...a potato chip made out of brussel sprout leaves...

I love roasted Brussels sprouts. They really don't taste like those nasty things most parents try to feed kids when they are young, they are really rather good and not bitter. The roasting brings out the sweetness. But the best part is when you have the outer leaves that fall off and they crisp up like little potato chips, crunch and all! They are glorious I tell you.


You can find my recipe for roasting them here. The trick with the chips is you have to pull out the pan after 10 minutes and rescue all the little leaves that got jostled off. If you let them go the whole time they will burn and it will be oh so sad. So after 10 minutes take the pan out, don't burn your fingers, and grab all the abandoned leaves off the pan. Toss the rest of the intact sprouts around and stick it back in the oven.

I really just need to pluck all the leaves off and make a full batch of chips one of these days... because I eat these things in seconds!

MMMMMM Brussels sprout chips... mmmmmmm

Hello my name is Stephanie... and yes, I am a carboholic. Really now, how do you say no to a nice hot, right of the oven, slice of bread??? I'd like to see you try!!

This is the recipe I mentioned last week that I saw and made all in the same day. Full day of work, hour long spinning class with Brian the beast (seriously he's insane, I LOVE the class, and if he catches you talking to your neighbor he starts yelling about how if you have enough energy to talk... you aint working hard enough... ahh Brian love it), then it was home to make this bread... it just sounded so good! I couldn't resist.


I have one of the big kitchen aids, the 5 quart "heavy duty" kind... and this recipe made it jump around a bit... it's a BEAST of a ball of dough.


I mean look at it once it was done, it's about to jump ship!!

The recipe comes from Sugarlaws and there were a few questions I had while following her recipe... my comments in red italics.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread
recipe from Sugarlaws

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups bread flour
2 cups warm water (i'm assuming you use 1/4 cup for the proof and then the remaining 1 3/4 for the actual dough part....)
1 packet yeast (2 1/4 tsp if you are using a jar of yeast, or 1 cake fresh yeast)
1/2 cup instant oats, plus additional oatmeal for sprinkling on the loaf (I used whole oats instead of instant)
1/2 cup water (use this to make the oatmeal... I used a little more eyeballing it)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt (I used 1.5 tsp)

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water (I warmed the water to 110 degrees first) with 1 tsp of sugar. At the same time, microwave the oatmeal grains and water until oatmeal has absorbed the water, about 30 seconds to 1 minute (since I used whole rolled oats, I microwaved mine with a little more water for 3 minutes). When the yeast and water turns milky/creamy, mix it with the flour, the oatmeal, the rest of the water and salt and knead for about 10 minutes (took less time with the kitchen aid). If dough is too sticky, add a little bit of flour to make it easier to knead. Place the dough in a greased bowl and allow it to rise for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size. Punch down the dough, knead it again briefly, and place it in a greased pan for baking (she didn't mention what size pan, I used a normal size loaf pan and then a smaller loaf pan since there was too much for one loaf).

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and allow the dough to rise for an additional 45 minutes, or until it rises to the size you want. Sprinkle some additional oats on the top of the loaf. Bake for 25 minutes, allow to cool, and slice.


Can't you just smell the yeast proofing? Question for you. Do you LIKE or DISLIKE the smell of proofing yeast? I love it!! Which is ironic in a way since it reminds me of beer and I'm not a huge beer fan...

Nutella, oh how I love you... I'm assuming you all know what Nutella is right?? Seriously if you don't know... I am so so sad for you, and you MUST go make some now, because it is the best thing. Recently I started seeing commercials on TV for Nutella toting it as a healthy breakfast... wait what?? Are we talking about the same product? It's hazelnuts... and chocolate... in a spreadable form... you're telling me if I put this on toast it's a well balanced breakfast... OK whoever the marketing team was on this one... nice job LOL...


You know it's a good breakfast staple when the first ingredient is sugar! How about we make it my way and have it taste delicious AND be better for you?? Hey and this way is vegan to boot!

