Just a quick quote..

Sorry, no food as of yet, but come tommorw my exange student will be here and we will be eating all sorts of amazing things! But for now, here is some food for thought (in the form of some of my favorite quotes)

 

One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.  ~Henry David Thoreau

(this one is kind of gory)

Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh?  For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived.  How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb?  How could his nose endure the stench?  How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?  ~Plutarch

The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
~ Jeremy Bentham (philosopher, 1748 -1832)

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.
~ Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Prize-winning novelist, 1904 - 1991)

Brunch ideas for vegans, vegetarians, carnivores and Germans alike?

So, I will have an exchange student from Germany saying with me for 3 weeks comes Thursday, and we are making brunch for us, and my friends family with a exchange student too. I was wondering what kind of ideas you have for Brunch? My we will have 1 vegan (muah) 2 vegetarians (my friend and my exchange partner) 1 semi-veg (my friends exchange partner) and 4 omnivores (parents).

I want to come up with something cool, but also fool proof  

Let me know what you think!

Apology Muffins :(

So, I messed up. I told my friend I might be able to go to an art museum in another town this weekend (after I told him I couldn’t last weekend) then, said yes, but my parents took it back and said no and 10:30 the night before. Then, today, we were going to go volunteer downtown, and I completely spaced and wasn’t awake when he came to pick me up this morning. for the 2nd week in a row. (Sorry!) So…because I am such a BIG FAT LOSER, I am making some apology muffins. Raspberry Lime with a hint of guilt baked in. because, I am such a BIG FAT LOSER.

Mini muffins because I made so many muffins I ran out of full size muffin pans.

Zested, juiced, beat up limes. because I deserve to be this lime.

Finished product.

I ended up with a ton, of muffins. It was crazy.

But anyway, here is the original recipe, and my version. (doubled)

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=21583.0

Raspberry Lime Muffins
Ingredients (use vegan versions):
    4 cups all-purpose flour
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 teaspoon salt
    zest of 2 limes
    1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
    2 cup soy milk
    2/3 cup applesauce
    5 tablespoons lime juice
    2 tablespoons white vinegar
    1 cup raspberries and 1 cup blueberries (fresh is better, but frozen works)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. Grease muffin tin. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and lime zest. In a medium bowl combine sugar, soy milk, oil, lime juice, and vinegar. Mix well. Add to flour mixture. Stir until just blended. Pour half of the batter into another bowl. Gently fold in raspberries into one half. Fold in blueberries to the other half. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes for full size muffins or 10 minutes for mini muffins or until toothpick inserted into muffins comes out clean.  Remove from oven. Let sit for 10 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack. Yield: around 24- 30 muffins
Preparation time: 30 minutes

 

Amy’s Brown Rice and Vegetables

So I ate such a good bowl from Amy’s foods tonight I have to share it with y’all.

http://www.amys.com/products/product-detail/bowls/000161

This bowl was really good, I was surprised. Usually frozen meals are mushy and runny and flavorless, but this one was well cooked, not runny at all, and very flavorful. I would definitely recommend this bowl.

I’ve had the Indian Matar Tofu one and it wasn’t quite as good but still decent. The Tofu scramble pockets are really good. The black beans and curry burritos are good with a lot of salsa, because they are kind of dry. But anyway, I just wanted y’all to know how good this was!

Pumpkin Bread

After the first Monday back to school after Spring Break, I decided to make some pumpkin bread.

Here is the original recipe from No-Meat-Athlete

http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegan-pumpkin-bread/

But here is my version:

Pumpkin Spice Bread Recipe

3 tbs ground flaxseed

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium banana)

2 cups fresh pumpkin puree

3 cups white flour

1 tsp each cinnamon, fresh nutmeg,

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together the flaxseed and water until thickened.
Combine flax mixture in a large bowl with sugar, applesauce, banana, and pumpkin.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Lightly grease loaf pans.  Divide into two regular 8 inch loaf pans or four mini loaf pans.  [Bake the large loaves for about 55 minutes and the smaller loaves for about 40 minutes.  Let sit for 20 minutes before removing from pan.] (But mine were done in about 40 minutes for two big loaves, so check often!)

