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!

Rise Against

Rise against is one of our favorite bands, they are a punk band known for its political lyrics and activism, they actively promote animal rights and all members are PETA supporters and are vegan 

Lonny and I saw them in concert with Bad Religion this summer and they were awesome!

Check out some of their videos in the posts below.

Rise Against - Help Is On The Way video

Rise Against - Make It Stop (September's Children) video

Rise Against - Ready To Fall video

Juicing

We have been juicing here and there for about a year, and we have had fun trying new recipes and making up our own. We recently watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and have decided to add juicing to a part of our daily life.

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

Check out the website and movie, it's really great.

Here are 2 of my favorite juices from the website

Mean Green
1 bulk of kale
4 stalks of celery
1 cucumber
2 granny smith apples
1/2 lemon
ginger root(thumb size)

Apple Pear
1 apple
2 pears
ginger root (thumb size)

I sometimes add carrots to the apple pear, it's really good and Addisyn loves it! She has been a trooper, she tries them all, some she really likes and some she doesn't.

Juice on!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We make these all the time, they are super easy quick and very yummy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Joy of Vegan Baking

By: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

4 1/2 Teaspoons Ener-G Replacer

(equivalent of 3 eggs)

6 Tablespoons water

1 cup Earth Balance butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1-2 cups semi sweet chocolate chip (most semi sweet are non dairy but some are not)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees,line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use non stick cookie sheet.

Whip the egg replacer and water together until it's think and creamy. 

In a large bowl (I use my standing mixer and it works great) cream the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine flour baking soda and salt, gradually add flour mixture to wet mixture until it begins to form a ball, add chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 8-10 min or until golden brown. I sometimes make them pretty big so I cook them longer, more like 12-14 min. 

Enjoy!!

More Vegan Fun Finds

Here are some of the latest fun and yummy vegan things we have discovered!

Cookies from Trader Joes, they also have a trail mix flavor, but these are Addys favorites!

Jello!!! Yummmmy! Addy loves these! There is also a black cherry flavor that is really good!

This is the most exciting!!! Cream cheese that actually tastes AMAZING! Addy goes in the fridge everyday begging for a mini bagel (she calls them doughnuts) with this cream cheese! They also have a plain flavor that is great! It's great for baking too, I made my moms killer black bottom cupcakes that have a cream cheese filling! (I'll post that recipe another time)

This isn't really a vegan find but I wanted to share cause its our summer addiction! They are so good and there are a bunch of other flavors, mango, strawberry and a few others! The are always on sale in the summer at whole foods so every time I go I stock us up.

My mom gave me this one, I have seen it in the stores but never really flipped though it. Well I should have...it's awesome!! Tons of great info, recipes and articles. I'm totally hooked!

Lonny gave me a subscription to this for my birthday, its a killer magazine with a ton of recipes, much more than VegNews. Even though it's a vegetarian mag there are still quite a few vegan recipes and the ones that aren't can easily be made vegan.

Rhyolite Ghost Town

This summer on our way to Utah we stopped at Rhyolite in Nevada. Lonny and I had been there years ago but I lost the photos I had taken so we were really excited to get back and show Addy around. It was about 100 degrees and we were the only ones there.

I love waking around ghost towns trying to imagine what it looked like in it's hay day and trying to picture what the people looked like and what daily life was like back then. It was an awesome visit and we can't wait to go back...maybe when it's a little cooler!

See ya!

Seashell Hunting

We have become a bit obsessed with seashell hunting, we found a sweet little spot and go once a week. It's a great family activity, Addisyn absolutely loves going down and finding her treasures! We usually get to see all sorts of other creatures in the tide pools as well like starfish, crabs, sea anemone, sea urchins.

We have a few bottles around our house that we have been filling with the shells we find, it's amazing to see the different sizes, colors and patterns. Some of them are so tiny yet so beautiful!

Ready to find some shells!

Hiking down to the beach.

Addys bucket full of treasures!

Another day down at the water seashell hunting.

Check out the starfish!

Yet another day heading to the water.

Checking out whats in the water and playing with seaweed.

Our shells for the day!

Some of our favorite shells we have found.