Granola Round-Up the 2nd

Time for another recipe round-up of granola recipes from across a number of cookbooks! I really got into granola-making during my isolation (and the way Brisbane is going at the moment, I am preparing to go into isolation again if/when needed... seriously, you have to read about it to believe it), and I have continued making a new batch of granola every couple of weeks. Even during winter, it is quick and easy and I like it. Especially since I have found some decent vegan yoghurts I can enjoy with it. So, let's get crunchy. (Oh, an enjoy almost every photo looking the same, because I apparently really like to eat my granola out of the same bowl.)

Coconut, Date and Almond Granola from Keep it Vegan by Aine Carlin: This said a full recipe made 8-10 servings, so I made a half recipe, which was three servings. This has a lovely mix of almonds (it calls for a mix of whole and flaked, I just used all slivered), pumpkin seeds, desiccated coconut, and dates. While I halved the recipe, I still used the whole amount of cinnamon because cinnamon is the best. This was a nice granola, I was worried the dates might make it too sweet, but they were well spaced out with the crunchy oats.
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter and Jam Granola from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: I made a half recipe of this, which ended up being two servings a little over 1/2 cup each. I question the recipe that says a full batch would make 4 cups, the ingredients certainly don't add up to that. This is a mix of creamy peanut butter and the jap of your choice, I chose strawberry because it is the best jam. I found this granola to be a lot softer than other ones, it didn't go crunchy, and it also says it needs to be kept in the fridge.
Rating: :)



'Fig' and Grapefruit Granola from The New Vegan by Aine Carlin: I really don't like figs. The fresh ones give me terrible ulcers, and I am just not that fond of the dry ones for the most part. So I used dates instead in this recipe. I also used a ruby grapefruit as that is what was at the shops (also, pretty!). Oats are toasted with ground ginger and lemon zest for a lovely warming flavour. The granola is crunchy with nuts and seeds - I didn't have enough hazelnuts so I used a mix of them and almonds, but it also had pistachio, pepitas, and sunflower seeds in it. I made a full recipe, and got three serves. It says it serves 8-10, so I guess if you are just having a spoonful as a serve? Instead of adding the dates to the oven like the figs were meant to be, I just added them at the end oonce it had cooled.
Rating: :)



Apple Cranberry Granola from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: A great mix of dried apples, cranberries, almonds, maple syrup, and almond butter. My almond butter was not pourable, so I heated it gently on the stove with the syrup so I can mix it through. The big issue I had was that the oats and nut part of the granola needed more time in the oven to go golden. However as this recipe has you mix the fruit in from the start, it started to burn a bit! You can see the dried apple is pretty dark, though it ended up having a nice caramlised flavour. But maybe add the fruit in either at the end or in the last half of baking.
Rating: :)



Baconish Granola from Baconish by Leinana Two Moons: The bacony part of this granola comes from some coconut bacon. Added to a mix of oats, almonds, and dried cranberries. The recipe calls for coconut oil, but I used canola. I made a half recipe and got three serves. I liked that this had a nice, subtle smoky flavour that went really well with the maple syrup flavour and the cranberries.
Rating: :)



Cacao Nib Granola Clusters from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: These are halfway to a bliss ball, but instead are baked. They are a mix of fruit and nuts. The recipe called for figs, but I declined to use them. I used a mix of dates, dried cherries, prunes, raisins, and dried appricots. I accidentally pressed a bit too hard when I was putting the blended mix onto the baking sheet, so it ended up baking pretty solid rather than in clusters. I had to break/chop them up a bit. These were nice, but boy were they super sweet. I served them over a pretty tart natural soy yoghurt, with some fresh fruit as well, but small doses only. They do make a good snack though!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Results are back and the good news is that everything is stable! Her kidney disease hasn't advanced, and her thyroid is being controlled with her current medications. So we just continue on as is. Hurrah!

Recipe Round-Up: The New Vegan (breakfast edition)

The New Vegan is the second cookbook by Aine Carlin. While it does have a second in the front targeted to give information to new vegans, it is not your typical basic vegan cookbook. It is full of beautiful recipes of all sorts, as well as some great skin care recipes. This post is full of some of the breakfasts found in there, which includes smoothies, juices, and oats. There are a lot of other sorts of breakfasts in there as well, these are just the ones I have made so far. You can also see some of the other things I've blogged from this book here.

