Longest Tease EVER! Without further ado: Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies

These brownies were my first (of what I am sure will be many) attempts to calm the chocolate-craving beast inside of me. I am currently wishing I could undo the knowledge that Oreos are Vegan. But that is another story.

Give these bad boys a shot. The recipe comes from the Veganomicon cookbook and could easily be modified by swapping the blueberries for strawberries or raspberries if you are feeling wild. I hope you enjoy!

The goods:
2/3 cup plus 1/2 cup semisweet (vegan) chocolate chips*
10 ounces (1 jar) blueberry spreadable fruit
1/4 cup soy milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder...get the best stuff you can find!
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

*A note on being vegan and eating chocolate: YOU CAN! Good quality dark chocolates are often made with chocolate liquor instead of milk so you are in the clear. Also, many grocery stores including Kroger (Fred Meyer for my west coast peeps) and Whole Foods carry vegan chocolate chip options. Just read the ingredients and you will surely find a safe bet.

The process:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking pan. I would also suggest lining your pan with parchment paper for easy removal since these brownies are so gooey.

Melt 2/3 cup of chocolate chips over a double boiler or in the microwave. If you have no clue what I just said, here is a handy double boiler instructional video that will teach you how to melt chocolate like a pro.

In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine the blueberry spreadable fruit, soy milk, sugar, canola oil, and extracts. Mix on high until no clumps of spreadable fruit are visible, 2-3 minutes.

Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until well-mixed, using a fork since the batter can get thick and a bit clumpy. Add the melted chocolate chips and stir until well combined.
Fold in the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and the fresh blueberries. Spread the batter into the pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

The brownies may look wet, but they are supposed to be gooey people! They are done! Take them out already!

Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes before trying to cut and devour. To jazz these up, serve with vegan vanilla ice cream, blueberry syrup and fresh blueberries.

Enjoy!

Lindsey

Tease Please!

Here is a sneak peek of the delicious blueberry brownies I made. Yum! Recipe to follow....

Better than Takeout

I recently found myself in the mood for something tasty... I wanted something salty, exotic, filling and oh so spicy. Well, in my world ordering food from a random Chinese establishment doesn't exactly guarantee dietary faithfulness, so I set out to make my own. What I found was an amazing recipe in Veganomicon that is sure to become a weekly staple in my house.

The Pineapple Cashew Quinoa Stir-Fry was exactly what I had been craving! It was sweet and salty, nutty, filling and satisfying beyond belief. Only without that customary bloat that seems to be served along side all Chinese fare. This stir-fry used quinoa cooked in pineapple juice as the base which gave it a wholesomeness that white rice can't hold a candle to. For all those who think Vegan's will turn grey from a protein deficiency, quinoa is the healthiest complete protein out there and just one serving provides almost 60% of your daily protein needs. Enough said.

The dish is finished off with crisp bell peppers, crunchy toasted cashews, spicy chili, ginger, garlic, scallions and of course chunks of juicy pineapple. Try this out and I promise you will never go back to Go-Go China again!

Pineapple Cashew Quinoa Stir-Fry

For the Quinoa:

1 Cup Quinoa, well rinsed and drained
1 Cup Pineapple juice (NOT the syrup that comes in the can)
1 Cup cold H2O
1/4 Teaspoon soy sauce

Stir-Fry:

4 ounces cashews, raw and unsalted (check the bulk aisle at the grocery)
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 hot red chile, sliced into thin rounds
1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup frozen peas or edamame

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, rolled and sliced into thin shreds
2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped (seems strange but it gives it such a refreshing taste)
2 cups fresh pineapple, cut into bite size chunks
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable stock
1 tablespoon mirin
Lime wedges for garnish

Note: This would be MUCH better with fresh pineapple, but I cheated and used canned saving the juices to cook my quinoa with. Cook the quinoa a day ahead for best results.

How to do it:

Prepare the quinoa by combining all ingredients in a medium pot. Cover and bring to a boil, stirring once. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook 12-14 minutes until fluid has absorbed. Uncover, fluff and let cool.

Get all your ingredients prepared and within easy reach. Using a large skillet or Wok toast the cashews over low heat for 4-5 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.

Remove the cashews, and raise the temperature to medium, and add the peanut oil, scallions, and garlic. When the garlic starts to sizzle add the hot pepper and ginger. Cook for about two minutes, then add the bell pepper and peas. Continue to stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes until peas are bright green and the pepper is softened. Add the basil and mint and stir-fry for one minute before adding the pineapple and chilled quinoa.

