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.

My good friend hosted a baby shower for me yesterday.  Actually, it was more of a “Big Sister” party for my 4-year-old to get her excited about her baby sis.  Everything was completely vegan and I don’t think any of the guests actually noticed.

I only took photos of the cake and favors, but here’s a list of the snacks we had (it was an afternoon party, so no need for a full meal): pretzels, popcorn, chips with guac and salsa, pita chips with hummus, veggie platter with dip (veg soup mix stirred into Tofutti sour cream), olives, and bruschetta with sundried tomato pesto and sauteed portobellas.  Everything was really good!

The cake.  Top tier was zucchini with vegan cream cheese frosting; bottom tier was chocolate/chocolate.

This time, I took a video of the cake, which I’ve never done before. I should do this more often. (YouTube is in the process of doing an audio swap so that you hear music with it instead of my kiddo’s chattering. I don’t know how long this will take, but hopefully it will be done soon.):

And here’s the favors. Lemon cupcakes frosted like flowers and topped with gum paste butterflies. I boxed these up the day before and by the party time, the butterflies had melted into the frosting. This has happened to me before and it wasn’t totally unexpected, but I wouldn’t have had the time to box them up the day of the party. While these cupcake boxes are attractive, they are a pain in the rear end to put together. I had all of the lids and bottoms pre-assembled, but it still took me over an hour to box up and all of the cupcakes. I was thankful that I only had 16 to do. I would definitely not recommend these for wedding favors or something, unless you’re paying someone else to do it for you. (BTW, the butterflies softened I think due to the moisture from the cupcake from being enclosed. This happens every time I top the cupcakes and enclose them in a container that doesn’t allow air to circulate freely.)

If you’re interested in making these cupcakes yourself, here’s where I got the idea, but I didn’t follow the instructions exactly:

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!!

Thanks to my parents, grandma and aunt, I am back in business with a camera! It’s so nice and fancy and takes the best looking photos. Check out our dinner last night:

I’ll admit that it’s not the best photo but that’s because the food was so hot that I kept getting a picture of the steam coming off of it.  This dish was really easy and is perfect for those clean-out-the-fridge nights.  I sauteed one small red onion with one clove of garlic in some olive oil.  Once soft, I added some frozen artichoke hearts, some chopped broccoli and cauliflower and sliced zucchini (broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini all organic from the farmer’s market).  After allowing it to cook for a few minutes, I dumped in one jar of organic marinara sauce and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or until the veggies were soft.  A little basil from my garden and the sauce was done.

We had this with some brown rice noodles, a gluten-free pasta that I picked up from Trader Joe’s.  I’m toying with the possibility of going gluten-free in an effort to fix my thyroid (that’s another post for another day), so I’ve slowly been buying G-F cereals, pastas, etc to try.  This is similar to how I transitioned to a vegan diet and I found that it was the best way for me to transition.  I’m not saying that I’ll for sure go G-F, but cutting out some sources of gluten certainly won’t hurt me.  Anyway, we all really enjoyed these noodles and I think I will buy brown rice pasta from now on.  No one was able to tell that it wasn’t wheat pasta.

I also made these cookies last week.  They are not G-F, but they were pretty tasty.  The recipe is a slight adaptation from the Cranberry-Walnut Oatmeal cookie recipe from Vegan Planet. I’ve made this recipe a few times– once with raisins and pecans– and this time with dried cranberries, pecans and white chocolate.  I think I preferred the first one with the raisins, but I liked this one too.  If you’re wondering where I get vegan white chocolate (good luck finding it in any store), I have to special order it from Vegan Essentials.  I order my vitamins from there too and usually do a big order once every three months.  If I’m low on the white chocolate, I’ll throw that into my virtual cart too.  Here’s a tip for ordering from Vegan Essentials: sign up for their email newsletter that they sometimes include discount codes in.

Have a good weekend everyone!

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.

(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.

