Vegan Summer Smoothies

One of our favorite afternoon snacks has always been a fruit packed smoothie, especially in the Summer months. We used to use yogurt, kefir or even ice cream, but now we use plain old milk. Soy, Rice, Coconut or Almond milk that is.

Almond milk makes some seriously creamy and smooth smoothies!

Add some fortified Soy milk and you'll drink up your B 12 reqs before you can say brain freeze.

We use vanilla style almond milk because it's sweeter than rice or coconut, but depending on what we ate for breakfast, sometimes I'll add a 1/2 cup of soy for the B 12 benefits. Mostly, we just love almond milk! Give it a try... It's so NUTritious for you!





Nutrition Info:


We split the loot 3 ways so it's a refreshing low calorie sweet treat for a hot Summer day.

Smoothie for 2 + Shmoo!

Veggie Delight

What does a Vegan eat for lunch?

Veggie Delight and Lays Barbecue Chips!

Bread (toasted)
Mustard
Iceberg
Tomatoes
Red onion
Black olives
Pickles
Pepperoncinis
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil




Wondering where the protein is? It's in the roll. Cobblestone Mill Wheat Sub Rolls are Vegan and contain 8 grams of protein!

Nutritious and Delicious!

Spring Egg Rolls

We are really loving Asian food. These are not Vegan, (they have eggs in them) but I accidentally bought egg roll wraps instead of spring roll wraps and we decided to use them. They were good though, and each serving of 3 wraps (with no filling) have 7 grams of protein!



Spring Egg Rolls

1/2 package Nasoya Egg Rolls
1 cup extra firm tofu, cut into tiny squares
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup chopped cabbage
1/2 cup minced mushrooms mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 can chopped water chestnuts
2 Tbs. fresh ginger, thinly sliced
1/4 cup shredded carrot
2 celery stalks, minced
3 Tbs. soy sauce

Mix above ingredients and heat on medium low until warmed through.





Spoon filling into wrap and fold as follows:

Take the bottom point of your wrap and fold it over the top of the filling. Fold the sides in towards the middle and roll the filling tightly towards the top point of the wrapper. If that confused you, you can view a tutorial here.

Fry in oil for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown. (our rolls in the picture below were "toasted" lightly in the pan and then baked because I did not have enough oil to fry them. Last night, we had leftovers and we fried them in oil. Not only did they taste crunchier and yummier, they were prettier as well.)

Serve with rice and your favorite dipping sauce. Enjoy!

Waffles and Blueberries

We made these waffles on Sunday morning and my oh my were they good. We used eggs (they're almost gone, only 3 left!) so we'll have to try them with an egg substitute next time!

Mom's Best Waffles

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add milk, eggs and oil; mix well.
Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown.




We topped them with this Blueberry Breakfast Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup water
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

In a 2-qt. saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in water. Add blueberries; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Serve warm or cold over French toast, pancakes or waffles.

It was such a treat- and we splurged big time- I ate FIVE waffles smothered in that sauce! Both David and James loved them as well!


They freeze well too, so place each waffle in a zip baggie, freeze, and pop in the toaster when you're ready for one. James always has a stash of pancakes or waffles that we reheat on weekdays, and I was used to refrigerating pancakes and reheating them during the week, but we still used Kashi or NutriGrain waffles a lot. A few months ago, there was a month long waffle shortage (I have no idea why!) and we were left without waffles so I got inspired to make my own. Before we switched to homemade, we were spending $10+ a month on our waffles. Now, they are fresh, yummy and homemade with love, and you know you can't buy love! :)

Our Little Garden

It's kind of ironic to me that I decided to start gardening while living in an apartment. We've lived in houses for the last 5 years, and I have talked about gardening in our backyards, but always found a reason to wait another year. Maybe the safety net of starting small and inexpensively is what inspired me to actually commit this year! We decided to grow flowers first, and then I was determined to grow tomatoes, lots of tomatoes. James goes through at least one, sometimes two pints of tomatoes a week- organic nonthelesss, and each pint of organic cherry tomatoes at WalMart is $4. I figured we could at least try to grow our own, and if we failed, well, it would be better than never trying at all! The experience has been fun and inspiring and has cultivated a desire in my heart to have a "hand" in everything that we eat. I have high hopes for our future backyard, that much is sure!

Last month, after the last frost, we started our patio garden. We started the seeds for organic cherry tomatoes indoors in February. By the beginning of April, they looked like this:
I felt bad for planting so many seeds, because we ended up keeping only 4 plants out of that tray- I didn't know how well they would do and they all thrived!

James helped a lot, and enjoyed playing with the sprouts that were left behind.


Helping Mommy put potting soil in the pots:


We transplanted our tomato plants into the red pots, and also planted fresh thyme, lavender, basil and rosemary. I highly recommend that every chef have their own supply of fresh potted herbs. It costs $3-$4 a plant, and they keep on growing and giving. We've love using generous amounts of fresh herbs in our favorite pasta dishes and breads- the difference from dried herbs is undeniable!


We added bell peppers and two basil plants, and kept only the two strongest tomato starters.

