Eat'n Vegan In Toronto

Sweetsop Sorbet

2009-07-23T14:10:00.001-07:00

What the heck is a sugar apple? That's what I first thought when my dad showed up in the kitchen with two of them, and after a quick Google search (which is where I found the pic), I found out their common name is "sweetsop". I had asked my dad to surprise me with something I had never tried in a recipe before, and I definitely had never seen OR tasted these. They taste like a strange mix between a really sweet pear, and something else, that I cant quite put my finger on. I decided to make sorbet out of it, mixed with strawberries. Delicious!

I don't have a picture...we ate it so fast that there wasn't time. To make it, 2 sweetsops, 1 cup of frozen strawberries (the last flat from the market!), 1/2 a cup of water, less than 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar.

Next time I make this (and there will be a next time believe me...) I might not use any sugar at all, it was really sweet!

Recipe Catch Up, and Vegan Cabbage Rolls

2009-07-05T17:16:00.001-07:00

I'd like to say the reason I've been away is that I've been super busy, but I haven't really. Today I made vegan cabbage rolls which were delicious! Initially they were a bit sage-y, but after a couple bites I didn't even notice it. Maybe I'd reduce the amount by half next time.

Ingredients

1 big ol' cabbage

Filling

1 pound of mixed chickpeas, kidney and black beans

7 mushrooms, chopped

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 cups of cooked mixed wild and brown rice

about a tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of sage (I would think about reducing it by half)

2 tsp oregano

thyme ( used the last little bit in the jar...not a measurable amount)

1 tbsp of Bragg's soy sauce

3 tbsp of water

pepper to taste

Sauce

2 tins of low sodium tomato sauce (the kind with just tomatoes...nothing fancy)

1 the juice of one large lemon

1 tsp of dill

2 tbsp of maple syrup

pepper to taste

1 tsp of chili pepper

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of onion powder

Method

Filling

Saute the oil, onion and garlic until softened.

Add mushrooms and saute for another 3-5 minutes

Add the bean mixture, and the spices, water, soy sauce, mix well.

Blend the bean mixture just a bit, DON'T PUREE IT! You want it to have the consistency of regular cabbage roll filling, not a smoothie...

Sauce

Bring the tomato sauce to a simmer on the stove, add lemon juice, spices, maple syrup. Cover and let simmer until you are ready to pour over the cabbage rolls.

Core the cabbage (I had to Google how to this)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and lower the cabbage into the water.

Soon the cabbage leaves will begin to come off, and using tongs, remove the leaves from the water. Let cool on a plate.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Once all the leaves are off, scoop a big spoonful of the filling and roll up like a burrito.

Place all of the cabbage rolls in a roasting pan and cover with the sauce.

Cook for about 40 minutes.

I know it seems like a lot of steps, but I had a lot of fun making these, and they were delicious.

I also tried making Jae Steel's Vegan Quiche (although I omitted the crust) and it was delicious! My family of non-vegans loved it too, so you should try it! I also tried an up and coming muffin recipe from her cookbook Ripe from Around Here. So damn good!

Blueberry Spelt Pancakes

2009-06-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

2 cups of spelt flour

1 tsp of baking soda

2 cups of soy milk

1 cup of fresh blueberries

Maple Syrup

1 banana, and chopped strawberries (optional)

Method

Mix flour and baking soda in a bowl, add in soy milk (you could also use almond milk, or non-dairy milk of choice) and mix well.

Drop in your blueberries and stir.

Heat a pan to medium heat (I used a non stick pan, otherwise use a bit of oil to prevent sticking).

Drop 1/4 of a cup of the batter at a time into the pan. When you see bubbles and the edges beginning to to golden, flip the pancake. Continue on making pancakes!

When they were all done, I chopped up a banana and some strawberries, and topped off my pancakes with them as well as some maple syrup. They were pretty darn great.

Enjoy!

Brownie Points

2009-06-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

My big sister is graduating from university! And what better way to say congrats than with a big ol' brownie? Also there's another big surprise coming for her, but she doesn't know yet! I thought these were cool because I used a sweet potato, which thickened the batter but kept it healthy. Well, they were healthy until I added the icing. Which was delicious, and how often do you graduate any way?

Ingredients

flax egg replacer (2 tbsp)

1 small sweet potato (makes 3/4 cup once cooked and blended)

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup Canadian Maple Syrup

1/2 cup carob powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup spelt flour

3/4 cup kamut flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

1/4 tsp of salt

optional: a small handful each of almonds and cashews (chop them)

Icing

I ended up making too much for the brownies, so next time I would halve the recipe.

1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan margarine

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1/2 cup of carob powder

vanilla, almond, and maple extracts.

Play around with the consistency of the ingredients, you want the mixture spreadable and not runny, but also not too buttery. You may have to add more carob powder.

Blend all ingredients together, spread on your cooled brownies and refrigerate.

Method

Preheat oven to 350F

Peel, chop into small pieces, and cook the sweet potato.

Blend with a hand blender and measure out 3/4 of a cup worth

Blend together sweet potato, water, maple syrup, carob powder (you may also use cacao) flax egg mix, and vanilla.

In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir together, then add in the blended wet mixture. Once it is all mixed well, you may add the optional nuts.

Prepare a small square baking pan (I used an 8 by 9 pan) and pour mixture into the pan. Pop into the oven and let bake for about 40 minutes, or until a test stick comes out clean. Let cool.

Enjoy!

2009-05-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Wow it's definitely been a while! In the last two weeks I've barely left my bed because of the crazy fever I've had. I've made some interesting "fever soups" which I can only say were born out of feverish, hungry thoughts that weren't too picky what I ate, as long as it was warm, vegan, and warm. But I'm on the road to recovery, and felt like doing a little proper baking.

I'm really pleased with the results of these cookies, I didn't use a set recipe, rather a bunch of different inspirations online. I'll try to remember what I did.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of kamut and spelt flours (equal mix)
1/4 of a cup corn starch
1/2 cup of carob powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 a banana, blended
1/2 a tsp salt
carob nibs (about 2 handfuls)

1/2 cup canola oil
about 1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup of coffee (I used decaf)
about 2 handfuls of carob and chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix wet ingredients, including blended banana in another bowl.
Add wet to dry, and add in carob nibs.

Grease a baking pan, scoop about a tbsp at a time on to the pan.
Bake for about 12 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

Raw Sping Salad

2009-05-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've been sick for the last little while, so I've been slacking off on cooking and trying new recipes, I thought up this one while I was at work today. This was a quick, but extremely tasty salad to make. I soaked the frozen corn and peas before hand, grated carrot and raw beet, chopped up two green onions, about 1/4 of a large tomato, fresh parsley, as well as a navel orange. I used a small scoop of Dijon mustard for dressing, and was thinking about adding some sunflower or pumpkin seeds too.

Baaaack!

2009-05-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

The last 6 days were some of the most kick ass days I've had in a looong time! A couple of my friends and I headed back to Asbury Park and New York, with our trip centered around a couple shows: the Gaslight Anthem (opening bands the Good Old War and Pela), and the Bouncing Souls (Black President, the Loved Ones).

For Gaslight, we stayed in Asbury Park, NJ. I loved that place, we found an amazing restaurant called the Twisted Tree, which served delicious vegetarian and vegan food (with gluten free options too!). The staff was friendly, and apparently on certain days musicians played in a little corner. If you're vegan and in Asbury, check it out!

