Comments (23)

By kilax, February 13, 2010 6:35 am

What do you think the secret ingredient is?

Can you tell from this photo? Probably not…

I can’t keep it a secret any longer…

It’s potato chips! Ha ha. Steven and I saw a special on Unwrapped about potato chip cookies in November or December and have kind of been wanting to try them. My grandma had a recipe, so we got to work!

Ingredients:

• 1 c. margarine
• 1 c. white sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 2 eggs or 2 tbsp. flaxseed with 6 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. coarsely crushed potato chips
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 package (6 oz.) butterscotch chips or 1/2 c. peanut butter

Directions:

1. Cream together margarine and sugars. Add eggs or flaxseed mix and vanilla and beat well. Add crushed potato chips and butterscotch chips or peanut butter. Sift flour and soda together. Stir in creamed mixture.
2. Drop by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375° F.

Muchos simple, no?

We made one half of the batch without butterscotch chips or peanut butter, and I do not recommend that – they are not sweet enough. We all really liked the peanut butter ones.

The potato chips only leave a slight crunch in the cookie, so it’s hard to distinguish they are in there! The most fun is telling people these are “Secret Ingredient Cookies” and trying to get them to guess what the secret ingredient is.

These are fun cookies. Definitely not my new favorite or anything, but fun.

What is the strangest thing you have ever baked?

Comments (24)

By kilax, February 8, 2010 4:43 am

Ever wonder what to do with all of those vegetable scraps?

Broccoli, carrot and celery scraps.

Make your own homemade broth!

This is something Steven and I had been talking about doing for a long time. We use a lot of broth, and one can of Swanson Vegetable Broth is about 79¢*. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but believe me, when you cook as much as we do, it adds up!

So long Swanson! I never really liked your “Natural Flavoring” anyway!

We finally got a kick in the butt and started making it when Morgan posted “Make Your Own Broth” (Thank you, Morgan!!!). Steven made some the same day and we loved using it. It had great flavor, and of course, I felt so much better knowing what was in it.

I thought I would document it this time, so you can see how easy it is!

Ingredients:

• Whatever veggies you like – we used scraps of broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, celery, and tomato (well, technically a fruit)
• 1 big onion – whatever kind of onion you want
• 4-6 garlic cloves, smashed
• Whatever spice you like – we used pepper, sweet basil, thyme, parsley flakes, and a couple of bay leaves
• Salt
• Water – a big pot, 2/3 full (about 1 gallon)

I know the ingredients are pretty vague, but really, you can just put in what you like.

Directions:

1. Fill the pot of water up 2/3 full and turn heat on to high. Clean your veggie scraps, chop them up a bit and throw them in, along with the chopped up onion and smashed garlic cloves.



How much water we started off with.



Rinsed and cleaned veggie scraps.



Chopped Red Onion.



Smashed Garlic.

2. Add your spices and salt. Stir it up and bring it to a boil.







So pretty and smells so good!

3. Simmer for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Really, you can simmer it for however long you want – the longer you do, the stronger the broth will be. We simmered it until the water was reduced by half. Taste it every once in awhile to see if it needs more salt.



4. Let the broth cool (until it stops steaming).
5. Strain the broth out (see photo below – set your colander in a large bowl). Smoosh the veggies with a spatula to get extra the extra broth out. Throw away the veggies.



Strain out the broth…



… smoosh the rest of the broth out!


6. Put it in storage containers (we ended up with 8 cups, so we used two 2-cup containers and one 4-cup container) and store it in your fridge! We also put some in the freezer to use later (we are gone this week).

This is so easy! You just leave it on the stove and let it go. The only requirement is that you have to be around the house for a few hours.

Do you use a lot of vegetable (or meat) broth when you cook? What dishes do you use it in? Would you ever make your own broth?

Since I am talking about food (again, what is this?!) I thought I would show you these cute measuring spoons my Aunt Sue gave Steven – a Smidgen, Pinch and Dash!

*It’s virtually free to cook it at home, since we have the veggie scraps. We just don’t know how much it costs to run the burner!

