Split Pea Soup

I give you.. tonight's dinner!

It went like this.. saute 1/2 cup of each (chopped) onion, celery, and carrots in 1 tbsp of oil with a few spices of your choice. I used cumin, garlic powder, ginger and thyme. Then pour in 4 cups of water, 4 cups of veggie stock, and 1 pound of dried split peas. Bring to a boil, then turn it down and let it simmer for at least an hour.

I served it with rice, it was good!

Alfredo and a Recipe

Tonight's dinner was.. linguine alfredo! With broccoli, tomatoes, and spinach. Oh and some mushrooms. I got the recipe for the cashew alfredo sauce from Tofu Mom, I thought it was a little watery so I put in a pinch of flour and it really thickened up! Chris said this was a pretty good one.. I'm trying to get him to tell me what I should make again and what I shouldn't, haha.


Oh and here's that veganized banana bread recipe.. it is excellent!

Preheat oven to 300º and lightly spray a loaf pan.

Mix about 2 Tbsp of sugar with some cinnamon and coat the edges of the pan. Save the leftover cinnamon sugar mixture for later.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1 egg replacement (I use 1 Tbsp flax meal and 3 Tbsp warm water)
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
5 1/2 oz. vegan sour cream
2 bananas (the riper the better!)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

Cream together the sugar and margarine. Add the egg replacement, cinnamon, vanilla, sour cream, bananas and mix. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in some nuts if you want, and sprinkle the rest of your cinnamon/sugar on top - it makes a crust! Bake for 55 minutes!

Sorry about the 5.5 oz. of sour cream.. Originally this recipe makes three loaves at a time so.. I had to take 1/3 of 16 oz... I rounded.

All for now!

Huge Cookies!

I'm home for a few days.. first thing I did.. BAKE! Massive chocolate chip / peanut butter / oat cookies! They're awesome! I'll let you all in on this..

1 cup AP flour

1 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons oil
2 tsp vanilla

Combine the red in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the blue until mixed, then add to the red! You can stir if you want but I just mixed it up with my hands.. Then shape them into cookies (they won't flatten out while baking) and bake at 400º for about 11 minutes!

They'll be squishy when they come out but trust me they'll harden up!

Oatmeal Cookie (Crumbles)

Well I made some oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies.. they didn't hold together well. I think I will try this same recipe though.. because once I realized they were falling apart, they held together better if I squeezed them well. So I think this would make really good oatmeal bars.. in like an 8x8, they taste delicious!

Oatmeal Things

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 flax egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix the red, then add the blue. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips. Either squeeze into cookie shapes (they don't flatten out so flatten them yourself) or try oatmeal bars! As cookies, I baked them for 11 minutes!

Or possibly add some flour to get them to stick together?

Additionally: I am using confectioner's sugar lately because I am out of granulated.. and hoping it works out.. so far so good!

BEST Banana Bread!

I'm sorry.. this recipe isn't vegan.. but there's a reason for that. And somebody NEEDS to veganize this!

The reason I made this is because it's my boyfriend's favorite banana bread (seriously.. he loves it.. a lot) so I emailed his mom and got the recipe for it. I made it for him for Valentines Day (shhh!) When his mom made it over Christmas break he made me taste it.. I just had a little bit, it really is AWESOME. If anybody out there makes a vegan version of this.. let me know how it turns out! I will do it eventually, but I wanted to give him the real thing.


Sour Cream Banana Bread

1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup margarine
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 (16 oz) container sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
4 1/2 cups AP flour

Preheat oven to 300º.. Grease the four 7"x3" loaf pans (I used three regular sized.. I think it was like 9"x5") and dust with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Cream the margarine and sugar.. add the eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Mix in everything else. Divide into pans, not more than 3/4 of the way! Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, a little more than an hour.

I'd be interested to see how this goes with vegan sour cream and maybe flax eggs or something. If you won't.. I will!

Banana Bars

I don't know if you guys remember my friend Kristin from across the hall, but she brought me some more bananas the other day. I had plans for banana bread but unfortunately the dorm kitchen has no loaf pan.. so I used an 8x8.
Additionally, I was using my mini-blender to mix all the liquid ingredients and it died.. forever. I'm bummed.

Banana Chocolate-Chip Bars

1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp flax meal
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
3 small bananas
1/2 cup "milk"
1 tsp vanilla


Preheat oven to 350º. Mix the red. Separately, mix the blue. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
I didn't have a timer so I kept an eye on it.. but I'm guessing it was somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes in an 8x8. Sorry to be so vague.

Scones?

Well, I wanted to use the bread machine again.. so I pulled out that book and found a recipe for.. "Yorkshire Teacakes." I thought they looked like bagels without holes.. whatever, I decided to make them. Mom said they're like scones. She tried one, so did both of my brothers and everybody says they have much more flavor than the other things I bake.. hmm..


