the year of the pancake

2013 was the year of the pancake over here!

Early on in the year, I found this recipe. It was very good. It was gluten free. I couldn't really tell it was gluten free--a high compliment because we're gluten fans around here.

Because we like the gluten, my wonderful husband added some gluten and created this recipe. OMG, I love it. I make it pretty much every weekend. I make enough left-overs to get us part way through the week--usually Wednesday. 

After not too long, I got a scan pan for the pancakes. I love it. I had one before, but it didn't last super well. I used oil in it. No added oil will be used in this scan pan. It is awesome. I look forward to seeing how long it lasts!

Then, for Thanksgiving, this recipe was going around the blogosphere. Super yum, but I changed it a little. 

Pumpkin Pancakes

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour 
• 1 cup oat flour
• 1/2 cup flax
• 1/2 -1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1-2  tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 3 cups of non-dairy milk (you may need more I can't remember how much I added… start slow and add until the right thickness. After I add 2 cups of non-dairy milk, I usually switch to water for the liquid, but that's just me. This may need 4 or 5 cups of liquid (or more), I can't remember!)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (makes them lighter and fluffier!)
• 1 can (2 cups) pumpkin
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup
• Chocolate chips (at least 1/3 cup, but as many as you want--add last!)

Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe: In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. Add wet ingredients and non-dairy milk until the batter is the right thickness; then add chocolate chips.

Cook pancakes (I use a scan pan so I don't use any oil, but many pans need a little).  Cook over medium heat (make sure the pan is really hot and heated through first. (The test to see if the pan is hot is to drop a little drop of water; it should immediately start dancing around.  Pour small ladles of batter onto the skillet and spread out the batter so it doesn’t sit in the middle of each pancake if it's really thick. 

I think it took about 5-6 minutes each side for these pancakes. This makes less than my other  pancake recipes, but it will feed 5 people and give you leftovers for a day or two; the other recipes give leftover for 3-4 days.) 

For Christmas, my gluten-free niece came to visit and I made this with almond flour and oat flour and she liked it. If you make want to make this gluten free, cut the whole wheat, up the flax and oat, and add almond (or gf flour). I had to make the gluten-free pancakes really small 'cause they didn't hold together for the flip if I didn't. She liked them. I thought they were tasty, but since I had to make them so small I added whole wheat flour to 1/2 the batter so I could cook them bigger 'cause I didn't want to cook pancakes all day on Christmas.

What's your favorite pancake recipe?

Now it's really almost the end of the year...

Christmas is over. I got my syllabus done for my class. I still have some work to do for work, but it's okay if it doesn't happen until Thursday--work is officially "closed" right now.* So now, I can blog!

What to blog?!  I think I'll start with a review of the festive chickpea tart.

I made it pretty much like the recipe from that web page (no oil added) except I didn't make the topping. Next time I make the tart, I plan to layer a bunch of cranberries near the top layer. This was so good with cranberry sauce! Oh, and we used fresh kale not spinach in ours.

It is festive! Nick's comment was that it tasted like dressing. It's got all the dressing spices. It definitely could be a gluten-free dressing--and that's a compliment! I love dressing!

I made it in a pie shell, but I'm not a super big pie crust fan. Next time, I won't make it in one unless daughter #1 wants me to make it with a crust. She liked it. I liked it. Nick wasn't crazy about it. Guests liked it. It's a good addition to the repertoire!


Ingredients

• 1/2 - 1 tbsp olive oil - or water for oil-free

• 1 cup onion, diced

• 1/2 cup celery, diced

• 4-5 medium-large garlic cloves, minced

• 1⁄4 tsp sea salt

• Few pinches freshly ground black pepper

• 2 cups chickpeas

• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 tsp tamari

• 1/2 tsp ground sage

• 1/4 tsp sea salt

• 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted

• 1/3 cup rolled oats (optional, see note)

• 1 - 10 oz package of fresh kale (or as much as you want

Add water, onion, celery, garlic, salt and pepper in a skillet over medium-high heat. After a veggies and onions are softened and turning golden add the kale and cook it down.  In a food processor, add chickpeas (except reserved 1/3 cup), lemon juice, tamari, sage, salt, and sautéed mixture, and partially puree (not fully like hummus, but leaving some chunkier consistency). 

Add toasted walnuts and oats, and briefly pulse to lightly break up nuts. Transfer to a bowl, and stir in spinach, cranberries, parsley, thyme, and reserved chickpeas. Transfer most of the mixture to pie shell (or lightly oiled pie plate), smoothing to evenly distribute. Add a layer of cranberries and then cover with the mixture. (I'm going to do a THICK layer!). 

