A Very Vegan Thanksgiving: As seen on Global TV Regina

I am super excited to announce that Ashley Clark from Naturally Ashley featured my Quinoa Stuffing recipe on Global Regina News this morning . Ashley was brought on to the show to talk about how to veganize your Thanksgiving meal this holiday season. Her recipes included my Qunioa Stuffing and her raw vegan pumpkin pie.

With the holidays are upon us you start to get excited about spending time with your family and eating a ton of amazing food. However, some of us get stressed out in the kitchen trying to get the food all done on time, while others are relaxed because they know they just have to bring buns to moms house and everything else will be made for them. Well, this year my sisters and I plan on helping out my mom in the preparations of this huge meal and the stress that can come with it. So we divided up the dishes and took some of the responsibilities off my momma (aren’t we great kids!) Plus it doesn’t help that all three of us are vegans, with Ashley being gluten free/raw vegan and Chelsea being gluten free/vegan, it can make for a lot of bowls on the table.


So what were we going to bring?
Ashley – salad, raw vegan pumpkin pie
Nikki – vegan/gluten free stuffing, vegan gravy, S’more Pie
Chelsea – mashed potatoes, cranberries 

I am most excited for my stuffing, cranberries and my sisters raw vegan pumpkin pie. Those are definitely the three top things I crave when Thanksgiving comes around. Before we discovered quinoa my mom would always make a rice stuffing for my gluten free family members, it was good and everyone like it, but I thought it was missing something. So last year when quinoa came to my attention I just knew that it would take gluten free stuffing to the next level. 
Then there is my sisters raw vegan pumpkin pie. Something that may not sound as good to you,  but trust me when you try it you will fall in love with it! It is rich, creamy and perfectly spiced just like a cooked pie is, the only major difference is the fact that it has to be served cold. To find the recipe for this awesome pie go to Naturally Ashley's blog found here. As for my stuffing I have re posted it along with some helpful tips to make your Thanksgiving vegan friendly this year!


Tips and Tricks to Make your Thanksgiving Vegan
- Mashed Potatoes: instead of using milk or butter, use almond milk and Earth Balance
- Make a mushroom gravy instead of a poultry based one *see recipe below
- Buy a mock meat substitute if you want to keep up the turkey tradition 
- For appetizers go with hummus or salsa with chips and veggies for a dairy free snack option 
-Salads are usually vegan, all you have to do is choose a dressing that is vegan and voila you got yourself a vegan side dish!
- Try to keep the meat/dairy/egg dishes away from the veggie ones, you could even prepare some of the veggie ones the night before to elevate stress 




Gluten free Vegan Stuffing
·         1 cup of quinoa
·         2 cup s of water
·         1 cup of wild rice
·         4 cups of water
·         1 white onion, diced
·         2 medium carrots, diced
·         5 stalks of celery, diced
·         1 small pkg mushrooms, diced
·         2 tbsp of coconut oil
·         1 clove of garlic, minced
·         1 cup vegetable broth
·         3 tsp of sage
·         2 tsp of cumin
·         Salt and pepper
.
First you will need to clean your wild rice and quinoa. A simple way to do that is to put it in a strainer and run cold water over it.

To make the wild rice: combine rice, the 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, until the rice has opened and fluffed out. Strain out any excess water. Or if you have a rice cooker use that instead, it’s a lot easier!

To make the quinoa combine quinoa and the 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for approximately 20 minutes, until the water has all evaporated.

Next dice up the mushrooms, carrots, onion, and celery into bite size pieces, and place the mushrooms aside for later. Heat up a medium/large sized frying pan on Medium/High heat, add your oil and sauté the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery for about 15 minutes, or until they are soft. Add the mushrooms and broth, spices and quinoa/rice mixture to the pan,  and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.
Serving bowl and enjoy!  

