Breakfast bread

When we lived in Paris we used to every morning go and buy fresh bread for breakfast. It always tasted to wonderful this warm bread. The last mornings I've been serving warm and fresh bread for breakfast for me and Bella but instead of buying it I've baked it myself. These breads taste best if eaten immediately or place them in the freezer. I use baking powder so the there is no need for the bread to rise. This morning I made a very satisfying bread with banana and zucchini, a recipe I found on a great Swedish blog called Molly's Health Blog. I changed it a little and I know it's sounds like a weird combination but wow it was great. I used muesli, whole wheat flour and wheat germs and therefore added a lot of fiber. There is no added sweetener and very little fat so it's very healthy. I even I had one bun left which I dropped of to my friend Jessica. She ate it with some cheese on top but here in the lactose intolerant part of town, we spread avocado on ours.

Breakfast bread, serving 3

1/4 cup muesli

3/4 cup whole wheat flour, maybe more

1 TBS wheat germs

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 TBS vegan sour cream

1/2 cup fine grated zucchini

1 small ripe banana, mashed

Preheat oven for F450

Combine all dry items in a bowl and blend well. Blend all wet items and blend well. Combine wet and try and mix it well with your fingers or a fork. You do not want to overwork the dough. Divide into three pieces and make three rolls, flatten them slightly and place them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake for about 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Pasta salad

The hot weather has continued and Sunday was specially terrible so slaving over a hot stove was not an option and therefore I made a pasta salad for dinner.

Pasta salad with basil dressing

2 cup cooked and cooled whole wheat pasta

1 cup cooked garbanzo beans

2 cup spinach

1/2 cup grated carrots

1 cup grapes, cut in half

1/2 cup avocado, cubed

1/4 cup toasted and salted pepita's

Dressing:

2 TBS flax seed oil

2 TBS apple cinder vinegar

1 TBS agave nectar

1/4 cup fresh basil leafs, torn

salt & pepper to taste

Place everything for the dressing in a blender and blend until a green dressing. Pour dressing over salad right before serving.

Maple scones for mommy & toddler date

Today me and Bella had a play date with two of my yoga friends. We met up at a park and let the kids play and us have an adult conversation. I made my strawberry lemonade and maple scones for the date. I found a recipe for the maple scones on 101cookbooks.com but I veganized them a little. Scones are so easy and fast to make and actually turns out best if you don't overwork them. I love making scones for breakfast for that reason.

Maple scones, makes about 8

1/4 cup maple syrup

6 TBS non-dairy milk ( I used oat milk)

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup non-bleached white flour

1/2 cup quinoa flakes (or oat flakes)

1 1/2 TBS baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

11 TBS non-dairy margarine (I used Earth Balance)

Large grain sugar for sprinkling on top of scones

Little oats milk to brush the scones with

Preheat oven to F400

Blend maple syrup and milk and whisk. In a food processor, add flour, salt, baking powder and quinoa flakes and blend for just a second or two. Add margarine in smaller pieces and process until it's kind find grains. Add the milk/syrup mix and process just long enough to become a dough. Remove dough for food processor and kneed a couple of times to bring the dough together. Divide into 8 pieces and make any shape of scone you want, e.g. triangles, square or rounds. Place on a parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until they are golden. They taste the best if eaten right away.

Potato au gratain with lentils

This got to be my families favorite dinner. Even my "I don't like potatoes" child loved it and who happily announced "she ate a lot" when I arrived in the evening. I love potato gratin but feel I need some nutritional accessories like a lentil tomato sauce to be a complete meal. The result is a flavorful and creamy dish. The cream is actually a white sauce making this dish low fat.

Lentils Au gratin, serving 4

Red sauce:

1 yellow onion

1 can stewed tomatoes with Italian herbs

I garlic clove

1 tsp paprika powder

salt & pepper to taste

3/4 cup red lentils, washed

3/4 cup water

Place everything in a large pot and bring to a boil on high heat. Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until lentils are soft.

