Recipe Roundup

I've been cooking quite a bit lately, and thought I'd share what recipes I've been testing:

From Vegan With A Vengeance, I made the Coconut Heaven Cupcakes which were amazingly terrific. My only complaint is that the cupcakes and the frosting left me with a 1/4 a cup of coconut milk in the can. I hate it when things don't come out even. But they were so good, I plan to make them again, soon.

From Veginomican, I made the much more healthy Banana Wheat Germ muffins. These were also delish and much more healthy with very little sugar, lots of wheat germ and of course, no eggs or milk, so pretty low fat too. They also dealt with a problem we often have in our house: over-ripe bananas. Jason and Nora are pretty good about eating them up, but I won't touch them once the peels have any brown spots so we usually have 2-3 that I either end up freezing for smoothies or now I will use in these muffins. The muffins also freeze well.

Also in Veginomican, was the jicama/avocado/watercress salad. I always buy a jicama with great intentions and then I remember that I really don't want to eat more than a little of it. Or maybe the jicamas I buy are just too big and I should look for smaller ones which are reputedly milder and sweeter. I didn't have any watercress, so I didn't make this exactly as written, but did follow the directions on the dressing. Next time I will use less dressing and probably add the avocado when plating this since it got a little mushy in the fridge. Overall, you have to love jicama to like this salad, and while I don't dislike it, I don't really want to eat this for days, so make it if you've got a group coming for dinner and you need a side dish. I also added two shredded carrots which was a plus for me since I find jicama sometimes overwhelming. The dressing is pretty tasty, so you may want it for other salads.

This weekend I finally did something I've been meaning to test for a while - Veganizing the Krauskopf zucchini bread recipe for Nora. Honestly, I didn't think this was going to work, the recipe calls for 3 eggs, which is more than I've ever tried to substitute before. Most of the on-line vegan zucchini bread recipes call for using Energy Egg Replacer, something I've never bought because Isa's list of egg replacements in VwV usually calls for something I already have on hand (soygurt, bananas). This time I used one of her suggestions that I've been wanting to try for a while - 2 T ground flax meal + 3 T water whipped until that egg-like consistency. I really thought this would be too dense, especially tripling the amount to replace all three eggs. But zucchini was overrunning the crisper so I thought I'd give it a try. It was super good. The texture was perfect and while I can't claim this is the healthiest of recipes (there is a lot more sugar and oil than those banana muffins), I think the flax seed and unbleached flour help the recipe some and I might try cutting back on the sugar, because it's a great way to get Nora to eat zucchini. Nora, Jason and I ran though one mini-loaf in record time and I had to hide the other three in the freezer or else nothing else would have been eaten that day.

This week I also got the Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann. Since Nora will be going to pre-school two days a week, starting Tuesday, I've been trying to think about how I will pack lunches for her. This is also feeding my new bento obsession, that I really hope doesn't get out of hand, since I don't really have room in my kitchen for more things. VLB is very kid oriented and while it uses more processed vegan food than I would like, I totally see its place for helping vegan kids (and kids with food allergies) fit in in the lunch room. I also appreciate the suggestions for kid friendly menus at home. I bought this cookbook for two main reasons: vegan cheeze fondue and veggie corn dog recipes. However, just leafing through I'm finding some amazing new ones I want to try: apple tofu spring rolls and savory autumn leaf pies among others. So hopefully this along with this blog will help me make fabulous lunches that Nora will actually eat, which has been a challenge lately since she's stopped eating most of the things she used to love (Someone tell me just what is so offensive about peaches? I've even peeled them for her!).