Vegan Fudge

Placing this recipe here because this was so freaking delicious and I want to eat mass quantities of it.  I can't believe it's vegan, either.  I'm not anywhere near a vegan although we have cut back on our meat consumption mostly to fund my campaign for organic veggies and fruit for my family.  I use a lot of almond and rice milk in my baking so I guess it wouldn't be THAT much of a stretch to go dairy free.....  um, no, not even going there.

The only thing that I don't like about this recipe is the margarine.  I find in some vegan and/or gluten free recipes is that they use a lot of chemically made ingredients.  As a whole I've been moving my family towards a less processed-food lifestyle and using more natural ingredients instead of "fake" ones  - even if they are higher in fat.  Kids and babies need lots of fat in their diets anyway.  It helps build all those little folds in their brain and the more folds = more smarts!  I seriously don't buy into the whole low-fat for kids trend.  If you feed your kids a wholesome and mostly homemade diet full of minimally processed and organic ingredients, there's no need to use low fat everything.  Everybody's scared of making their kids "fat" but you really should be more scared of making your kids "unhealthy."  That's just my totally unprofessionally education medical opinion.  Healthy fats are good for you!

Don't be surprised if you see this in your Christmas gift bag from me.  The 5 minute preparation time is almost too much for me to bear.

The Best Holiday Fudge Ever That Just Happens To Be Vegan

Oatmeal, Carrot, and Apple Breakfast Squares

I got this recipe off of Mothering Magazine.  You can get the free online version of it delivered to your inbox.  I love this parenting magazine.  Not like that other mainstream crap you read. 

Annnnnnyway... here's the notes from the original post:

"....packed into every sweet and wholesome square are 8 grams of protein, 20 % of your daily requirement for fiber, 10 % of your calcium, and over 100 % of your vitamin A. Buttermilk keeps the cake tender, carrots and apples add moisture, and walnuts and coconut combine for a crunchy topping.  This recipe makes enough to feed a dozen, and the squares stay fresh and delicious for days.  And although we call these "breakfast squares," you may like them best as an afternoon or late-night snack."

Makes 12 squares

Butter, for greasing the baking dish
1 3/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups low fat buttermilk
1 1/2 cups grated peeled carrots
1 cup grated peeled apples

Topping:

2 cups walnut pieces
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat over to 350. Generously butter a 13 x 9 baking dish
2. Place oats, flour, flaxseeds, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and stir to combine.
3. Whisk together brown sugar and oil.  Add the eggs one at a time. Stir in buttermilk.
4. Add the oat mixture to the buttermilk mixture and stir to combine. Add the carrots and apples and stir until just blended. Put into baking dish.
5. Place walnuts, coconut, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir to combine and then sprinkle evenly over batter.
6. Bake until the batter has set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour then cut into 12 pieces.. (The squares can be store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days).


Okay now here's my changes:

• I just used regular whole wheat flour instead of the pastry flour. The pastry flour would make it more tender but this cake is tender enough I think.
• I ran out of light brown sugar so I used Demerara sugar which is an unrefined brownish sugar, kind of like Sugar in the Raw which I'm sure you've seen.  Just be sure to mix it with the oil very well.  It makes a great topping because it's quite large and adds some crunchy texture if you're omitting the nuts.
• Obviously, I omitted the nuts.  Nuts and babies are just not a good match.  I really didn't miss it but I'm sure you're losing out on some good protein without them.  
• I added 1/2 cup chocolate chips just for the hell of it. 
• You may have to look for unsweetened coconut in the "health" section of your grocery store.  And thus pay double the price of regular coconut that is sweetened.
• You'll probably find already ground flaxseeds in the same section as the unsweetened coconut.  Or you could buy whole ones and grind them fresh in the blender. 

This makes a HUGE batch so unless you're feeding a big group I might think about baking it in 2 smaller dishes and give half away.  

Veg'd Out Potato Pancakes

These are my new go-to meal.  Easy and quick to make.  The boys love them because they almost taste like french fries.  I like them because they're full of protein and tons of veggies.

