I used up the last of my zucchini last night when I whipped up this coffee cake to have for breakfast this morning.  I definitely put the zucchini to good use, though, since it tasted so delicious that my kid even ate a piece.  Of course, she’s not likely to pass up anything with the word “cake” in it.  The cake part is spiced up with some cinnamon and nutmeg and the crumble topping is kicked up with cinnamon, brown sugar and pecans. Perfect for a weekend breakfast.

I made this by combining a half recipe of the zucchini bread with the crumble topping recipe from the coffee cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Does that even make any sense? Didn’t think so…

If you wanted to make this exact coffee cake, prepare half a recipe of the zucchini bread using whole wheat pastry flour and half oil/half applesauce. Pour that batter into a greased 8″ cake pan. Next, prepare the crumble topping recipe from the cinnamon coffee cake and sprinkle on top of your zucchini batter. For the crumble topping, I also used whole wheat pastry flour and half oil/half applesauce. Bake the whole thing at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

I LOVE this book! If you were ever going to invest in one baking book– vegan or otherwise– that’s the one I’d recommend over any other. My one complaint is that the binding totally sucks. You may remember my post about how my original copy of this book completely feel apart… well, the replacement copy that the publisher sent me has also completely fallen apart. When will publishers get smart and publish cookbooks with spiral binding? Doesn’t that make the most sense? And really, this has not happened to any of my other cookbooks. This is the only one that has serious binding issues.

On Sunday, I made a ton-o-batter for french toast, but only had 4 slices of bread. Yesterday, I made another loaf of bread– this time with raisins and cinnamon– and left the slices out overnight to dry out. With my extra batter from the fridge, I had yummy, warm french toast in a matter of minutes!

For a special Sunday morning breakfast, I made some yummy french toast. I made this up as I went along and it turned out so delicious that I thought I’d share the recipe. This recipe makes a lot of batter (probably enough to make an entire loaf of french toast), but since it uses silken tofu which I have no use for aside from french toast batter, I wanted to use the entire container of it. You may want to scale this back if you plan to only make a few slices.

Maple Cinnamon French Toast

1 12 oz. box soft silken tofu (Mori-Nu brand)
3/4 – 1 cup soy milk, or nondairy milk of choice
1/3 cup maple syrup
2-3 tsp cinnamon, use as little or as much as you like
2 tsp maple extract

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and whirl it all together.  Pour into a shallow baking dish.  Heat your skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Coat thick slices of stale bread in the batter, allow the excess to drip off, then place onto the hot skillet.  Cook 3-5 minutes per side or until golden brown.  Serve with extra maple syrup.

Yeah, that’s actually a photo of the last batch of granola I made, but they all look pretty much the same that I thought I’d recycle the photo.  And by “recycle the photo” I mean that I’m too lazy to take another.

For my latest batch of granola, I used the rest of a can of sweet potato puree to moisten it.  I like to use grated apples, pumpkin, etc. to moisten the mix because it lets me significantly cut down on the amount of oil and sugar.  My standard granola recipe:

6 cups oats

2 cuts nuts/seeds

2 cups dried fruit

1/2 cup (or more) flax meal

1/2 cup liquid sweetener of choice

1 cup canned pumpkin, sweet potato (or 4-6 grated apples)

2 TB oil

Spice mixture of your choice

This time, I used sunflower and pumpkin seeds for the nuts; brown rice syrup for the sweetener; 1 cup sweet potato puree; 1 TB blackstrap molasses;  spices: 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves.  Flavorwise, this granola was like a spicy pumpkin tasting granola.  Yummy!!

This a spin on the granola recipe posted here.  The thing I like about granola is that you pretty much throw in whatever you’ve got around the kitchen and it usually turns out delicious.  Since I did change up the recipe some, I’ll post it again here with all the changes.  It’s seriously good… I’ve found myself eating 3 bowls of this a day!  I suppose there are worse things I could be overindulging in, right?! 

Spicy Apple Granola, v. 2

6 cups oats

2 cups mixed nuts and/or seeds (or more), chopped; I used a mix of pecans, almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds

1 cup dried fruit; I used a combo of dates (chopped), cranberries and raisins

1/2 cup flax meal

1/2 cup liquid sweetener (agave, maple syrup, etc); I used brown rice syrup

4 apples, peeled and grated

2 TB canola oil

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Combine all granola ingredients in a large roasting pan.  Mix well to be sure that all oats and nuts are coated in the oil and sweetener.  Bake uncovered for 60 minutes, stirring often.  The granola is done when it is golden brown.

My little one requested waffles for breakfast this morning.  What she meant was frozen waffles, but since we didn’t have any, she had to settle for homemade, from scratch, fresh waffles out of the waffle iron.  She has a tough life. 