As you might have guessed, this recipe starts with roasting some hazelnuts (350 degrees for about 10 minutes). Once they are roasted and slightly cooled it's time to remove their skin... I discovered hazelnuts don't all like to get naked... some hold onto their little frail pieces of clothing for dear life!! For those little guys, I said fine you can keep your dignity... into the blender with all of you!

This really is a quick and easy recipe that doesn't involve many ingredients. The batch I made fit perfectly into a small 1/2 pint mason jar. Feel free to double the recipe, since it WILL go fast.

Nutella ::steph chows:: style
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts
2 Tbs cocoa powder
3 Tbs maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract

Roast hazelnuts whole in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Let cool a bit and remove skins by rubbing them between a dish towel or your hands. Grind nuts in a food processor until they form into a thick butter. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

Spoon into a jar with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate.


There are so many ways to enjoy nutella... I'll tell you about a few of my favorite ways later on :)

OK now onto the really fun stuff! I just wanted to tip you off to a fabulous giveaway that will be happening here later this week! Here's a little teaser :)

go ahead... click on it, you know you want to...

As you may have guessed, I try to eat healthy, whole grains, veggies, lean protein... although if you talk to John he says all I eat are carbs, a very normal conversation about dinner is him asking "Where's the protein?" Anyway I'm always trying to get John to eat more veggies so I like to stick them in where you might not expect them... like muffins. YUM! Maybe I should change this blog name to steph chows muffins :) My coworker makes a seriously mean delicious zucchini bread that I love, and I've been wanting to try to make a version without all the olive oil... then I found this recipe on Fat Free Vegan. Perfect! I couldn't wait to try it out so I ran over to the farmers market to get some fresh zucchini to use.

The results:

Delicious! Although eat these ASAP, after maybe 3 days... they get pretty dry. But as long as you don't wait that long they are great!

I did however forget one thing while making these... John HATES... wait is there a stronger word... DESPISES raisins... I love them, and wasn't thinking about his distaste for them while I was mixing these up... so he got a little surprise when I dropped some off with him at work one day.

*phone rings at my desk*
Hello Stephanie speaking
BLEHHHHHHH why do these have raisins in them?? Are you trying to kill me??
HAHAHAHA whoops! Sorry sweets!
I don't make you eat quiche, why you trying to get me to eat raisins... that's not very nice. And why are there green specks in this????
It's true I'm purposfully trying to get you to eat raisins :) That is grated zucchini. It's yum.
Maybe when you blog about these you should call them barf muffins with raisins...
Oh yeah I'm sure the readers will want to click to read about that :)


So I present to you John's barf muffins with raisins... hopefully you enjoy these more than John did :) I sure liked them!

Click over to Fat free Vegan for the recipe. Amazingly I followed it!!! Although I did add a little sprinkle of coconut on top of half my muffins... totally a good idea :)


I was inspired to make this recipe to be part of Tried and Tested over at Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen! So much fun :)

Shall I continue the muffin obsession? Yes I think I shall... And since you asked so nicely on Friday for these... Here you go!


The recipe comes via Fat Free Vegan (awesome site, go check it out!). I adapted it slightly... so the one below is my version of it. I made a batch of these for Mothers Day brunch, between John myself and his parents... they were all gone by the end of brunch... so I made up another batch later in the day :) In that batch I subbed a ripe banana for the pumpkin (since I had no pumpkin left...) and had a really good banana-y cinnamon roll muffin YUM!


Cinnamon Swirl Muffins
(adapted from Fat Free Vegan)

1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (also made a version with a medium mashed ripe banana)
1 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup splenda granulated (or use 1/2 cup agave nectar like she does)

4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray. (I find it best not to use paper liners--the muffins will stick to them.)

Mix together dry ingredients (flour through flax seeds) in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix wet ingredients (pumpkin through splenda). In an even smaller bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.

Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until thoroughly moistened. Do not beat or overmix. Spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Sprinkle each half-full muffin with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar and fill with remaining batter. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar over each muffin. Take a toothpick or thin knife, insert it into the batter and swirl gently.

Bake for 17-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before serving.

