Vegan Raspberry or Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are super simple to make & turned out delicious!  I made a small batch with blueberries & another small batch with raspberries.  Both turned out equally yummy.  I hope you try them out!

Raspberry or Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup Earth Balance butter or any other vegan butter

1/2 cup crushed berries

1/3 cup white sugar

3/4 cup + 2 tb white flour

1 ts baking powder

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

Makes about two dozen cookies.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Melt butter in a large bowl.

- Mix berries & sugar into the melted butter until thoroughly combined.

- Mix remaining ingredients (minus the chocolate) until thoroughly combined.

- Fold chocolate chips into the dough.

- Scoop about 2 tb of dough per cookie onto cookie sheets & bake for 14 minutes.

Vegan Butternut Squash Bread

Going grocery shopping when you have a hungry tummy is NEVER a good idea - especially when you go to Costco where everything portioned for giants or for a family of ten.  What happens when I go to Costco on an empty stomach?  I end up purchasing almost everything that looks delicious within sight.  This time around my Costco loot included a really large container of pre-cut butternut squash.  It was never on my grocery list but I saw it & my stomach told me I had to have it despite the quantity of squash per container. What do I do with all that squash?  How about bread?  

I love my sweets but I tend to like my level of sweetness to be on the low to mid-range so if that is your level as well then you will absolutely love this bread.  Baked goods are not exactly healthy but I like to rationalize & convince myself that certain baked goods are fine.  Should one eat a chocolate chip cookie?  Well, it has chocolate which has antioxidants & that is good for our bodies.  Should one eat a scone?  Sure, the raspberries in it provide antioxidants, manganese, iron, fiber, & vitamin C! Well, how about butternut squash bread?  Um, yeah!  It has plenty of fiber, magnesium, potassium, as well as vitamins A, C, & E!  Who wouldn't want all that awesome nutrition for your body? 

So let us all make some butternut squash bread to get our nutrition!  

Vegan Butternut Squash Bread

2 & 1/2 cups cooked & pureed butternut squash
1/2 cup canola oil (or butter for vegan-less)
3 tb ground flax seed & 9 tb water (or 3 large eggs for vegan-less)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Lightly grease & flour two loaf pans.

- Beat sugars, oil, flax seed, & water on high for a few minutes until thoroughly combined.

- Add squash & mix on medium-low speed until thoroughly combined.

- Add the remaining ingredients & mix on low speed until thoroughly combined.

- Pour into both loaf pans & bake for about 50 minutes or a toothpick comes out clean.

Spicy Bamboo & Tofu Chow Ho Fun (筍子豆干炒河粉)

I present to you tonight's dinner - 筍子豆干炒河粉!  I have been craving spicy bamboo & tofu so I was originally just going to make a side dish with that but I saw 炒河粉 (rice noodle) at the market & immediately bought it to make a main dish out of the spicy bamboo & tofu.  For those of you who are not familiar with 炒河粉, it is a wide & flat rice noodle.  This noodle is quite versatile & popular in both Cantonese & Mandarin cuisine.  I grew up eating it both ways which are both equally scrumptious.  

筍子豆干炒河粉 - Spicy Bamboo & Tofu Chow Ho Fun

2 cups fresh bamboo shoot, sliced

2 cups Chinese five-spice tofu, sliced

1/2 package chow ho fun (炒河粉)

2 stalks green onion, chopped into 1" in length

1 & 1/2 tb sesame oil

2 tb chili oil

3 tb light soy sauce

- Heat oils & soy sauce on medium low heat in a saute pan.

- Add tofu & bamboo shoot.  Stir until sesame & chili oils are fragrant.

- Add chow ho fun & green onion.  Mix until the noodles are cooked.  You can cook it longer if you'd like some of the noodles slightly crispy.

I love Chinese food!  I grew up eating this cuisine & most dishes are simple to make.   

Vegan Chocolate Mocha Banana Bread

This is my vegan version of banana bread but ingredients can easily be substituted if you prefer dairy & eggs in your baked goods.  

Vegan Chocolate Mocha Banana Bread

4 very ripe medium bananas, peeled & mashed

1/2 cup agave syrup

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tb ground flax seed + 3 tb water (or 1 egg)

1 & 1/2 cup flour

1 ts instant espresso powder

1 & 1/2 ts baking soda

1 ts sea salt

1 cup chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit & lightly grease & flour a loaf pan.

