Vegematarian

Savory Pie hmm hmm hmm

2008-09-13T21:07:00.003-05:00

Today Paul and I made Pie yayy!! My only verdict for making things are only to use up dying food. It was my first real food that I've eaten since school started. School is quite hectic and I barely have any time for anything.

We used a vegweb recipe for the pie crust I found it really oil though. When Paul made the pie crust it pooled on the bottom of the pan.

Recipe
1 Baked pie Crust from Vegweb
1 Medium Onion
1 Shallot
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch of Watercress
1 Bunch of Spinach
A handful of Amaranth Leaves ( Yeen Choy)
Tofu
2 1/2 + 1 1/2 Tbsp Vegan Oyster Sauce
10 oz Froze Firm Tofu, Thawed
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
Salt for taste
Oil for sauteing

Rough chop and wash the watercress, spinach and amaranth leaves. If you don't have amaranth leaves just substitute with spinach.
Slice the onions, shallots and garlic.
Squeeze out the excess water from the tofu and crumble them into a separate bowl and mix in the 1 1/2 Tbsp of Vegan oyster sauce, garlic powder and salt for tasting.
Preheat the oven to 450 F.
Pour some oil onto a pan and heat it up on high heat. Add the onions and lower the heat to medium and saute the onion for two minutes, a little before the onions are cooked thoroughly. Then add in the shallots and garlic and saute for another minute.
Add in the leafy green mixture and saute them until they start to wilt. Then add in the 2 1/2 Tbsp of vegan oyster sauce and enough salt to taste.
Add in the tofu mixture into the pan. It should absorb all the excess water from the leafy greens.
Continue to saute the food until all the water is absorbed by the tofu and remove from heat.
Pour the mixture into the baked crust and placed the pie into the oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes. We made some decoration for the top of the pie so we baked until the extra pie crust on top turned golden.

3rd Attempt in Making Mooncake

2008-09-13T20:17:00.009-05:00

I've used Lily's Wai Sek Hong's recipe for the Golden syrup since I was not able to find it in my local Asian market and I used Do What I Like's Mooncake Skin.

My first two attempt in making the mooncake skin was a failure. The consistency was crucial. It was something I could not get right due to the golden syrup. It would've been better if I had the golden syrup. The reason for all the failed attempt in making the mooncake skin was because of the golden syrup. I followed the instruction and boiled the sugar mixture until it was golden brown and when the syrup cooled down, it was really thick and hard like carmel so it made the skin way too hard and unmaleable. What I found out by the 3rd attemp was to boil it until it's slightly golden. A little lighter than vegetable oil. The texture of the mooncake skin dough is suppose to be very soft and maleable like bread dough except not gluteny. If the dough is breaking apart and crumbling, DON'T ADD MORE FLOUR!! Only add more flour if the mixture is still too sticky.

With all the failed attempts with the mooncake skin, I made them into cookies yay!! They were pretty good except for the cookies from the first failed attempt since I burnt them!!

Another unpredictable mistake that I had was the filling. I bought premade red bean paste, sesame paste and lotus paste in a can. The red bean and sesame paste were way too soft to roll the filling into balls. It just made a sticky mess on my hand. I tried freezing it, it helped but it made my mooncake skin cold and it tore easily. I mixed the sesame paste with peanut butter a 2 to 1 ratio but it was still too soft. It was much harder than the red bean paste.

The star had the lotus filling which had the correct consistency. The pig had the sesame and peanut butter paste. The cow had the red bean paste. You can tell in the pictures that as the consistency got softer, there were more breakage in the pastry skin. By the time I got to the red bean paste mooncakes the skin was blotched in red.

During the baking process the gravity pulled both the sesame & peanut butter mooncake and the red bean mooncake down so it looked as if it melted. I recommend to make your own paste if you were to make mooncake with filling other than lotus paste. If you decide to use canned red bean paste and black bean paste just reduce it on low-medium heat until it's thick enough for you to roll into a ball with your hands.

Inari

2008-08-30T12:57:00.006-05:00

School has started...great. Summer passed by so quickly.

I made some Whole Wheat bread and I used a folding technique to knead my very very wet dough. Accord to the Fresh loaf, "the wetter the better". It's nearly impossible to knead wet bread since it'll stick all over your finger so that's where the folding method comes in. It came out very coarse so beats me. I must readjust some more. Yay!!

Mooncakee!! The mid autumn festival is coming well it's already the 2nd day. It's suppose to be on Sept 14th. Im going to make myself some vegan mooncakes. Im going to try the bing pei which is the one made with cooked glutinous rice flour (koh fun) and I'm going to try to make the traditional Cantonese baked mooncake. No salted duck eggs obviously :] If i have time I'll try to make the jelly mooncake which is made with agar agar. I'm so excited but with school and possibly observation for my secondary class, I'm quite scared I won't be able to make it on time.

Lots of salad

2008-08-14T23:55:00.008-05:00

Long Week

Since last week of Friday my b/f and Moses has been redoing an apartment in Brooklyn. It took us four days to finish and during one of those days we went to an authentic vegan Caribbean Restaurant. It was awesome. My b/f and Moses ordered the vegan hamburger but I bought my own lunch for that day. I made mushroom rice. The employees made the burgers fresh there. It was awesome. It wasn't like those frozen patty that they heated up, it was fresh. I took a bite out of my b/f's and it has a very delicious special sauce coating it. I couldn't help myself staring at all the baked goods so I bought myself a Cassava Pone and I bought my b/f a coconut roll but it wasn't the traditional coconut roll. It was colored by beets.

We worked Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. On sunday we went to the beach with a group of friend. I bought in the Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from the FatFreeVegan blog. I think it tasted great but I don't think my other friends really liked the taste of nutritional yeast. :/ I can't force them. It's just that I have to pick better choices of vegan food they are more fond and use to.

Yesterday I bought some food to a picnic with my b/f but it was raining so we ate it in the car. I made some macaroni and cheese from VegWeb. I thought it tasted ok but it wasn't cheesy enough for your regular maracroni and cheese but it was pretty decent. I also made some garbanzo and black bean salad.

Yields 4 Serving 194 Cal/ Serving

8 oz Garbanzo Beans, Cooked and Drained
7 oz Black Beans, Cooked and Drained
1 Handful of Spinach
1 Handful of Amaranth ( Or just another handful of Spinach)
1/3 Cup Scallions, Chopped
1/4 Cup Cilantro, Minced
1 1/2 Tbsp Basil, Minced
1 Tsp Fresh Lime Juice
1 Lemon Boy Tomato, Chopped (I used it for color since it's very yellow. You can use a regular beefsteak tomato)
10 Grape Tomatoes (Also used for color)
6 Green Olives
Salt and Pepper to taste

Green and Brown Goodness

2008-08-07T23:13:00.010-05:00

Vegetarian Times Vegan Thumbprint cookies

My boyfriend wanted to buy some Pepperidge Farm Verona cookies which are totally not vegan but he is not a vegan yet but he trying. I know he wasn't going to buy it but nevertheless, I felt bad and I told him I'll make him some vegan thumbprint cookies since apparently this current September issue of Vegetarian Times happens to have a recipe vegan thumbprint cookies.