This meal wasn’t super gourmet, but definitely much more so than anything I’ve prepared in the last couple of months.  I was in Sacramento over the weekend and got a huge haul of organic fruits and veggies at the farmer’s market there.  Since I haven’t been to the regular grocery store, that’s pretty much what we had on hand.  I used what I had to whip up these stuffed portobello mushroom caps, which I served alongside a mixed green salad with blueberries and cherry tomatoes and a few slices of white peach.  And then for dessert, I used some frozen bananas to make an “ode to Elvis” ice cream.  I think we had our 5 servings of fruits and veggies just in this one meal!    I’m sure there are far worse things to O.D. on.

Since this stuffing would work really well with any vegetable mix, I’ll just describe how I made it.  Feel free to sub whatever it is you’ve got on hand.  I did use a bag of organic instant stuffing mix that I’ve had in my pantry since Thanksgiving, but I imagine you could use your own favorite homemade stuffing recipe as a substitute, or even something like Stove Top would work.  I have no idea whether or not Stove Top is vegan and/or healthy (I imagine it’s neither), which is why I’m saying to try something like it.  I know that mine was vegan and was relatively healthy, as in it didn’t have anything in it besides bread and spices.  Anyway, cook your stuffing according to package directions or follow your own homemade recipe.

While the stuffing is cooking, saute the veggies.  I diced up some onion, carrots, the mushroom stems and 2 small zucchini– one yellow and one green.  Be sure to add in the remnants of whatever veggie you are stuffing– for example, if you will be stuffing an eggplant, add the part of the eggplant that you scooped out to make room for the stuffing.  I also added in a clove of minced garlic to the veggies.  Saute in a wee bit of olive oil until just beginning to get tender.  Add about 1/2 cup raisins or dried fruit of your choosing (cherries, cranberries, apricots would all be good) and about 1/2 cup white wine.  At this point, I also threw in a bay leaf.  Turn up the heat and allow the wine to reduce so that there is no liquid left.  Seas0n with salt and pepper.  Once the wine has completely cooked off, combine with an equal amount of the cooked stuffing so that your final stuffing mixture is about half stuffing and half sauteed vegetables.  Stuff into your vegetable of choice.

If you are using portobellos, you’ll want to scrape the gills off with a spoon before stuffing.  I also rubbed mine on both sides with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Once stuffed, place into a 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, turn on the broiler and broil for about 2 minutes or until the top of the stuffing is crunchy and golden.

These turned out really, really good… and I have to mention that I detest mushrooms.  I could eat these every day and not get tired of them.

And now, let’s talk dessert!  When I returned home from Sac, I found that all of my bananas had spots on them.  Even one spot on a banana indicates it’s too ripe for me (I prefer mine slightly green and starchy), so I peeled and sliced them and put them in the freezer.  When they were frozen, I put them into my food processor (sorry, but you will need a food processor for this… a blender isn’t going to work) and processed them until smooth like ice cream.  It’ll take a little while to get them super smooth and you may even find that you need to let them defrost a bit.  Once smooth, add about 2 TB peanut butter– I used 5 bananas to give you an idea of the banana to peanut butter ratio– and a drizzle of agave.  Either eat right away or place back in the freezer to solidify.  Actually, you may even want to make dessert before dinner so that it can be freezing while you make and eat dinner.  I topped mine with a drizzle of chocolate sauce, but I think a handful of vegan chocolate chips would have been yummier.  Any kind of nut butter will work here, so use your favorite or leave it out if you want plain banana.  I’ve made this type of “ice cream” with all kinds of different fruits, so play around with it.

My dad’s favorite dessert is peach pie. I didn’t have it in me to make pie dough and roll it out, so I decided to make a peach cobbler instead. And man it was good!

I used the peach pie filling recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, then used the biscuit topping recipe from the Blueberry Cobbler recipe. It turned out really delicious, but next time I will use more peaches and let them defrost before putting into the recipe (I used frozen organic peach slices). As delicious as it was by itself, it was even better a la mode:

I picked up a pint of soy ice cream– this flavor was cinnamon caramel– and it was SO YUMMY! The perfect summertime dessert for Father’s Day weekend.