In New York I relied on a lot of nuts for my meals, but we went to a great place called Risotteria, which was a gluten free restaurant. Not a lot was vegan, but I ordered the same delicious salad I offered the year before, and once again I was not disappointed! We also were able to find some gluten free beer, which was a nice way to end off the trip. We also went to an amazing bakery called Babycakes. We went there last year, and loved it so much we made sure to go back again. One of my pals loves these cupcakes so much, she bought a cookbook, so I can't wait to reap the benefits!!

Here are the chocolate, gluten free, vegan cupcakes I enjoyed:

Unfortunately for me, I feel like a donkey is trying to kick its way out of my head, and I had a fever of 100degrees F last night. So I'm laying low today. But here's yesterday's quick dinner: my attempt at fresh rolls!

Just use rice paper (soak) and finely chopped vegetables (I used red, yellow and orange peppers, a green mango, green onions, and parsley). To dip I made a quickie version similar to the ones I've tasted in restaurants: something sweet, spicy and vinegary.

Enjoy!

Here are the links to the two restaurants and Babycakes

http://www.twistedtreecafe.com/

http://www.risotteria.com/

http://www.babycakesnyc.com/

Peace Out!

2009-05-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

I'm pulling an all nighter packing for my trip to New Jersey and New York. Should be an amazing trip, I'm heading down to the good old U.S of A to see the Gaslight Anthem at the Stone Pony in New Jersey, hit up Asbury Lanes, then head to New York to see the Bouncing Souls and the Loved Ones. Last year I was lucky enough to see the Loved Ones play Asbury Lanes, and I'm excited to see them again. I packed some trail mix and just baked some vegan gluten free muffins for emergency supplies. I'll let you all know how the trip went!

Green Mango Salad

2009-05-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

I shared this salad I made with my sister the other day. We ate at the Green Mango restaurant, and loved their salad, so I wanted to try and make it at home. It was simple enough, and tasted great! I'm not sure what it tastes like with the original dressing, since that includes fish sauce. I thought my version tasted great, and my sister liked it too!

Ingredients

1 green (not yet ripe) mango

1-2 green onions

1/2 a red pepper

agave syrup

apple cider vinegar

flax oil

red pepper flakes

Method

Slice the mango into fine slices, however thick you prefer them

Slice the green onion into long think slices

Slice the red pepper

Mix together in a bowl or on a plate.

In a separate bowl, mix agave, vinegar, oil and red pepper to you liking. I like mine spicy, and not too oily. So I had more vinegar and agave than flax oil, and a nice sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad, and enjoy!

Boxsocial Treats

2009-05-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

...and nothing says Box Social like PPK's Chocolate Pillows! I'm heading off to a friends house tonight, so I baked some treats to bring. Check out their recipe, it's amazing!

http://theppk.com/blog/2009/03/30/peanut-butter-pillows/

I also baked some carrot muffing inspired by Susan's recipe over at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/03/carrot-spice-muffins.html

Veggie Mountain Salad

2009-04-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T03:30:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2009-04-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-26T06:33:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-04-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-22T14:04:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-17T08:42:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-02T04:24:00.000-07:00

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!

Roasted Eggplant Soup

2009-03-29T13:20:00.001-07:00

I had a couple of Chinese eggplants in the bottom of my fridge, and wanted to use them in a soup, although they would have been pretty kick ass in a stir fry. This soup tasted good too though. First, roast the veggies, and that imparts a really nice flavour to the soup. This week is going to be pretty stressful for me with school, so I hope this soup lasts for when I don't have time to make a big meal. Also, my camera is acting up, just after I took these pictures it shut off and wouldn't turn back on...hmm

Ingredients

3 medium tomatoes, halved
2 Chinese eggplants (or 1 large eggplant)
1 onion
6 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
4 cups (or more) vegetable stock
1 cup soy milk

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cut eggplant in half, lengthwise

Quarter the onion, peel the garlic, and place them in a baking pan.

Drizzle with oil

Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Take them from the oven, scoop out the eggplant meat and put in a big pot on the stove, add the other veggies, and the thyme.

Pour in veggie stock, and bring to a boil.

Simmer for about 40 minutes.

Blend with a hand blender, and stir in soy milk.

Add remaining roasted vegetables and thyme to same saucepan. Add 4 cups chicken stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook until onion is very tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.

Vegan Interview!

2009-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for the terrible picture, but if you can't tell, these are the Balsamic Chocolate Cookies I made a while ago. I didn't just make these for any reason, I made these to bring to an interview I did for a friend in a film and television program. He need to interview someone, and I guess he found it interesting that I wrote this little ol' blog here. The interview was really cool, it seemed like a REAL interview, there were camera men, an interviewer, producers, so many jobs I don't even know what they were all doing. I was pretty nervous, but luckily I had the questions before hand, and could prepare some ideas.

Most of the questions asked why I was vegan, how I decided to be a vegan, etc etc. It was a pretty cool chance to share some information about veganism, at least to the people in the room, so I hope I made sense and didn't ramble! My favorite question was "what type of animal would you be if you could choose?" This one made me laugh, as if all vegans want to BECOME animals ahah. But it was all in good fun. And I would be an albatross, in case you want to know. They're awesome.

Oh Martha

2009-03-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hey there, these bad boys are from a recipe off of Martha Stewart's website, they're a variation of her Blondie recipe. I have to say, I expected a bit more from Martha. And it's not just me, when I read the comments below, people had the same complaints I had: too hard, not moist enough. For something that is the answer to a brownie, I expected a bit more. Well, I veganized her recipe, and used peanut butter instead of margarine, so maybe that accounted for the change. So I won't stop believing in you yet Martha. My sister loved them though, and I had no complaints about the flavour, just the texture.

Banana Oat Bundles...of JOY!

2009-03-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

I love bananas, and I love oats, so when I found this recipe:

http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.com/search?q=banana+oat

I knew I would love them. They're from Dreena's Vegan Recipes, and aren't difficult at all to make. My mom flipped when she realized I'd used the last of the bananas, but she stopped complaining after she tasted one...heh heh heh.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup of oats

1 cup of kamut flour

1/4 of a cup of 100% Canadian Maple Syrup (How come the dollar sign comes before the number...example:$2.00, but the percentage sign comes after?)

1/4 tsp of nutmeg

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

3 bananas, pureed

1 tsp of pure vanilla extract

2 tbsp of olive oil

Method

Preheat oven to 350degrees

Puree bananas, combine with maple syrup, vanilla, and oil, mix well

In another bowl combine dry ingredients, mix well.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and...mix well!

Spoon tbsp-fulls of mixture onto a prepared baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes

This makes about 15 bundles

Enjoy!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Soup

2009-03-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! A while ago I had this amazing bowl of curried sweet potato and apple soup from Fresh, and I've been craving it ever since. So I tried making it for lunch today, and while it wasn't exactly the same (Fresh's is so damn delicious!) I'm very happy with mine.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes

1 large onion

2 apples

3 cloves of garlic

pepper

1-2 tbsp of olive oil

1/4 of a package of silken tofu

2-3 cups of water (or veggie stock)

Method

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Chop potato into cubes

Quarter the onion

Peel, core, and chop the apples

Put in roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and pepper

Roast for about 1/2 an hour, stirring around the veggies every 10 minutes or so.

When 30 minutes are up, transfer into a large soup pot, add tofu and water slowly and blend

Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes and serve!

Enjoy!

No New Recipe, Sorry!