I don't have picture. Next time I will. I'll add it when I get one.





*I imagine I might think a little bit about it before then, but we'll see. I think so much that sometimes it's hard not to work/think. I get bored. I like my work! I know I need to take breaks, but I didn't work Monday-Friday last week.

Christmas Eve...so here's Thanksgiving!

Actually, the day after Thanksgiving.

Patti's pretty plate: from 6 o'clock (clock-wise) pumpkin kaddu, mashed potatoes, salad and berries, olives (at 1 o'clock), baked spiced tofu, festive chickpea tart and cranberry sauce, and finally, at 5 o'clock the lovely lentil tart with mango chutney! Peeking out in the bowl is orange-carrot soup. It was a wonderful day!

My friend Patti (in my kitchen) with her delightful lentil tart topped with mango chutney!

The whole gang (minus Larry who took the picture and Christine who is sitting to the right of me as you look at the photo.  (More pictures maybe if my brother sends them!) I was too busy eating to take pictures! I'm a bad blogger.

It's almost the end of the year...

And I'm too busy for blogging it seems. Still cooking a lot, and finding lots of good recipes, and WANTING to blog, but no time. Work is getting ready to "shut down" so everyone is trying to wrap things up. Hopefully I'll have a little time next week to get some posts in before the year ends.  (All I want for Christmas is some time to blog!) 

In the mean time, here are two articles that I want to hold on to...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/12/10/250007042/chowing-down-on-meat-and-dairy-alters-gut-bacteria-a-lot-and-quickly

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/13/250730968/this-docs-miracle-drug-exercise

I do believe that diet and exercise are extremely important, and always have. When I was a kid (probably about 6 or 7), I couldn't believe adults didn't like to run around. I couldn't believe they didn't see that if they ran around, they'd be better off. For me, when my back was in very bad shape in 2005 (after 3 babies in 4 years), I decided I needed to exercise more and get back into shape. People, even doctors, told me to slow down and be careful, but I'm so glad I chose the path of exercise. I also began to change the way I ate in 2006, cutting down dairy and adding more grains and veggies until I went vegan in 2009. It all "can't hurt and might help" and now we are learning why things, like exercise and a good diet, work. (The articles above point to 2 small, but important, clues.)

Oh, and a video

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/eggs-and-diabetes/


To all things green! 

Pizza with arugula

We went out to lunch in the city and Natalie (the vegan-kid who loves veggies) and I split this pizza.  I ate the side with the argula, plus the other veggies. She ate the zucchini and pepper side. We got this at a regular restaurant; they used their no-dairy crust and made our pizza no-cheese. Yum! (I like it when we can go to regular restaurants and get yummy food! Most restaurants, in our neck of the woods, will accommodate vegan needs.)

But first, Brownies!

I will get back to Thanksgiving Recipes, but I had a little left-over pumpkin puree and needed to use it up.  I found this recipe for chocolate pumpkin brownies and had to make it. I guess, I had to modify the recipe and then make it.  Here's what I did.

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup canned pumpkin (or pureed pumpkin or sweet potato)
1/4 cup flax
1/4 cup milk of choice
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips (not optional)

Combine dry ingredients, and mix well. Combine wet ingredients, then mix into dry. Pour into a silicone (or greased) pan. I used my 9x9, but an 8x8 would have been better. Cook for about 15-20 minutes at 350 F.  (You'll probably need to cook little longer if you use an 8x8 pan.)

Notes: 

Just a teeny bit of pumpkin flavor (I think sweet potato will be nice, too). I think I'll use cashew cream for fat (instead of flax or oil) so that I can get a smoother, less hearty tasting brownie.  With the flax, these are hearty brownies. I don't think brownies are traditionally hearty.

Thanksgiving review

We had friends over (vegan friends) and we had a lot of good food. Technically, on Thanksgiving, my brother and I made eggplant and red sauce (I'll share more soon about it) and then, on Friday, we did our Thanksgiving day feast. Here's what we had...

Lentil torte
Festive Chickpea Tart
Pumkin Kadu
Tofu Satay
Big Green Salad
Carrot Soup
Hummus
Berries
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Cake Roll (I'll post details about this!)
Mashed Potatoes
Homemade cranberry sauce (excellent with the festive chickpea tart)!

I didn't get a picture of the feast, but maybe my friend did!  I still feel full!  I'll post more about everything soon.

