For breakfast yesterday, I made some oatmeal. Amanda insists on feeding herself, so I gave her a bowl and let her go to town. She managed to get quite a bit in her mouth… and in her hair… and all over the place. So today I got smart and baked it! I’ve made these once before, but was too lazy to blog about it. I love this recipe so much that I feel bad not sharing.

If you’ve never had baked oatmeal, it’s really quite good. It turns out fluffy and dense, sort of like an oatmeal muffin, and you can flavor it with whatever you want. Check out Chocolate Covered Katie for the recipe. I did change up her recipe a bit just to make it work with what I had. Here’s what I did:

• Quadrupled the recipe (and used certified GF oats).
• Used 1 large ripe banana and 1 small sweet potato (both mashed up) in place of the pumpkin/applesauce.
• Omitted the vanilla. Not for any good reason, except that I just didn’t feel like putting any in.
• Used maple syrup as the sweetener. Didn’t measure, just poured some in.
• Used rice milk.
• Added a generous amount of coconut oil.
• Mix-ins: raisins and shredded coconut.
• Spice: added pumpkin pie spice, about a teaspoon.

I only have 1/2 cup ramekins and used 5 to bake the quadrupled recipe. I plan to freeze some of the leftovers to have on hand just in case I get caught with no baby-friendly foods around.

So I missed a day, but I did actually start this post yesterday.  I was just too busy to finish it.  I do have some good news to share:  Amanda is feeling better and it turns out she just has a cold.  Her lab work came back negative for any of the major viruses that cause the flu.  The best part is that she slept well last night, which means I actually got some sleep.  It was nice!

In my last post, I said I was going to make muffins and I actually got it done!  I ended up making LOTS of mini muffins because I like to save some to stash away in the freezer for Emma’s lunches or for snacking on when we’re low on snacks.  Besides that, when you’re making muffins, it’s not that much more work to make a double recipe– it’s certainly less work than making a single recipe on two separate days, right?  I like to think so.  My doubled recipe made about 5 dozen mini muffins.

I’ve been making lots of variations of this muffin recipe lately and it’s served me well.  I can change it up a bunch of different ways and it has always turned out great.  Use fruit in place of the veggies, add some dried fruit, change the up the spices– the possibilities here are endless.  The only fruit I wouldn’t try in this recipe are bananas.  While I’ve never tried bananas here and can’t say for sure how it would turn out, I can say that I’ve never had luck making banana bread or muffins when the recipe uses vegetable or canola oil as the oil.  The best banana bread I’ve made uses vegan margarine.

Spicy Carrot Zucchini Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/16 tsp mace

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup non-dairy milk

1/3 cup oil (or half oil, half applesauce)

1 TB vinegar

1 cup carrots, grated

1 cup zucchini, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper liners.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and spices.

3.  In a large bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and the carrots and zucchini.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir well.

4.  Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake.  Mini muffins take about 10 minutes.  Regular size muffins take about 15.

Friday is our turn to bring snacks to Emma’s preschool and she wants to take muffins.  I’ll be making an apple cinnamon batch of these tomorrow and will post that recipe variation.  Enjoy!

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!!

(I am still without a camera after breaking mine, so you’ll have to settle for this crappy phone pic.  Sorry!  A new camera should be mine soon.)

A good use up for all that zucchini you’ve probably got this summer… we were having a few playdates and I thought it would be fun to bring some “healthy” brownies.  Sure, there’s better ways of sneaking veggies into your kids, but when you’re making a treat, isn’t it an added bonus to make them with vegetables?  I think so.  I’ve never made these brownies before and was super skeptical when I was making the batter, but they turned out really delicious.  The batter will be incredibly dry, almost crumbly, but it will bake up fine.  These zucchini brownies are awesome!  Next time, I will add some vegan chocolate chips to the batter.

I was chatting with a friend the other day and she mentioned that she was shopping around for a popcorn popper.  Confused, I asked her why she would need such a thing.  She explained that the microwave stuff has BPA in it, or something else not good for you.  I agree with that, but I still don’t understand the need for a popcorn popper.

