Home grown goodness!

We have had some crisp cool weather along with some light rain the past couple of days so we just let Mother nature water the garden. Today with clear skies, back out to our garden I went. Needless to say our produce enjoyed Mother natures gift and have blessed us with some delicious goodies. I picked some Romain lettuce, tomatoes, and DH brought in about 17 jalapenos.

Here is one of out tomato plants

We still have maybe 6 or 7 heads of Romain lettuce growing.

Future popper.:o)

Now, most of you know that I am not a huge fan of super "HOT" foods. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dish of spice just not the kind that burns my mouth so bad that I can't enjoy or taste the food. DH on the other hand believes the "HOTTER" the better. I wanted to surprise him with something fun and with all those jalapenos I figured why not make something that I have never made nor eaten. Jalapeno Poppers. Seeing that I never liked cream cheese, the kind from a cow, poppers have never been in my diet, but tofutti cream cheese I love so why not give them a shot. I found a recipe on the Tofutti website and went for it. DH dipped his in salsa of course and I dipped mine in organic ketchup. Can you say delicious? Oh my gosh! DH was thrilled and so was I. If any of you out there want to give them a try, here is the recipe I used. I have also put my version of it below. The ingredients are the same with the addition of seasoning the flour and bread crumbs and the directions are a bit more detailed.







Vegan Poppers

12 jalapeno peppers, sliced in half lengthwise, tops and seeds removed
8 ounces Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (I use the one without transfats)
1 cup soy milk (I used plain)
1 cup flour (season with salt and pepper)
1 cup bread crumbs (I used a mixture of homemade and panko seasoned with salt and pepper) oil for frying

Preparation:

Cut the peppers in half and scrape out the seeds. Keep the halves together because you have to put them back together. Fill each half of the pepper with Tofutti and put the halves back together.
Put the soy milk and the flour into two separate bowls.
Dip the stuffed jalapenos into the soy milk and then into the flour, making sure that they are well-coated. Allow the coated jalapenos to dry for about 10 minutes.
Dip the jalapenos into the soy milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry then repeat the process to ensure that the entire surface of each jalapeno is coated.
In a large skillet or deep fryer, heat the oil. Deep fry the jalapenos for about 3 minutes or until golden brown then transfer them to paper towels to drain.

I still have some peppers left so I whipped up a batch of Jalapeno Corn Muffins thanks to Beverly Lynn Bennett, The Vegan Chef.

We finished up this delicious meal with a wonderful, cooling green salad dressed with a Dijon mustard and cilantro dressing. Quick, simple, and tasty.

Go for it folks!

You know you want to. :o)

Testing is so much fun!

How I wish there were more hours in the day to do recipe testing. With that said here are just few reasons all of you will have to get The Happy Herbivores cookbook when it come out!

Crispy "Chickenless" Nuggets

Double Chocolate Muffins

Apple Crisp Muffins

Sorry, I can't divulge anymore information then this. Now wipe that drool off your chin. :o)

Cheesecake, lentil soup, muffins, and more

Well, I am back. Thanksgiving as you know was not the best kind of celebration, but I am indeed thankful for all your wonderful words of comfort, thoughts, and prayers as I was going through this rough time. I won't try and tell you I am over my grieving since I cried again this morning while looking at my last post, but I will be OK. On to food. I did cook a Thanksgiving dinner, which Brandie and Micah enjoyed. They enjoyed it so much I forgot to take pictures except for dessert. I must say these two recipes are fantastic and you all should try them. The one on the left was Susan's Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake with a homemade vegan graham cracker crust and Bryanna's tofuless pumpkin pie with a whole wheat crust I purchased.

Susan's Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake has two layers. I love both of them and have already stocked up on come tofutie cream cheese for Christmas dessert. I certainly hope I can wait that long. It is so, so good. Thank you Susan for sharing this AWESOME recipe.

Bryanna's pie is a home run for those who don't like the tofu taste in your pumpkin pie. She give optional ingredients. This time I used the option of adding some molasses, which gives it a darker, richer taste and look. I enjoyed it, but Brandie said she likes the normal version. It is so dark and rich looking that many might think this is a chocolate pie.