If you make them this way here are the stats:

I fell in love with quinoa before I even knew how to pronounce its name... but now I do!! Even though I prefer my original pronunciation better ;) OK time to fess up... who knows how to pronounce it for real??

This recipe comes from vegan with a vengeance... who's pad thai recipe I wasn't a fan of... but these tiny pucks are tasty little buggers! She says to bake them... for 40 minutes... who has 40 minutes?? I want to chow NOW. So I just sprayed a pan with olive oil and cooked them that way, just a few minutes each side to brown and warm them up... it's vegan, so there isn't anything that needs to get cooked up like raw eggs... although they do need some pan time... I wouldn't eat these straight up raw.


Black-Eyed Pea and Quinoa Croquettes
from Vegan with A Vengeance

For the Croquettes:

1 1/2 cup of cooked black-eyed peas
1 generous tablespoon of olive oil (totally forgot to put this in... they still came out good!)
1 generous tablespoon of tamari or soy sauce
1 cup of cooked quinoa (I used the red kind this time)
1 red or green chili, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1 teaspoon of paprika

For the Coating:
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
1/4 cup of cornmeal
pinch of sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon zest

In a medium-large bowl, mash the black-eyed peas with a fork or potato masher. Mix in the olive oil, tamari and hot chili. Add the quinoa to the bowl, along with the spices and herbs and stir until well combined.

Combine the ingredients for the coating in a small bowl.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease the sheet.

Shape the bean and quinoa mixture into small patties, roll in the crumb mixture and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Turn them after 20 minutes have elapsed. (Ok I didn't feel like waiting 40 minutes, so I packed them in 1/4 cup measuring cup to shape them, rolled them in the crumbs and pan fried them with a spray of olive oil... tasty!)

Serves 4. (HA more like 2.5 peeps)

As other food bloggers know, us food bloggers think about chow 24/7 (well at least I do...). If I'm not cooking or writing up blogs in my free time, I'm reading others' blogs, looking for new ideas, or just drooling all over my keyboard. I came across a kitchen sink muffin recipe on Bake and Destroy the other day and knew it sounded tasty :) Since you all seem to be fueling my obsession of baking muffins with positive comments I figured I'd reward you all with another new fun muffin! And don't worry it's healthy - VEGAN even if you like it that way :) No butter, no oil!

The basics behind a kitchen sink muffin is all about imrovisation! So use whatever you have on hand and have fun with it! I had some cherrios laying around, so in they went! I bet they would be fun with other random cereal you have around too... ooo cocopuffs could be a fun idea... The recipe uses flax seed meal to replace an egg... so if you don't want them vegan... or don't have flax seeds on hand, use 1 egg in place of the flaxseeds and water. As for the soy milk, skim milk works just as good... but again then they aren't vegan. So do it up and have fun!! Let me know if you make these and what you did to change it up with what you had on hand!


stephchow's version of Kitchen Sink Muffins
original found on Bake and Destroy (this girl rocks check her out, love it!)
makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup splenda granulated (or use 1/2 cup white sugar) if you like things sweet you may want a little more sugar/splenda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup apple sauce (I use all natural unsweetened)
2 1/2 Tbs flax seed meal plus 3 Tbs water (or 1 egg)
1/3 cup light/fat free soy milk (or skim milk)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup cheerios
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup sweetened coconut

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12 cup muffin pan. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl.

In a small bowl, beat together the flax seed meal and water- it will get thick and gooey. Mix this with the milk, vanilla applesauce and mashed bananas. Then add it to the flour mixture. Mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl - do not over mix. If it's looking a little dry, add a splash more of milk. (I needed to do this)

Fold the cherrios and coconut into the batter. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Sprinkle tops with additional cherrios or coconut if desired. Bake 20-25 minuted or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from pan.

