Whats Cookin' Latley: Waffles, Cupcakes, Muffins

Been trying out different recipes for the farmers market that I plan on setting up a table at very soon...

The Joy of Vegan Baking- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
These turned out really yummy but I will not be adding the chocolate
When I sell them they will just have nuts... I think more people will
be likely to buy them that way and they will be less expensive.

The Joy of Vegan Baking- Chocolate Peanutbutter Cupcakes
I made these a a Cakewalk Fund Raising for my Little sisters 3rd grade spring festival.
I will also be making these for the Farmers market

French Toast Muffins- 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes

The Best Banana Bread Recipe- 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes
I have become quite  a fan of banana bread and have tried several different recipes. Not because I didn't like it... Just because I like to try new ones... The only thing I changed in this recipe is that I added walnuts. I have never put nuts in our bread but to put some more nutrients into it I decided it would be a good Idea. I also doubled the recipe so I could freeze one for future use. They cooked up in 43 minutes and came out very pretty.

I will also be making these recipes at the first farmers market I go to....

The Joy of Vegan Baking

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Chocolate chip Cookies

Peanutbutter Cookies

German Apple cake

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Caramel Popcorn ( With added chocolate)

Vegan With a Vengeance

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Vegan Celebration

Sweet Southern Cornbread

Other Recipes

Rhubarb Bread

Banana Bread

No Bake Cookies

Haystack ( Cornflake Cookies)

Later on I will be adding more recipes and switching them out and in as the summer goes on. I am excited and can't wait to go to my first... I have already missed the first 2 and will probably miss this weekends as well. But After that if all goes well I will be selling VEGAN baked goods at my local farmers market!!! Yay

I have also made some other new recipes from some of my fave cookbooks that I still haven't worked my way through.

Igors pasta from Vegan Vittles is one of those recipes that I return to over and over .. One of my faves! Made it twice last week!

This week though I have made:

Crispy Banana-Cinnamon Waffles from Vegan Diner. this is the first recipe I have tried from this book. But I will say with all the flour in the recipe I had to double the milk to get it to mix up. Then I had to double everything else but the flour to get the right flavor... So I am not sure exactly how I screwed up or if the measurements are just wrong in the book.... Who knows... But they did turn out really yummy! And are going to my freezer...

I had to set the waffle iron on its highest setting to get these completely done , brown, and crispy. They are so yummy once I got the right setting. They do take a while to cook even on high!

This made about 24 individual waffles that I am going to freeze some of. That is after the quick fix to the recipe.

Lemon Waffles from Vegan w/a Vengeance . They are crispy and so good. I wish I had everything to make the blueberry sauce! I can just imagine how great it would taste on them! I had to add 3 or 4 tbsp of flour to thicken it up because every '/time I would cook 1 it would crisp up and over cook very quickly. So I also had to turn down my waffle iron that doesn't get very hot to begin with. It is trial and error right now trying to get them done but not overly so. also freezing what I have left of these after all the cooking problems. Hope they freeze well.

These are sweet and lemony and so good once you get the batter & temp just right. I really loved these
and wish I had the blueberry sauce to eat with them.

Ready to go into the freezer.

The first 3 that I really messed up... The batter was to thin and the iron was to hot!

I also added my first flowers to a cake... on 5/29/2011.. Jess's mom put the icing on the cake and then asked me to write and add some decorations.. I Don't normally do flowers or sheet cakes... so it wasn't the best job but I love that I learned something new like the sweet pea flowers...

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to my Wonderful mother. I love you very much! I hope you have a great day and that you start feeling better.

I went to My moms this morning and I wanted to make her breakfast but I didn't get the chance...So I made her a Giant Chocolate Chip cookie (The Joy of vegan baking recipe)... That turned out pretty good. this is the first time I have ever made a Big Chocolate chip cookie and I was hoping it would cook right and luckily just like when they are little they cook up nice and soft/chewy and yummy! I cooked it for 20mins in a spring form pan and I only used about 2/3 to 3/4 of the actual cookie dough. I didn't know how thick I could make it and it still cook through without burning on bottom.

2 Kale Soups & Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes

Kale is highly nutritious filled with antioxidants and is also an anti-inflammatory food. So when I notice we haven't been having enough greens in our diet I turn to kale. There is a ton of ways you can make it and I have been trying some of the recipes I have found online out. Here is the first two I tried this time. I will have more to come though. In the past I have also posted about Kale & Potato Soup & Kale and Potato Enchiladas. 

