Stuffed mushrooms and Butternut squash soup (The Thanksgiving Post)

Ok you guys. I'm just going to say the thing that a blogger is never supposed to say: I've been struggling to get myself to sit down and write this post. I thought about why I was getting writer's block so consistently about this particular topic and it's obvious really; Thanksgiving was never my holiday.

Even before I swore off turkey and got involved with an industry that worships Black Friday, I never looked forward to the day. So when I only had one day off to join in the festivities, I decided to skip it. But I didn't boycott Turkey Day all together; instead, I made plans to spend the prior weekend with my mom and dad.

Just before our weekend of thanks, I scoured the internet for some new vegan recipes that would be fitting for the occasion. Knowing that mama D was going to be the one in the kitchen, I got a little ambitious and sent her some dish ideas that caught my eye. We decided to go with two recipes, (since it would only be the three of us eating and the two of us cooking) stuffed mushrooms and a butternut squash soup.

When Saturday rolled around and I finally completed my journey up north, we wasted no time and immediately proceeded to the kitchen to prepare our mini feast. We started by opening a bottle of Prosecco, naturally. From there, it quickly turned into me watching my mom cook everything while I took forever to peel the outside layer of all the mushrooms. I was so focused on gossiping and polishing off the last glass of wine, I was hardly paying attention to what my mom was doing at the stove. And because of that, I have zero tips on how to make these dishes! All I can give is the recipes we (she) followed and the links to the original websites. But I can give you insight on how much we all enjoyed them. The mushrooms were the best part but they only yielded 3 mushrooms each for the 3 of us so I would double (or triple) the recipe if making for a larger crowd. The soup was delicious and very fall appropriate. It was rich and filling so we had no problem having it for the main course.

There is one more thing you should know before I get to the ingredients... mama D doesn't use measuring utensils. That's right she falls under the stereotypical Italian cook category of "eyeing everything." Unfortunately I am still tied at the waist with my measuring cup and don't quite know the conversions of cups to handfuls.


Nonetheless, here's what we used (estimated.)

Stuffed mushrooms:

• 16 oz white button mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium sized onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 1/4 cup homemade breadcrumbs
• 1 Tbs ground flaxseed
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• dash of fresh parsley and ground black pepper

Originally from homemadelevity.com, I do remember switching out and leaving out a few ingredients. The original recipes called for nutritional yeast and vegan cream cheese. But since I forgot the n.y. in NYC we left it out and swapped the cream cheese for homemade breadcrumbs to cut back on the processed ingredients. We also added flaxseed meal to help binde the filling.  

Starting by preheating the oven to 375, we got down to business and divided the tasks. As I hinted at before, I had the job of removing the stems from the mushrooms and peeling the outside layers off. We did this instead of washing them because mushrooms will retain water even when just a little wet. After setting the mushroom tops aside (fully intact), I chopped the stems and sautéed them in olive oil with the onion and garlic. Just as the garlic turned brown, we stirred in the vinegar and soy sauce, allowing them to cook another 3 minutes. Last step was to add the baby spinach and continue cooking until they were fully wilted.

Mama D then transferred the sautéed mixture to a large bowl, adding the breadcrumbs, cayenne pepper, parsley, black pepper, and flaxseed for binding. She mixed the ingreedience until fully combined. In the meantime, I got the mushroom caps ready by turning them top-side down and aligning them in a baking dish. We added a heaping spoonful of the filling into each mushroom cap (allowing it to mound slightly) and baked for 30 minutes.

While all of this was going on, my mom was also making a butternut squash soup that I did not take part in. See, I'm still an amateur and definitely can't cook two things at once! But she is a pro, and I've seen her make dinner for dozens before. I actually just got off the phone with her to refresh what was done since I was mentally absent for this recipe. Therefore, I will relay you to thesimpleveganista.blogspot.com for the inside look, but below is mama D's version after a short game of telephone:

Butternut squash soup:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 15 oz cans pureed organic butternut squash
• 1 1/2 cups red lentils
• 2 tsp fresh or dried sage
• 32 oz vegetable broth
• 20 oz (2 1/2 cups) water
• 2 vegan bullion cube
• salt and pepper to taste 

We totally cheated with this recipe because it originally called for fresh butternut squash. But because we didn't have all day and the canned version was organic, we took the easy way out. While I didn't have the originator's version to compare it to, it turned out amazing and we don't plan on adding another 40 minutes of prep time the next time we try it. My advice is, if you can find it, go for the canned version. 

