Herb Potato Leek Soup

Herb Potato Leek Soup

So my friends and I have been feeling a little sick lately. Plus its fall. perfect time to make a soup, right? I was going to make Potato Leek Soup, but Kroger didn't have any because I guess everyone wanted to make this soup. So I got green onions and figured I could kind of do the same thing.

Ingredients:

4 russet potatoes

1 bunch of green onions

1 Yellow onion

Leeks

Garlic

Vegetable broth

Milk (or dairy free options- I used almond)

Butter (or vegan alternative "butter")

Vegetable oil

Rosemary

Bay leaves

Thyme

Coriander

Shredded cheese (cheddar or parmesan work as a topping)

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Chop up garlic, onions, and leeks. Peel and cut potatoes into small cubes.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a pot. Add in garlic, and yellow onions. Cook until soft
3. Add in potatoes. Add in vegetable broth. Add in water. Sorry for being so vague, I don't measure anything. I just added in some water so there wasn't too much vegetable broth and I needed some more liquid.
4. Add in rosemary, bay leaves, thyme, coriander, leeks, salt, and pepper.
5. Bring soup mixture in pot to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and bring to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are soft (~30 minutes)
7. Find rosemary, bay leaves, and thyme (remove from pot- compost them or toss them out)
8. Allow mixture to cool slightly. There are 2 options for the next part. Blending. You can add this soup to a blender to make it smooth, or you can use a hand blender to blend everything in the pot. You can make the soup as chunky or smooth as you please.
9. Add in a stick of butter into the soup.  Add in some almond milk to help achieve desired consistency.  It sounds like a lot, but its also a lot of soup.
10. Add in shredded cheese (of your choice, I chose parmesan and I added a whole bag). Let everything melt and just keep mixing/blending.
11. Garnish with some some cheese and some green onions.(I also added parsley, salt, pepper, and a pinch of paprika for presentation). YUM!

Seasoned Veggie Rice Bowl

Seasoned Veggie Rice Bowl

I made these a bowls a few weeks ago as a little meal prep for lunch. Super easy and yummy for work. Like I said in my last post, I made too much rice so I had to find a way to use it up. This meal prep also gave me an excuse to use my new little Pyrex containers (if you don't already know, Pyrex containers are my favorite). Yes, the lids are plastic, but I love the glass containers. They are perfect for everything.

Ingredients:

White Rice

Vegetables (I has a frozen veggie mix with green beans, peas, corn, and carrots)

Baby Bella Mushrooms

Brussel Sprouts

White Onion

Parmesan (or a vegan Parmesan)

Instructions:

1. Cook the white rice.
2. In a skillet, cook the mushrooms, onions, and other veggies with some olive oil.
3. add in some seasoning of your choice. I chose to use a spicy Greek seasoning (pictured below). If you choose to use the same seasoning I did, be careful because it is salty so you don't need as much as you think.
4. I also cooked some brussel sprouts in my air fryer and added those on top.
5. Optional: sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top (or if you're vegan use an alternative)

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

These are one of my favorite snacks to make. They are super easy to make and you can play around with the recipe. I chose to make these with hot sauce but feel free to not add the hot sauce and just use ranch or keep them plain. But for any vegetarians out there who want something with buffalo sauce, this might be a good recipe to try!

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

All purpose flour

Almond milk (or any dairy free milk of your choice)

Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce (or choose any brand that YOU love)

Panko Bread Crumbs

1 Ranch seasoning packet

Cayenne Powder

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Black Pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to about 350°F. If you are using an air fryer (like I did), don't worry about preheating.
2. Clean and cut up the cauliflower into bite sized pieces.
3. Take 3 bowls for the batters. In the first bowl, fill it with almond milk and the buffalo hot sauce. Mix.
4. In the second bowl, add all purpose flour, half of the ranch seasoning packet, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne powder, and black pepper.
5. In the third bowl, add panko bread crumbs, the other half of the ranch packet, and a little of the other seasonings you used in the flour batter (not as much). Arrange the bowls in this order to make a little assembly line- flour bowl, wet batter, and panko bowl.
6. Take a piece of the cut up cauliflower and roll in the flour batter, then roll in the wet batter (really quick- dont let these sit in the wet batter too long), and lastly roll the cauliflower in the panko bread crumbs. Place on baking sheet or in basket of air fryer. Continue this till you have used up all the cauliflower.
7. Place your baking sheet in the oven and let bake until panko is a golden brown. OR place in air fryer and cook on a low temp (about 275°F) for about 15-20 minutes to thoroughly cook cauliflower. Then turn the heat setting to 375°F or 400°F for the last 10-15 minutes. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't start burning. You may want to turn the pieces (for both the oven and air fryer) but it works perfectly well if you don't.

The Sauce????

I mixed the hot sauce with some ranch. it was a good dipping sauce since I wanted a little more spice. But honestly, you could eat them plain and it would work out just fine!

