Christmas Fun

 Hey, what is it?


A new food processor!!


One that I've been dreaming about for a couple years.  It's HUGE.  I can make tons of Chipotle Hummus.  I'll be able to make so many things more easily--my old food processor was small, so I couldn't make too much of anything at once; that made it hard to do vegan burgers, but it's all changing now!

So exciting!

 

Christmas eve: An ode to eggplant

In our family, we write long tributes, songs, and poems about this dish. I make it most years for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or both. This year, for Thanksgiving, I didn't make it and my husband was sad. My niece and I made it on Christmas eve. It takes a while to fry the eggplant and then let it bake, but it's worth it. Allow 4-ish hours of time--more if you're cooking on your own.

  
We made 5 medium eggplants. Peel them and slice them about 1/2 inch thick.

 
Fry them forever. The middle one is almost done.

Take the out of the pan and let them sit and drain on paper towels. You can press them if you want them less greasy. They have a lot of oil in them!

 
Layer them, sauce, eggplant, sauce, more eggplant, and top with sauce and then bake an hour. Serve with spaghetti noodles.

I always add kale to mine so it's more Christmas-y looking!
http://veryveryverygreen.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-dinner.html.

Don't plan to move after eating--VERY filling. 

A new cookie (gluten-free)

A while ago, I made these delicious apricot cookies.  Today, I'm making them gluten-free for my niece.  It's fun to bake on Christmas!  Merry Christmas!

End of the year reflection:  I remember a long time ago when vegan baking seemed hard.  Then I started learning about gluten-free baking and that was hard, and now, while I'm not an expert, I don't find it hard anymore.  (Learning is fun!)  (I learned I really like tapioca flour/starch!)


Here's what I did:

Wet ingredients
1/4 cup almond butter (I'm really bad at measuring almond butter... I just kind of scoop it out of the jar and eyeball it 'cause I don't like to clean it out of measuring cups)
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoon flax seed meal (I mix it in with the wet ingredients but don't add water to make a flax egg)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup apple sauce (I've been leaving this out lately)

Dry ingredients
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup almond flour
3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon 
2 cups gluten free whole oats

(If you aren't doing gluten free, then replace the oat flour with whole wheat.  I still recommend a mix of flours as I think it makes a more interesting cookie!)

1.5 cups chopped apricots  (I bet these cookies would also be good with peaches or any fruit!)
Mix the almond butter, maple syrup sugar, maple syrup, flax egg, and vanilla. Mix well and then add the apricots to wet ingredients.

Mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, salt, oats).

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones. The batter/dough will be pretty wet. (If it looks too wet--wetter than my picture, add a little more oat flour--not more than 1/2 a cup.)


 

I made HUGE cookies.  I didn't just place scoops of the cookie dough on the sheet, but I patted the batter down so it was a little flat.  This recipe made ~16 cookies.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. (Bake for less time if you make smaller cookies.  One tray of my larger cookies took more like 21 minutes, but I think my oven had cooled and needed to preheat again.  My oven is really bad about that!)  

Note, you can also make cookie bars if you're feeling lazy.  Recommend 9X13.  Recommend checking at about 20 minutes.



 

\
Yum!

Quinoa Kick

I made my Garden Chipotle Quinoa because I found a pack of my frozen fava beans that we stored (probably when that picture was taken).  The Garden Chipolte also had some of the zucchini we grew this summer 'cause I froze it, too.  (And, since we're discussing all that I have frozen from my garden, over break, I'll probably make apricot cookies with apricots that we froze, but I'm too lazy to go find a picture.)

Okay, I digress.  The Quinoa was super yummy!  Over break I'll have to make more adobo sauce.  I've run out.  I'm still digressing.  I just found this recipe: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2013/08/cumin-infused-vegetables-and-chickpeas-over-quinoa.html

I plan to make it soon; however, I'll make it as a one-pot wonder.  Here's what I plan to do.

(All of the following into a saute pan)
a bag or two of frozen cauliflower florets2 15-oz. can chick-peas, rinsed and drained
2 16-oz can diced tomatoes (fire-roasted preferred), with their juice
2 cups of zucchini (mine will be grated and frozen from my garden from earlier this year)
1 onion (diced)
2 cloves diced garlic
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
plus enough broth to cook all this for about 10-12 minutes so that all the veggies are nice and soft.


