My friend and fellow stay-at-home-mom says, "Why don't you just cook 'normal' food, like spaghetti and meatballs?". Well, Andria, here's to you .... Vegan Spaghetti and Meatballs. The noddles are brown rice noodles, no gluten and more protein. The sauce is my Kitchen Sink Marinara:
1. I sautee almost every vegetable I can find in my fridge: one head of broccoli, 1/2 of frozen peas, 1/2 cup cauliflower, 1 carrot, 1/2 medium onion are the usual contenders.
2. Then add a can of crushed tomatoes and season with salt, pepper, and italian mix dried herbs. Cook for at least 30 minutes.
3. Blend and DONE.
Since this makes quite a bit of sauce, whatever is left I put in freezer bags and save for two more dinners (pasta or pizza works great!). If you want to make it "meat" marinara, I'll use a whole bag of Quorn meat crumbles and sautee in a pan with onion and garlic, then add the marinara and presto!
Dinner tonight was using that sauce and then topped with Parma! raw parmesan, yes, I'm obsessed with it, I put it on EVERYTHING! I also made some fresh bread, ok this may add to the work load, but not by much if planned right, and it's so worth to have fresh baked bread with your italian themed meal.
I use a bread machine to knead the dough, which leaves ZERO work for me after I have put the ingredients in the mixing container. You can get yourself one used from your local Goodwill or any thrift store for about $12, just make sure it has a "dough" cycle.
PIZZA DOUGH
Ingredients:
1 1/8 cups warm water
2 TB. olive oil
2 tsp. yeast
2 tsp sugar
2 cups all purpose flour (recommend you use King Arthur)
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dried onion powder
2 tsp. dried garlic powder
Follow machine's instructions. It will take about 1 1/2 hours to knead. When its done, just take it out, cut in half, place one half in a baggie and freeze for later. You can also just keep in fridge if you want to use the next day. Preheat oven to 375F. Do NOT punch down dough, place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with some olive oil and sprinkle some kosher salt. It will bake for about 20-25 min., but depending on your oven, just keep looking at it, when it looks golden brown (as cliche as that sounds!) it's done. Enjoy with some Earth Balance, "nummy, nummy", says my grumpus!
Now really, that's not so bad ... and it's so healthy and tasty! 'Til next time, Provecho!
