Cornbread

I made this cornbread the other day, and the next morning when my kids said "I wish I could have cornbread every day so we can have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner" I knew I had to share it with you.
This is a sweet cornbread, perfect with salty, melted butter. The only ingredient you may not keep on hand is flax meal...

A Word on Flax: A lot of people swear by flax because of all the health benefits that I wont go into right now, but I like it for baking. Flax meal (or ground flax) can replace eggs 1TB flax meal & 3TB water, boiled until thick and egg like. It's the best thing, i've found, to replace an egg when baking, so I try to keep some on hand. The best way to keep it is to buy the whole seed and grind it as necessary and stored in the freezer. But I'm lazy and don't own a grinder so I buy the flax meal in the refrigerated health section at my grocery store. I've probably had mine longer than I should, but it smells fine and still works well.

Cornbread
2 TB Ground Flax
6 TB Water
1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Cornmeal
1/4 Cup Sugar
4 te Baking Powder
3/4 te Salt
1 Cup Soy Milk
1/4 Cup Canola Oil

• Preheat the oven to 425º
• Bring water to a boil
• Add flax meal to the boiling water then reduce the heat to simmer for 3-5 min or until thick
• Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt
• Add in the soy milk, oil, and flax/water mixture
• Mix until smooth, don't over work it.
• Lightly oil an 8x8 glass, metal, or cast-iron pan
• Bake for 20-25 min. Let cool for 10 min.

Tips: 

- I replace 1 tablespoon of flour with vital wheat gluten to cut down on the crumbling.

- After 20 min, I rub the cornbread with some butter and let it melt over the top, then cook it an additional 5 mins. to make the top a golden brown.

- A single batch turned out perfect, no crumbling, but when I doubled the batch in a 9x13 casserole dish, it was good, but fell apart easier than I would like.

My Husband's Favorite Meal: Philly Cheese Steak

The cheese steak starts with the bun, I hit up the bakery/deli part of my grocery store and find a hardy bun. I try to get hot dog/sub type buns, but I've used hamburger style in a pinch.

1 LB Bulk seitan

2 Bell peppers (red is best but get whatever's in season)

1 Sweet onion

6 buns

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I use Daiya)

Mustard

Mayonaise

1TB Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

• Butterfly the buns (or cut in half if you get hamburger style) 
• Spread mayo on one side and mustard on the other.
• Thinly slice your bulk meat so it's roughly 3in long and 1in wide.
• Cut peppers and onion into thick strips
• Heat a pan with oil on med-high then add meat, peppers, and onion. Cook until seitan starts to brown and veggies just start to soften.
• Add the salt and pepper last so the salt wont draw out the water from the veg and the pepper wont burn.
• Add the meat and veggie mix to your buns, top with cheese, then place on foil under the broiler just until the cheese melts and starts to brown

*ALWAYS keep an eye on the broiler, your bread will blacken in a matter of seconds if you're not careful. The broiler needs to warm up, just like when you normally use the stove, don't be like me and start with a cold stove then base my cooking times off that 1st sandwich ;)

Pair the sandwich with a side of hot wings and ranch and there you'll have, My Husband's Favorite Meal.

Out of the Darkness Community Walk

A good friend of mine for a long time recently lost her brother to suicide. She is participating in the Out of the Darkness Community Walks to help raise money for awareness and prevention. This is something that is very important to her and I wanted to help by putting the link to her American Foundation of Suicide Prevention donation page on my blog. At the very least, I ask that you check out her page and read her story. Thank you for your help and support.

Click here if you wish to help

Husband's Favorite Meal: Hot Wings

The meal: Hot wings, Philly cheese steaks, and Ranch
Of everything I make, one meal has my husband saying "I would eat this everyday and never get tired of it" and "I would order this at a restaurant and gladly pay the high price they would charge for it". Now, this meal can be time consuming if you don't already have bulk seitan on hand (which I rarely do) so all this hot air from my husband could just be his way of getting me to make one of his favorite dishes.

First up, hot wings (or Buffalo wings). At restaurants I'm usually served soft and tangy tofu hot wings, which are good, but this recipe is more of a savory, chewy seitan recipe. Baked a little less will yield softer wings and a little more will give you chewier wings, either way, cold leftovers out of the refrigerator the next day is my favorite way to eat them.

