Quick and Easy Guacamole

If it takes more than 5 minutes, you did it wrong.

Avocados are the best.  According to an Applebee’s commercial I  heard a few hours ago, avocados are a “superfood.”

Guacamole is a quick and easy topping for a lot of Mexican dishes, and it’s also darn good as a simple dip.

I wanted to drop this little recipe nugget in with the Chipotle Nachos post, but that one was getting a little long-winded already.  So, here it is: Casey’s patented 3 minute Guacamole (makes enough for immediate consumption by 2-3 people).

Here’s what you need:

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 lime
• 1 tablespoon diced cilantro
• 3-5 shakes of salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/8 cup finely diced tomato (optional)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Cut the avocado in half.  Remove the pit and the outer shell.  Then cut the avocado into small chunks and put in a bowl.

Step 2) Take a fork or potato masher and mash the avocado until it turns into a chunky paste.

Step 3) Add in the juice from half of a small lime, the salt, cilantro (yum!), olive oil.  Using the fork, mix it all together.

Step 4) Add in the tomatoes, if desired.

See how nicely it finishes the nachos?

A quick note on avocados and guacamole.  They go brown real quick, so make this right before you are ready to eat.  If you have to refrigerate for a while, take a piece of plastic wrap and push it right down over top of the guacamole in the bowl, so that there is no air between the guac and the plastic wrap.  If you just cover the bowl, your guacamole will look like mud in about an hour.

Chipotle Nachos with Beans

Perfect football game food

I really like Chipotle (the restaurant).  I know, I know, the burritos ain’t good for ya.  Over 1,000 calories, lots of sodium, fat and cholesterol, and I never feel good after eating a whole one.  But I feel great while I’m eating it.  Delicious.

As a restaurant chain, they also get brownie points for being conscious of dietary restrictions.  Everything but the meat and pinto beans are vegetarian (no rennet used in the cheese), everything but the taco shells are gluten free and they do a good job of buying local and from sustainable farmers.  They claim to buy a larger percentage of naturally raised meat than any other restaurant chain in the county, and I don’t doubt that.

Don’t listen to those who say it’s far worse than a Big Mac.  As they say, haters gonna hate.

But until a few weeks ago, I never really thought about what an actual chipotle chile is.  Turns out, it’s a jalapeno.

Apparently (and this is from Wikipedia, so if I’m wrong, it’s not my fault), jalapeno farmers pick and sell unripe green peppers early in the season and we buy those at grocery stores and produce stands and pickled in jars.  Then, later in the season, the peppers turn bright red and are picked and sold as fresh peppers in the US and Mexico.  At the end of the season, the peppers that are left usually begin to turn brown and shrivel.

Those are the chipotle peppers.  They are picked and then smoked, and you can buy them dry or canned.

Dried and smoked chipotle pepper | Photo from Wikipedia

I’ve cooked with ’em twice.  Once for this recipe and another time, where I famously (to my wife, at least) misread “add one canned chipotle pepper” for “add one can chipotle peppers.”  I added the whole can to a soup.  The whole can.  Tasted like lava.

But it’s an easy mistake to make.  It was a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, which smells sort of barbeque-y, not spicy.  So keep that in mind if you try out this recipe.  You need one PEPPER, not one CAN.

Here’s what you need:

• Tortilla chips
• 1 cup shredded cheese (your call on the type)
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 small onion
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
• 7 oz (or half a 14 oz can) diced tomatoes with basil and garlic
• 1 tomato (diced)
• Shredded lettuce (optional)
• Sour cream (optional)
• Guacamole (bought or homemade)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Add diced onion and red peppers to a pan with a little olive oil.  Simmer until the onions become translucent (about 5 minutes).

Preppin' the onions

Step 2) Add in one finely diced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, plus another spoonful or two of the adobo sauce.  Add in the drained/rinsed pinto beans.  Add in the diced tomatoes.  Let it mingle for a few minutes, until everything is blended and hot and the mixture has reduced.

