Chili & Cornbread Casserole (Vegan potluck)

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I have been making this recipe for over 20 years for my family. It started out as a cheap meal for us right after we got married. I was a server and my husband delivered pizzas back then, so, money was tight. We always had rice, cans of chili, and the cheap (2 for $1) boxes of cornbread muffin mix. I used to make this with hamburger, eggs and milk, but I have adapted it easily to a vegan recipe. 

I decided this Sunday that I would be brave and go to the once a month potluck at my church. I always skip it because I figure there is nothing for us to eat. (We are the the rural country area of North Carolina where everything is cooked in ham or covered in gravy). This time we decided to take a meal for our family and just enjoy seeing everyone and the program that followed the meal. I decided to make this recipe because it had always been a hit in the past. People had ate it many times as a omni dish and even as a vegetarian dish and never knew the difference ( I just used veggie chili). I also made my delicious Banana Pudding Pie topped with coconut whipped topping. If there was nothing else there, we could have a good meal still.

 Turns out, there was a hummus and veggie tray there that no one else really touched, but we loved it. That dish stood out here in this town...looked far too healthy to taste good I guess. Funny part was, the actual healthy dish (mine) was cleaned out. People went back for seconds! My dish was a hit. I kept hearing the cornbread topping was amazing and the dish was delicious. My pie was all gone except 2 slices, but that was a surprise too on a desert table full of southern classics like coconut custard pie and homemade chocolate cake. Definitely a success! No one even knew it was vegan!

I'm sharing this EASY vegan casserole with you all in hopes you will take it to a potluck or just share it with your family. It's a meal that won't seem "too healthy" or "odd" to share with everyone.

Looking for more great Vegan family recipes? Try my Buffalo Tempeh over Cauliflower "rice", Creamy Baked Spinach and Artichoke Pasta, Cheezy Butternut Macaroni , Vegan chick'n ( Jackfruit) Casserole & "Beefless" Pies . Don't forget desert! Try..Vegan S'mores Pie

Chili & Cornbread Casserole: 

2 (8.5 oz.) packages of cornbread muffin mix 
2/3 cup unsweetened plant milk
6 Tbsp. aquafaba (chic pea juice )*
1 (15 oz ) can of corn, drained
2 (13 oz )cans vegan chili
1 package frozen veggie crumbles**
1 package frozen onions and peppers
3 cups cooked rice
1 tsp. Paprika
1 tsp. Cumin
1 fresh chopped jalapeño (optional )
Salt& Pepper

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cook veggie crumbles ,onions& peppers with cumin, paprika, salt and pepper over medium heat.

Mix cornbread muffin mix, plant milk, aquafaba, and 1/2 cup of corn together in a mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, combine chili, rice, remaining corn, and veggie crumbles mixture. Mix well.

Spray a 13x9 casserole dish with non stick spray.

Pour chili mixture into casserole dish and top with Cornbread. Spread cornbread out evenly across chili.

Cook for 25 minutes, until cornbread is golden brown.

Serves 8

*If you don't have aquafaba, use same amount of applesauce.

**If you don't like to use "fake meats", just add 1 (15 oz.)can of drained and rinsed chic peas 

Lemon Garlic Pasta with Tempeh & Broccoli

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This recipe is full of good "cold fighting" ingredients, which happen to be some of my favorite ingredients too ( fresh lemons, turmeric, garlic and parsley). In our house, lemon juice go with everything- salad, steamed veggies, rice, pasta, chick'n, fishless filets, potatoes, water, tea. We keep a bowl of them in the kitchen like most people keep fruit. We also keep enough garlic to kill an army of vampires...maybe this is why we are never sick. 

My children and husband all cleaned their plates tonight with this simple dish. It starts with infusing the lemon zest and garlic into the oil. Once you flavor the oil, it becomes an amazing "sauce" to toss with your spaghetti. We used Tempeh, but if you are not a fan of it, you can leave it out, or substitute extra broccoli. This is a simple meal, but one that's perfect for a busy family with different schedules and tastes (like ours) because it can be reheated easily and served later. Hope you enjoy this easy meal with your busy family and make sure to leave me comments if you try my recipes, I LOVE feedback!

