Happy birdie birthday

Little sweets turned three this February. Wow that was fast. For her birthday we had a small family celebration. The theme was birds and I had a lot of fun getting together the decorations and activities.

 I made the floral arrangements from tissue paper and wooden dowels. I used make these types of flowers all the time as a kid so it fun to do them all over again. I also cut out a small happy birthday banner and put it on the table along with a few river rocks.

The flower vases are cut off soy milk containers with animal and plant pictures decoupaged with mod podge. They came together quickly and it was a good use of an old calender and recycled cartons.

The felt blue bird masks were a big hit. I made those using a pattern I purchased from Handworkstudio on etsy. I sewed the masks with eco felt using a sewing machine. They came together really quickly. The cape pattern is from Biglittle on esty. I used a variety of fabrics including satin, knit and vintage sheets. We did a little circle time activity and everyone had fun running around and pretending to be birds.

Speaking of birds, the favors for the party were bird seed ornaments. I found a recipe from Eclecticallyvintage for the ornaments that did not contain gelatin. I made the ornaments in muffin tins with hemp twine in the middle. 

 Wall decorations included birds of course. My hubby has access to a big plotter and he printed out some lovely bird photos. I also hung up water color prints from little sweets that were cut in the shape of birds. The birthday banner is from her first birthday. We will see how many years it works but it definitely fit in nice with this years decorations.

Her big brother decorated the chalk board with lots and lots of happy birthday wishes. He also made her an origami yoda and a fortune wookie. She was very happy with both. 

I made gingerbread cupcakes with fluffy vanilla frosting. I tried to make cupcakes in a heart shape by putting a marble in one end. It would have worked fabulously if I hadn't overfilled the cupcakes wrappers. They were yummy though and lovely with the little creamy heats. The recipe is from Vegan cupcakes take over the world which is my go to book for birthday cupcakes.

Little sweets had a great party and of course enjoyed her cupcake. So much that I wound up giving her a cupcake with candles for two more days after her birthday. Always good to make a few extra cupcakes. Little sweets is wearing her 3 crown that I made for her older brother when he turned three too. It is so fun to pass things down and she looked lovely in her crown.

Homemade soy milk, soy yogurt and okara lemon scones

I bought a soy milk maker finally. Very exciting news. It is a Soyajoy G4 and it is fabulous. It not only makes soy milk but also hemp, almond and rice milk. I bought it a few weeks ago and I have made just about every variety of milk so far. The Fat Free Vegan blog has a post on homemade soy milk and also for making tofu. She suggests adding a few tablespoons of oats along with salt to reduce the bean taste when making homemade soy milk. I haven't made tofu yet but it is on my list.

I do make yogurt now though using all the wonderful homemade nondairy milk varieties. The recipe is based on the one from the Artisan Vegan Cheese book. I use a nondairy yogurt starter by Belle+Bella.  I start by pouring hot water in two quart mason jars along with the lids. I then add 1 teaspoon of agar and 2 tablespoons of organic corn starch to a saucier pan along with a half a cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes until the mixture is thick. Add this mixture to a blender along with 2 cups of nondairy milk and 2/3 cup of soaked cashews. Add this mixture to a sauce pan along with an additional 1 1/2 cups of nondairy milk. Using a thermometer, bring the mixture to about 105 F. Turn of the heat and check the temperature again. If it is over 112 F then let it cool a bit before adding the starter. If not then add the starter and pour the mixture into two quart mason jars. Cover with a warm blanket and let it sit for about 24 hours. Put it in the fridge and enjoy.

The interesting thing about making all the of the nondairy milks is I am left with quite a bit of pulp. Since I make a lot of soy milk it is typically okara. I have a composter in the back yard so that is definitely an option but I also like to bake a lot so I figure why not add it to scones. Here is my recipe for okara scones. It also works great with almond pulp from making almond milk which by the way tastes fantastic and is so much better than what I used to buy at the store.