2009-03-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! Friday night, my friends and I went to the Gaslight Anthem show at the Opera House, had an amazing time, and then the next day headed off to London to see them play at Call the Office. They were so good live, and we were right at the front both nights. We ended up getting a hotel and staying over night. Crazy fun road trip, but my point is I havent been bakin' or cookin' too much for the past couple of days. However, on Firday afternoon I tried out VeganDad's Mini Irish Stew recipes, and man were they good! Follow this link to the recipe:http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/03/mini-irish-pies.html. I added some grated, cooked seitan into the recipe, and it added a ground beef texture to the mix. Next time I'd add more soy milk or something to mine, to make them more gravy-ish, and I also thought mushrooms would be awesome in these. Try them!

(they're just so cute!)

Beet Muffins on the First Day of Spring!

2009-03-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today is the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring! This morning I was thinking about zucchini muffins as I was trying my best to make beet, cranberry, and apple juice (without a juicer grrrrrr) when it hit me: Why haven't I heard of beet muffins?? A quick google search found sample recipes, but not many, and none that jumped out at me. So I just made zucchini muffin batter, instead of shredded zucchini, shredded beets instead! Sooo good. When I mixed everything together, the batter was this amazing vibrant pink, which made me so excited. When my sister woke up and came down to the kitchen, I forced her to look at their awesomeness. She thought the idea of beet muffins was repulsive, but after she tasted them she liked them. Apparently, beets are among the most nutritious veggies out there, so I'm glad I love them!

Beet Muffins

2 cups of kamut flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
¼ of a tsp of nutmeg

1/4 of a cup of mixture of maple syrup and brown rice syrup
1 tbsp of flax seeds + 3 tbsp of water (blend it up!)
1 cup of shredded raw beets
1 tbsp of lemon zest
1 tsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of agave nectar
1 ¼ of a cup of soymilk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together
Mix wet ingredients together
Mix wet into dry
Add in shredded beets
Spoon into muffin trays.

Bake for about 25 minutes until metal stick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Mushroom Soup and Soda Bread Take II

2009-03-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I was coming home from school with two of my friends, and for a while we were talking about bunny friend named Mushroom. I've never had the pleasure of meeting her furry pal, but he sounds hilarious...always binkying, hopping around, getting into bunny trouble. So with all this Mushroom talk, I began to think about one of my favorite soups: mushroom soup! So tonight's dinner is soup accompanied by a slice of another loaf of soda bread. This mushroom soup wasn't quite as creamy as I would have liked, but with each spoonful I enjoyed it more and more.

Mushroom Soup Ingredients

1 tsp of olive oil

About 1 pound of button mushrooms

2 onions

2 cups of water

1 1/2 tsp of dill

1 tbsp of paprika

1 tsp of ainse

black pepper

1.5 tbsp of Bragg's soy sauce

2 cups of water

2 tbsp of olive oil

3 tbsp of gluten free flour (I used Kamut)

1 cucp of soymilk

Method

In a large soup pot, cook onions in a bit of water until they are soft

Add the mushrooms, dill, paprika, ainse, and pepper, cook for about 5 minutes

Add in the soy sauce, water, and cook covered for about 15 minutes.

In a sauce pan, heat oil, and add flour, stirring with a fork. Slowly add the soymilk and continue to stir.

Add to the soup, cook for another 10 minutes.

Soda Bread Ingredients

Okay, so while I enjoyed my last soda bread, I really slacked off in its creation...and I knew it could be improved. This time, I used flax seeds as an egg substitute, and it wasn't as sweet.

1 cup of kamut flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 of a cup quinoa flour

1/3 of a cup corn meal

2 tsp of corn starch

Egg replacer for 2 eggs

3/4 of a cup soymilk

1 tsp of apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp of oil

Soda Bread Method

Mix dry ingredients

Mix wet ingredients

Mix together

(complicated, I know)

Form into a ball, plop onto a flour-dusted baking pan, slash a cross over top, and lightly dust with more flour

Pop in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F

Dunk in Soup.

Enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

2009-03-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

Mmm Mmm I love the smell of soup in the morning, it smells like victory!

Oh wait, no, it doesn't, it smells like Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

I wanted to make roasted pepper soup, and I wanted to use green peppers (because it's St Patrick's Day) but I think red peppers have a much sweeter taste, which would be better as soup. I had a little taste of the soup (it's only 9 in the morning!) and I can't wait to eat it for dinner.

Ingredients

3 red peppers
2 cloves of garlic
1 very large carrot
1/2 a large sweet potato
1 stalk of celery
1 onion
4 cups of veggie broth (I used low sodium)
2 tomatoes
1/2 tsp of thyme
black pepper

Method

Roast the red peppers by cutting them in half and cooking them in the oven under the broiler until the skin is blackened (not too blackened, apparently its carcinogenic). Pop the cloves of garlic out of their skins and place alongside the peppers to roast.

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a large soup pot on the stove

Chop the rest of the veggies, and put them all except the tomatoes in the pot, stirring often. Leave them there until to "sweat". That's right you want sweaty veggies.

Keep checking the peppers, turning them to evenly cook them

Once they're nice and roasty, peel off the skins and remove seeds, chop and add the the pot.

Let them all cook together until the carrots and potatoes are soft

Add the tomatoes, cook until everything's soft.

Then, using a hand blender (or let it all cool and put in whatever blender you use) blend it all up!

Add the thyme, and the black pepper.

Enjoy!

2009-03-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Today my parents roasted a turkey, which sometimes proves to be difficult for me, navigating my way through a meal based on meat. Luckily they also made turnips, green beans, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, and cabbage salad. Lots of potatoes and cabbage = celebrating our Irish-ness. I also marinated some extra firm tofu in some Bragg's, apple cider vinegar, with a splash of water for about 1/2 an hour. I read a recipe from Fatfree Vegan for these little potato balls called colcannon puffs. Mine turned out quite different then hers did, and I would hesitate to call them colcannon, so I'll just say they're colcannon inspired. Man oh man were they delicious.

Ingredients

6 oz of baby spinach

4 large scoops of mashed potatoes

2 tbsp of nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp of thyme

1 tsp of rosemary

black pepper to taste

Method

Mix all the ingredients on a bowl

Scoop about 1 tbsp at a time onto a baking pan

bake at 425F for 20 minutes

Cook under the broiler for about 5 minutes

Deeelicious!

Here Come The Irish

2009-03-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

What a day, what a day. Last night I was at the Brutal Knights show, and didn't get home til late. I slept in, had my usual mug of hot lemon water, and went for a run. I often try and bring some stale flatbreads or bread to feed the ducks and Canadian geese I see along my way. When I got home, I made some orange, carrot and ginger juice, and headed off to hot yoga. So I had a long day and wanted a substantial meal for dinner. Since St. Patrick's Day is coming up, I decided to make Irish stew and soda bread! The stew is inspired from this recipe from FatFree Vegan http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/03/irish-white-bean-and-cabbage-stew.html

Irish Stew

6 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup of water
2 large potatoes
3 very large carrots
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1/3 of a cup of barley
1 tsp of ainse
1 tsp of thyme
black pepper
2 tomatoes, chopped
fresh parsley

Chop the carrot, onion, potato, celery, and veggie stock. Put in a large soup pot.
Add barley and seasonings, cover, and bring to a boil.
Once it is boiling nicely, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 45 minutes.
For the last 15 minutes, remove the lid of the pot and add the parsley and tomatoes.
While it's cooking...make the bread!

