Tag: meatless

Recipes, Uncategorized

Meatless Melt

veganlivingbydanielle

I’ve been loving making grilled cheeze lately. However, I’ve been following low carb macros lately for summer prep – as long as summer isn’t cancelled this year! I was wondering how I can add more protein to the meal and thought about the plant based deli slices from Lightlife! Perfect.

 

Sammie 2 | Meatless Melt

This is less of a “recipe” and more of an idea and steps to “create” the sandwich.

I used Lightlife “turkey” deli slices, Dave’s Killer Bread (low-carb), Violife Cheddar Cheeze, and Earth Balance butter. You can use mix up the cheeze flavor and the type of plant based deli slices to add some variety. Most bread is vegan. You can use apps like these to double check. Usually dairy and eggs have to be listed as allergens at the bottom of the ingredients list like “Contains: Milk.” You can also look for margarine this same way.

Ingredients for the sandwich

Ingredients:

  • 2 slices of bread
  • 2 slices of cheeze (more or less slices depending on your preference)
  • 4 slices of plant-based deli slices (more or less slices depending on your preference)
  • 2 Tbsp vegan butter
  • mustard, optional
  • vegan mayo, optional
  • sliced tomato, optional

Directions:

  1. Take out a small frying pan and put it on the stove over med-low heat.
  2. Take out 2 slices of bread.
  3. Butter one side of each slice of bread.Buttered Bread | Meatless Melt
  4. Once the pan is warm, put one of the slices of bread, butter side down, on the pan.
  5. Layer the cheeze and deli slices on the bread in the pan. Use as many slices of deli slices and cheeze as desired. I layered 1 cheeze, 2 deli slices, 1 cheeze, 2 deli slices. Layers | Meatless Melt
  6. Add any additional toppings here! I topped with mustard, I would have added vegan mayo if I had it too. Adding a slice of tomato here would also be very yummy!
  7. Place the last slice of bread on top, butter side up.
  8. Let it cook for about 3 minutes and then flip.
  9. Keep cooking and flipping until both sides of the sandwich are golden brown and crispy.
  10. Remove from the pan and cut the sandwich in half, if desired.
  11. Let cool for 1-2 minutes before eating.

Enjoy!

Serving suggestion: with a warm cup of tomato soup! Campbell’s original tomato soup is vegan, just cook it with water or unsweetened original non-dairy milk.

Macros: 38g carbs, 15.5g fat, 20g protein

Layered | Meatless Melt

Recipes, Uncategorized

Chik’n Parm

veganlivingbydanielle

Dress up your Wheat “Meat” recipe and make a chik’n parm dinner!

It’s super simple and very similar to cooking up chicken or eggplant parm, if you’ve ever done that.

You’ll need flax egg, vegan bread crumbs, frying oil, flour (optional), and sprigs of basil (optional for garnish).

Make a flax egg:

  • In a mixing bowl, whisk 1/4 cup flax seed meal with 3/4 cup water.
  • Let stand for 5 minutes for the mixture to become gelatinous.

Prep bread crumbs:

  1. I use 1-2 cups of vegan Italian bread crumbs. I like these bread crumbs from Whole Foods because they’re vegan and already seasoned.
  2. Whatever bread crumbs you use, you can add a bit of flour to the bread crumbs to make them stretch further and last longer.
  3. You can also search through your grocery store’s panko or plain bread crumbs and check the ingredients list that they are free of egg and dairy.
    • You can add Italian seasoning to the plain bread crumbs, 1 tsp Italian seasoning per cup.
    • If you don’t have Italian seasoning, you can use 1/4 tsp of oregano, 1/4 tsp of basil, 1/4 tsp of onion powder, 1/4 tsp of garlic powder.
  4. Put the bread crumbs, whichever option you choose, on a plate.

Directions:

  1. Take one slightly cooled piece of Wheat “Meat” and dunk it in the flax egg until it’s evenly coated on both sides.
  2. Take the piece that’s coated in the flax egg and cover in the bread crumbs on both sides.
  3. Put the coated piece on a clean plate.
  4. Repeat until all pieces are coated in flax egg and bread crumbs.
  5. Set frying pan on medium-high heat and add frying oil.
  6. When the pan is warm, put the Wheat “Meat” pieces in the pan.
  7. Cook until one side of the piece is golden brown and flip to cook on the other side. Add more oil if needed.
  8. Cook until golden brown on both sides.
  9. Remove from pan.
  10. Top with warmed red pasta sauce and vegan cheese if desired. I prefer Violife mozzarella and parmesan.
  11. If you are using “meat” that is completely cooled, I recommend baking for 15-20 minutes. You can also bake for 5-10 minutes to melt the cheese.
  12. Top with a sprig of basil for garnish.

Enjoy!

CH

 

 

Recipes, Uncategorized

Wheat “Meat”

veganlivingbydanielle

My friend and chef, Steve, was kind enough to share this recipe with me and let me share it on my blog here! Thanks Steve! I made some very slight adjustments to the recipe he gave me as he works at ION Restaurant (in Middletown, CT, USA) and designed his recipe to serve the masses!

