Happy Easter! (And a Little Market Research Favour...)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with food, family and friends. We had a great time!

As I described in a previous post, I made a few yummy things...

Fronch Toast - from Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance book. I used all flour instead of some of the chickpea flour called for since we have to be legume-free. Turned out great as always! Annoyed with myself since I made homemade raspberry and strawberry sauces that I forgot to put out with the maple syrup...argh.  Served with Buttah, which I will blog about shortly!

Smoky Maple Sausages - from Isa's Vegan Brunch recipe. Used my own seitan. Turned out ok - I think I forgot to add salt and maybe I would have preferred more of a sauce with them? I have no idea how regular sausages are even served.

Fruit Flowers - This was pretty last minute. I ran out of time! I had visions of something even more grand!

Bakery Style Berry Muffins - Tasted perfect! Kyson was stealing these from unsuspecting guests' plates.

Potato Spinach Squares - also from Isa's Vegan Brunch. Others liked it, I thought it was ok.

Hash Browns - I loved these ones! From Isa's Vegan Brunch. I love these! I only have one nonstick muffin pan, and after using a regular ol' muffin pan, we quickly realized I will need to invest in a second nonstick one if we decide to double the recipe again.

Quinoa Salad - cooked quinoa, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, cilantro and parsley with Farm Boy Lemon Garlic dressing. Easy! Was yummy!

Carrot Cupcakes - Chickened out using the recipe from VCTOTW since I was nervous about subbing for the soy yogurt. Used a recipe from Happy Herbivore. Found them to be dough-y and gummy and stuck all over the muffin papers. Should have asked my MIL to make them since she does a way better job. Looked pretty though! Ash took charge of the coloured icing detail.  Here they are in their cute little basket wraps and then with the homemade tempered-Enjoy Life chocolate chunk Easter eggs (mold and wrappers from Bulk Barn).

Punch - bottled organic lemon juice and lime juice, two small bottles of POM, 1 bottle sparkling water, a few glugs of agave nectar and OJ. No pic :(

Takeaway - everyone got sugar cookies - making the icing was fun...spinach, turmeric, beet and blueberries were used. So pretty! Can't stand the thought of artificial colours. I enlisted the help of Ash and her older cousin Princess to decorate them all! Didn't get pics of that though.

So I think it went well.

Oh, doing a little market research - please comment if you are from Ottawa...any interest in vegan/soy free/peanut free/tree nut free cupcakes for events? I promise I wouldn't get Ash to decorate them :)  Awhile ago, I had thought about doing this on the side, but after being sidelined with the whack of allergies, I had to put it on the back burner.  Now that I've mastered this allergy stuff, I can make stuff taste great and even appeal to whoever else might need some stuff that's safe for those with soy, peanut or tree nut allergies.

And for those in Ottawa or outside of Ottawa (I can mail these puppies)...what about an order of vegan/soy free/peanut free/tree nut free/ refined sugar free/ridiculously healthy yet so yummy cookies as a great snack for work or packing in school lunches? Each cookie features a whopping 7g of protein, is chock full of fibre, packed with omegas, and contains 20% of the RDV of iron? I've developed them to serve as a meal replacement for my picky toddler. Will post more info soon, but hoped to gauge interest :). Thanks in advance!

Who Cares About the Beef...Where's the Bun???

OK, so I'm giving this whole gluten free thing a little go. Kyson has had three reactions to wheat products and despite not finding anything on the web about ME having to go wheatless since he's still nursing, I'm applying the same logic about nursing moms cutting out dairy in their own diet if their baby is reacting to it. I'm hoping this will help clear up his eczema and help him sleep better at night!

I have to say, I now have empathy for those who find themselves delving into a vegan diet and missing cheese, etc. I am one of those who never liked the taste of cheese in or on anything, creamy mayonnaise and cream cheese dips. So it was a cinch for me to go vegan and couldn't understand why others would 'miss' former foods they once consumed. I'm really finding the whole gluten free thing to be hard, as I'm such a carb-o-holic and while there are a wide number of GF substitutes out there, I still find a certain taste (tapioca starch maybe?) that seems to be prevalent in so many GF baked goods. I tried making a homemade loaf of GF bread and just one bite had me gagging. I also bought some GF crackers and am convinced I chewed up part of my tooth in eating them. So I miss my bread and my crackers.

OK, I'll stop whining.

Anyways, I have made some really tasty GF things. I need my snacks, and these have all been pretty helpful in helping me from pigging out on gluten filled goodness.

