Like I said: basic. It features an even simpler version of my Roasted Tomato Sauce (by using fire-roasted tomatoes from a can, but adding in fresh oregano from my CSA basket), a Tofurkey Italian Sausage, roasted zucchini, and crushed red pepper. Quick, easy, delicious.

The second version was a Saturday lunch stir fry-style:

It seems weird to post a recipe for stir fry, since it’s just a bunch of veggies stirred and fried in some oil and then added to noodles or rice or whatever. Instead, here are the ingredients in the order in which they went into the pan:

• Coconut oil (and as needed two more times to continue the stirring and frying)
• Onion
• Carrots
• Soy sauce (and as needed two more times to deglaze the pan and add flavor)
• Garlic
• Hot pepper
• Minced fresh ginger
• Button mushrooms
• Swiss chard
• Cooked noodles

And then we topped our servings with chili garlic sauce for a little more heat and a nice vinegar-y flavor. I’m usually way too skimpy on the oil in stir fries, which renders them a little sad, but this one had between 1 and 2 tablespoons total, I would guess. You may have noticed that I’ve been including more fat in my diet lately. I still consume less of it than the average person, but since I’ve been exercising more, I’ve been ravenous, so I’m finding ways to sneak a few extra calories in. I will start amping up my plant-based proteins, too, once things calm down and I can do a better job of meal planning.

Are you sometimes in the same situation, that you brought to much bread (rolls, buns, bagels, …)? The sad thing is that they’re mushy or too hard the next day.  Of course you can simply slice them in two, put them in the toaster and put some chocolate paste or jelly on top of it.

What I think is the best way to use leftover bread is to make mini-pizza’s. It’s super simple:

Mini-Bread-Pizza’s

To begin with, you take a look in the fridge to see if there are any vegetables, tofu- or seitansausages. I had some olives that had to be used, a tofu sausage and artichokes. Little cans of tomato puree come in handy.
Preheat the oven at 200°C and slice the old buns in half.
Take a small can of tomato puree, put it in a small bowl and add water ’till it reaches the desired consistency. Add some fresh or dried herbs, like basil, oregano, pepper and garlic, to your sauce. Spread this on every half of the buns.
Take your veggies and/or (sliced) sausages and put them on the buns. Put them for 5 to8 minutes in the preheated oven. If you have a grill-function on your oven, it’s interesting to add this 1 to 2 minutes. This makes your mini-pizza’s nice and crunchy.

I specially love this with long Turkish bread. If I visit the Turkish bakery, I always bring a long bread to make mini-pizza’s the day after (actually, you can make these pizza’s as big or small as you like).

What can you put on tha pizza? My absolute favorites are artichokes (you can buy them fresh, canned or in bowls) and onion. Spinach, olives, bell peppers and of course tomatoes are good too! Try to experiment with your favorite veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, … Vegan sausages and cheezes are good too. My personal favorite is Wilmersburger.

With leftover bread you can make “croques“, “toasties” or “sandwiches”. Just add something that you like between two slices of bread and put them in a grilling machine. Actually, you can add about the same things you put on mini-pizza’s .

Between chocolate for breakfast, and more than my share of apple cinnamon monkey bread muffins, it seems only right that I forgo tonight’s dinner altogether and just eat dessert.

I have a very specific memory of sitting on Grandma V’s kitchen floor with my brother, eating ice cream for dinner. That’s right, mom. Ice cream. For dinner. We thought Grandma V was possibly the coolest chick ever. And I remind myself of this fact while I’m having a conversation with J Man and Miss Rae’s grandma that goes something like this:

(While kidlets are visiting Grandma and Papa)

Grandma: “Has Miss Rae ever had fruit snacks before?”

Me: “No, but I don’t think she’d choke.”

Grandma: “She didn’t choke. She likes gummy bears, I mean, fruit snacks.”

