Vegan Banana Oat-Nut Muffins

This is my own twist on vegan banana muffins.  I had an awesome recipe for banana muffins that I used to make all the time before becoming vegan, but now I think I've finally mastered the ultimate vegan banana muffin.  I made some with nuts and some without, and it good both ways.  My husband even loves them (they just came out of the oven and he already ate two) and he is usually skeptical of my cooking when I convert a recipe to vegan.  So, give these a try; they're really tasty.  (Feel free to cut the recipe in half.  This makes a least 24 big muffins-I usually freeze some and reheat them in the microwave or toaster later)

Ingredients:

6 mashed bananas
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (you can cut some of the sugar and replace it with molasses to make it healthier)
1tsp salt
2tsp baking soda
1-2 tablepoons cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
2 cups of flour
1 cup oats
Chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 and spray cooking spray in muffin tins (you can use papers if you want, just make sure to spray them with cooking spray).
Mash the bananas and add the oil and applesauce.
Add both types of sugar and mix well.
Add the salt, baking soda, and spices
Mix in the flour
Mix in the oats.
Mix in some of the nuts if you're using them (leave some to sprinkle on top)
Spoon the batter into muffin tins until they're 3/4 full
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they look golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy with a nice cup of tea!

Freezer Waffles (or Pancakes!)

Sunday mornings are so relaxing for me. All throughout the week, I get up early to either get to work super early, or to workout and then get to work early. On Saturdays my mom and I always go out for coffee and then to Yard sales when the weather is nice. Sundays are the day when I can sleep until I wake up, lounge in bed lazily until I feel like getting up, then I drink tea until I feel like doing something else. Sometimes I get the urge to cook a nice breakfast, and this recipe is perfect for a Sunday morning breakfast. It doesn't take that long to make, but it's not something I'd feel like bothering with on a weekday. The cool part is that you can make this whenever you feel like it, then freeze the waffles so that you can have them whenever you want. They freeze just as well as the frozen waffles you buy at the store, except these are more delicious, you can customize with the ingredients that you like, and they're much cheaper.





Here's what you need:

Boxed pancake mix (you can make your own if you want, but the box is easier)

Milk and eggs (if your box mix calls for it. I usually get the box mix that does not have milk and eggs because I add vegan alternatives like almond milk and applesauce)

Whatever mix-ins and toppings you'd like!



If you have a waffle maker (we do, and we LOVE it!!!!), you can use that. Otherwise, you can simply make pancakes. Make the mix according to the directions on the box, then you can add fruit (frozen blueberries, strawberries, banana, etc), nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts), coco powder, chocolate chips, peanut butter, whatever you want. I usually make several different kinds then freeze them in separate freezer storage bags. Last time I made cinnamon waffles, blueberry waffles, and waffles with coco powder.




To cook waffles, preheat the waffle maker, pour in about 1/4 batter per waffle, close the lid, and wait until the steam stops coming out (about 5 minutes). To cook pancakes, preheat a non-stick skillet at medium heat. You can use non-stick cooking spray to make sure the pancakes will come off easy. Pour the batter into the skillet and wait until the edges start to bubble and pop. Then, carefully flip it over with a spatula and cook the other side.



Eat them hot and fresh, or freeze them and pop one in the toaster when you want a delicious breakfast. You can also add in flax powder, protein powder, wheat germ, or other ingredients for added nutrition. You can have lots of fun with this recipe. Let me know what your favorite ingredient combinations are!



Here's a link to some cheap waffle makers on Amazon.com. Mine makes 4 at a time, and it wasn't very expensive. If you want to make extra waffles to freeze, I highly recommend a waffle maker that makes 4 at a time.

Here's one of the best deals I found:              







...and here's a more expensive one, but it makes cute heart shaped waffles (5 at a time!)   

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

These are amazing! They have no sugar, no butter, no oil, no egg, and they're phenomenal! They've got about 35 calories per cookie, they taste great, and they're filling.  I'm totally in love with these right now.  I made them, ate a few, and then froze them so that I can grab a few out of the freezer and take them with me when I'm on the go.  You can microwave them, or just let them thaw on their own.  You've gotta try these for yourself. 

Ingredients:
2 cups of oats (or oat flour)
2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon (more if you love lots of cinnamon.  I used 2 heaping tsp)
3/4 teaspooon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 bananas (the ones I used were pretty large. It's best to use really ripe bananas if possible)
Nuts (optional. I didn't use them because they're expensive and add calories, but I'm sure it would be delicious to add in walnuts or pecans)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Grind the oats into oat powder (or just buy oat powder to begin with).  I got a Cuisinart gadget for Christmas that didn't look very fancy, but it ground up these oats into oat powder in a matter of several seconds.  It was pretty neat. 

3.  Add the baking soda and cinnamon to the ground oats.

Oat Flour, Cinnamon, Baking Soda

4.  Mash up the bananas and add the vanilla to the bananas.

Mashed bananas

5.  Add the banana mixture into the flour mixture.

Banana Oat Cookie Dough

6.  Put aluminum foil on a tray and spray with Pam (I always do this to cut down on clean-up)

7.  Use a teaspoon to drop cookie dough onto the tray. I can usually make 25-30 cookies from this recipe.

Unbaked cookies

8.  Bake for 10 minutes, or until they start to look golden.  The bottom of these cookies won't really burn, but they'll get tough if they're baked too long.  To keep them soft, try not to over-bake them. 

