Vegan Fat-Free Gingerbread Molasses Cookies.

Holiday cookies are a family staple. Traditionally we saved baking for that magical lull between Christmas Day proper and NYE. As an adult pagan of awesome non-pagan parents, I walk that fine, fun line between enjoying many of the family traditions I grew up with, without any of the Christian holiday themes. Frankly though, let's face it- 90% of the symbolism and traditions around the 25th of December are way not associated with that nice Jewish kid out of Bethlehem. Pretty sure Josh never saw holly or mistletoe or sleigh bells in his life.

Anyway. My baby had a bad few days wrestling with technology (he won!) and I decided to start the holiday baking early to give him a treat. Also I had been craving gingerbread- I mean, who doesn't this time of year?

I went in search of a moist, chewy gingerbread cookie that had plenty of gingery bite and a decadent, rich texture to them. It was also important that they be sorta-kinda- good for you...because I would likely be eating about 10 of them.

I found several that I rather liked on line and tweaked them around until I was happy with the results. I hope you are too!

You will need:

• slices of candied ginger for the topping (optional). 

• 2 cups of flour- I used organic all purpose whole wheat. You could also use gluten free flour!
• 1 T cinnamon powder
• 2T ginger powder
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1tsp ground clove
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

sift all these together into a bowl and make sure the spices are mixed well. If you want these to have extra warmth, put just a wee pinch of cayenne powder in there as well. I mean it.

• 3/4 cups brown or organic cane sugar
• 1/4 cup milk substitute: for this I used a blend of cashew/almond/hazelnut. Divine! You could also use SOY NOG OMG GUYS. I am now sad I didn't think of that until just now. Next time, for sure. Maybe even oat milk. Hmm. 
• 1/4 cup molasses. If this is too molasses-y for you, cut it in 1/2 and top up the rest with maple syrup. 
• 1/4 cup apple sauce, unsweetened, or pure pumpkin puree (not pie filling). 

Whisk all of these together until well blended and the sugar crystals are starting to dissolve. This takes about 2-3 minutes. 

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet in 2-3 batches so it mixes well. I found I had to get in there with my hands and really munch it around to make sure all the dry was evenly distributed. Roll in into a ball and flatten it into a 1.5 inch thick disc and pop it into a ziplock bag and let it harden in the fridge for a couple of hours. You can store it overnight, if necessary. 

When you are ready to bake: line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough in two batches for easier handling to a thickness of just shy of 1/4 inch. I used a 2x2 inch square cookie cutter on the ones pictured below and they rose to a good size. You can make them smaller if you want wee nibble cookies instead. My dough yielded 22 cookies, so not bad! I found that 12 minutes was the perfect time for them, if you'd like them a bit crispier then probably 14 minutes. Enjoy and happy holidays- whatever you celebrate. Let the days grow longer and be filled with joy. And cookies. 

And Voila! happy vegan gingerbread cookies.

Carrot Ginger Lentil Fall Soup!

Fall is around the corner, pumpkin spice lattes are in hand, cute scarves and arm warmers multiply in my front hall like cozy bunnies.

It's SOUP SEASON, guys!

Tonight I formally capitulated to fall by making a spicy, thick gingery soup to stave off the first round of early colds that seem to be everywhere this week. Gross. I have too much to do to be sick! But not too much to do not to whip up a batch of this super simple soup. Souper.

ok, ok, I'll stop.

Here's what you'll need:

10 cup or more soup pot
immersion blender

1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic or more (loves me some garlic, yo.)
1.5 cups of dry red lentils, rinsed and strained.
4 cups of chopped carrots
2 T of diced fresh ginger (or even more. I'm embarrassed at how much I put in. Probably 4 T).
1 T of olive oil (or less to taste)
6-7 cups low sodium veggie broth or water in a pinch.

if you use water, include 1 cup of chopped celery tops and a tomato and some dried basil, chilli flakes and parsley to fake out veggie broth.

1 bay leaf
1 diced jalapeno (opt).
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
several twists of fresh black pepper
dash (or more) of cayenne powder. Probably not more than 2 tsp though, really.

Here's what you do!

heat up the oil in the pot; while it's heating, chop the onion and garlic and carrots.

sauté the onion and garlic and ginger until the onion is translucent; about 4 mins or so.
add the carrot and saute for another 5.

