Banana Walnut (or Choc Chip) Muffins

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've started homeschooling my kiddo  and that is keeping me very busy! Gone are the days of solitude where I can clean house for a while and then cook and blog while the washer is running. But, that's okay, I love homeschooling and so does my daughter! But I'll still post when I can. In the meantime, I picked up a new-to-me cookbook called The 30-Day Vegan Challenge by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (whose podcast, Joyful Vegan, is fantastic!) and I'm so excited about it that I wanted to share the first recipe I made from the book.

My daughter is 8-years-old and is obstinate about vegan food. Sorry, "vegangelicals," but she is very adamant that she does not want to eat vegan food and while I frequently encourage her to try it, I do not force her to eat only vegan. But, I am a sneaky redhead, so here's what I've been doing - I've been making vegan recipes and not telling her they're vegan and keeping tabs on the ones she really likes. So far, I've only been able to trick her with my three-bean chili. I use the Trader Joe's vegan ground beef substitute and she honestly hasn't noticed that it's not beef. Now, the reason I'm so excited about Ms. Patrick-Goudreau's cookbook is because it has lots of yummy-looking "kid food" in it, like mac and cheese, chocolate cake, and quesadillas, and when I showed my daughter the photos in the book she said, "Mmmm, that looks good! Get this cookbook." I never told her it was a vegan cookbook. I'll keep you posted on how she responds to the recipes.

This is the recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, but I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I subbed chopped walnuts instead.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or chopped walnuts)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a medium-sized bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a large bowl or stand-mixer, beat oil and sugar together. 
• Add mashed bananas and mix.
• Add water and vanilla. Mix again.
• Use a spoon to gently stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture.
• Fold in chocolate chips or walnuts.
• Fill each muffin tin halfway with batter. (With the use of the Reusable Silicone Baking Cup Liners, I was able to get 20 muffins out of this batch.)
• Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in a center muffin comes out clean.
• Enjoy!

Vegan 'Puppy Chow'

Super easy to make, cheap, and delicious. Plus, it makes a ton! You can't go wrong with this stuff. It's a finger food, it's a kid food, it's an ice cream topping, it's a popcorn add-in, it's a pretzel mate, it's everything you dream of and more. There's no baking involved so feel free to let your kiddos get in on the preparation.

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup nut or seed butter of choice (I used sunflower seed butter)
1/4 cup vegan butter
1 12.8-ounce box of rice chex or crispix-style cereal
1 cup powdered sugar

• In a double boiler, or in a metal or ceramic bowl placed over an inch or so of water, melt the chocolate chips, nut or seed butter, and vegan butter. Stir gently until smooth and well-mixed. 
• Pour over cereal and gently stir, folding chocolate into the cereal, coating each piece. If you have a large Tupperware container with a tight-fitting lid, you can gently shake the mixture until everything is evenly coated. 
• Once the chocolate has cooled slightly, go ahead and toss in the powdered sugar. Gently stir or shake again.
• That's all there is to it. Enjoy!

P.S. We're experimenting with a hybrid of the gluten-free and Feingold diets to try to curb my daughter's ADHD symptoms before school starts back up. So, you'll be seeing lots and lots of gluten-free and low-salicylate recipes over the summer. If it works, you'll be seeing them indefinitely! Wish us luck. 

Alicia Simpson's Sweetgrass Snickerdoodles

Naughty li'l elves!

I have yet to try an Alicia Simpson recipe that doesn't taste amazing! This snickerdoodle cookie recipe is no exception. Crispy, cinnamon-y and full of seasonal oomph, I'm planning to give little stacks of these beauties as Christmas gifts. They go great with coffee or chai tea. And, as you can see in the photo, Santa's Scout Elves just love them! My daughter has two scout elves because Santa determined that she needed an extra set of eyes on her during the holidays - she's a chronic gift-jiggler. She named her elves Lula and Layla, which makes me curious about the names of my future grandchildren...