Then, I'll add a couple of cups of quinoa and 4 cups of veggie broth to this mixture (being cooked in my VERY large 14 inch saute pan) and I'll cook for another 15-20 minutes.

I'm so excited!  (I always seem to cook quinoa with Chipotle, I need a new set of flavors and these look yummy!)   I'll let you know.

Christmas idea!

 

Fun idea from A blissful nest!

I'd add sliced olives as decorations, maybe red pepper, and maybe do baby carrots as the trunk.  I serve it with a super yummy hummus dip!  Look for this at our next holiday party...

spices!

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-spices-fight-inflammation/

Rosemary, turmeric, clove, and ginger!  (I try to eat turmeric nearly every day, ginger too.)

I've wanted to know this for a while.  (I <3 Dr. Greger and Nutrition Facts.)  I'll be posting more about Dr. Greger's latest book, too.

stuffing (our faces)

It's a veryveryvery vegan Thanksgiving! This year, we stayed home and had a our Thanksgiving as our family of 5.  We missed our friends who were traveling, but we'll get together over the Christmas Break.

Appetizer
 Creamy tomato soup

Slightly modified:
 24oz organic strained tomatoes (Bionaturae Organic brand)
 1 1/2 cup organic veggie broth
 1 cup organic raw cashews
 1 tablespoon onion powder
 2 tablespoons organic dried basil
 2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
 1 - 2 organic bay leaf

Put everything but the cashews and 1/2 cup of the broth in a pan.  Stir and heat.  But the cashews and the 1/2 cup of the broth in the blender.  Blend until smooth.  Add to the soup after it's cooked for about 10-15 minutes.

Note: You can re-blend the soup (pull out the bay leaf before you do!) if you want the garlic to not be chunky or if your cashew cream clumps when you add it.

You can kind of see the soup in the picture below.


Green salad
Romaine
Tomato
Cucumber 

Dressing of olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar, garlic.  We never measure. 

 




Home made Tofu-Turkey

We made our own turkey! I found that recipe and it sounded interesting. (Tia totally wanted to make a home made Tofu-Turkey or have some sort of "turkey.")

It totally broke--like people discussed in the comments on that other site. (And I almost dropped it when I was pulling it out of the oven, but I caught it! It was a precarious few seconds that felt like minutes.)  Oh, well.  It was very (veryvery) tasty!
Note, make 2xs the marinade.

We only used 4 tubs of tofus... (we got sprouted, and I was worried, but it came out okay.) We followed the directions on that other site. It was worth making and I'd make it again, but I might think about the way I put it together... A square pan?  I don't know... Maybe I'll try it again as the recipe suggests.  I'll let you know.


Tofu turkey on left, dressing on right.

Stuffing

3 baguettes diced into cubes the night before then toasted in the oven for a few moments (well, some were toasted longer 'cause we forgot they were in the oven and we preheated the oven for pies--oops.  All is well that ends well. The glass container they were stored in didn't break, and thank goodness they weren't in something plastic!)

1 cup (use more next year--1.5-2 cups) celery
1 medium onion (again, use more)
2 teaspoons (?) sage
1/2 bag (4 ounces) dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans broken up
4-5 cups of broth

(I didn't measure, and I liked the way it came out. Hopefully, I can recreate it.)

Brussel Sprouts
I found this recipe and since I've been on a Sriracha kick lately, I knew I had to make it!  (Everything about this recipe is the same as the original site.  I just put it here in case the web site goes away or something. They get full credit!)

1½ pounds brussels sprouts
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup rice-wine vinegar
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons Sriracha, or more to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Trim the base away from the brussels sprouts and discard. Cut the sprouts in half.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil with the vinegar, honey and Sriracha to combine. Add the brussels sprouts and toss until they are fully coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Spread the brussels sprouts on a baking sheet, cut sides down. Pour any extra olive-oil mixture onto the pan and tilt the pan around to distribute it.
4. Roast until the sprouts are crispy on the outside and golden and caramelized on the cut sides, 20 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Mashed Potatoes

(From Forks over Knives, see link above for a picture on our site and then a link to their site.)

