Congee or Jook

When traveling around asia, i found that a lot of train stations and other places that sold breakfasts sold a thing called congee in a little metal pop can almost that had a spoon on top. Well, i wanted to make some for a breakfast and found a recipe, tweaked it and added my own toppings. Here is my recipe.
1 cup long grain white rice
9 cups water
1/2 t. salt
put all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil about 5 minutes and then lower the heat to medium or low (just so it won't boil over) and boil it about an hour and a half and then start checking it more often during the last half hour so it won't stick. I had to turn up the heat in the last half hour. Just make sure there isn't any water on the top that hasn't had rice in it (or something like that) so it's all the way through. You're done! Super easy and a great breakfast food.
toppings:
peanuts
shiitake mushrooms
chopped button mushrooms sauteed with onions
kimchee
soy sauce
hoisin sauce

Almond cheese

 

Here are my selection of ingredients. I have my measuring cup with warm water, the almonds in the tin, salt, agar powder, (frozen) red pepper, nutritional yeast and onion powder. I put the water and the agar in the blender together and they made a gel and then i added in the rest of the ingredients. 

 

make sure you blend it long enough to make sure it has a nice consistancy. this one came out fairly gritty but i have some that comes out much better. I'll post some pictures about that. 

I stuck it in a molding dish and put it in the refrigerator. It turned out fairly nice. I  added some more agar the next time that i made it and put it in a mini bundt pan. It came out in a nice mold and it worked great on the crackers with soup.

Recipe:
1 c. hot water
2 T. granulated Agar
1 C. almonds, slivered, blanched

1 t. salt
1/2 t. garlic powder
2 T. nutritional yeast flakes
1 t. onion powder
1 1/2 T. lemon juice
1/4 bell peper, red, chopped

This is the cheese when it's in my refrigerator. :D

1. blend together the hot water and granulated agar for a few seconds. Add all the ingredients except for the almonds and blend for a bit. Then add the almonds to get a nice smooth texture. Blend for a while to make sure it's nice and smooth and not chunky. Pour into a container or mold (i used a mini bundt pan a) refrigerate until it's firm.

Note: blend the cashews with the other ingredients and make sure the cashews are smooth. it really itsn't nice to have chunky cashews....

Gnocci

Gnocci is like a pasta almost but not really... it's a combo between a potato dish and a pasta. Fortunately this pasta is super simple to make.

3 medium (1 lb) potatoes washed
1 t. salt
1/4 t. seasoning of choice
1/4 c. soy yogurt or milk
1/2 c. plus 1-2 Tbs flour

1.wash the potatoes super well and put them in a pot. Cover it with water and add the salt. Boil the poatoes about 30-40 minutes until they're cooked all the way through. Poke them with knife to check. Put them on a surface and pull the skins off them. You can wait for them to cool, pull the water off under some running water of you can do it like i did and suck it up. :p
2. The recipe that i used said to put them through a potato ricer. A potato ricer is like a big press that will press the potato super fine. I didn't have that and i couldn't press it though my seive, it was too small. So what i did was mashed it with a fork and then beat it with a baking beater thing. It made it nice and fluffy so i think i got what was wanted.
2.5 boil a big pot of water for cooking the "pasta"
3. Add the seasoning and yogurt to the potato and then put in the flour. you might need to add some more flour to be able to knead it. Knead out the potato mixture on a floured surface for a few minutes. Add flour when needed. Divide into small parts and make about 3/4 inch thick and 18 inches long. Cut into about 1/2 inch long pieces. Roll them into nice little balls ish.... After you've cut about half to 1/4th of the gnocci, put them into the lightly boiling water. If the water is  boiling to hard, it will break the gnocci. The gnocci will go to the bottom and when they float, they'll be done. When they're done, take them out with a strainer spoon and put them in a dish.
4. You can eat gnocci with stuff on it, i prefer to eat it like a little side dish with tons of veggies. :D

Sorry about no pictures but they were eaten before i could get any pictures... usually i have left over of these kinds of things... not this time!!

Dehydrating Apples

I used red delicious apples. They're a very nice and pretty apple. Also one of the cheeper in the store.... lol

This is my trusty food dehydrator. In this picture, it doesn't have all its layers on it buti think it has about 3 more?

So slice the apples into 4ths and core them. Then slice them into thin slices and lay them on the dehydrator. Dehydrate them over night is what i do or until all of them are nice and dry. You don't want to go too thick or too thin. If you want them to keep from getting brown looking, you can dip them in lemon before they dry.  

Layered Bean Dip.

