Vegan Bruschetta and Yeast Bread Recipe

This morning's smoothie was




2 bananas
2 golden delicious apples
a handful of fresh mint
2 tbs ground flaxseed
Water and blend.










I baked a loaf of bread yesterday

















Put in a big bowl and mix together:
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp each sugar and salt

Mix together in a separate bowl
1 tbs active dry yeast
1 cup warm water or vege broth
stir until the yeast is dissolved and then add
1 tbs olive oil

Pour liquid into the flour mixture and stir until a dough forms.
Put on a floured board and knead about 5 minutes until it's a smooth ball.
Place in a greased bowl, cover with a towel. Leave at room temp until the ball doubles in size, about 45 minutes, more or less.

Knead the dough for about 2 minutes on a floured board.
Place in a greased loaf pan, run a knife along the top to make a split and put chunks of vegan butter all along the split
Bake at 350F for 1 hour
Cool and slice and then make this out of it for lunch the next day:
















Bruschetta.
















Toast two slices of bread then spread marinara sauce on the bread. Add tomato slices, onion slices and more sauce on top. Broil for a few minutes, until the sauce on top starts to bubble.
Sprinkle with vegan parm and fresh ground pepper and serve with a green salad and sauerkraut
Yum.

Juice Feast Lunch Starring Cantaloupe!

I feel GREAT! Juice feasting is fun. I never feel deprived, on the contrary, I feel quite indulged. All the juice I want? hehe. I wouldn't want to do it every day, I do enjoy chewing, but I don't see where the deprivation is there.

I finished my celery cocktail and put about a half hour in on the mat. It's getting easier every day, I know I have gained a ton of flexibility since I started. I also did some upper body work with the dumb bells and the flexi-ball. my chest muscles and arms are hurting. Please, no more push-ups, please?
Then after laying on the floor for a while watching old sit coms, I looked at the clock and THOUGHT it was noon, so...

I made a cantaloupe milk smoothie for lunch.

Blending















Straining in a fine mesh strainer or use a cloth bag















I push it through with a bamboo paddle until there is nothing left but seed husks.
















Then Put it in a glass and drink it yum!















But wait! I thought it was noon! It's only 11am! Dang it. I wanted to wait until noon to have my cantaloupe lunch. Ok, so I...



Took all the plants out and watered them and then jumped on the trampoline for awhile. Wheew! what a work out that is!
















Hung up the wash













I like that I can hang the napkins folded and they are ready to go on the shelf when dry. Bam.

Made some cooked vegan leek and potato soup for the omni's dinner














Yeah, I will probably have some.

I saved about a cup of chopped raw leeks, celery and garlic from when I cut them all up so I could have some raw in my salad while everyone else eats soup. I will probably have a small bowl, but maybe not :)

It is made from
1 leek
2 celery hearts that I saved from juicing this morning
1 quart of broth made from juicing pulp (a great way not to waste. Make broth from vege juicing pulp. I have even used fruit pulp mixed with vege and it's delish)
2 potatoes diced nice and small
2 cloves garlic, smashed and sliced
a wee bit of salt

I will cook it in the big soup pan on low all day but it's ready in an hour or so if you take the heat up to med. Stir occasionally.



Then I baked some bread for the boy













I made it in a pie pan for fun. The boy likes to eat the bread and I sneak zucchini in it like this

1 cup water
1 peeled and topped zucchini
2 tbs vinegar
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
in blender until smooth, set aside

2 cups flour
2 tsp aluminum free baking soda
1 tsp baking soda
whisk together until thoroughly mixed then add liquid and stir.

Pour in greased pan and bake at 350f for 1 hour.

Cool and serve, yum, you love vegetables, don't you? yes you do!
ahem
The boy is in trouble for acting up at school. There was an electronic communications incident and he is grounded from all computer, video games, television (unless we are watching), and I don't know what else. A salad and a bath every night, lol.


I watched the birdies in the bird feeders for a minute














It took them almost a week to find the feeders but now they are all over them, yay!








You can't see but they are orange headed finch type birdies.






And then it was noon and I started sipping my wonderful Cantaloupe Milk Smoothie and composing this entry. Now I am done with both and I think I will put my butt on the mat for a while longer.

Remember: Cantaloupe on an empty stomach and nothing for about 2 hours after or risk the wrath of your belly!

Raw-ish Chocolate Cake with Avocado Mint Frosting!

