Mini Spinach & Cheese Frittatas

Easy Mini Frittatas for your next gathering! You really can add your own ingredients. I made spinach and feta since it's always a crowd pleaser! Here is another recipe on the Just Egg website as well.

Mini Spinach & Cheese Frittatas

Ingredients

Just Egg - 1 bottle

1/2 tsp Black salt

I bag 10oz frozen spinach (defrosted and water squeezed out)

1/2 container Follow Your Heart feta crumbles or Parmesan

1/2 cup Follow your Heart or Violife shredded mozzarella (Miyoko's liquid Mozz would work well too)

1/2 onion, chopped finely

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 375F.

Lightly sauté or fry the onion until clear and put aside.

In a mixing bowl mix the Just egg, pepper and black salt.

Add in other ingredient and combine.

Lightly oil spray your mini muffin tray and spoon around 2 Tbls of mixture into each space.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until it looks mostly set and the bottom is slightly brown.

Leave to set and cool to near room temperature before serving.

The feta looks like it's melting everywhere but once it cools a bit it will set.

Quiche Lorraine

Adapted vegan/GF from Quiche Lorraine recipe by Craig Claiborne in the NY Times.

Vegan Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients

Pastry for a one-crust nine-inch pie (I love Wholly Wholesome premade pie crust)

1/2 bag Louisville Vegan Toppin's - Bacon Bits

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 cup vegan cheese of choice. I used Miyoko's liquid mozzarella.

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, I used Follow Your Heart Parmesan 

1 Bottle of Just Egg 

1/2 tsp black salt (kala namak)

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line a nine-inch pie plate with the pastry. The Wholly Wholesome is already in the pie dish so done!

Bake 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven heat to 375 degrees. Take out pie crust and set aside.

Cook the onion in the a small amount of olive oil until the onion is transparent. Set aside.

In a bowl add the Just Eggs, black salt, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste, whisk to combine. Add in bacon bits, onion and cheese.

The recipe says to layer the bottom of the pie crust with the bacon bits, onion and cheese and then pour over the egg mixture.

Slide the pie onto a baking sheet.

Bake the pie until a knife inserted one inch from the pastry edge comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Remove to a wire rack. Let stand five or 10 minutes before serving.

Vegan Product Review - February 2019

It's been 5 months so there's a lot of products to get through, I completely forgot to finishing posting this one when I posted the new one so apologies, this is from earlier in the year but you should still be able to find most items! ;)

Well the much anticipate Just Egg was not as great as I was hoping. It was $9, really only 2 servings and I had to mission across town to find a retailer who stocked it. Texture-wise it was spot on, exactly like scrambled eggs but taste-wise it was bland but worse than that had a weird aftertaste, almost chemically. Even black salt didn't help with the after taste. Back to tofu for my scrambles!

I got these Purely Elizabeth GF Vegan oats with crunchy granola in the top from the discount store. I wasn't that impressed. They were very healthy but a bit too bland for anyone in my house to approve.

Not having too much luck with my product reviews this month...These Tofutti All American vegan cheese slices were horrible. Similar to dairy plastic cheese flavor but with a nasty after taste and gritty texture. Binned the lot :(

Hubby brought me this Koia cocoa bean protein drink. It was average, kind of tasted like what it was...healthy chocolate milk.

LOVING L'Occitane's new fragrance just entitled "Rose". Using pure Provencal roses you can really smell the natural botanical. I love the new "Herbae" fragrance as well!

Love these Julie's Organic sorbets in tub and Popsicle form. Kids loved the Blackberry Popsicle while I preferred the creamy mango sorbet in a tub.

Found these No Bull burgers at the NAS Commissary. They were meaty in texture but very lentil in flavor and for $5 for two not so cheap.

Also found these Sol Cuisine Falafel which included a tahini sauce! Very tasty!

This Sonoma Flatbreads GF vegan fire-roasted vegetable pizza was pretty good. Not much competition in the market for GF Vegan pizzas unfortunately!

We found this Oatly chocolate oat milk at the discount store and the whole house went mental. Even my very carnivore husband kept asking me to buy more.

I've mentioned Glutenberg Canadian GF beer before but this is by far the best flavor, if you like stouts of course! Only available seasonally I'm still finding it at Earth Fare luckily!

My love of Violife is real. I will say though the Feta and Parmesan are my favorites. The slices are good but on par with Follow Your Heart and the shred didn't melt well.

Pamela's Biscuit & Scone Mix tasted ok but didn't make the fluffy scones I was hoping for, maybe better as biscuits because the scones were heavy.

This Monteli vegan GF cauliflower crust was so good and stayed firm. Really felt like a regular pizza crust. My hubby bought it for me at Winn Dixie but we have since not been able to find it anywhere. Accordling the Internet it should be at Publix. :(

These Gratify GF Tuscan Herb crackers were another discount store find and they were SO good! I can't wait to find them again!! Reminded me of Ritz crackers.