Zucchini muffins

Adapted from a Healthy Girl's Kitchen Recipe

2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup flax 
3/4 tsp salt 
1 1/2 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp baking soda 
1 tablespoon cinnamon 
1/3 cup soymilk or almond milk (I like to make my own almond milk for this recipe)
*3/4 cup applesauce + more if batter is too dry 
1/2 cup maple syrup 
2 tsp vanilla extract
 2 cups shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
 2/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
Flax egg (mix 1 TBS of flax meal + 3 TBS of water--set aside and let gel) 
optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, salt, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon.
In a medium bowl stir together nut milk, applesauce, maple syrup, vanilla, & flax/water mixture.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture & stir until just combined.
Fold in the shredded zucchini, chocolate chips, & optional walnuts.
Divide batter equally into 12 cup muffin pan lined with cupcake papers if regular pan or a silicone muffin pan (not lined or greased). 

Bake for 20-25 minutes testing for doneness.

Muffin Report: 2 of the 3 girls liked them, the vegan who doesn't like vegetables wouldn't try them. I thought they tasted better the morning after I made them. The day I made them, I wasn't sure, but then they grew on me! Nick, wonderful husband and dad, seemed to like them a lot. (He even took some to work one day.)

*I blend 1/2 cup of almonds and 3-4 cups of water. I don't strain it, and since I only use a little in the recipe, I can use the rest of it in our smoothies. Nothing beats homemade for cooking! (We keep store-bought on hand for cereal, but I love making my own!)

cornbread

Earlier this fall, Nick wanted cornbread. I had nixed his favorite brand of cornbread because the corn wasn't organic and I dislike GMOs. I bought a bag of organic corn meal and figured I'd find a good recipe online. The first recipe I made was okay...

I went searching for other ideas and I found this cornbread recipe from a fabulous blog that I don't often frequent but need to more often! It was good cornbread--very tasty. However, I really wanted to get rid of the oil. I'm not against fat, but I like to cook with whole, low-processed foods--hence, no oil. After making PPK's recipe a few times, I figured out how I wanted to modify it.  Here's the modified version:

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3-1/2 cup of cashew cream** (replacing the oil)
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup 
2 cups soymilk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (upping the apple cider vinegar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350, line a 9×13 baking pan with a parchment paper, a silicone sheet or use a silicone pan--or use a regular pan with a little oil wiped on it so the cornbread doesn't stick.

Mix the soymilk and the vinegar together and set aside.

In a large bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt and mix (by hand is fine).

Make a thick cashew cream... For my blender to grind the cashew cream well, I have to make  way more than I use in this recipe. I stick the extra in the refrigerator. I always use it in a day or so; I'm not sure how long it will keep, but I bet it would freeze okay.  

For my cashew cream I used 1 cup of cashews and (almost) 2/3s of a cup of water. Here's what it looked like when done. You can see it's pretty thick.

Add the maple syrup to the soymilk mixture. Stir or whisk for about 2 minutes so it can get more bubbly.

Pour liquid mixture into the dry mix, plus 1/3-1/2 cup of cashew cream and mix well (no need for a mixer, by hand is fine. 

Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and let set for about five minutes before you bake for 20-30 minutes; start checking at 20 minutes because you don't want it to get too dry. In my glass pan it tends to be done in 20 minutes.Test with a knife or a toothpick for doneness.

If you like soft, sweet cornbread, do the 1/2 cup of cashew cream and add 4 tablespoons of maple syrup. The more cashew cream, the softer the bread (I've been known to add more than 1/2 a cup). Obviously, more maple syrup means a sweeter bread. Enjoy!

Square Pie? Pie Squared?

I decided I wanted to make a pie crust for our pumpkin pie that didn't involve flour. I'm not a huge pie crust fan. One of my daughters is though, so, on Thanksgiving, we'll have traditional pumpkin pie for her. For me and the two other little girls, we're trying some new things. Today, we experiment!

I took this recipe from Straight Up Food

&

this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie (this was for a very small amount of pie crust)

and combined them into:

15 dates (the 365 brand from Whole Foods that come in a bag, I don't know what kind)
3/4 cup of oats
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3/4 cup of walnuts
1 tablespoon soy milk (or as needed)

Process the dates and walnuts until pretty smooth, then add the cocoa and walnuts. After the mixture is processed determine if you need the soy milk (it should be pretty darn sticky). I needed about a tablespoon to get it to a good texture.

Press into a pie pan.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350.

