More vegan love for Fresh And Easy

We are always trying new vegan products and with Fresh And Easy so close, we are always picking up packages and reading labels. I love finding new vegan grocery items!

This week's discoveries:

Pumpkin Spice and Cranberry Granola Clusters

The granola was great sprinkled on soy yogurt with fresh strawberries.

RiceWorks Salsa Fresca Crisps

These were crispy and flavorful....

Vegan french toast....it'll knock your socks off!

I have been burying my nose in the new vegan cookbooks my grandma got me for my birthday. My favorite so far is the You Won't Believe It's Vegan! book. It's there I found a recipe for vegan french toast. I was skeptical, but this recipe does not disappoint. It tastes JUST LIKE the real thing! I promise! Matt even likened it to his step-mom's famous french toast recipe. That's huge! We started out with a baguette from Sunflower, but it got too hard to use, so Matt ran over to Fresh And Easy and found a soft vegan baguette.


Vegan French Toast
Yield: 8; serves 4
2 cups almond milk
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup canola oil (2 tsbp is for the mixture, 2 tbsp is for the cooking)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp sea salt
6 tsbp maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
8 slices vegan French baguette
Maple syrup, vegan powdered sugar and fruit for serving

1. Whisk together the almond milk, flour, 2 tsbp of canola oil, yeast, salt, maple sryup and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.
2. Pour mixture into a casserole dish and place the bread slices into the mixture until both sides are saturated or dip the bread directly into the bowl saturating both sides.

3. Heat the remaining 2 tsbp of oil on a griddle or in a skillet and cook the slices until golden brown on both sides.
4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with hot maple syrup and fresh fruit.

I found the perfect use for the little $2.95 sorbet cups I bought at Crate and Barrel this week-syrup!

YUM!

Easter vegan brunch. Rock n roll.

Today we invited our friend Matt and our bro Brandon over for vegan Easter brunch. I knew earlier this week that I wanted to find a vegan waffle and vegan whip cream recipe to make for Easter brunch. I bought all the ingredients for both, but also bought Soyatoo whip cream, just in case I didn't have time to make the whip cream from scratch. And, this morning, I, in fact, didn't have time to make my vegan whip cream-bummer! The consensus after spraying a bit of the canned Soyatoo for everyone to try was that it tastes like real whip cream. Thumbs up in my book!

If I knew how awesome these waffles would turn out, I would have invited more people over! Now that we know the recipe is top-notch, we will be able to continue the tradition of the Hibbard breakfast parties. We'll have to test a few more vegan breakfast recipes and we'll be in business!
In my hunt for vegan waffle recipes, I can across Vegan Food; More Than Tofu And Spouts . An inspiring blog with recipes that make my mouth water. Our waffles turned out fluffy and perfect! We cut fresh strawberries and blueberries to serve with our vegan whip cream and pure maple syrup. We also made fresh orange juice and served mimosas. What a perfect brunch-great food, good company and relaxation! And, the dogs had a fun chillaxin' today, too.


Vegan Waffles From Tofu N Sproutz blog
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup white flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 cups soy or almond milk (I used vanilla almond milk, but use whatever - rice milk is too thin)
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp ground flax seed whizzed with 6 Tbsp soymilk or almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
In a blender or food processor, combine remaining ingredients and process until well-combined and "airy".
Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until moistened - don't overmix or the waffles will turn out tough and heavy, a few lumps are fine.
Mixing the wet ingredients in a blender introduces lots of air bubbles, to make the waffles light and fluffy.
Cook according to your waffle maker.
The batter is enough to make 4 - 5 large Belgian waffles.

Here is the vegan whip cream recipe that I didn't get to make today from Diet, Dessert and Dogs Blog

Coconut Whipped Cream

This is a great topping for fancy desserts.  To make the cream, you will need a hand (immersion) blender (a regular blender won’t work for this) and electric beaters.

1/3 cup (80 ml.) vanilla rice milk

2 tsp. (10 ml.) home-ground agar “powder”

2 tsp. (10 ml.)  plus 1 Tbsp. (15 ml.) cornstarch, divided

2 scant Tbsp. (25 ml.) agave nectar

pinch sea salt

1 tsp. (5 ml.) pure vanilla extract

1 can (398 ml.) full-fat coconut milk (22% fat content), at room temperature (shake well before opening)

Step 1: In a small pot, combine the rice milk and agar.  Allow to sit, covered and at room temperature, for at least 30 minutes.

