Vegan Cinnamon Rolls (Bread Machine)

I made these using my breadmaker on the dough setting.

Here is the recipe, altered to make it vegan:

• 1 TBSP ground flax seed + 1 cup water at room temperature (whisk until foamy, then add to bread pan first
• ¼ cup oil (I used vegetable)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3½ cups flour (I used all purpose)
• 1½ tsp active dry yeast

Place ingredients in bread maker pan in order presented.  Prepare using your bread maker's dough setting.

Prepare the filling:

• 1/3 cup soft Earth Balance spread
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 TBSP cinnamon

Mix together and let set until dough is finished.

Once the dough is finished, roll out with rolling pin until it is flat, kind of like a square pizza.  USing a flat spatula, spread the filling all over the dough as one would pizza sauce on a pizza.  Then, roll the dough up jelly roll style.  Cut the roll into small cylindrical shapes (a kitchen knife will do fine).  Next, place the cinnamon rolls on one or two flat cookie sheets to prepare for baking.

In a warm place (we heated our oven to 170º then turned it off and placed the pans inside) let the buns rise for about 45 minutes.  Once the buns have finished rising, preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Bake the cinnamon buns for 25-30 minutes.

Prepare the icing:

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 3 TBSP almond milk
• ¼ tsp vanilla

(I doubled the recipe to make more icing)

Once the buns are finished baking, take out of oven, pour icing over them, let cool a bit, then ENJOY!

Update:
Sadly, I think 1TBSP of ground flax seed is way too much.  Also, perhaps one would do better to use bread flour.  And do NOT double the filling.  It melts and ends up really nasty.  I may try this again, but I think I will use applesauce instead of flax seed.  These were positively dreadful.

Nirvana Enchilada Casserole

Even though Amy was away last night, I still cooked from Isa Does It.  Last night, I made Nirvana Enchilada Casserole .  And yes, I DID watch the video before I actually made this dish.

Fast forward to the results I got:  My blender did not break down the roasted cumin and coriander seeds as well as I would have liked.  And I ran low on tortillas.  Other than that, it came out fabulous.  The cashew cheese is amazing when it is baked on top of the casserole.  In fact, I think I prefer cashew cheese without the nutritional yeast in it.  When it's baked on top of something, it becomes really cheesey.  My mom complained about the seeds, but Chris really liked it.  I also changed up what went into the filling.  I did not use mushrooms, because Amy doesn't like them.  I used up some roasted vegetable I'd kept on hand, hoping to do something with them.  The filling was really delicious.

Banana Bread

I'm making the lower fat Banana Bread from Veganomicon.  Will update when it is out of the oven and cool enough to eat.

Oh, and incidentally, my son Brian who is away at college says he really misses my vegan cooking.  That felt good to hear that.  Of course, it was the weekend he was home that we pretty much went out all the time.

Update:  The bread was a bit dry.  We had to bake it about 10-15 minutes longer than the recipe said to, otherwise it would have been soggy in the middle.  I've found that most recipes for banana bread work that way.  But it is still pretty tasty.  Maybe it was dry because I cut off the end of the bread and ate it.

Vegan chocolate chip cookies - by Amy

Classic Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tasted great, very filling!  I only ate 3 of them, and that was plenty.

Belated Birthday post

I almost forgot to post something about my birthday.  It was a wonderful day.  Amy gave me a little book, a copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which is a favorite of mine.  Marcus gave me a Le Creuset baking dish - very very nice.  I will definitely use this!
Amy made a feast of Spaghetti For Peanuts (veganized, from Diet For A Small Planet) and roasted Brussels sprouts.  She also made a veganized Red Velvet cake.  YUM!  We had some really good eating today.

Later, Marcus took me out to dinner and we went to Tito's Diner.  I had their hummus and a veggie burger and sweet potato fries.  YUM.

All in all, it was a very fun birthday!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

This recipe is from Forks Over Knives Cookbook, page 293.  The batter is, as the recipe says, stiff.  Made the kitchen smell marvelous.

Right now I'm baking the Super Moist Pumpkin Bread, this time WITH pumpkin and walnuts, though I still don't like coconut.  That will be three loaves of sweet bread.  But this stuff is just so good.  And I'm going to make crockpot pumpkin lasagne, but that is another post.

Update:  I am finally eating some of the Pumpkin Spice Bread.  It's a bit dry, and just a touch bland.  I would put some Earth Balance on it, but I want to cut down on calories. I will probably eat some more of it in the morning for breakfast, and I think I will toast it and put Earth Balance on it then.  Toasting seems to improve most breads, sweet or no.

