Gluten Free Vegan Living

I am a big lover of veggies stir fry dishes.  I mix them with various types of noddles, rice or quinoa.  I guess, I am your typical lazy cook who likes to whip up the entire meal in one dish!

So I was experimenting around in the kitchen and came up with this easy, but delicious dish of Thai Veggies with noddles and peanut sauce (sorry, we ate it so fast, I never got a picture of it!):

If you don’t have a bag of frozen veggies, you can use the following fresh vegetables:

• Sliced celery and carrots
• Bean sprouts
• Green onions or leek
• Peas or sweet pea pods
• Broccoli
• Red bell pepper
• Chopped kale or other greens

My husband took his portion of the veggies and noddles and added chicken to it — a perfect recipe for a “mixed” household!

I love this time of the year when produce is plentiful and I can experiment with new combinations.

I recently came up with this new recipe for cabbage apple slaw.  Maybe it doesn’t look like much, but it was really good.  It received great reviews at our church potluck yesterday!

Didn’t I tell you I was the Salad Queen???

Saturdays are my days to be different and creative (it is also my day for laundry and house cleaning, but I won’t be talking about that!!).  With the cares of business gone for the day, it gives me time to focus on other things — like new recipes to create!

As most of you already know, I am the ‘Salad Queen’.  For me, salads mix up the best of all worlds:  raw veggies.  My new Gluten Free Pasta Salad is full of some of my favorite veggies!

Once again, there are lots of variations available for this recipe.  For example, my husband added jalapenos and cheese (he is not vegan!) to his portion.

Some other veggies you could use in this recipe could be:

• Bell pepper
• Green onions
• Olives
• Caulflower
• Raisins

What other ingredients would you try in this salad?

Raw salads are the best way to eat veggies, so, today, I am sharing of my favorite raw salads: Spring Veggie Salad.  One of the reasons I like it so much is because you can alter it based on the veggies you have on hand at the time.  Or you can add or subtract any of your favorite (or not so favorite) vegetables.  Could probably also call this the End of the Summer Veggies Salad!!

The recipe below lists the veggies I used — because that is what I had in my refrigerator at the time.

Quantities of the veggies can be altered according to your tastes or veggies you have on hand.

I took this salad to a church potluck and it was a huge hit (actually, I was hoping to have some leftovers to take home, but they finished it off!!).

Can you think of substitutes for this recipe that would make it even better?  How about adding avocados?   You can also try some of the following:

• Green onions
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Green or wax beans
• Kohlrobi
• Beets
• Summer squash
• Peas
• Radishes
• Baby corn
• Artichoke hearts
• ??????

Fajitas are one of my favorite Mexican dishes (who am I kidding, MEXICAN style food is ALWAYS my favorite dishes!!)  Mexican food is so easy to adjust to Gluten Free Vegan Style …. and I love the Mexican flavors:  avocados, tomatoes, chilli peppers (not too strong, please!), black olves and black beans ….. and now that Gluten Free tortillas are available, I am in heaven!!

My husband and I have a Mexican dish at least once a week.  This week I fixed Fajitas.  Here is my quick and easy recipe:

Of course, there are many variation to this recipe.  Other options are:

• Jalapeno or habenero peppers is you like your Fajitas hot
• A mix of red, green and/or yellow bell peppers
• Corn or beans to the veggies
• Top with olives and avocado slices
• Add vegan cheese and/or sour cream

My favorite Gluten Free ‘flour’ tortillas are made by Rudi, but any GF tortilla will work including listed below.  (Also, some seasoning suggestion as well):

I have tried lots of Gluten Free Vegan Pancake recipes.  Some were interesting and some …. well, let’s just say, I never made them again.

Over the years, I have taken several different recipes and combined them together to make my own recipe.  Taking bits and pieces of each recipe to suit it to my tastes and nutritional requirements is actually a fun project!

When I developed this recipe, I started with the Apple Pancake recipe my mother used to make when I was younger.  I loved the tastes of apples in pancakes (or any kind of fruit in baked goods!).  Then I looked for Gluten Free ingredients and some extra tasty grains and seeds to add to the nutritional value.

Here is my recipe:

I would suppose you can substitute other fruit for the apple, but this is the way I like it best!!

Late summer is a busy time of the year for us.  We get loads of fruit from our yard, our friends and the local Farmer’s Market.  We don’t grow a garden — there are too many deer and rabbits around here that would eat it all before we could harvest it!!

Over the last couple weeks, I have frozen a bunch of cherries from our yard, and some peaches from the orchard down the road.  Last week a good friend of ours gave us all the apples and plums we could get off her trees.  She told us the apple were marginal, but hoped we could do something with them.  So ….. we made Plumpple sauce, and it turned out great.

If you are adventurous and would like to try this sauce, here is the simple recipe:

• Take your largest pot and put about a cup of water in the bottom of it.
• Cut up the apples into smaller piece making sure to remove the bruises and bad spots.
• Fill the pot about 2/3 to 3/4 full.
• Next, cut the stones out of the plums (the hardest part) and add to the pot of apples.
• Simmer for around 8 to 12 hours.
• Run the whole pot of fruit through a Food Strainer and Sauce Maker (mine is a 30 year old Presto brand).
• Return the strained fruit to the pot and simmer until it is the consistency of apple sauce — being careful to remember that it thickens as it cools down.
• Spoon into pints or quarts, and process in water bath for about 25 minutes.

