Vegan Peanut Butter Blondies!

Oooh. These are good!

After hours of scouring for a recipe with no luck, I decided to adapt and improvise. For the non vegan recipe this is modeled after click here.  

A few tips before we get started.

1.  Use a fork to mix the peanut butter and the butter.  It works incredibly better than the wisk.  I ended up using a fork to mix the entire recipe.

2.  I used an 8x4 pan, lined with foil, for this.  I know it's not the traditional size, but it's what I have.  My cooking time reflects that size pan, so you may need to back off a few minutes if you're using a larger one.

3.  Line the pan and sides with a piece of foil so you can pull it out without needing a spatula when it's done cooking.  Super easy.

Now the recipe-

You'll need

• 5 Tbsp. Earth Balance or other vegan butter
• 1/2 Cup peanut butter
• 1 Cup vegan brown sugar
• 2 Bananas
• 1/2 Cup plain vegan milk
• 1 Tsp. agave or vanilla
• 1/4 Tsp. salt
• 1 Cup flour
• 1/2 Tsp. baking powder
• 1 Cup vegan chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Start by melting the butter in the microwave, it should take about 30 seconds.

3.  In a large bowl use a fork to mix the butter and the peanut butter.  When the mixture is creamy and smooth mix in the brown sugar.  

4.  Squish one banana between your fingers to make it easier to mix and add it to the bowl.

5.  Add the milk and sweetener and mix everything until it's creamy.

6.  Add the powdered ingredients and mix until it has the texture of smooth cookie dough.  If it is still lumpy or dry after a thorough mix add milk one tablespoon at a time.

7.  Fold in chocolate chips.

8.  Taste.

9.  Taste again.  That's good, huh?

10.  Pour batter into the pan and smooth the top.

11.  Put in the oven and let cook for 15 minutes.

12.  Cut the other banana into 1/4 inch slices.

13.  When the oven timer goes off, pull the pan out and push the banana slices into the top.

14.  Let cook for another 10-15 minutes.

15.  Pull out and let cool.

That wasn't hard, was it?  If  I would have known that vegan baking was this easy I would have started a looooong time ago.  Post any questions you have in the comments section.

Hardening Off

After a very dry and warm January, we had started a ton of seeds inside the kitchen. It was a fairly safe assumption that February would continue the same weather pattern as January. Damn was I wrong! February brought more than eight inches of rain. So my little younglings sat inside, growing too tall and lanky to be of much use. There were a few sunny days in the middle of the rain, so some of the lettuce and tomatoes that I started made it out into the garden and are hanging on for dear life. Unfortunately, most of the indoor tomatoes are useless, and all of the carrots are. Boo.

There has to be a joke somewhere about the vegan who can't grow his own food.

So here we are today. Thursday, which is supposed to be the last crappy day for a while. It's time for the remaining younglings to get some outdoor lovin'. What I have left are two bell peppers that I started from my own seeds, a rose bush that came from our rose hips, and one lanky-ass cherry tomato. Luckily I still have a bunch of leftover seeds to start directly outside, but I told myself that this was the year I wasn't going to wait until the last minute. Mother Nature really has it in for me...

The sun is out as we speak, and they're soaking up the rays. I fed them some coffee grounds this morning with their water. Hopefully that will help spark some growth in the sun.

I'll keep you posted on their development. If this works like I hope it does, we'll have vegan mexican-food BBQ here at the casa!

You can tell that the rain screwed up my plans. Read How-To Protect Seedlings. The picture is the first tomato I tried to move outside. Yes, it's still alive.

Beans

Beans, beans, the magical fruit. The more I eat, the more I like them...

Beans are a delicious, cheap, easy meal. They can be as simple or dressed as you like.

This story begins with the fact that I've had a giant bag of pinto beans in my pantry for the last few months. One day when I was doing my hot sauce shopping at La Morenita Market down the street, I came across the bulk section with tons of different kinds of beans for SUPER cheap. No, seriously, the pinto beans were $.69/LB. I had the best intentions when I bought them, but the intention stayed just that. Two months later, I figure its "bean" long enough. Okay, I'll stop...

I read about soaking beans over night (which would be rad if I was eating raw), but I need a little more instant results than that. Beans can be cooked like rice and grains, it just takes longer.

To start you need a large pot with a lid. The pot I use has a 12" diameter and is about 4" deep.

-Strain 2 cups of beans to get any soil or rocks that are left behind from the cleaning process.
-Add the beans with about 2 1/2 quarts of water to your pot. This amount will vary depending on the size pot you're using. You want between 2 and 2 1/2 inches of water on top of the beans.

Now it's creative time. Look at the water in the pot like you're making veggie broth. Add spices that you think will go well together, keeping in mind that the beans are going to soak up that juice. I use cumin, salt, cayenne pepper, thyme, bay leaf, and whole garlic cloves. I recommend to add as much spice as you think is right, then add a little more. This makes the beans really jump with flavor.

The waiting game...
-Bring beans to a boil.
-Turn down to a simmer, cover, and let cook between 2 and 3 hours.
-After an hour, give them a taste. The beans will still be al dente, but you can get a feel for what the broth will taste like. Add any more spice it needs.
-When the skin of the bean begins to crack and peel, they are ready to eat.
-Lucky you!

