5 Minute Quesadilla

Quesadillas are perfect for days when you a) don’t feel much like cooking, b) are trying to clean out the veggies from your fridge, or c) when you’re running late and need to make and eat something quickly.

This quick and easy quesadilla takes only 5 minutes to make! And it’s customizable — you can put whatever veggies you have on hand into it! Hooray for simple recipes! Quesadillas are also a great way to eat more veggies.

VEGAN QUESADILLA

MAKES 1

• 2 tortillas
• ½ cup vegan cheese, such as Daiya mozzarella (sold at most grocery stores)
• 3-4 tablespoons salsa
• 1 cup sliced broccoli
• green beans
• ½ cup spinach
• olive oil OR cooking spray (for pan)
• OTHER ADD-INS: mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, avocado, zucchini, swiss chard, meat substitutes (tofu, tempeh, seitan, etc.)

Chop the veggies. Drizzle 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large pan OR spray the pan with cooking spray. Add a tortilla to the pan. Sprinkle cheese on top of the tortilla. Add the veggies and the salsa. Add more cheese. Add a second tortilla on top. Turn up the heat on the burner to medium-high. Let it cook for a minute or two, then spray the top tortilla with cooking spray. Now, flip the quesadilla with a giant spatula if you have one! The flipping is the trickiest part of the whole recipe! I’m proud of you for doing it. Then let the other side cook for a minute. When both sides are light brown and crispy, turn off the heat, take the quesadilla out of the pan, and put it onto a plate. Cut it in fourths (like in the pictures), or just eat it as one gigantic thing. Your choice!

I HOPE YOU’RE HAVING A FUN WEEKEND! WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?

XX ELLIE

Vegan Resources

My Cookbook Staples

• Chloe’s Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli
• Chloe’s Vegan Desserts by Chloe Coscarelli
• Chloe Flavor by Chloe Coscarelli
• The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon
• The Happy Herbivore by Lindsay S. Nixon
• Isa Does It! by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
• VegNews Magazine

      

images via Amazon.com

Favorite Vegan Food Blogs

• Oh She Glows is bursting with simple vegan recipes that even non-vegans will enjoy! The site is run by Angela, the author of The Oh She Glows Cookbook (mentioned above).
•  Minimalist Baker is run by a husband and wife duo. They create delicious dishes, and their photography skills are out of this world!
• Chocolate-Covered Katie is full of healthy but still yummy desserts created by Katie, who might love chocolate even more than I do!
• Oh, Ladycakes is awesome. Wonderful, simple recipes + gorgeous photos + funny commentary = perfection.

Favorite “Vegan” Documentaries

• Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
• Food, Inc. 
• Vegucated
• Forks Over Knives
• Super Size Me

I hope you enjoy these “vegan” resources! Have a happy and healthy day!

xx Ellie

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry jam should be in all households. I can’t live without it! Well, technically I can, but I’d miss it a lot. So I should just say that I’d be sad without it.

Strawberries are tasty. They’re tasty by themselves, sprinkled with sugar, in pie, in baked goods, and most importantly IN JAM. Seriously, what’s better than bottled up strawberries?

Chocolate, if we’re being technical again. However, nothing is better than chocolate in my book.

So back to strawberry jam. It’s tasty. If you don’t like strawberries… well who doesn’t like strawberries!? But if you truly don’t like them, you can make this jam with other berries instead. You could make raspberry, blueberry, or blackberry jam. More yumminess.

My family has been making this recipe for a long time. I’ve been making strawberry jam every summer since I was a wee babe! My grandma would wash and cut the tops off the berries, I would mash them, and my mom would mix them with sugar and Sure-Jell. Making jam together with your family is a fun bonding experience, and it has become a tradition in my house! Hopefully it will become a tradition at your house, too!

The BEST StrawberrY Freezer Jam

instructions found in a Sure-Jell container

makes 5 jam jars worth (5 cups of Jam)

• 1 quart (2 cups) of mashed strawberries
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 Sure-Jell packet (Sure-Jell = fruit pectin)

1. Wash the berries.

2. Cut the stems off them and put them in a container.

3. Mash them.

4. Fill a bowl with 4 cups of sugar.

5. Add the berry mixture into the sugar bowl and mix until combined.

6. Meanwhile, pour 1 cup of water into a saucepan.

7. Add Sure-Jell into the pan.

8. Boil the mixture on medium-high heat. Stir constantly for a minute while boiling. Remove from heat.

9. Add the Sure-Jell mixture into the berry mixture and stir constantly for 3 minutes.

10. Spoon the jam into jam jars. Leave a ½ inch space at the top of the jar.

11. Leave the jars out for 24 hours to let them set.

12. Put the jam in the freezer, and keep it there until you want to use it!

That’s it! Clear, concise directions, right from the mouth of my mom (I understand her directions better than the ones from Sure-Jell).

This jam is great on peanut butter & jELLIE sandwiches, on toast, in these muffins, and by the spoonful! Enjoy!

xx Ellie

 

Hearty Party Bowl

This is one of my favorite dinners EVER.

Sweet golden beets + juicy plump mushrooms + crunchy green asparagus + crispy toasted tofu + purple sticky rice = the perfect meal!

It’s a delicious, hearty meal full of veggies, protein, and complex carbohydrates. In my opinion, it’s the perfect meal taste-wise and nutrition-wise!

Serves 2-4

• • 3 cups purple sticky rice
  • 3 to 6 large golden beets, chopped into 1or 2 inch squares
  • 3 large sweet potatoes, cubed
  • olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • a few handfuls of asparagus
  • 8 oz container of button mushrooms
  • 1 brick of tofu
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce

1. Press the tofu to get the moisture out.
2. Make 3 cups of your favorite sticky rice. Follow the directions on the back of the rice container for how to make the rice. We love purple sticky rice!
3. While the rice is cooking, cube the beets, drizzle olive oil over them, then roast them at 400 degrees F for 18 to 20 minutes. Stir them, then cook for another 18 to 20  minutes, or until they’re golden-brown and not as crunchy anymore.
4. At the same time, cube the sweet potatoes, and roast them with a bit of olive oil and 3 cloves of garlic for about 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, cut the tofu into strips and coat the strips with a bit of soy sauce (approx. 1/4 cup). Put it in a pan and roast for 20 minutes per side, or until they’re golden-brown and crispy.
6. Wash and cut the broccoli and mushrooms into bite-size pieces. Either sauté the broccoli, asparagus, and mushrooms OR roast them. When the beets only have 10 or so minutes left in the oven, add in the other veggies and let everything cook until the timer goes off (and the veggies are soft).
7. Add some rice to bowls, then top the bowls with tofu, beets, broccoli, asparagus, potatoes, and mushrooms. Enjoy!

xx Ellie