Spinach and Artichoke Panini

Grilled cheese is one of my favorite meals. I don’t mean your mama’s grilled cheese with processed American cheese slices on white bread. I mean artisan breads, fancy cheeses, and a variety of veggies stacked together and grilled to gooey perfection. Going vegan means no more grilled cheese because vegan “cheese“ is not cheese. *sigh*

No Thanks to Cake had posted a recipe for Chicken, Spinach, and Artichoke Panini that looked amazing. It inspired me to create a vegan version. It’s not quite grilled cheese, but it’s so flavorful I don’t care.

I don’t have a panini press, nor do I have a grill of any sort. However, I remembered reading somewhere that if you’re press-less all is not lost. You can still make panini in a regular skillet using a heavy pot to press it, flip it, and press it again. That’s what I did and it worked. It was crispy on both sides and pressed well enough that it stayed together without cheese to bind it. Sure, it was missing the pretty grill lines, but that’s okay.

I did make the meaty, cheesy version for my family. It was a big hit.

Spinach and Artichoke Panini
(I’m not using quantities. Build your sandwich according to the ratio of veggies you like.)

2 slices of your bread of choice*
Marinated artichoke hearts
Mushrooms, sliced
Fresh Spinach
Tomato slices
Onion slices
Nutritional yeast flakes**
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Sauté mushrooms and onions in a couple spritzes of cooking spray.
2. Once mushrooms and onions are done, build your panini, sprinkling a couple pinches of yeast flakes on your last layer of veggies.
3. Press your panini using whatever method you have available.
4. Enjoy!

*Pro tip: If you don’t want to bring a whole loaf of bread home to tempt yourself with, grab what you need from the individual bread bins. I turned my multigrain roll into panini bread by shaving off the top and bottom crust.

**If you’ve never had it, the taste is reminiscent of grated parmesan cheese.

Vegan Alfredo Sauce

I love fettuccine Alfredo. It’s one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. There is this fantastic little Italian restaurant in my area that serves the best fettuccine Alfredo ever. It’s warm and creamy and cheesy and one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. It’s also fattening as all hell.

So when I saw a recipe for a vegan Alfredo sauce in The E2 Diet book, I decided to give it a shot, fully expecting this to be an experiment that ended with me tossing the whole pan after a single bite. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn’t suck. Not only did it not suck, but it was actually really good. It was creamy and the nutritional yeast flakes gave a hint of cheesiness. I was excited.

I did make a few adjustments and I served mine over angel hair pasta since that’s what I had at hand. I did make the mistake of not blending my tofu. I have a small blender that wouldn’t hold all the sauce, so I broke it up with a fork which made for a chunky sauce that wasn’t as pretty as it otherwise might have been.

With my slight modifications here’s the recipe:

Creamy Alfredo Sauce

1 package Silken tofu
2 c your non-dairy milk of choice (I used rice milk)
¼ c nutritional yeast flakes
¼ c raw cashews
1 tbsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
¾ teaspoon salt
½ tsp pepper
2 slices onion, diced
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Drizzle of olive oil
¼ c white wine
¼ c whole wheat flour
16 oz your whole grain pasta of choice

1. Blend all ingredients from tofu to pepper to make the base of your sauce.
2. Sauté the onion and herbs in a drizzle of olive oil until translucent. Add wine.
3. Add blended sauce base.
4. Once sauce begins to gently boil, add flour, and whisk until incorporated. Sauce should thicken beautifully. Remove from heat.
5. Pour over pasta and enjoy!

How to Eat Veggies When You Hate Them

I can’t choke down healthy food that tastes bad. It literally makes me cry because I’m a spoiled American brat who thinks everything should taste like batter-dipped, deep-fried heaven covered in cheese. Healthy food has to taste good, otherwise I can’t hack it. Food has to meet that common ground between being good for my body and good for my soul.

That being said, I make a lot of smoothies because for some reason, no matter how awful they taste, I can swallow them with no issue (when I say smoothie I mean healthy ones, not creamy, delicious ones). I just toss a bunch of fruits and veggies in the blender with a little 100% fruit juice or rice milk and viola! I have an utterly disgusting delectable beverage that gives me a couple servings of vegetation without tears.

Today my smoothie was comprised of:
Handful of grapes
Handful of cauliflower
1 carrot
½ an orange
½ a cucumber
6 oz orange juice

It was interesting. Kind of fresh and peppery with just enough sweetness. Not something I would drink for enjoyment, but it did it’s job.

Now I'm going to go workout.

Smoothie of Health

The Engine 2 Diet

I just finished reading The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn. It’s all about a plant-based way of eating. The information is delivered in a concise, motivating way, with just enough scare tactics to make me cringe over what I’ve been eating. 

I haven’t eaten meat in 13-14 years, so that part I already have down. It’s dropping dairy that will be a challenge. I have tried multiple times to go vegan, but cheese and ice cream taste amazing. Hopefully thinking about how bad they are for me will make it easier to walk away.

Yeah, so that’s the plan. Go vegan.