Gravy

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• ¼ cup garbanzo bean flour
• freshly ground black pepper

The gravy went well with the tofu turkey and dressing!  

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

• 2 large Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 bag of cauliflower
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup of cashew cream
• dash of unsweetened, unflavored plant milk
• freshly ground pepper
• Dash of sea salt

Pumpkin Pie 

I made my usual pie.


2 packages of 3/4 pound silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2/3s - 1 cup brown sugar (we always go less sweet) (could be maple syrup)

This makes enough for 2 pies.  We always do one with crust and one with just chocolate chips (in the red silicone pan).  Soy whipped cream on top for the vegans!

The girls were awesome helpers and even took the lead cooking.  Kira made the soup and salad dressing, they all cut brussel sprouts, Tia made the salad and had the idea that we make a homemade "turkey," Natalie made the gravy, and best of all they helped in whatever way I asked! I couldn't have done it without them!  Nick was super helpful, too.  He helped keep things running smoothly and the kitchen clean!

(I have no idea why my pictures of the food are so fuzzy looking, but I'm guessing I had something on the lens of the camera. I wiped it off before I took the pictures of the pies so they are more clear.)

Pumpkin Pillow Cookies and variations

I found this recipe http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2014/10/pumpkin-pie-pillows-low-sugar-vegan.html.  I love finding gluten-free recipes that look interesting.  I thought this recipe looked interesting, despite the coconut. One thing, you may or may not have noticed, on this blog, coconut oil is not used.  I don't like coconut.

I've tried cooking with it in the past but my veggies tasted like suntan oil.  (That's what I think of when I smell coconut--around here, we say I taste the beach when we taste coconut.)

Despite the prevalence of coconut in that recipe, I knew I could fix it.  I added a little more almond butter than she called for (instead of coconut oil) and used maple syrup instead of coconut sugar.  The cookies were very moist; I want to get some maple syrup sugar, but alas, I don't have any still and I'm making the recipe for a second time.

One other thing, the first time I made the recipe I put in A LOT of pumpkin.  I doubled the recipe ('cause 3 hungry girls around here PLUS one hungry husband). On the doubled recipe, I did math and came up with a whole can of pumpkin in the cookies.  Oops.  Really, I should have only used about 3/4 a can for a double recipe... The cookies, with my extra moisture still came out pretty tasty, but they weren't pillow like--chewy and moist, yes, but I expect pillows to be lighter and fluffier. They were good enough to warrant trying again!

This time I used (about) the right amount of pumpkin with maple syrup (so still extra moisture).  I thought the batter looked better and am pleased with how the cookies look and taste. They aren't very sweet, but that's just the way I like them! I added chocolate chips to half the batter (today and the first time). The chocolate chips do sweeten them up and I like them better without chocolate chips (shocking!).

Here's the recipe with my modification, but not doubled.  It made ~24-25 small cookies. 


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rolled oat flour
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 tablespoon)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon chia seeds


2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 medium apple, chopped
1/4 cup maple syrup
1.5 tablespoons almond butter (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

topping: cinnamon sprinkled on top before baking (Note, I only did this for the cookies without chocolate chips.)



 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the oats, chia seeds and spices to a high-speed blender. Blend until the oats are a fine powder.  Pour the dry oat mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the salt and baking powder.

Add all the wet ingredients to the blender container, apple, vinegar, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, ginger, almond butter, and vanilla. Blend until the apple is not apparent and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the wet into the dry bowl and stir until combined and a soft dough forms. Place the dough bowl in the refrigerator or freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm so the dough is less sticky (it is very sticky dough!) I made about 24 little cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes on a cookie pan lined with a silpat baking sheet. 

The cookies with 1 full can of pumpkin (in the recipe doubled) were good and I might make that variation again, but the batter was REALLY sticky--even with less pumpkin, it's still sticky! The original author said they make a good breakfast cookie.  I agree. I think she also thought they would be good for snacking on at ANY time--again, I agree!

     

Black bean soup

Basically this recipe http://www.forksoverknives.com/recipes/cuban-black-bean-soup/, but tripled.

My vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves black bean soup. She asked if I'd blend the onions so she couldn't see them.  I did.