White sauce:

1 TBS margarine

1 TBS all-purpose flour

1,5 cup almond milk

salt & pepper to taste

Melt margarine in a pot on medium heat. Add flour and blend well but fast, add milk little at the time until all the flour/margarine mix is completely dissolved. Bring to a boil while stirring and keep stirring while boil the sauce for about 1 minute and then add salt and pepper. Set aside.

To assemble the gratin:

Red sauce

White sauce

6 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 cup non-dairy cheese, grated. I used Daily cheese which is non-dairy, soy-free and grated

Preheat oven for F450

Layer a large Pyrex mold with potatoes, the pour half of the red sauce in a neat layer, add white sauce in a layer and sprinkle cheese. Repeat and let top layer be potatoes. Press top player down a little before placing it in oven to get some of the sauce on top. Cook in oven for about 40 minutes or until potatoes and completely soft. Enjoy with some steamed vegetables and a nice green salad.

Honey roasted vegetables and mustard marinated tofu

Sunday was Charger game here and everyone except me and Bella went. I knew they would be hungry when they came home so I cooked a hearty meal for them. I felt my friends who now been eating my cooking of vegan food for 10 days was ready for tofu. I don't think I was their favorite thing and they ate it all up.

Roasted vegetables and marinated tofu

Tofu:

I package extra firm tofu, drained and sliced in 1 inch slices

2 TBS olive oil

2 TBS dijon mustard

1 tsp agave nectar

1/4 cup vegetable stock

salt and pepper to taste

Blend everything except the tofu in a large bowl. Add tofu slices and marinate for at least one hour in the fridge. Turn the tofu every 20 minutes or so. Heat a frying pan on high heat and layer it with tofu. Fry for about 2 minutes and flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Repeat until all tofu has been fried.

Vegetables:

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 large carrots, peeled and cubed

1 large parsnip, peeled and cubed

1 small rutabaga, peeled and cubed

2 cups green beans, washed and ends snipped

1 medium zucchini, washed and cubed

1/4 cup honey

2 TBS olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven for F400

place everything except the zucchini in a large Pyrex and blend well with the spices, oil and honey. Place middle of oven and cook for about 20 minutes, add zucchini and flip the vegetables. Cook another 10-20 minutes depending on how large the cubes are. You want the vegetables to be nice and soft. Keep flipping them once in a while not to burn one side.

Guests = lack of blogging

We have friends visiting all the way from Sweden so I have not have time to blog as much. We have also been eating out a lot so nothing to really blog about. Our friends are the opposite of vegetarians and that always present a challenge but they have been very understanding of us being it. Yesterday I decided to make they a vegan meal and not tell them until afterward. I find that when people knows they usually make their mind up right away that they will not like it. They loved it and actually was amazed it was not "real" chicken. They talked about how they can make this at home. Yeahhhhhhhh! They were even more amazed when I treated then my homemade banana ice cream. I made them one of our favorite dishes which I like to call Curious George casserole because it has bananas and peanuts in it. Unfortunately we ate it all before I could take a picture.

Curious George's quorn casserole, serving 4

1 bag of quorn chicken tenders, unfrozen

1,5 cup non dairy creamer

1/2 cup chili sauce

2 tsp chili powder

Salt to taste

1 tsp paprika powder

1 large banana

1/2 cup toasted and salted peanuts

preheat oven for F400

Place quorn in a Pyrex in a even layer. Mix cream, chili sauce, chili powder, salt and paprika well and pour over quorn so it's completely covered. Slice the banana over and sprinkle the peanuts over everything. Place middle of oven for 10 minutes. Enjoy with rice!

Scones

Making breakfast scones are so easy and take very little time. We make them for weekend breakfasts and eat them with some nice jam. Last time I made homemade apricot jam which was a hit. There is nothing better than a warm scone with home made jam with my family.