Fruit snacks, huh, Grandma? In Grandma’s defense, there probably isn’t much difference between fruit snacks and gummy bears sugar-wise. But I have come to grips with the fact that Grandma’s can and will spoil their grandchildren. So whether that means gummy bears or ice cream for dinner, it’s a privilege they’ve earned.

This is what I had for dinner tonight (x2. Plus some guacamole and corn chips- I’m the picture of health, I tell ya). It. Was. Awesome.

Buttery, cinnamony, streusel sweetened with…wait for it…dates! I’m super proud of this recipe that I made up from my head! Other than this and this, this is one of my proudest recipe creation moments!

Did you get a good look at that streusel? There it is. Up close and personal. Think of every ingredient you love associated with fall. It’s in there. Pumpkin pie spice. Pecans. Maple syrup. Yes, yes, and yes.

Look at those beauties. Apples are SO good right now!

I used a grapefruit spoon to core them and hollow out a nice deep well for all that glorious streusel.

Be still my beating heart. This is fall personified.

The best news of all? This isn’t just dessert. You could throw a dollop of soy yogurt on top for a yummy breakfast. Maybe even chopped up over oatmeal? Or, the best way to eat it? With a scoop of ice cream. For dinner. While sitting on the kitchen floor.

Baked Maple Streusel Apples

Ingredients
4 large apples
1/4-1/2 cup apple juice

Streusel
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup vegan butter (Earth Balance)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup pecans
10 dates, pitted (I used medjool)
1/4 cup non packed brown sugar
1 TBS maple syrup (real)
1 cup rolled oats

Instructions

Slice apples in half, core, cut out desired amount of apple flesh to leave a well for streusel. Set aside.

In a food processor, combine all streusel ingredients except for oats. Process until dates and pecans are thoroughly chopped. Add oats and pulse until desired consistency.

Fill apples with 2 TBS filling each. Let your husband eat the rest of the unused streusel.

Place apples in 9×13 baking dish. Pour apple juice around the base of apples. Bake at 375, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Welcome to the final Web Feast Friday of Vegan Mofo!  Getting involved with Vegan Mofo, and participating along side some of our vegan blogger role models/celebrities has been a tremendous honor and inspirational experience.  Instead of posting random bits from around the internets, I thought I would post some recent highlights from some of our most favorite vegan bloggers.  The following peeps provide us with many recipes, much inspiration, and a network of passionate and enthusiastic advocates for all things vegan.  If you don’t have these folks bookmarked or queued up on your RSS feed, start clickin’!!!!!

-  Post Punk Kitchen was one of the first vegan blogs we started following.  Their forum alone is a great resource for recipes and menu ideas.

-  Vegansaurus single handedly planned the eating/dining schedule for our recent San Fran vaca.  This is a great blog for news, reviews, and the occasional profanity-laced post.  A true inspiration!

-  Will Travel for Vegan Food started out as a Kickstarter campaign, and is now a favorite read of EPL.  Who wouldn’t want to just travel around the U.S., eat vegan food in new and interesting places, and write about it.  That what dreams are made of folks.

-  Hipsterfood combines vegan food with artsy pics and Wes Anderson-ish fonts to create one of our favorite food photography sites.  They also publish Chickpea Vegan Quarterly which is our favorite quarterly vegan publication.

-  Nobody does vegan dessert quite like Chocolate Covered Katie!

-  For those of you who dabble in the raw vegan lifestyle, I give you Choosing Raw.  Plenty of great salad, juice, and smoothie recipes to help you get your raw on!

-  Last but certainly not least, Happy Herbivore.  Lindsay and Happy Herbivore are an institution when it comes to cooking, eating, and living a vegan lifestyle.  Her blog, along with the HH cookbooks, will continue to be an inspirational guide for our Sunday brunches, holiday dinners, and blogging exploits.

In true Web Feast fashion, we leave you with this Black Lips/Rza from Wu Tang Clan gem:

I don’t follow a recipe for this favourite soup of mine. I like to switch it up with my moods, the season, the spices I’m in love with at the time.