Brandie revised this cookie recipe from Susan's site. She was so proud of her yummy creations. They are oatmeal, carob chip cookies. Good job BJ, they are delicious! She left out the cocoa, added carob chips, lessened the sugar to 1/4 cup, and used maple syrup in place of the corn syrup



Most nights have been simple leftovers or quick meals. Nature's burger as I have mentioned in the past is a great meal when time or energy are lacking. I quickly cut up some potatoes into fries, steamed them, and popped them in the broiler with a mist of olive oil and sea salt. I had made some really good Spelt Hamburger buns weeks ago and took them from the freezer. With the Nature's burger mix soaking in boiling water, potatoes cooking, and corn heating, I threw together a green salad. In no time at all we had a very filling and delicious dinner.

Diann over at Eat'nVeg'n made some wonderful Pumpkin, Millet, and Chocolate Chip muffins. You must try them. You toast the millet before mixing it in the batter. When these delicious muffins are done they have a wonderful aroma and ever bite you get a tasty little crunch. Brandie and I went nuts over these. With her morning sickness these are one of the many foods that seem to stay down. Thank you, Diann!!

Finally a comfort food that is perfect for this time of year. Warm lentil stew or soup. I have lived on this for the past week and it is the best breakfast. I know many may think this weird, but I really don't care for traditional breakfast, except for my scrambled tofu! I love to have a high protein breakfast. Many cereals are tasty and nutritious, but I am starving an hour later. Now don't laugh, just give it a try. Ok, I don't just eat soup. I have a routine. I have to get to work so early just for parking that I arrive an hour before I really get paid so I always bring my breakfast and enjoy it while reading your blogs. On work days I always have 2 grapefruit, then my weird breakfast item with an orange. Since I at work before 7 am this breakfast keeps me going until 11 or so and then I eat another orange and an apple. Well, they say to get 9 servings of fruit and veggies a day. I don't think any of us have a problem with that. I will end my LONG post with my lentil soup/stew recipe and head for the kitchen. It is cold and rainy outside and I hear my kitchen calling me. Have a great day!

Lentil Soup/Stew

4 cups "no Chicken" broth or veggie broth

1 cup brown or green lentils, rinsed

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes

2 medium carrots

1 small onion, chopped

1 large stalk of celery, chopped

7 cloves of garlic, minced (we always use a ton of garlic)

1/2 cup of tomato paste

1 1/2 teaspoons of dried basil

1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the carrots, celery, and chopped onions until the onions are almost transparent. I use broth or water, but you could use some olive oil too. Add the garlic and stir for about 2 minutes. You don't want to burn the garlic or it becomes bitter. Add the remaining ingredient, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 45 to 50 minutes until the carrots and lentils are tender. The flavors in this stew only get better day after day. Enjoy!

Carrot Cardamom Donut Cookies by Stephanie

If any of you have not stopped by Stephanie's blog you really should. She is an inspiration to other teens by trying to live a well-balanced healthy Vegan life and writing a cookbook too. Here is her link. http://summerloco.blogspot.com/

A week ago or so she asked if anyone would like to test her recipes. I once again jumped at the chance. I love to test recipes. Today I tested her donut recipe. Remember I said she is living a healthy life and these donuts are just that. Baked not fried and gluten free. In her recipe she gives both the sugar version or powdered stevia version. I used liquid Kal Stevia and probably should have used more than I did. Mine turned out not as sweet as the family would think donuts should be. They are similar to a cake donut and not the puffy ones that many are used to. I mixed together a couple tablespoons of sugar and some cinnamon and dipped them when they came out of the oven. DD would like more cinnamon. She adores the stuff. I also did not have a donut pan, which DH tried to find and buy me so I used a mini-bundt pan and they turned out cute. Overall I think these are going to be a great addition to her ever growing list of recipes for her cookbook. Keep up the good work Stephanie.

Susan's Carrot Spice Muffins

Susan's Carrot Spice Muffins

2pts on weight watchers

I have been out of wheat flour for quite awhile. I was just to lazy to get the wheat grinder out and grind the wheat berries. Last time we bought wheat we purchased the white wheat berries, which made it perfect for this recipe. These muffins gave me that yummy nudge to get a move on things. Since I was grinding I ground quite a bit so I should be set for a couple weeks.

Now back to the recipe. I made these muffins yesterday and they are a hit with everyone. DD, Brandie, took one to work for her boss and she loved them and asked for the recipe. DH and I ate them for breakfast along with fruit. I used all white whole wheat flour, dark agave nectar, dried currants instead of raisins, and added an extra tablespoon of the soy yogurt. (that was what was left in the carton and it seemed silly to throw it away). I also had about 1/4 cup of lonely blueberries, that were just past the plump eating stage so I threw them in too. The outcome was fantastic. Oh, I took a pinch of sugar and sprinkled the tops before baking. I really need to use a vanilla bean and make me some vanilla sugar. I have to tell everyone that these muffins are the most amazing whole wheat muffin you will ever eat. I rarely use anything but whole wheat flour and most muffins are dense. These yummies are light, moist, and full of flavor. This recipe is a #1 keeper for sure.

