(mostly) Vegan Easter!

My sister Lisa is vegan and so I challenged myself for Easter to make a mostly vegan meal for our families to enjoy. There was no super elaborate recipes, just simple good healthy food made vegan with a few modifications. The best thing about this meal is that I don't think anyone would have realized it was vegan if I didn't mention it and it was enjoyed by everyone.

Appetizers:
We made a vegi and cracker platter with two different dips. The chopped vegis included broccoli, orange bell pepper, grape tomatoes, and celery. The crackers were garden triscuts and buffalo wheat thins (both naturally vegan). The dips were a roasted red pepper hummus (store bought) and a homemade dip which was a sweet pepper and onion relish mixed with vegan cream cheese to create a creamy sweet peppery dip. It was a huge hit!

Entrees/Sides:
Spiral Ham (the only non-vegan menu item, prepared according to the package)
Roasted Potatoes and Onions (chopped potatoes, chopped onions, garlic, salt, pepper, evoo, baked in a casserole dish at 375 degrees for about an hour)
Maple Carrots (peeled, sliced, simmered on stove with a little water, evoo, salt, and maple syrup until carrots are cooked and liquid is reduced)
Dijon Balsamic Asparagus (sauteed asparagus tossed with balsamic vinegar, evoo, dijon mustard, salt and pepper)
Portabello Mushroom Linguine (sauteed mushrooms and onions tossed with tri color linguine and a garlic white wine sauce)

Desserts were not provided by me but included a cherry cobbler (vegan) and pineapple orange sorbet (also vegan) and chocolate cake/ice cream (not vegan).

Peanut Butter Brownies from Scratch!

My most recent pride & joy, the peanut butter brownies started the whole kitchen play day on Saturday morning! I knew I wanted to make something to send to work with Kyle to share with the guys (they love that and I enjoy making yummy stuff for them). I asked if Ky wanted chocolate chip cookies or brownies and he requested brownies. We have lots of ingredients, but didn't have a mix, so I looked online and found out I could make brownies from scratch. At this point, let me interject and say that I've never desired a brownie recipe from scratch because we've found a winner and it can't be beaten. Ghirardelli makes the BEST double chocolate brownie mix, hands down. However, since we didn't have it and I was up for a challenge, I decided to make these myself, and change them up a bit to become peanut butter-y :)

I found a good recipe here and set to work. I preheated the oven to 350, and greased a rectangular bread pan (we don't have a square pan and I didn't want to double to 9x13 this time). Then I gathered these ingredients:

- 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup applesauce! (saw the recommendation in the notes on allrecipes.com and decided to cut out the butter). LOVE this change.
- 1 cup white sugar (stuck with this, might try blue agave syrup in exchange for some sugar next time, but I need to find out the conversion).
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
- 1/4 tsp. salt (kosher)
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
**Note: I also added about 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of peanut butter. This is key.
**One of our roommates said that if you want gooey brownies, you should add olive oil, so I put in a little bit of that, too!

I followed these instructions:
1. In a large saucepan, melt butter warm applesauce. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs (beaten beforehand) and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix in cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder, (then chocolate chips and olive oil). Be careful not to over-mix! Spread batter into pan.
2. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Mine was extra moist, so I gave it about an extra 8 minutes in the oven, until a skewer stick came out a little chocolaty, but not too wet.
3. Cool.


THEN came the frosting...
3 tablespoons butter, softened (I did use the butter here, since it was a lot less)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar
**I added in a little cinnamon and about a 1/4 cup of peanut butter!

To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Add sprinkle of cinnamon and stir in peanut butter. Frost brownies while they are still warm.

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To say that these brownies were delicious is an understatement. They were super moist, peanut buttery and even tasted a little different texture-wise with the applesauce. I wanted to make sure they were done, but might cook for a few minutes less if I were to make these again because in the end, they were a little bit cakey on the outside. Still so good and the icing was awesome. Kyle brought these to work after I enjoyed 1 and everybody loved them. We shared a couple with roommates, too, and they left a little thank you note with a big 'YUM!' on it. Hurray :) They were a hit! Fun to make something new, change it up and have it work :) I love it! So glad we have this blog to document it all, too!!!

Bob's Red Mill Bean & Grain Soup

I can't take much credit for this, as Bob's Red Mill created it and Grandma Ruth shared it with me, but I can say it was worth the wait and I wish I'd made more at once. Many types of beans, grains, and water boiled then simmered for about an hour and a half. Then I added in some onion and shredded some Jennie-O turkey bacon at the end as a topping. Such a great mix, I'll definitely be making more soon :)

Amazing leftovers, and great with potato timbales/sweet potatoes. Mmm!

