New Cookbooks

We have added some new cookbooks to our growing library. I’m really excited, The Joy of Vegan baking is awesome and The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook has so many great recipes and great info on food.

I have a good friend whose children have allergies and recommended the Allergy-Proof Recipes for Kids cookbook. It’s perfect because it doesn’t contain any recipes with dairy, there are some meat recipes but we would just substitute the meat with something else, tempeh, seitan, Gimmie Lean meats or Boca meats are great alternatives and still taste great! We have discovered that allergies and veganism run hand in hand, because of that we are discovering great recipes and cookbooks that have been tailored to those with allergies that are also great for our lifestyle. Thanks for the tips Sara!!

I hope that we are inspiring some of you to step out of your comfort zone and try some new foods and recipes.

Bon Apatite!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Addy Round 2!

Since Lonny was underway for Addy’s birthday and birthday party we waited and had a small celebration when he got home.

She opened her present this morning and has been obsessed with it all day!

She has been at the counter pouring water in and out of her new tea set, and at the bathroom sink making a huge mess. If she could live in water with her toys she would…she is just like her Daddy. They must have been fish in their past lives.

We had birthday pancakes for breakfast and she insisted on having them again for dinner. After dinner she enjoyed singing Happy Birthday with us and was only interested in the frosting from her chocolate cupcake.

It was a great day, we are thrilled that Lonny is back and are enjoying doing the small day to day things with him as well as getting ready for our big move!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

From "The Joy of Vegan Baking"
by Colleen Patrick- Goudreau

1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
1 cup cold water


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with baking cups.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder in a bowl until combined. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the vanilla, oil, vinegar and water. Mix until just combined. Pour into baking cups, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for about 15-20 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 12

Buttercream Frosting

From "The Joy of Vegan Baking"
by Colleen Patrick- Goudreau

½ cup non-hydrogenated, non dairy butter at room temp. (we use earth balance)
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons nondairy milk or more as needed
Food coloring optional


Cream the butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla milk and food coloring. Beat on high speed until the frosting is light and fluffy 3-4 min. Add 1-2 tablespoons more of milk if it is too dry.

Enjoy!

Reusable Produce Bags

In our quest to be more eco friendly I bought some mesh produce bags from our local co-op and ordered some from greenfeet.com. They are great and I no longer need to use plastic bags at the grocery store.


I had some left over fabric and made these ones; I thought it would be fun to add some style to our shopping. Addy thinks they are great and loves putting the produce in them. I can’t wait to use them at the farmers market this summer!

Pretzels

Addy and I made these pretzels the other day and they turned out great! They were really easy and were a great snack. I stuck half of them in the freezer and when we wanted on just pulled it out and let it thaw for a little bot of stuck it in the micorwave for a few seconds. Addy had a great time eating them plain and dipping them in yellow mustard. Enjoy!!

Soft Pretzels

From "The Joy of Vegan Baking"
 by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 cups warm water divided
1 packet dry active yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour ( we used whole wheat pastry flour)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons coarse salt


Lightly grease a large cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
Stir the sugar into 1 cup of warm water.
Once it has been evenly distributed, add the yeast and allow to dissolve, then whisk it and let it sit for 10 min.

After this time the yeast should begin to form a creamy foam on the surface of the water. If there is no foam, the yeast is dead and you should start over with a new packet.

Combine the flour, salt, and oil in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and stir until combined. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes, then form into a ball. The dough should easily come together in a ball. If it’s too wet, add a little more flour.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a damp cloth and let sit for about 2 hours in a warm draft free spot do dough can rise. The dough should double in size.

Divide the dough in 12 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place the balls on a cookie sheet or lightly floured surface and let rest for 10 min.

When ready to bake heat preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll each ball into 16 inch length and form into a pretzel of other fun shapes. IN a large bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the remaining 2 cups of water.

Carefully dip the pretzels (already in formed shapes) into the water. Shake off excess water and place each pretzel on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake for 15-20 min or until golden brown.

They are best right out of the oven, but you can freeze and reheat them at 375 for 5 min.

Addys Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Addy’s Birthday with a party, and we had an awesome time with friends. She was in her element as the center of attention and didn’t stop moving once! Our friend Leiane made out of the kindness of her heart an amazing fairy castle cake for Addy, it was vegan and so yummy! (I will get the recipe and post it later)

Thank you to everyone who made Addy’s birthday special and memorable, we love you all!

Happy Birthday Addisyn!

Our baby girl turned 3 today! My how the time has just flown by! It is so strange to say that we now have a 3 year old, where did my little baby go?


She has grown to be such a wonderful child, very friendly, outgoing and kind. She fills our days with laughter smiles and yes the moments that make us pull at our hair and bang our heads against the wall.

She is such a bright light in our lives and we are having the time of our lives watching her grow and learn.

Her dinner request for tonight before she devoured her birthday cupcake was Boca chicken and toast!

Happy Birthday sweet girl, we love you!

Happy Easter!

I struggled a bit with Easter this year with wanting to fill Addisyn’s basket with fun things but not wanting to contribute to the growing need for baskets full of candy and junky plastic toys that break in 2 seconds and end up in the trash at the end of the day. So this year we got her a movie, a dress for the summer, a hat for the beach, and a vegan rice crispy bar. We had left over plastic eggs from last year and filled them with stickers and a few vegan jelly beans and hid them around the house. I also added a few small stuffed animals to her basket that I had boxed up last year, she thought they were new and it worked out great! In a few weeks I’ll box them up again and pull them out again next year.

I really didn’t want to do anything that involved eggs since we no longer eat them, but everywhere you go, and every children’s book you read Easter is associated with eggs. So I thought that only the plastic ones would be fine, no dying real eggs this year. I don’t know how we are going to handle it next year and as she gets older when and if she starts asking to dye eggs like everyone else. We will need to get creative and cross that bridge when we get to it.

Keeping with the theme of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle we are using the same Easter basket, grass and plastic eggs each year and this year we reused the stuffed animals.

We topped the morning off with some yummy waffles made from our new cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking.

Waffles

3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
½ cup water
6 tablespoons non-hydrogenated non dairy butter, melted (we use Earth Balance)
1 ½ cups nondairy milk (we use Almond milk)
1 ¾ unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Pinch of salt

PREHEAT YOUR WAFFLE IRON

In a food processor or blender, whip the flaxseed and water together until it reaches a thick and creamy consistency, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and non-dairy milk, and whip for another minute.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Create a well in the center of your dry ingredients, and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until just combined. If you’d like to add any optional ingredients, fold them in now.

Spoon ½ cup batter (or the amount recommended for your waffle iron) onto the hot iron. Spread the batter to just within ¼ inch of the edge of the grids using the back of your spoon or spatula. Close the lid and bake until the waffle is golden brown. Serve immediately or keep warm in a single layer in a warm oven while you finish cooking the rest.

Yield: 4 to 6 waffles

Serving Suggestions & Variations
Add any of the following to your batter:
• ½ cup nondairy semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted
• 1 small ripe banana, thinly sliced

We added chocolate chips, they were so good!