I don’t know if my tastes have changed because I’ve gone vegan, but I generally have not been wanting sweets as much as I used to since making the switch to a vegan diet. I used to “need” something sweet at least once a day, but now I can go through an entire day or days without eating a sweet – previously unthinkable. That said, lately my sweet tooth has returned a bit, and I’ve been baking to satisfy it.
A week or so ago, I made brownies.
Miss Rachel’s Vegan Brownies
1/2 cup Earth Balance
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 t Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 2 T water
3/4 cup of flour
1/4 – 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
Melt Earth Balance and chocolate together in a sauce pan over very low heat. Pour sugar into a mixing bowl. Once melted, add the chocolate mixture to the sugar and combine. Add the egg substitute and combine. Make sure the flour is “lightened” – stir through it with a fork (or sift it if you’re so inclined) and lightly spoon it into a measuring cup. Blend the flour into the main mixture and then add the chocolate chips if you are using. Grease an 8 or 9-inch pan with Earth Balance and add the batter to it, spreading it out evenly. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 22 minutes. Allow to cool for “a while” (45 minutes?). These brownies are best served slightly warm.
Then this weekend I wanted cookies, and I made some snickerdoodles. I found a recipe by doing a Google search which led me to this entry on a blog called Eat Me, Delicious. Of course, I changed the recipe by using vegan substitutes for the butter and eggs. I also cut the recipe in half, but on second thought I could have made the full recipe because Sweetie and I went through these pretty quickly. I think I’ll be making them again.
Another thing I’ve been meaning to make this summer with all the blueberries out is some good blueberry cake. Once again I Googled, and I found this recipe on a blog called Almost Vegan, but I changed the recipe up a bit. For one thing, I cut the recipe in half. Cake is best fresh so I wanted something we could finish in a few days, and I thought a smaller one would serve us better. Then I used rice milk in place of soy milk and water and I added a tablespoon of vanilla extract. I can also assure you that I did NOT sift the flour even once; I don’t have that kind of patience. I just “lightened” it as I did in the aforementioned brownie recipe. I also used brown sugar for the crumb topping, and I kind of “winged” it on measurements of said topping. I just mixed enough Earth Balance, flour and brown sugar together until in seemed like a good consistency and the right amount. I baked the cake for about 38 minutes.
I made the blueberry cake Monday night and now on Wednesday, there is only one small piece left. I think I’ll be making this cake again too.
Have you been doing any summer baking?
Tags:
blueberries,
brownies,
cake,
cookies,
recipes
Saturday I got up and had my usual coffee with So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer.
Then I had a toasted hemp bagel with Earth Balance, and I took my supplements.
I debated about whether to photograph the AZO, but then I decided that yeast infections are something many women suffer from, and they’re nothing to be ashamed of. If you’re someone who suffers from chronic recurring yeast infections and haven’t found anything that works to prevent them, I suggest you try the AZO Yeast, Natural Symptom Prevention and Relief. I take one tablet a day, and it really seems to be preventing the infections. (And I’m not being paid to say this.) I take two calcium-magnesium with vitamin D supplements in the morning and two in the evening for a total of 1,000 milligrams a day. My doctor was really pushing me to take calcium for the last couple of years, and I couldn’t really argue with her, especially since my mother has osteoporosis. It took me a while to get going on taking them regularly, but earlier this year I made a concerted effort to get in the habit. A few weeks ago I decided to try taking spirulina to increase my energy. (I take three spirulina tablets in the morning and three at night.) I don’t know if spirulina is a waste of money, but I do seem to be feeling pretty good so for now I’ll continue.
As I had my coffee and my bagel and my supplements, I thought about running, feeling as if I needed to do it, since I hadn’t run since Wednesday. One reason I’m afraid of running is because I’m afraid I’ll be uncomfortable. I usually am uncomfortable when I run. There’s no such thing as an easy run for me at this time. Of course the only way to get comfortable is to do it more. So I went and ran at the park yesterday on my own, without the aid of a running partner or the treadmill, and I was uncomfortable, and I was slow, but I managed two and a half miles. Not bad, huh?
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And now it’s time for my new blog feature: The Random Meal of the Day
Let’s go back in time and look at a dinner I made in January (!): pan-fried seitan, baked sweet potato and curried cauliflower with peas. I bake the sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes, and cook the seitan thusly: heat safflower oil in non-stick pan, slice the seitan and place it in the pan, and cook until browned, about 5 or so minutes on each side. For the cauliflower, heat oil in a large skillet with a cover, add curry powder, and then the cauliflower pieces. Once the cauliflower is somewhat coated, I add water to the skillet, dump in some frozen peas and cover and steam the mixture until it’s done. You’ll have to excuse the lack of instructions as far as exact measurements and times. For a number of years, I cooked using recipes in cookbooks, and I believe this practice got me comfortable in the kitchen so that now I just cook intuitively, usually knowing what “enough” of an ingredient is and how long to cook something till it’s “done.”
