Sweet Tooth in a Hurry

As you've probably gathered by now, the kiddo wants to help me in the kitchen. Like, really, REALLY badly. Desperately.

I am terrible at sharing my kitchen. Really REALLY terrible. Horrible. 

It is this conundrum that leads me to bake things that are 5 ingredients or less and take less than 20 minutes start to finish. That way we both win. She gets to help mommy, and mommy doesn't need to drink her weight in wine to make the left eye twitch go away. 

That lead us to tonight's mother-daughter dessert. Samoas Babies. (I didn't make the name, trust me.) 

To be honest, at the beginning I didn't really care whether or not they turned out. I just wanted to get it over with. But then I tasted one. BIG MISTAKE. These things are like crack. Trouble!!

Basically, add dates, chocolate chips, coconut, a pinch of salt and vanilla into a food processor and blend. Then roll into balls and enjoy. 

But why stop there? I somehow got the idea to make a coconut chocolate to add on top. Best idea ever!

In a double boiler I melted some coconut oil and added in some semi-sweet chocolate chips. Then instead of making balls of the cookies, I made them flat with a divot in the middle. Poured on the chocolate and BAM. Diabeetus! 

Side bar: Diabetes, when said with a strange "Southern" accent becomes Diabeetus and is so much fun to say! Just ask Cheryl. :)

Anyhow, chocolate coconut crack cookies look like this:

Cheers!!

Ribs.

I've been a vegetarian my entire life. My wife has not. In fact, for the first 39 years of her life she was a solid omnivore. Then in January of 2013 she made the decision to go peascatarian (seafood only) and last month she made the leap to vegetarian.

Her transition went rather smooth, except for one thing. Ribs. Since January all I've heard is, "Ribs. I want ribs. Why isn't there a rib alternative? Can you find one? I WANT RIBS."

Well friends, thanks to my good friend Tatiana (with some help from Google) I HAVE MADE VEGAN RIBS.

I'm a firm believer that 90% of the awesomeness of a dish is the sauce. I'm a total sauce whore. Seriously. I'll do almost anything for sauce. Almost. 

Anyway, I was super skeptical as my dealings with Seitan (Vital Wheat Gluten) had been non-existent up until tonight. 

You can use any vegan Seitan recipe that google comes up with. They're all relatively the same. I got mine from food.com. 

Without further adieu, THE RIBS!

As for the magic sauce, it was hot as hell. Just like we like it in our house. I measured nothing, but I'll guess as best I can here for ingredients:

Ketchup

Tabasco sauce

Brown sugar

Wild Turkey bourbon

Soy sauce

Mustard

Crushed garlic

Molasses

Hot chili peppers

Basically, just mix it all in a saucepan and bring to a boil and the reduce to a low simmer. 

When the ribs are done sauce the hell out of them and OM NOM NOM.

I asked my lovely to sample them and this is what I got back...

I hope you all enjoy them that much too!

Cheers!

Sweet Potato Flour

A while ago someone bought me sweet potato flour. It has sat in the cupboard, lonely and neglected. I decided that tonight was the night it would be used, damnit. 

Thank god for Google. 

"Sweet Potato Flour + Vegan Recipe" yielded a plethora of results and this was the winner...

Vegan Oatmeal Quick Bread 

I made a few substitutions. I used organic sunflower oil and raw agave and of course, sweet potato flour in place of whole wheat flour. 

It's still baking away in the over but it looks promising.  This is what it looked like before it went in the oven...

I didn't expect it to rise much, seeing as there is no yeast or active rising agent in the recipe but it did get about 50% bigger and cracked nicely. It was supposed to be round and I made it oval. That may have made it crack deeper than is visually appealing. Meh. 

Here is the final product!

I'll happily go interrupt my lovely watching The Walking Dead and force feed her bread while demanding a useful review. 

...intermission...

And the verdict is in! 

It's good! But not as a loaf. Next time I would spead it thin on parchment paper and make flatbread style crackers with it. Then smother it with hummus and other savory things or even tofutti cream cheese and jam. 

Cheers!

Recipe can be found here:

http://www.veganbaking.net/recipes/breads/enriched-breads/quick-breads/oatmeal-whole-wheat-quick-bread#.UlIOEmS9Kc0 

Curry and Cumin and Turmeric- Oh My!

Spices are what make the meal. And in our house we LOVE spices. I was away this weekend with a friend and upon coming home my lovely had begun dinner. This is very exciting for me for two reasons. 

1. I don't have to cook! 

2. I CAN TAKE PICTURES!!

Usually the only reason that I have "after shots" only is because I cook kind of like the Swedish Chef from the muppets. So I keep my phone (camera) far far away. But now I had the opportunity to take "how to" pics while inhaling delicious smells.

Tonight for dinner is a staple in our house; curried vegetables. Sometimes on their own, sometimes over rice or quinoa. Always delicious!