My apologies for the late post on this blog. It has fallen to the side when i traveled to Hawaii. We at amazingly good papaya and mangoes there and ice cream bananas! They're a greyish green when they're not totally ripe. I think the reason why they call them ice cream bananas is because they have a creamier texture than regular bananas. It's also called the Blue Java Banana.
anyway. here is a recipe for a quick and easy taco salad. it's a nice thing to take to a tailgate party or to eat as a one dish meal.

1 c. baked tortilla chips
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 jar of salsa (whatever heat you want)
1 c. pressed tofu shredded with 1 T. nutritional yeast (like cheese)
1-2 c. shredded romaine lettuce
1 small onion diced
2 dollops (being very exact here!) of sunflower sour cream


In a mixing or serving bowl, put the baked tortilla chips at the bottom of the bowl to cover the bottom. Then put in the black beans to cover the chips and pour in the salsa to cover that, not too thick though. Depending on the bowl, the measurements might be different. Sprinkle in the pressed shredded tofu and the shredded romaine lettuce. Dice up the onion and sprinkle that in there to and put some (2) dollops or spoonfulls of sunflower sour cream on the top to top it off. Eat it like a regular salad but don't toss. If you have it in a clear bowl, besure to have the layers nice and neat.

Dole's PB Cookies

I was looking through the dole cookbook and actually found a fairly healthy recipe! Check it out! It uses Adam's natural peanut butter!  I did a few changes but here it is!

1 banana
1/3 c. peanut butter
2 T. apple sauce
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 fake egg
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 T. granulated sugar

Set the oven to 350. Mix banana, peanut butter and apple sauce in a bowl. Mix it up really good. Might help to warm the peanut butter. Add sugar, egg and mix. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Drop by teaspoon fulls onto a baking sheet.. Sprinkle with sugar and press with a fork to make a criss-cross pattern. Bake 10-12 minutes.

makes about 36 cookies
for one cookie
54 calories
1.2 g fat

Biscotti #1

 It's hard to find a vegan biscotti recipe, but i did find one and made some changes to it. I can't find the recipe any more but here it is.

2 c. flour
3/4 c. ground almonds
3/4 c. whole almonds
3/4 c. sugar or 1/2 c. sugar, depending on what you like
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/3 c. honey
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/3 c. water
1/4 t. almond extract.
Set the oven 350.
Mix together flour, sugar, whole almonds, fine ground almonds baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl blend honey, water and almond extract and add to the dry. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Divide into half and make into logs. Place logs on a greased sheet (i used airbake) and bake for 30 minutes. Take out and let cool 10 minutes. Then cut with a serated knife into slices. Put back on sheet and bake 15 more minutes. Put on racks to cool.

Nutrition Info
83 calories
2.7g fat

Note!! I am going to experiment with a recipe that is low in calories to see if i can get this low in calories!

Camping meal plan

during the summer, we went camping, and i mean camping, not backpacking. I did the meal plan so i thought i would share with you what i did for the meals.

Friday Supper - i chose to have some pea soup, with cornbread muffins, and cornbread muffins. We had some melon and bananas for our fruit.
Saturday Breakfast - I was lazy and had us eat the good old oatmeal packets for breakfast. We had some bread with it.
Saturday Lunch - when we got back into camp from our 8 mile hike, we were exhausted, so we sat down to some polenta with black beans, lettuce, salsa, olives,  Guacamole , and basicly taco toppings. We had biscotti for our dessert.
Saturday Supper - We had some lettuce wraps with hamburgers filled with the Gardenburger's Black Bean Chipolte burger inside. It was an amazing supper!
Sunday Breakfast - We had pancakes with the normal pancake toppings and some random fruit. we also decided we'd eat up what ever would be acceptable on pancakes that meal too. :D

Guacamole

 1 large ripe avocado
1-2 T. lemon juice
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. salt

Mash the avocado, stir in lemon, garlic powder and salt. Tip: lemon can help the guac from turning brown, and it keeps it nice and green.

homemade fig newtons

I made some home made fig newtons from the recipe from seriouseats.com
Homemade Fig Newtons 
it worked so well and i was excited! I made some different kind of fillings like
blueberry sauce
peanut butter and jelly
pumpkin
blackberry jelly

Oh and you will need a kitchen scale. It makes the measurements more accurate to use weight than cups and more universial all together. I veganized the recipe so here is my version, vegan!

