Vegan Cup Cakes

Tonight I made "Fauxtess" (like Hostess) cupcakes from the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook. The recipe was for chocolate of course, and that's what my taste testers wanted, but I can't eat the chocolate because of my allergies so I made half without cocoa powder so I could eat some too. I chose "Fluffy White" from the icing recipes. Very creamy and sweet. I don't think anyone would have know these cupcakes were vegan if I hadn't told them. They totally satisfied our sweet teeth tonight!

Cool Vegan Shoes and Bags

Just thought I'd post links to some great vegan shopping sites I discovered in my search to not only eat with a conscience but to dress with one too. I ordered this cute ladybug bag. http://www.alternativeoutfitters.com/Bungalow360-Barbie-Ladybug-Canvas-Vegan-Satchel-Bag.aspx
I know you can find animal friendly products in stores all over the place but after shoe shopping today I realized how hard it is to know if the leather is really leather or pleather or who knows what. I decided to hop on line and order from vegan sites that made it easy to know for sure. I ordered that bag, and new pair of crocs. Most Crocs are vegan. There are a few styles that have leather straps. I also ordered these sweet purple kicks from Keep. Keep was mentioned on the Today show recently for their comfortable vegan shoes! Check out their site too: Keep Company

Vegan so far......

So, it's been a little over a week since I purchased the Vegan with a Vengeance cook book to kick start myself towards living a more vegan lifestyle. My first step was to read the cookbook and make a list of main ingredients that I would need on hand. I made a trip to my favorite local health food store Ellwood Thompsons: http://www.ellwoodthompsons.com
I love that Elwoods soooo much! I wish I could afford to do all of my shopping there but I can't so I just load up on stuff I can't get at the regular grocery store. I am now stocked with TVP, Nutritional Yeast, Braggs Amino Liquid, Vital Wheat Gluten (for making seitan), coriander seeds, cardamom pods, turmeric, raw walnuts, carob chips (I am very allergic to chocolate), and a few more staples.

Here are my first three trial recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance:

Potato Edamame Samosas with Coconut Mint Chutney:

I had never made samosas before. They are fun and super easy to make... once you get the samosa pocket technique down that is! Here's a link to a video I watched for some help with that: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-samosa-115649/
3 cups flour
3/4 cups soy milk
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon tumeric
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon or more of salt

You can pretty much make the stuffing out of whatever you want. I baked mine in the oven and they were totally delicious. You just have to make sure you brush them with vegetable oil and that your cookie pan is coated. You should flip them about half way through baking them too. They take about 20 mins to cook. You could make a ton and freeze them. I made two batches, one with a potato stuffing, and the other with a green pea and mushroom stuffing. Both awesome.



Tofu Scramble: I like to call this dish SCRAM. It's more fun. I loved this meal. It is supposed to be kind of like spicy scrambled eggs and mushrooms but thankfully it tastes nothing like scrambled eggs. Eggs are my least favorite food on earth no matter what way you fix 'em. I've tried them again and again over the years just to see if my tastes may have changed but I just can't do it. The smell is too much like a fart for me to put it in my mouth, and the texture of the whites... YICK! I could go on and on about my hatred of eggs. I'm sure there are many of you reading this that could go on and on even longer about your love affair with them. Anywho, so this dish does not taste or smell like eggs and I love it. It's quick and easy to make. I served it over a bed of fresh uncooked spinach leaves and coconut jasmine rice. I topped it with a swirl of pineapple chili sauce and diced cilantro leaves.
I can't wait to make it again!


Seitan Portobello Stroganoff:
This dish is for cold days when you want some hearty comfort food. I liked it a lot. I wouldn't make this weekly because it's so filling and heavy but I can see myself craving it's big burgundy flavor and wide noodles during a snow storm or on a cold fall night. I made my own seitan instead of store bought which was a good lesson since I'll be using seitan in tons of vegan recipes. I'd eaten seitan (say-tahn) before but didn't know what the heck it was. It's just a dough made from vital wheat gluten. You can flavor it however you want. It's great for adding girth and texture. Here's a link to the video I watched before making it. I didn't follow all these instructions. I didn't use a food processor for the dough I just worked it by hand. I also added extra flavorings to the stock I boiled it in but this is still a good video to show you how easy it is to make: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=40673776
You can freeze any left over seitan you have for your next dish.

