Tostones, or Fried plantains

Tostones, or Fried plantains is a side dish in Latin Amercan countries. Like french fries are served here. It is basically a unripe plantain fried twice. I use the ripe plantains too. They come out tasting sweet, almost like a funnel cake.

1/2 to 1 Green plantain per person
oil

Heat oil. Slice into 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick pieces. Place in the hot oil and let them lightly brown on both sides. About 5 to 6 minutes. Take them out dry some of the oil off. Let cool and then smash them. Put them back in the oil and let fry for another minute of two till they brown again. Let cool a little. If you are using the green plantains the traditional topping is salt or a garlic sauce. Some people even put cheese on them. So if you find a vegan cheese to make a cheese sauce out of you could try that.

I have never tried them with cheese.

When I use a yellow plantains I eat them without a topping, kinda as a dessert. But you could serve with powder sugar, vegan vanilla icecream, homemade vegan caramel. But I still enjoy them plain. :)

Saurkruat w/ Veggie dogs & Fruit Crisp

There are 2 basic ways I know of that you can cook Sauerkraut. Or you can eat it the way it is cold. But you can simmer or fry it. I usually simmer mine. Just dump it and the juice straight from the packaging into a simmering pan. Add the sliced up veggie hot dogs or just eat it alone. Let it simmer long enough to get warm or hot. If you let it just get warm alot of the vitamins will stay intact. Then serve. If you would like you can cook the veggie dogs first then through them in while the sauerkraut heats that way the veggie dogs are nice and cooked. Then serve with mashed potatoes and roles... Yum!

Or you can fry it. I have never had it this way till this New Years. I simmered mine and seen that my mother had fried hers. So I went home and took some of my left overs and fried them. It does soak up a fair amount of oil. So it can be fattening. It takes alot more of the veggie dogs flavor when you fry it. It drys out and turns a little brown. My mom cooks hers alot more even past what my picture shows. I liked it but to me it just had a little to much oil. Serve with you mashed potatoes and roles again.



I also had a ton of apples that needed used. So for dessert I made a very yummy Fall Fruit Crisp. I used the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking; PG 142. But I made a few minor changes. I used almonds instead of walnuts and I added ground Flax for an Omega- 3 Boost. Next time I will make double the topping. The picture in the book looks like there is a ton of topping but in a 8x8 baking dish it only puts a thin layer. The almonds worked very nicely with the recipe. Also I cut up the entire 8 cups of apple and it wouldn't fit in my baking dish. So if your dish is 8x8 or 9x9 and isn't more then 2 inches deep don't cut up the whole 8 cups. I put the extra in a separate small baking dish and made another double serving. So I didn't waste any. The topping although kinda thin was really yummy and could be used on the top of any crisp. Or even a topping or side for just a plane baked apple or other fruit. The texture was really nice too. I really enjoyed it.

If you click the link above it will take you to google books. This is a cool feature that lets you browse through alot of different books. It will take you straight into The joy of vegan baking to the cobbler & crumble page. Scrole down to page 142 and the recipe is there.

Incase that link moves here is another link to the recipe another blogger has listed it out. The blog is called Gastronomers.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Berry Filling

• 2- 12 to 14oz bags of frozen Organic Berries (Fresh organic berries about 4 to 5 cups)
• 1/2 to 3/4th cup sugar (depends how tart you like your berries. Only add 1/2 cup if they are really sweet berries)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Cobbler dough

• 1-1/3 cups (165 g) all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons (40 g) granulated sugar, divided
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons (70 g) Vegan butter (I use Smart Balance light)
  
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) Almond, soy, or other non dairy milk

If berries are not frozen put all ingredients in and set aside so berries get juicy. Even if the are frozen you can do this. Preheat oven to 375F.

To make dough. add all dry ingredients to bowl. Crumble butter into flour till it feels like wet sand. Then put in the almond milk. Mix till it makes a sticky dough.

Place the Berries into a non oiled 8x8 pan or a Pyrex container for baking. Make sure its atleast 2 inchs high. Place a pan under it in the oven to make sure it doesn't boil over. Place berries in baking dish. Take your fingers or a spoon and pull apart the dough and place on top of the berries. Take a little extra almond milk and brush the top of the dough.

