Scraps and Snippets ~ Harvest Chicken Salad

Harvest Chicken Salad

3/4 Cup diced chicken replacement (I used Beyond Meat)

1/2 finely chopped medium onion

2 stalks finely chopped celery

1/2 chopped med to large apple (I used a Gala)

1/2 Cup chopped pecans

2 1/2 TBSP vegan cream cheese 

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 1/2 TBSP tahini (or almond butter) 

salt to taste

Mix together and serve on toast, bread, buns, crackers, stuff in peppers or tomatoes or your mouth. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Meatball Soup and Harmony Valley Vegetarian Hamburger Mix Review...

Why on earth would I make soup on a humid 82 degree October day? Because it seemed easier than coming up with something requiring a bit more creativity. 

I was apparently online shopping while hungry a few months ago. And Spencer's Market (a vegan mecca) was offering free shipping if I spent $50.00. So, being the kind of bargain hunter that I am, when what I really wanted was some of their delicious looking vegan candy, and had emotionally spent $15.00 on candy to share with my honey, I only needed to spend $35.00 more to score free shipping. That's when I found this.  Now, part of me, in my crazed shopping mindset thought that a dehydrated bag of hamburger was going to be somewhat disappointing. But. I bought two and two of their sausage mixes, too. I mean, at $5.00 a bag they would work as expensive dog treats if fails, right? 

Tonight was the night to use one of these bad boys up. And, dang, I think I'm kind of a fan. (On a side note, the dogs were very interested and were completely willing to lick the bowl, clean off my hand and pick up the stray morsels that occasionally hit the floor....so they would be a-okay with this as a dog treat, but that's not happening.) 

It's a textured dry powder. You add a cup and 1/4 (I think) of cold water, stir and let hang out in the fridge for awhile. I preheated the oven to 375 and then, when the burger mix was ready, I rolled it into meatballs and baked them for 23 minutes. Easy Peasy. The raw texture was pretty burger like, almost freakishly so. And they tasted good right out of the oven without any sauce. Not exactly super burgery, but really close,  Of note, I never ate hamburger that wasn't smothered in sauce or mustard when I was a meat eater, so I'm not sure I'm the best judge of that. Also, of note, a vegan meatball that mushes in the mouth is nasty. I want something that bites back a little, that gives some texture. A vegan burger that, when you bite, burger oozes out the bun...ugh, ick. And these meatballs, they had some nice texture. Next time, I will spray the pan a bit because I didn't and they stuck a little.

Here was the acid test for me and the meatball. A soup. Hmmm. Would they disintegrate? 

Meatball Soup (serves 2 to 3 depending on sides and appetites)

6 Cups vegetable broth
1/2 large small dice onion
3 stalks small dice celery
3 medium to large potatoes medium dice
salt and pepper to taste
15-20 vegan meatballs

Seriously. Simple. I put all the veggies in the veggie broth and cooked until the potatoes were almost tender (20 minutes or so) while my meatballs were baking. Then I tossed the meatballs in the soup and finished cooking it for 15 minutes or so until all the veggies were super tender. 

The meatballs did not simmer apart, fully intact meatballs. And the soup tasted really good. Rob even said it was amazing and that he thought he could fool some meat-lovers with it. And he's a pretty tough customer to win over with a meat substitute. So. Even though the hamburger mix is processed and a cheater meal, I'm going to have a few on hand. Because sometimes you don't want to reinvent the wheel and dirty the food processor, sometimes you just want to eat some satisfying simple food. And that's exactly what you get with this one. 

I'll let you know when I make the sausage. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Redecorating Fun

I didn't have chest x-rays at work scheduled today. And my living room redecorating project has been calling my name the past few weeks. So I took a day off to answer the call. I've been painting away all day. The living room color scheme is the top picture. The turquoise is the accent color. The walls are doneish---Rob has to do the upper edging because my skillz with dark paint next to white ceiling is not so great. 

I plan to use peacock colors as decorating accents. Today, I got a good start on my coffee table, which is being repurposed a second time, and a cute bird plaque I got at a thrift store that was plain wood with a pink bird. The table is going to be various peacocky paisley designs in dark brown, turquoise, dark blue, light blue, gold and silver. So far it's pretty coolish. 