- Mix all wet ingredients together until thoroughly combined.

- Add remaining ingredients except for the chocolate chips & stir until just combined.

- Fold in chocolate chips.

- Pour into the loaf pan & bake for an hour or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or in my case - almost clean as I like mine slightly mushy.

The espresso powder adds depth to the bread & gives me that caffeine kick to start my mornings.

 

Spicy Vegan White Chili

I have been adhering to a vegetarian diet when cooking at home so I have been coming up with different ways of making sure my body has the protein it needs.  My main source of protein has been dairy & tofu.  I absolutely love both but it's about time I venture out to other proteins so here come the beans!  This turned out wonderful & I'd make it again & again because it is easy, delicious & requires few seasonings as most of the flavor comes from the spicy Field Roast sausages.

Spicy Vegetarian White Chili

1/2 cup white beans
1/2 cup pinto beans
4 Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausages, sliced
1/2 cup frozen carrots, cubed
2 cups baby kale
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tb dried parsley
1 ts celery seed
7 cups water
2 & 1/2 cups vegetable broth

- Toss everything into a slow cooker 7-8 hours on low.

See, I told you it's easy!  I love my slow cooker.  Whoever invented it, you're genius!!!

Vegan Sweet Potato & Quinoa Muffins

I'm sure it is quite obvious that I love carbohydrates so I made another attempt to at least put a little bit of "health" into my carbs.  I had a lonely sweet potato that had been left out of my quiche with sweet potato crust so I decided to make vegan sweet potato & quinoa muffins.  *Nomnomnom*  Of course I ended up with left over quinoa so a savory quinoa recipe will follow this one.  

Vegan Sweet Potato & Quinoa Muffins

1 & 1/4 cups wheat flour

2/3 cups brown sugar

1 ts pumpkin spice
1 ts baking powder

1 ts salt
3/4 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup almond milk
1 sweet potato, cooked & mashed (skin discarded)

4 tb Earth Balance spread, melted
2 ts vanilla extract
1 tb canola oil

Topping

1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tb wheat flour
1/2 ts pumpkin spice
2 tb Earth Balance spread, melted 

Makes 12 muffins.

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Combine wheat flour, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, baking powder, & salt in a bowl.

- Thoroughly mix sweet potato, almond milk, Earth Balance spread, vanilla extract, & canola oil in a separate bowl.  

- Slowly mid the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Stir until just combined.

- Fold in cooked quinoa.

- In a separate bowl, combine all the topping ingredients.

- Either grease & flour a muffin pan or use cupcake liners.

- Fill 3/4 of each compartment with the batter & top with the almond topping.

- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Yuuuummmmmm!!!

Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Muffins

Hi, y'all!  Boy, am I glad to be back & connected with the rest of the world!  We've had quite the week up here in the PacNW.  I've been put under house arrest by the weather with snow & ice storms since this past Sunday.  On top of that, we lost electricity for two days & just got it back this morning.  Thank you to all those who braved the dangerous weather conditions to bring it back!  It's been quite the little adventure & being at home without electricity sure does make you think.  It makes you realize how dependent we are on electricity - without it we have no light, heat (unless you have a gas or wood fireplace), television, internet, & etc.  You are basically stripped to the bare necessities - there's no iPad to entertain you or cellphone to connect you with the rest of the world once the batteries run out.  It made me find new ways of entertaining myself & respect generations past that much more.  It is quite a sobering dose of reality to when your neighbors' children end up complaining that they are bored out of their minds with nothing to do because their iPad has run out of batteries or there is no xBox to play games on. 

But on the bright side of having no electricity, a "disaster" such as this definitely brings all the neighbors together.  For the lack of anything better to do, we would all gather & huddle in the center of our street to chat about what's going on in each person's life, how each family is faring with the weather, advise & help one another out with any home concerns (what to do to keep pipes from freezing, how to turn on a gas fireplace & etc), share rumors from the "outside world" dispensed by sporadic contact with loved ones across the world, & etc.  This weather really brought our community together & taught us all to appreciate what we took for granted, like my oven.

