Cooking Vegan

This is my first post on the Hip Homemaker. Yay!

So this year I decided to become a vegan. While I am very excited about this decision, others (mostly my mom) are concerned about how I will raise/feed my children with this lifestyle. For the record I don't have kids nor am I dating anyone seriously but whatever. So being the brilliant girl that I am, I decided to search the internet for some vegan recipes. The first one I stumbled on was when I had some left over Butternut Squash soup that I needed to use. Imagine Foods has some awesome soups but I tire of soup fast. Luckily they have a page of recipes and it just so happened that they had an animal free one using the very soup I needed to use up. It is called Shells w/ Creamy Butternut Squash Sauce :

Ingredients:
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 zucchini, about 1 1/2 cups, small dice (broccoli may be substituted)
1/2 red or green bell pepper, small dice (optional)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Brown Rice pasta Spirals
3 to 4 cups Imagine Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

The recipe calls for pasta shells but there is a better way! Brown rice pasta is far more healthy than white pasta and much more tender than wheat pasta. Seriously, if you haven't switched to this, do so NOW.

Directions:
In a large sauce pan, sauté the garlic, onion, mushrooms, zucchini and bell pepper in the olive oil. Cook until tender, about 5–7 minutes.
Add the soup, shells, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, stirring well.
Serve hot and garnish with fresh chopped parsley. So Delicious!

Love scrambled eggs but hate the cholesterol? You would not believe how good this tastes! Behold, Tofu Scramble:

Ingredients:
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 block tofu (I prefer extra firm), drained and pressed
2 tbsp oil or margarine
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp nutritional yeast (I use Brewer's Yeast. You can find it at health food stores)

Directions: Slice the tofu into approximately one inch cubes. Then, using either your hands or a fork, crumble it slightly.
Saute onion, pepper and crumbled tofu in oil for 3-5 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients (be sure to sprinkle on the yeast slowly and evenly so it does not clump), reduce heat to medium and allow to cook 5-7 more minutes, stirring frequently and adding more oil if needed. Wrap in a warmed wheat flour tortilla with a bit of salsa for a breakfast burrito. I got this recipe from About.com

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies? You're kidding me!

All you do is take a standard chocolate chip recipe from the back of any package of semi-sweet (non dairy) chocolate chips. I used one from Ghiradelli. Please pay attention to the butter and egg substitutes.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 C unsifted, unbleached flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Cup Earth Balance (I like the shortening cubes)
3/4 C Sugar
3/4 C Brown Sugar
Ener-G Egg Replacer mix for 2 eggs
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (you decide how many)

Heat oven to 375 degrees, mix flour salt and baking soda together and set aside. In mixer, mix Earth Balance, Sugar, Egg replacer mix and vanilla until creamy. Slowly mix in dry ingredients. You will notice your mixture does not have the same consistency as regular chocolate chip cookie dough. That is where the Almond milk comes in. I add it until the consistency isn't dry yet isn't to runny. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. I like to leave mine a little gooey in the middle. Play around with the recipe. I have a friend who likes to ad maple flavoring. Yum! I promise once you find your way around the substitutes, these cookies are to die for!

I cannot wait to find more ways to cook without using animal products. My next attempt will be coconut blueberry pancakes (I'll include pictures once I have mastered this and share the recipe) And my mom was worried!