1 small onion (blended into juice)
1 tablespoon (heaping) cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 cans black beans (drained)
4.5 cups of veggie broth
1-2 garlic cloves
salt to taste (I used 1 teaspoon as our beans were unsalted)

Put the onion and a little broth in a soup pan and cook for 5 minutes or so.

Add everything else listed above; cook for 20-30 minutes.

Put 1 container of salsa (15 ounces) <--one more ingredient not listed above, in blender with 1/2 to most of the beans.  Blend. Pour back in the soup pan.

Add 1 tablepoon lime juice <--and again one more ingredient not listed above.

 Cook for 5-10 more minutes.

Serve with  chips, rice, or quinoa and whatever toppings you like (the vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves Daiya cheese).


Very easy and very tasty.  

Three of them!

I walked outside to see the rosebush that came back in our backyard and I saw a pomegranate! There are actually three of them. So exciting!

Need to make: vegan spinach balls

http://www.veganfamilyrecipes.com/2014/12/vegan-spinach-balls.html

Fall Garden

Over the weekend, our head gardener and two lovely assistants planted broccoli, peas, fava beans, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and kale.  I am so excited!

The lettuce and carrots were seeds, the rest were little sproutlings.   (Why doesn't my spell checker like sproutlings?  That's a great word!)  Leftover from summer are pepper plants (orange and red) and there are some happy poppies that survived the tilling of the summer last spring and sprouted.

 

 

 

 
(This post is cross posted to the family blog, too.)

Soup! Vegan Cauliflower "Buffalo Wings"

I love Sriracha...  I just discovered my deep love for it this year.  I know it's been around for a long time, but sometimes I'm late to the party. Better late than never is all I can say!

I found this recipe pretty much as soon as it came out and I KNEW I needed to make it. I actually followed the recipe pretty closely and that never happens.  (I added some more smoked paprika.)  Full credit to Kitchen Treaty for the recipe. I'm just posting it here in case the Internet goes down or something.


1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 2 cups)
2 medium carrots, diced
2 medium stalks celery, diced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or to taste)
 6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons Sriracha
1 cup unsweetened (home made) almond milk

I put everything in the soup pan except the paprika, sriracha and almond milk. I let it all cook for about 30 minutes.  I pulled out about 1/2 of the soup and blended it (I need to get an immersion blender!).  I poured in about 2 cups of almond milk and 2 tablespoons of our sriracha sauce.  Next time I'll start with just one tablespoon--it was a little spicy for the girls--tasty but spicy!

I'll definitely make the soup again.  We made the oven broiled bread, too, and the girls loved it! Yum!  A fun night and yummy dinner.  (Kira took charge and made the bread--she followed the directions on the other page.)

I took no pictures.  I was too busy eating! Go look at the pictures on Kitchen Treaty's page.

a new cookie

I found this recipe for strawberry oatmeal cookies this past summer. When I saw it, I thought, I must make it with apricots.  I have a ton of apricots in my freezer from this past spring.  I've been meaning to make apricot jam, but I haven't done it yet.  I've been chipping off pieces of the frozen apricots and using them in my oatmeal and they are so yummy.  I decided to try to recreate the apricot oatmeal yumminess in a cookie.

 

Here's what I did:

Wet ingredients
1/4 cup almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup sugar (it's crystalized maple syrup)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flax seed meal + 3 tablespoons water)
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Dry ingredients
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups gluten free whole oats

1.5 cups  chopped apricots

Mix the almond butter, maple syrup sugar, maple syrup, flax egg, and vanilla. Get it as creamy as you can. Add the apricots when mixed well.

Mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, salt, oats).

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones.

Scoop into cookies and bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

My husband and oldest daughter LOVE them.  I like them a lot. They are a great breakfast cookie. I want to add more apricots next time.  Maybe, I'll add 2-3 cups of apricots.  I'll keep you posted.  I probably have enough apricots for 6-8 more batches of these. (Unless I make apricot jam.)  Also, next time, I might use almond flour instead of whole wheat.  (I'm not gluten-free, but I find gluten-free flours more interesting than whole wheat.) Also, I don't need to use maple sugar, this recipe was very dry and needed a little more moisture (hence the maple syrup in addition to the maple sugar).

Another note, I might use less almond butter... (File this recipe under still in progress.)