 If you forgot to get veggie broth and will be using water, now is the time to add the extra ingredients listed above along with about 1/2 cup of water. Simmer for about 2 mins. If you're adding a jalapeno, dice it and add it now. I use the seeds and all because I'm a sucker for spice.

add the lentils and the rest of the spices. and stir thoroughly. Let simmer for another minute or two for the lentils to absorb the concentrated yumminess.

pour in the rest of the broth/water and stir thoroughly again and bring to a boil with the lid on the pot. When it boils, turn it down to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are well mushy.

Puree to desired creaminess with the immersion blender and simmer for another 5 and voila! This makes about 5 servings of 1.5 cups each. For a thinner soup, add more water after blending and stir well in; I like a soup I can stand a spoon up in, though.

serve with pumpkin seed cranberry crusty bread and enjoy!!

Raw Vegan Truffles

Oh my goodness, I might have just made the perfect food. My ovaries certainly think so.  Who knew that something so very, very rich and delicious could be also so good for you? You could totally  justify having these for breakfast.

I might have just had these for breakfast.

You will need a food processor to make these guys.

-1 cup dates, chopped coarsely
-1 cup mixed nuts- I used 3/4 cashew, 1/4 mixed walnuts and almonds but I feel you could use almost any nut and it would be delish. Cashews are my favourite. I was going to use just cashews but I might have eaten a few while pitting dates...and didn't have enough. The mixed nuts add a great depth of flavour though.
-1/2 cup raw organic cocoa powder
-1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
-1 tsp raw organic vanilla powder (you could buy whole bean and use about 1 inch worth, chopped, instead)
-raw unsweetened coconut shreds and/or cocoa powder for coating the truffle balls.

place all the nuts in your food processor first and grind them to a fairly fine level/coarse grit. You can leave some bigger (about the size of a the nut sprinkles on ice cream cones) pieces for texture interest while eating them but you do want the vast majority of nuts to be a coarse meal texture.

add the chopped dates, cocoa powder, vanilla powder and pulse on high until totally blended with the nuts.

Slowly dribble in the orange juice while pulsing the mixture in your food processor until there's enough liquid that it will clump together properly. You're looking for a very thick paste. If you accidentally use too much, just add a bit more dates and cocoa powder to balance it off.

When you have a good thick paste, remove and roll into small balls (approx 3/4" across). My batch made 36 balls. I rolled half of them in shredded coconut and half of them in cocoa powder.

chill in the fridge for an hour and then just *try* not to eat them all at once! Keep them sealed in the fridge when you're not eating the hell outta them

Each of these little darlings is 40 calories and 2 grams of fat, a gram of protein and 3% of your iron for the day. Because there is no extra added oil or sugar, they are rich without being greasy, and sweet without being overly sweet. The unsweetened cocoa powder lends an almost tart chocolately depth that is a great match with the coconut shreds and the orange juice.

I think the next batch I make will have some chili powder in them or some diced candied ginger. Or both! oh wait! Maybe some of the fresh chocolate mint from my back yard...

uh oh.

behold, my delicious balls. 

Raw Vegan Diet- 1 Year Roundup.

This time a year ago we were half way through our 30 day rawstravaganza. It was amazing.

Now, a year later as I finish a huge morning smoothie, I'm in the mood to take stock of how that month of revising my diet has stuck with me. There are many things I keep doing, and are obviously a stuck habit as a year in the making will testify.

First and foremost, FRUIT. The amount of fruit I eat has easily tripled in the past year. Breakfast is regularly 3-6 pieces of fruit, even if I'm having oatmeal there's an apple, an banana and a pile of berries cooked into it. Snacks are fruit salads, desserts are baked fruits. Fruit is awesome. I just can't get tired of it. Give me a whole, perfectly ripe and juicy pineapple or cantaloupe and it's entirely likely I will eat the entire thing. No shame. I don't remember eating this much fruit before this. Fruit was low on the snack scale, and certainly wasn't a 'proper' full meal. Not anymore!

secondly, eating this raw that I would only ever have eaten cooked. Oats are a big one. I actually had to Google whether raw oats were properly digestible by peoples- I'd never thought about it before! (actually, now that I type that out, it's a little embarrassing. But let's move on.) ground flax is another big one. Shredded raw coconut. A whole bowl of sugar snap peas is still a major treat for me. I will make a raw stir 'fry' with diced carrots, sugar snap peas, sprouts and coconut shreds in sweet chili sauce and eat the heck outta that bad boy.