Step 2: Stir everything but the 1 Tbsp. cornstarch into the agar mixture and whisk to combine.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just begins to boil.  Lower heat so that the mixture is still bubbling just under the surface, and set a timer for 10 minutes.  While it continues to cook, stir every minute or so.

After 5 minutes, choose one of the following options:  (1) if all the agar is dissolved (and no longer visible on a rubber spatula or spoon), remove from heat and turn off the timer (just forget about the last 5 minutes).  Pour into a bowl and proceed to step 3. 

then continue to cook for the remaining 5 minutes on the timer, and stir every minute or so.  After 5 more minutes (10 total), remove the mixture from the heat, even if there are still tiny bits of agar left in it (they will be blended out next).  Pour into a bowl and proceed to step 3. 

Step 3: Pour the mixture into a deep bowl.  Immediately blend with your immersion blender until perfectly smooth and no bits of agar are visible (careful, it’s hot and may spray a bit!).  Set aside to cool somewhat.

Step 4: When the mixture is still slightly warm but no longer hot (and still fairly liquid), sprinkle the remaining 1 Tbsp. cornstarch over the top; using the immersion blender, blend again to even out the texture and get rid of any little lumps.  Place the bowl in the refrigerator until the mixture is ice-cold; it will become very solid, like an extremely firm gel.

Step 5: Once again using the immersion blender, blend the gelled mixture until it is perfectly smooth and no lumps remain, but don’t blend any more than necessary.  Scrape down the sides as you go.

Step 6: Now, using the beaters, beat the smoothed mixture until soft peaks form.  If the mixture is cold, this should happen fairly quickly.  You’ll have a soft cream that holds very soft peaks, but definitely holds its shape.
Step 7: At this point, you can mound the cream over a pie, or put it in a piping bag and gently pipe it.  It will seem too soft to pipe, but as long as it holds a shape in the bowl (and the surface of the cream doesn’t “melt” and flatten), it can be piped. 

Vegan Blueberry Mufffins

Matt begged me to find a good vegan blueberry muffin recipe. I searched for a vegan blueberry muffin recipe and came across some that would use flax seeds or banana in place of an egg, but I wanted to make some using Ener-G Egg Replacer. I bought some Ener-G egg replacer from Sunflower Market.

The recipe called for Silk Vanilla yogurt, but I used Whole Soy lemon yogurt, which I had on-hand.

Blueberry Muffins
http://veganyumyum.com/2007/03/blueberry-breakfast-cakes/


1 1/2 Cups + 2 Tbs All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
Heavy pinch salt
1 Cup Sugar, and more for sanding
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil (like canola)
1 Ener-g Egg Replacer
1 Cup Vanilla Silk Yogurt (a little less than 2 small containers) (I used Whole Soy lemon yogurt)
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Cup + 1/2 Cup Blueberries
Muffin liners
Preheat oven to 380º F, (will be increased to 400).
Line metal muffin trays with paper liners and set aside.

*If using frozen berries, keep frozen until the last second! I’ll tell you when to take them out of the freezer in the directions.

Mix all the dry ingredients (through sugar) in a large bowl. Use a whisk or a fork to incorporate everything very well. Remove 1 Tbs of this dry mix and place in a small bowl and set aside (this is for coating your blueberries).
In another bowl (or 2 cup liquid measure, I find that easier), mix your yogurt, oil, vanilla and prepared “egg”. Whisk well to incorporate.
Get your blueberries from the freezer, measure out 1 Cup and place in the small bowl with 1 Tbs of dry ingredients. Toss to coat. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, getting every bit (a rubber spatula helps). Using your rubber spatula or a wide wooden spoon, gently fold the wet ingredient into the dry. Once it is JUST incorporated, scatter blueberries on top.
Once the berries are mixed in, distribute all the batter into your tins. You’ll feel like you’re over filling a bit, but that’s a-okay. These don’t really rise all that much so it’ll be fine. Add up to 1/2 cup more blueberries over the tops, pressing them into the batter gently but not submerging them.
Sand cakes with a (un)healthy amount of sugar, using a coarser sugar if you’ve got it, such as Sugar in the Raw. I’m weird and keep like three different kinds of sugar in my kitchen at all times. The sugar you used for the batter will work just fine.
Place them in the oven and increase the temperature to 400º. Bake for 20-25 minutes on the middle or top-middle rack of your oven, turning half-way to ensure even cooking. They’re done when a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are a rich golden brown.