Dinner tonight was red lettuce and some of the greens from my little garden, sauerkraut and salad made from cukes, avo and orange bell pepper, dressed with finely chopped garlic, a pinch of salt and lime juice. On the side is a stuffed bell pepper, just regular bread stuffing with carrots, celery, onion, potato and zukes. I also stuffed an acorn squash with the same mixture and fed that to the guys.
















Inside my stuffed pepper


















Ok, I made a raw-ish chocolate cake

first I made a chocolate cake














1 sm banana
5 dates
1/2 zucchini, peeled
1 1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup baking chocolate (unsweetened)
2 tbs ACV
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup water

Process in FP with S-blade until almost the texture of mousse. Spread on a sheet, about 1/2" thick in a square or rectangle shape. Make the edges as straight as you can but don't obsess over it, you can trim the cake later.

Let freeze for 2 hours or so. In the mean time make frosting

2 avocados
2 bananas
1/2 cup mint
5 dates
1/4 tsp salt

Process until very smooth















Take the still frozen cake out of the freezer and trim the rough edges so they are straight then cut into approx 2" square pieces. Put the frosting on half of the pieces and stack the rest of the pieces on top of the frosted pieces. Frost the tops of all the cakes and freeze for another hour or more.
















Slice, arrange artfully on plate and serve frozen















The boy will eat almost any bread I make but he won't eat a vegetable. Once we saw a documentary about hiding veges in food for kids. He said I should do that so today I made my regular soda bread but instead of using oat milk, I blended a peeled zucchini with water and used that as the milk. He loved it and he ate zucchini without even knowing it.

Success.

Meatless Tempeh Meatballs

Armed with a load of inspiration from HappyVeganFace, an 8 oz package of tempeh and nothing to lose, I made these "meatlessballs" from tempeh. mmm.
















Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a medium wok saute in 1/2 cup vege broth:

1 med onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced


When onions are translucent add and mix in well:

1 tbs peanut butter
1 tbs sesame seeds
1 tbs dried mint
2 tbs vege pulp

Add more water or vege broth if needed to make something like this:














Then add:


1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 oatmeal, ground almost to flour
1/2 cup water

Mix well, cook over low heat in your wok, stirring constantly until onions are mushy and mixture is very thick.

Then add:

8 oz tempeh, steamed, cooled and ground with S blade in FP until a crumbly paste. Add to your thickened mixture and mix well.

Form balls, or patties and bake covered at 400F on a greased baking sheet for 60 minutes. Carefully turn the balls and bake covered for 30 min more at 400F.

They were big balls, almost more like patties. They were 1/3 cup each and I made 8 of them.













The man said they were good but I should have made more.

Clockwise:
Beans on vege bread, quinoa, curry carrot salad, leftover potato casserole and balls of tempeh with seed cheese on top.















And for dessert, applesauce cake, sliced, toasted and buttered with buttery vegan spread.















Left is the applesauce cake, right is a vege bread.

Both are basic soda bread recipe. Applesauce cake adds 20 oz of applesauce, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and vanilla and 3 extra tbs of sugar. Vege bread is just regular bread with a half cup of vege pulp added.

A Boring Vegan Dinner Redeemed with Raw Vegan Banana Cream Pie for Dessert

The Spread
A nondescript celery soup, green salad, that is a glass of wine. Not mine, sadly. There in the corner you can see the not vegan mac n cheese for the boy. There is some sliced bread and a casserole and in the middle is a raw vegan banana cream pie!
















Casserole was leftover carrot soup poured between layers of potato with a thick layer of tomato on top covered with rye bread crumbs which is just my normal bread recipe with 1 cup of rye flour and one cup of whole wheat flour in place of the white flour the recipe calls for.









It was pretty good.





The bread was my regular bread recipe but I mixed it up in my new food processor. tax refund money well spent.















It came out fluffier some how. I guess over mixing made the air bubbles all tiny instead of large bubbles, I don't freaking know but this was the best bread I made ever. Same recipe, same pan, same oven, same cooking time. different mixer, different bread. Whew.
And the pie. The pie. The lovely, easy RAW pie. I wish there were some left but I don't even dare look, I'm sure it's gone, gone, gone. I had two pieces of six I guess I got my share. I might make individual banana pudding cups for dinner. I still have a few banan' left.















Here is my plate. I like taking a picture of my dinner every night. It's fun.














On the salad is kiwi and tomato salsa and sauerkraut. On the bread is Earth Balance.

Rambing Vegan Recipes into the Ether... and Vegan Laundry Alternative Adventures

For breakfast Sunday I made a delicious smoothie from the meat and juice of one young coconut, 1 very ripe banana, collard and kale and celery, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and E3live Renew Me.