Baked Sweet Potatoes

The story here is that my grandma Ruth (yoga teacher extraordinaire, health nut, Epstein family matriarch, and true Florida-lover) found a great produce stand at her local farmers' market and when I was down visiting last weekend, she highly recommended the sweet potatoes, so I got some :) They're not just sweet potatoes- they're YELLOW sweet potatoes- and they sure are sweet! They sat in our pantry for a few days, then I scrubbed them down, cut off the ends, poked a fork into them a couple times and put them in the oven at 350 for about an hour. The end result? Sweeter-than-you-can imagine, fluffy but moist potatoes that Kyle and I both enjoyed!

Note: I didn't do anything to the skin aside from washing it. It wasn't as tasty as some other potato skins that I've had and was even really tough in spots. Normally, I'd eat at least some of the skin, because I know there are some good health benefits, but it was not easy to eat this, so I didn't. Next time, I may put a little olive oil over it- maybe it was a little burnt? Oh well, the inside was so good, it didn't matter!

Stir Fry Veggies

Just sauteed some squash, brussels sprouts and onion with a little vegetable broth on the stove. They turned out perfectly, and I enjoyed them at lunch and dinner. Then they were gone! Ready for more :)

Note: I rolled the brussels sprouts around with a little olive oil, garlic powder and salt first)

Steel Cut Oats- The Breakfast of Champions!

I've been LOVING steel cut oatmeal and have it about 3-4 times a week. Thus, usually on a weekend, I'll pick a day when I can spend some time in the kitchen and make 4 servings at once. This makes mornings easier, plus I've been having so much fun in the kitchen on my cooking/baking days. This past weekend, I made baked sweet potatoes, peanut butter brownies from scratch, steel cut oats, soup, turkey bacon, and stir fry veggies. Already, this week is delicious.

Why steel cut oats? They're better for me, taste so good, leave me feeling content for a long time, and are delicious with some extra add-ins. Check out Bob's Red Mill steel cut oatmeal, the one I've been using lately. Note that this site is selling them for $10.88 a CASE (not a bag), and see the nutrition facts below. High in protein, a good source of carbs and iron, and low in fat and sugars.

So how does one make steel cut oats? Just follow the directions. They take a bit longer than rolled oats- these take between 10-20 minutes to simmer after the initial boil- and I usually add in some goodies like cinnamon, honey, nutmeg, mashed banana, flax seed powder, almond butter, greek yogurt, raisins, etc. toward the end (the last 5 minutes or so). I'll sometimes add some fresh fruit when I eat it or some blue agave syrup if desired. In any case, do what makes you happy and enjoy!

Mashed Potato Timbales

Let me just start by saying that I'm really glad I brought our mini muffin tins along to Florida. I've used them so many times, for actual muffins and a number of non-muffin recipes, and have found that anything in a mini-muffin shape is 1) the perfect size and 2) so much more fun to eat (despite being a little bit more time-consuming to create).

I found the recipe for Mashed Potato Timbales (What is a timbale? Click here to find out!) and pinned it awhile back on my 'Recipes I Want to Make' board on Pinterest. Then I made it, and these turned out delicious :)

Note: See pics at the bottom and forgive their fuzziness. These were taken in the stage of our Florida time when I didn't have a working digital camera. Thanks, iPhone for taking some decent pics, but I'm SO happy that I have a new camera now! Look for newer, lighter, clearer pics soon!!

Here's the recipe I followed:



Yield: 12 Servings muffin-size (or 36 for minis)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds potatoes (about 6 potatoes), peeled and cubed
8 ounces ricotta cheese (reduced fat)
8 ounces sour cream (reduced fat)
2 egg whites (I used 2 whole eggs)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp grated onion
2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs (I used Panko crumbs)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed (I crushed it myself! Put some dried rosemary in a baggie, folded in a dish towel, and rolled a glass bottle over it! A rolling pin would work, too! This releases the flavor and breaks up the rosemary. Mmm)
1/4 tsp pepper (skipped)


How to Make 'Em:
Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Drain. Mash potatoes with butter and onion until small lumps of potato remain; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat ricotta cheese, sour cream, salt, garlic powder, rosemary and pepper until smooth. In a small bowl, beat eggsuntil frothy; fold into cheese mixture. Fold or beat into potato mixture.

Generously coat muffin cups with nonstick spray; evenly sprinkle muffin cups with bread crumbs. Fill with potato mixture; smooth tops.

Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees F for 27-30 minutes or until edges of potatoes are lightly browned. Cool for 15 minutes. Loosen timbales from sides of muffin cups; invert onto a baking sheet to remove.

These are so delicious and made about 3 dozen, so I froze some for later and we've been enjoying them for a few weeks. Just ate the last one yesterday with some bean and grain soup. Yum!

I did find that the Panko crumbs didn't hang on as well as I would've liked, and that after they were frozen and unfrozen, then warmed up, they fell apart a little more easily. They were still so yummy and a fun way to enjoy potatoes, but I might modify this a bit next time!