Christmas Goodies: Rum Balls ;)

Another Christmas get-together and another excuse to make something totally vegan but so wicked-rich and yummy.

These are not healthy by any means, but since when have Christmas parties been "healthy"? (Yeah, I know, a nice thought...).

Not a recipe I share with The Sprouts either, since it does contain a bit of rum.... such a party-pooper I am.

Cocoa Rum Balls

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup confectioners' sugar (Florida Crystals makes organic, non-bone-char powdered sugar, as do a couple other companies)

3 cups vanilla wafers (or any vegan crisp-biscuit-type cookie), crushed or ground in food processor

4 tablespoons dark corn syrup (or maple syrup or agave nectar, which will give it a milder flavor)

1/2 cup dark rum - I use Capt'n Morgan's (more or less, depending on personal tastes - bwa-ha-ha-ha)

extra cocoa, powdered sugar or ground chocolate, to roll the rum balls in

In a large bowl, sift together the cocoa and confectioners' sugar. In a food processor or blender crush/crumble the vanilla wafers or cookies. Add the crushed cookies to the sugar mixture and combine. Add the remaining ingredients. Form the mixture into 1 inch balls with your hands.

The balls should hold together easily and retain their shape.

If the mixture is too dry to hold together or too wet to form balls, you can easily adjust the consistency by adding rum/sugar accordingly.

Sprinkle the powdered sugar, extra cocoa or ground chocolate on a plate and roll the balls in to coat. Store in a sealed container. Best if allowed to "age" for a week or so, if you can stand it.

Tofu Thoughts

FRESH TOFU

Woo-hoo! Jackpot!

Went to my favorite Asian grocer tonight, and they had just filled the bulk buckets in the cooler with fresh tofu.
Their fresh (not the stuff in the little plastic box) tofu sells out within a couple HOURS, so I rarely manage to get my hands on any. You just grab a chunk out of the water with the tongs, put it in a plastic bag. Tonight I stocked up - it keeps for quite a while if I put it in a Tupperware and change the water daily - and it freezes great!

If you've never had fresh (I mean REALLY amazingly fresh) tofu from a bulk bin or tub, I suggest you try it - it's SOOOOO good! Trina, my Vietnamese friend, told me about this particular market - said they're known for having the best tofu in town. I have to agree, and now I'm spoiled - this is the only way I'll buy the stuff.

OK, so what to do with it?















Not that I have ANY trouble findng a use for tofu, but Littlest Sprout wanted "Chicken Tofu Sticks" (with barbeque sauce of course!!) and since it's so quick and simple and we were running late - well, we basically made a meal of fried tofu and salad. Maybe not the most healthy supper on the planet, but I can think of worse.

I'm not really sure where this recipe came from or if it ever WAS a recipe, but I've been fiddling with it for years (like most of my recipes); since my oldest still likes real (*gasp*) chicken when out with her Dad once in a while, I've tried to season these sorta the way she likes. Go with less cayenne or lemon pepper if you prefer. Cold, the next day, these things are very scarily chicken-like...

"Fried Tofu Chik'n-Style"

6 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 Tbsp. Nutritional yeast
1/2 cup finely ground dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dry vegetarian "chik'n" bullion/broth powder
1/2 tsp. sage
1 tsp. garlic powder
Dash of cayenne pepper
lemon pepper to taste

1/2 cup soymilk
1/4 cup Vegenaise or other vegan mayo. of your choice
2 Tb. nutritional yeast
peanut oil for frying
1 pounds firm, fresh tofu, drained, blotted dry and cut into "sticks".

In a small bowl, whisk the Vegenaise, soymilk and 2 Tb. nutritional yeast; in a separate dish, toss the cornstarch, breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast with the salt and spices.

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a cast-iron or non-stick pan. (I know, I know!!)

Dip each tofu stick in the soymilk mixture to coat, then roll in the breadcrumb mixture, pressing the mixture on. Carefully lower into the hot oil and cook for 2 minutes. Turn with tongs and continue cooking until they are golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Winter Kale!

Wow! After several days of freezing temps and unexpected snowfall last week, I haven't ventured into the garden until today. I was thinking there wouldn't be anything much to look at but I was surprised (and pleased) to find that I still had a bit of Russian kale and tons of Lacinato (also known as: cavolo nero, Tuscan, blue, black or dinosaur) kale growing!

I absolutely LOVE kale,it's so beautiful! The dinosaur kale and Russian are probably my favorite greens.

So, I picked a couple heaping handfulls and made it into a really wonderful soup. I love this stuff on cold winter days. It's so easy, it always turns out great and though I admit my kids aren't totally thrilled with it yet (it's growing on them though) my non-vegan friends LOVE the stuff!

Kale and Sausage Soup

6 ounces Tofurky kielbasa (or Soyrizo works well too) , sliced,
1 large onion, chopped,
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pound fresh kale, washed,
26 ounces vegetable or "chicken" broth
4 cups water
2 carrots, sliced
1 teaspoon dried leaf marjoram, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice

Saute Tofurky, onion and garlic in oil in large pot over medium-low heat until tender, about 10 minutes.
Cut off stems of kale and slice into 1/2-inch pieces. Keep stem pieces separate. Coarsely chop fresh leaves.
Add the broth, water, carrot, marjoram, salt, pepper and kale stems.

Bring to boiling. Lower heat; cover and cook for 15 minutes longer. Add the leaves at this point along with the rice to the pot. Bring to boiling. Lower the heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender.

(I usually add a good shot of Tabasco at this point too).