Hot Wings
1/2 cup Hot Sauce 
2 Batches bulk seitan
1/2 cup Butter
Heavy dose of Sriracha (optional)

• Put the butter in a 9x13 casserole dish and put it in your oven as you preheat it to 350º
• Make your seitan and cut into wing size strips
• Pull the butter out of the oven once it has melted and add your hot sauce/s. Mix
• Dredge each chunk of seitan through the butter/hot sauce mix on both sides then lay them in the casserole dish, they will be tightly packed, just make sure you only have one layer.
• Bake uncovered for 20 min, then use a fork to flip the wings, cook an additional 20 min.
• Finally, use a spatula to toss the wings in what ever sauce may remain in your pan and they're ready to eat. Depending on your oven and preferance, you can continue to cook your wings to get an even chewier result.

Tips: 
- Any brand of hot sauce will do, but check the label 'cause sauces advertised as being for hot wings tend to have butter in them
- If you're making the seitan from scratch for this recipe, try adding fake chicken powder for flavor
- Sriracha is an asian chili sauce found in most grocery stores (or cheaper at any asian market). It's a very spicy but flavorful addition that I like because sometimes I find the hot sauce from the bottle to taste a little flat on it's own.

Accidentally Vegan: Pantry Staples

Bread Crumbs- This is the brand I use because they're under $2 a box and I can find them in most store's baking aisle (usually the top shelf). Alone, they have little flavor so I...

1. have one bowl bread crumbs, one bowl mayonnaise mixed with enough soy milk to create a yogurt consistency, and one bowl of flour mixed with ranch seasoning or any combo of spices you have...or even just lightly salted. I dip seitan or tofu pieces in milk, flour, milk, bread crumbs and deep fry, bake, or pan fry. My husband and I like a little more crunch and flavor so we do an extra round of the milk, flour, milk, bread crumbs.

2. melt a tablespoon butter, add about 1 cup bread crumbs, pinch of salt, and maybe some italian seasoning, then sprinkle on top of your favorite casserole recipe before you bake it. The bread crumbs will turn a golden color and add a yummy crunch, a little something extra to your casserole.

Uncle Dan's Classic Ranch- I grew up on Uncle Dan's (as a non-vegan) So when I happened to read the back of the packet and saw it was vegan, I freaked out. You can follow the directions for ranch dip using vegan mayo and sour cream, and I'm not joking when I say you could serve this with veggies to any non-vegan and they would have NO idea it was vegan. It also has directions to make ranch salad dressing. My family likes a zesty ranch with hot wings, so I use the ranch dip directions then add apple cider vinegar until it reaches the flavor we prefer. I use it a lot to flavor breading on seitan. Make sure you check your package because the un-vegan "creamy" ranch is sold right next to the vegan "classic". The price seems a tiny bit high when you look at this small packet, but a little goes a LONG way, one packet lasts me many recipes.

Chocolate Pudding- Many of the Jello brand instant pudding mixes are vegan, but for some reason I find that the chocolate is the only one that thickens up the way I like (it does say right on the box that soy milk wont let it thicken). I use to make a chocolate peanut butter silk pie, but I would have to have the right kind of tofu on hand and clean my food processor, so I came up with a cheaper (less healthy) version that I can always have on hand incase a pie emergency happened.

Add the larger (5oz) box of Jello chocolate pudding with 1 1/2 cups soy milk. Add a cup of peanut butter (we like chunky) to the pot and cook med-high until the peanut butter is melted and everything is well mixed. You can add more peanut butter to taste or soy milk for a silkier consistency. Pour into a ready made graham cracker pie shell and chill for a few hours so it sets up.

Keebler pie shells- I've never tried the chocolate but the ingredients listed online are vegan and I've yet to run into a honey graham shells (we don't believe honey is vegan). The mini pie shells are awesome and sort of fancy up a simple dessert if you serve it to friends (I like the portion control aspect). The pudding and shells are both under $2, so for about $3 I can have a backup dessert ready to go in my pantry all the time.

Chicken Nuggets

This chicken nugget recipe is my new favorite recipe, it's so yummy, the whole family love them, I always have the ingredients on hand, and they're quick. I worked off of the "Souther Fried Vegetarian Chicken" recipe I found at vegetarian.about.com. I use the chicken patty recipe for the seitan in this, and most other breaded and fried recipes because they're drier than the bulk seitan recipe and coat better. I made the addetion of bread crumbs because I always have them on hand and it really added a nice crunch to the nuggets, but that's completely optional.

Chicken Nuggets

• 1 ts salt or seasoned salt
• 1 ts onion powder
• 1 ts garlic powder
• 1 ts black pepper
• dash cayenne (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup prepared mustard
• 2 TB baking powder
• 1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 lb seitan or other chicken substitute, cut into strips or 1-2" square pieces
• oil for frying

Preparation:

In a medium to large bowl, mix together the salt, onion powder, garlic powder, flour, black pepper, cayenne and nutritional yeast.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the mustard and water. Add 1/3 cup of the flour mixture to the mustard mixture and combine well.

