Pumpkin

I have so much pumpkin, I don't know what to do with it all. We've been getting giant pie pumpkins from the CSA every week!! I've done pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cupcakes, and pumpkin cake. I've also made pumpkin sauces for pasta. Now I still have about 4 cups of pumpkin puree in the refrigerator, and TWO more pie pumpkins sitting on the counter! Luckily winter squashes will last on the counter for awhile (because I also have butternut squash, carnival squash, and sweet dumpling squash), but at some point I'm going to have to cook those pumpkins. I'm open to any suggestions and ideas.......by the way, does pumpkin puree freeze well??

Anyway, while I like lots of savory squash dishes, I really do like pumpkin best in sweet, dessert type dishes. Following are my "veganizations" of two pumpkin recipes I love.

Pumpkin Crumb Bars

1 1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup Earth Balance, room temperature

2 cups pumpkin puree (or one 16 oz can)

2/3 cup hemp milk (or other non dairy milk of your choice)

1/3 cup light brown sugar

Ener-G egg replacer for 1 egg

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground allspice

Preheat oven to 375. Combine oats, flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, salt, baking soda and Earth Balance in bowl of stand mixer. Mix until crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture and press remaining mixture into a 13x9 baking dish that has been sprayed with canola oil. Bake crust for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare filling. Combine pumpkin, hemp milk, brown sugar, egg replacer and spices. Beat until smooth and well blended. Spread over crust, sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. Return to oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until filling is set and crumb topping is golden brown. Cool in pan and cut into bars. These can be served at room temperature, but I prefer them after they've been refrigerated.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup unbleached bread flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 Tsp canola oil

1 6 oz container vegan yogurt (I used vanilla Coconut Milk yogurt)

1/4 cup + 2 Tbs water

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In bowl of stand mixer combine dry ingredients. Mix to combine well. In a small bowl whisk together all wet ingredients. With stand mixer running, pour wet ingredients into dry. Combine just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into 9x5 bread pan that has been sprayed with canola oil. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack until completely cooled.

Stawberry Shortcakes

This has been our first week of school, and I've been trying to make most of the things that are Mairin's favorites, along with a few special treats for her. Yesterday she was greeted off the bus with warm Chocolate Chip Cookies and a glass of vanilla soy milk. This morning before she left for school she was telling me how much she loved strawberry shortcake ("you know, the desserts mommy, not the girl"). Luckily, Vegan Dad had just posted a recipe for shortcake, so I knew exactly what my special treat today would be. We actually finished up our chocolate chip cookies from yesterday after school and had these delicious shortcakes after our dinner. The cake was just right, and served with Temptation Vanilla Ice Cream, it was just like the strawberry shortcakes from childhood.

For dinner we've been having meals that I know Mairin will eat.....I want her to be well fed for the first week of school, ya know. So we've had "Giardino" Burgers, spaghetti, and tonight a tofu scramble. I've made a similar curried tofu scramble that I blogged about before. This scramble had green onions, carrots, garlic and spinach scrambled with the tofu and seasoned with salt, pepper and curry powder. The kids actually like this, which has surprised me twice now!!. I served them with some potato cakes that I made from mashed potatoes that were leftover from earlier in the week.

Lindsay's Apple Blossom

For Mother's Day Mairin made me a lovely cook book at her preschool. Each kid had to bring in their favorite recipe and the teacher laminated and bound them all with a picture of your child dressed as a chef on the front. It's such a cute little keepsake, but it unfortunately won't get used much here. Our recipe (lentil tacos) is of course one of only two vegan recipes in the book (and I'm quite sure the other is just vegan by coincidence). Some are easily veganizable, but most are so heavy on the animal products that there's no way I could even begin to veganize them.

Mairin's friend Lindsay brought in the only other vegan recipe, and today we decided to give it a try for snack time. It's diced apples cooked inside a tortilla. It's a clever little snack, but would make a fantastic dessert paired with some non-dairy vanilla ice cream, when you need something quick and simple.

Lindsay's Apple Blossom

1 small apple, diced

sugar (I used unrefined)

cinnamon

tortilla

Place diced apple along center of tortilla. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Wrap burrito style and microwave for 1 min. 30 sec. Let cool a little, and serve.

Vegan Pound Cake

In anticipation of more strawberries from the CSA today, I decided I wanted to make shortcakes for dessert. So I set about looking for pound cake recipes. Most that I found called for silken tofu which I just used the last of in a smoothie the other day, so that was out. Most also called for lemon extract, which again I did not have. What to do, what to do?? Improvise!!

Working from several recipes and ingredients I had on hand I devised my only little recipe for

Orange Tofu Pound Cake:

1/3 cup softened Earth Balance
3/4 cup unrefined sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 package firm tofu
juice of 1 orange (plus 1 1/2 tsp orange zest)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350. In your food processor or blender process tofu with orange juice until smooth. In bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand held mixer) cream together Earth Balance and sugar (unrefined sugar doesn't cream as well as white granulated sugar, but it was all I had). With machine running add baking powder, vanilla, tofu mixture, orange zest and water. Slowly sift in flour until batter forms. Lightly oil 5x6 baking dish and fill with batter. Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, until top is golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean.

