I'm Working on Blogging More!! Promise

I need to be posting more of the stuff I am cooking these days!! I will attempt to keep up with it better in the future. I can't promise anything for the next few days, because my Mother in law is in the hospital for the fourth time in four weeks, so I will try to get back to our regularly scheduled programming as soon as possible.



I have a confession to make to the world!!! I am a second hand and thrift store junkie!! There, I said it. Wow, what a relief to finally let that out of the closet. Pictured below are the most recent, incredibly unique(I think), newest editions to my little kitchen. I love the design in the middle, and how it almost looks like an eye is looking out, and at one dollar a piece, they were a great bargain!!





I am testing some recipes for a magazine, and this was one of my first picks. It is a Zucchini bread, I found it has a little too much sugar for my taste, but other than that it was very moist and flavorful.
I made the Banana Split brownies from Vwav, this week and pictured below is how they turned out. I find them very moist and rich, and they really taste like a banana split. Joey offered the suggestion of some sort of strawberry topping to really make it taste like the banana splits he enjoyed in his earlier years. I was concerned because the batter did not fill the pan very much, and I was concerned about flat brownies. However, it seems that my fears were unnecessary as you can see from the picture on the bottom. My neighbors are going to enjoy some of these I hope.

Finally, No Sweets Tonight!!

Okay, so I thought I would give everyone a break from the sweets. Not that I didn't make any, I'll just wait till another day to show the pictures. Pictured to the left is something that I played around with. But it is so.............GOOD!! I know, I know, you look at the picture and go "ugh", Okra, I hate okra!!! I am here to tell you okra can be good when prepared right!! And it doesn't always have to be fried!!

This recipe is from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, I just added some of my own flair. It's called Smothered Okra. Though as you can see, I actually smothered rice in okra :)

Smothered Okra Recipe:

1/2 cup of diced onion

1/2 cup of diced bell pepper

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 cups of okra, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

2 cups of diced, peeled tomatoes(I cheated and used 2 cans)

2 TBS. of margarine

Salt & pepper to taste

1/2 tsp. of ground red pepper(if you don't want it real spicy, use less)

3-4 dashes of hot sauce(or not if you prefer)

Saute the garlic in the margarine for about a minute of medium heat, then add the pepper and onions and cook for about 4-5 minutes or till translucent. Add the okra, tomatoes, and spices, bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and cook for about 20-25 minutes, till okra has become tender. You can serve plain or I prefer mine over rice with some extra hot sauce.

I am sure I will have more recipes with rice in the future, I purchased a rice cooker last week and have already used it three times. But at least it's healthy for you. Until I whip up a batch of rice pudding that is.

Promised Photo's and Recipe

My sincerest apologies for being a bad blogger this week!! It's just been one of "those weeks". Though I do have a few pics and a recipe today. My old muffin pan finally fell apart, which is why it is not a very pretty picture of them, the inside turned out beautifully and tasted so good though!! The recipe is as follows: for the muffins

1 3/4 cups of flour

3/4 + 2 TBS. of sugar

2 1/4 tsp. of baking soda

1/4 tsp. of salt

3/4 cup of soy milk

1/3 cup of canola oil

2 tsp. of soy yogurt

1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries

For the crumb topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup of sugar

2 TBS. of canola oil

zest and juice of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins/cups. Begin by making the crumb topping, start with the oil, flour and sugar in a small bowl. Mix with either a fork, or if you don't care about getting a little messy, use your fingers. Add in the zest with the juice and mix till crumbly texture forms, preferably small bits of crumbs. Next sift the dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl, then in a smaller bowl combine the wet ingredients. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet mix to the dry mix. Mix just enough to combine, being sure not to over mix. Add the blueberries to mix, and gently fold in to batter. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full, then go back and crumble some of the lemon mixture on all muffins. Cook for 18 to 22 minutes, depending on your oven. Muffins are done when toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Allow to cool. The crumb topping will be crunchy the first day and them moist the following day.

I will be posting more pics, probably tomorrow. I have made some Chocolate Chip muffins with the above recipe, just subbing chocolate chips for blueberries and lemon. As well as some new experimental recipes I am trying to veganize. Thanks again to Bianca and Jessy for the web award!!!!!!!!

Thanks Guys

Thanks so much!! Thanks to Jessy at http://happyveganface.blogspot.com/ and Bianca http://vegancrunk.blogspot.com/. You have no ideal how much this means to me, still being so new to the blogging community. If it hadn't been for great encouragement, I would never have even started a blog. I have learned so much from so many people.

I am passing this along to the following people, though it is a hard choice, because I love reading so many fellow vegan blogs.

http://thevoraciousvegan.blogspot.com/

http://vegancowgirl.blogspot.com/

http://havecakewilltravel.com/

http://veganvisitor.wordpress.com/

http://sillyvegans.blogspot.com/

http://aliceinveganland.blogspot.com/

http://vegan-fare.blogspot.com/

~ put the logo on your blog.~ add a link to the person who awarded you.~ nominate seven other blogs.~ add links to those blogs on your blog.~ leave a message for your nominee on their blogs.

Don't Drink & Drive! Drink & Bake!!!!