You can see the beautiful orange carrots and the bits of blueberries.

Susan you have done it again! Another fantastic recipe. Here is the link to her recipe and beautiful photos. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/03/carrot-spice-muffins.html

Meal in a muffin

I love muffins, expecially those that are made of the good for you ingreadients. I got this recipe for full meal muffins from Jen's veganlunchbox site . Here is the link. http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com/2007/02/full-meal-muffins.html Sorry the picture is not great, but the taste is awesome. I was so excited to get home from work and make those muffins. Got home, started getting all the ingredients out and low and behold no barley flour. Time was short so I did not have time to grind some barley into flour so I improvised. Here are the substitutions I made and the muffins turned out so moist and yummy. I used 1/2 cup of quinoa flour, 1/4 cup amaranth flour, and 1/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour instead of the barley flour. I also used 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of the apple juice. The currants are optional, but we love them so they went in too. Even with the substitutions they turned out wonderful. Thanks, Jen! I have these with a piece of fruit for breakfast. Oh and they freezed nicely.

I went to download the picture of the muffins and this picture of one of our fur kids. I guess DH took this picture so I just had to share it. Well it was DD that took the picture. Tilly is our 11 year old calico. She is such a good kid. You can see just a tiy bit of Kelli our other calico.

Vegan Cheesecake Swirl Fudge Brownies, Creamy Potato Leek Casserole, "Meet"loaf, and Apple Granola Muffins

Well, I am alive, but it has been a rough week. I had a back injury in June of 06, which has been giving me grief. I have not been able to sit long and do the posting. I have just not been able to get it together. Then tonight the family requested Tofu Fish Sticks. They are awesome! I posted about them a bit ago. Anyway, got everything ready and began to cook. When I reached into the fridge and to get the main ingredient realized I only had Med Firm Tofu. Well, surely that will work. No big deal. RIGHT!, lets just say "NOPE" good things did not come of it. They just fell apart into mush. Thank God for Gardenburger's Vegan Chik'n Patties. So that is my week so far. I figure only good things can come of from now on. Ok, enough complaining. Even though I have not posted I have been cooking and taking pictures . So enjoy the picture show. hehehe

Here are Bryanna's Vegan Cheesecake Swirl Fudge Brownies from one of her newletters. http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com
They look so pretty here. They just came out of the oven and are cooling. I omited the orange zest because DH does not like orange and chocolate mixed and added 1 extra Tablespoon of sugar to the cream "cheeze" topping. DH likes things a bit sweeter.



I greased the pan real GOOD with Earth balance just like Bryanna said, yet when these sweet little yummies were cooled they refused to come out of the pan. Thus you get this! You might say ugly, but let me tell you. You can also say delicious! Next time I will maybe flour the pan too, or use Pam instead of Earth Balance.

Here is my Creamy Potato Leek Casserole, which I got from Dreeena's book, The Everyday Vegan. BB, my DD, liked them as did I, but mine turned out a bit dry. We easily remedied this by putting a tiny bit of Earth Balance on them when we ate them. I made 2 smaller dishes instead of one large one.

I usually make Magic Meat Loaf from Jen's website,http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html but I was going through Bryanna's newsletter and decided to try her recipe. Here is a picture of it before it is cooked. I did cut the recipe in half and it still made 2 small loaves.

Just came out of the oven! I was trying to get the top a little crunchy and it worked. Oh, I put ketchup on the top before baking and it gave it a nice flavor.



Here is dinner before gravy. You can see the Potato Leek Casserole, cauliflower, corn, "meet"loaf, and yellow squash. As you can see we are out of green veggies. It is definatly time to shop.



With gravy and a green salad to brighten things up.

It has been a Bryanna week. I love her tofu scramble seasoning. It is the best around, but that is my opinion and I have not tried any others. yet. I am open minded. lol.. I learned how to make supremes from citrus fruits by watching the show, "Iron Chef American" on the food network channel. I just love how easy it is especially when eating grapefruits. I eat a grapefruit every morning and there is just no mess. You cut off both ends and then cut away the peel exposing just the flesh of the fruit. Then you cut down just inside the membranes that divide the fruit and there you have it a cute little fruit segment. No fuss, just yummy little supremes. Oh, and I really only like those Texas red grapefruit. They are like eating candy!

