Vegan Sweet Potato Bread

I am back from the great wild yonder! Boy have I missed blogging. But I am happy to say that my absence has been due to the fact that we bought a house and moved in! For the first time ever I have a real kitchen to work in. No more tiny closet size apartment kitchens. So consequently I have a backlog of recipes that I need to post since I have been testing the limits of my new kitchen.

As we were moving, I noticed that I still have a surplus of leftover jarred baby food that my son no longer eats. So I decided to set to work on finding creative ways to cook the baby food into our meals so it wouldn't go to waste. But since we had just moved and I hadn't gone to the grocery store yet, we were running a little shy on baking supplies (ie: milk, eggs, butter...). Well, if you've read my previous posts you would know that any time you are out of milk, eggs, or butter, it is a perfect time to try a vegan recipe since it doesn't require any of those ingredients.

What I came up with was a dense, delicious sweet potato bread that eventually condensed into what tasted more like cake with each passing day. And best of all, I was able to use up quite a bit of baby food! Of course, most people don't have baby food sitting around their house so I will make note of what you can use instead. But seriously. As a salute to fall and as a gift to your taste buds, you've got to give this recipe a try. Not to mention, when you bake it, your house is going to smell heavenly.

Vegan Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients:
4 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg replacer (equivalent of 3 eggs)
6 tablespoons water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce (I used baby food apple sauce even though it was sweetened)
14-ounces jarred baby food sweet potato (or a 14-ounce can of sweet potato puree)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly oil two 8-inch loaf pans.

In a small bowl, whip together the egg replacer and water until creamy.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, applesauce, sweet potato puree, and egg mixture.

In a medium-size bowl, stir together the flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Thoroughly combine the dry ingredients, then add them to the wet. Stir until just combined.

Spoon the batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the bread cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from the loaf pans. This is important, as the bread is still baking and needs time to coalesce in the hot pan.

BBQ Corn on the Cob

I am by no means an experienced cook when it comes to BBQing. But this recipe was super simple and didn't take long to put together. I have to admit, I am pretty proud of myself for coming up with the recipe and actually executing it so well. The best part is, I walked away from the BBQ with my eyebrows still in tact! Seriously. This is a victory for me. If you talked to my best friend about my BBQing skills, I'm sure she'd tell you about the time I nearly blew up the BBQ at a condo we stayed at in Canada...

It was a gas grill and I was completely unfamiliar with how it worked. Being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to mess around with it rather than ask someone for help. With the lid still covering the grill, I turned on the gas. But I still couldn't figure out where the "on" switch was. Finally I found it. However, might I remind you, the gas was still going this whole time with the lid still on. So I had, unknowingly, created a tight enclosed container of gas that I was about to add fire to. Basically I had created a bomb. Sure enough, as soon as I clicked the little dial for the flame, the lid came bursting open, grazing my arm with flames and sending me and my friend jumping backwards. It was a miracle neither of us were seriously hurt and even more of a miracle that I didn't actually break the BBQ.

So now that you know just how stupid I am when it comes to BBQing, you can have complete confidence in this recipe being a no-brainer. If I can do it, you most certainly can!



**You'll notice I didn't add any measurements. This recipe is just a "season to your liking" kinda recipe.

BBQ Corn on the Cob

Ingredients:
corn on the cob, shucked
butter, melted
garlic salt
paprika
pepper
parsley

In a large pot, bring water to a boil and carefully place corn on the cob into boiling water. Boil for approximately 10 minutes.

Then remove the corn from the boiling water and place the corn into a casserole dish or large Tupperware.

Drizzle melted butter over corn cobs, making sure to turn the cobs as you go so they are evenly coated on all sides.

Then sprinkle corn cobs with the remaining ingredients, again making sure to turn the cobs as you go so they get an even coating all the way around.

Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.

When you are ready to BBQ, make sure the coals aren't too hot. It's best to cook the corn when the grill is either still heating up or already cooling down after BBQing any other items you may be cooking. The corn can burn easily so be sure to only leave it on the grill for about a minute at most per side. Be sure to rotate and check your corn often! The idea is to just slightly grill the corn for the smokey taste. It doesn't take much.

Serve with a little extra salt to help the flavors really pop.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

Because I like to stress eat, and because baking helps to calm me down, it can be a confusing combination. I start off determined to make myself a dessert that I can consume in my stressed-out state. But by the time I'm done baking, I've usually calmed down and lose interest in whatever it is I've made. Consequently, in times of stress, a mountain of sweets begins to grow in our home, only to be shipped off to my husband's work. But this time...this time I think I might just keep the dessert around. This cake is a chocolate lover's dream! And if you're a fan of the ol' chocolate and peanut butter combination, you will die over this frosting! Creamy, chocolaty, melt-in-your-mouth goodness!!!