I’m all about kitchen gadgets, don’t get me wrong, but the popcorn popper is one gadget that I just can’t fathom purchasing.  Unlike the food processor or blender, a popcorn popper only serves one purpose– making popcorn.  Call me old fashioned, but I like to make my popcorn in a big ol’ soup pot right on the stove.  It’s so super easy that I thought I’d take a minute to describe the process here to people who may not know how easy it is.

1. Take the biggest soup pot you’ve got and put it on the stove at medium-high heat.  On my stove, I do this at 5, with 6 being the next hottest before “high” which I would use to boil water.  You want it pretty hot, but not so hot that it burns the kernels.
2. Drizzle about a TB of oil in the bottom.  You don’t need much.
3. Sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 cup of kernels in the bottom of the pot.  Try to get them to land in a single layer, if  you can.
4. Put the lid on it!  This is pretty important or you’ll have a mess on your hands.
5. Wait til you hear some popping, then give the pot a little shake.  When the popping has stopped or slowed down considerably, remove from heat.
6. Remove the lid and top with your favorite toppings or seasonings.  We like popcorn salt on ours (it’s a finer grain than regular salt and sticks better to the popcorn).  I’ve also read that some people like nutritional yeast on theirs for a cheezy taste.
7. Enjoy!

It’s really that easy!  And you don’t have to pull out some heavy piece of machinery to get it all done.  Popcorn is one of Emma’s favorite snacks and I feel good giving it to her when I’ve made it myself, know exactly what’s in it and where it all came from.  Besides that, it’s SO cheap!  I buy the kernels from the bulk bin at Whole Foods at something like $2 per pound (hey, the organic stuff is a little more expensive than the Jiffy Pop), but this is one snack where you can get a lot of bang for your buck.  A $2 pound of kernels makes A TON of popcorn.

What’s your favorite way to make popcorn?

Every now and again, I’ll pick up a Cliff Bar for Emma to snack on while we’re out and about.  She loves ‘em!  They don’t seem like they would be difficult to make, so I decided to give it a try and they turned out pretty good.

Homemade Cliff Bars

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

3 cups oats, divided

1/2 cup almonds (raw)

1/2 cup walnuts (raw)

1/2 cup peanuts (roasted)

1/2 cup seeds – I used a combo of roasted sesame, roasted flax and roasted pumpkin

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1/3 cup almond butter

1 cup pumpkin butter

1 1/2 TB pumpkin pie spice

1 TB vanilla

1 cup raisins

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup rice milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a food processor, coarsely grind 2 cups of the oats with all of the nuts and seeds.  Transfer to a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.  You want enough liquid so that the mixture holds together, but not so much that it’s soggy.  Form into patties (or whatever shape you want) and put on the baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes.

A note:  If you are leaving out the pumpkin butter, consider adding more sweeteners (like brown sugar, sucanat, or more brown rice syrup).  1/2 a cup of one of these ought to do it.

My parents came over yesterday to deliver Emma’s “big girl bed” (no more crib!) and I made this snack tray to munch on.

Yummy, yummy!  From the top:  raw almonds, apple slices, green beans (blanched), carrots, cucumbers, Easy Peanut Sauce from Vegan Lunch Box, Fuyu persimmons, edamame.

Since it was rainy here, we stayed inside pretty much all day and had a movie afternoon.  I’ve never seen anyone eat popcorn the way Emma can eat popcorn, so I had to make some for us to munch on during the movie.  Emma chose “Sandra Dee” for us to watch (aka Grease) and I was surprised that she actually sat through a good part of it.  More surprising was the amount of popcorn she ate– probably more than Matt and I combined!

I don’t really like cooking things in the microwave, nor do I like “weird” ingredients in my food.  For these reasons, I buy regular popcorn kernels in the bag and pop it myself on the stove.  This is actually easier than you might think– put a little cooking oil in the bottom of a big soup pot (I use Earth Balance to impart a slightly buttery flavor), put a single layer of kernels in the bottom, put the lid on and crank the heat to medium-high.  That’s it!  When the majority of the kernels have popped, I sprinkle on a little sea salt.

