This is what happens when Amber falls asleep after a long day at work... I take over. Hi, I'm Alex, the boyfriend of the fantastic young woman who runs Fettle Vegan. 

I grew up in Southern California where the In-N-Out burger chain reigns supreme. Even when I went away to college in Massachusetts, it became ritual to fly home, get off the plane and go to In-N-Out...it's that good. And I wasn't the only one, I had friends go to school all over the country and we all did the same thing. Everyone goes to In-N-Out, it's delicious. I've been practicing a vegan diet for a solid 6 months now and an In-N-Out burger is still one of those non-vegan items that I still get cravings for from time to time. In-N-Out is delicious, there's no way around it. Plus, it doesn't help that we have one about a mile away that is open til 1am most nights. But, I'm a vegan now, so when Amber fell asleep, I went to work creating my very own In-N-Out Double Double NO-Animal Style.

If you're "Not from these parts": The "Double Double" is a basic at this establishment. Basically it's a burger with two beef patties and two slices of cheese (absolutely not vegan). The "Animal Style" burger means you take any of their burgers and basically they put everything on it for you (we'll get to the specifics shortly). 

To make your own In-n-Out Burger (animal style!), you'll need the following:

Grilled Onions:
-1 large onion
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 Tbsp grape seed oil
-Water

Burger:
-2 of your favorite veggie burger patties 
(make sure you are able to cook them on a skillet or grill)
-Vegan Cheese 
(American if you want it to be In-N-Out authentic, but we used Daiya's cheddar wedge & loved it)
-Dijon Mustard
-Lettuce
-Tomato
-Pickles 
-Vegan Thousand Island Dressing
(or as they call it "spread")

Directions:
Onions: 
Heat a large saucepan on medium heat and add 1 Tbsp grapeseed oil. Finely chop onions and add to the pan along with salt. Stir regularly and keep an eye on them. This is honestly the most tedious part of the whole thing. When the onions start to look dry, add 1 Tbsp of water. Keep cooking and adding water when needed until the onions are caramelized to a nice brown color and smell delicious. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Burgers:
Add 1 Tbsp oil to a griddle or saucepan and turn to medium heat. Once the grill is evenly heated, season burgers with salt and pepper and start cooking. This is where we start using true In-N-Out tricks. When you start cooking your burgers, we are looking to do about 3 minutes on each side. As the burgers are cooking, apply 1 Tbsp of mustard to the "raw" side of the burger that is still facing up. When the first side is good and done, give it a flip onto the mustard side down and immediately add a slice of cheese to the top, you can also add some of your grilled onions on top of the cheese at this point. This is a great trick especially for vegans trying to get their stingy cheese to melt. After 3 minutes on the mustard side, you're done!
Repeat with the second burger, since a true Double Double has two patties!

Buns:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Also, get a new pan, griddle, grill or some kind of heating surface, add a small amount of oil, just so the surface is "shimmering" and start it up on medium heat. Whole buns go in the oven for 2 minutes, just to warm them. Take them straight out of the oven, split them and put them face side down on your heating surface of choice until golden brown, about 1 minute. 

Now, put it all together! 
This is the fun part and I'm going to make it very simple.
Here's the order from the plate up:

plate
bottom bun
spread
4 pickles
1 large slice tomato
lettuce
2 cheese and onion covered patties
top bun

...and that's it!
Enjoy!

It was all Alex's idea. For months he'd been wanting to re-create a random, rushed, thrown-together version of this Taco Pie we'd accidentally made before. The problem? I couldn't exactly remember how we'd made it...or what we'd thrown in it. As we went over what we thought we'd need to pick up from the grocery store, pieces of the puzzle started coming back to me. Tortillas, beans...or course there were beans! And cheese!

It all came together much more efficiently and inexpensively than I could ever have imagined. It was good and cheap.
And actually sort-of looked like a pie!

We had about 50 avocados on hand this weekend anyway, and what better way to use them up?

Our neighbors have huge avocado and peach trees, and we're lucky that they get so bombarded by fruits that they share them with us. We made enough guacamole to feed 12 people out of these avocados, and still had leftovers. 
But I'm okay with that...more for me.

This went from being a meal I had no memory of to a meal-time staple in our house.
It's easy to throw together, takes only 30 minutes in the oven, and is even better topped with guacamole, salsa, and fresh tomatoes. 

Ingredients
4 sprouted wheat tortillas (or your favorite kind!)
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 15 ounce can of refried beans (Amy's brand is vegan)
1 15 ounce can black beans
1/4 cup Daiya shredded pepperjack cheese

I topped the finished Taco Pie with: guac, tomatoes, & green salsa. Add whatever strikes your fancy! 

Directions
In a 9-inch springform pan, layer as follows: 2 tortillas, rice, refried beans, black beans, cheese, and the last two tortillas.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the pie is heated, the cheese is melty, and the tortillas are crispy.
Let cool for about 5-10 minutes before sliding it out of the springform pan and onto a flat surface for cutting.
Top with your favorite salsas, chiles, veggies, and guacamole, and enjoy!
Pie can be covered and refrigerated for 3-4 days.

When I was in high school I worked as a waitress at a brew pub. It served delicious, fatty, animal filled foods, and I loved 'em (back then). They were famous for their spinach artichoke dip-by far the best thing on the menu in my opinion. It was gooey, cheesy, garlic-y and filled with hunks of artichoke and spinach. Served warm with tortilla chips? Just try and stop me. 
I haven't found a great replacement since. Even before I went vegan, I had a really hard time finding a dip as thick and fresh and delicious as the pub's was. Today, I found a replacement. 
We adapted the recipe from Oh She Glows, and it is so, so good.
Thick chunks of artichoke and spinach fill the not-too-cheesy sauce and perfectly top tortilla or pita chips! Its the perfect dip for sharing...if it lasts that long!