Soda Bread

Dry Ingredients

3/4 of a cup of kamut flour
1/3 of a cup of flax meal
1/3 of a cup of quinoa flour
1/3 of a cup of cornmeal
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder

Wet Ingredients

1 banana
3/4 of a cup of almond milk
1 tsp of apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp of olive oil

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl.
In another, combine the milk and cider, then add a mashed banana (this is a big deviation from traditional soda bread, but I was too lazy to make a flax egg replacer. Add the olive oil, and mix well.

Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring with a spatula. I had to add more flour to thicken the mixture. Shape into a ball, sprinkle flour onto a baking pan, and then put the dough onto it. Cut a cross on the surface of the dough to make it officially Irish soda bread! There are several main different types of soda bread, this is closer to "wheaten bread" from Northern Ireland. The cross on the top of the loaf was apparently to ward off evil.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the bread, it was definitely an experiment because I made it without wheat flours, but it was tasty and I'd make it again.

2009-03-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start.

WARNING: This is going to be quite the post.

So the 13th was my mom's birthday, and I pulled out all the stops. I wanted her to have a great birthday, without having to worry about eating something that would make her sick, or something that would make her have to take gravol. Being allergic to wheat, sugar, and dairy, I had to hunt around for a special cake for her to eat. For the last couple of years, we didn't know about any vegan, wheat free bakeries, and I hadn't really started experimenting with vegan gf alternatives. Thanks to an AMAZING friend who has a gluten allergy: (http://omgicanbakeglutenfree.blogspot.com/), I went to a bake shop/vegan eatery by Bathurst and Bloor Streets called Kensington Bakery. GO THERE!!!!

I first went there last Monday, didn't have cash on me (they don't take debit), so I came back on Wednesday to order. I chose a vegan, gluten free spelt chocolate cake, sweetened with maple syrup, and ordered it to be ready to be picked up this morning.

So Wednesday night, I came home from working with a friend at the gym, and on the way I picked up agar agar, dates, an organic lemon. I rushed home, made my mom's present of her favorite treats: macaroons. They were based on THIS RECIPE:

http://eatnveganintoronto.blogspot.com/2009/02/simple-vegan-macaroons.html that I made in February. This time, I tried different flavours like chocolate (added cacao powder), lemon (added organic lemon zest and juice), double coconut (coconut milk), ginger and orange (ginger, orange...), and maple (100% Canadian Maple Syrup).

Just in case the cake wasn't all we hoped it would be, I decided to make a back up. Using the agar, I made Jello Fruit Cake. I'll post the recipe soon!

I also made a sort of fruit pudding/sorbet, just bananas pureed with coconut milk, and pureed strawberries. Just pop them in the freezer and you have a sweet treat.

Sooo flash forward until today. This morning, I missioned it downtown at 8, picked up the cake, and brought it home and hid it. Which was a shame because it was a glorious cake, vanilla on the outside, chocolate on the inside, and chocolate writing!

I made this deliciousness for a birthday lunch with my mom: Arugula salad with Spinach and Avocado soup.

Later on, I gave her the macaroons, she loved them!

Here's where the comedy begins. So we give her the presents, and out comes the cake, lookin' mighty fine, we light the candle, sing Happy B-Day, and honestly, it was the most delicious cake I have EVER eaten, never mind gluten free, vegan, sugar free. Even my carnivorous sister and father loved it. We loved it so much, we sat in my living room after, sitting around the cake, just dwelling in its awesomeness.

(Can anyone tell me why my picture loaded this way? Or how to fix it?)

Along comes Marble.

She jumps up onto my lap to say hello, and my mom grabbed her to giver her a pet. I guess my mom grabber her so fast, she spooked her, and the rest happened like it was in slow motion.

She freaked out, jumped straight up into the air...

and landed...

spread eagled...

right on top of...

THE CAKE!!!

As she was in the air, all I was thinking was: "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

Anyway, after her bath, Marble calmed down, and we cleaned it all up. I was laughing because I'm not sure if the cake could even be considered truly vegan anymore...But it was amazing, and I'll be going back the Kensington Bakery MANY TIMES!

Chocolate Covered Katie!

2009-03-11T21:21:00.001-07:00

I've been following a great vegan cooking blog called Chocolate Covered Katie (there were no self indulgent key word searches involved in my discovery of this site I swear). She's got great recipes (especially oatmeal! yum) and is fun to read. Check it out. If you want to win some free chocolates, check out this post (But know you will be competing agaainst meeeee! it's on!)

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/so-what-about-this-chocolate-giveaway/

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

2009-03-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! I've been busy for the last couple of days with work, and school, in particular, assignments. So I haven't tried out my own recipes. But I did try a couple. I made these:

http://domesticaffair.blogspot.com/2005/04/simply-sweet.html DELICIOUS Maple Flax Cookies by Jae Steele over at Domestic Goddess. They were a big hit with my mom because she can't eat sugar, and this recipe relies on maple syrup to sweeten the cookies. I was excited about them because I'm trying out the "Get Baked with Mat and Dave" challenge of trying to use more 100% Canadian maple syrup in my cooking.

I also tried out this recipe:
http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-here-and-therebut-mostly-there.html

Its chocolate, peanut butter banana bread. I was going to bring it to a friend's house (hey Mel!) but some weird and funky things were going on with my oven and it came out all crumbly (but delicious!) I'll try it again when my oven is not CRAZY.

I've also tried making my own juice...smoothie style. Because I don't have a juicer grrr. So they really turn out thick, but the flavour's been great and I'm not too picky.

I've tried out

carrot, apple, giner

and

spinach, apple, ginger, celery and tomato.

Good stuff, and full of nutrients!

Creamy Avocado Green Soup

2009-03-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

The other day, my friend mentionned she made chilled avocado and cucumber soup which sounded amazing to me. So I thought I'd try my own hand at it. I made a Spinach and Avocado Soup! The temperature is supposed to go up to 15 degrees today, so it's time for some spring inspired recipes!

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado

2 cups of vegetable broth

1 cup of tightly packed baby spinach

1/4 of a package of silken tofu

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

about 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

ground pepper

cayenne pepper (I use a very small pinch)

Method

On the stove top, boil some water, and pop in the spinach for about a minute.

Blend together the chopped and peeled avocado, spinach, the lemon juice, the silken tofu, veggie broth, parsley and ground pepper until it has a creamy consistency.

Let chill, pour out into bowls, and sprinkle parsley and add cayenne pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Maple Seed and Nut Bread

2009-03-03T05:58:00.000-08:00

This post kinda points out how much I love bread.

Last night, I was lying on my bed at around midnight, looking at recipes. When I came across this one, I ran downstairs and started mixing the first step right away so it could rise for the night. I kinda felt pretty lame, but it just looked so amazing…covered in seeds of all kinds, and with MAPLE! So this morning, I woke up early and got to work again (never mind I have two essays due on Thursday…)

Here’s the link to the recipe
http://www.cookingbread.com/recipes/high_fiber_bread/maple_seeded_high_fiber_bread_recipe.html

But if you’re into bread, I suggest you check out their main page. Just make sure you have plenty of time to look, and I don’t suggest reading it while you’re hungry.

http://www.thekneadforbread.com/

I changed up the ingredients a little, I used spelt, and kamut flour instead. I also veganized it, which meant substituting maple syrup for egg in the coating (that sounded more delicious to me anyway). The recipe also calls for sunflower seeds, semolina flour, wheat germ and oats, but I don’t have those ingredients. So I used more flax seed meal, and added quinoa flour instead. Just as a reminder, I the recipes I mark as gluten free are as gluten free as I can make them, don't hold me responsible if I missed something and a bad reaction occurs.