I ended up with six pints, one quart (for my friend who gave us the fruit) and another pint or so that I put in the refrigerator (it was gone within a day!).  And it was one of the best tasting sauces I have made yet!

Next, I will be drying Italian Plums (prunes).  Will be out in the yard picking very soon!

Spaghetti was a comfort food while I was growing up.  Saturday night was always Spaghetti dinner night!!  My dad was a big tomato fan and loved tomato based dishes — and I inherited his love of tomatoes!

When I became a Gluten Free Vegan, I began experimenting with different ways to make one of my favorite dishes.  Much to my surprise, I found all kinds of way to make Vegan Spaghetti — most of my recipes taste better to me than my childhood memories!!

So here is my favorite Vegan Spaghetti Recipe:

Vegan Spaghetti Recipe

1 – 28 to 32 oz. jar of your favorite Marina sauce
1 – 16 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 to 1 1/2 cups finely chopped mushrooms
1/2 to full can of finely chopped black olives
1/2 cup finely chopped zucchini
1/2 cup chopped spinach or swiss chard
Onion and/or garlic, chopped finely, to taste
Oregano and/or Italian seasoning

Quinoa or rice spaghetti noodles, cooked

Directions

Add the Marina and tomatoes in large fry pan and cook on medium.  Add mushrooms, olives, zucchini, onions and/or garlic and seasoning.  Once the mixture starts to bubble, turn down to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add the spinach or swiss chard and cook and additional 10 minutes.  Serve over noodles.

The recipe is not exact.  We often add more mushrooms, depending on how many we have at the time.  Sometimes we leave out the zucchini.  I have occasionally added finely chopped celery.  And I use my food processor to chopped the veggies — just to make it quicker and easier!

If you more adventurous, here is another Vegan Spaghetti recipe using the zucchini as the noodles!!

Vegan Zucchini Spaghetti

Picture donated by Karen Borga

Use the same sauce listed above only omit the zucchini and the cooked noodles.

While you sauce is cooking, take one large or two small zucchini and spiralize them for your noddles.  If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can always shred them using a box grater or a madolin — but it is not as cool as spiralizing them!!

Spoon the sauce over the zucchini noodles and serve.  Or if you want them warm, toss them with the sauce.  No need to cook separately!

If you are interesting is buying a Spiralizer, check out the two recommended ones below.  Personally, we have one of each style and love using them!

Today is Mango Salsa Recipe day and I have a couple recipes for you.

First is a Gluten-Free Corn, Mango and Black Bean Salsa from Living Without magazine and the other two are recipes I have developed and used.

Gluten-Free Corn, Mango and Black Bean Salsa

2-3 ears corn, cut corn off the cob
1 medium-size mango, cut into small dice
1½ cups black beans, cooked or canned, rinsed and drained
½ small red onion, minced
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and minced
1-3 small jalapeño peppers, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
¼-½ bunch fresh cilantro, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, to taste.

2. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

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After seeing the Living Without recipe above, I pulled out my recipe and did some comparing.  I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to hot food (or even mildly peppered), so I make a milder Mango Salsa.  If you like hotter salsa, go ahead and add in a jalapeno pepper or whichever hotter chili peppers you like.

Sandy’s Mango Salsa #1

½ cup Mangos,
1 – Red Bell Pepper, seeds removed
4 – Green Onions, tops and all
1 overflowing cup of Tomatoes
4 – Medium Tomatillo,
½ – Jalapeno pepper (I used pickled peppers because they were milder)

Salsa seasoning and cumin to taste

I chopped all the veggies in our food processor.  Leaving the mix in the fridge for  a few hours, blended the flavors nicely.  Later that evening we had black bean tacos and salad, topped with mango salsa for dinner.

A  few weeks later, I came up with another Mango Salsa Recipe that my husband really loved.

Sandy’s Mango Salsa #2

I can diced tomatoes
1 bell pepper, chopped (red yellow or orange)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalepano, seeds removed and chopped
½ can or ¾ cup of chopped mangos
1/3 cup chopped cilantro (approximately)
Salsa seasoning and cumin to taste

I think my husband liked this recipe better because it was hotter.  In fact, so hot, I could barely eat it — leaving the balance of the bowl full to him.

Add fruit to salsa can make some interesting salsa — but you do not have to stick with mangoes.  I have also used pineapple and papaya and they tastes great as well!

Here is a picture of our Gluten Free Vegan Mexican Meal with Mango Salsa.  What do you think?

In keeping with our cool summer salads, I thought I would share my Sunshine Salad recipe.  Most of my recipes come together by accident. …. “Let’s see, what do I have in the fridge ….”

Sunshine Salad is a revision of a jello salad my Aunt made us when I was a kid.  I don’t eat jello anymore, but the ingredients mixed together just in the right amount make a nice, slightly sweet, summer salad.

Sunshine Salad

1 – 20 oz can crush pineapple
1 to 1 ½ cups of finely chopped carrots
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup coconut
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

Mix all the ingredients together — including the pineapple juice.

If you let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving, the flavors blend.

Quick, easy, and good!!

I have taken this dish to potlucks and gotten very good reviews.

If you like this recipe, please share with your friends by clicking one of the share links below!  Thanks!!