I found the cookie to be quite tasty but before the initial bite there was a strong aroma of soy/tofu. I think it's just from the Soy Garden Earth Balance margarine I used. I also found the cookie to be a bit softer than how I hoped it to be. I used mayhaw jam rather than the traditional raspberry jam. I only had the mayhaw one at the time.

The thumbprint cookies does not even really resemble a thumbprint cookie. It looks more like a jam filled cookie. I know my boyfriend LOVES jam, well filling in general. He over does it many of the time so I decided to over do it just for him. Rather than giving the cookie a cute little thumb indentation, it was more like a huge TOE indentation. I over filled the middle with jam and it kinda spread during the baking process. Oh wells.

Yields 36 cookies 76 Cal/Cookies
1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Margarine, Room Temperature
1/3 Cup Vanilla Soymilk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 Tsp Almond Extract
1 Cup Raspberry Jam [ Use any, Apricot taste good as well ]

Sift and combine all the flour, baking powder and salt together in a big bowl.
Beat the sugar and margarine together.
Then slowly beat in the soymilk, vanilla and almond extract.
Beat ind the flour mixture until everything is well combined
Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Take the dough out and roll it into 36 balls and place it onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined onto of the cookie sheet.
Gently flatten the the ball of dough a bit and make an indentation with your thumb.
Put the cookie sheet back into the refrigerator.
Pour the jam into a bowl and break up the big chunk of jam with a fork.
Then place pur the jam into a pastry bag or a zip lock bag with a hole slit on a corner.
Take out your cookies and fill the indentations with the jam.
Place it into the oven and bake it for 12 to 15 minutes or or until lightly browned.
Cool the cookies on a cooling rack.

Fat Free Vegan Can't be Beet Chocolate Cake

I got this recipe off of FatfreeVegan. I wanted to get rid of some of the beets that I had in my fridge. These little cupcakes were really delicious but I found it to be a bit too chocolaty. This cake were moist and not dense despite the fact that it was made up of mainly whole wheat flour. I wanted to get rid of the baby food that were in my cupboard so I used that instead of the apple sauce and I also reduced the sugar from 1 Cup to 3/4 Cup. I found the cupcakes to be sweet enough but my boyfriend thought that it was very subtle and would preferred it to be sweeter. He described it as eating very dark chocolate. I made them as cupcakes since it were much easier for me to eat and I gave more than half away to my boyfriend since I'm the only one in my family who eats vegan food, chocolaty food and sweet food. I would never be able to finish it.

Avocado Amaranth CousCous for 1 Person

I don't normally post meal recipe since I'm never measure anything I just eyeball it so the measurements for this will obviously be from eyeballing. I hate it that I am the only one eating. My parents thinks that because I am vegan I don't have much to eat want so they don't eat my food even though I offer it to them. They also don't like any other type of food other than Chinese. I always end up with so much leftover and I hate that so this recipe should be enough for one person. I still think it's more than enough for one person. It's like for one and a half person. This dish is a bit Chinese and a bit Middle Eastern. I believe that's where it originated. I have never seen amaranth leaves sold anywhere else except for the Chinese market so if there aren't any amaranth leaves available, you can use spinach.

In Cantonese it's called Yeen Choy (莧菜). Amaranth is also called Chinese spinach and there are two varieties. There are the white and red. The white are just the regular green leaf but the red one has purple in the middle of the leaf and the purple branches outwards. When you blanch the red amaranth, the water turns purple like beets. Amaranth are very high Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium and iron. There is up to 28% Calcium and 17% iron in one cup of amaranth. That's how much I can grab with my chopstick at one time and I tend to reach for my amaranth several times cause I love it oh so much.

Yields 1 serving/ 289 Cal per Serving
1/4 Cup CousCous
1/4 Cup Vegetable Broth

2 Big Shallots, Finely Diced
1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
Handful of Amaranth, Rinsed and Roughly Chopped [You can use Spinach]
2 Tsp Thai Basil, Minced [ You can use Basil ]
2 Tsp Cilantro, Minced
2 Strand of Green Onions, Finely chopped
1/3 Stalk of Celery, Finely Diced
1/4 Avocado, Diced
5 Grape tomatoes, Quartered
1 -1 1/2 Tbsp Tomato Sauce or enough to lightly coat everything.
Salt for tasting

Lightly spray a nonstick pan with oil and cook the shallots on medium heat for about 3 minutes.
Add in the garlic and continue to cook until the shallots are transparent.
Then add in the amaranth and cook until they are dark green. Then put it in a dish and set it aside.
Cook the couscous with the vegetable broth in the same pan as the onions until all the broth is gone. Please watch carefully since there is very little couscous and moisture, it will easily burn.
Fluff it up with a fork and mix the shallot and garlic into the couscous.
Lightly toss in the basil, cilantro, leek, celery, tomatoes and avocado.
Add in the salt and tomato sauce and lightly coat everything. I used tomato and basil flavored tomato sauce.

Hoe Down

2008-08-07T00:03:00.016-05:00

The Hoe Down at Farm Sanctuary was awesome. As we were arriving to Farm Sanctuary, we witness one of the most beautiful sunset. We had to stop in the middle of the road and get out to take pictures. Thank goodness there were no other cars on the road. It was so empty and relaxing.

We saw many cute little animals and we were allowed to pet and see most of the animals with the exceptions of those who were quarantined due to illness or not used to human contacts.

The staff working at farm sanctuary said that they rescued 69 gestation pigs from Iowa during the Iowa flood. It was so sad. Even during the time of a natural disaster, the farmers rushed to collect their corns to take with them but apparently they dont do the same for the pigs. They just left them behind because they were not worth as much as the corn. The majority of the pigs were died but those who managed to get free were shot down by the people on the levy because they were afraid that the heavy pigs would destroy the levy when they try to climb onto the levy. The people were the one who breeds the poor pigs to be so large that many of them get knee and feet problems as they get older.

Turkeys gooble gooble. It's so sad. Many turkeys get their beaks microwaved so that the tip of the beaks die and it it eventually will drop off. The same procedure is used to destroy their toes so that they don't peak or claw each other to death. They also get their snood teared off as a little baby chick. It's so terrible. They are also bred to gain a lot of weight in a short period of time and many of them can not work due to the weight problem and the missing toes. They can't even fly when they fall. People are so terrible.

That goat is Brooklyn and the guy petting it, is my b/f Paul. The name of the goat speaks for itself. It was recovered from Brooklyn, NY from a live goats and lamb market. The lucky little goat was abel to escape death. Thank goodness.

Baa baa black sheep have you any wool yes sir yes sir three bags full. One for the master, one for the dame, one for the boy who lives down lane. Many of these sheep are used for wool and like the other farm animals, they are bred to be a specific way. These wool sheep were bred to have folded skin so that there would be more surface area to produce wool. The folded skin causes the caretaker to accidentally shave off parts of the skin. The sheep were also bred to produce so much wool that they can not even shed for themselves. Boo wool. Boycott wool!!

Moo mooo. Cows are so cute but a few were a bit aggressive. They were busy munching on their grass.
The Farm Sanctuary staff said most of their bunnies were rescued from a breeder. The breeder's neighbor saw how bad the conditions were and managed to convince her to turn them in. Another half were recovered from experimental laboratories.