Emma is having a valentine exchange at school today, and I have visions of her bringing home oodles and oodles of candy made from HFCS, artificial colors and probably some type of animal product. I’m not so much of a hard ass that I would forbid her from eating a few of these candies, but I wanted to think outside the box and send her to school with some useful treats and gifts to give to her friends.

Part of the fun of Valentine’s Day is picking out your valentines at the store. Since I knew Emma wouldn’t be into handmaking 24 Valentine cards, I let her pick out some from the store. We ended up with Disney princesses and Scooby Doo. Then, I ended up finding these fun Valentine bags at Target for cheap and I filled them with all kinds of goodies.

Each bag had a (homemade) CD of some of Emma’s favorite songs, a bag of cookies– chocolate chip using this awesome recipe, and heart shaped sugar cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking, and an organic lollipop… not that organic makes candy any healthier, but at least I know it’s made with real sugar and doesn’t have any weird colors in it.

I hope her friends like them!

I actually did some cooking last week, but failed to blog about any of it.  Well, here it is…

While everyone else is probably sick of Thanksgiving leftovers, I felt like we didn’t get our fair share.  All 3 of us were sick on Thanksgiving, which meant (for me, anyway) no appetite.  Any Thanksgiving dishes that were suitable for us just didn’t taste right, or I only ate a little bit.  Anyway, last Monday when I asked Emma what we should have for dinner, she said we should have “Friendsgiving.”  I had to go to the store anyway, so I picked up a pack of organic stuffing mix (basically some croutons and spices), a field roast, some cranberry sauce and some potatoes.  Normally, I would be more inclined to make everything from scratch, but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with taking a little help from the store (especially since I was still getting over my cold).

The only interesting topic of conversation from our Friendsgiving meal was the field roast.  I’ve never had one before, but the size of it seemed more suitable for 3 people than an entire Tofurky.  I’ve never had Tofurky (aside from the lunch “meat” which I like), but I didn’t want anything that big or that expensive– even on sale it was $20!  Anyway, I opted for the lentil sage flavor of the field roast.  It has a very chewy texture and I’m not sure I would buy it again.  It just didn’t appeal to me, but don’t let my opinion keep you from trying it.  It was only around $5.

Whenever I find Dandies marshmallows, I like to stock up.  At $6 a bag, they are pretty pricey, but they are probably the best vegetarian marshmallows I’ve tried.  They are pretty close to the real thing.  Anyway, if you live in or near San Francisco, you can find Dandies at Rainbow Grocery and if you live in or near Sacramento, you can find them at the Natural Foods Co-op.  The problem with Dandies is that once you open the package and there’s no air to pad the marshmallows, they tend to squish into each other forming a gigantic blob.  Once they are in this blob form, it is impossible to pull them apart, which makes them perfect for treat making.  I picked up a box of Brown Rice Krispies (they taste the same as the other ones, but are a little bit healthier).

Vegan Rice Krispies Treats

10 oz. vegetarian marshmallows (1 bag of Dandies)

3 TB Earth Balance margarine

6 cups rice cereal (a 10 oz. box is 6 cups)

In a large pot, melt the marshmallows with the Earth Balance.  When completely melted, stir in the cereal.  Pour into a greased baking sheet and press the treats evenly into the sheet.  When cool, cut into squares.

Lastly, I made some Mexican quinoa (like Mexican rice,but with quinoa instead).  I have to thank my friend Jen for this cooking method because I can’t cook rice to save my life and have tried to make Mexican rice several times but usually end up with a goopy mess.  Once she explained to me how to do it properly, I figured I could do it, but use quinoa instead of rice.  It turned out pretty good!

Mexican Quinoa

1 cup quinoa, dry

1 TB canola oil

1 small onion, diced

1- 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, or water

Pinch of S&P

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, toast the quinoa in the oil until golden brown.  Add the onion and saute until the onion is tender.  Pour in the tomato sauce and stock and add the S&P and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer, put a lid on it and cook 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and remove lid and let stand for 5 minutes.  Fluff with fork and serve!