Old Style Biscuits and Gravy

Straight out of grandma's kitchen. Thanks to The Garden of Vegan for the biscuit recipe.

Ingredients:
For Gravy:
- 1 package of your favorite soy sausage. (I prefer Lightlife Smart Ground, Sausage Style)
- 3 cups plain soymilk
- 1/2 medium red onion, diced
-2 tbsp canola or olive oil
-1/4 cup flour
- 1 tbsp seasoned salt
-black pepper to taste

For Biscuits:
-2 cups flour
-3tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-1/4 cup margarine
-3/4 cup soymilk

How to:

To make biscuits:
1. Preheat oven to 475.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add margarine and incorporate into the flour.
3. Add soymilk, 1/4 cup at a time, and gently knead dough together.
4. Once kneaded, separate dough into balls or rectangles, whatever shape you want them to be.
5. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.

To make gravy:
1.In a frying pan, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onions and sautee until they start to get soft, no more than 5 minutes.
3. Add soy sausage and stir until crumbled.
4. Add flour to pan and stir until sausage and onions is well coated.
5. Add soymilk, 1 cup at a time. Heat until the gravy thickens up, stirring often.
6. Add seasoned salt and pepper. Taste and add more spices if you like.
7. Top biscuits with gravy and enjoy!

Like most of my other recipes, this one is flexible. I have heard of people adding mushrooms, garlic, or green peppers to the gravy to give it a twist. All three sound delicious!

"Cheesy" Tempeh and Noodle Casserole

Ingredients:
-1 package (8-12oz) tempeh
-2 cups uncooked pasta noodles (bowties or shells are recommended)
-1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce (make sure you check the label, a lot of these have anchovies in them)
-1/2 cup nutritional yeast
-1/4 cup margarine
-1/4 cup flour
-1 3/4 cups water
-2 tbsp soy sauce
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1/2 tsp turmeric
-1 can diced tomatoes

How to:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large sauce pan, bring water to a boil. When boiling, place tempeh in the water. This helps it to absorb flavor later. Boil tempeh for about 7 minutes. Remove tempeh and boil pasta until al dente.
3. After tempeh is boiled, place it in a shallow dish with the Worcestershire sauce. Add garlic powder, salt, and black pepper as desired.
4. In a small sauce pan, melt margarine over medium heat. When margarine is melted, add flour and stir. Add the 1 and 3/4 cup water and stir well. Add spices (salt, garlic powder, and turmeric) and soy sauce.
5. Add nutritional yeast and stir until sauce is thick.
6. In a glass baking dish, crumble up the tempeh in the bottom of the dish.
7. Open and drain tomatoes. Pour them out evenly over the tempeh.
8. Add pasta over tomatoes. Top with nutritional yeast sauce.
9. Bake for about 30 minutes. If desired, you can add bread crumbs for a crunchier topping.

You can play around with this and add whatever you think you would like. Jon and I made this but added Italian cut green beans. We weren't crazy about them but it wasn't bad either. I might try this with potatoes or broccoli in the future. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Curried Potatoes and Lentils

This is borrowed from 150 Vegan Favorites. Super simple and really tasty. We added about doubt the spices (because that's how we roll), but play around with it yourself to find a level of spiciness that you're comfortable with. This recipe was even better the next day when I ate the leftovers for lunch. The longer you let the spices seep into the lentils and potatoes, the happier you'll be. Feel free to let these lentils sit on the stove on warm for an hour before eating.

Ingredients:
-1 tbsp canola oil
-1 large onion, chopped
-3-4 cloves minced garlic
-1 large tomato, diced
-1tbsp curry powder
-1/2 tsp cumin
-1/2 tsp black pepper
-1/4 tsp turmeric
-1 cup green lentils
-4 1/2 cups water
-2 cups diced potatoes
-1/2 tsp salt

How to:
1. In saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and garlic. Sautee for about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in tomato, curry powder, pepper, and turmeric and cook for 1 minute.
4. Stir in lentils and water and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.
5. Stir in potatoes and cook until potatoes and lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.
6. Stir in salt, let stand for at least 5-10 minutes before eating.

Banana Raspberry Pancakes

This is one of my favorites for a lazy Sunday morning at home. Fix it with some soy sausage or a fruit salad and you've got yourself a great breakfast that won't put you back to sleep.

Ingredients:
-1 cup flour
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-dash of cinnamon
-2/3 cup soymilk
-1 ripe banana
-1 tsp vanilla
-3/4 cup frozen raspberries

How to:
1. Mix dry ingredients in bowl (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon)
2. In a small bowl mash the banana. Add soymilk and vanilla and mix well.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until batter is smooth. Stir in raspberries.
4. Coat a frying pan with cooking spray and heat on medium. Pour 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter onto the frying pan when hot.
5. When the pancake has bubbles around the edge and can be easily moved with a spatula, flip it over. Heat the other side for 1-2 minutes.
6. Repeat until all of the batter is gone.
7. Eat

For an extra fruity treat, try using half the amount of soymilk and substitute apple juice for the other half.

Happy breakfast!