Add baking powder and bread crumbs to the flour mixture and combine well.

Coat pieces of seitan or mock chicken with the mustard batter, then coat each piece with the dry flour mixture.

Fry chunks of "chicken" in the oil on medium-high heat in a large skillet for 3-5 minutes, turning once until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel, serve with ketchup or barbeque sauce and enjoy!

Tip: If your chunks are turning brown or black rather than a crispy golden brown, your oil is probably too hot! Reduce the heat a small amount and try again.

Despite making larger batches every time I cook these up, there's never any leftover. I would love to freeze some and just be able to toss them in the oven like the carnivores get to do. I would also like to take some leftovers and toss them in buffalo wing sauce and attempt hot wings. If I ever have leftovers, I'll let you know how my experiments turn out.

Accidentally Vegan: Junk Food

My vegan son came home from school and told me when they did a good job and answered questions right in front of the class, they would get rewarded with a treat. He said "I did a good job and answered a question right, but I didn't take a treat because it wasn't vegan". I felt proud that he showed self controle and didn't eat a treat that he had earned, but felt bad that he missed out and stood out as being different or weird to his fellow 1st graders. So I searched the snack aisle for some vegan treats I could send to school with him, I was looking for something sealed, small proportions, and something that would show his classmates and teachers that vegans don't only snack on carrots and celery. 

I found this Nabisco multi pack of cookies. The animal crackers weren't much of a surprise, but chocolate grahams that didn't contain honey or milk? Well that was surprise, as was the mini shortbread cookies which are traditionally made with a ton of butter. Are they healthy? No, but that's why I titled this post "junk food" because my kids eat pounds of fresh fruits and veggies every week, and deserve little treats every now and then, especially when everyone else in their class or soccer team is enjoying a snack.

Swedish Fish are one of the rare gummy treats that are vegan (along with sour patch kids and Dots). I get the kids a bag after they've tolerated a day long trip to my favorite maze, Ikea.

Skittles weren't always vegan in the US, but have recently adopted a new, gelatin free recipe. I still check the bags for the clearly marked "no gelatin" label on them incase any old bags remained in storage and found their way to the shelf.

Oreos are the more well known vegan treats, I tend to get the much cheaper store brand cookies that also tend to be vegan (always check your labels) but knowing Oreos are vegan is always nice when you're on a road trip and only have gas stations and vending machines at your disposal.

I saved the best for last, the most amazing thing I've discovered to be vegan is not only very tasty, a rare find, but super inexpensive, it's a

VEGAN CHOCOLATE BAR!!!

This is the dark chocolate bar from Ikea, and it's only $.99 (although it's always been on sale when we shop). I don't even like dark chocolate but these are delicious. I even have a non-vegan friend who uses this chocolate over others to melt into molds and make chocolate pops out of.

Pizza

Buying pizza is a rare treat for my family, I guess I should say it's a rare treat for me because it means I get hot food that I didn't have to work all night making, but for my husband it means dry dough sparsly covered with overcooked veggies and a large bill since the meat lover's pizza was only $5 but the vegetarian was $14 plus the $1.50 per extra veggie, per pizza. Another great shortcut to pizza is simply topping english muffins, but the most inexpensive (and tastiest) option is to make our pizzas from scratch.
Now, I've done a lot of experimenting with pizza dough, my bread machine over worked it, most doughs require lots of kneading and time to rise, and a ton of recipes yield dough too elastic to work with, but I've finally landed on a recipe that works well for me.
We purchased 2 pizza pans on clearance at our local grocery store, they're thin and cheap in quality, but sprayed with non stick cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal, the pans release nicley and cook the pizzas evenly.
Quick pizza dough


1 package (2 1/4 te) active or quick rise yeast
1 te sugar
1 Cup warm water
2 1/2 Bread flour
2 TB oil
1 te salt
* garlic powder, rosemary, or italian seasoning to season crust optional

• Dissolve yeast, sugar, and water for 10 minutes
• Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth (I use a stand mixer with a dough hook)
• Let rest for 5 minutes
• Preheat oven to 450º
• Lightly grease pizza pan *a dusting or cornmeal is optional
• Roll out pizza dough on a floured surface to the approximate size of your pan, then place the dough in your pan and use your hands to form the pizza to your pan
• Top your pizza then cook for 15-20 minutes

Picture courtesy of wannabeavegan.wordpress.com

The dough will look more like a sticky mess than a dough ball when it's done mixing, but with floured hands and a floured surface, it becomes a malleable dough and lends itself easily to be stretched out. This crust yields one pizza, but I like thinner crust so I make two batches at once and divide it by three.