Thankfully the CSA came through with 4 pints of strawberries this week!! After washing them I sprinkled them with unrefined sugar and allowed them to macerate while we at dinner. Then I served them over slices of Orange Tofu Pound Cake. The creamy topping you see on them is just the other half of the tofu from the pound cake processed in the food processor with 1/4 cup of maple syrup and 1 Tbs powdered sugar.

Yum yum, strawberry shortcake is a sure sign that summer is on it's way!!!

As American As..........

You guessed it, Apple Pie. Today we finally got our chance to cast a vote in this seemingly never ending Democratic Presidential Primary. So, in honor of performing our patriotic duty, we had an All American dinner. We'll get to that in a minute though. Let's start with how we finished our All American dinner........with what else than an All American Apple Pie.


This pie was so good. I love pie (actually, I love pie crust). The bottom crust was so "buttery" and moist, and the top crust was so sweet and crunchy. YUM, just perfect!!

Pie Crust

(veganized from Martha Stewart's Pâte Brisée recipe)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp white sugar

1/2 lb (or 2 sticks) Earth Balance, cut into small pieces and kept very cold

Place flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of your food processor, and pulse to combine. Add Earth Balance and process until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, add ice cold water in a steady stream, through feed tube just until dough holds together. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Vegan Apple Pie

1 recipe for pie crust (from above)

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) Earth Balance

3 Tbs all purpose flour

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup unrefined sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp nutmeg

7 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

Preheat oven to 425. Melt Earth Balance in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water and sugars and bring to a boil. Add spices, stir to combine, and reduce heat to simmer.

Line your 9-10 inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Fill with apples, mounded and pressed down firmly. Pour about 3/4 of hot caramel mixture over apples. Cover with top crust (either a full top with slits cut in, or a lattice work). Pour remaining caramel mixture over top crust.

Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven. Reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake for 35 minutes, until apples are soft.

I also made some vanilla non dairy ice cream to go alongside the pie. I haven't had much luck with the consistency of my vanilla ice cream in the past, but this time I used Silk Creamer, rather than regular soy milk, and it turned out nice and creamy (the closest yet to real ice cream).

OK, so, we didn't eat our dessert first. Before we enjoyed the apple pie we chowed on the All American meal of burgers and fries. Our burgers were Original Sunshine Burgers, cooked on the grill and topped with all the fixin's. And, I just baked some crinkle cut fries from WFM. I wanted to try some of the new Amy's burgers that The Chocolate Covered Vegan blogged about not too long ago. However, I couldn't find any of this particular Amy's brand, and the only one's they had at my store all contained nuts, so they weren't an option. Sunshine Burgers were the only other veggie burgers I could find that were vegan and didn't contain nuts. They turned out to be very good, even the girls really liked them!!

It still remains to be seen what the results of our vote will be..........go "hopes and dreams"!!!

Earth Day Dinner

Ok, so it's only an "Earth Day dinner" because it's Earth Day, not because we did anything special to celebrate it. Honestly, I feel a bit ashamed that we didn't celebrate, but quite frankly, I couldn't think of a single thing we could do to celebrate Earth Day that we don't do nearly every day. That's right folks, it's Earth Day every day at our house!!


Actually, we had thought to plant a tree, but we've had terrible luck with tree planting in the past. Our trees never seem to survive the season. So instead, we've decided to have an arborist come to plant some trees for us. Therefore, tree planting was out.

I do have some cute Earth Day themed things that Mairin has said and done though. First, she's very concerned about conserving toilet tissue so as not to need to cut down trees to make more. She still hates to use a napkin if it has one spot of food on it, but heaven forbid if you use more than 1 square of TP. She can also frequently be caught picking up random trash and throwing it away, wondering why people don't do so in the first place. And, the other day the weather was a strange mix of sun, rain, clouds, etc. and I commented that Mother Nature was having a tough time making up her mind.......later that day Mairin says to me "Mommy, why are you having a hard time making up your mind today?" I looked at her puzzled and asked what she meant and she says "well, you are Mother Nature, aren't you?"


Alright, now to the food, that is after all why you guys stopped by, right? For dinner tonight we had Mushroom Burgers, fried Yukon Gold potatoes, and steamed broccoli. The burger recipe came from vegweb. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. Only, I didn't use fresh herbs, I used about 2 tsp dried basil instead. Also, instead of the cooked white rice the recipe calls for I used a combo of cooked brown basmati and bulgur (because I had a bowl of those two already cooked and mixed together in the refrigerator). These burgers were really, really good. They looked very much like beef burgers, and while they didn't taste exactly like beef burgers, they did have the essence. I think next time I make them (and there will definitely be a next time) I'll add a little vegan Worcestershire, and less liquid smoke.