 

(Oldest daughter liked them--she couldn't keep her hands out long enough for me to get a picture!)

Chocolate Chip Sunflower Butter energy bites

 Inspired by http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/no-bake-energy-bites/
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower butter
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
 about 1/3 cup water


Mix it all up!  Roll it into bite-sized treats! Refrigerate. Good for breakfast and snacks!

Natalie loves sunflowers! No surprise she'd like sunflower butter treats. Picture from 2012.

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Vegetarian_Day

Take a look at the wikipedia for a whole week of related events.

Veggie love to you all!

Grapes

Frozen. My favorite way to eat them. We call them grapesicles!

Lemon delight cupcakes

 
Natalie and Kira made these on Sunday.  They are yummy.

from:  http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/cupcakes/r/VeganLemonCupcakes.htm

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/3 cup oil
1 cup soy or almond milk (we put a little lemon juice in here so it would make it "curdle")
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup and
1 T. lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another large mixing bowl, whisk together the  oil, soy milk , sugar, and lemon juice. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined.

3. Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes emerges clean, about 18-20 minutes.

(They got 10 cupcakes out of the recipe.  They ate quite a bit of batter.)

They made a frosting with vegan butter, powder sugar, lemon, and soy milk, I think.  I wasn't really part of the process so I can't tell you about it.  Natalie may blog about it, too.

They are pretty yummy.  (Not healthy, but every now and then it's okay!)

One of my favorite things

We pack lunches every day -- and have since the girls were in kindergarten.  Early on, we realized that we'd go through an awful lot of plastic bags, so we started looking for re-useable options.

This silicone bag (click the link to see) is one of my favorite things! It holds our sandwiches... cut in half and kind of stacked. It's awesome 'cause when the sandwich is gone it is nearly flat and doesn't take up room in the backpack/lunch bag. It's also awesome because it's silicone! No Plastic! And it goes in the dishwasher!

Blogging slump: Chickpea chorizo

I've been trying to find things to blog about, but I just haven't been motivated lately. I still need to blog about food in France and England, but someday. Today we'll talk about chickpea chorizon by Vegan Richa, http://www.veganricha.com/?s=chickpea+chorizo. It's not quite a chorizo, but it's good. Of course, I modified things.  I give her full credit for the inspiration and I used very similar flavors to what she did in her recipe.

A while back, I made a "mexican" garbanzo bean mash; I have always wanted to create a chickpea dish with Italian Flavors.  I never would have imagined that tamari and apple cider vinegar could go into an Italian chickpea "chorizo," but it works!  It totally works!

What I did:
I put 2 cans of drained chickpeas in the food processor for a few pulses. I didn't mash by hand 'cause I'm lazy.  Be careful not to pulse too long.  Probably 10-20 pulses... I didn't count. You want them broken, but not in small pieces.

Spices:
~2 teaspoons dried oregano
~2 teaspoons onion powder
2-3 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
~2 teaspoons smoked paprika*
~1 teaspoon salt (my canned garbanzo beans are unsalted)

Directions:
I  put ~2 teaspoons olive oil in my big frying pan, turned it to medium heat, added the mashed chickpeas, stirred, added the seasoning, cooked for a couple minutes (while stirring, it will stick), and then I added ~2 teaspoons apple and about 2 teaspoons tamari sauce.  Stir and cook for another minute or two. Add in about 1 cup (I didn't measure) of pasta sauce.  (I always have some homemade pasta sauce around.) Stir and heat for another minute or two.

YUM.

 

I forgot to take a picture during dinner.  

The meal report:
Three of us loved it.  Two of us ate it with spaghetti and a little more pasta sauce. One of us had broccoli with the Italian chickpea mash.  One of the 3 of us also tried it on bread like a spread and really liked it.  At least one of the other two of us wanted to do this, but was full.

I think the other two would like it, but they weren't feeling brave.


*I love smoked paprika!  Such a wonderful flavor!

(End blogging slump? We'll see.)

Proteinaholic

One of the plant-based doctors I follow in FB is coming out with a new book in October. 

