Spinach-Herb Stuffed Mushrooms and Sauteed Broccolini

These fabulous mushrooms were one of the first things I made from The 30-Minute Vegan when I first got it some time ago. They're stuffed with spinach, fresh basil (I omitted parsley and doubled the basil), yellow bell pepper, thyme, garlic, and bread crumbs (normally cubes but I have a whole bag of crumbs in the freezer so I subbed). In order to pull this together so quickly the mushrooms are broiled to get them tender before they're stuffed. The veggies were supposed to be sauteed, but because I have trouble paying attention and following directions when I'm trying to do to many things (read: shopping online), I ended up roasting them in the broiler--it was a bit of an "oh shit" moment when I realized what I'd done, but it worked out just fine. Once the veggies were soft they were combined with the bread then put on the mushrooms for one more visit to the broiler. The mushrooms don't come out quite as tasty as if they were marinated and then baked, but in combination with the filling they're scrumptious. For the broccolini I just steamed it, placed in an ice bath to stop cooking, set aside, then sauteed fresh minced garlic and red pepper flakes until fragrant, added the broccolini until warm again, tossed in some toasted pine nuts and a squeeze of lemon juice and it was good to go. I let it steam too long in my lack of cooking concentration so it was a bit overdone, but good.

Macadamia Nut-Encrusted Tofu and Gingered Chard

Both of these items are from The 30-Minute Vegan. The tofu has a tahini and crushed macadamia nut topping. There were some leftovers of this that I had for lunch the next day and I think it tasted even better the next day after the flavors had time to come together more.

The chard was cooked up with tons of fresh ginger (about 2 tablespoons minced). Large amounts of ginger always leaves a weird feeling on my teeth, but nevertheless this was great.

This book is great when I don't feel like spending much time in the kitchen but still want something healthy and satisfying for dinner.

Broccoli, Mushroom, Tofu Stir-fry

We were heading out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, so it was getting down to pretty slim pickings in our fridge and pantry. This was Asian Shiitake Tofu from The 30-minute Vegan. I subbed creminis for shiitakes because that's what we had on hand. Their suggestion was to serve over quinoa; I just cooked up some Thai rice noodles and threw those in. The flavor was really good, however I didn't take into account how much liquid the rice noodles would take up, so it could have been saucier. All in all, a nice quick dinner and plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day (just added some more soy sauce and some hot pepper sauce prior to heating up).

Stuffed Mushrooms and Zucchini Roll-ups

We were heading to a little get-together with some of my school friends last night, so we whipped up a couple of appetizers to bring along. Both of these are from The 30 Minute Vegan. We were also busy earlier in the day so I wanted a couple of things that wouldn't take too long, both of these fit that bill nicely.


The mushrooms were stuffed with a mixture of the stems, Tofutti cream cheese, red bell pepper, spinach, nutritional yeast, and some spices. I left out the onion it called for, and after mixing in the food processor it was too runny, so I added additional spinach, nutritional yeast, and threw in some bread crumbs; after mixing again it was a perfect consistency. They turned out quite lovely with the bubbly brown bits on top. I didn't have a chance to try these while they were still warm, which is when they probably would have tasted their best. They were still quite good at room temperature though. Many people liked these and asked what was inside.


The zucchini roll-ups were extremely good. They consisted of strips of zucchini rolled up with an herbed tofu ricotta. I had a little trouble getting them to stay rolled prior to baking (the zucchini was too firm and I didn't want the strips to break), so I just lied them out on the baking sheet and then rolled after baking. We also stuck toothpicks through them so that they would stay rolled during transport and for ease of serving. I also drizzled these with olive oil and sprinkled with salt before serving. I think I ate like half the plate of these myself--so tasty. When I make these again I will half the tofu mixture that is used as the filling. I didn't place it all on the strips before baking and then when rolling up a lot just fell out, so there was a fair amount of it wasted which I didn't like. But, all in all, a success!