On the Straight Up Food blog, there are instructions on how to roll the pie crust out and transfer it into the pan. This method did NOT work for me. I rolled on a silicone sheet, but I couldn't get it to come off in one piece. It was okay; I just mashed the pieces back together in the pan. I was going to use my round glass pie pan, to make the pie, but I didn't think the crust would EVER come off of the glass since the mixture really stuck to the silicone. I opted instead to use my square silicone baking pan, instead and that's why we have a square pie (I'm buying a round silicone pan right now!)

For the pie filling, I made (mostly) this recipe from my blog; but of course, I changed it! No oil! Less tofu! Cashew cream!

Here's what I did this time:

1 package of silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cashews
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
2/3 cup maple syrup

(optional chocolate chips)

Add cashews, maple syrup and tofu to the blender. (Drain as much of the liquid from the package of tofu as you can (easily), but you don't need a tofu press or anything like that.)  Blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, and blend! (I don't feel I can get a good texture from my mixer, so I just use the blender. Plus, if you're using cashews you need the blender and why dirty up more bowls/appliances?)





















Scatter chocolate chips on the crust. Here's what my scattered chocolate chips looked like:

Pour the filling on top.


Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Here are the nutrition facts for 1/12th of the filling (I think it would make 2 pies if I had pie pans.) Note, these nutrition facts do NOT include the chocolate chips or the pie crust. Often times, I make pumpkin pie with no crust. I always include the chocolate chips, but I lie to myself and tell myself that chocolate is medicinal and that calories don't count in medicines--but that's just me. 

The results?

The girls love it and I like it! I think it's a little too sweet and will do a version with less maple syrup. The texture was GREAT; I'm still debating about how I feel about nutmeg. The crust was good; definitely what I'd use for an "everyday" crust--lower fat, healthier, but I might try with more walnuts and less or no oats for Thanksgiving. Truthfully, I like pumpkin pie filling on top of chocolate chips best. 

(Despite the review, note, I've eaten a lot of this pie--going to spend some time on the treadmill. Heh.)

Currently, the plan is: one pie like this--er, with more walnuts and less oats in the crust; one pie with regular crust and no chocolate chips; one with regular crust and chocolate chips; one with chocolate chips, less sweet, and no crust. We'll see if we need more than 4 pies.

Edited to add:
I liked this crust, but am not sure I love it and I didn't end up making it for Thanksgiving.

No such thing as age...

I love this article!

When I was somewhere between 5 and 8, I made the observation that older folks didn't seem to have that much fun, nor did they run around much. I watched them complain a lot about things like their weight, how many medicines they have to take, and life in general. I don't do quite as many crazy things as I used to, but I do a lot and this article is inspirational! When I'm 90, I want to be just like her!   Or her at 86! 

Vegan Tuna

I kept seeing recipes for vegan tuna and thought it would be fun to try to make.

[Sidebar: I was always intimidated by the recipes because it seemed I didn't have all the ingredients.  Mostly, it was because all of the recipes had celery in them. I never have celery around the house.  It's a goal to work it into our diet, but so far, I haven't managed. I remedied the situation by make it without celery.]

Here's a SUPER EASY version of the recipe (sans celery).

1 can of garbanzo beans -- mash them with a fork, or just barely process them in the food processor.  You don't want them to turn into a mushy-paste. (I used a fork.)
2-3 Tablespoons of vegan mayo; it can be homemade or store bought
1-2 tablespoons spicy mustard
1/4 cup chopped dill pickles
salt (to taste--depending on whether your garbanzo beans have salt)
Herbamare (optional -- I don't actually consider this optional)
Kelp flakes (optional)
Celery seed (to taste -- I like a lot)
(optional) a squirt of lemon

Mix up.
Eat.
Yum!

You really only need the first 5 ingredients; if you don't add Herbamare or Kelp, you won't have fishy taste--with Herbamare, you'll only get a slight hint of the sea. (Full disclaimer, I haven't tried this with Kelp flakes yet. I have them, but haven't used them.) I can't believe I was intimidated by the idea of this recipe. All I can say is just do it!


Pictured is a wrap with a little baby kale and the vegan tuna. It was hard to make this because I really wanted to just eat the "tuna" off the fork.

More burgers

I've been meaning to make these burgers for a while. Hummus is my second daughter's favorite food and I figured she'd love these burgers. She did!  I simplified the recipe a little.  Here's what I did. 

