Veggie Mountain Salad

I guess I don't often post on what I eat during a day, but it's usually something like this for lunch, depending on the ingredients I have around. On a bed of baby spinach, I have chopped radish, carrots, tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, snap peas, garlic, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, avocado, basil and parsley. Pheww. Long list. But it was absolutely delicious, raw, and so filling!

Quick 'N Easy Carob Cake

And I mean really quick. Like 2 minutes quick.
Today I had an exam for my Approaches to Environment Management course, so on the way home I grabbed some wine, and made some cake! (My exam went well, I think...) I'm spending the rest of today with my guitar and some bad tv. Oh and some cake.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup kamut flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp carob powder

handful of carob chips

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp soy milk

1 mashed banana
1/3 cup pure Canadian maple syrup

2 Tbsp olive oil

Method

Combine everything in a bowl except the carob nibs.
Mix it all up.
I blended my banana with a hand blender so it wouldn't be too chunky, but hey who has a problem with banana chunks.
Pour into a microwaveable bowl (mine held about 2 cups)
Sprinkle with carob nibs and put in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.
I almost didn't get a picture of this because it was so delicious!

Enjoy!

Vegan Ice Cream!!!

Wow! It's been such a beautiful sunny day! We hit about 25-27 degrees here in Toronto, and Ive been doing my best to enjoy it, despite having to work all morning into the afternoon, and having to study for tomorrow's exam. On my bike ride home from work, I saw three hawks (one was flying so low, it almost hit me! It had just caught something unfortunate). I decided to make some ice cream to get me through the hot day, and I'm so glad I did! It was so refreshing, and I haven't really enjoyed any store bought soy ice cream so this was an amazing treat for me! This is my first crack at it, and I don't have an ice cream maker so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. All I had to do was prepare the ingredients, and stir the mix every half hour or so. I enjoyed it in the gardens at the front and back of my house, on my study breaks.

Ingredients

1/2 cup carob nibs

1 inch chunk of dark chocolate (I'm only using this because I ran out of carob)

1 cup soy milk

2 tbsp of vanilla

1/2 a block of soft tofu

Method

Melt the carob and chocolate

Blend with tofu

Slowly add soy milk and vanilla

Put in container, stir/blend every half hour

Quick 'N Easy Chocolate Cake

And I mean really quick. Like 2 minutes quick.

Today I had an exam for my Approaches to Environment Management course, so on the way home I grabbed some wine, and made some cake! (My exam went well, I think...) I'm spending the rest of today with my guitar and some bad tv. Oh and some cake.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup kamut flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp carob powder
handful of carob chips
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp soy milk
1 mashed banana

1/3 cup pure Canadian maple syrup
2 Tbsp olive oil

Method

Combine everything in a bowl except the carob nibs.

Mix it all up.

I blended my banana with a hand blender so it wouldn't be too chunky, but hey who has a problem with banana chunks.

Pour into a microwaveable bowl (mine held about 2 cups)

Sprinkle with carob nibs and put in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

I almost didn't get a picture of this because it was so delicious!

Enjoy!

Hey there! Nothing too new or exciting. I made some yummy soup on Friday, Buttercup squash soup. Pretty tasty, and simple too. I roasted a squash, a potato, 6 cloves of garlic, and a huge Vidalia onion in some olive oil. After all the roasting, I used 1 cup of veggie broth and 1 cup of water, boiled and blended. So easy I'm not posting a typical recipe with a picture. I also made another loaf of Gingernut Spice bread...mmm I can't wait to eat a slice! I have a couple exams coming up, so I should be a bit busy for a bit, so have a good one and enjoy the weather for me!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I slept in a bit today...til 9:30. I made a smoothie, fed my kitties, and decided to make some oatmeal cookies. Many recipes for oatmeal cookies Ive seen call for a lot of oil, or margarine, but I cut most fat out of this recipe by using soft tofu instead of margarine, and soy milk instead of oil. And they were delicious!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of mixed kamut and spelt flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soft tofu

1/2 cup soy milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup oats

1/2 cup raisins

1 handful of carob nibs (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Combine flour and baking soda

In a separate bowl, mix sugar and tofu with a blender

Add milk, and vanilla, stir well

Add flour and mix well

Stir in oats and raisins (carob nibs as well if you wish)

Scoop onto a baking pan, 1 tbsp at a time.

Bake for about 15 minutes, and let cool

Enjoy!