Hummus and Albino Bison…

So, my boyfriend and I went to a Middle Eastern place for dinner the other night, and of course, he is not a vegan, and has never really eaten anything super ethnic before. unfortunately , he wasn't’ a super big fan, but I was; so we’ll see about this.

However,(now for something completely different) on a college road trip this weekend we ran into some…White Buffalo.

Isn’t that cool?

I just learned using the occasionally reliable internet resource Wikipedia, that they can be part cow, albino, or have some sort of genetic thing.

Anyway… I’ll end on a vegan note. At Western State College we ate in their new cafeteria, where I managed to find a veggie sandwich. Which was pretty good. I’ve managed to find vegan food at all the colleges I’ve been to, although some advertise it more than others. I think though, that colleges should focus a tad bit more on anyone with diet restrictions, whether gluten-free or vegan or raw. But not to bad, overall.

 

Cookies!

Here are my favorite cookies. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted them before, but their soo good.

 

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (original recipe here http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6391.0)
Ingredients:

    2 cups unbleached flour
    1 teaspoons baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon salt
     handful vegan chocolate or carob chips
    1 cup raw sugar
    1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    1/4 cup water
Directions:
1. Very important-make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. It will work if they're not at room temp but it works much better if they are. Also while your oven is pre-heating put the cookie sheets you are going to use on top of the oven so they get preheated as well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in chips. Make a well in the center and set aside. In a medium size bowl, add together sugar and oil; mix well. 
3. Add the vanilla and then add the water; mix well.  Add the wet to the well in the dry. Mix it well but be careful not to overwork it.  Add more chips if you need to. 
4. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Put them in the oven.  Bake for 12 minutes Take them out when they are done and move them to wire cooling racks. If they split or come apart when you try to remove them let them sit on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring them to the racks.
Serves: almost 2 dozen; Preparation Time: 10 minutes; Cooking Time: 10 to 12 minutes

Tofu Chili

I apologize for not posting lately. I haven’t been very motivated. Maybe comments would motivate? :) but anyway, here is the Chili I made tonight.   oh and some cornbread. and there was some rice and sweet potato fries too.

a variation of a Whole Foods Chili Recipe

1 14 oz package tofu, drained and pressed

2 tbsp olive oil

2-4 tbsp chopped sun dried tomatoes, with oil from jar if using the oil marinated kind

1/2 onion

2 c. corn and/or 1 can beans of your choice (I used Black-eyed Peas)

1 1/2 c. vegetable broth

1 15 oz can white beans, drained

1 15ish oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes

14 oz tomato sauce

1 tbsp chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

 

To Make:

Press the tofu and crumble, set aside.

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, sun dried tomatoes, and corn (if using) and cook for about 5 minutes. Add broth, beans, crumbled tofu, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until hot and flavors have blended. Serve.

Happy New Year!

  For the trip to see family this year I made Chocolate Vanilla Swirl cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. Which were fantastic. Get that cookbook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge from this page.

http://sweetbeetandgreenbean.net/2009/02/16/chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge/

Here is my version

chocolate peanut butter fudge
1/2 c earth balance (or other vegan margarine)
4 c powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c soy milk
1/3 c peanut butter
1/2 c dark chocolate chips

Double Boiler: a bowl on top of a pot. if you have one, use it in this recipe, if not, after putting water in a medium pot and setting the heat to high, put a bowl that fits the pot on top.

 

1. Heat the double boiler. Once boiling, add earth balance, vanilla extract and soy milk to the bowl and stir occasionally until melted.

2. Slowly sift in 3 cups of the powdered sugar while stirring so that you don’t have any clumps.

3. Divide the sugar/butter mixture in half and transfer half to another bowl. The half left in the double boiler will be the PB half.

4. Add the peanut butter and 1/2 c. powdered sugar to the butter/sugar mixture and stir until melted.

5. Grease a shallow 8x8 pan and pour the peanut butter mixture in the bottom. Put in the refrigerator until the chocolate is ready.

