Very Blueberry Muffins

A very BLUEberry muffin!

This weekend I was trapped at home the better of Saturday morning waiting for the dreaded cable guy to come. To make the best of a bad morning, I whipped up these muffins for breakfast.

VERY BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (servings: 12 muffins)
**This recipe is modified from America's Test Kitchen

LEMON-SUGAR TOPPING:
(I made extra of this because I really wanted a lot of sugar topping on my muffins)

• 1/3 cup sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

1. Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

MUFFINS:

• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 1/8 cups sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• Egg Replacer = 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons Earthbalance, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup "buttermilk" = Soymilk + tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar.
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

MAKING JAM:

1. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar (I added more to my blueberries because they were bland store blueberries) to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes.
3. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes

THE BATTER

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.
   
2. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick.
   
3. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.
   
4. Whisk in "buttermilk" and vanilla until combined.
   
5. Fold egg replacer and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)
6. Divide batter equally among muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of jam into center of each mound of batter.
   
7. Using chopstick, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion.
   
8. Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.
9. Bake 17-19 minutes until muffin tops are golden and firm, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking time.
   
10. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Breaded Eggplant

Breaded Eggplant & Linguine

Mondays are always rough, that is unless you come home after a late night meeting to find your wonderful boyfriend has a homemade dinner waiting for you! This post is brought to you by the amazing Mansoor, with the alternate title of "101 Reasons why my Boyfriend is the Best."

BREADED EGGPLANT - AKA Eggplant Parmesan minus Cheese
(Servings: 6 slices of eggplant)

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• Olive oil
• Bread crumbs
• All-pupose flour
• Egg Replacer (Equivalent of 3 eggs)
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Linguine
• 1 jar pasta sauce

Directions:

1. Cut the eggplant about 1/4in thick slices.
   
2. Then, season the eggplant slices with olive oil, garlic salt and pepper.
   
3. Set up 3 flat dishes: 1 with bread crumbs, 1 with all purpose flour, 1 with egg replacer.
4. Dip and coat each seasoned sliced of eggplant in flour, then egg replacer, then bread crumbs.
   
5. After all slices are coated, fry the eggplant in a pan until they are browned (2-3 minutes a side, depending on how thick the slices are).
6. After frying the slices, transfer them into a casserole dish with pasta sauce on the bottom, as well as a little sauce on top of the eggplant.
   
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 375. Keep an eye on the oven to make sure they don't burn (they cook really fast).
   

This made the perfect dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day. We both agreed the thin slices of eggplant would be delicious in sandwich form (similar to a meat ball sub).

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

About once a month I get an extreme sweet tooth that forces me to bake something over-indulgent that I always regret eating. These "cookies" hit that sweet spot, especially since I am always looking for a vegan peanut-butter chocolate something to replace my past life love affair with Reeses.

The best part was too, that on a hot summer day, these are no bake!

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE DROPS (Serving: 25 pieces)
I am not going to list the recipe because I copied Chef Priyanka's recipe almost exactly. So go here, make these, and thank me/her later. (Hers came out prettier than mine (it is hard to get the nuts ground up really fine) but regarless of what they look like they still taste AMAZING).

NOTE: When rolling the 'dough' I was really tempted to make giant balls because they look so delicious- who wants such a small serving, right? BUT... these are VERY rich so the small balls are definitely the size you want.

Substitutions/changes I made:

• I could not find Hazelnuts in my grocery store, so I substituted Filberts.
• I used regular (not all natural) peanut butter because I am cheap.
• In the "Nutella" mixture, I added more soy milk and powdered sugar and oil. I made enough of the chocolate to make about 3 more batches of these suckers.

Fruit Dip

Healthy and filling fruit dip

I am worst with my diet when I am sitting at my desk at work. I seem to munch on everything I can find- which is usually potato chips, candy or something from 7-11. This fruit dip is a great snack (or breakfast) that really hits your sweet spot.

FRUIT DIP (servings: usually lasts about a week)

Ingredients
(these are all flexible to how sweet you want it, if you want it more yougurt-ey or peanut buttery...etc...)

• 1 24-ounce container of SOY vanilla yogurt (Silk, Whole Soy Company...)
  
• 1 16-ounce container of cashew butter (you can use any kind of peanut butter but cashew butter is DELICIOUS)
• 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon (add more/less to taste)
• 1/3 cup agave nectar

Making the Dip

This recipe doesn't really have any steps besides placing all your ingredients in the blender and pressing puree.

After you blend everything, put the dip in the fridge for a few hours to chill and thicken. I stick solely to apples for my dipping pleasure but I am sure any fruit would be good in this dip, or even just some granola mixed in.

Macaroni Salad

Creamy, refreshing macaroni salad

This weekend I was in the summer spirit (probably due to the 100-degree heat wave) and decided to make a macaroni salad to go with my Tofurkey Italian Sausage and corn on the cob. As mayo is the main ingredient in a macaroni salad, I was a little hesitant about the flavor, but this salad came out GREAT and I think if you brought it to a family bbq no one would know the difference.

Macaroni Salad
(Serves: an entire family reunion, this makes A LOT of pasta.)