The BEST Pumpkin Muffins

Vegan With A Vengeance rides again.  That has to be one of the best cookbooks I've ever owned.  It's worth the price just for the pancakes and The Best Pumpkin Muffins (which are in the oven cooking NOW).  Anytime the kids will scarf down something, I end up making it all the time.  And I've also taken the pumpkin muffins to work and shared them with co-workers.  They're better than anything you get at a café, vegan or otherwise.  I will have to make a second pot of coffee just to enjoy with these muffins.

I did have to toss out an old can of pumpkin.  There was green fuzzy stuff growing on the side.  So I opened a new can.  Yes, in a family kitchen, you do find some science experiments in the fridge.  We had just put off using the rest of the pumpkin for forever.  Not this time.  I think I will make some Super Moist Pumpkin Bread later on.

Now for a shameless plug:  You can find a lot of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipes on The Post Punk Kitchen website.  However, if you're like me, and you realize the woman is a genius with recipes, you're going to want to buy ALL of her cookbooks. (I don't have them all yet, but I'm getting there.)  I have learned so much from the PPK, I can't even begin to tell.  I think, in a way, cooking and especially baking, is all about proportions of ingredients.  ICM gets it right pretty much every time.  I have yet to make one of her recipes that doesn't work, even if I don't adhere perfectly to everything in it.  As she says in Appetite For Reduction, there are no weird ingredients or strange concoctions; just good food.

Super Moist Pumpkin Bread - turned on its head

http://www.theppk.com/2008/10/super-moist-pumpkin-bread/#comment-32432

First of all, I omitted the coconut and the walnuts, because I didn't have any.  Boo hoo. 
THEN, I was really naughty and used organic sweet potato instead of pumpkin.

And this bread STILL turned out good.  Most of it went to church for the Fall Festival.

Even though the oven didn't turn on the first time I tried to bake it and the batter sat in the pans inside the oven doing NOTHING for about an hour and a half, once I baked it, even though it ended up cooking a bit longer than it should, it was forking delicious!  This is definitely my go-to recipe for pumpkin bread - until Isa Chandra Moskowitz comes up with a new one!

Snickerdoodle cookies go vegan

In my last post I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a go-to vegan cookie recipe.  Isa Chandra Moskowitz comes to the rescue again with Chai Spice Snickerdoodle Cookies.  I cannot wait to try this recipe.

Right now, I have to make the food I planned to take to sell at the fall festival.  And I don't particularly feel like it because my stomach hurts.  Too many fries at lunch.  I really need to stop eating fries.

Vegan brownies - my first try

Not bad for a first effort. Amy & Brian liked the brownies. Recipe here.  My only complaint is that they were oilier than I'd like.  I'm thinking maybe next time substitute some applesauce for half of the vegetable oil.  Also, I used sweetened chocolate/cocoa powder and it worked out fine.  Ghirardelli makes good products.

Oh, and I'd probably drink unsweetened iced tea with the brownies next time.  This time, I had cranberry juice.  Strange mix of flavors. 

I still haven't decided if I'm going to make more of them to sell at the Fall Festival.  I like The Best Pumpkin Muffins (from Vegan With A Vengeance) a lot better.  I still haven't found a good vegan cookie recipe yet.

This is the Almost All American Seitan Pot Pie from Veganomicon.  If it tastes as good as it looks, then I will have been successful!  Amy rolled out and patted in the crusts so I had a lot of help.  It's pretty work intensive, but it was a work of love!  Time to eat!

Muffins for church

Tomorrow is the third Sunday of the month.  We have fellowship after the service, and Brian wanted us to bake something for this.  So, we are baking the Banana-Wheat Germ Muffins from Veganomicon.  This is an entirely new recipe for me, so I am eager to see how they turn out.  They are baking as I write this.  I don't want to eat any of them tonight, but I am thinking we should try them just to see if they are good.  Maybe I will have Brian try one.

The rest of today's meals were good - pancakes from Vegan With A Vengeance for breakfast.  Lunch was General Tso's Tofu at Hunan Garden.  Then for dinner I made beans and rice (Amy cooked the rice a few days ago), and Roasted Brussels Sprouts for dinner.

This morning, after I dropped off the kids at the school (it was Tag Day where they go out and get donations for the music program), I had to take my mom to the medical lab to get blood work done.  For some reason, I was really jittery.  I finally had to leave her there, and go back to her house & get Chris to go pick her up.  It was kind of scary, and I'm not sure exactly what caused it.  One other negative thing - I haven't gotten to do any more water aerobics this week.  Next week I will do better.  Amy and I are both looking forward to Monday night.