The Ugly Smoothie

I was really craving a smoothie this morning, as I do most mornings. So, I got adventurous and just threw a bunch of stuff in my VitaMix. It turned out quite ugly (brown-ish green), but it did taste pretty good. Just don't look at it when you drink it. Hey, remember those old Cocoa Wheats commercials where the kids wore blindfolds and bags on their heads because the food was so ugly? No? Perhaps this will refresh your memory:



Yeah. So. There you go. 1989. Awkward and strange.

Ugly smoothie ingredients:

• 1 medium carrot
• 1 cup kale
• 1/2 large red apple
• 2 small blood oranges
• 1 small banana
• 1-2 TB ground flax
• 1/4 cup cranberry juice
• a few pieces of ice

I assume you know how to put this in a blender and blend the shit out of it. It's easy. Enjoy. Or not. Whatever you do, don't look at it.

Vegan Bisquick Waffles! - Vegan MoFo #6

Some days, a girl just need waffles. Today is that day!

I usually make waffles with nuts or fruit of some sort, but I wanted plain waffles today. Sometimes they're better than the fancy ones. You may be mega-cool and already know, but Bisquick is vegan. I was overjoyed to find out as I always loved making their drop biscuits. I bought a giant 5-pound box recently. Hey, don't you judge me! This stuff is awesome. You can make so much with it. I just realized this morning that the box shows waffles. Well, once I saw that, I knew I had to give it a shot.

I finally stumbled on a jar of coconut oil a few days ago, I was overjoyed to get to put it to use in these.  Worked perfectly, if I say so myself.

The recipe is straight from their box, but I veganized it. Maybe next time I'll some pecans....mmmm.....
This will make 4 or 5 6-inch waffles. 

What you need:

• 2 cups Bisquick mix
• 1 1/3 cups almond milk
• 2 TB oil (I used coconut)
• 1 flax egg (1 TB ground flax mixed with 2 1/2 TB warm water)
• cooking spray

What you do:

1. Preheat your waffle maker.
2. Use a whisk to mix all ingredients until just combined.
3. Spritz your waffle maker with some cooking spray, and scoop batter into the center of the iron and close the lid. Don't be that person that opens it too soon and ruins the waffle. Wait for the beep. Maybe yours doesn't beep? Hmm. Then wait until the waffle maker stops steaming.

That's it. Was that so hard? Now smother it in butter and some syrup and you'll be all set.

Pineapple Mango Green Smoothie

Pretty much every smoothie picture I take looks almost identical. I realize this. It's all because I put spinach in every single one. They all seem to just come out one shade of green different than the last. This morning I decided that I hadn't had a green smoothie in a few days, and that I NEEDED one asap. They make a delicious breakfast, especially when you don't really have time to make anything fancy before running out the door. Plus, you can always use fruit that is a tad too ripe for anything else.

I've been trying, as you may know, to eat a rainbow of colors everyday, and it is mostly going pretty well. This smoothie has a few colors:
Orange: Mango, Carrot
Yellow: Pineapple
Green: Spinach
Brown: Ground flax seed   

I wonder over the course of the last 10 months of owning my vitamix how many smoothies I've made? It must be about 100 or more. Crazy, huh? And, using the fresh fruit makes it so I don't have to add any refined sugars.

Here's what I did:
Pack you blender with 1 cup fresh pineapple, 1/2 of a freshly chopped mango, 1/2 of a large carrot, 1 huge handful of baby spinach, 1 TB ground flax, 1/4 cup almond milk and a small scoop of ice. Blend until ultra smooth. If it is too thick, add a little water or more almond milk. Enjoy with a nice, big straw (I absolutely LOVE my Strawesome smoothie straws I bought a few months back).

Meg's Rainbow Smoothie

Remember a few days ago when I said I try to eat a rainbow? Well, this is the rainbow smoothie for your drinking pleasure. Sure, it looks brown here, but wait... It has 6 colors inside!
RED: 1 small apple
ORANGE: 1 carrot
YELLOW: 1/2 Peach, 1/2 banana
GREEN: a huge handful of baby spinach
 BLUE: 1/4 cup blueberries
BROWN: 1 TB ground flax, 3 TB almond milk

Just blend it all together (with a few pieces of ice) until silky smooth in your blender. If it's too thick, add some water or more almond milk. If you have a high-power blender, you probably won't need to add the extra liquid. Whomever invented the Vita-Mix deserves many, many high-fives! I bought mine last November as a less expensive refurb model from their website and I couldn't be happier. I use it a minimum of 5 times a week. Anywhoooo...