I was totally cheesy and let mine cool on an open windowsill, thank you Spring!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everybody! No recipes right now, I just wanted to wish everyone a good day. All day I've been reading about and hearing about cutting some, if not all animal meat is one of the best things you can do to reduce your negative impact on the earth. This is something I already knew, but I hope with each passing year it gets more publicity and the public continues to listen. And if you don't care about the many animal lives and suffering you will save, think selfishly and preserve our planet! C'mon!

Wheat Free Vegan Buttertarts

Mmm these are seriously good! I used Vegan Dad's recipe as inspiration, and only changed the type of flour (I used kamut) and nuts (subbed peanuts) I used. I tried to make them as gluten free as possible, but in case I've missed something somewhere, I hesitate to call them gluten free. These were so delicious! I ate three...but the good news is that they're mini (you could make them as big as you want though).

Here's the recipe I used!

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-butter-tarts.html

Ginger Nut Spice Bread

Maybe it's all psychological, but I feel like since becoming vegan, every time I've felt a cold coming on, it usually disappears pretty quickly. As soon as I sense it, I kick into anti-cold mode, drinking way more water, eating/drinking lots of ginger, and just making sure I'm getting tonnes of veggies and fruits. And instead of succumbing to the cold, most times my cold has disappeared before it develops. I realize this could all just be in my head, but it seems to be a trend. A couple of days ago, I started feeling sick. I drank lots of water, ate lots of steamed veggies, but was all out of ginger. Sure enough, now I'm sick.

Just today, I finally bought some ginger, so I made a version of the ginger spice bread I baked in February. I hope I get better soon!


Ingredients


1 cup spelt flour
1 cup kamut flour
3/4 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 bananas

1/4 cup of Canadian Maple Syrup
1 cup of soymilk

8 dates, chopped
1 handful of almonds, chopped
1 handful pumpkin seeds
1 handful goji berries
carob nibs
1 tbsp flax seeds
2 clementine peels, chopped
3 tbsp of minced fresh ginger


Method

Combine flour, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, baking soda in a large bowl.
Blend bananas into a smooth consistency, scoop into a bowl. Add milk, maple syrup, vanilla, stir
Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Chop the dates, and clementines, add to the mix along with the pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, carob nibs, and goji berries

Place in a greased bread pan, and bake for about an hour, testing to see if a sharp metal object comes out clean when the loaf is poked.
Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Soup

There better be May flowers after all these April showers!! Normally I love the rain, but this morning I woke up feeling terrible, my nose is all stuffed up and my sinuses are going nuts. Last night I used my new Netti-Pot for the first time, but I was giggling the whole time so I didn't use it properly. Back to the rain: I had to ride my bike through the rain to work at 6:45 AM, and then home again at 1. The whole way home I was thinking of what my co-worker (who wasn't biking home) said as I grumbled about having to bike home: "Aww but I love biking in the rain!" Yes, I thought of this as I was almost pushed into traffic from the strong wind, while my hands were close to freezing, and while I tried to wrestle my tissue from my pocket one handed, holding my tea mug and bike handle with the other so I could stop my nose from running down my face. Delightful.

Anyway, this fun morning experience encouraged me to make some warm comforting soup, and this was my first time making vegan tomato soup.

Ingredients

5 regular tomatoes

olive oil

garlic cloves (as many as you like! I used 5)

1 onion

2 cups soy milk

1 cup veggie stock

1 cup water

1 tbsp of tomato paste

herbs (again, whatever you like, I used basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary black pepper and red pepper flakes)

Method

Roast the tomatoes at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, with the garlic and olive oil.

Chop the onion, and add the leftover oil from the roasted tomatoes. Saute with the roasted garlic until browned.

Add the tomatoes and herbs. I used about a tbsp of each

Stir it up.

Add 1 cup of veggie stock, and 1 cup water.

Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for about 10 minutes

Add 2 cups of soy milk, blend all ingredients.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Spring Quinoa Salad

I've been meaning to encorporate more amazing quinoa into my diet, so I decided to make a quinoa salad for lunch. The veggies add beautiful colour, and the added tahini lemon dressing I made, it tasted delicious!

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

2 green onions

1/2 green pepper

1/2 red pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

1/2 orange pepper

1 handful of almonds

sprinkle of pumpkin seeds

sprinkle of sunflower seeds

1/2 a cucumber

Dressing

1/4 of a cup of tahini

lemon suice to taste

warm water

pepper

garlic powder

Method

Bring water to boil, add quinoa, bring back to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes

In the mean time, chop veggies, make dressing!