Step 3) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 4) Spread chips on a cookie sheet and top first with cheese and then with the onion/pepper/bean/chipotle mixture.

Step 5) Bake for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Step 6) Remove and top with diced tomato and lettuce, sour cream and guacamole.

Summer Pasta Salad

Perfect for weekday lunches

I did it, y’all.  The research paper is done, the presentations are done, the reviews are done.  And now I have from now until August to work, read, write, blog and enjoy the pleasant Florida summer.

You’ll have to excuse my lack of posts over the last week.  It was a rough one.

But I’ll try to make up by posting some of the things we’ve been eating.

One of our favorite weekday lunch ideas is pasta salad, which we make in varying forms about every other week.  It’s great because we can make it on a Sunday afternoon and it’s good for several days of lunches – which means having less to do in the mornings which in turn means more time to sleep.

The recipe that follows was the mix that we happened to put together last week, but I encourage you to add in whatever you can find around.  Cool, crisp summery veggies seem to be the best compliment to the pasta, I think.  We like ours heavy on the veggies, so reduce those numbers if you like it more pasta-y.

Oh, and we added in a can of garbanzo beans, which don’t have a ton of flavor by themselves but add some good protein to the lunch.

What you need:

• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 diced cucumber
• 1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
• 1 cup of mozzarella cheese
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 box multi-colored rotini pasta
• 1 cup Italian dressing (store bought or make yo’ own)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Prepping the pasta salad veggies

Step 2) Dice the carrots, celery, bell pepper and tomatoes.  Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas.

Step 3) When the pasta is cooled, place in a  large serving bowl and add in the diced veggies and cheese.  Pour in the Italian dressing and stir to coat.

Baddabing, baddaboom.  Lunch for a few days.

Tasty Beer Bread

Easy, butter beer bread - so, so good.

Yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either.

But if someone says you can put beer in bread, or beans in brownies, I can resist trying it out.

So this one is exactly like what it sounds – it’s regular bread, except it has beer in it.  You leave out the yeast, and the yeast in the beer does the trick.  The resulting bread was extremely good.  And way easier than I expected.

The recipe I used made from a bread that had a slightly buttery, crunchy crust and a dense, moist bread.  It’s not the kind of bread you’d make PB&J on, but it’s perfect as a side to an otherwise light meal.  OR, as we did, just make it in the middle of a lazy afternoon and eat half the loaf while you watch a movie.

As far as the beer goes, I have no idea.  I’ve made this once, with Miller Light (because the other beers we had around have citrus flavors, and I wasn’t sure how that would taste), and it was delicious.  I’ve heard/read that Guinness makes a good bread as well.

Oh, and you can make it vegan by subbing vegan margarine (like Earth Balance) for the butter.

(Recipe adapted from food.com)

Here’s what you need:

• 3 cups flour (sifted – or at least spooned into the mixing cup – do not pack!)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
• 1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 (12 ounce) can beer
• 1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do just fine)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Step 2) Mix the dry ingredients and the beer in a large mixing bowl, making sure to get rid of all clumps.  Add half of the melted butter to the mixture.

Step 3) Pour mixture into prepared loaf pan, and then pour the remaining butter on top (you could leave this out if you want, but I liked the buttery crust)

Step 4) Bake for 1 hour, uncovered.  Then remove and let cool for 15 minutes (or don’t, but it’s going to be hot – fair warning).

5 seconds after I burnt my hand trying to cut the bread right out of the oven

But, if you’re in the mood for a different flavor, my good friend and fellow blogger BNF coincidentally whipped up her own batch of unconventional bread recently – I’ll guarantee you it’s good.

Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Peppers

Easy, cheesy, beautiful | Photo by HFLP

I hope everyone out there had a great Memorial Day weekend.  We spent a lot of time on the boat, the jet ski and in the pool, saw some old friends, caught a Rays game and ate lots of good food – which was as good a break as I could hope for from the heat and tedium of school in Gainesville.

