vegan mofo 2011

Takin’-it-Easy Tuesday: Hot Dawgz

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

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It’s Tuesday and I’m feelin’ a little uninspired. Well, that’s not entirely true – I’ve got a few hefty posts in the works, but they’re not quite ready for primetime yet. So how about something simple? Something that takes mere minutes to put together? Something totally processed and totally un-whole-foody? You know what I’m talking about – hot dogs.

A plate with two big vegan hot dogs; they're stuffed with pickles, tomatoes, onions, relish, and mustard.

Dawgz.

Every other Wednesday, S (my manfriend) hosts a movie night for a bunch of friends. We watched Lethal Weapon last week. After seeing Mel Gibson shove a hot dog  down his gullet all crazy-like, S and I both instantly experienced cravings for the tubular [non] meat. Makes total sense, right? So, the next night, we made it happen. S insisted we try Chicago-style hot dogs – I didn’t even know they were a thing! We didn’t use poppy seed buns or sport peppers (?!?), but our dogs included:

  • Smart Dogs Jumbo Links
  • Dill pickle spears
  • Diced red onion
  • Tomato slices
  • Dill relish
  • Celery salt
  • Mustard
Crazy, right? They were pretty good, although our hot dogs weren’t exactly hot… I guess we didn’t boil them long enough. I liked the inclusion of a dill pickle; life is always better with pickles. And I’m proud to announce that, for the first time ever, I voluntarily ate relish. As a long-time relish-hater, this is Big News. Granted, it was dill relish and not that abomination called “sweet relish,” but still – it was a first!
Finally, how about one more hot dog picture?
Photo of a small dog's face, shot from above. All you can see is her hairy, furry face, with big dark eyes and an underbite.

Ha ha ha.

Oh come on; you didn’t think I could post about dogs of any kind without sharing a photo of Moria, did you?!

Have I totally turned you off with my super-processed meal? Are you disgusted by my sodium-filled dinner? :) Alternatively, what’s your favorite hot dog topping?

Muffin Mondays: Never Let Go [of Summer] Muffins

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

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This is the second installment of Muffin Mondays – each Monday during MoFo, I’m posting a brand new muffin recipe. Carb lovers, rejoice!

Last week’s first installment of Muffin Mondays featured Fruit Medley Muffins, a hearty, wholesome, fiber-packed morsel to help you ease into another week of work on a crisp autumn morning. But what if you happen to live in a region that’s experiencing a return to summer, with temperatures in the upper 70s, clear blue skies, and nothin’ but sun? Then I suggest you celebrate pseudo-summer by baking up a batch of tropical-inspired muffins.

A bowl of muffins in the left-hand background and a plate with a muffin (cut in two) in the foreground.

Bowl full o' sunshine.

Never Let Go [of Summer] Muffins
(Makes 6 good-sized muffins)

1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 T baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground nutmeg
scant 1/4 t salt
dash cinnamon

1/2 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 1.5 T warm water)
1/2 C coconut + almond
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 T freshly grated ginger (optional but recommended)
3/4 t vanilla
1/4 C + 2 t sugar
1 T maple syrup
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup coconut flakes
Heaping 1/2 C diced pineapple (I used frozen pineapple chunks cut into smaller pieces; you could use fresh or even try canned – just be sure not to add excess liquid)

Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly grease a 6-muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flax into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the flax mixture and stir well, making sure all wet ingredients are mixed. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix until just incorporated. If the batter seems extremely liquidy, add a tablespoon or two of all-purpose flour. When it’s wet but not liquidy, fold in the dried coconut and the pineapple. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin – it’ll cup up to the top of each well. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Close-up of a muffin cut in two on a plate. It has visible coconut flakes and pineapple chunks.

Sweetness.

Each of these cheery muffins is filled with bright flavors; pineapple and ginger take a star role while coconut and lime provide subtle background notes. Feel free to play with the proportions; you could reduce the amount of ginger and add extra coconut, or include lime zest to up your citrus quotient. Whatever way you go, these muffins are a summer-inspired treat to keep you smiling on a sunny Monday morning. I’ll never let go, Jack! of summer!

Do you embrace seasonal changes? What’s your favorite muffin? What should I make next?