Chick'n Egg Rolls

Chick'n Egg Rolls

Please ignore the slightly burnt ones in the photo... it's all my friends fault for cooking them too long and walking away from the stove LOLOLOLOLOL 

Ingredients:

Shredded Napa Cabbage

Brussels Sprouts

Shredded Carrots

White Onion

Fresh Ginger

Garlic

Scallions (I didn't have any, but this should be included if you can)

Egg Roll Wraps (I used Nasoya Brand)

Sesame Seeds (Optional)

Vegetable broth

Soy Sauce

Sugar

Sesame Oil

Peanut Oil or Vegetable Oil

Tofurky Slow Roasted chick'n (Optional)

Instructions:

1. Combine soy sauce, sugar, and vegetable broth. Mix the cabbage and brussels sprouts in this mixture. Bring this mixture to a boil in a wok or deep skillet and let simmer until vegetables are soft. Add a little sesame oil. Drain the excess liquid. Add in garlic, ginger, scallions, and onions. (I also added in Tofurky Chick'n).
2. Fill and roll the egg rolls. Only use about 1 tablespoon for the filling. (The packaging should tell you how to roll the wrap). Honestly- I made this with a friend and he added WAY too much filling, but we found a way to make it work.
3. In a skillet, add some peanut oil and vegetable oil and saute the egg rolls until crispy. Be careful cause the oil will splatter (while cooking I put a lid on the skillet to avoid some of the splatter and it was helpful).
4. Can sprinkle with sesame seeds when done frying. Place egg rolls on a paper towel to soak up some excess oil.
5.  Eat with sweet and sour sauce! (cause its yummy)

This was my first time making this recipe. I followed the one from Food Network which I will link here. I just gave you the short version of what I did.

I wasn't able to drain the excess liquid for my filling but I found a way to make it work. Definitely avoid the excess liquid cause it makes the egg rolls really mushy and the wraps kind of fall apart. Also, dont over fill like my friend did. That also causes the rolls to tear. These were surprisingly easy to make, and really yummy. My friends loved them.

Tofu Tikka Masala

Tofu Tikka Masala

Really popular dish that my roommates and I make a lot. We love it and change up the veggies all the time.

Ingredients:

Rice of your choice (I use basmati white rice)

Tikka Masala Sauce (I buy from Aldi or Kroger)

Tofu

Tomato Paste

Almond Milk

Carrot

Green peas

Onion

Mushrooms

Corn

Chickpeas

Bell peppers (I like red and yellow)

Naan bread (heads up: this isn’t vegan)

Turmeric

Red pepper flakes

Cumin

Paprika

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Start by pressing your tofu. Wrap the tofu in paper towels or a cloth towel and put on a plate or flat surface with something on top to weigh it down and release the excess water. When this is done being pressed (about 15-20 min), Cut up tofu into small cubes and place in a bag with seasonings (cumin, turmeric, paprika, garlic and onion powder, etc), shake it up to coat tofu.
2. Cooking tofu:
1. Option 1: place tofu in air fryer or oven to get crispy and add to veggie mix at end.
2. Option 2: Add tofu to veggie mix in deep pan in step 5 and cook. This makes for softer tofu.
3. In the meantime, start cooking your rice according the the directions on the package.
4. Wash and chop up the vegetables according to how big of pieces you want in your tikka.
5. Take a deep pan and use some olive oil or coconut oil to grease the pan. Then start tossing in your vegetables. I usually start with onions, mushrooms, and carrots since they take a little longer to cook. (if you do broccoli or cauliflower, add that in with the first group of veggies). Then add in my peppers and other veggies. 
6. Let those veggies cook for a bit till they get soft. Then add in your spices, a jar of your tikka masala sauce and a small can of tomato paste along with about ½ cup of almond or coconut milk. Stir
1. Hint: if sauce is too thick, add more almond milk and keep stirring
7. Put the. lid on your pan and let this sit for a little bit. 
8. Add in spinach to wilt. Cook naan bread in the oven to warm. Or if you have small naan bread, place in toaster to warm.

Serving: place some rice on plate and veggie/tikka mixture on top. Bread on the side. 

Enjoy!

Crescent Wrapped Brie Cheese

Crescent Wrapped Brie Cheese

Ingredients:

Brie Cheese

Canned Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Sliced apples of your choice (I used gala)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Roll out the crescent rolls into one big sheet. I usually just press down along the perforated lines to keep them together-that’s usually good enough
3. Then I put the brie cheese in the middle of the crescent roll thing. I’m so specific, I know. Make sure you cut off the rind before doing this.
4. Then I just wrapped up the cheese with the crescent roll and placed this on a baking sheet. I make sure to leave a little hole in the middle for dipping apples later.
5. I put a little olive oil and seasonings on top of the crescent dough before placing it in the oven.
6. Let this cook until the crescent dough is a golden brown, then you can take it out and let it cool a bit (usually takes about 15-20 min, but keep an eye on it)

Slice up some apples and make it look pretty. Then it’s time to eat!

Red, White, & Blue Chocolate Bark

Red, White, & Blue Chocolate Bark

Ingredients:

White chocolate wafers (for melting)

Food coloring

Toppings - Pretzels, M&M’s, Oreos, Sprinkles, Reese's, etc.

Instructions:

Super easy. Melt the chocolate and separate into different bowls. Chocolate can be melted using 2 different methods.

Option 1: double broiler. Take a pot and fill it with water, Place a glass bowl on top and put chocolate in that glass bowl and allow the heat from the water/steam to melt the chocolate. This process is slow but it melts really well.

Option 2: Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 30 sec intervals. Stir in between until chocolate is melted.

Keep one bowl for each color. I would recommend spraying your dish with a little oil before mixing the chocolate in it, but go for it. Add in your toppings. I made the bark by alternating layers of chocolate and toppings. Once the chocolate hardened I took it out of the pan and broke it up into pieces. If you made your bark too thick like me- I put mine into a zip-lock bag and hit it with a hammer (its probably better to use a meat tenderizer lol) a few times to break it up. It worked! Fun to make and super yummy.

I actually made this for the 4th of July this year. My roommates had a party so this was super easy to make and people seems to like it.