Alicia Simpson's Sweetgrass Snickerdoodles

from Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food (affiliate link)

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Garnish:

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream the margarine and shortening with the applesauce and sugars. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 
• Combine the dry ingredients with the creamed mixture 1/2 cup at a time and mix with an electric mixer until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.
• Chill the dough for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator. 
• Combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar with the cinnamon. 
• Scoop 1-inch balls of dough with a teaspoon. Roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture, coating all sides. 
• Place on a baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart and bake for 12 minutes for chewy cookies and up to 15 minutes for a crisper cookie.
• Remove from baking sheet, cool, and enjoy.

Please Note: Alicia Simpson did not put me up to this. I purchased the cookbook on my own, years ago, and I love it! If you want to support a fantastic vegan cookbook author, buy something with her name on it. You won't be sorry! I've included all of her Amazon.com cookbook listings below. If you click and buy one (or all!) of these books through my links, I'll get a small percentage of the purchase price, which really helps me out. Thanks!

Autumn's Easiest Dried Apples

I know I'm a little late with this post. I actually made these dried apples and took this picture well over a month ago, but it's been busy around here. I vow, right now, to get back to posting more regularly! Now that I am jobless I seriously have no excuse. But I'm one of those moderately crazy OCD people who think they can accomplish nothing creative until their house is clean. So, I end up cleaning constantly, and never writing or exercising or anything else useful until my house is clean, which it never is, so you get my drift... My new year's resolution is going to be to let the house be messy and get my creative stuff done first! As I type, there are muddy dog prints on the carpet in the back room and a pile of dishes in the kitchen sink. I can't let those things haunt me. Let's get to the apples!

For this recipe you will need a dehydrator, and it does not have to be a fancy one. The dehydrator I used cost $20 (I got it at Aldi last summer) and it works great! And you don't have to have an apple peeler/corer combo, but it saves you an hour or more of peeling and chopping and helps to make sure all of your apples are the same thickness. I'm talking about one of these things...

(Affiliate link- Click the photo to be taken to the product.)

I recommend a stout, cast-iron body corer with a clamp (like in the picture) as opposed to a suction cup. Again, these run about $20.

Use a nice sweet, or tart, apple. I like to use Pink Lady apples. A Red Delicious, for example, might not make for a very flavorful chip. But a Jazz or Granny Smith would make a yummy chip for sure!

So basically, you just twirl your apple through this contraption and it takes the skin off (drying the skin makes it too chewy - trust me and take it off), cores the apple and spiral slices it all at the same time. What you have left is just the good "apple meat." Take a knife and slice it just once from top to bottom, which will leave you with a lovely stack of evenly sliced apple chips. Lay each chip in a single layer in your dehydrator. The sides can be touching, but it is very important that the apples not overlap one another.

If you're wondering about browning, don't worry. The first time I tried this, I was very concerned about whether or not I needed to dip my apples into a lemon juice solution (or something similar), but I read online that it wasn't necessary and I went for it. The apples you see in the photo have not been treated, or flavored, with anything. I just popped the raw apple slices right into the dehydrator and that was it.

Once your apples are set, turn on your dehydrator (mine does not have any particular settings, just a plug that turns it on and off) and let those babies crisp up over a twenty-four hour period, give or take a few hours depending on your machine. Rotate the layers every couple of hours or so. Make sure the apples are totally dry. If you take them out too soon and don't eat them right away they will spoil quickly.

Once they're done, allow them to cool at room temperature before storing them in an airtight container. Then enjoy! They are delicious and nutritious - and a perfect compliment to movie night.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome Vegan Potluckers!

As part of the Virtual Vegan Potluck blog tour this year, I am happy to be a part of the "Dessert Course." Last year, I was a "bread course" gal (click HERE to see last year's entry), but this year I'm goin' whole hog sugar rush with some decadent double chocolate chip cookies. DIABETICS BEWARE!

