Spaghetti Pizza Squash Boats

I love pizza! For those of you who follow my blog you can attest to that with all of my pizza posts. And I can guarantee that this will not be my last rendition of this amazing dish, more on this at a later date!

Last Friday night we went to Jen and Sean’s house for a deck warming party and we decided to order a whole bunch of pizza instead of doing our traditional TGIF party where everyone brings an appetizer. I loved this idea because I really didn’t feel like making anything. There was probably 12-14 of us, so we decided to get 6 extra larges for everyone to share, me getting my own pizza because I am special! I always order from Family Pizza because I know that their crust and sauce is vegan and I think that they have the best pizza for the best price. So what did I order? a tomato, onion, hot pepper pizza and when its delivered I sprinkle some Daiya on top and throw her in the oven. BOOM awesome pizza… and its extra large! Now I didn’t eat it all, don’t worry, I only had about 5 pieces leaving some for a snack later and supper the next day.

We planned on going back to their house the next day for the Rider game so I didn’t feel sad that I left it there over night. Knowing that it’s a meatless, cheese-less pizza, makes me feel pretty safe that no one would eat it. Well I was wrong, dead wrong. Not only was it eaten, but there was only 1 piece left! Out of almost a whole pizza!? I was super shocked! Who would eat this? Then I realized that there were drunk men, still drinking after we left and really who really cares what kind of pizza it is… when you are drunk pizza is pizza.

So what is another way to satisfy your pizza craving… spaghetti pizza!! Well Spaghetti Squash Pizza! I was originally going to do this on a large zucchini but Devon said he would rather have it in the squash so I complied because that also sounded great! It is super simple to make and even easier to devour! I would HIGHLY recommend, like super highly, baking the squash before hand for at least 25 mins. Or else you will end up playing the waiting game like me…I waited an hour and a half for mine to be done. Apparently they cook A LOT faster when they are face down in the oven.

 

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Boats

1 large spaghetti squash

1 can pizza sauce

1 tomato, diced

¼ cup hot bell peppers, diced

½ onion, diced

½ cup black olives

1 cup Daiya, mozzarella

** you can substitute any ingredients for your favorite pizza flavors

Split the Spaghetti Squash in half and de-seed. Lightly oil the halves, lay them face down on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 25 mins at 375 degrees. Chop up the veggies and once the squash is almost fork tender layer inside with the pizza sauce, veggies and then top it off with the Daiya. Bake for another 15 mins. Take out of the oven and start scraping away at the sides so the squash turns into spaghetti, throw it into a bowl and enjoy!!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -Nikki

Summer Fresh Vegan Grilled Cheese

This past weekend I was lucky enough to find some fresh garden tomatoes at the farmers market, along with cucumbers, a Cajun spice mix, beets, carrots, beans, potatoes and purple garlic. Of course I was happy to bring home all of my vegetables but I was mainly happy about the tomatoes! For me there is nothing better than a fresh tomato out of the garden. It literally is one of those simple pleasures you can only experience a couple months out of the year here in Saskatchewan, so when they are in season I really try to eat as many as possible because I know it’s going to be short lived.

When I got home I was contemplating what to eat for lunch and then I remembered that I had just bought a new kind of Daiya from Safeway, the Swiss Cheese Slices. And what better way to use them but in a grilled cheese sandwich. I got out the bread, the Daiya and some coconut oil and got to making my lunch, but then I thought “what could make this better?” I searched around my fridge and couldn’t really think of anything to put on top, but then I spied the tomatoes I had just got from the farmers market and that sparked the idea of a tomato, spinach grilled cheese.

After I decided what to put on my jacked up grilled cheese, I wasn’t too sure how this was going to turn out with the spinach and tomatoes. Would the tomatoes make the bread soggy? Will the spinach be too wilted and turn into mush? I wasn’t totally positive this was going to be a hit, but I like to cook dangerously and I was willing to take the risk. And I am really happy I did! Not only did the bread not turn soggy, but the spinach and tomatoes were cooked just right and the cheese was melty!

The tomatoes and spinach really brought this typical sandwich to another level for me. The freshness of the garden tomatoes with the earthiness of the spinach really brought this typical sandwich to another level for me. It going to be really hard to go back to just eating a just plain grilled cheese again because this was one of the best grilled cheeses I ever had.