This recipe is hard to post because I mostly just wing it.  I add tons more veggies than the original recipe calls for.  It's more of a consistency issue than a set recipe. No matter how much potato, zucchini, carrot or whatever you put in there, you need to balance it with the right amount of egg & flour.

Here's the bowl of the shredded veggies.  About 2 cups potatoes, 1 cup zucchini, 1 cup carrot and about 1/4 onion grated.

This is the secret.  Mush out the water from the vegetables.  Especially the zucchini.  If you don't they won't be as "eggy" as I like them.  More on that later..

Leftover water.  

Oh yeah,  I added some spinach.  Not too much because a certain 2 year old I know deems things inedible depending on how much "leaves" there are in a particular food item.

4 farm fresh eggs.  I ended up throwing in 1-2 more to balance with the extra veggies I added.  I like mine eggy, like I said, more on that later.

Seasonings: thyme, sage, ground bay leaves with a couple of tablespoons of whole wheat flour.  You can add more later if you need it.

This shows you the proportion of solid matter to liquid.  Once you do a test fry you can see if you need to add more flour to make it stick together better.

 

Grab a tablespoon full of the mixture.  See how it clumps together?

 

Put it in the oil (using Canola here) on medium heat and spread it out with the bottom of the spoon into a sort of round shape.

I love this stuff.

Here's the eggy I was talking about.  On the left is the pancakes that I added more eggs and flour.  On the right is the first one I made.  You can see how it doesn't have as much volume to it.. like the edges are just fried potatoes.

The one without enough egg is on the left.  Some may like it like that... more potato-like.  The one on the right is more egg-like.

Eggy goodness

My tester

Someone is always underfoot.

Cautiously guarding his pancake.  I served with greek yogurt for dipping or traditionally it's served with applesauce.  Try both!

 

Made 12 extra pancakes.  Easy dinner... throw in the microwave or the toaster and insta-homemade-dinner.

Beautyberry Jelly

More canning!  Tonight I finally got to canning my beautyberry jelly.  I was able to buy about 2 quarts of beautyberry from The Green Marketplace at Adamson Road picked fresh.  Literally, like the farmer sent me an email (we're so 21st century) and said "Come pick up your beautyberries. They were just picked!" 

A couple people have asked me about canning so I thought I'd do an in depth post on how to do it.  It seems overwhelming at first, but really it's not.  There's just a lot of wrangling to do with pots and whatnot.

So... here goes:

 

The Lovely Ladies.  Isn't the color just gorgeous?  They are a butterfly attractant and it was recently discovered that the crushed berries are AS EFFECTIVE as Deet for mosquito repellent!  It smelled very "herbal" as Matt described

 

This is how they grow - in clusters

5 cups of sugar.  You heard me.  These little suckers are tart

Step 1: Boil the beautyberries.  I got sad to see them losing their beautiful purple color

Boil boil toil and trouble - for 20 minutes

Strain out the berries and plant material to get this "infusion" is what the farmer called it

Add in 1/2 cup of lemon juice - preferably fresh picked from your backyard like mine.  Yay!  Beautiful color is back

This frog thought the smells were just too good to pass up

Add in a packet of Surejell and stir stir stir.  This was interesting to me because I've canned 3 times before and never used Surejell.  Personally, I like my jam a little on the runny side, but this is a whole different beast.  This is jelly.  Jelly is supposed to be jelled - DUH!  The farmer told me that a friend of hers made this exact recipe and it turned into Beautyberry syrup.  It never set.  You could also boil apple peals in the initial boil because apple is a natural pectin which is exactly what Surejell is.  I forgot to, but I think mine is going to do just fine.

This is me stirring the liquid after I put in the Surejell.  You can actually see it getting thicker right before your eyes

See how it's starting to run off the spoon in a long thin line?  That means it's jelling.

