Adopt - A- Turkey Sponsorships

The Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY is a compassionate place which rescues, cares for, educates, and offers new beginnings and hope to animals that without them, had no hope. Animals that were seen as a means to justify an end instead of as loving and innocent. I had the pleasure a while back of going there and when it was over I adopted a pig named Joan Jett whom I sponsor. For the Thanksgiving holiday the sanctuary has what they call adopt a turkey where for 25 dollars you sponsor a turkey for yourself or as a gift. This donation helps the farm continue its valued work while educating people about other ways to enjoy Thanksgiving without a Turkey having to be the main course. I thought I would share this link with my readers.





http://www.adoptaturkey.org/



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Gnewvegan

New Frozen Dinners

As much as I enjoy cooking there are times when I am just not up for it. There are not many vegan frozen dinners that I have found. Usually I would buy a dinner by "Amy's". I like the veggie meat loaf the best that she makes. Lightlife sells products that I use for my cooking such as the bacon and veggie crumbles. When I was looking through a store circular I saw that they now have come out with frozen dinners, six variations. The store that I went to only had three of them. I was excited thinking they would be vegan being I use their products already. Well, of the three the store had (a pasta one, Mexican one and Asian Teriyaki) I was only able to have one which was the Asian Teriyaki. It was good but I had hoped I could try the other ones. I looked online at their site and wrote to the company to request they consider making more of their dinners vegan friendly. They wrote back right away and did say they would send the request to the designated department. Hopefully, I will come across the other variations to see if they are vegan. Here is the website.


http://www.lightlife.com/product_category.jsp?c=entrees

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Gnewvegan

Hello Again....

Hello again to all,

The last time I wrote was back in June. I was hoping at that time to be able to write like I had been. But, Life continued to take me on a journey that did not permit much writing time. I enjoy doing the blog sharing my recipes and experiences with my readers. Now that I finally have a computer again that will indeed help. Today is a rainy day and the pretty colored leaves are falling to the ground as the wind and rain surround them. It is a warm feeling driving being surrounded by the multitude of colors so enriching with flavor. I can not believe how quick the year has gone by and soon the Thanksgiving feast will be upon us , snowflakes and santa and his reindeer. Even though I have not been able to write I have continued to cook and see what recipes I can "cook" up. :) Today I will share a quick microwave dish I did the other day. I did not measure this one, just threw it together in a pinch. It was tasty.
I found organic brown rice that you put in the microwave and in less then two minutes it is done. I had not seen that before and found it really good when you do not have a lot of time to cook. First I took my microwave steamer and steamed some frozen broccoli. After that I cooked the rice. Then I cooked a vegan "chickn" patty by Boca. In a dish I mixed the rice with the broccoli and broke up the broccoli throughout the rice. Then I broke up the chick patty into bite size pieces and added that to the rice and broccoli mixture. I mixed some marinara sauce in there with some vegan parmesan cheese. Yum... Quick and easy.. This is my tip for a quick meal.

Thank you for coming to my blog and I hope to see you again soon.

GNewvegan

Israel Couscous and Lentil Salad

It has been some time since I posted anything. Life has just been busy. So I like to make recipes that are quick and easy. I made this salad recently with ingredients on hand and I was pleased. You can use whatever salad dressing that you like. Or you can make your own. I used rasberry vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and various seasonings like basil, parsley, onion powder, etc . These are all dry spices and typical spices you would find in Italian dressing. I think I may have added adobo all purpose seasoning. You just use what you like.

Israel Couscous and Lentil Salad

Serves two

1/2 cup lentils, sorted and rinsed

1/2 cup Israel Couscous

3 cups water

1/2 of a 3 oz small onion, sliced (I like to leave in small rings)

2 medium tomatoes, sliced and halved if pieces are too big

salad dressing of choice or make your own

-Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a 2 quart pot.

- Add the lentils and simmer, stirring occasional for ten minutes.

- Then add the couscous and the other 1 cup water. Cover leaving a slight opening for steam to escape. Bring to a boil, uncover and simmer for another ten minutes stirring occasional.

- Taste the mixture and see if it is soft and tender.

- Drain into a collander and run cold water over it until it is cooled down.

- Put in a bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients. Enjoy.

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Gnewvegan

Sharing more recipes

Besides creating my own recipes I enjoy trying various recipes. As from the previous post where I shared a chickpea recipe that I enjoyed, I am posting two more links for recipes I have enjoyed. The first one is a recipe by Goya which I veganized. This was easy to do by simply using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and vegan sausage instead of chorizo. I used the Italian style sausage by Tofurky. Because these sausage really only need heating up this dish took less time to cook. I just cooked it until my desired consistency of the sauce. I made it not to be a soup letting the sauce thicken and adhere to the ingredients.

http://www.goya.com/english/recipes/recipe.html?recipeID=&isSearch=1&searchFor=chickpeas+garbanzos&whichpage=1

The next recipe I had tonight and it is by Woman's day. It was a nice spring orzo salad. I did not have to change anything. I just realized I did not add the sugar to the orzo recipe, I forgot. But I enjoyed it. Both recipes were simple and quick to prepare. These are nice dishes to do especially when you are tired and want to spend limited time in the kitchen.


http://www.recipezaar.com/spring-orzo-salad-362121


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Gnewvegan

Zucchini and chickpea ratatouille by Family Circle

The other day I made this recipe from family circle magazine. Below is the link to view it. It was yummy. All the ingredients in this recipe are among my favorites.. I hope you enjoy it if you try it..


http://www.parents.com/recipe/vegetables/zucchini-chickpea-ratatouille/#pluckbottom





Thank you for coming to my blog. Please come back again soon.



Gnewvegan

Preparing for Easter Dinner

With the holiday approaching I wanted to write a post of the meal I will be making. It will be a small gathering with myself as the only vegan. But the cooking is a bit easier because it will be a vegan/ vegetarian dinner. When I was little my nan would always make ravioli for the holidays. And we would fill up on them and have to digest a bit for the rest of the food. So, we have not been doing that for a while now. But this year I decided to make the ravioli especially after I came across vegan ravioli in a natural food store. So here is the list of things I plan to make:

Regular ravioli and vegan ravioli (you could substitute with pasta of choice if you can not find vegan ravioli or make the same pasta for everyone)
Marinara sauce
Salad
Garlic Bread
Sweet potato's
Mashed potato's
Stuffing


Easter Sugar cookies
Chocolate Pudding Pie

As I have written in previous holiday posts the holidays have been wonderful since I became vegan. I have had some hosts make some vegan dishes or simply put part of the dish aside so I can add my own fixings like vegan margarine or cheese. I will also do that for example with the mashed potatoes. I make them and put mine aside so the others can mix it with what they like. When it comes to dinners when not everyone eats the same way there are ways for all to be happy. I am going to put the link below to a previous post I did with recipe ideas. The stuffing will be on that list. I did tweek the stuffing a bit but the original version is tasty also. I usually make toasted orzo pilaf (In the link below) and broccoli but I will not this time. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday. Tonight I will begin my cooking with the marinara sauce and the dough for the cookies.

http://invitationfrom-gnewvegan.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-first-vegan-thanksgiving.html

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Gnewvegan