zenpawn

We had Christmas yesterday. Why wait until Monday when you have all weekend? Besides, the weather was nicer than either Saturday or today.

Mom handled the sides, and I brought over the main dish and some sweet snacks. She prepared a big salad of green leaf lettuce (packaged in a little plastic octagonal contraption with the roots still intact), sweet bell peppers (red and orange), tomatoes, and onion. For the vegetables, we had steamed broccoli and boiled potatoes. Here’s what I made:

Get the recipe in Vegan Done Light.

Cracklin’ Cornbread
1 Cup coarse cornmeal
3/4 Cup oatmeal
1.5 Cups plain soymilk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1.5 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1.3 Tablespoons (20 grams) Lewis Labs Brewer’s Yeast
1 teaspoon sodium free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sodium free baking soda

Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine soymilk and vinegar to create a “buttermilk.” Set aside. Process oatmeal to a flour texture. In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. Oil a 9×9″ baking dish. Stir wet ingredients into dry until just incorporated and immediately pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or more, aiming for golden brown edges.

These had a great, crunchy crumb, and a hint of “cheese”-yness.

Finally, for dessert, chocolate-topped frozen banana peanut-butter finger sandwiches. What a mouthful. Hehe. They look like little snowmen or Santa’s to me, and they taste like decadent ice-cream treats.

Not that any instruction is required, but I first sliced the bananas and froze them on parchment paper. I used a natural chunky peanut butter, warmed to room temperature, and melted some Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips (“may contain trace amounts of milk,” but not on purpose). Once constructed, I froze them until about a half hour before consumption, at which point we moved them to the fridge.

We all ate A LOT and got quite full, but there’s less guilt when you’re eating this healthy. I hope you get to try and enjoy some of my creations.

With a tip of the hat to possible gluten intolerance (awaiting Celiac test results), I’m giving it a half-hearted trial, until I know for sure. Also, I have been wanting to break my addiction to dry processed cereals anyway, in favor of more Eat To Live -style alternatives. To keep the crunch in my breakfast (and similar evening snack), I first went with granola sans wheat. Next up was soy nuts. And finally, corn tortillas baked in taco form:

The next morning, I made cinnamon nachos, with flax oil in place of the ground seeds.

(By the way, that’s homemade soy yogurt in these pictures.)

All the above ideas are keepers. I hope my fellow cereal-addicts and GF’ers agree.

Get the recipe in Vegan Done Light.

I’ve been having a great time baking up a slew of treats this holiday season. I don’t tend to make these things for myself, so it gives me an excuse, both to whip them up and to scoff them down. We wouldn’t want them going out without some quality control.

First up, from the ever popular Vegan With A Vengeance, I made a batch of Sparkled Ginger Cookies* for the office last week. They were a huge hit. Moist, soft, and redolent of the season’s telltale spices.

[*] sans sparkles (aka, coarse sugar for the top) and “only” 1/3 cup of canola oil instead of the recipe’s called-for 1/2 cup

Last week, I boiled up my first ever, vegan or otherwise, slab of chocolate fudge from this recipe at vegfamily.com and promptly shipped it off to my father. He reported happily enjoying some while watching Survivor on Thursday.

Speaking of promptly, this morning I propelled myself into a cookie-baking frenzy and, having barely allowed them to cool fully, mailed the results as homemade gifts for my father (yes, he’s getting more goodies) and my sister and her husband. Here’s what they’ll be receiving in Monday’s post.

Maple Walnut Cookies, also from VwaV, and again with 1/3 cup of canola rather than a half.

And a modified version of the chocolate chip cookies from Simple Treats.

Chip’s Ahoy’s got nothing on you, kid!

And what of that quality control? Best breakfast in a long time.