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!

Banana-Pecan Muffins

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween! We tried the "Switch Witch" thing for the first time this year. My daughter was able to go out and trick-or-treat like everyone else, but at the end of the night she left her candy out for Switch Witch, who swooped in while she was sleeping, took her garbage candy ("to feed to her naughty cat") and left, in it's place, good quality candy that I don't have to worry about her eating. No dyes, no preservatives, etc. It worked like a charm and my kiddo didn't have to feel left out of the Halloween festivities! The junk candy went to work with my husband who left it out in the breakroom for his co-workers. 

The morning after Halloween I made these fantastic muffins because I wanted to use the tons of pecans falling from the tree in my front yard right now! I seriously have three buckets full of pecans and at least three or four dozen more pecans fall from the tree every day. I love pecans, so I'm in heaven! I can't wait to make pies. If you don't have pecans, or they are too expensive, any nut will do. Or you can replace the nuts in the streusel topping with oatmeal, which is super cheap. Feel free to be creative!

Also, my daughter (who is a really picky eater) absolutely LOVED these! She ate two for breakfast, then came home after school and ate four more. If you have kids, you might want to make a double batch.

1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond)

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 2/3 cups flour (I used white whole-wheat)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 cup vegan butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar (organic preferred)

1/4 cup vegan yogurt (I used unsweetened coconut yogurt)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large overripe bananas, mashed

1 cup pecan pieces

1/2 cup brown sugar (organic preferred)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12-muffin tin or place paper liners in it.
• In a small bowl, whisk the milk and vinegar together and set aside to allow it to curdle.
• Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about two minutes or so. 
• Add yogurt, milk and vinegar mixture, and vanilla. Mix well. 
• Add bananas and mix again.
• On top of your soft mix, dump the dry ingredients. Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Then stir with a spoon or beat gently until well-incorporated, but take care not to overmix or your muffins will be tough.
• Spoon the batter into your muffin tin, filling each cup almost to the top. I did two scoops into each cup with a large cookie scoop, and that worked perfectly. 
• In a separate bowl, mix your nuts or oats with the brown sugar and spoon it onto the tops of your muffins. 
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
• Enjoy!

Evil Dead Delights

I work in a church and the sales rep from a giant corporate Christian book supply company just happened to stop in a few days ago to check in and see if we needed to order anything or whatever. He's a really nice guy, but I don't know him very well. I've only met him one other time in the year that I've worked there. Being a hospitable Southern gal, I offered him a muffin (vegan banana chocolate chip) and this sparked a nice conversation about vegan food and my blog and, of course, my MoFo theme. And then, get this, he says, "I have an idea for you. Evil Dead Delights." 

You have to picture it. This is a corporate Christian book supply guy in a button down shirt with a name tag on, not at all someone you'd expect to know what the heck The Evil Dead is. That's what I get for judging the book by it's cover, V'egg in my face! And I, of all people, should know better because nobody would ever look at me, in my dorky mom clothes, and think I love sci-fi and 80s horror films. 

So, this one's for you, really nice corporate Christian book supply guy in a button down shirt with a name tag on! I applaud your taste in 80s horror films. 

The Evil Dead (1981)

If you are unfamiliar with The Evil Dead trilogy, allow me to introduce you to it. It is the creation of Sam Raimi, whom you may know from the likes of Xena, Warrior Princess; SpiderMan; and Drag Me to Hell. The brilliant thing about The Evil Dead trilogy is that it starts off in all seriousness, with the first film being gory, gross and really spooky. Then the second film, The Evil Dead 2, starts to get a bit comical toward the middle - ridiculous amounts of blood, Ash's hand turning against him (this is where he gets his famous chainsaw arm), among other silly things. The third film in the trilogy, Army of Darkness, just goes balls out with zaniness. Ash is a total bad ass and he says tons of hilarious stuff. You can find literally thousands of Ash and Army of Darkness t-shirts, posters, toys, action figures, comics and so much more. It's a cult sensation. And it's totally delightful, just like these Evil Dead Delights.

