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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Copy Cat

I like this one salad at Whole Foods, well I thought I did but when I had it again I wasn't that big on it this time around. I found it too sour like they put vinegar in it. It could have been because I let it sit awhile or maybe the other stuff I put with it mixed together, maybe. I normally really like the Turkish Eggplant Salad. Mainly because it has potatoes in it!! So this time around I wrote down what the ingredient card said was in it to make it at home. (Because I tried to search for the recipe on the whole foods site without much luck, besides I am horrible at searching for things on the internet.) So I bought myself a medium sized potato and a medium eggplant and got to work.

This is what the card told me was in their version: eggplant, tomato, garlic, olive oil, cilantro, lemon juice, cumin salt, paprika, chili flakes, potatoes. (To be honest I didn't really reread this before I made mine, perhaps that was good, but next time I may add some of the spices I forgot to this time.) The potatoes they have in the salad are intresting. I can't tell if the roast them or fry them or boil them, not sure. So I decied to roast mine. I like roasted potatoes and I figured that would add an extra crunch and depth of flavor to the dish. And their eggplant is soft and not browned to I figured they either saute it or stem it? So I went with saute.

My Eggplant Potato Salad

1 medium sized potato (I used an Idaho)
1/2 medium eggplant or 1 small one
1 large roasted red pepper
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin
parsley, cilantro, or lemon basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (or toaster oven to 450 degrees.)

Cut the potato into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss with the onion, oregano, salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon of the oil.

Place on a baking sheet and roast until nicely browned, about 30 to 40 minutes. (I tried to take a pic of the browned potatoes but thats when my battires died and I forgot to retake it sorry.)

Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes to match the potatoes.

Heat a saute pan with rest of oil (I think I used only like 1 teaspoon and of walnut oil). Cook the eggplant until the start to brown. Add in the cumin and a little bit of salt and pepper. Cut the red pepper to match the sizes of the other veggies.

Add to the pan.

Then add in the potatoes. Add in the herd of choice. Serve!

I really liked it. Next time I may add some paprika to the potatoes before I roast them and maybe add some tomatoes after all the ingredients are cooked so they don't really cook. Other then that delish.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hummingbirds

Have got to be the cutest, prettiest, most interesting birds ever. They have pretty colors. Those wings move so fast, oh this is a food blog, right.

Hummingbird cake (now that's more like it) sounded different to me. And it has become rather popular in the blog world. A friend of mine made some hummingbird cupcakes for a get together and that got my wheels turning. I want to make some of these. But what will I change? Haha. Sad that that is my first thought. I do love bananas in baked goods, so how about uber ripe ones so I can add less sugar, first change. Second, fresh pineapple, yes, and I used walnuts instead of the usual pecans. Well actually I have seen either nut used in many of the recipes I looked up. Third, honey for the sweetness no sugar. How did they turn out?

Delish!

Hummingbird MufCakes

1 1/2 cups whole wheat white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (yes I did use only a teaspoon, crazy I know)
3 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup chopped pineapple
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey or agave
3 tablespoons flaxmeal
3 tablespoons water
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cupcake pan with nonstick spray or line with liners. (I needed to also spray 3 mini cake pans for the left over batter or just make 6 more cupcakes.)

Combine flaxmeal with water.

Mix the dry ingredients.

Mash the bananas, add in the pineapple and any juice, oil, vanilla, honey, and flax eggs.

Mix until all the flour is moist,

fold in the walnuts.

Fill the pan about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, turning pans halfway during baking. Done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes, remove from pan and cool completely.

Now lets talk frosting. Usually a cream cheese frosting tops hummingbird cupcakes. But I was thinking either some coconut manna or cinnamon cashew butter frosting.


Cinnamon Cashew Butter "Frosting"
2 tablespoons cashew butter (I used store bought)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (bring it on, feel free to use less)
1-2 tablespoon milk of choice (I used about 2 because my cashew butter has been in the fridge for a little while)
Mix everything together.

Whats with the mufcakes? Well These can be eaten either with or without frosting hence the muffin or cupcake mufcake!

I love summer time cause I get to eat salads!! (Not like I don't eat them year round.)
Bring it on summer!!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Poppies Poppies

Oh the Wizard of Oz!