Transfer cooked quinoa to a large bowl, and mix in veggies.

Add dressing to taste.

Enjoy!

Energy Bars

Yesterday my friend and I went on a bike adventure. We packed a picnic, and I biked about 45 minutes to meet up with her (and then home afterwards!), then we made our way to High Park. We biked through the zoo, and saw bison, peacocks, yaks, cattle, emus, llamas, and lots of ducks. One llama in particular looked so happy, and came over and licked my bike!

We ate our picnic by a duck pond, and after feeding a couple of ducks and a Canadian goose, we ate veggies, delicious vegan chocolate pudding, and Energy Bars I made that morning. These guys were loaded with nuts, seeds, berries and delicious peanut butter, coconut, carob chips and Canadian maple syrup. Perfect boosts of high energy, protein and fibre goodness, but they're treats too, perfect for munching on a long bike ride. I'm glad they didn't make my friend sick, so I would be comfortable saying this recipe is gluten free friendly (make sure all of your ingredients are gluten free if you make this!) I made a big batch, so don't be intimidated by the amount of nuts I used.

Ingredients

I pretty much eyeballed everything, it was either a 1/2 cup of the nuts, or 1/4 of a cup, depending on size and fat content (if it was a fattier nut I reduced the amount)

Oats

shredded coconut (unsweetened)

peanuts

almonds

flax seeds

walnuts

sunflower seeds

pumpkin seeds

goji berries

raisins

cranberries

cashews

carob chips

1 cup melted peanut butter

3/4 cup of maple syrup (I know...it's a lot)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl (you may want to smash up the nuts a bit first, and I saved the carob chips to sprinkle on top)

Next, heat peanut butter until it is runny. Add in maple syrup and vanilla, stir to mix together.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Next, press ingredients into a large baking pan. PRESS it down, and sprinkle with carob chips or coconut, or really, whatever you want.

As delicious as these are right out of the oven, they will be a bit mushy, so let them cool completely. I cut mine first, but left them in the pan.

Enjoy!

One a Penny Two a Penny Hot Cross Buns!

Growing up, there were always hot cross buns around my house during Easter. I loved them when I was little, but I realize they were always eaten toasted. One day I ate one un-toasted, and realized the reason we toasted them was that they were store bought and a little stale tasting. So this year, I decided to bake my own, veganize them, and see if they tasted delicious like I remembered. Ohhh man were these good! They aren't gluten free, I used whole wheat flour instead. I think you could easily make them gluten free with the appropriate flours. I think it's interesting that, like the soda bread, they have crosses slashed into the tops. A quick Google search informed me that some believe the bus come from a pagan festival around Spring time, and monks "gave it the ol' cross" to Christian-ize them. There's also a neat story about a woman hanging hot cross buns from her window to mark the years her son was on a sailing trip. Learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_cross_buns

Ingredients

flax egg replacer (1 tbsp of flax seeds, 3 cups of water)

1 cup of warm soymilk

1/4 cup of brown sugar

2 tbsp of vegan margarine

3 cups of whole wheat flour

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1 1/2 tsp of instant yeast

1/2 cup of mixed currants and raisins

1/4 cup of chopped dates and clementine peel

Glaze

100% Canadian Maple Syrup

Icing

Icing sugar

lemon juice

soymilk

Method

Mix warmed soymilk and flax egg

Add in milk, sugar, margerine, yeast and stir

Set aside for about 5 minutes, and prepare dry ingredients

Mix flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, currants and peel.

Add into the wet mixture, and knead for about 5 minutes

Cover with a plastic bag and place in a slightly warmed oven for 1 1/2 hours

After the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Divide dough into about 8 pieces, form into balls, brush with maple syrup, slash a cross on the top of each, and put on baking tray, bake for about 20-25 minutes.

While they're baking, prepare the icing. Mix lemon juice, icing sugar, and soymilk until you have a thick creamy paste (the thicker the better).

When they're done baking, let them cool slightly, and spoon the icing into a cross shape.

These taste amaaaaazing warm, I ate one before I even finished icing the rest. I guess I dont add too much sugar to my recipes, so the sweetness of these was so damn good. These are a real treat.

Enjoy!