Toppings-
I'm a traditionalist, I prefer "meat" and "cheese" over spinach and mushrooms, but That's what's so good about making this dough, everyone gets their own pizza to top any way they like. My husband likes it simple homemade chorizo sausage cut up like pepperoni, onion, and Daiya cheese (a once a week splurge). My kids like pineapple and olive, homemade chicken that I whirl up in our food processor, and a spicy cheese spread my husband makes.


Variations-
I've made this dough into calzones before, you can fill them with almost anything, but my family likes seitan or chicken cut into cubes and marinated in equal parts melted butter and hot sauce for a hot wing calzone. We then cook it up the same as you would a pizza and dip it in homemade ranch sauce.


You can make this dough into bread sticks as well, roll the dough out and cut into bread sticks, place on  a pan that has been covered in foil and lightly greased. Bruch the bread sticks with melted butter and cook the same as you would a pizza, but keep an eye on them so you don't over cook

Bake Sale

Son #1 goes to a really great, small school. The teachers and faculty are all really nice and have never said anything negative about Son #1 being vegan, but in my head I always feel like people think vegans only eat salad and seeds and my poor son can't eat any of the sweet treats all the "normal" kids get to eat. So when I heard that our school was having a bake sale, I just HAD to show that I could make vegan treats that weren't just good for being vegan, but just good. My dilemma was baking a large quantity of something then packaging them in an appealing way, all while on a budget. I decided to make 160 (4 batches) of my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. Except for two runs to the grocery store to re-up on some brown sugar, I had everything I needed for 160 cookies already stocked in my pantry.

I went back and forth about weither or not to label the cookies as "vegan". I would have loved for people to try them and maybe change their minds about vegan food, but on the other hand I worried the word "vegan" might scare people away from buying them. In the end, the bake sale was all about raising money for the school, and that's what was most important.

Here's how I did it:

Labels- I found free label templates online and changed the color and font to what I wanted. I'm fortunate enough to have a husband who works in printing, so I just emailed him the file. My husband printed business card sized labels on a heavy paper stock. I cut the cards out at home, some companies charge extra to make cuts.

Bags- I have a free Michaels app on my phone which gives me 50% off coupons that I used to purchase a pack of 50 bags for about $1.50 after the discount.

Ribbon- Michaels has thin ribbon for $.99 so I purchased one in the robins egg blue I used in the cards, and brown to match the cookies and font. I took the length of the ribbon (printed on the box) and divided it by 50 (the amount of bags I would be making) the resulting number was how much ribbon I had to work with for each package.

Assembly- I put 2 cookies in each bag, then I folded the top of the bags down twice and stapled them closed. I used a hole punch to make a hole through the card and bag, then tied the label in place with a few knots in the ribbon, I made sure to place the staples in such a way that the card would cover them up.

In the end, all the cookies sold half way through the bake sale and everyone seemed to enjoy them :)

Coleslaw

I love coleslaw, and now that I make my own vegan mayonnaise, I'm free to make as much as I want. One of my favorite things to do with coleslaw is to add it to sandwiches. I get some hearty bread and make ribs or battered tofu and fill it with this sweet and zesty coleslaw for a wonderfully complex flavor that also helps to stretch your sandwich with an inexpensive filling.


Coleslaw

• 1 head of cabbage, shredded (you can substitute 1 bag of coleslaw mix for the cabbage and carrots)
• 3 carrots, shredded
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 
  

Mix the mayo, sugar, and vinegar.

Add the carrots and cabbage to the mixture and toss to coat.

One of the most important steps is to let the coleslaw refrigerate overnight to really let it soak up the flavors, it will taste completely different the next day.

Thrifty Thursday: Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

This was a simple recipe I thought up while trying to create a dinner out of what ever ingredients were left at the end of the week. For starters, we always have a few heads of broccoli in the fridge, it's always pretty cheap (at least where I'm from) and if I don't end up using it in any recipes, my family loves it steamed or even raw with some dip. Secondly, we always have some homemade seitan in the house, it's pretty inexpensive and easy to make and freeze.
This recipe makes a ton, it tops off a large casserole dish and weighs more than my 1yr old. I've even divided it between a 9x13 and an 8x8 and it seemed to last longer even though it was technically the same amount of food.