This was what she did:
In a large pot, she sautéed the onion with olive oil. Then, she added the vegetable broth, bullion cube, and spices to the pot. Immediately following, she added the red lentils and let them cook about 10 minutes. Last to be added was the butternut squash. She let the soup continue to cook another 20 minutes (about 35 all together) and let cool slightly before blending with a hand motor.

I think we will be making the soup again as part of Christmas dinner so I'll try to lay off the wine and get back to you with any details if necessary ;)

***christmas update!! If you can, use fresh sage. We used fresh sage the second time around and it came out even better!***

Carrot Muffins

I know what you're thinking... another muffin post? Yes I'll admit that I haven't ventured far from the tin when it comes to baking, but I'm just starting to master the craft! I mean, I am still relying on others for recipes and tips, but I think I'm finally starting to measure up! But I can't take the credit for how this batch turned out; I owe it all to www.ohmyveggies.com. Their spiced carrot muffin recipe is on point and I didn't have to (or want to) substitute anything. Believe me, you're going to want to try these.

Here's what their recipe called for:

• 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (ok, I did actually substitute this with whole wheat)
• 1 cup rolled oats (additional for topping)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (liquefied)
• 2 cups grated carrots (about 3 medium sized carrots)
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

I was originally looking for a carrot apple muffin recipe but when I saw this one already called for coconut oil and flax-egg (flaxseed + water) I decided to settle on just carrot. It also called for a 12 cup standard sized muffin tin. I recently purchased a 12 cup but I'm not sure if it's standard sized because I had extra batter at the end of filling number 12. Either way, the instructions yielded perfectly cooked, yet extremely moist muffins.

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin
• In a small bowl, mix the flaxseed and water
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
• In a medium size bowl, mix the remaining ingredients (coconut oil, almond milk, brown sugar, vanilla extract, carrots, and flax-egg. Reminder: the liquids need to be room temp or warmer to keep the coconut oil from solidifying.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
• The recipe called to divide the batter between muffin tin cups, just over 1/3 full. However, I filled mine up to the top and nothing exploded. (And I still had left over batter! What gives?)
• Bake for 18-20 minutes, every oven is a little different. Insert a toothpick into the center to test if it comes back clean. If so, remove and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

Between my sweet-tooth and Patrick's need to eat everything, they're practically already gone. If you want to prove to someone that vegan baked goods can be delicious, choose this recipe.

Spaghetti Squash

Fall inspiration has struck again and it turns out pumpkin isn't the only gourd in town. After days of skeptically watching spaghetti squash recipes and how-tos flood my Pinterest feed, I finally took the plunge.

It was a last minute decision at the grocery store. In fact, I had totally different intentions on what I would be making on one of fall's first jacket-worthy day's. Nonetheless, I decided to take the $5.83 gamble and give it a try. It was actually comical when I got home and started to begin prepping because I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to cut through the outer skin. I must have gone through at least 4 different knives! If my mom were there watching me, she would've had a heart attack and swooped in before I "lost a finger."




(Instructions)
After I finally split it in half (long ways, btw) it was smooth sailing. I scooped out the seeds/stringy stuff and hollowed out the middle. I decided to try a tip I grabbed from thekitchn.com- turn the squash face side down on a baking dish and add a little water to the pan to prevent the squash from drying out. It worked out perfectly for me; after 40 minutes in the oven on 400 degrees and about 10 minutes of cooling time, I was able to easily scrape out the noodle-like squash.
I tried preparing it two ways: with a red sauce, and sautéed in a pan with olive oil, garlic, and spices (parsley, oregano, black pepper, salt, and crushed red pepper.) I was really impressed with how good it was with the red sauce. The squash flavor is pretty mild and whatever you pare it with will end up being the star of the show.

Now it might just be my inner Italian talking, but don't expect it to replace your craving for spaghetti because it definitely tastes like squash. BUT - if you don't go into it expecting your dish to taste exactly like angel hair, and you are open to the fact that it is not made of gluten, you will love it. Well, at least I did :)

Pumpkin Pie bites

I had every intention of writing this post with a huge red flag and a don't-try-this-at-home subtext. Honestly, I'm still not sure if I want to encourage anyone to try it out or not lol. I mean, this recipe yields a delicious guilt free pumpkin dessert (and who doesn't love pumpkin,) but they just aren't visually pleasing. Lets face it, they have a lot of personality, but she's never going to win any beauty pageants.