See more here: http://proteinaholic.com

Read an excerpt here: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/1/a/1/1a1f0e0b1a8cce83/Proteinaholic_Excerpt.pdf?c_id=9766045&expiration=1443031678&hwt=018a5ac1c6a73f839e8c04e3317b0393

Back in 2012, I did an analysis of a typical day of food and found that in my VEGAN diet, I get all the protein I need in 1/2 of my calories.  NO protein deficiency here!

I'm not an elite athlete, but I am active, but I am not worried.  We have lots of examples of vegan athletes... !

I think, also, as one gets older, plant-based makes more sense (and I'll follow up on this in the future).  If you can't eat 100% plant-based, try increasing your percentage.  It does help!

Pear

 prototypical pear picture

YUM!

New! Modified! Dark chocolate molasses cookies (still gluten free)

You may remember these wonderful cookies.  Thank you Vegan 8!  I decided to lighten them up a little (and I love them even more...).

PLUS, I made them into cookie bars--that means I am more likely to make them 'cause they are EASIER. We all need EASY,  right?



What did I do?

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use a little extra like 1-2 tablespoons if you like it darker)
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoon ground flaxseed
2/3s cup pure maple syrup (use up to 3/4s of a cup if you like it a little sweeter)
2 tablespoons almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free)
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips 

(I basically doubled the recipe, but instead of doubling the almond flour, I added the normal amount and then added a cup of oat flour. I didn't double the chocolate chips--they are good, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and I was trying to lighten these a little.)

(Also, I made my own almond flour and it was pretty coursely ground so there were a few (small) almond pieces left.)

1.Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone pan liner (I love the reusable nature of silicone!).

2. In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flax seed and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, oat flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, cocoa, and salt together. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Next, stir in the molasses, almond butter and vanilla into the  flax seed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more flour (your choice--mine was super thick so I didn't need to worry about this at all).

5.  You can either make into cookies (see the original recipe) or roll it out into a nice rectangular shape on your cookie sheet. Roll it to about 1/4 inch thin. Bake for 9-11 minutes, let cool, and then cut into bite size pieces. (Or whatever size you prefer.)

6.  Enjoy!

Zucchini party

Our garden is VERY happy right now. Look at our almost 10 pound zucchini. One of my friends said you can't put the ini part on it since it's NOT little.

We made 4 pans of roasted zucchini.  (Just a little olive oil lightly brushed on them, then baked for 20 or so minutes, then broiled for ~10 to get the carmelized effect.) These are excellent covered in spaghetti sauce or even plain! (We called them zucchini fries and ate a lot of them plain with just a little salt.)
.   

Gluten Free Zucchini Bread (minus almost all the oil, plus chocolate chips, minus the frosting, and minus some of the flours she recommended in her recipe--we subbed tapioca flour (3/4s a cup) and increased the oat flour (a little) and almond flour (until we got the right amount of flour).  It was DELICOUS!

 

Two loaves of Zucchini Bread.

 

Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies

See the other very similar recipe, too.  

My niece came to visit. Whenever she comes we cook a lot! She likes good food and I like to cook. She likes to cook, too. Win, win, win!


I found this recipe right before she arrived and I knew I had to make it!  I love molasses.  I love it with dark chocolate!!  And ginger!  (Hrm, is that foreshadowing a change I might make to the recipe in the future?) My niece is gluten-free so I love finding fun new recipes to try with her!

Here's the recipe as Vegan 8 created:

Ingredients

    • 1 cup blanched almond flour (for a nut-free option, see note below)
    • 1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
    • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

    • 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
    • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
    • 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp creamy almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free)
    • 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    • 1/2 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips

(Note
To make this recipe nut-free, you can use raw, unsalted sunflower kernels and grind them up in a food processor into a fine flour and use that in place of almond flour. For this option, increase the flour amount to 1 1/4 cups sunflower "flour", as it tends to be lighter in baking. Use sunbutter in place of the nut butter.)

Instructions

1.Pre-heat an oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flaxseed well and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour (or sunflower), tapioca, baking powder, cocoa and salt together and whisk well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Next, stir in the molasses, almond butter and vanilla into the reserved flaxseed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and fairly thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more almond flour.  Add chocolate chips.

