The Complete Vegan Kitchen

This hearty looking patty is a Black Bean Burger from The Complete Vegan Kitchen. I don't think burger is really the correct title. It's more like hash. Yes, I formed them into patties. Yes, while cooking they sort of stayed in patty shape. They fell apart after that.

Aside from the misleading name they are great tasting. We loved the texture and spice. I'd make them again just as a hash. They were to spicy for the kids but that could be adjusted. I also thought that they could use more salt. All things that are easily remedied.
Another recipe I pulled from this book is the Potato and Rosemary Pizza. In contrast to the last recipe, this was way to salty. I'd be willing to it again with adjustments. The flavor and texture was still pretty good. Sadly the kids did not like the idea of potatoes on pizza. They wouldn't touch it.

I haven't tried to many recipes from The Complete Vegan Kitchen but I'm sure I'll get around to a few more. I have to admit that this book purchase was a spontaneous decision made with birthday money. Not as many recipes scream out at me as they do in my other 50 books.

You won't believe it's vegan!

You won't believe it's vegan! is my newest book purchase and I've already made the French Toast twice. I've had the best luck with this recipe and the kids love it to. It gets a nice caramelized crust on it and it just wonderful!
Joe's birthday was last week and he requested a cake with peanut butter. There just happened to be a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting in ywbiv that I wanted to try. What luck!

The cake recipe doesn't call for any white sugar. There is sucunant and maple syrup. I didn't think the cake would be bad, or I wouldn't have made it, but I was expecting maybe a bit of a health taste. There was nothing like that! The chocolate cake was moist and rich. Everyone loved it.

Normally I'm not much of a frosting freak. I like it, don't get me wrong, but I don't swoon like other members of my family. This peanut butter frosting made me swoon. It tastes like the peanut butter balls my mom made at Christmas when I was growing up. I really want an excuse to make this frosting again. I even licked the bowl.

Joe's birthday was a lot of fun, we all had a great time. For his prize he got a new fancy camera. Supposedly we're sharing it but I have my doubts.

Not me

Me- Ramsey did you color on the door.

Ram- No.

Me- You didn't, then who did?

Ram- Isaac did it.

Me- Really, this looks like your type of drawing.

Ram- You didn't see me do it.


She's right, I didn't see her do it. I wish I could write the tone of voice she used when she told me that. I just love when my 3 year old wins the battle of the wills. She can out stare me too.

There really was no come back, she effectively ended the conversation.

Good Eats

I finally got around to making Vegan Momma's Black Bean Quinoa Salad. We used it to put on top of our tostadas. It was great! The kids did not like it but we didn't care.
Tofu Scramble with Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Homefries from The Candle Cafe Cookbook. I didn't find the tofu scramble anything to write home about but the potatoes were amazing. They took a lot longer to cook then the recipe stated but the flavor was spectacular. I'll make them again with out the tofu scramble.

Rosemary Cornmeal Polenta Fries from edbv. The fries were the only new recipe tried on my plate. We liked them a lot. On some of the fries I added nutritional yeast to the coating. These were awesome. Next time I'll do that to all of them.

Mexican Wraps from Candle Cafe. These fell apart really fast but the taste was good. The citrus marinade for the tofu really adds a lot of flavor. This was the first time I've blanched the tofu before marinating it.

Maple Walnut Cookies from Vive le Vegan! Joe liked this cookies a lot but I really didn't care one way or another. They tasted only slightly different from a sugar cookie to me. They as have the soft texture of a sugar cookies. These weren't my favorite and I'd only make them again if someone asked for them specifically.

Apple Pie-Crumb Cake Muffins from vwav. These were good and we finished off the batch but they didn't have a very strong apple flavor. I was surprised. Maybe next time if I used a green apple there would be a more tart apple flavor. These would be worth try again.

Obviously I've gotten behind again. I've probably got another 3 posts this length before I'll run out of pictures. I don't really have a good excuse. Life, kids, home school. I won't promise that it won't happen again.

The Swimming Song

I have no idea why Ramsey calls this The Swimming Song. This is one of her favorites and she let me catch her singing on video.

It was also Ramsey's idea for the short haircut. It took me awhile to get used to it but now I think it's pretty cute.

Lemon-ies

I was gifted with another batch of amazing lemons and was trying to decide what to do with them. I didn't really want cake but I wanted something along those lines. Something like brownies. That was the texture that sounded good. Chewy, dense inside, with a harder edge.

I set to work looking over a bunch of different brownie recipes. The end result was great on flavor, good on the edge texture but not that dense or chewy. For those of you who like cakey brownies and want to try a lemon flavor, I'll post the recipe. For people who like brownies like me, the right way, you'll have to wait. I'm thinking 1/4 cup more flour and 1/2 the amount of baking powder for more dense but I haven't tested this theory.

