There were so many things that made this a great weekend – we joined a CSA and became members at our local co-op market, we found a great new childcare provider for our daughter who is so incredibly willing and excited to provide her vegetarian meals, and the weather FINALLY cooled down a bit and Sunday turned out to be just an absolutely beautiful day. Another great thing about this weekend was all the good food we ate! Here’s the lowdown:

SATURDAY
Blueberry Scones
adapted from the basic scone recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups graham flour
2 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 cup oil
2 T applesauce
3/4 cup soy milk with 2t apple cider vinegar mixed in
an additional 1/2 cup of soy milk
as many blueberries as you want (I used about 1 cup of fresh blueberries)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the blueberries. Bake for 15 minutes. Eat and enjoy!

Notes
1) I reduced the sugar in this recipe. If you like your scones sweeter, feel free to add more sugar when mixing or sprinkle some sugar on top of the scones before putting them in the oven.

2) The VWAV recipe uses a combo of soy creamer and soy milk. The apple cider vinegar was mixed in with the soy milk and the soy creamer was added in separately. I used all soy milk, but I still only added the apple cider vinegar to 3/4 cup of it. I’m not sure if it will make any difference in its curdling power if the vinegar is added to the whole 1 1/2 cups. Does anyone know?


Burritos


This is the recipe I used. Nava Atlas is my hero.

  • One 16-ounce tub soft tofu
  • 1 tablespoon nonhydrogenated margarine
  • 1 cup salsa (your favorite variety —try black bean-corn, cilantro-garlic, chipotle, etc.)
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon curry powder, to taste
  • Six 8-inch soft flour tortillas
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups vegan cheddar or nacho cheese

Drain the tofu and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Blot well between layers of paper towel.

Heat the margarine in a medium skillet. Add the tofu and mash with a mashing tool or large fork.

Stir in the salsa and curry powder, then cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until well heated through. Turn the heat up and cook a little longer if there is excess liquid in the skillet that needs to evaporate.

Divide the scambled tofu mixture among the tortillas, placing it the center of each in a kind of oblong shape, leaving room at each end. Grate some cheese over the tofu (about 3 to 4 tablespoons for each tortilla, but I just grate a modest layer of cheese without measuring).

Microwave each 30-40 seconds, or until the cheese is melted. Fold two ends over the tofu mixture, then roll up the rest. Repeat with each burrito, then serve at once.

Notes
1) Instead of using grated vegan cheese, I made a pretty standard cheese sauce with nutritional yeast, tofu, etc. I just spread the sauce on the tortilla, put the tofu mixture on top and added some sliced avocados.

2) My husband ate three burritos. This was a super easy and delicious dinner that I’m sure I’ll make again this week.

3) I made Spanish Potatoes to go on the side. What a great recipe from Lisa at Show Me Vegan! Thank you!

SUNDAY
Thai Pineapple Stir Fry

I couldn’t find this recipe linked to anywhere online, but it is the Thai Pineapple Stir-Fried Rice recipe from Vegan Express. This was the least express-y meal I’ve made from Vegan Express due to the fact that there is a lot of chopping involved and I am not a good chopper. Also, I kind of turned it into an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type stir fry and just started throwing things in. I left out the tomatoes called for in the original recipe (my tomatoes weren’t ripe enough), but I threw in squash and cubed tofu, added some garlic powder and doubled the amount of coconut milk, curry powder, and ginger the recipe called for. This made a massive amount of food and I’m about to enjoy some if the leftovers for lunch today.

Notes
1) The chopped cashews called for in the recipe are optional, but I really think they made a tremendous difference. My first thought when I dug in to my rice was that it needed something sweet to balance out the salt and curry flavors. Adding the cashews really made a sweet difference, although I think I will add just a bit of agave nectar next time.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from the Maureen’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from Garden of Vegan

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 cups instant oats
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 of a banana
1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine
2 T applesauce
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 t vanilla extract
as many chocolate chips as you want (I used about 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) together in a bowl. Put all of the wet ingredients into your food processor and give them a whiz. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Scoop out about a tablespoon and a half of the mixture, roll into a ball, put it on your parchment-papered or silpatted cookie sheet and use the palm of your hand to flatten it out into a patty that is about 1/4 of an inch tall. Repeat this until all of the mixture is gone (this yielded about 10 cookies for me). Bake for 12 minutes, then cool before eating.

Notes

1) I left out a whole lot of sugar called for in the original recipe and still thought these cookies were sweet enough, but feel free to add more sugar if you like!

2) These cookies were simply good. They weren’t anything spectacular, but they had a great taste and a great texture and certainly satisfied the cookie craving I was having and my husband really liked them, too. I purposely did not bring any to work with me today so that I would have something sweet (besides my husband and daughter – awwww!!!) to look forward to when I get home this afternoon.
Coming up this week…

I’m going to try my luck with Happy Herbivore’s recipe for Blackberry Cobbler (I got some be-yoo-tiful blackberries at the farmer’s market this weekend and was so excited to see that recipe!) and I’m going to start my July Daring Baker’s project (I better get it done soon, b/c there’s a heat wave headed our way!).