8 oz all purpose flour
4 oz apple sauce
3 1/2 oz. sugar
1 oz maple syrup or honey
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
2 t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. cinnamon
1 t. orange zest
3 servings of energ egg replacer
1 oz. orange juice

for the filling (from serious eats)
12 oz dried black Mission Figs
2 oz. unsweetened apple sauce
1 1/2 oz honey (for non vegans) or maple syrup
1/4 t. cinnamon

1. to make the newton dough:
sift he flour and set aside.e Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together the apple sauce and sugar, honey or maple syrup, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and orange zest on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the fake egg.
Turn the mixer on low and the sifted flour along with orange juice. Shut of the mixer, the dough will be very soft and wet. Prepare a large shet of plastic wrap and use a rubber spatula to transfer the dough from the bowl to the center of the plastic. Fold the plastic over the dough and flatten into a disc. Wrap with remaining plastic and refrigerate for four hours to overnight.

2. make the filling.
Combine the figs, apple sauce, maple syrup or honey and cinnamon in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. You can either put this in a pastry bag fitted with a large plain basket weave tip or in a ziplock back with the corner snipped off. Set filling aside until needed.

3. Making the cookies. Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit
have a tray ready.
Warning, the dough will be very soft and hard to work with but hang in there and use flour when rolling it out. Roll to about 1/4 " thickness. Frequently lift and move dough, flipping it to make sure it doesn't stick. Cut strips about 4 1/4" wide. Have no longer than 6" or it will be a pain to work with. Pipe a strip of filling down the center. You want it to be about 1" wide and about 1/4" thick.
Lift one end of the long, exposed dough strips up and over filling.Take hold of the other side and fold it over. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Bake for about 12 minutes, they will look slightly brown.
4. cutting the cookies:
As soon as they are removed from the oven, use a sharp knife to trim each bar into several 1" long cookies. While the cookies are still warm, transfer them into a plastic container with a lid or large zip top bag. Seal bag tightly. This step will slightly steam the cookies, ensuring they will remain soft and cake like from end to end. Skipping this step will result in Newtons with a slightly drier texture, more like a cookie and less like a cake.

My fillings

Peanut butter Jelly - pipe down peanut butter, and ontop pipe down jelly

Pumpkin - take pumpkin from can, sweeten to desired and pipe down the center.

Have fun!  

Jiao Zi Dough

Today i made Jiao Zi, or Dumplings. We had some guests over so i decided to make some Jiao Zi. I made some golden dumpling wrappers. That's what i am going to tell you about in this recipe.

I used
2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. boiling water
3/4 t. turmeric powder

Put flour and turmeric powder in a bowl, pour in boiling water. After mixing and kneading, let it sit in a plastic bag with flour in it, for about 30 minutes. It will make it warm and like super soft and easy to work with.

for filling it

divide this up into about 32 pieces and with a light weight chinese bamboo rolling pin, roll them with some flour to make it non-sticky into a circle. Then put about a teaspoon, maybe a little more, into the wrapper and put some water around the edge to make it stick better. Have fun! I'll post some jiao zi filling recipes later. :D

Tofu Egg Salad

 From the Deihl cookbook Optimal Diet

1 package of light tofu
1 T. lemon juice
1 t. seasoning, fake chicken, meat rubs, whatever you season egg salad with
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. onion powder
1 T. nutritional yeast
1 t. turmeric
1/4 t. paprika
2 T. mayo (optional) or corn butter ( i suggest this since it makes it more yellow... like eggs!!)

Drain and rise the tofu (i do this because the tofu can have a stale water taste to it after sitting in the water for a while. Mash it so it looks like mashed egg. Add other ingredients. Chill 1 hr before serving.

granola 1

Here is my recipe for perfect and good granola. It makes quite a bit. I fill my two 'towers' of granola. It's nice to put ontop of cereals, frozen yogurt, or soy ice cream.I got it from the November 2010 Family Fun and did a few twists to it to make it healthier and this is what i came up with.

4 cup rolled oats (also called old fashioned oats)
1 cup wheat germ (optional, you can replace with 1 c. rolled or quick oats)
1 cup. chopped walnuts or silvered almonds
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt

1/3 c. apple sauce (or apple concentrate)
1/3 c. honey                  or for all three of the 1/3 liquid ingredients, you can
1/3 c. water                  put in about 2/3 c. to 1 cup of apple concentrate. it also counts as the sugar


Heat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together oats, wheat germ, nuts, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the apple sauce, honey water (apple concentrate if choose to). Toss the mixture until it is well combined, then spread it evenly on a cookie sheet or high rimmed casserole dish. I find it easier to do it in a casserole dish because when you stir it, it won't go over the sides.
Bake the granola until lightly browned, about 1 hr, stirring every 15 minutes. Keep the granola away from the sides of the pan because that makes them burn. If you want to, you can add some dried fruit like:
cranbereries
blueberries
raisins
cheeries
pineapple
papaya
mango

Jump Ice Cream

1 t. vanilla
1 c. milk (soy milk is what i used)
1 T. sugar

add ins
1 T. coconut
1 T. chocolate or carob chips
1 T. raisins

Put the vanilla, milk, sugar and as many as the add ins as you want to in a small zip lock bag. then, fill a big zip lock bag 3/4 the way full with ice. Push the little bag down into the ice into the big bag and ziplock the bag. Then if you want to, you can put some rock salt to make it melt faster. This is up to you. Wrap a dish towel or tea towel around the bags and jump around with them. When the ice cream inside is nice and not liquidy, you can take it out and eat it. Fun and easy ice cream to make.