Simplicity Sunday: Maple-Glazed Roasted Root Vegetables

/ Kelly / 8 Comments

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Happy Sunday, everyone. It’s a breezy, warm early-autumn day here in Madison, one that makes me want to do nothing more than sit on my bed with my puppy, reading a book while the early afternoon sunlight streams in around me. Laboring in the kitchen to prepare an elaborate lunch didn’t appeal to me at all today, so I kept it simple.

A metal bowl half-filled with chunks of colorful, cubed vegetables.

Colorful veggies.

I chopped up some root vegetables (two golden beets, one scarlet turnip, one large carrot, and one Yukon gold potato) and drizzled them with some olive oil, maple syrup, powdered ginger, and a sprinkle of salt. I roasted them for a good 35 minutes until they were tender and the maple syrup had caramelized a bit. Then, I enjoyed a humble, tasty, little-effort lunch.

Close-up of a small bowl of roasted vegetables. Some of them are blackened and crispy thanks to the caramelized maple syrup.

Maplelicious.

The maple syrup and ginger provided just a hint of sweetness, but the veggies held their own. The creamy, neutral-flavored potatoes contrasted nicely with the slightly tangy turnips, while the beets and carrots provided a sweet counterpoint. And the entire meal was beautifully colored and cheery.

I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed my lunch, however. While I was out of the room, Moria snuck in to lick the bowl clean.

Close-up of Moria's face, which is bent down into an empty bowl. Her eyes are obscured by her facial fur, but you can see her pink tongue licking a spoon.

Cleaning my dishes?

Unluckily for her, I’d already finished the veggies, so all she got was the leftover sweet, maple glaze. On second thought, maybe that was lucky for her. :)

What did you eat for lunch today? What’s your favorite method for roasting veggies?

Brekkie for Din-Din: Whole-wheat Ginger-Apple Pancakes

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

Based on this post’s title, you might assume that I am a British four-year-old. Add 20 years to that age and replace “British” with “American” and you’re correct! Heh heh. But let’s be real – whether you’re four or 24*, breakfast for dinner is equally awesome. Last night I indulged in that time-honored excuse for eating sweet foods for dinner as a method for curing a mild case of the blues.

A stack of five pancakes, covered in maple syrup, sit on a blue plate. To the left are three slices of apples. In the background is a bowl of chocolate chia pudding and a bottle of ginger syrup.

Stacked!

These are Whole Wheat Ginger-Apple Pancakes and Hell Yeah It’s Vegan‘s Chocolate Chia Pudding (barely visible in the background). During my post-work dinner-making, I put together the pudding first and let it gel in the fridge while I mixed the pancake batter. Then, while I cleaned up around the kitchen, I let my pancake batter sit in the fridge for fifteen minutes or so. Vegan with a Vengeance taught me that pancake batter does best when the gluten has a chance to rest. ;) Once the gluten was relaxed, so was I, and I took the batter to its stovetop demise.

A similar picture to the previous one, but these pancakes have no maple syrup.

Nakie pancakes!

The act of chowing down on pancakes and trying my first-ever chia pudding (!) helped pull me out of the dumps, but the real restorative was the simple process of meal-making. I’m sure many of you can relate to the relaxing, cathartic nature of baking (and, often, cooking). Focusing my energies on mixing and measuring and mincing calms me down and quiets my mind. Following recipes gives my brain the chance to focus on a specific task, one with a set beginning and end (and a delicious result). And simply waiting for the disparate components of a recipe to cohere into a unified result is an exercise in patience, one I often need at the end of a busy or stressful day. In short, the kitchen can be a haven for me, as long as I’m mindfully making my meals instead of zipping through the steps, distracted and unfocused.

Food musing aside, let’s return to these pancakes. Would you like the recipe for them? Regardless of your answer, I’m going to share it with you. :)

Whole-wheat Ginger-Apple Pancakes

Serves two

  • 1/2 T ground flaxseed + 1.5 T warm water
  • 3/4 C whole-wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 T baking powder
  • 1.5 T vegan cane sugar
  • 1/2 t cinnamon
  • 1/8 t ground ginger
  • Dash salt
  • 3/4 C almond milk
  • 1 T ginger syrup (optional; maple syrup is a fine substitution)
  • Scant 1 t very finely minced fresh ginger
  • 1-2 T almond milk (as necessary)
  • 1/2 medium-sized apple, peeled and diced

In a small bowl, mix together the flax and water and set aside. In a larger bowl, add all the dry ingredients and thoroughly mix. Add the remaining wet ingredients (except for the 1-2 T almond milk and the apple) to the flax mixture and stir until all the wet ingredients are incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. If the batter seems a bit dry, add the remaining almond milk as necessary. If possible, let your batter sit in the fridge for ten or more minutes.

