There are a lot of granolas and overnight oats happening at our place for breakfast these days. So this was a lovely change:
There is something about a baked breakfast that feels so wholesome. Especially when it contains quinoa flakes. Very virtuous, even with the addition of choc chips!
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this, given that I am not a huge fan of the taste of quinoa flakes on their own. This is definitely my favourite use of quinoa flakes so far.
I used this recipe, using the applesauce option. It's very easy - just mix the quinoa flakes, mashed banana, applesauce, nuts of choice, cinnamon and/or nutmeg, choc chips and put in the oven for around 20 minutes. Or in the microwave for a few minutes. Go and do some other stuff, then you have a beautiful warm breakfast awaiting you!
I'll definitely be trying vegan versions of some of these other bakes over the winter.
Now that it is starting to get a bit colder, I thought it time to roll out an old favourite tonight - this creamy millet apple pudding.
I used to make this for Sylvia when she was younger. For a period, she lived on this pudding and her favourite chocolate pudding.
She is growing up so fast and is quickly becoming more independent, so for me this pudding is a nice warming reminder of her baby days.
These days when I ask Sylvia if she would like to help me cook, she says: "Sorry mummy, I'm too busy". When I ask her what she did at playgroup, she sighs and says: "Oh mummy, I'll tell you later".
Pass me the pudding!
This pudding also makes a nice change from porridge for breakfast and is a healthy, comforting dessert.
Creamy Millet Apple Pudding
1/4 cup dry, hulled millet, ground to powder in a coffee grinder
2 cups non-dairy milk (I use a combination of rice, soy and oat milk)
1/4 cup sultanas
1 apple, peeled and grated
2-3 tbsp sugar
dash of cinnamon
Put the ground millet, milk, sultanas and grated apple into a saucepan, stir and heat over low to medium heat until the pudding thickens a bit, about 20 minutes. Stir every now and then to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or get lumpy. Add in sugar and cinnamon and heat for a few more minutes. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Eat it hot or cold!
I don't know about other people, parents of little ones or not, but some nights I feel lucky to get anything on the table for dinner at all. So when I successfully made this mushroom pan bread mid-week in about an hour including dough rising time, I was pretty happy!
I love rustic breads that don't require lots of kneading and time spent waiting for dough to rise. Having homemade bread with a meal is such a treat. This one is a cross between focaccia and pizza. The bread is soft and fluffy, and the mushrooms make it even more delicious!
Sylvia took one look at this bread and politely requested a Vegemite sandwich for dinner. Then she tasted some, and loved it. She didn't even pick the mushrooms off!
Mushroom Pan Bread (adapted from Rosemary Pan Bread from Cooking with Herb the Vegetarian Dragon by Jules Bass and Debbie Harter)
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp instant dried yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
250ml warm water
approx 2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 - 1 tsp dried thyme
Put yeast and sugar in water and stir until it dissolves. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.
Add 2 tbsp oil to the yeast/water mixture. Add this to the flour and stir. Knead for a few minutes until smooth.
Rest the dough in a covered bowl for about 30-40 minutes until it doubles in size.
Fry mushrooms, garlic and thyme in one tbsp olive oil for a few minutes. Add salt to taste and set aside.
Preheat oven to 190C.
Punch down the dough and press it evenly into an oiled pan/tray. Spread the mushrooms over the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven and the size of your pan/tray) or until golden and firm in the middle.
Cut into squares and eat while warm!
My three year old, Sylvia, makes a lot of amusing food requests. I
am always happy when she asks for a particular food because, in addition to it being entertaining, it means
that she will most likely try and enjoy eating it.
In the past she
has asked for rice paper rolls and a guacamole face from Play School. A few
days ago she asked if we could make apple turnovers, then proceeded to
tell me the joke: How do you make an apple turnover? Tickle it while
it's sleeping! (Also courtesy of Play School!)
Sylvia's
latest request was for parfaits, or ice cream sundaes, from the book Fancy Nancy. Fancy Nancy has fancy parfaits with ice cream, chocolate
sauce and sprinkles. Who wouldn't want that?
To make a healthier vanilla ice cream, I decided to use cashews. Really, is there anything cashews can't do? Sour cream, cheesecake, cream - I love it all!
Sylvia
loved making her parfait. She spooned melted choc chips over her ice
cream and topped it with hundreds and thousands. She had three bowls of
the stuff!
This ice cream turned out surprisingly well given that I just threw a few random things into the blender! I'm sure that Google would reveal many more polished recipes for this kind of ice cream, but this was perfect for us. It has a lovely creamy texture, is so easy to make and is a great alternative to soy ice creams containing a lot of additives.