This needs to bake a good 45 to 50 minutes. Let top brown. Make sure the underside of the dough is done! This will be the last part of the cobbler to finish cooking. And it does take dough a pretty good amount of time to cook in the top of a cobbler.

Wraps

Wraps are easy and quick here is a couple super quick and easy choices.

Vegan Riblet Wrap

1 Morningstar Riblet
2 Trader Joes Lime Jalapeno Flour Shells (Very yummy!) or shell of your choice
1/2 Tsp Smart balance light (or other vegan butter)
Corn

Cook the riblet in the microwave as directed. Heat up pan and take the shell to smear around the butter. Place the shell in pan to start browning. Put the riblet in a bowl and pick apart into small pieces. Place half the riblet & sauce on the shell. Place corn either in the shell or on the plate. The corn is really good with this. Let the shell brown nicely and get crisp not floppy. This is so yummy and addicting.

There are so many more concoctions you can come up with

Ideas:

• Vegetarian refried beans w/ tomato, lettuce, & sauce
• Vegetarian refried beans with tofurky slices

• Tofurky slices & vegan ham slices w/ vegan swiss cheese (opt)
• Tofurky slices w/ Dijon mustard

• Left over tofurky roast w/ stuffing, corn, green beans (any side you had) w/ a cranberry dipping sauce.
• Tofurky, Ham, Dill slice (kinda like a Monti cristo w/o the egg & cheese) w/ a soy gravy mustard sauce
• Scrabbled tofu
• The omelet from Vegan brunch
• Grilled or roasted veggies: green peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc with a dipping sauce
  
• PB&J
• Vegan Sloppy Joes
  
• Vegan Burger fried w/ simply organic taco seasoning w/ tomato, lettuce, etc w/ optional tofutti sour cream
  
• Vegan burger whole or crumbles w/ caramelized onions & sauteed mushrooms
• Vegan burger whole or crumbles cooked. Add BBQ sauce & onions rings
• Vegan crumbled burger fried with peas, carrots, green beans, vegan worcestershire sauce, pepper, etc ( Kinda like a Shepard's pie in a wrap)
  
• The Monti Cristo Idea form above w/ a Vegan coleslaw both cooked inside the shell
• Indian food would go good in these also. Alot of Indian food is eaten with bread kinda as a spoon. These breads are normally Roti /Chapati or Parantha. Which you can prepare easily and use almost just like this instead of like a spoon. For a more authentic taste & feel.
  

You can also do desserts.

• Like cooked apple w/ Cinnamon & vegan butter of choice. Put between two shells and toast in pan.
• Semi- Sweet chocolate chips or carob chips with peanut butter

The possibilities are endless!

Chocolate Brownie Cake

Made a Chocolate Brownie cake this year for my lil Sisters B-day. I used the very easy Chocolate cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, actually I made 2 double recipes for 2- 9x13 cakes. But after that I got lazy and used some boxed items. Duncan Hines Family style brownies. (which to my knowledge are vegan. If I'm wrong please someone tell me.) And some Duncan Hines chocolate & vanilla icing which are both vegan. Normally I make icing. But I was running short on time, energy, and powder sugar. Oops... lol. But it turned out really good. Everyone loved it! (The photo was taken at my parents house).

To replace the egg in the Brownie mix I used 1 Tbsp Flax with 3Tbsp water. And for the 2nd egg I used 1/4 cup Raspberries apple sauce with 1 tsp baking powder. (Actually I accidentally used corn starch.. but I meant to add baking powder ...oops ). They still turned out though. You do need to cook them a few minutes longer. The apple sauce must really up the most. So cook longer or maybe add a small amount of flour or Arrowroot. I do have a problem with them getting done around the edges before they get done in the middle too. If anyone has any ideas like turning down the heat and maybe cooking them longer... let me know. I made these in a 9x13 pan and they turn out thin. So you might want to try 2 boxes. Although they work best in small batches. But they turn out thin even when my Mom makes them with eggs. They do have a slightly different texture. But they are not as bad as some of the other vegan brownies I have tried. They still taste great and if you get them at the right temperature they bake nicely. Still working on just the right concoction to equal the texture of eggs though.

Strawberry Pie, Blueberry pie, Coffee cake, boiled peanuts

The Strawberry Pie was my fav dessert this year. It was nice and sweet but had that tang at the end from the lemon. It was nice. I wish I would have had some rhubarb though.