This particular pot was onions, then garlic, then spices: lots and lots of ground coriander and thyme, a little oregano, cumin, cinnamon, and chipotle powder. Then diced tomatoes. Then a bunch of red lentils, and a whole bunch of broth. Finally, at the end, ribbons of collards, salt, fresh pepper.

Heaven.

Ingredients:

• Russet potatoes for baking
• 1 15 oz can of black beans (drained)
• 1 15oz can of red kidney beans (drained)
• 1 15oz can of white beans (drained
• 1 14.5oz can of diced or stewed tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 green pepper
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 3/4 tablespoon of chili powder (add more if you like)
• 2 teaspoons of cumin (I love cumin)
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons of onion powder
• 1/4 tea spoon of cyan pepper. (optional)
• Non dairy sour cream cheese (optional)

Step1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop the onion, green pepper, and garlic and toss in the large pot. pour in stewed or diced tomatoes and then put in the all the beans. Mix together. You can add a little water if it needs more liquid. Toss in your seasonings and blend together. Put your potatoes in the oven a and bake for about 45mins to an hour (until soft) Heat the chili and let it simmer on low for about 45mins. Pour over the potato and garnish with shredded vegan cheese and sour cream.

Perfect for those days you just don’t feel like cooking.

Grilled Avocado Sammy:

2 slices sourdough bread
1/2 avocado, sliced
Earth Balance
Salt

Preheat skillet or panini press to medium-high heat

Spread Earth Balance on outside of each slice of bread

Spread avocado between slices of bread, sprinkle salt to taste

Grill until golden brown on each side

Barbecued Garbanzo Sliders

• 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can drained and rinsed)
• 1/2 to 1 cup prepared barbecue sauce
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/4 a large onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small hot pepper or 1/4 jalapeno, minced — optional
• 6 slider buns or dinner rolls

Pour the chickpeas and about 1/4 cup of the barbecue sauce into a medium bowl. Use a potato masher or something similar to mash and combine the two. Add more barbecue sauce as you go to add moisture. You don’t have to puree — just get everything well combined and a little chunky. Set aside. Now heat the olive oil (or sub in spray oil) in a skillet or small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the garlic and the pepper, if using, and sautee for about 30 seconds, until the garlic becomes fragrant. Now add the chickpea mash to the pan, stir everything together, and continue cooking for about three minutes. Serve on slider buns or dinner rolls topped with more barbecue sauce.

Makes six little sandwiches.

We served ours alongside sauteed Swiss chard:

If you were planning ahead and not just throwing together a pantry meal, these would be great topped with avocado, tempeh bacon, and tomato.

And in the interest of full disclosure, the buns were homemade using my sourdough starter. I was planning to make veggie burgers with homemade buns. The recipe I followed — which I now can’t find — just did not work out. It was supposed to make full-sized buns, but clearly it didn’t. I also couldn’t get my sesame seeds to stick, nor did they want to cook all the way through. The final result tasted fine, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a major kitchen stress. Bread baking should NOT be a last-minute activity. Let that be a lesson to me.

I have a dirty little secret.

Even though I make bread nearly every day, I’m not really a bread maker extraordinaire.

I just don’t have the time for endless kneading, rising and baking. On top of that, store-bought vegan bread is hard to come by and pricey when you do find it.  So I make vegan bread for pennies on the dollar and use some tricky shortcuts on the way…

Plus I have a little slave who helps me in the kitchen.

