Vegan a Week #5

I'm not going to share my meals with you because they were repeats and I'm sure I'm already boring you enough with endless salads! But I did indeed have a vegan day this week on Monday, and to prepare, I made vegan cookies on Sunday! I thought I'd share my recipe because these are sooo good (and summery, if you're missing it as much as I am!)

Lemon Poppyseed Vegan Cookies
makes approximately 36 cookies
prep time - 15 minutes
baking time - 10 minutes per batch

Ingredients
Cookies:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 1/2 cup vegan sour cream
• 1/2 cup vanilla soy/almond yogurt
• zest of one lemon
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons poppyseeds (optional)

Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Beat margarine and sugar until creamy. Beat in sour cream, yogurt, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix well.

2. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in poppyseeds. With floured hands, roll into rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Cool completely before glazing.

I'm not kidding about the floured hands - this dough is sticky!

3. For glaze, mix the powdered sugar and enough lemon juice to reach your desired consistency. Place cooled cookies on wax paper to glaze.

4. Enjoy!

Share with your friends, family, and coworkers. They will have no idea they are vegan! So delicious!

Vegan a Week #2

Week 2 ended yesterday and I again waited until the last day of the week, but I'm okay with that. With all the crazy weather we've been having, I didn't have a chance to really go shopping until the end of the week, plus my Plated box had arrived late Thursday, with one of the meals being vegan, so Saturday was the day!

I wanted something sweet for breakfast, so I found a recipe for some French breakfast puffs that I hadn't made in a while. Although this isn't the recipe I used, it appears to be exactly the same. I obviously substituted the dairy ingredients with vegan alternatives. I had to run to Meijer for the almond milk before I could make them, so this ended up being more like brunch. Bonus: when I went to Meijer I also picked up grapefruits! Mmm. Along with my coffee and a few blackberries, this was a delicious brunch!

I had a small snack in the afternoon of cinnamon graham crackers topped with Jif natural peanut butter and a clementine on the side.

For dinner, I made my second Plated creation. This one was for tofu, cashew, and pea stir-fry. Although it still took me a little longer than the directions stated, I have made stir-fry many times before, so it was much easier. I loved learning a different way to cook tofu, it turned out beautifully! And the recipe included ginger root, and I LOVE ginger. I was really impressed with the portion size of this meal. Both Andrew and I had a little bit left over for a midnight snack.

Andrew and I then headed out to see the Grand Rapids Symphony perform, and since I'm a member of their young professionals group, we were invited to a post-concert champagne toast. I had to avoid all the fancy chocolates, which was difficult, but I did enjoy a drink or two. I also happened to reconnect with a woman that I met like two years ago at a vegan potluck. She is going to invite me to a monthly vegan get-together she sets up here in Grand Rapids. It really is a great city for vegan options!

Vegan week #2 was a success! I can't wait to see what other meals I create or get to try this year!

Vegan Banana Coconut Spice Cake

I am very picky about how ripe my bananas can be if I'm going to consume them straight from the peel. Once I can't see anymore green or a brown spot starts forming, they are too sweet for me and I save them for a delicious treat like the vegan banana coconut spice cake I made today: )

What you need for the cake:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup mashed rip bananas (about 2 bananas)
1/2 cup almond buttermilk (1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 tbsp lemon juice)
1/2 cup vegan butter
2 egg substitutes
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon

What you need for the icing:
4 oz of vegan cream cheese
2 tbsp of melted vegan butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8" or 9" round or square pans.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, spices, and salt. Add banana, buttermilk, vegan butter, "eggs," and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until well combined.

3. Pour batter into two 8" or 9" round or square pans and bake for appx 35 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. (My oven only took 25 minutes, so keep an eye on it)!

4. Combine icing ingredients and use electric mixer to combine until smooth. When cakes have cooled, carefully remove from the pan and ice the bottom layer first, then add the second layer and ice the top and sides.

5. Enjoy! Serves at least 8.

I hope you had a delightful weekend! I can't wait to enjoy my cake all week!

Fresh From the Farmer's Market!

tonight i actually made a real dinner, which i feel like i haven't done in a super long time! anyway, the theme of the evening was "farmer's market" because andrew and i did a ton of shopping there on saturday. i really hate wasting food, and lots of times we buy things and then forget about them or are too lazy to cook, so i was determined not to let that happen! i should have taken more pictures, but i made a stuffed eggplant dish with spaghetti on the side for dinner, with the eggplant and tomatoes from the market. while i was preparing everything, i asked andrew to grab some vanilla ice cream for dessert. we never buy/eat plain vanilla, so he wasn't convinced that this was a good idea until he received his sweets. i made...

peach and blackberry crisp! he loved it. and he's hard to impress when it comes to sweet things, for some reason.

i also should have taken a "before" picture of this, but a "during" really delves you into our dessert-eating experience, i think; )

this is about when andrew asked for more ice cream. guess the vanilla was a good choice!

yum!

i feel confident that i can share this easy recipe and you will follow it and your mouth will be so happy afterwards!

Peach Blackberry Crisp

Ingredients: 

at least 3 peaches, peeled and sliced

big handful of blackberries (raspberries work great as well)

for the crisp:

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup (half stick) butter, melted

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with oil. Place peaches and blackberries in pan. Stir your crisp together and evenly distribute on top of fruit. Bake for appx 30 minutes and do yourself a favor and top with vanilla ice cream! Enjoy!

see? super easy! and really delicious. i can't wait to go to the farmer's market again this saturday so we can have this again! please feel free to share your favorite recipes with me! i am always looking for something easy yet delicious and healthy (more or less) to make.