Dinner for Two and tips for the week

What you need:
1 frying pan
1 sauce pan
cheese grater (these stretch cheese so far, and a nice soft cheese like muenster stretches even further)

Ingredients:
Your favorite vegetarian chicken patty 1 each (I usually go with Boca because of the lower price)
2 1oz blocks of muenster
2 cups of corn
1 cup of peas
14 frozen cheese ravioli (I love Target Market Pantry Cheese ravioli and at $1.48 you can stretch it for nearly 6 portions
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp faux butter of choice
1 tsp minced basil
2 tsps of water
3 cups of water
Salt and pepper to taste

Prep:
*First melt the coconut oil in your frying pan and saute your chicken patties on medium then low until crispy approx 10 mins while preforming the following tasks
*Put 3 cups of water in your sauce pan on high
*Mix your vegetables and dry seasoning of choice with 2 tsps of water in a microwave safe bowl and toss in the microwave for 3 minutes, stir and microwave for 3 more and let stand in the microwave until ready to serve
*During the second go round of the veggies your water should be at a boil or close, toss in your ravioli and when they float they are done (it doesn't hurt them to sit in the water off the heat if they manage to weasel by you and get done faster than you are ready for them)
*When the veggie mix is pulled out add the tsp of faux butter and minced basil and mix well

Half your veggie mix between two bowls (in our house I eat with the bowl I microwaved in to save dishes because I am lazy)
Portion out your ravioli and top with 1 oz each shredded muenster (once more I do this because I am lazy I could have done it before hand but then I would have to clean whatever the cheese waited on(when I get cheese from the store I cut it into 1oz portions so I never have to dirty knives))
Top with your chicken patty!

Took me about 15 minutes from start to finish, including the cleaning up

You can substitute left over chicken for faux chicken
Add different veg (sometimes I pre-make sauteed corn, onion, carrot and onions, so that I can add it to dishes throughout the week without having to dirty a pan for each meal)
Stewed tomatoes and bell peppers with Parmesan in place of muenster
Steamed  broccoli




Random Tip
Pyrex glass storage containers rule! Storage that it reusable, economical, safe, durable, AND you can bake tiny cake in them? If you haven't bought yourself any glass bake ware you are missing out! Forget buying plastic containers that contain who knows what and then you have to toss after a few uses. Pyrex saves me so much money, I take the 20 dollars I would normally spend on different and I can get a whole new set with lids. You can find them at yard sales, and if you have some money to spare you can get all sorts of groovy 70's vintage Pyrex! That's how long this stuff lasts. Pyrex is microwave safe, safe in a preheated oven, and the only drawback is that will crack if you go from hot to cold too fast (lesson learned pouring cheese sauce over boiling hot roasted potatoes)
Happy Homemaking!
<3AlphaBrett

Vegan" Bisquick" Recipe

If you're like me you love simple no muss cooking, but don't love the additives and extra cost. This is my recipe for healthier" Bisquick"

Equipment:
an air tight container (I love pyrex)
a food processor (by hand is not ideal)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups organic all purpose (unbleached)
2 tbs aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp of iodized sea salt (I also like pink sea salt)
1/3 a cup of organic coconut oil (or vegan shortening)

(this recipe can be double, but I usually leave it at 1/2 cup max coconut oil)

Combine all of the ingredients in the food processor and blend until everything is homogeneous equally, you may need to scrape the sides and continue blending
If you find your mix is too "wet" add flour until you get a nice powdery silky feel

Store in an airtight container for up to 6 months conservatively, you can also freeze this for at least a year, thaw before use

There are so many things you can do with this and I will be adding recipes that use it constantly as I find new and better uses for it. You can substitute it for any bisquick recipe you come across and believe me there are a lot of them.

If you are going the classic biscuit route these are my favorite vegan biscuits

Classic drop biscuit recipe with a vegan twist:
Oven 450 degree F

2 cups of our bisquick
2/3 a cup of organic coconut milk (or almond milk)

Mix for thirty seconds with vigor until it "comes together" and seems doughy
It's important not to over mix this will lead to a tougher biscuit

Bake on a lightly greased baking sheet until golden usually less than 7 minutes

This is super customizable for anyone

My favorite additives:
fresh chopped basil,
minced garlic
cracked pepper
muenster
morning star bacon crumbled up
agave syrup and orange zest (add stevia to sweeten up the mix)

I would love to hear ideas and how yours turned out