I found this recipe for "paleo pumpkin pie cupcakes" with a coconut whipped topping - sounds delicious right? Well they looked even better on my Pinterest board so yesterday I decided to try them out. Right off the bat it confused me; they were labeled as paleo but the instructions called for 20 to 25 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees- HUH? Nonetheless, I was craving pumpkin and I already bought all the ingredients so I went for it. But I quickly started having doubts again before I was done using the food processer. The batter was really loose and even my non-experienced gut knew that wasn't good in the baking world. That wasn't the only thing that unnerved me. I checked out the comments on the website to see how other people were faring in hopes to get some reassurance, but some of the posts were extremely negative. Still, I moved forward and continued to follow the recipe word for word.

Oh by the way, Here's what they called for:
-1 can pumpkin
-2 ripe bananas
-1/2 cup coconut sugar
-1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp ginger
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-1/4 tsp sea salt

And for the whip topping:
-1 can full fat coconut milk
-2 Tbsp maple syrup
-1tsp vanilla beans

The instructions for the "cupcake" were very easy: 1) Preheat the oven to 350. 2) Line a 12 cup tin with liners 3) Throw all the ingredients in a food processer. 4) Once completely blended, pour the batter into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. * I baked for 35 minutes and it was completely necessary.

When I pulled them out of the oven, they looked like they dropped a little but they made my whole apartment smell like fall and that won me over. The instructions stated that the consistency is best if put in the fridge right away after baking so I did so after sneaking one :). Then today when I pulled them out of the fridge, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the tip was totally valid. They were more stable and I was able to peal the liners right off. They were by no means a cupcake, but they were a dynamite bite of pumpkin pie. Seriously, so freaking good!

And then, I made the mistake of trying to make the whipped topping. What a mistake. First off, her instructions were kind of confusing. I honestly don't know if I was supposed to use the whole can of coconut milk or just the "fatty white top" that she described. (If you ask me, the whole can was fatty and white?) And then I really messed it up by using 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract instead of 1tsp of vanilla bean - it tasted like alcohol. Not to mention, I couldn't get it to be thick and fluffy like in the original picture. All in all, the topping was a huge fail.

Looking back at everything, I would definitely try these again (without the topping.) But honestly it's the furthest thing from a cupcake... it really is pie filling. I might even like to find a nice crust recipe to pair it back to. I'll let you know how it goes!

My Sad excuse for a whipped topping!

Vegan Pumpkin Apple Muffins

Hey Everyone, grab your pumpkin spice soy latte... it's that time of year again! That's right, it's Long-Sleeve-Sweaters-Hocus-Pocus-Pumpkin-Flavored-Everything Season!

Being inspired by the start of the fall season, I went on a search for a great sounding and looking pumpkin muffin recipe. After looking through blog after blog, I decided to go back to one of the first recipes I stumbled upon on minimalistbaker.com. The recipe mixed two of my favorite fall flavors: apple and pumpkin. I modified a few things to cut out the vegan butter and white flour, so I was a little nervous because everyone knows baking can be ingredient-specific. Thankfully my first batch came out looking and tasting great!

Ingredients:
Apple sauté:
-1 Tbsp coconut oil
-2 granny smith apples (peeled and diced)
-dusting of cinnamon

Muffin mixture:
-1 flax-egg (1Tbsp ground flaxseed + 2.5Tbsp water)
-3/4 cup pumpkin puree
-1 cup almond milk (room temp)
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 Tbsp coconut oil (liquefied)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1/3 cup oats

Instructions:
-Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and coat the muffin tin with a thin layer of coconut oil (or you could use paper liners)

-I started out by sautéing the apples in a pan with coconut oil and a dusting of cinnamon. After they turned brown and got a little soft, I turned off the heat and set them aside.

-Next I made the flax-egg by mixing the flax meal and water in a large bowl. In the same bowl, I added the pumpkin puree, almond milk, brown sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. (Remember: all the liquids should be at room temperature to insure the coconut oil doesn't solidify.)

-In a separate bowl, I mixed the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Then I poured the dry mix in with the wet ingredients in small increments while continuing to stir. Lastly, mix in the apples and oats and spoon into the muffin tin. I topped them off with a sprinkle of oats.