Salads. I eat a salad at least once a day. Salads are infinite in variety and texture and content and I will eat all of them. I also have developed a piquant pet peeve when someone covers some sad wilted iceburg lettuce in ham and cheese and hard boiled eggs and cream dressing and calls it a salad. STOP IT.

*ahem*

BANANAS ARE BOSS. Seriously, I have a bunch in the fridge at work at all times and several bunches at home in various, carefully cultivated levels of ripeness. I experience minor panic if I run out of bananas; I'm all like "now what am I going to eat!!??" Ditto to various extents: spinach, almond milk, oats and oranges.

On the other hand, I'm also more aware that if I eat too much raw food in a day, my digestive system is not super happy with me and I'll experience quite a bit of intestinal bloating. So I have learned some minor moderation, in the spirit of enlightened self interest.

GETTING SICK. In the last 13 months I have had a minor scratchy throat twice- once for 2 days, once with some sniffles for 4 days. This is definitely the least I've been sick ever in my life. I work retail, I have people sneeze, cough and talk at me all day, I handle money, and I work with people who have gotten sick multiple times each in the past year. I have travelled and gone to night clubs and taken the TTC (not for the faint of heart!) and nothing. Thanks, fruit.

I stil think quite often to the things I learned during January last year. I'm very happy that a lot of the lessons stuck with me so forcefully.

Ultimate Vegan Black Bean Soup

I threw this together after reading about a dozen different recipes; all of which sounded great but werent really what I was hankering for. A solid shout-out to Post Punk Kitchen for suggesting putting quinoa in this soup- such a good idea! A good soup is very flexible when it comes to ingredients, is hearty and nutritionally sound, and tastes like more. For me and my test audience of one redheaded boyfriend (and a very interested-and denied dog) it really hit the spot.

For the first time in about a year I got sick- a minor sinus cold that's left me feeling floppy and under the weather; it's going around up here in Canada. This soup will definitely clear your sinuses out!

YOU WILL NEED:

1 large pot
1 hand blender (or regular blender, but one of those hand stick blenders makes life easier)
1 food processor for to puree one of the cans of beans.
2 15oz cans of black beans, rinsed in cold water and strained (you can use two larger, 19oz cans of beans too, it just makes it beanier! Who can argue with more beans, amiright.)
1 L of vegetable broth
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 medium scotch bonnet pepper
1/2 cup of corn niblets
1 red pepper
2 diced roma tomatoes
1/4 cup raw quinoa
2T lime juice
1tsp liquid smoke
spices! I used 1 T chili flakes, 1 T ground cumin, 1tsp cinnamon, 1.5T oregano, a few twists of fresh ground black pepper, a pinch of sea salt and a bay leaf.
1 tsp of oil

Dice all your vegetables finely (about a cm cubed or less).  Mince the garlic and the scotch bonnet.

in the large pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion and the garlic with the salt and pepper until the onion is translucent. Add the scotch bonnet and a squeeze of lime. Be careful- you can gas yourself out with the fumes if you're not used to sautéing hot peppers!

add the red pepper, the tomatoes and the corn and continue sauteing for a couple minutes until the red pepper is just starting to cook.

add the rest of the herbs and stir well, making sure everything is well coated and cook for another two minutes.

Puree one of the cans of beans with a cup of the vegetable broth in a blender or food processor, and add it to the pot with the rest of the vegetable broth, the other can of solid beans and the liquid smoke.

Bring the soup to a boil and add the 1/4 cup of quinoa. Boil for another 15 minutes, stirring quite often to make sure the quinoa cooks well and nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Then, simmer with a slightly askew lid, stirring regularly, for about an hour (or until you can't take it any more and have to eat it!)

Before eating, immerse your hand held stick blender in the soup and carefully give it 5 or 6 solid bursts until the soup is much thicker, but not a homogenous mass- you should still see lots of pieces of vegetable and bean and quinoa, but it should be the consistency of a thin cake batter. If you don't have a hand blender, just carefully scoop out 2 cups of soup, blend it in a regular blender, and add it back to the soup and stir well- no big deal!