My bread slave, the Sunbeam Bread Maker. I bought it used at a thrift shop for $15

Rustic Multi-Grain Seeded Loaf

• 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 C. warm water (add the lower amount and if too dry add more, a tablespoon at a time)
• 3 C. organic whole wheat flour
• 1 C. rolled oats
• 1/4 C.  cracked kamut (you could sub any cracked grain here, even coarse corn meal would do)
• 1/4 C. millet
• 1/3 C. sunflower seeds
• 2 T. sesame seeds
• 2 T. flax seeds
• 1 1/2 t. sea salt
• 2 T. molasses
• 1 1/2 T. vital wheat gluten
• 1 1/2 T. active dry yeast (slightly more than you would normally use for a faster rise time)

Add ingredients in order to your bread maker, bosch or large bowl. I just plop in all the ingredients and press any bread cycle to knead the dough and walk away. If you don’t have a kneading apparatus, don’t walk away, the dough needs you to knead it by hand for 10-15 minutes until smooth and elastic.

okay, I really need to wipe this baby down. It’s looking rough from daily abuse!

After my slave bread maker kneads the dough for about 10 minutes, I simply unplug the machine and let the dough rise in there for 45-60 minutes. If making by hand, put dough in a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel and put in a warm place.

While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

When 45-60 minutes is up, pull the dough out, shape it into a round and roll it in whole wheat flour.

Put the dough on a baking sheet dusted with a bit more flour to prevent sticking. TURN OFF your oven and set the baking sheet on the middle rack. Set your oven timer for 20 minutes.  When the timer goes off, pull out dough and quickly slash (1/4 to 1/2 inch deep slashes) with a sharp knife, get creative with your slashy marks, it can make bread look professional, but don’t get too carried away because you might end up with mutant bread.

 Put dough back in the oven and set the oven to 350 degrees (no need to preheat). Bake this particular loaf for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden. This is bread is lovely when toasted and served with Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup

When I’m really in a hurry I do sometimes let my bread maker cook the bread for me too, because my machine has an express function, I can have a whole wheat loaf ready from start to finish in less than an hour, but I’ll tell you more about that another day.

If you’re in the market for a bread maker, do try to purchase a used model, it will cost you less and used bread makers are everywhere. Make sure the model you choose still has the dough hook (like an idiot, I didn’t check and mine didn’t have the hook, so I had to order it online) and the recipe manual. You might not need the recipes, but bread makers come in all sizes so you need to know the approximate measurements for loaves that will work in your machine (if you choose to bake in it). An express function is also especially handy for harried cooks.

And the three winners of the Butler Soy Curl Giveaway are:

Lizzie of Veggie Bento Love

Pixie of Cheerfully Vegan

and

Ashley Herring Whitaker

Winners were selected using Rafflecopter. Check your inbox, I’ll be emailing you and will need your addresses

If you didn’t win and still want to try the soy curls, find out if they’re at a store near you, (It looks like there are some international options!) Or order them here.

Vegan BBQ Sandwich with Soy Curls

Not Beef Stew with Soy Curls

When most people think of bagels, New York tends to spring to mind, but New York isn’t the only place that’s famous for their bagels. If you head on over to Montreal, you’ll find handmade, wood-fired baked bagels in just about every bagel joint. But don’t for one second think that you’re going to get anything that resembles those large fluffy bagels that New York seems to be so well known for. Montreal has put their own distinctive spin on things and if you’ve ever had one of their bagels, you’ll know exactly what I mean in regards to the differing flavors and texture. They’re just, well, better. That’s right, you heard me, I think Montreal bagels are better than New York. You might feel otherwise but when it comes down to it, I like my bagels dense, like really dense, and sweet, plus the hint of smokiness from the wood-fired ovens they use doesn’t hurt either.

Montreal bagels tend to be made smaller than the average bagel and are much sweeter as honey is typical added to the water before boiling. I love their dense chewy interior, so much so that it’s kind of hard to stop at just one…what can I say? I love me some carby goodness! Nicely toasted with a bit of margarine or Tofutti, mmmmmm, it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I can’t really vouch for how authentic this recipe is, as it was based off of one I found on The Fresh Loaf but they turned out great! That’s not to say that I didn’t have any mess-ups along the way. My bagels turned out a tad more big and fluffy than anticipated due to my inability to focus on more than one thing at a time. When you take the bagels out of the fridge, you’re supposed to let them rest just long enough to take the chill off but don’t let them rise. I of course figured this was a good a time as any to start yacking away on the phone and completely forgot about my poor little bagels until I spotted them slowly bubbling larger and larger. Lesson learned, never walk away from something without setting a timer.

