27 Aug 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: basil, broccoli, carrots, comfort food, corn, corn cob, crushed tomatoes, cumin, dried basil, fresh basil, garlic, greek yogurt, olive oil, onions, oregano, pasta, Pasta Sauce, sauces, soy yogurt, sugar, tomato sauce, Tomato-Vegetable Pasta Sauce, vegan, vegetarian, yogurt
This is a basic outline for creating a quick sauce that includes lots of veggies and can be done with most of the veggies you happen to have in your home. We used onions, broccoli, carrots and corn but I bet cauliflower, peas, squash, spinach, eggplant, peppers and mushrooms would all work great! 🙂 Perfect for CSA’s! We chopped all the veggies up small as we were using a food processor for the fun of pushing buttons. The kiddos were LOVING this and the before and after veggies, but this also helped everyone eat more veggies too! Love that! Super easy and fun to make your own sauce! Enjoy!!!
Tomato-Vegetable Pasta Sauce
1 can 28 ounce crushed tomatoes
2 onions, chopped (or in our case in food processor, the kiddos LOVED to press the buttons)
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 ears of corn, cut from cob
1 tablespoon of sugar
bit of fresh basil, cut (we only had a bit but you can add more if you have it!)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
dash of dried basil (I only had a little bit of fresh basil, so wanted to add a bit more)
dash of oregano
2 teaspoons of salt
dash of garlic powder
dash of cumin
1 lb pasta (we used gnocchi tonight, but that is just because the kids pulled it out of the pantry and requested :))
*(optional) greek or soy yogurt
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and cook onions for 5 minutes. Add broccoli and carrots and cook stirring occasionally another 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, corn, sugar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and spices (reserving the fresh basil till 5 minutes before serving).
2. Simmer for a few minutes or up to a half hour depending on when your pasta is done or when you want to serve dinner 🙂
3. While sauce is simmering cook the pasta and combine when done.
*Optional – add greek or soy yogurt to the sauce for extra creaminess.
27 Jul 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Cooking With Kids, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: avocado pasta, avocado pesto, avocados, basil, cherry tomatoes, cooking with kids, dairy free, dairy free sauce, Flax seed oil, garlic, gluten-free, grape tomatoes, green, ground black pepper, healthy eating, healthy meals, healthykids, healthymeals, kids, lemon, lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, pasta, quick and easy, raw sauce, sauce, Super Fast Avocado Pasta, trader joes, Trader Joes Fresh Rice Pasta, vegan, vegetarian
I am all about cooking with the kiddos whenever possible 🙂 Today for lunch we made our Avocado Pasta, similar to This One that I make for them normally that they love, but this time we did it all in one bowl (and a pot) 🙂 They loved it and were even super happy to take turns mashing (and tasting!) Lunch was deelish but cooking together and smiles around (and green mouths!) makes it that much sweeter!
Super Fast Avocado Pasta
2-3 servings
Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Vegan, no cook/raw sauce
2 avocados
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon dried Basil
1/2 teaspoon dried Oregano
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Flax seed oil
12 ounces- 1 lb of pasta (we used Trader Joes Fresh Rice Pasta – made it even faster, cooks in 2 minutes!)
ground black pepper, to taste
cherry or grape tomatoes, cut
- Boil water and cook pasta in a large pot
- In a bowl combine avocado, garlic, lemon juice, oils, salt, basil, pepper and oregano. Mash with a fork till creamy.
- When pasta is done, drain and mix with sauce. Garnish with tomatoes. Serve immediately. YUM!
14 Jul 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: quickmeals, vegetarian, baby carrots, Cashews, cauliflower, cauliflower cheese sauce, cauliflower florets, Cauliflower Mac & Cheese, comfort food, dinner ideas, dinnerideas, Fresh parsley, garlic powder, gf, GF penne pasta, gluten-free, glutenfree, healthy kids, healthy meals, Healthy Vegan Cheese Sauce, healthykids, healthymeals, kids, kids vegetables, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, nuts, onion powder, pasta, penne pasta, pepper, sauces, Sea Salt, vegan, vegan mac & cheese, vegetarian
So this was awesome!!! We are lucky that our kids eat a ton of veggies but this was still an awesome way to serve them! Everyone loved it! Enjoy this tasty and super healthy dish!
Cauliflower Mac & Cheese – Healthy Vegan Cheese Sauce Yum!
