I am not winning any awards in naming my recipes. Seriously, I think this is one of the most difficult things about posting recipes; there is a fine line between being descriptive and being dull. That being said, this is what you get for this bad boy: a shroom sammy with jalapeno cheddar sauce because… that’s exactly what this sandwich is.

After I saw ‘The Sexy Vegan’ slice his shrooms horizontally… I wanted to do it! I was originally dreaming of  doing a philly cheeze steak (wit whiz of course) but then I had all these jalapanos that I needed to eat up so into the sauce they went. And out came a meaty, spicy, sloppy, man sandwich!

It also doesn’t hurt that I made homemade dutch crunch rolls to go with. Besides trying to win a girlfriend of the year award, I have been trying to make my own bread as much as possible. Why? Because it’s FUN and I seem to enjoy spending every last drop of my non-working time in my kitchen. For all of you not-near-the-bay area folks, dutch crunch bread is out of this world! Hands down my favorite sandwich bread, I usually top this with avocado, fresh summer tomatoes and sprouts. I used this recipe from The Baking Barrister and used almond milk. It turned out perfect!

This bread definitely helps to make the sandwich but you can sub store-bought if you don’t have an extra 3 hours to make dinner.

Shroom Sammy

Shroom Filling

3 large portabello mushroom caps, cleaned
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Combine the above ingredients together and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven (or the grill- it is getting to be grill season!) to 400 degrees. Place the mushrooms in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool until just slightly warm.

Now you are ready to slice. With a very sharp knife, thinly slice the mushroom cap horizontally, creating thin ‘beef-like’ strips. Do this to all of the mushrooms.

Heat a large skillet to medium-high. Add 1 yellow onion, sliced very thinly. Cook for a few minutes until slightly caramelized. Add the sliced mushrooms and homemade Philly-BBQ sauce (below). Cook for 5-10 minutes until warmed through and reduced.

Philly-BBQ Sauce:

1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup BBQ sauce- purchased or homemade

Jalapeno Cheddar Sauce

3 tbsp. Earth Balance Margarine
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup soy or almond milk
3 tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. agave nectar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup chopped Jalapeno peppers

Melt margarine over medium heat, stir in the flour and wisk to combine. Heat for a few minutes until it becomes golden-brown and smells nutty. Add the milk, nutritional yeast, jalapenos, garlic powder to the flour mixture and bring to a boil. Keep wisking the mixture the entire time you are heating it. Reduce heat to medium-low and let sauce thicken. Stir in agave and rice wine vinegar.

So serve your Sammies:
Top dutch crunch roll with sauce, layer mushrooms on top. I added some mixed greens to mine but dress up how you like it!

What’s your favorite manly sammy?

There always seems to be a dish or two that I will forget to post in a timely matter. I made this for Christmas dinner this year, adapted from The Millennium Cookbook. We were supposed to make homemade pasta to go along with this sauce, but by the time dinner rolled around we were too hungry to wait! The braised garlic reminds me of my grandfather who would eat a few cloves of roasted garlic a day. I love this roasted spread on a piece of toasted bread. No need to worry about vampires or Twilight fans when you make this dish.

Tomato & Peas Carbonara

3 cups soy milk (original)
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 tbsp. white miso
2 tbsp. fresh oregano or 1 tsp. dried
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. ground fennel seeds

4 large heads garlic
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp. rosemary and/or fresh thyme

1 lb. pasta
1/2 package sun dried tomatoes (not packed in oil), julienned
1/2 cup fresh peas or thawed frozen

Preheat oven to 350. Cut off the top 1/2 or so from each head of garlic so that the bulbs are exposed. Place the bulbs in a shallow baking dish. Add the vegetable broth, thyme and rosemary to the dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 90 minutes. Once cool, squeeze out the garlic of the top of the bulb. You should have about 1 cup.

In a blender or food processor add the garlic from above and the rest of the ingredients starting with the soymilk and ending at the fennel seeds. Transfer to a sauce pan and heat on medium heat until warm, stirring frequently.

Heat a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Once you begin to warm the sauce in the sauce pan, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking water. Add the cooking water and the drained pasta to the warmed sauce. Add the peas and sundried tomatoes and gently toss together. Season with salt/pepper if desired.

Serves 6. Calories 368., 6g fat., 4.5g fiber., 17g protein

Our first course was this wild mushroom soup that was incredible. Also from The Millennium Cookbook

Cashew cream, chanterelle, lobster and oyster mushrooms, vegetables… how can you go wrong?

What did you make for Christmas Dinner?