Sausage and Kale Soup

This is one recipe I loved from the Martha Stewart Website. She has a whole list of kale recipes and this has been my favorite. 

 Here are my simple & quick changes I made to make it vegan. So Simple.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes

5 potatoes (1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1 1/2 Boxes of No Chicken Broth By Imagine or Veg stock of your choice

1 Bunch kale (12 ounces), stemmed and shredded

1 Package Light Life Veggies Sausage, Pre-Cooked before you add it to the soup. You could use Tofurky sausage as well. 

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Sausage-and-Kale Soup - Martha Stewart Recipes 

Kale and White Bean Soup

This was also from the Martha Stewart Website. It turned out ok. But It wasn't one of my faves.
It would be a good soup when your sick. It kinda reminds me of a "chicken" soup type soup. But with an extra boost of Nutrition!!! So I will have it next time I get sick... But with some added pasta. The left overs I used as pasta topping :)

The Changes I made to this soup recipe was that I used No chick broth by Imagine and No Parm Cheese. Oyeah and I forgot to buy bread, so no bread...

Cupcakes for My Mom's B-day! Yum.

The Joy of vegan baking Vanilla Cupcakes! Yum.

Homemade Raspberry Sauce for the Cupcakes. This sauce reminds me of the sauce that is in those Non Vegan  swirl cakes in the cookie section of stores. It was so good and I had a lot left over. So I have been adding it to

I used this recipe for Strawberry filling minus the soy milk. When it was cooked down quite I bit I started adding powdered sugar to the raspberries because they are more sour/bitter then strawberries and take alot more sugar. So I just kept adding extra heaping tsps of Powdered sugar till it was a good taste for me. Probably atleast 8 heaping tsp.

http://dulcedoblog.blogspot.com link above.Frosting
Adapted from a recipe by Cheryl at The Cupcake Bakeshop
1 cup butter, room temperature
6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup light vanilla soy milk

Vanilla Cupcakes from The Joy of Vegan Baking. With some Fudge icing and shredded chocolate.

These are the same vanilla cupcakes from The Joy of Vegan baking with the Raspberry Glaze under the icing. With Raspberry Vanilla "Butter" Creme. John and I Loved these! I added a little to much "Butter" to the frosting so it kept melting... oops. But it was so good. I used two tubs of Premaid vegan icing and then added 2 sticks of Vegan butter. It was really good but wouldn't hold shape.  Plus I added some Raspberry sauce to the frosting. Next time I will drizzle the raspberry sauce over the cupcakes to make them super cute! And fill them.

Recipe"ing" the Kindle....

I recently received a kindle for Christmas from my loving husband and the first cook book I purchase on it was 500 Vegan Recipes. And although I am not a fan of how the recipes read on the kindle it is really nice to have them right at my finger tips where ever I am.

I am now in the process of typing up my favorite recipes from all my vegan cookbooks and putting in a special folder on my kindle. My kindle travels everywhere with me so its just a matter of a couple clicks and I am in my favorite recipes. Here is a small portion of the list that is on or going to be on my kindle.

Favorite Recipes 

&         

where to find them

Creamy Kale and Potato Soup- Vegan Vittles

Igor's Pasta- Vegan Vittles

Potato Soup- 1001 Vegetarian Recipes

Rock Soup- Rachael Ray

Cabbage & Straw- Rachael Ray

Chocolate Cake- The Joy of vegan baking

Chocolate chip cookies- The Joy of vegan baking

Peanut Butter Cookies- The Joy of vegan baking

Sugar Cookies- The joy of vegan baking

Ginger Bread Cookies- Post Punk Kitchen Isa’s Recipe

Coffee chocolate cookies- The 100 Best vegan baking recipes

Calzone dough- One of Sarah Kramers books

Biscuits- How it all vegan

Pizza Dough- Vegan w/ a vengeance

Mushroom Sammies- one of sarah kramers books

Chocolate chocolate chip pancakes- Vegan w/ a vengeance

Sunny blue berry corn muffin- Vegan w/ a vengeance

Thai peanut pasta

Roasted Edamame Salad- Alton Brown

Southern Style corn bread- 500 Vegan Recipes

Peanutbutter balls- Sinfully vegan

Brussels Sprouts- Vegan lunch box

Mocha cookies- 100 best vegan baking recipes

Blueberry Corn Muffins- Vegn With a Vengeance

Cinnamon Rasin Biscuits- The garden of vegan

White cup cakes- The Joy of vegan baking

German Apple cake- The joy of vegan baking

Blue Berry Cobbler- The joy of vegan baking

Mixed berry Cobbler- The joy of vegan baking

+ many more...