That's all for this week. It's been an easy and adventurous start. I like researching ingredients and putting it all together in the kitchen. I hope you will too.

Starting Line: Vegan Waffles

I have decided to lean the way of the Vegan. This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while. I just wasn't ready to let go of cheese and dairy... oh my God and butter! I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. But, now I feel ready, the time is right. The more I read about the inhumane treatment to animals even on dairy farms and farms that are supposed to be more animal friendly, the more I feel it's the least I can do in my own daily life to help make the world a little bit better. I really want to do this. I bought a new cook book yesterday and read almost all of it last night. It is a great cook book. If you're interested, check out this link:

http://www.theppk.com/veganwithavengeance.html

The recipes look super delicious. I can't wait to try them out! My plan is to veganize any food that I prepare for myself, and to order vegan when I eat out. If someone else is preparing food for me, if I am a guest, then I will try to remain on the vegan diet but will resort to just eating vegetarian if it's not convenient for my host. I think this is a great way to start.
This is day one, March 1st. I am having waffles and black coffee for breakfast. My parents gave me a waffle maker for Christmas. I have used it at least twice a week every week since January. It's amazing. The waffles called for eggs and milk. I substituted ground flaxseed for the eggs, and just used an equal amount of soy milk instead of cows milk. I always doctor up my waffles with fruit and nuts, this morning I'm having them with blueberries and almonds. Here's the recipe:

2 cups Bisquick Heart Smart pancake/waffle mix
3 tablespoons (or more if you'd like) ground flaxseed
1 cup chopped raw almonds
1 cup frozen wild blueberries
1 cup soy milk
2 table spoons vegetable oil

stir together and pour onto piping hot waffle iron! Deliciousness will be yours in just a few short minutes... GUILT FREE! Enjoy!

New Years Fusion Black Eyed Peas

I grew up eating black eyed peas on New Years Day for good luck. I never really liked them but I ate at least a spoon full to take part in the family tradition. My family prepared them the local way: canned black eyed peas simmered with a piece of fat meat, onions, salt and pepper. We always ate them with a swirl of yellow mustard on top. They were always mushy and just YUK.
This year I decided to do things differently. To start with I used dried black eyed peas instead of canned. This changed everything. I didn't want them to be mushy so I decided to roast them. I also wanted more flavor. I mixed sweet, salty, and spicy to go with the savoriness of the beans. This recipe turned out to be so delicious that I will make it anytime not just on New Years.

Ingredients:

2 bags of dry black eyed peas

5 scallions sliced

1 large orange pepper diced

1 large banana pepper diced

1/2 cup crushed sugar coated almonds

1/2 cup diced dried Asian pears (you can use dried apricots or apples if you can't find the pears)

1 1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup yellow mustard

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 tablespoon cardamom

1 tablespoon brown sugar

cayenne pepper to taste

crushed red chili pepper flakes to taste

sea salt to taste


First soak two bags of dried black eyed peas overnight
Drain them and rinse them well
Put them back in a large pot and boil them for about 20 to 30 minutes or until tender... NOT MUSHY... be very careful not to over boil them. Keep testing them while they are boiling. Remember they are going to be roasted too.
Meanwhile slice scallions into thin rounds and dice your peppers
Put scallions and peppers in a large bowl
Mix in all other ingredients (except for your beans) and stir
When your beans are done strain and rinse them. Rinse out the pot you boiled them in and put the beans back in it
Pour your pepper and scallion marinade over the beans.
Stir until completely mixed
Pour into two 9 x 13 glass baking dishes
Place in oven on 350 for half an hour

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some chips or however you want.

Good and good for you.

