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: Vegan Yack Attack On The Go

Vegan Yack Attack On The Go is the second cookbook by Jackie Sobon. It's a fun book, with chapters designed to fit a busy lifestyle. Chapters include quick breakfasts and snacks, prep-ahead, lunch box stuffers, 30 minute meals, bulk cooking, food on the go, and staples. This is the first round-up I've done of this book, but I have posted about some recipes before. This round up includes mostly breakfast foods, from the breakfast and prep-ahead chapters.

Cheezy Chickpea Scramble: For a change of pace, this scramble uses chickpeas instead of tofu. They are sauteed with onion, nooch, greens (I used baby spinach rather than kale), mushrooms, and tomatoes. The recipe uses a smidge of black salt for that eggy flavour, and also uses aquafaba from the tin of chickpeas to help in the cooking process. I made a half recipe, and got one serve and one snack. I served it with tater tots and avocado.
Rating: :D



Recovery Smoothie: As someone who does bikram yoga, I always enjoy coconut water based smoothie recipes as a fun way to rehydrate after a sweaty class. While it says it serves two, it really serves one hungry and thirsty Susan. It has frozen bananas to make it thick, some dates to sweeten (I decreased the number bit because I find dates intensely sweet), some cinnamon, and some cocoa powder (I used cacao). Also just a smidge of salt, excellent for replacing electrolytes lost from sweating on a yoga mat.
Rating: :)



Fresh Fruit Yoghurt Sundae: While this is in the breakfast chapter, I had this as an after lunch snack. I scaled the recipe down to make one serve based on a 150g tub of natural almond yoghurt. The recipe calls for banana, strawberries, and grapes to top it with, though I went seasonally and had bananas, papaya, and blueberries. It is then topped with a quick chocolate ganache and some salted peanuts. The recipe also suggests maple syrup, but I skipped this.
Rating: :)



Green Peach Smoothie: This is a non-dairy milk based smoothie (I used oat), that packs the greens courtesy of spinach and zucchini. Frozen peaches give it a nice sweetness, and it also has some ginger and turmeric in it. The taste was okay, the zucchini was very mild, but it gave me raw zucchini tongue. This is why I don't eat zoodles. I know most people are thinking 'what is raw zucchini tongue?', but if you know, you know.
Rating: :|



Overnight Chia Seed Pudding: I only have chia seed pudding for breakfast if I know I am going to be eating a decent morning tea soon. I find that they don't fill me up very long, and then all of a sudden my blood sugar crashes out and I get hangry and shaky. I made a half recipe for my snack breakfast. I found my chia seeds had clumped up in there overnight, so be sure to give it a good stir. This recipe is fairly simple, with apples added and used as topping along with pumpkin seeds.
Rating: :)



Overnight Peach Pecan Oats: This is designed to eat out of jars if you are on the go, but I was not. I made a single recipe for a single serve (instead of two serves, you know I need a lot of oats to keep me full). I added the peaches and the pecans as topping in the morning, rather than the night before, as I was serving in a bowl and I wanted to keep the nuts crunchy and the peaches from going brown. I'd suggest decreasing the amount of milk called for a bit in this recipe, as I found it didn't have that nice thick texture I enjoy. You can see in the photo that there is a bit too much liquid.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



My baby girl.

VeganMoFo 2019 #15: M is for Mother's Day

As I've mentioned, I always make special dinners for my parents on special days. Sometimes, like with the post a shared a few days ago about my dad's birthday, it might all be a menu from the one book. Other times, like for Mother's Day this year, the recipes come from different books. Sometimes there are a lot of components, sometimes it is a couple of recipes. That's where this year's Mother's Day fell into. A delicious meal-sized salad, and a decadent dessert.

Banh Mi Panzanella Salad from Vegan Bowl Attack by Jackie Sobon: My mun loves big salads, and one of her favourites is a banh mi salad, so when I saw this I was super excited to make it for her. Rather than tofu, the salad is topped with oyster mushrooms that have been tossed in a coating and baked. The salad itself is full of greens (instead of kale and wombok, I used baby cos and baby spinach), herbs, and toasted cubes of bread. Topped with the mushrooms and some quick-pickled veggies (I made half a batch of these), then smothered in a hoisin-based dressing. So yum!
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter S'Mores Dip from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: Different books, but same author. This dessert is incredibly rich, so it was good to have a lighter main meal first! I scaled the recipe down to serve three, and baked it in a little square casserole rather than cast iron. Chocolate chips and peanut butter melt together, covered in marshmallows that go all toasty in the oven. I packed my marshmallows a bit too close, so they look a bit funny, but the taste is all that matters. Sprinkled with some crushed roasted peanuts, and then served with graham crackers for dipping. Except we don't have graham crackers here, so I served it with Digestive biscuits, which are my usual substitution.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sahara, sleeping in Gizmo's bed. She loved to steal it from Gizmo when she could. After Gizmo passed away, it became her bed. She would have the sweetest dreams in it.

Assorted Christmas Eats (with bonus I Made A Thing)

Believe it or not, my Christmas wasn't all eating out. And while we didn't do the traditional Christmas lunch this year, there were still a few things that I made.