Scones, serving 4

1,5 cup dairy free milk, I used almond milk

100g of vegan butter

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

 Pre-heat oven to F450

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut butter into smaller parts and use fingers to mix it with the flour until it's mixed well.  Add milk and mix just until it forms a dough. You do not want to over work the dough. Dive dough into 4 pieces and make each part a round and kind of flat  bread and place on a oiled  cookie sheet.  Make a cross in each bread and place in middle of oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Enjoy right away.

Swedish lentil neat balls

Being from Sweden I sure have eaten my fair share of meatballs. I do miss them sometimes, not the meat part but the whole traditional Swedish meal witch is always served with lingon preserve, mashed potatoes and meat balls. I tried making some using lentils and it worked out great. We ate them traditionally and I felt very satisfied. My 3-year old loved them so there will be many more Swedish neat ball dinners in our future.  The lingon preserve you can find at Ikea here in the US. 

Swedish neat balls, makes about 50

I yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, grated

200g potatoes, peeled and cut into half or smaller pieces if larger potatoes

1 cup red lentils, rinses

2 cups vegetables stock

garbanzo bean flour

oil to fry the neat balls in

Place everything except the flour and oil in a large pot and bring to a boil. reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until potatoes and lentils are cooked. mash everything to a dough and let it rest in fridge fro at least one hour or over night. Roll the dough into small neat balls and fry them in oil in a frying pan. 

Warm potato salad

We had a wonderful labor day weekend. It was busy seeing a  lot of people, going to sea world and attending one birthday party. At the party I had the unfortunate to walk into the kitchen while the hosts were in full swing cooking live craw fish. Oh how I wish I never saw that. However, I was thrilled when I realized one survived and they found him sitting on the kitchen floor after his buddy's all had become the party highlight. The kids had a lot of fun looking at him. I don't think he will survive long but wow what a survival instinct.

On Monday our friend Jessica came over in the evening and we BBQ. We ate marinated portobello mushrooms, a green salad, a wonderful chocolate cakes she made and a warm potato salad. Unfortunately, I did forget to take a picture. 

Warm potato salad 

2 cups white potatoes, cubed and cooked

1 cup asparagus, cooked and cut into smaller pieces

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, dehydrated and chopped

2 TBS olive oil

3 TBS white balsamic vinegar

2 TBS Dijon mustard

1 tsp chili pepper

salt to taste

Blend sun dried tomatoes, vinegar, oil, mustard and spices well.  Place the warm vegetables in a large bowl and add dressing and toss to everything gets a nice coat. If the salad is getting cold, place it on the BBQ for a few minutes on a foil. 

Corn chapati

These chapati's are awesome and a great addition to any soup or indian meal.  Any leftover we eat with breakfast the next day eating it with apricot jam and chai tea, mmmmmm.

Corn chapati, about 12

400g frozen or fresh corn

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp salt

2 cups white all-purpose flour

1 TBS olive oil

Place corn, cumin, salt and pepper and food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Remove from food processor to a bowl and add flour until it's a nice dough. Let the dough rest for 2o minutes. Divide dough to 12 pieces. Use a rolling pin to roll a thin round bread. Heat little bit of oil in a frying pan and fry the bread on medium heat until golden brown, flipping once. 

Garbanzo bean puffs

I tried to make falafel but failed but instead I ended up with these puffs which were very good. They have a very fluffy consistency to them. Bella loved them so now they are part of our favorite foods for dinner. We ate them with lemon roasted rot vegetables.

Garbanzo bean puffs, 25

3 cups cooked garbanzo beans

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 Tbs cumin

1/2 Tbs grounded cilantro

salt to taste

2 TBS olive oil

Place everything except the oil in a food processor and blend until smooth. Let dough rest in fridge for 1 hour to make rolling easier.  Divide dough into 25 pieces and roll them into small balls. Roll the balls in the oil and place them in a Pyrex. Place them in a F400 oven. Cook for about 15 minutes or until they have some color.