Birthday Vegan Brunch, Dinner, Cake

I can't give the recipes for any of these meals because I had no part in them. The four children at home took over the preparation and cleanup while I lolled around and waited to be served.

The brunch consisted of a potato pancake/hash browns patty, home fries, sweet potato and onion, some kind of vegan sausage, scrambled tofu, toast with Smart Balance, hot Roma, and cold mimosa. All very tasty.

Dinner was very yummy. They looked up the recipes for Spanish rice, Sweet and Sour Sesame Tofu, and Oven Baked Kale, which turned out to be crisp and chewy all at once. Again, yum!

 

Dessert was a cake called Boston Cream Pie. A one-layer vanilla cake (flavored with almond extract in this case) was sliced horizontally in half and filled with vanilla pudding. It was topped with melted dark chocolate and ringed with blueberries. My favorite! I had some for breakfast the next day.

 

Thank you, children, for making my birthday so special. (I enjoyed the calls from the farther-flung too!)

Vegan Deviled Eggs Will Fool the Eye

 

My daughter sent me a link about making VEGAN DEVILED EGGS, so I had to see for myself. I never really liked eggs much, so these are a little too close for comfort for me to enjoy, but luckily I was able to foist most of them off at a party last night. They weren’t hard to make at all, once I got the two special ingredients. I had everything else on hand. I made up a batch of unsweetened soy milk to start off with, and I had Morinu tofu on hand for the centers.

The original recipe used grams, but my partner converted the measurements for me. I am also doubling the whites and halving the yellows, as I needed more of the first and less of the second. But, other than that, I have to give a tip of my hat to the creators of these uncannily egg-like reproductions.

 

Black salt is an Indian mineral salt containing sulfur compounds that lend it the characteristic smell of hard-boiled eggs. It is also called Kala Namak and is used in the Indian spice mixture Chaat Masala. Agar powder is derived from seaweed. You can use your favorite mayonnaise substitute. I used Nasoya’s Nayonnaise.

 

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

VEGAN CHOCOLATE MOUSSE is a special treat to serve guests or take to a party. It can be made in varying amounts and is very simple and forgiving, in that the proportions and ingredients are not set in stone. There are four components: the whipped Soyatoo topping, the raspberry sauce, the chocolate mousse, and the crumble cookie bottom. You don’t have to make all of these parts but, if you do, they go together nicely. You will need a small pan and a larger pan to fashion a type of double boiler, with which to melt the chocolate, and you will need a blender or food processor to whip the mousse together.

Fried Sweet Potato With Onions

Guest Post Written By: Dean — Retronaut42

I woke up wanting to fry up some potatoes, but when I couldn't find any in the house, I decided to substitute in sweet potato instead. The fried sweet potato with onions turned out to be delicious, and the cayenne pepper left a satisfying after-taste!

Estimated preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

You will need:
a medium pot
a medium cast iron or fry pan

Ingredients:
    1 medium sweet potato (or a yam will do)
    1 large onion
    1 and 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    salt to taste
    ground cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
 

I used an all-purpose spice mix, but you can simply use the following:
    1 pinch dried celery flakes
    1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
    1 pinch dried garlic
    1 pinch dried coriander
    1/2 tsp pinch dried parsley
    1/2 tsp dried oregano

Preparation:
Set a pot of water on stove at high heat, sprinkle some salt to taste in the water. Cut the sweet potato in half, leaving the skin on, and place both halves in the water. Let the sweet potato cook until it is soft when poked with a fork.

While the sweet potato is cooking, peel the onion, and cut into long thin slices, removing the very center pieces. Place the sliced onion into the cast iron or fry pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt and cayenne pepper to taste, and the all-purpose spices. Cook at a medium temperature while stirring until all the ingredients mix together. Once the onions start to brown, turn the temperature down to a low heat and continue cooking and stirring every once in a while until the sweet potato is ready.

Once the sweet potato is finished cooking, remove it from the pot of water with a utensil. Dice the sweet potato, leaving the skin on if desired. Place the sweet potato and 1/2 tbsp olive oil in the pan with the onions, and cook together until the flavors start to merge.

