Strawberry Vinegarette Salad

At a Glance:

• Feeds: as many as you want (this recipe based on 4 servings)
• Difficulty: Medium
• Time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

• Baby arugala & romaine lettuce
• strawberries
• goat's cheese
• olive oil
• red wine
• candied walnuts
• balsamic glace vinegar (thicker than regular balsamic vinegar dressing)...(these are also available in pre-flavored varieties, like raspberry, strawberry etc if you prefer)
  

Method

• Chop lettuce into bite size pieces, mix together well
• slice strawberries thinly
• top the lettuce with strawberries, crumble goat's cheese on top
• add walnuts if desired
• add dressing, salt and pepper to taste
  

Dressing Method (this will make enough for several salads)

• in bowl, add 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar glace, 1/2 cup of olive oil
• add splash of wine (or more if you prefer)
• Mix well, and quickly drizzle on top of salad before it seperates
  

Mini Cheezy Pumpernickel Pizza Bites

At a Glance

• Feeds: as many people as you want
• Difficulty: Easy/Medium
• Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

• Soy/Vege Meat Crumble (morning star brand recommended)
• Mini-loaf of pre-sliced Pumpernickel bread (each piece are about 2 or 3 inch squares)
• Block of Velveeta Cheese
• Ketchup or BBQ sauce
  

Method

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
  
• Defrost the vege crumble in the microwave
• Microwave method (quicker): Add any spices/seasonings, add small blocks of velveeta to the container, and then cook the vege crumble in the according to instructions on package. Judge when to add the cheese according to how long you have to cook it (depends on how much you're making).
• Pan Method: add the vege crumble to the pan on medium heat. Gradually add in velveeta cheese in chunks, slowly mixing it into the meat mixture. You can decide how 'cheesy' you want it as you go. The cheese should melt slowly enough for you to be able to taste test as you go.
  
• While it is cooking, lay out your pumpernickel bread slices on an un-greased baking sheet
• When the meat mixture is ready, put a 1.5 to 2 teaspoons of cooked vege crumble on each piece of bread.
• Slide the baking sheet into the oven for 5-10 minutes at the most. You are only trying to get the bottom of each piece of bread a little crispy, and the tops of the meat/cheese mix a little crunchy. You do not want the meat mixture to get tough. The meat is cooked already, so you can taste test as you go as well.
• Remove from oven when ready, and serve with sides of ketchup or bbq sauce depending on your preference.
  

Wonton Salad, with Faux Chicken Patties

At a Glance

• Feeds 4 hungry people
• Difficulty: Medium
• Time: 20-25 minutes
  

Salad Ingredients

• 1 head shredded iceberg lettuce
  
• 2 stalks of chopped green onions
  
• 4 faux chicken patties
  
• ½ pkg. of wontons (just pick-up a bag of already cooked wontons from a Chinese Restaurant)
• ¼ cup toasted slivered almonds

Dressing Ingredients

• ¼ cup vegetable oil or olive oil
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. Accent seasoning
  

Method

• In frying pan, add all dressing ingredients.
• Heat on low-medium until all sugar is melted. When dressing is proper consistency, remove from heat. It should be room temperature when you add it to the top of the salad. Put in fridge to speed up process if you want. While it is cooling, you can do the rest of the recipe, which should time it just about right.
  
• Put chicken patties in oven (preferred) or microwave to cook according to directions on package. It's best for these to be crispy for this salad, which is why the oven method is preferred.
• In big mixing bowl, add lettuce, onion and almonds. Mix well.
• Break up the wontons into manageable, bite size pieces, then add wontons to mixing bowl too. Mix well again.
• When chicken patties are cooked, cut them into long strips.
  
• If you're serving the whole recipe, add the dressing to the mixing bowl, and mix well. If just making a small batch now, add salad to plate, drizzle dressing on top.
• Add chicken strips to top of salad.
• Eat!
  

Potato Quesadillas

At a Glance

• Feeds: 2 people
• Difficulty: Easy/Medium
• Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen cubed hash browns (or freshly cubed (1/2 inch cubes) potatos, or leftover mashed potatoes)
• 4 medium sized flour tortillas
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp season-all
  
• 1 tsp chili seasoning (not chili powder)
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 bag grated Mexican Cheese Blend. You can vary how much you need depending on how many quesadillas, and how thick you are making them.
  
