New Beginnings and Pitzza

So, Sarah has gone off to Nicaragua for a couple of months, and I have decided to take this blog into my own hands. Incidentally, I have also moved across the country for a new job. Thus, with no friends, I have a lot of time to try new recipes. 

My first adventure is a simple one: Pita Pizza (or Pitzza for the clever ones out there).

This dish is great for veggie lovers.  I will list the veggies I used (mostly just what was in my fridge), but feel free to load it up with whatever catches your attention.  This recipe is super flexible.  You can even add soy cheese if that suits your fancy! (or real cheese for you non-vegans).

Pitzza (serves 2)
2 whole wheat pitas
Your favorite tomato sauce
1 small zucchini
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 onion
1 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven (I used a toaster oven) to 400. Cut onion in half and then into into 4ths or 8ths depending on size.  Cut the remaining vegetables into slices or chunks no larger than 1/2 inch.  Toss all cut items in a large bowl with olive oil.  Bake for 10-20 minutes.  The zucchini will take much less time than the sweet potato and onion.  They do not really burn easily, but they do dry out. 

Once the sweet potato is soft and the onions have a slightly sweet smell (you should be able to eat one easily without cringing from terrible taste) put your pitas on a pan and cover with tomato sauce.  Put the vegetables on top and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 375. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes and Fried Bananas

Yet another back dated blog post. I really need to get more up to date on my and Hannah's food creations! This creation is accredited to Hannah. For quite some time this last fall i was feeling the need to eat something with pumpkin. Because as we all know, eating pumpkin is the only way we realize it is really fall. But being a regular lazy person, instead of getting a real pumpkin i opted out for the canned version. I was planning on being really creative and making Hannah something delicious for when she was to come over during the weekend, but weekend after weekend i would continue to be uninspired and so not make anything. One weekend I mentioned to Hannah that I had some pumpkin that needed to be used. I had to work an overnight shift that night and so I suggested to Hannah that she should make me something with it for when i got home in the morning. She took me up on the challenge and when i got home in the morning I had pumpkin pancakes waiting for me.

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 Cups Water
1/2 Cups Almond Milk
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Pumpkin (canned)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

In a bowl combine almond milk and apple cider vinegar, let sit for 5 minutes. this makes a buttermilk like substance. combine the rest of the ingredients together until no longer lumpy. Let rise for 5 minutes then stir again and let rise for 5 minutes one more time. Makes 20, 4 in pancakes.

Drawn and slightly altered from http://vegenista.com/post/1277880293/vegan-pumpkin-spice-pancakes

Hannah went the extra mile by adding this delicious topping.  She found a banana and fried it up with some maple syrup.  Perfect addition!

Fried Bananas
(Serves Two)
1 banana sliced
1 Tsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread
Maple Syrup

Melt butter in frying pan on stove top. Fry bananas on both sides, make sure not to fry to long otherwise they will become mushy. Add a healthy amount of maple syrup and heat until warm.

We love our Apples

At some point this last fall I was cleaning out my pantry and trying to use some ingredients I had had in my cupboard for some time. The ingredients I had left over were oats and almonds. I was having Hannah, her brother, and brother's girlfriend over and was told that i should make something yummy and Hannah friendly. What i came up with, after searching the internet for some time looking for inspiration was a apple, almond, and oatmeal cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vegan butter (you can also use 1/4 c butter with 1/4 c applesauce to make it a little more health conscious)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 egg equivalent (Ener-g is ideal, but flax works well too.  It just tastes more... earthy)
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup diced apple
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Beat in the "eggs" until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended. Fold in the walnuts, oats and apples. Drop dough by spoonfuls about 2 inches onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on wire racks.

Blueberry Crumble!

This post is a little late in coming. Only a couple of months... Who's really keeping track. The hold up can be blamed on not writing down the recipe I created while making the crumble. But after no further ado, my post!

While Hannah and I were on vacation this last July I made it a point that we went blueberry picking. As a kid my family and our friends would often go to this island in the middle of lake Pawtuckaway in NH. We called this island blueberry island. I kid you not, we could spend an hour on this island and we would have over two pounds of blueberries. The bushes are covered in blueberries and it must be a well kept secret because every time we went out there it always had blueberries.
I also have fond memories of my family on my grandfather's boat. I loved zooming around on the boat spending lazy afternoons with my family devouring my grandmother's blueberry cake. Now this cake was in no way vegan. It had mountains of butter and eggs, the trick to any good British snack. I loved this recipe soo much that I just had to share it with Hannah after we got back from out trip to blueberry island with out two pints of wild blueberries. Unfortunately I could not find my grandmother's recipe and had to improvise, but my improvisation turned into a crumble. Not quite my grandmother's cake, but good enough to make you want to come back for more.