If you don’t completely forget your making bagels in the middle of making bagels, you should wind up with irresistibly dense, lightly sweetened bagels that are just asking to be gobbled up. Like most things, they’re best eaten within the first few days, unless you’re into consuming bagel-shaped hockey pucks.

Montreal Style Bagels
Makes 14 to 16 bagels

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 2 cups (16 ounces) water
• 1 teaspoon (0.15 ounces) sugar
• 3 tablespoons (2.3 ounces) agave
• 4 teaspoons (0.4 ounces) malt powder
• 1/4 cup (1.85 ounces)unsweetened soy or coconut yogurt
• 3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) vegetable oil
• 6 1/2 – 7 1/2 (32.5-37.5 ounces) cups bread flour
• 3 quarts water
• 1/4 cup malt syrup or agave or 3 tablespoons & 1 teaspoon dry malt extract
• Sesame or poppy seeds for topping

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together water, 1 teaspoon of sugar and yeast. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes or until the yeast turns creamy. Add the agave, malt powder, yogurt, oil and two cups (10 ounces) of flour to the yeast mixture. Continue adding the flour until a stiff dough forms, if using a stand mixer, change to hand kneading at this point rather than strain the motor of your machine. Continue kneading until dough is soft, supple and the windowpane test can be achieved. When the dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap.

Let dough rest for 45 minutes. Divide the dough into 14 to 16 pieces. Shape the each piece of dough by rolling each portion into an 8- to 10-inch rope that is 3/4 inch thick. Fold the ends over each other, pressing with the palm of one hand and rolling back and forth gently to seal. This locks the ends together and must be done properly or the bagels will open while being boiled. Place the bagels on a lined baking sheet, mist lightly with oil, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to retard the dough.

The next day, remove the bagels from the fridge and let them come to room temperature. As bagels are warming up, bring a large pot such as a Dutch oven with 3 quarts of water, along with the malt or agave, to a rolling boil.

Preheat oven to 450F. Place sesame or poppy seeds in a nearby bowl.

When the water is boiling, use a slotted spoon, and add the bagels to the water, not so many that you crowd the pot. Boil on one side for 1 minute, turn them over, and let them boil an additional minute before removing them and quickly dipping them in either bowl of the seeds, then placing them on a lined baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Continue boiling the bagels in small batches until all have been boiled and seeded.

Place bagels on the lowest rack in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

Adapted from The Fresh Loaf

So, the very minute I saw this post I knew I had to make these. The only bummer was that I didn’t already have some prepared vanilla salt. Who am I?!?! I have homemade vanilla sugar and homemade vanilla extract. And locally made vanilla paste that I buy from The Spice Station (greatest place on Earth). I made these cookies sans proper vanilla salt. I did mix some sea salt together with some vanilla powder though….because my salt needed to be vanilla-y. Needless to say, I found a reason to use a few vanilla beans, these cookies being one, and now have some vanilla salt infusing in the cupboard.

I did make some pretty important (and some not important) but easy edits and substitutions to this recipe. Warning: making this recipe will likely result in over-consumption of cookies. Have some friends over or you will regret them. They taste like the perfect sugar cookie mixed with the perfect oatmeal cookie.

Salted Vanilla Oatmeal Cookie.

Edits:

1. White chocolate: Sometimes this can be a tricky substitution for vegans. For this recipe, I recommend you do not roast your vegan white chocolate. You can use chunks cut up from homemade white chocolate or use white chocolate chips, but don’t heat them. Add them into your stand mixer at the end, when you would normally add regular chocolate chips.