Okara Lemon Scones

2 cups of okara or almond pulp
1/4 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
zest of one or two lemons
1/4 cup of maple syrup, agave or brown rice syrup
1/2 cup of nondairy milk
1 tablespoon of chia seeds, hemp seeds or ground flax
1/4 cup of canola oil or nut butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of whole grain spelt flour
1 cup of oat flour
1 cup of white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Add the wet ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix again but don't over mix. Using a 2 inch cookie scoop place the dough on a oiled cookie sheet or use a silpat. Bake at 400 F for 12-14 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

Canning this summer

Our csa at Bellair Farm has pick your own fields which is really awesome for canning. They have several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, green beans and herbs. We picked a lot of tomatoes a few weeks ago and I decided try out a recipe for tomato jam. It is pretty simple and basically sugar along with tomatoes. You cook it for many hours until it thickens. It took quite a bit of tomatoes and only made one pint so not sure if I would do it again but it was a fun experiment and tastes really good. I also found some lovely organic cherries and made sweet cherry jam. I just opened a jar last week and it is pretty yummy.

Beet coconut milk ice cream

I finally made beet ice cream. I used a version of the vanilla beet ice cream from Fragrant Vanilla Cake. I added one steamed and pureed beet along with coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, soy milk and a little guar gum. The color of the ice cream is amazing. The texture is really good also though I could have used a bit more sugar. I only added 1/4 cup since I thought the beet would add a lot of sweetness. Next time I will add half a cup and it will be perfect.

Mango beet cheesecake with coconut crispy rice streusel

At the Post Punk Kitchen they are having an online Chopped contest. The mystery ingredients are fresh mango, red bunch beets, dried unsweetened coconut and crisp rice cereal. I was able to get together an entry this time. I think I was motivated by the fact they included beets which is evident from last post. I decided to make a cashew tofu cheesecake using the beets and mango. The crust and streusel topping have the dried unsweetened coconut and crisp rice cereal. I used one fresh organic mango, one fresh organic beet, organic unsweetened dried coconut and organic brown rice crisp cereal. I came up with the crust recipe and used a version of the Pumpkin cheesecake in Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. 

Mango beet cheesecake with coconut crispy rice streusel
Three mini cheesecakes or one large

Crust and streusel topping

1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut
8 pitted dates chopped
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 Tbl maple syrup
1 cup crispy rice cereal

Place the walnuts, chopped dates, dried coconut, chopped dates, coconut oil and maple syrup in a food processor. Process until the mixture starts to stick together and the walnuts are ground. Add the crispy rice cereal and process for a few seconds to incorporate the cereal. Take half of the mixture and press it into a spring form pan or I have cute little heart cheesecake pans. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes and remove to cool while you make the filling.

Mango and beet cheesecake filling

I used the recipe from the Vegan Pie in the Sky book as I stated above and I added the mango and beets. I included the raw cashews, silken tofu, coconut oil, cornstarch, lemon juice, salt and vanilla extract from the Pumpkin cheesecake recipe. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of guar gum. I left out the rest of the ingredients. I also omitted the regular and brown sugar. I added 1/4 cup of maple syrup instead. You may want to add more sweetener. Both the mango and beet are really sweet so I figured that would make up the difference. It made a vanilla cheesecake base. I split the batter in two. I added one chopped fresh mango to one batter and processed in the food processor until smooth. I poured this into the heart pans and filled them about half way. I then added a bit of the streusel topping and pressed down gently. To the rest of the batter I added one large chopped steamed beet and processed in the food processor until smooth. I poured the beet batter on top of the mango batter and filled to the top. I added the remaining streusel topping. I baked the cheesecakes and then put them in the fridge to cool for a few hours.


We just had one for dessert this evening and it turned out yummy. I think the other two will be even better tomorrow morning. I may put one in the freezer since that sounds like fun and I think the filling would be really great frozen. I might also make beet ice cream tomorrow and have it with the frozen version.

Beet waffles

 
He loves waffles so I try to be a bit creative with the ingredients. I add just about everything to the waffles. My favorites are banana nut with greens and gingerbread with sweet potatoes. We are getting a lot of beets through our csa so decided to give it a try. The color is really lovely from the addition of the beets and they taste really great. He ate a whole one this morning. My next adventure with beets is going to be ice cream. I found a great recipe online for coconut milk beet ice cream. Yum!