Gluten-free, Vegan
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
handful of baby carrots
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste
1/4-1/2 teaspoon pepper, to taste
pasta of choice (we used GF penne pasta)
Fresh parsley, for garnish
- Add cauliflower & carrots in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a low boil. Once boiling, cook for another 8-9 minutes until super tender. Drain.
- At the same time boil water for pasta and cook as instructed by package. Drain when done.
- In a high-speed blender (we use a Vitamix) blend the cashews and a 1/4 cup of water for 30 seconds. Then add the cooked and drained cauliflower & carrots, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Blend until a super smooth.
- Add sauce & pasta into a pot and stir, till just combined. Salt, to taste
- Serve with parsley sprinkled on top
30 Jun 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Home Cooking, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: arrowroot, coconut milk, comfort food, garlic powder, gf, gluten-free, jewish, lemon juice, mac & cheese, mac & cheeze, nutritional yeast, One Pot, One Pot Gluten Free Vegan Mac-n-Cheese, quick and easy, quinoa, salt, sides, tahini, vegan, vegan cheese, Vegan Mac-n-Cheese, vegetarian
I have wanted to try this one for a while and it was really great. After too many leftover meals in a row this was super welcome and I had all the ingredients already at home! This was so quick and so good, I know it will become a regular!
One Pot Gluten Free Vegan Mac-n-Cheese
Serves 4
Recipe adapted from www.pure2raw.com
4 cups water
2 cup quinoa
- In small saucepan over high heat bring the water to a boil. Once boiling add quinoa and return to a boil. Then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes *There might be some water left over, but that is okay.
- Remove from heat and pour the quinoa into a bowl and set aside.
The cheezy sauce
1 1/2 cups coconut milk (I was a little short so I used some almond milk mixed with coconut milk)
6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
4 tablespoons tahini
4 tablespoons arrowroot
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Using the same pot that the quinoa was in, place it back on the stovetop over medium heat and add coconut milk and tahini. Whisk together. The tahini will melt into the milk. Then add remaining ingredients and whisk. Raise the heat to be medium high. It will start to thicken, takes about 1-2 minutes. Once it starts getting thick pour the quinoa back in the pot and stir till well combined.
08 Jun 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: avocado, avocado pasta, basil, black pepper, comfort food, cook pasta, creamy, garlic, green, lemon juice, lemon zest, pasta, pignoli, pine nuts, quick and easy, sauces, spinach, vegan, vegetarian
Sometime you just want a home cooked meal but haven’t planned anything and haven’t gone shopping to cook. The kids are always well fed but sometimes we get left a little behind 😉 This is a great meal that took literally the time to boil pasta to create with all ingredients I always have at home. Super simple and deelish, the best!
Creamy Avocado Pasta
4 servings
2 avocados
Juice of 1 lemon + lemon zest to garnish
1-3 garlic cloves, to taste
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1/2 cup Fresh Basil or Spinach
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 lb of pasta
ground black pepper, to taste
Pine nuts, for garnish
- Boil water and cook pasta in a large pot
- In blender or food processor combine garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil and process until smooth. Add avocado, basil, and salt and blend until creamy
- When pasta is done, drain and mix with sauce. Garnish with lemon zest, black pepper and pine nuts. Serve immediately.
19 May 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Raw Desserts and Treats, Vegan Recipes
Tags: chia, chia seeds, chocolate, Chocolate Macaroons, cocoa powder, coconut, coconut oil, dessert, gluten-free, grain-free, jewish, macaroons 1 banana, maple syrup, No Bake Chocolate Macaroons, nut-free, Oh She Glows, ohsheglows.com, Passover, quick and easy, raw, Sea Salt, snack, unsweetened shredded coconut, vanilla extract, vegan, vegetarian
Oh how I LOVE Oh She Glows! Just amazing! I am a huge fan of raw desserts, but not everyone is. Thankfully my family loved these macaroons for Passover. They definitely are not your traditional but they were super yummy and even considered healthy! How fun! Another one of our recipes that can be enjoyed anytime!!
I doubled the recipe and used small and big ice cream scoopers to make big macaroons and mini ones 🙂 (or baby ones as my kiddos would say!)
No Bake Chocolate Macaroons
Recipe from ohsheglows.com
Raw, Vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, grain-free
12 macaroons
- 1 banana, finely mashed
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)*
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 6 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
- 1.5 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)(I used)
- small pinch of fine grain sea salt, to taste
- In a medium mixing bowl, mash the banana until most of the clumps are gone. Stir in the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla.