But I think I will purchase the actual book instead of the kindle version because I can always add my favorite recipes to my kindle myself. I do wish if you purchase a hard copy that some how you could get the kindle version for a small up charge or something instead of having to pay the whole price again.

Christmas Eve

Christmas every year for us is normally started on Christmas eve with at least a dinner at My parents house. But this year we also had breakfast and a morning full of family as well.

We started out the day at John's Families house for breakfast and for the children of the family to get their presents. We took Vegan pancakes and Lightlife vegan sausage with us to eat. It was really good even rewarmed. My little nephew even ate one of our pancakes because he didn't want the waffles that everyone else had. He didn't even notice a difference :) and gobbled it up.

Me on the couch, Jessica, one of the girls I grew up with is also married to John's brother, and John on the 2nd sofa.

The boys with their new toys from their Grandparents. They were so cute running around the house.

But the Big Boys had just as much fun as the little ones running around the house shotting each other.

We stayed there for a few hours that morning and then came home so I could make dinner so that we could go to my parents house for the evening.  I made Tofurky basted in soy sauce, olive oil, sage, and brown sugar, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, roasted sweet potatoes, and stuffing. Everything turned out so yummy we stuffed.  :) Served in my awesome pyrex casserole dishes.

I also made gingerbread cupcakes with Lemon icing from Vegan cupcakes take over the world. Those on the other hand I didn't like and neither did anyone else. John said they were ok. But.... Maybe without the lemon icing I made. The lemon icing on its own was good. I bet the cupcakes alone would have been good. But together they just didn't mix.

After dinner we always open our presents because we leave early Christmas morning.

John and his creepy new stocking stuffy... Face protection for the winter...  But still creepy... lol

He finally got the number 1 game he had been wanting. 

Chloe finally getting her stocking.

My parents had also given us money toward our new 40" TV we had picked up early while it was on sale.

 We have decided to make a new tradition that I have fallen in love with. It is simple and sweet and makes for a nice, warming, Christmas eve evening. Every Christmas we are going to open new Christmas PJs and watch Christmas movies all evening. This year we watching Home Alone & The Christmas story. We had a really nice day with all our family close to us.

She also opened her stocking from us on Christmas eve during our movie evening.

John and I had swapped gifts a few days in advance since he already had his PS3 he let me have my Kindle and order a couple books. 

So I gave him his other gifts.

School Holiday Activities

Every year the school puts on a Christmas show. This year my little sister is in 3rd grade and the two third grade teachers come together each year and have the kids perform not just songs but a play. This year they did a little western play and it was so cute.

On the same day we had the Christmas party at the school. We didn't plan the parties this year so I don't really have to much to add. But I did make Vegan Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes both from The Joy of vegan baking. They turned out really good. I have tried white vegan cupcakes in the paste and I haven't liked them. But that recipe is really yummy.

The parent who planned the party didn't plan anything but a present swap and a guessing game . The presents swap went really well. Every parent sent in a $5 gift and all the gifts turned out really nice. Chey got a Mermaid Barbie.

After that there really wasn't anything to do for the last hour of the party so my mother had luckily brought some of the games we had left from planning the party last year and we planned a couple of them. and the kids got to get out of their seats and have some fun for a while. But over all I think the kids had a good time. For the next party I am planning the games.

Playing per kid request... Present Present Coal

One last thing.
Christmas is a Christian holiday. I understand that and I take it with an open heart and open arms. But even with this being said.... I was caught off guard when prayers were started at the Schools Christmas program and although it is warming and a nice gesture. How many children were not Christian and felt uncomfortable during this.  None of the school administrators said it. That was handed off to someone else since the school isn't really aloud to. But I just couldn't help but to look around the auditorium afterwards and wonder how many students celebrate other religions. How many students would have been uncomfortable because they believe in other religions. I wish these celebrations would celebrate everyone. Not just the Christian Holiday. There are so many other Holidays for other faiths this time of year and they should have the same privilege of celebrating with the community and showing us how they celebrate as Christians do. I really wish they had that chance.

So with open hands and an open heart for all I wish you all Happy Holidays.