Yogurt

If you've ever wanted a good recipe for making yogurt, this one is supposed to be easy.  Apparently the only trick is keeping it at the right temperature. 

Vegan French Toast

Here's a really yummy Engine 2 recipe that we tried out this morning. Good thing Nate was already at work because the three of us ate the whole batch!  There are no eggs or milk in this and I actually greatly prefer the taste to regular french toast.

• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/2 c. milk substitute (we used vanilla soy)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 4-6 slices whole grain bread

Combine the banana, milk substitute, vanilla and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Dip the bread slices in the mixture and cook in a nonstick skillet on medium heat for 2 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned. 

Can serve with maple syrup, powdered sugar, and/or fruit. 

As you can see, we really enjoyed these!

Mighty Muffins

We've made these several times now and my family loves them.  They're really healthy and really filling; I just ate two of these bad boys and feel stuffed to the rafters.   It's another Engine 2 recipe.

ingredients:

• 3 c. oat bran (I sometimes use half ground ww)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 T. sweetener (I use agave)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 large apple, grated
• 6 brown bananas, lightly mashed (leave some chunks)
• 1/4 c. walnuts, chopped or halved
• 1/4 c. raisins
• 3/4 c. water

Preheat oven to 375. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lemon onto the combined apple and bananas. Add walnuts, raisins and water. Combine the wet and dry ingredients into one bowl. Pour into sprayed muffin tins and bake for 45 minutes* or until golden brown on top. 

Variations: Bake the batter in a loaf pan.

Add three thinly-sliced pears or 1 c. of 70% pure cocoa chips to the batter.

*The recipe says it makes 6 muffins. I don't know where you get muffin tins that big, but this recipe makes 18 muffins for us. The batter doesn't really rise when you cook it so you can fill the muffin cups pretty full.  I bake the muffins for 15-18 minutes and they're good. They'll still seem a bit doughy b/c of the bananas, but that just makes them moist. So don't over bake them! When the toothpick comes out clean they're good to go. 

Green Smoothie

I was nervous my kids wouldn't dig the green-colored drink, but it turned out that Jeremy and I were more reluctant. The girls call it their "green-eggs-and-ham drinkable" or Abby calls it "Sam-I-Am" because of the color and my insistance that we all try it. Turned out fabulously, and now we do it almost daily. What a great way to get some spinach or kale in on a regular basis!

For a family of 4:

Handful of (washed) Kale,

2 Bananas

Oatmeal (1-2 handfuls)

10 ice cubes

agave/sweetener

water or milk

optional things:

flax seeds

protein powder

flax oil

spirulina

Drink Up! Make sure to take pictures of your mustache!

***

A day after posting the above, I realized I forgot the most important part of this post. I always like knowing general principles, so that I'm not stuck to recipes. SOO the secret for any vegetable drink of any kind is what kind of fruit you pair it with for flavor. The rule of thumb is to stick to the correct color scheme. You wouldn't want tomatoes (red) and kale (green) because they are complimentary colors and will make BROWN. Welcome back to kindergarten, right? Seriously though! So that's why yellow/whitish fruits like bananas can combine well with any green vegetable. Carrots go well with Strawberries. And so on. If you want to try a new vegetable, just add a fruit you like that has the correct color rules. :)

Oatmeal

This is a sweet oatmeal recipe that reminds me a lot of the baked oatmeal recipe we have floating around the family. But this one takes a lot less work and I think is probably a bit less sugary.  It's another one from Deceptively Delicious. We actually doubled it for our family and I'm glad we did; we ate it all. 

• 1 c. milk
• 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c. canned pumpkin or sweet potato puree
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
• 1 c. old-fashioned oats
• 2 tsp. natural peanut butter (optional)
• dried fruit and nuts (optional)

In small saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, if using, and spice. Bring to a gentle boil and stir in the oatmeal. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until the oatmeal is soft and creamy. Stir in the peanut butter, if using (we didn't try this but I think it would be good). 

Spoon the oatmeal into bowls and sprinkle with nuts and dried fruit. Serve warm with maple syrup (we just put a tiny bit of milk in). 

Sweet potato french toast

Here's another one from Deceptively Delicious. Amazing how fun deception can be. 