5. Drop by large spoonfuls onto the prepared sheet pan and slightly smooth/spread out the batter with the back of the spoon to about 2 inches wide, about 1/4 inch tall. This will ensure even baking. Make sure to space each cookie 1-2 inches apart from each other, as they will spread a lot when baking. They will be large and beautiful! Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cracked on top and slightly firm. I took mine out at around 9 minutes. They will crisp up while cooling. If you prefer them a bit crispier, cook for another minute or two. Cool 10 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack.

The original author recommends making them into sandwiches with almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free) in between 2 cookies. Keep them stored in the fridge to hold the sandwich shape best!

My notes:
The cookie dough is VERY sticky. I only was able to bake about 10 cookies per sheet. I doubled the recipe. I used almond butter.  I did not use blanched almond flour, I just made almond flour in my blender with regular almonds. Next time, I may try using a little oat flour by adding another 1/4 of a cup of flour to the recipe.

(Some other thoughts) I may use some of the almond "goop" that is frozen in my freezer and adding a little oat flour to counteract the extra liquid. I would like to add some dried ginger to these cookies as I think it would give a nice zing. (I probably won't put ginger in all the cookies as my husband and one of my daughters don't like it.)

I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did. We loved the cookies!  I'll definitely keep doubling it! Next time, hopefully I'll get some pictures. I made the cookies really fast on Sunday morning before we went to the beach and I forgot to take picts. Note these are EVEN more awesome when they sit in a container and get warm and then you take them out at the beach and they are very soft and the chocolate is melt-y! We liked these so much we never got around to making them as little cookie sandwiches.  I bet they'd be awesome!

July 31

 
Tonight's harvest!  Most of them were turned into a tomato salad with a little drizzle of olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, a few chili flakes, a little salt,  a little shake of garlic powder and a little shake of onion powder.

(Probably 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1/4-1/2 cup of balsamic... I don't know, I didn't measure.)

Article

I think it may be one of my favorite articles to date.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/07/25/vegan-diet-health-america-column/30514159/

Cooking by Kira

We've had a busy summer (with our trip abroad that I still need to discuss) and the girls are just starting to cook dinners.  I had big plans that they would cook 2-3 times a week this summer, all summer.  We'll be lucky to have time for the girls to cook 2-3 dinner in the remaining time this summer.  School starts in 3 weeks (YIKES!).

Here's what Kira made for dinner her first night: Vegan Fettucine Alfredo from the Chloe's Kitchen cookbook.

And then she made dessert (on a different day), from the same cookbook.

 
Except, Kira can't follow recipes and changed things up a little bit. (Hrmmm, I wonder where she got that.)  She turned them into mint cupcakes with white frosting.

Zucchini

 

Houston, we have zucchini.

This is our 4th about this size.  We made some lovely zucchini bread with the others, gave two smaller ones to a friend, and there are more coming.  I'll need to post the zucchini bread recipe that we've been using, but in the mean time, check out the Zucchini Muffin Recipe from a couple years back. It was yummy then and now.

I roasted some zucchini in the oven; I put on a light brushing of olive oil, baked at 350 for about 20 minutes and then turned it to broil for about 10.  They came out very nicely.  I put some of my marina sauce and some field roast sausage with the zucchini and OMG it is good.  I'll try to get a picture!  

I do love our zucchini!

From my peachy friend and for her, too

My bestest colleague (and boss) has a blog and on her blog she has a cake recipe that is soooooo good.

It was just her birthday and she had a party, so I made the cake so we could continue to celebrate her birthday.

I'll have to get pictures of the cake--I forgot to take any and we ate most of it.

I will make it again!  It is my NEW favorite cake.  Way, way back, we used to eat chocolate cake from a bakery (p.o.), and it was my favorite chocolate cake.  This recipe, is as good as that cake ever was, and it's not nearly as bad for you!

When I was making the cake, I made homemade almond milk. (I don't like buying almond milk, 'cause it always has carrageenan in it.) Not worth blogging about making almond milk (1/4 cup almonds per one cup of water and BLEND in your high powered blender), really, except that I strained it with my pour over drip coffee maker and it's reusable stainless steel filter (like this filter).

SOOOOO much easier than using a milk nut bag.  I had to keep scooping out the ground almond goop of the filter, and the goop was more moist than if it had been strained with a milk nut bag ('cause I could have squeezed it); however, I hate cleaning the bags.  The clean up on this coffee filter baby was to bang it on the container where I scooped the goop into and then rinse it and stick in the dishwasher!  Ah, so nice!

