Vegan Blueberry Pancake Monster

Lately I've been more seriously dabbling in a bit of veganism.  

I feel like all the junk food I eat is based around animal products, 

so in order to get healthier I thought why not purchase a few vegan cook books.

The real problem with this is Nick is pretty much anti-vegan.  

I think it is a dude thing.  

So usually I pick the most unhealthy vegan man friendly recipe 

from the cook book AND then we end up de -veganizing it.

The other weekend for example, I made pancakes from Veganomicon and used

butter to grease the pan.

Vegan Fail. 

Now, I think I still need to try more recipes from this cookbook to give it a fair review,

 but so far I am finding learning to veganize food challenging.  

Like when I made these blueberry pancakes the other day.

This was the runniest pancake batter I've ever seen,

 spread thin like a crepe if you ask me...

Then it turned into this green little blobby pancake monster... 

that just so happened to match my nail polish.

But after a few more tries I was able to get it to come out like this...

And I have to say, even though it is messy, 

and not the most attractive blueberry pancake ever, 

it was certainly scrum-diddily-umptious.  

Blueberry Corn Pancakes from Veganomicon  

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 1/4 cup plain soy milk 
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla - I subbed this for almond extract because we were out of vanilla, and it gave them a lovely marzipan flavor.
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (we used frozen, just microwaved them before adding them to the batter)

In a large bowl sift together dry ingredients.  Mix together wet ingredients in another bowl, then add wet to dry - being careful not to over mix and gently folding in the blueberries.  

The instructions say to use a quarter of a cup of batter and cook over medium high heat, but I found it was best to just make one big pan sized pancake and fold it up like a crepe.  

Have you guys tried any vegan cooking?  

What were your results?

Breakfast at Tiffany's Tuesdays : Like a Drink of Cherry Cola

Ok I know it's Wednesday, but I made this yesterday so it still counts.  I was going to post it last night, but I started my work experience yesterday and the country bus I must take to get there only runs once an hour.  Meaning I spent an hour of my life twiddling my thumbs at the station and didn't get home till 11:30.  Oh big old American SUV how I miss you!!!

Here is my healthy and delicious breakfast smoothie.  It made me sing that drinkacherrycola savage garden song all morning.  Kind of annoying but worth it.  Hope you like it.

Ingredients

• 1 banana
• 1 cup frozen cherries
• 1/2 - 1 cup soy milk (depending on whether you want it more icecreamy or smoothie-ish)

Blend away my friends!  

Ps.....

Quinoa Pesto and Asparagus Salad

I adapted this recipe from one posted on Closet Cooking, an amazing food blog which I stalk regularly.  This guy seems to whip up more food posts than there are meals in a day, everything always looks delicious and he often features veggie friendly recipes.  Score!

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 1 can of artichoke hearts
• 1/2 cup of pesto, I used store bought 
• a little olive oil

Cook quinoa according to instructions.  We used one cup uncooked quinoa, and simmered it in about 2 cups of water for 15-20 minutes until it was fully cooked.  Meanwhile, in a grill pan, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over medium high heat and place artichoke hearts in the pan, so they get nice grill marks on both sides.  Blanche your asparagus until tender.  When quinoa is finished, mix in half a cup of pesto and your asparagus and artichoke hearts.  Serve with a little fresh lemon juice on the side.

I wish the photo of this did it a little justice because this dish was seriously delicious!  Unfortunately we were hungry so I didn't bother fiddling around with it and making it tastespotting/foodgawker worthy.  But even Nick was loving it (which is a HUGE accomplishment when the dish doesn't have copious amounts of dairy).  You should have seen his face when I told him it was actually VEGAN!!  OH the HORROR!  But after he got over the shock he managed to scarf the whole thing down.  Perfect week night meal.  This one is a keeper!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Because I am such a suzy homemaker, I made my dear dear husband muffins on Wednesday, so that he could enjoy them for breakfast on his final day of work on Thursday.  Little did I know while slaving away over these delicious muffins, that the light of my life would be so hungover from his leaving party on Wednesday that he would be completely unable to consume anything without projectile vomiting for the entire day on Thursday.  I'm not joking, he showed up on the door step Wednesday night looking like a soiled tween after his first party with alcohol.  He also kept repeating "wig for Doodle" because apparently he had acquired an Elvis wig for our poor dog.  I guess thats a post for another day.

But nevermind that, at least I had muffins.  Very good muffins indeed, thanks to Madhuram's Eggless Cooking.  Yes, eggless *gasp*! Have I taken my vegetarianism to the next level and gone vegan on you?  No, but we were out of eggs.  And these were surprisingly good.  They were very zesty and not too sweet.

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar ( I used a mixture of light and dark, but mostly light)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Wet Ingredients

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 teaspoons ground flax seed (a hippy ingredient I'll admit, but I had it on hand because we put it in smoothies, its a good supplement for vegetarians.) 
• 1/2 cup water
• Zest from one orange
• 1 cup freshly chopped cranberries

Start by preheating the oven to 375 F or 190 C.  Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  In a food processor, add 1/2 cup of water and 2 teaspoons ground flax seed and blend until it gets frothy.  Squeeze 2/3 cup of orange juice, (from about 2 oranges) and add water to the juice till you reach one cup of liquid.  Add the flax seed mixture and the orange zest to this and stir well.  Pour all the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until it just comes together.  Gently fold in your cranberries.  Spoon into muffin liners and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes (mine took more like 23 minutes to be exact).  

Let cool (just a bit though, they are SO good warm), unwrap and enjoy!  

ps.  We just finished these off yesterday, and that means they kept well for at least 5 days.  

pss.  In case you were wondering, my husband also thought they were amazing after he recovered.

Okra Stir Fry

Those of you who know me, know I have a bit of an obsession with Indian food.  I know I'm so pale I'm practically see-through, but I'm pretty sure I actually WAS Indian in a past life.  I mean that would explain the fact that I can't go into an Indian restaurant without scarfing down enough food to make up for the fact that my very white parents had neglected to serve curry on a regular basis for my entire childhood.  One of my favorite dishes is Bhindi Masala, basically okra cooked in spices - though please don't depend on me for any literal translations.

I don't know why, but despite my love for it I have been a bit hesitant to delve into the world of Indian cooking.  I think the number of spices can be a little overwhelming, not to mention expensive if they're not already stocked in your pantry.

However, now that I'm a grown-up married person and I have an impressive collection of spices, I no longer have any excuses.  So here goes, my first attempt at a Bhindi dish, from Curry Bible.

Ingredients

• 280g/10oz Okra
• 1 red pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (I just used a bit less ground cumin)
• 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala

Slice off the tops of the okra, and then chop into bite-sized pieces.  

Slice the red pepper, and dice the onions.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, and when hot add the mustard seeds and cumin.  Remove from the heat and add the garlic, stirring for about a minute until it's lightly browned.

Then add the okra, red pepper, and onion, increase the heat to medium-high and stir fry for two minutes.  Add the chilli powder and salt, and stir-fry for three more minutes.  Add the garam masala for stir-fry for one minute.  Remove from the heat and serve with rice.

This was SO easy.  I don't think I followed the instructions minute to minute perfectly, but it still turned out delicious.  The spices gave it a nice smokey flavor, and it was so colorful.  As a bonus - I think it's quite healthy!

While I don't think this will stop my all too frequent Indian deliveries, I think it could put a nice dent in them and add a little something to my cooking repertoire.