When you’re ready to make the pancakes, heat a nonstick pan on medium heat and fold the diced apple into the batter. Turn the heat down a bit (to medium-lowish). Pour half-cup spoonfuls onto the pan and cook until bubbles form on the upper side, then flip them. When you can easily slide a thin, nonstick spatula beneath them, they’re probably ready. Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!

These autumnal pancakes hit all the right notes for me; they pack a great gingery wallop and they made for an excellent relaxed Friday-night dinner. I was glad to use some of the organic ginger syrup I purchased a while back; it’s a great product but I always forget to use it!

I also loved the chia pudding – I’ve seen it around the blogosphere for years now, but I’ve been hesitant to try it. After buying a big ol’ bag of chia seeds at Costco recently, I knew I had to give it a chance. And I’m so glad I did, even if it’s not the most beautiful of foods.

A bowl of very dark chocolaty chia pudding; it's not very smooth and has lots of little tiny chia seeds.

Ch-ch-ch-chocolate chia!

Although having crunchy seeds in a pudding does take some getting used to, the consistency is really fun, and the chocolaty flavor in this particular recipe was amazing. I could only eat a few bites, though, so I saved the rest for this morning. Maybe I’ll follow breakfast for dinner with dessert for breakfast. ;)

What do you make with chia seeds? What’s your stance on breakfast for dinner? Is cooking a stressor or a de-stressor for you?

* Help, I can’t stop writing using the Microsoft Manual of Style!

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Friday Favorite: Happy Herbivore’s Cheddar Cheesy Sauce

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

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Whew. One week of MoFo down, three more to go! I put my game face on for the first week, and I think I did pretty well – not only are all my posts fairly solid, but my brownie showdown post was mentioned on the official MoFo Twitter (!) on Wednesday. I’m famous! But I’m also a little worn out. Keeping up with 700+ blogs during a regular work week is no easy task, and a girl’s gotta do other things than eat and sort through her Google Reader, y’know? So today I’m taking it easy and keeping it short with my first Friday Favorite post.

A bowl of linguine and peas with a light coating of a "cheesy" sauce.

Cheesy! And over-sharpened. Oops.

One of my go-to recipes from Happy Herbivore‘s cookbook is her Cheddar Cheesy Sauce (recipe available here with a different name). It’s quick and easy to whip up, and it always hits the spot when I’m craving a warm, creamy sauce for my pasta. I usually make half a recipe, which is a great serving size for one person. Most recently, I enjoyed it with Ezekiel sprouted-grain linguine (another favorite!) and peas. I pulled together this whole dinner in barely 20 minutes. You can’t beat that!

If you don’t like nutritional yeast, this sauce probably won’t do it for you. But if you do, and if you’re craving a low-fat – yet flavorful! – cheesy sauce, give this one a try.

What’s your favorite go-to recipe? What’s your favorite vegan mac & cheese recipe?

Spoiler alert: A future recipe showdown will compare three (3) mac & cheese recipes. Get excited! Give me your recommendations! Etc!

Peaches & Cream Smoothie (and a giveaway winner!)

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

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I have to admit that I feel a little silly posting a smoothie recipe. But this one is so simple and so delicious that I feel compelled to share, because I don’t want you to miss out on this sweet, creamy, dessert-like drink. I think that, if you try this smoothie, you’ll forgive me for this slightly lazy post. At least, I hope you will!

Smoothies are the darlings of the vegan world. We love to pack our smoothies with kale and spinach and chia seeds and all sorts of healthy things that most people would be horrified to see packed into a blender and pureed into a drinkable concoction. Don’t get me wrong; I love a green smoothie as much as the next girl, but lately I’ve been in a fruit smoothie groove. Normally I go all out with these, adding tons of frozen fruits and blending them into creamy oblivion. But I recently made a simple, five-ingredient smoothie so delicious that it knocked all my fancy-schmancy smoothies right out of the park and won a special place in my heart. It tastes rich and sweet and creamy and wonderful, like something you’d want to sip on a hot summer day. If summer’s done a runner on you, maybe you could just sit in front of a fireplace, close your eyes, and pretend it’s still summer. Personally, I’m loving the return of warm weather here in Madison, so I think this drink is still seasonally appropriate. Either way, you don’t want to miss out on this one!