We also attended a nature hike where Geoge Eisman was the speaker. It wasn't much of a hike. We just walked behind the People Barn hahaha. We we learned that those disgusting weed growing on your lawn is very edible and nutritious.

Dandelions - You can eat the whole flower including the flowers and the white seeds when it becomes old. The only thing is that the leaves would become more bitter after it flowers but it's still edible.

Red/White Clovers - The whole plant is edible. It's also very nutritious too so you can chuck some into your salad.

Plantain Plants - Do you remember these big huge plants growing on your lawn?! They are so annoying but also very good for you. Like the other three plants. The whole plant is edible but I'm not sure about the roots though. The leaves are good for cuts and minor injuries so just grab a leaf and chew it to make a paste and then place it on your wound. The seeds can also be used to thicken soup and not only that, they are good for your digestive system. It's a natural laxative. They are sold in stores under the name psyllium. Instead of paying $5 dollars for a small bottle, you can collect your own.

Beware though. You should becareful of pesticide spraying so just call your park's department and what not to make sure before you go out to collect your goodies.

Preparing for Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down

2008-07-31T21:32:00.003-05:00

Yay! My b/f, two other friends and I are going to the Farm Sanctuary for the hoe down. We're going to go there early to set up camp. My two other friends are omnivores and my b/f has converted to vegetarian. He is going to slowly transition to a vegan. We've made food and other needs for the trip. I've tried making lemongrass essential oil but it smells sweet so I don't know if I made it correctly.

Since there will be no showers for the campers, I made my own body wipes/baby wipes. Here's the recipe.

Vegan Baby/Body Wipes

2 Cup Warm Water
2 Tbsp Tea Tree Oil Castile Soup [You might want to use something less foamy]
2 Tbsp Aloe Vera Gel
1 Tsp Baking Soda or 3/4 Tsp Vinegar
Few Drops of Fragrance or Essential Oil

30 sheets of Basic Bounty [Not sure if regular bounty will absorb more so just experiment]

Mix all the ingredients in the order listed in a plastic ziploc bag or a tupperware except for the paper towels.
Swish the liquid ingredients around.
Put the paper towels in the liquid and make sure all the paper absorbs the liquid. Check to see if the middle is still dried or not.

Herbal Properties

Tea tree oil - It is claimed to be good for acne, blackheads and repelling mosquitoes. It fight against certain bacteria and fungi.
Aloe Vera Gel - It is claimed to moisturize and sooth skin.
Baking Soda - It cleans, deodorizes, relieve itches and sooths the skin
Apple Cider Vinegar - It's also very similar to tea tree oil. It's good against rashes, sores, insect bites, acne, poison ivy and poison oak.

Sources:
Tea Tree Oil Uses
Wikipedia - Aloe Vera
Lamas Beauty
Amazine

Hot Chili Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance

I used TVP instead. I had my TVP stored in my cupboard for more than half a year but my main reason is because I'm too lazy to make seitan. I realized I didn't have beans so I had to rollerblade to the grocery store to get some BEEEAAANN. I haven't rollerbladed in years, so I was the crazy girl wobbling down the sidewalk trying to kill people. The hot chili will be heated up in the camp fire on a nice hot summery day so we can sweat like crazy as we get bitten by mosquito. Isn't that a the life.

Kick Ass Carrot Cupcake from Recipezaar

It's called the Eggless Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcake. We made it early this week but my b/f forgot the sugar so we ate it as is but it tasted great without the sugar too because of the spices. I think it would taste great as a savory cupcake. Hahahah. It was actually more like a muffin.

Day with lots of green and lots of orange

2008-07-30T22:53:00.005-05:00

Green Tea Noodle with Spinach Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes

Tomorrow I have jury duty. It's my first experience and I didn't know that I would be there long enough to eat lunch so I have the option of bringing or buying my lunch. I know the neighborhood is not vegan friendly at all so I am bringing my own. I just bought some fresh spinach and cilantro so I wanted to use it while it's fresh. I was skimming through Veganomicon and found the perfect recipe, Spinach Linguine with Basil Cilantro Pesto and Artichoke. Instead of using the basil and spinach linguine, I used the spinach and green tea noodles. I also used some frozen artichoke instead and grab a handful of chopped spinach.

BBQ TVP Wrap
My boy friend and I also made some delicious BBQ TVP wraps. My boyfriend is unknown to the world of TVP so we made some today the BBQ Pomegranate Tofu recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. We obviously didn't tofu. We followed the recipe pretty through and thought except we used onions instead of shallots and we used a bit more than the recipe suggested. We didn't reconstitute the TVP instead we let it simmer in the delicious BBQ sauce so it can absorb even more flavor. We added the TVP after all the ingredients were added and combined to make the BBQ sauce and we threw in a cup of huge TVP chunks and we cooked it for about 15 minutes. Then we let it gently simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes so that we don't lose even more moister. Just check it occasionally to see if it is sticking or burning. Then we uncovered it and we cooked it for about 5 more minutes. We served it on a tortilla wrap with some cucumbers and tomatoes. Nothing special but the TVP tasted great! Too bad we didn't take any photos.

Long while

2008-07-28T21:48:00.005-05:00

It's been a long while since I've posted. I'm very sorry but I've been so caught up with school and once summer hit, I continued to take summer classes but now I have more time. I haven't really been baking or cooking as much. I have been relying mostly on my dad and eating junk food. :X Not the best in the world but when time is limited I guess that all I can do.

Now the new peen tong in the Asian market is being supplied by xun wua, mandarin = xin hua (新華) The new peen tong is now called Brown sugar rather than Brown Candy in the Weekend getaway the ingredients used in this peen tong is just sugar cane and water. The sugar is not processed or purified, hence the brown color. It's around $.080 $1.00 per 400g so it's a pretty decent price if you are a frugal vegan like me. It comes with a hefty price. It's a long slab so it's pretty hard to grind it up. This is what I do:

Get two sheet of napkins and sandwich the peen tong between the napkin. I used one sheet of paper towel and folded it in half and sandwiched the slab of sugar. Figure A and Figure B.
Then I hammered every inch of the sugar slab creating many tiny pieces of sugar around the size of 1 - 1 1/2 cm. Figure C.
Then I dropped it in my blender and blended it until it was powdery. Because the sugar has a bit of water, I suggest blending one slab at a time or else the heat from the machine can cause the sugar to melt together. Just dump the sugar you blended into a jar or a bag and blend again. You can store it in the refrigerator since it is a bit moisty. The finished product is in Figure D.

Nature's Path Cereal

2008-03-13T20:26:00.003-05:00

Hello :D I have not updated in a long time. I'm terrible. School's a killer. Here's a list of all the vegan stuff for Nature's Path cold and hot cereal. If you haven't notice, they only list whether or not their food are vegetarian or not but not vegan. I'm a Nature's Path loving vegan and I hate idling in front of the cereal isle looking at all the ingredients on the cereal box. I've noticed that the only thing on the cereal that makes it not vegan is the honey. For Kashi it's both honey and dairy. They don't have any milk, whey or added vitamin D3. I've checked all the labels for the cereals. If you are uncertain you can look it up on their website Nature's Path and Kashi. I've provided this list of cereal because cereal is my breakfast staple, maybe it is your's too. You can just highlight the list, print it out and use it as a reference at your local supermarket.