Comments (57)

By kilax, February 4, 2010 4:49 am

I love Wheat Thins. I do. But check out the amount of sodium in them:

230mg? That just seems like a lot to me! (According to this article, “Some 75% of dietary salt intake comes from processed foods.” The recommended daily salt intake is 1,500 mg, but the average adult American male consumes almost 4,000 mg a day!)

And what is up with all of the ingredients?

Ingredients: WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT FLOUR, UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, SOYBEAN OIL, CORNSTARCH, MALT SYRUP (FROM BARLEY AND CORN), SALT, INVERT SUGAR, LEAVENING (CALCIUM PHOSPHATE AND/OR BAKING SODA), MONOGLYCERIDES, WHOLE GRAIN BARLEY FLAKES, WHOLE GRAIN MILLET, WHOLE GRAIN RYE, WHOLE GRAIN TRITICALE, VEGETABLE COLOR (ANNATTO EXTRACT, TURMERIC OLEORESIN). CONTAINS: WHEAT. BHT ADDED TO PACKAGING MATERIAL TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS.

Ugh. What the hell? Why does the list of ingredients have to be so long? I’d much rather make MY OWN wheat thins…

(Brilliant segue, no?)

Steven found a recipe for Homemade Wheat Thins from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Cookbook on this blog, and set out to make them last Sunday.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 4 tbsp. margarine
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• additional salt for topping (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and paprika. Melt the margarine and mix it all together. Combine the water and vanilla, then add to the dry mixture, mixing until smooth.
2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Divide the dough into four pieces (see below – this just makes it so you aren’t rolling out A TON of dough). Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 1/16th thick. Trim the edges with a pizza cutter (see below) and cut dough into squares.





4. Put the squares on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt if desired. Repeat steps 3-4 with rest of dough.



5. Bake the crackers one sheet at a time, until crisp and brown, 5-7 minutes. Watch the oven LIKE A HAWK! You want the crackers crispy, not chewy, but not burnt either! Remove and cool on a plate or cooling rack. They will stay crisp for several days in an airtight container.

Looks just like a Wheat Thin, right?

Perfect for taking to work!

Nom.

We* were impressed. The ones we baked just right, tasted JUST LIKE Wheat Thins! It would be cool if we started making these every week, along with our granola bars.

And I think you could add cinnamon and they would be SUPER tasty sweet treat!

Have you ever felt like a processed food had too much salt or too many ingredients and tried to make your own version?

*And so were my coworkers that I shared these with! They both immediately asked for the recipe.

Comments (44)

By kilax, February 1, 2010 5:01 am

Yesterday Erin asked me what recipe I used for my homemade granola bars. I looked through my recipe archive, ready to send her a link, then realized, even though I talked about them, I never posted the recipe!

So, with Steven’s permission (since he developed the recipe), I’ve posted the recipe below! Please note, these are chewy, and dense. They won’t sit in your stomach like a rock, but they are not light and airy.

Ingredients:

• 2 c. oats
• 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c. wheat germ or wheat bran
• 1/4 c. milled flaxseed
• 1/4 – 1/3 c. sweetener (honey, imitation honey, agave nectar, molasses)
• 1/2 c. + apple sauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. raisins or whatever dried fruit/nuts you like (I used raisins and dates in these)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F, grease bottoms of two (2) 8.5″x4.5″ loaf pans very well (you can use metal or glass loaf pans, really, any size you want – it just determines the thickness of the bars).
2. Mix all dry ingredients, add in all wet ingredients. Cut up dried fruit/nuts to small sizes and add in. The mixture should mostly stick together, but add more applesauce if it is super crumbly.
3. Divide half of mixture into each loaf pan and smooth down with a spatula.



This is a photo of Steven’s bars from last year. I just wanted to show them to you in the pan. His look a bit different because he uses different ingredients (puffed rice, baking soda and powder).

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. Let cool in the pan. Tip them out upside down onto a cooling rack, let cool a bit more then cut into whatever size you want on a cutting board.

Easy, right?

I like to store them in a container, then put them in a plastic bag when I want to take one to work. That way I can reuse the same bag over and over. Another option is to individually wrap each in saran wrap. These granola bars last about 1.5 – 2 weeks.

Do you make homemade granola bars?