In honor of World Vegan Day, I decided to make something a little special.  Of course, we had one bowl of plain popcorn for you-know-who.  For our special treat, I made a caramel popcorn snack mix, which was pretty much a deconstructed popcorn ball.  I used the caramel recipe from Vegan Lunch Box (for making the popcorn ball recipe), which is a mixture of brown sugar, brown rice syrup and water.  After boiling for 5 minutes, I drizzled it over a mixture of popcorn, dried apples, dried cranberries and peanuts that I had spread out on a baking sheet.  Toss to coat and refrigerate to harden the caramel.  When it had cooled down, I added in some vegan chocolate chips, but this, to me, really overdid it and made it way to sweet.  Otherwise, it was really good and not-too-unhealthy.

I was in the mood for a smoothie this morning and I had a peach that had seen better days, so this is what I came up with:

Fruity Smoothie

1 cup apple juice (or more if the blender needs more liquid)

1 peach (skin and all)

1/2 cup mango chunks

1 cup frozen banana chunks

1 cup kale, stems removed

Put everything into the blender and let ‘er rip. This was SO delicious!

Emma’s second birthday party was this past Saturday. To celebrate, we had a very tasty vegan feast of Spinach, Walnut and White Bean Phyllo Bites adapted from ED&BV, my corn and black bean salsa, a tray of watermelon and honeydew, and a veggie platter with hummus and pita.

I used the filling recipe from ED&BV for the phyllo bites. The only change is that I made small phyllo cups to put the filling in as opposed to making rolls. To make your own phyllo cups, you can read this previous post to learn how. These are really, really tasty, but started to get a little dried out towards the end of the party.

I pretty much followed my recipe for the corn and black bean salsa exactly, but I added red peppers for something a little different. This turned out a little more beany than usual, but I think I liked it better that way. Here is the recipe that I followed exactly and it made a huge batch. You will probably want to scale it back a bit. Aside from the cake, it was the biggest food hit at the party:

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

6 cups frozen corn kernals

3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

2 green bell peppers, diced

2 red bell peppers, diced

3 jalapeño peppers, minced

2 medium red onions, diced

3 tomatoes, lightly seeded and diced

juice of about 7 limes

1/2 cup jarred salsa

1 cup chopped cilantro

S&P to taste

Put all of the veggies (except the tomatoes) on a tray, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and stick under the broiler until they start to char. You may have to do this in a couple of batches depending on how much you are making and the size of your tray. In a large bowl, put the beans, tomatoes and broiled veggies and stir to combine. Add the lime juice, S&P, salsa and cilantro. Give it a taste and adjust the seasoning, if needed. Don’t be afraid of the jalapeño peppers– the salsa turned out extremely mild and I think I will add more next time for a little kick.

The veggie platter was super simple. I took some baby carrots, sliced cucumber, and celery and served that with some pita and 3 kinds of hummus (store bought). The hummus went quickly and I wish I would have bought at least 3 tubs of each kind.

Sadly, watermelon season hasn’t hit yet. I won’t tell you how much the watermelon cost, but I will warn you all to save your money until it warms up a bit more. Our watermelon was a little disappointing– good, but not as sweet as the ones you can find in the middle of summer. The honeydew, on the other hand, was outta sight! I should have bought 2 honeydew instead of the watermelon.  Oh well!

And lastly, a vegan chocolate birthday cake. I’d love to take credit for this, but I ended up ordering it from Whole Foods. I don’t particularly care for Whole Foods, but I didn’t know where else to go for a vegan cake that would be big enough to serve 30 people. Aside from my wedding cake, this was the most expensive cake I have ever bought in my life. Next year, I think we’ll just have vegan cupcakes now that I have Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (thanks, Amy! I can’t wait to try out some recipes). The birthday cake was very good and everyone enjoyed it, but I don’t know that I would ever spend that kind of money again. Since I was making all the rest of the food, there was no way that I could have made a cake too.  And I definitely couldn’t have made one that gorgeous!

Emma had the best time with her friends at her party. Thank you so much to everyone who came and for all of the fun gifts!