Cakey Lemon-ies

1 1/4 cups unbleached flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Lightly oil 8 inch square pan.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, oil and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry and stir until well blended.

Pour into oiled pan and spread evenly. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Cool completely if you're going to frost. If not, wait 10 minutes.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz tofutti cream cheese, softened (1/2 the container)

2 tablespoons margarine, softened

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)

Cream all the ingredients except the sugar with a hand mixer. Slowly add in the sugar a bit at a time. Done. If you want larger more obvious pieces of zest, wait until after the sugar is in to add it.

That's it. I really love how lemony these are, I just want them more chewy. If anyone tries the recipe let me know what you think.

Vegan Dad

This post is going to look like an add campaign for Vegan Dad. To start off with we have pancakes from JVB, Spicy Hash Browns from Vegan Dad and Breakfast Sausage from Vegan Dad.

Joe is a hash brown fiend. So I've made hash browns in the past but they have never cooked up as crispy as we like. Vegan Dad's recipe was really crispy, just how hash browns should be. I halved the spices because I thought the kids would like it better. Everyone really enjoyed these and now I see where I was going wrong. I'll use the recipe again with and without the spices.

The breakfast sausages were pretty good. The kids liked them well enough. Joe thought that they were to sweet. Seitan isn't a total favorite of mine and this recipe sort of drove home the point that it needs to be spicy for me to like. These were still good though and would be great to serve to omni's.
Also from Vegan Dad is this Cheesy Creamy Casserole. The flavor was good and I liked all of the ingredients and veggies included. It was a little to saucy for us though. I'd just halve the sauce part next time. This was a quick casserole to throw together and great for broccoli and cauli that needs to be used up.

Thanks for feeding us Vegan Dad.

So Sad

Ramsey was sleeping late one morning last week and Isaac and I had some quality time making muffins. We chose Cinnamon Swirl Muffins from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. Isaac was an awesome little chef and soon our muffins were in the oven.

As I was removing our muffins from the oven I could feel my grip slipping. I tried really hard to get the pan to the counter. It was not to be. The pan tumbled to the floor. Some of the muffins survived but others were not so lucky.
By this time Ramsey was awake and hungry. So, we each plucked a survivor out of the muffin massacre. We were all please with this recipe. They weren't overly sweet but had a nice cinnamon flavor. We will defiantly make these again AND be a little more careful when holding the pan.

Indian Potluck

Our Vegan Families Potluck was done a little bit differently this time. We decided to see how we liked having a theme. I got to choose! I wanted to pick some thing that I liked, obviously, but also that would do well waiting to be served at the park. So, I chose Indian.
My plate here doesn't show everything we had. For example the amazing samosa I had and some other fried goods didn't show up until after I shot this picture. What is shown was delicious. I loved the chana masala and that yellow/brown rice. Those were my two favorites.

We had a lovely time at a busy park and it was great hanging out with everyone again.

Wheat Noodles in Soup with Tempura

One of my favorite restaurants in San Sai. They make my most favorite salad and have great veggie sushi. They also have awesome udon soup and tempura. I was excited to see recipe for two of my favorite things in The Asian Vegan Kitchen.
I subbed out soba noodles for my udon, just for kicks. This soup was dull. Bad. Plain. No flavor. Catchin' on? I was really disappointed.

I figured the tempura would save the day. Umm, no. The batter was insanely thick. So thick you would have to roll the veggies in it. So I added more liquid. Then some more. It was finally thin enough to dip the veggies in but thick enough to cling. The taste, not good. It was dense and just bad.

All around this was a disappointing meal. I'm going to have to compare these recipes to others I have around. Live and learn.

Raspberry-Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars

I heard rave reviews over this blondie recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I'm not the biggest blondie fan, it's all about brownies yo. But I decided to give them a shot.

First off the recipe goes into a 9x13" pan. That's a lot! Second, I baked beyond the allotted time but still they seemed doughy in the middle. When it came time to eat them I thought that they were ok but not amazing.

They felt a little more cakey then what I expect of a brownie or a blondie. The taste didn't do that much for me either, they were just sweet. We never made it much further then the first row. These ended up being pawned off.
These were not a big success in my book, or blog as the case may be, but a die hard blondie fan might feel differently.

Lemon Pudding Cake

Denise is the greatest friend ever and it's not just because she gave me like 50 lemons from her tree, that just helps. These are the juiciest lemons and I've been going nuts.
Vegan Dad posted this recipe for Lemon Pudding Cake and it looked so tasty and quick to throw together. It ended up being both of those things. The lemon cake wasn't overpowering with the lemon flavor. It was a nice light taste. Then there was the awesome tart lemon pudding. It was perfection!