I followed this recipe here, but used rice milk in place of soy.  Because rice milk doesn’t have the fat that soy does (and because I find it to be not the best thing to make baked goods with), I increased the oil to 4 TB or 1/4 cup.  These turned out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, just the way waffles are supposed to be.  To some of them, I added some chopped up fresh, organic blueberries.  I make blueberry pancakes all the time, but have never made blueberry waffles and I think I have a new favorite!  They were super yummy.

When Emma was visiting my parents in Sacramento last month, she convinced them that she would enjoy going apple picking.  As I suspected, she became disinterested in apple picking about 30 seconds into the adventure, but still came home with a big box of apples.  I’ve had these apples in my fridge and most are now past the point of being edible unless cooked.  I’m still trying to work out an apple spice cupcake recipe (after 7 failed attempts!), so I will save some for that.  In the meantime, I thought I could whip up a yummy, healthy granola based on a Raw granola recipe that I made and liked a while ago (which I’m not even sure I blogged about).

Another reason for wanting to make granola is that I picked up a carton of coconut milk (product review to come later), and I thought the milk would go great with some granola.  This recipe is great, has no added fats (as in oil or margarine) and is free of refined sugars.  What more could you ask for?!    The spice in this granola is subtle.  If you want more bang in the spice department, add a little more.

Spicy Apple Granola

3 cups oats

1 cup oat bran (sub more oats if you don’t have oat bran)

2 cups oat groats (or more oats)

1 cup shredded coconut (NOT the kind in the baking aisle, the one that is just shredded coconut without any sugar)

1/2 cup flax meal

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1 cup raw pecan pieces

1 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped

1 cup raisins

6 apples, peeled and grated

1/2 cup maple syrup (or agave or liquid sweetener of choice)

1 tsp salt

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  In a very large roasting pan, combine the oats, oat bran, oat groats, coconut, flax, seeds, nuts, and raisins.  Use your hands to combine them well.  Add the grated apples and mix to thoroughly combine.  Drizzle the maple syrup over everything and sprinkle on the salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Stir to combine, being sure that everything is evenly coated with the syrup.  Bake for 60-90 minutes, or until the granola is light brown and crispy stirring every 15-20 minutes.

I made waffles the other morning and they were just so darn yummy!

To make plain waffles, follow my sweet potato waffle recipe and omit the sweet potato. An easy way to make the batter is to use a blender– start by first whipping the flax seeds with the water, then add all of the other wet ingredients. Once the wet ingredients are pretty well mixed, add the dry. Couldn’t be easier!

For a tasty twist, try adding some chocolate chips to the batter.

As you know, I have LOTS of zucchini around here.  I’ve been using it up by making lots of zucchini bread and giving it away or freezing it for later.  Last night, I really wanted to make these chocolate zucchini muffins again, but I wanted it in loaf form because it doesn’t take up so much freezer space, and I was also in the mood for a little experimantation.  So, I took the chocolate zucchini muffin recipe and smooshed it with the zucchini bread recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking and came up with this Chocolate Zucchini Bread hybrid.  And it is soooo delicious!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

(makes 2 loaves)

Wet

2 ripe bananas, mashed well

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 TB white distilled vinegar

2 cups sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

2 tsp vanilla extract

Dry

3 cups flour (I used 1.5 cups whole wheat pastry and 1.5 cups all-purpose)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare 2 loaf pans by spraying them with non-stick spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients and mix well.  In a separate bowl, either sift together the dry ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) or use a whisk to break up any clumps.  Mix everything together well.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  Divide evenly between the 2 loaf pans and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Weird combo, huh? Sweet potatoes in a waffle? Surprisingly, it actually works pretty well. This breakfast project originally started out as banana waffles, but when I remembered that I had an extra (already cooked) sweet potato in the fridge that needed eating, a light went off. I’m always looking for ways to sneak in extra veggies, so this was a perfect combo.  To my amazement, the kiddo actually ate some and liked it!

Sweet Potato Waffles

3 TB ground flax seeds

9 TB water

1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk mixed with 1 1/2 TB apple cider vinegar (I used almond)

1 medium sweet potato, cooked and peeled

2 TB brown sugar

2 TB Earth Balance, melted

2 cups flour (I used half all-purpose and half ww pastry)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

First, mix together the “milk” and vinegar and set aside.  In a food processor, combine the ground flax seeds with the water and process until thick and creamy.  Add the milk, sweet potato, brown sugar and Earth Balance.  Process until completely smooth (no chunks of potato left).

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the wet ingredients from the food processor and stir to combine.  Thin out with a few tablespoons more milk or water if it is too thick.

Cook in a waffle iron according to the manufacturers directions.  I like my waffles extra crispy, so I transfer them to a warm (250 degree or so) oven after removing from the waffle iron.