VEGAN Nature's Path Cold Cereal

Flakes

FlaxPlus Red Berry Crunch
FlaxPlus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch
FlaxPlus Raisin Bran (Not to be confused with the eco pack which contains honey)
FlaxPlus Flakes
Multigrain Flakes
Millet Rice Flakes
Mesa Sunrise Flakes
Corn Flakes
Synergy 8 Grain Flakes

Shaped

EnviroKidz Panda Puffs
EnviroKidz Orangutan O's
EnviroKidzKoala Crisp
EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch
Crispy Rice
SmartBran

Puffed (All)

Corn Puffs
Kamut Puffs
Millet Puffs
Rice Puffs

Shredded (All)

Shredded Heritage Bites
SHredded Oaty Bites

Optimum (All)

Optimum Rebound
Optimum Zen
Optimum Slim
Optimum Power

Granola

Pomergran Plus Granola
Peanut Butter Granola
Acai Apple Granola
GingerZing Granola
Hemp Plus Granola
Pumpkin FlaxPlus Granola

Eco-Pac

EnviroKidz Koala Crisp
EnviroKidz Gorilla Munch
EnviroKidz Peanut Butter Panda Puff
Corn Flakes
Multigrain Oat Bran Flakes
Millet Rice Flakes
Mesa SunRise
Kamut Krisp

VEGAN Nature's Path Hot Cereal (All)

HempPlus Hot Oatmeal
Multigrain Raisin Spice Hot Oatmeal
Optimum Power Hot Oatmeal
Optimum Zen Hot Oatmeal
Variety Pack Hot Oatmeal
Original Hot Oatmeal
Apple Cinnamon Hot Oatmeal
FlaxPlus Hot Oatmeal
Maple Nut Hot Oatmeal
Weil by Nature's Path Chocolada Almond Hot Oatmeal
Weil by Nature's Path Veri Berry Hot Oatmeal

NOT VEGAN Nature's Path Cold Cereal

Flakes

Spelt Flakes
Honey'd Corn Flakes
Heritage Flakes

Shaped

Heritage O's

Granola

Heritage Raspberry Granola
Blueberry Muesli
Heritage Muesli

Eco-Pac

Honey'd Raisin Bran
Honey'd Corn Flakes
Heritage Flakes
Heritage O's

VEGAN Kashi Cold and Hot Cereal

Heart to Heart Oatmeal (All - Apple Cinnamon, Golden Brown Maple, Raisin Spice)
Kashi Flakes 7 Whole Grain with Sesame
Kashi Nuggets 7 Whole Grain
Kashi Pilaf 7 Whole Grain
Kashi Puff 7 Whole Grain
Organic Promise (All - Autumn Wheat, Cinnamon Harvest, Strawberry Fields)

NOT VEGAN Kashi Hot and Cold Cereal

GoLean Hot Cereal (All - Creamy Truely Vanilla, Hearty Honey Cinnamon)
GoLean
GoLean Crunch (All- Honey Almond Flax, Original)
Good Friends Cereal (All - Cinna-Raisin Crunch, Original)
Heart to Heart Cereal (All - Honey Toasted Oat, Oat Flakes & Wild Blueberry Clusters)
Kashi Granola (All - Cocoa Beach, Mountain Medley, Orchard Spice, Summer Berry)
Kashi Honey Puffs
Mighty Bite Cereal
Vive

NOTE :: All was checked on 03/13/2008 please check if the company have added new cereal or changed any ingredients. Please do inform me if any of these are wrong and need corrections. Thank you!

Valentines Day

2008-02-18T22:45:00.007-05:00

Been busy hectic...midterms and and lots of test. In addition to work and school I have to do observations at a local high school for my secondary education minor. Well here is what I have hoarded up these past few weeks.

Valentine's day

Valentines day is such a commercialized holiday but however I too have became one of it's victim. If you truly love someone everyday should be valentines day well there shouldn't be an excuse to show your significant lover that you love them.
My boyfriend and I celebrated ours a month earlier buy building each other a matching bear from build a bear yay and I ended up baking him a vegan mini chocolate cake. It was fun :3 Being the poorly time managed person that I am, I wasn't able to finish the cake before hey came over but here's the finished product. The chocolate cake was actually part of the egg white substitute experiment. You can tell it's a bit dry by the appearance of the crumb.

Mango Lassi

I wanted to try the mango lassi at Dosa Hut so badly but it has dairy in it so I made my own. My b/f who tried both said that the taste is similar but it tasted a bit floury possibly from the soy yogurt. Personally I don't like silk soy yogurt it has a weird taste to it.

Yields about 5 cups, 109 Cal/Serving

1 Cup Soy Yogurt, Plain or Vanilla
1/2 Cup Soy milk, Plain
2 || 420g Mango, Large (preferably the orange skinned one)
+/- 3 Tbsp || Sugar, Granulated
a pinch of salt

Peel and cut the mango into chunks, then puree the mango in a food processor and take out the fibers or you can use the blender. The orange skinned mango has a stronger mango taste and much sweeter.
Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until everything is combined. If you are using vanilla yogurt add less sugar. The amount of sugar used will vary depending on how ripe the mango is.

Food Thermos

It is such a wonderful invention. It keeps your food warm for up to 8 hours but I have never waited that long before eating my food. It's great especially when you are on campus and do not want to buy expensive vegan food, if they have any that is. Mine has two tub to hold your food and it comes with a carrying bag. Most one person food thermos out there contain two food tubs unless you buy a huge one for a picnic. It may look small but it's really not. My parents though it was small but when I compared one of the tub to the bowl I eat dinner from, it's the same size. I think the depth of the tub is deceiving. It's not bad for it's price it ranges from $10-$50 dollars depending on the brand. I got mine for $11.99 at the Chinese supermarket. It's good enough for me, it keep my food warm for at least 5 hours and it's extremely cheap. You can buy it in Asian supermarkets but I believe they also have a few in Target. I think it's a great investment if you dont have the money to buy food when you are busy running around town or school.

Happy chinese new year!!!

2008-02-08T12:38:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry for both waiting so long before posting and losing all the info I have prepared for this posts. College had just started and I was still trying to adjust to the workload and working and the optometrist. I am such a unorganized person!!! All my papers were thrown away by a family member for the New Years cleaning. sigh** However on the other hand, I think I found a egg white replacement!! WHOOPDIEE DOO MARSHMELLOWS FOR ALL!!! Don't think it can be baked for a pavlova though.

Pictures Pictures!!

I was trying to experiment and see what can happen but I never would've guessed it would resemble egg white so much that it can form that sift of a peak. In other words, what I'm trying to say is that I made a bunch and did not have a recipe for it so I ended up eating it and scaring my mom pretending to be a rabid dog. Ahhh all that air in my tummy. BurP**

What I had planned to post this week was LowFat Banana Raspberry Muffins and it actually had a nice crumb and it wasn't disgustingly soggy or any of that good stuff but unfortunate I lost it. Hopefully I can replicate this recipe again.

I'll just post pictures

More picture for the previous steam bun entry

The bun's really tender

The delcious sesame seed paste!

My would have been muffins

I like the crumb. It kinda reminds me of those Chinese fatt koh.

HUGEE bowl of fluff!!

