spiced roasted cauliflower!

This is one of my new favorite dishes! I LOVE it! Serves 3 people as a side dish. I'd double it ;)



1 medium-large head of cauliflower
3 tablespoons rice bran oil (or oil of your choice)
1 & 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon spanish paprika
1/4 teaspoon chipotle pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
dash of ground ginger

Cut cauliflower into small florets. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. In a glass baking dish, mix all the spices together, then add the oil. Once this is all mixed together, add the cauliflower, rubbing the oil/spice mixture into the florets as much as possible.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, then, using a spatula, mix up again, then cook for 10 more minutes.

I hope you love this as much as I do! Obviously, if there are any spices listed that you don't like, please feel free to omit or change as you please. This is a fairly spicy dish but it doesn't have to be (or you can make it even spicier!).
This is adapted from a recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle.

peanut sauce broccoli stir fry!

I love peanut sauce. But I hate vinegar, and sometimes I think peanut sauces have too much vinegar and too little peanut! So here is my personalized recipe! (Yes, I know this is the second peanut sauce recipe I posted. They're pretty different tasting and this is my favourite!)

In a medium-sized bowl, mix:
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use crunchy. The Earth Balance peanut & coconut butter blend is perfect for this)
2 tbsp honey (or agave if you don't do bee products)
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp crushed pepper flakes
1 tsp ginger root powder (or fresh ginger if you have it!)
2 tsp chopped garlic

Steam the broccoli as long as you like - I steam mine briefly but I know a lot of people like their broccoli softer.
Stir fry some tempeh!
Mix these in a frying pan, add the sauce and some brown rice. When completely mixed and done cooking, add some salt to taste and hemp seeds (DO NOT add the hemp seeds until it is done cooking as that would spoil the nutritional value).

I hope these directions aren't too confusing and that you love this as much as I did!

Vegan Sweet Potato Spice Bread

I love dessert breads. Who doesn't? Today, I wanted to make banana bread, but had no ripe bananas and suddenly wondered if sweet potato bread "was a thing". So, I looked it up and found a few recipes. I decided to try it out and here is my veganized recipe!

1/2 cup maple sugar (not syrup)
1 cup sucanat (if you don't have maple sugar or sucanat, 1 1/2 cups sugar will work)
1/2 cup coconut oil (or any vegetable oil)
ener-g egg replacer for 2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (if you don't have whole wheat pastry, use all purpose)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
a dash of cardamom
a dash of ginger
1/3 cup water
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine and beat the maple sugar, sucanat, and coconut oil. Add the egg replacer.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and ginger.
Add half of the dry mixture to the wet mixture and add the water. Mix well.
Add the other half of the dry mixture and mix well.
Add the sweet potatoes and mix well.
Pour the batter into a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes!

ENJOY!

adventurous snickerdoodles

Those who have been around me while I am baking know that I have, well, unconventional methods. I rarely measure things carefully. I often just throw everything together without separating the wet and dry ingredients. It all depends on how much time I have (and usually I have none)!
Somehow, everything turns out well nearly every time!
So, just for fun, I thought I would post the recipe I actually used for snickerdoodles today!

dough:
1/4 cup earth balance (I ran out, hence the next three ingredients!)
1/4 cup coconut butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup rice bran oil/coconut butter mixture
1 cup organic unrefined turbinado sugar
1/4 cup date granules/sucanat mixture
2 tsp vanilla extract
threw in some vanilla powder
ener-g egg replacer for two eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp (slightly more) sea salt
a "shake" of ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon

topping:
some powdered sugar
some turbinado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon pwd
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

The directions for making them are here:
http://www.vegan-reira.blogspot.com/2012/04/snickerdoodles.html

I doubt anyone will actually follow this ridiculous recipe, but it just goes to show that baking recipes (for cookies, at least) are much more flexible than we tend to think :)

Peanut Sauce Satay w/Broccoli, Carrots, and Bell Peppers

I've always loved dishes with peanut sauce, but had never tried to make one until a few days ago! I was surprised by how incredibly easy it was! NOTE!!! I have posted another peanut sauce recipe that I think is even better! Check it out and decide for yourself which sounds better! They're somewhat different :)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 chopped garlic clove
1 tsp coconut palm sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 dash of rice vinegar
a few drops of hot sauce or a pinch of cayenne
1/2 tsp ginger honey syrup (optional. you could just use ginger)
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water

Mix the ingredients together in the order they're listed (the water and coconut milk last).
Steam broccoli and carrots. Toss bell peppers and brown rice in frying pan with a small amount of oil. Once cooked, add the broccoli and carrots, remove from heat, and add the sauce!

gluten-free, vegan, mostly-raw chocolate "cupcakes"!

I got a Vitamix. It came in the mail yesterday. I could NOT WAIT! to make something in it. I always love raw cakes made in food processors and vitamix blenders, so I decided to try my own.
As far as the "mostly-raw" comment goes...these are not 100% raw because the peanuts I used are honey roasted. I LOVE the flavor this adds, but if you are raw, by all means substitute that 1/3 of a cup of peanuts with any other raw nuts!

Crust ingredients:
1 cup pecans (soak for about 10 minutes, then drain)
1/3 cup honey roasted peanuts
3 tsp maple syrup
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

"Cake" ingredients:
2 cups cashews (soak them while you make the crust)
1 cup coconut milk (NOT low-fat)
1/2 cup coconut sugar syrup (this is an alternative sweetener. you could also use agave or maple syrup, etc)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups cacao powder

Directions:
Place all crust ingredients in blender. Mix until it sticks together! You may have to add slightly more nuts or cacao powder if it comes out too liquid-y.
Put cupcake liners in cupcake pan. Press "crust" mixture into the bottom of the cupcake liners (roughly 1/3 inch thickness).
Place all "cake" ingredients in blender. Move to "high" speed very quickly and blend until completely creamy.
Pour "cake" mixture into cupcake liners!
Optional: Dust with vanilla powder (or mesquite, maca, lucuma, etc)!
Stick cupcake pan in freezer. Let them set for a while before eating it (it truly tastes better after it cools completely).

NOTE: Because I use 1 cup coconut milk instead of 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup coconut oil, these do not "set" the way other raw cakes do. These must be kept in the freezer until you eat them! If you're trying to take them somewhere to enjoy with others, you may want to do the water and oil method instead. I just do the coconut milk because 1/2 cup of coconut oil costs about $5 (or more), plus the nuts in this recipe already contain a lot of fat...the coconut oil is a little bit overkill for me.

vegan snickerdoodles!

Jonathan was talking about how delicious snickerdoodles are. I decided I better make some.

I don't have cream of tartar on hand, so I substituted it out. I think it is better this way, anyway!

Ingredients:
1 cup softened earth balance (two buttery sticks)
1 1/2 cups organic unrefined sugar
ener-g egg replacer for 2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups organic all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (or a little more!)

Topping:
2 tablespoons organic unrefined sugar
a pinch of vanilla powder (not necessary)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(I like to add a pinch of cardamom, ginger, and nutmeg individually too)

1.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit
2.) Cream together earth balance, unrefined sugar, egg replacer, and vanilla extract
3.) In a medium sized bowl, mix together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt
4.) Add dry ingredients to the creamed mix
5.) In a very small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients
6.) Roll dough into one-inch balls; roll the balls in the topping mixture
7.) Place on baking sheet, bake for 8-10 minutes
8.) Remove cookies from baking sheet ASAP and put on cooling rack
9.) ENJOY!