Thanksgiving Pie

This post is a bit wordy but I've had a couple of people ask about gluten-free/vegan desserts recently so I will have to post about pie. If you have spend any time with my family you would know that while we are dessert crazy, we are pie obsessed. I was taught that pie can be a complete meal. For example, pumpkin pie has your diary, grain, protein and vegetable. All you need! For my brother's 30th birthday we put candles in pie. A few years ago my parents had to be on the other side of the country for Thanksgiving and I think my sister, Dr.L, and I overcompensated for their being away.

Apple pie, apple tart, pumpkin pies, grape, berry, shoo-fly, peach, strawberry-rubarb, sweet potato and a pecan pie. We made all of the pies in this picture ourselves and Dr. L bought more at the Dutch Market (we have strong Pennsylvania Dutch roots).
Since then, the family has gotten more health concious and Dad, who has celiac disease, and Dr. L & her husband, Dr. K, have all gone vegan. I haven't managed to join them but their bloodwork numbers are much better than before and they all feel better. I still have the obsessive urge to feed them so I keep experimenting with foods that they will eat and Pumpkin Pie is one of the best recipes I've found.

I found a vegan Pumpkin Pie recipe thru pinterest, because isn't that where you would look first? And this was the recipe I decided to try.

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/desertrecipes/r/tofupumpkinpie.htm

For years now I have made pumpkin pie without the crust. It's fast, it's easy, and if you put a little less sugar in it you can call it a vegetable!  And that is the fastest way to make it gluten-free! If you prefer having a crust, I recommend using the Oil Pastry recipe from the red&white checked cookbook (otherwise know as the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook). Just replace the wheat flour with Authentic Foods Superfine Brown Rice Flour. It's a little harder to work with but just keep patting and poking bits of dough into the holes and it bakes up wonderful.

Here is my version of Vegan Pumpkin Pie that everyone: kids, grownups, vegans and omnivores all like:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients:
One box (12 oz.) of silken/soft tofu
1 16oz can of pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
pinch of cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses (very important!)
1 1/2 Tablespoon ground flaxseed

Put all of the ingredients in your food processor and process until smooth and there are no specks of white. Pour into a greased glass pie pan. Bake for 15 minutes and then lower your oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for another 40-50 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Enjoy!

Yummy Muffins!

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine - teacher, crafter, and baker extroidinaire - shared some of her favorite vegan recipes with me. I haven't tried them all but my favorite on is her Basic Muffin Recipe. As is usually the case with my favorite recipes, I can customize to my little heart's content! And I do!

So far the version I like the best is my Apple Cinnamon Muffins. And to my joy, my 7 year old loves them! He won't eat my bannana bread, my strawberry bread, any cookies with nuts, most versions of biscotti,...probably better for him that he doesn't eat most of those things but I do like to feed the ones I love!

Here is the Basic Muffin Recipe.
Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingreadients:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup soymilk
1/3 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup of add-ins: blueberries, cherries, diced apples, chocolate chips, nuts, etc...)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400
-Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray
-In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients and make a well
-Add wet ingreadients one at a time to well
-Mix just until combined, fold in add-ins
-Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full
-Bake 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For Apple Cinnamon Muffins I mostly follow the orginial recipe except for:
- I add 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients
- I leave out the vanilla
- instead of applesauce, I LOVE to use apple butter, soooo tasty!
- my add-in of choice is 2-3 granny smith apples, peeled, diced, place in a microwave-save bowl and microwave for 2-3 minutes until most pieces are soft, let cool while you get the rest of the ingredients ready; sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar to the apples if they are especially tart.

The apple muffin recipe makes a dozen big muffins OR 12 small muffins & 12 mini-muffins OR 3 dozen mini-muffins.

Try my version. Make up your own version. Just keep me posted on your favorite combinations!

Rainy week baking

With the hurricaine blowing in to town, the urge to turn the oven on and bake and cook has been irrisitable. Yesterday I made granola and biscotti. Today I've made hot cereal for breakfast, a pot of tea - Iranian style - to last the day, veggie covered pizza for lunch and now I have a couple of cans of sweetened condensed milk boiling on the stove to make caramel for all the apples I have in the house.

I haven't posted any more recipes because loading pictures is such a chore. Finally decided that I will just post anyway so here are the recipes for the granola and biscotti.

