Thursday, July 26, 2007

Vegan Food Fever!

Never fear, my friends, despite being busy I've still been baking & of course, I cook dinner just about every night. Lately the baking & cooking have gone a different direction, VEGAN! I've always been a herbivore in the kitchen with my meals, I love having a plant based diet & tend not to rely on processed foods to bulk things up, but my baking is typically traditional & not bashful with butter, eggs, & milk. I've had bad luck with vegan baked goods I've purchased, many of them too dry or too oily & I think many others have had this issue as well, which has scared them off. Well, I'm here to tell you- it can be done & it can be done WELL!

I was partially inspired by a trip to Sidecar for Pigs Peace in Seattle, the 100% vegan store benefiting Pigs Peace Sanctuary. While there I picked up Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly & The Damn Tasty Vegan by Kris Holechek, as well as other fun items. Both books have a plethora of great recipes & ways to veganize classic desserts, quick breads, cookies & other gems.

Additionally, Celine at Have Cake Will Travel always has fabulous vegan foods on her blog, so I've been dying to make some of her treats. I'm geared up to try some of her recipes soon & I know we're all looking forward to her upcoming recipe zine!

So, what have I been making?

This weekend they were showing 16 Candles for movie night in Dolores Park. We went to meet friends for a pre-movie potluck with a mixed audience of vegans & non. I wanted to make things everyone can eat, especially as the vegans tend to get very limited options. I made Potato & Pea Samosas, which were delicious! For dessert, I tried to replicate the Maple Butter Bars from Flying Apron bakery, only with a brown sugar crumble topping & I made Fudge from Sinfully Vegan. I also attended a birthday party that same night & brought desserts to the fabulous birthday girl, Megan! Everything turned out very well & I think I have some new favorite recipes!

Monday, I noticed I had excess bananas, so I decided to make muffins. Of course, I can't just leave a recipe alone, so they became Banana Cocoa Cinnamon Muffins.

The recipe was pretty basic:
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour (I used 1 cup all purpose, 1/4 cup whole wheat)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
I added approximately 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa & 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, mix them together & bake at 350 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes.
Voilà
! You have chewy, dense banana bread muffins! You could also lighten them up with some whole wheat pastry flour if you prefer a fluffy muffin.
I made them in an extra large muffin tin, so it yielded 6 large muffins of joy. Additionally, this recipe is pretty low calorie, even in the large muffin size, they were just under 250 calories each. If you made minis, you'd have great little lo-cal snacks! yum yum.

After I made the muffins, I found out some friends were passing through town, so I sprung to action & pulled together some Peanut Butter Cookies from Sinfully Vegan & another round of fudge, this time with added cocoa, because I am a glutton like that. My husband LOVED the cookies & is already asking for another batch. I thought they could use some sugar, as they were sweetened by maple syrup & on the crunchy side. The friends were fans of the fudge & enjoyed the muffins as well, so I sent them off with a goody bag, so we couldn't consume it all ourselves!

My many trips to Rainbow Grocery & Co-Op have resulted in a new love for bulk bins & trying new things. I brought home some lentils recently & decided to try using them last night. I scoured the internet for recipes & decided to use the red split lentils to make a curry dish. As usual, I couldn't stick to one recipe, so I combined a few, plus came up with my own ideas, especially since I wanted to use a bunch of fresh vegetables we had on hand. Red bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, & garlic started off our journey, red lentils, vegetable stock, tomato sauce, turmeric, cayenne pepper, & curry powder continued it & eventually we had a curry that would make Baby Jesus weep with joy! I'm not often impressed by my own work, but this was GOOD, really good. Lentils & curries are going to be a new staple in this house. I'm also excited that the 1st two Indian dishes I've ever made turned out so wonderfully! woo.