As for the nutrition facts... if you make them with splenda granulated and the flax seeds, here they are for 1 muffin:
Depending of brand/type of milk along with what kind of stuff you toss in will change up the stats. You can figure out your own version here. Just a note, sometimes it thinks it knows what you are talking about... but it's wrong. So once it tells you the stats you can click on each of your ingredients and see if it's linking to the right information. When I first inputed these I just said Splenda and it thought I meant the splenda for baking... which has a TON more calories then the straight up splenda I used... Also if one of your ingredients has a red flag next to it... that means it doesn't know what it is, so those calories aren't calculated into the equation... so make sure you don't have any red flags to make it accurate :)

If you saw a gigantic tub in the bulk section of your local organic co-op labeled mystery butter $1.69 lb... would you by some??


Let me give you a little frame of reference... it's next to the gigantic bulk tubs of peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter... you get the point. Just grab a container (or bring your own) and with a big ladle, fill up on as much as you like... well maybe not as much as you want.... more on that later.

I did just that and very excitedly headed back to work where I toasted up some nice whole wheat bread and slathered on the mystery!!


Mystery butter is apparently very popular since there is a sign next to it saying "Limit of two 5 lb buckets per customer" Last time I was in the co-op they were sold out of the stuff... But seriously 10 lbs of mystery butter??? How large are these people who are buying this stuff in that huge of a quantity?? And they are limiting you to TWO 5 POUND container... how many containers were people trying to by??? How much mystery butter can one eat in a day?? Does anyone else find this 10 lb limit scary??

So what is mystery butter you ask? My guess is at the end of the week whatever scraps are left from all the other nut butters get plopped together to make the "mystery butter". Fun idea though right? My batch of mystery tasted heavy to the cashew with a little bit of almond and sunflower as well.

Either way... I'm totally picking up some more... it's darn tasty, and organic to boot! :)

So as you all read about already, I got to participate in an amazing Foodbuzz event on saturday!! Read all about it here. Now I also promised you more recipes to go along with said post... here is the first one!!

John and I each cooked our own thing for the event. I decided to go with a super fresh veggie salsa based on roasted veggies! I found the recipe on Whole Living for veggie salsa... It had such promise... roasted eggplant, squash, tomatoes!!! MMMMM so wonderful... The veggies after being roasted and cooled smelled so fragrant and tasted AMAZING... but then came the tumeric... I'd never cooked with it, and I didn't like the way it smelled... but I used it anayway... and the result... a bitter bitter salsa... it was seriously depressing... Thankfully I had my sausage sliders I told you about yestserday as a fall back but this beautiful salsa...


...tasted, as I like to say, moose. What does moose mean you ask... I don't mean it actually tasted like a moose, moose meat is actually rather tasty... When I say moose...well let's just leave it at, it tasted really bad :D

I would make this again minus the tumeric and add a few more spices perhaps... but this recipe can be put under the fail category for sure :)

I'm going to let John write up about his recipe... so depending on when he has a chance to write it up... hopefully you'll hear from him by weeks end :D And as soon as everyone else at the party sends me their recipes I'll post them ASAP!

Here's a picture of some of the party goers! Not sure how I didn't take many pics of the people... must have been too distracted by all the great chow :)

So I've never actually made collard greens before... eaten them plenty... my favorite way to have them is in a dish called gomen, it's Ethiopian and delicious!!! I need to figure out how to make some at home for sure... so good!

As for these "garlicky" greens... they have over 7 cloves in it... and in all truth, they didn't taste very garlicky at ALL, it was kinda sad. So if you make these add more garlic for sure... and maybe some other things to jazz things up. After scooping some onto our plates John and I both were under-enthused. So the self described "concoction king" John went back into the kitchen and did some majic on them to make them taste better... what he did... I have no clue, and he wont tell me LOL! So here's a base recipe for you... and good luck getting John to fess up to what he added in :)


GARLICKY BLACK-EYED PEAS 'N' GREENS
recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

2 c dried black-eyed peas
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 lb collared greens (which is what I used), kale, or mustard
greens, rinsed and chopped (about 6 c loosely packed)
1 T olive oil
2 to 4 T minced garlic (I used 3-4)
1 t dried thyme
salt and ground black pepper to taste

cooked rice
chopped scallions or red onions
lemon wedges or hot pepper vinegar

Rinse the black-eyed peas. Place them in a soup pot with garlic cloves and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and cook for 45 minutes, until tender, adding water occasionally as needed. The beans should be moist but not soupy, so it is ideal when most of the water has been absorbed at the end of cooking. When the beans are tender, if most of the water has not been absorbed, lightly drain them. Cover and set aside.

