The Rice Crispy treat is one of those things that is hard to come by in the vegetarian world. Well, at least a good one is anyway.

Since most marshmallows are made with gelatin, the standard cereal treat is off limits for vegetarians.

This variation of the classic cereal treat uses a jar of Fluff instead of a bag of marshmallows. Fluff is mostly made with egg whites, so it isn’t vegan, but for vegans, there are brands of vegan marshmallows out there that work well. They tend to run about five bucks a bag, so unless I’m making these for my vegan friends, I’ll stick with the $1.25 jar of Fluff until I find a good brand of Fluff without the egg.

Start by melting the margarine in a large pot. Scoop out the fluff with a spatula and mix constantly to avoid burning it while it all melts. If you’re using the vegan marshmallows, follow the same instructions, but melting will take a little longer.

Once everything is completely melted, remove from the heat and immediately stir in all of the cereals and cranberries. It is easy to substitute different cereals or other add-ins. Chocolate cereal and chocolate chips work well. Really, chocolate chips mixed with just about anything works pretty well.

After you have a nice marshmallowey coating on everything, scoop the mixture out and spread evenly onto a flat pan. Using a little bit of cooking spray is a good idea, but in a glass pan I did fine without it.

Allow them to cool, then cut up and enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 jar of Marshmallow Fluff (can use vegan marshmallows instead)

4 cups of crisped rice cereal

2 cups of crunch berries cereal

½ cup dried cranberries

4 tbsp margarine

A recent conversation about frozen meals that were staples growing up got me thinking about the fact that I’ve always wanted to make a vegetarian stuffed pepper that wouldn’t really replicate the classic from the red box, but be a satisfying winter meal.

This one is pretty simple, but can be altered to make it more complex.

Start by cooking the orzo as directed on the package.

While that’s cooking, heat up the olive oil in a frying pan, put in the minced garlic and then brown the fake meat. There are many brands of frozen ground “beef” that will all work for this. I like the Morning Star Farms one, but that isn’t vegan, so if you are vegan or are making these for vegans, I suggest the Boca crumbles or the Gimme-Lean ground beef style.

Browning this ingredient in a pan will give you a better flavor, but heating the frozen guys in the microwave will work. After both orzo and faux meat are heated up, combine them in a large bowl.

Chop the green onions very fine and shred the zucchini and mix them into the bowl.

Stir in the tomato sauce and the spices.

Cut the tops off of the peppers and clean out the seeds.

You can boil the peppers submerged in water for about four minutes to prep them, but I like them with a little more crispness in the pepper, so I skip this step.

Fill the peppers with the mixture from the bowl.

Add shredded cheese to the top or bread crumbs and margarine, then bake at 375 for about 40-45 minutes.

I had some of the stuffing left over, so I mixed it with the rest of the package of orzo and it made a pretty good side dish.

Ingredients:

4-6 bell peppers

1 12 oz package of veggie crumbles/fake ground beef

3 green onions

1 small zucchini or squash

1/2 cup uncooked orzo

1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic (minced)

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Shredded cheese for top (optional)

Bread crumbs and margarine for top (optional)

Donuts are not really the healthiest breakfast around, but are usually vegetarian, depending on what they’ve been cooked in.

Most places use vegetable oil any more, but I like to ask just to be certain, there are some places out there that still fry things in lard.

This recipe for apple cider donuts is vegan if you use a margarine that is vegan.

Everything else here is vegan friendly.

Blend all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl, reserving some flour for dusting the surface and rolling pin.

Stir in the melted margarine until it is all absorbed.

Add the cider and applesauce and mix until all of the flour is absorbed and a dough has formed.

The dough might be a little soft and moist, if so, add flour a little at a time until it is workable and feels like you can roll it out and cut it without too many problems.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface with a rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thick.

If you happen to have donut cutters, use them to press out the donuts and holes. If you don’t, be resourceful and use what you have.

I used a pint glass for the donuts and a bottle cap for the holes.

Heat up a deep fryer or a heavy stock pot with enough oil to deep fry in to 375 degrees.

These only take a couple of minutes to fry up nicely, so keep an eye on them.

Drop in a few at a time, gently. Leave space because they do expand some. They will sink and then begin to flat pretty soon.

At about a minute, the edges should look kind of brown, the top will still look uncooked, so with a pair of tongs or a couple of forks, flip them in the oil.

About a minute later, flip again to see how the other side looks. If it is nice a brown, take it out and drain on paper towels or brown paper bags.

While they are still hot, roll them in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon (a dash of cinnamon in three tablespoons of sugar should do the trick).

To make a glaze, you can mix equal parts powdered sugar and vanilla soy milk or apple cider.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat white flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 good shake of nutmeg

2 tbsp melted margarine

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 cup applesauce

oil for frying

extra flour

It’s soup time of year again.

Making thick, heavy soups is one of the joys of the cold weather. It might not offset driving to work on a sheet of ice, but it helps a little.

This potato chowder is easy to make into a vegan version by replacing the cheese with soy cheese or Daiya and replacing the cream with almond milk or taking out the cream and adding an extra cup of veggie broth.

Start by skinning and dicing the potatoes, then boiling them until they are tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, cut the asparagus into small chunks about 3/4 of an inch long and dice the onion fairly small.

Once the potatoes are soft, drop the asparagus in with the potatoes for a few minutes until that is soft as well.

Drain these and set aside.

Saute the onions in the olive oil in the same pot that you boiled the potatoes in. Once they are translucent, add the garlic, salt and pepper.

saute this mixture for a few minutes, then add the vegetable broth and corn. Bring this to a boil, then reduce heat and add the cream and shredded cheese. Simmer this while adding the potatoes and asparagus back in.

Let the soup heat all the way through for about ten minutes on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.

Scoop about 2/3 to 3/4 of the soup into a food processor or blender. Puree and then add back into the remaining soup and mix thoroughly. Heat this up and you’re ready to serve.

If you have a small food processor (like I do), this may involve using a large bowl to hold the puree while you use a few different batches in the food processor.

Serve with a scoop of sour cream (or Tofutti sour cream) and some fresh dill on top. Squeeze just a little bit of fresh lemon juice into the bowl as well.

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds of potatoes

3 cups vegetable broth

1 pound asparagus (fresh)

1 cup corn (fresh is good, but frozen works)

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup cream or almond milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Salt

Pepper

Sour cream (garnish)

Fresh dill (garnish)

Lemon juice (garnish)

Vegan baking has not been my strong suit, but I continue to try. Cookies are usually the easiest baked good to be successful at, so that’s where I’ve concentrated recently.

Mixing a few different fall flavors just seems appealing to me, so I tried pumpkin banana chocolate chip cookies.

This is basically an old chocolate chip cookie recipe with pumpkin and banana in place of egg and then the addition of the typical pumpkin pie spices.

Start off by combining the pumpkin, banana (mashed), sugars, vanilla and vegetable oil. Mix them well until the lumps are mostly gone.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, spices and baking powder.

Mix the baking soda with the almond milk and stir into the wet mixture.

Mix the flour and spices into the wet mixture and stir until completely combined.

Stir in the chocolate chips until distributed evenly.

Scoop large spoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 to 13 minutes.

These make a very cakey cookie that could be called muffin-tops, but I set out trying to make cookies, so I’m calling these cookies anyway.

To make sure these are totally vegan-friendly, check the chocolate chips. Many brands of semi-sweet chips are made without dairy, but some have milk. Most dark chocolate chips will be vegan and then there are vegan specific brands out there that can be found in places like Whole Foods.

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 very ripe banana

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp almond milk

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1 bag (12-16 oz) of chocolate chips