My Favorite Biscotti recipe is from Pam Anderson, author of The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight & Eating Great. After checking the cookbook out at the library numerous times, I finally bought the book, mostly for this recipe. These are sooo easy to make and I can change the basic recipe to so many versions - different flavors, gluten-free, vegan; it's so much fun!

My Favorite Biscotti

3 large eggs (can replace with 3 Tbsp. flaxseed meal and 9 Tbps. water)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour (to make gluten-free I use superfine brown rice flour)
1 cup minus 2 Tbsps sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips or other add-ins (I frequently add more!)
1/4-1/2 cup milk (my addition so I can just spoon the thick batter onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheet; to make vegan use almond or soy milk)

Prehead your oven to 300 degrees. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Mix eggs, vanilla and milk in a small bowl. In a larger bowl mix the remaining ingredients, add your wet ingredients and mix just until you have a thick, wet batter.  Spoon the batter onto your cookie sheet in two or three lines that look like melted logs.

Bake for about 50 minutes until golden brown. Take from oven and let cool about 5 minutes. Change your oven temperature to 275 degrees.

Slice your logs diagonally into 1/2-inch slices and turn them on their sides on the same cookie sheet. Bake for another 25-40 minutes, depending on how much milk you added, until your cookies are crisp and golden.

Cool on a wire rack and keep in an airtight container for up to a month or until you've eaten them all!


Another recipe I've been making regularly is granola. I know what's in it, I can change it every time and it lasts a couple of weeks really well. I have a Wilton jelly-roll cake pan that I don't think I've ever used to make cake! It is a nice, sturdy pan with straight sides about an inch high. If I cover it with aluminum foil, I can roast veggies, make granola, bake chicken breast or tofu, and the food comes out great and clean-up is a snap.

This is what I put in the granola this week (and I didn't measure anything carefully!):

6 cups rolled oats
2 cups chopped almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds
3 scoops powdered milk; I used to use vanilla protein powder but I found that the splenda in it gave me a headache
2/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup water

Mix everything together and bake at 275 degrees, stirring every 20 minutes, til it starts to get crunchy and golden. Let cool completely before storing. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

I've been playing around with the idea of doing a blog and am finally just going to get started.  I want a place where I can post pictures and recipes of all the things I am cooking and baking, as well as a place where I can give healthy recipes or food tips for those looking for ideas.  

Today is my husband's birthday. He doesn't care if he gets any cards or gifts and hardly remembers that its his birthday. I, on the other hand, have to cook and bake something for him! Fortunately, that seems to make him happier than almost anything else I could do.

Tonight's menu was Mary Gang's Rolls whole-wheat rolls, Italian Stuffed Pepper Soup and Peach cake.  The rolls are a long-time family favorite that is super-easy but is always on the table for Thanksgiving.  The Peach cake is one of my husband's favorite comfort foods and the soup was a new recipe that turned out so yummy that it will be going on our regular menu rotation.


Italian Stuffed Pepper Soup

2 large onions, chopped 

2 cups pre-cooked ground beef

2 cans petite-diced tomatoes

4 cups green, red or yellow peppers, cut up into small squares 

          (I used 5 peppers - 2 green & 1 each of red orange and yellow)

1 small box mushrooms, chopped fine

2 tbs beef-flavored bouillon 

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

6 cups water

Sauté onions and peppers with 2 cups water in stock pot.  Add remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer about 40 minutes, or until peppers and onions are tender.  Serve over hot rice.

This soup could easily be made vegetarian (as was the original recipe - Thanks Joe!), just replace the beef with vegeburger or reconstituted tvp (or textured vegetable protein).  You could also add other veggies that happen to be handy when you are making it.

Peach Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1/2 stick of butter, melted.  Pour and spread just enough butter to coat the bottom and sides of a 9"x13" glass baking dish, reserve the rest of the butter.

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar (today I used raw sugar for its brown-sugary flavor)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

1 egg

Whisk batter together and pour into the buttered dish.

2 cans sliced peaches

Use a fork to place peach slices on top of the batter. Drips of juice just make it tastier! Drizzle remaining butter over the top of the peaches.

Bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. Don't burn your tongue on the very-hard-to-resist just-out-of-the-oven cake!!! Also tasty topped with vanila ice cream.