2-3 large garlic cloves
1/8 cup dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 14.5 ounce cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained-reserving some of the liquid
1 cup rolled oats
2-3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt (or not)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

 

Put everything but the oats in the food processor and pulse or process until mixed to the texture you like. We like things smooth around here (see second daughter for more on why). 

 

Add oats and mix them in.

 

Form patties--we made about 10.

I baked at 350 for about 20 minutes each side, but they were still a little moist. I'm going to try making them in my scanpan next time.  

Flavor is nice!  Everyone liked it.  Kira, daughter #2, really liked them!

Verdict: we'll make these again!

Picture... see other site.  

Biggest difference between what we did and the original recipe: We left out the cilantro.

new favorite quote

I think this might be my new favorite quote... (or one of them).

"Health is not luck. We have an innate ability to maintain good health if we establish the optimal environment for healing."
Joel Fuhrman, MD

Sunday night burgers

I made so much soup last week that I just can't face my soup pot today. (Plus, I froze a lot of soup last week and don't have a lot of room left in the freezer.) Instead, I decided to make these burgers from Dreena Burton's site.

Of course, I had to change a couple of things... Here's what I did:

1 1/2 cups raw almonds

1 cup raw walnuts

1 small clove garlic

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp nutritional yeast (She said to add it and that it wouldn't be strong; I did even though I was worried about it. It was good.)

1 tbsp tamari

1/8 tsp each of dried thyme and ground sage (I didn't have thyme, so I just put in sage)

1 medium carrot

1 cup fresh kale (packed)

~1 cup rolled oats

Process the almonds, walnuts, garlic, and salt; make it a pretty fine consistency. Take most of the mixture out of the food processor to process the kale and carrots. (My food processor isn't big enough to handle nuts and the veggies at the same time.) Get kale and carrots into very small pieces. Add the nuts back and the tomato paste, nutritional yeast, tamari, and oats.  Pulse until mixed well. Now add the oats. My poor food processor couldn't really do it all so I helped by stirring in the oats up by hand.  (I need a new food processor.)

I made 10 patties and baked them at 400 on a silpat for 10 minutes on each side.

These are savory and nice. The whole family ate them. Yay! (I love meals that the whole family will eat.)  I'll try to get a picture of them soon, but take a look at Dreena's site if you want to see a picture sooner than I get to it. 

Soy is safe!

People always ask this question... It's another good article.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/ask-well-is-it-safe-to-eat-soy/?src=me&_r=0

pumpkin soup

1.5 cups  vegetable broth
1/4 cup cashews
1 cup water
2 cans canned organic pumpkin
1 large-ish onion, sautéed
1-3 garlic cloves, sautéed (with onion)
1/2 - 1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Sautee onions and garlic in a little veggie broth (in a soup pot) until nice and soft (about 15 minutes). (I let onions and garlic cool and then I did the next steps.)

Place all ingredients into your blender (including onions and garlic) and blend. (I started by blending the water and cashews, to make milk and then added the onions and garlic and broth. I then added everything else and blended.)

When it's blended pour it all back into the soup pot (note only one pot and one blender for clean up this way) and heat up--let simmer for 15-20 minutes so the flavors can really marry.

YUM!

Note, you could add more cashews for a creamier soup. I happen to really like cashew cream so I think I'll do this.  You could also blend everything and then heat up right before your meal so that it's easier timing on the soup.

Nutrition facts based on 1 cup serving size.

8 cups of glorious pumpkin soup!

Edited to add: I really liked this soup, but then I added a healthy teaspoon of peanut butter to one of my bowls of soup and WOWZA. It hit it out of the ballpark for me. Obviously, if you add PB, you're adding some fat and calories and the nutrition facts (above) are all wrong. It was worth it to me to add it.  

8 quarts

Last weekend, I made 8 quarts of this lovely creamy cauliflower soup. You can see a picture at that link and get a link to a variation. I've already frozen some and tomorrow I'll freeze some more. Yay!

And! I have a recipe for pumpkin soup that looks lovely, easy and yummy... I'll share it with you after I try making it. Stay tuned!

Plant-based

I don't call myself a vegan even though it's been years since I ate an animal product. I also try really hard not to buy leather, wool, or silk clothes, furniture, carpet, etc. I still have the leather things I bought before going plant-based, but when they are worn, I won't buy more animal-based products.* Now, since we've just moved, I've been trying to buy new furniture and rugs that are plant-based, but it's hard. I have a feeling it's going to take a long while to find a couch I like for our (completely empty except for the boxes we haven't unpacked) living room.