Raw strawberry cheesecake

I recently came across the blog Fragrant Vanilla. She has awesome recipes for desserts. I made the little raw strawberries and cream streusel topped cheesecakes last night and they turned out really yummy. I halved the recipe and made three small heart cakes. I wasn't sure if he was going to like it due to the coconut and pecans but he loved it.

Homemade ravioli

We finally moved into our new house and it is awesome. One of the best parts of the house is the kitchen. It is pretty much a dream for me to cook in the new space. I am busy crafting and cooking in the new space but obviously very neglectful about posting. So here is a post on a whole wheat sweet potato ravioli with a white bean sauce. I am experimenting with making my own pasta and this batch turned out pretty yummy for a first try. The recipe for the whole wheat pasta dough is from The Modern Vegetarian Cookbook by Peter Berley. The white bean sauce is from The Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld.

Hemp milk is yummy

For my new years resolution I decided to make more of our food from scratch. I really enjoy home cooked food and in most cases I like the version we make way better than anything we buy already prepared. It is also cheaper to make everything so definitely worth the extra effort. J loves to help out in the kitchen too. It usually involves a bigger mess and more time but it is fun to show him my love for cooking and baking. One thing I have wanted to try is making my own nut or seed milks. In particular I have wanted to try making hemp milk with the blender. I bought organic shelled hemp seeds at Whole Foods and found the hemp milk recipe online. It is really easy to do and tastes better to me than the store bought versions. I haven't figured out the costs yet but I think if I buy the seeds in bulk on Amazon then it will be quite a bit cheaper than buying it in the carton. It also is better trash wise since I don't have to throw away the aseptic cartons. I made a smoothie with the milk by adding a banana, frozen strawberries and mangoes, and a little maple syrup. Very yummy.

Carrot veggie burgers

We love veggie burgers. Here is my take on a simple nut and veggie burger. I can usually get a dozen burgers out of the recipe and it easily works for two meals. They also freeze well. If you don't have vital wheat gluten then you can substitute more ground oats, bread crumbs or a whole grain flour. Also feel free to add any other shredded veggies. Beets work really nicely as well as broccoli. Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Carrot Veggie Burgers

version one
1 cup raw or toasted walnuts
1.5 cups raw or toasted sunflower seeds
1 medium size onion
3 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
3 cups cooked brown rice
0.5 cup vital wheat gluten
0.5 cup ground rolled oats
0.5 tsp salt

In a food processor add the nuts, seeds and oats. Pulse to a fine grind. Remove and place in a bowl. Add the carrots and onion and also pulse to shred. Remove and place in the bowl with the nuts. Add oil if using. Pulse again to a sticky consistency and place in the bowl with the other ingredients. Add the wheat gluten to the same bowl. Add salt to taste. Now the fun part. Mix everything together. Feel free to use your hands. They work great. Form the mixture into four inch size patties and fry or bake at 375F for 25 minutes flipping halfway. Freeze the leftovers and you have dinner or lunch for another day. Goes great with sweet potato fries.

Another cottage loaf

I made a cottage loaf this weekend. I used a third whole wheat and the rest white flour. I recently bought fresh yeast which is a really good deal cost wise if you bake a lot. I found the fresh cake yeast at the Whole Foods bakery. I used 0.75 ounces of fresh yeast instead of the freeze dried package. I mixed it with the liquids and let it sit a bit before I mixed everything else together. The bread turned out great. The only problem with the cake yeast is it is very perishable and needs to be used within a few weeks or less. I have seen a few estimates for shelf life online. It can also be frozen, but I haven't had good results so far. It is probably because I forget about the yeast and it stays in the freezer way too long. Anyway, it produced a really nice bread with and great texture.