TOFURKY ROAST

You gotta try this! It's so good. It doesn't even taste like turkey! That's what's so good about it. Well, maybe it tastes a little like turkey but not too much. Just go to the grocery store and pick up a box of "The Original Tofurky". Bring it home and put it in a baking dish with olive oil and baby carrots. Cover it with foil and then bake it at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Pop it out of the oven; slice it and serve it with veggie gravy and cranberry sauce! It's Awesome.

Aunt Weezie's Pepper Relish

Glopping a heap of my Aunt Louise's tangy sweet pepper relish on a helping of steaming hot turnip greens pretty much is thanksgiving dinner for me!~ My Great Aunt Louise, also known as Aunt Weezie or Trick, used to make pepper relish with her sisters, Aunt Anne, who goes by Annie Dumplin, Nannie, or just Dumplin, Aunt Deanie, Aunt Bettty, a.k.a Dog, and their mother Mary Estelle Daisy Carpenter, who was my Great Grandmother known to everyone as MemMaw.
They would sit outside at a picnic table down on the farm cutting, grinding, and talking. The peppers they used were local and fresh and probably sometimes came straight from my Great Grandfather's farm. His name was Pete but everyone knew him as Possum. He was very tall and extremely thin with a head full of snow white hair. He wore long johns even when it was hot out. He talked really soft and low. It was hard to tell what he was saying at times. Possum would always bring us fresh food from his fields. He liked to play a little joke on us called "let me milk your mouse". I don't know how this all started but he would say "give me your finger, let me milk your mouse" and he would bend our ring finger down at the top bend and pinch it just a little til it almost hurt. That was "milking your mouse" ???
I apologize for the trip down memory lane but it's important to know that making pepper relish is special to me because it reminds me of all those loved ones now that most of them have passed away.

So.... Pepper Jelly. Aunt Louise was the one who made this most often with and with out the rest of the crew so that is why we call it Aunt Weezie's Pepper Relish. I called her for these instructions.

Here's the recipe:
12 large red peppers = 3 1/2 lbs
12 green peppers = 3 1/2 lbs
12 med onions = 3 lbs
1 TB spn celery seed
1 cup apple cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
12 mason jars and lids (1/2 pint)
1 old fashioned meat grinder/vegetable chopper (I purchased mine at Sur La Table for $30.00)
Do not use a food processor. It will turn your relish to mush!
1 pair of safety goggles
1 bandanna

This recipe is very messy and is best done with help from a friend or sibling. I know now why they made it outside!~
Screw your grinder to the edge of a table or counter. Make sure you have it set up with the coarse blade. Place a large pot under the hand crank to catch all the pepper and onion juice.
Wash and prepare your peppers by removing the guts and cutting them in to med sized strips.
Put on your safety goggles and tie the bandanna around your face above your nose. Peel the onions. Cut in to med sized strips.
Now you're ready to grind. This is when it comes in especially handy to have a helper.Be sure to wear your goggles and bandanna while grinding the onions.

When you're done grinding leave pepper and onion mixture in a large pot over night with a cup of salt mixed in it.

The next day rinse the mixture really, really well and let it sit draining in a giant colander for a few hours.

Now you're finally ready to make your relish. Bring pepper and onion mix to a boil with 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 TB spoon celery seed, and 4 cups of sugar. Stir and boil on a med heat for about a half an hour. Keep an eye on this it may not take that long. You just want to simmer the liquid down. Taste periodically and add more sugar or vinegar until it's to your liking. If you want to you can add some Cayenne pepper to the mix.

While your relish is simmering bring another large pot of water to a boil and one more smaller pot of water to boil. You will use these to sterilize your jars. Put the glass jars in the big pot. Use tongs to maneuver them on to their sides and around. Place the lids in the other pot. Cut those back to a simmer and when your relish is done start scooping it in to the hot jars up to about 2 inches from the top. Set the filled jars on a tea towel and place the lid with the sealer ring on the jar. Place the screw lid over it but don't screw it down all the way. The jars need to seal themselves which can take up to 24 hours. You should hear them make a sucking or popping sound when they seal. Then you can screw the lid down the rest of the way.
Label and deliver to your friends and family.

I hope you like this recipe.
I had a lot of fun making it.