For this recipe, you need:

  • KitchenAid mixer or something similar with a dough hook (you can also combine by hand in a bowl and knead it if you don’t have a dough hook with a mixer)
  • medium to large saucepan
  • cooking tongs or skimmer
  • rolling pin (I used a cup or my hands before I had a rolling pin, you can improvise!)
  • parchment paper or dough mat
Dough Hook

This recipe is protein rich (20g of protein per 50g wheat “meat” serving, 7g carbs and 6g fat). The first way I made it was as chik’n parm! You could also marinade with vegan BBQ sauce (most are vegan if they don’t have honey) and grill it up! I will expand on directions for prepping the Wheat “Meat” in future posts. I posted the finished product because it’s not very pretty before it’s prepped.

Meal Prep Tips: Freeze unused cutlets either individually or separated into meal-sized portions for the meals you intend to use them for. (The cutlets freeze together and are nearly impossible to separate without breaking or defrosting and you want to avoid refreezing after thawing.) Cool the cutlets you intend to freeze on a baker’s rack or something similar so they cool completely and don’t carry extra moisture/broth. You can package the cutlets individually or in a large freezer safe Tupperware separated by parchment paper. 

High Protein Meal Prep Tips: Double the recipe if you can so you get more out of your time spent on this recipe. Also, consider increasing your portion size to 75g cutlets and the protein becomes 28g per serving (10g carbs and 10g fat). Use a scale to measure your serving size, especially if you track your protein intake.

Prep time: 30-45 minutes; Cook time: 45 minutes

Dough Ingredients:

  • 1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
  • 2/3 cup vegetable broth
  • 2 Tbsp sesame tahini
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp salt

Broth Ingredients:

  • 1 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder

Directions:

  1. Combine dough ingredients in the bowl of the mixer.
  2. Mix on speed 2 with dough hook attachment for about 5 minutes or until dough has formed into a ball. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. If you don’t have a mixer, knead by hand until all the dough is mixed thoroughly. A wooden spoon may be useful for this as well. Don’t over knead the dough or it’s harder for the “cutlets” to stay in shape when you’re forming and cooking!
  3. Once the dough is well mixed, shape into smaller pieces.
  4. On a dough mat or parchment paper, roll the pieces out to about 1/2 – 1 inch thickness.
  5. Put water on the stove in the pot on high. Add broth ingredients to the water. Bring water to a boil.
  6. Place the “meat” pieces into the boiling water using the tongs or skimmer. Boil for at least 40-45 minutes. The “meat” will start to flake apart slightly. You can tell if it’s cooked all the way by cutting into it. The middle section looks thicker/ there’s no texture or air bubbles, if it’s not fully cooked. The texture should be consistent throughout.
  7. Remove the “meat” pieces from the water.
  8. Allow them to cool slightly and prep as desired.

Enjoy!

Lifestyle Tips, Uncategorized

How to Go Vegan

veganlivingbydanielle

Hi everyone!

I’ve found that many people I talk to about my vegan lifestyle say that they unsuccessfully have tried going vegan starting from a diet that includes meat and other animal products. A drastic change like that is not always sustainable.

Here’s a secret…transitioning your diet to 100% vegan does not need to happen in one night! If you try to cut out 100% of animal products in one shot, you are more likely to become overwhelmed by the change, be unsuccessful at sustaining the change in diet, and actually suffer from withdrawals from the certain foods. (Yes, animal products can be addicting. Read about it here and here.)

A tip to help you stick with your changes is also to keep a journal of the reasons you are choosing to go vegan, and do some research on other benefits to cutting out animal products to add to your list!

  • animal welfare
  • health benefits
  • environmental impact
  • workers rights
  • and more!

Here are some suggested steps to help you ease into a 100% vegan diet:

  1. Try a few vegetarian or vegan recipes a few times a week. I recommend not going too far off from foods you normally eat, and avoid too many products that are substitutions. Many people make the mistake of expecting veggie burgers, chik’n nuggets, and plant-based cheese to taste exactly like the real thing.
  2. Dedicate one day a week to going completely meatless. Increase the number of meatless days as time goes on. Do so with caution, if you reintroduce meat after abstaining for a long period of time, it could lead you to gastric distress.
  3. Another option to begin the transition to vegetarianism is to start by eliminating all but one type of meat, like chicken or fish.
  4. Once you’ve cut meat out of your diet, eliminate dairy. If necessary, you can allow yourself one dairy product like cheese or milk, or only allow yourself this dairy product on a certain day of the week. I also advise caution with reintroducing dairy after abstaining for a long period of time, as this could could lead you to gastric distress. (Let’s be real, should your food really cause you to get sick if you haven’t been eating it for long periods of time?!)
  5. At this stage, you will find that eliminating eggs will be relatively easy compared to the other foods.
  6. After removing eggs, you can focus on avoiding other foods that are commonly forgotten like honey, gelatin, whey, casein, lard, some red food coloring (cochineal, carminic acid, or carmine), some sugars, and some confectioner’s glaze just to name a few! When in doubt, Google! Also, check my post on some of my favorite Vegan Lifestyle Apps for some really useful apps.

My point is, go easy on yourself! Make this lifestyle change work for you. Don’t get caught up in labels and making extreme changes. Little changes add up over time and will make a difference for the animals or environment no matter how small!

How to Go Vegan | Vegan Living by Danielle

xo,

Danielle