Chicken and Broccoli Casserole


3 heads of broccoli, chopped using only the florets
3 cups of rice
5 chick'n patties
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 can vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups plain soy milk (or vegetable broth)
1 1/2 te salt
1/2 te garlic powder
1/2 te onion powder
Pepper to taste
Pinch cayenne pepper
Shredded cheese (optional)

• Melt butter in a sauce pan then add the flour. Mix until all the flour is absorbed and looks like a clump of dough.
• Turn off heat and slowly add your vegetable broth and soy milk in SMALL batches and fully incorporate before adding the next batch. If you add too much liquid and lumps form, you can whisk them out before continuing. As the gravy gets thinner, you can start adding more liquid per batch.
• Add the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cayenne, and pepper. You want the gravy slightly salty as it will be flavoring all the rice and broccoli.
• Return to a medium/low heat and stir frequently to avoid lumps, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. Cook for about 15 minutes, if it starts to bubble, reduce heat and simmer.
• While your gravy is heating, cut up your broccoli florets into manageably bite size pieces and steam for 10 minutes until fork tender.
• Cut up the chick'n patties into bite sized pieces.
• Cook your rice last to avoid clumping, I use minute rice, but any rice you have will work fine.
• Once everything is cooked, put the rice, chicken, and broccoli in a large bowl and stir, then add the gravy and mix until it's of uniform consistency. Fill a casserole dish and pat down with a spatula. Top with shredded cheese if you have it.
• Cook the casserole, uncovered, in a preheated 350º oven for 15 minutes.

Thrifty Thursday: Chicken Patties

This is, by far, the most utilized and versatile recipe in my arsenal. It has also saved us the most money. This is a chicken seitan recipe I adapted from an Italian sausage recipe I found at Everyday Dish. It's super easy to make, no kneading required. The possibilities for this chicken is endless, but some of our favorite ways to use it are;

• Chicken patties for a quick burger and fries meal on days I spend the evening at soccer practice. 
• Breaded and fried for chicken parmesan or chicken fingers.
• Cut them into bite sized pieces and put them in casseroles. 
• Toss them in a food processor and get a ground hamburger consistency which works really well in chick'n salad or a filling for things like samosas. 
• Or add different spices to make a more savory flavor and use to replace all your ground hamburger in things like tacos, pizza, meat balls, and meatloaf.

Chicken Patties

15 sheets of foil, about 8in long

2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup chickpea flour (also called garbanzo bean flour)

2 TB chicken seasoning

2 1/4 cups cold water

2 TB oil

2 TB soy sauce

1/2 TB minced garlic

1 1/2 TB italian seasoning

• Mix all the dry ingredients together
• Mix all the wet ingredients together
• Mix the wet into the dry ingredients just until combined
• You can add another tablespoon of water if the mixture is too dry
• Scoop about 1/2 a cup of dough onto the middle of the foil and pat down to form a patty. Fold the sides of the foil in to form a little package.
• Steam for 30 minutes

You may not get 15 patties the first time you try this recipe, I think I only got 9 on my first try, but the more you do it the better formed your patties will be and you might see that you prefer less "meat" in your patties. We make a batch then reuse the foil for a second batch that we unwrap and throw in tupperware and freeze.

You can also follow the recipe but omit the garlic and italian seasoning for up to 5 tablespoons of your own spices to create a ton of different flavors.

Chicken patties, bacon, vegan mayo

Accidentally Vagan

If you Google "accidentally vegan" you'll find tons of sites that list foods you can find at any grocery store that just happen to be vegan (well you'll probably find the same list copied to many sites). But my list is just some of my favorites.

Crisco- I was blown away when I found out this was vegan, I got excited when at first glance the butter flavor seemed vegan, but that pesky "natural flavor" ended up being sourced from animals. I'm excited about the crisco because although I can make cream cheese frosting for cakes, it's expensive and buttercream frosting using the Crisco is a lot more cost efficient. Shortening is also a key ingredient for a good pie crust.

Tubs of frosting- I JUST invested in a large tub of Crisco when I happened to glance at a tub of frosting and found no dairy, eggs, or even natural flavorings. Could this be? Vegan frosting? I guess it makes sense, I mean if they used a vegetable shortening like I do at home. I checked many flavors and brands and found as long as it wasn't the obvious cream cheese or milk chocolate flavor, a lot of them were vegan. It IS more expensive than making it myself, but when on sale and with an easy to acquire coupon, less than $1 is a good price to not have to clean my mixer. FYI, some of the brands have those pesky ingredients that may have come from plant or animal, it's always a good idea to contact the company (a quick call to their 800 number) before you consume.