Beetroot and Banana Smoothie: This is so pretty and pink, though tastes more like a sweet milkshake than a smoothie. Banana, cooked beetroot (the vacuum packed kind you get at the supermarket), dates, Maca, and oatmilk. Cashew milk is the recommended, but I always have oat on hand. It is not the most filling starts to the day, I think of this more like a fun snack.
Rating: :)



Bugs Bunny Juice: The book has a couple of blender juice recipes. This is a take on one of my favourites - carrot, apple, and ginger. I only used one and a half cups of water, rather than two, and even though there was a lot of pulp and it was quite thick to drain it still was a bit dilute tasting. But I guess that is the side effect of blending with water!
Rating: :)



Virgin Bloody Mary Juice: I skipped the chili in this, but would have liked to up the tomato. Once again, a but watery tasting. It needed a much strong tomato component. Alternatively, maybe use tomato juice instead of water (leaving out the cherry tomato), and blend the rest into that? This only used 200mL of water, and didn't have much pulp.
Rating: :|



Coconut, Mango, and Spinach Smoothie Bowl: I made some changes to this, leaving out the coconut oil (eww), using soy yoghurt instead of coconut yoghurt, and leaving out the spirulina or hemp powder. Instead I used LSA mix, and I added a touch of coconut essence to give the coconut flavour. This is green thanks to spinach, and creamy thanks to mango and avocado. I only used half the amount of dates called for, as I don't like things super sweet. This was really thick, thicker than a smoothie, so was a good base to put the toppings on.
Rating: :)



Carrot Cake Oatmeal: Aine uses 25g of oats for a single serve, but that is not a Susan sized single serve. I tripled the amount of oats. This has a blend of grated carrot, spices, orange juice, oat milk, walnuts, and raisins. I found the orange flavour a bit overpowering, so would use a lot less next time. This made one big hearty serve.
Rating: :)



Nutty Chocolate Bowl: This overnight oats bowl looked quite rich, so I doubled rather than tripled the recipe. They only thing I kept the same was the maple syrup, so as not to make it too sweet. I used peanut butter to make a chocolate peanut butter bowl, which was lovely topped with a sliced pear and some chopped hazelnuts. It was very satisfying.
Rating: :)



Nutty Chocolate Banana Bowl: This is similar to the above recipe, but with mashed banana in the mix. I did use the full amount of maple syrup for this, and it was a bit sweet. Great topped with fresh strawberries and almonds.
Rating: :)



Tropical Oats: I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. Oats are soaked overnight, then mixed with a pineapple, lime, and agave puree. For once in my life, I would have liked a bit more sweetener with it, and maybe a bit of coconut extract as well. The recipe calls for mango, coconut, and kiwi fruit for toppings, but I used blueberries instead of the kiwi. I doubled this recipe to get enough.
Rating: :|



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This was Dim Sim's face after I took the unicorn hoodie off her (see the previous few posts for photos of that if you missed it). Not impressed!

VeganMoFo 2017 #9: Everyday We're Waffling

9th: Go go gadget – A kitchen gadget you couldn’t live without, be it a simple grater or a blender. Alternatively, use a gadget you very rarely use.

I have decided to focus on a rarely used gadget. I love kitchen appliances. They are like Pokemon to me, I want to have them all! While some of them (like my blender, food process, rice cooker, and sandwich press) get regular workouts, there are some that are rarely touched. So I decided to have some fun! And what is more fun than waffles?

I actually have two waffle makers. The first one I bought many years ago was a Breville Waffles Creation maker. It was the only sort of waffle maker I could find at the time (except for Waddles, the penguin-shaped waffle maker). It made thin waffles that were like a flower made up of hearts.



Sure, they were OK. But they were thin, very hard to get crispy, and the shape was a little bit limiting.

Last year, when shopping for a new food processor, I happened across a beautiful Kambrook Belgian Dual Waffle Maker. It was on sale. It was love. The waffles I'd been dreaming of could be mine!