A small Bell jar filled with a creamy, light orange smoothie.

Luscious!

Peaches & Cream Smoothie
Serves one

1 cold banana (not frozen, just refrigerated for a few hours)
1 C frozen peach slices (this can be tricky to measure, but err on the side of more peaches!)
1/3-1/2 C plain soy creamer, depending on how thick you like your smoothies
1-2 T agave nectar, depending on how sweet you like your smoothies
1/4 t vanilla extract (optional)

Add all ingredients to blender and puree until all ingredients are incorporated and free of lumps. Garnish with a slice of peach and enjoy!

Variation: Use a frozen banana and a food processor to create Peaches & Cream Soft Serve!

The secret ingredient here is soy creamer. When I first made this smoothie, my freezer was a little devoid of fruit, and I despaired – I thought that my smoothie would taste overly banana-like, that the peaches would get lost in the mix, and that it would be an overall boring drink. As I rooted around in my fridge for something else to add, a carton of soy creamer caught my eye; it was on sale on the co-op recently, so I’d purchased it to have on hand. That serendipitous splash of slightly sweetened soy perfectly complemented the peach flavor and created a rich, creamy confection that I just adored.

Close-up of the top of a smoothie in a jar.

Creamy beige.

What’s your favorite smoothie blend? Do you need to remind yourself to keep things simple, or are you naturally inclined towards minimalism?

Finally , the winner of the Cute and/or Delicious giveaway is…

Random number generator - number 34 out of 55 was selected.

Comment #34, Kim, who said “I follow blogs that have enticing photographs and delicious recipes that are easy to make. Thanks for doing such a great giveaway!” Kim, I’ll be e-mailing you soon!

Thanks to everyone who entered. You all left such thoughtful and helpful comments about what makes you return to the blogs you love – I have lots to think about now!

Recipe Showdown: Brownies!

/ Kelly / 22 Comments

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This is the first-ever Recipe Showdown, where I’ll pit three recipes for one food item against one another! Up this week: brownies!

Welcome to the great brownie showdown of 2011! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always on the hunt for the elusive perfect brownie recipe, so I decided to perform a scientifically sound and rigorous test process to find a recipe that is undeniably the best… by which I mean, I pigged out on brownies, shoved them down the throats of everyone around me, and arbitrarily decided if they passed muster. I did have some criteria, however. In my opinion, a perfect brownie must:

  • Have a thin, crackly top layer, like a gift wrapped in chocolaty tissue paper.
  • Have a deep, rich, chocolate flavor, not just a hint of chocolate or a weaksauce milk chocolate flavor.
  • Be fudgy. For the love of tofu, they must be fudgy. Cake-like brownies are the worst. If I want cake, I’ll make some damn cake! I want chewy, dense squares that taste like fudge’s crumbier half-sister.

With those criteria in mind, let’s meet our contenders! First up, we have…

Wolffie’s Moist and Chocolatey Brownies from La Dolce Vegan

I’ll admit that I was dubious about these brownies; I’d tried a Sarah Kramer brownie recipe in the past and found it horribly disappointing; my notes in the cookbook say simply “boring!” What I should’ve done was cross out the titular “brownies” and replace it with “blandies”. But I didn’t want to write off Sarah’s brownie skillz based on one boring recipe, so I gave a second recipe (from a different book!) a shot. The entire package of silken tofu in the ingredient list didn’t exactly assuage my fears, but I gave Sarah the benefit of the doubt and forged ahead.

Photo of a rectangular brownie with chocolate chips on top. It's sitting on a small plate; in the background is a glass of almond milk and more chocolate chips sprinkled around the plate.

In the right corner…

PROS:

  • Definitely moist.
  • Appropriately chocolaty. I cheated and used some Dutch-processed cocoa powder; I couldn’t resist!
  • Not exactly cake-like.

CONS:

  • Not exactly fudgy.
  • Strangely textured – not what I’d expect in a brownie.
  • Chocolate chips just sat on top, unmelted and sad.
  • No crackly skin.