Gluten Free Vegan Gravy
1 medium Onion, diced
1 cup of Mushrooms, diced
1 tsp of Coconut Oil
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1/4 cup of gluten free Flour, I used Quinoa Flour
1 cup of Vegan Broth
2 tsp of Soy Sauce, Vegan Gluten Free 
1 tsp of Worcheshire Sauce, Vegan Gluten Free

In a small sauce pan saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms in oil until soft. Gradually alternate adding flour and broth to the onions and mushrooms until there are no clumps. Add the soy sauce and the worcheshire and continue to cook for another 5 mins. If the gravy is too thick then add more broth/water until you get your desired consistency. I like my gravy to have a smooth texture so I blended mine in my Magic Bullet until smooth. However, if you like the chunky texture then exnay the blender.

Can Vegans Eat Here?

Eating out at restaurants can be difficult when you have food allergies or dietary requirements. I know with my family going out for a meal can be quite the novel when ordering what we want. Most waitresses now a days are really cool with taking our orders and usually say “oh you are one of ‘those’ families”. So that got me thinking about the chain restaurants and what they had to offer us vegans. Seeing that they are big box restaurants and all of their menus in Canada should be the same, I thought that they would be able to tell me what meals they could offer. So I set off to email 5 major restaurants, Montana’s, Boston Pizza, Original Joe’s, Chili’s and Earls and this is what I wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if you could tell me all of your menu items that do not contain any meat, dairy or eggs. I am a vegan and would love to continue to eat at your restaurant. I understand that you cannot guarantee the cross contamination of the food in the kitchen but I was just wondering the actual ingredients in the meals themselves. Thank you and I look forward to your response.

Kindly,

Nikki Clark Murray

I didn’t know what I was expecting, maybe a them saying that I could safely eat the lettuce and the water and that’s all they could promise me or maybe a detailed list explaining everything. Any route I was just wanting to see what the upper management could tell me about the food that their company sells. And really, I can’t be the first one to email them about vegan food, surely they would already have this question answered. Right?

Well out of the 5 restaurants, I have received  emails back, Chili's still hasn't replied.

And these are their responses:

This is the email that I got from Montana’s in response to my question:

Dear Ms.  Murray,

Thank you for contacting Montana’s restaurants with your inquiry.
All of our allergen information can be found at the website below.http://www.montanas.ca/pdf/nutrition.pdf

Where cross contamination may be a concern regarding allergies, it is
important that you speak with your server at the restaurant so that they
can minimize the possibility of cross contamination occurring in the
kitchen. Please advise them of all allergy concerns you have prior to
ordering to ensure your concerns are addressed.

As well, please be advised that there is always the possibility for cross
contamination to occur and that we cannot guarantee your item will not
come in contact with allergens in our other food items.

We value your patronage and look forward to serving you in the near
future.

Sincerely,
Montanas Guest Services

Miranda

Well the link to the nutritional information didn’t work, but luckily it wasn't hard to find on their website. To access the PDF file you go to the website and click on the menu button, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on nutritional guide. You will get a PDF file which states all of the allergens in each menu item. The only problem with this is it doesn’t tell you what you can have with substitutions. Such as, the veggie burger has cheese on it so it is listed as having milk ingredients, but if I was to remove the cheese would it be dairy free? So this some what helps you in deciding if you can eat out at Montana’s but you are going to have to ask your server when you order. The only things that were safe on the menu was the guacamole, fries, sweet potato fries (if they aren’t deep fried with other meat or dairy), plum sauce, salsa, Thai sauce, and it says that the baked potato contains dairy but that is something I would ask about because it could just that they add sour cream to it. Other than that everything else contains milk, eggs or meat.

This is the response that I got from Boston Pizza

Hello Nikki,

Due to the periodic product substitutes from our suppliers we cannot provide allergen information except at the store level.

Please feel free to contact one of our staff member the next time we visit us and we will gladly provide you with any specific allergen questions you may have. For Boston Pizza locations and contact information please visit us at  http://www.bostonpizza.com/en/locations/

We value you patronage to our restaurants and once again thank you for contacting us.