Serve the sweet potatoes and onions while they are still warm on the side of breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Serves: 2-3

Dean, or Retronaut42, loves food, writing, video games, and is interested in becoming a programmer. You can find most of his work at Gamer's Ramble, but you could also check out his blog at Retronaut Blog.

Cherry-Themed Cupcakes

 

For the third year in a row I have attempted to find cherries in my co-op on George Washington’s birthday to no avail — not fresh, frozen, dried, or canned. I scoured the shelves with my eyes, but I could only come home with some Panda Cherry Licorice and some Chocolove Cherries and Almonds in Dark Chocolate bars. It would have to do, but it wasn’t the basis of a pie … so I made CHERRY-THEMED CUPCAKES.

I was happy with how these turned out. They had a springy texture and a pleasant taste. The surprise filling was tasty and the chocolate on top was yummy. The licorice and almonds lent a different chew and crunch than normally comes with a cupcake. I am wondering if my good luck with the cherry-themed cupcakes stemmed from my use of fresh baking powder. If you have a run of flat baked goods, don’t blame yourself too much; just go out and buy some fresh baking powder. 

This recipe makes 14 cupcakes. It is helpful to have some parchment baking cups on hand to insert in the muffin tins.                                                                                                

Tapioca Pudding Is a Comfort Food

TAPIOCA PUDDING is one of those desserts you either have a fond memory of — maybe your grandmother always made it for you — or you find disgusting. It is smooth, but then what’s the deal with all those little balls in it? And yet there is a lovely sweet blandness to it. It could well be one of your comfort foods. Tapioca comes from the manioc or cassava plant, native to South America, and a staple there and in Africa, where the pearls are called Boba. It is considered a very digestible form of carbohydrate.

I served a batch of tapioca pudding to some dinner guests, and one has since requested the recipe. It was a light, pleasant end to the meal. Really, I pretty much just followed the recipe on the box of Let’s Do Organic small pearl tapioca. I used their options down at the bottom of the recipe, and I left one ingredient out (shredded coconut). It’s a pretty easy recipe. If you serve it in little fluted pudding cups, it will seem more special.

Ingredients

2 cups — water

3 Tblsp. — Tapioca pearls, small pearl variety

2 Tblsp. — sugar

Sprinkle of salt

2/3 cup — light coconut milk (reduced fat organic version)

A banana — sliced, with a little lemon on it to keep it from browning

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, boil the water before adding the tapioca pearls. Use a fork or whisk when pouring them in, to help keep them from bunching together. Let the tapioca cook for about fifteen minutes until it is looking more translucent, the mixture now seeming a little thicker and cloudy-looking. 

 

Add in the coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Stir it together and let it cook an additional ten to fifteen minutes. Place a few slices of bananas in each cup and pour the pudding over them. Let the cups sit until they are just warm, and then refrigerate until cooled.

Alternately, you could refrigerate the tapioca pudding in one mixing bowl or the pan itself. Mix it all together before dolloping servings into small glasses or bowls. If you have some Soyatoo whipped cream, that would be fun to squirt on top.

Tapioca pudding can be made with some other kind of milk, like rice or soy, but the coconut gives it a little extra flavor. If you added some vanilla, that would help too.

Cilantro Hummus

I had a request for HUMMUS and pita chips today. I had defrosted a small container of home-cooked garbanzo beans already, so all that was necessary was to buy a bag of pita chips and use a small food processor to blend the following ingredients together:

 

Ingredients

1 can — garbanzo beans (chick peas), or the equivalent

2 Tblsp. — tahini sesame paste

1 lg — lemon, juiced

1 — garlic clove

1 tsp — tamari soy sauce

½ tsp — olive oil

1 small bunch — fresh cilantro or parsley

 

I used the cilantro for a different taste and liked it. Another time I stirred a small jar of capers into the hummus. If you don’t have pita chips, toast some bread or use chips or carrot sticks to scoop it up.