Topppings

Granola
Raisins
Mini marshmellows
chocolate chips
cheerios
rice krispies
blueberries
other fresh fruit
mochi

Homemade Ketchup

I can tomato paste (mini cans)
3 T. lemon juice
1 t. garlic powder
1 T. brown sugar

Mix it all together and put it with some potato or baked yam sticks. :D

Blueberry BBQ sauce

 I have an overabundance of blueberries over here so i decided to google some blueberry bbq sauce. We had had some over at a friends house and i wanted to make my own. I found one from the blog/site grillingcompanion.com
and it worked great. :D really liked it and will have fun finding stuff to put it on. At the end, i'll give some suggestions for vegans and vegetarians.

1/2 recipe

1 c. blueberries
1/4 c. vinegar (cider preferbly)
1/4 t. salt
1 T. onion, chopped
1/4 t. cayenne pepper or sriracha sauce
1 1/2 T. ketchup
1 1/2 T sugar
1 clove garlic
1 t. hoisin sauce
1 t. chili powder

heat all ingredients over medium/high heat in a saucepan. let boil a bit. if you want to, you can add some (1/2 T.) cornstarch mixed with water to make it thicker if you want to. Blend it if it isn't smooth consistancy.

Full recipe

2 c. blueberries
1/2 c. vinegar
1/2 t. salt
2 T. onion, chopped
1/2 t. caynne pepper
3 T. ketchup
3 T. sugar
2 cloves garlic
2 t. hoisin sauce
2 t. chili powder

use instructions from the half recipe

You can put this on:

Seitan
Worthington Swiss Steak
Worthington Tenderbits
Worthington Big Franks
Be creative and post what you put it on!

Stuffed Seitan

So i got bored today and decided that i would make something like dumplings, but since i didn't have wrappers and were to lazy to make them, i'd make them out of seitan. So the seitan recipe is

1 c. vital wheat gluten flour
1 c. water
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. brewers yeast
1/2 t. garlic powder

Broth
2 C.water
1 C. fry chick broth or what ever is in the can, if you don't have it, just use water
3 T. soy sauce

Mix the dry, add wet, knead and pull to make it nice and soft, pushing out the air, then divide up into small pieces. I got about 20+ from my batch. Knead and press it into a semi round shape and stuff with the stuffing.... Oh, and start to boil your water.

Stuffing:
4 fry chick pieces
1/4 c. onion ground in the ultimate chopper or chopped finely
1 celery stick, medium
handful of bread crumbs
garlic, onion, or mckays chicken seasoning
Mix all together and you can use it for the inside stuffing. It will make more than you need so you can always spread it on the sandwhich.

Don't put too much of the stuffing into the seitan because it will not stick as well if it is super super bulging. As you make them, put them into the boiling water and boil them. Make sure it isn't boiling to hard or else that will make them pop, so bring to a boil and then set to low-medium or low. Let cook for about 20-30 minutes, checking frequently to make sure they haven't exploded.

Enjoy with sauce made from a mixture of sriracha sauce, soy sauce, hoisin sauce and a dash of chinese hot chili oil.

Biscuits

This morning i woke up and made some biscuits to go with out fresh box of strawberries that we got yesterday. I did a little remix on the cornbread recipe and this is what i got.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 serving energ fake egg
1 T. baking powder
1/8 c. soy milk powder + one cup water  or 1 cup soy milk
1 1/4 T. oil

Mix it with a WOODEN SPOON not a Whisk!!!! It'll be like thicker dough than the cornbread because the flour is more 'thirsty' than the cornmeal. Put it in a greased pan, either square or round and bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees F. I cut mine into eight pieces, and put some strawberries on top. Since i don't like eating cool whip, (in my opinion, it's absolutely disgusting, i drizzled a bit of honey on top.

Nutritional Facts
Calories 148.4
Total Fat 3.1 g
 Sat 0.4 g
 Poly 0.6 g
 Mono 1.7 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Total Carbs 27.4 g
 Fiber 2.7 g
 Sugar 2.9 g

Carrot Salad

This is my version of carrot salad for 4 people.