But! I've just found a jute rug I love!  It's here. We got the sangria-colored one. It's now making a corner of the upper hall more cozy! It's very soft. I was worried that it would be sort of rough. I got this jute one, too, but it's not nearly as soft. It'll work fine in the hallway, but it can't go in our bedroom as I'd hoped. Though I can't say how these rugs will wear, since I've only had them for a couple of days, I will say that the initial quality of them seems good.

I'm going to document the furniture / rug finds I come across on this blog 'cause it's hard to find good stuff that's plant-based and I think it falls under a "green" category.




*I have an exception. I will buy leather dance shoes 'cause there isn't a synthetic alternative for tap that is as good as the leather ones. (I'm not a great dancer, but I'm "okay" and the shoes do matter. As soon as there's an alternative that works, I'll be switch.)

No Soup last Sunday

Last Sunday, I wasn't in the mood for soup. I was a rebel and made mexican lasagna (to see a picture click here). It was yum. I found some new chipolte salsa at Whole Foods and it kicked up the spice in the lasagna. I've always "liked" Mexican Lasagna, but this last time, I loved it! I decided it would be a "company dish" and I'll make it when my brother comes to visit!

I digress...  So Mexican Lasagna yields 2.5 nights of dinners and then we're out. Last night, we didn't know what to make, so Nick (husband) checked the freezer! Soup! We had some soup from earlier when I was cooking it often! Yay! My system works. Now I'm inspired to make soup this weekend so I can freeze some more.

sweet! breakfast bar! (edited recipe on 9/28)

Scroll to the end for the final recipe for breakfast bars! Read the whole post if you want.

Note, this recipe isn't quite ready for prime time, but if you're not afraid of cooking "by feel" it's fun! Our wonderful nanny found this recipe. I thought it sounded delicious and knew it wouldn't be hard to make vegan style! The ingredients are great!

When I made the recipe, the batter for the cookies was REALLY soppy. (I don't know if that's a good word, but it's the one that comes to mind.) I made one tray of cookies and then decided I didn't want to make cookies because of how wet the batter was so I poured the soppy batter into a 9 x 11 pan, lined with a sil-pat, pan and baked it. After ~50 minutes at 350 (covered with foil for a good deal of time) I had a VERY moist cake-like creation.  My 9x11 pan wouldn't have been big enough if I hadn't have made a tray of cookies.  (Next time, I may use my 8x8 and 9x9 pan, each lined with a sil-pat for the double batch recipe.)

The cake-like creation was DELICIOUS and I knew it would make a great breakfast bar. (Store in the refrigerator and heat up--nibble on the cold pieces as you wait for the microwave to warm it; 20 - 30 seconds can be a really long time!)

Next time, I'm going to add more oat flour (maybe double) to see if I can't get decent cookies out of the deal. These were way too gooey as cookies. Very tasty, but way too gooey. I wonder if I'd started with a sweet potato and cooked it from scratch if it would have been better and less moist. Someday, I'll try that, but for now, this is easy and tasty!

4 cups sweet potato puree (2 cans)
1.5 cups oat flour
1/2 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)
1/2 cup flax (made into a really big flax egg with 1/3 warm water)
1/3 - 1/2  cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons Organic Raw Cacao Powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon clove
3 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

(The most important ingredient)
~2/3s a cup of chocolate chips

The girls liked the cookies and the "cake." They have a perfect fall flavor! Nick (husband) commented that there was a molasses taste--maybe a little--but there's no molasses, but that might be fun to try sometime. Kira commented that they tasted a little like gingerbread. Tia was convinced that these were my pumpkin muffins. I admit they were similar. (I like chocolate in desserts; if it doesn't have chocolate it's not worth eating in my opinion.)

Note: I used 1/2 cup of maple syrup and I don't think it was too sweet. (Remember, I don't like sweet stuff; 1/2 cup isn't a lot given how much batter you're making.) I forgot to add baking powder. Oops, the cookie and the cake stayed really flat, as you can tell in the pictures.

Here are the stats (estimated for 15 servings of the "full" not halved recipe):

Not bad on the Iron, Vitamin A, or Calcium (for a sweet treat).

Here's the recipe 1/2'd (in case you aren't feeding 2 adults plus 3 growing, active, and very hungry girls or the equivalent).

2 cups sweet potato puree (1 can)

3/4 cup oat flour

1/4 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)

1/4 cup flax (made into a really big flax egg with 1/3 warm water)

1/6 - 1/4  cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon Organic Raw Cacao Powder 

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/8-1/4 teaspoon clove 

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

A gratuitous shot of the cans of sweet potatoes.