OVERALL GRADE: B

Despite their non-fudgy texture,  these were not bad. My roommate is a cake-like brownie fan, and she thought they hit the mark in that regard. She was also surprised to discover that they contained tofu, so they definitely didn’t have any lingering soy flavor. At first, I found their texture (sort of spongy and dense) a bit off-putting, but it slowly grew on me, and by the time I finished the batch, I’d converted to a grudging fan. I’d consider making these again, but not when I’m craving brownies – just when I want something chocolaty and moist!

Up next, we have…

Rich, Fudgy Vegan Brownies from Food.com

An underdog contestant, this recipe comes from a user named Pollen over at Food.com. I found the recipe by Googling “best vegan brownies,” which led me to this recipe, which had a comment saying “these are pretty good, but the other vegan brownie recipe I have posted is way better!” So I followed the link to the Rich, Fudgy Vegan Brownie recipe and knew I had to try it. They had five stars and purportedly tasted “soooooo good” – what could possibly go wrong?!

Photo of what is allegedly a brownie on a plate but is actually quite obviously cake.

Something is amiss…

PROS:

  • Undeniably chocolaty.
  • Quite tasty.
  • Perfect cakelike crumb. Wait…

CONS:

  • Not brownies.
  • Actually cake.
  • Not fudgy.
  • No crackly skin.
  • Not @%#*$!^ brownies; what else can I say?!

OVERALL GRADE: F-

That picture says it all. This recipe makes a damn fine chocolate cake, but a pan of chocolate cake is NOT THE SAME as a pan of brownies. As soon as I finished mixing the ingredients and saw just how liquidy the batter was, I knew with a sinking feeling that no brownies were going to come out of my oven. It’s partially my fault – for possibly the first time in my life, I read only the first review on the Web site, and didn’t read any subsequent reviews. Had I done so, I would’ve seen a multitude of comments alerting me to the fact that this is a cake recipe, not a brownie recipe. But it’s not all my fault; the recipe poster marketed these as fudgy brownies, which is a bold-faced lie. On no planet (except perhaps Delusionarius Cakeloverus) could these possibly qualify as brownies; even the cake-like brownie-lovers among you can’t deny that. So, for the purposes of my recipe showdown, I just had to give the recipe a failing grade. That said, if you’re looking for an awesome cake recipe, I highly recommend this one – it came out tender and moist, with a perfect crumb. S and I devoured it whilst watching Gosford Park and had a perfectly lovely cake-eating experience.

Finally, I tried…

Joanna Vaught’s All-Time Very Best Vegan Brownie Recipe

That’s quite the title, eh? At this point in my recipe showdown, I was weary of disappointing brownies and wary of overhyped brownie recipes. But then I stumbled across Joanna’s recipe and read her description of her ideal brownie: “When I think of what makes my ideal brownie, two qualities are essential: 1) fudgy, not cakey and 2) that crispy-crunchy top layer. ” Sounds familiar, eh? With renewed enthusiasm, I set out to test Joanna’s bold claim.

A photo of three brownies stacked on a plate; they're obviously fudgy and have a crackly top layer!

Could it be?

PROS:

  • Perfectly fudgy right out of the oven
  • Rich chocolate flavor
  • Crackly top layer

CONS:

  • Slightly too-strong coconut flavor
  • Very crumbly after just one day
  • Difficult to remove from pan

OVERALL GRADE: A

Hallelujah! Finally, a brownie that met all my specifications. Joanna’s boastful title, as it turns out, is a well-deserved one. When I pulled these brownies from the oven, I knew that goodness awaited me beneath their crackly surface. Somehow I restrained myself from prematurely cutting into the pan, but when I did, those first bites were heavenly. I couldn’t resist sneaking piece after piece as I slice them up in preparation for their photo session; they were just so rich and satisfying!

They weren’t perfect, however. I’m generally not opposed to using coconut oil in recipes, but I thought that the coconut undertones were fairly noticeable here, and they detracted slightly from the chocolaty goodness. And they became hard and crumbly quite quickly; maybe I should have wrapped them tightly in foil, but I suspect they’re just meant to be devoured immediately (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Finally, they were quite difficult to remove from the pan; brownie bottom bits kept sticking no matter how delicately I tried to maneuver my spatula beneath them. But this is my fault; I blatantly ignored Joanna’s recommendation to cook them on a layer of aluminum foil for easy removal.

