Month: September 2019

Hey everyone! I have done a few dinner recipes so far but I wanted to give you guys a good easy breakfast to try out as well! During the week I like to try and cut out the processed foods as much as possible but weekends are for splurging right? Hope you all give this recipe a try and enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients/ shopping list:

• 1 block tofu, extra firm ( I am using Trader Joe’s organic super firm)
• 1 pack ” Gimmie Lean Sausage by Light Life”
• 1 pack “Follow Your Heart American Slices”
• Bread of your choosing
• Spinach (optional)
• Olive oil 1/3 cup
• Garlic powder 2 tsp
• Onion powder 1 tsp
• Turmeric 1 tsp
• Salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

I like to make these one step at a time and there is really only three steps which makes this recipe so easy! First I cook the vegan sausage, then the tofu egg, then I put the sandwich together.

Step 1.

Open up your “gimmie lean” veggie sausage and rip off a enough pieces for however many sandwiches you are making. Roll these pieces into balls then flatten into patties. Heat up your skillet with a little a little olive oil and fry up the sausage patties! These only take a few minutes on each side.

Step 2.

Next you are going to mix your olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric, salt, and pepper into a medium sized bowl. Whisk with a fork until mixture is even. There is two ways to cook the tofu depending on your preference, slices or scramble! For the slices: cut your tofu into thin slices as pictured below. dip each side into the oil mixture, then fry on skillet. For the scramble: either use a fork or you hands to shred to tofu, add to the bowl mixture to coat, then fry in the skillet. I am adding a picture of both for reference below!

Step 3.

Now that your tofu egg and vegan sausage are cooked it is time to prepare the sandwich! Take out your bread slices, add follow your heart cheese slices (1.5 slices fits perfect on a normal break slice), and add layer of spinach. Then go ahead and add your veggie sausage and tofu egg (if you went with tofu slices, I use two per sandwich). Once your sandwich is assembled, I microwaved mine for about 30-45 seconds to melt the cheese a little!

Wrap Up:

The “tofu” alone provides 10 grams of protein per serving, the veggie sausage has 7 grams per serving, and the spinach will add a source of calcium to the meal! This sandwich keeps you full all day as well! I catch myself not being hungry again until dinner after eating this.

Try this vegan breakfast one weekend and help to save the lives of chickens and pigs just like some of the animals here like Firecraker, the biggest pig baby at Farm Animal Refuge!

Give this recipe a try and share your results with me on instagram by tagging me! @carlye_lavonne_14

Try a vegan Taco-Tuesday this Tuesday with these delicious cauliflower tacos! This was the very first recipe I learned to make myself after going vegan and I used to eat it so many times a week before I finally gained the courage to try our a few more new recipes! For anyone just starting to go vegan or make a conscious effort to eat less meat, I highly recommend you give this recipe a shot. What I love about this recipe is that it can feed a whole family, but if your cooking for just one or two it makes great leftovers for lunch the next day!

Ingredients/ shopping list:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 large or two medium sized zucchini
• 1 can chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 1 packet taco seasoning (McCormick Original Taco)
• Tortillas
• Olive oil 1/4 cup
• Salt and pepper

Optional Slaw topping

• Vegan mayo (follow your heart)
• Slaw mixture
• Canned chipotle peppers

Cooking Instructions:

Chop your veggies, season your veggies, bake your veggies; that’s the whole recipe!!

Step 1.

Chop up your cauliflower and zucchini, then drain and rinse your chickpeas. Place all your veggies in a large bowl for mixing.

Step 2.

Drizzle you veggies with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 bag of taco seasoning, season with salt and pepper, and mix until your veggies are evenly covered in the seasoning .

Step 3.

Lay out your coated veggies on a baking sheet and bake on 400 degrees for about 30 – 40 minutes or until your veggies begin to brown.

Step 4. (Optional)

Add 1/2 cup vegan mayo, 1 tbs chipotle juice, and slaw mix to a bowl and stir well. This chipotle slaw is a great topper to these tacos but you can also add lettuce, gaucamole, salsa, or whatever you want to top this off!

Wrap Up:

I actually used to make this recipe without the chickpeas however I like to add them to get some extra protein in the meal!

Swap the carne for cauliflower this Tuesday and help save the lives of cows just like all the grass puppies here at Farm Animal Refuge!

Give this recipe a try and share your results with me on instagram by tagging me! @carlye_lavonne_14

Hello again! This recipe is so quick and simple! It is perfect for a mid- week meal, weekend comfort food, or a dinner party as it yields a good amount of food. Italian is my absolute favorite type of food as I come from an Italian household who basically raised me on pasta.. no complaints here! The ricotta recipe I am going to teach you to make here is so much easier than most I have found from other recipes and just as amazing! Once you get the ricotta down you can use it in lasagna roll ups which I am doing here, regular lasagna, or in stuffed shells!