The "final" recipe for bars (9/28/2013) (I need to take a picture of bars from this recipe... the other pictures are of the first round.)

4 cups sweet potato puree (2 cans)

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)

1/2 cup flax 

1/3 - 1/2  cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons Organic Raw Cacao Powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon clove

3 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

(The most important ingredient)

~2/3s a cup of chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients (oat flour, flax, cacao powder, ginger, clove, cinnamon, allspice, soda, powder, salt) then add sweet potatoes, almond butter an maple syrup. If the recipe seems too dry (mix well before you decide) add a splash of water or non-dairy milk.  

Bake at 350 for ~40-50 minutes. I used my 9 x 11 pan lined with a sil-pat and had to put another sil-pat in with a little on it.  I need to get something like this!

Halve the recipe if you want!

Low-key weekend

We took it easy this weekend. We needed it! When we don't have a lot going on, I love to have cooking weekends and this weekend my biggest helper and I made:

Apple Crisp

Right now, we have a lot of fuji apples. I need to research more about organic apple farming. Even though we have a lot of apples, we're losing a lot to the bugs. Boo!

Blueberry Energy Bites

I waffle back and forth and change up the kinds of nuts I use. I always use walnuts, but sometimes I add cashews. Sometimes I add oats and sometimes I don't. This time we made these just with walnuts and no oats and they were AMAZING. See the link for a picture and the recipe. We have streamlined the making process and instead of little balls, we just put it on wax paper and get it rolled flat (put wax paper on top, too) and then cut off little pieces.

Potato Soup 

I just made it last week, but my husband requested it. I doubled the recipe this time, so I could have some to freeze. Last week, we didn't have any left over to freeze. It was a big hit! This time we added corn to it, and I have more ideas to doctor this up and make it even more exciting. It's a great soup base! I'll share the new versions as it evolves. (I knew it would change!) And remember, it's soup on Sunday! 

Cornbread--home made, vegan style, but I left a little oil so I need to work on this one--no recipe today.

Low sugar PB cookies

The girls really like these! So do I! They are "not bad for you" and I let them be a breakfast cookie! The girls love eating cookies for breakfast.

Pancakes!

I make these nearly every week--yea we're kind of boring around here, but I have 3 hungry girls who like these and the recipe makes so much that we have EASY breakfasts for M,T, & W. Just heat up the leftovers. (Timesavers are needed around here!)

We also had tortilla and almost homemade pinto beans and quinoa. For lunch, the next day, we spiced the pinto beans up with a little Mexican Chipolte vegan sausage. Yum!

The rest of the weekend, we cleaned and tried to get organized... Remember, we just moved at the end of July.

We also walked.

I got a fitbit.  Did I tell you about that? I'll save it for another post. Exercise is one of the accepted topics around here.

Potato Soup

It's Sunday. Since I just declared I'd make a soup a week for simplifying my life, I needed to make a soup. Nothing on my blog jumped out at me so I decided to try my hand at a simple potato soup. Here's what I did:

3 yukon gold potatoes somewhat peeled, but not all the way
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
10 ounces of frozen cauliflower
32 ounces of veggie broth
~2 cups of water
1 cup cashews (to make into cashew cream)
Soy milk (for cashew cream or any type of non-dairy milk)

Cut up the veggies and cook until soft. Don't worry about cutting them small as you'll be pureeing them after they are cooked--just cut them in even sized chunks.  I cooked my large chunks (~1 inch or so) for about 30-40 minutes.

After the veggies are soft put all the veggies in the blender and puree. I had to do two batches of blending. Turn the blender on slow so it the hot vegetable mix doesn't burst out of the blender. Tonight, I didn't have any blender accidents, but I have in the past. The vitamix can be left on high (BAD DESIGN) and then when it's turned on it's going super fast. It's not pretty when that happens! After everything is blended, keep some of the warm, blended soup in the blender and make cashew cream.  Add 1 cup of cashews and ~1 cup of soy milk (could be whatever kind of non-dairy milk you like). I blended and then poured it all back in the pan. If you don't add enough warm soup, your cashew cream will be "lumpy" when you mix it into the pan. You can remedy this by re-blending the soup.

I added ~1 teaspoon of salt and quite a bit of black pepper (didn't measure).

Yum! Simple and delicious. We ate it with baguette and 4 out 5 of us loved it. The vegan who doesn't like vegetables tasted it and said she didn't like it.