I served this garnished with diced spring onions, avocado slices and home made salsa on the side. Now, be warned- this is quite spicy, with the chili flakes and the scotch bonnet pepper. Feel free to substitute the scotch bonnet with a less spicy pepper such as a jalapeno or a smoked chipotle or even leave it out completely and just use chili flakes or a scoop of cayenne or whathaveyou. As I said at the beginning of our bean-y adventure- a good soup is flexible.

Cracking into Eggplant.

So, a very sweet friend of mine works in a place that received a large donation of fresh organic produce from a local farmer. After everyone had taken their respective oodles of vegetables, there was still quite a lot left over. Since it looked like it was going to go to waste, she very naturally thought of Your Humble Narrator (a filthy, free-veggie-loving hippy!) and gave me a call to see if I'd like any of the veggies- of course, I do. Pfft. True to her awesome self, she shows up at my work not an hour later with a huge black bag of peppers, parsip (one sad lonely parsnip- come home with me!) carrots, onions, celery...and eggplants. And not just any eggplants- long, tentacular, spectacular Chinese eggplants.

Enough eggplants that I hand to bundle them into a Gordian knot and double handedly stuff them into a crisper drawer in the fridge on Friday, where they filled the ENTIRE drawer with delicious purple promise.

So, tonight I pulled a few of those bad boys out and decided to whip up some home made vaguely Chinese-ish food.

I honestly like nothing better than getting a food idea and finding that I have everything I need for it just waiting in the fridge for me. It's so satisfying.

Now, one of my terrible comfort foods is take-out Chinese food crispy ginger eggplant. I mean, forget that eggplant is naturally super low calorie- once it's that saturated in sesame oil, it's like a french fry. It's super bad for you, but tastes Oh so good. I thought I'd try to reproduce that in spirit, without the 1/2  a cup of oil that often goes into such dishes (yes, 1/2 a cup. Seriously. The mind boggles).

Here's what I did.

Chop 2 long eggplants into 1/2 inch slices and steam with 1/2 cup water and 1T rice vinegar for 20 minutes until quite soft. This made about 3.5 cups of eggplant rings. I dont' imagine a bit more or less will matter.

While the eggplant is steaming:

dice: 2 red peppers and 2 scallions and set aside. I had some leftover green peas from Thanksgiving, so I just threw those guys in there too because I'm a rebel. It was about 1/4 cup or less.

mince:
1 scotch bonnet pepper, (WARNING: I LOVE SPICY FOOD)
3+ cloves of garlic (we all know how much I love garlic!)
a goodly chunk of ginger to taste (I had the last bit of a root, which worked out to about 1.5T. I would have normally doubled that).
1 scallion

add the minced items to a measuring cup with:
2/3 cup of water or veggie broth,
4 T Braggs (or soy sauce if you swing that way)
1 T brown sugar
1 T agave syrup
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 T crushed cashews.

this makes the sauce, you'll be using this first. It's nice to let it stand while the eggplant is steaming, to allow the flavours to mingle.

when the eggplant is ready to go, drain it.

Pour the sauce mixture into a deep sided frying pan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let boil for about 2 minutes, then turn it down a bit. (higher than medium, lower than boil).

Add the eggplant, peppers and scallions you've diced earlier. Stir very well to coat everything in the sauce. Don't worry that it's a little thin: I've got you covered. Wait for it. (hint: will involve cornstarch or arrowroot powder).

stirring fairly regularly, cook the eggplant the rest of the way, and the peppers lightly with the sauce. Keep it stirring, you don't want anything to stick and you want the flavours to really blend and have a good time in there.

When you're about ready to eat (you'll want to cook this for about 5 minutes, tops, or until the eggplant is creamy and dark and a little fally-aparty, and the peppers and peas are steamed but not floppy.) turn the heat back up so the sauce is at a light boil again. While the sauce is heating up, stir 2 tsp of cornstarch into a small bowl with 1 T of water or veggie broth, make a hole in the centre of the pan so you can see the sauce in the bottom, and pour the cornstarch into the sauce. Immediately mix very well, constantly turning the veggies and the sauce around on the high heat until the sauce thickens. Heat for another few minutes to cook the cornstarch and to allow the sauce's sweetness to bond with the veggies and then serve!