Not only are curried dishes SO good (and good for you) they are also super easy to make. 

First you sauté some onions in a tablespoon of oil...

Then you add your spices to a bowl. We used curry paste, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, sugar, ginger and garlic. 

Then add some veggies to the onions. We used broccoli, cauliflower and kale. 

Add your spice blend to the vegetables, mix well, cover and let cook for a minute.

Once the veggies are coated evenly add some diced tomatoes. I used leftover rustic tomato soup. Then simmer while the spices devour the veggies!

After about 20 minutes of simmering on a low heat this delicious meal is ready to be eaten. I'm eating it alone but my family are eating it with some jasmine rice.

Pumpkin pinwheels are coming, likely Friday. Stay tuned! 

We all cheat now and again...

And that's ok!

Being vegan isn't about restricting yourself from good food, or never eating out or indulging in anything 'extra'. Not only that, LIFE IS FUCKING BUSY!!!!!!

Tonight is a good example. I got home from work at 5:30, walked the dog and got ready and went to the gym. It's now 7:30 and I'm hangry. (Hungry + Angry = Hangry) We need to go grocery shopping and I have no dinner prepared. I also still need to go grocery shopping tonight. 

Obviously fast food places are out of the question. Not just because they're processed but also because they're not vegan. 

This leads me to my one "quick take-away" option. FALAFEL!

There is this great little place by our house that makes everything fresh and from scratch. When you order falafel they take out the ingredients and make it right in front of you. I opted to get all salad (with tomato, cukes, peppers and red onion) and tabbouleh with no rice. I also asked him to make me less falafel (only 6 small not the 8 large that comes with the dinner)

As for sauce, I got only the lemon juice based dressing and tahini (which is just ground sesame seeds). 

So no baking tonight. I'm about to make a cup of tea, snuggle with my lovely and play some words with friends while she watches Breaking Bad. I've yet to get into this show. It gives me anxiety!

More food will come. Promise!

Stay tuned! 

Ain't nobody got time for that...

Ok, so I had full intentions of doing the pumpkin pinwheel tonight but I had failed to sufficiently scan the recipe... GOOD LORD! 3.5 hours?! OF PREP?! 

Plan B it is...

After successfully squashing the kiddos dream of "baking pumpkin pinwheels with mommy", I did what any good mother would do. I blurted out "what if we make a CHOCOLATE cake instead? Mmm, chocolate!!"

She bought it and thus began tonight's baking adventure, which if we're being honest was less of an adventure and more of me doing everything while she watched and asked incessantly "Can I stir/pour/measure/whisk/lick that" while I said no. To everything. Except licking the spoon, but even that was only so she could sit at the island out of the way while I cleaned up any evidence of the kitchen having ever been used. 

You see, I'm not good at sharing the kitchen. If I had my way, not only would my family not be in the kitchen while I cook or bake- they wouldn't be home at all.  

I see all of these mothers who think it's endearing when kids throw flour and sugar all over the place, leave messy little handprints everywhere and fill the kitchen with the sound of laughter and joy. But, I just see that as kids trashing the place and laughing about it- at which point I turn into Tourette's mom. It's just a never ending string of expletives followed by "Go to bed." 

But don't feel bad for the kiddo though, at least she gets cake for breakfast. The power of guilt. Sigh.

Moving along, here is how the cake turned out! 

Waiting for icing...

And iced!

It's iced with store bought non-vegan cream cheese icing. You remember that the kiddo was helping, right? I'm not sure my maternal love could withstand baking cake from scratch AND making icing. Plus it was getting late. Ha!

The Pumpkin Pinwheels will appear at some point. 

Stay tuned!

Recipe Link: http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/16779/vegan-chocolate-cake

Oh Man...Go!

Ok, so the mango cupcakes were received at work with the same animal instinct that they were at home. So I ate one. Sweet Jesus. I could have inhaled the entire dozen of them. Seriously. 

So naturally, I decided to make more mango! But rather than cupcakes, I decided to try out a bundt cake. Or at least that's what I think it's called. It has a hole in the middle, that's all I know. Anyhow, I had a ton of leftover frosting (Which I ALWAYS do.) so I heated it in a sauce pan and made a glaze of it. 

I have strict baking principles, or something like that. Frosting is for cupcakes, birthday cakes and cinnamon rolls. Glazes are for bundt cakes and scones. Period. And cookies just need to be left the hell alone. They shouldn't need frosting, glaze or anything else if they're done properly. 

Anyhow, here is how the bundt cake turned out! 

Cooling off, waiting to be glazed...

And the final product! So I probably heated it too quickly, or poured it too soon because it started to separate. But that's ok. It still tastes amazing. 

I'm not sure what I'll make tomorrow. Maybe a vegan pumpkin pinwheel that the kiddo's been begging to make. 

Stay tuned!