More or less nice hole. Well the point is, is that it retains that hole and the fluff does not sink in like how a peak does not fall if the "egg whites" are stiff enough.

Yay it defies gravity!!

Home from Hyde Park

2008-01-18T23:03:00.000-05:00

What a week! Even though I was home alone at my b/f's house all day while he went to school for 8 hours, I was very productive. I feel less bored there than I do at home. I feel so restricted at home because of my parents.

Here is what I have made during my stay upstate.

Chinese Steamed Buns
Had to try twice.
My first attempt...A tumorous kitty with sweet potato maple syrup filling.

2nd attempt back home...A normal looking kitty with some peanut butter and black sesame filling

I've learned from my mistake. DON'T OVER STUFF YOUR BUNS or they'll turn into fat tumorous buns.

Bun Recipe Yields 16 Buns 125 Cal/Bun

Yeast Mixture
60 mL || 1/4 Cup Water, 110F Warm Water
1 Tsp Sugar, Granulated
1/2 Tsp Active Yeast

Dough Mixture
150g || 1 1/4 Cup Bread Flour**
150g || 1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
28g || 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
113mL Water, Warm
2 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt

Filling

46g || 1/3 Cup Black Sesame Seed, Toasted*
32g || 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter, Creamy
25g || 2 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
30mL || 2 Tbsp of Water

Mix the sugar into the warm water and dissolve the yeast into the liquid.
Let it stand for 8 minutes.
Meanwhile mix all the flour sugar and salt together.
Make a well in the middle and slowly add in the yeast mixture.
Then slowly add in the oil while mixing with a spoon or spatula.
After you add the oil slowly add in the water when all the flour are crumbly start mixing the dough with your hand.
Continue adding the water until the dough becomes smooth and soft. (May need more or less water depending on the flour.)
Knead the dough for 8 minutes.
Cover the dough with a damp cloth and a plastic wrap. Let it double for 45 minutes in a warm place or until it passes the indentation test.
While the dough is doubling make your filling by toasting your sesame seed @ 350F for 5 minutes stir it a bit and return to the oven or another 5 minutes.
Blend the sesame seeds in a blender or processor until it becomes pasty. Then add in the water and blend until it is combined.
Then add in the peanut butter and sugar and blend until everything forms a thick paste.
Split the dough and filling into 16 even portion.
Assemble by rounding one portion of the dough and flattening it. Be sure to make the edge much thinner than the middle.
Put a dollop of the filling and pull the edge of the dough towards the middle and pinch to seal the end.
Put the bun on a tiny piece of parchment paper. Continue to do that to all the portion of dough and filling.
Cover it with a damp cloth and a plastic wrap to let it rest and go through it's last rise for about 30 minutes or until the dough had double.
After it has double use a scissor to snip the dough to give it the buns point ears or spikes.
Boil enough water in a big wok or large pot on med-high heat. When it is boiling put the buns in a dish over a steaming rack or you can put the buns in a steamer.
Let it steam for 20 minutes and it will be throughly cooked.

Banana Mango Sherbet

I like the strawberry although it has nothing to do with the ice cream.

Spinach Broccoli Mushroom Soup

I like soup but I'm sick and tired of the creamy one. I need some soup that reminds me of my mom since I haven't had my mom's soup in so long since they're not VEGAN. My mom loves making broth soup, since he has never heard of creamy soup so I made this soup to remind myself of my mom's broth soup.

Vacation Upstate...banana brownies, asian puff pastry

2008-01-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

I am currently on vacation at Hyde Park for a week since my b/f is currently going to CIA and he already started school while I still have several weeks left. He goes to school at 12:30 pm and comes home at 9 pm. So you can only imagine with can a girl be doing in his apartment all day. Well truthfully, I've been doing nothing...maybe some food blog reading and some baking. The apartment is pretty bad. The shower leaks so you hear water running all the time and the toilet flushes automatically and the oven dial does not have the temperature on it and sometimes the oven doesn't even heat up! With some experimentation, I figured out the oven temperature with a handy dandy oven thermometer. Alright on word with the food blogging.

Very Banana-ie Brownie with Options

Very Banana-ie brownie. More Banana-ie than chocolaty but I've made some adjustment to make it more chocolately. However the picture is of the very banana-ie brownie. Modified the recipe on Vegweb Chocolate Banana Brownie to suit the ingredients that we had.

Recipe Yields 36 1.5" x 1.5" pieces 70 Cal/ Bite size Piece
180g 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
76g 2 2/3 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks, Melted
347g 2 1/2 Large Banana, Riped and Mashed
300g 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt
15mL 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

In a large bowl cream the sugar, mashed banana and melted chocolate together.
Combine the vanilla extract.
In a smaller bowl combine the dry ingredients together.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and combine.
Pour it into a 9" x 9" pan and bake it in the oven for 400 F for 25-30 minutes.

Option : To make it more chocolaty use 142g 5 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks instead of the 76g 2 2/3 oz and used 319g 2 1/3 Large Banana instead of the 347g 2 1/2.

Apple Raisin Chinese Puff Pastry

They are similar to the European puff pastry but not exactly. Instead of butter, lard and oil is mainly used for the fat. I got the recipe of the puff pastry from Cafe of the East. Normally when you go out to eat dimsum, they are filled with the mung bean, red bean paste, taro paste or lotus paste. Apparently being upstate, I don't have the luxury of being a walking distance from my local Asian market so I'll make a apple raisin filled ball.

I modify the puff pastry from Cafe of the East to fit the ingredients I had available.

Recipe Yields 20 Puff Pastry Ball 162 Cal/Pastry Puff Ball

Chinese Puff Pastry 122 cal/ Puff Pastry Dough
Wet Dough
200g 1 2/3 Cup All Purpose Flour
70g 1/3 Cup Shortening*
20g Sugar, Confectioner
+ - 100mL Water

Oil Dough
120g 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
60g 1/4 Cup + 2 Tsp Shortening*

* If you don't want to use the hydrogentated crap you can use expeller pressed oil like Earth Balance shortening and Spectrum shortening.

Filling
742g 3 1/2 Large Apples (I used gala)
85g 3 oz Raisins
177 3/4 Cup Cranberry Juice
1 Tbsp of Sugar, Granulated

To make the pastry dough

First you need to make the wet dough by combining the sugar and the flour.
Then cut in the shortening into the dough until all the crumbs are uniform in size.
Slowly add the water as you mix the dough with your hand until it is smooth like the consistency of bread dough. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.
Then make the oil dough by cutting in the shortening into the flour and knead it until it has the consistency of the wet dough. Add more shortening if you have to. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.

To make the filling

Peel and core all the apples and dice them into about 1 cm cubes.
While you are cubing the apples pour cranberry juice in a medium size pot and put in your raisins and let it simmer on medium heat.
Then add in your apples and sugar and combine.
Continue to simmer it until all juice reduces to nothing. Stir occasionally to make sure that the apples or raisin do not stick to your pot.

To assemble the apple raisin pastry

please click on the picture to enlarge and see the visual aid.

