The Hungry Vegan Bear Hits The Road

The Hungry Vegan Bear's Hotdish, up close and personal. 

When I travel sometimes it's a challenge to find vegan friendly restaurants and this week I will be traveling up north, which, normally, is not that big of a deal, but I wanted to save some money, too.  Also, I wanted to know the exact ingredients of what I was going to be consuming.  This week I will be teaching up near the Dublin area and I thought that the best way to avoid dining out the entire week would be to cook a few dishes prior to the trip.  My aim was to create a few simple recipes that would travel well (AKA: no sloshing, oozing, or dripping from the various travel containers) and could hold up over a six hour drive.  Today, I made three dishes: a light afternoon cold lunch salad comprised of black beans, onions, tomatoes, and lime, the second is a quinoa with soy sauce and sage, and, finally, for dinner, a hotdish.  The amazing thing about these recipes is the small amount of time they take to prepare, in fact, one of my flatmates commented that it was like watching "speed cooking," not that I advise chopping at the speed of sound lest a paw get in the way.

Tools
cutting board
knife
potato peeler
2 quart covered sauce pan
plastic spoon
colander

Ingredients Hotdish Fusilli
1/2 bag brown rice fusilli
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 pkg meatless meat
8 black olives
2 Roma tomatoes
1/4 c white onion
6 Crimean mushrooms
1 Tbsp basil
salt to taste
1/4 tsp Ceyanne pepper
3 lemons
3/4 can tomato paste
1/2 c water

I prepared the fusilli first, bringing it to a boil with the canola oil and then draining the noodles under a cold tap.  The brown rice fusilli gets a bit starchy, so I like to use the cold water to wash away that heavy residue.  I'm not a big fan of wheat noodles, but I still like to cook healthy, which is why I chose the brown rice noodles. 

Next, I began to added in the rest of the ingredients, slicing the olives and mushrooms and chopping the tomatoes, and onion.  I used a tomato paste and opted to thin out the mix by using lemon and water. 

Finally, add in the seasonings.

Ingredients A Kick In The Pants Black Bean Salad
1 can black beans
2 Roma tomatoes
1/4 white onion
1 tsp Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning
Ceyanne pepper
pinch of salt
lemon pepper
1 lime
1 Tbsp canola oil

This is a nice cold salad, which is perfect for these warm summer months.  Drain the black beans and wash with cold water adding them to the chopped tomatoes and onion.  Next add in the seasonings, lime, and oil, and you're all set to roll!

Ingredients Quinoa Infused With Sage and Soy Sauce 
1 c quinoa
1/2 white onion
4 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 tsp sage
soy sauce
black pepper

Begin with the quinoa and bring the grain to a boil.  When the simmering process begins, add in the chopped onion, celery, and juilenned carrots.  As the simmering continued, I added in the sage and black pepper.  Lastly, I added the soy sauce to the finished product.  I happen to believe that soy sauce is similar to salt and pepper, so, again, add the sauce to your taste. 

The overall prep time for all three dishes was approximately 30 minutes.