Muffin Mania - Part 2: Blueberry Almond Banana Muffins

This recipe is adapted from a Wild Oats recipe. I made a few mofications.



1/2 c. Earth Balance, softened
1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbs ground flax seed
6 Tbs water
1/2 c. Almond Butter (you can grind your own at Whole Foods)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. flour
1 c. frozen blueberries, thawed
2 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Line muffin pan with paper liners and spray with non-stick spray.

Mix flax seed and water together by stirring with a fork or whisk. Set aside.

Stir together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Put blueberries in a bowl and toss with 1 tsp flour. Set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir the flax/water mixture again and add to the butter and sugar; beat well. With mixer on low, stir in almond butter, bananas, and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture with a spoon. Gently stir in blueberries. Divide into 12 muffin cups and top with a sprinkling of sugar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Vive Le Vegan - Stir Fry Vegetables with Spicy Almond Sauce (4 out of 5)

Tonight's dinner was a stir fry with a almond sauce served over a brown basmati rice. It was quite tasty. The recipe is in Dreena Burton's cookbook, Vive le Vegan! : Simple, Delectable Recipes for the Everyday Vegan Family.

The stir fry contained marinated and browned tofu, broccoli, swiss chard, mushrooms, celery, bell pepper, onion, and zucchini. The sauce was made from Almond Butter mixed with soy milk, garlic, ginger, soy milk, and a few other tasty ingredients.

Modifications:

Both the marinade and sauce called for rice or apple cider vinegar. This seemed odd to me so I used mirin in the sauce, and a mixture of mirin and rice vinegar in the sauce (about a tablespoon of each).

Quinoa with Tofu and Asparagus (2.5 out of 5 stars)

Tonight I made a Whole Foods recipe: Quinoa with Tofu and Asparagus. It was just ok. Quinoa, pronounced Keen-Wah, is a really healthy grain and is one of the best sources of protien from the vegatable world. When cooked, it has a texture like cous-cous. One thing about quinoa: you must rinse it very well before cooking. It has a bitter coating which is basically a natual insect repellant to protect it. I usually put it in a bowl of water, rub the grains together, and then drain in a fine mesh strainer.

Here is the finished product:

Muffin mania, Part 1: Pumpkin Carob Chip

I had intense urge to make muffins this weekend. Unfortunately, I found too many that I wanted to make and didn't have enough days in the weekend. This means that next weekend will be part two.

Pumpkin Carob Chip Muffin
Today I made pumpkin carob chip muffins. They were outstanding. The recipe comes from The Vegan Lunchbox. The muffins were not only healthy, but had a nice rich pumpkin flavor. I might have been a little heavy handed with the cinnamon sugar topping (as seen in the picture).

More blog entries

I thought it might be interesting if I blogged about good recipes here, even if they are not mine. This will give other vegans ideas about what to cook for dinner and will also answer the question, "So what do you eat anyway". I plan to take pictures of meals that I liked and post a link the recipe if there are no modifications, or indicate the source of the recipe. I'll post the recipe with modifications if I made any.