Vegan Southern Feast: Sausage Okra Gumbo, Bacon Cornbread, Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, Perfect Brussels Sprouts

August 14, 2015

Yummy Pasta Alert! Apple-Sage Sausage, Chard, & Cashew-Pistachio Cream

July 29, 2014

I only made this because I like using hyphens. And because it’s uhhhmazing! This is rapidly becoming my favorite pasta dish. It’s really easy but it tastes like it’s difficult. You cook the best type of Field Roast sausage, the apple sage kind, with its perfectly paired green – rainbow swiss chard – and put it over fusilli. Then, you whip up this amazing creamy cheesy sauce in two seconds in your blender, and voila! Breakfast! No that’s from “Rookie of the Year”! I mean dinner! Or breakfast! Whatever you want dude!

I like to pair this pasta with a simple green salad without dressing, because I’ll inevitably wipe up the remaining sauce with the leaves, as I do with any salad and any sauce. Also, I used quinoa-brown rice pasta (from Trader Joe’s) for this, so it can be easily made gluten-free. Of course, I’m not sure about any of the sauce ingredients being gluten-free. And, of courser, the Field Roast sausage is made of gluten, I’m pretty sure. But then even more of courser, most punks nowadays claiming they are gluten-free only mean they don’t want to eat pasta and bread because scary carbs/they don’t understand nutrition and people with real gluten allergies already know what they can and can’t eat so I don’t have to worry about it. So!

Gluten-Free (or Not! Probably Not!) Pasta with Apple-Sage Sausage, Swiss Chard, & Cashew-Pistachio Cream

The foods
Ingredients:

1 pound fusilli pasta (make sure it’s gluten-free because carbs and idiots)
2T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound Swiss Chard (I love getting the pre-washed bag of rainbow chard from Trader Joe’s), chopped
1 package Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages (4 little wieners), diced in small half-moons

Directions:

Cook the pasta according to package directions and set aside. Don’t leave in the colander in the sink where people might wash dog food off their hands because then you will have to repeat this instruction.
Heat the onion in the oil in a large pot on medium-high heat and cook for about 5 minutes until browning.
Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the sausage and cook through for about 5 minutes, adding a little water if it sticks too much.
Pour the chard on top of the cooking sausage, adding a tiny bit of water (like less than 1/4C), and cover to let it cook down. The moisture from the chard will help the sausage cook and not stick so don’t add too much water.
When everything is cooked, pour the pasta into the pot and stir everything through.

Cream sauce
Ingredients:

1/2 C raw cashews (buy the pieces; they are cheaper!)
1/3 C raw pistachios
2 cloves garlic
1/2 C unsweetened original almond milk
2t dijon mustard
2t miso
2t tamari
lots and lots of black pepper
1/2C nutritional yeast (NOOCH)
1-2 handfuls of fresh parsley

Directions:

Dump everything in a high-speed blender. (If you only have a regular blender, you’ll prob have to pre-soak your nuts.)
Blend until smooth.
Pour over the pasta.
Enjoy!!!!

Party girls don’t get hurt

Can’t feel anything, when will I learn

I push it down, push it downnnn

123 123 drink, throw em back till I lose count

IIIIII’M GONNA SWIIIIIIING FROM THE CHANDELIEEEERRRR

FROM THE CHANDELIEEEEEERRRR

Yuuummm! You should eat with a fork because it is pasta (and maybe salad). I used a spoon because I don’t like dirtying extra things. Also I usually just use my fingers. And my face.

I really loved the fresh parsley as an addition to an otherwise heavy cream. You can use this sauce in so many ways: over tofu or tempeh, in mashed potatoes (ERMA P. GERD), over pretty much anything you want except ice cream. I hope you enjoy!

I’M GONNA FLYYYY LIKE A BIRD THROUGH THE NIGHT

Purfit Protein Powder Review, Plus My Favorite Green Smoothie Recipe!

February 10, 2014

The very generous people over at Purfit gave me a huge container of their chocolate Meal Replacement Shake to try, and I must say I really like it. I have been obsessed with Sunwarrior Raw Chocolate protein powder for a few years now, but Purfit has posed a surprisingly successful contender. I would definitely buy this in the future.
For each serving of 37g (or a ‘scoop’, but my container didn’t include a scoop so I used the Sunwarrior one), you get 140 calories, 5g fat, and 14g protein, plus at least 100% of your daily vitamin A, C, B6, B12, and other vitamins. The chocolate taste is the best I’ve found in any protein powder, from Sunwarrior to Vega to Plantfusion. It’s a little chalky, as they all are, but it tastes the most like chocolate milk and not like chocolate-flavored protein. So that’s good!

I tried Purfit in several forms in order to get a complete picture. First, I tried Purfit’s recommended recipe of “Chocolate Twist”, which is the powder mixed with water and a tiny bit of vanilla extract. I just blended the following ingredients in a small blender.

CHOCOLATE TWIST

1 serving Purfit
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

This simple recipe is what sold me on the product. I never drink protein powder straight with water; I always add it to my morning smoothies. The thought of having other powders plain grosses me out. But this tasted like chocolate milk! I was shocked, and delighted. I’ll definitely be getting Purfit out when I want a chocolate milk fix.

Next, I tried it in my favorite green smoothie recipe instead of my usual Sunwarrior protein. My secret to green smoothies is to freeze all of the components, including the greens. Frozen greens blend and disintegrate more easily. Freezing is made simpler with prewashed and bagged greens, like the ones from Trader Joe’s. This is roughly what I do:

MY FAVORITE GREEN SMOOTHIE

2 cups frozen kale (squish it into the blender with your hands and you can fit more)
1 cup frozen rainbow chard
1 cup frozen spinach
1/2 cup frozen collards
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1 scoop chocolate protein powder

Fill the blender with water first, about 2 cups. Blend until really really smooth. It makes a ton, so I like to freeze the extras in single-serve Mason jars to take to work on days I have less time.
My favorite smoothie was just as great with Purfit. The chocolate was a bit more pronounced but I like that. The strange thing was, I felt way fuller much later in the day than I normally do. I was barely hungry for dinner after having this for my first meal. I don’t necessarily like that, but for those of you who need help staying full between meals, I recommend giving this a try!

Lastly, I tried to make my standard Vitamix ice cream/water ice with Purfit taking the place of some of the cocoa powder. A high-speed blender is necessary for this recipe, I’m sorry to say!

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM
Ingredients:

1 cup plain almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons Purfit chocolate powder
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tablespoons peanut butter (chocolate peanut butter if you’re awesome)
4 cups ice cubes

Directions:

Place all ingredients into your high-speed blender in the order listed, so that almond milk is at the bottom and ice is at the top.
Blend on high for about 15 seconds, pushing down with the tamper, until creamy.

Normally the consistency of water ice, this recipe turned out much creamier this time, and I have to attribute that to the Purfit. Shocking! I love the idea of sneaking protein powder into ice cream. Since the taste didn’t seem different, there’s really no reason not to add it in if you need more protein.

The finished product from a bird’s eye view

YUM!

All loaded up and ready to go!

If you have access to this peanut butter, I highly suggest using it for everything you can possible think of, except toothpaste.

The easiest, fastest ice cream ever

Thank you so much to the people of Purfit for letting me try your product. I am so excited to say that I honestly enjoyed it and am looking forward to adding it to my regular lineup of protein powders. I hope you readers enjoy my recipes and enjoy Purfit if you decide to buy it!