Ingredients

The night before:

1 cup spelt flour
1 cup kamut flour
1 ¼ of a cup warm water
¼ of a tsp of instant yeast

The day of:

2/3 of a cup of 100% Canadian Maple Syrup
½ a cup of flax meal
¼ of a cup quinoa flour
2 tbsp poppy seeds
3 tbsp of flax seeds
1 tbsp of instant yeast
1 ¼ of a cup spelt flour
1 ¼ of a cup kamut flour
Handful of chopped almonds

Coating:

3 tbsp of flax seeds
3 tbsp of poppy seeds
Chopped almonds
2 tbsp of 100% Maple Syrup

Two happy little loaves in the oven

Method

The night before, combine flour, and instant yeast in a large bowl, and mix well.
Slowly add the war water (warm is important for the yeast).
I covered mine with cling wrap and left in a warm place, maybe a counter top…I put mine in my room near the vent

The next morning, uncover the dough, and add the maple syrup, flax meal, quinoa flour, flax seeds, poppy seeds, chopped almonds, and mix well.
Then add the instant yeast and spelt flour, and continue to mix. Slowly add the spelt flour, then the kamut.

Then I kneaded the dough for about 8 minutes.

Put the dough in a large bowl that has been coated with a bit of oil, and put in a slightly warmed oven (150 degrees) for about 45 minutes to an hour.

After the hour is up, take out the dough, and preheat the oven to 375. Cut the dough in half, shape into loaves.

On a baking sheet, sprinkle poppy seeds, flax seeds, chopped almonds, and currants. Coat the loaves in maple syrup and roll in the seed mixture.

Put in greased bread pans, and pop in the oven! The original recipe said to bake for 35-40 minutes, however, my oven is messed up and doesn't heat properly, and I used two different bread pans (one glass, one ceramic, so the loaf in the ceramic took longer). I ended up leaving them in the oven for about 45-55 minutes. Test by poking with a metal fork or skewer to see if it comes out clean.

Enjoy!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

2009-03-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

Spiced Apple Ginger Bread: Take Two

The other day I posted a recipe for Spiced Apple Ginger Bread, and I enjoyed it, but my dad took one bite, and unfortunately for him it was mostly ginger. So that left a bad impression of the entire loaf of bread, which is why I thought maybe I should alter the recipe a bit. It was pretty gingery. So I tried it out again, this time using 3 Tbs of grated ginger instead of six. I also decided to use maple syrup instead of brown sugar. There’s a great online (for me its online) radio program called “Let’s Get Baked with Mat and Dave”. It’s a vegan cooking and music radio program based in Halifax, and I decided to accept their challenge: use more of Canada’s Number 1 National Treasure: maple syrup! I agree with them, people use too much refined sugar. So join the movement---use maple syrup in your cooking! And check out their website to find tasty dishes and neat interviews with Canadian musicians: http://letsgetbaked.ckdu.ca/

I won’t repost the entire ingredient list, just substitute the brown sugar for an equal amount of maple syrup (100% Canadian), banana instead of apple sauce (and instead of egg) and 3 Tbs of ginger instead of 6.

Soup!

2009-03-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Chickpea and Spinach Soup

This soup comes from the FatFree Vegan, and it was called North African Chickpea and Kale Soup

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/11/north-african-chickpea-and-kale-soup.html

I cut her recipe in half and made less, and also made a few alterations. I didn't have kale, or a cinnamon stick, so I used spinach and a pinch of ground cinnamon instead. That being said, the soup turned out delicious and hot, but not too spicy. I was pretty excited to use some of the spices listed, especially saffron. Such an amazing soup!

Ingredients

½ large onion
1 carrot sliced or diced
2 cloves of garlic pressed
¾ of a tsp of ground cumin
¼ of a tsp of paprika
1/8 of a tsp of cayenne pepper
1/8 of a tsp of allspice

pepper to taste
½ tsp of ginger
Pinch of saffron
1 bay leaf
1 pinch of cinnamon

1.5 cups of chickpeas
4 cups of vegetable broth
About 2 cups of baby spinach

Method

Chop your carrots and onions

Heat a pan with a drizzle of a tsp of olive oil in it

Saute the onions and carrots until they begin to brown, then add the garlic.

After a couple of minutes, add the spices (ginger, bay leaf, saffron, allspice, pepper, paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, cinnamon) and mix around in the pan

After a minute, add the chickpeas and stir so everything is coated.

Then, add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

Simmer for about 20 minutes, then add about 2 cups of spinach.

Cook until the spinach is wilted and mixed throughout the soup.

Enjoy!

Spiced Apple Ginger Bread

2009-02-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

I’ve been pretty busy with school work lately, and haven’t had much time to cook. I was feeling a little under the weather, and wanted to eat as much ginger as I could to boost my immune system and prevent a cold if I could. So I thought besides ginger tea, I would make Spiced Apple Ginger Bread. My photo card is still missing, but here’s the link to the recipe I used as my base, and I believe there are pictures there: http://www.ecurry.com/blog/breads/spiced-apple-ginger-bread/
It’s from eCurry, I’ve never checked that site out before but I think I will now! I love the spice action going on in this bread, I never expected to see curry in a bread recipe but it never hurts to try new things. Warning: Maybe it was the way I shredded the ginger, but it was pretty gingery. I loved this bread, but next time I’ll either use half the ginger, or shred it more finely.

Here we go

Ingredients

1 cup of spelt flour
1 cup of kamut flour
½ cup of applesauce (instead of the oil she used)
¼ cup of vanilla milk
¼ of a cup of brown sugar
1 banana (egg replacer)
1 tsp of vanilla
1 ½ cups of shredded apple (I shredded 1 cup and chopped a ½ cup)
6 tablespoons of grated ginger
2 clementine peels (make sure to wash them carefully)
½ teaspoon of cumin
½ tsp of cinnamon
½ tsp of nutmeg
¾ of a tsp of baking soda
1 handful of almonds chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine applesauce, milk, banana, sugar and vanilla in a bowl.
In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, baking soda. Add wet to dry and mix.
Add apples, orange peels, and almonds

Scoop the mixture into a prepared bread pan, and bake for 65-70 minutes

2009-02-21T17:20:00.000-08:00

Blueberry, Banana, and Oat Bread

This is another recipe I tried from Urban Drivel. It’s Fat Free Blueberry, Banana, and Oat Bread, here’s the link for her recipe:

http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/2007/06/virtually-fat-free-blueberry-banana.html

This bread got the approval of everyone in my family who tried it, and I love knowing that its got nutritional value annnnnd is delicious. It was very easy to make, and had very few ingredients, and the nutmeg added a really interesting flavour. This is a recipe I want to memorize so I can make this whenever I want.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of flour (once again I used half and half kamut and spelt flour)
½ cup of oats
¾ of a cup of brown sugar
½ tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of baking soda
¾ of a tsp nutmeg
½ cup of applesauce (I blended 1 apple)
1 banana mashed
¾ cup of blueberries (we both used frozen)

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
Add applesauce and banana, mix well until everything is well blended
Add blueberries and continue to mix.
Scoop into a greased bread pan
Bake for 50 minutes

Happy Phonograph Day!

2009-02-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

Ha, yeah, I didn't know what to put in the title so I googled February 19 and it turns out today in 1878 the phonograph was patented by Thomas Edison. So if you like music, and I do, have a celebration. Maybe start your celebration with......

