Galaxy Nutritional Foods Blog

We invited home cooks to send us their best recipe for a dish using Galaxy’s Vegan or Veggie Classic Plain or Garlic and Chive Cream Cheese. The First Place Winner, Julie Ann Zserdin, will receive $50 worth of Galaxy product. The Second Place Winner, Regina Weiland, will receive $15 worth of Galaxy product. Each winner will also receive a copy of Eating Well magazine’s new cookbook Eating Well: Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals.

First Place: Julie Ann Zserdin

VEGAN STROGANOFF

Ingredients:
2 cups plain soy milk
2 8 oz. containers of plain or garlic Galaxy Cream Cheese
1 8 Oz container of vegan sour cream
2 large onions
2 large green peppers
1 large pkg. fresh mushrooms or lg can of mushrooms
2 large garlic cloves (2 Tbl. garlic powder)
1 bag of vegan crumbles
salt and pepper to taste
4 Tbsp allspice
2 cups vegan all wheat flat noodles ( or vegan noodle of choice)

Lightly brown onions, garlic, peppers, mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil. once translucent add milk, cream cheese, sour cream, crumbles, and spices to pan. Let simmer for an hour. Cook noodles in large saucepan with a tsp. of sea salt and 2 TBL. olive oil. drain when soft and rinse. Top noodles with vegan stroganoff.

The best part of being a vegan is the purity and peace of mind one experiences and the strong connection I feel to the animal kingdom. - Uri Geller

Second Place: Regina Wieland

STUFFED JALAPENOS

Ingredients:
6-8 large jalapeños
1 tub Galaxy Vegan Cream Cheese
8 oz vegan sour cream
2 Tbsp vegan mayo
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
4 Tbsp southwest seasoning
2 tsp chili powder
¼ cup olive oil

Wet mix:
½ cup flour
½ cup soy milk

Dry Mix:
¼ cup flour
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ cup breadcrumbs
½ tsp chili powder

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut slit in jalapeños leaving the stem. Scrape out all the seeds. Whip together the Galaxy Cream Cheese, sour cream, mayo, and spices. Pipe mixture into the jalapenos. Mix the flour and soy milk together for the wet mix. Mix the flour, corn meal, bread crumbs and seasonings in a large bowl. Coat peppers in the wet mixture and then coat in the dry. Place peppers on a baking stone and bake for 15 minutes. Coat peppers with oil and cook for 10 minutes to brown.

Eating Well’s new cookbook Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals is chocked full of delicious recipes that are easy to prepare and accompanied by nutritional information. This one could be great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Enjoy!

Breakfast Burritos from Eating Well’s Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals

Ingredients:
1 tsp canola oil
2 red potatoes, cooked (poke several holes in potatoes and microwave on High until cooked through, 8 to 12 minutes), peeled, if desired, and diced (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped scallions (4-6 scallions), divided
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1 4-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
4 corn tortillas or small whole-wheat flour tortillas, warmed
1/2 cup tomato
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes and 1/3 cup scallions and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomato and chiles and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Beat eggs, egg whites and cayenne with a fork in a small bowl. Push the vegetables away from the center of the pan and pour in the egg mixture. Cook, stirring the eggs with a wooden spoon, until some curds have formed but the mixture is still creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro and stir the eggs and vegetables together.

Divide the egg mixture among warm tortillas and roll each one into a burrito. Top each with a spoonful of salsa, a little cheese and some of the remaining chopped scallions. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

Whether or not you live in or are from the south, the turmoil Mother Nature has wreaked there over the past month can hardly go unnoticed. Reuters reported that, between Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, a total of nearly 3 million acres of farmland had been inundated. In Mississippi the river could rise 11 more feet in the next ten days. Our thoughts are with those in the Delta suffering the worst flood to hit the region in over 70 years.

The American Red Cross and Salvation Army are two of the organizations helping those left homeless in the wake of this natural disaster. If you know of food banks in the areas hit by flooding, please post information on them in the Comments section.