After that I made a big jar of salsa, put up some sauerkraut, some vegan parm sprinkle, and baked some cornbread since the boy likes it so much.

Corn Bread

1 cup oat milk
2 tbs vinegar
1 tsp salt
mix in a cup and let set while you mix dry ingredients

In a large bowl

2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn meal
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix well with a whisk and add oat milk mixture. Stir all with a spoon or your hands until well mixed, don't over mix.

Put in greased pan. For a loaf pan cook it for 1 hour at 350F or a 9 x 13" pan cook it for 45 minutes, at 350F.

Dinner was a casserole made of white potatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and eggplant. All sliced thin and layered then I made a sauce with some seed cheese a tomato, some other spices, I don't remember, water. Blended it all up and poured it over the casserole, baked it at 400F for about three hours. Too long. but it was still pretty good.
















The Money Shot














Red leaf lettuce salad with tomato and pepper salad, apple pear salsa, brine pickle, sweet potato and collard casserole, mashed cauliflower and cornbread on the side. mmm...

Mashed Cauliflower














One head of cauliflower, steamed

Whip it up food processor, or mash by hand, with some of the steaming water, salt and pepper. Put in an oven proof lidded dish and bake for 2 hours or more at 400F. Serve hot with some vegan buttery spread for a real treat.

On the Laundry Front:

I did a bunch of laundry (video linky!) yesterday. I can't decide what I like better, doing little bits every day or letting it all build up and doing it all one or two days a week. They both have their merits. I am still using the laundry soap I mix up here at home, 1 part shredded bar soap and 2 parts Borax, and it's working great! I buy soap ends at Night Fire Natural Foods. The soap is made by a local company and are vegan, no beeswax, except some are made from goat milk. I pick the ends that aren't the color that the goat milk ones are and I feel pretty good about that. I don't think I can get much closer to vegan at this price. $1.69 a pound compared to $3.19 a bar for Dr Bronners. Until I find something better than that, here I am.
I am glad to be off of the commercial laundry soap train and away from the bleach, dyes and fragrances. I quit using fabric softener, too and it seems to be ok. No one is complaining about rough clothes.
If I feel the need for something to be softer or scented, like bath towels, I put about a tablespoon of some cheap 99c store conditioner on an old wash cloth and toss it in the dryer with the wet laundry. It softens fabrics and the scent isn't so strong that it gives me a headache the way commercial fabric softener does. I try to find the ones with very few ingredients, a light scent and of course, no animal products. Right now I'm using White Rain, the smell of which reminds me of high school... White Rain products are cheap and vegan. Not healthy, but cheap and vegan.

I don't wash my hair with shampoo but that is another entry...

Dinner Last Night and SNOW This Morning

It rained off and on all day yesterday and we woke up this morning to this:

















Dinner last night was...














very good. I just threw a pot of beans together and made some garlic mashed potatoes and a spinach/collard salad with sauerkraut and mango salsa. Yummy vege soup and home made bread with oat cheese slices.

I also made a fat free apple sauce cake but I think the recipe called for too much baking soda so I am not going to reprint it here. It's ok, we all needed a big burp after that meal, lol.














The flavor and consistency were nice but it was a tad salty and it did make me have a big soda burp.* Everyone else said they loved it so if I ever make it right it they probably won't like it :)

The boy's (almost vegan) dinner
applesauce cake, toast with the horrifying individual slices of dairy cheese and "fried" potatoes.














He ate his salad earlier, without incident.


Footnotes:
*which I recognized from the old pregan** days when I used to get heartburn and treat it with a tsp of baking soda in a glass of water. It works.

**footnote within a footnote? have I gone MAD!?!. Er, Pregan is a term I have heard bandied around (neener) in the vegan blogger community. It means pre-vegan. I tried to find a definition, looked in the urban dictionary and every thing. They define it as

"A person who arrives early at informal office gatherings to chow down on
free cake, cookies and other snacks."
I entered the definition that I know and we will see if it shows up, blah blah

The Condiment Chronicles :: Cucumber Bell Pepper Relish :: Raw Fermented Sweet Pickle RELISH RECIPE! NO WHEY!!! Dairy Free!

My bizarre obsession with fermented condiments rages on, out of control.
















This is my second try. I made the last with cuke and onion and it came out bitter. I kept it for two weeks in the fridge and it didn't mellow out at all on the bitter so i tossed it today :( It was good, just very bitter from the onion.

Of course, I made more.