But for real no flowers but poppy seeds. And lemon. I was never a big fan of lemon flavored things. I liked it as a salad dressing but never wanted my sweets to have that tangy citrus flavor. Not until recently that is. With all the orange juice flavored things I have been making such as my Cinnarange Donuts or my version of Fruitcake. With those why not try something lemon flavored? I did just that!!

Lemon Poppy Seed Donuts


1 cup whole wheat white flour
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanhum gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon flaxmeal
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (I used Lakewood bottled I know crazy I didn't juice them myself. Use 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup water for less lemony flavor)
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray donut pans with nonstick spray.

Mix the flaxmeal and water together to form your flax egg and let it stand for a few minutes.
Combine the dry ingredients together.

Mix in the lemon juice, extract and flax egg.

Place in a zippy bag, cut off one of the corners, and pipe into the prepared pan.
Bake 16 to 20 minutes, depending of what size pan you used.

Top with your favorite glaze or coconut manna!

Haha! So many DONUTS!!!!!!!!!!! Yum!! My favorite by far are the cinnamon orange, carob is a close second, and I need to play with the lemon poppy recipe. They were very lemony.

Oh so for dinner I made some Cheezey Hummus. All I did was add nutritional yeast to the usual hummus stuff: chick peas, tahini, lemon juice, pepper, cumin, and coriander. I added a little water to make it super smooth.

Good eats today for sure.
Brown rice tortillas, bacon roasted chick peas, roasted shrooms, yellow and green peppers, black olives, 4 cheese mexican blend (reduced fat of course) and salsa. Sooo good!!

Next...hum.... I'm thinking of trying hummingbird cake?

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Seitan...

What is the stuff?
What can you do with it?
Can buy it? Or can I make it?
What does it taste like?
What kind of texture does it have?

And I bet there are endless amounts of questions one can ask about the stuff. The stuff being seitan. I did make it a while back in this post. But now to get to those questions.

Seitan is made from wheat, well gluten to be exact. So those of you who are gluten and wheat free do not eat seitan or anything made with it or you will be in pain later. Vital wheat gluten is what I made my homemade seitan from. I actually used the recipe on the back of the package (I used Bob's Red Mill brand). It is very simple and not to time consuming, like I said in the other post, I believe. Gluten is that chewy texture you get when you eat bread, pizza crust, and other bread like foods (bagels). Gluten is the protein aspect of the bread or other wheat product. So there fore it is used as a meat/protein substitute.

You can do just about anything with it. And flavor it in many different ways. Last time I made just a basic recipe. This time I added fennel seeds to the recipe to give it a more "sausage" like flavor. I really should have added a few other spices as well to give it an even more sausage flavor. Cause I'm not going to lie, out of all the meats that I miss eating a good Italian sausage is probably what I miss the most.

So is there going to be a recipe in this post? Well kinda sort of. I have made the fennel seed seitan but don't have a step by step picture showing of me making it due to the fact that I posted the recipe before. Just add in 2 tablespoons of fennel seeds along with the other spices before you add in the water. Cook it exactly the same way. I made a yummy eggplant sausage roasted red pepper layered dish with some melted cheese. It was yummy. I do have pictures of the process of making that though =]

Eggplant and Seitan

1 baby eggplant, roasted with my usually seasonings and some oil
1 red pepper, roasted over a flame on the stove top  until black then peeled the skin
              off
1/4 cup of reduced fat 4 Italian Blend cheese
1/2 cup or 4 pieces of fennel seed seitan

Preheat the oven (toaster oven) to 400 degrees.

Layer the eggplant on the bottom.

Top with the seitan.

Top that with the roasted red peppers.

Add some cheese, any more eggplant, and more cheese.
Cook until cheese is melted and browned (I do love browned almost burnt cheese).
Eat!

Oh and Happy Belated Mother's Day!! Yea supper late. I did make my mom her favorite scones for the actual day. But just yesterday I made her some brownies. (Normal not vegan or anything) with dark chocolate m&m's and almond m&m's.

Woohoo... Oh and here are some dark chocolate donuts I made:

I used my carob donut recipe but used Hersey's Special Dark cocoa powder then just topped it with a quick ganache and chocolate sprinkles.

How adorable is this:
mini ketchup!!

Up next I'm thinking some lemon poppy donuts??...