Pear and Oat Scones!

Well, I lost my camera memory card! That’s why there isn’t a picture, so let me describe them. They’re triangles, brownish, raisony, uhhh…sconey… They look like scones, sheesh.
But they’re really tasty, low fat, vegan and gluten free to boot. Once again, the recipe comes from Urban Drivel and here’s the original recipe: http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/2008/02/no-pic-vegan-oatmeal-scones.html
Her recipe called for margarine, soy butter or apple sauce, but I didn’t want to use margarine, and I’m out of apples and bananas so I decided to blend up a pear and see how it worked out. And it turned out pretty well if I do say. So use your imaginations, because these scones are worth it.

Ingredients

1 pear, blended or ¼ of a cup of applesauce
1 ¼ cup of flour (I used half and half kamut and spelt)
1/3 of a cup of brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp of baking soda
1 cup of oats
1/3 of a cup of raisins
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/3 of a cup of soy milk

Method
Preheat oven to 375
In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda and powder and cinnamon in a bowl.
Add blended pear and mix until the mixture is crumbly
Add oats and raisins, stir
Add soy milk and stir, use your hands and knead just a bit in the bowl
Sprinkle a baking pan with flour (to keep this recipe gluten free I used kamut flour, but its more expensive than regular flour, so use whatever you want)
Put ball of dough on pan and flatten into a 7” circle. Cut 8-12 triangles and place in the oven
Bake for 15-20 minutes

I spread a bit of jam on mine, it tasted so good!

Beet and Almond Salad

2009-02-18T13:06:00.001-08:00

The other night I made dinner, Beet Salad and homemade vegan, gluten free lasagna. I made the noodles from scratch, and it didn't turn out so pretty. The lasagna recipe needs improving, but I was pretty happy with the salad. The only negative I have to say is that those damn beets took a lot of energy to shred. It was delicious and worth it though.

Beet Salad

On a bed of baby spinach, lay down about 1/3 of a cup to 1/2 a cup of shredded beets.

Add a sprinkle of dill on top (I wanted to use cilantro, but I ran out).

Sprinkle a handful of whole, natural, almonds on top.

For the dressing, I used maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil, and pepper. I like my dressing more vinegary than sweet and oily, so the cider was the dominant ingredient.

One reason I really liked this was it looked so great with the dark beets against the green of the spinach. Next time I'm going to shred some carrot on top because I think the orange would look beautiful against the red.

Enjoy!

Mmmm Chocolate Bread

2009-02-18T12:40:00.000-08:00

Fat Free Vegan Chocolate Bread

One of the reasons why I love Urban Drivel is because she always has amazing bread! I made some modifications because I didn’t have any nuts at all in my house, or “Dutch processed cacao (only the regular kind), or chocolate chips, and the only egg replacer I could use was corn starch. So I’m pleased this recipe came out at all, and even managed to be tasty. That being said, mine is a little dry, but I think it’s my fault and not the bread’s. Don’t blame the innocent bread! Here’s her recipe, from the rating I’m sure it’s…uh, so damn good : http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/2007/09/vegan-chocolate-pecan-banana-bread.html

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

½ a cup of spelt flour
½ a cup of kamut flour + ¾ of a cup of kamut flour (more kamut than spelt)
¼ of a cup Cacao powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
¼ of a teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
½ a cup of pureed apple
3 ripe bananas (I blended these with the apple, you could just mash them)1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method

Heat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a bread pan.
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, cacao, sugar, baking soda and powder)
In another bowl, mix banana, cornstarch, apple and vanilla
Add wet to dry and mix until combined.
Scoop into the bread pan and voila!
(Put in the oven) Cook for about and hour, check after 50 minutes and test to see if its ready with a metal knife.

What's With The Snow?

2009-02-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

I never really have an issue with the cold, the way I see it, I live in Canada so forfeit my right to complain about weather. But today I woke up and was genuinely surprised to see it snowing outside. Which is okay, because it put me in the mood for something warm and spicy, and so I give you: Seitan Chili! I used this recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen to make the seitan: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=112

But if you have another source of seitan go for it. I really like this recipe so far, but it's a bit salty for my tastes. Extra firm tofu, or even red kidney beans would probably substitute well.

Ingredients

1 can low sodium tomato sauce (just tomatoes, nothing else added)
½ a can of low sodium tomatoes
1 carrot
4 baby red potatoes
4 baby gold potatoes
3 cups of mixed vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli,)
2 cloves of garlic
1 white onion
1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
½ a cup of frozen peas
About a cup of seitan chopped
½ a cup of frozen corn
Spices:
½ a teaspoon of cinnamon
½ a teaspoon coriander seed
½ a teaspoon of chili powder
Ground black pepper
Sprinkle of red pepper flakes (to your liking)

Method

Heat a large pot on medium high, along with the teaspoon of olive oil
Add onion and garlic, sauté until browned
Add seitan and spices, sauté about 1 minute
Add tomato sauce and canned tomatoes
Add potatoes and carrots
Add frozen vegetables
Taste to see if the spices are right
Cook until the vegetables (pay special attention to potatoes) are cooked

Sorry about the crappy picture, it doesn't reflect the quality of this chili

2009-02-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

Banana Apple and Oat Muffins

This morning started off pretty great: my cat Daisy woke me up, and I realized that at this time of year, around 10 in the morning the sun hits directly on my pillow. Nice way to wake up. I felt so good that I was thinking about going for a run…but that ambition ended pretty quickly. Instead I made peanut butter apple and oat muffins haha. But you should have seen me stirring the ingredients…worked up a sweat.
The muffins were pretty simple, I got the recipe from Urban Drivel http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/) but I changed the recipe around quite a bit. Originally, these were supposed to be peanut butter and banana muffins, which I imagine would be amazing. I didn’t have any bananas, so I swapped them for some apple sauce (just blend two apples).
Here we go:

Ingredients

1 cup of flour (I used half and half kamut and spelt)
¾ of a cup oats
1/3 of a cup brown sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1 cup of soy milk
½ cup of peanut butter (the kind I use is the natural-no-stuff-added-just-peanuts kind)
½ cup of apple sauce
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg (I used 2 tbs of cornstarch)
1 tbs of olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
Handful of oats to sprinkle on top

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare 12 muffin trays.
In one bowl, combine dry ingredients (oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder).
In another bowl, combine wet ingredients and cornstarch (soy milk, peanut butter, applesauce, oil, vanilla).
Add wet to dry, and mix.
Fill muffin cups about 3/4ths of the way. Sprinkle the oats on top.
Bake these puppies for 16-18 minutes (I cooked them for 20 and the bottoms were too almost too browned).

My other cat buddy, Marble came over to check them out:

But after she was fed, Daisy had no interest. Hm.

Vegan Omelette

2009-02-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

Vegan Omelette

So I've been trying out this one for a while, its a omelette recipe I found at Fat Free Vegan (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/) and its pretty great. The first time I made it, it was too big and broke apart. Since then, I've divided the uncooked batter in two, and make two smaller omelettes. Here you go:

Ingredients

1/2 a package of silk tofu

1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

1 tablespoon of soy milk

1 teaspoon of tahini

1/8 of a teaspoon of onion powder

1/8 of a teaspoon of turmeric

a shake of salt, if you so wish

a pinch of paprika

Method

Mix all ingredients and blend well until its a creamy looking mixture.

On medium high heat, pour half the mix into a pan (mine's non stick, so do whatever you must to prevent sticking) and either swirl around the mix until you have a small plate sized, circular shaped omelette cooking (or use a spatula gently).