Well I fiddled around with the recipe, so here's what I did!

1 1/4 cups chai flavored soy milk
2 cups AP flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup raisins
3 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry active yeast

Into the bread machine for some kneading and rising, then into balls for more rising, then in the oven for 15 minutes at 400º. Yummy!

Not a fantastic shot.. oh yeah.. and the little brother in the background.

PB/Banana Blondies

I made these up for snack time tomorrow! (Sorry, Leslie)

Tania's Peanut Butter/Banana Blondies

2 large bananas
About 3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350º

Whiz the red in a blender. In a large bowl, combine the blue. Add the red to the blue and spread into a 9x13 pan. Bake for 33-35 minutes! MMmmmMm.

Cookie.. Bundles?

Well I don't know what to call these, they are sort of.. sunflower seed/raisin/oat bundles. Definitely interesting, and I like them! But, as always.. I like everything I make. I'll post the recipe in case anybody wants to give it a try!

Tania's Sunflower/Raisin/Oat Bundles

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup brown rice syrup

So.. preheat oven to 35oº

In a large bowl mix the red ingredients. In a small bowl mix the blue. Add the blue to the red and mix well! Spoon onto a sheet and bake for about 12 minutes.

They don't flatten out so if you want bundles just leave them, but if you want them more like cookies, flatten them out a bit.

Snack Time Cookies

I was inspired by the awesome cookies Jody sent me for the August cookie swap, so these sort of resemble hers. I can't say the specifics are the same, but it has the same main ingredients I think.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp water
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used chunky)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup quick oats

Preheat oven to 375º

First mix the flax meal and water in a little bowl, set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the red ingredients. Add the flax mixture to this. In a medium bowl, combine the blue ingredients. Add the blue to the red and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and oats.

Bake for 10-12 minutes!

My roommate and friends said they're actually the best cookies I've made so far. Hmm.. what does that say about all the rest of my cookies?!
But they said these are the most like "real" cookies.
Not sure what that means.

Cookies and Swap

Here are some oatmeal cookies I made for Alto Sax Snack Time today.


AHA! Now that I have your attention with delicious cookies, you should really get over to Veggin' Out for the September cookie swap! In addition to getting cookies in the mail, you get to share your cookie goodness with others, and make awesome veg*n friends.. life is good! Don't miss out!

Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup silken tofu
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350º

In a medium bowl, combine the blue and set aside.
Cream the red together until smooth. Add blue to red and mix well.
Stir in the oats and optional raisins or other dried fruit.

Spoon onto baking sheet and flatten slightly.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Yummy!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Man, I need to stop baking... eventually. Haha. I made (up) some cupcakes yesterday. I think this is the first time something I made up actually worked. They rose.. they cooked all the way through. What's happening to the world!?

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp flax meal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup silken tofu/soymilk/nayonaisse*
1/2 cup hot water (divided)

H'okay.. so! Preheat oven to 375º
Mix the red ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Cream the blue together, then stir in the green.
Add the red to this and mix.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, makes 12 cupcakes!

*This is hard to explain.. I had a liquidy mixture of firm silken tofu and soymilk leftover from the other night, and I just combined it with enough nayonaisse to make up 1/2 a cup..

Happy baking!

My Own Banana Muffins

Well I tweaked a recipe that I saw online somewhere, and came up with these awesome muffins.. they're almost healthy.. I swear! I added some big chunks of banana at the end.. not sure if you can see from the picture though.

Tania's Banana Muffins (hehe)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup mashed banana
1/3 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp flax meal
1/4 cup + 1/2 tbsp water
Extra banana chunks

Preheat oven to 400ºF

H'okay! So! In a little bowl mix the flax meal and water and put it aside.

In like.. a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.

Then in a large bowl combine the banana, milk, vanilla and flax mixture. To this bowl add the dry ingredients but don't overmix, and fold in the banana chunks.

Bake for 22-25 minutes
Makes 12 muffins :-D

Microwave Brownies?

And now.. presenting..

Microwave Brownies!
I messed around with a recipe a little bit, added oats (of course, I looove oats) annnd came up with this! Mix it all together, 5 minutes on high. I really like them. =)

I only used a round pie plate because it's all I had..

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

Pumpkin-stravaganza!

There was a large can of pumpkin in the cupboard, just waiting to be made into something delicious. Vegan With a Vengeance led me to some pumpkin-oatmeal cookies and pumpkin muffins, which then became a loaf of pumpkin bread.

Oh yeah, and then I made (up) some chili. It's not much but.. I think it went something like this..





1/2 pound seitan, chopped up small
1/2 a small green pepper
^^that much chopped onion
^^that much chopped celery
1 - 15 oz. can black beans
1 - 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
Pinch of salt/pepper