Banana Bread Muffins

What do you do with your bananas that turn brown before you get to eat them? Unless your answer is "put them in the freezer until I make them into banana bread" you are wrong. I always freeze my bananas that have become too ripe to eat raw. Once I've collected 3, it's time to make bread (or in this case muffins)

• 3 bananas (you can use ripe bananas if you don't have any frozen)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup veggie oil or Earth balance or shortening
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1.5 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
   
2. Cream the sugar with the oil/Earth Balance/ shortening.
3. Defrost the bananas if they are frozen. Peel and mash the bananas (a potato masher works just fine). Add the mashed bananas to the sugar mixture.
4. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and sift into the dry ingredients. Mix. Quick word on spices. This is just how I happen to like my banana muffins. Maybe you like more cinnamon and less nutmeg. Maybe you hate cloves. I don't know- this is just how I like it- feel free to mess around until you get it just right. The great part about vegan baking is you can taste it while you make it! You don't have to worry about weird diseases running around in your batter, so go ahead, taste and adjust the spices so it's just the way you like it.
5. Pour the batter into muffin trays- I made mini muffins tonight because I wanted less calories per muffin (so I can eat more!)
   
6. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar. Bake for 25 minutes
   

Calories 75

Total Fat 1.9g

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 113mg

Total Carbohydrates 14.0g

Dietary Fiber 0.6g

Sugars 6.7g

Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn

Well hello there, chocolate craving, we meet again.

If anyone reading this thinks that all vegan cooking is healthy, you should probably just stop reading. Sometimes you have to say "screw calories, I need chocolate". Tonight, was just one of those nights. Maybe it was binging on Discovery Fit & Health documentaries, maybe it was the cold weather, maybe it was just in the stars. Who knows. Whatever the reason- here is my chocolate craving buster made from ingredients that did not require leaving my house.

• 2 cups popped popcorn (a cheap way to make popcorn without all the weird chemicals and fake ingredients is posted here)
• 1 square unsweetened bakers chocolate
• 2 Tablespoons white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 Tablespoon almond milk
• powdered sugar for sprinkling

1. Melt the chocolate, sugar, peanut butter, and almond milk over a double boiler. Add more or less sugar depending on how sweet you want it. I like mine kind of bitter.
2. Dump in the popcorn
3. Mix
4. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and enjoy. Chocolate craving: ELIMINATED!!
   

St. Paddy's Day Corned Beef and Cabbage

Happy St. Paddy's Day! Hooray for all the snakes leaving Ireland (or just for green beer and drinking outside!!). What is St. Paddy's Day without celebrating the cuisine of the Irish with some corn beef and cabbage? I don't normally use this blog as a soap box for veganism- I just like posting recipes. SOOO- all I want to say to people who think veganism takes away from tradition is BOO YAH! I'm vegan AND Irish AND I made corn beef and cabbage and no animals had to die. SO THERE.

Okay- recipe time!

• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 head of cabbage, chopped
• 4 or so carrots, cut into circles
  
• 4 cups veggie broth
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 Seitan loaf (use my recipe!!), cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 Tablespoons flour

1. Saute the onion, carrots, and garlic in Olive Oil
2. After the onion, carrots, and garlic are soft, add the veggie stock, seitan, and cabbage. Let the cabbage reduce down. I like my cabbage to have a little crunch left, but cook it however you like it.
3. After the veggies are cooked the way you like them, use a slotted spoon to remove everything except the broth (there will probably be little bits of garlic, etc left in the broth- that's totally fine)
4. Now for the gravy. Add the flour to a couple tablespoons of cold water, stir until it is dissolved, and add to the broth (if you add the flour directly to the hot broth, it will form clumps)
   
5. Let the gravy cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens up. Pour it over the seitan/veggie mixture and there you have it! Serve with some roasted potatoes and Irish Soda Bread (which is a recipe for another day- mainly because it gives me an excuse to make it again)

Seitan loaf

Okay- I do not have a picture of this because I cut it up and put it in my St. Paddy's Day feast before I had a chance to take a picture. Use your imagination!

Seitan is basically wheat gluten flour. According to wikipedia, "It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten”. Whatever that means. Anyways, it can be cooked in different ways to make different flavors and textures. I've made seitan a couple different ways, and each way is good for different applications. Since I will be using seitan in my St. Paddy's Day corn beef and cabbage, this type of seitan is best.