Okay, here's my hardware.  On the left is my "processing" pot with boiling water.  I start this before I start cooking the jam/jelly/what have you.  It takes a long time to get that much water boiling.  You need about 1 inch to cover to top of the jars.  In the little pot are my lids.  I boiled it for 5 minutes to sanitize and then turned it off and let them sit in warm water until I need them.  On the right is my jelly cooking.  

In there are my jelly jars sanitizing.  I just run a load on a regular setting with dish soap but nothing else in there. I don't want any food particles landing on my sanitized jars.

Back to the jelly:  After you add the Surejell, bring it to a boil for 2 minutes.  It is starting to foam

Eww, foam.  Ohh, pretty color!

Skim the foam off.  I lost about 1/2 cup from skimming.  I wanted to make sure it was really clear.

All clear!  And ready to start the actual canning procedure:

Ladle the mixture into the jars.  That blue funnel was purchased with a canning kit for about $5.  You need it.

6 jars worth made from 3 cups of infusion and 5 cups of sugar.  Holy diabetic coma, Batman!

Hello my pretties

Wipe off the top of the jars in case you dribbled some liquid. That will affect it sealing.

Another little tool from the kit.  A magnet picker-upper.  So you don't burn your finger-wingers.

Use your finger to pop the top off the magnet.  Don't touch the sides so you don't contaminate the jar with your dirty disgusting bacteria. Just kidding, you're not disgusting. Seriously, though.  Don't touch it.

Screw on the screw part of the lid.  This is just to hold the lid in place while processing in the hot water.  You can and should remove them after you're sure they are sealed.  They may rust.

Tighten the screw lid ... but not too tight.  Not too tight, not too loose.  But JUST right.  Let the Schwartz guide you, my son

Another doohickie from the canning kit.  Pick up the jars and carefully place them in the boiling water.  

See?  You don't need a special canning pot if you don't want it.  It makes clanging noises while boiling and the jars move around while processing so you may be fishing for jars afterwards... but still.  Hardly any new equipment for a whole new cooking activity!

Cover and process.  That just means boil.  I set my timer for 10 minutes.  I completely pulled that time out of my ass.  I figured we needed 5 minutes for the fig jam... heck add another 5!  If they don't vacuum seal you can always reprocess.  You're just making sure you killing off the bacteria.

 

I saved a little for myself to try it out.  It was sweet and tart and berry-y.  Here you can see the jelly falling off the spoon in "sheets."  That means it jelled!  Hooray!

 

nyah nyah nyah.

Here's a video showing how awesome I am:

Chicken Soup

This is one of my favorite meals from my childhood.  I make it almost exactly how my mother made it - complete with chicken bullion cubes chock full of chemical crap we don't need.  I plan on updating this recipe to fit my current dietary restrictions - that being mostly restriction MSG, food coloring and other chemical crap we don't need.  But you know what?  Those little cubes give this dish the flavor that I remember and sometimes that takes precedence over health.  I promise to work on this recipe this winter and see how chickeny I can get it.

 

 Chop up tons of carrots, onion, celery and sweat it in a pot.  That means lower heat for no color.  This just speeds up the cooking process.  I had a sick baby to feed.  And at least the veggies were organic.

Here's the bad boy I'm talking about.  The more Jewish sounding, the better.  Jews know chicken soup.

 

Add about 12 cups of water and a whole package of fresh dill.  If you haven't tried dill in your chicken soup You Are Missing Out.  Add more water if it boils down too much while cooking. 

This is where I waver from my mother's recipe.  She used chicken breasts and I prefer chicken thighs.  I used boneless, skinless thighs.  Just poach them in the soup whole and remove to chop.  Add back in to the soup.

I used frozen matzo balls which turned out terrible.  They ended up being hard, dense, inedible little buggers.  I must have boiled them too long or too hard (that's what she said).  If anyone knows a good brand of ready made matzo balls... let me know!  My mother used to use egg noodles. I do, too, but I wanted matzo balls this time.  I'm the boss of this soup so it does what I want.


Eamon loved eating the veggies and chicken and Jack ate a few bites.  Serve with crusty bread with LOTS of butter if you're a certain 2 year old I know and slurp it down.  Cures what ails ya.