Kind regards,  

Joe Avila

Guest Services Manager

Boston Pizza International Inc.

I looked on their website and they only have a gluten free menu listed along with the nutritional information. So as it looks right now you need to ask your waitress about what foods you can have and be specific in what you are asking. I had one waitress bring me fries with a mayo dipping sauce because she didn’t know that mayo was made from eggs.

This is the response I received from Earls,

Dear Nikki, Thank you for contacting us about our Vegan options. We understand dining out when you are a vegan can be limiting at times and as all of our recipes are made from scratch, we are aware of exactly what is in each product and all of our Chefs are trained to be aware of specific dietary needs so that we can easily accommodate vegan customers on the spot; however, if you wish to call the head chef of the Earls restaurant in your area, they will be happy to answer specific questions about any menu items and discuss your options for future reference. At this time we do not have a Vegan specific menu on hand but it is something that you will see from us in the future as we do pass all comments about our menu to our Product Development and Menu Teams for their review. We hope to see you in Earls soon! Sincerely, Miko Bryson Earls Restaurants Ltd

This was the response I was hoping for with the previous two restaurants. They are not giving me exact menu items but they are reassuring me that as a vegan I am able to eat there. Also stating that in the possible future there might be a vegan menu is an added bonus because it makes me feel that they are taking into consideration people's dietary need.
Plus I feel that the response wasn't just generated by a computer, it was actually written by a human being, which is always a nice touch. Like when calling a customer service line, you want to talk to a person not an automated answering service. 

This is the respsonse I got from Original Joe’s, by far the best response I received.

Hello Nikki,
Unfortunately we do not have a ton of vegan options available.  I have however, compiled a list of options that you may have with some simple modifications.  Please see the attached word document.

I hope this helps you to still enjoy a meal with us and if you have any other questions please feel free to contact me directly at jbates@franworks.com

Thank you,

Jason Bates |Operations Specialist |Regional Kitchen Manager |Franworks Group of Companies

This is the information he supplies me through a Word Document:

VEGAN OPTIONS

MAIN DISHES
**Dragon Boat Lettuce Wraps – ask for no noodles and no chicken.
Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl – ask for no chicken and no spiced yogurt.
Tomato Basil Linguini – ask for no cheese, bread or panko topping.
*Mixed Greens Salad – ask for no almonds and no cranberries. (cranberries are produced in a facility with milk ingredients)
Spinach Salad – ask for no cheese, bread, almonds or cranberries.
Thai Chicken Salad – ask for no bread and no chicken.
*West Coast Chop – ask for no cheese, bread, cranberries and almonds.
*Veggie Burger – ask for no bread or cheese and choose from the sides listed below.

SIDES
Broccolini – ask for no butter.
*Fresh Veggies & Dip – ask for no ranch, choose a salad dressing from below.
Home Cut Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Sweet Potato Fries – ask for no gravy or dill dip.
*Mixed Greens – no almonds or cranberries
**Hummus – ask for no bread and have vegetables instead
**Quinoa Salad

DRESSINGS
Oil & Vinegar
Balsamic Berry Vinaigrette
Italian

* I have personally tried them
**my favourites

I don’t know about you but I am super impressed with the information and effort put forward by Jason. Not only did he get back to me within hours of my email, but he typed up a list of everything I am able to eat. Even stating that the cranberries were made in a facility with milk ingredients. This not only makes me want to go back to OJ’s it makes me want to promote them as a business. If only other chain restuarants could have emailed me back with a more indepth email I would feel the same about it. So I gues chalk one up for Original Joe’s!

Hopefully the other restaurant will get back to me soon, when they do I will post their responses!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Thai Cabbage Summer Salad

A couple weekends ago I had the great pleasure of going over to a friend’s house for a ‘smoke’ night, and by smoke I mean smoked meat. Yumm…. Not so much. Haha, not really my thing, but exciting for everyone else there. Our friend just bought a new smoker and he was really anxious to try it out and Devon loves any excuse to eat something smoked.

