The Best Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've made these twice this week. They are light and fluffy, simply scrumptious! 

Chosen for us by size by my husband, I snagged the biggest one (how embarrassing!), he got the medium and our little one happily gobbled his- unaware of the size difference. I tried to glam up the picture on photobucket because the lighting was bad and I'm not a professional photographer, but trust me, these babies are beautiful IRL. :)

The Best Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

1.5 cup flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 cup water
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil, vinegar and water. Mix well. Add chocolate chips and blend. Scoop into greased muffin tin and bake at 350F (180C) for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out relatively clean. Cool for as long as possible, then enjoy!

These are about 100 times more delicious than my older recipe. The egg made them too dense for my liking- maybe better for a brownie pan. Let me know if you these! :)

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookies are my favorite kind of cookie. David prefers oatmeal raisin any day, and up until I baked these, he was turned off to any kind of peanut butter cookies- the very smell of them baking was revolting to him. I always found that odd because he loves peanut butter on bread!

Needless to say, I haven't baked any in a while, but in an effort to reduce our costs on pre-packaged foods, I avoided buying Oreo's this time around the grocery store, and when James asked for a cookie, I knew we had the ingredients on hand for these. Boy are they delicious! David loves honey, so I think the smell of honey softened the smell of the peanut butter and the absence of the smell of egg helped too! He actually really liked these, as did James, and of course they both had a dark chocolate button pressed in the middle. Actually, James had many, including this one:

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup honey (use brown sugar instead if preferred)
1/2-3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or earth balance/whipped spread
1 egg or flax egg (works great!)

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Chocolate kisses or buttons, optional

Directions:

Mix sugars, honey, peanut butter, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients. Place bowl in freezer until oven is preheated to 375ºF (190ºC). Shape a tablespoon or teaspoon (size is up to you) of dough into a ball and place on the sheet. Give space to spread. Using a fork dipped in flour, make a criss cross, and add a chocolate kiss or button to the middle (Toddlers love helping at this part*). Place on an un-greased baking sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will be soft until they cool, so transfer to rack (or mouth*{As well as this part}) carefully. 

Now if only the weather would cool off, I can't take many more 110ºF days! Some rain would be lovely too. Hurry up Autumn!

Vegan Autumn Pumpkin Bread

 I have loved this recipe since 2003, and though I'm not sure where it originally came from, my best guess is that it came from a dear church friend. I have it in a spiral binder handwritten on a piece of printer paper complete with arrows, stars and hearts to differentiate and guide my 17 year old self. Things were simpler, though messier, back then. :)

Who knew that such a messy recipe could yield such a yummy treat!? Never judge a book by its cover!

Vegan Autumn Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 flax eggs 

Whisk dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a larger bowl, combine pumpkin, oil, sugars, and eggs and mix well. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on medium high until smooth and well blended.

Grease your baking pan and bake at 350°F or 177°C for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

Vegan Dinner in a Pumpkin

My sister posted a recipe for a dinner in a pumpkin last Autumn and I never got around to making it. This year, being a Vegan didn't stop me from making it, but I did have to more or less come up with a new (& healthier) recipe! Both my husband and I loved it, and I'm looking forward to trying different variations for more pumpkin goodness! Did you know how good pumpkin is for you? Read all about it at World's Healthiest Foods. Knowing how nutritious they are, I can't believe that most pumpkins are used for decoration and then smashed and trashed! Well not anymore in our home! Make sure that you use the smaller pumpkins known as sugar or pie pumpkins for this recipe. Brown rice takes about 45 minutes to cook, so before anything else, start your rice! 

 
 Wash your pumpkins. Dry thoroughly, making sure that the bottoms are completely dry. To remove the tops, use a sharp serrated knife and cut into the top at a 45° angle to ensure the top can be placed back on without falling through. Scoop out the seeds and stringy fibers gently with a spoon. Preheat oven to 350°.

Vegan Dinner in a Pumpkin 

Ingredients:

Two 2 1/2-3 lb pumpkins or One 5 1/2-6 lb pumpkin  (we liked having our own)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bouillon cubes
4 ounces mushrooms, minced or sliced (we minced, but next time I'll slice for more variety in texture)
1/2 cup milk (we used original Silk)
1 can lentils (and liquid)
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
parsley, for garnish

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until golden brown. Add 2 bouillon cubes, 1/2 cup milk, mushrooms, and lentils. Add both black and white pepper, thyme, cumin, parsley and sea salt and mix well. Turn heat down to low and allow to simmer while rice cooks. Stir every 5 minutes. Cook rice according to package directions. Once cooked, add rice to the lentil mixture and mix well. Fill pumpkins with lentil and rice mixture, then sprinkle with parsley and place the tops on.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until the pumpkin is easily pierced with a sharp knife. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before eating!