6. Pour the remaining butter/sugar mixture back into the double boiler. Add the chocolate chips and remaining 1/2 c. powdered sugar and stir until melted.

7. Take the pan out of the fridge and pour the chocolate on top. Smooth with a spoon and return to fridge to set for a couple hours before cutting,

I made just a slight modification with the powdered sugar. It was really good!

.

 

Scones!

Here is a scone from 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes that I made tonight, because we went to tea today ( a family tradition) and of course, the scones weren't vegan, so I made some of my own!

But here is my wrap I had today. It was pretty good, and obnoxiously large. :)

We got this Peach Vanilla tea, it was soooo good. Definitely one of my favorites.

I would post pictures of the other stuff, but it was all meaty, and you guys don’t want to look at that.

 

 

 

Here is another scone to wrap it up.

Cheese Grits

First of all, Festive Christmas Fruit and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Somehow I managed to eat all of Christmas dinner without taking a single picture. Sorry.

However, I must say, Vegan Cheese Grits rock. My grandpa used Diaya (how do you pronounce this by the way?) and Earth Balance and it was fantastic! If you ever have the urge to make cheese grits, do it.

Here’s the recipe

http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/recipes/recipe-detail.aspx?recipeId=919

Adapted from this one (its on the back of those grits)

Cheese Grits

2 cups water

1/2 cup quick grits

4 oz (or one half package) Diaya

Dash of Chili Powder

Salt to taste

To Make:

Bring the water to a boil and slowly stir in the grits. Return to a boil then reduce heat to medium low and cook 4-5 minutes or until thickened up. Add diaya and stir while it melts (it does, I promise!) (about 2-3 minutes) then add salt and chili powder. Stir.

Just some back story on Grits.

They are made by grinding dried corn kernels and are pretty much the same as italian polenta. Yellow grits are from the whole kernel and white grits are from kernels that have been treated with baking soda to remove the hull.

It is Georgia’s official prepared food.

 

Anyway, I hope you make some cheese grits and realize how good they are!

Misc. and JENNY Bars!

Here’s some stuff my mom made the other night, some soup and a rice salad? It was really good whatever it was.

 

 

Also, here is the vegan Biscuits and Gravy I got on finals week that I said I would post. Just had to get all those miscellaneous pictures out of the way.

But now for what this post is really about. JENNY Bars, named after the person I am giving them to in a style of a certain date filled bar.

 

I finally came up the recipe, that could still use some fine tuning, but is pretty dang good.

Here is what I’ve got.

the regular flavor? (help me come up with a name for this one)

1 cup whole dates

1 cup dried cherries

2 tbsp water

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup whole almonds

To Make: (This is the important part)

 

1. Using a food processor, chop the almonds until fine, but not a powder. Remove from processor.

 

2.  Chop cherries in the processor until small, almost a mush, remove.

3. If you have really large dates, chop into pieces. If not, throw them in the processor with the water and lemon juice and mash until there are few chunks left.

4. Put all ingredients into a separate bowl and mix until thoroughly combined (what I found is that you cant do this is the food processor because it just turns into a big ball and spins around)

5. Spread evenly in the bottom of a pan/container. I used a glass Tupperware type thing.

Its probably about 9x5 inches? Ill get an exact measurement for you on that.

6. Freeze for about an hour. Remove from freezer and cut into bars, then use a spatula to remove.

I’ll get a lemon flavor up tomorrow. Tell me what you think!