Got these Jackfruit "crab" Cakes from Trader Joe's, they were pretty good. Didn't really taste like crab cakes but they were decent.

I liked these Luke's Organic Bean & Seed crackers a lot, they tasted neutral, didn't break the second you dip them in your hummus and were a good size for cheese :)

I love these Enjoy Life protein bites, they basically taste like truffles. I tried many flavors now and they are all good! My three year old loves them!

I really enjoyed these Off The Eaten Path Veggie Crisps as a light cracker snack, didn't need anything with them at all!

This mushroom medley from Trader Joe's is great because it has the garlic and herbs already in it so into the pan it goes, great for fry up breakfasts!

Loving these Dark Choc bars from Trader Joes! From Belgium so you know the sugar is most likely vegan ;)

I've been very conscious of buying organic coffee after what i read about the amount of pesticides that are in regular tea and coffee...YUCK! I love buying locally if possible so I was happy when I discovered Sweetwater Organic Coffee Co. from Gainesville FL. So many to choose from and all delicious!!

I'm loving these protein bars;

Raw Rev Glo peanut butter, dark chocolate & sea salt

Pro Bar Superfood Slam not only tastes great it really is like a meal so great for on the go.

I like this Zing choc mint protein bar, tastes like a brownie covered in mint chocolate.

The Hu chocolate was very natural tasting. I liked the ones with the nut butters inside but the plainer ones tasted a bit too bitter for me.

Taza chocolate is done in the traditional style of Mexican chocolate so it is quite raw and grainy but if you can get past that it's very good chocolate. I recommend the chilli chocolate!

This Divine Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle bar was SOO good. Like Ferrero Rocher in a bar!

Chickpea Flour Mini Frittatas

This is great recipe for mini frittatas that doesn't use soy and you can really add any vegetable you like. I was surprised how good these were and how well they stay together. Great for toddlers/baby's first finger food. I grated mine but you can chop also. I'm keen to try with sweet potato. Original recipe from The Mostly Vegan. This recipe made about 16 mini frittatas. Spraying your tins with oil will make them very easy to get them out.

Chickpea Flour Mini Frittatas

Ingredients

1 zucchini, grated
2 carrots grated
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour
2-3Tbls nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 tsp onion powder


Method

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Combine chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder and salt in a bowl with 1 1/4 cups water.
Whisk to combine and set aside while preparing the veggies.
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet.
Add all vegetables to skillet and cook until veggies cook down and begin to brown/soft, about 7 minutes then mix into flour mix.
Grease the mini muffin tin.
Divide mixture between muffin cups.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and frittatas are beginning to brown on top.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes (this allows the batter to set) before removing from tin and cooling on a rack.
Depending on your muffin tin, you may have to use a knife or offset spatula to gently loosen sides of frittatas before removing from tin.
Serve warm or allow to cool completely before storing in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Frittatas can be reheated in the microwave but are best when warmed in the oven or toaster oven at 400 F for 10 minutes.

Vegan Egg Salad Sandwich

Using the vegan hard boiled egg recipe from Mouthwatering Vegan. You don't even need to use the molds as you are cutting them up anyway and you could even get away with just using the yolk recipe as it is the part with the egg flavor.

Vegan Egg Salad Sandwich

Ingredients

1/2 batch of vegan hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 Tbls favorite mustard
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp pepper
3 green onions, sliced
squeeze of lemon juice
Bread slices for serving


Method

Mix salad items together except the egg.
Fold in the eggs.
Serve between two slices of bread.

Vegan Quiche Florentine

This recipe came with a pack of Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg and was pretty good! I thought it seemed to soft after baking so I baked for longer but it didn't seem to change the density. Once it cooled down it was fine though. Really lovely with a side of leafy salad!

Vegan Quiche Florentine

Ingredients

Pastry for a 10" pie tin (I used this recipe)
1 Tbls Vegan butter
1/2 cup shallots, thinly sliced (I used onion and it was delicious)
3 x Vegan Eggs (6 Tbls VeganEgg + 1.5 cups ice cold water)
3/4 cup coconut milk/creamer
pinch nutmeg
3/4 tsp salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 cup vegan Paremesan cheese (I used Follow Your Heart)
294g frozen spinach, defrosted and drained of all water


Method

If making pastry this needs to be done in advance as it needs to be refrigerated for at least 1 hour.
Heat butter in a small pan over a medium-low heat.
Preheat oven to 160
Cook onion/shallots until soft and clear, around 10 minutes, set aside.
In a medium bowl add your VeganEgg and water and whisk until thick. Add in nutmeg, salt and cayenne and whisk through.
Place pastry on greased pastry tin (I used a springform cake tin) and place on a baking tray (in case of leakage).
Evenly spread out the onion, cheese and spinach over the bottom of the pastry and then pour egg mixture over the top.
Back at 325F/170C for around 1 hour until the egg mixture is set, it willl wobble like custard.
Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Newly Discovered Vegan Products - April 2016

 With my 10 week old baby I have't really been buying a lot of vegan processed foods - more living off Amy's vegan microwave meals but here are some I've accumulated over the last few months...