The Baby Borrowers

I come across things pretty frequently that I think about posting. Things that have nothing to do with food that I find interesting/disturbing. I just came across this article about The Baby Borrowers less then five minutes ago and am so appalled that I had to post it.

I don't really have enough words to describe how I feel about this. Babies taken away from their parents. Worse, parents who willing think it's ok to hand them over. What is wrong with these people? The producers, the parents, h*ll the viewers!

The Natural Child Project has an open letter to NBC for those interested. I'll stop my rant now.

Catch Up

I have had so many pictures to catch up on but I think this is the last. They are in no particular order.

First we have the Bread Stuffing Casserole from Vegan Vittles along with some zucchini and cranberry sauce. This was very tasty and I plan on using this recipe for the fall holidays. The cranberry sauce is from a can and the zucchini was baked with some oil, salt and pepper. It was a tasty meal.
The ever lovable strawberry shortcake. I think this is one of my favorite desserts. I tried to make whip cream out of coconut cream but my can fell over sideways in the fridge and everything got mixed together. It still tasted good. I think this was the first time that I ever made quinoa. I really want to squeeze it in more places.

Quick Tuscan-Style Pizza with White Beans, Tomatoes, and Basil from Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. This pizza was so good. I loved the flavor of the beans and the texture. The beans would be good just by themselves. Topped with the tomato and basil, this was to die for. Yum! I used to dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Min for the crust.

Nachos with cheese from Vegan Lunch Box and Barbecued Buffalo Zings from Vegan Vittles. The BBQ Zings were ok. The texture was pretty chewy and odd but the flavor was good. The nachos were as wonderful as always.

Fresh Lemon Vice Cream. I didn't think anything could get better then the Coconut Macaroon but this is equal to if not better. It's super light and very tart and creamy. It went perfectly with the graham cracker crust and some toasted coconut.

Another picture of the Fresh Lemon pie. I ended up eating so much of this that I killed my tongue. So much citrus.

Cauliflower and Potato with Spices (Aloo gobi masala) and Browned Rice (Dhansak chawal) from The Asian Vegan Kitchen. This was very good. I very much love my Indian veggies to be a bit more soupy but these dry spice vegetables were very good. The rice was a nice side.

After having the Tempeh Hashbrown Casserole at the vegan potluck I had to have it again right after. Instead of tempeh I used baked tofu. This is a major winner from edbv. My mom really doesn't like tofu but was in love with this dish. There were no leftovers. Joe thinks the potatoes have a slight cheesy flavor. I'm not sure about that but I know I love this recipe.

I'm hoping that's the last of the catch up from when my computer was down. Denise just brought me a HUGE bag of lemons so I seem many lemon dishes in my future. And more ice cream.

The good, the bad, the dirty

Our camping trip was a success. I think this picture pretty much sums up camping with small children. I counted at least 3 such potties outside of our groups tents.
If I had to chose one word to sum up camping with 14 children it would be.....hmmm, let me think. Dirty. It started out small. A smudge here, a bit of dust there.

Then the kids decided to throw all restraint out the window. That's right Isaac, the mats right there but just sit in the dirt.

Ramsey and Athena on Saturday when we were deciding which child was the dirtiest.

I would have people vote but I didn't get permission to post all the kids pictures. Rowan here won.

I'm pretty amazed how clean Maggie looks in this picture. I promise you she was anything but.

There is one thing that everyone loves about camping, the fire. I always forget between trips how stressed I get with my kids around open flame. It doesn't help that they make targets of themselves. Just lean right over Isaac.

Jill and Chunkzilla aka Molly. This was the first day before we were all covered in dirt. And I promise I'll stop calling Molly that before she gets a complex.

And me. I made some Coconut Cupcakes to bring up. We were celebrating several birthdays. I didn't frost until we got there, that's why my hands are covered.

Here's another shot. Chocolate frosting from JVB and toasted coconut. I like the chocolate frosting from JVB better then VCTOW. I used coconut extract instead of vanilla to give the frosting an extra coconut kick. Next time I'll use the left over coconut milk instead of soymilk, too. This coconut cupcake recipe was very good. I'll be using it again.

We really did have an amazing time. It was a ton of fun having so many campsites in a row. The kids were able to just wander. If a child came into our zone we'd keep an eye on them. It was also really neat to see the kids playing and finding things to do without any playground equipment and tons of toys.

I didn't take any other pictures of food. Nothing was super notable except one thing. I grabbed one bar of chili chocolate for a sophisticated s'more. It was so amazing. Everyone loved it. The spice was like a light after note but it cut out some of the overly sweet taste that s'mores can have. Yum!