Rinse the greens and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute the minced garlic and thyme for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the damp green and continue to stir until they are wilted but still bright green. Stir the greens into the beans and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste.

So I went to the library the other day to grab a cookbook a coworker said was amazing... the computer said the library had the book... but it was NOT where it was supposed to be on the shelf, and no where to be found (I even asked at the reference desk)! Totally frustrating. I mean what kind of miscreant moves cookbooks in the library... jerk... anyway I took a look at some other cookbooks by the same author and found one that looked good and somewhat familiar... I later realized I OWN the cookbook but haven't looked at it for years... whoops! Well now I'm super excited that I own it because there are a TON of recipes I want to make from it!

I guess I should be happy with the jerk though, since it made me rediscover Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites: Flavorful Recipes for Healthful Meals. The only thing I wished this book had was pictures... I mean it should really be a requirement for a cookbook! Don't you agree?? Maybe that's why I love food blogs so much, pretty much all of them come with pictures :) If you are even in the Ithaca NY area, totally stop in to this restaurant, it's amazing!! John and I had a mini vacation in Ithaca last summer and seriously enjoyed our trip to Moosewood.

So in honor of the jerk who made me find this cookbook... I made the Jerk Tofu recipe... except John didn't feel like tofu... so I used chicken instead.


Jerk Tofu
recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
Serves 8

Pressing tofu time: 30 minutes
Preparation time" 10 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour

Jerk Sauce
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped (about ½ cup)
3 fresh green chiles, seeds removed for a milder "hot"
2 tablespoon soy sauce
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Place the cakes of tofu between tow flat plates or baking pans. weight the top with a heavy object, such as a book or a can, so that the sides of the tofu bulge slightly but don't split. Let stand for a least 30 minutes. While the tofu is pressing, combine the jerk sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender and purée until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400º. Drain the pressed tofu. Cut each cake into three slices. Stack the slices and then cut through all three layers on the two diagonals, making an X. This will make 12 triangular pieces from each block of tofu. Gently toss the tofu triangles in the jerk marinade and place them in an unoiled 8 x 12-inch nonreactive baking dish. Bake for 1 hour, carefully turning the tofu about every 20 minutes.


The jerk sauce was wicked flavorful, although the clove is a bit overpowering so go easy on it if you aren't a fan of cloves. You can find more great Moosewood recipes here!

Every heard of TVP? It stands for textured vegetable protein.

Sounds kinda weird and maybe gross right? But give it a chance! In this economy a seriously cheep high protein substitute is a good thing right?? It's under $3 a bag, and the bag could feed a large family for at least 2 full dinners if not more. Plus it's tasty!

It looks like some kind of dehydrated grain... then when you hydrate it... it looks like light tan ground beef... I'm making you want to try it right? Hmmm marketing skills not kicking in... Ok how about a picture of it in action?

Hmmm that's not the best picture I took... is it? Darn, guess it is... well, you'll just have to believe me on this one... It's super tasty. Crazy healthy. Protein packed. Low fat. And when mixed with red sauce and pasta... you'd think you were having ground meet... not TVP. We made this up last friday (it's Lent, so no meat). Gnocchi cooks in 4 minutes so this whole thing was ready to go in about 15 minutes. Seriously I know! I love fast food don't you?

Portobello Pasta with "meat" TVP sauce
recipe by me. (Feeds John and me, that means three normal people, with sauce left over)

1 package whole wheat gnocchi
1 bottle (1 lb 8 oz) Diavola Red Sauce from Wegmans (or your favorite go to sauce)
1 cup TVP (I use Bob's Red Mill TVP)
1 cup boiling water (to hydrate TVP)
3 large portobello mushrooms sliced
2 tsp chopped garlic
olive oil spray
cottage cheese (if you are John or if you like to mix it into your pasta too)

Boil water for gnocchi.