VeganDad's Thai Chickpea Curry with Thai Basil

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2010/08/thai-chickpea-curry-with-thai-basil.html

I tried out this recpie tonight and it was FANTASTIC. yeah, it deserved all caps.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 19 oz can chick peas, rinsed and drained
- 1 14 oz can coconut milk
- red curry paste to taste
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock (more if needed)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 cups frozen mixed veggies (I used an Asian mix of carrots, beans, mini corn, edamame and snow peas)
- 1 cup Thai basil leaves
- salt and white pepper to taste
- cooked jasmine rice
METHOD
1. Pulse chickpeas in a food processor until they resemble very rough bread crumbs. Set aside.
2. Separate coconut cream from the watery part. Bring to bubbling in a large pot over medium high heat, then add pulsed chickpeas. Cook for 2 mins, stirring, then add curry paste and ginger, blending well.
3. Add the rest of the coconut milk and the stock and bring to bubbling. Add sugar, soy, and veggies and bring to bubbling again. Reduce heat and simmer until veggies are cooked. Add more stock if too thick. Season to taste.
4. Add basil and mix well. Let basil wilt a bit, but do not overcook. Serve over rice. I put the rice in a ring and pressed a depression in the centre so it could hold the sauce.

 

 

It didn’t take excessively long, and you made it while the rice cooks so it all came out at the same time! I used quite a bit of Thai Curry Paste, and the only thing I would change is to reduce the sugar to maybe a quarter cup.  Also, I made 2 cups of rice (dry rice) and that turned out about right for the amount of curry it made.

I (don’t) love High School finals week!

So, its finals week, which is why I haven’t posted in a while. I’m sorry :(

But to make up for it, my Dad made me finals breakfast, on Wensday he made Oatmeal and Cinnamon Toast, nothing to see there, yesterday was the banana walnut wafffles  (walnut waffles? walnutnutnut wafwafwafwafles { that was song}) from Veganomicon. They were pretty dang good. I would recommend them.

Then, up tomorrow is Vegan Biscuits and Gravy, oh yeah.

Thankfully I have all this wonderful healthful vegan sustenance to nourish me because I have somehow come down with a virus that had made me lose my voice( except for the occasional whisper) and it really sucks because my band is playing a show on saturday, and I really want to sing backup vocals, because I would be way cool, but no…freaking virus.

But anyway, check the next post for Thai Curry from VeganDad

Apple Cinnamon Bread!

Here is what I’m making at this exact moment. Check it out its my new recipe.

Apple Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1+1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 c. dried apples

1/4 c. oil

1/4 c applesauce

1/2 c milk

1/2 –3/4 cup sugar (personal preference)

- I actually did 1/4 c. each agave nectar, brown sugar, and white sugar. The 3/4 cup made it pretty sweet, so 1/2 would work just fine.

Brown sugar and cinnamon mixture to top

To Make:

Preheat over to 350F

Combine Dry Ingredients( Flour, soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, sugar and salt) in a large bowl and mix. Combine apples, oil, applesauce, and milk in a separate bowl and mix. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix. Pour 1/2 of the batter into a bread pan, cover with your desired amount of brown sugar and cinnamon mixture, than pour on the rest of the batter. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.

Chocolate Chip Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

I took these to school today for a class, and as usual, the people who haven’t had my cookies before go, “They’re vegan? *uncertain face*” While the people who have had them before go strait for them and eat not less than 2. :)

Here is a variation on a recipe I use all the time

Chocolate Chip Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup raw sugar

1/2 c. canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. water

vegan chocolate chips

1 cup oats

1/2 cup or to taste dried cherries’

To make:

Preheat oven to 350

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl

In another bowl mix sugar and oil. Add vanilla. Add water. Mix. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and then pour the wet into it. Mix but do not over work the dough. Add the oatmeal and mix. Then add the cherries and chocolate chips. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until they are cooked but still soft. They will harden A LOT while they cool. Unless you want really crispy cookies, don’t leave them in for too long.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Ok, so that was kind of a fail the last week of MoFo…sorry ‘bout that. School overwhelmed me and then I didn’t cook anything for a while. *ashamed face* But this will make up for it!!

 

Did anyone else get Butternut squash along with a whole bunch of unnamable gourds that you don't know what to do with?

Yeah, me too.

To make this I
1. Preheated the over to 375 F

2.Drizzled olive oil, salt and a herb mixture (rosmary, thyme, etc.) over it, to taste.

3. Roasted until tender.

It was quite good. I have to admit.

now, we get down and dirty

So if you scroll down a little bit you will see the original pecan pie I made, but here is my version, which is much better.