Overall, though, these were the clear winners of this recipe showdown, and their few cons were really minor. So cheers to you, Joanna, for creating such a marvelous recipe!

In other brownie news, the recipe that I tried out here is also pretty solid (probably an A-), so I’d recommend that one along with Joanna’s recipe. And they’re pretty, too!

Photo of three thin, fudgy-looking brownies stacked on a small white plate with decorative brown edges.

Brownie nomz.

Do you have a go-to brownie recipe? What’re your criteria for excellent brownies?

And don’t forget – today’s the last day to enter my giveaway! You have until 7:00 PM CST.

A Jewel of a Vegetable

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

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Although I most definitely consider myself a vegetable lover, sometimes I take vegetables for granted. I think of them as the workhorses of the food world, the dependable yet homely counterpart to their vibrant, flashy fruit relatives. But I’m doing veggies a disservice by valuing them solely for their interiors and not for their exteriors. My tatsoi experience reminded me that vegetables can, in fact, rival their fruit cousins in color and shape and simple beauty. At the co-op this week, I discovered another vegetable that easily outshines many – if not most – fruits. Enter the scarlet turnip:

Two vibrantly pink turnips, one intact and one cut in half.

Truly beautiful.

The colors in this photograph are very true to life; I gave this image the barest of tweaks in Photoshop. Although this is officially a scarlet turnip, I think it would be more accurately called a fuschia turnip or just an incredibly-freaking-gorgeous turnip. This vibrant shade of pink seems like something you’d find in a Crayola box, not in the produce section of your grocery store. Its interior is also striking:

A cross-section of the turnip, which is white with a star-like geometric pattern of pink dots.

Yes, this is a vegetable.

This looks like some sort of exotic tropical fruit and not a humble turnip, doesn’t it? It’s truly beautiful. Perhaps I should have found some way of cooking this striking vegetable that would’ve better preserved its color, but I ended up making a fairly simple Yukon gold potato and turnip gratin with it, a layered confection filled with an oozy, creamy sauce. The recipe isn’t quite perfect – who knew “plain” soy creamer is actually sweetened?! – so I’ll withhold it for now, but I will share a teaser photo:

A small casserole dish holds the gratin; you can see the slightly crispy, browned top layer.

Not as beautiful as its component pieces.

The cooked turnips retained a bit of their jeweled hue; each slice was suffused with a magenta undertone that almost made me hesitant to eat it… almost.

What’s the most beautiful vegetable you’ve ever encountered? What would you make with such a gorgeously colored turnip?

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

Easing into Monday with Fruit Medley Muffins

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

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This is the first installment of Muffin Mondays – each Monday during MoFo, I’ll post a brand new muffin recipe. Carb lovers, rejoice!

Sometimes, Sunday night rolls around and the thought of heading back to work the next morning really bums you out. You’ve had a great weekend, taking long walks with your sweet dog and spending quality time with your even sweeter significant other. You just want that blissful state of relaxation to continue, and visions of your desk and the work that awaits just fill you with dread. So you head to the kitchen, sure that a bout of baking will cure your woes. And the result – muffins, in this case – will accompany you to work, giving you something delicious to nibble when it’s time for elevenses (or even second breakfast).

Rooting around in the fridge, you discover remnants and leftovers – half a can of pumpkin puree, a holdover from the time you made pumpkin spice lattes, sits next to a third-full jar of coconut milk, languishing on the shelf ever since you made a sauce that only needed 1/3 cup. And there’s that bag of mixed dried fruit you purchased at the drugstore weeks ago when you were on a road trip and needed a quick energy fix en route to the Renegade craft fair in Chicago. What to do, what to do…

A muffin sits on a small plate alongside a pile of dried apricots.

Fruitlicious.

Fruit Medley Muffins
(makes 6 good-sized muffins)

1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 C white whole wheat flour
1/2 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger

1 flax egg (1 T ground flax plus 3 T warm water)
1/2 C coconut milk
1 T oil
2 T agave
1/4 C sugar
1/2 t vanilla
2 T pumpkin

1/4 C chopped Medjool dates
1/4 C chopped apricots
1/4 C chopped prunes

Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly grease a 6-muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flax into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the flax mixture and stir well. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix until just incorporated, then fold in the dried fruit. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 22 – 25 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Substitution notes: For a lower-fat muffin, you could substitute your favorite alt-milk for the coconut milk. If you don’t have pumpkin puree, I’m sure applesauce would work equally well. Finally, feel free to substitute any dried fruits you have in the house. Medjool dates add a really delicious caramel flavor, but any dried date (or no dates at all!) will do.