Happy eating and running!
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cauliflower,
coffee,
meal of the day,
peas,
recipes,
running,
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sweet potatoes,
vegan butter,
vegan dairy
Days off mean hash browns, sprinkled with nutritional yeast, for breakfast .
And for lunch, perhaps potato salad dressed up with avocado, greens and Annie’s Goddess Dressing.
Potato Salad Recipe
~3 pounds of red potatoes, skins on
1 cucumber
1 bunch of radishes
1 handful of sprouts of your choice
~.5 oz. of chives
~.5 oz. of dill
Vegenaise
red wine vinegar
sunflower seeds
salt & pepper
Leave potatoes whole unless very large. Put in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring water to boil and then reduce to simmer. Let potatoes simmer for about 20 minutes. They should pierce easily with fork, but not fall apart. Drain potatoes and set aside until they are cool enough to handle.
While the potatoes are cooking, peel, seed & chop the cucumber into small dice. Wash the radishes and cut those into small dice. Finely mince the chives and dill. Add all of these to a large mixing bowl. Add Vegenaise to the vegetables and herbs in the bowl, and mix well. I didn’t measure the Vegenaise; I’m guessing it was about a cup or so – ? Just add what seems to be enough to mix everything together, taking into account all the potatoes you’ll be adding. (And remember you can always add more, but you can’t take any out.) Add 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar to the mixture and mix well. Mix in a handful of sprouts and a handful of sunflower seeds. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, chop them into medium dice, leaving the skins on. Add the diced potatoes to the vegetable and Vegenaise mixture and fold together. Eat at room temperature or chilled. The potato salad should keep at least week if stored covered in the refrigerator.
Makes a great main course for lunch. I got a work week’s worth of brown bag lunches, plus Sweetie’s and my lunches yesterday before it was gone.
Tags:
avocadoes,
hash browns,
nutritional yeast,
potato salad,
recipes,
salad greens
I’m going to a cookout today, and I decided to make an asparagus salad to bring. Here are the raw materials.
First I steamed the asparagus (after breaking off the ends of the stalks). I let the water come to a boil, and I put the thicker stalks into the pan first so they would be submerged and cook a little more than the thinner ones. Then I put all the others in, put the cover on and steamed for about 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes I took the pan off the heat and put in the sink and began cooling the asparagus by running cold water on it and putting some ice cubes in the pan. Then I dried a bit with paper towels, put half of it in the serving dish and made the dressing.
I didn’t measure the dressing ingredients. I just used the juice of 1 lemon and chopped up what looked like enough of the dill and red onion and mixed all those up (along with a few sprinkles of salt), with some Vegenaise.
I poured the dressing over the first layer of asparagus and then put the rest in and poured the remaining dressing over that, sprinkled on a little salt, ground on some black pepper and garnished it with some sprigs of dill.
Then I put the cover on the serving dish and put it in the fridge where the salad chills awaiting its trip to the cookout.
Tags:
asparagus,
herbs,
recipes,
salad,
vegan mayonnaise
The main news here is that spring semester is over. Woo hoo! The last week of it had some pretty intense writing (and freaking out), but I got the paper done , did a presentation and got an A in the class. It’s been a week now, and I’m still reveling in being done! At least for now. I need four more classes to get my degree. But still – four more classes – that’s not many at all.
Right now I’m in Rockport with Blue, visiting my mom and Andrea (my sister) and the cats of course. I brought Woody’s ashes with me to give to Andrea. Sweetie and I still miss Woody, but she was my sister’s cat for years before that, and besides, with the ashes of Max (my dog) and Trinka (my cat) on the fireplace mantle, I feel like that’s enough. I don’t think I will be saving the ashes of all my pets for years to come. I mean, it could get out of control. I did put Woody’s personalized ceramic bowl on the mantle though.
