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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