Pasta-O's with TVP "meat" sauce

As per usual, a straightforward recipe.  I boiled some veggie broth with fennel for some added flavor to soak/hydrate the TVP in.  I was going for a sausage flavor.  I then sauteed up onion and garlic, added the TVP and some tomato paste and water.  Made up this recipe since I did not have canned or fresh tomatoes and did not have canned sauce.  The pasta is <a target="blank_" href="http://www.barillaus.com/content/prodottobarilla/ditalini">Barilla Ditalini</a>  which are fat, short little tubes of pasta.  Delicious!

Pasta with Spinach, Sauce and Sausage

This was an impromptu dish for dinner. I had some Gimme Lean hanging around, so I took about half the tube and seasoned it with red pepper flakes, oregano, and fennel seeds. I shredded some onion and garlic into a pan, sauteed, and added the sausage. Then cooked it until browned up to my liking.

The sauce was another experiment from a few days ago. We have no red sauce in the house, but TONS of tomato paste. So, I figured I would try to make sauce from that. I started by shredding half an onion with a grater, and roughly chopped 4-5 small cloves of garlic. I sauteed these in a pan with some olive oil. Added some oregano and salt. I used 2-3 cups of "not chik'n" broth for more depth and 2 cans of tomato paste (the small 6 oz ones). I just kept simmering and stirring and adding water as needed to smooth everything out. It turned out great! I've been rather impressed with myself for that sauce.

For this specific dish, I made elbow macaroni and spooned over some fresh spinach. I poured the sauce over the noodles and put the sausage bits on top. A super-yummy dinner!

Pizza! Sausage Pizza with Follow Your Heart Mozzarella

Here's a pizza I made back in September, but never had the chance to upload the photos. Well, here they are. These are vague directions because I can't quite remember what I did over two months ago.

The crust is premade from Whole Foods. Then I spread straight tomato paste all over the crust, and tossed it in the oven to crisp up a bit. At the same time, I cooked frozen vegan meatballs in a pan on the stovetop, smashing and crumbling until they resembled ground beef. Then I seasoned the heck out of them: fennel seeds, oregano, garlic salt, and some other Italian seasonings.

Once the crust in the oven was slightly crisped, but not fully cooked, I pulled it out. I formed the meatball crumbles into tiny sausage balls and placed them on the pizza like any sausage pizza would look.

Then came the cheese -- Follow Your Heart Mozzarella. I shredded the entire block of cheese which was WAY too much. I spread it across the pizza, then popped it back in the oven. After about twenty minutes, I put the pizza under the broiler and watched it VERY carefully. After lots of bubbling and even a little browning of the cheese it was done!!!! I quickly sliced it up and ate it!

One more pic, this time of one piece: