Pear Oat Crumble Muffins

Tunes: 80’s Pop Hits

Tonight I finally made muffins!  I’ve wanted a muffin for at least a week now.  Originally I was going to make apple muffins, but then I realized I didn’t have any apples.  I did have pears though so I went with that and I am soooooo glad that I did.  They came out quite delicious!!

Yield: 12

2½ TBSP ground flaxseed + 3 TBSP hot water

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1¼ cups Country Choice Organic Multigrain hot cereal (rye, barley, oats and wheat) (I found this at Trader Joe’s.  Oats would work too)

¼ tsp fine sea salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cloves

¼ cup safflower oil

½ cup maple syrup

1 cup oat milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup diced pear

Streusel Topping:  ¼ cup multigrain hot cereal

¼ tsp cinnamon

3 TBSP date sugar

2 TBSP Earth Balance olive oil buttery spread

1.  Combine the ground flaxseed and hot water; set aside.  Line 12 muffin tin cups with cupcake liners.

2.  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, hot cereal, sea salt, baking powder and spices.

3.  In another bowl, whisk together the oil, maple, oat milk and vanilla.  Add the oil mix into the flour mix; stir to just combine.  Fold in pears.  Evenly fill muffin tin cups.

4.  Streusel topping: combine the hot cereal, cinnamon and date sugar.  Mash in butter with the back of a spoon to form crumbles.  Sprinkle over the top of the muffins.

5.  Bake at 375°F for about 20 to 30 minutes, when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in muffin pan for a bit then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

*Since they’re so fresh, I plan on storing them in the refrigerator.

*The streusel topping got a little bit dark, it could maybe get sprinkled on about half way through baking and be alright.

I will probably try these with some almond butter and try to get to my health food store to buy myself some vegan cream cheese to try on them, I think that would do quite nicely.

Buckwheat Pretzels

Tunes: Kerli – Love Is Dead

I made these a few days ago.  These are a work in progress…

Makes 16

2½ TBSP finely ground flaxseed

3 TBSP hot water

Safflower oil

1 cup buckwheat flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

2/3 cup almond milk

2 TBSP Earth Balance olive oil buttery spread

½ tsp date sugar

½ tsp salt

Sea salt

1.  Combine ground flaxseed and hot water into a blender and blend until frothy.  Let sit while preparing pretzels.

2.  Heat oven to 400°F.  Grease 2 cookie sheets with safflower oil.

3.  In a bowl, combine the flours, milk, Earth Balance, date sugar and salt using a fork.  Lightly flour a work surface with whole wheat pastry flour and transfer dough to surface.  Gently smooth dough into a ball; knead ten times.

4.  Divide the dough in half.  Roll one half into an even 8-inch log and cut into 8 pieces.  Roll each of the 8 pieces gently into thin 12-inch-long strip.  Twist each strip into a pretzel shape and place, seam side down, on prepared cookie sheet.

5.  Add extra hot water to the ground flaxseeds, if necessary, and whisk with fork to thin out.  Brush each pretzel with flaxseed mix and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until pretzels are golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheet onto wire rack.

6.  Repeat with other half of dough.

It was a bit of a challenge to make the pretzel shape, lol.  I figure I’ll get the hang of it as I continue to make more.

*I think I would try this recipes again adding more date sugar or maybe another sweetener.

*Next time I may also try replacing the Earth Balance with crunchy peanut butter… Crazy Richard’s is a good one :)

*I would also try baking them a bit longer to make them crunchier.  I made them a few days ago and popped one in the toaster oven today and it was crunchier and I kind of liked it that way.

*You could probably just use water instead of the flaxseed mixed with water.

*I may also try to make less of them next time so I can make them bigger.

Guacamole

I am always looking for a good guacamole recipe... always.  I LOVE guacamole!
I bought a pack of 5 of the giant avocados from the store, they were real soft so they were on clearance and I thought, perfect, I'll make guacamole and just freeze some of it.
So, I bought the 5 pack.  One of them was no good but the other 4 were ready to go.  I made up this recipe as I went along.  I looked at a few recipes for inspiration and then went through my kitchen and used what I had.  Some of the greatest recipes come from this kind of cooking... random.
Here's what came together for me:

4 large very ripe avocados
1/2 celery stalk, chopped into tiny pieces
4 oz fire roasted diced green chiles (I used Trader Joe's)
1-1/2 tsp dried cilantro ( I didn't think I had any, but then found it hiding in the very back of my spice cabinet... whew!)
juice of 1/2 a lime
3 tsp powdered garlic
1-1/2 TBSP minced onion
1-1/4 tsp cumin

Mash it all together.  Add more or less of the spices according to your taste.

The flavor gets better as it sits.  When I first tried it I felt like there was too much lime and it overpowered things but then after it sat overnight, I thought the flavor was excellent.

*I used celery for the crunch factor that onion would have given it.  I can't eat raw onion, that's why I decided to put the celery in, but it would probably be good (for anyone else but me) with onion instead.

Almond Yogurt

Tunes: Frank Sinatra… ‘nuff said.

1 cup almonds

1 cup water

½ tsp probiotic powder - I used Renew Life Ultimate Flora Super Critical 200 Billion High Bifido Maximum Support: when I went to my health food store to look for a probiotic powder I didn’t really know what I was looking for so I asked for help.  So, the salesman helped me find them and then gave me a free sample which was enough for me to use so I didn’t actually have to buy anything.  I like free :)

1.  Soak almonds: place in a jar and cover with at least 3 cups of water.  Place a lid on it, not tightly.  I soaked mine for 22 hours (the recipe I based this off of said to let them soak for 12 to 24 hours).

2.  Drain and rinse the almonds.  Remove the skins.  It took me about 45 minutes to remove them, I just peeled them off.  I did find, about half way through, that if you snip the tiny tip off with your finger nails and peel from there, for the most part, the skins will peel right off… sometimes in one shot.  There may be a better way to remove the skin but I didn’t feel like researching it.  The recipe I based this off of didn’t call to do this but the last time I made almond yogurt there was just something about the taste and texture I didn’t like and I’m thinking maybe it was the skin.
3.  Place the almonds, water and probiotic into your blender: blend well, until creamy, about 6 minutes on low-med, adding more water if necessary (I added about ¼ cup more water to mine).

4.  Place the mixture in a jar and cover with a paper towel (I secured it with a rubber band).  The recipe I based this off of says to let it sit overnight at room temperature; I let mine sit for  about 16 hours and 15 minutes.  The top thicker part should be bubbly and there should be a liquid layer on the bottom.  After letting it sit, cover with a real lid and refrigerate.

*Before enjoying, stir to mix thick and liquid parts.

*Save 2 tablespoons of the yogurt to use as a starter for the next batch.

I did like this a lot better then the last time I made almond yogurt.  I made this original batch last week and it was really delicious.  I made a second batch of it this week using the 2 tablespoons of yogurt in place of the probiotic powder.  I didn't have to add extra water when I was blending and it came out looking good... I haven't actually tried it yet but I'm confident it also tastes delicious :)

September Vegetable Soup

Tunes: Hawk Nelson: mix of albums – something upbeat to really get me going :)

I made this in my Crock-Pot, since I do love using it!

32 oz unsalted vegetable cooking stock (I used one made by Kitchen Basics)

32 oz water

16 oz 17 Bean & Barley Mix (Trader Joe’s makes a great one)

½ cup chopped sweet basil

8 cloves garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped

2 cups chopped carrot

2 red onions, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 cup cut green beans

3 cups chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

2 cups chopped white button mushrooms

1 cup cut bean sprouts

3 cups packed chopped collard greens

1 cup frozen peas

1.  Start heating the vegetable stock, water and bean & barley mix with the Crock-pot on high.

2.  While those heat up and cook for about 1½ hours, prepare the rest of your vegetables.  Forty minutes in I added the basil; and then the garlic 40 minutes after I added the basil.

3.  An hour and a half into the total cook time, I added the carrot, onion, green beans, broccoli and celery.  Then ½ hour after that I added the sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, sprouts, collard greens and peas.

4.  Five hours on high was the magic number, all the vegetables and beans were a perfect tenderness!

I had a bowl of this for dinner and I was quite happy with it.  It has a minestrone taste to it.  If you like things to have more spice flavor, experiment with some herbs… maybe a bay leaf or two, rosemary, more basil.  I like the natural taste of things, so I tend to not spice too much on dishes like this… now give me a curry and I’m spicing things all up!!

I would normally make my own vegetable stock.  Come to think of it, I may have some in the freezer… hmm, haha, too late now.  But it does take time to make and I really just wanted to make the soup, so I found the Kitchen Basics at Shop Rite and it’s just vegetable based, no additives, so that made me happy.

You could probably just add all the vegetables in at one time so you can actually utilize it being in a Crock-Pot and leave it.  I added here and there depending on what vegetables I felt needed to cook longer.  Definitely give the beans that 1½ hours cooking time since they’re dry and need time to really soak and simmer.

I have a 6 quart capacity Crock-Pot and this filled it up almost to the brim.  If it hadn’t, I probably would have added more stock or water.

Cashew Yogurt

Success!!!

I have been wanting to make cashew yogurt for over a month now.  I bought the cashews... I opened the bag... and then life happened and I have been unable to be in my kitchen cooking in waaayyy toooo loooong.

Tuesday night I was going to make soup but I didn't have all the ingredients I wanted.  Since I could actually be in my kitchen though, I decided it was time to try making the cashew yogurt (yay!).

I started out using one recipe that I had found online, so I soaked the cashews for about an hour since the recipe called for soaked cashews.  Sometime during that hour, however, I realized that I could not use that particular recipe (it called for using my dehydrator as an incubator of sorts, which I was like, cool, but then I realized that I cannot remove the trays from my dehydrator so it would be useless to me to make yogurt, not cool).  This dilemma ended with a trip to the library where I knew there was a recipe which I had discovered some time ago in a book: “Go Dairy Free” by Alisa Fleming.

Here's what I did:

1.  Place 1 cup of RAW cashews into a glass jar.  Add 3 cups cold filtered water and cover with lid; let soak for 1 hour.

2.  Drain cashews, reserving water, and pat dry (or air dry, I did both).

3.  Place cashews in a food processor and process until they are the texture of a coarse meal.  Place cashew "meal" and 1 cup of reserved water in a blender; blend until the mixture is smooth and the consistency of heavy cream.  Place in a glass jar.

Now, I made my own “incubator” using a 2 gallon drink cooler.  I heated up some water on the stove and poured about 2 inches of water into the cooler, let the temperature drop to just below 100°F and then placed the glass jar, covered with a paper towel and secured with a rubber band, into the cooler (making sure that the edges of the paper towel were not in the water).  I put the lid on and let it do it's thing.

 

The mixture sat out for about 30 minutes between the time I blended it and the time that I put it into the "incubator".  Once in the "incubator", I left it for 20 hours and 30 minutes.  Time will vary depending on the temperature it's kept at (keep it in a warm place between 70 and 100°F).  I checked it after about 9 hours but then I had to go to work.  It's supposed to form bubbles and a layer of liquid on the bottom.  Mine had some bubbles after the 20 hours and 30 minutes so I made the decision to go ahead and put a real lid on the glass jar and move it into the refrigerator.

I would suggest letting it refrigerate overnight before eating it.  I ate some of it yesterday, probably about 2-3 hours after putting it into the refrigerator and it was good... but then I had some more today and the flavor was much better.  Just make sure to stir it up before serving it up :)

If you want it sweet, I would try mixing in some pure maple syrup or some agave.

I mixed mine with some fruit and muesli: delicious!

 

Kabocha Squash Soup

I had the other half of the kabocha squash leftover from making the jambalaya, and I absolutely love this squash in soup, so on Wednesday I decided to make soup.  (Yes, soup in the summer... why not?!)

So, classic me, I went into my refrigerator and pantry and started pulling things out (I come up with some of the best dishes this way.  Seriously, if you don't already do this, give it a try).  Now, normally I would just start throwing things in the pot, but since I'm blogging now I did write things down as I did them. :)

Here's the recipe for what I'm calling Asian Touch Kabocha Squash Soup:

½ kabocha squash, rind on, cut into small chunks

4 medium carrots, cut into small chunks

2 cups organic low sodium vegetable broth

2 cups water

¾ cup frozen peas

½ cup cooked orange lentils

2 cups shredded chicory

2 TBSP reduced sodium Tamari

¼ tsp ginger

peppercorn

8 tsp sweet white miso

2 sheets Nori, broken into small pieces

1.  In a medium size pot, place kabocha squash, carrots, broth, water and peas.  Heat on medium heat for 30 minutes.

2.  Add lentils, chicory, Tamari, ginger and few twists peppercorn, to taste, into soup.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes.

3.  In small bowl, dissolve the miso in a few tablespoons of the cooking broth.  Add miso/broth mix into soup.  Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes.

4.  Remove soup from heat.  Stir in Nori and serve.

I've eaten it a couple times now and so far I haven't come up with anything that I would change.

The Cornbread That Wasn't

Ever since I started cooking and baking, I’ve been searching for the PERFECT cornbread recipe.  I haven’t found it yet.  Perfect to me is just the right amount of sweetness to compliment a nice corn flavor.  Oh, and it’s gotta have whole corn kernels in there.

Finding said recipe has taken a new twist since becoming vegan and since I have cut refined sugars and white flours out of my diet.

Tuesday night I thought to myself, “what does the jambalaya need?”  Duh, cornbread!  So, I went looking for a recipe and came across one that my aunt had sent me not too long ago and decided to try that.  It was already a vegan recipe, but I still tweaked some things.  Here’s my twist on the recipe:

Roasted Red Pepper Cornbread

1¾ cups organic yellow corn meal

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ cup buckwheat flour

1½ TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 TBSP white vinegar

1½ cups organic whole grain drink (I used Trader Joe’s)

½ cup safflower oil

3 TBSP agave nectar

1 cup frozen corn (can use fresh)

about ½ - ¾ cup roasted red pepper, diced

½ cup Daiya pepperjack cheese substitute

1.  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Oil a 9-inch round cake pan.

2.  In a large bowl, combine corn meal, flours, baking powder and salt.  Make a well in the center and add white vinegar, whole grain drink, oil and agave.  Whisk until combined.  Fold in corn, roasted red pepper and Daiya.

3.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake about 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This tasted amazing… if I didn’t want cornbread, LOL!  The buckwheat flour took over in the flavor department, but it’s very moist, almost cake-like.  So, I would make this again, maybe put some raisins or other dried fruit and maybe some nuts instead of the corn, cheese and roasted red pepper.  I’d also replace the agave with maple syrup and make a sweet bread out of it.

As for a cornbread recipe: It’s back to the drawing board… as they say…

Jambalaya

I had some soy chorizo in my refrigerator, so Sunday afternoon I thought I'd try making some jambalaya (cause I love it).  This is how it went down...

Tunes:  Glee Season 1 Vol 1  (yes, yes, say what you like.  I don’t watch the show but I do enjoy the music… I can’t help it)

The Recipe:

2 TBSP olive oil

1½ red onions, chunked

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 green peppers, chunked

2 cups broth from seitan (or new low sodium vegetable broth)

1 zucchini, chunked

3 stalks celery, chunked

½ kabocha squash, un-peeled, chunked

½ tsp hot sauce

1 tsp cilantro base

1 cup canned whole tomatoes in basil, chopped, with juices

4 bay leaves

sea salt, to taste

½ tsp dried thyme

14 oz seitan (I made my own with half of a 10 oz box of Arrowhead Mills vital wheat gluten, cooked in 2 cups organic low sodium vegetable broth and 1½ cups of water), cut into small chunks, reserve cooking broth

12 oz pkg Soy Chorizo, casing removed, cut up (I used Trader Joe’s)

2 cups brown rice

5 large button mushrooms, small chunks

1 cup fresh basil leaves, whole or chopped

1.  Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, garlic and peppers; sauté to brown, about 5 mins, stirring occasionally.

2.  In a Crock-pot, place broth, onion mixture, zucchini, celery, squash, hot sauce, cilantro base, tomatoes, bay leaves, sea salt, and thyme.  Cook on low for 1 hour.

3.  Add seitan, sausage, rice, mushrooms, and basil; cook for 1 hour.  Turn heat up and cook on High for 2½ hours.

4.  Remove bay leaves.  Enjoy!

 

The Issue:

I feel that the dish cooked too long.  The rice took longer then I anticipated, so by the time it was no longer crunchy, the vegetables were a little softer then I wanted.  On the plus side, it still tastes amazing!

Notes:

1 – I would layer into the Crock-pot differently:  Place broth, tomatoes and rice in the bottom, then add the rest of step 2’s ingredients on top of that.  Maybe try it on high right off the bat to try to cook the rice faster.  (Or layer it this way and let it be on low for a few hours so the vegetables cook slower but the rice is in the liquid so maybe things would cook more evenly.)

2 – Up until about a year ago I had never heard of kabocha squash.  Then a recipe I wanted to try called for it so I started looking for it.  I did find it, at Shop Rite, and picked one up.  I’ve been hooked ever since.  The beauty of this squash is that you can leave the rind on it and it tastes fantastic.

My jambalaya is a work in progress.

Coconut Mango "Mock-Cream" and Granola

I decided it was time to make some ice cream… or what I am now going to call “mock-cream” since people get a confused look on their faces when I say ice cream, “wait, I thought you were vegan.”  I am, I’m just so used to calling anything of that consistency coming out of my freezer “ice cream”.  Sorry, habit.  So, until I come up with something more clever to call my frozen treat creations, mock-cream it will be.

 

I got some inspiration for this recipe from a couple of recipes from vegweb.com, and then changed it up to meet my specific preferences and tastes.  (For example, their recipes called for regular sugar but that's not how I roll, as I’m avoiding refined sugar, so I used maple syrup and date sugar instead.)

Yield: about 80 oz/ 2½ quarts 

2 cups SO Delicious unsweetened coconut milk

4 cups unsweetened original Almond Breeze

13.66 oz can Lite coconut milk

½ cup SO Delicious original coconut creamer

1/3 cup date sugar

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 TBSP vanilla extract

splash rum extract

1/3 cup pureed mango

1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1.  Whisk together all ingredients in mixing bowl.  Refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes.

2.  Place in ice cream maker for 40-45 minutes.  

It came out quite delicious!  It has a very light taste, nothing overwhelming, which I do enjoy.  I did make a few notes for next time (although I will be eating this batch for a while):

1 – I would definitely add more mango.  The coconut is very dominant in the taste and I’d like a bit more of the mango flavor.  I would have put more in to start with but I used all that I had, so, what can you do?

2 – Yes, but why is the rum gone?  Rum extract that is.  The recipes I looked at called for vanilla extract but I thought with coconut and mango, maybe something more tropical, so I went digging for my rum extract.  I found the bottle, but there was only a couple drops left.  I tossed it in anyway.

3 – Speaking of running out of things… 2 cups of unsweetened coconut milk was all that was left in the bottle, so that’s all I could use.  Next time I would want to use more coconut milk, at least 3 cups to even it out with the other non-dairy milk.  I think I would also try something other then the almond milk… maybe rice or oat milk, for a slight taste change.

As the ice cream maker was whirring, I thought to myself, "hmmm, some granola would be really great on top of this."  I do sometimes like a little crunchy on my mock-cream.  Since I didn't have any, I also made some granola, which I had been meaning to make anyway.  I have used different recipes and changed ingredients around.  My favourites I’ve found in “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone and in “Skinny Bitch In the Kitch” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  So, out of those, came my spin, which changes every time I make it:

My Twist-On Granola

3 cups Old Fashioned oats

about ½ cup wheat germ

1/8 cup pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup sunflower seeds

2 TBSP maple syrup

1 TBSP brown rice syrup

½ cup raisins and chopped dates and figs

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.  Spread the oats out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine wheat germ, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.  In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup and brown rice syrup.  And in a third bowl, combine dried fruit.

4.  When oats are done, add to bowl with wheat germ mixture, toss.  Stir in syrup mix until everything is moistened.  Spread the mix back onto the rimmed sheet, and bake for 5 minutes.  Stir in the dried fruit and respread the mixture; bake for 5 minutes more.

5.  Let the granola cool on the pans.  Store in an airtight container.

Voila!

Kim Chi

I decided to try my hand at making kim chi.  It’s the first time that I’ve ever done anything in the pickling department but I’ve read that things like kim chi are supposed to be good for digestion.  Since I’m not eating yogurt anymore, which is where I was getting my probiotics from, I figure my stomach could benefit from some kim chi.

So, I went looking for a recipe and the first cookbook I picked up, which I did so because I figured if any of my vegan cookbooks would have this recipe it would be this one, had a recipe for it and it sounded easy enough to me.  I’m quite sure that this will not be the last time that I reference “The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of the East” by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray (http://veganfusion.com/best-rated-vegan-vegetarian-raw-food-cookbooks/30-minute-vegan-taste-of-the-east/).  I have a bunch of pages marked of recipes that I would like to try out, including a coconut ice cream…mmmmm :-)

Since I’m not sure if it’s actually legal for me to type out and post the recipe, I tried to find it online but couldn’t.  But I will tell you some things I did/learned along the way while I made it.

The recipe calls for unpasteurized miso paste, I used a sweet white miso.  It also says to use agave nectar, Sucanat, or organic sugar; I used the agave.  And it calls for  an optional 1 cup diced mixed vegetables; I put in a half cup each cucumber and cauliflower.  Since cauliflower wasn’t on sale, I ended up buying frozen, let them thaw out, chopped them a little, and they worked great!

When making the paste, which is step 2 in the directions, I used a little less then 1 tablespoon of sea salt.

The recipe says it’s supposed to be made in a 2-quart mason jar (or two 1-quart jars).  It also calls for 1 large head of cabbage, so I bought the largest head that the store had and I ended up with 3 different sized jars of kim chi… I’ve got quite a bit to eat now.

So, I finished making it and put it into the jars, loosely covering them and left them for about 4 days at room temperature.  I did try some as I was putting the lids on to move them to the fridge on that 4^th day, and I was like, eh, I’ll probably like it better cold.  I was happy to be right on this one!  It’s much better cold!  The recipe says it “should have a spicy and tangy flavor” and it sure does.  And the more it sits, of course, the more the spiciness kicks in… which I’m loving!  I do say this as a slight warning if you’re not into spicy you may not like this as much as I do.

I’ve been eating the kim chi as a snack or side dish and plan on trying it wrapped with some brown rice in a sheet of nori… we’ll see how that goes.

Next on my pickling agenda: pickles!  (I know this will definitely make my sister happy!)

Sweet Potato Gnocchi and My Greatest "Cheese" Sauce EVER!!

“What are you making?”

“Sweet potato…” As I was answering this (usually) simple question on Monday night, I realized that I didn’t know how to pronounce gnocchi.  As a cook, I felt like I should really know how to.  So, if you were wondering too, dictionary.com says “nok-ee”/”noh-kee” but when I hit the little speaker button to hear it pronounced it’s more like “nah-kee”.

Anywho… I made sweet potato gnocchi.  I’ve never made regular potato gnocchi before and have only eaten one once, but it was good.  I decided, though, that since I enjoy sweet potatoes better then regular and they’re supposed to be healthier, I’d go ahead and give it a try.  So, I went on a search for a recipe and found one on foodnetwork.com, then went ahead and adjusted it to make it vegan and more to my liking.  It’s pretty simple:

1 large sweet potato

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 TBSP finely ground flax seeds, plus 3 TBSP water, blended in a blender until frothy and allowed to rest for 30 min – 1 hr

½ tsp ground cinnamon

pinch ground nutmeg (about 2 shakes)

½ tsp sea salt (for cooking water)

1.  At 425°F, bake the sweet potato until tender, about 40-45 min.  When cool enough to handle, peel and mash.

2.  Add flour, flax/water, cinnamon, and nutmeg; mix with hands until well combined.  Shape dough into a ball, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.