This time:

Fermented Sweet Pickle Relish

1 cuke
half a small red bell
1/2 tsp salt

Shred the veges, put them in a jar with 1/2 tsp salt. Put a cabbage leaf on the top like you would with sauerkraut and store at room temp for three days.














The result is slightly sweet and tangy. I did it! I made sweet pickle relish with nothing but cukes, peppers and salt. The lacto-bacillus gods were on my side this time.

The boy had a vegan breakfast this morning of sliced kiwi fruit (not shown) and garlic bread. I mix some earth balance with garlic powder and he spreads it on the toast himself. It's his thumbs up breakfast these days. It's better than sugar cereal, IMO and easy to make, besides.













VEGAN is ALWAYS best!
He wants to be vegan but he is pretty concerned about the lack of dairy and eggs. Meat he doesn't care about. We are working on him eating new things. It's a process and every goes at their own pace, right? :)

Dinner last night was soup and salad. That is my "special" vegan vege quick bread that I make using juicing pulp. So good. Not sweet, savory. A hint of garlic and ginger. Dense and moist. Scrumptious when toasted with a soup or salad or with some seed cheese as a stand alone snack.














The soup is random veges with a good dose of cabbage and Brussels sprouts. There is sauerkraut in there. I don't salt when I cook, I add condiments that I make at the table. That way everyone can make it as salty as they want and there is vitamins, minerals, fiber and good bacteria. While eating dinner I look over the table thinking, "Damn, I made almost everything on this table" and I feel a lot of satisfaction.
The salad is spinach with mango salsa on top and the green bread on the side.

How to Make DIY Aluminum Free Baking Powder Home Made Bread Making Supply Easy Recipe

Some commercial baking powders contain aluminum. Aluminum might be bad for your health. Some people say that it may be linked to cancer and also to Alzheimer's disease. I don't know if it is or isn't but I prefer not to take the chance. It's just so easy to opt out and make my own at home.

It's a stupidly simple recipe. All you need is ingredients that are probably in your cupboard already, an airtight container to store it in, a measuring spoon and a stick to stir it with.*

Ready? Here it is!

One part baking soda

Two parts cream of tartar

One part cornstarch

Mix well and store in an air tight container. Don't make more than you think you will use in a month ( I use 1 tbs baking soda, etc).

Happy Baking!

Footnotes:
* I used a chopstick.

VEGAN BRINNER! Breakfast for Dinner Cruelty-Free Style: Banana French Toast w Grilled Sweet Potatoes, Bananas and Vegan Sausage

Oh, look a recipe for EGG FREE FRENCH TOAST!!!

I made the McDougall Banana French Toast but adapted it a bit, of course!










They were a HUGE hit! Even the boy ate some and complained that there weren't more.


















Here they are soaking in a pan. I let them set in the mixture all day because I used my own bread and it's pretty heavy.
My griddle is not so non-stick so I used some olive oil cooking spray.

I sliced bananas and sweet potatoes and threw them on the grill, too.
















I baked some hash browns. These are the boy's portion. He likes his plain and with the peels off













I made a larger pan of hashed potatoes and onions, with peels, for the grown ups, baked the same way.


I have an indoor grill.














This place is whacky, I tell you.














Banana, sweet potato and vegan sausage.


The recipe.

I made a loaf of bread but I put an extra tbs of sugar and a tsp of cinnamon in and deleted any oat or flax I may have used in a loaf of sandwich bread. I also put a tbs of vital wheat gluten because I have heard that it will make a lighter loaf of bread (it says it on the package) but I haven't noticed any difference.
Let the bread cool completely and slice in 1/2" slices.

Mix in blender:
1 lrg ripe banana
1/2 cup oat milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Blend until creamy. It should be about the consistency of eggnog and the next time I want eggnog, I am going here :)

Place bread slices in pan and pour mixture over the top. Cover and let rest until you are ready to cook them.

Cook on lightly oiled or non-stick griddle until brown. Turn and brown the other side and eat, eat, eat!

For baked hash browns grate one potato per person. Rinse the grated potato and mix with 1/2 - 1 tsp of olive oil per potato and bake on baking sheet for 30 minutes at 375 F.

Grilled bananas and sweet potatoes, simply slice them and toss them on the grill until the bananas are brown and the sweet potatoes are tender.

Slice your vegan sausage and grill it until it is brown and crispy.

Serve it all hot!

Like every recipe I have made from the McDougall book, it's fabulous. I am so happy to have a low fat, vegan, recipe for French toast that doesn't call for any eggs, because eggs are slavery, exploitation and murder!