We went bowling, too, which is something that, despite my enthusiasm for, I am absolutely terrible at.  You’d think rolling a ball in a straight line would be easy, but it ain’t.  I did, however, win $1 during the aptly-named “Strike it Rich” competition held Saturday nights at that bowling alley, which was enough to make me smile but not quite enough to get a pack of gum from the vending machine.

Back in Gainesville now, and back to the blog.

Before we left, I whipped up some stuffed peppers, which is a great thing to make if you’ve got a few peppers around and don’t want to the grocery store.  Really, you can stuff them with anything you’d like.  I used a hefty amount of yellow rice, but brown rice works great as well – some people even like to use quinoa or cousous.  Feel free to experiment.

Also, this particular recipe made more stuffing than I could fit in four peppers.  I could have used more peppers, but decided instead to save the extra stuffing to make a burrito the next day – which was delicious.

Here’s what you need:

• 4 large bell peppers of any color
• 3 cups cooked rice (I used yellow rice, but brown is good as well)
• 1/2 can black beans
• 1/2 can corn
• 1/2 large onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 14 oz crushed tomato (jarred or fresh tomatoes crushed by hand)
• 1 cup cheese (Mexican blends are good, but whatever you have handy works)
• 1/4 cup diced jalapenos (optional)
• 1/2 cup water
• Serve with salsa and sour cream
• 1/2 packet or a few shakes of fajita seasoning (optional)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Cook rice according to package instructions and set aside.

Step 2) Cut the tops off of the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds and white stuff.  They need to be softened before being stuffed, so either steam them for a few minutes or boil them (which I did) for about 8 minutes.  You want them “soft” but not “floppy.”  They should still stand up by themselves and hold their shape, but they shouldn’t be “crisp.”  That’s the best I can do – use your judgement :)

Step 3) In a small fry pan, sautee the onions and garlic in a little olive oil until the onions become translucent.

Step 4) In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked rice, sauteed onions, garlic, jalapenos, black beans, corn, fajita seasoning and 1/2 a cup of cheese.  Stir it up good.  This is your filling.

Filling for the peppers | Photo by HFLP

Step 5) When the peppers are softened, stand them upright in a baking dish and fill them with stuffing mixture and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.

Pre-cheese, pre-oven

Step 6) Pour a 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the dish around the peppers (this creates a steamy environment and prevents the peppers from browning too much).

Step 7) Cover with foil, but make sure not to let the foil sit on top of the peppers or your cheese will melt to the foil.  Set the oven to 350 degrees, and bake covered for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese on top is golden brown.

Vegetarian stuffed peppers | Photo by HFLP

The water in the bottom of the dish should have cooked off, and the peppers should be tender but not mushy.  Serve with a little sour cream and salsa, or hot sauce if the jalapenos didn’t do the trick.

Thanks for reading!

Vegan Lentil Curry

Vegan Lentil Curry | Photo by HFLP

I had an excellent food-day last week.  Ali and I made this awesome curry for lunch, and our friends (and writers of Veganerds) cooked an amazing Afghani feast for dinner.  I went to bed fat and happy, as another friend likes to say (I’m looking at you, Mr. L).

This delicious lentil curry was fantastic and way easier than the length of the ingredient list would seem to indicate.  It’s really lentils + tomatoes + spices.  I adapted the recipe from here.

I hadn’t really cooked with lentils much before, but turns out it’s no different than rice or couscous or anything else.  Fill a pot with water (according to the package instructions, of course) and let ’em simmer until they plump up and soften.  I read that it’s very important to wash them thoroughly before cooking, but the ones I bought were pre-washed.  I tried rinsing them anyways, but the water ran clear immediately.  So, just keep that in mind.

This would make a great side dish, or, as we had it, a great main course if served with some pita or rise.  All vegan, all the way.

I’m going to try my hand at beer bread and homemade polenta in the next few days, so be sure to check back in!