From the Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook, Buckwheat Apple Muffins. Fortunately no tapioca starch in this one, as it doesn't use the author's GF flour blend - just buckwheat. Ash devours these.



From the same book, Blueberry Millet Muffins. They look so professional! I actually really like these, despite the mild tapioca taste. They are incredibly fluffy for something gluten free!



Finally, again, from the same book, Banana Flax Muffins. I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips instead of the raisins. My fave!



And now for actual meals...

Caesar Salad from Appetite for Reduction. It actually calls for Eggplant Bacon, which I found a bit of a pain to make. Instead, I added baked tofu (suggested in the recipe) but in my marinade, I added a few dashes of liquid smoke. Thinly sliced, it was a nice smoky addition. I love how this dish has no garlic! It gives my breath a nice break. Pictured with GF pasta with Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Sauce from Vegan Yum Yum.



Brown rice + lentils + cooked veggies (onion, garlic, carrot, spinach) + Hurry Up Alfredo sauce from VYY = tasty little meal.



Give me a scarlet GF letter on my chest - at this weekend's cupcake party, I'm sooo cheating and will be scarfing down non-GF cuppies :( I already feel guilty as I know I'm not giving myself the full 3 weeks to see if this diet change impacts Kyson. *Sigh*

Mediocre Muffin

So I actually followed a recipe to a "T" for the first time! While I will praise the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook for thick cheezy sauce, Hurry Up Alfredo, Broccoli Bake and many more delicious recipes, I can't say that the Cranberry Lemon Muffins (or Lemon Cranberry Muffins - the book isn't in front of me to check the exact title) are the best ever. I do have to say that I've gotten very used to all of my muffins having at least 50% whole wheat flour, whereas this one is all all-purpose.

I also didn't find that pre-soaking the dried cranberries really did all that much. Despite draining them, I found they made the batter extra runny. It was to the point that I was seriously concerned that they would spill over in my oven and cause a kitchen nightmare (just last week I was forced to scrub my double oven since there were spills in both oven causing choking smoke, and I didn't want to do that again anytime soon!).

So while they 'turned out', I actually prefer the ones with oats and other filling ingredients instead.

One Bowl Goodies

Always eager to make something easy for quick snacks, these two treats fit the bill. I’m a fan of using just one bowl to make baked goods, as we have to run our dishwasher every night as it is with all of the dishes from the day, and I find it generally easier for Ash to do the mixing. I don’t think anyone would argue to use more than one bowl anyways!

I first made some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. I just threw a bunch of stuff in a bowl until the batter looked of muffin consistency. I filled cups halfway, added a teaspoon of peanut butter then topped with the remaining batter. The peanut butter spread out during baking, making for the muffin to split in half easily – and it was almost like it had ‘buttered’ itself!

Next, the only recipe that I’ve tried so far from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur..aptly titled "Throw a Bunch of Stuff in a Bowl” Oatmeal Breakfast Bars. To be honest, I’d rather spend my precious time with Ash while Kyson sleeps making something a little healthy (and really, I’m having a hard time getting the baby weight off this time!). Well wouldn’t you know it, but a delicious recipe in one bowl just popped out at me so I was pretty pumped! I make mine with blueberries, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and dark chocolate chips. And to cut down on the sugar, I use agave and a nut butter (instead of jam). Heavenly! I love that the recipe is so forgiving and there are plenty of variation options available depending on what I have in my pantry. I also like to make it with oats and oat flour instead of whole wheat flour just to spare myself a little gluten just for kicks (only to have gluten at dinner with a big seitan roast – ah well).

Gluten Free for a Week (well, almost...)

This week's menu is courtesy of October's Vegetarian Times. And I guess with it being Celiac Month, many of the recipes are gluten free (GF). Over the past few months I've been trying some GF recipes as an added challenge to just vegan cooking, so it seemed like a fun task to try some of these meals out this week.

I first have to note that I would have modified the order of the recipes presented, but damn blogger is giving me a hard time with copying/pasting and moving pics around...argh...

Pumpkin Parfaits with Oat Crunch - Wow, awesome! The Oat Crunch tastes like Kashi Go Lean Crunch, and with sweetened pumpkin pie filling, this really does satisfy a sweet tooth. I really wish we could eat these at Thanksgiving instead of pumpkin pie. Well, maybe these and a slice of pumpkin pie.