Our camping season has started off with a bang. We have trips already planned once a month through July. I hope the rest are as fun as this one was.

Mush-mallows

Hopefully I will have our camping trip pictures done later today. In the mean time here are my first two attempts at marshmallows.

#1. I used pectin AND agar and now see why pectin is a bad idea. It was a learning experiences and this was not even good for fluff.
#2. This attempt included only agar and a paddle attachment instead of a whisk. It was a bit like soft taffy and did work as fluff.

I'm still searching for ingredients online. I want to try a combination of things so that the gelling isn't so hit and miss like with straight agar. I've got a list of things to try and will post as things develop.

Show me the money

I've recently signed up with blogher, following in the footsteps of several friends. I've requested advertising without meat, dairy, eggs, and baby formula. I have no clue how all of this will end up working. We'll see.

Lemon Poppy Seed Waffle

I like almost anything with lemon in it. Lemon poppy seed muffins are a definite favorite. Recently I had a surplus of lemons and was trying to decide what all I'd make. I decided to try and make a lemon poppy seed waffle. They were pretty good but no where near recipe sharing quality, yet. I'll let ya know when it's perfected.
At our last vegan potluck we were talking vegan pancake recipes. I have a whole stack of recipes to pick from when it's time to make pancakes. Kelli was saying how The Joy of Vegan Baking has the best recipe of all. I finally made them and she was spot on. These really do turn out perfectly. I have no idea how they can end up so different from every other pancake recipe but everyone should give these a shot.

We will be camping this weekend with a large group of friends and everyone is super excited. We stopped off at All Vegan to grab some marshmallows and I couldn't decide between 2 or 3 packages. We left with Joe mocking me. I'll let you guess how many I bought. I also got some cute shirts. Every thing else is ready to go. I should be back with some good pictures.

Obviously the marshmallow making isn't going well, so far.

What IS that smell?

Joe and I both love ethnic grocery stores. We must visit one at least once a month. I was in need of agar agar and had a feeling that I might find it cheaper at Ranch 99. I was right and while we were there we picked up some other non-essentials.
Joe had been fascinated with durians ever since we learned of them. I myself was sort of amazed at the price and curious about the first hand experiences I'd heard. Most of those experiences involved the telling of a horrid smell.

In times past the durians have been well over $40.00 and that is pricey for fruit in my book. Especially an experimental fruit experience. At this visit the durian was $.18 a pound. So, we snatched one up and paid around $6.

Slicing the durian open felt a bit like performing a cesarean c-section. Once the outside was split, I swear the innards looked like an alien fetus. I pulled out the inside and there are walnut sized seeds in the soft fruit. You have to pull those out. Then you turn and perform another c-section. I think there were 5 sections total.

While birthing the fruit there was a definite odor but it wasn't bad or overly strong. I was very smug in believing that the rest of the western world have been wusses when confronted with a druian. Yah, I'm now a wuss too.

We stored the soft, pudding like fruit in the fridge for a day. Upon opening the storage container my older child started screaming at me about the smell. The smaller child cried and ran when faced with the opportunity to taste.

Honestly, it doesn't really taste bad. It is very specific and not anything that I can describe. It is very creamy and pudding like. The taste lingers like there is no tomorrow. And it smells like rotten eggs with garlic.

Thus ends the telling of our durian experience. It is still sitting in my fridge waiting for my next victim. I have been enjoying broadening the horizons of any guests that have visited my home in the past few days. Jill, has that taste left your mouth yet?

Happy Birthday to MEEEEE!

My birthday was yesterday and we had my favorite fruit bowls for breakfast and went over to my mom's for dinner. I was kinda done with eating out by that point so we had food brought in. My mom went to San Sai, a Japanese place that has my favorite salad. That's it on the left down there. We also had some sort of noodle and veggie sushi. It was perfect for the super hot weather we had all weekend.
And for dessert we had my favorite Ice Box "Cheese Cake" from My Sweet Vegan. I made a double batch so that it was a 10" instead of a 6". Everyone loved it and yes I did make my own birthday dessert. There is even a bit left in the freezer. Jill and I had some with lunch today.

I also made the Apple Cinnamon ice cream from Vice Cream and so far this is my least favorite recipe from that book. The kids ate it but they'll eat anything sweet. We didn't care much for it.

The day before my birthday my in-laws took me out to breakfast at Rancho's. We had a really nice relaxing time. I made out like a bandit on the gifts and for the first time the kids were old enough to pick me out cards and stuff. It was super cute and they were very proud. Ramsey had me wear a #1 Mom sticker all day. Both kids also picked me out a vegan candy bar to put in their card envelope.

I had a lovely weekend. And Christy, you're still older.