Vegan Donuts X2

I made vegan donuts about a week ago and was not too impressed. This time though I had the proper donut pan and actually glazed them and wow! While they might not be straight from dunkin donuts, I am pretty happy with how they came out. Maybe next week I will try to make chocolate ones. 
This recipe comes from Vegan Yum Yum

Vegan Donuts:

You need:

1 Cup Flour

½ Cup Sugar

1 ½ tsp Baking Powder

¼ tsp Salt

¼ tsp Nutmeg (a shake or two)

A shake of cinnamon

½ cup soymilk or rice milk

½ tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Egg (egg replacer, I use ener-g)

4 Tbs Earth Balance

To Make:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl.

3.Combine soymilk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, egg replacer and earth balance in a small pot on low heat on the stove.

4.Mix until earth balance is melted, the mixture should be warm, not hot. You should be able to dip your finger in it.

5.Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. I folded it in, the dough does not require a ton of mixing. Vegan Yum Yum has a youtube video of what your dough should look like.

6.Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough into each of the mini donuts in the pan. The dough should sit just below the rim, or else they will come out like mine, a little bit of a muffin top.

7.Bake for about 12 minutes, it shouldn’t get brown. You should be able to remove a tester clean.

8. Glaze, cover with sprinkles, dip in chocolate, powder sugar, or cinnamon.

 Glaze:

½ Cup Powder Sugar

1 Tablespoon soymilk or rice milk

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Whisk together ingredients and dip donuts in it. Then top with sprinkles if you so choose. Plop the donuts on some parchment paper so any excess glaze (or chocolate) drips off but your donut won’t stick to anything.

You can also melt your favorite chocolate and dip the donuts into that for hostess like chocolate covered donuts.

Notes: The recipe on Vegan Yum Yum says to use soymilk. I did not have any, so I decided to try rice milk. The donuts are a little softer and fluffier. Either one works well, you can play with it and see what your preference is.

Vegan Enchiladas Recipe

This is a super simplistic enchilada recipe that comes out so tasty! I have made enchiladas a few time with recipes off the internet and they are always overly complicated, a lot of pizzazz I don't need. This was birthed from a word of mouth recipe from a friend and I am surprised how amazing it is.

Vegan Enchilada Recipe

You Need:

1 can black beans

1 package frozen corn or 1 can of corn

Package of small flour or corn tortillas depending on your preference

Oil (I use olive oil, vegetable oil works as well)

1 can of enchilada sauce

Vegan Cheddar Cheese Grated (Daiya is always the preference, Follow Your Heart is my next choice)

Onion salt, garlic powder to taste (a teaspoon or two of each)

9x9 glass baking dish, you can use a larger one if you want to make more.

Green Onion otherwise known as leeks. Sliced into quarter inch parts.

Tofutti sour cream (optional!)

To Make:

1. Cook the black beans in a skillet/frying pan, season with the onion salt and garlic powder. Heat the corn. Mix the two together.

2. Pour oil into a small frying pan, half an inch is the most you will need. Heat until simmering when something is placed in it.

3. Dip each side of a tortilla into the oil, then fill the tortilla with a spoonful of the corn/bean mixture and sprinkle cheese on. Roll the tortilla up and place into you dish.

4. Repeat oil, spoon, cheese, roll until your dish is full.

5. Pour enchilada sauce over everything using the whole can. Sprinkle cheese over all of it. Finally sprinkle the onions overtop, you don’t need to go overboard.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or it’s simmering and the cheese is melted.

7. Enjoy! You can top with tofutti sour cream for a little something extra

Vegan Lentil Soup Recipe

Sometimes I want a recipe that isn’t super simple, but also is not really complicated. It turns into a hunt to find what I want though. Lentil soup tonight was like that. It was either recipes with the bare minimum, or so complicated it seemed unnecessary. I melded two different recipes to reach this in between, it is super simple to make and even tastier then I could have imagined.

You need:

1 Tsp oil (veggie or olive)

1 Onion, diced

1 Carrot, sliced

4 Cups Vegetable Broth, or 2 vegetable bullion cubes and 4 cups water

1 Cup dry lentils

1 Tsp Cumin

1 Tsp Turmeric

1 Tsp Salt

¼ Tsp Pepper

In large pot, sauté the onion and carrot in oil till the onion turns clear.

Add vegetable broth/water, lentils, cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Enjoy!

The spices can be to taste and you can add any vegetables you want as well such as potatoes or mushrooms. Bread for dipping is crucial as well. 