Microwave 1 cup water in a medium size bowl or large pyrex cup for 2-3 minutes. Remove and add 1 cup TVP, let soak for 5 minutes or until water is absorbed. Set aside.

Spray a wok, or large sauce pan, with olive oil, saute garlic until brown. Add mushrooms and cook through, flipping after a minute or two to cook the other side. Add jar of sauce and TVP. Simmer until heated through.

Once water boils, add gnocchi and cook according to package directions (4 minutes). Drain, and immediatly divide between 2 or 3 bowls, top with sauce, stir in cottage cheese if desired. Serve.

Chow!

Baba Ga-what? It's Baba Ghanoush! And it's as fun to say as it is to eat :) You can serve it as a dip with chips or toasted pita, use it as a spread on a sandwich, or plop some ontop of a salad. So many uses :) Mine kept for about two weeks in the refridgerator without any adverse taste or effects to my belly ;) although I'm not how it lasted so long without me chowing it all! I actually roasted the eggplants on my lunch hour at work haha. We have a full kitchen here so I figured I'd save myself some time that night at home. In doing so I had this stuff along with the hummus made up and ready to chow within 30 minutes of walking in the door from the gym. Which is a good thing because when I get hungry I get a bit testy...

Anyone else out there get crabby when they aren't fed on time? Or is that just crabby me :D


Baba Ghanoush
recipe found on A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit

3 medium aubergines (eggplants)
2 tbsp tahini
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 210C/425F/Gas 7.

Place the aubergines in the oven and roast for 45-60 minutes. The skin should be brown and they should be soft to the touch.

When done, cut them in half and scoop the flesh into a sieve. Squeeze out any of the excess moisture.

Place everything into a blender and puree until smooth.

Taste and add more lemon juice if needed.

If you want an extra creamy dip stir in about 1/3 cup of yoghurt.

Ok, it's finally here! I know I promised this last week, sorry for the delay! But let me tell you, homemade humus and baba ganoush is totally worth it. They are both super easy to make, and paired with some fresh veggies and a toasted pita... delicious.

One thing you need his tahini, I've tried making hummus without it before and it came out ok... but with it... better then the store bought stuff for sure. It really is so simple, and once you make it you'll be wonding why you spent so much on it at the store.


garlicy hummus
inspired by cooks illustrated
my version

3 garlic cloves
1 16oz can chickpeas, drained, a 1/4 cup of chickpeas set to the side
1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 Tbs tahini (sesame paste)
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil - plus more for drizzling
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

parsley for garnish (optional)

Turn on the food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop the garlic down the feed tube; process until it's minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Place in a bowl and top with reserved handful of non chopped chickpeas, parsley, and a little olive oil drizzle.

Come back tomorrow for theBaba Ghanoush... Baba Ga-what?

And they have blueberries in them too! These things are an antioxidant powerhouse, they are also chocked full of protein and all types of good for you things! OK I see all you anti-health food people trying to sneak away! Get on back here! Because these things are crazy good! Taste tested on a variety of guinea pigs (house mates, fiances, coworkers) everyone really enjoyed them! The inspiration and original recipe came from Bitter Sweet. If you haven't visited her blog she makes AMAZING vegan treats and delicacies, and even if you are a serious meat eater, I'm sure you'll find something you'll love over there.

She originally just posted the image since she wasn't totally happy with how the recipe came out. But due to so many people harassing her for the recipe (me included), she gave in and posted it! Thank you so much again!!!

I gave it a whirl and changed a few things, and I'm definitely happy with how this came out. Let me know what you guys think! These are still vegan, but I did use splenda.... but totally give it a try with the agave like she says ( I added in subs for the splenda in the recipe).