Tasty Tofu Patties - Tasty? Yes. Tofu? Yes. Patties? No - more like crumbles. I have no idea what I did wrong but this stuff just didn't hold together at all. Maybe some chickpea flour would have helped! Ah well. Plus, the recipe said it would make 8 patties - I got to 10 and still had 1/2 the mixture leftover. I'm going to just cook it up like a scramble - way less effort. I served these with my Actually Crispy Sweet Potato Fries...rice flour for these fries this time to stick with the whole GF theme.


Curried Red Lentil Soup - I have about a billion red lentil soup recipes, but something stood out about this one. It was great! And Ashley gobbled it up, so based on that alone, this one is a keeper. I kinda cheated on the whole GF thing, as I served it with multi-grain whole wheat bread.

OK, so this one is the only thing that's not from VT and it's not really GF, but I worry that if I don't blog about it now I'll forget to! Zucchini Spelt Muffins from Vegan Brunch. I don't have much luck with grated carrots or zucchinis in baking, as everything turns out soggy. This was the case with this muffin, sadly. I'm sure it's user error and not the recipe, as Isa is a Recipe Goddess.

Roasted Ratatouille Pizza with Chewy Pizza Dough - OK - the dough. I'm used to 'tough' pizza dough. I thought I'd done something wrong because this gluten-free dough was runnier than my pancake batter. But I followed the instructions to spread the dough with a baggie on my hand and it turned out great. A little soggy, but actually edible. More edible than I thought considering some of the GF stuff I've made has been pretty gross. I don't know if I will make this crust again, but I will definitely roast up the veggies like this for topping future pizzas! I do also have to note that I didn't have that 'heavy' feeling that I normally have after woofing down several slices of pizza. As for the veggies, I would normally cook off some of the liquid on the stovetop, but roasting made the veggies a little chewy and delicious!

Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salad Topping - I had my doubts about this turning out since the chickpeas were so lumpy compared to the runny batter. But the chickpea flour really did make a crepe-like texture and everything held together perfectly! Great off the griddle and also tasty cold the next day.

Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Popcorn - So tasty! Basically microwave popcorn with melted Earth Balance, Sucanat and cinnamon. Tasted just like the cinnamon toast I made as a kid where I loaded it with margarine, a ton of sugar and cinnamon goodness. So yummy! But very calorie heavy. I ate most of the recipe myself, so I probably had about 10 of the 1/2 cup servings to myself. Honestly, who would be able to eat only a meager 1/2 cup of this stuff?

Autumn Vegetable Tagine (no pic - no idea how I forgot to snap one) - I have a pressure cooker since I use it to save time on a meal, but with having to bring it to high pressure three separate times while making this recipe, I didn't find it to be all that helpful. The flavour of this dish was kinda blah and while it wasn't horrible, it really wasn't worth the effort. I also felt a little deceived since a glance at the photo in the mag showed all ingredients, including the couscous (in my case, quinoa) mixed into the pressure cooker. Of course, this made me think it was a one-pot meal. In reality, the grain is cooked separately, adding a little more effort than I originally thought.

The upcoming week's menus are more simple, as I'm trying a few reliable faves since Ashley got stuck with a nasty stomach bug and needs to eat up! I think there are a few sneaky dips that I might be able to blog about though.

Vegan Brunch!

Wow, this cookbook has been out for what seems like eons now, and I'm just getting around to writing up my first review.

I have to say, the muffin recipes in this book are awesome. I'm a total muffin girl though. I tend to just throw a bunch of ingredients together and toss it in the pan. Muffins are such a tasty little snack that is so portable. I seem to make them every 3 days and freeze my concoctions so they stay nice and moist.

So far I've made Blueberry Ginger Spelt Muffins - I really am developing a taste for candied ginger. I know I took a pic, but with us now using two digital cameras (both with awful macro settings) I can't seem to find where it's been downloaded. Ah well, there is a pic in the book! I've also made the Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Yum! I made mine with whole wheat flour, hence the slightly brownish tone. I'm surprised I made these, since I'm still scarred from when I was a Loblaws bakery clerk in my teens. I had to walk around the store and distribute samples of poppy seed muffins to customers as they perused the aisles. I would head back to the bakery to refill my cart, then head out again. Since I wasn't paying attention to who I had asked, I would often offer my muffins to those I had just served minutes before. They would smile and let me know that they had already sampled them, but they didn't need to say a word. Wedged between their teeth, there were poppy seeds galore. Here these people were going to go about their day chatting it up with whoever and I was responsible for their potential embarrassment. I was actually more grossed out though. Since then, I have always been leery of poppy seeds, but considering I now often leave the house with clothes covered in spit up or God knows what else, I have no qualms about eating them and don't even check my teeth in the mirror before heading out.