Puff pastry- This was a total win for me, for years I was daydreaming of all the creations I could make with some puff pastry. Then one day I looked up how to make it myself and quickly realized that the sheer complication and time consumption of making puff pastry from scratch would never be worth it. I'm not sure how I came to realize it, but Pepperidge Farm makes vegan puff pastry (you can find it in most grocery stores in the frozen dessert section). It is a little more than I was hoping spend, so I didn't end up making all those fancy pants h'orderves I dreamed about, but it's always on sale around the holidays and it's a special splurge my family makes to help dress our homemade turkey (but that's another post).

Blue Bonnet Lite- I am in love with this butter, I can get a large tub of it for a whole lot less than the natural butter substitutes from the health food section. The taste is more of a buttery flavor than a margarine flavor, and even right out of the fridge it's consistency is that of a room temperature butter so it spreads like a dream. Because of the amazing consistency, it does suggest that you don't bake with it, for that I usually have a backup stick of a more expensive butter hidden in the back of the fridge.

Thrifty Thursday: Sailor's Cake

This is an old recipe handed down to me by my mother-in-law. The recipe came to me vegan with the explanation that sailors who were out to see, far longer than dairy and eggs could stay fresh, came up with a cake that only required shelf stable ingredients so they could have sweets anytime. I don't know if that's true, but it makes sense and it's a cute story.


Sailor Cake


3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 TB cocoa powder
2 te baking soda
1 te salt
2 cups water
3/4 cup oil
2 TB vinegar
2 te vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350ºF
• Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
• Add in the wet ingredients and stir just until mixed
• Pour the batter into 2 cake pans, a 9x13in pan, or cupcake liners
• Bake for 40 minutes (cook at 315º for 25 minutes for cupcakes)

This is a very moist and chocolaty cake, when I have them on hand I"ll add chocolate chips for an extra shot of chocolate.

I Can Make it Vegan: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I used to be able to find inexpensive store brand chocolate chips that just so happened to be vegan, but they changed their recipe and now my only options make chocolate chip cookies a little too expensive with a house full of cookie monsters. So I was really excited when I found this cookie recipe that was easily converted to vegan, and the best part, it makes about 40 cookies per batch!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup shortening ( original Crisco is vegan)

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

3 TB soy milk

1 TB vanilla

1 egg substitute (I use 1ts flax meal dissolved in 3TB hot water)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 ts salt

3/4 ts baking soda

Preheat oven to 375º degrees F.

Combine shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. 

Add egg replacer and beat just until blended.

Combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet (I line it with parchment paper). Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to racks to cool completely.

These are way better than plain ol' peanut butter cookies and stay nice and chewy. I use chunky peanut butter which gives the cookies a nice contrast, my kids say the cookies have peanut seeds in them :)

I Can Make it Vegan: Mini Cinnamon Rolls

Before my blog, I took quick snaps of my food creations and ran them through Instagram as a fast way to blur out my messy countertop and dress up my photos for facebook ready status. I have no immediate plans to remake these recipes so the dark and moody pics I already had laying around will just have to work, besides, do you really need a magazine quality photo to tell you that cinnamon rolls will be delicious?


Mini cinnamon rolls

I have a Pinterest board called "I can make it Vegan" where I get inspired by recipes and alter them to make them vegan. I wanted to make these cinnamon rolls as a valentines treat for my husband when I didn't really have the time or money to search out vegan chocolates, and had attempted and failed at vegan truffels the year before. The original poster of this recipe, Kristin, calles it a "non-recipe recipe" because there really aren't any measurements, it's sort of a scant here and a pinch there. If you click on the picture it will take you to her blog where she has some great step by step pictures


1 can vegan crescent roll dough (Pillsbury is vegan)
cinnamon
Brown sugar
2 TB vegan butter, melted

Preheat oven according to crescent roll dough package directions. Layout half the dough (4 triangles) and pinch all the seams together. Flip over and pinch the seams on the back side together too.

Using a rolling pin, smooth the seams and roll the dough into a square about 1/4″ thick. Brush with half the butter, and sprinkle with as much cinnamon and brown sugar as you want. Roll into a log and cut into 8 pieces.

Place mini cinnamon rolls into a non-stick sprayed mini muffin tin. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with the other half of the crescent roll dough. Bake according to package directions.

I found those tiny cupcake wrappers on clearance in the Valentine aisle at walmart, but I bet you could find them in either the baking section or (if your store has one) the wedding and party planning section, you know, the area with party favores and wrapping paper.

The original recipe also included directions for a simple frosting, but I kept mine plain. You can click on the picture if you're interested in that recipe.