Midsummer Salad from Bowls of Goodness by Nina Olsson: While all my US friends were deep in winter, here we are in summer. For my witchy pals, that means Yule in the Northern Hemisphere, but Litha down here in the Southern Hemisphere. This salad seemed appropriately named to make on the longest day of the year (or close enough, I think I worked all day on the actual day). Potatoes, lots of dill, spinach, cucumber, capers, chives, and some apple were all mixed in with a creamy mustard dressing. The apple was a wonderful addition, as its sweetness went great with the tangy dressing. The recipe calls for red onion, but as I don't do raw onion I added some celery for the crunch and it was great. This book is not all vegan, but has a vegan option for everything. The vegetarian version had eggs, which it says to leave out for vegans. I added some white beans to the mix as well instead. Served over some chopped baby cos.
Rating: :)



Party Nacho Platter from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: The last few years I have taken to making nachos for dinner on Christmas Eve. This year, that was delayed until Boxing Day as I was unwell on Christmas Eve and couldn't cook. But I had all the stuff, so I was glad I could still make it at some point! Corn chips are topped with a Buckwheat Taco Meat, queso (made using a Butternut Cheese Sauce base with some extras added in and some pinto beans, and I left out the jalapenos), tomatoes, avocado, coriander, and sour cream (I used natural almond yoghurt, which I forgot to put on until after the photos. I also left off the radishes and cos lettuce that the recipe suggested as they aren't my preferred nacho toppings. I also served them individually rather than on a big platter, so that my parents could top as they desired. I found the buckwheat taco meat a little underwhelming, I had to add extra water and cook for extra time to get it soft enough, so perhaps the flavours got too diluted. But it worked well witht he stronger flavours of the nachos.
Rating: :)



Banana Eggnog Pancakes from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I made these for breakfast on Boxing Day, as there was no morning yoga class and I had a bottle of delicious, locally made nutnog in the fridge. The stars aligned. These had a lovely, sweet, mild flavour and were a fabulous way to start the day. I used a 1/4 cup as my scoop (rather than 1/3 cup) and got 11 pancakes (rather than 8). Served with some dried cranberries and some maple syrup.
Rating: :)



Nutnog Overnight Oats: Bonus recipe from me! Not that overnight oats really count as making a recipe? Anyway, I thought it would be a fun way to use my nutnog. And it was. I consulted the internet oracles for some inspiration, as well as following my own heart. This is what I did.

Mix 1C of rolled oats, 1TBS of chia seeds, 1.5C of your vegan nut/eggnog, 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (you can add more or less, I probably added more because I am a cinnamon fiend). Leave overnight to soak and get delicious. In the morning, top with slivered almonds, pomegranate arils, and nutmeg. Eat! I don't add any additional sweetener, but you could mix in some maple syrup if you like things sweet.



And the other stuff...

Of course there were some delicious other eats as well. Such as this plate of cherries and vegan stollen (I love stollen, thanks Aldi!), with a glass of nutnog. And my first ever viewing of Die Hard.



A ham and cheese toasted croissant, using Tofurky Ham and Fenn Smoked Sesame Cheese. Other non-pictured things I made with the Tofurky included a ham and Daiya smoked gouda toasted sandwich, and also out traditional Christmas sandwich of ham, sweet mustard pickles, cheese (a Tofutti cheese slice), and a bit of Nuttelex.



And of course, some Christmas Pudding with Custard. I actually bought the pudding in January on a 50% off sale. It had a really long expiry date, so why not save some dollars and buy it super early. This pudding is delicious, especially with loads of custard.



There were of course other snacks and bits and pieces, but these were the most Christmas-related of them all. So, until next year... this year... whatever. Until next time it is Christmas.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Gizmo looking like the perfect present under the Christmas tree. This was also her last Christmas. What I wouldn't give to wake up one morning and find her under there again.

VeganMoFo 2018 #28: Pretty in Pink Picnic

28th: Prep Ahead Picnic – If you’re going for a picnic or a roadtrip, what do you pack? What do you make?

A few years ago for MoFo, I wrote about what I'd pack for a road trip, and that pretty much still stands. I remain a hoarder of all things snack related! So I thought I would do a little picnic post today.



I like pink, so I decided to a few pretty pink snacks and sandwich would make a nice little picnic lunch, along with my cute pink Kindle to read.

Berry Rhubarb Chia Jam from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: First up, I made some jam to go in my sandwich! This jam was super easy. Just simmer blueberries, strawberries, and rhubarb with some water and maple syrup, then add chia seeds and let cool and thicken in the fridge. I used slightly more rhubarb and not quite as many blueberries, just due to the weights of the fruit that I had. It is a really nice jam. If only has 1 TBS of maple syrup in it as a sweetener, so it is quite tart. I really liked that, I do not like very sweet jam. It had a lovely texture, and kept well in the fridge for several days.
Rating: :)



Grown-Up AB&J from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: I used the jam to make this sandwich, which got wrapped up in my little sandwich wrap. It is toasted bread with almond butter, sliced banana, jam, a drizzle of agave, and some cinnamon and cardamom. It definitely is the grown up version of the PB&J, being much less sweet. But it is a really nice combination, and is quite filling as well.
Rating: :)



And what of the other parts of my picnic? A cute pink drink and a lovely pink bar to go with it.



The drink is a little Oat Smoothie that I picked up from Ikea, with blackberry, bilberry, and acerola. It was quite tart, which was nice. The bar is from Keep It Cleaner. While I loathe the use of 'clean' in relation to any sort of food (unless you've dropped it in the dirt, no food is dirty), these bars Choc Cherry are actually delicious. They do have to live in the fridge, so not something to keep in your bag. But I always have a couple in my fridge now for a small snack.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This is an old photo from a non-digital camera that I have scanned, from back in my Sydney days (same as yesterday). It got cold in Sydney, and this particular house was big and hard to heat, so in winter I kept a sleeping bag on the sofa for snuggling. Of course, it was hot cat property. You can see how Sahara has snuck in and curled up tight behind Dim Sim... and how miffed Dim Sim is.