Reduce heat to low/medium.

Prepare whatever filling you want, today I used vegan cheese, leftover steamed vegetables (peppers, various mixed frozen vegetables...the original recipe called for spinach and mushrooms), and once the omelette has been cooking for a while, put on a layer of filling on one side of the batter. You're supposed to keep the omelette from browning, but I like mine a little darker. Just don't brown it too much (or burn it obviously). Be very gentle when you check the underside, it took a couple times of making this for me to check and not rip it up.

When the underside looks to you liking (about 5 minutes of low heat maybe?) flip the side without the batter onto the filling, and let cook for a few more minutes (as you would a regular omelette).

Enjoy!

2009-02-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Zucchini AND Carrot Bread!!

The base of this recipe is from the other day when I made zucchini loaf. What I did here was divide the mixture pre-zucchini stage in half, and put in two separate bowls. Then, I added half a cup of shredded zucchini in one bowl, and half a cup of shredded carrot in another. Instead of walnuts, I used 1/4 of a cup of raisins in each loaf, because I ran out of walnuts. Also, I used 1/3rd of a teaspoon of baking powder instead of instant yeast. Really, really great. I couldn't stop taking pictures haha.

Oh, and I sprinkled the top with some oats for looks.

2009-02-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

I’m heading off to a friend’s house tonight, and wanted to bring some food along. Around this time of year, chocolate all of a sudden seems extremely appropriate, and when I found this recipe on the Fat Free Vegan website, I was so curious to try it because of the Balsamic vinegar in it. It’s amazing how the balsamic complements the chocolate so well! You can’t taste it really, so don’t worry about your cookies tasting like a soggy salad. The original recipe called for regular flour, and soy yogurt, but I switched to kamut flour and vanilla soy milk. So I’ll be giving these to the people I know with wheat/gluten allergies.

Balsamic Chocolate Cookies

1 cup of kamut flour
½ a teaspoon of baking soda
1/8 of a teaspoon of baking soda
5 tablespoons of vegan margarine
½ a cup of cacao powder
2/3 of a cup white sugar
1/3 of a cup of brown sugar
1/3 of a cup of vanilla soy milk
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper, wax paper, whatever.
In one bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt and put aside.
In another bowl, mix the sugar and cacao

Melt your margarine, and in another bowl, combine with the cacao and sugar mixture and stir it up.
Then, add the soy milk, vanilla, and balsamic vinegar and mix well. Add the dry ingredients (flour etc) and stir until the ingredients are combined.

Use a tablespoon to drop the mix onto the sheet. I made a rough version of vanilla sugar to sprinkle on top, mostly because I bought some vanilla beans awhile ago because I thought they looked pretty cool, and I wanted to use them up.

These cookies will only take about 12 minutes to cook, so pay attention to them. If they don’t seem completely done, once you let them cool, they harden up, don’t worry.

Let them cool a bit, then remove them from the sheets.

Sooo amazing!
thod

2009-02-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to Ottawa for Winterlude. I used to travel there fairly often when I was younger, and skate up and down the Rideau Canal pretty much the whole trip. The best part about skating all day long was skating up to a Beavertail station and eating the most delicious thing in the entire world: the Beavertail! It wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that I realized I would never be able to eat a Beavertail again...maybe a good thing for my intestines, but not something to look forward to. WELL let me tell you the highlight of my trip: turns out, the dough is just flour, yeast, and salt…NO DAIRY OR EGGS. It only became non-vegan when they slather it in butter and other toppings. So, I just got it with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon (which is what I always used to get), and it was amazing.

On to the recipe!

There were a bunch of zucchinis in my fridge, and I wanted to use them up. I decided to make zucchini bread, which really is more like cake, either way, deeeelicious.

Spiced Zucchini Bread

2 tablespoons of flaxseed
½ a cup of water
½ a cup of vanilla soy milk
1 cup of brown sugar
2 ¼ of a cup of kamut and spelt flour (half and half)
¾ of a teaspoon of baking soda
½ a teaspoon of instant yeast
1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon
¼ of a teaspoon of ground cloves
½ a cup of chopped walnuts
1 cup of grated zucchini (one zucchini)

Method

Heat your oven to 350 degrees, grease a bread pan
Blend the flaxseeds with ½ a cup of water, it will take on the consistency of an egg
Add sugar and the soy milk, and continue to blend until smooth

In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, yeast, and spices)
Add the dry to the wet ingredients and mix well.
Add the zucchini and walnuts, mix.
Pour the mixture into the bread pan, pop in the oven for about 60 minutes (poke with a sharp piece of metal to see if it’s ready…metal will come out clean when it’s done)
Let cool, then enjoy!!

2009-02-05T05:09:00.000-08:00

Travellin’ Snack

I’m going on a trip in a couple days, and I wanted to make sure there were healthy snacks that wouldn’t hurt my stomach available for me. I love dried fruit and nuts, and I like the flavour that bananas add to recipes. So, I decided to make granola bars! I googled a recipe, but ended up adding many of my own ingredients, doing my best to make it sugar free, gluten free, vegan, and as healthy as possible.

Banana, Fruit and Nut Granola Recipe

1 ½ cups of oats
3 tablespoons of flaxseeds
1/3 of a cup of chopped walnuts
1/3 of a cup chopped prunes
1/3 of a cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 of a cup of raisins
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/3 of a cup of agave nectar
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 banana
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Oil a baking pan.
Soak the raisins and apricots to plump them up.
Combine the dry ingredients (oats, flaxseeds, walnuts, cinnamon) in a bowl and mix.
Mash the banana, chop up the prunes and mash into the banana.
Add the vanilla, oil, and agave nectar and mix well.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry.
Mix in raisins and apricots.
Scoop the mash onto the pan, pack down and form into a rectangle (8” by 11” ish)
Bake for about 20 minutes, then 5 minutes under the broiler

Enjoy!

Simple Vegan Macaroons

2009-02-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

This recipe is so simple I thought it wouldn't work. There are THREE ingredients. That's right. Three. You need dates, a banana, and some shredded coconut. Instead of blending the ingredients in a blender, I chose to chop everything very finely, because to tell the truth, I really just didn't want to get out the blender. So these are the ultimate slacker's macaroons. I made these with my mom in mind, she loves macaroons, but allergies to wheat, sugar, and dairy have made it hard for her to indulge.

Macaroons

8 regular sized dates (remove the pits)

1 1/2 cup of shredded coconut (the coconut I used was sweetened, but you could use unsweetened because of the natural sugars in the dates and banana)
1 banana

Chop the dates very thinly until they're almost mushy

Chop the banana roughly

Using a potato masher, mash in a bowl

Add your coconut slowly, continue to mash

When all ingredients are blended, generously heap a teaspoon's worth out of the bowl, roll with your hands to form a ball

Place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees F for about 15 minutes

I decided to put mine under the broiler for less than 5 minutes until the tops were slightly crispy.

Sooo Good!!

Oh So Delicious Basil Beer Bread

2009-02-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

Basil Beer Bread

Wow what a busy day. I just got home from work, and I figured I'd put this recipe up before I pass out from exhaustion.