Pecan Pie

PIE CRUST

1 c. unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoons cold water

1/4 c. + 2 tbsp vegetable shortening

FILLING

2/3 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 c. maple syrup

1/6 c. Earth Balance (go ahead and guesstimate here)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups pecans

1 tbsp golden or brown flax meal (Bob’s Red Mill sells this)

To make:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

1. To make the Pie Crust: Stir the flour and salt together in a bowl. Add shortening in small dollops and ‘cut’ with a pastry cutter or a fork. Which means to press and separate the shortening into the flour. Keep cutting the shortening until all of it had been used and they mixture is flaky. Add water until just moist enough to hold together. Make sure not to add too much water without mixing and then having to add more flour. That’s no good.

2. Flour a cutting board/baking tray and place your dough on the surface with floured hands. Flour your rolling pin and then roll to less then 1/8 in thickness, or enough to fit whatever pie place your using.

3. To flip into pie pan, place pan on top of the dough, then flip the whole board over and unstick the dough. It should fall right into the tray. rearrange the dough so it is evenly spaced all around. To crimp the edges, pinch the edges with your fingers while pressing in to make a peak shape and repeat around the edge.

4. Place pecans into the pie crust and bake for 20 minutes.

5. In a medium saucepan combine Corn Syrup, Maple Syrup, and Butter. Melt and stir. When melted, add vinilla, cinnamon, and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes over medium-low heat and remove from heat. Add flax meal and whisk well. Pour mixture over now baked pecans.

6. Bake at 350 for 30 more minutes. (Make sure to put a baking sheet under the pie, especially at high altitude because their prone to boil over) Remove and allow to cool before cutting.

 

and then my grandma made chocolate cupcakes and I made icing, both from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

and vegan whipped cream! Whoop!

So I hope you’ve enjoyed and had a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Thanksgiving Post-a-thon

Thanksgiving was delicious. We had our Colorado extended family over, and made 5 pies, dressing, cranberry sauce, I roasted a tofurkey, mashed potatoes, homemade bread, chocolate cupcakes, and more. It was good. We had a vegan pecan, round 2, a vegan and non vegan pumpkin, a cherry, and a apple. All the vegan ones were pretty good and the pecan pie turned out much better this time.

Let’s Break it down.

The Tofurkey. It was quite good. I roasted it with some vegetables and ate it with some musroom gravy. Here is the recipe.

Mushroom Gravy

8 oz. mushrooms(Shiitake, Portobello, Brown, or White)

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup white flour

2 tbsp oil

4 cups vegetable broth

1tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp black pepper

salt, to taste

1 pinch sage

Sauté the mushrooms in the 1 1/2 tbsp oil until brown and soft. While sautéing add 2c stock and flour heat over medium heat. Whisk vigorously to avoid the flour clumping. When mixed and boiling, add the other 2 c. broth. Stir until well mixed, then add salt, soy sauce, sage, and pepper. When thickened and clear of lumps, add mushrooms. Stir and serve.

 

Mashed Potatoes. I’ll be posting a follow up post on how to make mashed potatoes soon. Check it out!

Sweet Potatoes. Which I don’t have the recipe for. Sorry!

Corn bread dressing. The BEST THING EVER. Maybe one day I can learn the secrets of this recipe.  

Cranberry Sauce. It was just the recipe on the package. Nothing special.

Cranberry Tangerine Relish. Also very good.

 

Almond butter stuffed celery sticks and homemade bread.

and that is why I went running this morning.

Thanksgiving Day 1

Here’s the Pumpkin Pie I made today.
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9598
 

and it made to much filling, so I put some in custard cups and baked it.
Homemade bread all wrapped up and waiting for tomorrow.
Sorry it is all plastic wrapped, it won't be tomorrow and I'll put up better pictures!




I also got one of those stuffed Tofurkeys' this year, so you will soon see a review of that. And soy whipped cream, and a better vegan pecan pie. and bread! and cranberry sauce, and apple pie. and stuff. :)
Happy Thanksgiving!!!