1. Put the oil dough on a flatten wet dough.
2. Wrap the oil dough with the wet dough and pinch the ends together
3. Roll out the dough vertically.
4. Roll the long dough downward into a long cylinder, resembling a cigar.
5. Turn the horizontal cigar 90 degrees so that it is vertical.
6. Roll out the cigar dough vertically.
7. Roll the vertical dough downward into a cylinder again.
8. Sit the cylinder upwards on your palm.
9. Pinch up the ends so that it forms a ball.
10. Situate the botto of the ball on your palm, so that the swirly pinched
up ends are facing you and flatten the dough with your fingers. Make sure
the edges are thinner than the middle and do not pull on the dough to
flatten as it will pull apart the coil lamination you have just rolled out.
11. Put the filling into the middle of the circular dough and pinch up the ends and round it into a ball.
The dough doesn't spread so you can put it close together on a cookie sheet and bake it for 400 F for about 30 minutes.

Something Purple...

2008-01-07T01:25:00.000-05:00

It seems like I love purple this week. I've made Jasmin agar agar tapioca jellies and taro ice cream. Who doesn't love purple? PUrple Purple Purple and lots of restaurant jumping in this entry.

Jasmin Coconut Agar Agar Jelly

This recipe is based on Baking mum's Multi-Color Sago Jelly. Despite the fact that jasmines are white, whenever I take a big whiff of jasmines, I instantly think of purple. If you are wondering where to purchase agar agar, it can be easily found in your near by health food store. I know Eden Food carries agar agar flakes and agar bar but they are rather expensive. Now Foods also carries agar agar in the 2 oz bottle and 2 lb bottle but I think the 2lb bottle is a bit extreme, no? If you are lucky to have access to some Asian supermarket, I really advise you to check there first. There are several brands of agar agar I know of, in which they are the telephone brand and the golden cup brand. They are sold in the .88 oz packets for only a dollar. Those packets are small but goes a long way! 1 gram is equal to 1/4 tsp you don't need much anyways.

The packet looks like this...

Recipe Yields 16 slices (100 Cal/Slice)

Tapioca Portion
70 g 2/5 Cup Tapioca Pearls Aka Sago
1/4 Tsp Jasmin Essence (You can use any extract or essence like orange, almond, vanilla etc. but if you are using extract use a tad bit more.)
1 drop Red Food Coloring (Any colors will do)
1 drop Blue Food Coloring

Coconut Agar Portion
12g 2 Tbsp Agar Agar Powder or 6 Tbsp Agar Flakes
200 g || 1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Tsp Salt
300 mL 1 3/8 Cup Coconut Milk, Canned
1000 mL 4 1/4 Cup Water
1/3 Tsp Jasmin Essence
1 drop Red Food Coloring
1 drop Blue Food Coloring

Tapioca Portion

Boil some water on high heat in a pot. Pour the tapioca pearls and cook it until they turn transparent. It takes around 20 minutes.
Pour off as much boiling water as you can and rinse it with cold water and strain it.
Then divide these into to portion and for one portion mix 1 drop of red and blue food coloring and 1/4 tsp jasmine essence.

Coconut Agar Portion

Combine the coconut milk, water, sugar, agar agar and salt in a pot.
Mix with a whisk and simmer the mixture until the agar agar and sugar melts.
Divide the mixture into three portion.
Combine the food coloring and essence into one of the portion.

Molding

First pour the coconut agar layer into a 2lb loaf pan (8 5/8" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/5" )then let it cool down in the refrigerator. (This layer will take the longest to cool so it is essential for you to be patient or else you would be like me! I messed up on the purple tapioca pearl layer >< ) Stir the other two coconut agar layer to prevent from setting while the first layer sets in the microwave.
When the first layer has cooled, warm up the purple tapioca pearls a bit in the microwave for 10-15 sec on high so that it can be able to adhere to the previous layer nicely and for it to set. (Don't microwave too only or it might melt :X ) Spread it evenly on top of the first layer and let it set again in the microwave.
When that layer has set, add another layer of the white coconut agar mixture on top, again warm this up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Mix it with the whisk to dissolve any set agar. Then pour it on top of the purple tapioca and let it return to the refrigerator to set.
Microwave the last clear tapioca pearl portion for 10-15 seconds on high and spread it over the white coconut layer and let it set again
And for the final layer microwave the purple coconut agar layer in the microwave for about 45 sec on high and mix to dissolve any set pieces and pour it on top of the tapioca layer. Let this set for at least an hour in the refrigerator before unmolding. Don't be impatient like me!

Taro Ice Cream
Taro Ice Cream. I love taro they are delicious. I absolutely love the texture of the taro when it's half solid and half paste. It is naturally sweet and very aromatic. It is simply divine even if you just cook with plain ol' salt. My love for ice cream and the inspiration from A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise.

Taro Ice Cream Recipe Yields about 2 1/2 - 3 Cup Ice Cream (170 Cal/ 1/2 Cup)

Taro Paste Yields about 290 g Taro Paste
226 g Taro Root, Cubed 1"
591 mL ||2 1/2 Cup Water (Give or take some taro may require more or less)
1/3 || 66 g Sugar ** EDIT add 50g || 1/4 Cup more Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt

(If you are using the paste as filling for steamed buns or cake)
** From what my b/f had learned from CIA, he said that when things are frozen, there are less flavor so you need to add more flavor to frozen food.

Ice Cream Mixture
All the Taro Paste
180 mL 3/4 Cup Non Dairy Creamer (You can use unsweetened non dairy milk but I highly recommend using soy creamer or you can add 1 1/2 tbsp of Vegetable Oil)
Plus 60 mL 1/4 Cup Non Dairy Creamer.
30g 1 Tbsp Tapioca Starch

For the Paste

Mix the sugar into the water and bring it to a simmer in a sauce pan on high medium.
Then put the diced taro into the simmer water. Break the taro down with a fork or spatula as you cook it. You can leave small pieces of taro to give it texture and a bite.
If all the water has all be absorbed by the taro and the taro is still hard, add more water. It's okay if you add a bit too much since the taro will absorb all the water or it will all be evaporated.
Continue to cook the taro has absorbed all the water and it is in the consistency of a paste.
Sprinkle the salt and combine. Then take it off the heat and let it cool down. It yields about 290 g, almost 2 cup of paste. You can store it or make a bigger batch for steamed taro buns.

Ice cream mixture

Take the taro paste and combine it with 3/4 cup soy creamer or nondairy milk + the oil.
Whisk everything as you bring the mixture to a small simmer on medium heat.
Dissolve the tapioca starch in the remaining 1/4 cup soy creamer.
Whisk the ice mixture as you slowly pour in the tapioca and soy cream mixture.
Continue cooking on medium heat until you feel the mixture thicken.
Then pour it into your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer instruction.

OR (if you don't have a ice cream maker like me)

Poor it into a very wide pan (I used a 14" round pan). Any pan with a huge surface area will do.
Put it into the freezer and beat it with a whisk or electric beater ever 15 minutes until the mixture is almost frozen into a solid.
Put it into a container and freeze it.
(note the quality will not be as good as the ice cream machine)

Dosa Hutt of Flushing NY!!
Vegan restaurant hunting!! I've been going to so many vegatarian/vegan places around NYC with my handy dandy VegOut: Vegetarian Guide to New York City. They have other VegOut books for Southern California, Seattle and Portland, Chicago and other large cities. Although I wish they had a vegan guide to NYC :[ it's alright many of the vegetarian place serve great vegan dishes as well. With in this month I went to Oneness Fountain Heart, Spice, Cafe Spice, Buddah Bodai, Wholes Food, LifeThyme, Dosa Hutt, My GOd I'm a freaking pig and I'm planning to go to Red Bamboo Soul Cafethis thursday.