Here’s what you need:

• 2 cups red lentils (I used regular, green-ish lentils)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 2 tablespoons curry paste
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon ginger root, minced
• 1 (14.25 ounce) can tomato puree (I used crushed tomatoes)

I don't know one curry paste from the next | Photo by HFLP

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Begin cooking lentils according to package directions – this usually takes between 20-30 minutes.

Dry lentils in a towel in a strainer (for rinsing) | Photo by HFLP

Step 2) Begin cooking the onions in a large skillet or pan with a little oil until they begin to carmelize.

Step 3) Mix all of the remaining ingredients, EXCEPT the tomato puree, in a mixing bowl.  When they are nice and mixed, add them to the onions and let cook for about 2 minutes, mixing the onions into the spice mixture.

A plethora of spices | Photo by HFLP

Step 4) Next, add the tomato puree (or crushed tomatoes) to the spices and onions and let simmer until the lentils are done to you liking.

Step 5) The lentils should have absorbed most of the water.  Taste a few and make sure they are soft and tasty.  When the lentils are done, mix with the curry base and serve immediately.

Plump and delicious | Photo by HFLP

We loved this recipe, and it’ll definitely enter our monthly rotation.  Quick and easy, healthy and lazy, and a good way to mix in some vegan meals into my diet.

Thanks for reading!

Vegetarian Sausage Balls

Spicy sausage balls | Photo by HFLP

Oh, the venerable sausage ball.  The friendliest finger food I’ve ever known.

These little guys are simple, and if I do say so myself, delicious.  I could have come up with a more elegant name for them, but it wouldn’t be true to the nature of the food.

A little bit of sausage, a little cheese, a little spice in a small, warm ball of dough – really, what could be better?

They are perfect for pot lucks, parties and hanging-out-watching-the-game…

These have been made for years with regular sausage, but they adapt well to vegetarian sausage.  For the latest batch, we added some dice jalapenos, and it added the perfect zip to complement the sausage (and vegetarian sausage isn’t real spicy, so it’s a good addition).

They are incredibly easy to make, the only un-fun part (and it’s really the only part) is mixing all the ingredients, which I usually convince someone else to do for me.  You can only do it by hand and there’s something unagreeable about sausage squishing through my fingers, vegetarian or otherwise.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 lb vegetarian sausage (use the ground Gimme Lean brand, trust me)
• 3 cups Bisquick
• 2 cups of your favorite shredded cheese (I usually go cheddar, but other kinds work well)
• 1/4 cup finely diced jalapenos (optional, but recommended)
• Less than 1/8 cup milk (really just a literal “splash”)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Mix the ingredients, by hand, in a large mixing bowl.  When you can’t seem to get all the Bisquick absorbed, just keep going.  If you still can’t, add another splash of milk (a little goes a long way).

Ali mixing for me | Photo by HFLP

Step 2) Form into mounds roughly the size of ping pong balls on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Cram 'em on the cookie sheet | Photo by HFLP

Step 3) Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes

Fresh from the oven | Photo by HFLP

Enjoy ’em.  Thanks for reading!

Asparagus and Parmesan Pastry

WATER!!! | Photo by HFLP

I’m still relatively new to Gainesville, and I’ve got mixed feelings on the place.  On the one hand, I can walk to school, work, about 30 restaurants and pubs and a park.  Granted, I have to make it through a variety of colorful characters to get to any of those places – affable dumpster-diving can collectors, herds of marauding feral cats and the ever-present tribes of exactly the same similarly-dressed sorority sisters (I’ve ranked them in order of most to least enjoyable).

And the heat is getting rather stifling.

I grew up by the water in a charming little town called St. Petersburg (not really little, or a town).  It’s surrounded on three sides by water and, while it gets hot, it never approaches the depressing oppression of the Gainesville summer.  And when it does get hot in St. Pete, you go to the beach or the pool and relax.

Gainesville is surrounded on all sides by nothing, which is a new sensation for me.  I can drive an hour to the Florida’s west coast and visit Cedar Key (as I will on Friday) or an hour and a half to St. Augustine on the East Coast.  For someone who’s spent all of their life within 5 minutes of a beach/boat launch/kayaking bayou, that’s a tough reality to face.