I do have a lot of very moist almond goop in my refrigerator, so I'll be baking stuff to use it up!  (It will freeze and last if I can't use it up in the next day or so.)  (I'll freeze it in about 1/4 cup size amounts so I can more easily use it in recipes.) Today, I stuck in about a quarter cup of it in some lovely zucchini bread.  (Post about the zucchinis in our garden coming soon.)

July garden

 

Our tomatoes are going crazy!  Today I picked 3 medium sized ones and lots of little roma tomatoes. Soon we're going to have them coming out of our ears!  I can't wait!

 

Kale and Lettuce!

 

A little tomato jewel I'm going to let ripen for one more day!

We're back from our trip to England and France and I need to write about vegans abroad, but not today.  

Forks Over Knives

http://www.forksoverknives.com/my-journey-from-doctor-to-ms-patient-and-back-thanks-to-plant-based-eating/

I love this story. It's always so amazing to me that people don't see how there is a connection between what they eat and their health.

Food can alter the expressions of genes; the study of the modification of the expression of genes is called epigenetics. When you eat plants, they often "turn off" bad genes. Eating plants can help with inflammation, obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and immune diseases.

I've never really spoken about why I went plant-based, but you may have guessed that it was because of health reasons. I honestly believe I'd be a sick, medicine-taking person if I weren't plant-based.  Plants are so amazing.  I love Forks over Knives for what it tries to do for people. I wish people would give diet a try before taking medicines. Plants are usually more effective (maybe not as fast acting as a drug, but more effective in the long run) and pretty much always safer.



 

Garden update

 

Taken June 14.

Peanut Sauce

I started making this recipe in 1999. It came from a Canyon Ranch cookbook.  I adapted it a little.  You'd think I'd have a picture of it, but alas. I'll get one someday.

2 - 3 teaspoons of cornstarch (depending how thick you want the thickner)
1 cup of water
--------------
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup peanut butter (homogenized or natural--just peanuts no other stuff)
2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon dark sesame oil
garlic cloves (I've made it with from 1 clove to 3 depending on my mood. Original recipe says 4.)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1. Combine the cornstarch and water in a saucepan and stir until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and stir constantly till thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.  

2. Combine all the other ingredients in a blender and puree. Add the cooled cornstarch mixture and either blend in the blender or stir well with a whisk.


I typically pour it over  broccoli, or any veggie, noodles, rice, quinoa... You can pour it over so many things.

Just for the record, I made this as Christmas Dinner in 2006.  (The girls were little, and we'd moved into our new house on the 23rd. It was a super fun Christmas with no working oven.)

 

Here's a picture of it with broccoli and whole wheat spaghetti.  YUM!  (It looks even prettier when you sprinkle in red pepper, but I didn't this time.

 

It's Summer: Chocolate "fudgesicles"

Or it's nearly, officially, summer!

I love summer!

I love the laid back, no-school thing.  I love school and learning, but by the time summer gets here we all need a break.

Okay, on to the important business, I've been meaning to post this recipe for a couple years.  This winter, I found these great molds and asked for them for Christmas.  

http://www.amazon.com/FoodWorks-Silicone-Maker-Molds-Popsicle/dp/B00D9HQ30W

What I did:

2 packs of tofu (I used this brand)
1/2 cup cocoa
5/8-3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon arrowroot starch flour
1/4-1/2 cup peanut butter (I didn't really measure) (Next time I'm going to make some cashew cream and use it.) (Note, we made this with almond butter and it tasted like dark chocolate!)

Blend until mixed and smooth.  Pour into silicone molds and freeze. After frozen, run the molds under hot water for a minute. (Or leave out for 10 minutes or so... like any one has the patience to do that.)

I like the molds 'cause the popsicle/fudgesicle comes out much easier 'cause you can squeeze them up!  The molds make BIG popsicles.  If you have little kids, you might want to get smaller molds.  (Not sure if they are smaller ones, but I think there are.)

You can also use dark chocolate chips (vegan) if you want, instead of the cocoa.

Here's the nutrition facts on these wonderful treats!