Summer Fresh Grilled Cheese

2 slices of Bread

2 slices of Daiya Swish Cheese Slices or any other Daiya cheese your prefer

1 tomato

Baby spinach

Coconut oil

I like to layer the sandwich with the cheese on the bread then the spinach then the tomatoes. You want to keep the tomatoes as far away from the bread as possible so it doesn’t get soggy. Also when making a Daiya grilled cheese you kind of have to be a little inventive. Daiya doesn’t melt as quickly as dairy cheese, so when making something like a grilled cheese you have to be a little patient and watchful or else you could end up burning your bread or not having a completely melted sandwich. So what I do is turn the stove onto about medium high and cook the one side until golden brown (about 2 minutes). Then when I flip the sandwich over, I take it off the heat, cover the frying pan with a lid and let it sit for another 2-3 minutes. That way the steam is trapped and helps melt the cheese.

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

This is what I found when I cut open the tomato I was using! Gotta love life's little messages!  

Ultimate Spicy Vegan Mac n' Cheese

Sunday was Devon’s (my hubby) birthday! He was away on a stag so we didn’t get to really celebrate, so we decided to do something on Monday night instead! I asked him what he wanted for supper and he wasn’t really that enthused about deciding, so I just let him mull it over for the morning. On lunch I was talking to him on the phone and saw a recipe for Mac and Cheese... well that’s a great idea!

He was down for the idea of an ultimate mac n’ cheese and I was up for the challenge. The challenge of making him something that I am unable to taste and also the challenge of making an ultimate vegan version! I can’t vouch for his version but he said it was awesome (he did go back for seconds!) but I can tell you that mine was the ULTAMITE VEGAN DISH EVER! I am pretty sure I yelled I LOVE THIS about ten times throughout the meal.

What I really love about this dish is that it is half of the calories and fat of what my husband’s was!!  Why yes I did say half! Can you believe that this whole dish is only around 700 calories and 15g of fat? As opposed to 1500 calories and 75g of fat, that Devon’s dish contained. So when you break it down and share this with someone (well, maybe share) your portion is only 450 calories and 7g of fat. I really hope you were sitting down for that one! It was a huge shocker to me too.

What is the secret you ask? Well I guess I can share that timbit of information with you, seeing as I really want you to try this....it’s a sweet potato! Crazy as it sounds it is a really great addition to this tradition dish. It has a creamy texture, rich taste, and a bright orange color that really adds a fun twist. Also substituting out the pasta for zucchini noodles definitely helps in reducing in unnecessary calories plus zucchini is much easier for your body to digest!

The dish really came together, especially with its kick of spice right at the end that literally had me going back for more (I had thirds, I won’t lie).  If you are not a huge fan of spicy food then just cut back on the jalapeno and Franks, or omit the Franks all together. 

Ultimate Spicy Vegan Mac n' Cheese

Severs 2 people (or one person if you are like me and eat the whole thing in one sitting!)

1 large sweet potato

½ cup rice milk

¼ cup nutritional yeast

½ cup Mozzarella Daiya

½ jalapeno, diced
½ tsp garlic salt

1 tbsp Franks Buffalo Sauce

1 medium zucchini

-Bake the sweet potato in the oven at 400 degrees until fork tender (around 45 mins).

-Peel the skin off the potato and dice into chunks (watch out its fricken hot!) and place into a medium bowl, add milk and mash until smooth.

-Stir in nutritional yeast, jalapeno, Franks Buffalo Sauce and Daiya until well combined.

-Using a vegetable mandolin, vegetable peeler or spiralizer make zucchini noodles.

-In a casserole dish combine the cheesy sauce and noodles, top with nutritional yeast and a little more Daiya!

-Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

-Serve and devour! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Vegan Buffalo Pizza

Well its time for another pizza recipe! Yup another amazing vegan pizza recipe for you pizza loving people out there!

One of the best things I have learned recently was that Franks Red Hot Sauce is vegan! Even the Buffalo Flavour, which I thought would have had milk ingredients in it, but thankfully it does not (horay!) I remember before, when I was silly and didn’t read the ingredients, I would just smell the hot sauce and imagine all the wonderful things I could put it on. Like broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower.

So when I found out that I could eat it I went crazy and started putting it on everything, such as my all time fav - Steamed Cauliflower with Daiya Cheese and Hot Sauce, super creamy and really satisfying. But my newest creation had me blown away! It was spicy, flavorful, surprisingly light, and a total flavour explosion. My Buffalo Pizza!

