2 Soups and 1 muffin

As we've already discussed in a previous post, I love soup! And with the colder temps approaching (finally it's starting here in Sicily as well!..), I can easily whip up a pot of soup 3-4x a week!

The other day a creation happened quite accidentally actually. I planned to make a dish from my[click!] Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure cookbook,  but sure enough, I didn't follow the intructions to a 'T' and ended up having a more liquid-y red bell pepper/potato mix. I wasn't in the mood to have it like that over quinoa or anything, so I just added some more vegetable broth, some soy milk and home made vegan tofu 'sour cream', salt, pepper, smoked paprika, done! Blend it all up and this beautiful 'Roasted red bellpepper potato soup' was born! :) 

-By the way, that book is one of my very first veg books I got years ago when I became a veg and a great book to have if you're veg*n and love your pressure cooker! All of the recipes can be easily veganized! ;) -

Take 3-4 small potatoes, 1 whole red bell pepper (roasted before in the oven), 4-6 cups of water/veggie broth, cook in pressure cooker for ~3 minutes, let the pressure come down for ~5 min naturally, then release and open the lid.

Add 2-3 Tbsp tofu 'sour cream' and a splash of soy (or any other plant) milk, salt, pepper, smoked pepper.. everything to your own personal taste, blend, done!

I just added some roasted zucchini and some nutritional yeast for the extra healthy boost! ;)

 Who doesn't love 'Chicken' noodle soup!? Especially when it's cold and rainy outside (like it was that particular day here) and just cozy to have this kind of soup!

I didn't follow any specific instruction/recipe but just diced up 1 small onion, sauteed it in some water, then added 2 diced carrots, 1 diced stalk of celery, 1 c (already cooked) chickpeas, 4-6 c water/veggie broth (I actually used 1 frozen 'cube' of Kathy Hester's [click!] Vegan Slow Cooker 'chickn' bouillon' and then later added 1-2 Tbsp of [click!] Bryanna's home made chicken broth powder).

After ~5-10 minutes I added some spaghetti pasta broken into ~2" pieces (which were still too long! Next time I'll use smaller pasta to begin with!), cooked it for another 10 minutes and done! At the very end I added a handful of vegan 'chick'n strips' just because I was in the mood to, but it certainly would work well without too!

On to my sweet tooth recipe! ;)

A long time ago I stumbled across Cleo Coyle's[click!] Coffee House Mystery website after having bought a few of her Coffee House mystery books and looking forward to reading them. One recipe in particular caught my eyes, the ones for 'Coffee Shop Doughnut Muffins'! Oh I was so going to make them!!! I simply veganized the original recipe and it was a huge hit in my house!!! ;)

  

 You can find the original recipe here:   Doughnut Muffins

My veganized version:

~*Vegan coffee shop doughnut muffins*~

For the batter:

*6 Tbsp apple sauce

*6 Tbsp coconut oil 

*1/2 c vegan sugar

*2 egg substitutes (I used Ener-G)

*1 c plant milk (I used home made oatmilk)

*2.5 c flour (I used 2 c ground oatmeal, 1/2 unbleached white AP flour)

*1/4 tsp baking soda

*2.5 tsp baking powder

*1/4 tsp salt

*1/2 tsp cinnamon

For the topping:

*1/4 c vegan sugar

*1 tsp cinnamon

*2 Tbsp vegan 'butter'

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F and prep the muffin tins with liners, gently sprayed with some cooking spray. [If you use silicone muffin forms, you won't need liners, of course!]

To make the batter mix the apple sauce and coconut oil together with the sugar with an electric mixer. 

Make the egg replacer (3 tsp Ener-G + 4 Tbsp warm water), let sit for a few minutes. [You can also use flax meal, 2 Tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 Tbsp water.]

Add the plant milk and the egg replacer to the sugar/oil/apple sauce mix.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix just until it's all comined.

Fill each muffin cup with 1 scoop of the batter (an ice cream scoop works well for that) and once all tins are filled, bake for 20-25 minutes until an inserted tooth pick comes out clean.

Let the muffins cool completely.

Once the muffins are cooled out, you can finish them with the cinnamon-sugar topping:

Melt the vegan 'butter' and mix the cinnamon with the sugar in a small bowl.

Brush each muffin top with a bit of the 'butter' and immediately dip it into the cinnamon-sugar mix.

Voila, ready! Now put on a nice brew of coffee and enjoy one of those muffins with a cup of joe! =)

Nutritional value (calculated for my ingredients above; might vary slightly if you use other plant milk and/or flour!)

Per muffin: 

156 calories, 6 g fat, 22 g carbs, 1.6 g fiber, 10 g sugar, 2 g protein

~*~*~*~ 

Stay tuned for more veganized recipes from Cleo Coyle's Coffe Shop Mystery books! ;)  

French Toast Sticks

On Sunday I always like to make a bigger family breakfast which we can all enjoy together at the table! Usually it's quick pancakes (though I really should try out more recipes instead of using the one and the same over and over! *lol*), but today I felt like making something else!

I had some leftover sourdough sandwich bread (made in the bread machine) that needed to be used up, so I thought of French Toast and came across this wonderful recipe on Veg Web French Toast Sticks

They were amazingly good; Hubby devoured them as did the kids! ;)

Time for a little edit! :)
Today I've made these French Toasts in whole form with banana and named them the 'Deluxe' version! ;)
If you love banana and French toast, definitely give this combo a try!