Ingredients/ shopping list:

• 1 block tofu, firm
• 1 lemon
• Nutritional yeast (3 tbs)
• Salt pepper and garlic powder for taste
• Spinach (2 hand fulls)
• Lasagna noodles (I used “Barilla” whole grain noodles)
• Marinara sauce of your choosing (You will need at least 1 jar but I like to use 1.5 to make it a little extra saucy. My favorite is the Trader Joe’s Italian Marinara with Barolo Wine)

Cooking Instructions:

For the vegan ricotta I used a food processor but you can just use a blender if you do not have one. You will also need a large casserole dish to cook the roll ups in.

Step 1.

Bring large pot of water to boil on the stove top and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2.

Chop up your tofu into pieces to fit into your food processor or blender. Next, add juice of half a lemon, 3 tbs nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and about 2 tsp garlic powder to the mixer. Blend this tofu mixture until it starts to take ricotta form (mostly a smooth mix but not completely liquefied). Then add in one handle full spinach and blend again only for a few seconds to mix the tofu in but not so long your whole mixture starts to turn green.

Step 3.

Once your water is boiling add your noddles and cook for 8 minutes. Once you noddles are cooked you are going to spread a thin layer of the ricotta across the entire length of the noodle (not just a slab on one end, i tired this first and failed miserably). Add a little fresh spinach on top of the ricotta layer and then roll up into squares.

Step 4.

In your casserole dish add half the jar of marinara to the bottom of the dish, add your lasagna squares on top, and then finish off with another layer of marinara on top. Cover in tin foil and bake on 350 for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes if the noodles still feel a little cold you can remove tin foil and cook for another 10 minutes.

Wrap Up:

The “tofu” alone provides 42 grams of protein with only 390 calories. The whole grain noodles also have 7 grams of protein for every two sheets of noodles and the spinach will add a source of calcium to the meal!

By substituting this vegan ricotta as opposed to the normal dairy/cheese version you will be choosing to stop support of the dairy industry and their cruel practices. In turn this will help save the lives of precious dairy cows just like Farm Animal Refuge’s own Gracie!

Give this recipe a try and share your results with me on instagram by tagging me! @carlye_lavonne_14

Hi again everyone! This is my healthy take on panda express orange chicken. I could have used a mock meat substitute like “gardein” or “beyond meat” but sometimes I like to just have tofu in order to cut out a little of the processed food. Plus if I am being honest, you could put this sauce on cardboard and I would probably still eat it, it’s that good! In my original recipe I only used tofu, broccoli, and rice; however I wish I would have added cashews for a little extra crunch so I am going to include that in this recipe although they wont be in the pictures. Hope you enjoy as much as I did 🙂

Ingredients/ shopping list:

• 1 block extra firm tofu ( I swear by the Trader Joe’s organic “super firm” tofu. It comes bagged and almost dry rather than soaked in water which makes it hold way better than any other tofu when using it as a meat substitute)
• 1 bottle of the “panda express orange sauce”
• Corn starch (1/2 cup)
• Panko bread crumbs ( 1/3 cup)
• Olive oil (1/4 cup and a little extra to drizzle in the pan)
• One bag of broccoli or about two heads
• Cashews (1/2 cup)
• Rice of your choosing

Cooking Instructions:

Make sure you have two pans and burners ready for this dish as well as anything you need for the rice you are cooking. The tofu will be in one pan, the broccoli and cashews in another and then you can mix them all before serving.

Step 1.

Chop up your tofu into squares as pictured below. Then either in a large bowl or tupperware add the olive oil, cornstarch, and panko bread crumbs. I love using tupperware as you can just put the lid on and shake up all the ingredients. The goal here is to coat the tofu in the cornstarch. If your panko crumbs are not sticking very well thats ok! They will still fry up with the tofu in the pan and add a nice crunch.

Step 2.

Once your tofu mixture is ready go ahead and heat up your first pan and drizzle with a little oil. Add the tofu mixture and occasionally flip or stir tofu until it begins to turn yellowish brown and crispy. While you are waiting for the tofu to crisp up, heat up your other pan and drizzle with oil to get ready for the broccoli and cashews. Add the cashews at the bottom of the pan with the olive oil as to get nice and crispy, then add your broccoli on top. Stir this occasionally until the broccoli is soft enough to piece easily with a fork. ( If you are new to cooking I would recommend doing to the tofu first then the broccoli and cashews so you don’t become overwhelmed and either over or under cook something. There is no shame in dinner taking a bit longer if the final result turns out better.)

