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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Orange Cranberry Pancakes with Orange Sauce (Vegan)

I made this recipe and changed a few things to make it vegan. Try them, they are vegan, taste like fall and are so good.

Sauce

1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar (I prefer less sweet)
2 tablespoons dried cranberries (optional)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash ground ginger
1 1/2-2 cups plain or vanilla silk
1/4 cup applesauce
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon finely shredded orange peel

For orange sauce, combine the water and corn starch in a small bowl until it forms a slurry. Combine slurry in a small saucepan with 1 teaspoon orange peel, the orange juice, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 tablespoons snipped dried cranberries (if desired), and cornstarch. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and set aside.

For pancakes, in a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and finely chopped cranberries.

In another bowl combine 1 1/2 soy milk, applesauce, vegetable oil, vanilla, and orange zest. Add more soy milk if batter is too thick.

Add all at once, add the wet ingredients to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be slightly lumpy). Preheat griddle to 300-325 degrees, until water "dances" on surface. For each pancake, pour about 2 tablespoons batter onto hot griddle or skillet. Use more batter for bigger pancakes. Spread batter into a circle about 2 - 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Cook over medium heat about 1-2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are golden brown, turning to cook second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Serve with sauce.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Nutella Rum-Rums

Yo, ho, ho a pirate's life for me. Why is the rum always gone? Oh that's why, they are in these cookies and I drank it LOL. Oh my gosh these are one of the best cookies ever. I based these cookies off of this recipe

1/3 cup Nutella
1/4 cup oil (mild olive oil or vegetable oil)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp. ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I actually forgot to put this in mine)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup nuts of choice, I used walnuts
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
3 tablespoons rum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Soak the cranberries in the rum while you are making the rest of the recipe.Place Nutella, oil, milk, brown and white sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Mix well. In a small bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt and allspice. Add in small additions to the wet mixture. Add cranberries and rum, white chocolate chips and nuts of choice. You may need to add a bit more soy milk if mixture is crumbly. Spray your hands with cooking spray and form into balls. Leave plenty of room for these, they spread. Cook about 6-8 minutes or until set and crispy. Remove from pan and let cool.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Maple Nut Cookies (Vegan)

When I saw a recipe for Maple Nut Cookies on cat tea corner's website I had to try it! I cut it in half and ended up with 8 cookies. These are pretty good, kinda like a pecan sandy or other shortbread type cookie. I made mine with walnuts, but I think that they would be best with pecans to make them more like pecan sandies, and I used Grade A maple syrup because that is what I had but I will look for some grade B before making these again for more maple taste. Sorry no pics but I will be making them again for a Christmas gift package so I will have pics up by then!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Spiced Whole Wheat Walnut Pancakes

Wow, out of all of the pancakes I have made, this recipe by far is my favorite. I have changed the recipe a bit and it could be made completely vegan if you use something in place of the honey, like maple syrup, agave nectar, corn syrup, golden syrup, etc but I have never tried it that way......

Spiced Whole Wheat Walnut Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup soy milk
1 tbsp regular olive oil not EVOO
1.5 tbsp honey
1/8 cup chopped walnuts or pecans or to taste....I never measure them

Honey-Cinnamon Topping

1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp margarine (LOL, never measure this one either)



1. To make Honey-Cinnamon Topping: Place a small saucepan on low heat; add honey and cinnamon; stir for 1 minute.
2. Add in butter and stir until melted; keep warm.
3. To make pancakes: In a big mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt; set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk the applesauce, milk, oil, and honey together; add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Fold in nuts.
6. Heat a nonstick griddle or skillet over medium-high heat.
7. Lightly brush with vegetable oil ( I find this to be unnessary)
8. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto griddle for each pancake.
9. Cook until bubbles form on the surface; flip pancake over and cook until the other side is golden.
10. Serve warm pancakes with Honey-Cinnamon Topping.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these cookies today, and if you haven't tried them yet you need to !!!! So rich and chocolately, and almost brownie like, I will make these cookies again and again! They are so easy to make too, so decadent. I halfed the recipe and it made 11 cookies for me and I used regular cocoa as I didn't have dutched cocoa on hand. Rock on Isa!!!

Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies


Ingredients:
3/4 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon whole flax seeds
1/2 cup soymilk

2 cups all purp flour
3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grind the flax seeds on high in a blender until they become a powder. Add soymilk and blend for another 30 seconds or so. Set aside.

In a large bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In a seperate large bowl cream together oil and sugar. Add the flax seed/soy milk mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla.

Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. When it starts to get too stiff to mix with a spatula, use your hands until a nice stiff dough forms. Add the chocolate chips and mix with your hands again.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and flatten into a disc that's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes, then set them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Variations:
For chocolate chocolate chip cherry cookies, replace 1 teaspoon of the vanilla with almond extract, and replace 1/2 the chocolate chips with dried cherries.

For chocolate nut cookies, replace 1 teaspoon of the vanilla with a nut extract (almond, walnut, what have you) and replace the chocolate chips with 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (hazelnuts, almonds or walnuts all are good).

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Ginger Schezwan Stir Fry

You know when you are outrageously hungry, and you don't know what to eat, haven't planned a meal and are not sure what you have in the kitchen and you throw together a meal with the things that you have and it turns out wonderful? This is one of those times :) I looked in the freezer and a few weeks ago, I had visited the Asian grocer and they had VeriSoy Vegetarian Ginger Chicken, and looked and saw some broccoli, onions, a half container of mushrooms, onion and carrots and decided to make a stir fry. I cheated on this one, all I really did was cook up the veggies and brown rice ( made from the boil on the stove, but hey it was brown rice!) and I used a package of Schezwan Hot and Spicy stir fry sauce from Kroger, just follow the instructions on the sauce packet. Wow this is the most amazing stir fry I have ever made or had.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Banana Nut Bread and WW Oatmeal Bread



This banana bread is very moist and very, very low in fat. It makes one big loaf and 6 "short" texas sized muffins. I shared with my coworkers and they loved it, wonderful way to get rid of 4 bananas that are overripe.

I also made Celine's WW Oatmeal bread and I had a PB and Jelly made out of some of the bread, not just any PB and J, it had White Chocolate Wonderful PB and Orange Marmalade, definately a grown up PB and J. Sorry, no pics of the actual sammich!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Pumpkin Bread and *VEGAN* Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies




Oh hells yes. Inspired by Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel, I made her wonderful Pumpkin Bread and having 1 cup of pumpkin left over, decided to make some cookies. I used this recipe and substituted the egg with 1/4 cup applesauce (BTW, I used pumpkin puree from a can and I did not add the extra 2 tbsp. water) oh my goodness, these are so damn good. Soft, cakey, slightly spicy and chocolatey, if I make them again I may use whole wheat flour instead of the all purpose. I made sandwiches out of some of the bread and WOW!!!!! I made a kicked up BLT, that is Fakin' Bacon cooked in some EVOO, mayo, fresh Hanover tomato slices, perfectly ripe avocado slices, romaine lettuce. Wow, this is one of the best sammiches I have ever had!!!! Thanks so much for posting this bread Celine, the bread went AWESOMELY PERFECT with the sammich. I also wanted to add that I made this in a convential oven, cooked at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes and I made it with 1 pkg. yeast as Celine said, kneaded it for about 5 minutes, then let it rise 1 hour, then punch dough down, knead and place in a greased bread pan, cover with a tea towel. Let rise for another hour and place in a pre-heated oven and cook until it sounds hollow when tapped and golden. Turn out onto cooling rack, let cool before cutting.

Here is a bonus photo of my kitty! I am glad I finally got a decent picture of him, it is hard to take a good photo of him. His name is Durn and he looks a little upset, laying in the clothes basket with his ears back.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

I made this cake, based off of this recipe and it was delicious, but not very photogenic.

