my kitchen is trashed

I would take a picture  – but I’ll spare you.

Britton is home. He spent all day in the kitchen cooking a veritable feast of delicious vegan food.

Seitan Piccata rocks my marriage (which happens to be celebrating its 9-month-anniversary today!)

I love when Britton cooks!!!

In other news? My health has taken a bit of a scary turn for the worst. I was rushed to emerge from work when I checked my BP on my break and it was 200/125.  I’m only 23,  I’m not obese, don’t smoke, and eat an 80% healthy diet.  They think it might be something to do with my kidneys, but I won’t know more until after my renal ultrasound. In the meantime I’ve been having dizzy spells, and taking Diovan which seems to be helping. I am very much enjoying Britton being at home with me for the next three weeks – I’m sure it will be my blood pressure loads! lol

NineMonthaversary Seitan Piccata a la Britton
Adapted from the Veganomicon

Serves about 4 if you don’t gobble it up like Britton and I.
Takes about 40 minutes to cook if you already have the Seitan made.

Ingredients
– a good sized chunk of Seitan. The recipe calls for one pound, but we use about 1.5-2 lbs.
– 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
– Oil (whatever kind you prefer, we’re loving sunflower oil these days!) to coat the bottom of your pan
– 3-5 shallots.
– 4-6 cloves of garlic
– 1/3 cup dry white wine (we use more, about 1/2 cup)
– 2 cups of veggie broth
– 1/4 tsp of salt (we skip this since my new BP situation)
– freshly ground black pepper to taste
– dried thyme, about a pinch
– 1/4 cup capers with a bit of juice
– 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives ( and some for eating while you cook!)
– juice of one lemon
– approx 3 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
– 4 cups green beans with ends chopped

Directions:
– Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat
– cut the seitan into chunks
– coat the bottom of skillet with oil, let it get hot
– coat the setan pieces in the flour
– Add floured seitan pieces to the oil and cook until browned.
– place the seitan on a tray or plate for now
– don’t rinse out your skillet – you’ll use it for sauce later!
– steam your green beans in a big pot
– while they are steaming, sautee the shallots and garlic in your skillet for about 5 minutes (if there is enough oil left over, if not, add some more!)
– Add the white wine and bring the sauce to a rolling boil (turn up the heat!)
– Add the veggie broth, pepper, salt, and thyme. Bring to a boil again.
– Let the sauce reduce by half. should take about 10 minutes.
– Add the capers and olives to heat through, about 3 minutes.
Add the parsley and lemon to the sauce

Serve the seitan, green beans, and sauce, over mashed potatoes. DELISH!!!

Blueberry Orange Muffins

Just so you know – these puppies were adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Yields 12 muffins.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest of one clementine (Hey, it’s what I had in the house! and “Blueberry Clementine Muffins” don’t sound as good!)
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy milk
1/3 cup grapeseed oil (again, it’s what I had, but you can use canola instead)
1 tsp orange extract (or any other citrus extract you may have, like lemon)
1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Directions
-Preheat oven to 400, and prepare muffin tin (either put int he muffin cup liners, or grease the pan if it isn’t non-stick)
– In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, zest, salt
– In a large bowl, mix the sugar, milk, oil, extract, and vinegar
– Add flour mixture to wet mixture and stir until “just mixed”
– Gently fold in the blueberries using a spatula
– fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full and bake for about 20 minutes

And lastly, since I was too lay to take a picture of these muffins, here is a picture of the ADORABLE cupcakes our dear friend Amanda baked and decorated for us at our last ever dinner in Waterloo.

Aren’t they just DARLING??

sour cherry cobbler

Am I the only one who suddenly felt all these domestic urges after she got married??

Keeping with my 2 new recipes per month goal for the 101 in 1001 – (last month was fried plantains  (I didn’t post the recipe!) and red velvet cake)

I got the inspiration to bake this because a) money is tight at the moment b) we had two gallons (yes, gallons) of cherries in the freezer that we will try to use up before our big move on the 31st.

This recipe is pretty loosely based on the blueberry cobbler recipe found in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I LOVE this cookbook – it’s full of old favourites, and keeps the taste nice and traditional! I used a cookie recipe from this book for my out-of-town guest goodie bags – and they were very well received!!

Let’s get down to business.

Ingredients

Cobbler biscuit dough
-1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour (I used all-purpose spelt)
– 3 tbsp granulated sugar (divided)
– 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 5 tbsp oil or melted margarine (I used grapeseed oil – ’cause it’s what we had!)
– 1/2 cup water or non-dairy milk (I used water since money is tight!)

Filling
– 5 cups fruit (Obviously, I used cherries)
– 1/2 – 3/4 C. sugar This depends on the fruit you’re using. if it’s already pretty sweet, use 1/2 C. If it’s tart, like sour cherries or contains rhubarb, use 3/4 C.
– 2 tbsp flour
– 1 tsp grated lemon zest, vanilla extract, or any other extract you think would taste good. I used vanilla extract

Instructions

-preheat oven to 375 deg. F – you will also need to take out an ungreased 8-9 inch square baking pan or 8 x10 inch rectangular baking pan – at least 2 inches deep
– for the dough – combine the flour, 2 tbsp of the sugar, baking powder, and salt.
– Mix.
– Add the oil and water.
– Stir until you have a sticky dough.
– set aside
– for the filling – wash and pat dry the fruit
– In a large bowl, combine them with sugar, flour, and zest or extract if using.
– spread evenly in baking dish
– finish it off     – using a spoon, scoop the dough over the fruit. there will be just enough to cover the fruit. You can eaither leave it in blobs, or spread it out
– if you WANT, you can brush some non-dairy milk over it (about 1 tbsp) to make it golden brown when it bakes
– sprinkle the remaining 1 tbsp of sugar over the dough
– bake for 45 minutes, let cool for 15 before serving.

makes 6-8 servings

The verdict – AMAZING! tastes like cherry pie but needs much less work!!!