Since I am talking about food, I might as well tell you that I added pearled barley to my oatmeal this weekend (after cooking for 45 minutes, of course) and LOVED it! Yum! I love how chewy it is. Any other ideas for things I can do with barley? We also have some couscous to use. Any favorite couscous recipes? Erin already recommended this one, which I cannot wait to try!

Half eaten oatmeal with barley, milled flaxseed and brown sugar.

Okay, and since I am still talking about food, check out these two pizzas we made last night. Yes, two.

One SUPER thick one and one SUPER thin one. Muah ha ha.

Would you want a piece of the SUPER thick pizza or the SUPER thin pizza?

Thank you for all of your entries on the My Favorite Things Giveaway! I had fun reading what you would put in your hypothetical giveaway!

And now, for the big weiner winner…

I used a handy-dandy holiday box my sister gave me for the drawing….

Steven did the honors and…

The winner is Lynn from The Actor’s Diet! Lynn said:

my list would include 18 rabbits granola bars, justin’s maple almond butter, peanut ginger chews, tootsie pops, sunshine burgers, and newman’s own’s ginger hermits

Damn, I have been wanting to try those 18 Rabbits Granola Bars!

Congrats, Lynn! Send me your mailing address and I will skip the goodies your way!

And to everyone else, thanks for entering, and please continue to do so! I have some other giveaway ideas!

Comments (41)

By kilax, January 14, 2010 5:07 am

A coworker made this celery root soup recipe* over the weekend and wanted to share it with me and another coworker (who recently became vegan). Apparently, the recipe takes quite a bit of work, and she knew we would appreciate it.

The problem? She ran out of veggie broth and had to use some chicken broth.

She was kind enough to “disclose” this info to us. I felt awful turning her down when she told me. “You’re that strict?!” she asked? Yes, I am.

I try to follow a vegan diet as closely as I can – avoiding eggs, dairy and honey.** Of course, I know there are going to be slip-ups. We were using Fleischmann’s margarine for awhile until we realized the D3 listed as an ingredient was from FISH (yeah, it’s not even vegetarian – D2 is okay, D3 is not). I just realized the Morningstar crumbles are not vegan, so I have been using TVP instead (worked well on pizza this weekend!). I am learning as I go.

However, if I know a food item has eggs, dairy or honey in it, I will absolutely avoid it. Especially if it has something like chicken broth in it.

I feel like there is a difference between choosing to ignore something and ignorance.

I do cut myself some slack, but yes, I try to be 99.9% vegan (as Lacey wrote in a recent comment). I think I can call myself a vegan, even though I have made these “mistakes.” I cannot be perfect.

This incident got me thinking about the unpublished post I was referring to in this post. It was about being labeled as vegetarian or vegan, and what that label means, and if it is valid. Should you call yourself vegetarian if you occasionally eat meat? (In my opinion, no). Should we have labels at all? I fear that post will never get published. I am not eloquent with words, nor a good debater, and I just can’t get my thoughts together.

Anyway, so I feel kind of bad turning down this person’s offerings… but at the same time, I kind of don’t feel bad. I have made a decision for myself, and at this time, it is important that I stick to it.

Do you ever feel bad turning down food that someone is offering you? What makes YOU turn down food?

*Ironically, this is a recipe from Tal Ronnen. I really want to check out his book – The Conscious Cook. Has anyone been using it?
**And other animal products (like leather) and products tested on animals (like shampoo).

Comments (33)

By kilax, January 6, 2010 5:40 am

What’s better than arriving home to a fresh cooked meal?

Nothing, really.

When I arrive home and Steven has a warm dinner on the stove, ready for me to eat, I feel like a pampered princess.

Do you like it when someone else cooks for you? Whose cooking is your favorite? Or do you prefer to make your own food?

Last night, Steven made a modified (because we were missing a few ingredients) version of Anna’s (newlywednewlyveg) Black Bean Fiesta Soup.

Here are the original ingredients, crossed out with what we substituted. Check out her site for the full recipe! I hope you don’t mind that we changed it up a bit, Anna!