• 1.5 c. vital wheat gluten
• 1/4 c. nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1-2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I'm kind of a wuss- you can add more if you want)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  
• 3/4 c. cold water
• 4 T. tomato paste
• 1 T. ketchup
• 2 T. olive oil
  
• 2 T. vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (soy sauce would probably work too if you can't find Worcestershire sauce without anchovies- yuck.)
• 1-3 cloves garlic, crushed well

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
   
2. Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl- mix
3. Mix all wet ingredients in a different bowl
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Knead for a couple minutes (be careful what you knead on- the spices make this red and it may stain your counter... or at least it did mine...)
5. Form the dough into a loaf. Wrap the loaf in aluminum foil- twist the ends so it looks like a birthday present!- and bake for 90 minutes
6. Once it's cool, take it out and do with it what you will.
   

Welcome Home Pasta Bake

My husband has been out of town all weekend and I'll admit, I kinda missed the guy. It's nice to have time apart sometimes AND it's a fun reason to make a special welcome home meal.

• 1.5 cup veggie broth
• 1.5 teaspoons liquid smoke
• 1 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)
• 1 lb pasta (I used Penne because it is what was in my cupboard), cooked
  
• 1/2 diced yellow onion
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 4 cups marinara sauce (make your own!! It's super easy- just mix a couple cans stewed tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, oregano, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper until it tastes how you want it)
• 1 cup shredded vegan mozzarella
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Bring 1 cup veggie broth and liquid smoke to a boil. Remove from heat, add the TVP, and let sit for 5 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.
3. Mix the cooked pasta, onion, garlic, marinara sauce, remaining 1/2 cup veggie broth, salt and pepper in a bowl.
4. Put half the pasta mixture in a casserole dish. Sprinkle with half the mozzarella. Add the remaining pasta mixture and cover with remaining mozzarella.
5. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes until it is bubbley and delicious. Serve with some cheesy garlic bread and a side salad.

Welcome Home Ferris!!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 358.9

• Total Fat: 7.0 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 729.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 55.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 8.4 g
• Protein: 18.1 g

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream "Cheese" Frosting

Happy Mardi Gras! We are having a food day at work tomorrow to celebrate. I love my co-workers and I want them to have yummy vegan food. I've made these cupcakes as a whole cake a couple times but this is the first time making them as a cupcake. I don't understand the whole cupcake "craze", but cupcakes are a good way to serve cake in individual servings at a social function. And these turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 "eggs" (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
  
• 2 cups carrots, finely grated
• 1 can (14 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (if you can only find sweetened, cut down on the sugar)
  

Cream "Cheese" Frosting:

• 1 (8 ounce) package vegan cream cheese
• 1/3 cup vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2-3 cups vegan powdered sugar (It will depend on how you want the frosting to look. I wanted my frosting to set up a little more, so I used 3 cups)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
   
2. Blend the sugars, shortening, eggs, and vanilla in a stand mixer.
3. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. It will be a little dry.
   
5. Add the pineapple and carrots- it should now look more like cake batter.
6. Put into cupcake pan and bake for 40-45 minutes (I got 18 cupcakes)
7. To make the frosting, mix all the ingredients until you get the consistency you want. DO NOT FROST UNTIL THE CUPCAKES ARE TOTALLY COOL. I know it's hard to wait when you have delicious smelling cupcakes, but believe me, you will be glad you waited.
8. I topped mine with a little extra coconut, but that's totally your call. eat!

This recipe brought to you by "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire

This may not be the best recipe to start adding Nutritional Info, but here you go!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 18
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 360.1
• Total Fat: 17.8 g
• Cholesterol: 6.4 mg
• Sodium: 290.2 mg
• Total Carbs: 51.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g
• Protein: 2.3 g

Simple Bread

Once you start making your own bread, you'll realize that the bland, chemical filled "bread" at the store is really just not cutting it. Sure, it's quick in a pinch, but it's just not the same as a good, soft, flavorful homemade loaf of bread. It is really not hard to make bread. It's sort of like doing laundry in that it takes a while, but most of the time you aren't really doing anything. Once you get a basic recipe down you can start switching up sweeteners, fat, types of flour, etc. Here is a basic, easy recipe I use on a regular basis.

• 3/4 Tbsp yeast
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1 cup warm soy milk (I usually warm it in the microwave for about 45 seconds)
  
• 1/8 cup melted shortening
• 2 t salt
• 2-3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp vital wheat gluten

1. In a bowl, mix the yeast and sugar. Stir in the warm soy milk. Let this rest for 5-10 minutes.
2. In a different bowl, mix the salt, 2 cups of flour, and gluten.
3. After the milk/sugar/yeast mixture gets foamy, mix in the melted shortening.
4. Add the dry ingredients. At this point you can add more flour if it is too sticky.
5. Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes until it becomes "elasticy". Place the dough in a greased bowl for 45 minutes- 1 hour or until the dough had doubled in size.
6. Punch the dough down and form into a loaf shape. Place in a greased bread pan, cut a slit down the middle, and let rise for another half hour.
7. Bake at 35o for about 30 minutes.