I apologise to my husband's co-workers. This dessert is happily going right to my belly!

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
1 cup cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly oil a Bundt pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl until thoroughly 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 your prepared pan, and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack. To remove the cake from the pan, run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the cake. Cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup nondairy milk
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together the peanut butter and cocoa. Add the milk, and beat until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar, salt, and vanilla. Frost cake when cake is completely cooled.

Blueberry Cobbler

It's that delicious time of year when blueberries are ripe and ready for the picking! I have been very fortunate to grow up in a house where we had a surplus of blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes. Every morning, I'd saunter outside in my pajamas, bed-head and all, and pick a large bowl of fresh berries for my cereal. More often than not my ratio of berries to cereal was grossly disproportionate. I basically had cereal with my berries for breakfast and preferred it that way. Naturally it comes as no surprise that one of my favorite summertime desserts celebrates these poppable little explosions of sweet-tart juices.

Blueberry cobbler is really not all that difficult to make. However, it can take some practice getting the sauce just right. It might take a few tries to understand how cornstarch works as a thickening agency. It doesn't instantly thicken up, but once it does, it's hard to miss. Although the recipe says to boil it for just one minute, sometimes it can take a little longer. So be patient, don't set your heat on high or you might burn it, and just keep stirring.

Also, this dessert is delicious either cold or hot. When cold, it tastes like biscuits and jam. When hot, it takes like warm pie filling. It's hard to go wrong with this dessert.

Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 cups blueberries*
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons shortening
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and the cornstarch in a pan. Stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for about 1 minute. Pour into ungreased 2-quart casserole dish; keep blueberry mixture hot in oven while preparing the biscuit batter.

Mix 1 tablespoon sugar, the baking powder and salt. Cut shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk. Drop dough by 6 big spoonfuls onto hot blueberry mixture.

Bake until topping is golden brown, 25-30 minutes. Serve warm and, if desired, with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the side.

*You can substitute blueberries for several different types of fruit to make the cobbler how you like it best. Examples are: peaches, blackberries**, cherries, or raspberries**. Use the same measurement of 4 cups for whatever fruit you choose.

**If you choose to make a raspberry or blackberry cobbler, I recommend adding in 1 more tablespoon of cornstarch. Since both of these berries tend to be juicier, they need a little more cornstarch to thicken up the sauce.

Popcorn Pork Chops

Oddly enough, popcorn has been a big part of my marriage. I remember when my husband and I were first dating...

It was a cold and windy fall night up at WWU. Earlier that day, my husband had invited me to come up and join him for a movie night up in his dorm room after class. I was so nervous and excited!--A cute collage boy had invited me up to his room!--Since he was providing the movie, I thought the least I could do was bring something to snack on. So I grabbed the only thing I had in my room: popcorn. Quickly, its buttery aroma filled my room causing my roommate to perk her head up from her book.
"Where are you off too with that?" she asked, nodding her head toward my comically large red bowl of popcorn.
"I'm off to Joe's room. We're gonna watch a movie." I tried hard to hide my blushing face behind the bowl.
"Oooooooh! I see." She winked at me.
Laughing, I stuck my tongue out at her and dashed out the door. But in my excited and nervous state, I forgot to grab a coat...and my dorm room key. There I was stuck out in the cold wind wearing nothing but my short-shorts, a large pj t-shirt, and my big fuzzy slippers as I clung desperately on to the bowl of popcorn. Luckily my husband's dorm room was right above mine. So as fast as I could, I sprinted up the steps.

It was amazing how quickly the chill of the fall wind drilled deep into my bones. Loudly I banged on my husband's door, desperate to get out of the cold. When he opened the door, the warm glow of his room surrounded him like an angelic painting. He looked down at me and did little to stifle his laugh. There I was, fuzzy slippers and all, shaking like mad as I gripped my huge bowl of popcorn. "Come in!" he said as he wrapped his arms around me. "Let's get you warmed up."

The rest of that evening, we sat snuggled up on his bed under a pile of blankets as we munched away on popcorn. To this day, popcorn is still our go-to snack. But I will never forget that first bowl of popcorn we shared on that cold, windy, fall night.

Although this recipe isn't your classic buttery bowl of popcorn, it is a creative and delicious new way to jazz your dinner menu. I hope you enjoy!