9.  Let them cool a little bit, then you can eat them, freeze them, or keep them in the fridge. 

This is a great healthy snack and would be a wonderful breakfast.  Let me know if you like them!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Carrot soup with curry

We both LOVE curry.  Really.  It's amazing and it makes everything taste so much better.  Plus, you can get it for very cheap at the local farmers market (it can be pricey at the supermarket, so be careful not to get ripped off).  So, we both make a lot of soups with curry and rice dishes with curry.  One of my husband's favorite recipes is a curry chicken dish which he claims is phenomenal.  He makes it pretty often, and he actually made it last week so I'll have him post the recipe shortly.  In the mean time, here's a recipe for carrot soup with curry. 

Carrot soup with curry

1 small onion, finely diced


2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small piece of ginger, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of curry powder

5 cups vegetable stock (3-4 bouillions in 5 cups water)

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped (optional)

5 carrots, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

salt and pepper to taste




1. Heat the oil over medium heat and cook the onion for 2 minutes.  Add the ginger and cook for another minute. Add garlic and curry powder and cook for another minute. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 30-45 minutes until carrots and potatoes are tender. If you want, you can let it cool and blend it in a blender, or just leave it as is. 

Enjoy

Carrot and roasted tomato soup seasoned with ginger

So, it's that time of the year when there's tons and tons of delicious tomatoes and you certainly don't want them to go to waste.  Tomatoes are my favorite soup base (partly because I'm vegetarian and don't use meat bases the way my husband does) and they make for a very flavorful hearty soup.   In this recipe, however, the tomatoes are not used a base, but rather as one of the main additions.  This soup is really good, and it's hard to mess it up.  Roasting the veggies before putting the soup together really does make a big differece.  It's delicious!

Carrot and roasted tomato soup seasoned with ginger



8 roma tomatoes cut into medium pieces (other tomato variaties would also work. I've use grape and cherry tomatoes instead)

4 carrots chopped

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 small onion, diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

A piece of fresh ginger (about the size of two grapes), minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 1/2cups chicken or vegetable stock (I used 2 bouillion cubes in 2 1/2 cups water)



1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Use a little olive oil to coat the carrots and tomatoes and add spices if you'd like (italian seasoning, or simply salt and pepper).  Lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Try to mix it up at least once while they're baking. 
2.Put a small amount of olive oil in a pot and add the onion and celery. Cook at medium-high for 5 minutes stirring regularly. Add the garlic and the ginger and then add the roasted veggies (and whatever juices came out of them while they were roasting). Keep cooking for 10 more minutes and be sure to stir. Add in the vegetable stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the carrots are soft.

At this point, you can either eat the soup if you want a chunky vegetable soup, or you can put it through a blender (once it has cooled) for a smoother creamy type of soup.  It's tasty either way, but I prefer it chunky.  Also, add in more spices if it needs it. 

Enjoy!

Baked Coconut Tofu Bites

Honestly, I feel like these had potential, but I didn't like them. So, please let me know if you have any suggestions to make this better.  I wish they had been crispier on the outside.  I'll tell you what I did, and you can tell me how I should change the recipe for next time:

Ingredients:
1 package of firm tofu, drained and cubed
Lots of unsweetened macaroon coconut (grated coconut)
1 tablespoon of soy sauce (I like Kikkoman because it's flavorful and doesn't have sugar or too much salt)
1 tablespoon of cooking wine (I used Sherry, but it's such a small amount that it probably wasn't even necessary)
1 tablespoon of maple syrup (I used cheapo pancake syrup that was a million times removed from real maple syrup)
1 tablespoon of tahini (seasame oil paste stuff.  You can use regular nut oil, or even peanut butter)
1 teaspoon of hot pepper powder (or you can use red pepper flakes)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 (or maybe higher to make them crispier)
2. Drain the water off the tofu, then wrap it in paper towels and squish out more water.  Cut it into small cubes. 

2.  Mix up all the ingredients (except the tofu and the coconut)
3.  Dip the cubes in the mix then roll in coconut and place on an ungreased baking sheet (I put a sheet of aluminum foil on the tray for easy cleanup)

4. Bake until golden brown (at least 25 minutes, maybe 35 would be better)

I even tried dipping some in BBQ sauce instead of doing the whole coconut thing, but the texture still wasn't right, so I give a thumbs down to this recipe.  Thought I'd share just the same!  Let me know if you have any success with it.  It sounds good and it looks good, but it just wasn't crispy enough.

Zucchini Soup

This is so good!  Very healthy too.   Another variation that I might try in the future is to blend it to make a creamier soup, but I think it's probably better the way I made it this time.  So, here's what I did:

Ingredients:
3 medium zucchini cut into chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium diced onion (whatever's cheapest)
2 carrots cut into rounds
3 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 quart of water (that's 4 cups)
Salt to taste

1.  Heat the water in the microwave and add the bouillon to make a vegetable stock.
2.  Heat the oil in a pot (med-high heat; about 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10) and add in the spices, onion and carrot.  Stir it frequently and let it cook for about 5 minutes. 

3.  Stir in the zucchini and then pour in the vegetable stock (water with bouillon)

4.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat (about 4 on a scale of 1-10) and let cook for 45 minutes

This freezes really well. I froze several portions and I have taken it to lunch with me.  It's very good!