Looking for more great Vegan pasta dishes? Try myVegan "Meaty" Spaghetti, Kale Stuffed Eggplant Parm, Cheezy Butternut Macaroni, BBQ Tempeh with Cauliflower "Rice", &

Recipe:

3/4 cup of olive oil 
Zest of 2 medium lemons
6 cloves of garlic, freshly pressed
Juice of 4 medium lemons
2 (8 oz.) packages tempeh, cubed
12 oz. Frozen broccoli florets, thawed
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped fine
Salt & lemon Pepper to taste
1 box pasta ( I used fettuccine)

1 Tbsp. turmeric

Brown tempeh with a little oil over medium high heat.

Add salt & lemon pepper to taste and set aside.

Boil pasta in salted water with turmeric, cooking according to package. Drain well. The turmeric will turn your pasta a beautiful bright yellow color once cooked.

In a sauce pan over medium low heat, simmer oil with lemon zest, garlic, and lemon juice. Sauce is ready once the garlic becomes fragrant. This only takes a few minutes. Do not overcook your garlic, or it will be bitter.

Add tempeh, parsley, broccoli, and lemon sauce to pasta.

Toss well.

Serve with lemon slices.

Makes 5 servings.

Cheezy Butternut Macaroni

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This was a recipe I had seen floating around the vegan recipe pages and thought it was worth a shot. My husband, as you probably know by now, loves all things butternut squash and my daughter is very picky, so, this seemed like a good way to hide a few veggies. I followed the recipe I saw online and I was not happy with the way it turned out. I was very sweet and my daughter would pick out the flavor and turn her nose up quick. My husband poured hot sauce on it and ate it anyways, but I knew I had to work on this recipe before feeding it to the kids. 

This recipe is similar to the one I saw online, except I made it more of a Mac-n-cheese with hidden butternut squash. If my daughter could taste the cheesiness first, she would be fine ( she pours ketchup on her mac-n-cheese anyways). This batch passed with fling colors! In fact, the ENTIRE pan was cleaned out and my daughter ate 2 helpings. I truly enjoyed this recipe once I reworked it and made it more family friendly. 

Looking for more great family friendly meals? Try my "Baked & Loaded" Stuffed Burritos, Vegan "Meaty" spaghetti, "Beefless" Pies with Roasted Butternut Squash, Vegan "Chick'n" (Jackfruit) Casserole & Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Cheezy Butternut Macaroni:

Recipe :

4 cups butternut squash, cubed
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves Chopped fresh garlic
1 cup nutritional yeast

Salt and pepper to taste
4 cups veggie broth
1 cup unsweetened plain plant milk
8 oz. vegan cheddar style shreds
1 tsp. Paprika

1 tsp. Chili powder (optional)
1 (16oz )Box pasta

**For the breadcrumbs :

5 slices of bread
2 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast
1 Tbs. groundflax seeds
Sea salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp. Paprika
Olive oil to drizzle

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil water and cook pasta about 7 minutes... just slightly under cooked.

In a deep skillet over medium high heat, cook butternut squash, onions, garlic, nutritional yeast and paprika in veggie broth & chili powder (Should cover all veggies, add more if needed).

Allow to boil, then reduce heat to simmer and add plant milk, salt & pepper to taste. Cook 10 minutes.

Drain pasta and pour into a greased 2 quart casserole dish.

Transfer butternut squash and all the liquid it cooked in, to a high powdered blender and puree until smooth.

Pour over pasta. Add vegan cheddar shreds. Stir to mix well. Mixture will seem a bit "runny", but it will absorb during baking.

Toast your bread. Let cool completely. 

Add bread to a food processor with nutritional yeast, salt,ground flax seeds, pepper, and paprika.

Process on high until it becomes breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs over pasta and drizzle with olive oil.

Place in oven and cook for 25 mins.

Serves 6-8.

** you can substitute 1 cup of premade breadcrumbs if you don't have time to make them.

Vegan Philly & Cheeze

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You have to have a good sandwich every once in a while. As much as I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches, they are not "dinner worthy". I wanted a sandwich to serve my teenage son that would make him say "wow!". 

This whole idea started with the portobella mushrooms being on sale at the store this week. I grabbed 4 big mushrooms and through them in the cart and started looking for inspiration. It always takes me time in the grocery store, because I do love to browse and look for new ideas. I just walked up and down the isles gathering my already planned meals and looking for something, other than Stroganoff  I could make for dinner. (Nothing wrong with Stroganoff, but we have had this meal a lot & I'm just tired of it at the moment.)