2 medium sized carrots
1/4 c. Almondaise 
or regular mayo
1/4 c. raisins

Grate the carrots and then mix in the almondaise. Then sprinkle in raisins. I put less than 1/4th of a cup. This salad is nice when you're getting super super sick of regular lettuce salads.

garlic Peas

This is a recipe that is very easy and that you use frozen peas for.
To feed four people, use 1/2 the bag of frozen peas with water and start warming them up in the microwave. I did for 2 minutes. While those two minutes are going, chop up some Walla Walla sweet onions and get ready to put those in. When the peas are ready, put the onion in, with some garlic and onion powder and have it go the rest of the time. (Mine was for 3 more minutes to get it nice and hot). Enjoy!

Hot Dog Gravy

This can at the bottom is what i used in my gravy. you can take out the big franks and then it will be brown gravy.

In a blender
2 c. water
4 T. flour

While that is blending, saute some onion in a frying pan
and when the water/flour mix is blended, pour it into
the frying pan. Mix it until it is thick and you might want
to add some marmite

I used about a teaspoon. Make it nice and thick. 

Optional, slice up your big frank into coins and warm them in the gravy. I ate this over left over sushi rice and regular rice. 

To complete the meal, i ate it with my Onion Peas and Carrot Salad

Have fun!

Vegetarian Chili

 Here's a great vegetarian chili recipe

1 can diced tomatoes' i used the chili diced tomatoes from western family
1 can black beans; use whatever bean you like to use for chili. I just grabbed a random one out of my pantry
1/2 cup water
1 T. Chili powder + or - depending on your likes
1 chili pepper
1/4 t .salt
1 T. soy sauce (shhhh my secret ingredient!)
1/4 c. onion; sauteed in the bottom of the sauce pan
1 clove of garlic; peeled and chopped into small bits

First sautee the onion in the bottom with the garlic. Then add in the tomatoes, beans, water and chili powder and chili. Then add salt and or soy sauce.  This recipe is more like a base to the chili. I put in like 1/3 c. of tvp meat and called it a soup!
I ate this with cornbread, and put some good old Sunflower chip dip in the soup as  like a sour cream. Have fun and eat up!

xi'an cold silken tofu dish

 We visited China this past summer and while we were in Xi'an, the home of the ancient terra cotta warriors, we found a vegetarian restaurant near a pagoda we went and visited right outside the city wall. It was a beautiful place with really nice dishes. We got a hot pot with mushrooms (enoki, shiitake, other ones we don't know the names of) and we got this side dish. Sooo good!

1 package tofu; silken
3 T. Hoisin Sauce ; I used soy vay garlic hoisin
3 T. soy sauce; low sodium
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 stalks of green onion; sliced
1/2 sheet of nori cut up thin.
Carefully put the tofu into a dish. The reason why i say carefully is because silken tofu is very tender and it's super super easy to break it into little bits and then it gets messy. So proced with caution. Pour the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, or what ever marinades over the tofu and then sprinkle on green onions and garlic. Cut up the nori or seaweed very thin with scissors and lay it over the top. Chill in the refrigerator.

Serves 8

72 Calories per serving

Scrambeled tofu

Here's a great breakfast recipe that is a vegan substitute for scrambled eggs. Combining this with hash browns makes a nice breakfast!

1 box of very firm tofu ( i used light kind)
2 T. brewers or nutritional yeast
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 onion, chopped

Saute the onion. While it's sauteing, mash the tofu with a potato masher and put in brewers yeast, salt, turmeric, garlic powder, and any other seasoning that you put with scrambled eggs.
Add the seasoned mashed tofu in with the onion and let it get nice and warm. Serve warm.

Serves from 4-6, depending on how much you take.

Lots of people like to eat their scrambled eggs differently, but this is what i've seen put in it that you can also put in your scrambled tofu

Shiitake Mushrooms
Mushrooms
Red Peppers
Cayenne Pepper
Jalapeno Peppers
Seaweed (Nori)

Per serving  calories <128

Mashed Potatoes

Start of today with a little cooking story:
When i first started cooking our family's lunches, i decided that we'd have mashed potatoes and broccoli. I had a vague idea of how to make mashed potatoes, you have the cut up and boiled potatoes, then you mash them into the paste, putting in milk to make it smoother, well, we have four people in our family and i didn't know that for mashed potatoes you need like more potatoes than just one per person. So i washed and grabbed four potatoes, sliced them up and boiled them. Well, when dinner came around, i mashed them and put soy milk with them. My mom came home and she was like how many potatoes did you cook up? I was like one for each of us, like what we usually have for things like baked potatoes. I learned that day that you need almost double the potatoes for mashed potatoes because it like mashes down to nothing!
Here we go on the recipe.
For three people :
6 medium to small sized potatoes
enough water to cover them
1/2 c. milk plus or minus to fit your wishes..
salt to taste