Thrifty Thursday: Enchilada Casserole

I know it's not Thursday, but give me a break, I have like a ton of kids. But the one day delay was worth the wait. I love this recipe because it makes so much food and is endlessly customizable depending on what you have on hand. I get 2, 9x13in casserole dishes out of it if I use the larger, 10in size tortillas.

1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
1/2 cup flour
2 TB chili powder
1 TB cumin powder
1 te garlic powder
1 te salt
1/4 te pepper
6 cups water
12 large flour tortillas
4 cups cooked or canned pinto beans


Heat oil in a large 3-4 quart pot over low heat, add onions and cook until soft.
Sprinkle in the flour and spices, stir.
Slowly add the water in small batches, keep stirring to avoid lumps. If you find you're getting lumps, use a whisk to get them out.
Cook over low heat for 20 min, stir occasionally while scraping the bottom to avoid lumps.


Preheat the oven to 350ºF.


To assemble the enchiladas, spread 2 cups of the sauce over the bottom of each 9x13in casserole dish, this will be 4 cups in total.
Heat a pan or griddle to about medium and oil lightly. Cook the tortillas, one at a time, for about 30 seconds on each side until they're golden.
Spread a big spoonful of beans down the middle of the tortilla while it's still warm and pliable. Roll it up and lay in the casserole dish, 6 tortillas to a dish.
Once you have one dish filled up, top the enchiladas with 1/2 of the remaining sauce and cook, uncovered, for 40 minuets while you assemble the second casserole dish, then repeat with the remaining enchiladas.

Variations

• Top with vegan shredded cheese or a cheese sauce
• Once cooked, top with vegan sour cream
• Top with salsa, tomatoes, olives, onions, hot sauce, or any other condiment you may have on hand
• Fill with a variety of beans, I like black and red beans and even add an extra can of beans to stuff the enchiladas if I have some on hand
• Fill with a combination of beans and seitan, chorizo flavor works really well.
• Add corn, cooked rice, or any cooked veg to the filling

Thrifty Thursday: Thai peanut butter noodles

A background on Thrifty Thursday- My husband gets paid every other week, so by the end of that second week, the day before payday, it's time to dig into the darkest nooks of the pantry, dust off those old cans, and defrost what ever frozen brick of food you found hiding behind that box of popsicles. Well as delicious as all that sounds, I quickly discovered that I'm not creative enough to combine frozen peas, a can of carrots, the last drops of BBQ sauce, and the last three lasagna noodles left in the box into a lovely meal for five. So my next course of action was to come up with staples that are shelf stable and inexpensive enough to always have on hand.

Thai Peanut Sauce


1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup water
 1 package top ramen seasoning 
2 TB lemon juice or vinegar
2 TB sugar
2 TB soy sauce
1 te coriander (I suggest investing in coriander, it really makes a difference in this sauce)
1/2 te red pepper flakes


Place all ingredients in a pot and slowly heat/mix until peanut butter is completely melted and heated through.

Variations: You can use creamy peanut butter, but we use chunky because we like the crunch of the peanuts
If you can't get your hands on vegan top ramen flavor packets, you can use a vegan broth powder or mock chicken flavoring. Or, you can replace the flavor packet and the 1 cup of water for vegetable broth.

How to use the sauce- We always have Top Ramen on hand, at 5/$1 it makes the perfect emergency food that keeps forever. We use the noodles in dishes like this, and keep the packets to flavor seitan. We just cook the noodles as directed on the package (the peanut sauce recipe works well with two packages of ramen noodles), drain completely, and pour on the sauce.
You can also chill this sauce and pour it over salad or brush onto seitan skewers and bake.

If I have tofu on hand I make broiled tofu

Broiled tofu 

• cut tofu into small triangles
• cover a baking sheet with foil
• lay tofu out and spray with cooking spray
• flip tofu over and spray other side
• place under broiler til tofu turns golden
• flip tofu then broil til golden

Then I just toss the tofu in the the noodles and sauce

A word on seasoning

When you start to make all of your own food from scratch, little is more important than the spices. I've always had the staples; salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cinnamon, but I was weary of spending money on a whole jar of spice to make one recipe (just ask that five year old bottle of molasses sitting in my pantry how that worked out). How different would it taste if I used regular paprika in place of smoked paprika anyway? But once I found myself making the same recipe enough times, I finally decided to invest in the proper seasonings, and it was worth it. I'm surprised at the varying costs of a spice depending on where you get it, I suppose an argument could be made about quality, but I've never tasted a difference between the $.50 garlic powder, and the $3 garlic powder. There are a few things I choose to go out of my way to purchase, but when it saves this much money, spices is one of them. At my local grocery store, I can get small Kroger Brand tins for a few bucks, but I can go down the road to walmart and get large 5th Season brand bottles for one dollar or less.

