Mini! Cute! Tasty!

Inspired by these cute little muffin containers and being obsessed with this pumpkin recipe, I decided to make muffins as "cookies" for our holiday baking.

 

 

 

 

Note, the nutrition facts don't include the pecans on top, or the chocolate chips.  I found that I made about 2-2.5 dozen muffins for the recipe.

Christmas dinner

 

It's eggplant fried in a lot of olive oil, then baked in tomato sauce. It could be worse, it could still be slathered in mozzarella. I also added a bed of cooked kale to my plate ('cause I really like kale and pasta!) and tried not to go back for seconds.  (Note, true confession, I still make it with cheese for my non-vegan husband and niece. I don't miss cheese. )

My Dad's Sauce is part of this wonderful dish; it is very healthy. If you haven't made your own marinara spaghetti sauce before, try it!  My friend PS tried making it last year and loves it.  She was convinced by another friend, and I'm so glad!

Mexican chickpeas

 

I wanted to make something with chickpeas. They are my current favorite bean. Well, they are probably in a tie with pinto beans. Anyway, this was dinner. I used kale instead of cabbage because of these beauties that are a LOT bigger now. 

We served it with sourdough bread, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and whole wheat tortillas to make a wrap (you chose how you wanted to eat it). Yum! Four out of 6 of us loved it (my niece is here). We have almost another meal out of this for the four of us.

I'll make it again, I probably won't even change anything; well, I'll probably add more kale. I tripled the recipe tonight.

3 15-ounce cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), half mashed
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 can of diced tomatoes (I'd use fresh if I had them)
15 or so leaves of kale (shredded)

2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-3 teaspoons olive oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3/8- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt & pepper to taste (I actually added about 1 teaspoon to the pan 'cause my garbanzo beans and tomatoes had no salt.)

Cook the onion, red pepper, and garlic until the onions translucent and soft. (I used just a little olive oil and some of the juice from the tomatoes to cook them in.) Mash the chickpeas and add the mashed and whole ones, along with the tomatoes and spice. Cook everything until hot; add the kale and cook until the kale is soft.

Green lunch

 

I've been getting rid of my plastic containers for lunches.  It's expensive to go all stainless, but over time I've been buying different pieces. I try out a style by buying one of a particular style. If I like it, I go back and buy more of that style, if not, I'm not stuck with a ton of what I don't like. They look so pretty! One good thing is that stainless steel containers don't really break, so as long as the girls don't lose them, we'll have them for a long time.

If you need a last minute gift idea for a fun Holiday gift for the person who likes "green" stuff, I recommend little stainless steel containers!

For the next formal event I go to

 

Found it in FB. I don't know who actually made it. It's super cute! I'd love to give credit, but don't know where it came from.

Fun to explore

I love finding new blogs to read about vegan cooking.  Here's a site with links to some I haven't seen!

Broccoli

 
I forgot to post this from a couple of weeks ago.  I need to check to see how these guys are doing!

Hearty Cookie #2

Mine weren't nearly as ooey goey, but they are delicious! I didn't make the homemade PB chips, so I stuck in twice as many chocolate chips. I definitely classify these as breakfast cookies. The girls are delighted for a new breakfast treat (definitely will work for travel!), but they ate them this afternoon, as a snack--no problem.

Here are the stats for 1/15th of the recipe.  I'll try to make each cookie slightly smaller next time.

1 cup dates
1 medium ripe banana
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
1 cup almond meal (ground from raw almonds)
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Soak pitted dates for 10 minutes and then stick them in your food processor.
Add banana, salt, vanilla, and pb; process them into the mixture.
Add oats and almond meal.

Put the mixture into a bowl and add the chocolate chips.
Form into cookies and bake at 350 (in a preheated oven) for15-20 minutes.  Mine were so big that they needed 19 minutes. (I let them go until 20--still good.)

 
Raw

 
Raw

 

Cooked

 Cooked

Here's a link to a hearty cookie (#1). The pb in the new recipe makes the cookies taste very different from the first ones.  

Finally! Pumpkin Pie Fruit Leather!!!

I've finally had a chance to make this DELICIOUS Pumpkin Pie Fruit Leather!

OHMYGOODNESS!

I'm not much of a fruit leather person. Or at least I didn't used to be, but this is amazing!

I made a batch last night. I modified a bit.  Here's what I did:

1 can of pumpkin puree
1 (heaping) tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/8-1/4 cup maple syrup*
1/4 cup water

BLEND

Pour the mixture  on a silpat (or equivalent) and then work really hard to spread the mixture EVENLY. (I'm guessing you could use parchment instead of a silpat, if you wanted, but I do love my silpat!)

I couldn't get it spread evenly; finally, my husband suggested that I take a BIG spatula (the kind you use to flip pancakes) and drag it across the mixture. It worked pretty well, but we'll see after it comes out of the oven. (One maker of fruit leather suggests "whacking" the pan on the counter a few times to get it even after it's mostly even. I may try this next time.)

Bake at 170 (or as low as your oven will go) for hours... She said 6, but mine was done in about 5 (last night).  We'll see how long it takes today. I spread it a little thicker 'cause parts were WAY too thin last night. I am guessing it will take closer to 6, today. (Yes, I'm making my second batch--don't judge.)

*I used 1/4 cup last night and cut it down to 3/8ths this morning. I'll report back on the sweetness.