3.  Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil.

4.  When boiling, add salt.  Using 2 spoons, scoop up about 2 TBSP of dough with one, and scrape off with the other.  Cooking no more then 5-8 at a time, add balls of dough to the water, wait for them to rise to the surface, about 5 min.  Let them cook 1 min longer then scoop out with slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain.  Repeat process until all are cooked.  Serve right away.

This recipe made 16 for me, but I feel like they would have been so much better smaller, more like bite-size.  Next time I make this recipe I will be trying them smaller.

I baked a few sweet potatoes so not to waste the oven time and in case I wanted to make more.

The original recipe that I adapted this from said it would take about 3 minutes for them to rise in the boiling water, but it was around 5 minutes.

Haha… and I thought I had copied things down wrong when I was making the dough and put the sea salt, which was intended for the water, in.  Oops.  I just skipped putting salt in the water and they came out tasting good.

It was closer to an hour that I allowed the ground flax to sit after blending it with the water, and it does take on an eggy consistency and worked great as a binder.

I let the dough sit for about 24 hours (I was too hungry after making the dough to wait the hour to cook them so I cooked them Tuesday night).  I stored leftovers in the refrigerator and they reheat fine in the microwave.

Enough about the gnocchi itself.  After I cooked it up, I thought, what am I going to put on it?  I know regular potato gnocchi can be served with tomato sauce, but with sweet potato I thought, eh, no… and I have to stay away from tomato anyway so what to do…

I ended up making this amazing “cheese” sauce and am so glad that I wrote down what I put in the pan as I was throwing it together.  Mmmm, so good.  If I could, I would marry this sauce!  I will be using it now whenever I need a “cheese” sauce.  (I can’t wait to make some mac and cheese with it!)

So, what did I put in, you may ask.  Hmm…. Alright, yeah, I’ll share it with you ;)

In a small saucepan, place ¼ cup rice milk, ½ cup Daiya mozzarella cheese, and a small chunk of Follow Your Heart cheddar.  Place on low to medium-low heat and heat until cheeses melt, whisking occasionally to prevent sticking.  As it heats, add a pinch of nutmeg and about 1 teaspoon cilantro base (Goya makes a good one).  Towards the end of melting, take a few fresh basil leaves, chop them up and add to the sauce.  Heat until the sauce reaches the thickness you’d like it to be.

(You can use other brands of vegan cheese, this is what I had on hand.)

Voila!  Simple.  Delicious.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Apple Pie Pancakes!

I shall start off my blog page by sharing with you the best vegan pancake recipe I’ve found thus far…

I came across this recipe on food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-apple-pie-pancakes-217729, and decided to try it out on Monday morning.
I made a couple slight changes though, just knowing how I enjoy things: I used about double the amount of cinnamon, because I like to spice things up :), and I added 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed in with the flour, cause it's good for ya!

I also used a combination of about ¼ cup vanilla soy milk and ¾ cup original rice milk, as I tend to ration the amount of soy I use.

The batter for these comes out really thick.  For the second batch that I put on the griddle I added a bit more soy milk to thin it out a little, but I do like my pancake batter thick so I didn’t thin it out too much.

Now, the recipe says it makes 2 to 4 pancakes and I made 10!  I guess to make 2 you would just make 1 at a time and make them the size of the entire griddle… that’s a little too insane for me so I made them the size that I can comfortably eat 2 at a time.  (I put the rest in the refrigerator, or freezer, and pop them in the toaster oven to reheat.)

The apples and raisins in these really add to the flavor.  I served them up with some raw almond butter (from Trader Joe’s) and pure maple syrup.  Delicious!!