Green Beans and Tomatoes {Easiest side dish or meal ever}

I want to share something that I've been eating ever since I was a little girl. This ridiculously easy dish is one my grandmother would make for me all of the time when I was younger. In reality, it's her recipe that I've continued to make for myself and my family. This dish could be used as a side dish or as a meal, in which I often have. It only take a few minutes to make, and you can add whatever you want to it.

Ingredients:
-Olive oil
-A large can of whole peeled tomatoes, peeled plum tomatoes, or diced tomatoes. Your choice
-3 cans of green beans, any style. I use french style. Fresh is always great too.
-Garlic powder. Fresh is alway good as well
-Salt to taste

 Heat olive oil in pot, add your tomatoes. I always cut them up in the can before. Bring them to a good bubble.

 Strain you green beans really well. Put in colander and press to get out as much moisture as you can.

 Once your tomatoes have been bubbling a bit (few minutes at most), add your garlic and your green beans.

 Cook off excess moisture until you get the consistency you want. I usually simmer for about 5-8 minutes once everything is added. 

Serve as a meal or with your meal. 

What have you been cooking?

What's Cook'n-Veggie Tomato Soup

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! 

With winter in full swing, making soup seems to make all the sense in the world. Soup is my favorite type of meal to make. It is such a yummy, warm, and comforting meal. I was craving something with tons of veggies and tomato, so I whipped this up and  it came out pretty darn good. So good, in fact,  I decided to share this goodness with all of you. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 onion
1 bulb of garlic
1 cup of carrots
3 stocks of celery
1 medium zuchinni
4-6 green onions
2 cups of cooked brown rice
Rosemary
Cilantro
32 oz of vegtable broth or stock (whichever you prefer)

 

 Step one~Cook the rice, according to the instructions, while prepping the vegetables.

 Step two~Chop all the veggies, dice the garlic and rosemary. ↕

Step three~Saute veggies (carrots, celery, zucchini, onion) for about eight to ten minutes or so. I use olive oil to saute in.

Step four~Add garlic and stir. Take care not to burn the garlic.

 Step five~ Add vegetable broth or stock and spices.

 Step six~ Add diced tomatoes and stir.

 Step seven~ Add tomato paste and stir.

 Step eight~ Add green onions. Bring soup to a little bubble.

 Step nine~ Add cooked rice and stir. Remove from heat.

 Step ten~ enjoy!!!
 

What is your favorite cold weather food to make?

What's Cook'n~Vegan Green Bean Casserole

 

Ok, confession time. I love greenbean casserole! Here is how we enjoy green bean casserole vegan style. I usually make this after we make our stuffed mushrooms because I use the stems of the mushrooms we remove. It is the best way to not waste any part of the mushroom.

Ingredients:
5-6 cloves of garlic
1½ cup mushrooms
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
3 tablespoons of flour
2 cans of french style green beans
3 tablespoons of butter. We use Earth Balance
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 dash of worcestershire sauce
6 oz of french fried onions

 Step one~ Chop/dice garlic:

 Step two~ Chop/dice mushrooms, set aside when done:

Step three~ Combine soy milk and flour. I used that strainer as a sifter. I would hold it over the bowl of soy milk and put one tablespoon of flour in at a time. I would give the strainer a little tap and use a tiny whisk to blend together. Probably a good time to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step four~ Heat up pot, add butter and soy sauce:

Step five~ Add mushrooms:

 Step six~ Add soy milk and flour mixture and stir in over medium heat for about one minute:

Step seven~ Add garlic and stir:

Step eight~ Add green beans and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Stir:

Step nine~ Add half of you french fried onions and stir. Remove from heat:

Step ten~ Pour mixture into baking dish:

Step eleven~ Bake for 15 minutes.

Step twelve~ When the 15 minutes are up, take casserole out of oven and sprinkle your remaining french fried onions on the top evenly. Return to oven for an additional 5 minutes:

Step thirteen~ Enjoy!

Messy baby approved!

What's Cook'n-Homemade Vegan Ramen Noodles

I don't know anyone who doesn't like Ramen noodles. Nutritionally they are probably the worst food on the planet. Essentially, it's noodles in a chemical bath, but for some reason they are loved by all. Well, being vegan, Ramen Noodles is not an option for us. I am not bummed by this at all because I came up with a much more nutritional, possibly healthier vegan version. One day I was nursing Amar'e to sleep and the recipe just came to me. I tried it and everyone loved it. Now its a weekly occurrence for this family. Here it is:

Homemade Vegan Ramen Noodles
Ingredients:
1 Onion
2 Cups of broccoli
1 Cup of baby carrots
2 tablespoons of olive oil (to saute in)
5-6 Cloves of garlic
3 Green onions
3-4 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Package of china noodles
2 Container of vegetable stock or broth

Chop all the veggies, dice the garlic and the green onions.

Saute carrots first for one minute.

Add onions(and broccoli) and saute for about six minutes. This time I made it, I did not include broccoli because I didn't have it.

Add garlic and stir.

Once you can smell the garlic a bit (10-30 seconds take care not to burn the garlic), then you can add your veggie stock or broth. I use both depending on which store I am able to get to for shopping.

Bring soup to a boil and add the broken up china noodles. Boil for three minutes. (This is what it looks like with broccoli)

Add chopped up green onions and stir. Remove from heat.

Serve.

What's Cook'n-Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms

This is what we had for dinner tonight:

Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms

Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 15-20 minutes

 One onion

Two cups baby carrots

1-2 Green Onions

1 Pepper (any color-I had red)

5-6 Cloves Garlic

Rosemary

Thyme (not pictured)

Smoked Paprika

Bread Crumbs (not pictured)

40 oz Mushrooms

Another View

 Finely dice :

Garlic

Carrots

Onion

Pepper

Mushroom stems

 Separating mushroom from stem

 Mushroom Cap

Saute in Olive Oil. Saute Garlic and Carrots first. When you are able to smell garlic then add the rest of the vegetables.

 Added onions, peppers, mushroom stems.At this time pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.Saute until oven is preheated plus 3-4minutes according to the amount of vegetables.

 Add rosemary, thyme, green onions, and smoked paprika, Salt and pepper to taste.

 Once vegetables are done, remove from heat, add bread crumbs. Do this slowly until a stuffing like consistency occurs.

 Stuffing like consistency.

 Stuff mushroom with spoon.

 Ready for the oven.

 17 minutes later....

Dinner from above.

Mommy's dinner on left, Amar'e only will eat the stuffing. (Amar'e had a soy yogurt and fresh picked raspberries before having a corn cut off the cob and mushroom stuffing-see pics below)

YUMMY

 

 

 Have a wonderful weekend everyone!