As long as you don’t forget to pack a few of these hearty snacks in your lunch box, you’ll have a sweet, mostly healthy treat to enjoy with your morning cup of tea or during your mid-afternoon “Is it time to go home yet?” slump. The pumpkin adds a nice smoothness to these muffins, and the dried fruit and flax fills them with fiber to keep your innards clean. Is there a better way to start a week than with clean innards? I didn’t think so.

What’s your favorite muffin recipe? Do you bring homemade treats to work? Do you have suggestions for a muffin I should create?

P.S. Only two more days to enter my giveaway!

Inaugural MoFo Post: Fun with Tatsoi!

/ Kelly / 13 Comments

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Let the food lovin’ begin – Vegan MoFo is here!

I don’t know about you all, but I’m extremely excited for a month of food blogs bursting at the proverbial seams with recipes, reviews, giveaways, photos, and general vegan awesomeness. Like the last two years I participated, I’m going full steam ahead and planning to post every day. I’ve got some great posts planned, like Recipe Showdowns  (where I’ll pit three recipes against one another), Muffin Mondays (a new muffin recipe every Monday!), and all sorts of other fun things. Heck, I might even finally use some of the awesome (yet overly ambitious) ideas I came up with last MoFo!

But I’m going to kick off MoFo with something much simpler than a big compendium of recipes or an ambitious multi-stage cooking experiment. Today I’m going to talk about tatsoi.

Close-up of the middle of a huge bunch of tatsoi.

Greenery!

This is tatsoi. Like its other leafy green cousins, it packs a nutritional punch, a wallop of vitamins, calcium, and beta carotenes. My co-op offered locally grown, organic tatsoi on sale for $1.79, and I couldn’t resist its beautiful green hue and leafy abundance. To give you a sense of how truly mammoth this head of tatsoi is, here’s a photo of Moria sitting next to it:

Photo of a small dog sitting next to a head of tatsoi, which is propped up against a balcony railing. The tatsoi reaches the dog's neck.

Moria and the Giant Tatsoi (a Roald Dahl knock-off novel?)

All that goodness for less than $2.00! Having never eaten tatsoi before, I decided to saute it with some mushrooms and garlic and serve it with tofu. First, I soaked about half the bundle in cold water, then gave it a vigorous spin in my salad spinner. After spinning, the leaves looked irresistibly verdant:

A large bowl of tatsoi leaves, shot from above.

After a spin cycle.

Before spinning my tatsoi, I’d marinated a few thick slabs of extra-firm tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, agave nectar, powdered ginger, and granulated garlic. As I prepped my tatsoi, I sauteed the tofu slices until they were just barely blackened on each side. I [very] loosely followed this recipe for the tatsoi, adding mushrooms and substituting sambal oelek for the curry paste. I also omitted the vegetable broth and soy sauce, because my greens didn’t need extra liquid. I sprinkled my cooked greens with sesame seeds, plated them with some raw tatsoi leaves, topped them with tofu, and ended up with this pretty plate:

Plate of sauteed greens topped with two thick slices of tofu and surrounded by a circle of raw leaves. A pair of chopsticks sits off to the side of the plate.

Tatsoi - it's what's for dinner.

This was really, really good. I wanted the tatsoi to play the star role in this one-time-only performance of “The Sun is Setting; Crap, Let Me Take a Quick Photo on My Balcony,” but I must admit that the tofu stole the show – it was perfectly cooked, a little chewy on the outside and creamy on the inside, with a fantastic subtle flavor. It complemented the tatsoi nicely; my greens were simple and tasty, and they gave a solid performance of their own. I loved that the raw leaves had just the tiniest bite to them, like a tamer version of mustard greens.

I can’t wait to use up the remaining half of my tatsoi! Have you had tatsoi before? How did you (or would you) prepare it?

I’ll leave you with an outtake from my balcony photo shoot – here’s Moria’s introduction to tatsoi:

In the foreground is a big bunch of tatsoi. Moria (a small brussels griffon/shih tzu mix) sniffs at them in the background.

Curious dog is curious.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!