Ready to snicker? These are called "Pasties". You can call them whatever you like, we say it so it doesn't sound the way it's spelled. All I need is for my son you go to school and tell everyone that his mommy made pasties!
I'm giving a version of a recipe that I found. I have made changes to the recipe and have listed how I made them. The only thing I didn't add was that I put asparagus in the pasties I made. They were fantastic! Logan loved that he could eat them with his hands.
I hope you will try and enjoy this recipe!

Pasties
1/4 cup butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 turnip, peeled and diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1/4 pound mushrooms, chopped
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 pound shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten

The Crust:
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cups butter (or Crisco)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Divide pastry dough into four equal portions and roll each one out in a square shape. Set pastry aside to rest.
3. Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add butter or margarine and allow to melt. Add onion and saute for 5 minutes, until translucent and beginning to brown. Add carrot, turnip, potato, mushrooms, and water. Lower heat and cover skillet. Allow mixture to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. In a small bowl add milk and whisked 1 egg. Stir this mixture into cooked vegetables. Continue to stir until mixture thickens. Add cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.
5. Place 1/4 of filling on one half of each pastry square. Fold pastry diagonally and seal edges. Brush tops of pastry with beaten egg.
6. Place pasties on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.

Tortilla Soup

I love this soup! It's really yummy, and one of the best parts is, if you are the only one eating it, you can freeze some and just just as good as when it was first made. Just leave the Tortilla chips out, put in a freezer safe container and there you have a meal for another day.

Tortilla Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves

1 tsp chili powder

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans black beans

1 can Veggie broth

10 oz package frozen corn

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup crushed tortilla chips

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice.

1. In large saucepan, heat oil medium. Cook garlic and chili powder until fragrant about 1 minute.

2. Add tomatoes with juice, beans, broth, corn and 1 cup water. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Bring soup to boil, reduce to simmer. Add tortilla chips and cook until softened about 2 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice. Serve with extra tortilla chips.

What's for dinner? Part 2

Scratch that. I decided to make my own. So here's what I made:

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pkg. Rice Noddles(also called rice sticks)
1/2 Red bell pepper
1/2 Green bell pepper
Mushrooms(gasp I used canned, it's all I had)
3 Tbs Soy sauce
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp salt(optional)
Zucchini, Shredded
Green onion, chopped
Veggie broth, 1/2- 3/4 cup
Prepare noddles a directed on package. Then chop noddles into smaller, pieces not really small just to a little bigger then bite size.
Saute all veggies and garlic. Mix Soy sauce, sugar and salt. add to veggies. Add noddles, mix.
I added extra garlic powder because I love garlic, it's up to you if you want to do the same.
It's really yummy!

What's for dinner?

I found a recipe for Mai Fun(Rice noddles) that I will be trying tonight. When we go to Chinese restaurants This is the first thing I go for. I love these noddles. Here's what I'll be making:

8oz Mai Fun (Rice Vermicelli Noodles)
2 stalks green onion
16oz bag frozen stir fry vegetables
2 tbsp stir fry oil

Sauce:
½ cup chicken broth(I will be using Veggie broth)
3 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp salt

**I am sure you can just cut up your own veggies instead of using frozen. Let me know what you think!

Veg to the E "Burgers"

I tossed these together today for lunch.


1 onion(the size is up to you), chopped
2 portabella mushroom caps(or about 1 1/2 cups), Chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 15 oz. can refried beans(if you are not eating animal bi-products make sure you get lard free beans!)
1 cup TVP(textured vegetable protein), Rehydrated(see package)
1-2 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4-1/2 cup flour
You can saute the onions and mushrooms but it's not necessary. If you decide not to the onions will just be a little crunchy. The mixture should be sticky but not gloppy.
In about 2 tablespoons of olive oil fry these babies up, about 5 min each side on med/low heat.
Makes 8-10 "burgers". Serve on whole grain buns with lettuce and tomato...Yum!

Chana Masala

Chana Masala? ummmm what's that? Ricardo was not too excited when I said I was making this for dinner but he said he was willing to give it a try...guess what? He loved it and ate the leftovers the next day. This is really filling so you don't need to double the recipe unless you are cooking for a bigger group.

I found this recipe "idea" at: www.vegweb.com But I changed some things, so this in my version:

Chana Masala
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Sriracha(found in the Asian section of the grocery store, it's a red sauce, mine has a green lid) ***Note***if you don't want it too spicy reduce the amount!
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I used ketchup, it's what I had!)
15 oz can chick peas, drained, reserving 3 tablespoon liquid
1/2 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh black pepper
crushed red pepper, optional (I didn't use)
1 tablespoon Earth Balance margarine

Directions:

Heat oil on medium high heat. Fry onions until slightly browned. Reduce heat to medium. Add garlic, Sriracha, and paste. Stir and simmer about 2 minutes. Add chick peas, liquid, lime juice, salt, and black pepper. Simmer 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add red pepper to taste. Add margarine, stirring through to melt it. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes more or until peas are softened and dish is hot. Serve over rice.

Makes: 2-4 servings, Preparation time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 15 minutes

Yummy dinner tonight

My husband(Ricardo) really wanted to have Chili-Slaw dogs tonight for dinner, so I asked him to buy vegetarian chili for me. This was my dinner tonight:

Whole grain hotdog buns
Veg. chili
Coleslaw(not vegan obviously)
You put the chilli on the bun then the coleslaw. I know it seems odd for me to tell you which order to put the ingredients on but, there is a reason. If you put the chili first the coleslaw going on top kind of seals in the chili making it a bit less messy.
I was also thinking that shredded zucchini(told you we love it!)in with the chili would be a really good addition.
Not sure if you will like the combo? "Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say."(Green eggs and ham-Dr. Seuss.....I'm quoting this book and I don't eat eggs or ham,hehe)

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

We love zucchini. Pretty much anyway it can be fixed, we'll eat it. When my 6 year old gets excited that we are have a vegetable for dinner, I try to make as many things as I can with that in it! This is a dinner we've had twice in the past month and it was gobbled up fast(no leftovers).

My Zucchini dish with out a name
1-2 cups chopped Tomatoes(I use canned stewed tomatoes from a pint size jar)with juice
1/2-1 teaspoon Cumin
1/4 cup chopped Cilantro(We love cilantro so I sometimes do more...if you aren't a fan you can always cut it out completely)
1 med. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic(or garlic powder)
2 Med-large Zucchini cut into chunks
Simmer everything except the Zucchini for about 5 min. add Zucchini simmer until zucchini is tender.
You can eat this over rice to make it a little more filling, we ate it as is the first time and it was wonderful that way too.
**If you can think of a good name for this recipe let me know in a comment!