Blueberry Crumble!


4 Cups of washed blueberries
1 Tbs Lemon juice
3/4 Cup Brown sugar
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
5 Tbs Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread
3/4 Cup Rolled Oats

Set oven to 375 degrees. In a greased 1 1/2 quart dish spread blueberries. Sprinkle lemon juice over blueberries in dish.
In a separate bowl combing the rest of the ingredients until crumbly. Evenly spread over blueberries in dish. Place dish in oven and bake for 30 minutes until crumble is golden brown and blueberries are bubbling.

Serve with your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream or just eat as is!

Apples Apples Everywhere!

Yesterday was Hannah's and my one year dating anniversary. Super exciting, and super crazy that it has already been a whole year since we officially became a couple. As Hannah has mentioned before, we feel like we know each other so well, but at the same time we still continue to surprise each other every day with new discoveries about each other.
For our one year anniversary we decided to go apple picking! We got some really good pictures and some really great apples! So many apples that we had to bunker down and cook as soon as we got home. We made two delicious dishes both so amazingly easy. Apple Sauce and Apple pie. And of course, like many of the dishes that have been on here lately, they are created by Hannah.

Apple Sauce

Four Apples, peeled and cut into quarters
1 Tbs of Brown sugar (can also use white sugar)
1 tps Cinnamon
1 cup water

Put all ingredients in a pot on the stove at medium high. Let boil so that the apples are soft. Turn down heat to medium an stir sauce and mash apples with spoon until at a desired consistency. If you want a finer consistency you can take mixture after cooked and mash with a potato masher or put through a food processor.
Super easy! And super tasty!



As for the apple pie, I will have to ask Hannah if I can post her pie crust recipe. According to her it is a family secret.

Quinoa Salad

Hannah has taken over on the experimental cooking front. I am now just around to document what she does, and of course enjoy the amazing food she is creating!
This last week Hannah spent all day cooking Friday for the weekend of our first year anniversary of dating! One thing she created was a quinoa salad that was just plain amazing, not to mention easy to make. So Here it is, Hannah's quinoa salad.

Quinoa Salad

1 medium onion
1 medium zucchini
1 can of garbanzo beans
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 stalks green onion
1 1/2 cup Quinoa
1 Tbs olive oil
a shake of dried basil
lemon juice to taste


Dice onion, garlic, green onion and Zucchini.
In a pot saute the onions in the olive oil, when the onion starts to give off the aroma of sauteed onion add the garlic and green onion, When the onion starts to clear add the zucchini.When zucchini is fully cooked add the rinsed garbanzo beans. In a separate pot cook quinoa in water 2 - 1 until water is fully absorbed. Add the cooked quinoa to the veggies. Add basil and lemon juice to taste. Also delicious with green olives and for non vegans would go well with feta cheese. Serve hot or cold. Enjoy!



Afterward:
When asking Hannah how she made this dish, the way she described her portions were as follows:
An onion
Garbanzo beans
Zucchini
Couple of pieces of garlic
Some green onion
Olive oil
Basil
A squirt of lemon juice 

It took some explanations and her to sit next to me making sure it was right to finally get this recipe to come out the way she cooked it. But here, it is in it's full glory, enjoy!

Odd and Easy part two

As you may recall a few months ago i posted an easy go to food for vegans, Asparagus Tofu. Well I come to you again with another easy vegan, go to food.
Rice and beans? Yes, that question mark is supposed to be there. This meal it just a little strange. Hannah came up with this one while she was moving from one place to another this summer, trying to use up some of the food on her shelves. What she had left was four items, rice pasta, pinto beans, ketchup and cumin. And so rice and beans? was born.
As a person who enjoys cooking or enjoys eating things that other people have cooked for you, you have run across the ratatouilles of the kitchen. This is one of them, a combination of items that are not normally found together finding harmony in a pot. I have to say, i was very suspicions of this when Hannah first brought it up to me. In fact I did not eat it until this last month when Hurricane Irene forced me out of my home and on the road with Hannah and having no other food to eat. I must say this combination of food really is a ratatouille. Delicious and filling.
So without further ado, Hannah's Rice and Beans?


Rice and Beans?
2 cups Tinkyada Rice pasta,
one can of pinto beans,
1 tbs cumin and
a couple squirts of ketchup (to your liking), sauteed onions are a valid addition to this dish.

Cook pasta as directed on packaging. Drain and rinse beans. Heat beans in a skillet on the stove. Drain pasta when finished cooking. Return drained pasta to original pan and combine all ingredients. Serve. Enjoy!