Kayaking through Weedon Island in St. Pete | Photo by HFLP

In Journalism school, these first few paragraphs would be known as a “false lead.”  This post is really about a pastry, but I couldn’t help spilling my guts on the hometown blues that had been getting me down.

So, with a week off in between Fall and Summer semesters (thanks, grad school), we decided to head home and spend some time with family, which ended up being a nice respite from all the joys of school and dry land.

And (here comes the big transition), while we were in town, we tried out this recipe for Asparagus and Parmesan Cream Pastries.

They were great, although, if you follow the instructions, they make for a somewhat strangely portioned appetizer, in my opinion.  Each piece, it seemed, was larger than what I expected (more than one person could eat as an app or side dish, provided that one person wasn’t me).  So, I’ll recommend cutting them into smaller chunks if you’re having multiple people over to eat.

Asparagus and Parmesan Cream Pastry | Photo by HFLP

Here’s what you need:

• 8 ounce(s) of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough
• 1/2 cup(s) of grated parmesan cheese
• 3 tbsp. of fresh lemon juice
• 5 basil leaves, chopped
• 1 pound(s) of fresh asparagus (16 spears)
• 1 pinch of sea salt
• 2 tbsp. of olive oil
• 2 tbsp. of shaved parmesan cheese
• 1 nonstick cooking spray

Here’s what to do (directly from the source):

Step 1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Step 2) Remove pastry dough from freezer and let thaw for 10 minutes.

Any last words, Asparagus? | Photo by HFLP

Step 3) While dough is thawing, wash and trim asparagus so it is 1 in. shorter than the pastries.

Step 4) In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, grated parmesan, chopped basil leaves, and lemon juice. Set aside.

Step 5) Spread dough onto a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Cut into four equal rectangles and spread apart slightly on sheet.

Step 6) Spread cream cheese mixture onto each of the pastry rectangles, not quite to each edge.  Press four asparagus spears onto each rectangle, alternating direction.  Sprinkle pastries with a pinch of sea salt and drizzle with olive oil.

Ready to go into the oven | Photo by HFLP

Step 7) Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes until pastries are golden brown.

Step 8) Remove from oven, slice each pastry in half (and then half again) and transfer to serving platter.  Garnish with a sprinkle of shaved parmesan cheese and serve (I skipped this step, for lack of shaveable parmesan)

And I’d like to also note that I didn’t have a proper camera with me, so these pictures are all oil-on-canvas.  Kidding, from my iPhone.

One final thought – best of luck and best wishes to my buddy Grant, who set out this past week to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, from Springer Mountain, GA all the way to Maine.  That’s a really, really long walk.

Lazy Day Crepes

One egg is an oeuf | Photo by HealthyandLazy

My wife and I spent this Christmas in Paris, visiting museums and playing in the snow.  And while the art and architecture and atmosphere are great, what really sets Paris apart is the food.  Traveling on a budget, we frequented the sidewalk vendors and whole-in-the-wall sandwich shops way more than the fancy Parisian restaurants.

We were lucky to have a great little Panini/Crepe stand right by our hotel in the Latin Quarter.  It was probably 4 ft by 4 ft and was painted bright yellow, with a large sign reading “Open 24 hrs a day.”  In typical French fashion, it was closed a lot.  BUT, when it was open, I was drawn to it like Barry Bonds to steroids.

I’ve been going into crepe withdrawals the last few months…

Ever since I saw the crepes that Liz at Veg made, I’ve been itchin’ to try them for myself.  Sunday afternoon seemed as good a time as any.

I used the same recipe she did, which was borrowed from Stolen Moments.

It’s a simple recipe (you probably already have the stuff lying around), and they are surprisingly easy to make.  I always thought you had to have one of those big flat things that I saw guys in France using.  Not true.

I used a small 9″ pan, poured the batter and swirled it around until it covered the flat of the pan.  A fork flips them nicely and once you get into a rhythm, you can crank ’em out pretty fast.