I garnished with shredded organic coconut, because it was there.

AND THE BEST PART? (sorry for shouting, I get excited). There's no oil. Nada. Zero. Zilch. OK, so the eggplant isn't "crispy" which is a result of being oil fried...but it's garlicky, and gingery, and eggplanty and spicy and creamy still.

This pan made two large servings with only 195 calories and 4 grams of fat, 9 grams of protein, 8 grams of iron and 7 grams of fibre per serving because food is awesome.

I suggest serving this over organic brown rice or quinoa for a super-hearty lasts-all-day lunch or dinner if you're super hungry.

I think I'm going to make baba ganouj with the remaining eggplants.

so many good things in one bowl. 

Low Fat Vegan Eggplant Parmesan: Triumph!

After last week's Tentatively Successful Casserole, I was a little afeared to get back on my cooking train. But, nothing ventured nothing gained. This morning walking my dog we took a jaunt to the local greengrocer- in between the mountains of oranges and apples and peaches, I wandered past the eggplants.

Now, I love eggplant. I love eggplant so much, we have six eggplants growing in our modest inaugural veggie patch in the back yard, all of which have been great producers this year. Not that I would know, of course, since the local bloody raccoons have tragically cut my little nightshade's lives short every single time- snapping their wee stems and half-heartedly munching their delicate aubergine corpses before discarding their half-chewed carcasses mockingly on my back yard table.

I kind of hate raccoons, the adorable little fuckers.

So, as a result of this, all summer I've been in eggplant withdrawal; stubbornly refusing to buy one when *any day now* I could be eating one from the back yard. With our roof being replaced and our eaves now no longer a Home for Wayward Raccoons, there are finally four good sized eggplant babies coming in unmolested. Fingers crossed.

So, coming across surprise eggplants in the green grocer rather undid me, I must confess and in a moment of weakness I took one of the shiny, dark purple beauties home. On a chilly moist October Sunday, this could mean only one thing.

Eggplant Parmesan.

I have been known to do a lazy EPP, coating the eggplant slices in sweet chili sauce and sprinkling them with vegan parm and breadcrumbs before drenching them in storebought sauce and throwing them in the oven for an hour...but today! Today I was resolved for a full on proper EPP, healthy vegan style.

Here's what I used.

1 large eggplant, sliced in to 8 pieces.

sauce:
2 portabello mushrooms
1 m white onion
2 cloves garlic
1 can Primo zesty sauce (embarrassing, sure, but the greengrocer has limited supplies. Mea culpa).
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp basil, oregano, marjoram, etc. Italian herbs to taste.
dash of liquid smoke

egpplant coating:
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup GF flour (what I had on hand, I don't intentionally eat GF)
1 finely diced scallion
1 tsp black pepper

1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
pinch salt

vegan parmesan, often available at your local health food store.

Here's what you do:

Cut the eggplant into 8 pieces, lengthwise and then that in half and then those in half. OR, cut it into 1/2 inch thick rings. Lay these on a plate and rug a generous sprinkling of salt into them and set aside for 30 minutes to let those babies sweat. (grooossssss.)

While this is happening, get that sauce going. Sauté the diced onion and mushroom and garlic together in a splash of veggie broth or 1tsp of oil. When these are well cooked (about 7 minutes) add the pasta sauce and the herbs and bring to a boil. Add the splash of liquid smoke and stir well often, bring down to a simmer and let the flavours mingle! Taste often, just to be sure it's good. It's for science.

Whisk the liquids for the coating together and let sit; sift the breadcrumbs and the nutritional yeast together in a wide plate. 30 minutes before you want to eat, preheat the over to 450 for 10 minutes. While this is heating, coat each piece of eggplant with the milk and flour coating and then roll in the breadcrumb/nootch mixture and lay on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

Bake for 8 minutes a side, making sure that the crumbs are a nice and golden brown. Pull those babies out and lay them on a roasting pan. Put a generous dollop of the sauce on each one, and sprinkle about a tsp of vegan parmesan over each. Turn the oven down to 350 and let them bake for about 5 minutes.

remove and serve!

My awesome omnivorous boyfriend had seconds (and thirds). I say TRIUMPH.

EPP in the house, yo.