Ingredients:
1 piece whole wheat bread
 1 tablespoon vegan butter
1 medium sized onion (about 2 cups), chopped
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1-15 ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups packed fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/4 cup vegan mozzarella cheese (we used Teese)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
Combine in a food processor 1 piece of whole wheat bread and 1 tsp vegan butter. Pulse until crumbs form. Set aside in a bowl.  
In a food processor combine white beans, nutritional yeast, water, salt, basil, and red pepper flakes. Set aside. 
In a large cast iron skillet, combine olive oil and onions; heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about 2 more minutes. Once garlic and onions are cooked and smelling delicious, add chopped artichokes and spinach. 
Stir and cook on medium heat until spinach wilts.
Shut off heat and add contents of food processor to skillet. Stir well.
Add 3/4 of the breadcrumbs and all the vegan mozzarella cheese to the mixture, stirring again.
At this point you'll have a thick, veggie filled, yellowish mixture that will smell cheesy and awesome. Try and resist! Its light years better after being cooked.
Spread the rest of the breacdrumbs on top of the mixture, then cover the cast iron pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes. 
Remove aluminum foil and bake for 10-15 more minutes, until mixture is bubbly and  melty and hot!
Let cool for 5 minutes before serving with tortilla or pita chips.
Enjoy!
(More of a visual person? For more pictures of the process, read on!)

We took lots of picture of the process this time. Here are some visual directions:

My Mommy is in town this week! Alex and I have been having way too much fun showing her all the awesomeness that is Southern California. Last night we spent two hours shopping Mother's Market and came home with way too many delicious groceries.
We were all craving pizza so we decided to veganize one of our old favorites, pesto pizza! The pesto pizzas we used to get had chicken (eww!) and real mozzarella cheese (blech!). To make this pizza, we used a vegan pesto, 'teese' brand mozzarella cheese, and fresh veggies on top of a home-made crust.
The pizza came out absolutely wonderfully. The crust was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and super garlic-y!

Crust Ingredients:
1 sachet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Crust Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a separate bowl combine flour and salt.Once yeast and sugar mixture looks creamy, beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes then add dry ingredients and oil to yeast mixture.
Using a wooden spoon or whisk, stir all the ingredients together until just combined, about 2 minutes.
Then using either a bread hook attachment or your hands, knead and stretch dough until dough is elastic-y but softened, about 5-8 minutes. 
Using your hands, stretch dough into the shape of the pan. Be careful doing this, pulling gently at the sides until the dough stretches out. Don't rush it, you don't want any massive holes for your toppings to fall through!
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured pizza stone or baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until crust edges JUST start to harden and golden. 

Once the crust is made, top with (in this order):
vegan pesto
Teese mozzarella 'cheese' (shredded with a cheese grater)
tomatoes
onions
garlic (diced or pressed)

Spread toppings and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let pizza cool for 5 minutes, then cut into 8 slices and enjoy!

P.S. Sometimes we make it without cheese, cause we love the taste of just fresh veggies. Here's a photo: 

Last night, Alex and I treated the family to our homemade vegan lasagna-and it was a hit! We've only made the recipe a couple times, but each time it tastes even better than the last. We found the recipe here. 

Vegan Lasagna:
1-12 oz. box of vegan lasagna noodles (we've had good luck with rice noodles)
12 oz. vegan hamburger crumbles
3 cups cooked vegetables (onions, peppers, zucchini, whatever you like) 
Raw Spinach 
40 ounces of spaghetti sauce (we used one with artichoke hearts in it and it was delicious)
6-8 ounces of vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded

Tofu Ricotta Mix:
16 ounces of firm tofu (not silken), pressed and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2-1 teaspoon salt
6-8 ounces vegan cream cheese (we like to use Tofutti brand)


It's really pretty simple and the end product is delicious! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook the noodles. While this is going on, saute your choice of vegetables until softened to you desired texture. Also, put your meatless crumbles into a pan and cook until browned. We like to do most of the cooking outside of the oven, and then put everything together to warm up and fuse in the oven. This cuts down on the cooking time and makes things much easier. 

The vegan ricotta is super easy. Put the tofu into a food processor with all of the ingredients except for the cream cheese. Pulse a few times until the mixture is the consistency of ricotta cheese. You want it to be a bit lumpy and definitely not smooth. Once your desired texture is reached, put the cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds to soften it up, and then add it to the mixture. Pulse a few more times just to distribute everything evenly and then you're done!

Once all of the ingredients have been cooked/prepared, start layering in a baking dish. Start with noodles, then sauce, followed by ricotta mixture, fake meat, vegetables, a layer of raw spinach and then repeat. Top the dish with vegan mozzarella cheese and pop it in the oven. Let it cook for about 30 minutes or until it is hot all the way through and the cheese is beginning to brown. 

Note: Some vegan cheese options are not the best when it comes to melting and browning, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't look like real cheese. We like to use "teese" which actually acts and tastes like real cheese and also melts and browns pretty easily as well. 

This is a hardy meal that will have vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores telling you that they couldn't tell its not "real lasagna." Remember to keep it simple and improvise if you need to. If you don't have meatless crumbles, or just don't like to use fake meat, try to use black beans, or just leave that layer out all together. It will still be delicious and the recipe will evolve into your own specialty dish that you can share with friends and family for a long time! 


Looking for more dishes in the Italian vein? Check out this Spaghetti Squash Pasta recipe. Easiest, most delicious improvisation for noodles EVER.