My love for good, homemade bread began when I was just a wee little girl, growing up, my dad would bake bread almost every week. I love that first slice of bread fresh from the oven. Lately Ive been interested in trying out baking my own bread, but the whole process is a little daunting to me, especially since I've started eat'n vegan, and trying to eat low sugar, sodium, pretty much trying to be as health conscious as possible. Last night I found a recipe for Basil Beer Bread on one of my favorite blogs: Urban Drivel (http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/search/label/bread\). This site is great for finding interesting, healthy dishes. Her recipe isn't vegan, and I was worried about finding a substitute for the cheese, but I just omitted it and kept my fingers crossed.

There was some confusion about the amount of yeast and the time the bread takes to rise. The original recipe called for a lot of yeast, so I reduced it to about 2 and a 1/2 teaspoons of yeast. Turns out, it called for so much yeast because there was no rising period. Since I put in less yeast, I had to rise the bread for about 40 minutes, but to be honest I probably didn't have to. Here it is:

Basil Beer Bread

Oil a baking sheet, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

3 and 1/4 of a cup of whole wheat flour

3teaspoons of instant yeast

1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1/2 teaspoons of black pepper

1 12 ounce bottle of beer (I wouldn't use any beer you wouldn't want to drink...I used Keith's Pale Ale)

Beers for drinking as you work on this recipe! (Don't set your house on fire)

Flour for kneading

1 cup torn (or chopped) fresh basil

Separate the flour into two bowls.

In one of the bowls of flour, add the yeast, salt, pepper, and stir

Add the beer nice and slowly...don't pour too fast or you'll get too much head! (Apparently it helps if you warm the beer up a tad too)

Whisk it all into a nice smoothie consistency, and then slowly add the remaining flour and whip it all together with a fork.

Sprinkle some flour onto a counter, plop down the dough, and start kneading, sprinkling the basil as you go until it has all been Incorporated in.

Let it rise in a warm environment for 40 minutes

Shape the dough into a shape that pleases you ( I shaped it into a loose log), put it on your pan, and bake it for 40 minutes.

I was so nervous to try it when it came out! I've had some pretty unsuccessful flops, and I really was craving some bread. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but the bread was so delicious. I'd say it was a wild success, and it's definitely a recipe I'll be trying again.

Sunday Morning Spelt Crepes

2009-02-01T07:22:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up thinking about a recipe I had read in the Fresh cookbook my sister bought for me. I think there are three Fresh restaurants downtown, but the one I go to is the one at Spadina and Bloor (http://www.juiceforlife.com/fresh.html). It's right by my school, and is a perfect place to go for healthy, vegan, delicious food. The recipe I tried this morning is the Orange Spelt Crepes. They're gluten free, and vegan as well. I made a couple changes to the recipe, for instance, I changed honey with agave nectar, and I didn't have sunflower oil so I used olive oil, just less.

Eventually I want to post pictures on here, but I didn't have any batteries for my camera so you'll just have to fire up the old imagination.

Here we go:

Orange Spelt Crepes

1-3/4 cups of spelt flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of orange zest

1/2 teaspoon of orange juice

1 tablespoon of agave nectar (Fresh's recipe called for honey))

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

2/3 of a cup vanilla soy milk

1-1/4 of a cup water

4 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil (Fresh's recipe called for 8 teaspoons of sunflower oil...which I didn't have. I just guessed at what would taste good, because I know olive oil can be over powering)

I mixed the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and the zest) in a bowl, make sure the zest doesn't stick together and form lumps

I used a container with a lid to mix all the wet ingredients (orange juice, soy milk, maple syrup, agave, oil) so it was easy just to shake it all up. Then I transferred it to a bowl and slowly added the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring all the time to get the lumps out. The Fresh recipe said to "whisk" but I don't have one of those handy contratraptions so I used a fork.

In the meantime, I turned on my burner to low/medium heat. I used a Teflon pan,so no oil was necessary, but the recipe recommended it. The recipe also said to use only 1/8 of the batter at a time, I used 1/4. This resulted in thicker crepes, but that suits me just fine. Put the crepes in the oven at a very low heat to keep them warm while you cook the other crepes.

I chopped up a mango, a papaya, an orange, and sprinkled some blueberries to accompany my crepes, and squeezed an orange over the crepes instead of maple syrup. This was a delicious breakfast, and definitely a keeper!

2009-01-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

Peanut Butter Cups

I can’t think of a better way to begin than with a recipe for vegan chocolate peanut butter cups…can you? The idea was born one snowy Tuesday night while I was in class half listening to my professor talking about Frank O’Hara. What I was really doing was browsing the web looking for gluten free vegan recipes I could bake for my friend for Christmas. “What, Christmas?” That’s right, I was temporarily laid off from my job (thankfully I’ve started back again) and as a result, was extremely short on cash over the holidays. One day while I was watching my friend’s eyes glaze over as she ate a gluten free store bought cookie, it hit me. Why not bake her a present? I know how much she appreciates gluten free baked goods, as they’re hard to come by, and who doesn’t love free food? Tonight I made her Peanut Butter Cups, and I have to credit Have Cake, Will Travel (http://havecakewilltravel.com/) for the peanut butter cup recipe, as much as I’d like to imagine I came up with such deliciousness myself.

I made a few changes however. I didn’t have mini cupcake liners, so I used medium sized ones (that just means bigger peanut butter cups…too bad, eh). I also couldn’t find chocolate chips at my grocery store that didn’t have milk ingredients (grrr). So I used some dark chocolate from a box that should have been used for fondue.

Here’s the recipe:

7 medium sized cupcake liners
7 oz of dark dairy free chocolate
½ a cup of natural peanut butter, as well as 2 tablespoons to add to the chocolate you melt to line the cups
1/ 4 of a cup powdered sugar
½ a teaspoon of vanilla extract (hmm as I type this I realize I put 2 teaspoons in due to misreading the recipe…however mine tasted delicious I assure you)
Pinch of sea salt (my peanut butter is salt free, so if your PB already has salt maybe skip this)

First, I chopped up my chocolate, plopped in 2 tablespoons of PB, and microwaved it for 1 minute, stirred it, and microwaved it again for another minute.
Let it cool just a bit if it’s too hot.

Using a teaspoon, scoop some chocolately goodness into the cups, and spread so the shell is covered (not too thickly, not too thinly…just right), making sure to leave a couple tablespoons to cover the filling at the end.

Chill in the fridge while you get the filling ready.

Stir PB, vanilla, salt and sugar, and pack mush into a firm ball in the bowl.

Scoop an even amount into the cupcake liners, and cover with a bit of the left over melted chocolate. Chill it in the fridge for a bit (around an hour) and then enjoy!!!!

So amazingly good, I hope my friend likes them!

All throughout, I was listening to some Lou Barlow, and Mermaid Avenue, the joint effort of Billy Bragg and Wilco I picked up last night at Sonic Boom. Nothing beats good tunes and vegan chocolate!

First Day!

2009-01-31T15:57:00.000-08:00

Hi there!
Today is my first day trying my hand at this blogging business. I'm a fairly recent vegan, having made the jump about a year and a half ago. I'd always toyed with the idea, but I never realized how simple and easy the change could be. Then, after a family member discovered food sensitivities to wheat, dairy, sugar, just to name a few, I became interested in recipes that could include everyone, and still be delicious. Now, I try my best to eat earth and animal friendly. Why blog about it you ask? One of the best resources I used for finding recipes and educating myself in vegan cooking was vegan blogs on the internet. I found myself spending vast amounts of time scrolling and drooling over online recipes, and developed an appreciation for the amazing photography that helped to draw me in. So why not start my own? I'll be posting my attempts at trying new recipes, and hopeful someone (as well as myself) will find this ol' blog a little helpful, and at the very least, enjoyable.