Snow coconut cream

We got a lot more snow this weekend and I love it. It has been a lot of fun and reminds me of being a kid up in snowy western NY. We are supposed to get a few more inches tomorrow which is very exciting. Little guy has really taken to the snow and is having as much fun as his mom in the winter wonderland. We spent a lot of time shoveling yesterday to get the car out and also to build a sledding run in the back. It turned out great and the little guy made his mother proud when he went down it by himself. He laughed the whole way and at the bottom all he said was, "More, more". A friend of mine posted about how she was going to make snow ice cream. I looked up a few recipes on the web and decided to try it out myself. It is basically milk, sugar and lots of snow. I made a vegan version using coconut milk, sugar and vanilla. It turned out really good and tastes like a coconut slushy. Here is the recipe. It is definitely worth making the next time you get a good snow storm.

Coconut snow cream

Place a large bowl out in the yard when it starts snowing to collect fresh snow.

1 can of whole coconut milk
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
A lot of fresh snow

Blend the coconut milk, sugar and vanilla together in a food processor or blender to dissolve the sugar. Add snow until you get to the desired thickness. Whatever is left over can be placed in the freezer.

Spinach quinoa waffles

The little guy loves waffles. He generally is not too picky about food. I have noticed that since he turned 18 months that he goes in spurts with eating. It is not that he has any particular thing that he dislikes. It is more that at times he is too busy playing and exploring to want to sit and eat. He then makes it up at the next meal and eats everything in sight. I am glad that he still loves to eat a lot of veggies including his favorite which is any type of greens. I decided to make him waffles with two things that I know he really likes including spinach and quinoa. I have some cubes available in the freezer so it made it really simple to add them to the waffle mix. I had to adjust the liquid level a bit, but they turned out great. He ate them readily with the Creamy Cashew Dip from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I actually made the dip with almond butter instead of cashew butter. He now asks for "Almo" with his waffles so he likes it a lot.

By the way, I love all of Dreena Burtons cookbooks. She has a lot of kid friendly recipes. She also has a great section on food introduction for infants in her book Vive Le Vegan. I used the introduction schedule and Jonas did great with everything. It has been a lot of fun to cross every stage and add different food items. The book is full of lots of great ideas for feeding a vegan baby and toddler and it has been a great resource. I also like the book from Cathe Olson called Simply Natural Baby Food. I have made a lot of recipes from the book and I love that a lot are low salt and sugar. The book is not vegan, but it easy to adjust most of the recipes. One of his favorites of course is the whole grain waffles with lots of molasses.

Here is the recipe for the Spinach quinoa waffles. I have to say they make a really yummy savory waffle.

Spinach quinoa waffles

1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup rice or soy milk
1/2 cup pureed cooked quinoa
1 cup pureed cooked spinach
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon ground flax
1/2 cup soy yogurt

Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Add all the liquid ingredients together in another bowl. The ground flax can be added to the liquid ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix until combined. The batter should be fairly thick, but still be able to pour. If it is too thick then add more rice or soy milk. If it is too thin then add more flour. Heat up your waffle iron and start cooking.

Lots of pies

Apple Pie

The new kitchen is awesome and I am spending lots of time making all sorts of goodies. I love the dishwasher of course and the fact that I can clean up my mess is record time. I am pretty amazed that we lasted so long actually without a dishwasher. We really do cook a lot so it is definitely worth it for us and totally fine that we had to give up cabinet space. It is funny though because I think it is all about perspective since our new kitchen is pretty simple and still small. I guess I have been cooking in an old small kitchen for so long that pretty much anything is a huge improvement. Add on top of that a dishwasher and I am happy happy. Here are a few fruits of my labor in our new kitchen. I have been into pie mode lately and made a few yummy ones.

Apple pie - my own creation.

Turnip and carrot pot pie - my recipe again.

Broccoli quiche - from Vegan Brunch

Broccoli quiche - from Vegan Brunch

Pumpkin pie - recipe from Vegetarian Times

Carob graham crackers

We finally remodeled the kitchen and now have a dishwasher. Yahooo!! I love the dishwasher. I also love that I can now open the drawers and not worry about all the saw dust going on the pots and pans below. Let's say our funky 1958 kitchen seriously needed some improving. You can judge yourself by the before and after pictures. I have been cooking and baking lots and lots of fun stuff in the new kitchen. A fun baked goodie that I made recently was carbo graham crackers. I got the recipe from Jennifer McCann and the Vegan Lunch Box. Great recipe and really easy to make. The crackers can be made with chocolate also, but I went with the carob. Jonas really likes them a lot. Yummy!