Ingredients
Baked Tofu:

• 2 packages extra-firm tofu;
• 2 teaspoons black pepper;
• 6 tablespoons olive oil;
• 6 tablespoons lemon juice;
• 1 tablespoon liquid smoke (give or take depending how smokey you want your tofu); and
  
• 6 tablespoons soy sauce.

Macaroni Salad:

(This is a recipe you can modify based on what you have in your pantry, i.e. if you don't have peas, use carrots or corn, if you don't have tofu, use fake chick'n or potatoes.)

• 1 box macaroni, cooked and cooled (I added a pad of earth balance to my pasta as it cooled to prevent sticking.)
• Half a bag of frozen peas;
• 1 red onion, diced- small;
• 4 stalks of celery, diced- small;
  
• 1/4 heaping cup of sweet relish;
• 1 heaping cup Veganaise;
  
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder;
  
• 2 tablespoons cajun seasoning;
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast;
• 1 teaspoon celery seed;
• 1 tablespoon pickle juice; (I used spicy pickle juice to add a bit of kick- this ingredient is optional but I liked the relish flavor and was trying to add to it.)
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
  

This salad is broken down into 3 steps: Tofu, Macaroni, Dressing.

1. TOFU
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.

1. Cut your drained tofu into even slices.
2. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and marinate your slices in a shallow dish for at least an hour (flipping occasionally).
   
3. Once they are marinated, lay them out on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. DO NOT DISCARD THE LEFT OVER MARINADE- you will use it later.
4. Bake the tofu slices about 10 minutes on each side (depending on how thick they are and how well you drained the tofu- mine took about 12 a side).

After they are done, set them aside to cool, then cut into small pieces for the salad.

2. MACARONI

1. Cook the entire box of macaroni per the package.
   
2. Drain, add Earth Balance and place into LARGE bowl (this recipe makes a lot so make sure you have a bowl with enough space).
   
3. Add the peas and place in the fridge to chill.
4. Once it has chilled, add the red onion and celery.

3. DRESSING

1. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients: Veganaise, left over tofu marinade, garlic powder, creole seasoning, nutritional yeast, celery seed, relish, lemon juice and pickle juice.
2. Stir well to get out all the clumps and ensure the spices are incorporated.
3. Once all the components are ready, pull out your big bowl of macaroni from the fridge and mix in the dressing.

Once the pasta in coated, add the tofu last and you are done! I recommend refrigerating your salad overnight or at least a few hours to let everything set.

Vegan Fried Rice

Vegan fried rice

Tonight we decided to recreate fried rice without the msg, eggs, or meat products that you usually find at a Chinese restaurant. This recipe took a lot of prep time, but honestly, you could probably do most of it the night before and then just throw everything together after work on the stove.

Fried Rice: (serves 6-8 people; aka A LOT of leftovers)

• 2 cups of COOKED rice (we used brown basmati) - My mom recommends day-old rice...that probably would have helped keep the rice from getting sticky.
• 1/2 bag Frozen veggies (we bought a bag that had carrots, peas, corn and green beans)
• 1/2 an onion diced (we used red onion because we had one, but any kind will do- some people recommend scallions)
• 1 package water chesnuts, drained
• 2 cups diced mushroom
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 tablespoons Earth Balance for the wok (you can also just use the sesame oil)
• 1 block extra firm tofu- diced and fried (after I press and dice the tofu, I lightly coat the small pieces in cornstarch to make sure they fry crispy)

fffffNOTE: I also added Sriracha sauce to the tofu while I was frying it to make our fried rice spicy. The color of hhhhhhhhhhhh the sauce plus the oil in the pan really made the tofu look like eggs.

Sauce: (the sauce measurements are give and take - add more or less depending on how much seasoning you want, we had a lot of rice so we needed a lot of sauce!)

1. 8 tablespoons soy sauce
2. 6 teaspoons hoisin sauce
3. 5 teaspoons sesame seed oil
4. 5 tablespoons rice vinegar

Equipment:

1. Wok
2. Frying pan (for tofu)
3. Sauce pan for rice

Cooking the Rice:
After waiting 45 minutes for the rice to cook (we really should have done that the night before) and chopping alllllll the veggies we were ready to start frying! Mansoor took over the wok while I handled the tofu (see tofu directions above).

All our veggies, ready to go!

• First: add your onions and garlic to the wok with the Earth Balance and let them saute for about 5 minutes until they are soft.
  
• Then: add the mushrooms and water chestnuts and cook an additional 5 minutes until the mushrooms seem cooked.
• Next: we added the rice to the wok along with our sauce mixture.

gggggggg NOTE: We added ALL our rice at once, which made it REALLY hard to get it to ffffffffffffffffffffff have the "fried"feeling. We recommend adding a little at a time so you can fffffffffffffffffffffffreally get your rice nice and fried.

• Last: we added our frozen vegetables and tofu. We let everything cook for a good 15 minutes before caving in and eating.
  

Overall, the rice was a hit! We both added more soy sauce and sriracha sauce to our rice as we ate, but we were ok with that. We served our rice with frozen egg rolls, which this brand was vegan and DELICIOUS, I was super impressed and would buy them again in a heartbeat.

Best eggrolls ever.