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1/3 cup fat-free caramel topping
2 cups thinly sliced peeled Granny Smith apple (about 10 ounces)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup applesauce
5 tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract



Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Drizzle caramel over bottom of pan. (Caramel will not completely cover bottom of pan.) Arrange apple slices over caramel, overlapping slices slightly.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt and baking soda in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine buttermilk and applesauce in a small bowl. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until blended. Pour batter over apple slices in prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Place a plate upside down on top of cake; invert onto plate. Serve warm.

I would add more apples, I only used 1.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Ultimate Baked Macaroni and Cheese



There's nothing like Macaroni and Cheese to feel like comfort food. My Mom would always make hers on the stovetop with stewed tomatoes added. I like this recipe because it reminds me of hers and I love baked macaroni and cheese. I always add some reduced fat parmesan to the roux and I make this with 2% sharp cheddar cheese. I use the chopped tomatoes with basil and oregano and add some "Italian Seasonings" to the roux. I wanted to take a picture of it plated but the batteries were charging at the time. I served this with some steamed broccoli. YUM!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Pancakes




I found this recipe on Recipezaar and decided to try it....The pancakes are light and fluffy, so delicious. Not a vegan recipe, but soy milk, agave or maple syrup and egg replacer could be used to make them vegan. I had sugar free Carter's Mountain Apple Butter and Sugar Free Maple syrup with them.

I made these again and had them with apple cider syrup... very thick syrup, delicious. I made mine with apple cider instead of apple juice as the recipe states.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Pumpkin Apple Muffins


These are quite possibly some of the best muffins ever. Pumpkin Apple Muffins Made these with some Fuji apples as noted, I actually had them saved from dinner at Panera Bread. I found that I needed to add soy milk to make this into a batter, and instead of using all of the different spices listed, I used about 4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. I used to make these back in the day and I think that I used 1/2 cup egg beaters instead of the ener-g as noted and this may be why I needed so much more added liquid than what was called for in the recipe. In any case, you should make these muffins, they are so delicious and fat free too. Sweet apples, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, how can you go wrong? LOL

Peach Cake!


Oh my goodness this cake is all kinds of good and it is hard to believe it is fat free and vegan. I am of course talking about Susan's cake from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. Peach Upside Down Cake Wow, you can taste the peaches, then the soft cake with ginger and lemon zest, this cake has the most amazing flavor. I made mine with 2 yellow peaches and 2 white peaches, I did this by mistake as I was just going through the bins at the grocery store, looking for the ripest peaches. I did the more sugar option and I used light brown sugar. I am going to use this same cake recipe to make an apple version maybe with some apple pie spice instead of the ginger or maybe just cinnamon since I went and picked apples over the weekend and have a ton of apples to eat.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Apple of My Eye



I went up to Charlottesville to pick apples at Carter's Mountain this Sunday. I hadn't been in a while and it was so nice to be in all of that fresh air. I took a lot of pictures and picked some apples.....They even let you use these long poles with a "apple picker/catcher" attached because most of the apples were at the tops of the trees. Their apple cider is the best I have ever tasted, if you are in VA or are going to visit VA in the fall, you should definately check this place out.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Have a Guinness Day!!!!!

No, I am not an alcoholic and I don't even drink Guinness but when I found this cookie recipe on Have Cake, Will Travel called Double Chocolate Stout Cookies, it was all over. My mouth watered. Celine, these are so awesome! Mine aren't as pretty as yours but they were so delicious! I can't wait to share with the people at work tommorow!!!
Double Chocolate Stout Cookies

I told the people at work about these so doubled the recipe. I knew that I would have a considerable amount of beer left over so I am also making a Seitan and Guinness Stew Dark Beer Stew

Today was my day off so as per my custom, I stopped at SHEETZ for a diet soda to drink while I was at the park and I decided to pick up the Guinness for the cookies (and the Seitan Guinness Stew). As I approached the cash register I realized that I must look like an alcoholic as the cashier raised her eyebrow at me as she rang up my purchase. It was 9:30 in the morning :D Hehehe. But I digress, here are the photos...... BTW, I used the seitan recipe from Post Punk Kitchen,

Homemade Seitan

it is so good and so easy to make, I highly recommend it. The stew is very earthy, you can definately taste the Guinness in it, not sure if I would be making it again. But it was worth the $3.00 for the Guinness for these wonderful cookies!!!!!