How's that for eating a rainbow for breakfast? I know, I'm missing purple, but I think I did darn good even without it. If I'd had some raspberries, I'd have been spot-on. But, I just want to show you how easy it is to eat a wide array of colors. Even if the rest of your day is monochromatic, at least you got a nice mix for breakfast. It's not always easy to get your full spectrum of colors, especially when they aren't in season. So, I'm taking full advantage now and stocking up my freezer for the months ahead. Off-season produce can be prohibitively expensive at the grocery store, so if you have the space, start stocking up and freezing what you can. Frozen fruit, in particular, makes excellent smoothies, pies, even muffins and pancakes.

Even if you're not a Veg*an, you can still get almost a full day's servings of fruit and veg with a big homemade smoothie. The (mostly worthless, corporate-interest-run) USDA says that women need 4 cups of produce/day, while men need 5. This smoothie easily makes 2 cups. So, you're at least off to a good start. Make the smoothie already. It's damn tasty, easy to make, has a LOT of fiber and your body will say thank you. Do I really have to keep working to convince you? Sheesh. Cut a chickpea some slack, dude.

**And if you are looking for awesome smoothie straws like I use, look no further than Strawesome. They make the BEST eco-friendly, reusable glass straws. They come in all different sizes, some specifically for smoothies. I bought mine a few months ago and use them pretty much every single day. They're made of the same glass as pyrex, so they are safe and sturdy. I've dropped mine on the kitchen floor more than once, and have yet to break any. To top it off, they're dishwasher safe and made in the USA in my home state of Michigan. You can also find them on twitter under username @BeStrawesome

Blueberry muffins...an experiment in veganizing

This Saturday, I purchased a heaping pint of blueberries from the farmer's market for $3.00, and I've been munching them the last few days, noticing last night that they were starting to get a little soft. So, what is a chickpea to do when she still has about a cup of blueberries left? She makes muffins. I've made them before, but it's been ages, so I started looking around online. Sadly, none of the vegan ones were looking all that great. I found this basic muffin recipe from the King Arthur Flours website and decided I needed to veganize it. The result? Yum. Maybe next time I'll add a little streusel, but this time, I went basic. I wanted to make sure the recipe translated into a tasty muffin on it's own. It did! So damn tasty. Or, maybe it's just that I haven't had bloob muffins in a really looooong time. Whatever the case, they rocked, especially with a little Earth Balance slathered on.

In addition to this tasty muffin, I learned a couple tricks from their website.

• Add the fruit to the dry ingredients so they don't fall to the bottom while baking. Totally worked.
• Turn the heat super high during the pre-heat, then once you put the muffins in the oven, drop the temp. This will make your muffin tops rise rounded.
• Oils aren't necessary to the muffin, but I added half to keep them moist. 

I did alter the recipe slightly, as veganizing requires one to do. Plus I added a different extract instead of lemon. So, without further ado, here is my altered version of the King Arthur Basic Muffin Recipe.

Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour (or just cut the wheat and use all unbleached. Whatever)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 2 TB oil or melted butter (optional)
• scant 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• scant 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 flax egg (1 TB ground flax, 3 TB warm water mixed and set aside 3-5 minutes to thicken)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (you might be able to use frozen, but I haven't tried)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 500 (yes, 500) degrees F. Line a muffin tin with 6 liners and set aside.
2. Mix your flax egg in a small bowl and set aside. Then, in a large liquid measuring cup add the milk and vinegar and set aside to "curdle." This makes a version of buttermilk. Let set 3-4 minutes. 
3. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine the flours, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Whisk until it looks homogenous. Now gently stir in the blueberries. 
4. In a bowl, combine your egg, milk, extracts and oil. 
5. Add the wet bowl to the dry and stir until just combined. Some chunks are okay!
6. I used a 1/4 cup scoop to fill the muffin papers 3/4 of the way full. Then put them in the oven on the middle shelf. Once you close the door, turn the temp down to 400 degrees F.

7. Bake about 18 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. You know that, though. Let them cool about 5 minutes otherwise you'll burn yourself on those hot blue orbs. Not that I'd know anything about that.......

Vegan Fried Pickles!

If I were a world leader, I would declare Fridays to be fried pickle day. No one can resist their magical powers. I would use them to take over the world. Or whatever. Oh, wait. I made them on a Saturday. I guess I haven't really thought through my plan for world domination. Really, though, I first had these a few years ago when I was down south whitewater rafting with some family, and I couldn't get enough. Sadly, when I came back home, I couldn't find them anywhere, and people thought me insane when I asked. They had the insanity part right, but not because of the pickles...