*The recipe I followed yielded 12 muffins at 20 minutes baking time, but I only had a 6 cup muffin tin which required a full 25 minutes to fully bake.

I'm so excited to share my version of this recipe because I'm still a newbie in the baker's world. Nevertheless, I am proud to say these muffins are sure to please even your biggest critics- vegan or not!

Blueberry Muffins

Three times a charm? In this case, twice was a charm and three times was an adventure! I tried three separate variations of vegan blueberry muffin recipes that were inspired by a recipe I found on egglesscooking.com. This was my first attempt baking with vegan ingredients and it certainly won't be the last- I've officially caught the bug.

I was adventurous with the substitutions starting from my first batch. The recipe I found online called for bleached all-purpose flour, canola oil, and rice milk. I went for a healthier twist and used whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and almond milk instead. Coconut oil is tricky because it becomes a liquid at 76 degrees so it needs to be heated in order to mix it with the other wet ingredients. What I totally spaced on was once it hit the cold almond milk, the oil started to solidify! So I needed to heat the wet ingredients as well to keep the batter clump-free. The original also called for baking soda, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon zest and, of course, blueberries; I chose to stick with these ingredients but I did mess with some of the measurements. The original recipe called for 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar and I tried cutting it down to 1/2 cup. Also, I accidently put in a Tablespoon of baking soda instead of a teaspoon... (I know, rookie mistake #2.) They came out looking nice but they had an awful aftertaste that was definitely caused from the baking soda OD. Still proud of myself, I called my mom and bragged about how they "at least didn't fall apart!" That's when she suggested I try using baking powder.

Since the market had offered a special on blueberries and I had another carton of them anyway, I went ahead and tried again. This time, along with my mother's suggestion, I made a few ingredient, measurement, and prep changes. Here is what I used for the take two:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 lemons for lemon zest
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups blueberries

After preheating the oven to 375, I combined the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Next, I liquefied the oil and heated the almond milk. Using a separate large bowl, I mixed the oil, milk, sugar and apple cider vinegar. Then, I added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combined without over stirring. Lastly, I mixed in the blueberries and poured the batter into the muffin tin. They were perfect after 25 minutes in the oven! I let them cool on a wire rack as long as I could but devoured one almost immediately.

Today I took it one step further and tried the same recipe but made it gluten free by substituting 2 cups of oat flour for the wheat flour. I knew it was going to be a stretch, but honestly, they came out OK! Oat flour is always going to be a bit more fragile and with no egg for binding, I knew they would be more delicate, but they were tasty! I recommend letting these cool in the muffin tin rather than a wire rack- it will help them keep their shape. I still enjoyed recipe #2 (the whole wheat version with baking powder) the best, but if you're gluten free, these are worth trying! 

Gluten Free and Vegan: Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

I just made the most delicious breakfast! Not only are these pancakes vegan, but they're gluten free too! And the best part? They're better than buttermilk! This recipe is an original and I got a little adventurous. Feel free to substitute, but if you want super fluffy pancakes that wont weigh you down, try to follow it to a T.

Here's what I used:

• 2 cups oat flour
• 1 Tablespoon cane sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon iodized salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 2 cups almond milk
• 3 Tablespoons coconut oil  
• 2 large bananas, sliced
• 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions:
I mixed the dry ingredients first in a large bowl and then added the almond milk and coconut oil after warming to liquefy. (If using coconut oil, remember to warm the almond milk also to keep the oil from solidifying) After letting the batter rest 5-10 minutes, I added the banana slices and chocolate chips.

I chose to play it safe and make one pancake at a time because oat flour is a little more delicate than wheat flour batter. Just like regular pancakes, they were ready to flip after getting golden brown on the sides. However, the batter won't bubble as much as you might be used to seeing so keep a close watch. I kept them over a low heat so they needed a few minutes to cook through.

Side Note:
I have been substituting coconut oil for vegetable and olive oils in my recipes (including this one) because the body recognizes it as a sugar rather than a fat. I'm sharing this fun fact because sugars burn quickly as apposed to fats which are the last thing in the body to burn and are normally stored. Some coconut oils are going to have a stronger taste than others (the more natural brands will give more coconut taste than expeller pressed.)  Not to worry though; in this recipe, the coconut oil adds a nice "buttery" flavor  and texture.


This recipe will yield about 4 servings. Enjoy, Friends!