Sorry that there will be no posting of the incredible lemon-blueberry muffins that I created tonight. It had been a really long night, and after having several stiff gin and tonics, I meandered into the kitchen with a creative recipe forming in my head. Back in my younger and heavier days, I used to love stopping by the store and picking up one of the Hostess blueberry muffins, I loved the crumb topping on top. I would never eat one of those again, so I tried to recreate the recipe from memory and I think I came pretty damn close!! And yes, I did have the presence of mind to write the recipe down, and I will post the recipe and pic later.

We made a trip to the Memphis Farmer's Market downtown, and cleaned up on a surplus of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, okra, red bell peppers, peaches, and my favorite thing this week: Organic blueberries!!! I was eating them as I was making the muffins.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have made all of this

So pictured on the right are the promised(though shitty) pics of the citrus bars. Which I will post a modified recipe for soon, they were not quite perfect and I want to tweak them just a little. And I didn't think that the baking bug would bite me for a little while, but for reasons unknown, I awoke wanting to experiment with some chocolate chip cookies, I tried the recipe from vegan-recipes-alive.com. I changed the 1 cup of vegan margarine to 1/2 cup of margarine and 1/2 cup of Earth Balance shortening sticks. They may not be the best looking, but, DAMN!!! They tasted like the real thing. I probably should have remembered my promise to myself, that I would never again make chocolate chip cookies when I am home alone, and I am not even going to confess how many ate. (Not as many as I thought though!!) These are definitely going in my "keeper", recipes.

Lowfat Banana Bread from Vcon

So upon visiting tons of vegan blogs, and seeing how many people were making the low fat banana bread from Vcon, I had to try it out for myself. As you can see, that one spot in the middle is slightly overdone. But I can honestly say that this is the best tasting and moistest banana bread I have ever tasted!! And it's hard to believe that it's low fat! I spent many years on a low fat diet(which never really worked well for me.), and none of the food ever tasted this good. I also veganized a citrus bar recipe which was not quite ready yet. I will have pics tomorrow.

Been under the weather lately.....

So having been under the weather for the past several days, I was unable to eat hardly anything, let alone cook. Once I began to feel better, we decided to get chinese take-out from our favorite little place, Golden Dragon, which happens to be right across the street. It's a really neat little place, there was recently an article in the DeSoto appeal about the fact that neither of the owners speak very good english, so they have gotten their 9 year old son to start taking orders and running the register. All of which he enjoys doing. And it works out well for vegans, because he can translate what is in the entree's. I opted for my favorite: Broccoli and carrots with garlic sauce and an order of spring rolls, which is filled with cabbage and shitake mushrooms. I mix up the soy sauce, hot sauce and spicy mustard for my own twist on a dipping sauce.
Once I recovered enough to feel like cooking, I was extremely excited to try out a "Teese" pizza. And.................WOW. It really tasted like the pizzas I used to make all the time. I did cheat and opted for a premade crust, but it was still good. I just purchased a rice cooker, so I will be posting some entree and baked goods pics soon.

This was SO Good

This turned out so much yummier than I thought! I love the thick layer of icing in the middle. Sorry about the messy picture. Joey liked it, but did not like the molasses that the icing recipe suggests using, to his palate the molasses added a slightly burnt taste? Tasted great to me though! His taste has been slightly off recently anyway.

Warning about the cookies and cream cupcakes: The cookies all came to the top of the cakes and made them crispy the day after baking. I am yet to discover why? But when I do, I will let everyone know.

See what happens when I stress out?

To me, there is just something about baking/cooking which helps alleviate stress. Although I usually end up spending more time working out, just to burn the calories from all the goodies! My oven was repaired today, thank God above!! And just in the nick of time. It's been a long week, and I am hoping with the arrival of the weekend, things will look up.

Pictured below are what I decided to bake tonight. I began with the cake, it is the Banana Split cupcake recipe from VctotW, with the Elvis variation. One of the yummiest things I baked recently were those Elvis cupcakes, and I have been craving them again, but not as cupcakes. So I just did one and a half recipes of the banana cupcakes, baked them in cake pans and made a double batch of peanut butter icing. I wish I had something to decorate the top with, like some chocolate pieces or some banana chips. I will post a photo of the inside when I cut it.

Once I had that in the oven and the icing made, I still wasn't ready to leave the kitchen quite yet. So I decided to whip up a half batch of the Cookies and Cream cupcakes, also from VctotW. They turned out pretty, but once again, my photography could use steadier hands for a better picture. They are really good, but I still think my favorite are the Elvis cupcakes.

Due to a Series of Unfortunate Events....