So what was I going to make, seeing as I was not going to eat what they were having? A wonderful salad! Yup I was going to bring salad to a meat party. Don’t think I cant hear you guys out there quoting the Simpsons “you don’t make friends with salad”. Well I was and I did! Everyone who tried it said it tasted great and some (like myself) even went back for seconds!

I was really excited to make this one too, the ingredients are so colorful, and the Thai peanut sauce was making my mouth water. For me anything with a Thai peanut sauce is golden.
This is a perfect salad to make when you have left over quinoa in your fridge, a) because its one less step in making this salad b) the quinoa is already cold! c) who doesn’t love using leftover food, instead of throwing it out later on that week.  
It is such a fresh, crisp and tasty salad it is now in my repertoire of meals that I can either make at home or bring to family suppers.

If you or someone you know have nut allergies, just sub out the cashews and peanut butter for almonds and sunflower seed butter!

Ingredients  4 - 8 people

½ head purple cabbage

2 cups of cooked quinoa
2 carrots, grated

1 red pepper, diced

1 zucchini, diced

¼ red onion, diced
½ cup cilantro, chopped

½ cup cashews

Thai Peanut Salad Dressing

¼ cup organic peanut butter

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 dates

1 lime, juiced
Combine all of the dressing ingredients together in a high speed blender and puree until smooth. Pour dressing over salad right before serving and fold in until completely combined. 

No Bake, Choclate Quinoa Bites

This past Friday Devon and I got the privilege of babysitting our nephews and having them sleep over night. We have never had a sleepover with them before so we were really excited for them to come over.

 I wasn’t too sure what we were going to do, because Devon and I don’t have a lot of things for them to play with. But we improvised and they had a blast. The first thing we did was blow up the air mattress they were sleeping on that night and put it in the living room. We were going to watch a movie after supper and thought it would be fun to lay on the floor and eat popcorn. Well the movie was put on hold because Auntie Nikki blew up SO MANY balloons that they wanted to play with those instead. At first Brody and Carson just played with the balloons, but then Brody had the idea of lining them up on the air mattress and then taking a running jump and knocking them all off. It was quite the game, so simple yet so much fun!

They also played with our dogs, Lucy and Stella. Our girls haven’t been around kids much so I was a little wary on how they would respond to having them overnight. But they did awesome! It took Stella a little while to calm down and get used to them being around, but after an hour she was sitting on the floor playing with her chew toy. Only when the kids had food was she on them like white on rice. But Brody and Carson had no trouble telling them to ‘go lay down’ and ‘No Stella this is not yours!’ When they left the next morning each dog took a couch and slept for hours, recuperating from the constant (yet awesome) play time and attention the boys gave them.

Brody giving Stella a hug

Carson hanging out with Lucy

After supper we made some cookies! I had came across this recipe a while ago and thought it would be fun to make seeing as they are ‘No Bake’. I tried the recipe out and immediately knew I had to make some changes. The original recipe calls for ¼ cup of coconut oil, plus ½ cup of peanut butter and I knew that it was going to be way to much oil. But I made it first seeing how it would pan out and I was right. There was so much oil, that the pan they were on had little pools of coconut oil underneath them. This time while making them with the boys I omitted the coconut oil and they turned out perfect. Also I substituted the honey for date syrup and made them balls instead of cookies!

After letting the cookie dough cool off, the boys and I got to work on forming our very own cookies. I gave them free range to make what ever shape or size of cookies they wanted. Which was quite interesting, some turned out like patties, some were balls and some were ‘worms’. Those didn’t make it to picture stage, a) because they ate them b) they looked like cat poop. Yup I said it, cat poop. I know that sounds weird but its true. To the boys they were making worms but to Devon and I, it was something else. No worries though, because they were the kids cookies and they had fun making them!

