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