1/2 cup soy or almond milk
1 tablespoon ground flax
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract 
1 1/2 cups pastry flour or all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

• In a small bowl, mix the ground flax with milk and set aside for about 10 minutes, then stir again.
• Cream together the sugar and oil, until smooth and silky. Add vanilla and mix.
• Add dry ingredients (but not the chocolate chips) to wet, but do not stir until all dry ingredients are in the bowl. Mix well, but do not overmix. Just mix gently until everything is moist and well-incorporated.
• Fold in the chocolate chips.
• Place by rounded tablespoonful, two inches apart, on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until crispy on the top and around the edges, but still moist in the middle. Allow to cool on a wire cooling rack before eating or storing.
• These are fabulous with an ice cold cup of almond milk!

VEG COACH

VEGAN HERITAGE PRESS

Homemade Vegan "Parmesan"

I've had this cookbook, Vegan Food Gifts, on my Amazon Wish List ever since I got wind of it, and I tried unsuccessfully to win it from two or three different blogs during MoFo. When I finally figured out I wasn't going to win it, I just sucked it up and bought the damn thing. Because (spoiler alert to my friends, family, and neighbors) this year I'm planning to give "food gifts" as presents. My first course of action is to start making and sampling the recipes so I can figure out what's good to give.

So far, I've made the Fudgy Brownie Mix (photo at the bottom of this post) and the Italian-Spiced Parm-y Sprinkles. There are about 50 remaining recipes I'm dying to try. They all look soooooo good! And since nobody else I know is vegan, besides my husband, and my health guru, Katherine, I have to choose wisely when considering what to give as gifts. So far, I've only tried the two recipes, but they were both fantastic. And I wanted to share the "parmesan" recipe with you because, not only does it taste amazing, but it's easy to make, not too pricey, looks and smells gorgeous, makes a fabulous topper for garlic bread, spaghetti, popcorn, and salads. And I think even non-vegans can appreciate the yummy flavors it presents. Plus, it's got walnuts in it! Hello, protein! My daughter hates the taste and texture of nuts, but she loves this stuff. So, now I can sprinkle the health benefits of nuts onto her salads and she's none the wiser.

1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 panko-style bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed (*I subbed cumin)
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste

• Add all the ingredients to a blender or food processor and pulse until the walnut pieces have been ground into a powder. 
• Yield: About 1 1/2 cups.

And, since I want to make you really, really crave chocolate right now, here's a picture of the brownie mix prepared...

The mix would be so cute in a jar, and all your recipient has to add is milk, oil, and applesauce. I will definitely be handing this one out for Christmas!

The Best Vegan Brownie You Will Ever Eat

Fudgy in the middle with a light layer of crust on top. Perfection! I've been tweaking and re-tweaking this recipe and I think I've found the perfect combination of ingredients to create brownie awesomeness. Oh yes, brownie awesomeness.
This recipe is for the basic brownie, but feel free to play around with it - top with walnuts, stir in some chocolate chips, or add some mint flavoring to the mix and sprinkle crushed peppermint sticks on the top to spice it up for the holidays.
And get ready! For what, you ask? For brownie awesomeness.
Yeah, you heard me.
BROWNIE. AWESOMENESS.
Make these right now. Trust me.

1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons flaxmeal
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or sub another cup all-purpose flour)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy.
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour (or use baking spray in) a 9x13" baking pan.
• Whisk together all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
• In a large, separate bowl beat together oil, water, sugar, vanilla, and flaxmeal on medium speed until very well mixed. 
• Add dry mixture to wet. Stir or beat on low speed until just-mixed and smooth. Do not overmix, but don't undermix either. The batter will be thick but smooth.
• Spread mixture evenly into your baking pan. 
• Bake on middle oven rack for 25-30 minutes. Test with finger (don't burn yourself!). Top should be crusty, but innards should still have a little bit of "give."
• Makes about 15 medium-sized brownies.
• Enjoy!

NUTRITION INFO (per brownie):

Calories: 271.7 / Total Fat: 8.6g (Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4.5g) / Cholesterol: 0mg / Sodium: 111.3mg / Potassium: 99.5mg / Total Carbohydrates: 48.3g (Dietary Fiber: 4.6, Sugar: 26.8g) / Protein: 3.7g

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