Wash the potatoes, peel them and then slice them up. Put in enough water to cover them and boil them for 20 - 30 minutes. Make sure they're nice and soft. I sometimes pour off some of the water but it's really up to you. Grab your potato masher and then start mashing. Add soy milk and salt to make it easier to mash. Enjoy with sriachara sauce (or how ever you spell it.. it's a red bottle, green nozzle and with a rooster on it. Very nice hot sauce. :-0)

Cooking Rice

Here's how to cook rice. Recently, we got a rice cooker and that has definatly made life easier. Rice cookers do not boil over and that is true.

The ratio for rice is 2 water for 1 rice. That's what i've been using since i started cooking rice.
I boil the two cups of water and when that's boiling, i add in the one of rice. Let cook for 20 minutes. If you have a rice cooker, read the instructions, put in the rice and water and let it go. :) Make sure you use  the proportions that the rice cooker company has because they vary from machine to machine.

blueberry Bran muffins

1 1/2 c. wheat bran
1 c. milk
1/2 . apple sauce
1 egg replacer serving
2/3 - 1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. b aking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c blueberries

1. Set oven to 375 F. Grease muffin cups.  Mix bran and milk together in separate bowl. Let stand 10 minute.s
2. Mix apple sauce, egg, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat in bran mix. Sift in flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Fold in blueberries. Bake 15-20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.

Goes great for breakfasts with home made strawberry preserves.

Nutritional Info
 Calories 117.6
Total Fat 0.8 g
 Sat 0.1 g
 Poly 0.4 g
 Mono 0.1 g
Carb 32.2 g
Fiber 4.1
Sugar 17.7

Oat Bran Muffins

 These muffins are some serious muffins and I'm not kidding when i say that. I mean really, these have carrots, bananas, walnuts and the whole deal! These are nice breakfast muffin and even though they have carrots in them, some low sugar home made jam goes really nice on them. :)

3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 c. oat bran
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. baking sod
1/3 c. mashed banana
1/2 c. low fat - no fat yogurt
1 fake egg
1/4 c. apple sauce
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 c carrot
1/2 c prunes, chopped
1/2 c. walntuts

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Nutritional Facts
Calories 101.6
Total Fat 3.8 g
 Sat 0.5 g.
 Poly 2.5 g
 Mono 0.5 g
Cholesterol 0.6 mg (won't have if you use soy yogurt)
Total Carbs 16.2
 Fiber 1.8
 Sugar 4.9 g
Protein 2.8 g

Natural Peanut Butter Winner!!

the picture at the beginning is of a peanut butter that i discovered a few years ago and it's like miracle peanut butter. So you see Skippy and Jif have a long list of ingredients. Here are the two...
Skippy: Skippy contains peanuts, listed as the first ingredient, followed by sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oils, including cottonseed, rapeseed and soybean oils, and salt.
Jif : MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT.

Well, i found Adam's Natural Peanut Butter and i was almost amazed on how the ingredient list went.  It was this - Ingredients : Peanuts (contains 1% or less of salt). Can you believe it???!?!?!!? No sugar, and no added oils! It tastes sooo good!!! Even comes in crunchy. :)It's sooooooooo natural! Here are the nutritional info

For 2 Tablespoons ( 32 grams)
200 Calories 150 from fat
16 g total fat
  2.5 saturated fat
  0 trans fat
  4.5 grams polyunsaturated
  3.5 grams monounsaturated
0 mg Cholesterol
105 mg sodium
6 carbs
  2 fiber
  1 g sugar
7g protein

That's pretty good. There is oil that gather's on the top and we pour off that oil and it works just fine. It takes off some of the fat and calories. But this is really amazing peanut butter. Almost as good as PB2 (a dried peanut powder)! It does still have oils and fats in it though.

almond butter

When you think of almond butter you usually think of that delicious brown stuff with chuncks of almonds mixed in and buttery like peanut butter. I love the brown almond butter. But here's a recipe for butter like substance.

1 c. blanched slivered almonds
1 1/4 c. water
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 t. salt

Blend all of these in a blender. Put in a small pot and bring to a boil to thicken. When thickened, pour into a desired container and refrigerate.

Almondaise

This can be used as a mayonaise subsitute
1/2 c. blanched almonds
1 c. water
1 T. lemon
1 T. vinegar
1 t. honey
1 t. salt
1/2 t. onion power
1/4 t. mustard powder
1 T. cornstarch
1/8 paprika

Blend all together in a blender and then boil in a small pot to thicken.

