Healthy Family Meals |Easy Vegan Pasta Dinners

As a mom, easy vegan family meals are the ones you enjoy without pulling your hair out. Healthy dinner recipes abound on this here interweb. In my head, I’m Nigella, voluptuous curves and all. However, in reality, I can’t be bothered. I’ve become pretty adept at modifying healthy dinner recipes, into easy no-frill meals for my family. Full disclosure I don’t adhere to recipes when I’m in the kitchen. When a toddler is helping you make dinner for the family, vegan recipes are just guidelines for your meals.

Winter Pesto Mac & Cheese

My daughter loves vegetables, however, she’s very particular. She’s decided she loves raw spinach but hates it cooked and that onions are horrible, gross pieces of supreme yuck. I on the other hand cant eat a meal without onion in the recipe so I got the idea to blend up the onions into pieces too tiny for even her discerning eyes to pick out. The first time I used a whole onion and it was too spicy for my toddler but the next time I used half and the onion just added a flavorful hint. Now, this easy winter pasta has become one of our all-time favorite vegan family meals.

I used elbows so as to more easily get away with swapping out my daughter’s regular mac and cheese for this one jam-packed with goodies. If garlicky goodness is not your thing opt for fewer cloves

So chocked full of good fats and proteins Almond butter is a great additive to sandwiches but did you know, it makes vegan sauces extra creamy? The almond butter makes this easy vegan mac and cheese recipe creamy but the cashew cheese gives it the gooey sticky goodness my family loves.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz. pasta 
• 8 large stalks of kale 
• 4–5 cloves of garlic 
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice 
• Daiya (optional
• 2 tablespoons Pesto Sauce 
• 2 tablespoons Almond butter 
• 1 medium onion
• 1 cup pasta water 
• about 1/2 cup olive oil + more for pasta 
• salt and pepper to taste 

Optional ( read, things to add to your own plate \ things that are too expensive to share with tiny humans, that will pick them out)

• Sausage
• black olives
• sundried tomatoes

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions, set aside.
2. In a food processor, combine kale, garlic, onion, lemon juice, and olive oil. Pulse until the mixture has the consistency of traditional pesto. With processor running, drizzle in olive oil. Scrape sides of the processor as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add pasta water, 1 Tbs olive oil, and Daiya. Keep the mixture moving as the “cheese melts.” When it’s done add the almond butter.
4. Pour over the prepared pasta and toss to coat. Mix in winter pesto. Top with additional parmesan cheese if desired. Serve immediately.

Vegan Chickpea Lasagna

Vegan lasagna is an easy recipe, one of those hearty family meals, that satisfies everyone. Nothing makes a winter day more perfect than a heaping plate of hot lasagna. Hummus Sapien made this next level vegan lasagna, she used a jar of roasted garlic hummus to take it over the top. I knew I wanted to try it out that way. I had these grandiose ideas about making hummus from scratch but I looked for Tahini for 5 minutes in the grocery store then threw a silent tantrum about not being able to find it and forgot to buy hummus at all in the end.

Blended tofu is an easy vegan substitute for ricotta in lasagna and its a great way to sneak it into family meals. I personally have always used tofu when making vegan lasagna and can’t see making it without it. For the extra cheesy recipe add chickpeas, Daiya and nutritional yeast.

Throw in whatever vegetables that make the tiny bosses in your life happy. So if your kids dislike mushrooms or spinach, leave them out

INGREDIENTS

For the lasagna:

• 12 no-cook lasagna noodles
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped (optional)
• 8oz pkg mushrooms
• 18oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed
• liquid amino acids
• 7–10 cups marinara sauce (2-25oz jars

For the tofu ricotta:

• 1–14oz pkg extra firm tofu, drained
• 1 can Garbanzo beans
• 6 cloves garlic
• Daiya (optional)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast | It really helps with that cheesy flavor, not to mention that’s it’s high in protein and energizing B vitamins.
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Once hot, add zucchini, mushrooms, and two squirts of liquid amino acids. Sauté for 5 minutes or until softened. Add spinach and peas and sauté for another 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat.
3. Place tofu in a food processor ( feel free to crumble with hands in a large bowl, I just don’t get down like that) Add chickpeas, nutritional yeast, basil, salt, Daiya, garlic, and garlic powder. Your end goal is a semi-smooth texture resembling ricotta.
4. Coat the bottom of your 9x13in baking dish with marinara sauce. Top with 4 noodles, get it in where you can fit it in. Using easy no-cook lasagna noodles, as I did, makes this even higher on the list of vegan family meals. Just make sure both sides of your noodles are covered in sauce, so they can cook through in the oven. Next, add half of the “ricotta” mixture and half of the vegetable mixture. Top with more of sauce. Repeat with more noodles, tofu mixture, and veggies. Then top with one last layer of noodles and more sauce. Top with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.
5. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

I love this vegan recipe because its one of the best kinds of family meals, one that you can make ahead of time and everyone can help themselves to it, easy.

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