There are some really good bean cookbooks. Although not always vegan, the recipes can usually be adapted easily. This is my personal favorite - Heirloom Beans.

Eating Out

Everyone eats at restaurants. Duh.

This is how to find which restaurants can accommodate our vegan lifestyle.

Let's take a look at P.F. Chang's menu. They have things listed as Vegetarian. Unfortunately these things aren't as vegetarian-friendly as you might think. Fish oil is a common ingredient in their menu (and asian food in general, especially Vietnamese cuisine). Some of their vegetarian items are cooked with fish oil. This is a risky situation - Ask, ask and ask again until you get a response that you feel comfortable with. Most chain restaurants have a "secret" menu that lists all of the ingredients in their menu items. Smaller restaurants will usually have a chef that can help you on the spot. P.F. Chang's does have great vegan food, as long as you know what you're ordering (I.E. Coconut Curry Vegetables).

Some tips-

-Call ahead and ask.
-Check veganeatingout.com before you go (they've done the work for you!)
-Make friends with the manager(s). They'll give you the skinny on what the kitchen is like.
-Don't be too uptight to ask questions.
-If it sounds fishy, it probably is.
-Watch for words like creamy, deep-fried, confit, toasted bread (usually means with butter), Caesar, and alfredo.
-Ask what it's topped with (usually Italian food will be topped with cheese).
-Secret Sauce = Thousand Island dressing = mayonnaise = egg.
-A veggie burger isn't always vegan. Most restaurants serve Gardenburger Original that contains cheese. And some restaurants will dress the bun with mayo even if the patty is vegan (Houston's).
-Pinto beans and refried beans will usually be cooked with bacon and/or lard.
-Ask about salad dressing base. Many will be a mayo or egg based dressing.
-Ask deli-style employees to change their gloves before making your food (it's their job anyway).
-Assume dessert is out of the question, make it at home.
-Don't be scared to send your plate back, you are getting what you pay for.

Eating at (non-vegan) restaurants isn't totally out of the question, just arm yourself with knowledge before you walk in. These tips aren't everything that you need to know, but a good quick-reference. Experience will help guide your actions and decisions. If you don't ask, you don't know. I don't play that kind of roulette with my intestines.

Attack of the Killer Croutons

So this is the wifey...

I get "attack of the killer croutons" all the time, but I never take the time to make them. Stupid of me because it's one of the easiest things in the world to do. Don't forget that they are so easy to screw up by not paying attention. So a few things to pay mind to while wanting that delicious crouton to satisfy the hunger. We have a local bakery that runs almost 24/7. When I buy a baguette in the evening, it was made in the afternoon around 3 pm. I use that bread the next night to make the croutons. You want the bread to be crusty on the outside and still a bit soft on the inside. Most large commercial bakeries (inside large grocery stores) only cook bread overnight or in the morning. Stale is the new black. We use it to get the crunchiest croutons that we can. We never want to waste bread at home because we pay so much for the good stuff, so this is one of the best ways to use it up before it gets moldy! So feel your bread up. On to the good part.....

Things you need:
An oven (with broiler)
1/2 loaf french baguette
4 Tbsp. olive oil
Baking sheet with edges
1/2 Tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. freshly cracked black pepper

-Preheat your broiler to 325 degrees.

-Slice your baguette into 1/2 in. thick slices.

-Cut those slices into rectangles (cubes) any way you slice or dice it.

-Put onto a baking pan with edges (as I've almost burned our house down doing this without edges).

-Pour 4 tablespoons of olive oil onto the bread and gently toss around with your hands so all is incorporated.

-Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt onto the bread.

-Next put your cracked black pepper onto the bread in the same gentle fashion. Hahaha sprinkle it on!

-Broil those puppies for 4 minutes.

-Take them out and flip them. Put them back in.

-Broil for 4 more minutes.

-Take them out when the buzzer goes off and let them rest for a few minutes until cool.

Adding the hot croutons to salad prior to being cool will wilt your lettuce and end up with a mushy salad, and nobody wants mushy salad! The croutons should be toasty brown in color and crispy when you bite into them. Toss and serve with all your favorites! No more to store bought stale croutons that have all the preservatives and none of the taste!

Converting Recipes to be Vegan

I have been spending a lot of time watching the Food Network lately. And while there aren't many vegan recipes made on their cooking shows, I have been thinking a lot about how to make them so. Take this basil and pea soup by Giada de Laurentiis, all you have to do is replace the butter and cream with soy alternatives and skip the cheese garnish. We made it for dinner last night and it was really effin' good. More of these to come and feel free to pass along any advice on freeing the animals from omnivorous recipes.

e-How

In addition to the posts I write here, I am going to start backing it up with how-to's on e-How. My first how-to today is about how to stay vegan. I've been seeing lots of sites and blogs about how to make the change and lots of reasons why I should be vegan, but not a lot on what it takes to keep it up. These are some things that I learned the hard way. So check it out and let me know what you think.