Happy Valentine's Day

My first sweet daughter made me this lovely peanut butter filled chocolate covered bites for Valentine's Day!  She knows the way to my heart!  Recipe soon.  (But don't hold your breath, it won't be that soon.) 

Sort of Socca

I call this sort of socca because we fry it instead of baking it.  

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup water
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

spice with:
cumin
garlic or garlic powder
onion powder
chili powder or cayenne (optional)

Also needed olive oi.

I mix up the chickpea flour, water, salt, and desired spices and then let sit for a little bit of time (1/2 hour is good).

I make this into little pancakes in my cast iron pan with as little olive oil as I can manage.  The pan definitely needs to be coated well, and you need to keep adding it as you cook, but you don't need to deep fry.  (Although, I have used a lot of oil and it is good.)  I tend to make the pancakes somewhat small--about 1/4 cup of the batter at a time.

(Depending on how much oil you use, you might want to put these on paper towels to let cool so you can get rid of some of the oil.)


Yum!

Serve with sauteed onion and kale (or your choice of greens).

(This is comfort food, hence the "not healthy" label.)

Vegan, oven-broiled s'mores

Happy February!

Last year, I had the problem of being too busy with my birthday, work, and getting ready to go skiing to blog. I made only one post last year in February. I'm hoping to at least DOUBLE my number for this month this year.

 Here's post number one for the month... It's a good one!

The girls love marshmallows. We're vegan but thank goodness, there's a lovely vegan option! As we went shopping for food for the ski trip they found some at the store an we bought them.  I got creative and made them oven-broiled s'mores.

I put 9 graham crackers in the pan (just 1/2) and poured a few chocolate chips on them (probably would be easier with chocolate bars, but I didn't have any) and one marshmallow on each.

I put them in the oven on bake for a few minutes (I don't know how long).  I just watched them and poked at them with my finger. 

 
When they seemed somewhat soft,  I took them out of them oven and put some more chocolate on top.

 
Then I got serious about the broiler.

 
A few minutes later (watching them closely) they looked like this.  I plan to repeat the experiment and let them get a little more brown the next time.

 
The girls loved them.  I enjoyed one, but it was a little sweet for me.  I'll make them again for the girls... Maybe when they have friends over.  

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. 

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!)

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!

Saturday morning baking: Delicious Brownies

Natalie found this recipe a while ago and we love it on special occasions. This morning, I tripled it so we can take it to a pool party for my vegan friends! It's a recipe from Minimalist Baker. Everything over there looks very yummy (not as healthy as I tend to make, but every once in a while you need stuff for parties and such). (And I didn't even modify the recipe. That's a shocker!)

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup (1 stick) non-dairy butter (such as Earth Balance)
3/4 cup natural cane or granulated sugar
2 large flax eggs (2 tbsp flaxseed + 6 Tbsp water) (put flax and water in a small bowl and let rest for 5 minutes to turn into the right texture)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
(Optional add-ins:) 1/3 cup walnuts or chocolate chips (or whatever your heart desires)


INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place a paper liner.

Place softened butter in a large mixing bowl and stir in the flax egg, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Mix well.

Add the flour (mix gently), and fold in any mix-ins - chocolate chips or walnuts are our favorite (I make half without the nuts because my 2 out of 3 girls don't yet appreciate nuts.

Scoop batter evenly into muffin tins (I usually get 8-10 muffins from a single batch) until 3/4 full and bake on the middle rack for 21-26 minutes, or until the brownies start to pull away from the sides and they spring back slightly to the touch. (I find 21-22 to be perfect... they don't seem totally done, but they are. If I let them go for 23 minutes, or longer, in my oven, they get crumbly.)

While they are baking, be sure to eat the batter left in the mixing bowl.  (This is a super important step! If you don't, my 3 helpers will be very mad at you for wasting perfectly good batter!)

Remove from oven and give them at least 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a plate or cooling rack.

Store in an airtight container to keep fresh for a couple days. Minimalist Baker suggests freezing for long-term storage. (As if we'd need to that around here! It'll be a miracle if I get all 24 brownies to the party!)

 

My house smelled so good while I was baking!

 

 

Homemade thin mints

A few days ago, I found this recipe. I knew I needed to make it. The Sweet Life's recipe was very simple:

2 sticks (1 cup) vegan butter (I use Earth Balance buttery sticks)

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour

You start with whipping the butter and powdered sugar, then add the cocoa, salt, vanilla extract and whip until smooth. After, slowly add the flour and mix well. I love a recipe where I can use my Kitchen Aid and not worry about over beating!  I suggest reading the Sweet Life's Recipe instructions if you want better directions.

Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick.
Cut the cookies out with round cookie cutters.
Place on baking sheets on either parchment or a silicone pan liner.
Bake for ~12 minutes.

Cool.

Dip in melted chocolate. Melt 1 and 1/2 bags of dark chocolate chips (what it took for us to coat our 30 very large cookies), 2 teaspoons peppermint extract, and 1.5 tablespoons vegan butter.

Melt the 3 ingredients together in a double boiler, after your cookies are cool.  (I stuck the cookies in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.) I placed each cookie in the melted chocolate and carefully removed it with a spoon. I had to scoop some more chocolate on some and smear it around carefully. I let the cookies harden on wax paper and stuck them in the refrigerator.

Next time I make them, I stick some peppermint extract in the dough, too--not much, probably 1 teaspoon to get a hint throughout the cookie. Also, next time, I'll have a smaller round cookie cutter.

These are very good cookies. They are not healthy in any way. (Happy birthday to me!)