Again, no pic (I'm sure because the muffins don't last long enough to take a shot) - Bakery-Style Berry Muffins. Delish! Just like Mmmuffins - or whatever that chain of food court muffins shops were called. I try not to let a giant frozen strawberry from my fruit mix get into the dough, since it makes for a soggy muffin - or an excuse to eat that one up right away! I tried adding a little oats for added health, but it just dried them out. I'll stick to the recipe! Another yummy one - Cranberry Orange Nut Muffins - super tangy! I used dried cranberries though for extra sweetness - and also because I'm too lazy to find and chop fresh ones.

On a night that I was alone with the little one, I decided to make not one but two new recipes! I loved how quick the Basic Scrambled Tofu and Perfect Pancakes came together. Sadly, the little one wasn't interested in eating them - not because they weren't tasty, but probably because she had like 6 teeth coming in at the same time. More for me!

Boring Post Alert - Soups and Muffins

Wow, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with a post...I made two pressure cooker soups from the Complete Vegetarian Kitchen by Lorna Sass. I wanted to use up some of the dried beans Kyle bought as part of our 'emergency' food stash. Honest to God, we have enough emergency food for the whole neighbourhood should some major catastrophe happen. Anyways, the first was White Bean with Escarole Soup. I subbed baby spinach since I don't think Loblaws carries escarole, but I never even tried looking for it. It was OK, but seemed a little bland.


Again, trying another bean soup, Adzuki Bean Soup with Corn (this is not the title, but I'm too lazy to dig out the book to check what it is). Meh - again, not alot of flavour. I was surprised at how the colour from the adzuki beans leached into the soup...interesting.



Continuing with the theme of boring, some simple Banana Blueberry Muffins. I basically mix 2 cups flour, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tbsp ground flax with 3 mashed bananas, a little oil and soymilk to make a moist batter. I then add some frozen wild blueberries. Nothing exciting, but I changed it up making regular-sized and mini-muffins so Ash and I each had our own sized snack.

Clearing Out the Archives

I was checking out my pics, and realized that I hadn't posted a few gems. Because it's been so long, I can't really remember the exact titles and where things were from, but I'll do my best.

First up, Cardamom Rice Pudding from an issue of Vegetarian Times. I love rice pudding, but I didn't love this one. Maybe it was all of the almonds plus dried cranberries and strong cardamom flavour, but this was a little much. I'll stick to my usual recipe.

I had some baby cereal that tasted way too iron-fortified for Ash to like, so I used it up in my banana muffins recipe! I tossed some in with some oats and added a little extra soymilk. They were my best muffins ever!

Mystery salad alert! I have NO idea what this was, but I think it was from a recent VT issue. I don't think I'll make it again, whatever it was, probably because I wouldn't even know what issue to look in!

Now for all the good stuff - delicious Vegan Lasagna from the latest VT. A little bit of effort, but pretty fast. Instead of cooking onions and garlic separately for each of the Speedy Red Sauce and Spinach Filling, I cooked them together and split them up. Cut down on alot of the time. I have to say that this recipe did confirm that I really don't like vegan cheese. I never liked regular cheese, so I'm not sure why I thought I'd like soy cheese, but I gave it another shot with this recipe and will omit it in the future.

Triple Nut Torte from a holiday issue of VT. Very easy, and super good! Instead of using a double boiler for melting the chocolate, I just stuck chocolate chips in a bowl and put the bowl on the hot cookie sheet (used to toast the nuts). Melted like a charm! Why don't the authors put these tips in? I'm sure it's not just new moms that don't need extra effort nor to wash extra dishes!

Finally, the most delicious Pan Pizza ever. I used the crust recipe from the most recent VT, but filled it with Isa Pizza toppings instead. Way better than the Hut, even for obvious reasons that it isn't laden with pepperoni! I can't wait to make this again. I'm going to try a pile of different mushrooms and onions. I'm so glad that I have a cast iron pan just for this recipe alone!

Rhubarb Galore!