Sunflower Sour Cream

 This is a nice chip dip or use as sour cream for soups and stuff.

1/2 c. sunflower seeds (raw)
1/2 c. water
2 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. onion powder

blend all together. The longer that you blend it, the whiter that it will get. This does turn a very nice white, even though the seeds are a gray brown.

Banana Bread

This is the recipe for banana bread that I got from Dr. Deihl's cookbook The Optimal Diet. The Optimal Diet is one of my favorite cook books and I really enjoy using it. It has low calorie, low fat and heart healthy. It's everything that you want in one cookbook! It's really amazing! Here we go!

2 c. flour
1/4 c. walnuts
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 c. apple concentrate (water NOT added)
1/3 c. honey
1 1/4 c. mashed banana
1 egg (or fake egg)
1 t. lemon juice

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees faranheight
2. mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet. Mix well.
3. Pour batter into a greased bread pan.
4. Bake for 50 minutes. Check with a toothpick or knife to make sure it's done and allow to cool before slicing.

Peanut Butter Cucumbers

My friend from China came over a few years ago and shared this recipe with us. I really enjoy making it and it's a really nice cool dish. Really refreshing.

1 peeled cucumber
1/4 c smooth peanut butter
enough lemon to make it creamy.

Slice up the cucumber into fourths and then coins. Mix peanut butter with lemon until creamy and pour over cucumbers.

Hot Pot

So... what's hot pot you ask? It's a popular Chinese dish. The main idea of it is that you have piles and piles of food on plates all around the table and a crock pot/rice cooker/pot on a hot plate in the middle. Everyone has a little basket that they fill with food and then they let it heat in the "heater" in the middle. The heater contains a broth and then they can put the meat that they heated in a bowl and eat it. It's a really fun activity, fun to prepare and fun to eat. This is also nice because if you are a vegetarian, you can pick and choose what you put in it. I use a fake duck ...

and i also used some home made seitan (recipe here ) chopped up into small pieces.

Hot pot can consist of fast cooking vegetables and meats. Oh and mushrooms. Almost forgot. We had shiitakes, and this black edible fungus. This is what it looked like condensed.
I put it in a pot with some water and when i came back in an hour., it had filled my whole pot! We had a lot of that in the hot pot.
So remember to slice everything thinly. This is what you can put in yours. Make the ammounts according to the ammount of people you have. Hot pot is usually a party food.
The hot pot consists of two parts. The broth and then the things that you cook in it. The broth can have:
Water
Carrots
Daikon Raddish
Hot pot seasonings (look for at asian food markets)

Have that warming in your pot on a hot plate/ rice cooker/ hot pot cooker/whatever

Carrots in coins
Spinach leaves
Bok Choy
Fake duck
seitan
enoki
black edible fungus
noodles
shiitakes
sea foods
potatoes
green onions
tofu
mini dumplings

Be creative! Just besure to cut up your veggies so they can cook extra fast! Have fun and comment on how it went!

Oatmeal "buttermilk" bread

Oatmeal "Buttermilk" Bread
Makes 1 9x5 in loaf
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling filtered water
1/4 cup warm filtered water
2 t. dried yeast
1 1/2 c milk with lemon juice
3 T. oil rest with apple sauce to make 1/2 cup
1/4 c brown sugar
1 cup coarse whole - wheat flour
3 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 t. salt
1 spray bottle of water

Set asied 1/4 cup of rolled oats. Place the remaining 1 1/4 cup of oats in a medium bowl and cover with 1 cup of boiling water. Mix with a spoon to moisted all oats. Let bowl sit, uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring frequently while water is absorbed.
Place 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Mix with a whist to dissolve yeast. (if mixing by hand, combine warm water and yeast in a medim bowl and mix with a spoon or whisk). Let rest for 5 minutes. Add soaked oats, milk with lemon, oil and applesauce, brown sugar, whole wheat flour app purpose flour and salt. Mixing by hand - add soaked oats, buttermilk oil sugar, flours and salt mix with wooden spoon. Knead with your hands for 10-12 minutes. Dough will be wet at first but will eventually form a b all. Ball with have a satiny finish and will bounce back quicly when poked with a finger.
Place dough in an oiled metal bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm room 70-75 degrees for about an hour. Dough will almost double in size.
Pull dough from bowl and flatten with your hand releasing excess air bubbles. Form dough into desired shape and transfer onto pan. Let it proof in warm room 35-40 minutes. Loaf will rise. Preheat oven to 385 degrees. Remove plastic and mist top of loaf with a spray bottle of water. Sprinkle with remaining oats. Place pan on center rack and bake for approx 1 hour. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Got this recipe from my aunt. I made it and it turned out looking like sourdough (big holes) but it tasted much better than sour dog (no sour!!)