This is our big baby. She's growing dark cherry tomatoes, and is a good container tomato plant. She grows at least 1/2 inch a night! She is flowering, and we are excited to see some fruit soon!

James loves to help water the plants and is getting good at not picking the flowers or removing the tomato cages.
Since our veggies are organic, we've been using Medina Orange Oil (found at Lowe's) to keep bugs away. It is all natural, safe for cleaning wood furniture (as a substitute for Pledge), and it smells like oranges! Unfortunately, fruit gnats think it smells good too, and I'm not sure what we'll do to get rid of them, but so far, they seem to just enjoy the soil.

Having a small patio garden has made apartment living feel a little bit less institutional and reminds me that we really can be in control of the food we choose to eat, if we really want to, and if we're willing to toil after it.

Earthy Lentil & Barley Stew

This stew was inspired by a recipe from Fat Free Vegan and it turned out to be so delicious that it's going to be a weekly favorite come Autumn! It was cool and gloomy today, and we thoroughly enjoyed this warm and nourishing dish! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!




Earthy Lentil and Barley Stew

Ingredients:

1 cup lentils
3/4 cup hulled or pearled barley (I used Quaker Pearled Barley-cooks in 10 mins)
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme (fresh if you have it -leaves only-)
1/2 tsp oregano
6 cups vegetable stock
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika or red pepper

1/2 tsp salt
2 cups fresh spinach

Saute onions and garlic until golden brown.
Add spices and 1 cup of vegetable stock, simmer until well blended.
Add carrots, mushrooms, lentils and barley and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often.
Add the rest of the stock, cover and cook until carrots and barley are tender, about 15-20 minutes.

Add salt to taste and spinach, if desired. Cover again and cook briefly until spinach is wilted but still bright green, about 5 minutes.

Servings: 6

Nutrition info per serving: 78 calories, 4 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g fat, 159 mg sodium

Home Made Bagels

We eat bagels for breakfast often, and have grown to love Thomas's honey wheat quite a lot. They are chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. One of David's old favorites is blueberry and mine used to be cinnamon raisin, but they both contain coloring and other additives. Not surprisingly, they all contain preservatives.

I decided to try to make my own bagels, and what do you know, though it took some time, (2 hours or so), it was a lot of fun and they turned out great!

Honey Wheat and Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
inspired by this recipe

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups (whole wheat and white wheat mix)
2 packages (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast or 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 Tbs sugar or honey
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar

In a bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast.
Combine warm water, 3 Tbs sugar or honey and the salt.
Pour over the flour mixture.
Beat at low speed of electric mixer for about 30 seconds scraping the bowl as you mix. Beat 3 minutes at high speed.
Stir in as much remaining flour as you can mixing with a spoon.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (knead 6-8 minutes total).
Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

(if you want to add cinnamon and raisins, add 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup raisins now and knead well)

Cut into 6 or 12 portions, depending on the size you want. (6 will be similar to Thomas' bagels in size)
Shape each into a smooth ball.
Make a hole in the center of each and pull gently to make a 1 1/2-2 inch hole.

Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover, let rise 20 minutes.
Broil on low 5 inches from heat 3-4 minutes, turning once (tops should not brown).



Heat 1 gallon of water and 1 Tbsp of sugar to boiling; reduce heat.
Cook 4 or 5 bagels at a time for 7 minutes, turning once; drain.



Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375* for 25-30 minutes.






Let cool, then slice. Enjoy!

Very Berry Coffee Cake- Vegan Style

Our favorite coffee cake needed a make-over once we decided to go Vegan. I was nervous to bake without eggs but milled flax seed mixed with water turned out to be a great egg substitute! Everything looked "normal" and it rose well and cooked evenly. In the end, it turned out to be a little bit more moist and dense, which in my opinion, is a good thing!

Very Berry Coffee Cake- Vegan Style!


So for all you Vegans out there, here's the revised recipe.

batter:

mix together these ingredients in medium sized bowl:

1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 Tbs cinnamon

then mix together these ingredients, and add to the dry mixture and mix well.

1 Tbs milled flax seed + 3 Tbs water (mix together and simmer over low heat until egg like consistency is reached, about 5 minutes)
1/2 cup organic white sugar
1/2 cup earth balance, melted
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract


pre-heat oven to *375

struesel topping:

1/2 cup demerara sugar, packed
3 Tbs white flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup rolled oats
3 Tbs earth balance, soft

mix in a bowl and use a fork to make crumbly. my mixture turned into a paste because my margarine was melted, but it worked out fine, I just had to work harder to spread it on the top.

filling:

2 cups of mixed berries (I used 1 cup of chopped strawberries and one cup of blueberries- frozen is fine as long as you thaw them first)

OR

2 apples (I used one granny smith and one gala)

Core, quarter and slice. Do two layers, one of each apple.

OR

2 cups of canned peaches, drained


grease a 9x9 baking pan. spoon half of the dough into the pan. cover with fruit. scoop remaining dough on top of the fruit. spread as evenly as possible. top with streusel and bake for 40-45 minutes. check center with toothpick.

enjoy!