We have a massive pile of rhubarb growing in our backyard. Kyle picked a pile and I made my annual summery Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Rhubarb Crisp and Rhubarb Cobbler. But I was left with about a cup of chopped rhubarb – the perfect amount to make Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake from Meredith McCarty’s Sweet and Natural cookbook. It’s very caramel-like since the upside-down topping has brown rice syrup, which I actually use now! For years I’ve had BRS stashed in my pantry and I always tended to sub maple syrup for it after having tasted some disgusting Rice Dream frozen dessert. Thank goodness for Isa, as her recipes encouraged me to try rice syrup products again and I’m so glad! Anyways, back to the recipe – good, a little flatter than I expected, but tasty.


Speaking of flat, I used same said rhubarb to make muffins. I used this recipe, but made it two ways. First, I used clabbered soymilk instead of the soy sour cream, producing a rather soggy muffin. Delicious, but very crumbly and sticky. The second time, I actually followed the recipe...a first for me! The muffin was much drier this time, which leads me to believe, according to the Goldilocks legend, that the next time I make this recipe (with a few modifications), it will be perfect!

The Mega Post

Wow...I didn't realize how many things I've made in recent weeks, as I had a pile of pics on my camera! Since it took me forever to upload them all, I'll keep the text bits short!

First, I had tried some items from the Joy of Vegan Baking. I was very much anticipating this book, and when I got it, I have to say I was disappointed at how much Earth Balance margarine and egg replacer was called for. Nonetheless, I kept an open mind, and tried a few recipes.

The cookies on the cover looked tantalizing. However, despite following the instructions (except I used all dark chocolate chips), mine turned out to be flat and greasy:



As I flipped further through the book, I noticed that many of the recipes seemed to be veganized from a typical Betty Crocker cookbook. I was hoping that they would be healthy vegan baked goods, but it did not seem to be the case. Anyways, I had decided to make banana muffins, and thought about making the recipe noted in the index of JOVB or a muffin version of the Peaceful Palate's Banana Cake. Oddly enough, I noticed that the JOVB credited PP's recipe and made a small change. As I flipped through the book, I noticed several versions of recipes from existing cookbooks, and they were all ones that I owned! I made the muffins, but they didn't turn out anything like the cake as they were quite concave:



I was disappointed with the book after these two attempts one night, that I returned it the next day :(

The next morning, I decided to attempt the Lemon Corn Waffles from VwaV. You may recall a previous disaster, and - surprise! The SAME thing happened AGAIN:



I thought it could have been because I added blueberries to the batter, but I realized that I wasn't letting them cook long enough, so I gave them a few minutes extra after my iron had beeped. Also, I was putting too much batter in the maker, so I cut it down:




The result - yum! Intact waffles! I wouldn't have cared anyways if they didn't look pretty. They're so good.


With leftover homemade spaghetti sauce, I made pita pizzas. Good and easy, but not very exciting.



But what was exciting was Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe for Creamy Pasta Sauce from the Almost No-Fat cookbook. Heavenly on pasta with veggies and Yves Chick'n Tenders, but even better as a white sauce on pizza!




I also made my stand-by faves from Nava Atlas's Vegetarian Family Cookbook - Soft and Chewy Granola Bars. I don't use a pan, but rather I spread the batter into a square on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Way easier to cut and I don't have to fight with it sticking to a pan.



I also made the 'Tuna' Noodle Casserole from the same cookbook except instead of tofu I used - another surprise - Yves Chick'n Tenders! It's a little bland, which seems to be pleasing to my palate lately so it's great, but Kyle kicked up his serving by dousing it with hot sauce and soy sauce.

From Vcon, I made the Autumn Root Salad with Warm Maple-Fig dressing. A lot of prep, but it was OK.

I also made the Portobello Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing. It was good too.



Like Tracy, I made the Baked Potato and Greens Soup with Potato-Wedge Croutons. Yum! Well worth the prepping the potatoes in the oven! I had to use spinach instead of kale since Loblaws' produce selection was quite pathetic. I will also make the 'croutons' as a side to tofu burgers since they were so good.

I made the Banana-Wheat Germ muffins too. Good, but I think I'll stick to my own recipe since I like them real banana-y.

Finally, from VwaV, I made the Mango Ginger Tofu (subbed Yves' again). It was different - I think I put too much vinegar in :(

For the second time, I also made the Raspberry Chocolate Blackout Cake for my stepdad Gord's 55th birthday. I used homemade strawberry jam since Gord hates raspberries...SO GOOD! I think I forgot to take a pic last year, so I got both the cake and Gord this year:

Yes, I think alcohol played a factor in this photo.