Army of Darkness has a fabulous tagline:
"Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas."

I have a confession to make. I am one of those degenerate regulars you see in the clearance section of Half Price Books. You know, that shadowed section full of weirdos way back in the butt end of the store, right next to the bathrooms. Yeah, that's the one! Well, you may not know it but there's a cookbook section back there. And it rocks! My most recent score was a clean hardback copy of Skinny Bitch Bakery. Guess how much I paid for it. Go ahead, guess! Two bucks, my friend. It even has the dust jacket on it. Yeah, it's missing a few pages in the middle, but that ain't no thang. I can cook around that.

How can your mouth not water just looking at these things?!
And, yeah, they taste every bit as good as they look.

So, here's the recipe I chose to represent my Evil Dead Delights - Kim Barnouin's "Sanctuary Tracks Cookie Bars" from the Skinny Bitch Bakery cookbook. My personal baking notes are written parenthetically to the side of each ingredient. Deeeeee-licious!

1 tablespoon soy milk or creamer
1 cup mashed banana (I used one banana)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I used regular ol' salt)
3/4 cup non-dairy margarine (I used Earth Balance)
3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar (I used organic white sugar)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup crunchy organic peanut butter (I used creamy)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1 1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips
1 cup organic raspberry jam (I used apricot preserves)

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9" pan and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the soy milk and mashed banana and mix well. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream the margarine, sugars, and peanut butter; then add the vanilla extract and banana mixture.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips until well combined. Evenly spread half of the dough in the pan. Spread the raspberry jam on top of the dough, and add the remaining dough mixture; smooth with a rubber spatula.
• Bake the cookie bars for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are golden on top. Let the cookie bars cool completely before cutting them into squares.

Apricot Coconut Oatmeal Clusters

You know how some people do some stuff to relief stress in their lives? Like, my husband loves to read boring philosophy books and write songs on his guitar. That's just how the guy unwinds. My neighbor is a gardener and a fairly hardcore churchgoer - that's what blows his hair back. You know what I mean? We all have that thing that we love to do, and it makes us feel really good, and without it we get really, really wound up. For me, it's baking. I mean, seriously, I freakin' love to bake! But I'm... well... what's the PC term for it... I'm - uh - differently weighted... I'm gravitationally challenged... You get me? I'm fat, people! I'm a fat herbivore. Yes, they do exist! And I don't have a problem with being fat. My husband thinks I'm sexy, so it really doesn't bother me too much, with the exception of the fact that I am forever destroying the poor underwires in my bras and my knees are begging for mercy 24/7. There's also the desire to live long enough to meet my grandchildren and to enjoy the twilight years of retirement, kickin' back on the shore outside my imaginary lake house. So! To that end, I am always trying to create baked goods that are at least moderately healthy, but definitely succulent. But not SO succulent that I eat forty at a sitting. To that end, I introduce my latest home-bakery creation, the Apricot Coconut Oatmeal Cluster. It was meant to be a cookie, but it came out more like a clustery thing, so there ya go. There's no oil or butter in it, and minimal sugar (compared to my standard baked fare), plus it's jam-packed with fiber, so it's a win-win! Give these li'l cuties a try. You'll love 'em and you don't even have to feel guilty about eating them.

