Burger Pizza Bites

Today was a long day with school and doing errands, I wanted something that I could make for the girls that was quick and still left me with time to spend with them. I remembered that I found a recipe for quinoa pizza bites by Morgan Berg, who has a blog of her own. For that recipe visit her site here. I took the recipe and changed it to make it fit to my family. As much as I love quinoa, my girls are not huge fana, I also did not have enough for the recipe. I decided to make TVP pizza bites. For those that don't know what that stands for, its Textured Vegetable Protein. It is used in a lot of vegetarian meat products. I buy it in bulk because it is gluten free and great for putting in chili. I also used onion powder as onion baked does not get completely soft unless I saute it before putting it into a recipe. I guess I could have grated it, maybe I will try that next time. The other option I would have done differently was put the bites in paper cupcake liners. This would prevent me from having to wash the cupcake pan and prevent it from possibly sticking. Well, I hope you all enjoy this recipe. The girls ate all of the bites. A true winner in my opinion. 

Kid approved!

Burger Pizza Bites

Ingredients: 

1 c. hydrated TVP 

2 large egg

1/2 t. onion powder

1 c. Veggie Mexican Blend Vegan Cheese

1 t. minced garlic

1 T. dried basil

1 t. dried oregano

1/2 t. salt

Method: 

1. Hydrate TVP (7/8 cups of boiling water to 1 cup dehydrated TVP). Let sit 5 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of your ingredients in a mixing bowl until it is well mixed.

3. Lightly spray the bottom of a mini-muffin tin with olive oil spray or place paper liners in muffin tin. Using a Tablespoon scoop into each muffin tin. I did heaping tablespoon in each one.

4. Bake them for 20 minutes and let cool.

Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread

I would say that gluten free cooking is a whole new world for me. I recently started cooking and baking GF for my daughter, who is 3. She was expreiencing some GI problems and we decieded to take her off of gluten to see if this was the problem. Since then she quit complaining that her tummy hurt and eats all her food at each meal (which she wouldn't finish before.) It's great that she is feeling better, but this way of living is tough for a Mama who has cooked gluten/wheat for everything. I was even told that wheat was so good for you that everything should be 100% stone ground wheat. So as you can imagine, I baked and cooked that way for a very long time and have become frustrated at starting something basically from scratch. 

So, my current mission was to find a bread that wasn't hard around the edges (Udi's) and tasted similar to gluten bread with the same kind of texture. I didn't think it was possible. I started researching the internet and after a few days I found a recipe that I wanted to try. It came from gfrealfood.com. The author of this recipe (Kim) has made this bread amazing. I made it for the first time by her instructions exactly and the bread came out perfectly. It tastes great, texture is unbelievable, its bigger than the store bought brands and its whole grain. My husband who is a very particular about texture said it was pretty close to gluten bread. He didn't want to compare taste as there are different breads out there. His response was, "it tasted like bread." Great! Now its time to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Whole Grain Gluten Free Bread

Ingredients:

3 large eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup oil of choice (canola, olive, corn, coconut, grapeseed etc)
1 1/3 cup milk of choice – unsweetened (rice, hemp, almond, cows) warmed to about body temperature
1T +1 t honey
3 T brown sugar
1/2 cup millet,sorghum, quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat flour  (choose one)
1/2 cup second choice of flour – millet, sorghum, quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat flour (choose one)
1 cup multi grain rice flour, brown rice flour or my favorite teff flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup corn starch (potato starch works too)
3 t xanthan gum
1 1/2 t salt
2 1/4 t dry active yeast
optional add ins:
flax seeds
sesame seeds
sunflower seeds
add in a total of about a 1/4 cup

Method:

1) Put the first 6 ingredients in a kitchen aid mixer. Mix on low speed for a few seconds just until it was all mixed. 

All the dry ingredients combined and then added to the mixer.

2) Add everything else with the exception of the flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and yeast. 

3) Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed.

4) Add the remaining ingredients and mixed for another 2 minutes while occasionally scraped down the sides. 

5) Spray a glass bread pan and let it rise in the oven with the oven off but the oven light on. 

6) Let it rise for 40 minutes.

7) Take it out of the oven and preheat the oven while it continued to rise.

8) Bake it for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. 

I chose to leave the seeds out this time to make sure my kids liked the taste first. LOL

Super Yummy. 

Mini-Loaf Zucchini Bread

It has been awhile since I posted anything on this blog. I have been really busy this summer with my ever growing twin girls. Today, they wanted to make bread for Daddy's office, but fell asleep before they could help me make it. I found the recipe for the bread on Miss Laura's Kitchen website. I did adapt it to fit my needs as I am vegan now and have chosen to bake and cook without eggs.

Zucchini Bread Mini-Loaves

Ingredients

• 1 egg ( I used 1 TBS of flaxseed to 3TBS of Water)
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup grated raw unpeeled zucchini
• ¼ cup nuts (optional)- I omitted these. Not sure if anyone had an allergy.
• 1 cup flour
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. baking powder

Method

1) Preheat oven to 350°

2) Grease loaf pan(s).

3) Sift all ingredients from flour down and set aside.

4) Using hand mixer beat egg until foamy (I mixed the flaxseed and let sit until gel like.); add sugar oil and vanilla mix well. Add zucchini, stir in set aside dry ingredients mix until all flour is incorporated.

5) Add nuts; pour into prepared pan

6) Bake for 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes then remove from pan & allow to cool completely on rack.