Popcorn Pork Chops

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
Four 8-ounce bone-in pork loin chops
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 green onion cut into thin rings
1 1/2 quarts freshly popped corn, slightly crushed

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Add enough oil to coat the bottom of a 10-inch saute pan. Heat over medium heat to the smoking point.

Season the pork chops with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and mustard seeds, rubbing the seasonings into the meat. Pan-sear both sides of the pork chops, 20 to 30 seconds on each side.

Brush the pork chops with the teriyaki sauce and place them on a wire rack in a baking pan. Roast to an internal temperature of 150 degrees, about 20 minutes. Flip the pork chop halfway through roasting and brush with teriyaki sauce at least twice. Remove from the oven and brush the pork chops a final time with teriyaki sauce. Sprinkle the green onions and popcorn over the pork chops. Place the baking pan back in the oven until the popcorn begins to brown slightly, about 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve.

Vegan Lavender Scones with Lemon Glaze

Scones--sad, crumbly, unsatisfying biscuits that mask themselves in jelly, hoping that they can rival their sweet nemesis, the breakfast muffin. But with one bite they will rob you of all the moisture in your mouth leaving you choking for a glass of milk. They are the reject breakfast food that sits coldly in the display case, slowly turning from scone to stone with each passing day....

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic. But you get the idea: clearly I'm not a fan of scones. So why am I posting this recipe? Because, at long last, I have found a recipe for scones that I actually love! These scones were, by far, the best I have every tasted! They were actually moist and full of flavor. I came up with this recipe by combining a basic vegan scone recipe with one of my favorite flavor combinations: lavender and lemon. The end result?...Fantastic!

Vegan Lavender Scones with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer
2 tablespoons water
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup nondairy butter
1 cup dried lavender buds
2-3 tablespoons nondairy milk for brushing tops
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

Whip the egg replacer and water together until thick and creamy. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and cut it into small pieces with two knives or with a pastry blender (although, I usually just use a fork but it will give your arm a workout!). You're not creating a paste; you want a coarse crumbly batter that resembles small bread crumbs. (To make flaky scones, leave some of the butter pieces as large as peas.) Stir in the lavender.

Add the milk and egg replacer mixture, and keep the mixing to a minimum otherwise you'll get rock-hard scones. Mix just until the dry ingredients are  moist. The dough will not be completely smooth like bread dough.

Gather the dough into a ball (you may need to add just a teaspoon of nondairy milk or water, but you will be able to form it into a ball), and place on a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll the dough out into a 1/2-inch-thick round, and cut into 8-10 pieces--triangles are the traditional shape so cut it like you're cutting up a pizza. Place them 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheet, brush the tops with nondairy milk, and place into the oven.

Bake until the tops are golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

While the scones are cooling, in a small mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cream of tartar, and lemon juice. Only add the lemon juice in a little at a time as you stir until you reach a slightly runny but still thick consistency.--You want to be able to pour the glaze but not have it be too thin and runny.

Drizzle the glaze over the scones. Let the scone sit just long enough for the glaze to set and turn white (it will be clear at first when it hits the warm scone) and then serve.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow, I am really embarrassed with how much I have let my blog go these past few months! But rather than feed you some lengthy and quite frankly boring excuse, I'm just going to jump right back in there as if no time has passed at all....

So this recipe comes from the vegan kick I was on a few months back. I have to admit I was surprised at how moist and delicious these cookies turned out to be. Unfortunately vegan foods have seemed to have acquired a bad rep amongst the average consumer. And, I'm ashamed to admit, I too was expecting lifeless bland cookies from a vegan recipe. How could it be rich and moist without butter, eggs, or milk? Oh boy was I wrong! These cookies were a wonderful surprise.

The only sidebar I can make to this recipe is: if you're expecting the classic taste of a chocolate chip cookie, you'll probably be disappointed. For those of you who have not had carob chips before (a chocolate substitute that I used for my chocolate chips), you'll realize quickly that they don't have the same flavor as a classic, full dairy chocolate chip. With that said; these cookies are still a sweet treat that can stand in as a great vegan friendly (and/or friendly to those with egg or dairy allergies) chocolate chip cookie. And regardless of their unique taste, I still think they're damn delicious!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
4 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer
6 tablespoons water
1 cup nondairy butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 cups nondairy semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use a non-stick cookie sheet.

In a food processor or blender, whip the egg replacer and water together, until it's thick and creamy.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the egg replacer mixture to the wet mixture and thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture until it begins to form a dough. When it's almost thoroughly combined, stir in the chips.

Bake on the prepared cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.