During the last few weeks of the semester, I gave myself something of a pass on working out, planning to train for a 5K and hit it hard once I was “free” again. I pictured myself running fast and feeling great. It didn’t really end up going that way. Monday I didn’t have any running buddies so I ended up walking (I ran for like two minutes somewhere in there) the 2.2 mile path at work, then Tuesday I went to Power Sculpt class (more on that in another post), Wednesday I bagged out, but on Thursday I did run-walk intervals for 20 minutes on the ‘mill and 10 minutes on the recumbent bike, and that felt more like it as far a training for a 5K. That is, training to *run* a 5K. I have to do some more cardio this weekend too…
I also kind of took a break from cooking the last couple weeks of the semester, but last week, I got back into it. I guess it’s fortunate that I love vegetables so much since they’re naturally vegan and healthy. Monday night I made of my favorite combinations: braised leek, Swiss chard and corn served over soba noodles, seasoned with roasted sesame oil and nutritional yeast.
I also adore the seitan made by The Bridge, (admittedly, I haven’t tried any other brands yet), but I hadn’t had any for a while when I finally made some on Thursday. I came home from my workout and slapped together an easy but yummy dinner: pan-fried seitan, Road’s End Shells & Chreese, and steamed asparagus. It was all delicious, and especially great to have seitan again. I’m going to make sure buy some more for the coming week. A friend mine who tried seitan after she learned how much I love it commented on Facebook that she’d like to love it but she really doesn’t. Oh well, more for me then!
Tags:
animals,
asparagus,
corn,
leeks,
nutritional yeast,
pasta,
recipes,
Rockport,
running,
school,
seitan,
sesame,
Swiss chard,
working out
We’re having a cold snap here in Connecticut. The weather and the presence of over-ripe bananas seemed to indicate the time was right for making banana bread. Sweetie will often do me the favor of eating the over-ripe bananas (which are way too sweet and yucky for me), but this time I didn’t want him to so I put a note on the bananas in the morning before leaving for work.
After work, I came home and cooked up some red quinoa and steamed some beautiful asparagus for our dinner.
After we ate up that yummy goodness, I started in on the banana bread. I adapted the recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book. I just switch Ener-G Egg Replacer for eggs. It’s easily the best banana bread I’ve had, and it’s also quite nutritious. I admit only three bananas were not enough make up the two full cups of banana pulp the recipe calls for so last night’s loaf wasn’t quite as good as usual, but Sweetie and I managed to put away a good chunk of it anyway.
Tags:
asparagus,
baking,
banana bread,
grains,
recipes
I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies yesterday and they were delish. I like to make cookie dough and then bake only some of it and store the rest for later for two reasons: nothing beats fresh cookies, and I can control the amount I eat more easily. It’s kind of easy to go overboard eating these cookies if I do say so myself.
I find cookies easy to make. I know they may not be easy for everyone, but for me they are. Pie crusts are my nemesis. For me, the hardest part of making these cookies is measuring out the peanut butter because it’s messy. Here’s the recipe:
Miss Rachel’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup Earth Balance (I use the soy free kind)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened chunky peanut butter (the kind you have to store in the fridge to keep from separating)
1 1/2 teaspoons of Energ-G Egg Replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons of water
1 1/4 cups regular flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
~1 cup of chocolate chips
Cream the Earth Balance and sugars, then add the peanut butter and blend well. Then add the egg replacer mixture and blend that well. Add the flour and baking powder and once that is almost completely incorporated into the mixture, add the chocolate chips and mix until the batter is uniform and the chips are evenly distributed.
Drop by tablespoon-sized (or larger) blobs (blobs? OK, blobs.) onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Press down on the tops of the blobs with a fork to make a crisscross pattern on each and then bake in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes and then remove with a spatula. I confess that I forgot to grease the cookie sheet yesterday, and the cookies still came out fine, but it’s usually best to lightly grease it.
These are cookies that actually taste better once they are no longer hot so allow to cool for a few more minutes and then enjoy. Store the rest of the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator so you can make fresh cookies again. That’s it.
Of course, these are all gone by now.
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On a completely unrelated note, yesterday I also but bunny ears on Blue. I know Easter is over, but it’s never too late to put bunny ears on your dog.
Tags:
Blue,
chocolate chips,
cookies,
peanut butter,
recipes
Next to purple (and maybe pink), green is my favorite color. I also enjoy eating greens. I think my favorite greens are Swiss chard, and I buy them fairly frequently. A couple of months ago, I realized I was buying the same vegetables over and over: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, sweet potatoes and Swiss chard so I have tried to branch out since then, but last week, there was the most beautiful Swiss chard at Whole Foods so I bought it even though I was probably “due” to add something else to the rotation. Seriously, how could I resist this?