- Sift in the cocoa powder and stir until combined. Now stir in the coconut, optional chia seeds, and fine grain sea salt to taste.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat. Using a spoon or retractable ice cream scooper, scoop rounds onto the sheet. Place sheet in the freezer for around 20 minutes, or until macaroons are firm. Store in the freezer until ready to enjoy. They will soften at room temperature.
Note: 1/4 cup pure maple syrup results in a lightly sweet macaroon. Feel free to adjust the sweetener to your own taste buds, especially because some cocoa powders may be stronger than others.
08 May 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: breakfast, comfort food, cooking with kids, entertaining, h'orderves, jewish, kid-friendly, kids, Mayim Bialik, Mayim Bialik passover, Mayim Bialik vegan, Mayim Bialik's recipes, Mini Potato Kugels, olive oil, onion, paprika, Passover, Potato Kugel, potato starch, potatoes, quick and easy, sides, vegan, vegetarian
I love that all the food we cooked for this year’s Passover Sedar, we cooked as a family! Such a sweet day with the four of us! Most of the recipes we made were also great for year round.
In searching for some kiddo & adult friendly Passover recipes I found this one for Mini Potato Kugels. They are perfect little cups of fried onions and potatoes, so really yummy handheld hash browns 🙂 My kids really liked them (even raw as we were making them) and pressing them into the muffin tins! Plus it was super fun for both of the kiddos to take turns pressing the on/off switch on the food processor to grate these.
I was also inspired because this is one of Mayim Bialik’s recipes and LOVE all things Mayim! True to form it was great 🙂
Mini Potato Kugels
5 medium potatoes, grated
1 large onion, grated
3 Tablespoons olive oil, separated
1 teaspoon paprika
1 Tablespoon potato starch
Salt, to taste (somehow I missed that this was not in the recipe, so notice the salt I sprinkled on top 🙂 but best to add to the mixture first!)
- Grate the potatoes, and then drain the liquid from them.
- Saute the grated onion in 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil until soft but not brown. Add paprika.
- Mix onions into the potatoes and add potato starch and 1 more Tablespoon olive oil.
- Push into greased muffin tins, filling each muffin space all the way to the top, and spritz with a little more oil.
- Bake at 400F for 40 minutes.
23 Apr 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Uncategorized, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: almond butter, chocolate, chocolate chips, comfort food, dessert, earth balance, entertaining, holiday, lisasprojectvegan.com, matzah, matzah meal, matzo meal, nut butter, Organic, organic natural peanut butter, Passover, peanut butter, powdered sugar, quick and easy, Sea Salt, snack, vegan, vegan chocolate chips, vegan powdered sugar, vegetarian
Passover dessert is not really known for being so great (think dry flour less cardboard), but these were awesome! Chocolate & Peanut Butter to me is always a winning combination 🙂 Not everyone eats peanuts/legumes during the holiday so you can always substitute Almond butter and I’m sure would be amazing too! Also to make this as a Non-Passover dessert you can use graham cracker meal or maybe even try coconut flour! mmmm ideas!
My dear friend Lisa posted these on her site and I’m so happy, and so was the rest of my family! YUM!!!!!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Matzo Squares
recipe from lisasprojectvegan.com
1 1/4 cup organic natural peanut butter (room temperature)
4 tablespoons Earth Balance (1/2 stick, softened)
1 cup vegan powdered sugar
1 cup of matzo meal (approx 3 sheets processed)
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
coarse sea salt (optional)
Combine the peanut butter and Earth Balance. Use a hand mixer and if it gets to tough, use your hands. Work the powdered sugar in 1/2 a cup at a time. When that is thoroughly combined, add the matzo meal and 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. Combine well. Lightly grease a small square pan (mine is a 8×8 baking pan) and set the mixture in by really pressing it down firmly so it is even. Melt together 1/4 cup of the peanut butter and the other 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. Pour it over the top of the crust and spread it out evenly. If using sea salt, sprinkle on (I did so on half) Place in the refrigerator to set (at least an hour.) Cut into squares and serve! Enjoy!