• Non-stick spray
• 2 tbsp tomato salsa (mild, medium or hot...your choice)
• OPTIONAL Side Items: Sour cream, Guacamole
  
• OPTIONAL ingredients: 1 tbsp Red Pepper Flakes (for more spice)
  
• OPTIONAL ingredients: 1/2 cup chopped onions (if you like onions)

Method

• For smooth quesadillas: Heat potatoes in microwave until defrosted. If using fresh potatoes, microwave them until they are just barely cooked and slightly mashable. If you're using leftover mashed potatos, you dont have to cook them before adding to the quesadilla.
  
• For crispy quesadillas (preferred method) you'll want to defrost or slightly cook the hash brown cubes a little and then put them into a hot frying pan with just a little oil to crisp them up just a little. When they are crispy (but not burned at all), remove from heat.
• Add hash browns to a big mixing bowl
• Add cumin, season-all, ketchup, chili seasoning, onions, red pepper flakes to bowl and mix well, coating each cube with some flavor. Be careful not to mix too vigourously if you are going for the crispy method.
  
• Warm Frying pan to medium-low heat, spray with non-stick spray.
• Put flour tortilla unfolded into pan, put a little bed of cheese down on one side, add potato mixture to same side, and then top with a little more cheese.
• When the cheese begins to melt, fold the tortilla over. It should seal itself with the cheese as its glue.
• Flip the folded tortilla one more time so the top half gets another round on the bottom.
• Remove from pan, repeat for as many quesadillas as you want to make.
• Serve with some sour cream, guacamole, or even some ketchup, if you like it that way.

Easy Cheezy Faux BBQ Cheeseburger Pizza

At a Glance

• Feeds 3-4 people
• Difficulty: Medium
• Time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients

• Pizza Crust (pillsbury works well)
  
• 8oz (1 package) grated cheddar cheese
  
• 1 small onion (diced, sliced, chopped whatever you want)
  
• 1 package vege Crumble by Morning Star (or some version of soy burger crumble)
  
• 2 tsp sausage seasoning
• 1 packet McCormick's Grill Mates Hamburger Seasoning (meatloaf seasoning can substitute if you can't find the hamburger flavor)
  
• Sweet Barbeque Sauce (this will be your base, so enough to cover base of pizza crust)
• 2 tbsp Ketchup
  
• OPTIONAL: Bacos, Fake Bacon Bits, peppers (but dont put so much on that it takes away from the burger-like taste)
  
• OPTIONAL: left overs from sloppy no's or faux meatloaf work well on this meal
  

Method

• Preheat oven to temperature for pizza dough to be cooked
  
• Take pizza dough, roll it out on cutting board with flour or corn meal to keep it from sticking
• Put burger crumble in microwave for a couple of minutes to defrost. You don't want to cook it much at all, as this will happen in the oven. Just enough so that you can separate it and it is not frozen at all anymore.
• Combine ketchup, spices and burger crumble, then microwave for 1 minute.
• Put as much BBQ sauce as you want on your base of the pizza. Remember, more BBQ sauce means more hot liquid when you bite into the slice, so be careful how much you pile on there. Try putting some on the outside of the crust too, so some cheese will stick to it and make it all delicious.
• Put thin covering of cheddar cheese on the pizza base. Yes...put the cheese on first.
• Put burger crumble mixture onto pizza base...as much as you want.
• Put onions onto pizza
• Cover with thin sprinkling (or as much as you want) of cheddar cheese. The less you put on, the better the underneath will cook in the oven. IE: dont put so much cheese on that the cheese burns before the crumble and top of the pizza base cooks properly.
• Put pizza(s) in oven and cook according to instructions for crust.

Vegetable Fajitas

Recipe at a glance

• Difficulty: Medium
• Feeds: 2-3
• Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 4-6 medium sized flour tortillas
  
• 1 small white onion (sliced)
• 1 red pepper (sliced)
• 1 yellow pepper (sliced)
• 2 portabello mushrooms (sliced)
• 2 chopped tomatoes (could use small can of tomatoes)
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 2 tsp Seasoning Salt
• 1 tsp Chilli Powder (more or less depending on your preference for heat)
• 1 handful of fresh diced cilantro
  
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup of water
  
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• OPTIONAL: spanish rice, shredded lettuce, grated cheese, sour cream, guacamole, salsa

Method

• Heat olive oil in large frying pan on medium-high heat
• add onions, cook for a few minutes
  
• add peppers, mushrooms, spices to pan
  
• add water to pan, mix all ingredients well to distribute spices and seasoning
• lower heat and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat
• add tomatoes and cook for just a few minutes until tomatoes are warm
• while tomatoes are cooking, wrap tortillas in wet paper towel, and microwave on high for 2 minutes
• Remove pan from heat, remove tortillas from microwave
• Add vegetable mix to each tortilla...do not overfill
• top with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, salsa...your choice