It’s very easy to prepare: wash the leaves and then cut them crosswise into about 1 inch strips. You can include some of the stems because they’re quite edible too. I like to braise my Swiss chard: first cooking it in oil with crushed garlic over medium heat, and then adding about half a cup of water, bringing it to a boil and covering the pan until the chard is done, still bright green, but limp. It only takes a few minutes. Swiss chard cooks down quite a bit, but I usually find the bunch I get at the store is enough for two generous servings. I use nutritional yeast as a seasoning for a lot of my vegetables (see my vlog where I talk about nutritional yeast a little), and Swiss chard is no exception: hence, the yellow topping you see below. I served the chard alongside some vegan shells and “cheese:” Road’s End brand is quite yummy.
Tags:
nutritional yeast,
pasta,
recipes,
Swiss chard
Last Sunday was the O’Hartford Race. I did not run it, but I did go to support Sweetie (who finished in under 30 minutes – w00t!). I usually think St. Patrick’s Day is kind of silly, but I have to admit that despite the chilly, gray weather, the atmosphere was fun and the good time was contagious. Lots of funny costumes and a mini race featuring people running with glasses of beer on trays, trying not to spill. I decided that I want run this race next year (the 5K part, not beer on trays part).
I sent Sweetie off to the start and then I watched an Irish string trio and got a Hooker Ale before heading off to the arch to cheer people on. I managed to see Sweetie and get his attention too. Then I walked to the finish line to meet him and passed by this cool sign with arrows pointing to various attractions in Hartford.
We saw people heading to an Irish pub, but we headed home after the race and I made up some yummy guacamole which we enjoyed while watching a Dr. Katz Professional Therapist video.
After the guacamole and video, we took a nap together. It was a good day.
Tags:
guacamole,
Hartford,
race reports,
recipes,
running,
Sweetie,
TV
So glad last week is over. I am mostly against wishing away time, but since last week is now in the past, it’s already away, right? It was just a tiring week. I HAD to stay up and watch the Ladies figure skating event so that entailed staying up late both Tuesday and Thursday nights to watch it live. I don’t have a DVR and besides, who doesn’t want to watch an exciting once-every-four-years event like that live?! So I was already a bit sleep-deprived, and I was also fretting over the paper I had to write for class this week (yes, there was a paper this week AND the week before), and was having trouble getting it out. I also had to make cookies for my boss’s birthday Wednesday night. My birthday was on Wednesday and hers is on Thursday and we have a rule that the person who had the last birthday handles treats for the next birthday. It’s usually not as close as mine and hers, but oh well. So on my birthday night, I was making cookies for someone else’s birthday. I could have just bought something, but I wanted to share the delights of vegan cookies with my coworkers (more about that later). By Friday, it was D-day for my paper so I ended up pounding serious coffee and taking a half day at work, and finally finishing it. Then that night Sweetie came home… ahhh….. cue hearts and flowers and angels. It was so good to see him again, and it’s great having him back.
I’m not the only one glad he’s back. So is Woody.
This guy, probably not so much. He likes to have me all to himself.
I was so tired I toyed with the idea of just going out and buying a cake for my boss’s birthday, but I decided I wanted to share (and show off) how good vegan cookies could be so I made them for my boss’s birthday treat. She took one bite and said, “Rachel these are reallygood.” Everyone else on my team tried them, and said things like, “They’re as good as regular cookies.” Some people asked for the recipe and for information on what egg substitute was so I emailed the info to them. I use Ener-G brand egg substitute. Here’s the recipe for Rachel’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies:
1/2 cup of Earth Balance
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg’s worth of egg substitute
1 T vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Bake in 375 degree oven for ~10 minutes (you may need more or less time depending on the size of the cookies).
Note: the cookies in this picture are actually cookies I baked another time. The ones I made on Wednesday, I didn’t add walnuts, and I made a bit smaller so there would be more individual cookies to go around. Of course, I also HAD to do a taste test to make sure (ahem) that they would be acceptable so I had a few warm out of the oven on Wednesday night.
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Blog news! I’m switching to WordPress. Blogger has decided to stop allowing people to FTP their stuff, and while they have a good reason for doing so, there really is no reason for me to stay with them so I’ve decided to switch to WordPress. Evidently, I will be able to migrate my old posts from Blogger to WordPress, and maybe I’ll even figure out how to make my archives page work. I’m excited about this change, and I’m also excited to continue blogging with my new focus: vegan food and lots of photographs. Some of my most favorite blogs feature these two things, and I figure if that’s what I like reading about then that’s what I want to post about too.
Hopefully, the migration will go smoothly. I’m not sure how my page is going to look, but it’s not as if my domain name is changing so my readers, few though they may be, will still be able to find me here. I’m going to try to make the switch today. See you on the other side!
EDIT: I did it. I am now on WordPress.
Tags:
blogging,
Blue,
chocolate chips,
cookies,
recipes,
vegan butter,
Woody
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