Sweet and Sour "Neat" Balls

For dinner tonight I made Sweet and Sour "Neat" Balls from The Everyday Vegan. I served it along side of some rice and steamed broccoli.

I thought the neat balls were pretty quick to put together. There are more vegetables called for then in most of the other recipes that I've come across and I like that for the kids. For myself too. I don't eat near the amount of vegetables that I should, not counting onions.

They had a nice outside that held together but a tender inside. The vegetables are put in raw, no having to saute before hand, and they are a great texture. I wondered if they would be more noticeable to the kids but they weren't to crunchy.

I also made the sweet and sour sauce, instead of using store bought. I thought the sauce tasted good but I'm not sure if I would identify it as sweet and sour sauce if I hadn't known before hand.

Isaac liked the neat balls well enough but Ramsey was the big surprise. She ate all of hers and she chose them to eat before the rice. That's unheard of at our house. Joe and I both thought they were good. I will make these again.


I also made these Oatmeal Breakfast Bars from another recipe from vegweb. I chose to use almonds and cranberries as my nut and fruit. Also, I used agave nectar as my sweetener.

These are good. I don't think that they are out of this world, but everyone here said they were good. I will probably tweak the recipe. I like more of a nut bar and less oats. Isaac called these rice crispy treats and if that's what he thinks I'm ok with that.

Recipe submitted by circe_golightly@hotmail.com

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Ingredients (use vegan versions):
2 and 2/3 cups oats
1/3 cup flax seed meal
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, whatever you want)
2/3 cup chopped nuts (i use pecans but walnuts, peanuts or sunflower seeds will work)
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1-2 tablespoon some kind of vegan sweetener (i use honey, but i know with vegans that is a no no)
enough liquid Ener-G Egg Replacer to equal one egg
add a small amount of water if mixture isn't moist enough.

Directions:Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. add mashed bananas, liquid Ener-G Egg Replacer, oil and sweetener and mix well until blended and mixture is sticky. now this part is messy, but worth it. Shape dough into bars on a greased cookie sheet, making the bars about 1/3 inch thick. I would definitely recommend shaping all the bars at one time, because the longer the dough sits, the stickier it gets. Bake for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.I make these for my husband in lieu of buying him store bought breakfast bars. They are healthier and cheaper. They aren't very sweet either, but you can add more sweetener to your discretion.Serves: about 10


Following some of the review advice I used 1/4 cup of flax seed meal so the bars wouldn't turn bitter. I also oiled a 9x13" pan and patted the mix in there and baked for 20 minutes. While the bars were still warm I cut them into squares.

This has nothing to do with recipes but it's some thing that has been on my mind and is making me insane. The back ground information here would be I was looking up vegan lotions and deodorant. WHY do people use the term flavor when referring to scent? I hate it. Vanilla "flavored" deodorant. Are you going to eat it? It's SCENTED damn it.