Healthy Vegan Parfaits (child approved)
Vanilla ice cream
1 cup cashews*
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
Possible toppings
Melted choc chips**
Chopped nuts
Fruit
Hundreds and thousands/sprinkles
Vegan cream
To make the ice cream, blend all ingredients until completely smooth.
Put it in the freezer, stirring every hour or two until it reaches desired consistency.***
* I use a high speed blender so I didn't soak the cashews. If your blender isn't too powerful, it may be best to soak them for at least an hour.
** For a healthier alternative, you can combine cocoa/cacao, coconut oil and maple syrup. Whichever you use, it hardens when you pour it over the cold ice cream.
*** For me this was about 4-5 hours. The real reason I stirred it so often was because we happened to be home, I was excited to see how it would turn out and was too impatient to leave it alone! I
think the ice cream would still be fine if you don't have time to stir it, but it would be a bit more icy and you would
need to let it defrost a bit before eating it. I don't have an ice cream maker, so not sure how it would work in one!
Here are a few vegan delights from my kitchen these days:
Raw desserts
I am pretty attached to my regular baked vegan desserts, but lately I'm loving refreshing raw desserts. They are a delicious sweet fix as well as highly nutritious. I am always amazed at how simple raw ingredients such as nuts, coconut oil and dates create such luscious desserts with beautiful textures.
This 'cheezecake' from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen is absolutely divine (this seems to be the recipe here). I make it regularly. It is creamy, with that cheesecake tang, and the macadamia base is delicious. Other great raw cheesecake recipes are this chocolate cheesecake and this chocolate-strawberry truffle pie.
This is based on the mango fruit cobbler recipe from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, but I used peaches and nectarines instead. Just take some fresh fruit, add the pecan crumble mix and the syrup made with dates, coconut oil, vanilla and water on top. Very moreish.
Co Yo Coconut Milk Yoghurt
Co Yo yoghurt is by far the best vegan yoghurt I've ever had. It reminds me of Greek style dairy yoghurt. It is on the pricey side, but well worth it. It is so rich that you only really need one dollop at a time. Having said that, I demolished nearly a whole carton of this in one sitting the other day. I'll blame breastfeeding for my big appetite!
Easy weekend pancakes
I love this recipe because you just throw everything into the blender and the pancake mix is ready! Just perfect for weekends when you feel like something different for breakfast but are short on time. I also love that it uses spelt flour.
Heavenly tomato tart
Sylvia loves this tart and it's a quick, tasty mid-week meal. I make a few tiny changes to this recipe - I usually take the opportunity to sneak in kale or spinach into the cream filling tofu mixture, I use fresh garlic and I use puff pastry instead of phyllo.
With a baby and a three year old, we have been cooking pretty simple meals lately. This pizza is probably the most fancy thing I've cooked for a while.
Sylvia asked me to make pizza and I needed to use up some pumpkin, so this pizza was born. In a flash of creativity, I decided to top it with cashew cream.
It was so delicious, I thought I'd share it.
It's so simple that this is hardly a recipe, more like a list of steps:
- I made this pizza base
- I roasted some chopped pumpkin in the oven with olive oil, salt and garlic
- I made a batch of classic cashew cream
- I rolled out the pizza dough (recipe makes two pizzas), spread on some homemade tomato sauce (or you could use bought pasta/pizza sauce) and put the pumpkin on. I baked them at around 220C for around 20-30 minutes until crust was light brown
- I drizzled the cashew cream over the cooked pizzas
Admire (and eat) your gourmet pizza!
Strawberries mixed with sour cream and sugar is a dessert my dad used to make when I was growing up. I always assumed it was a Ukrainian dish, but I think that it is just a dad specialty. I loved it because my dad was always so excited to make and eat it. And it tasted yum, too!
I decided to use some leftover cashew sour cream I had made for nachos on New Year's Eve to make a vegan version.
The nostalgia probably made me enjoy this even more, but I really liked it in its own right. I mean, anything sweet and creamy combined with strawberries, how can it not taste nice? It was lovely and refreshing during Sydney's hot weather.
It tasted quite different to my childhood memories of the dish, but in a good way. The sour cream tasted a lot like sweet ricotta. I'd like to try this sweetened sour cream for other desserts too.
Nostalgia aside, I recommend this for a simple and healthy dessert!
Strawberries and "Sour Cream"
1 punnet of strawberries, sliced
Approx half recipe of cashew sour cream
2 tbsp castor sugar, or to taste
Make the cashew sour cream and refrigerate for at least half an hour, or use leftover sour cream.
Gently mix all ingredients together and eat!
