Stuffed Shells

Monique, you are genius! Ever since I watched MokoBrownVegan video on making simple vegan dinners on YouTube, I have been wanting to make the stuffed shells she made. I finally got to it and I'm glad I did!

The recipes calls for jumbo shell pasta but they were no where in sight, so I got the next best thing. They actually worked perfect because we ended up using a plastic bag as a pipping bag to fill them in.

 These came out absolutely perfect, they had tons of flavor and overall great! My sister and I loved it so much we ended up finishing the whole thing before we could offer my parents, oh well! This dish is perfect if you're having friends over who aren't vegan because the consistency of the filling is similar to cheese, so it's a win win.

Recipe from Brown Vegan

• 8oz Jumbo Shells
• 3 garlic cloves
• 8 basil leaves
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon blac pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 14 oz firm tofu, drained
• Jar of spaghetti sauce

Instructions

Preheat oven at 400º

Boil jumbo shells in water until al dente.

In a food processor, blend together garlic, basil, onion, salt, pepper and oregano. Scrap down the sides of the food processor with a fork.

Crumble tofu with your hands and blend until smooth in the food processor.

Fill each shell with the tofu filling.

Line the bottom of a casserole dish with ½ cup of spaghetti sauce.

Cover with the shells and spoon on additional spaghetti sauce.

Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes.

If you're not already, I say subscribe to Moniques Channel because she posts some amazing recipes that both vegans and non-vegans will enjoy.
Moniques YouTube channel, MokoBrownVegan

-Monica

Pasta for Dinner & Chocolate for Dessert

Chocolate half with almonds

 Yesterday i was really craving some chocolate but i didn't want to go to a market to buy one and plus most chocolates are not vegan so i made my own. So i searched vegan chocolate and found this recipe! The ingredients are so simple and there are only 3 of them! When i tasted this chocolate it reminded me of eating the Mexican hot chocolate drink tablets, called Abuelita, when i was younger which i loved!  Now i tried it with brown sugar because that's what i had and it worked for me so if you have a different sugar i suggest just trying it out and letting me know how delicious it came out to be.

Coconut Oil, Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, Brown Sugar

Ingredients 
3 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder 

Also you can use any other small toppings like almonds, peanuts, coconut shavings etc.


Directions
1. You want to melt the coconut oil so it's easy to work with.
2. Add oil, cocoa powder and sugar in a bowl and mix until smooth.
3. You can use any pan you have, i used a loaf pan, and line it with wax paper.
4. Pour the chocolate mix in the pan(on top of the wax paper)  
5. Leave the chocolate in the freezer for 20-30 minutes 
6. After break chocolate in pieces and share or eat it all yourself! :)


Chocolate recipe by Heather

Now for dinner i made a simple pasta with tofu. It's been a really long time since i had pasta like this and it came out pretty good and adding tofu i get some protein in. Since i haven't made pasta in such a long time i had no idea what i was doing and because it was pasta i thought it was going to be easy and well after i was done it was easy to make. Anyways one mistake i did and something you should not skip is washing and rinsing the pasta after you cook and strain it. I forget to do that and after i realized it i had to take the pasta out of the pan and wash it.

Ingredients
2 cups of whole wheat pasta
4 cups water
1 medium carrot(chopped)
1 head of broccoli (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup of onion
1/4 block of tofu

You can use any vegetables you want.

Directions
1. Bring water to a boil in a pan and add pasta.
2. Wait till the pasta is half ready(about 10minutes)
3. Heat up another pan with oil(about 1/2 tbsp) on medium.
4. Add in onion, carrots, broccoli and any other veggies you want to the pan with oil and stir.
5. Cut tofu in small squares.
6. Heat up another pan on medium and place tofu on the pan.(without oil)
7. When pasta is done drain out the water with a strainer and wash the pasta.
8. Add pasta in with the veggies and stir to combine and set aside.
9. After tofu is cooked on all sides you can serve on top of pasta.

If you have any questions please let me know.

-Monica