Nutritional Facts if divided into 25 pieces
calories  123.6
Total Fat 1.9g
 Sat 0.3 g
 Poly 0.5 g
 Mono 1.1 g
Total Carbs 26.6 g
 Fiber 1.8 g
Sugars 2.4 g
Protien 3.8 g

Skinny kimbap

So i was looking today for sushi/kimbap recipes and the serving size to calorie count was like WOW! In one there were 2207 calories! I couldn't see myself eating that many calories at one meal so i played around in the kitchen and made something that was so low calorie i couldn't believe it! Okay, so after I saw the counts on the commercial ones i was shocked to see my own. So first what i put in mine is carrot, pearl rice, spinach and tvp (or vegetarian burger) and then seaweed on the outside. That's what i used for mine. You can put avacado, cucumbers, and so many more items in yours.
Also people asked me what is the difference between sushi and kimbap. Kimbap is Korean and Sushi is Japanese. Also sushi is usually dipped in a dipping sauce and kimbap is seasoned enough that dipping sauce isn't needed. Kimbap is (for me) lower in calories and fat.
So let's get rolling. Some people suggest that you use a bamboo rolling mat to help but i don't use that.
So..... I'm not giving exact measurements because it's different every time you make it. So
I put

1.5 carrot
1 block spinach
1 "batch" pearl rice
1 c. tvp (vegetarian "meat") (stands for textured vegetable protein)


Put a sheet of nori out on the rolling mat or clean and DRY counter. Put the rice close to the middle, then put spinach, carrot, and tvp. Roll over one end over the rice and push the filling in. Roll up and you can use water along the edge of the nori (seaweed) to help it stick. I made like 5 rolls from this. I haven't tried freezing it so i will invite my friends over and have them eat if for me. :)
93.1 calories per roll
0.2g fat
36.2 mg sodium

Seitan

Seitan is another name for glutenn. You can't search for gluten recipe because all you will get is gluten free. So seitan is the name for it. Here is my recipe. It's really fun to make since it will get very large when cooked.

1 c. gluten flour aka do-pep
1 T. flour
1 T. nutritional yeast
1 c. water
1 1/2 T. soy sauce

Boil 4 cup water with 1/4 c soy sauce. Mix dry add wet. I suggest that you use a fork to mix... DO NOT USE A WHISK it will be super messy! Cut them up into little pieces Boil in the water for 30 minutes.  

Waffles/pancakes

Our vintage old waffle maker

Here is my recipe for waffles. we don't have a belgian waffle maker but i don't think the recipe would be any different

1/3 c corn flour
1/3 c oat bran
1/3 c brown rice flour
1/3 c barley flour
1/3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 c whole wheat flour
1/4 t salt
1 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
2 T. soy milk or milk powder
2 C. water
Mix Dry and then add wet. For waffles, in my waffle maker, it takes about one scant cup to fill the thing. Feel free to play around with the recipe and see what you find!

I also use this recipe for pancakes, i just scoop 1/4 cup on the griddle and fry.
Have fun waffling and pancakeing! 

Corn Butter

 I like to make corn butter as a substitute for real butter. I am a vegan (also lactose intolerant) and so here is what I use instead of butter!

Corn butter
1/4 c. corn FLOUR *
1 cup water
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. water
1 T. nutritional yeast flakes
other seasonings (garlic, onion, mckays chicken, etc.)

1. simmer cornmeal in one cup water i na small pot on stove until soct and water is absorbed.
Blenderize hot cornmeal with remaining ingredients until very smooth. Pour mixture into a container. Cover and chill until firm.

It makes a really nice spread. It's cheap and easy to find the ingredients for.  I hope you enjoy. This is a half recipe by the way and this is a very easy recipe to double.

*corn flour is not cornmeal. corn flour has the texture of flour, not gritty like cornmeal. this makes more of a smooth spread.

Low Calorie Salad Dressing

This is a low calorie salad dressing that i use. It's really good.
1/2 c. tomato juice
2 T. Lemon juice
1 tsp onion
1 tsp dry parsley flakes
1/4 t. salt
1 tsp brewers or nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp dill
Combine all ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake well before using.

Mud/Sovex

This is a spread that my mom and grandma both make and is very low in calories and is nice on breakfast toast with cereal.
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/3 cup brewers or nutritional yeast
2/3 c. v8 or tomato juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
 Bring soy sauce, water and tomato juice to a boil. Remove from heat and mix in brewers yeast and garlic powder.