 I found a steakhouse marinade when looking at pasta sauces. I decided to try and marinade my mushrooms and grill them up into a Philly style creation using up the rest of my Lazy vegan Beer Cheese sauce. This was not a recipe for the health conscious vegans out there, it was a recipe for a family dinner without worries. My messy, gooey, cheesy, tangy, "meaty", hearty, and delicious sandwich was a hit at dinner & will be come a regular rotation at the house since it was so easy to prepare.

More delicious  family meals:  Italian Roasted Tempeh w/ Whole Garlic Cloves, Harvest Vegetable Soup w/ Grilled Cheeze, Short Cut Red Beans and Rice, & Red Curry Veggies and Ramen, Easy Vegan Sunday Dinner & for desert try No Bake Banana Oreo Pudding

Philly Portobella & Cheeze Sandwiches:

4 (8oz.) Packages fresh mushrooms, sliced*

1 (16 oz) steakhouse style marinade *

1 (16 oz) Frozen peppers and onions

1 cup Lazy Vegan Beer Cheese , or other vegan cheese sauce

4 sub style rolls

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sliced jalapeños (optional )

Just Mayo (optional )

In a deep bowl, cover mushrooms in marinade. Cover tightly.

Place bowl in refrigerator for at least 1 hour ( I did this in the morning before work & cooked them when I got home).

Preheat oven to broil .

Warm up your flat griddle to high (or heat up a non stick skillet over medium heat heat).

Drain excess marinade from mushrooms.

Cook mushrooms, peppers and onions on griddle for about 8 minutes, until browned. Season to taste.

Place split rolls on a cookie sheet.

Coat each side with cheeze sauce

Brown under broiler. Remove from

Top rolls with mushrooms, peppers and onions. Pour more hot Cheeze sauce over mushrooms and top with desired toppings.

Makes 4 sandwiches

* For a quicker sandwich, you can use 2 bags of Gardein Szechuan beefless strips. Save the glavor packet for another meal. Cook strips over medium high heat with olive oil, A1 sauce & 8 oz. Chopped mushrooms.

Prepare as directed above.

Baked Spinach and Artichoke Pasta

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My son loves spinach and artichoke dip, so he is my inspiration tonight. This was a modified version of the cauliflower alfredo I make for my kids. The idea struck me, while grocery shopping, that I could do better than just plain alfredo for dinner tonight. I wanted to make it hearty. A meal to stand up to this cold weather and make you feel loved. I think I accomplished that with this dish. This is a dish good enough to take to a potluck & have no one notice it's vegan. I served this with broccoli steamed in fresh lemon juice and tossed in a little italian seasoning... it was a perfect meal for the kids tonight. I hope you family will enjoy it on a cold night in the future. 

Looking for more Vegan Pasta Dishes? Try my Vegan 'Meaty" spaghetti, Lemon and Garlic Pasta, Kale Stuffed Eggplant Parm, &Chipotle Mac-N-Cheeze w/ smokey lentils

For the Pasta sauce :

1/3 cup olive oil

5 cloves garlic, crushed 
3 cups Frozen or fresh cauliflower, thawed & chopped into small pieces

2 1/2 cups unsweetened plant milk

Salt and pepper to taste

3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 cups fresh spinach, chopped

1 (12 oz ) jar artichokes, rinsed and drained

1 (16 oz) package of cooked rigatoni

For the breadcrumbs:

4 slices of bread

2 Tbsp vegan butter, melted

1 tsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp. dried parsley

To Assemble:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat oil and garlic over medium low heat until garlic is golden brown and fragrant.

Add milk and allow to come to a boil.

Add cauliflower, salt and pepper to taste. Cook an additional 5-6 minutes.

Remove from heat and add nutritional yeast and lemon juice. Set aside.

Toast bread.

Break toast up into rough pieces and add to a food processor with nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, & dried parsley.

Pulse on high until toast becomes breadcrumbs.

Add cauliflower mixture to a high powdered blender.

Set to "food puree" and blend until smooth.

Pour cauliflower sauce over rigatoni in a deep mixing bowl . Add spinach and artichokes. Stir to combine.

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.

Pour rigatoni into casserole dish and top with breadcrumbs.