If love experimenting with different types of pizza, I highly recommend you try this one out. And what nice about it is you can control how spicy it is. Don’t like spice – omit the jalapeno sauce. Love the spice – add jalapenos on top of the pizza too! The world is your oyster!....mmm whats a vegan equivalent to oyster…. Olive? They are salty right?.... I like it!

Okay the world is your olive! Go on and try my awesome pizza! 

 

Pizza Dough

1½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp ground flax
2 ¼ tsp quick-rising yeast
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp. date syrup *recipe below

In a medium bowl, combine flour, flax, yeast and salt. Mix well.
Measure warm water in measuring cup, then stir in olive oil and honey. 

Pour mix over dry ingredients and mix using wooden spoon to form a ball. 

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 mins. 

Grease inside of another bowl with olive oil and place dough inside. 

Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until double in size (about 20mins).

While the dough is rising I cut up the vegetables to have ready.

Roll out dough over lightly floured surface into a circle. 

Pinch the outer edges up into a crust.

Put on toppings and bake at 425 for 15-20 mins.

Date Syrup - makes 1 cup

10 dates

1/2 cup water

Blend in high speed blender until smooth, store the rest in the fridge!

Buffalo Pizza - Personal Sized Pizza – ¼ of pizza dough batch

¼ pizza dough

1 cup of sliced cremini mushrooms

1 orange pepper, diced

½ yellow onion, diced

¼ cup Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce

¼ cup Daiya Mozzarella

Cashew Cheese

1 cup of soaked cashews

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 lemon juiced

1 clove garlic

Pulse in high speed blender or food processor until smooth. If you have time spread out mixture in a metal bowl or on cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes to reduce some of the moisture. Scrape once or twice to avoid possible burning.

Jalapeño Sauce

1 jalapeno

1 green onion

Small handful of parsley, de stemmed

3 dates, or 3 tbsp of date syrup

Enough water to process

Set to high in a high speed blender or food processor and puree until smooth.

Make your pizza dough and place in the oven on low to rise.

While its rising sauté your vegetables in the hot sauce for 5-10 minutes until they are almost cooked.

Remove dough from oven and divide into quarters.  Take ¼ of the dough and roll it out thinly.

Spread the cashew cheese on the bottom. Then the vegetables and Daiya.

Place in the a 400 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Top with Jalapeno sauce and for added pizza flavor, dip in pizza sauce! Enjoy!!!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Vegan Camping with Cheesy Burger Bush Pie

I just went camping this past weekend for the St. Victor Boogie, a motorcycle rally that is held ever year here in Saskatchewan by the Southern Independent Riders. It always promises to be a great time and this year it didn’t disappoint. I even got to sing on stage with one of the bands! So basically I am a rock star now! As for the food, I didn’t really eat like a rock star, because I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked, but I survived and actually came up with some awesome things to eat.

The Burnout Pit!

Being vegan and going camping you have to be prepared. Everyone usually packs to much food so you could share, but most people usually pack lots of meat products. So now what? You could eat the grass right? Haha no I wouldn’t suggest that, and I hope you don’t get that desperate. Basically you need to be really prepared, so take some time and think about what you would like to eat, especially snacking food.

If you have a fridge I would strongly suggest you take as much fresh fruit and veggies as possible. I brought out avocados to make fresh guacamole for one of those afternoons when you are craving something salty, and fruit and my 3 Ingredient Cookies for when I was craving something sweet. If you have the time before hand I suggest making these cookies for your trip. They are the perfect substitute for granola bars because there is no added sugar or mystery ingredients in them!

The groceries I brought out were:

Dempsters Vegetable Bread

Daiya

Vegan burgers

Vegan hot dogs

Coconut oil

Bananas

Frozen Fruit to make smoothies (we have a small generator so I brought my magic bullet!)

Spinach

Avocados

Salsa

Blue corn chips

Banana oatmeal cookies

Things I forgot - my mangos and grapes

And last but not least – vegetarian beans that were generously given to me by my friend Amber

As you can see there is not a ton of fresh stuff, but I think I ate pretty good for camping. 

I would say that the one thing that saved my butt this weekend was the bush pie maker. They are the greatest camping invention ever and without it I would have probably starved (okay I wouldn’t have, but you get the picture). If your family goes camping and don’t own one, go to Walmart or Canadian Tire and get one now. There are two types out there, aluminum and cast iron. The aluminum ones are cheaper and you get what you pay for. My sister in law Jen put hers in the fire to heat up and the whole thing melted. Clearly that wouldn’t happen with the
cast iron version, so if you can spend a little more, splurge on the cast iron version.