 Enjoy!

PS.
When you're done eating, remove any leftover filling and scrape out the remaining pumpkin. You'll be amazed at how much will be left after you've stuffed yourself. We got about 2 cups of pumpkin from each one, and that was after we ate until we were stuffed!

Blue Ribbon Cornbread

This recipe won a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair for Dana Sly, an 11-year old from Sioux City, Iowa. You won't believe it's Vegan!
A few words about flax:
If you don't usually keep flax in the house, look for it in the cereal section at the grocery store, or in the grains section of your local health food store. My current favorite brand is Hodgson Mill Milled Flax Seed and I store it in the freezer to maintain it's freshness.

DANA SLY’S BLUE RIBBON VEGAN CORNBREAD
read great reviews here


Ingredients:

1 cup white flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 flax eggs

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray an 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal sugar, baking powder and salt until well combined.

 Add the flax eggs, soy milk and canola oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth, do not over-beat.

this is what flax eggs looks like!

Pour into prepared baking pan.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or unil a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

 

 Serve with your favorite cornbread toppings (we like agave syrup and Earth Balance) and Enjoy!

Vanishing Vegan Oatmeal Blueberry Craisin Cookies

I was grocery shopping last week when I discovered "Blueberry Juice Infused Cranberries" from the makers of Craisins. They look a bit like fruit gushers, only much healthier, so I couldn't resist. I bought a bag of them, and had planned on putting them in my oatmeal for breakfast. 

That is, until I set out to make cookies earlier this evening and my husband asked for his favorite: Oatmeal Raisin, but this time, Oatmeal CRaisin! He came up with the idea to make these, and at first I wasn't convinced that they were going to be good, but after about 7 minutes in the oven, our house started smelling like heaven on earth. The combination of oats, sugar, blueberry, cranberry and dark chocolate is incredible. 

The recipe is Vegan, and it was actually our first attempt at baking Vegan cookies. I love using flax as an egg replacer, and while I was nervous as to how it would work out in this recipe at first, the final results scream success! Even if you're not Vegan, try using a flax egg! Flax is wonderful for you! Learn more about how great flax is here.

Vanishing Vegan Oatmeal Blueberry Craisin Cookies

recipe adapted from Quaker by David

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 flax egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup blueberry infused Craisins
1/2 cup Ghiradelli chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350°F.
Beat together Earth Balance and sugars until creamy.
Add flax egg and vanilla and beat well.
Lick the beaters. (if you're using a flax egg)
Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until well blended. Add to the sugar mixture and mix well.
Stir in oats, Craisins and chocolate chips and mix well.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow to cool slightly and enjoy!

meet the crunchy softies: chewy and gooey. they're crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

the best thing about baking Vegan is feeling 100% carefree while your little one licks the beaters.

Success!

I Can't Believe It's Vegan... French Toast

Last Sunday, I made vegan french toast. It seems that people are picky about their french toast, and we are no exception. I looked for recipes and finally decided to try this recipe. While I'm sure many people might be happy with the results, we didn't love it. It produced a rather dense and chewy piece of soaked and fried bread. Not exactly what we were looking for. But we ate it, criticized it and decided to try again next weekend.

Fast forward to this morning.
My husband and I joined forces and made up our own recipe.
Our version is inspired by the batter that is used for the Monte Cristo sandwich [oh my that is definitely not vegan], with some minor adjustments made for a sweet rather than savory fried treat.
We were thrilled with the results...so much that this recipe made it to this blog.

This batter produces a light, fluffy and crispy crust. When fried quickly at a high temperature, it cooks thoroughly to a deep golden brown, sealing the oil out and as a result, keeping the bread oil and soggy free.

Perfect Vegan French Toast

Ingredients:

Sourdough bread slices, cut in half
Vegetable oil, for frying

For the Batter:

1 flax egg
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup almond milk (soy would work well too)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Fill frying pan with oil, about 4-5 inches, so that there is room for the bread to float. If you are using a non-stick skillet, sticking shouldn't be a concern, so less oil will be needed. Heat oil on medium high heat, test with a teaspoon of batter, if it floats and browns, the oil is ready, if not, turn up the heat and test again.

Whisk dry ingredients. Blend wet ingredients. Mix together and stir until smooth.

Coat each half slice thoroughly, letting excess batter run off and then carefully place in the oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, and flip. Cook 2-3 minutes more, remove and place on a metal cooling rack, to allow excess oil to drip off. If desired, heat your oven to 200° and place slices on a baking sheet in the oven to keep warm.

Serve with powdered sugar and your favorite syrup. We used agave nectar, but I'm thinking that next time we'll make a raspberry syrup to top it with. Enjoy! Oh, and please let me know your thoughts if you try this!