There are plenty of ways to stuff them after their cooked – we made some with nutella, some with strawberry preserves, some with mozzarella cheese and a few lightly sprinkled with sugar.  They were all great.

I also halved the recipe from stolen moments, and it still made a ton of crepes (probably 10 or so) – more than a snack for us, so we slipped one to our lazy pooch, Oliver.

Crepes stuffed with Nutella | Photo by HealthyandLazy

Here’s what you need (for the half recipe):

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/8 tsp of salt (2 or 3 shakes)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• toppings (Nutella!!)

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Mix all of the ingredients in a blender, or with a whisk, but make sure to get all the flour lumps out.

Step 2) Melt a small amount of butter in your pan before the first crepe, and then pour in about 1/4 cup of batter, swirling the pan so that the batter covers the entire flat part of the pan.

Step 3) It’s time to flip when the outsides of the crepe looks dry but the inside is still wet.  This usually takes about 1-2 minutes.

Step 4) Flip and cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes.

Step 5) Remove from pan and add your favorite topping.  Repeat (but don’t add butter each time, once is enough).

Ready to flip | Photo by HealthyandLazy

Ding ding done! | Photo by HealthyandLazy

I loved these crepes.  They’re an anytime food – add tomatoes and mozzarella in the morning and you’ve got yourself a breakfast crepe.  Add some lemon juice and sugar and you’ve got yourself an afternoon crepe.  Nutella makes an awesome dessert crepe.

And best of all, they are Oliver approved… and he’s a picky eater.

Skeptical Oliver | Photo by HealthyandLazy

 

Meatless Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and Gravy | Photo by HealthyandLazy

I’m channeling my inner Paula Deen today and whipping up an authentic southern-style breakfast.

In my pre-vegetarian days, biscuits and gravy was my favorite Saturday-morning breakfast.  It wasn’t something we made at home, though – more of a road-trip-stop-at-Cracker-Barrel kind of thing.  For those of you north of the Carolinas, I’ll let you in on the secret.

Biscuits and gravy is the ugly duckling of breakfast foods.  Regardless of where you order it, it’s pretty much served the same way – a few simple biscuits and a hefty scoop of slop gravy dumped on top.  It isn’t a pretty dish and, unless you add food coloring, it’s pretty much just several different shades of brown.

BUT, it’s delicious, and unlike anything else on your typical breakfast menu.  This recipe is extraordinarily simple and I’ve used vegetarian sausage (Gimme’ Lean brand, again), but if you prefer the real thing, the recipe works just as well with true sausage.

This recipe is so easy it’s almost funny.

This recipe makes enough for two (3 biscuits and a big scoop of gravy per person).

Here’s what you need:

(for the biscuits)

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• A few shakes of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

(for the gravy)

• 1/2 pound ground vegetarian sausage
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cup milk
• A few shakes of salt
• A few shakes of pepper

(cooking stuff)

• mixing bowl
• cookie sheet
• large pan

Here’s what to do:

Dough ready to bake | Photo by HealthyandLazy

Step 1) To make the biscuits, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together and then add in the melted butter and milk.  Stir and it will magically turn into a dough.  Scoop the dough into 6 small blobs on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 degrees.

Step 2)  While the biscuits are baking, place a half pound of ground vegetarian sausage into a pan and begin to cook.  When the sausage has browned to your liking, add in 2 tablespoons of butter and stir.

Step 3) Sprinkle half of your flour onto the sausage and immediately add in half of your milk.  Stir.  Then, add in the rest of your flour and the rest of your milk.  Stir.

Biscuits fresh from the oven | Photo by HealthyandLazy

Step 4)  Don’t panic if your gravy looks really soupy, just keep stirring.  After a few minutes, it will begin to thicken up.  I usually let the gravy simmer, with an occasional stir, until my biscuits are done.

Step 5) Place a few biscuits on a plate and top with gravy.

Step 6) Eat.