2. Sub out the butter for equal amounts Earth Balance, do not omit any salt.

3. I did not have the cereal called for and I could not find it anywhere. As Irvin suggests, I used rolled oats instead and they worked great.

4.  I used 2 tsp dry Ener-G egg replacer to replace two eggs. Do not mix with water.

5. I reduced the sugar to 1 cup; ½ c white vanilla sugar, ½ c brown sugar

6. I had no vanilla salt on hand, so I mixed some coarse sea salt with vanilla powder. You may also try mixing some coarse salt with some seeds scraped from a vanilla bean. Use the hull to infuse some salt for next time.

]]> http://versatile-vegan.com/2012/10/25/apple-cinnamon-monkey-bread-muffins/ Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:39:19 +0000 versatilevegan http://versatile-vegan.com/2012/10/25/apple-cinnamon-monkey-bread-muffins/ I don’t like waiting.

If I get a birthday gift in the mail from out of town, even if it’s before my birthday, I desperately want to open it right now.

While I won’t allow myself to do this, I have frequent urges to listen to Christmas music in October…or July…or March…

Last weekend we were on our way to the apple tasting and we stopped for gas. For those non-Oregonians, we don’t pump our own gas here. When it’s raining, I love living in Oregon. On this day I was anxious to GO! We pulled up to the pump and waited. And waited. And waited. I could take it no longer. I got out and tried to get into the computer system and pump my own blasted gas, thank you very much. I wasn’t actually successful as I didn’t know the gas station password, but I did manage to get an attendant over to our car…

I don’t like waiting.

Waiting for baked goods might be the hardest of all. That’s why in general, I make lots of muffins and scones versus cakes or breads. 20-30 minutes? I can do it. 50-60 minutes? My stomach might eat itself in the meantime.

That’s why these Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread Muffins are the best! Regular monkey bread will typically have a raw middle in my house because I just can’t wait. Muffins bake up so much faster!

Remember I promised you yet another apple post? I initially planned on submitting this recipe to Healthy Vegan Fridays but let’s be real. These muffins are vegan. These muffins are not healthy!

Well, I take that back. They’re healthy in the fact that you don’t use that dough that comes in a can that you smack on the side of the counter to hear the ‘pop’.

They’re healthy in the fact that the recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour.

They have apples for goodness sake! Apples are healthy!

So ignore the fact that each little dough ball is rolled in cinnamon sugar.

Ignore the brown sugary caramel syrup drizzled on top.

And congratulate yourself.

You’re eating something healthy for breakfast – no waiting involved!

Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread
Adapted from this recipe at Vegan Fling

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 TBS baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 TBS vegan butter (Earth Balance)
1 TBS real maple syrup
1/2 cup soy milk, mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 apple, peeled and diced

Brown sugar syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBS vegan butter

Cinnamon sugar for rolling

Instructions

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until small crumbs form. In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix into dry ingredients. Knead until smooth and divide dough into small balls, rolling each in cinnamon sugar mixture. Add diced apple to cinnamon sugar dough balls and gently stir. Divide dough into a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a small saucepan, combine syrup ingredients. Cook over low heat until sugar has dissolved. Drizzle over each muffin cup. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Restrain yourself from eating the entire batch yourself.

Let me tell you, everyone who has ever tried this has LOVED it! Even people who aren’t normally chocolate lovers LOVE this.

Before you attempt to prepare it make sure your avocados are nice and soft.

Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

• 4 ripe avocados
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup agave (you could maple syrup or date paste instead)
• pinch of salt
• a few drops of vanilla

Do

1. Open avocados and empty them (minus the pit) into a blender/mixer/food processor.
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Add half of the cocoa powder and half of the agave along with the salt and vanilla.
4. Blend until well mixed, taste and add more cocoa powder and agave until it is the flavor you like. You will not taste the avocado.
5. Refrigerate until cold.