In the morning I made pancakes for everyone, including myself. I came up with a recipe that didn’t turn out that bad, but they weren’t awesome and I am not posting a pancake recipe that isn’t awesome. The regular pancakes got rave reviews from Brody and Carson, they said I made the best pancakes EVER and that they wanted to eat them every day. I wont lie, that made me feel great, what is it about a kid giving you a compliment that just makes you feel like you are the queen of the world?

By the time breakfast was over, the kids had already got the dog beds from upstairs and were dragging them down to the bottom of the stairs. They wanted to jump off the stairs into the pile of beds, and why not? I used to jump off the stairs, so why cant they? I think they did this for 2 hours, everything from counting each stair as they jumped off, to throwing balloons while jumping and trying to race it down.

We had a lot of fun, only a couple stubbed toes and brotherly fights, but all in all we had a lot of fun spending time with our nephews. Hopefully this is not the last time we get to do this while they are young, I know Jen and Sean wouldn’t mind us taking the boys for the night.

Ingredients Makes - 18-20 cookies

1/2 cup date syrup (recipe below)

4 tablespoons cocoa powder or carob powder

1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/2 - 1 cup cooked white quinoa

Over medium heat, combine date syrup and cocoa powder. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla, coconut, and quinoa. You can either use a spoon or your hands to make the balls, but be warned that the batter is messy! Place them onto parchment paper and set in the refrigerator to set (about 15-20 mins)

Date Syrup

5-7 large majool dates

1/4 cup water

Blend in high speed blender until smooth.

Thanks for reading!
Xoxo -N

Quinoa Pizza Bake, Vegan Gluten Free

I wont lie, I have already tried making this before, but last time I made them I put them into a cupcake pan. They didn’t turn out that well. Not that they didn’t taste good, they just didn’t hold their shape and they were hard to get out. I think if I had a mini cupcake pan, it would have worked a bit better, but all I have is a regular one.

Devon then suggested that we put it on a baking sheet instead, mainly because he likes it when the cheesy edges get all crispy. Also the last time I didn’t put in the ground flax, which really helps bind things together. If you need an egg replacer, ground flax is an easy substitute. For one egg its 1 tbsp of flax and 3 tbsp of water, mixed well and let sit for 10 mins. For my recipe I just put the flax into the pot with the quinoa right before its done cooking, that way I eliminate adding more water to the quinoa after its done cooking, and why not save a step.

The ingredients I have listed at the bottom are only guidelines to what could be put into this. If you like pineapple, olives, hot peppers, go for it. You don’t have to mix them in either, you could top the quinoa mixture with the olives and pineapple too. The possibilities are endless!

Ingredients
1 cup of uncooked quinoa
2 heaping tbsp ground flax seed
2 cups of water
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup mushrooms, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 red pepper
1 small can tomato paste
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 pkg of shredded Daiya cheese

If your quinoa is not pre washed, you will need to run it under cold water to remove the extra starch. Then add one cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water and cook until almost all of the water has evaporated (it cooks just like rice!), then add the 2 tbsps of ground flax and mix until well blended.  

Pre heat a large frying pan on med/high heat and add the oil. Saute the onions and garlic first until browned. Chop up all of your vegetables into tiny pieces and sauté them for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl combine quinoa/flax mixture with the vegetables, tomato paste, seasonings, and Daiya Cheese and stir until well combined. 

Grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil. Pour the mixture onto the pan and using your hands or the back of a spoon spread out until even. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

My Mama's Cabbage Rolls Veganized!

One of my families’ favourite things to eat growing up was my mom’s cabbage rolls. On our birthdays we would get to pick what meal we would like her to make and I always picked cabbage rolls. I would even get upset if there weren’t any at Christmas or Easter, that’s how good they are. My mother learned from my amazing Grandma Violet (she is Swedish) who is also a great cook, so no wonder they tasted great. I find that your grandparents/parents heritage determined what type of cabbage rolls you grew up with, ours were covered in tomato juice and had a hamburger and rice filling. When I would try other families cabbage rolls often they would taste weird and sometimes even gross. It was hard to measure up to my moms!!