Step out of the spice aisle- Depending on the spice, I've been able to find great deals on things like cayenne pepper by taking a stroll down the mexican aisle. Sure it came in a bag, but I just saved my old cayenne container and poured it in.
My grocery store has a small bulk section, sometimes the prices look a bit high, but when you consider the prices are based per pound, you can be sure your finished price wont be that steep.

When in doubt, do Italian

My house is never without a jar or two of spaghetti sauce, it's inexpensive and always on sale. So about once every other week we have a clearing-of-the-refrigerator and make something "Italian".

Baked ziti- I didn't use a recipe,  I just dove into the veggie crisper and pulled out what ever I had leftover from other dinners. Here's what I put in mine:

• onion
• zucchini
• orange and yellow bell peppers (they were a gift from my mom)
• asparagus
• frozen peas
• chopped up chorizo my husband made
• left over batch of ricotta cheese I made
• box of pene pasta (cooked)
• jar of spaghetti sauce

 Once everything was cooked, I mixed it all together and put it in a casserole dish and baked it at 320 for 20 min.

Calzone- One of our favorite recipes we bust out in order to get rid of left overs is the calzone. You have to make the dough from scratch, but you can fill it with just about anything, we've done:

• Breakfast calzones -left over tofu scramble, bac'n bits (most are vegan), cheese, homemade sausage, and maybe some vegenaise if it seems too dry
• Pizza calzones -pepperoni or homemade sausage, pizza or pasta sauce, cheese, pineapple, onions, olives, or what ever you typically like on a pizza
• Left over calzones - this one's self explanatory. I am a firm believer that if you wrap anything in bread, it's gonna be good. Cook up veggies, use left over seitan, or even last night's casserole
• Buffalo wing calzones - this is one of my Husband's favorite. Mix one part butter, melted, with one part hot sauce then toss it with seitan chopped into very small chunks. Throw all that in a calzone and dip in ranch
• Mexican calzones -Maybe I'll deem this Mextalian...maybe not. Anyhow, black beans, salsa, corn, ground seitan mixed with a taco seasoning packet or spices you already have, cheese, tomatoes, onions, and dip the cooked product in sour cream

Lasagna- This is probably the easiest dish to throw together, everything I have mentioned as a calzone can be lasagna, you don't even need noodles if you don't want, I've used:

• sliced eggplant
• sliced zucchini
• tortillas (for a Mexican lasagna)

Vegenaise schmegenaise

I recently proclaimed my intention to make chicken salad, my husband reminded me how much vegenaise that would use up and we didn't really have the money for it. We had just made our weekly batches of "meat" so he said "if only there was a way to make vegenaise, then we'd be set". Just then it dawned on me that, although there were no recipes in any of my cookbooks, I had never asked the all mighty Google for a recipe. After searching a few recipes, I was able to put together the basics and figure out the cheapest way to make my own vegan mayonnaise recipe.

Oil- Much like making real mayonaise, a key part is emulsifying the oil. You want a light flavored oil, this will probably be the most expensive part. I used safflower oil but saw recipes using grape seed and canola oil (although Vegan Dad suggested using some tofu if using canola because it tends to be runnier). I suppose you could try a cheaper oil, although I tried to do that once when I made an oil dip for bread and it tasted awful, so I wouldn't suggest it.

Vinegar- I never have the wine vinegars on hand and end up subbing all my recipes for the more common vinegar I do stock. For this recipe, I used apple cider vinegar, but I also saw recipes that used white wine vinegar, white vinegar, and even lemon juice.
Milk- I use plain soy milk and found this to be the best. I have tried almond milk but it didn't whip up as well. If you have to use an alternative to soy, I would suggest adding a little more oil or a healthier alternative, a little tofu. I've also tried unsweetened soy milk and did not enjoy the flavor at all, I had to add a little bit of sugar and a dash of salt which sort of defeats the purpose of unsweetened soy.

Vegan Mayonnaise

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 cup plain soy milk

- 1 1/4 cup safflower oil

- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- Pinch of salt

METHOD

1. Put soy milk in a blender or food processor and start processing. Slowly add the oil in while blade is running. When all the oil is incorporated, stop blade and scrape down sides. Add the vinegar and salt and process briefly to mix through.

My consistency was spot on and the taste, although not an exact clone, was damn near close when I did a side by side comparison. A lot of recipes called for a sweetener, but I stopped adding sugar because I find after a few days, the mayo gets too sweet. I've made coleslaw and chicken salad where the flavor depends heavily on the flavor of the mayonnaise and they were both delicious.