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 3 clove(s) garlic, chopped
  
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 1/2 T. Dried Red Pepper, 1 1/2 T. Dried Green Pepper
  
• 1 4. oz. can green chilies, chopped 1 1/2 Tsp Dried Jalapeño
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder 1/4 tsp. Ancho Chili Powder and 1/4 tsp. Chipotle Chili Powder
  
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/8 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• juice of one lime 1 Tsp. Lime Juice
  
• 3 2 15. oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• ADDED: 1 15 oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 3 cups 2 cans vegetable broth
  
• 1 15 oz. can corn
• ADDED: 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
  

Also, our favorite cornbread made a guest appearance. It went deliciously with this soup! I recommend trying the soup (either the original or our version). It was so tasty – perfect for a cold evening, and not too spicy!

Crap. I better be careful. I don’t want to turn into a food blogger. Stop making such tasty eats Steven! (no really, please don’t stop)

Time for another meme! Ayla (dainty vegan), Leah (why deprive), Kim (Adventures in Wanting) and Trayn Harder all gave me the Happy 101 award. Thank you! I am supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. Making this list was fun (I could have kept going past 10). I think I could do this everyday! Give it a try! Click “more” to read on.

Continue reading 'A twist on Anna’s Black Bean Fiesta Soup / Happy 101 Meme'»

Comments (43)

By kilax, January 4, 2010 5:19 am

Ha. I had two posts written for today. The first one was a rant on some article I read yesterday and it made me sound crazy. I decided not to use that one and wrote another semi-rant that made me sound bitchy.

Pause.

I must have been in a weird mood yesterday morning. I decided to table those for another day when I have more time to think and am not writing in the “heat of the moment.”

Do you write your posts ahead of time? Or are you more likely to write and immediately hit “publish”? What’s your blogging style? When do you blog?

I generally write all of my posts ahead of time (except for the random “spur of the moment” posts) and schedule them to be published in the morning. I even work on my Sunday training recap post throughout the week so I can publish it after my last workout on Sunday.

During the week, I write posts in the morning or evening train ride. Sometimes I write 2 or 3 at a time. Sometimes I just write them the night before. On the weekends, it’s more sporadic.

And I usually DON’T censor myself! But I have a hard enough time communicating as it is, and if I go back and read something and it doesn’t make sense… then it is not ready to publish! We’ll have to see if I ever use those!

We figured out what to do with the leftover Vegan “Meatloaf” – Vegan “Meatloaf” tacos! I kept joking to Steven that we should make them, but he kept saying no. Then he was too sick to argue so I made them and he LOVED them. Ha!

Comments (20)

By kilax, January 2, 2010 6:34 am

Many of you had “try one new recipe a week” listed as a New Year’s Resolution and I thought that was SO FUN! Although we don’t do it as frequently, Steven and I love trying new recipes. We both subscribe to food blogs and share recipes with each other via google reader. Our favorite website for finding recipes has been VegWeb.com. I bet most of the recipes we’ve tried have come from there!

Where do you look for new recipes? What makes you want to try a new recipe?

I usually want to try a new recipe if it lists some of my favorite ingredients, is accompanied by a beautiful photo, or if it is something I have been craving for awhile!

Our latest adventure, Vegan “Meatloaf,” did feature two of our favorite ingredients (when mixed together) – lentils and rice. Since we had most of the ingredients listed (we had to use soy sauce, red wine vinegar and onion powder in place of Worcestershire sauce and basil and thyme instead of Herbes de Provence) we decided to give it a go.

Hmm.

We both think it needs some work. It was definitely edible and filling. And it had interesting flavor and texture. It just wasn’t quite “there” yet.

Ugh. I guess “Meatloaf” (no matter how perfect the recipe) just isn’t worth two and a half hours of prep/cooking. We had to make our own breadcrumbs,

individually cook the lentils, rice and veggies,

mash them all up and form a “loaf,”

make a sauce for the top,

and bake the damn thing.

So, needless to say, the Vegan “Meatloaf” will probably not make it into our meal rotation, but it may be worked on some more.

It was fun to try something new, that’s for sure!

Comments (14)

By kilax, December 26, 2009 6:13 am

We LOVE making homemade pizza! It’s so fun to pick your own toppings, and it’s especially fun to make pizzas with a group of people and see what everyone puts on theirs!

But for the longest time, we were using store-bought crusts (we are still using store-bought sauce – that’s the next step!). They’re okay, but nothing special. When my coworker told me she had a great vegan pizza crust recipe, I made her send  it to me ASAP! We tried it, and oh boy, it does NOT disappoint!