In a measuring cup, combine the soy sauce, veggie stock and mirin. Pour over the quinoa mixture and stir to complete coat. Continue to stir fry for 8-10 minutes until the quinoa is very hot.

Serve with lime wedges and additional soy sauce if desired.

Enjoy!

Lindsey

We Eat Real Food #1

Lately, I have been getting a plethora of questions about why I have made the choice to go vegan. When it comes up, which can be anywhere from the cafeteria to dressing room at the mall, people look at me like I have four heads and reply, “well, what the heck do you eat? Lettuce?”

After about 9 billion of these comments in which I calmly and as humorously as possible explain the vast variety of options available, people look at me like I only have three heads and say something about how they would rather starve to death. A friend recently suggested I start carrying around a picture of a slaughtered animal in my wallet so when people ask, I can just slap it down on the table and continue on with my meal. While a little extreme and potentially awkward, I am beginning to see the value in its simplicity and may resort to it in the future.

We eat real food. Food just like you. Just without the torture and guilt thrown in (sorry, soapbox). Take for example these tasty little morsels of heaven from whole foods. When I get a craving for chocolate, I EAT CHOCOLATE. These cookies were soft and chewy and chocolaty in all the ways a chocolate chip cookie should be. In fact, these were so delicious; I ate four in one sitting. Yup. Even vegans can be gluttonous. And we eat so much more than lettuce. It just takes a bit of creativity and ingenuity.

So the next time someone you know sits down to eat a meal and is carefully perusing the menu for something suitable to their veggie lifestyle, take note that we eat real food too. And let them enjoy their meal.

Lindsey

Pancakes for Dinner!

After a long day of running, cleaning up bodily fluids that don’t belong to me and rounds of CPR all you want to do when you get home is shower and go to sleep. Unfortunately when I got home Saturday night, I was hungry so the bed was not my first stop. It was the kitchen.

It had been an exceptionally hard day and I was craving stress-relieving comfort food. I wanted macaroni and cheese, thick and gooey or a big fat plate of fries but all that was staring back to me from the fridge was a block of tempeh and a cucumber that had seen crisper days. What was a girl to do? Well, in my pre-veggie days whenever I couldn’t scrape a meal together the “Breakfast for dinner” always saved my butt. Why should this be any different? A quick Google search and I had found a vegan pancake recipe that I had all the ingredients for. 20 minutes later I had a delectable stack of sweet pancakes sitting in front of me and I was so satisfied.

I was a little skeptical about how the pancakes were going to turn out, namely whether they would have the loft or “fluff” of the old Bisquick standby, but I was delighted to find that they were slightly more dense than traditional pancakes, but in a good way. They were almost crepe like in their texture and the hint of almond extract I added gave them an extra special touch that put them over the top. They have become my new favorites and I will never go back to Bisquick again. Give them a shot this weekend. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 Cup Soymilk (I used unsweetened)
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Oil
1 1/3 cup All Purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Extract (I used a vanilla and almond combo, heavy on the vanilla)
1-2 Tbs water, to thin batter if needed

Mix it all together in a blender or food processor and get flipping! They seem to cook quicker than traditional cakes so mind the stove people. It can be refrigerated overnight and remixed in the morning for a quick breakfast or used immediately for those late night cravings.

Enjoy!

Lindsey

New Year, New Meat: Vegan "Beef" Stroganoff

Normally the New Years Eve meal is fancy and fun. You go out to a nice restaurant, eat with friends or lovers and reminisce about the totally crap or totally wonderful year that has just passed you by. It usually leads to an evening of adult beverages and a serious hangover to start the New Year off in top shape. But this year, I had none of those things.

I was working, and the weather was drab so I spent the evening at home and was in bed by 9:30 and sleeping soundly shortly thereafter. Perhaps what led me to this deep, peaceful sleep was the AMAZING vegan “beef” stroganoff I had before retiring.

I know, I know. You are thinking there is no possible way to 1) imitate beef in any way or 2) duplicate a sinfully delicious cream-based sauce to drown it all in. I was skeptical too, but it is doable my friends and it was everything beef stroganoff should be: creamy, toothsome, filling, and oh so satisfying. I even went back for seconds.

