Vegan Mofo#14/ Gingerbread Biscotti & Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Another warm day out here in California.  Beautiful! 

Just the other night I made a couple of Biscotti recipes.  I love Biscotti, always have, always will.  I love the  slightly sweet taste and the big crunch.  I'm not much into dunking my biscotti but my Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti does very well in the dunking area.

Gingerbread Biscotti



So this gingerbread biscotti recipe is taken from the biscotti recipe in Veganomicon.  I did make some changes due to I wanted less fat and less sugar.  A true biscotti isn't very sweet like a chocolate chip cookie for instance.  I usually cut down on the sugar in recipes because it seems like they are always just too sweet.
The following are the changes I made to the recipe and it still came out crispy crunchy!
1/2 C. sugar(instead of 3/4 C.)
1/3 C. oil (instead of 1/2 C.)
1/4 tsp salt(instead of 1/2tsp)
added 2 T. molasses
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
The only thing missing was vegan white chocolate drizzled on top.  I have to order vegan white chocolate and I keep forgetting to.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

This combo is so delicious and the looks remind me of Christmas in a cookie.  I didn't have the time but I wanted to dunk half into dark chocolate, but you could add chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate into the mix if you wish.  These are definitely ones to dunk into coffee or tea.  They are more crunchy and drier which I like.  I so loved how these turned out.  Keaton doesn't like biscotti so I didn't try to make them gluten free but I would still like to try it out.  So if you come up with a great GF biscotti let me know.  Jessy?

A while back I checked out the Millenium Cookbook and got a great biscotti recipe that didn't have any oil in the recipe but I can't seem to find the recipe soooooo. I went to Fat Free Kitchen blog and found her gingerbread biscotti recipe and just added changes to it.

 Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

2 cups white organic flour(note below) 
1/2 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer
4 T.water
4 T. Hemp Milk(divided)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 C. dried cranberries
1/2 C. pistachios


Preheat oven to 350F.
In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl whisk the Ener-G egg replacer with the water and 2 T. hempmilk until frothy and thick.  Next whisk in the sugar,vanilla and 2 T. of Hempmilk until well combined.  Stir in the dry ingredients to the wet.  Once well combined add the cranberries and pistachios.  If dough is a bit dry add in more hemp or water a tablespoon at a time.  Form into ball.  Take the dough out and put on a prepared cookie sheet(sprayed with an oil) and form into a long loaf about 11 inch long, 3-4 inches wide and 1-inch high.  Bake for about 30-35 min. just until the loaf is slightly a very very light brown starting.

Remove baking sheet when finished baking, let cool for 20min. and lower oven temp to 300F.

Once the loaf is cool, take off cookie sheet onto cutting board and cut in about 1/2 inch diagonal slices.  Place the slices back on cookie sheet cut side down and bake for 10min.  Then turn cookies over and bake for 10 more minutes.

Note-I think spelt flour may give this cookie a slightly lighter texture.

Mofo#13/ Roasted Butternut on Mixed Green Salad

I hope everyone is enjoying their day.  We've been enjoying our warmer day although we have to bundle up at night.

Yesterday evening I was alone for dinner so I roasted up the rest of a butternut squash I had with a bit of fresh sage, olive and sea salt.  I already had a salad made so I just made some good balsamic dressing to go with it. The dressing I found is here.  The only changes I made to it was that I added a few tablespoons of water and used organic cane sugar instead of brown.  This is a really great balsamic dressing. In a pasta bowl I put some lettuce, butternut squash, dried cranberries and pecans.  Then I drizzled the balsamic dressing and fresh ground pepper.  I Sat down with a nice glass of red wine and scrolled through the old movie section of Netflix and found, to my pleasant surprise, Summertime starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi.  What a great way to eat dinner and enjoy a classic movie before the hubby got home.

Tomorrow I'll be back with 2 different biscotti recipes.

Vegan MoFo #12/ GF- Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Friday!  Another beautiful California day but boy was it chilly this morning.  Last night was the coldest so far...brrrrrr. 

These cookies do contain oatmeal so if you are one who has Celiacs, you will need to buy GF certified oats. For you readers who don't know much about Celiacs disease, if you are truly gluten intolerent you can not have any food that touches gluten or processed from a facility that may also process wheat products.  My son doesn't have celiacs but he is sensitive to too much wheat so he does okay with organic oats.  Keaton says that these are his favorite GF cookies so far.  So coming from a kid that's pretty good.  Also for you out there I won't always list my ingredients as organic but most of them are.  The chocolate chips I use are Guittard, they are also Gluten Free and the dark or semi-sweet chocolate doesn't contain milk.  Personally, I feel these chocolate chips totally out do Ghiradelli in taste, they have this wonderful underlying caramel taste to them. Yum!

