I wanted. I'm fortunate enough to have a husband who works in printing, so I just emailed him the file. My husband printed business card sized labels on a heavy paper stock. I cut the cards out at home, some companies charge extra to make cuts.

Bags- I have a free Michaels app on my phone which gives me 50% off coupons that I used to purchase a pack of 50 bags for about $1.50 after the discount.

Ribbon- Michaels has thin ribbon for $.99 so I purchased one in the robins egg blue I used in the cards, and brown to match the cookies and font. I took the length of the ribbon (printed on the box) and divided it by 50 (the amount of bags I would be making) the resulting number was how much ribbon I had to work with for each package.

Assembly- I put 2 cookies in each bag, then I folded the top of the bags down twice and stapled them closed. I used a hole punch to make a hole through the card and bag, then tied the label in place with a few knots in the ribbon, I made sure to place the staples in such a way that the card would cover them up.

In the end, all the cookies sold half way through the bake sale and everyone seemed to enjoy them :)

Coleslaw

I love coleslaw, and now that I make my own vegan mayonnaise, I'm free to make as much as I want. One of my favorite things to do with coleslaw is to add it to sandwiches. I get some hearty bread and make ribs or battered tofu and fill it with this sweet and zesty coleslaw for a wonderfully complex flavor that also helps to stretch your sandwich with an inexpensive filling.


Coleslaw

• 1 head of cabbage, shredded (you can substitute 1 bag of coleslaw mix for the cabbage and carrots)
• 3 carrots, shredded
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 
  

Mix the mayo, sugar, and vinegar.

Add the carrots and cabbage to the mixture and toss to coat.

One of the most important steps is to let the coleslaw refrigerate overnight to really let it soak up the flavors, it will taste completely different the next day.

Thrifty Thursday: Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

This was a simple recipe I thought up while trying to create a dinner out of what ever ingredients were left at the end of the week. For starters, we always have a few heads of broccoli in the fridge, it's always pretty cheap (at least where I'm from) and if I don't end up using it in any recipes, my family loves it steamed or even raw with some dip. Secondly, we always have some homemade seitan in the house, it's pretty inexpensive and easy to make and freeze.
This recipe makes a ton, it tops off a large casserole dish and weighs more than my 1yr old. I've even divided it between a 9x13 and an 8x8 and it seemed to last longer even though it was technically the same amount of food.


Chicken and Broccoli Casserole


3 heads of broccoli, chopped using only the florets
3 cups of rice
5 chick'n patties
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 can vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups plain soy milk (or vegetable broth)
1 1/2 te salt
1/2 te garlic powder
1/2 te onion powder
Pepper to taste
Pinch cayenne pepper
Shredded cheese (optional)

• Melt butter in a sauce pan then add the flour. Mix until all the flour is absorbed and looks like a clump of dough.
• Turn off heat and slowly add your vegetable broth and soy milk in SMALL batches and fully incorporate before adding the next batch. If you add too much liquid and lumps form, you can whisk them out before continuing. As the gravy gets thinner, you can start adding more liquid per batch.
• Add the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cayenne, and pepper. You want the gravy slightly salty as it will be flavoring all the rice and broccoli.
• Return to a medium/low heat and stir frequently to avoid lumps, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. Cook for about 15 minutes, if it starts to bubble, reduce heat and simmer.
• While your gravy is heating, cut up your broccoli florets into manageably bite size pieces and steam for 10 minutes until fork tender.
• Cut up the chick'n patties into bite sized pieces.
• Cook your rice last to avoid clumping, I use minute rice, but any rice you have will work fine.
• Once everything is cooked, put the rice, chicken, and broccoli in a large bowl and stir, then add the gravy and mix until it's of uniform consistency. Fill a casserole dish and pat down with a spatula. Top with shredded cheese if you have it.
• Cook the casserole, uncovered, in a preheated 350º oven for 15 minutes.

Thrifty Thursday: Chicken Patties

This is, by far, the most utilized and versatile recipe in my arsenal. It has also saved us the most money. This is a chicken seitan recipe I adapted from an Italian sausage recipe I found at Everyday Dish. It's super easy to make, no kneading required. The possibilities for this chicken is endless, but some of our favorite ways to use it are;

• Chicken patties for a quick burger and fries meal on days I spend the evening at soccer practice. 
• Breaded and fried for chicken parmesan or chicken fingers.
• Cut them into bite sized pieces and put them in casseroles. 
• Toss them in a food processor and get a ground hamburger consistency which works really well in chick'n salad or a filling for things like samosas. 
• Or add different spices to make a more savory flavor and use to replace all your ground hamburger in things like tacos, pizza, meat balls, and meatloaf.