I grilled the burgers on my indoor grill, and served them on toasted buns with a bit of Vegenaise, sliced onion, and lettuce. For the potatoes, I just sliced them thin, and fried them in about 2 Tbs olive oil with about 1/2 a spanish onion sliced into small slices.

I hadn't planned any dessert, but then started thinking I should do something special since it is Earth Day and all. So, I started looking around to see what I had on hand, and it turns out I had everything I needed to make the Banana Swirl "Cheesecake" from Vegan Planet.

Actually, I took a little help and used a store bought graham cracker crust that I had in my freezer. Also, for the peanut butter in the filling I substituted soy nut butter. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as is.

Once again, vegan dessert did not disappoint. This was delicious. It didn't have that tang that traditional cheesecakes have, but that certainly didn't change the fact that this dessert was quite decadent!!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Nothing new for dinner tonight to share with you. We had Snobby Joes and Sweet Potato Fries. The only thing I had worth sharing tonight were these yummy Chocolate Covered Strawberries. I was so excited to go to the store this weekend and find organic strawberries.....it's a sure sign summer is coming!!

I try to buy organic whenever possible, but as you all know, it's not always possible. Strawberries however are one of the dirty dozen, so I only buy organic. It's not easy to find organic strawberries throughout the winter months, so they are something we only get to enjoy during the warmer months.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with these berries. I first thought of making shortcakes, then thought I would just serve them sprinkled with sugar. I finally decided on one of our favorites, chocolate covered!!

For the chocolate, I melted 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips in the microwave with 2 Tbs vanilla soy milk. Be careful not to burn the chocolate, checking it every few seconds. I sprinkle the plate with powdered sugar to help the berries from sticking once the chocolate hardens. After dipping the berries and sprinkling with powdered sugar, chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. YUM!!

Double Chocolate Brownies and Va-Va-Vanilla "Soy Dream" Cream

Tonight's dinner was nothing new. We had the Great Grain and Veggie Burgers (a.k.a Giardino Burgers) from Vegan Planet. I served them with some garlic mashed potatoes that were made in the crock pot, following a recipe from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.

For dessert we had Vegan Brownies that I've posted about before. This time I added 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips, making them "double chocolate"!! I also made some vanilla "Soy Dream" Cream, using the recipe from Vegan Planet for plain vanilla non-dairy ice cream. I made mine with vanilla soy milk, making it very vanilla....or va-va-vanilla, if you will!!

When I told Mairin what we were having for dinner tonight she gave me a big hug and said "you are the best mama.....thank you for making such good food for us". Isn't she a sweetie!!!??

A day of Good Eats

We started our Sunday with the Banana Split Bread that I posted about this morning. Our day of good eating continued at lunch time with these Mushroom-Spinach Phyllo Triangles from Vegan Planet. These were like a mini version of Spanikopita. The filling is made with spinach, silken tofu, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and just a pinch of nutmeg. They are a great lunch, but would be awesome to take along to a pitch in, or as an appetizer for a dinner party. They are just a little time consuming though, working with the delicate phyllo and all.

We spent our afternoon at a birthday party, where there just happened to be vegan cupcakes available!! Upon our return home I started on our dinner, which was the Avocado and Pinto Bean Enchiladas from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. These were so quick to put together, and mighty tasty as well. Mairin claimed she didn't like them, but she did manage to eat half of hers!! We had them with some blue corn chips and home made guacamole.

And to finish off our day of good vegan eating we had this Chocolate Chip Cookie Pudding Cake by Vegan Dad. If you like chocolate you have to make this cake.........it is to.die.for!!! I didn't let mine cool quite long enough, so the "pudding" was a bit runny, but believe me, it doesn't matter, this stuff is seriously good.

I love vegan desserts. I've never been much of a dessert person until I became vegan, now I can't get enough dessert. Vegan desserts are sooo good. And, while this one in particular is a little heavy on the sugar, I like to remember what Rob says about vegan desserts........"they are healthier than most people's dinner!!".

"Soy Dream" Cream

The weather has been so nice and warm lately. I've noticed the ice cream joints around town have all been packed this week. I love ice cream, it's my summer-time weakness (and the reason I gained a whopping 50 lbs with my first pregnancy!!), so I've been left wondering how I'll make it through the summer.


Double Chocolate-Chocolate Chip "Soy Dream" Cream, is how I plan on making it through. Oh my, this stuff was seriously good!! I used Robin Robertson's recipe for Double Chocolate Non Dairy Ice Cream from Vegan Planet. I used vanilla Soy Dream, and added about 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips in the last few minutes in the ice cream freezer. Choco-licious!!! By the way, yes I know that Hain makes Soy Dream Ice Cream, but it's so fun and satisfying to make it yourself, plus I like to be able to control the amount of sugar I add.

For dinner, at Mairin's request, we had lentil tacos again. These things are so good. We all really like them a lot. Actually, this was the recipe Mairin requested we turn in for her Preschool Class Cookbook (probably the only vegan recipe that will make it's way into the book!!)