Step 3.

Once everything is cooked, add the broccoli and cashews to your tofu pan and add in the orange sauce (there is no measurment for this because everyone has a different preference in sauce amounts). Leave the burner on while you add your sauce and for about 5-8 minutes after so the sauce can thicken a bit.

Step 4.

Serve with a scoop or two of rice and enjoy!

Wrap Up:

The “tofu” alone provides 42 grams of protein with only 390 calories not to mention the fact that one bag of broccoli has 12 grams of protein and only 100 calories.

Again, wrapping up, not only will this dinner provide you with a healthy and quick mid week meal (which also re-heats just as delicious for leftovers), but by swapping tofu for regular chicken you are saving innocent lives like those of Gerald and all the other lucky chickens that get to live out their lives here at Farm Animal Refuge. Give this recipe a try and share your results with me on instagram by tagging me! @carlye_lavonne_14

These vegan skewers are perfect for an everyday dinner or a barbecue with friends! You will not believe how easy and delicious these babies are!! The first time I made this I wound up snacking on the leftovers all night.. whoops. Feel free to substitute any of the veggies in this recipe for your favorites. The part of this recipe that really takes it to the next level is the grill pan I used which left the skewers with a perfect charred and caramelized taste! However, you can use a regular grill, or if neither of the other options are available to you, I would recommend using a large skillet and make sure it gets as hot as possible before dropping the skewers on to cook 🙂

Ingredients/ shopping list:

• 1 pack of “gardein” chicken strips ( If you traditional like you skewers with beef, “gardein” has an option for that as well!)
• 1 bag of green giant brussel sprouts ( I like using the bagged brussels as you can cook them in the microwave which saves time)
• 1 red onion
• 1 zucchini
• 1 can water chestnuts
• 1 can pineapple
• 1 pack of “the little potato company” potatoes ( these are found in the produce section normally below the potato stand, again i like these because they cook in the microwave)
• 1 bottle of teriyaki sauce ( my favorite is “very very teriyaki marinade” but any will work)
• Olive oil to drizzle before cooking, you only need a few tablespoons

Cooking Instructions:

This recipe is so simple! It is basically 4 steps: prepare the chicken, then the veggies, add to skewers, cook!

Step 1.

For best results I recommend marinating the “chicken” in teriyaki the night or morning prior. However, if you do not have time to do this they will still turn out delicious so not to worry! All you need to do for this step is microwave the chicken strips for the time listed on the back of packaging and place into a bowl or tupperware with the teriyaki sauce.

Step 2.

Next you are going to pre-cook you brussels and potatoes to soften them because the skewers will only be on the grill for a few minutes and you don’t want to be eating hard potatoes or brussels am I right? Both of the brands I listed above all you have to do is microwave them; 3 minutes for the brussels and 5 for the potatoes. While those are microwaving, go ahead and chop up your onion and zucchini and open up your pineapples and water chestnuts.

Step 3.

Put them all together on your skewers!

Step 4.

Heat up your grill pan, traditional grill, or skillet and add some olive oil drizzle so they do not stick (if you are using a regular grill i would brush a little oil on with your fingers before grilling). Then go ahead and drop your skewers on! I let them grill for about 2 minutes on each side but you will know they are ready when you start to get little burnt marks on your veggies. ( If you didn’t have time to marinate the chicken first I recommend adding a little bit of the teriyaki sauce onto the grill pan to add more flavor)

Wrap Up:

The “gardein” chicken will give you 36 grams of protein with only 360 calories not to mention all the nutrients you will get from your added veggies.

Finally the absolute best part about the recipe? By using this vegan chicken option as opposed to regular chicken or beef you will help save the lives of chickens and cows born into slaughter who were not fortunate enough to land here at Farm Animal Refuge such as India and Mary. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do and if you want to share your results with me (please do!) tag me on instagram @carlye_lavonne_14.

Hello! My name is Carlye and I have been vegan for about 4 years now, but vegetarian almost my whole life! If you are interested in trying to start the transition to a vegan lifestyle I am here to help with some simple vegan recipes that are not only healthy and delicious, but practical and will fit into your everyday life! I know for myself, the hardest part about going vegan was trying to follow complex recipes from google or pinterest and feeling discouraged when they didn’t turn out well.

On this blog I hope to give you all some of my favorite vegan recipes that will fit into your busy lifestyle and leave you with a whole new idea of what a vegan meal looks and tastes like! Each will include step by step recipe guides with pictures along the way! Even if you start with one Meatless Monday per week you could make a huge impact on the life of so many animals. I hope you all enjoy and give some of these recipes a try, I promise they will not disappoint!