I'll be playing with the recipe and potentially adding pepper and corn to the recipe as I think this would make a great base for corn chowder! Or nutritional yeast and broccoli for "cheezey"broccoli soup. I'll keep you posted on what evolves with this one. (Tomorrow, I'll try to get a picture. I forgot tonight.)

Modifying another recipe: Mexican Soup

I'm going to try to make soup on Sundays so that we have something quick and easy through the week and then have some (hopefully) extra to freeze. This is one of my tips here. It's a tip other people give; with tips like these, it's good to say them over and over because they are so easy to forget, but they really do make a difference and make life easier. It's the little things.

This past Sunday, I went back through my recipes and decided I wanted to make an old recipe that I have on here, but I wanted to change a few things. It's rare when I don't change something in a recipe when I make it. I cook by taste and by mood. My recipes often evolve. For me, Mexican Soup started here and now it's here:

Makes at least 8 servings.  (We've had 5 servings and we still have a lot, so I'm guessing more like 10-12)
Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups cubed sweet potatoes (I used a bag of these)

1 large sweet onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

1 large red pepper, chopped

2 zucchini diced

1 16 oz. jar of salsa (I used a "medium" chipolte salsa from Whole Foods )

1 tablespoon cumin

2--14.5 oz. can of black beans, drained & rinsed

2 cans of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes (make sure they are diced, otherwise the chunks are too big and you'll have to dice them yourself)

6 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth + 2 cups of water

1 cup cashews blended into cashew cream

1 bag of kale/spinach (I used about 6 ounces of kale, but you can NEVER add too much kale, in my opinion).


Optional:  Add 1 1/2 cups of frozen roasted corn
Throw in some quinoa for the last 20 minutes of cooking (or make it on the side).

Preparation:
Roast the corn and the red pepper to bring out the flavors. I microwaved the frozen sweet potatoes and then threw everything in the pot, brought it to a boil, and then let it all simmer for about hour.  Add the quinoa at the 45 minute mark (or start cooking it in another pan).

After about an hour, add salsa, cumin, black beans, & broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While it's cooking make your cashew cream.  (I used 1 cup cashews and 3/4 cup water and blended. Tip: Use warm water to make the cream blend into the soup more easily.)

Add in cashew cream. Whisk well and make sure the soup is hot. If you have the quinoa in the soup, it's a meal in a bowl. If you don't have the quinoa in the soup serve with rice, bread, or whatever else you'd like!

Let me know what you think and I'll let you know if I make any more changes to the soup.

Hubris...

This post isn't about vegan / plant-based, but I felt I should write it. In 2010, I had my vitamin D level tested and it was lovely... 62. I was proud. I kept taking my 2,000 IU a day. I just had them re-checked. I expected all would be grand and I'd be celebrating my 50+ result again.

cue ominous music...

Nope... 30. What??!

Yes, 30 is "in the normal range" for my lab. But it is THE LOWEST normal value. I got a call from the nurse happily telling me it was normal. I do not consider 30 good at all. I have some inflammation issues and 30 isn't enough for me.

From this site, the Vitamin D Council, it sounds like I need to take 5,000 IU a day of D3 to achieve a level of 50.  Guess I'll be popping Vitamin D capsules for a while.

Black bean burgers with Kale

I always forget about my my black bean burger recipe.  They are actually are "green black bean burgers" because they have so much Kale. I love them.  The vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves them, too.*  I need to remember to make them more often. They take a while to cook, but the prep isn't too bad. I notice that I'm much more comfortable using the food processor in the kitchen than I was even a year ago. If you're new to cooking as a vegan, it will get easier!

*Surprisingly, the vegan who loves veggies doesn't like them--she's a purist when it comes to her black beans.) 4 out of 5 in our family love them and so do others outside the family who have tried them.

back to school: lunches

This summer, we discovered "green noodles." We bought them at one of our favorite vegan restaurants, then found them at Whole Foods. They make quick lunches (only 2-3 minutes in boiling water), and 2 out of 3 girls and 2 out of 2 adults like them. The website makes you want to go buy them and eat them... (They talk about how green their company is and how good the product is.) They have no fat, 6 grams of fiber, and ingredients that are pronounceable, so at the very least, they aren't bad.


My oldest wanted to take them to school for lunch; I got each girl a stainless steel thermos (they were less expensive at Whole Foods than Amazon) and now they can take green noodles or pasta for lunch. They were all getting a little sick of PB sandwiches, it seems. 

If you eat GreeNoodles, what do you think of them? How'd you find them?