Last but not least here are some Apple Granola Muffins thanks to Alex Jamieson, Author of "The Great American Detox Diet". I emailed her and asked if I could post her recipe and on my blog. She was very kind and said share away. If you haven't read her book it is very easy reading packed with tons of information and great recipes.

Apple Granola Muffins
From Chef Alex Jamieson http://www.healthychefalex.com/
Author of “The Great American Detox Diet”

1 ½ cups unbleached spelt flour
½ cup whole spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp sea salt
1 ½ cups vanilla, plain soymilk or apple juice
½ cup date sugar
¼ cup melted coconut or extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 med apple, chopped
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 Tbs. quick oats

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan with extra virgin olive oil or spray
Sift the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix well.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the soy milk or apple juice, sugar, oil, and vanilla.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Use a large spoon or rubber spatula to combine the ingredients. Stir and fold rather than beating: do not over mix. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth.

Carefully fold in the apples and walnuts.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup about two-thirds full.

Sprinkle the oats on top of the muffins.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the muffins are nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of them comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to rest in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them.

I have used regular spelt flour and they come out great. I have also substituted almond extract for vanilla.
I usually cut the recipe in half, which makes 6 regular muffins or 18 mini muffins. Minis are always fun. I cook the mini’s for about 12-15 min.

Chili and Corn Muffins

After last nights attack of the ants, which ruined my plans for Susan's Thick and Hearty Pinto Bean Chili, http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/nothing was going to stop me today. After a few road blocks, ants again and a store run I was finally able to get started. This recipe is so fun to make. I have never used dried chilies before and had no idea how they would come together. Let me tell you all comes together fine and it is fun to watch these hard, dried, and shriveled up peppers come to life. My first step was to cook up some pinto beans. I so much prefer them over canned. Better taste and no sodium. I followed the recipe as it is written and did not need to add the sugar, which is optional. I forgot to toss in some red pepper flakes or cayenne, but I think it came out wonderful as is. Along with it I made a mixed green salad with tomatoes and Dijon mustard salad dressing and Jalapeno Corn Muffins courtesy of the Vegan Chef. http://veganchef.com I cut the muffin recipe in half and they came out wonderful and spicy.


I encourage everyone to try Susan's chili it is fantastic.

The chili comes out to 2 points per cup on Weight Watchers

Jalapeno Corn Muffins
Chef Beverly Lynn Bennett Veganchef.com

2 T. water
2 t. Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 cup soy milk, rice milk, or other non-dairy milk of choice
1/4 cup safflower oil1 cup unbleached flour1 cup cornmeal
3 T. unbleached cane sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
2 jalapeno peppers, destemmed, deseeded, and diced

Lightly oil (or spray with a light mist of oil) a muffin pan and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and egg replacer for 1 minute or until very frothy. Add the soy milk and oil, whisk well to combine, and set aside. In a large bowl, place the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper, and stir well to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just enough to mix. Add the jalapenos and lightly fold them into the batter. Fill the prepared muffin cups 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Yield: 12 muffins

These muffins come out to 3 points on Weight Watchers

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Yeepee! Vegan with a Vengeance was waiting for me at the library. I wasn't allowed to renew it since I had had it checked out so long. What is a girl to do? My plan, re-order it and hope I get it. The plan worked. Now I get it for another 3 weeks! yeepee! I love this book and that book and the other book. My sweet Yogi laughs at me everytime another notice comes from the library telling me another book is in. Anyway, back to food. I was given some Meyer lemons from my neighbor and figured I better use them before they go bad. This is my reasoning for picking this recipe. I cut the recipe in half because too many goodies are not good or this family. lol I substituted some of the unbleached flour for whole wheat pastry flour, unsweetened applesauce for part of the oil, and agave nectar for the sugar. I got them all mixed up, actually folded since we don't want chewy muffins (over mixing muffins makes them rubbery) and realized I had forgotten the nectar. Late folding of the nectar only made them a little chewy. They smell devine. The whole kitchen smells lemony. The lemon in the picture is one of the Meyer lemons after zesting. Our sweet daughter says, "Mom the lemon is naked!" We laughed of course and then enjoyed the muffins. By the way they are only 2pts on weight watchers.