And that's what it's all about!

In our homeschool co-op, Sunshine is taking a class in which each student has to complete a 20 minute presentation on a topic of his/her choice.  Today was Sunshine's day to present.  Their teacher instructed them to choose something they felt passionate about.  Sunshine chose...veganism!  :)  We were very proud of her informative presentation and her passion for veganism.

She spent 3 weeks doing research and organizing her notes, prepared a PowerPoint presentation, and then decided that she wanted to share some vegan food with her friends.  After all, most people assume that vegan food is nasty.  She wanted to prove otherwise, so she armed herself with chocolate chip cookies.  YUM!  We've made these at least 4 times in the past (almost) 7 weeks.  They come together easily and are delicious!  (I've had several non-vegan friends ask for this recipe, too!)

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. flour (I have used 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. Earth Balance "butter"
3/4 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
replacer for 2 eggs (either 1/4 c. applesauce per egg or Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift flour, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.  In a separate bowl cream "butter", sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and "egg".  Add dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop teaspoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are golden.

Cooking for non-vegans

Last week we had company in town...of the non-vegan sort.  The goal was to make food items that would be filling and satisfying so they didn't realize they were missing anything.

We had pancakes for breakfast from a mix, using almond milk and egg replacer.  They were light and fluffy, topped with strawberries and delicious, maple syrup.

For lunch, we went with a build-your-own sub sandwich bar.  We had lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion, avocado, vegan ranch dressing, and veganaise.  To be 100% honest, we also offered our guests ham, cheese, and Miracle Whip.  I think they were relieved.  ;)  The subs were good, I love to use the ranch as a sandwich spread.  Mmm!

Dinner time was another build-your-own bar, but this time we went with burritos.  We had black beans, lettuce, tomato, onion, corn, avocado, salsa, and cilantro.  I also served cilantro-lime rice.  This is one of my simple meals that is easy to put together on a busy night, and everybody is happy because they can add whatever they like.

Cilantro-Lime Rice

Make 2 cups of rice in rice cooker.  Add 2 tablespoons of lime juice and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro. Stir & serve.  So easy!

Sick day!

Last night about dinner time, our littlest herbivore got sick.  UGH!  As soon as I got her settled and felt comfortable leaving for 30 minutes, I ran to the grocery store for rations.  Lemon-lime soda, little noodles, cleaning supplies (we try not to use paper towels but when somebody gets sick I have no problem using disposables), bananas, bread, etc.  You know, stuff to follow the BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) diet.  There went my plan of using up pantry food and not hitting the store again until payday.  Oh well, going with the flow!

Fortunately, the bug seemed to be very short-lived (knock on wood) and Punky was up for some solid food by lunch time today (we tested her stomach this morning with saltines).  I relied on an old standard, what my mom always made us when we were sick but able to stomach solids: little noodles in chicken broth.  But, uh, no chicken broth, right?  Unless you use these awesome little nuggets of goodness:

I wanted to make a substantial amount of broth, so I used 4 cubes to make 8 cups of broth.  As soon as it came to a boil I added angel hair pasta that had been broken into small pieces.  The pasta now mimicked the "little noodles" my mom used to make us (Skinner Fideo Mediano, but our grocery store didn't have any in stock).  My kids have learned to appreciate a mug of little noodles as fantastic comfort food.  They were all delighted to slurp their noodles down with some saltines on the side.

Review by the kids:  They all ate happily, and said the "Not Chick'n" broth tasted just like the real thing.  They actually used straws to slurp their noodles and said it was the perfect way to warm their bellies on our first fall day (yay for Texas cold fronts!).  There was nothing left in the pot or their mugs after lunch.

Review by the mom:  The broth was fantastic, and I'm glad we found it at our grocery store and decided it would be a good pantry item (it was also endorsed by a v-friend, who said she orders it from Amazon).  The angel hair was a great sub for the little noodles.  I'm glad I didn't get discouraged when I couldn't find the old standard. 

