The idea of a homemade tomato sauce may conjure up ideas of sauce slow cooking on the stove all day, letting the flavors marinate and blend. That is not was this recipe is all about. This recipe is for when you get home late from work and are looking for something quick and nourishing to heat up for dinner. If you're lucky, you'll have some of that slow simmer sauce canned and on hand to use in this recipe!  

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The prep work here is fairly minimal, chop up some garlic, onion, and peppers as a base to your sauce. If you have other fresh veggies on hand such as mushrooms or spinach feel free to add those as well! Adding the tempeh adds another element to the texture and some hearty protein.

I had some extra cashew sauce that I had made for the Loaded Baked Potato Pizza, which I added in to my sauce to make it creamy (and add more protein). If you want to keep it as just a basic tomato sauce then you can omit this.  

Instructions:

Dice garlic, onion, and red bell pepper. Add garlic and onion to a non-stick skillet and cook until the onions are translucent. Stir occasionally to prevent them from burning. Add the red bell pepper. Stir to combine.

Crumble the tempeh into the pan. Continue to break apart with a wooden spoon or spatula until it is the desired size and consistently. I like to break it down pretty far so that it is about the same size as the onions and bell pepper. 

​Once the tempeh has been broken down to the desired level, well mixed in with the other ingredients, and has a bit of crispiness, add in the sauces, stir and combine. 

Serve over your favorite pasta, with a side of whole wheat bread and a nice salad. Enjoy!

Pretty much every time I go to Whole Foods I buy some of their whole wheat pizza dough. It's so good and it there are endless options for what you can make with it. At this point I have a bunch of it in my freezer so I decided to finally make some pizza! 

Instructions:
Put the cashews in water to soak.

Slice potatoes thinly using either a knife or a mandolin. Make sure that they are all the same width so that they cook evenly. Place them in a bowl full of luke warm water and salt for at least an hour. After they are done soaking, lay potatoes out on a towel and cover with another one to soak up all the moisture. This process gets some of the starch and liquid out of the potatoes so that they crisp better. 

While the potatoes are soaking slice the onion and red bell pepper into thin strips.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. 
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Roll out the pizza dough to your desired shape based on your cooking surface. If you are using a cookie sheet sprinkle some ground corn meal on the tray or use parchment paper to make sure it doesn't stick. If you have a pizza stone, make sure you put enough flour or corn meal on your pizza peel so that the pizza dough will slide off easily when transferring into the oven (admittedly I have yet to perfect this myself as you can see in the post-oven photo). 

To prepare the cashew sauce place all of the ingredients in a food processor or high quality blender (such as a Vitamix or Ninja) and blend until smooth. The amount of water I used is approximate. Add it a little at a time as needed for the ingredients to blend together well. 

Put the rolled out pizza dough on the pizza peel or cookie sheet. Spread a generous layer of the cashew sauce on the pizza dough. Cover the pizza with potatoes, overlapping them slightly. If you have extra cashew cheese you could put another layer of the sauce over the potatoes. I didn't do this but I think it would be a great addition and help keep the peppers and onions on the pizza. Next evenly distribute the peppers and onions over the pizza. Sprinkle the chives over the pizza. 

Put pizza in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. 

Top with red pepper flakes as desired. Cool, slice, and serve. Enjoy!

I try to eat whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible, but I like to try a new vegan product at least once. I find it exciting when I see advancements in vegan food options and I think vegan meat alternatives are a great way to help those making the transition from omnivore to vegetarian or vegan diets.

These Beyond Meat beef crumbles are so close to the real thing its amazing. Plus they're so convenient. They come frozen and defrost so quickly. You just dump the frozen crumbles right into your saute pan with a little bit of water and they're quickly ready to go. As you'll see in the instructions below, this was a super quick dinner came together in a breeze. The longest part was chopping up the tomato and avocado and putting everything in little bowls!

Cashew sour cream is a great alternative for those trying to avoid soy or if you just don't have any tofu in the house. That's how I found myself the other night, so I decided to whip up some cashew sour cream. Jay loves cashew sour cream more than regular, although tofu sour cream is his favorite, since it's naturally creamier. When I make cashew sour cream I make sure so blend it for as long as possible so that it gets creamier, since it can tend to have more of a grainy texture. Soaking the cashews beforehand can help with this, but I didn't have any time - the crumbles cooked so quickly and we were hungry!

