MBP-April: One Pot Wonders

Pressure Cooker is great to use for one pot meals. My entry is Creole Black eye Peas cooked entirely in pressure cooker from Susan’s Fat free Vegan. I didn’t have peppers or celery on hand, so I used frozen mixed vegetables (carrots/ beans/ peas and corn). I served it over brown rice.

New Pantry Additions

Lately I’ve started expanding my pantry staples with items that I have never used before. Here are some items that are new in my pantry/ fridge: Vital wheat gluten, Nutrition Yeast, Flax seed meal, Miso, Wheat Germ.

I made Seitan with Vital wheat gluten and nutrition yeast with Seitan O' Greatness recipe from here. This is a very versatile dish and you use any seasonings to make it your own. I added some cumin pd, coriander pd, pinch of turmeric. My husband thought it tasted a little bit like chicken, but it did not have the texture of chicken.
To use, just sauté in little bit of oil and you can use it in million different ways. Freeze the unsautéed seitan in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, it makes quick and easy BLD (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) recipes, so always make the complete recipe even if you are making for two.
I made Seitan Curry with mixed vegetables and coconut milk with half of the log (no pics.. sorry) and used half of the rest in wraps (lavash wrap smeared with mayo and filled with seitan, rice, onions, tomatoes and spinach).
I’m still snacking on the rest of the sautéed seitan. So good.. yummmmm..

MBP-April Reminder

Reminding everyone about MBP-April: One Pot Wonders.

I’m going to reply back to everyone who sends me an entry for the event. Please let me know if I don’t reply back to your email in 48hours.

Some of the emails are going into SPAM and I don’t want to miss anyone for the round up.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Vegan Baking-Morning Glory Cupcakes

One of my co-workers is on a 3 month vegan diet. She has a challenge with her sister that she was going to eat only vegan for 3 months. Personally, I don’t think I can ever become a vegan, I love my milk and cheese too much (and don’t like soy milk that much).

Well my co-worker is almost at the end of her successful three months, so I thought I’d bake her some vegan cupcakes. Personally, I could never think of baking without eggs, so these cupcakes were kind of a challenge to me too. But I have to say, they are very delicious and you wouldn’t know until someone told you that they were vegan. This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine.

You can make this cake in a 9”x5” loaf pan, or 3 6”x3” mini loaves or 12-cup muffin tin.


Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour – 2 cups (you can substitute whole wheat pastry flour)
Baking Soda – 2 tbsp
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Light Brown Sugar – 2/3 cup
Ground Cinnamon – 2 tbsp
Ground Ginger – 2 tbsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Crushed Pineapple in its own juice– 8 oz., can, drained and liquid reserved
Finely grated Carrots – 1 cup (2-3 medium carrots)
Carrot juice – ½ cup (I subbed V8 Vfusion Orange juice)
Canola Oil – 1/3 cup
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Raisins – ½ cup
Walnuts (or any nuts) – ½ cup, optional

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 350°F. Spray the baking pans you are baking in with cooking spray.
• Whisk flour ground cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  
• In a separate bowl, mix together carrot juice, ¼ cup reserved pineapple juice, oil, sugar and vanilla extract.
  
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to incorporate. Scoop into prepared baking pan(s).
  
• Bake large loaf 50 to 60 minutes, mini loaves 35 to 45 minutes, or muffins 18 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
  
• Cool 5 minutes in pan(s). Unmold and cool.
  

This cake is sweet, but not overly so, very much like a breakfast muffin. I took them to work and everyone really liked them.