I'll post pictures when I get the room together. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Wacky Cupcakes

End of Vegan Mofo. I would love to tell you I have a four course gourmet spread for you. But. Since I've spent the last few hours engaged in overshared, overdramatized activities below, I'm not cooking for ya. Trader Joe's to my rescue, and a recipe I created a few months ago and promptly forgot about to save the final day of Vegan Mofo. 

My Monday afternoon activities: 

Changing the cat box. Not that this isn't a regular thing. But sometimes I wonder whom owns whom, Feral lets me know in loud protests when he's hungry, when his litter is not conducive to his comfort and when it's time to go to bed. And I basically do as instructed. 

Forgetting and then PAYING for in blood, sweat and tears, my online password to my stupid cell carrier because I want to make a temporary change. Yeah.  Two hours later, with breaks for crashing my head against the wall, I've gotten pretty much nowhere. Now I somehow have two user accounts though. 

Wacky Surprise Cupcakes or Cake - this isn’t an overly sweet cake, more grown up in taste, but as decadent as you want to make it.

Preheat oven to 350

Makes 12 cupcakes or one 8 x 8 pan. Either line the cupcake pan with paper liners or lightly grease the 8 x 8.

In a medium bowl mix the following:

1 ½ Cup flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour which gives whole grain but light texture)

¾ Cup sugar (This is less than other recipes. If you want a sweeter cake increase it to 1 cup.)

⅓ Cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix this all together with a fork or spoon. Then make a well in the middle.

Pour in:

1 Cup warm water

⅓ Cup oil (I used melted coconut oil - you don’t want it solid)

1 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir well.

Pour into the pan or equally into cupcake wrappers, approximately 2/3’s full.

Set the pan aside.

Make filling: (use vegan ingredients)

2 ounces cream cheese

3 TBSP powdered sugar

2 TBSP chocolate chips

Stir sugar and cream cheese together until blended. Add chocolate chips.

Spoon spoonfuls (about a teaspoon each) into the middle of each cupcake or in 12 blobs on top of the cake in the middle of the slices you’ll be cutting.

If you are going to want to frost the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, keep the cheese and sugar and vanilla out and use the bowl when you are done with the filling.  (When your cupcakes/cake are in the oven mix 4 ounces cream cheese, 1 to 1 ½ cups powdered sugar and a ½ teaspoon of vanilla together until you reach the desired consistency. Put it aside for use when the cupcakes/cake cools. )

Place the cupcakes in  the oven and bake for 20ish minutes. You want a knife poked into the cake to come out clean. If you hit the goo, it won’t look clean. The cake tops also lose the glossy shine.

When the cupcakes/cake are/is cooled you can frost them. Either use a vegan cream cheese frosting. (Above). Or make a lovely chocolate ganache.

Heat:

3 TBSPs of non-dairy milk in a small saucepan. Watch the milk you want it nice and warm, but not scorched. I used vanilla flavored almond milk, so feel free to use flavored milk, or creamer of choice. A mocha ganache would be tasty. When the milk is warm remove it from the heat and add...

¼ cup of vegan chocolate chips

Stir until the heat from the milk completely melts the chocolate and turns it into a velvety delicious chocolate dream.

Spoon the mixture over the cake and spread it with the spoon so the entire cupcake (or most) is covered in glossy chocolate.

If using the cream cheese frosting, spread it over the cupcakes or cake. If you want to go for overkill deliciousness, you can use the cream cheese frosting and make the ganache and drizzle it over the frosting. If you do that place them in the refrigerator so the warmth doesn’t melt the frosting.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Double Cookie Caramel Apple Tart

Double Cookie Caramel Apple Tart

Crust:

2 1/2 Cups flour (plus 1 additional TBSP for sprinkling over crust
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup applesauce
3 TBSP coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

5 crushed Golden Oreos or Jo-Jos (additional 4 for topping)

Mix ingredients, wet first, then dry and combine completely. Add crushed cookies and mix again.

Press dough (you will have some leftover dough. This is really no problem. Eat it. Bake cookies. Make a top crust if you desire. Mix it in with the cookies and pecans for the topping.) Press a medium thick layer in the bottom and up the sides of a pie plate. Mine was a decorative 9 inch. Sprinkle extra TBSP of flour over the bottom of the crust. 

Set this aside and preheat oven to 350. 

Filling:

1 Cup of applesauce

1 Can of apple pie filling or two fresh apples sliced. 

3 TBSP brown sugar 

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Dump into crust. 