1 ripe banana, mashed with a fork

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup liquid sweetener (I used agave, but maple syrup'd work)

2 tablespoons almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg

1/2 to 1 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped

1/4 to 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes*

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Spray a large cookie sheet with baking spray, or use parchment paper or a SilPat.
• Mix the banana, applesauce, sugar, liquid sweetener, milk and vanilla together in a large bowl. 
• On top of the wet mixture, gently add the dry ingredients, but do not stir until you have everything added.
• Stir gently until just mixed.
• Gently fold in the apricots and coconut flakes. 
• *Side Note: I used organic unsweetened coconut flakes, which is what you see in the picture, not standard shredded coconut. But I think you could just about use anything in these clusters and it would taste nice. For example, you could eliminate the cinnamon and nutmeg and throw in some dark chocolate chips in place of the coconut. Or some nuts! Feel free to play around with the recipe and share your results in the comments.
• Drop by rounded teaspoon onto cookie sheet (I used a small cookie scoop).
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Enjoy with an ice cold glass of almond milk or a cup of hot Earl Grey tea. Delicious!

Ginger Tempeh and Greens Over Brown Rice

A friend of mine gave me a huge sack full of delicious organic kale, so I've been sticking it in absolutely everything! Anyone ever make a kale brownie?? I might have to try...
Anyway, try this simple dish. It's easy, doesn't take long to whip up if you already have your rice made, and it's healthy and high in protein. Enjoy!

4 cups cooked long-grain brown rice (about 2 cups uncooked)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 8-ounce package of tempeh, cubed (I used the spicy kind)
1 stalk's worth of broccoli florets
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large kale leaf, stalk removed and chopped
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, crushed (I used this stuff)
Small handful of fresh parsley, stems removed, minced
4 cloves garlic, crushed with flat of knife and minced
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup soy sauce (use tamari for gluten-free)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon agave nectar (optional)

• In a large skillet, gently saute onions and garlic in oil over medium-low heat for about two minutes. 
• Add ginger and red bell pepper. Saute another minute or so.
• Add remaining ingredients, stir and gently saute until everything is coated and well-mixed. Then reduce heat to low and cover. Allow steam to gently "green" the broccoli and kale. 
• Everything should be hot and crispy, but be very careful not to overcook. Nobody likes limp, mushy veggies.
• Serve over brown rice.
• Makes 4 large servings. 
• Enjoy!

Delicious and Healthy Tex-Mex Dip

I know this picture just looks like a pile of mushy goo, but trust me, this stuff was awesome!! I was craving the traditional Tex-Mex 7-layer dip, but I didn't have the ingredients for that, so I dug around in my pantry and fridge and created my own super-flavorful, highly addictive Tex-Mex extravaganza. Try it!

2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled
8 ounces vegan sour cream (I used Follow Your Heart brand)
1 packet taco seasoning (read ingredients - avoid MSG, dairy, and trans fats!)
1 cup store-bought or homemade guacamole
1 cup store-bought or homemade salsa
1 15-ounce can of vegetarian refried beans
1/2 cup shredded vegan cheddar
1/4 cup sliced black olives

• Stir sour cream and taco mix together until well-blended.
• In a medium casserole dish, layer ingredients in the following order:
• rice
• refried beans
• salsa
• guacamole (or "mockamole" - see below)
• sour cream
• shredded cheese 
• black olives

• Dip your favorite tortilla chips in and enjoy! Keep very well in the fridge, covered, for several days.
• Perfect for a party!!
• If you use my homemade salsa recipe, you'll be adding tons of extra fiber to an already fiber-rich dip via the addition of black beans.
• If you want to make it even MORE fiber-rich, do what I did and make "mockamole" instead of the fatty traditional avocado stuff. I love avocados (they definitely have their health benefits too), and I LOVE guacamole. But I didn't have any avos on hand, so I mixed 1 1/2 cups of sweet green peas (I used frozen), a 15oz can of white kidney beans, about 1/4 C lime juice, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, and some fresh cilantro in the blender until smooth. I wouldn't recommend eating it straight if you're craving guacamole, but it works like a charm to replace missing guacamole in Tex-Mex recipes and adds a ton of extra fiber and vitamins! (Yep, that green stuff in the picture is actually mockamole. No one will know the difference.)

 Party Food for Vegetarians 

Kristen Suzanne's EASY Raw Vegan Sides & Snacks

Raw Food Celebrations