16 Apr 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: almond milk, appetizer, dip, earth balance, entertaining, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, Happy Passover, Hors d'oeuvre, Hors d'oeuvres, kale, ketchup, lacinato kale, lemon juice, Mashed Potato, Mashed Potato Quinoa Puffs, Mashed Potato Quinoa Puffs with Sriracha Mayo, mayonnaise, non-dairy milk, Passover, Potato, Puffs, quinoa, Quinoa Puffs, rice milk, sauces, sides, snack, spinach, sriracha, Sriracha Mayo, swiss chard, vegan, vegan mayonnaise, vegetarian
Happy Passover! If you celebrated the last two nights, I hope they were joyous ones!! We are stuffed, exhausted but had a great time!
This year I made a bunch of new dishes (and some old favorites!!) and they all came out super deelish!! I wanted to concentrate on some kid friendly dishes that I knew the adults would love too. We had fun as a family cooking these up together. So sweet 🙂
This one was a perfect appetizer for Passover or really any party 🙂 It was a hit both nights and we are super happy to have some leftover! I doubled the recipe to make sure we would have enough and will do next time since they everyone loved them!
Mashed Potato Quinoa Puffs with Sriracha Mayo
recipe adapted from http://brazenkitchen.com
Mashed Potato Quinoa Puffs
1 lb. potatoes
1 cup cooked quinoa
2 cups very finely chopped greens such as lacinato kale, swiss chard or spinach
1-3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or Earth Balance Soy-Free Spread
¼ cup almond milk or rice milk
Salt and pepper to taste
vegan mayonnaise
Sriracha
ketchup
lemon juice
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Steam or boil until soft. Drain.
- Mash the potatoes well or put it through a ricer.
- Once the lumps are gone, add all the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Using a tablespoon, form into 1 inch balls or using two tablespoons, form the into rough “quenelles” or oblong discs. (I used a mini ice cream scoop/cookie scooper)
- Drop into parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the puffs and bake for another 15 minutes.
Sriracha Mayo
- Mix Sriracha and mayo to your desired spice level
- Kick up with some ketchup and lemon juice.
18 Mar 2014
by marisashealthykitchen
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes
Tags: celery, chickpeas, crock-pot, diced tomatoes, Freezer Cook, freezer cooking, garam masala, garlic, gluten-free, healthyslowcooking.com, Kathy Hester, kids, meal planning, not-chicken bouillon, one-pot meal, organizing meals, quinoa, Quinoa Stew, red lentils, slow cooker, Slow Cooker Indian Spiced Chickpea Quinoa Stew, soy-free, sweet potato, turmeric, turnip, vegan freezer cook, vegan freezer cooking, vegan meal planning, vegetable bouillon
Here is a super simple deelish slow cooker meal! We LOVE a great one-pot meal! I like Kathy’s suggestions to add any veggies you have on hand or use yellow lentils instead of red, potato in place of turnip and even carrots.
A while ago I spent a day doing a Huge Freezer Cook aka cooking/assembling meals and freezing then for later use! Brilliant idea but makes for one super crazy cooking day plus another whole afternoon to shop! But I made 26 meals to freeze!! Some meals required cooking and storing in tins to be later defrosted and cooked or reheated. Some meals, like this one, I cut and prepped all the ingredients/spices and put in a food saver bag so it was ready to go in the slow-cooker 🙂 We Love having a freezer full of meals for when we need a prepared meal and don’t feel like or have time for cooking!
This was PERFECT after we came home from vacation recently. We woke up in the morning and I just tossed the bag of ingredients & the 4 cups of water, in the slow-cooker and 8.5 hours later we had a wonderful & hot dinner. Which after coming back to the cold, snowy NY from hot and sunny Mexico was much needed to warm us up! Plus always so nice when the kids love the meal you prepared! Yeah!
Slow Cooker Indian Spiced Chickpea Quinoa Stew
Recipe from Kathy Hester at healthyslowcooking.com
serves 4 to 6
- 4 to 5 cups water
- 1 can diced tomatoes (or 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen)
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed (or 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen)
- 1/2 cup red lentils
- 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
- 1 cup peeled turnip, chopped
- 1 cup sweet potato, chopped
- 1/2 cup celery, chopped (about 1 stalk)
- 1 tablespoon not-chicken bouillon
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- salt, to taste
Put everything in the slow cooker and cook on low 6 to 9 hours. Taste, re-season if needed (you may not even need the salt if your bouillon is salty.)
* If you plan to prep & freeze for another time, add the water at the time of cooking.
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