Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Gigi sauce

Thanks, everyone for the kind words in the last post. School is back on for me but hopefully I'll be able to cook some healthy meals during the week.
First up, double chocolate chip muffins from La Dolce Vegan. The first time I ever made these, they weren't that impressive to me. But I tried them again,and they're yummy! Especially with some fudgey frosting on top.















Dinner last night was delicious, fast and super easy. I adapted another recipe from Cooking for the Rushed: penne with Italian gigi sauce and veggies. This is a creamy tomato sauce with a bit of kick. I substituted the chicken with "chicken" seitan. It was so good, Billy liked it too :)













Penne with Gigi Sauce:
1 tsp. olive oil
3 "chicken" seitan steaks (this sauce would work just as well without it too)
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2-1 small onion
10 mushrooms
350 g whole wheat penne
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 of the soup can, plain soymilk
3/4 cup chunky salsa (mild to spicy, depending on how you like it)
2 green onions, more for garnish if you'd like
oil and basil for pasta

1. Fill large pot with water, cover and bring to a boil. Heat oil on med-high in large frying pan or wok. Cut seitan into bite sized pieces and add to the wok as you chop.
2. Add the garlic and basil to the wok. Toss to coat seitan, and cook until warmed through.
3. While the seitan is warming, sliver the onion and add to the wok as you chop. Wash and slice mushrooms, adding to the wok as you go.
4. Place pasta in boiling water, stir, and cook uncovered. Set the timer for 11 minutes. In a mixing bowl, stir together the soup, milk and salsa and pour over the seitan mixture. Stir well.
5. Wash and chop green onion and add to the wok. Simmer while pasta cooks.
6. Drain pasta in colander, return to pot and toss with 1 tsp of olive oil (optional) and 1/2 tsp basil.

I served mine with some broccoli that was cooked with Mrs. Dash, and a bit of vegan parmesan on top of the sauce. Yum Yum!

And finally, lunch yesterday and today was straight out of Vegan Lunchbox. Easy potato salad, green grapes, and some cut up deli meat and soy cheese to eat with some rice crackers. Oh, yes, and some back-to-school chocolate chip cookies! They're whole wheat, and good! I undercooked the potatoes a bit, but its definitely a good recipe. Nice, and simple, the way I like it.














Tonight's dinner is leftover Gigi pasta, but I will be trying some new recipes later in the week.

9 comments:

Michelle said...

that gigi sauce looks good! i've never heard of that kind of sauce before. but fast and easy sounds good too ;)

Anonymous said...

That's a cookie? It looks like a muffin!

Melissa said...

whoops...I edited that out. That would be due to a lack of sleep and habit, since I make a lot of cookies ;)

Anonymous said...

That muffin looks delicious- so chocolatey!

Anonymous said...

Love the lunchbox, I am anxiously awaiting myine to come in the mail. I got the whimsical colors.

Anonymous said...

Oh man.. the muffins look.. amazing. And I've been seeing really good pasta dishes lately! I don't make much pasta, I might have to start! Hehe.

Melissa said...

raising_kahne, yes, so far I'm really liking the cookbook. I don't have as much time to get up in the morning and cook for lunch, but I like that I can prepare most of it ahead of time. And it gives me great ideas for lunches. They're my best meal of the day! So far, most of the things I've made I've really enjoyed: the tomato sauce, the pumpkin muffins, the inari, pizza breadsticks....yummmmm.

Anonymous said...

Chocolate muffins! Is it like healthy chocolate cake? Sounds good to me.
That Gigi pasta sounds marvelous. Thanks for posting the recipe. I'm going to print it off and give it a try.

Melissa said...

carrie, it doesn't really have cake-like consistency. I find its drier like a muffin. You can make it healthier by using whole wheat flour...I did a half and half ratio of white and whole wheat. I made them solely as a junk food binge though ;)
Let me know how your gigi sauce turns out!