Also – I’m too lazy to take a picture of it.  c’mon – we all know what fruit cobbler looks like!!

easy vegan red-velvet cake with lemony buttercream frosting

Original recipe was taken from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (we got this book as a wedding present!) and did not involve lemony buttercream – just the regular kind.

Some modifications were made.

ripped this picture straight outta the book!

Ingredients:

for cake batter:
3 1/2 C. all-purpose flour (I used all-purpose spelt)
1 1/2 C. granulated sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cocoa powder
2 C. non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
2/3 C. oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 tbsp red food coloring (original recipe called for 3 tbsp, but I thought that was excessive)
2 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
2 tsp vanilla extract

For frosting:
1/2 C. vegan margarine or butter (I used Becel Vegan)
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure lemon extract
2 tbsp non-dairy milk or water (again, used unsweet almond milk!)

Instructions:

-preheat oven to 350.
-oil two 8-inch round cake pans
– in large bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
– make a well in the center and add remaining (wet) ingredients
– mix until thoroughly combined
– divide cake batter evenly between the two cake pans
– bake for 35 minutes
– let cool in pan, on cooling rack for ten minutes
– remove from pan and let cool completely on a cooling rack

to make the frosting
– mix butter and 1 cup confectioners sugar in a bowl (a fork or electric beater works best)
– add 1 more cup of the sugar, mix some more
– add the two tbsp milk and the lemon extract – mix some more
– add the third cup of sugar, continue to mix until thoroughly combined.

to decorate cake, place one cake on a cake platter, rounded side down – frost the flat top of the cake, place the other cake on top of this cake, rounded side UP. frost the remainder of the cake.

Serve, cut, eat, enjoy.

Britton loved this cake, and would like me to make it again!
As awesome as it was, it still was not as delicious as our amazing wedding cake. I am STILL getting e-mails about how delicious our 100% vegan cake was!!!

I’m telling ya – Sweet Sweets is the best of the best. I recommend them for anyone who needs a cake for anything, ever.

Ginger Almond energy cookies

Looked everywhere online for cookie recipes sans refined sugar. Couldn’t find any. Found a basic vegan gingerbread cookie recipe and adapted it – a lot. It turned out AWESOME.

Ingredients:

1 cup spelt all-purpose flour
1 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
dash of cardamom
1/4 cup pumpkin purée
1/4 cup sunflower oil (or canola)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup almond milk (or other milk alternative)
1 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp chia seeds

1. Mix all wet ingredients in a bowl (include chia seeds) and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients
3. Put the dry ingredients in the wet ingredients and mix until just mixed.
4. Put cookies onto baking sheet
5. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes!!

YUMMY!!!!

lemonade success!!

This lemonade was delicious, and pretty cheap to make!!

Perfect sugar-free lemonade
Ingredients:

1 cup lemon juice
5 cups white grape juice (keep in mind it’s much less sweet than refined sugar which is used in traditional lemonade)
4 cups cold water

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a pretty glass jug.
2. Put in the refrigerator
3. Put a few ice cubes in a glass and pour yourself some lemonade
4. Relax on the couch with a few chocolate snaps and have Britton fan you with a huge pretend leaf

WOOO!!! Let the warmer seasons begin!!!

If you prefer a less watered down lemonade, simply reduce the amount of water added!

I bought a big jug of 100% pure white grape juice (president’s choice), and I still have enough in the jug to make another batch of this drink!!!!

I’m also baking some refined-sugar-free cookies tonight. No big shock, I’ve made these cookies before and they are Britton’s favourites. (he’s been begging me to make them again!)

Come to think of it, these will probably be awesome with the lemonade!!

I will not post the recipe here as it is not my own and I don’t make enough substitutions to bother reposting it. You can find it here: Super-Charge Me Cookies

I am a huge fan of Dreena’s recipes, by the way, so it’s worth surfing te rest of them if you’re interested!!

Easy night shift Quinoa and Kale

The very first EPS recipe!! Hurrah!!
A few more of these babies and I might have to start a recipe page!

Easy Night Shift Quinoa and Kale
makes enough for two servings.

1 cup dried quinoa
2 cups water
Kale
2-3 cups tomato or pasta sauce or your choice
1-2 cups protein (I used two tofurkey beer sausages, but alternatively you could use 1.5 cups of prepared green lentils)

1. Boil the water
2. Add the quinoa
3. While quinoa is cooking, cook your protein (I sautéed two tofurkey beer sausages, cut into pieces)you could also cook up some green lentils
4. tear the kale into small pieces and steam it until it turns a nice bright green
5. when everything is done cooking, mix the quinoa, steamed kale, and protein together in a bowl, add the pasta sauce.

Voila.

I love this recipe because of its high protein content (Quinoa is a very high protein grain – actually, it’s a pseudo grain. but whatevs.)

I also love that I don’t have to bring more than one Tupperware container to work! I hate that. I take the bus… so stuffing a bag full of Tupperware is annoying. One container houses the whole meal – grains, veggies, protein. throw in some almonds and a Lara Bar and I’m set for nights!!

Bon appetit!!