We made it vegan: Korean Beef

I'm a sucker for a simple, kid-pleasing recipe.  I stumbled across this Korean Beef recipe on Pinterest a while back.  I made it once and the kids loved it, so it quickly became a favorite.  Other than making sure I had beef in the freezer, it was a pantry item menu filler.  At least at our house.  I did modify it just a bit to make it more pleasing to my kids (they don't like green onions) and hubby (he loves water chestnuts) and me (not a fan of ginger).

Ingredients:
"beef" crumbles
1/4 c. soy sauce (organic, low sodium is our preference)
*1/4 c. brown sugar (or sugar and molasses)
hoisin sauce (1-2 T)
1 tsp sesame oil
small can water chestnuts, drained & chopped
crushed red pepper (I usually leave this out, but you can definitely add it to desired spiciness)
green onion (see above)
ginger (see above)
**cooked rice

Put sesame oil in skillet with garlic for a minute on medium.  Add soy sauce, brown sugar, and hoisin sauce.  Stir carefully.  Add "beef" crumbles and water chestnuts (and optional ingredients as you wish).  Allow crumbles and water chestnuts to soak up the delicious sauce and warm through.

Serve over cooked rice.  Garnish with green onion if desired.

*I used the information in the sugar & molasses link to make a substitute for light brown sugar using vegan sugar.
**I use a rice cooker to make life easier.  I always burn stovetop rice. ;)

Recipe review: Banana muffins!

I got lucky.  I googled "vegan muffin recipe" and this one was the first on the list.  That seems to keep happening.  The first one I tried is the one that we're going to stick with.  I did find one other one, but the muffins fell and were too dense.  We still ate them, just took us a bit longer to scarf them down.  This one is the one I went back to when Punky had to take snack to preschool.  I love that my kids want to help, and we had fun baking these vegan banana muffins.

(The first time I made them I added pecans to half of the muffins, and I loved them.  This time we left the pecans out completely because I wasn't sure how the kids would feel about them.)

Punky couldn't wait for the muffin to cool so she could gobble it up!
She had one as a bedtime snack and one for breakfast the next day.
Then another for school snack.  They were delicious!

Refreshing strawberry milk!

A couple of weeks ago, my girlies went out to lunch with some family members while I was hanging with friends.  My sweet Punky ordered chocolate milk—and then everyone remembered that cow's milk was a no-no.  Yes, I said that I would let my kids eat/drink what they wanted, but what I didn't disclose is that Punky hasn't really tolerated straight dairy since she was a tiny Punky.  Everybody knew that the chocolate milk might make her feel yucky, so they intervened.  She was NOT happy.  Poor girl didn't understand why her cousin could have the milk and she couldn't.  At home she drinks chocolate milk, why not at the restaurant?  Later that afternoon, my mom called to tell me what happened and asked that I please make Punky some special milk that night.  I didn't have any chocolate milk, but I had fresh strawberries, so we improvised.

Ingredients:
almond milk (or soy, if that's your thing)
fresh strawberries (greens & all)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Place all ingredients in a blender, liquify.  Pour into a "fancy" jar and add a straw.  Everything tastes better through a straw.

Bonus points for using fresh strawberries!  Double bonus for keeping the greens on (they can't taste the greens but they can use the vitamins)!!

Recipe review: the best ever ranch dressing!

Our kiddos are ranch dressing lovers.  Okay, let me be honest, we are all ranch dressing lovers.  One of the initial priorities when starting this journey was to find a delicious replacement.  We hit the jackpot on our first try.  While standing in Whole Foods, Daddio did a google search for vegan ranch dressing.  We made the first one that came up.  The kids loved it so much, I think they would've had it as a drink.  We have tried one other variation just to double check and we were not nearly as happy.  This recipe is so good that I've even told several non-vegan friends to try it.

Store leftovers in a mason jar and use within a few days.  This is also a really good base for vegan, creamy jalapeño dressing/dip.  Slurp!