I found the recipe at a wonderful website called Vegan Yum Yum and you can get the recipe here. The recipe gave me the opportunity to try two new vegan products as well, which I will give you my humble opinion on.

The first is Tofutti brand “Sour Cream”. While I don’t know if it can quite hold up to the good ol’ dollop of daisy name, it does quite well for a plant-based impersonator. It is creamy and thick and well, sour. Just like sour cream should be. It melted down nicely to create the rich sauce that housed my meaty goodness.

The other item new to the kitchen was Seitan. Seitan is a meat alternative that is made from pressed wheat gluten. I went with the Uptons brand I saw at Whole Foods because I liked the logo guy’s cool mustache (see below). The recipe called for plain seitan but I thought the ground beef variety would add a nice touch to my “beef” wonder dish. When it first came out of the package, it looked like brains and I have to say I was a little concerned about how the whole thing would end up. There was no turning back though. I cut it into pieces and into the pan he went, mustache and all. By the time the mushrooms were added and the tofu sour cream started melting, I knew everything was going to be just fine. The seitan was chewy, hearty and tasted very much like beef. Imagine that.

All in all it was the perfect comfort food dish for after a long day and perfect proof that vegan eating doesn’t have to be boring salads and beans day in and day out.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Lindsey

Hello World!

Well hello there. This is the first of what I hope will be many posts in my journey to becoming a full-fledged, PeTA-wearin’, veggie-veganite. I don’t think it will be easy, but it will surely be worthwhile.

I have always been an earth-lover. Ask my fourth grade teacher or anyone who in the past two years has tried to use a plastic bag in my presence. I compost, I recycle (even if I am the ONLY person on my street and my neighbors look at me like I am nuts every Friday playing with the trash on the street corner), I use reusable sacks and shop organic whenever possible. I believe that we can save the polar bears and have been doing, or at least I thought, my part to slow the melting of the polar ice caps.

Well as it turns out, I haven’t. All my plastic bag and organic buying has fallen short to this one nasty little habit I was raised with. We all were raised with. Eating animals. Well crap. That’ll knock you down a notch. It seems that no matter how many plastic bottles I recycle or how many pairs of Toms I buy, it will still not equal the impact I could have if I just stopped chowin’ down on the flesh of our bovine friends. It turns out that going vegetarian is the single best thing you as an individual can do for the planet. Einstein said it, and he is pretty smart, so maybe we should start listening.

The whole thing sparked while I was visiting my dear friends for what would be my first ever vegetarian and partly vegan Thanksgiving dinner. What’s this! Thanksgiving with no turkey? No buttery, golden stuffing? No gravy-dripping mashed potatoes filled with creamy goodness? Yup, that’s right. None of it. My non-vegetarian friends and I even went out to dinner for a “Meat Feast” Wednesday night hoping to load up on protein in case we couldn’t quite cut it the next day. But you know after a delicious “turkey dinner” of crisp salads, savory timbales, crunchy green beans, sweet potatoes and heavenly vegan apple pie, I was stuffed and I couldn’t even recall why we ate turkey on Thanksgiving to begin with.

After arriving back home from this feast, a friend of mine informed me that he was going vegetarian for the New Year. Okay, this is no ordinary friend. He’s a good ol’ boy raised in the South who wears a Cattle company hat on a daily basis. If he could do it, there is no reason this wanna be hippie couldn’t. So that was that. Here I am starting the New Year meat free. I stocked up on cookbooks and read the PeTA website until I had nightmares and couldn’t sleep and have already started living the lifestyle.

Here are my rules for the New Year: I am not going to eat anything unless I saw it meet its end (for those of you who know me, this is not a common occurrence. I once saved a fly from a bucket of bleach water). I am also going to eat vegan as much as possible with the exception being the delicious eggs I get from the nice lady I work with which I can assure you were raised in a loving environment free of any sort of torture except the occasional attempt at a hug. Basically, if I can’t account from how it was raised and what animal was sacrificed to get it to my plate, its out.

I hope that you will join me on this journey as I explore and share great new recipes, trials in the kitchen, interesting facts on why we should all be eating this way (I will try to avoid the soapbox, but forgive me if I have to climb up there every once in awhile), and the crazy stuff that happens along the way. I hope that you will share my triumphs, my failures and keep me motivated to live the best way possible.

As for the gnome, he is a little friend who lives in my kitchen reminding my that we should love the earth. And look cute doing it.

Cheers!

Lindsey