Follow Your Heart - Vegan Egg

As scrambled eggs I found it a bit rubbery but mixed with vegan milk and cheese and used as an omelette and it was quite delicious!

Also worked very well in baking.

This Organic Ah!Laska Chocolate Syrup has probably been around for some time but I recently discovered it at Target. Vegan and organic it's a delicious chocolate syrup for choc milk or ice-cream sundaes!

I think I found these Engine 2 Plant Strong Patties at Wholefoods. I bought two types - this one is Tuscan Kale and While Bean. I think the other one has fennel. Both very delicious and hearty!

I've bought a few of Follow Your Heart dressings before but had never tried these too...Honey Mustard which was soooo good and Vegan Bleu Cheese which was great as a dipping sauce!

Discovered these Lucy's Vegan/Gluten Free cookies at the commissary on base. They are SO GOOD! I loved both flavors but the Chocolate Chip was my favourite. Nice and crunchy - perfect for dipping in my tea ;)

Vegan Omelette with Egg Replacer

I made a pretty good omelette Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg. My local health store ordered it in for me pretty easily and it's a powder so you can just keep it in the pantry. Initially I wasn't super impressed because it's not that flavorsome and was quite rubbery (more so than regular eggs) so in terms of scrambled eggs I didn't really like the texture but for an omelette it worked great! I also used it as an egg replacer in my Devil's Food Cake and it turned out well too.

Vegan Omelette with Egg Replacer

Ingredients

2x Vegan Egg (4 Tbls Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg + 1 cup ice water, whisked together)
1/2 - 1 tomato, chopped
1 large mushroom, chopped
1 green onion, sliced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup grated vegan cheese (I used Daiya Cheddar shreds but have also used Parmesan))
1 Tbls vegan Parmesan cheese (I used Follow Your Heart)
2 Tbls olive oil


Method

Whisk the salts and pepper into the egg mix then stir in the cheeses.
In a non-stick frying pan add oil and heat pan on high.
Add egg mix and let set for a minute before turning heat down to medium.
Sprinkle vegetables over one half of the egg circle.

After a few minutes use a spatula to test the non-vegetable side to make sure the bottom is set.
If so flip that side over on top of the vegetables.
If you're super skilled you can flip the omelette over after a few minutes to get both sides nice and brown, I failed and so mine was a bit messy but still delicious!

The messy (but delicious) version!

Vegan Fried Eggs

This recipe is from the ever innovative Mouthwatering Vegan, (aka Miriam Sorrell). I didn't feel like it tasted that much like fried eggs in terms of the egg white but the yoke part was pretty good and I imagine it making a delicious egg salad! I would have like my yoke to be runnier but I can try again later! Delicious with vegan Hollandaise sauce (pictured)!

Vegan Fried Eggs

Ingredients

Yolk

2 heaped Tbsp dried instant mashed potatoes
7 Tbsp  (105 mL) hot water
1 tsp nutritional yeast
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp kala namak salt, otherwise known as black salt
¾ tsp Orgram egg replacer (or Ener-G in the US)
1 tsp vegan margarine
1 tsp sunflower or canola oil (not olive oil, as that would alter the taste)

Egg White

1 x 349g(12.3 oz) pack of firm silken tofu - you may wish to get the packet of tofu and place in the freezer for half an hour prior to opening it and cutting it up – makes for a firmer cut.
Oil for frying


Method

Make up your mashed potato mix with the water, add margarine and the other ingredients including the oil, and mash using a fork until consistency resembles hard-boiled egg yolk,  but it should be thick in consistency.
Then spoon out half of the mixture into a separate bowl, and set aside.
Using a round cutter (as big as will fit in the tofu), cut through the centre of the tofu block, so you should be left with a cylinder around 2” thick – this will yield around 4 egg whites.
Cut this into 4 equal slices with a very sharp knife.
Next, with a smaller round cutter, press out the centre of the ‘egg white’, which will leave space for your ‘yolk’.
Now heat up some oil in a non-stick pan.
Meanwhile, take 1 teaspoon of the egg yolk (make sure it has cooled down), roll it in your palms, then flatten it slightly.
Then, using the smaller cutter, cut out the ‘yolk’ circle, which will fit inside the centre of the ‘egg white’ perfectly. But don’t place it in there yet at this stage.
Gently place your egg white in the hot oil, one at a time, in and shallow fry it until golden around the edges on both sides.
Now flip it, and place your egg yolk in the middle to fit the puzzle so to speak, and press down a little with a teaspoon.
Meanwhile add some hot water to the mix in your 2nd ‘egg yolk’ bowl, and stir all the time until you reach a smooth egg yolk consistency.
Using a small teaspoon, pour a tiny amount of this in the centre of the egg yolk, but don’t agitate it. Then spoon some of the oil it is frying in over the top of the yolk, to seal the top, and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.
Gently bring it out from the pan onto your toast, or your plate, and enjoy alone, or with your favourite sauce.