Drizzle melted butter over breadcrumbs.

Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until breadcrumbs are golden brown and pasta is bubbly.

Makes 4-6 servings

Easy Pulled Jackfruit

New Year's Day is a big celebration around our house. It is my husband's birthday and, in the South, we have to cook a big traditional meal. That meal ( greens, black eyed peas and pork) is supposed to bring us luck and money in the new year. As a vegan, obviously, we won't be eating pork. What do Vegans eat for New Years? 

This year I decided to try one of the latest vegan food trends - Jackfruit. This is an Asian fruit that shreds like meat when cooked. It has a bland flavor which takes on any sauce you cook it in and is perfect for making pulled jackfruit sandwiches! You will probably have to go to an Asian specialty supermarket to find the cans of green jackfruit. Make sure you get the jackfruit in water or brine & not in syrup...that's a whole other thing. 

So...Happy new year!! Go celebrate and try new things!

Looking for some more southern classics?  Try my Buffalo Tempeh over cheeze grits, fried green tomatoes, Banana Pudding Pie, Applesauce Cornbread Muffins, Vegan "Chicken" (jackfruit) Casserole , & Cheezy Butternut Macaroni

Pulled Jackfruit Sandwiches:

I made 6 sandwiches from this recipe...

4 (17oz.) cans of green jackfruit in water, drained.
1 (16oz.) Jar of vinegar based NC BBQ sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce)

1 package of hamburger rolls
Vegan Coleslaw (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. spread your jackfruit out on a greased 11x13 casserole dish.

3. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring after about 10 minutes. Continue to cook until jackfruit begins to brown on the edges and no longer looks transparent.

4. Remove jackfruit from the oven and toss with 2/3 of your BBQ sauce. Place back in the oven about 10 minutes.

5. Remove jackfruit and allow to cool about 10 minutes.

6. Using 2 forks, pull your jackfruit apart. It should resemble shredded meat. Make sure you pull the rougher core pieces, and large seeds apart also for a better texture. 

7. Place jackfruit on your roll and enjoy!

Serve with vegan coleslaw for authentic NC BBQ sandwiches. 

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Our Anniversary Dinner

This is not a recipe, but a way of saying "Thank You" to a wonderful chef for making our anniversary wonderful. This is the Trip Advisor Review I published. I want to share it with all of you to show you eating Vegan is not restrictive on your social life. This is how you make sure your vegan meal at a non vegan restaurant is perfect. You have to plan ahead, yes, but it is worth it to get treatment and a meal like the one we had for our anniversary.....

"Last night was our 22nd anniversary. My husband called ahead to request a vegan meal for me and spoke with the Owner/Chef, Curt personally. He told my husband, he was more than happy to create a custom meal for me on our anniversary. He was so pleasant and professional to my husband, that he booked a reservation. 

We arrived and were greeted immediately by our server ( I wish I remembered to write down her name because she was wonderful!) with fresh bread and a tomato sauce ( both were vegan). She made a nice suggestion for a pinot noir, so we ordered a bottle. When the wine arrived, she presented it nicely & we were both very happy with her suggestion. The atmosphere was relaxed, like being in an Italian friend's home, not just a restaurant. People were laughing, having conversations and Curt was visiting tables to make sure everyone enjoyed their meals. We felt welcomed from start to finish at Curt's.

Curt had asked my husband what I liked before we arrived, so he had arranged a meal for us based on our tastes. I didn't even have to try to figure out the menu, like I usually have to do at other restaurants. We had a nice salad to start with, and then our meal arrived. Curt came out to explain his creation and make sure that we were happy with the meal. It was BEAUTIFUL and perfect! He made a gnocchi with several different olives, artichokes and veggies in a sweet basil sauce. He is truly a gifted Chef and all around great guy, you can tell this by the way he runs his business and the food he presents. He made sure we were enjoying our meals and even took a few minutes to talk with us and wish us a happy anniversary. The food was so good, we ate in silence. We just savored the experience, food and wine, as you should when you are given such a wonderful night out.

After our meal, Curt came back to check on us and let us know he would love to cook more meals for us in the future. We will be taking him up on his offer. We have found a new perfect date night location.

Curt made our anniversary perfect. His food was a gift to us & I want to publicly thank him for going out of his way on a Saturday night to care for us like family."