I must say Dosa Hutt is AWESOME!! Spice authentic Indian food right by my house too awesome. Now i don't always have to eat at Buddah Bodai or Happy Buddah. Getting sick of Chinese food. My b/f ordered so much food cause it was extremely cheap :x Pondicherry Masala Dosa, Rava Masala Dosa, rava Mysore Masala Dosa and the Medhu Vada in Bowl. Cafe spice was nothing in comparison to Dosa Hutt. Cafe Spice was lacking in the spiciness for the tourist. For all those who live in Queens or the Tristate area please do try Dosa Hutt. everything is less than 4.75 with the exception of 2 items in which it is the Special rava masala dosa which is $5.25 and the speical low carb. dosa which is $6.00.
Everything is mostly vegan!! HOrray Hoorah!! I believe the butter masala dosa and cheese dosa are the only two that are vegetarian. Well that's what the cashier said but ask to make sure when you go there for an updated list. The desserts are not on the menu. It's located on the leftt side of the counter in plastic boxes. Too bad they aren't vegan since they contain milk though :/ but the besan ladoo didnt contain any milk. It's traditionally made with ghee but according to the cashier, it's vegan. Yayy

Chickpea, cardamom, golden raisins, cashews, almonds, LOTS OF OIL and I believe some kind of flowery essence. Probably rose or jasmin. Hm.... I must say it was very oily though. When i squeezed it, oil was gushing out. Don't as why I was squishing at it. It was rather fun.

MErry Xmas

2007-12-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years. Holiday is the best LOTS OF FOOD!! weight gaining time awesome!! No more school thank goodness but the vacation is passing by so quickly!!

Spicy gingerbread cookies

Vegan cookies delicious!! I'm sick and tired mild tasting or just sugary tasting gingerbread cookies. Need the spiciness of all the herbs, so here's my recipe of these very spiced up ginger cookies.

Dry Ingredients
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3 Tbsp Ginger, Grounded
1 Tbsp Cinnamon, Grounded
2 Tsp Allspice, Grounded
1 1/2 Tsp Clove, Grounded
1 1/2 Tsp Baking soda
1/4 Tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
113g or 1/4 lb 1/2 Cup Butter, Soften
6 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
6 Tbsp Molasses, Regular
1 Egg Replacer

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Sift the dried ingredients and the dried portion of the egg replacer into a bowl.
In a larger bowl cream together the butter and the sugar*. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and combine well.
Then gradually add in the dried ingredients into the wet ingredients.

If you are making medium size gingerbread houses (around 4x8), bake the cookies for 18 - 20 minutes. It's better to over bake them a bit rather then under bake them like you usually would since you need a sturdy base for the gingerbread house.
If you are making small tiny cookies for decoration (around 1 1/2- 2 cm) like the one in the picture bake them no longer than 5 minutes.
If you are making regular cookies bake them for 10-12 minutes or until the top is slightly brown.

*Cookie Tip : Never over beat the sugar and the butter because your cookies will raise to much in the oven and deflate, resulting in a thin oily cookie because of all the extra air that is trapped in the butter.

Whole Wheat Cranberry Raisin Bread
The key to make great chewy artisan like bread is by creating a wet dough and letting time do all the work.

Bread Tip #1: To get a better tasting bread let the bread rise slowly for a long period of time. So if you plan on eating bread tomorrow, you should make the dough and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator but the longer the dough rises, the yeastier it will taste so reduce the yeast a bit.
Bread Tip #2: Normally flour requires a lot of water. They have bread dough with up to 75% hydration and some even higher which will result in a very sticky dough. IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK WITH, but this is where the next several tricks will come in handy!!
Bread Tip #3: If you are preparing a wet bread dough mix all the dry and wet ingredients together. Don't knead it cause you wont be able to anyways. Just let it sit for 45 minutes. (Longer if you want but reduce the yeast, same principle as Bread Tip #1). This method is called autolysis. This allows the flour to absorb all the water and it helps develop good fibers between the gluten and starch.
Bread Tip #4: Since the wet bread dough is too sticky to knead, just use the stretch and fold method. No need for kneading. After the autolysis or if you are skipping that step, put a bit of flour on your work area, stretch out the dough into a huge rectangle. Just fold the right side towards the middle, the left side towards the middle, the bottom side towards the middle and the top towards the middle. It's kinda like folding a envelope. Turn it over so that the smooth sides face you and fold it two more times. Let your dough rest for another 45 minutes or until double and fold it once more and let it rest before shaping, go through it's final rise and baking it.
Bread Tip #5: Getting a hard crust by steaming the bread in addition to preheating the oven at the highest setting. You should steam the bread the first 5-10 minutes of baking since that is when the crust develops. To steam just preheat a metal pan in the rack below where you intend to bake the bread. When the oven finish preheating, put your bread in and pour a cup of water into the metal pan below the bread BUT newer ovens can't handle steam so it might break. If you have a cruddy oven like mine, I don't think you would mind as much but do this at your own risk. You should lower the temperature of the oven after 5-10 minutes.

Sponge Starter
118g 6/7 Cup Bread Flour
118 mL 1/2 Cup Water, Warm
1/4 Tsp Active Dried Yeast

Main Dough
53g 2/5 Cup Bread Flour
163g 1 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
180g 3/4 Cup Water
1 1/2 Tsp Sugar, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Salt
2 oz Cranberries, Dried
2 oz Raisins

The night before mix the yeast into the water until all the yeast dissolves.
Then mix the water with the bread flour until everything is combined.
Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise for 24 hours. My house was 63F if it's warmer let it rise for a shorter period of time.
When the 24 hours is up start by soaking the dried fruits in warm water.
Then combine the flours, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix in the water into the dried ingredients slowly. Mix with a plastic or wooden spoon.
After the main dough is combined mix the sponge starter into the main dough. Make sure everything is well incorporated.
Then drain and fold in the raisins and cranberries.
Let the dough sit for at least 45 minutes for autolysis.
Fold the dough like I have described in bread tip #4.
Let it rest again for 45 minutes or until it doubles and passes the finger test.
Punch down, fold once more and shape into your loaf.
Preheat your oven to the highest setting.
After your shaped bread has rised for 45 or until it passes the finger test, put it into the oven and bake it for 8 minutes.
Then lower it down to 350 F and bake it for another 45 minutes or until the toothpick slides into the deepest part of the bread easily and comes out clean.

Vegan Rugelach

2007-11-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

Wow I haven't updated in quite a long while. School was crazy! I'm so glad classes and finals are over. Now I can devote all my time into my hobbies. HOrray hoorah. It seems like there's never enough time for anything.

Mixed Fruit Rugelach
I used to work in a Jewish Bakery and I would snack on those all day. Too bad it's not vegan and that place closed down due unsatisfactory scoring in the health inspection. I would know hahaha, but thank goodness I left before that happened.

Rugelach is a very popular Jewish cookie. They normally contain nuts or some kind of jam. The most popular rugelach that we had in the Jewish bakery were the chocolate and the cinnamon raisin. This is a really simple recipe. Nothing special. No crazy drizzle or excess amount of sugar especially for the holidays.