Due to a series of unfortunate, though not completely unfunny, set of events. My oven has seen fit to up and die on me. I never have understood the "up and died", saying from the south, but since I still live here I might as well use it. How do you up and die? Anyway, since cooking is my main therapy for stress, I have been going insane. So I decided tonight to use my little tiny toaster oven to make some Blackberry Muffins. I followed the recipe from the VeganCrunk blog, whom had the link on her blog for the recipe. Really, really good muffins, though I would recommend tasting your blackberries first for the level of tartness. Mine were a little too tart and could have used some extra sugar to balance it out. But still really goood.
And, after hearing and reading so many positive reviews on Teese, I ordered some and just when I thought I could wait no longer, it arrived. There should have been a royal procession musical intro when it arrived and I first bit into a piece of..................how do you describe something that tastes and feels and looks so close to real cheese that it could be? Oh, yeah, TEESE!!! If you have not tried this yet, why are you waiting???? I waited so long and now am kicking myself in the ass for not buying it earlier. The real test was going to be how it melted, Joey, not wanting to wait till the oven was working again, decided to surprise me with bread, pizza sauce, fresh tomato's and the awe-inspiring Teese. It MELTS!! Truly melts. Now for some real pizza.............as soon as the oven's working that is.

Peach Cobbler and Incredible Salad

Okay, so pictured above is the peach cobbler that I made for the 5th of July(ha-ha). I originally made the recipe from VwaV, but neither Joey nor I liked the topping very much. So I decided to redo it with some extra peaches and put my own recipe for a crust on top, and it was so good!!! I would recommend if you are from the south, trying a different top crust. Mine is as follows:

1 cup of flour(I used unbleached white)

1 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

1/4 + 1 Tbs. sugar (I used natural cane sugar)

1/4 cup of vegetable or canola oil

2/3 cup of almond milk

1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract

This is just the crust recipe. Mix the dry ingredients together and in a seperate bowl mix the wet. Add the wet to the dry, mixing the ingredients. Be sure not to over mix or batter will be heavier.

And I know everyone has a salad picture on their blog, but my friend introduced me to the incredible soy feta and I had to have it on a salad. It tastes so close to real feta, I could eat it every day. It's just a salad mix with fresh bell peppers, tomatoes, black olives and tons of soy feta crumbled on top. With the ranch dressing listed below, I was making such noises, I was almost concerned with what the neighbors thought.

Such a non-conformist am I

Being the non-conformist that I am, I opted to fix 4th of July goodies on the 5th instead. Partially due to some humorously embarrassing antics, which I will never let on too. (Unless you are around me when I am really trashed, and then you might get to hear about it.) Pictured below is your basic southern potato salad and bbq beans. The messy sandwich in the back is a bbq tempeh with homemade coleslaw. It has been so long since I have had any type of bbq, I almost squealed in delight upon the first bite! Also prepared but not pictured yet is bbq tofu, and peach cobbler for dessert.

Breakfast for dinner

I do not see a reason for the heavy meal that people seem to enjoy so early in the morning: Breakfast. I sometimes wonder if people around here even know the meaning of that word. It's not that hard if you think about it. Seems like every time I turn around, you see a huge plate, piled up high with eggs, pancakes, etc. Way too early in the morning a stomach to handle that much food. Just give me a piece of fruit that early and I am good to go. Now breakfast for dinner, that's another story. A nice filling, but not to greasy meal. Pictured below are my versions of vegan breakfast for dinner.

The meal consisted of homemade baking powder biscuits, white country gravy(which took me awhile to perfect the vegan version.), Lightlife sausage, and tofu scramble. I prepared all but the tofu scramble which was a collaboration between Joey and I. I wasn't too fond of the scramble the first time I tried it, I think I was heavy handed on the spices. This time I lessened the spices, and added bell peppers, onions, jalepeno's and tomatoes all purchased from the local farmer's market. You may call me crazy(which I proudly embrace!!), but yes, that is Tofutti on top of the scramble.

The next day, being the only one in the house which enjoys the tofu scramble, I made some breakfast burritos and put sour cream, salsa, an black olives all over it. It was so good, I am making another batch of scramble just for the burritos again.

I do live around Memphis so.........

Seeing as how I do live in the Memphis area, and have never been to Graceland, I thought I would make up for it by baking up a batch of the "Elvis" peanut butter and banana cupcakes from VctotW. And can I just say, Damn!! I like sweets but not ones that are overly sweet. So this was perfect. They would have been a lot prettier had my pastry bag not been a bitch and burst open on me yet again. But they taste better than they look.

Then, still having overripe bananas and not wanting to waste them, I decided to whip up a pan of banana bread. I don't use the nuts, because I know to many people that are allergic or intolerant of them. I don't like my banana bread like the typical recipes. I prefer a little more kick and flavor. So i'll post mine with the modifications in it. I have for years used the older recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and veganized and added on. So here goes:

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder

1/4 tsp. of baking soda

1/2 tsp. of ground cinnamon

1/2 to 1 tsp of ginger(depending on how much kick you like)

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup of plain soy yogurt

1 cup of mashed (very ripe) bananas

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of oil

1 tsp. of vanilla extract

1-2 Tbs. of soy milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease bottom and up sides of an 8x4x2 inch loaf pan. In mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Make a well in the center of dry mixture and set aside. In another bowl, combine the bananas, yogurt, sugar, oil, and vanilla and milk. Add the wet mixture into the well you made earlier in the dry ingredients, just until moistened. Be careful not to overmix. Bake for anywhere from 40 to 50 minutes depending on your oven.

Hope this is a likeable recipe and you enjoy.