The ingredients are:

• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110F-115F)
• 1/4 oz (1 envelope) active dry yeast
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 c margarine or oil
  

Step 1: Dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle the yeast on top and stir (if the mixture stays clear, and the yeast clumps together, the water is not warm enough – throw it out and start over). Let the mixture stand in a warm spot for 5 minutes until a thin layer of creamy foam covers the surface.

Step 2: Mix 3 cups for flour with the salt in a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the mixture and pour in the yeast mixture and the margarine or oil. Stir the flour into the well with a wooden spoon until it is mixed in and the dough holds together.

Step 3: Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining flour. Continue to knead, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic (10-15 minutes). Form a ball with the dough and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover with a clean towel and place the bowl in a warm area to let the dough rise (45 minutes for quick yeast, 60-90 minutes for regular yeast).

Step 4: Pre-heat the oven to 500F and get your toppings ready (we use a pizza stone, so we preheat the stone with the oven because the actual bake time is so short). Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down. Roll the ball out to form a pizza crust.

Step 6: Load up that bad boy with your toppings and slide it onto the stone – make sure to put LOTS of flour underneath the crust so it will slide. Bake for 10-15 minutes (or until the cheese starts to brown on the top for non-vegan pizza – usually more like 20 minutes).

Step 7: NOM it up! (Note: the pizza in the photo below looks messed up because we did not follow our own advice about the flour and it stuck to the sheet when we tried to move it to the stone! Oops! Live and learn!)

What are your favorite toppings to put on pizza?

I like zucchini, tomato, green pepper, lots of onion, spinach, and Morningstar crumbles. Steven likes all of that, plus olives and cheese. (Hmm, how did that olive end up on my slice in the top picture, Steven?)

We like to put garlic powder (not fresh garlic), cumin (yes mother – it can be used on pizza, it’s not just for chili), crushed red pepper, oregano and salt and pepper on for spices.

What I love about this crust is that it tastes like a crust you would eat in a restaurant! And you can make a big chewy crust on the end. Yum oh yum.

The only problem? It’s really hard to only eat one piece!

Comments (22)

By kilax, December 12, 2009 6:50 am

Ready to go into the oven!

This was Steven’s second time making these Vegan Cinnamon Rolls from VeganYumYum. The first time we made them was in November. We had had the recipe printed out for a long time, but check it out – it’s daunting! They’re a lot of work, but TOTALLY worth it!

I wanted to find a Vegan Cinnamon Roll recipe, because as long as I can remember, that is what we’ve eaten in my family* on Christmas morning. And I won’t be with them this year… but I still want my damn Cinnamon Rolls!

Do you have a traditional holiday breakfast meal?

I was not around** to document the first step – mixing the dough, kneading it, then letting it rise. Oops. I did smell the fresh dough though – don’t you just love that smell?

I did get to watch Steven do all the fun parts though: Rolling the dough out and loading it up with butter***…

Spreading the cinnamon/sugar mix on top…

Observing your lazy cat…

Rolling the dough out…

…into a log.

Using some thread to cut the log…

… into the rolls!

Using a well buttered*** dish (ha ha)…

… to put them in.

Whipping up some vegan cream cheese frosting (using Tofutti)…

… and baking them!

Nomming away! (I forgot to take a picture WITH frosting. Duh, Kim.)

Steven made these on Saturday and we let them rise in the fridge overnight. We baked them at our friend’s house Sunday morning. You can also put them in freezer, if you want to make them in advance!

These are SO UNBELIEVABLY GOOD. I love the description of them on VeganYumYum:

If you’re looking for a healthy, low-fat, calorie conscious treat, I can’t help you today. If you’re looking for a recipe that is guaranteed to win over any vegan doubter, guaranteed to please any Cinnabon lover, guaranteed to send any child into a permanent sugar high; these buns are for you.

It’s so true. These are the real deal – melt-in-your-mouth awesome, decadent cinnamon rolls. I’m so happy we found this awesome recipe! Let me know if you try them!

*Mind you, Pillsbury made those.
**Was cleaning the house.
***We used vegan margarine. Thanks for pointing that out, Mica!