So with the holiday coming up and with a lot of traveling ahead of us I started to think about what my sisters and I were going to eat. We come from a family of farmers so we were certain that the food was not going to be vegan friendly. But no problem there because we are used to taking our own food to parties anyways! I had already decided to take my Quinoa stuffing but I didn’t think that it would be enough because we are really big eaters. That’s when cabbage rolls popped into my head. I haven’t had them in over a year and I really missed them. I wasn’t going to ask my mom to make them, so I ventured into the long process myself hoping and praying that they tasted at least half as good as my moms.

I had bumped into my friend Karen at the grocery store the day I was picking up my groceries and she told me that Whitney from Grounded Nutrition had an amazing vegan recipe and I should look it up. I knew my sister had been talking with her this past year so I asked her if she had the recipe and luckily she did!

I had already formed a plan of attack in my head and when I looked at Whitney’s recipe it was similar to what I was going to do except for one big difference. She layered sweet potatoes in hers! WOW that was a game changer! I was really excited to add those to my recipe because I knew that they would really add some great flavour to the mix!

I couldn’t wait for my sisters and mom to try them, I was really hoping they enjoyed them as much as I did (I got to try them the day before and nearly ate the entire roaster!) Good thing I didn’t because they were all really impressed with my efforts, and they even said that they tasted like my moms! WOO HOO!



Photography by Ashley Clark

After we got home from Christmas all I could think about was how delicious they were so…… I made 3 more batches! I went to Superstore on Boxing Day and got a whole bunch of groceries and 3 tin foil disposable pans and got to work!

The good thing about making 3 batches all at once is that there is only one mess and it doesn’t take that much time (probably 2 hours of work, but I took my time) The weird thing is I forgot at least one ingredient per batch! The first one, had no parsley or oregano, the second one had no parsley, and the third had no garlic. So they are all going to taste slightly different but I am not worried about it!

Vegan Cabbage Rolls – 1 Large Roaster Full

1 large head of cabbage

1.36 liter can of tomato juice,

1 cup of quinoa, uncooked

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 cups of mushrooms, diced finely

2 cups of celery, diced finely

4 green onions, diced finely

3 carrots, diced finely

2 large sweet potatoes, sliced thin

1 clove of garlic, minced

½ cup of fresh parsley, chopped up finely

4 sprigs of fresh oregano, de-stemmed chopped up finely

Cook your quinoa in 2 cups of water in a medium sauce pan for 20 minutes, and chop up your veggies, garlic and herbs. For the cabbage, remove as much of the stem as possible so you are able to peel the leaves off easily. Place cabbage in large sauce pan and fill it half with water, and set to boil. Check the pot every 5-7 min, removing any leaves that are soft and that peel away from the head easily. BUT BE CAREFUL BECAUSE THEY ARE HOT!  I dunk the hot hot leaves in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process because I don’t want them to get too soft and mushy. While you are waiting for all of the leaves to fall off I throw the cooked ones in a strainer to drain the excess water. And I then cook the veggies, garlic and herbs and oil in large frying pan until the veggies are almost fully cooked. Stir in quinoa and set aside.

Once all the leaves are cooked, cut off the hard stem at the bottom in the shape of a V. Next take the sliced sweet potatoes and cover the bottom of the roaster, then fill each leaf with a spoonful of filling and roll like a burrito. Place the cabbage rolls on top of the sweet potatoes until the roaster is full. Layer another layer of sweet potatoes and if you have any cabbage left layer that on the very top. Pour the entire can of tomato juice into the roaster and you are done! Cook at 350 degrees for 2.5 hours and serve!



Photograpghy by Ashley Clark

Thanks for reading!

xoxo - N