Chicken Patties

15 sheets of foil, about 8in long

2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup chickpea flour (also called garbanzo bean flour)

2 TB chicken seasoning

2 1/4 cups cold water

2 TB oil

2 TB soy sauce

1/2 TB minced garlic

1 1/2 TB italian seasoning

• Mix all the dry ingredients together
• Mix all the wet ingredients together
• Mix the wet into the dry ingredients just until combined
• You can add another tablespoon of water if the mixture is too dry
• Scoop about 1/2 a cup of dough onto the middle of the foil and pat down to form a patty. Fold the sides of the foil in to form a little package.
• Steam for 30 minutes

You may not get 15 patties the first time you try this recipe, I think I only got 9 on my first try, but the more you do it the better formed your patties will be and you might see that you prefer less "meat" in your patties. We make a batch then reuse the foil for a second batch that we unwrap and throw in tupperware and freeze.

You can also follow the recipe but omit the garlic and italian seasoning for up to 5 tablespoons of your own spices to create a ton of different flavors.

Chicken patties, bacon, vegan mayo

Accidentally Vagan

If you Google "accidentally vegan" you'll find tons of sites that list foods you can find at any grocery store that just happen to be vegan (well you'll probably find the same list copied to many sites). But my list is just some of my favorites.

Crisco- I was blown away when I found out this was vegan, I got excited when at first glance the butter flavor seemed vegan, but that pesky "natural flavor" ended up being sourced from animals. I'm excited about the crisco because although I can make cream cheese frosting for cakes, it's expensive and buttercream frosting using the Crisco is a lot more cost efficient. Shortening is also a key ingredient for a good pie crust.

Tubs of frosting- I JUST invested in a large tub of Crisco when I happened to glance at a tub of frosting and found no dairy, eggs, or even natural flavorings. Could this be? Vegan frosting? I guess it makes sense, I mean if they used a vegetable shortening like I do at home. I checked many flavors and brands and found as long as it wasn't the obvious cream cheese or milk chocolate flavor, a lot of them were vegan. It IS more expensive than making it myself, but when on sale and with an easy to acquire coupon, less than $1 is a good price to not have to clean my mixer. FYI, some of the brands have those pesky ingredients that may have come from plant or animal, it's always a good idea to contact the company (a quick call to their 800 number) before you consume.

Puff pastry- This was a total win for me, for years I was daydreaming of all the creations I could make with some puff pastry. Then one day I looked up how to make it myself and quickly realized that the sheer complication and time consumption of making puff pastry from scratch would never be worth it. I'm not sure how I came to realize it, but Pepperidge Farm makes vegan puff pastry (you can find it in most grocery stores in the frozen dessert section). It is a little more than I was hoping spend, so I didn't end up making all those fancy pants h'orderves I dreamed about, but it's always on sale around the holidays and it's a special splurge my family makes to help dress our homemade turkey (but that's another post).

Blue Bonnet Lite- I am in love with this butter, I can get a large tub of it for a whole lot less than the natural butter substitutes from the health food section. The taste is more of a buttery flavor than a margarine flavor, and even right out of the fridge it's consistency is that of a room temperature butter so it spreads like a dream. Because of the amazing consistency, it does suggest that you don't bake with it, for that I usually have a backup stick of a more expensive butter hidden in the back of the fridge.

Thrifty Thursday: Sailor's Cake

This is an old recipe handed down to me by my mother-in-law. The recipe came to me vegan with the explanation that sailors who were out to see, far longer than dairy and eggs could stay fresh, came up with a cake that only required shelf stable ingredients so they could have sweets anytime. I don't know if that's true, but it makes sense and it's a cute story.


Sailor Cake


3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 TB cocoa powder
2 te baking soda
1 te salt
2 cups water
3/4 cup oil
2 TB vinegar
2 te vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350ºF
• Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
• Add in the wet ingredients and stir just until mixed
• Pour the batter into 2 cake pans, a 9x13in pan, or cupcake liners
• Bake for 40 minutes (cook at 315º for 25 minutes for cupcakes)

This is a very moist and chocolaty cake, when I have them on hand I"ll add chocolate chips for an extra shot of chocolate.