Soooooooo yummy! Ahhhhhh... I wonder if I have leftovers...

Kid-Friendly Mini-Pizzas

A windy day in March, (see all the downed tree branches in \/ picture below). My oldest is babysitting two little guys here at the house. I'm not sure how much work it is for her, since they happen to be good friends with my Little Sprout and they've been outside all morning....

I told her she had to come up with lunch that all the little munchkins would eat (and like) and she rummaged around my almost empty cupboards and put together these cute mini-pizzas; They have whole wheat English Muffins, spaghetti sauce, Tofutti "mozerella" slices, olives, canned mushrooms (blechh - I had no idea I had a can of those, they look like snails to me! Oh well, the kiddos seemsed to like them!) some mock-chicken stuff and red peppers. All those veggies and weird things and the little guys ate 'em just fine!

I was surprised the 'Tofutti' soy cheese (sorta) melted in the oven - even if it did take a while!!

Not sure I need an exact recipe, but thought I'd post anyway since I was proud of her creativity, and the kids are so dang cute!

St. Patrick's Day Bake Sale Cupcakes

Vegan Bake Sale Insanity

Naturally the girls' school just HAS to have a bake sale on St. Patrick's Day (I wonder why we can't salute the patron saint of Ireland with something more appropriate like snake cookies or something) and as is typical, I don't find out about it until 7:PM the night before, which leaves us scrambling to make some thing "eye-catching and appealing to grade-schoolers"...ugh...

Don't laugh!

I really wasn't looking forward to a vegan baking challange at 7 in the evening, but what to do...

Could we do this and maintain the vegan-ness of our kitchen? We wondered (well, OK, I wondered...) if it wouldn't just be easier to go buy some boxed mixes but after taking stock of what cake recipes I actually had, and what ingredients were in the cupboards, we came up with some pretty-good, but disgusting green, sugar-overloaded little bake-sale worthy goodies...

I'm really proud of all the effort my middle Sprout put into helping bake these...

Instead of cupcakes (how traditional!) we made mini-Bundt cakes (about the size of cupcakes) in a White Cake (with some confetti sprinkles added for an obnoxious colorful touch) drizzled with green icing, AND some Chocolate Decadance mini-cakes with chocolate glaze and (of all things!!) green sugar sprinkles!! ALL of it vegan. (OK, well, I can't vouch for the sprinkles 100% because though I usually buy animal-free ones now, we used whatever we had in the house last night!).

This is not one of my shining moments as a Vegan (or healthy) cook, but my kids were absolutely thrilled with the results - as were all the sugar-grubbing little gradeschoolers who bought out the Bake-Sale's mini-cakes within 15 minutes!! And no one complained that they were "VEE-GUN"!

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The first recipe is a simple and basic white cake mix that I veganized without really realizing it, some time back... we added some multi-colored candy sprinkles to the batter. (Looks like that "Funfetti Cake" crap you can buy in a mix, only ours was better). It uses Egg Replacer, which you can find at Whole Foods and most health food stores, however, I have made it without the egg replacer and it came out fine - a bit more moist and dense, but still good.

White CupCakes

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine
3 cups unbleached flour
1 T. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1 Tb. EnerGee Egg Replacer powder
2 cups soy milk, rice milk, or other non-dairy milk of choice
1 T. vanilla
1 t. almond extract
1/4 cup confetti cake decorating sprinkles
Lightly oil a 9x13-inch pan and set aside. (Or in this case, we used Mini-Bundt pans.

Using an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand held mixer, place the sugar and mqargerine, and cream together until light and fluffy. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, Energee Egg replacer and salt.
Add dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, alternating with the soy milk, and continuing to beat the mixture well between each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat the mixture an additional 2 minutes at medium speed. Gently stir in the confettis.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, cupcake pans or mini-Bundt pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 iminutes (Less for the cupcakes or Mini-bundts...) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Glaze or frost as desired.
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The second recipe (for the chocolate cupcakes) is much healthier and probably a little more labor-intensive, but my 12-year-old managed to make these just fine with no help from me...

We chose to use it because we happened to have the ingredients available. (I was SO not in the mood to go to the grocer at 7:PM!!). Ironically, I got this recipe from a "Healthy Cooking" class that I attended years ago. I've since modified the recipe quite a bit to suit my preferences.

This makes a really dense, rich, moist chocolate cake/cupcake. Just the way chocolate should be...

I included a chocolate icing recipe here, though for this particular event, we used store bought frosting that we had on hand. (Read your labels, but most store-bought frostings are "accidently" vegan, though they will be loaded with all sorts of gacky hydrogenated oils and such).

Almost-Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder (or you can use carob powder if you're in to that sort of thing, which I am not!)

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate soymilk
3/4 cup sugar (the recipe calls for honey, or pure maple syrup)
1/2 cup hot, well-cooked long-grain brown or white rice
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Oil two 8" round cake pans or 12 cupcake tins; set aside.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl; set aside.
Combine wet ingredients in a blender container, and blend until very smooth.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes for cakes, 15 to 20 minutes for cupcakes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake or cupcake emerges clean. Cool slightly before turning onto a wire rack.

Glaze with Chocolate Glaze.

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Glaze/Icing
1 cup sugar
6 T corn starch
4 T cocoa
1/2 t salt
2 T oil
1 cup water
1/2 t vanilla
Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa in a medium sauce pan. Whisk in the water. Heat over medium until it gets thick and starts to boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes (make sure you don't boil too long, or it will set like toffee). Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla. Cool and spread on cooled cake. If you prefer a thinner glaze, add more water.