Oreo Wafflewiches from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes. The natural way to celebrate a new waffle maker is by making a ridiculous sweet waffle sandwich. The recipe says you should get 1 1/2 Belgian waffles or 2-3 standard waffles, but I got 6 of my big waffles from my waffle maker, so I am not sure how GIANT their waffle maker is? Those 6 waffles ended up making 3 giant wafflewiches. For maximum cookie crunch, I also gave the waffles a quick toast before spreading on the frosting. The frosting was very sweet, but tasted just like an oroa filling! You could easily cut these in half for a smaller wafflewich, they are pretty rich.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Teff Waffles from Naturally Lean by Allyson Kramer: Unfortunately, my next adventures in waffle making didn't turn out so well, but through not fault of my precious waffle maker. There is an error in the recipe, which calls for far too much liquid to be added. Unfortunately I didn't realise this until too late because I wasn't paying enough attention. I think the water should be halved. I am glad that I had scaled the recipe down, so that I didn't have too much of this watery mix to deal with (which ended up in watery tasting end product). The recipe says it makes 6 waffles with 1/4 cup scoops of batter, but the whole recipe would make way more than this, so clearly a mistake. You can see how sad the waffles look, after they mostly cooked int he waffle maker. I ended up trying to make pancakes out of the rest, but it wouldn't even really hold together for that. So, ever the optimist, I made scrambled pancakes with the rest of the mix, plopped it on top of the waffles I was able to make (so hard to get out of the maker because they never really set), topped them with peanut butter, two different types of ice cream, maple syrup, and blueberries, and called it a triumph. But without such heroic actions, these were a huge miss as written. I'll try again one day with less liquid.
Ratin: :(



Buckwheat Griddle-Pan Waffles from The New Vegan by Aine Carlin: Perfect breakfast waffles! This recipe was designed for those without a waffle maker, but I have one so I used that instead of a griddle pan. I halved the recipe, which made two cute little waffles. The batter is quite thick, so didn't spread out over my entire waffle pan in the quantities that I used, but that was fine because I got these nice little rustic circles! They are dense and not too sweet and are a great way to start the day. I served with maple syrup and blueberries.
Rating: :)



I had wanted to make one more waffle creation for this post, but I ran out of time. But I am definitely looking forward to making more waffles!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Month - Month of Sahara



Sahara was never a waffle, but she was frequently a perfect cinnamon scroll.

Animal Lib QLD Bake Sale at The Green Edge

A few weeks ago I organised a bake sale for Animal Lib Queensland. I've organised many many bake sales before, through my vegan bake sale group Eating For Animals. I have been trying to become more involved with ALQ in a way that suits my strengths, and when it comes down to it my strengths are baking and doing bake sales. This was by far the biggest and most successful bake sale I have organised to date though, the ALQ supporters were amazing in their turn out. The baking was mostly done by me and by Bec, who is the Campaign Director for ALQ, and by a few other members of ALQ as well. The sale was held at The Green Edge, Brisbane's vegan grocery store. They are wonderful at making space available for groups to hold bake sales for fundraising.

Here's a look at what I made!

Berry Patch Brownies from Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton: I have just realised that I have never posted about these on this blog... which is outrageous as this is the recipe I have made most from any of my cookbooks ever! These are in serious demand at bake sales (or for any other reason you can think), and always sell out fast. A dense and chocolately brownie base with a topping of raspberry jam, blueberries and chocolate chips. They are SO GOOD! I like to cut them into big triangles for bake sales, because you want your brownie to be super special!
Rating: :D :D :D (seriously... make them...)