Serve

This could be served with almost any fruit, strawberries make a wonderful accompaniment. I’ve even frosted cupcakes too. I could eat it with a spoon but I’m wild like that. You will not believe something this creamy is dairy-free. For a frozen treat, freeze it by the spoonful (on a plastic spoon). You can also freeze it in a small bowl or cup, just let it defrost for a few minutes before enjoying.

This has a really long shelf life (when refrigerated) probably due to all of the sugar. I have done experiments but it’s safe to say it usually lasts well over a week. If it’s frozen I’d use it within a month. It seems to work best for me when I use my food processor but I have used my Magic Bullet with good results, it just takes longer.

Speaking of my dear cats, here they are being all cute and stuff.  Don’t be fooled by their sweet faces, they are putting their heads together to plot something destructive in the house.

The carpet backing is reportedly 50% from recycled and renewable resources.  The carpet doesn’t smell at all, which I *hope* means its not off-gassing thanks to its PVC-free backing,  it wasn’t outrageously priced, and it feels luxuriously soft.  As one of my kids said “it feels like I’m walking on a chocolate cloud!”   When we need to replace more carpeting in our home, I think we’ll go with Nigella again.

Any thoughts on “green” carpeting?  I’d love to hear from you.

Slutty Brownies consist of three layers: chocolate chip cookies, chocolate creme cookies, and brownies. The Londoner’s original recipe uses prepackaged cookie and cake mixes. Not many pre-made mixes are available for vegans. No matter! The recipes are nearly as easy to make from scratch.

Since I was pretty confident that Liz’s recipes would turn out well, I decided to road test some others I had found searching the web.

Right off the bat, one tip I would take from The Londoner might be using “grease proof paper” or wax paper. I used cake pans for my brownies. While it wasn’t hard to get them out; it might could have been easier.

The two recipes I used specify different oven temperatures and bake times. Air on the side of caution and follow the brownie recipe; preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake between 25 and 35 minutes. (Bake time can vary depending on the pans, trays, or dishes you use; start checking at 25 mins by inserting a knife.)

For the cookie dough, I turned to Mercy for Animals. I’m a huge fan of organizations like MFA, but I’ve never tried the recipes from their starter kits. Since I leaflet for them, I figured this would be my golden opportunity.

The recipe on MFA’s ChooseVeg.com is actually courtesy of Compassionate Cooks. Woot! Woot! Colleen Patrick-Goudreau! Definitely go to the site and watch the video of Colleen with Alka Chandna of PETA. They give some really great tips!

INGREDIENTS:

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Earth Balance*, softened (although Earth Balance is the best, you may use any other non-dairy butter/margarine)
3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ENER-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs
2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl.
3. Add egg replacer one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips.
4. Pat dough into the bottom of the pan or dish.

For the center layer, you can use Oreos if you agree with PETA’s accidentally vegan list. You could also try Newman O’s as I did to mix it up or even Trader Joe’s Joe Joe’s.

Sister approved!

For the brownie mix, I found what I was looking for on All Recipes. I love to find recipes that don’t require special ingredients like Ener-G or Earth Balance. Trust me, I love my E.B. but it’s nice to know in a pinch, I can rely on the bare necessities already in my kitchen. (You’ll need the Ener-G and Earth Balance for the cookie recipe, but if you know of a really good recipe without, please let me know. Thanks!)

Below is the original recipe that makes 16 brownies worth of mix. If you want more or less, go to All Recipes to adjust the recipe to your needs.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2. Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla; mix until well blended.
3. Pour over the cookie layers.
4. Bake until the top is no longer shiny and a knife inserted comes out clean.

If you end up skipping these recipes and making The Londoner’s version, please do not heed her reminder to lick the bowl. Eggs are already unhealthy enough without lapping up some salmonella.

Great thing about making vegan baked goods is that you cut out that risk. Go forth and get dirty!