Bake for 32 ish minutes. The crust should be golden, mostly cooked through (stick a knife in it if so desired) and the filling should be caramelly and thickening). 

Remove from oven. 

Topping: 

1/2 /Cup chopped or broken pecans

1 TBSP brown sugar

4 crushed Golden Oreos or Jo-Jos

Heat pecans in a pan until they grow fragrant and hot. Toss in brown sugar and stir until it melts and the pecans are coated. Dump pecans over pie filling and follow with crushed cookies. Return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes. 

Let cool before serving. Unless you don't care if the slices are pretty. And if you plan to serve with ice cream, no body is going to care what it looks like. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Butterfinger Fudge

 I hesitate to even attempt vegan candy since Cara of Forks and Beans is the queen. But. A few months ago I had a friend tell me about homemade butterfingers that is seriously 1 bag of candy corn and 1 18 ounce container of peanut butter melted in the microwave for 1 minute. She said she found the recipe on Pinterest and that it was so easy and so delish. I, of course, want this in the worst way. However, classic candy corn in not vegan. And vegan candy corn is not cheap and I'm not sure it would work out the same way. 

So. Cara made some delicious looking crunchy honeycomb somesuch candy. And even though I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand and wasn't confident enough to trial and error a whole batch, I did experiment. So thanks for the recipe Cara...and I hope you don't mind that I made it my own and came up with something very close to vegan butterfinger insides. Flaky and chewy, peanut buttery and sweet. And anything covered in chocolate, well, nuff said, right? 

2 1/2 TBSP Earth Balance

2 1/2 TBSP brown rice syrup

1/3 Cup sugar (vegan)

1 1/2 TBSP water

1 tsp baking soda 

1/3 Cup peanut butter

Grease a bread pan.

Put Earth Balance, brown rice syrup, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat and when the sugar dissolves increase heat and bring to hopping boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add baking soda and stir. Let sit for 3 or so minutes. Then add the peanut butter and stir. And pour the mixture into the bread pan. 

NOTE: The goal is to get this to a crack stage. Two friends have tried the same recipe and gotten different results, one got toffee, the other got gooey caramel…still amazing tasting, but different. Go with a medium heat to boiling and get it to a rolling boil adjusting the flame as needed. Use a candy thermometer or water test if unsure. The baking soda puffs this up making air pockets, the peanut butter combines and softens the end result so you get layers like in a real deal butterfinger. 

Chocolate Topping
1/3 Cup vegan chocolate chips

1 TBSP peanut butter

Melt peanut butter in the same saucepan. Add chocolate chips and stir. When they are all melted, pour over butterfinger layer. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Cut and put back into the fridge until they set up. They are kind of fragile, so store in the fridge.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Worth Waiting For Burrito Bake

Burrito Bake

7 x 11 or 8 x 11 pan. 

1 can young jackfruit drained

1/2 Cup quinoa

1/2 TBSP chili pepper

1/2 TBSP garlic powder

1/2 TBSP cumin

1 Cup vegetable broth

Simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the jack fruit is mostly shreddable. 

Preheat oven to 350.

4 ounces of salsa

6 to 8 ounces of vegetable broth (I went with 8 and the texture is pretty amazing but very moist, not runny though)

1/2 Cup shredded Daiya or cashew cream based cheese sauce

1 Cup shredded zucchini

2 large tortillas

Pour 1/3 of the salsa on the bottom of the pan. Layer one ripped-to-fit tortilla over that. Place 1/2 the shredded zucchini on the tortilla, 1/2 the jackfruit mixture over that, another 1/3 of the salsa topped by the other ripped to fit tortilla. Layer the rest of the zucchini, jackfruit, cheese or cheese sauce, and top with remainder of salsa. Then pour water/broth evenly over the whole thing and shimmy it a bit. 

Bake for 40 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes. Serve with chopped tomatoes, more salsa, avocado slices, guacamole, more cheese sauce, veg sour cream, chopped lettuce, chiles, chopped black olives. Add beans to the layers if you'd like or more chopped veggies. 

I'd have done more with it, but I'm still holding out on the grocery store trip. But simplicity rocks in this case. I'd have added vegan sour cream to the jackfruit and mixed in the salsa, more cheese, etc. But this really tastes great as is. It's a keeper.