These burgers turned out awesome!
And I love how they are vegan,
gluten free and soy free! 

So what did I make with my bush pie maker? First I made a grilled cheese. If you have ever had Daiya before you know that it takes a while for it to melt, well not in this baby. She was perfectly toasted in less than 5 minutes and the cheese was melted and stringy, YUM!

Second I made a grilled cheese but this time I added beans to it, which was even better! If you are cringing right now I don’t blame you, its not something you eat everyday, but if I could I would. When my sister Ashley got back from Europe she brought back this tasty treat with her and I have loved it ever since. Apparently it is something that they eat all the time, crazy Europeans!

Its always good to drink lots of water!

But you can sneak in a few Palm Bays too!

But the main star of the weekend was the grilled cheese burger, yup I said it and I made it, a grilled cheese burger. This was super simple to make and I was eating it in less than 10 minutes. First I took the vegan burger (Santa Fe variation from Big Mountain Foods) and cooked it in the bush pie maker for 5 minutes, then sandwiched it in between cheese and cooked it once more for 3 minutes. It was pure heaven, even my meat lovin friends were saying how awesome it looked.

Now that I have found a new delicious meal, I am now considering asking Devon to make me a fire this week so I can eat another one because I have never had a better grilled cheese in my life.

Also, there are so many different versions you could make:

Grilled chili cheese

Pizza (think of the toppings)

Fruity ones

The sky is the limit really, so go and have some fun with  your food!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Vegan Chili Mushroom Bites

 One of the questions I get asked a lot is “what do you eat at parties, or family get togethers?” Most of the party food out there is either meat or dairy based and sometimes both! So often when I go to parties it is usually slim pickins for me, hence why I am always bringing food with me everywhere I go.

This weekend was my sister in law Brittany’s, 21^st birthday and she had TGIF at her house to celebrate. TGIF is Devon’s families way of staying in touch with each other throughout the weeks. Almost every Friday we all get together at someone’s house for appetizers and drinks and catch up with each other. I usually bring some sort of dip like hummus for me to eat and share with people but this week I tried something new. I’ve been really itching to make these and I was super excited to give them a shot.

Every stuffed mushroom recipe I have come across uses some sort of cheese mixture in them. Which got me thinking, what about stuffing them with other things rather than cheese?!?! I mean it’s not like cheese is the only thing that would taste good stuffed in mushrooms, so what would? CHILI would! And of course I would be using my famous sweet potato chili. Now that I had the main ingredients figured out, what would a good garnish? How about a little Daiya cheese and jalapeno? Devons family haven’t had a lot of exposure to Daiya so why not top off these tasty bites with a little, plus why not add some heat with a bit of jalapeno? Yum! These sounded so good, I knew that they would be a huge hit with the family.

When I make my chili I try to freeze half of the pot in single serving portions. This not only helps me not eat the whole pot of chili but also saves me some time on nights that I don't feel like cooking. I just so happened to have two bags of chili in my freezer, the perfect portion for my chili bites. This averaged about 4 cups of chili, which filled up 3 small pkgs of mushrooms.

These heavenly bites turned out awesome, the whole family loved them and the only thing I would change is the fact that I didn’t make more!

Ingredients

4 cups – appox – sweet potato quinoa chili

3 small pkg of mushrooms, destemmed

2 jalapenos, sliced

½ cup Daiya Cheese

Stuff the mushrooms with the chili, top with jalapeno and cheese. Bake in a 350 degrees oven for 15 mins and serve!

The New Cauliflower Pizza, Vegan Gluten Free

This weekend we had the pleasure of babysitting our nephews, Brody and Carson. I always look forward to spending time with them because this is the age when they still want to hangout with us and they will still give us hugs and kisses. However, I think the one who benefited the most out of this get together was our dog Lucy. She is an attention whore and can con anyone into giving her a scratch on the head or belly. So when two young boys who love to hug and pet her come over, she is in doggy heaven! 

We had them for a good portion of Sunday, so I had to decide what to make them for supper. The first thing that came to my mind was pizza! What kid doesn’t love pizza? So I asked them what kind they would like and their response was:

Brody: Ordered in pizza

Carson: Cheesy bread.

…..

Well that didn’t get me very far. So I asked again, clarifying that we are making our own and that they could put WHATEVER they wanted on it. Carson still answered cheesy bread and Brody answered pepperoni. Success! I got one of them to answer. Now I just had to explain to Carson that he was going to get cheese pizza instead of the cheesy bread. He took it well and continued to jump off the stairs.