Preheat oven to 425F
5-7 cups of strawberries (depends if you want a pie that
domes or is flat.)
2-3 T Lemon juice
1 T Lemon Zest
1/2 - 3/4 C Sugar
3 T Corn Starch
2 Pie Crusts

I used half frozen half fresh but you use which ever works best for you. Thats just what I had on hand. If you use frozen let the berries thaw and dump the water off of them. Then put mix all ingredients and let them set for 10 -15 minutes before you dump them into the pie. After the 15 minutes dump into the shell place top shell on. Make sure you cut a vent hole.

Bake at 425F w/ edge of crust covered for 30 minutes. Then lower the temp to 350F for 40 minutes of until crust starts to brown. Don't let it burn. Uncover the edge of the crust about 15 minutes before you take it out.

The Blueberry cobler cake from the book " The Joy of Vegan baking" this was Johns fav. This link will take you to the recipe. This recipe I also used half fresh/ half frozen and it turned out great.















The Coffee cake came from " The Joy of Vegan baking" aswell. If you haven't guess thats my goto dessert book. All of the recipe I have made from it have turned out great. I made this primarily for my Non-vegan mom. She always goes out and buys donuts before the parade on the 4th of July. So I thought if I made this it might hold her off of buying the not so animal friendly donuts. It turned out nice and she really liked it.. and guess what.. No donuts were bought.. :) I should have got a picture after I took it out of the pan..oops.




Boiled Peanuts.... My husband was born and raised in Charleston, SC.. So that is were the peanuts come in. It has been I think 3 years since we have been down there. So to bring a little bit of the south to him I made him some boiled peanuts. We stop at the road side stands and convenience stores every time we are down there. At the convenience store they sit right beside the sweet tea just asking to be eaten...so he has me hooked on them aswell. It has been hard trying to find raw peanuts around here but just by luck last week we ran into them at an International Store in Morgantown. We bought 2 1/2 pounds. So I thought I would surprise John and make them for the 4th. They turned out really great. They are a little extra salty but I will cut that back in the recipe I post on here. They are super easy to make. So everyone should try these. And if you ever go anywhere Down south they are a big thing for locals so try them their aswell.

2 1/2 pounds raw shell on peanuts
1/2 to 3/4 cup salt

Rinse all the peanuts in their shells.
Fill pot of water. I used the pot I make my soups & beans in. Its just the 6qt pot I think. The biggest pot that comes with a set. lol... Add salt and peanuts. Cover. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Then let simmer for around 4 hours. Check the bigger peanuts when they are soft not crunchy they are done. Check the little nuts aswell to make sure they are not getting to done. You don't want them totally mushy. But 4 hours should do it. Store them in your refridgerator in there liquid. If you think they are still a little salty put them in half their cooking water and half fresh water to set in the fridge.

You can also make cajun. They are really good too.

Vegan Hot Dog Sauce
When I was younger and still consumed meat I still didn't eat ground meat. So I never ate hotdog sauce. But I made this a few years ago but veganised and loved it. I even eat it like a sloppy Joe.

2tsp salt
1tsp Tabasco sauce
3tsp Paprika
2tsp Chili powder
1 small onion, optional
2 1/2 cups water
2T Vinegar
2T Brown Sugar
4T vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 small Bottle Katchup 12oz
1 small can tomato paste
2 packs Boca or Morningstar ground burger ( I used one of each). Brown, add 2 cups water & onion. Let the water cook out. Then add all other ingredents. Let cook till it thickens. Which shouldn't be that long. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes after it thickens. This makes 3 to 4 cooks. It freezes well.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

It is quick & simple. The only thing you really have to do is chop and wait.... The pie looks super full after you add everything but it cooks down really nicely.

This has become one of my favorite desserts coming in only behind Pumpkin pie and Black Berry coobler. There are tons of recipes out there for rhubarb and I have been wanting to try some. This pie I have made 3 times now and it has turned out perfect each time. The recipe came from Vegan-licious.blogspot.com. Check back for more Rhubarb recipes because I have a ton of it to use and maybe even some more where that came from. The last picture was taken when the pie was cut and it was still warm... I couldn't wait... But it does set up very nice when you put it in the fridge.