I began missing my oven a few hours after the power outage & now I am so glad to have it back that I couldn't wait to whip up some yummy goodness.  During the outage, we had to bury all of our refrigerated & frozen food out in our yards to prevent spoilage.  For the most part, everything fared well & stayed frozen with the exception of our many pints of ice cream (which is another little story in itself) & frozen blueberries.  The blueberries had become quite mushy & most people would probably toss them out but I couldn't bear to toss out my hard labor as I had picked them all during blueberry season last year.  So instead of tossing them out, I decided to attempt to save them & make blueberry lemon oatmeal muffins.  I have another gallon bag of blueberries left so I will probably make jam out of them but I'll save that for another day.  Anyway, the muffins are vegan & healthy & turned out really scrumptious!  I used a little less almond milk than called for in the recipe since the mushy blueberries were already leaking out its juices.  

Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup almond milk (I used a little over 3/4 cup due to melted blueberries)
2 tb flax seed powder
2 tb applesauce  

1 ts grated lemon peel
1 ts vanilla

1 & 31/2 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tb baking powder
1 cup blueberries (Preferably fresh or frozen)

 

Makes 12 muffins.

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Line muffin pan with cupcake liner or grease pan.

- Combine almond milk, flax seed powder, applesauce, grated lemon peel, & vanilla in a large bowl.

- Add remaining ingredients, minus the blueberries, & mix well.

- Gently fold blueberries into the batter.

- Fill each cupcake liner with the batter such that it is no more than 3/4 full.

- Bake for about 20 minutes.




Doesn't it look absolutely divine?

Almond-Quinoa Muffins

I bought the Veganomicon book a couple of months ago and came across a recipe for almond-quinoa muffins yesterday.  It intrigued me quite a bit because I adore quinoa so I thought I'd give it a whirl and see how it turns out.  The muffins didn't puff up as much as I thought they would but that's okay.  The texture was good (if you don't mind quinoa) and are really moist.  However, I wish I had added another 1/4 cup of apricots to make the muffins sweeter - maybe next time around.  Here's the recipe for anyone else who wants to try it.  Let me know what you think!

Almond-Quinoa Muffins

1 cup vanilla soy milk (I used almond milk)

1 tb ground flaxseeds

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/2 ts vanilla extract

1 & 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup almond meal

1 & 1/2 ts baking powder

1/2 ts salt

1/2 ts ground cinnamon

1/2 ts ground cardamom

1 & 1/4 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots (I'm using 3/4 cup next time)

Makes a dozen.

- Preheat oven to 350F and grease muffin pan.

- Whisk together soy milk and flaxseed.  Allow to sit for 1 minute.

- Whisk in oil, agave nectar and vanilla.

- Add flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt, and spices and mix until just incorporated.

- Gently fold in cooked quinoa and apricots.

- Pour batter into muffin tin & bake for 21 minutes.

Almost Vegan Bolognese

I take my dog out a few times a day to allow her to eliminate and for us both to exercise but boy, it's been hard getting the time when it's just extremely cold out.  The photo above was taken during one of our daily walks.  When it's cold this cold, something hearty is always good for my tummy.  I've also been missing veggies over the holidays so I decided to try the "Bomb-Diggity 'Bolognese'" recipe I saw in the January/February 2011 issue of Women's Health magazine.  It looked like it had a large variety of veggies and they are all veggies that I absolutely love!  The recipe is actually vegan but I decided to forego tempeh and used egg noodles instead.  Yum for egg noodles!  This recipe is extremely easy to make and it tasted D-E-LICIOUS!  I just might have to put this recipe into my go-to recipe box. 

Vegan Bomb-Diggity "Bolognese" - Jan/Feb 2011 Women's Health Magazine

Makes about 4 servings.

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/2 package tempeh, crumbled (I decided to forego this)

1/4 cup red wine

1/2 zucchini, diced

1 eggplant, peeled and diced

1 carrot, chopped

1 tb chopped fresh basil

1 tb chopped Italian parsley

12 oz tomato sauce

1 ts dried oregano

1 ts dried rosemary, chopped

1/4 ts red pepper flakes

- In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high and saute onion and garlic for approximately 5 minutes.

- Add mushrooms and tempeh to the skillet.

- Add the red wine and add salt and pepper to taste.

- Add zucchini, eggplant, carrot, basil, and parsley; stir well to combine and cook about 10 minutes until veggies soften up.

- Add tomato sauce and stir.  Sprinkle in the remaining ingredients (oregano, rosemary and red pepper flakes).  Cook another 5 minutes or so.
- Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

It not only looked delightful, it tasted that way as well.  Thank you Olivia Wilde for sharing this recipe with Women's Health.