7) Wrap in foil and for best results allow loaf to sit at least 8 hours before slicing. ( I wrapped mine in wax paper.)

Vegan Cheese Crackers

I am looking for more ways to keep processed and chemically enhanced foods out of my kid's diet. We are getting ready to go to the beach and I wanted to take a bunch of snacks with us on our long ride. I know my girls LOVE the Amy's Bunny Crackers which are made with organic wheat flour. They would go through a whole box if I would let them. The only unfortunate thing about those crackers are that they are made with real cheese. Yes, they are less processed than the Goldfish crackers, however I am trying to keep my children away from too much food with cheese to keep their tummies happy. Plus, I want to enjoy them too from time to time.

Upon looking on Pinterest there was a recipe I found for Vegan Goldfish Crackers. The recipe is found on Keyingredient.com. Roberta S. is the person who posted the recipe. In her recipe she states she used turmeric in the crackers and it actually was too strong so I omitted that from my recipe. These crackers were a hit!!! I gave one to each of the girls and then they asked for another. I thought ok,  these will work. As I left the crackers in the kitchen to cool, I heard one of my girls pull the kitchen stool up to the counter so she could reach another one. I like them also. At first I thought they were a little salty, but I actually think it was the taste of the nutritional yeast.

Vegan Cheese Crackers

 Ingredients:

1	cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
2	tablespoons nutritional yeast
¼	teaspoon onion powder
1	teaspoon sea salt
5	tablespoons vegan margarine (75g)
3	tablespoons cold water

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 °F. 190°C

2) In a food processor, combine flour, nutritional yeast, salt and onion powder. Process until combined. 

3) Add margarine, and pulse about 15 times until crumbly. Add water and process until mixture just comes together.

4) On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough until it is 1/8-inch thick. It will be easier to roll if you work with half of the dough at a time.

5)  Using a goldfish cookie cutter, or other small cookie cutter, cut out the fish and line then on a baking sheet. If desired, carve a face, as pictured. I used the prong of a fork for the eyeball and a toothpick for the smile. (I used a pastry cutter and made them look more like Cheeze-Its.)

My girls "helping" me. 

6) Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until golden and very lightly browned. Let cool and store at room temperature in a tightly sealed container or bag.

Scrambled Tofu

There was a time in my life that at the first thought of tofu I would avoid it completely. I didn't realize what it was and that there were different textures to it. My first experience was eating a dish someone had prepared and there was nothing else to eat. It was fried tofu and not much flavor and seasoning, so basically, it made me think I was eating a sponge. I vowed I would never touch the stuff again. Funny, how the taste buds change as you grow up. I find now that it is quite tasty with the right preparation. My first experience with scrambled tofu was at my mother in laws home. She prepared it for breakfast one morning and it looked so weird that I didn't want to try it, but being that it was early on in my marriage, I didn't want to offend my mother in law. So, I took just a enough that I could spoon in my mouth and eat super fast. To my amazement, it tasted pretty good. I ended up taking a lot more and requested for the recipe.

Now that I am vegan, I have included tofu as a regular addition into my crazy dietary plan. This morning was the first time since asking for that recipe that I actually made it. Don't get me wrong, I have eaten it so many time after the first time, but have never gotten the urge to make it myself. I was afraid that I would ruin it and I would hate it for the rest of my life. Nope, it turned out just as it was supposed to and I loved it as usual. I believe this will be made more often in my house. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Scrambled Tofu

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. Olive oil
1 Small Onion
1 pkg. Firm Tofu (Smash it up)
1 Tbs. dried chives
1/2 tsp Onion powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp. Chicken McKay's seasoning (Vegan chicken seasoning)
1/8 tsp Tumeric

Method:

1) Saute oil and onion in pan.

2) Add the rest of the ingredients.

3) Heat until all flavors are blended and water is absorbed.

Note: I ate this on top of some whole wheat toast and it made for a great breakfast.

Homemade Peanut Butter

I absolutely love being in the kitchen, especially when I can whip something up really fast. I found a recipe for peanut butter off of Pinterest, but what I didn't know is that it is more simple than I thought. Why was I not doing this a long time ago! Even though the peanuts I bought were not organic, at least they didn't have the preservatives and additives that I often wish to stray away from. I read that the peanut butter will last for up to two weeks in the refrigerator and one week room temperature. Again, it was super easy very tasty. Here is how to make it:

Homemade Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

1 container of salted peanuts.

-You really can make as much as you want but remember you have one to two weeks to eat it.

Method:

1) Put peanuts in food processor and press on.

2) Let it run for about 4 minutes and then it will be smooth. The consistency depends on what you want.

Note: The peanut butter will thicken a bit in the refrigerator.

Banberry-Oat Smoothie

Breakfast is always the same for our family and I decided that it was time to change it up a bit. What about a smoothie for breakfast? That was an awesome idea. Simple, fast, and tasty. I found a Banana-Oat Smoothie on wholeliving.com. I loved the look of this recipe, but I had to change it to work for us. Here is our new and improved recipe! :) By the way, it is kid approved!

Banberry-Oat Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 Ripe Bananas (One frozen and one room temp.)

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup Rice Milk

1/4 cup Old Fashioned Oats

2 tsp. of ground flaxseed

1TBS of honey

1/2 cup ice

Method:

1) Blend all ingredients together until smooth

2) Enjoy!

 

 Juliana

Olivia