Pretzels

Addy and I made these together recently, they are really easy and she had a great time making shapes and as always eating them after!
Right out of the over dipped in a little mustard....mmmmm yum!

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.

Chocolate Strawberry Popsicle

I made these for Addy the other day and they were a huge hit!

Chocolate Strawberry Popsicle

Pour chocolate almond or soy milk into a popsicle mold about half way, add fresh cut strawberries and add more milk if needed to reach the top.

You could do this with any fruit.

 Freeze and enjoy!

ChickPea Mash!

A friend gave me this super easy recipe and since then I cannot get enough! We eat it in sandwiches, in lettuce wraps, piled on a cracker and my favorite right out of the bowl late at night! 

It's a sad day around here when the last has been eaten!

ChickPea Mash

From Allison

2 cans chickpeas mashed, I leave some of them whole

2-3 carrots shredded

3-4 stalks of celery chopped

about 1/4 cup red onion diced

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

vegenaise enough to moisten

pepper to taste

Mix all together and serve as desired!

In sandwiches we have found some amazing local french bread squares, but we also use plain old sliced whole grain bread. We use vegenaise as the spread and add lettuce, tomatoes and avocado.

Vegan Black Bottom Cupcakes

Growing up my mom made these all the time and they were hands down my favorite treat that she made!
I finally tried to make them vegan and the results were amazing, they taste just like my moms! Now we can't keep them in the house, they are gone the day I make them!

Vegan Black Bottom Cupcakes

From my mom

Cake recipe
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
5 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl beat together beat together water, oil, vinegar and vanilla, gradually add dry ingredients and mix until blended.


Cream Cheese Filling
8 ounces vegan cream cheese (try Galaxy Veggie cream cheese it's yummy)
egg replacer equivalent to one egg
2 tablespoons water
1/3 cup sugar
about 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
half a bag of vegan semi sweet chocolate chips

Beat egg replacer and water together until frothy, add cream cheese, and sugar, beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

Fill 18 paper lined cupcake cups about 1/2 full of cake batter. Top each with about 1 tablespoon cream cheese filling.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 min or until top springs back when gently pressed.

Enjoy!!!

Stuffed Crust Pizza

Our first meal together was a stuffed crust pizza, warm, creamy and simply melty goodness! Our  cerimonial "last meal" as non vegans was a stuffed crust pizza and since then it's been something we dream about...until now!

Vegan Stuffed Crust Pizza

Dough

4 cups flour

2 1/4 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 3/4 cups warm water

Pulse four, yeast, and salt in food processor fitted with a dough blade. With processor running pour the oil in then the water through the feed tube until a rough ball forms. 30-40 seconds. Let dough rest for 2 min then process for 30 seconds longer.

Turn dough out into a lightly floured counter and kneed by hand to form a smooth round ball. Add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking.

Transfer to lightly oiled bowl to let rise in a warm place for about 1- 1 1/2 hours.

I usually time it so that I have a load of laundry in the dryer and place the blow on the dryer with the laundry room door closed, it's a nice warm place and the dough rises wonderfully.

Cheese for Stuffing the Crust

This is a cheese stick recipe from theveganzombie.com 

I only used half the recipe and changed the seasoning amounts a bit.

If you get a chance check out the website, it's got some really yummy recipes!

1 bag of Daiya mozzerella "cheese"

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1-2 tablespoons almond or soy milk

Melt cheese, spices and almond milk in a double boiler, or sauce pan just made sure to keep stirring so it does't burn. Once melted and combined flatten it out in a 8x8 glass pan or a bread pan. Put in fridge to harden for about 1 hour.

When hard carefully take the cheese out of the pan and cut into strips, this is the cheesed that you will use to stuff the crust.

Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves crushed

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

In a large skillet or sauce pan heat oil and add garlic let simmer for about 1 1/2 min. Add tomatoes and spices, simmer for 15 min. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Putting Pizza Together

Stretch out dough a little larger that your pan, add cut cheese in a circle around the edge of the dough leaving about an inch or so to fold over and pinch down so the cheese stays in the crust.

Add sauce and what ever toppings you are putting on.

In this pizza we used, vegan italian sausage cut, daiya mozzeralla cheese, olives and green bell pepper.

Heat oven to about 435

cook pizza for 10-12 min, pull off pan and put directly onto rack for another 2-4 min (be careful not to burn bottom)

Pull out, let cool and enjoy the gooey goodness!

We found a yummy vegan ranch dressing perfect for dipping the crust into!

Dip and enjoy!!

Tinker Bell Smoothie (Green Smoothie)

Smoothies are a staple in our house around breakfast time. We make all sorts of flavors, one of my favorites is full of peanut butter and strawberries! But the Tinker Bell smoothie as Addisyn calls it, cause it's green and reminds her of Tinker Bell,  is a huge hit lately. It's also the prefect way to get some extra greens in our diet.

 

Here are some of the ingredients we use, we change it up a bit depending in whats in the house.

Bananas, Kale or spinach, frozen mangos, frozen pineapple, orange or clementine, and water.

Blend and enjoy!

We make extra and freeze them into popsicles, they are a great heathy treat!

Happy blending!

Thanksgiving

Among all the wonderful families we have met here in Monterey we have met 2 vegan ones and as luck would have it they live on our street! We got together this Thanksgiving and together created an amazing vegan meal. Here are a few pics!

Yummy!