Apple Shortcake with 'cream'

Here I am again, finally having something blog-worthy to present! ;)

Like almost every weekend, I felt the need again to create something sweet and after the last episode of 'Master Chef' [I hate when they use meat and cringe especially when they're using veal!.. But overall I like the show!] I had in mind to make something a la 'Strawberry Shortcake' style.

I didn't have any strawberries nor any other berries... but I had 2 lonely apples sitting there, so that's how I came up with making Apple Shortcake! ^_^

Unfortunately I don't remember anymore where exactly I got the recipe for the biscuits for... I really need to make more notes while I'm surfing the net for new recipes and print pages after pages!..

Alright, here it goes:

~* Apple Shortcake *~

Biscuit

Dry ingredients:

2 c flour (1 c whole wheat, 1 c white)

1/4 c turbinado sugar (I'm sure one can also use agave syrup)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

3/4 c warm water

1/4 c coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla flavoring

1/2 tsp almond flavoring

Directions:

* Preheat oven to 400 F and grease a cookie sheet.

*Combine all dry ingredients, then add the wet ones, mix thoroughly.

The dough is very sticky, so I just took little parts off and formed them into a small ball, then flattened it a bit on the sheet.

  I got 7 big sized biscuits.

*Bake for 12-15 minutes until they're golden brown.

Apple slices

2-3 apples, sliced thin

cinnamon

brown sugar

*Sautee the apple slices with a bit of water in a frying pan until they're nice and soft, ~5-8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the apple slices.

*Add the cinnamon and brown sugar and let it all caramelize for another ~5 minutes.

'Cream'

1 pck Silken tofu (firm or soft, doesn't matter)

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla flavoring

1-2 Tbsp maple syrup 

*Add tofu, powdered sugar, vanilla & maple syrup in a food processor or blender and blend until everything is nice and creamy.

*Refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

Voila, ready! =)

Coconut Bread

On the weekends I usually bake something and after not having done so for quite a while due to our vacation, I really felt the urge to bake! ;)

I've received 3 German vegan cook books as a gift from my mom; one of them containing many easy & quick recipes, among them also a recipe for a coconut cake/bread!

Already while baking it smelled heavenly and the taste was just as divine!!

(Hubby claims it might be the best cake in 'bread' style I've ever made! Wow!)

The recipe is really easy and mixed together quick!

Coconut Loaf/bread

300 g flour

150 g sugar

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla 

6 Tbsp shredded coconut

300 ml coconut milk

*Mix all dry ingredients together, then add the coconut milk

*Pour everything into a greased bread loaf pan and bake at 350 F (180 C) for ~45 minutes until golden brown.

*Let it cool on wire rack before cutting

Voila!

Sooo yummy!!!

Edit: Since I've used the European metric system for this recipe, here's a site you can quickly convert everything: Onlineconversion

Cheezcake Bites

Yesterday I realized my Mori-Nu Silken tofu packages were about to expire *eek* and since it's often the case that one suddenly doesn't get such things at the store, I hoarded a few... 6 packs! *blush* 

So now I broke out in a slight panic (ok not really, but almost. I hate wasting food -and money!),  I had to think of doing something with them quick as we're also about to go to Germany in 2 weeks to visit my parents and we'll be staying for 3 weeks! *yay* 

In that time the expiration date of my tofu will be done..

Since I had a big sweet tooth today, I thought back to my first try of a vegan 'cheezcake' (you can find the recipe here ) and revamped it a bit by using lemon zest this time as well as also the real maple syrup and firm tofu and not partly soft.

I made an entire 'pie' dish but then wanted to do more (i.e. using up more of my tofu) and came up with the idea of making individual cupcake sizes!

It worked out perfectly; the recipe above gave me exactly 12 cupcakes!

The crust I've made myself for both, the pie and the cupcakes; instead of vegan butter I used coconut oil, which I love for baking! =)

Mix the crumbs with the softened oil and sugar in a bowl and then split up for the 12 cupcakes! (For the pie form everything goes directly in the form.)

Voila!

Never mind the Halloween wrapper! *lol*

(That's all I had!)

It tastes sooo good!!! (Of course I had to have 2 and not only one! LOL)

Bread & other sweets pics

While I'm on a roll here, I might as well share a few of my bread pics too now. :D

A typical German sourdough Ryebread

Something for the sweet tooth, a yeast braid..

Usually those don't survive too long in this house! *lol*

One of my first tries with sourdough, here all white bread.. I don't make it that often anymore hence to the low nutritional value.. but it sure is nice for sandwiches! ;)

And last not least an amazing 'Mock Apple pie'

I helped my daughter finding an original recipe from the pioneer days for her school project last spring and we came across this one!

Amazingly it really does taste like apple pie -and is relatively healthy too!

Mock Apple Pie

Boil in a pan:

1 1/3 c sugar

1 1/2 c apple juice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 Tbsp butter (I used coconut oil)

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Line your pie plate with pastry. (I only had Graham crackers so I crumbled those up) 

Break 14 Soda/saltine crackers into the plate and pour the boiled mixture over them.

Cover with top crust (didn't do that) and bake at 350 F (180 C) for ~40 min.