• 4 large eggs
• 2 T banana or pineapple or sweet potato or carrot or butternut squash puree, or canned pumpkin
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 4 slices ww bread

In shallow bowl, whisk the eggs, puree and cinnamon. Add the bread slices and turn them in the mixture to soak for 30 seconds to a minute. 

Coat a nonstick griddle or skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium0high heat. When the pan is hot, cook until bread is golden brown on the outside, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve warm with syrup, powdered sugar or fruit. 

Green Eggs

Check out these in-a-box with-a-fox eggs. Ashlyn and Reuben downed these things. I'd say Nate did too except there were none left for him when he got here; that's how much the kids loved them. This recipe comes from J. Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious and it's indeed delicious. I was surprised that you really can't taste the spinach in them.

Here's how you do it:

• 2 tsp. trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread (I used olive oil)
• 1 lb. baby spinach, washed and drained
• 3 T. milk
• 4 large eggs
• 2 large egg whites
• pinch of S+P

Melt margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach, turn the heat to high, and cook, stirring often, until the spinach wilts. Then add the milk and cook to evaporate, 1 to 2 more minutes. Transfer to a food processor and puree; let cook a few minutes (make sure to let it cool a bit before you puree, otherwise it can explode in your blender -- or so i'm told). 

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the puree and a pinch of salt.

Coat the same skillet with cooking spray and set the pan over medium heat. Add the remaining teaspoon margarine (I didn't do this) and heat until melted. Add the egg mixture, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes. 

Mom's Great Granola

Or is it Great Mom's Granola? I say both!

This is a classic in our fam, so even if you already have this recipe, I thought it was worth putting on the blog. Now you can access it from anywhere.

Combine in large bowl:

• 10 c. rolled oats
• 1 c. sesame seeds
• 2 c. raw sunflower seeds
• 1 c. coconut
• 1 T. cinnamon
• raisins (i don't have how many, so someone can either add it to this post or just eyeball it)

Heat together:

• 1 c. honey
• 1/2 c. molasses
• 1 c. water
• 1 T. salt

Pour hot liquids over grains, stirring. Microwave on med-hi for 5 min. Let cool completely before serving (really yummy with cheerios).

** Can also be baked at 300 for 30 min. in 2 dripper pans.

Waffles

It may be silly to post a recipe for waffles, but I really like this particular recipe. We will often times make baggies with the dry ingredients so that it's a quick fix-up in the morning, or you can make them ahead of time, freeze them, then thaw them in a toaster for your own "eggo waffles." 

(This recipe comes from the Ivory cookbook, through Make-a-wish foundation)

1 3/4 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs (vegan: egg replacer)

1 3/4 c. milk (vegan: soy milk)

1/2 c. vegetable oil

mix ingredients, and bake in a hot waffle iron.

Welsh Cakes

If you've never had this tasty breakfast treat, you're in for a surprise. These are pretty yummy, but we usually kept them for more special occasions. I've added in parentheses some obvious replacements for making these vegan. Sorry for no pictures on this one (I even had some from our anniversary last year, but they somehow got deleted in my camera)

CUT together the following:

2 c. flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 square margarine (or soy butter)

Then Blend in:

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. raisins (optional)

1 c. milk (soy or regular)

2 eggs (or egg replacer...we love EnerG brand, which is also a great food storage item)

Roll to 1/2 inch thick.  (I never have that thick of dough to actually roll it) make small pancakes (about 2 inches in diameter) on a flat, greased griddle using a low temperature (275 degrees). Sprinkle/top with powdered sugar and serve. 

Melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls

Here's the recipe we grew up with. Delicious.

Mix on speed I until moist:

• 2 T. yeast
• 3 1/2 c. hot water
• 1 c. powdered milk (if you don't have this you can use 3 c. milk and 1/2 c. water; but then remember to delete the water from above)
• 1 c. mashed potato flakes
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. margarine, melted
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 c. flour

Add 5-7 c. flour.

Continue adding flour until dough cleans the sides and bottom of the bowl. Lock the lid onto bowl and knead on speed II for 3 min. Let dough rest on oiled counter and let rise for 15 min. Punch down and roll out to 18" x 15". Brush with melted butter. Spread with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, add nuts/raisins as desired. Roll up and cut into 12-18 rolls. Place on large jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper. Let rise 30-45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Let cool for 3-5 minutes before frosting.

Frosting:

• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 3 T. butter
• 1-2 T cream or milk

enjoy!