GF-Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oats
Recipe

Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl cream together:
1/2 C. brown sugar
3 T. apple sauce
1/3 C. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

In another bowl combine:
1/2 C. sorghum flour
1/2 C. rice flour
1/2 C. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder(Rumford brand  aluminum-free)
1/4 tsp. salt

When sugar mixture is completely creamed together add in the dry ingredients.  Next stir in 3/4 C. oats and 1/2 C. chocolate chips.

Use a tablespoon to drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet.  Bake in oven for about 12min.

Enjoy your friday night.  Keep warm.

Vegan MoFo Day 11/ Cheesy Sauce quick post

 Whew this week has just been flying by!  I don't have any recipes for you today this is just a quick post. 

Keaton went back to school today.  He still can't hear out of both ears but he made it through.

Carrots, celery, golden beet, apples, cucumber juice

For dinner I made something really quick.  Didn't feel like cooking.

I made a cheezy sauce (the nacho recipe subbed roasted bell pepper for the pimentos).

I poured the sauce over an organic russet potato and organic broccoli.

The cool thing about this sauce is that the only fat comes from the cashews(high in magnesium), nutritional yeast( is a complete protein and full of b-vitamins).  So you can have what may look like a non-nutritional, fat laden, artery clogging sauce... but it isn't!  Yum!

Back tomorrow with a GF-chocolate chip cookie

MoFo #10/ A different Tahini recipe w/chickpeas, veggies and brown rice

Did you think I had forgotton about todays post?  It's almost 5 and I just got back from a day of errands and after this it's off to the Farmers Market.

One of the first vegan meals that I had in my rotation was this.  I usually use shitake mushrooms in it but I didn't have any on hand.

I'm not going to give out exact measurements but I will tell you what I used in the recipe.  You can also use what veggie you have on hand.  Shitake just goes so well with this dish and I usually don't use carrot either.  First I cooked up a pot of brown rice.  As the rice is cooking you saute up some yellow onion and 2 minced garlic cloves,until soft.  Then add in veggies of choice. I had broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and italian red pepper. Saute just until slightly tender and then add about 2 C. chickpeas.  The sauce mixture I just add right into the pan-1/3 C. Tahini, 3 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari, 1 1/2 C. no-chicken broth or veggie broth and mix in well and let reduce slightly.  Add firm tofu chunks if you with.  I did.  Add more tamari if you wish as well.  Serve over brown rice.

Okay I got to go.  Have a great night.

Vegan MoFo#9/ Light Gumbo with Seitan Sausages

Happy Tuesday!  Today is going to be a quick post.  I have to clean up around here and I'm going to watch a movie with Keaton.  Yes he's home from school again. I went to go get his ears checked out and come to find out not only does he have fluid in the ears but he has strep!  He came home from school yesterday with a sunburn type rash and his hands/feet were sore.  The doctor said his throat looked red but that was it.  According to his other symptoms...strep. 
Food?

Yesterday's lunch.

Ezekiel English Muffin w/mashed white beans, avocado and tomato





 



Light Gumbo with Seitan Sausage

To get my recipe for my gumbo click here.  In making this gumbo lower in fat it also was a bit more runny than thick. I just used 2T. Olive oil and 3T. flour for the roux.  I only used 4 Cups of water and 1/2 a cup of pale ale(not dark) and 2 fresh tomatoes chopped.  I sauteed seitan sausage, chopped them and browned them in the skillet using olive oil spray.  The seitan sausage recipe was based on the steamed white seitan from Viva Vegan.  I just adjusted the spices accordingly and made 6 small loaves.

 

Enjoy your evening!





Vegan MoFo #8/ Lemon Tahini Sauce over GF noodles

Happy Monday to you!

It's on to the second week of Vegan MoFo!  There are so many delicious recipes to try.  I'm trying to check out new blogs everyday and support my usual blogs at the same time.

FYI.  If you haven't seen the film FOODMATTERS you really need to.  It's also a really good one to share with your non-vegan family members.   

Lemon Tahini Noodles



Tahini sauce makes for a nice change instead of using a peanut sauce over noodles.  The noodles I used were rice noodles from TJ's.

Lemon Tahini Noodles

1pd. rice or udon noodles

Prepare noodles according to package.  While water is boiling prepare sauce.

In a blender add the following ingredients and blend until smooth.

1/2 C. Raw Tahini

1 garlic clove
2 T. fresh ginger, chopped

3 T. maple syrup or agave

3 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari

2 T. Brown Rice Vinegar

2 T. sesame oil

3 T. fresh lemon juice or more to your liking

2 T. cilantro

2 scallions, chopped

Splash of sriracha or more if you like to add some heat

1/2 -3/4 cup of water to thin out.

Vegetables:

olive oil

1 garlic clove

1tsp. ginger

vegetables of your choice.

 Gently saute vegetables in a large pan with garlic and ginger.  Once vegetables are slightly cooked add the noodles and the sauce.  Stir together well.  You can then serve into dish and top with sesame seeds.