I've been eating these as a mid morning snack every day for the past week. Totally powers me through until I eat lunch at 1. :)


Quinoa POM Wonderful Blueberry Muffins - vegan friendly!
Original version of recipe by Bitter Sweet, this version is my adaptation

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Fine grain sea salt
1 Tablespoon Flaxseeds (I didn't have any on hand, but want to try these with this included next time)
1.5 Cups Fresh or Frozen Blueberries (or 1/2 blueberries and 1/2 pomegranate seeds)
1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts
2 Cups Cooked Quinoa
1/2 unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 Cup Splenda Granulated (or use 1/2 cup Amber Agave Syrup or 1/2 cup white sugar)
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, Packed
1/2 Cup Pom Wonderful Juice
Turbino Sugar (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease 12 muffin tins.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, cinnamon, baking powder and soda, and salt. Grind the flaxseeds to a fine powder using a coffee or spice grinder, and mix them in as well. Add in the blueberries and walnuts, and toss them to coat.

Separately, combine the cooked quinoa, apple sauce, splenda/sugar/agave, brown sugar, and POM Wonderful juice. Once the mixture is well-mixed, pour these wet ingredients into the bowl of dry, and use a wide spatula to combine. Stir only enough to bring the batter together, leaving any small lumps that form in favor of mixing it as little as possible. Distribute the mixture evenly between your prepared tins, and sprinkle with about 1/2 teaspoon turbinado sugar per muffin, if desired.

Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Yes yes by now you all know about my lustful relationship with bread. I can't help it! I mean how do you say no to a hot yeastfullydelicious crusty hunk of bread? You don't... you just don't. You say thank you and savor every hot wonderful bite.

Have you heard about the book Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day? They also have a blog. I took it out from the library the other day (I'm a library ho, it's true, I took out 7 cookbooks the other day... don't hate on me... it's called resourceful) Anyway, the book is awesome! I was a little hesitant, ingredient: flour, water, salt, yeast. It's no kneed. Dump it all together, toss to incorporate, let it rise, then chuck it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You do still have to let the dough rise before it goes into the oven (unless you are making pitas) and they have all different ways of shaping and adding stuff to it. (get the recipe on their blog here.)

I made the straight up, grab out hunk of dough, shape it, let it rest 40 minutes, slash it a couple times, toss it on a preheated baking stone, toss in some water to steam it, DONE. Thirty minutes later, this beautiful crusty beauty came out of the oven... and OH how I enjoyed it. Perfect crust, amazingly tended guts... DELICIOUSLY GLORIOUS!

Yeah... I ate the whole little loaf... half with a nice big bowl of soup (come back tomorrow to see what kind) and then I ate the other half straight up plain. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go to a spinning class to work off said glorious bread :D

*drool*

Yes I know I've posted about these before... but they are just SO good!! And I keep playing with the recipe so... I had to post again! Plus now you can make a vegan version! AND instead of using flour to cover your working surface I used powdered sugar and eliminated the sugar from the dough! I know fun idea right? It gives them a sweeter taste and makes it so you don't have to add more flour to the dough.


Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Servings: 8

These cinnamon rolls are an adaptation/abstraction based on a recipe from the cook book Quick Recipes which was put together by the people at Cook's Illustrated.

Filling / topping
1/4 c packed splenda blend brown sugar (or 1/2 c packed dark brown sugar)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c pumpkin puree

Dough
2-1/2 c whole wheat flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c lactaid (fat free) (you can use regular fat free milk if you don't care if these are vegan, it works) (so just realized lactaid isn't vegan... I'll have to try again with soymilk! sorry about that!)
2 T melted smart balance ( 2 Tbs butter also works )
powdered sugar for work surface

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a 9-inch round non stick cake pan (or in my case a square one)

Make filling
Combine sugar, spices and salt. Add pumpkin puree and stir until combined, set aside

Make dough
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. whisk lactaid and 2 Tbs melted smart balance in a measuring cup or small bowl. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir until liquid is absorbed (dough will look very shaggy). Transfer dough to lightly floured (with powdered sugar!) work surface and knead until just smooth and no longer shaggy.

Pat dough with hands into 12 x 9- inch rectangle. Sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch boarder of plain dough around edges. Press filling firmly into dough.