Vegan Pancakes Recipe

I stalled in bed as long as possible this morning enjoying the opportunity to be completely lazy. Finally having to get up because of sharp pangs of hunger, I made pancakes. It is a beautiful spring day, so I got a little fancy and made them blue with food coloring.

A friend of mine always makes pancakes without measuring, he just throws everything into a bowl and somehow makes perfect pancakes everytime. I am not that good, so this recipe came from me demanding we measure everything out. It is really simple, but is a great base to add things to. My personal favorite is adding chocolate chips, but banana, berries or pretty much whatever you can imagine taste great as well.

Vegan Pancakes Recipe
You Need:
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup soymilk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix all ingredients together, just enough to blend, you don’t want to over mix pancakes. I have been told it is good to let batter sit in the fridge for about an hour, but I am never patient enough to do so. Butter your pan. I heat up the pan, dripping a little batter to check when it in ready. When it is hot enough, pour your pancakes! I cannot flip large pancakes, so I always spoon out silver dollar sized pancakes. They won’t take long to brown since they are small, flip when ready. Easy! This recipe makes enough for about 2 people. I always just half it when I am making it for just myself.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was a lazy day. Went to work, came home and slept. My wonderful acid reflux was acting up and I did what I normally do when I feel sick, attempted to sleep it off. It is a hit or miss method, and today it worked! I woke up craving chocolate chip cookies for some reason. I honestly don't know where I got this recipe from. I printed it out a few years ago, probably from either a website or an email. The recipe is great! Whenever I make chocolate chip cookies I always think back to the cookies in elementary school. They were half baked, white cookies that were perfection. Wednesdays were 50 cent cookie day, by far the most exciting day of the week. I'll never be able to put my finger on what made those cookies so good (probably the sweat of lunch ladies), but these come close. I don't bake them fully. You'll notice in the photo they rise, but then fall because they are not fully baked. It gives them that gooey, soft  consistency we all love so much. I take them out while they are still white, but starting to brown at the edges.

You need:
2 and 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Egg replacer for 2 eggs (I use ENER-G egg replacer, but really any works)
Semi-sweet chocolate chips to taste (i use about half a bag, depends what you like)

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat together margarine, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.
3. Add egg replacer one "egg" at a time (this is important! make sure to mix the egg replacer and water together as well before adding it in.)
4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. I do it in thirds.
5. Stir in chips.
6. Drop balls of dough onto a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees.
7. Enjoy!

Black Salt On Everything!

Tonight I unexpectedly went to hear a photographer talk after class. I was super pumped to hear him speak, he is an Argentinean whose brother was disappeared. His focus has been on using photography to represent memory, specifically to recount the dirty war. Totally up my alley. He ended up being completely crazy and impossible to follow. A total bust. Not having planned to attend this gathering, I had not eaten lunch. By the time he started answering questions with long drawn out tangents that never reached a real point, my stomach was coming up my throat demanding food. So I ran over to the grocery store before going home and purchased the makings for vegan alfredo. This is a recipe I have been trying to perfect for a while, constantly merging different recipes people advise me to try to create a super hybrid vegan alfredo. I'm able to make a good, light white sauce but not that alfredo taste. Tonight was by far the closest I have come thanks to my new friend black salt. The recipe is still being worked on but tonight I included tofu, soy milk, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, margarine, garlic, black salt and toasted pine nuts. Minus the black salt, this is basically a hybrid of two recipes I have separately been playing with in vain attempts to reach perfection.

Dinner:

Vegan "egg" mcmuffin

This is my new obsession! I made these on a whim and oh man they are tastey! I also took a suggestion from the internet and purchased black salt from an indian market. Black salt? Black salt is an Indian spice that smells and, most importantly, tastes like egg. I put a little of that in this recipe and it blew me away.

You need:
1 block of tofu
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Spices to taste (I use black salt, turmeric to make it yellow like egg, onion powder and garlic powder)
Vegan Cheese (daiya rules all)
Vegan English Muffins
Vegan Butter

Mix the apple cider vinegar, olive oil and spices in a rimmed cookie pan. Drain the tofu and cut it into slices (either 6 or 8 depending on how thick you want it). Put tofu slices into your mixture, making sure to coat both sides. Back at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, flipping the slices at 10 minutes. Toast and butter both sides of your english muffin. Melt the cheese on your tofu patty, put together the sandwich and enjoy!

Black Salt
I put avocado on mine, but you could also put fake bacon on there. No matter what it will taste awesome!