With this region on our mind, we share with you today a delicious recipe for comfort food from an old spiral bound collection organized by the Junior League of Jackson, Mississippi. Please note, we suggest substitutions for several items in order to make this a more heart healthy recipe.

Asparagus Souffle by Mrs. Robert Allen Smith from the Junior League of Jackson, Mississippi’s Southern Sideboards

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can asparagus spears, drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese (substitute with Galaxy’s Veggie or Rice Cheddar Shreds)
1 cup mayonnaise (or Vegenaise)
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (Imagine’s Mushroom Soup is a good option)

Directions:

Beat eggs in blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend. Pour into lightly greased 1 1/2 quart souffle dish. Place souffle dish in a second pan and add 2 inches of water. Bake at 350 F for 55 – 60 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Yield: 6 servings

While at Natural Products Expo West in Los Angeles in March a few of the Galaxy Nutritional Foods staff met with some of the editorial staff from Vegetarian Times. These trade shows are always a lot of work, as one can imagine, but the results are hard to beat. We get to talk to other people making and selling natural foods we enjoy (after all, as much as one might like, you can’t live on our cheese alone…you at least need some fruit and crackers). We also are able to engage in conversations with editors like those from Vegetarian Times, a publication several people in the office read and at least one subscribes to for their recipes. What we learn from interactions such as these are not just what is working (thankfully a lot), but where we can improve, how people use our products, and what people want (one way our Facebook page is great, all those comments asking for a soy free item or placement on a shelf in a natural food store in a small town in Colorado…).

A big thanks to the kind person at Vegetarian Times who enjoyed the Classic Plain Vegan Cream Cheese and then turned us on to the recipe Linguine in Lemon Cream Sauce, which she had used light cream cheese in and we agreed could easily be swapped out for ours. Well, we did (swap it out that is) and oh the pasta dish was so so good. In advance of giving you the recipe we are going to encourage you to get pen and paper ready to write down what you need (should you not have everything in your house, pretty short list so you might) and let the family know you’ve got dinner tonight. Oh, and serve with a nice salad on the side with some fresh greens and tomatoes dressed in a nice light extra virgin olive oil based dressing with Hawaiian Sea Salt (sold at gourmet shops, Whole Foods Markets) and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

For once dinner will come out just as pretty as in the picture. Just visit this page of the Vegetarian Times website for the recipe.

Just one more itsy bitsy little item Vegetarian Times just announced their 2011 Foodie Awards. Galaxy’s Vegan Classic Plain Cream Cheese made the short list of products!!! We are featured under the Soft Cheese category (section #23), http://www.vegetariantimes.com/2011foodieawards Added bonus, just because the publication is so cool, by voting you are eligible to win a $250 grocery shopping spree. The magazine will announce readers’ top choices in their October issue.

This recipe for vegetarian chili from the blog Simply Recipes is healthy, nourishing, and something you may turn to at lunchtime and dinnertime. We like it with some of our Cheddar flavored Veggie Shreds or shavings from our Cheddar flavored Vegan Block. This is a recipe you can count on to warm you up during the cold months, or be eaten (once cooked) cool during the warmer ones. Easy enough to put into a thermos for a school lunch or a reusable container to be spooned out at the office. Make this chili and enjoy it at a relaxed pace so you can take in all of the delicious flavors.

Recipe is here.

Photo from Simply Recipes.

This is a space we will be using to share recipes using our products and those that fit the lifestyle of people who we think do. We hope you find time to enjoy some of the posts here while relaxing at home in your PJs trying to figure out the evening’s menu, spruced up for a night on the town reading the great Web on your iPhone from the back of a cab while stuck in traffic, during your lunch hour at the office, on the train heading somewhere special, or sipping a soy latte (or cup of chamomile tea) in a neighborhood cafe. This blog is meant to be a resource and a place to engage with you, our customers and supporters, members of our community. We welcome your input, would love to hear about recipes and resources, and oh yes plan to make some pretty cool announcements about contests, new products, coupons….all good stuff right here!!

Welcome and enjoy!!

Photo of a garden burger with tomato, lettuce, and a couple of our Pepper Jack flavored Veggie Slices.