Beetroot and Lemon Cupcakes from The New Vegan by Aine Carlin: These are beautiful, with a gently beet flavoured cupcake and a zesty lemon icing. I made a double batch of cupcakes, but just a single batch of icing, and the ratio was perfect for me. The batter was beautifully pink, but baked up dainty and pale. This is very different from the dark red cupcakes in the photo in the book, but Aine said that her vary in colour a lot between batches depending on the beetroot.
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur by Kelly Peloza: I have a serious stash of butterscotch chips from the US that I need to use up, and these cookies were perfect. They go nice and crunchy, and the combination of peanut butter and sweet butterscotch was great. I didn't have butterscotch extract, so I used maple instead (not the same I know, but kind of close), and I mixed in chopped peanuts and butterscotch chips as my add ins.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Ginger Gluten-Freedom Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero: This chocolate gluten freedom cupcake from this book is my standard go to gf cupcake base. For this time I followed the instructions for the Chocolate Ginger variation of the regular chocolate cupakes in the book, adding in ground ginger and chopped crystallised ginger. I topped with chocolate ganache and added a piece of ginger on top.
Rating: :)



Hidden Treasure Muffins from Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes: These are lemony muffins filled with jam (I chose strawberry) and topped with a strusel. I made a couple of subs, using brown sugar instead of sucanat and soy milk instead of refrigerated coconut milk. This has a lot of lemon in the batter - juice, zest and 20mL of lemon extract. I ran out of lemon extract at 15mL, and only had a little bit of zest, but they were still very lemony. These had a very thick batter.
Rating: :)



'Chloestess' Creme-Filled Cupcakes from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli: I won't lie, I was pretty excited to finally make these, and pretty happy with the final result. They look kind of pretty, even though I need to work on my piping. This recipe makes 14 cupcakes, however the creme frosting recipe makes about twice as much as I was able to use with filling and decorating the cupcakes. It seems to be her basic frosting recipe, however, so I have frozen the leftovers to use for another batch of different cupcakes for a later time. The ganache also makes a bit too much, but I was able to use leftovers for the chocolate ginger cupcakes above. I didn't have a Bismark tip for filling the cupcakes, but I used a teeny holed tip, and they filled very easily. I am pretty happy with these all round. :)
Rating: :)



Orange Double Chocolate Cookies from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: I had managed to acquire two tins of vegan condensed milk, which I am not a fan of, so I wanted to use it all up for this bake sale. I used one tin to make a half batch of these, which made 15 cookies using an Australian TBS as the scoop. The dough is very soft, so I chilled it a little bit before making it into cookies and baking. My orange ended up being mouldy, so I didn't have any orange zest to add, and the orange extract didn't really come through very strong. These were a soft and sweet cookie.
Rating: :)



Gluten-Free Spicy Brownie Cake from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: This is a very soft brownie cake based on rice flour that has a nice, subtle spiciness to it thanks to a host of different spices, including white pepper. I had to bake this an extra 15 minutes to get it to fully set all the way through.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Cranberry Almond Oops Cookies: Remember I said I made a half batch of those double chocolate cookies? That was all fine, until I accidentally added the full amount of flour and sugar to the rest of the half batch dry ingredients and had to start again. So the accidental mix I turned into these cookies with the suggestion of a friend as to potential ratios. I added too much oil, and had to blot the batter a lot, but they actually turned out OK. I added cranberries and almonds to them.



Coconut Ice: To use up my last tin of soy condensed milk, I used this recipe. I also added some strawberry extract to the pink layer, to make it a strawberry coconut ice. I am not a big coconut ice fan, but apparently it was well recieved!



I also made a batch of Soulhaus Cookies from Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats by Allyson Kramer, another thing I always bring to bake sales, which I have blogged about here, as well as some sausage rolls.

It was so busy, I didn't have a chance to take photos of everything else that people brought. But here is a photo of Bec's famous Cinnamon Snails, as well as the table itself.





Afterwards we stayed for lunch at The Green Edge. Bec had the Satay Burger and I had the Avocado, Tomato, Ham and Cheese Toasty, and we both had the gravy chips.





As I mentioned, it was a huge day. The bake sale was scheduled for four hours, but we had sold out of everything within two hours. I have never seen anything like it! All up, including sales and some generous donations, we made just over $1700, which is the most of any bake sale I have ever done. This money will be used to help ALQ's anti-greyhound racing and ditch dairy campaigns, as well as their other work.

I'll be doing another bake sale at the end of April with Eating For Animals for the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I was washing my sheets and had my doona folded up on the floor at the foot of the bed, and of course Sahara decided that this was the perfect spot for some serious slumber.