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. 

DIY Vegan

The single most thing that has saved me more money than I can fathom, is making my own vegan staples. The first thing I realized I could make was seitan (for those of you who may be new to seitan, it's a meat substitute made from wheat gluten). You can find a seitan recipe almost anywhere online and practically every cookbook has their own version. I've included the first seitan recipe I used, and it's the one I still use today.

A few words on making your own seitan.
-Vital wheat gluten/wheat gluten/wheat gluten flour, it's one in the same. Wheat gluten flour is simply a wheat flour with lots of protein in it, that's what gives seitan it's meaty texture. It's one of the few things you absolutely can't substitute for something else.
-I try not to do too much shopping in health food stores as they are more expensive and I like to do all my shopping at one place, so I tend to go to the popular mega stores and places that offer great rewards and coupons, but sometimes you can't find vital wheat gluten there. I'm lucky enough that my local Fred Meyers has started carrying it in bulk (which is always the cheapest way to go) if they didn't carry it, I would have asked if I could make special orders for it which usually doesn't cost anything as long as you pick it up at the store.
-Whether your recipe calls for you to boil or steam your seitan, it will expand, and the more it expands the more porous and spong like it gets. If you first wrap your seitan in foil or cheesecloth, you'll get a denser "meat" but it will produce less volume. I choose to take the happy medium and very loosely wrap the seitan in foil, giving it room to expand, but not enough as to start getting too porous.

Bulk Seitan
From the cookbook Vegan With A Vengeance

1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated on a microplane grater

For the simmering broth: 
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce

Fill a stock pot with the water, broth and soy sauce, cover and bring to a boil.

In the mean time, in a large bowl mix together gluten and yeast.  In a smaller bowl mix together broth, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. Pour the wet into the dry and combine with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has absorbed and partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Use your hands and knead for about 3 minutes, until it’s an elastic dough. Divide into 3 equal pieces with a knife and then knead those pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit. Let rest until the broth has come to a full boil.

Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the gluten pieces and partially cover pot so that steam can escape. Let simmer for 45 minutes, turning occasionally. Turn the heat off and take the lid off, let sit for 15 minutes.

Remove from broth and place in a strainer until it is cool enough to handle. Slice and use as desired.

This recipe makes a ton of "meat" which I fry, bake, batter, and even toss in a food processor to make "ground beef". Once you're comfortable with making your own seitan, google more recipes. Each week my husband makes hamburgers, sausages, lunch meat, and generic meat for random recipes. Sometimes I wrap the seitan dough in foil before I boil it and it makes a denser (yet smaller) seitan if I need something like turkey slices.

Cheap: If you want to further flavor your seitan, you can buy mock chicken broth mixes and bouillon cubes.

Cheaper: Use different seasoning already in your cupboard like cumin, smoked paprika, or thyme.

Cheapest: I've found that Top Ramen oriental flavor is vegan. We use the noodles in other recipes but I save the packets and flavor seitan with it, it gives the seitan sort of a beefy flavor.

Adapt

When my family started growing, 8 years ago, before there were many blogs or online resources to find vegan recipes, I struggled to think up vegan meals. Everything I knew about cooking came from my mom who grew up on a farm and every meal included meat. So I watched the food network and started thinking up ways I could make it vegan. I could replace milk with soy, meat with tofu, beef broth with vegetable broth. At first I was hesitant to replace anything in a recipe, if it called for fresh basil and I only had dried, well I wouldn't make it. After years of learning it was ok to substitute ingredients, I've learned to sort of create my own recipes. If I want to make something, I'll look up about three different recipes for it, some vegan, some not. I find the common thread in them all and compare that to what I know my family likes and most importantly, what's already in my fridge.
By adapting recipes and not confining what I cook to the constraints of what is already vegan, I can take budget carnivore meals and make them budget vegan meals.