No, I didn't let my cat have Guinness but this is a funny photo!!!!! He likes sleeping in this Airwalk box for some reason and I even have a bed for him. Go figure, LOL :P




Thursday, September 20, 2007

Orange Ginger Stir Fry

I have made this a few times, and it is a very good recipe. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orange-Ginger-Tofu-Triangles/Detail.aspx

Orange Ginger Stir Fry


INGREDIENTS
1 pound firm tofu
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup canola oil (I always leave this out)
4 teaspoons dark sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 green onions, cut into 1-inch strips (I always leave this out)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (I always leave this out)
2 dried chipotle chile pepper (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Turn the tofu on its side, and cut it into 4 thin slices. Lay the tofu flat again, and cut the block diagonally to make 8 triangles. Without separating the pieces, place tofu on a cutting board. Cover, with a paper towel, and place a heavy skillet on top. Set aside for 30 minutes, allowing time for excess water to drain from the tofu.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, oils, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Separate the pressed tofu pieces, and arrange in a baking dish in a single layer. Cover with the marinade, and sprinkle with the green onion and cilantro. Cut the stems off the chiles, remove the seeds, and place the chiles in the baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Pour off some of the marinade, so the tofu is covered halfway. *Reserve remaining marinade (Shannon). Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, without turning, until the tofu is golden and most of the marinade has been absorbed.
I cook it this way and then I brown it further in a small amount of oil in a skillet. Set aside. I then stir fry one chopped red bell pepper, 1-2 peeled and sliced on a diagonal carrots, frozen broccoli florets, 5-7 sliced mushrooms, one zucchini or yellow squash, sliced and one small onion, sliced. I sprinkle powdered ginger, onion powder and garlic powder on top. Mix 1 tbsp. cornstarch with reserved marinade. Add tofu and sauce, cook until thickened.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Chai Oatmeal Pancakes

This morning I woke up and made Oatmeal Chai Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce. I have made these before but now I am pleased with the results and would like to share the recipe with you. Here is the recipe that I used for the strawberry sauce Warm Double Strawberry Sauce . Here is the recipe that I used to base my pancakes off of Oatmeal Pancakes I am sure that applesauce or some ener-g egg replacer could be used instead of the eggs.

Chai Oatmeal Pancakes

1 cup milk (your choice, I used soy)
8 chai tea bags (I always use Celestial Seasonings but use your favorite)

1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned)
1 1/2 tsp. light olive oil (not extra virgin)
1/4 cup egg beaters (I am sure you can use applesauce here to make these vegan)
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. EACH baking soda AND baking powder
2 tsp. powdered chai concentrate (the kind I have is Pacific Chai and it has milk and honey in it, but I may make some chai concentrate myself to try to make this a completely vegan recipe)

I always start this recipe the night before. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, place tea bags and milk of choice. Press tea bags every few minutes to get more chai flavor infused into the milk. Cook about 8-10 minutes but do not boil. You are going to have to add more milk to make it 1 cup again. Refrigerate until ready to use. Place concentrated chai milk into large mixing bowl, add the oatmeal and let set 2-5 minutes. Add egg substitute, oil, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, baking soda and powder and chai concentrate. Stir to combine. Preheat griddle until water "dances" on the surface (I usually heat mine to 300 degrees F). Cook about 2 minutes or until bubbles break and turn to brown other side.

Served these with the rest of the strawberry sauce I had made and they were delicious!




Here is a recipe for Powdered Chai Tea and it says you can omit the vanilla creamer and use (liquid) vanilla instead and I am sure that you can use rice/soy milk powder to make it vegan, plus it has good reviews. Chai Tea Mix