Speaking of pickles, I used the kind you find in the grocery store's refrigerated section. I chose the Kosher Dill Spears. These pickles are extra crunchy and I, literally, can't resist their extra garlicky flavor. I may have sipped some of the juice from the jar when no one was looking. Anyway, because they are so damn crunchy, they were perfect for the frying. They actually stayed crunchy after frying. Mmmmmm.....

You'll definitely want to set up 2 shallow bowls for the dredging and use some tongs if you have them. It gets messy. I started out using my hands to dip and dredge the pickles, but my fingers very quickly resembled clubs. I had to abort that plan and dig out the tongs. Also, don't be me...I used a pan that was a little too shallow, so I got some splatter all over my stove. Icky. Maybe one day I will break down and get a fryer. For now, I will instead berate myself for not using a deep enough pot. Not really. Well, maybe.

Makes a whole jar of dill spears. Don't be surprised when you abandon the rest of your dinner and eat only the pickles. I had made some delicious tempeh BLTs (aka TLT) made, but didn't even bother eating any until all the pickles were gone. OH, I almost forgot to tell you! The pickles are incredible dipped into your favorite vegan ranch. Here is the recipe I usually use---> Scroll down about halfway to find the Rodeo Ranch recipe. I sub almond milk for soy as I don't have much love for soymilk.

Enough chatter, on to the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 jar kosher dill spears, or your chosen pickle
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Braggs liquid aminos
• about 2 tsp sriracha or your chosen hot sauce (Don't worry, the pickles aren't "hot" - it just adds flavor to the batter)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• dash cayenne
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 flax egg (1 TB ground flax mixed with 3 TB warm water and set aside until it resembles egg snot)
• Oil for frying - you want at least 1-2 Inches deep in your chosen pot or deep fryer

Method:

1. First of all, you want to put your pickles out on paper towel and gently pat them with another paper towel to get all the excess liquid off of them.

2. In a wide, shallow bowl, whisk together almond milk, worcestershire, Braggs, sriracha, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne and flax egg.
3. In another wide, shallow-ish bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and pepper. Your two bowls should look something like this:

4. Heat your oil to 360 degrees F. I got mine to stabilize temperature while I was still dredging the pickles...but you should start heating the oil as it takes a little while on your stovetop. Moving on.
5. Using your tongs, dip pickle into the wet bowl, then into the flour. Then back into the wet. Then back into the flour. The messier the better! Not even joking. The crazy excess dredge makes for delicious crunchy coating after they are fried. Repeat until they are all coated.
6. Very carefully use your tongs to put a few into the hot oil. I only did 3 at a time because adding more lowered the oil temperature too much. You want it to stay around 350 degrees F while cooking. When they are a lightly browned all over, remove from oil and put on a paper towel-lined plate to soak the excess oil. When you first put them in the oil, do it one at a time, otherwise they try to stick together. Also, when first putting them in, use your tongs to make sure they don't stick to the bottom. It only takes a second. 
7. Once they have cooled a bit, chow down. I highly recommend a dip in some ranch dressing. Enjoy!

Green Day...the food, not the band + Dog Blankie

I completely forgot to do my St. Patrick's Day post last month of all the green food I ate that day! I was emptying out the SD card for my camera this morning and stumbled upon my green food photos. So, Better late than never...or whatever. If you don't like it, well, too bad because here they are.

Breakfast: Green Smoothie
Ingredients:

• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1/2 banana
• 1/4 cup fresh pineapple
• 1 clementine orange
• 1 small apple
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/4 cup cranberry juice
• 2 TB flax meal
• ice, if you want some

Method:
Put everything in the blender (I so LOVE my Vita-Mix for smoothies) and blend until well combined.

Lunch: Chickpea Salad SandwichIngredients:

• 1/2 cup (slightly heaping) cooked chickpeas
• 1 TB + 1 tsp Vegenaise mayo
• 2 tsp mustard (yellow, spicy brown or dijon are all tasty here)
• 2-3 TB raw onion
• 1 heaping TB nooch
• 1 TB dill relish
• 1 TB unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 tsp Braggs Aminos
• Green food coloring

Method:
Put all ingredients in a food processor and whir a few times, until combined. I like mine chunky, but you can puree if you want. It's your sandwich, after all.

Dinner: Green Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli and Chickpea Patties
The chickpea patties are just the chickpea cutlet recipe from Veganomicon, made into thicker patties instead of cutlets. I always add more garlic and some steak sauce to this recipe. The Mashed potatoes are easy:  green food coloring, Earth Balance, almond milk and salt. And, well, if I have to describe how to steam veggies, you may be a hopeless case.

So, there you go. My St. Patrick's Day green meals. Late, but oh well.

As for my Eco-Craft I started a last week, I am almost done! Check it out :)