Curried Tofu, Chickpeas and Vegetables

Here's tonight's dinner, it's from a cookbook called 125 Best Vegan Recipes. I can't wait to try more recipes from it, it has a dessert section, soup section, veggie section...just to name a few. Check out the book for the full recipe! That stereo in the background was playing some new cds I bought after I finished my exams yesterday. Gaslight Anthem's 59 Sound, and Neil Young's Prairie Wind make great cooking music, let me tell you. Especially during a cooking bonanza like I had today!

Blueberry Oat Bars

Mmm I ate one of these tasty bars for dessert today and it was delicious! The recipe is from FatFree Vegan Kitchen, you can find the recipe here: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/07/blueberry-oat-bars.html

Instead of agave, I used Maple Syrup, and instead of apple juice, I used pineapple juice. Seriously, try these!

Simple Soup

This soup is similar to the spinach soup I made earlier, only instead of spinach I subbed in a zucchini. Follow the same recipe! I haven't tried it yet, it's in the fridge waiting for a time when I need to grab a quick bowl of soup and run. It better be worth it, I spilled burning hot soup all over my hand when transferring it to a jar.

Gluten FreeVegan Dinner Rolls

These are a test batch fot this Sunday's Easter dinner. I wanted to try baking rolls, so I searched around the internet and fiddled around with recipes until I made a gluten free, vegan version. I think they turned out really well!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of kamut and spelt flour (half and half)

1 Tbsp of Canadian Maple Syrup

1/2 tsp of salt

2 tsp of instant yeast

3/4 of a cup of warm water

flax egg substitute (1tbsp of flax seeds, 3 tbsp of water, blended)

2 tbsp of oil

Melter vegan butter

Method

Mix half the flour with the Maple Syrup, yeast and salt. Stir in the water, flax mix, and the oil.

Mix well.

Cover and place in warm area (I put mine in the oven, heated no more than 150 degrees)

Let rise for about 15 minutes

Remove from oven, stir in remaining flour, knead for about 3-4 minutes

Divide into 10-12 small balls, and place in muffin trays.

Let rise for another 15 minutes.

Brush the tops of the rolls with melted margerine, (in the mean time, preheat oven to 425 degrees)

Bake for 15 minutes and ENJOY!

Spinach Soup

These little beauties are out in my garden right now, unfortunately they've taken a beating from all the snow we've had. April really is the cruelest month! Some spinach soup warmed me up though. This recipe popped into my head while I was at work. Since I don't have a picture of the soup, picture a creamy greenish soup, YUM!

Ingredients

2 tsp of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 an onion

1 stalk of celery

1 potato

1 cups of vegetable stock

1 cup of water

2 cups of soymilk

1 cup of tightly packed baby spinach

freshly ground pepper



Method

Heat oil in large soup pot

Saute onion, garlic, celery and potato until soft and slightly browned (approximately 5 minutes)

Add the veggie stock, water, and soymilk

Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 19 minutes

Stir in the spinach (save the rest for later)

Blend using a hand blender

Simmer for another 10 minutes


Enjoy!

Maple Roasted Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

Unfortunately, my camera is malfunctioning! I swear, if it's not out of batteries, the memory chip is missing, or it won't turn on...this thing causes me endless problems. That's okay, just fire up you imaginations to see this soup recipe (actually it looks a lot like the roasted sweet potato and apple soup I made earlier, maybe a bit more orange). This is a deliciously sweet soup, the maple and roasted veggies, and a hint of cinnamon had such a strong flavour. If you like maple roasted veggies you will love this recipe!

Ingredients

1 sweet potato
3 extra large carrots (my carrots are freakishly large)
5 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1/4 of a cup of maple syrup
drizzle of olive oil for roasting
about 2 - 2 1/2 pinches of cinnamon
3-4 cups of liquid (I only had 1 cup of veggie stock, so I used it and about 3.5 cups of water)

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Wash and peel carrots and sweet potato (next time I'm just going to wash them, I read somewhere that leaving the skins on retains the nutrients during the cooking process)
Chop into (big) bite sized chunks
Quarter the onion, peel the garlic
Place all in a roasting pan, drizzle the olive oil and maple syrup, and mix using your hands to coat all the veggies.
Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes
Remove from oven, and transfer veggies into a large cooking pot on the stove on high heat.
Add the cinnamon, and stir until the veggies just start to stick because of the heat, then add in the liquid (stock or water)
Blend using a hand blender.
Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat
Simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!