In addition to all of the above, there's been a lot of vegan cupcake baking with my favorite vegan psychopath Laura & the darling & sassy Megan. Sadly, this has not yielded nearly as many photos as cupcakes, but here's two vanilla-vanilla cuties we made tonight. These do not taste like cornbread, thankyouverymuch. Come hang with us, we'll force feed you many delicious cupcakes & show you what vegan baking is all about!

What's your favorite vegan dish? Do you have a favorite flavorful recipe? Share with me!
I was asked to make a vegetarian dish for my Grandmother's upcoming 70th birthday party & I really want to blow them away & let them know just how good food is without the use of animals! I have a few ideas & I know I don't want to use any faux meat, but I'm looking for more opinions & suggestions. Let me know what you would feed to the meat eaters in your life to knock their socks off!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. good question. is it bad that I have no idea what I would do?
let's see. summer rolls are always exciting, refreshing, and fun to eat alongside a nice dipping sauce. do you have vegan with a vengeance? the mango ones are really delicious.
the general tao's tofu recipe on vegweb is a favorite in this household too, but it might be a pain to keep everything warm and ready to go if you have a lot of guests. let me think about it some more.

The Vegan Tornado said...

Okay, I just made these cupcakes with you and my mouth is watering at these pictures even though i am THIS tired and THIS sugared out.

AWESOME post, Melisser! Your blog is just too cute for school. Or something. It's late.

Abby said...

Summer rolls ARE a nice suggestion, and they're so pretty! Otherwise, I don't think I can help you too much!

BUT those muffins and cupcakes look great! So cute. And thanks for visiting! (Make HIM the brownies - he'll love you even more!)

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Celine, I'm stumped too! I thought about making Samosas & a chutney. They're not something people would question or think was "weird". I want to avoid tofu, seitan, etc. Summer rolls sound nice, I do have VwaV.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

SO sugared out, Laura. Maybe because I went to Maggie Mudds tonight?! ha.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Thanks so much, Abby! The summer rolls are a contender.

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

"this time with added cocoa, because I am a glutton like that."

hahah i love you!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Hahaha, thanks! At least cocoa is low-calorie!

natalilly said...

are your cupcake sprinkles and decorations vegan? if so, where do you find them? I've had the hardest time finding cupcakey things around here, even the paper cups!

Amey said...

wow. i LOVE this post! look at you go! and I thought that *i* loved baking! right on.

what's my favorite vegan dish... i'm suprised it's a hard question! Do you have the cookbook called "Voluptous Vegan"? I've had wonderful success with their recipes, which are always a bit upscale & always delish. Plus, they include a whole menu plan if you're into that.

The tofu ricotta recipe in VV is one of my favorite things of all time - on pizza, in a casserole, on toast...

Oh! I know it!
I think my favorite vegan meal is a vegan lasagna using that tofu ricotta. Homemade tomato sauce (tomatoes from the farmers market!), some sauteed veggies (zukes, onions or leeks, garlic, carrots, whatever you're into), some steamed chard or spinach, some tofu ricotta, some pine nuts and some chopped olives. Layer that business up with some lasagna noodles - mmmmm! it's great.

From VwaV I also LOVE the Jerk Seitan - especially if you make the complete meal that she suggests with coconut rice and green.

ps. I am jealous of everyone who gets to shop at Rainbow Grocery. Every time I go to San Francisco I try to got there... i love it!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Natalilly, try these sprinkles: http://www.edwardandsons.com/let_do_organic.html
They're great!

springsandwells, I don't have Voluptuous Vegan, but it sounds like I should check it out!
I do lots of lasagna around here, but I use zucchini for noodles. I think the tofu ricotta could be nice, so I can stop my husband from wanting mozzarella!
I find a lot of recipes scare me off when they have too many ingredients! I'm also a picky eater & a lo-cal eater, so that's another speed bump in using cookbooks. Typically, I buy them to get inspiration, then create my own dish based on them.
Oh, the power of Rainbow! I avoided it for awhile, but now it's my life's blood! It's sick how much money I spend there.