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Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Like many of us out there I end up not eating all my banana's before they turn brown and, well, old. So I made some banana bread to use them up...then I decided to add chocolate chips to them too...because that's just yummy.

2 very ripe banana's, mashed well
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp brown rice syrup
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray a bread pan with nonstick spray. Mash banana's, mix in the applesauce, canola oil, sugar, and brown rice syrup until combined. Sift in flour, baking soda, salt cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir until just combined and then stir in chocolate chips. Fill the prepared pan and bake for 45-60minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve and enjoy!

Tofu Scramble & Roasted Potatoes

I had some veggies that needed to be used up before they went bad...so I made tofu scramble! Them I made some roasted potatoes to go with it.

Scramble Recipe:
16oz Extra Firm Tofu - drained and mashed
1 tbsp EVOO
1/2 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves
1 cup shredded/sliced carrots
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp mustard
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions in EVOO until soft. Add garlic and saute 1 minute, add mushrooms and carrots, then saute 2 minutes more. Stir in mashed up tofu, soy sauce, mustard, and nutritional yeast. Serve up with potatoes, toast, pancakes, whatever...it's awesome!

Roasted Potatoes:
2 cups diced red potatoes
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp rosemary
1-2 garlic cloves, pressed

Combined above in a blow and toss to coat. Put on a baking sheet and back at 400 for about 30-45 minutes.

Veg Times - Thanksgiving Pot Pie

Okay, I know it's October and obviously not Thanksgiving...but, when I got my issue of Veg Times I saw this recipe and just had to make it. It sounded so good. So over the weekend I made it. And I promptly forget to take the glorious picture of it in full casserole glory. But, I did take a fairly decent picture of some leftovers...totally awesome. I love it. Great flavor, nice texture...just homey goodness. Make it...you will not be disappointed!

Pumpkin Muffins

As I said before I love all things pumpkin. With the left over pumpkin I had from my pumpkin cinnamon rolls I whipped up some pumpkin muffins (from VWAV) and these babies taste great, are super moist, and make a pretty awesome sweet treat for breakfast (or after lunch....or dinner...yeah, they're good all the time!)

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies

That's right...Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies. Ever since my birthday cake I've been craving more Mexican Hot Chocolate goodness. So I pondered what the best type of cookie to turn into a Mexican Hot Chocolate cookie...and I though, snickerdoodles. I was right, the cinnamon in the snickerdoodle plays well with the cayenne pepper. Here's the recipe:

cookies (makes 24):
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup agave maple flavor (or just regular maple syrup)
3 tbsp rice milk (or any other non-dairy milk)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup carbo powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder)
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

sugar coating, mix below together and set aside:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combined the oil, sugar, agave, vanilla, and milk in a large bowl. Sift in the dry ingredients until combined well. Roll the dough into walnut size balls.
Flatten the dough into about 2 inch discs and pat one side in the sugar/cinnamon mixture
Set on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake for 12 minutes , remove from oven and set parchment paper on cooling rack, let cool 5 minutes and then put the cookies on the cooling rack without the parchment paper.
Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

I'm a huge fan of all things pumpkin....pie, oatmeal, scones, donuts, cupcakes, biscuits, bread, pumpkin seed crusted tofu...yeah, if it's got pumpkin, I want it. So I made myself a DOUBLE batch of pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I did this so I could store a bunch in the freezer and bust them out anytime I craved some. Personally, a good idea I think. So I woke up and got cooking. Made the dough (recipe is for one batch...I managed to get about 16 out of a batch, but it depends on how big you make them):

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/4 cup warm water

mix together the above and let sit for about 5 minutes, until foamy

Then add to the yeast mixture the following:
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 rice milk (almond, soy, etc all work well too)
1/4 cup melted earth balance butter
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger

Mix together the above until a soft dough forms, then turn out on a flour surface and kneed in an additional 3/4 cups flour, until the dough is soft and smooth. Kneed dough for 5-10 minutes. Spray a bowl with cooking spray (or coat with a few tsp canola oil) and put the dough in the bowl, also spraying/coating the dough so it doesn't stick. Cover and put someplace warm for 45-60 minutes, until it's doubled in size.

Uncover dough and punch it down, let it rest for 10 minutes while you make the filling.




For the filling assemble to following:

3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
mix the above until combined, then roll out the dough until it's about 12x18inches.
Sprinkle with the cinnamony goodness and then dot with earth balance butter (about 2-3 tbsp)
Roll this baby up tightly and cut into 1 inch pieces. I got 17 out of this one. Then get a pan and spray with cooking oil, place the pieces in the pan (if you make the entire roll you'll need an 11x13 pan) and cover, put someplace warm and let rise (again) for about 35-35 minutes.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, until golden brown.
For the icing combined 3/4 cup sifted powder sugar with 1 tbsp hot water and a dash vanilla extract. Drizzle and enjoy.I only made 4 rolls and yes, I ate all 4 and yes, they were amazing.