Ingredients:
1 Package Beyond Meat Frozen Beef Crumbles
6 Taco Tortillas (I used La Nina Tortillas)
1 Packet Taco Seasoning (I used Ortega 40% Less Sodium)

Toppings:
1 Avocado
4 oz Cherry Tomatoes
Spinach or other green

Cashew Sour Cream:
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/3 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Instructions:
Slice the avocado and tomato.

Cook frozen Beyond Meat Crumbles on the stove with a little bit of water until it is no longer frozen. Add the taco seasoning a stir until well combined.

Add the cashews, water, and lemon juice to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Heat a second pan over the stove. Place a tortilla on the pan for about a minute, or until crispy, then flip to the other side and repeat.

Tear the spinach and place it on the tortilla, add a quarter cup of taco mix, sour cream, avocado, and tomato. Enjoy!

I made this recipe for Christmas this year. It is inspired by aveggie pot pie with cashew filling by Kathy Patalsky at Healthy Happy Life. Similar to the Brussel Sprout Casserole I made for Thanksgiving, I wanted to make something that had vegetables and grains/protein all in one since I wouldn't be able to eat much else that was served. This definitely did the job of filling me up! The cashew sauce is so rich and filling!

As you'll see in the instructions below, this comes together super quickly! Jay has mentioned before at how he likes pot pie and I had thought about making it for a while, but the word "pie" always turned me off. For some reason I have always thought of pies have difficult things to make. It definitely helped that I didn't make the pie crust on my own. I am not skilled enough for that and I didn't feel like experimenting on Christmas morning.

This dish was a huge it at Christmas! As you can see from the picture at the bottom of this post - there wasn't much left! I took that picture before I grabbed my second slice. There was just enough for me to have one slice for leftovers on Friday. I can't wait to make this for Jay and see what he thinks of it! It will be a great staple to have over the winter.

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Chop all your vegetables. Measure how much you'll need by putting them in your pie dish. I used the leftover that I had from making the Spiral Veggie Tart the day before. Transfer your veggies to a large bowl.

Drain the cashews. Add the cashews, vegetable broth, and apple cider vinegar in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour over your bowl of veggies and mix until the veggies are all coated. Depending on what size of a pie you are making you may not need all the cashew sauce. If you filled your pie pan full of veggies then you just want enough to coat the veggies and fill in the space between them. They shouldn't be swimming.

Roll out the bottom layer of your pie crust so that its about an inch wider (or the height of your sides) than the pie pan all the way around. Add the veggies and cashew mix to the pie pan. Roll out the top layer the same way and place it on top. Squeeze the top and bottom layers together around the edge. Slice 3-4 vents in the top of the pie crust.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Serve and enjoy!

Jay had been saying how he wanted something with peanut sauce after I made the spaghetti squash with peanut sauce the other day. I thought that I would mix it up a bit and use tahini to make a sesame sauce. I wanted a recipe that would use my winter vegetables and all the cooking greens that I had and I thought a stir fry would be great.

I used bean starch noodles, also referred to as cellophane or glass noodles. There are other varieties made with potatoes or starches. You can find them in the Asian food aisle at the grocery store. They are normally packaged in three bundles of dried noodles. I normally use one bundle at a time. The package says it has three servings, but once you add in vegetables that one serving goes a long way. Jay has always been creeped out by them and this time was no different. If you don't like glass noodles you can use any other type of Asian noodle.

I used the rest of the seitan from the stew I made last week, about a half a cup. Jay thought it did a good job of filling in for chicken and was pleasantly surprised by the texture.

Instructions:

Cook the noodles to package directions.

While the noodles are cooking, chop up all your vegetables in the order you'll cook them - garlic, onion, carrot, sweet potato, apple, mushrooms, greens. I like to start cooking the heavier vegetables while I chop the rest. Heat the garlic and onion over medium heat until the onions begin to turn translucent. Add the carrots and sweet potato and cook for about 5 minutes, then add the apples, mushrooms, and seitan. Finally, add the greens and let them wilt.

To make the sauce combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. This makes enough sauce for a light coating, so if you want more you can increase the portion size of each ingredient. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and stir to evenly coat the dish.

I generally find that cellophane noodles tend to be very long, so after I drain them I like to put the whole pile on my cutting board and slice them once or twice. Combine the vegetables with the noddles. Serve and top with cashews. Enjoy!