As I was driving I thought about the what kind of pizza I wanted and I really didn’t feel like eating all of that dough. I still wanted all of the toppings that comes with pizza, I just wasn’t feeling the bread part. Well, what about the cauliflower pizza crust that everyone is talking about? Meh, I have tried and it wasn’t that successful, plus with two boys in the house I didn’t feel like experimenting with something like that. That’s when an idea so awesome hit me! Like, so genius I had to look it up to see if anyone else had thought of it before, and to my luck I couldn’t find any other example!

Why not just skip making the crust and just put everything on top of the cauliflower?! Instead of making the crust and getting it to stay firm and crispy, just pile it all on a chunk of cauliflower! So I went from eating a whole pizza crust to myself, to eating almost a whole head of cauliflower to myself. What a great idea, and a healthy one too!

 

Okay so now you are thinking how do I do this? Well, you just take a sharp knife and cut out 1’’ steaks from the middle of the cauliflower you can probably get around 3 or 4 ‘steaks’ from each head, depending on how big it is. And yes I know, there are going to be holes in the ‘steaks’, but that’s okay, only some of the sauce will leak through. 

So the next time you are craving pizza, but want to eat a little healthier, try this out and see what you think. I personally loved it and they are really easy to throw together!

Ingredients – 2 servings (4 pizzas)

1 large head of cauliflower

2 tsp coconut oil

1 can of pizza sauce

3 mushrooms, diced

1 red pepper, diced

4 kalamata olives, de stoned, diced

1 cup spinach

1 cup Daiya cheese, mozzarella

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees.

With a sharp knife slice through a whole head of cauliflower and make 1” thick ‘steaks’, about four individual chunks.

Lightly coat bottom of cauliflower with coconut oil and bake in the oven for 10 mins.

Chop up veggies while they are baking.

Remove the cauliflower from the oven. They should be slightly fork tender.

Spread the sauce all over the top of the cauliflower and put on the toppings. Finishing it off with the cheese.

Bake in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Lazyman Perogies, Vegan Gluten Free

To some families perogies are a way of life. They have them at every special occasion supper, every pot luck meal and they are always in the freezer for a midnight snack. For me that was not the case. I didn’t grow up with perogies in the house, and I can’t actually recall ever eating them as a kid. Maybe it was because my dad is celiac and there wasn’t any gluten free options back then or because my family just didn’t care for them. Either way, they were not my go to food as a kid like cabbage rolls were. And because of that I don’t really care for them, unlike my husband who craves them and can eat a whole plate of them.

So as the good wife that I am I like to cook some meals with him in mind, and this was one of them. My sister Ashley had made this a while ago, but it definitely wasn’t vegan seeing as it contained bacon and cream cheese. So I took this as a challenge, like I normally do when it comes to traditional meat and dairy recipes. (like cabbage rolls, chili and pizza)

So with a little substituting I came up with this gluten free, vegan lazyman perogie recipe that even had me loving perogies.

It is another one of my comfort food recipes that is perfect for all of our snowy Saskatchewan days. By not having the cream cheese layer that Ashley’s had, you also reduce the calories quite a bit in the recipe, not that it’s a low fat one, but I didn’t see the need for it. It is rich and creamy and honestly tastes just like perogies.

So I if you are one of those families that treat perogies like a religion, give my recipe a try and see how it how you like it. I know my husband loved it, so maybe your family might love it too!

Ingredients

2 golden potatoes, cubed

1 cup of almond milk

½ cup of Diaya, mozzarella

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 tsps coconut oil

1 pkg lasagna noodles, gluten free or regular

1 pkg of Dayia, cheddar

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the potatoes until they are fork tender and strain. While the potatoes are cooking cook the lasagna noodles until tender, strain and rinse off. I used a deep dish 8x8 cooking pan and only need 6 noodles.

In a small frying pan, sauté the onions and oil until golden brown, about 15 mins.

In a small sauce pan on medium heat combine the milk and cheese. Stir until all of the cheese is melted and well combined with the milk. Pour over cooked potatoes and mash until smooth.

I poured a little milk in the bottom of the pan to avoid the noodles sticking to the pan.

Layer:

Milk, noodles, mashed potatoes, onion, Daiya cheddar, noodles, mashed potatoes, onion, Daiya cheddar. Done!

Cover with tin foil and cook for 15 mins, and cook uncovered for 5 mins in the oven. Let set for 5 mins, then serve and enjoy!