Not so lardy cake

I made this sweet bread a few years ago and decided to make it again. It is similar to a raisin bread. It was really easy to make vegan by replacing the "lard" with Earth Balance shortening. I think last time I made it I used Earth Balance margarine and dubbed it the "Margy Cake" so now it is the "Shorty Cake". The recipe is from Bread - the breads of the world and how to bake them at home by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. The description in the book says it is a special rich fruit bread that was made in England for celebrating the harvest. Happy harvest!

Toddler cheezy crackers

I made these crackers a while back and loved them. I am now making them for the little guy and he loves them also. The only change I made was to cut back on the salt. I am trying to keep him from turning into a salt lover like his mama. I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt instead of 1 teaspoon. He loves the soft texture of the crackers and they are the perfect size for his little hands. I was surprised how easy it is to make your own crackers so if you haven't tried it then definitely give it a go. Though be warned that you may only want to eat homemade crackers. My next batch is going to be homemade graham crackers. Here is the cracker recipe at Have cake, will travel.

Calzones with sunflower seed pesto

I am a bit behind with posting. We spent a glorious end of summer week at the beach and I was without internet access so that is one of my excuses. It was nice to unplug for a while and feel a bit refreshed on coming back. I also ran my first four miler a few weeks ago though I am also a bit behind now with my running. I need to remind myself how hard it was to get going in the first place and not let my time off period extend too long. The good news is I have lots to post.

I used the sunflower seed pesto from the last post to make calzones. I brought them with me to eat after the four miler and they were quite yummy. The little guy also really liked them a lot. I used a basic pizza dough recipe and also marinara that I made a while back and froze. Here is the recipe.

Sunflower seed pesto calzones

1 cup sunflower seed pesto
1 cup marinara
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
2 tablespoons capers
pizza dough

Mix together the filling. Roll out the dough, fill and bake for 25 minutes at 375 F. Brush the tops with olive oil after they come out of the oven. Enjoy.

Sunflower seed pesto

Here is my version of a toddler friendly pesto that is made with sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts. I am waiting until he is around 18 months to introduce tree nuts so decided to try a variation that he can also enjoy on his pasta. He seems to really like basil. I made a summer tomato salad with a thai basil dressing that he liked also. I was surprised since the thai basil has a strong flavor. Maybe he will take after his mama and love basil. I am a big basil fan and cannot get enough of it in the summer time. Here is the recipe.

Sunflower seed pesto

3 cups of basil leaves (I used a mix of thai, globe and purple)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Add all of the ingredients except the olive olive oil to a food processor and chop well. Add enough olive oil to form a paste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

Wheat bread

I made a vegan version of the split pan from Bread - the breads of the world and how to bake them at home by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. The split pan is a basic white loaf recipe. I added whole wheat flour, ground flax and wheat gluten. I also used soy milk and dry yeast. Here is my version of the recipe.

3 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon wheat gluten
3 tablespoons ground flax
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 ounce envelope dried yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water
4 tablespoons warm soy milk

Add the yeast to the warm water. Add the salt, ground flax, flour and wheat gluten to a bowl. Make a well in the center and add in the water and yeast along soy milk. Cover the liquid with the flour mixture and let it sit for twenty minutes until bubbles appear. Mix to form a dough. Knead the dough for ten to fifteen minutes until smooth and elastic.

Let the dough rise in a warm place for an hour or two until it doubles in size. Spread a little olive oil on the top of the dough and cover it with a cotton cloth. After the first rise, knead the dough for a few minutes and then shape it into a round loaf. Place the loaf on bakers peel with a bit of cornmeal on the bottom. Cover with a cotton cloth and let the loaf rise for about a half an hour. Make four slashes on the top of the loaf, dust with a little flour and let it rise for an additional fifteen minutes.

Turn the oven to 450 F and put the loaf on a baking stone in the oven. Bake for fifteen minutes. Turn the oven down to 400 F and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until the loaf is done.