219. pesto quesedillas.

I saw this idea on pinterest – only it involved cheese and chicken. Tonight I made my own version and it was DELICIOUS.

First, I made some pesto. I just kind of wing my pesto. I took a handful or so of basil leaves, a handful or so of baby spinach, about 3 Tablespoons pistachios (I didn’t have pine nuts), 2 cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup vegetable broth, 1 T olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 T of nutritional yeast and blended it up in the vitamix.

Then, I sauteed some uptons seitan in a pan.
I chopped up some baby tomatoes from my garden.

I took a large tortilla, smeared on the pesto, cooked seitan, tomatoes and added some mozerella daiya cheese. Cooked this in a pan, and ate it right up. Holy cats, was it good!

157. chinese “chick’n” salad.

For being vegan, I don’t eat alot of salads. I gotta make sure I get protein, and I’m lazy about all the work that goes into making salad. I like ALOT of stuff in my salad. Oh, and I hate most bottled dressings, so that means I usually have to make my own on top of everything. And dressings usually have alot of oil in them, which is a big turn off to me.

But I am a vegan who LIKES a good salad. Just usually when someone else makes it.

I found this recipe to make a chinese chick’n salad. And it was totally worth all the time it took to make it. And the dressing had no oil in it. Yum. Yum. Yum.

I made a big batch of it, kept the seitan and the dressing seperately and will make individual salads for me for lunch this week.

Here’s my take on it:
1 package uptons seitan (or tofu, or some other protein)
1 small head lettuce, chopped
1/2 cup napa cabbage, chopped
2 large green onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced into sticks
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp shaved almonds
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 oz. saifun noodles*
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
peanut oil

1. Cook your seitan until its ready.
2. In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, cabbage, green onions, carrots, cilantro, shaved almonds, and sesame seeds. Mix.
3. In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients: rice vinegar, sugar, white vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper.
4. When seitan is done cooking, add to the salad bowl. Warm up some peanut oil in a pan and fry the saifun noodles. They should only be in there a few seconds and immediately puff up when they hit the hot oil. Dry on paper towels to get rid of excess oil.
5. Add the salad dressing to the salad mixture. Toss in the large bowl.
6. On a large plate or bowl, lay the crispy saifun down, then top with the salad.