Using bench scraper (i used a plastic spackle spatula that we bought at home depot and never used... I claimed it for the kitchen... John wasn't too pleased hahahaha), loosen dough from work surface. Starting at a long side, roll dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal.

Roll log seam side down and cut evenly into eight pieces. With hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal open edges and keep filling in place.


Place one roll in center of pan, then place remaining seven rolls around perimeter of pan. They should touch, but not be crammed. Using the remainder of the filling, spread to cover the top of the rolls.

Bake until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Loosen with a spatula. without separating, slide buns out of pan onto greased cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before chowing, otherwise you'll burn yourself... i would know :)

chow!

Yeah you read that right... cake... made with beans??? And it tastes good? No joke, it's true, and vegan and gluten free too! As Bittersweet will tell you, this isn't a very pretty cake, but it is moist, rich, and tastes like it must be full of butter and sugar.


Lucky Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Epicurious by Bittersweet (italics are stephchows changes)

2 Cups Cooked Black-Eyed Peas
1 12-Ounce Package Extra-Firm Silken Tofu
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar (I used 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs splenda blend)
1 1/2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Natural Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Instant Coffee Powder (I used instant espresso powder)
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
Pinch Salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan. (I used a bunch of small little loaf pans and decreased the cooking time to 45 minutes)

Toss both the black-eyed peas and the tofu into your food processor or blender, and let it run until the mixture is completely smooth. Give it a good long time to work, since it would be rather unpleasant to find any whole beans in your cake. Add in the sugar and coffee powder, and pulse to combine.

Separately, melt the chocolate and stir well until smooth before adding into the food processor, and then let it run for a minute until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides to make sure you aren’t missing anything, and give it another minute to process. Finally, add the cocoa, coffee powder, baking powder, soda, and salt, and pulse to combine.

Spread the mixture into your prepared pan, leveling off the top with your spatula as best you can. Bake for 60 - 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. I know that’s a bit vague, but it will still be ever so slightly wet since it’s such a moist cake- Just make sure it doesn’t look like it’s covered in raw batter. Let it cool completely in the pan before serving.

So I was planning on posting about these amazing muffins I made this weekend but my camera doesn't want to connect to my computer at the moment... soooo you will just have to drool over these cookies instead :)

Don't those look tasty?


The recipe is taken directly from the wind attack. (great pictures there too, check them out) I found it randomly and was so happy I did. I actually made these before Thanksgiving but never got around to posting about them! They were super tasty, and even if you don't have creamy honey you can use normal honey, they will just be a bit more gooey. Come on... you know you want to try them :)

Thanksgiving is full of veggies drowned in butter or covered in cream sauces. Can we say "green bean casserole" ewwww, I know people love this stuff but come on you really shouldn't be able to call it a vegetable anymore after you drown it in cream sauce and then cover it in fried onions (oh wait aren't the fried onions veggies too??? hehe

I say bring on the simple super tasty veggies that are still actually good for you! Brussels sprouts are one of those veggies that are pretty much hated by both adults and kids alike. Everyone seemingly has had some traumatizing childhood experience with them :) I know I did! Then came along my mom and sister in the last few years telling me I had to give them another try... all this stuff about roasting them takes away the bitterness and makes them sweet... yeah right... well I finally gave in and tried them... and you know what... they are AMAZING!!!

We made these for thanksgiving and pretty much all of the cousins looked at them and gagged "no way am I having any of those" in the end after some arm twisting they gave them a try and it was the only dish we made that was completely demolished the night of thanksgiving! We had leftovers of everything else... except the brussels sprouts. seriously. I know it's hard to believe, people coming up for seconds of brussels sprouts??? Yes yes it's true, and now you dear reader should put your prejudices aside and give these a go :)

They are super easy.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1.5 lbs brussels sprouts, ends trimmed (if they are big cut them in half)
3 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a plastic bag and shake:


Empty bag onto a tin foil lined baking sheet, place in a 400 degree oven:


Roast for 35-40 minutes, shaking the pan every 5-7 minutes for even browning:


Chow! These even taste great cold the next day... if you have any left that is :)