Yields 24-32 Mini Rugelach/ 12-18 Large Rugelach (2129 cal Total)
Dough
1 Cup/ 120g All Purpose Flour
3 oz/ 85g Vegan Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
2 oz/57g Vegan Butter, Room Temperature
1/4 tsp Salt

Filling
2 oz/ 57g Raisins
2 oz/ 57 g Dried Cranberries
2 oz/ 57 g Deglet Noor Pitted Dates, Chopped
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
3 Tbsp Soymilk, Warm (you can use any vegan milk)

For the dough part, sift the flour and salt together.
Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and cut in the cream cheese and butter.
Let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Meanwhile mix the cinnamon with the soymilk and soak the dried fruits in the soymilk mixture. You don't want the fruits to burn while they are baking.
After the chilling is finished.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Take the dough and roll it out to be a 8" x 16" rectangle. *
Then spread the mixture evenly across the dough and tightly roll up the dough.
Wet a knife and cut the rolled up rope of dough to however big you want the rugelach to be.
If there is any leftover liquid from the filling, brush it ontop of the rugelach and bake it for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns into a light golden brown.

*If you want to make mini rugelach, you get less spirals in the cookies. Just divide the dough in half and roll each piece to a 4" x 16" rectangle.

Steamed Spring Roll
Normally the ones at YumCha is fried but it's healthier to steam but the taste is very different.
This recipe is very similar to the tofu skin wrap.

Yields 21 Spring rolls

Water
21 Spring roll Wrapper
15 Dried Shiitaki mushroom
2 Bunch of Rice Vermecille Noodle
1 10 oz Baby Corn, Canned
1 10 oz Braised Bamboo Shoot, Sliced into Matchsticks
20g Woodear Fungus
Soy Sauce
Salt

Soak the shiitaki mushroom, rice vermecille noodles and woodear three separate bowls of warm water.
Rinse the canned baby corn and bamboo shoot to get rid of the perservatives in the can.
Slice the shiitaki mushroom into thin slices and cut the rice vermecille noodles into 2" and snip and hard spot in the woodear. Then roughly chop the woodear fungus.
Cut the baby corns into quarters.
In a saucepan cook the mushroom and woodear fungus until it's almost 3/4th done then add in the baby corn and bamboo shoot and cook it until they are warm.
Toss in the vermecille noodles and cook for about 2 more minutes. Then flavor with soy sauce and salt.
* Soak a spring roll wrapper in warm water to soften it.
Place the spring roll wrapper on a flat surface and place the filling horizontally in the middle towards the bottom of the wrapper.
Fold the left and right side of the wrapper towards the middle and then roll the wrapper tightly starting at the bottom where the filling is.
Repeat this process 20 more times, start the steps where the * asterisk is.
Place the spring rolls in to a steamer or a wok with some water and steam it for 15 minutes.

Soy Yogurt Cheese

I personally think it taste better than sour cream and cream cheese. Just follow these few simple step to make your own yogurt cheese from regular soy yogurt. You can make your own soy yogurt by going here. You can use this soy yogurt cheese for almost anything

Yogurt
Colander
Cheesecloth or Coffee Filters.

Line your colander with a cheesecloth or enough coffee filters to fit the whole colander. (Just wet the coffee filter to make it easier to handle.)
Pour the cheesecloth over the muslin and let it strain the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

*note: if you want a more tangy yogurt cheese do not use commercial soy yogurt, make your own. The longer you ferment the yogurt, the tangier and sourer the yogurt becomes.

Macau Almond Cookies

They are also known as Macau Almond cake. This brand makes their almond cookie mainly out of almond, oil and mung bean starch. This company is a well known bakery in Macau famous for their almond cookies. They are absolutely delicious. I have odd cravings to make southeast Asian food. Delicious. I love kueh!

Thai food anyone?

2007-11-04T17:17:00.000-05:00

Curry Kabocha with Yu Choy and Tofu

It's a rip off of the Epicurious shrimp curry with yu choy and kabocha

Instead of the shrimp I used some extra firm silken tofu.

As for the fish paste, I used FatFree Vegan's No Fish Fish Sauce.

Note: If you can't find kaffir leaves, even in the Asian market but you can use lime leaves, lemon leaves or 1 tablespoons for every 6 kaffir leaves.

Normally you can find lemongrass in your local Asian market but you can use a substitute of 1 zest of a whole lemon is 2 stalk of lemongrass.

I found the thai basil a bit overwhelming since Thai basil is very pungent in comparison to the regular basil you may find in the regular supermarket.

The choy sum has so many names for the Cantonese, it's called yu choy, yow choy or flowering rape.

Tofu Mushroom Side Dish

Recipe

1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, Chopped
8 oz Mushroom (Cremini or White)
6 oz Firm Silk Tofu, 1/2 Inch Cubed
1 Scallion, Finely Chopped
Oil

Heat the oil on medium-high heat and cook the garlic to release the aroma for about 10 seconds, make sure not to burn them.
Then add in the onions and cook it for a few minutes then add the mushrooms. Add enough salt to the vegetable to salt to your preference. This will allow the vegetable to release any water.
When the onions are almost thoroughly cooked add the tofu and the scallions and cook it until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are cooked.

Chocolate Banana Muffin

It's not very banana-y tasting so I dont know whether to post this recipe or not.

Midterm week

2007-10-23T00:08:00.000-05:00

The title describes all!! I had midterms last, this week and I believe the one after this... Great this shows how tentative I am in class. I don't even know when my midterms are. I've been so busy studying for calculus, I'm drained so I decided to treat myself by going to Six Flag for the fright fest. I'm not a picture person so there's no pictures. It wasn't what I had expected. I expected it to be more frightening but apparently not with all the rude people pushing and shoving.

Anyways onward to the food. I helped my boyfriend bake some goodies for his mother's office since she was leaving that hell hole yay!!! We had to bake 80 of each item but we didn't have enough time to bake enough of the muffins. I wished I had more influence on what was being served. We made apple cranberry muffins (ovo-vegetarian), gingerbread cookies (ovo-vegetarian) and VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies (vegan). Awesome. Everyone loved the baked goods. The vegan cookies came in second though :[ They liked the muffins more...but at least it's not last!!

This week's muffin, Persimmon Muffin!!
Tis is the season for persimmons!!! I love persimmons although they can cause severe heartburns if you just eat it out of the hand. They're amazingly delicious. Some how they remind me of pumpkins because they're so orange! *Note I tend not to use cups to measure ingredients as they can be quite inaccurate. I've just converted the weight to volume so please excuse all the odd measurement in volume.

Recipe Yields 6 Muffin // 165 Cal/Muffin

75g// 5/8 Cup All Purpose Flour
75g// 5/8 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
38g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
12g// 1 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Allspice, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Salt

115g// About 1 Medium Persimmon, Pureed
12g// 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Soy Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla

Kabocha Pie (Japanese Pumpkin Pie)
Tis is autumn!! The leaves are falling, the winds are strong, it's almost Halloween, Thanksgiving will soon follow. It's a great time for eating pumpkin pies and sweet potato pies! Normally people associate autumn with pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie but there aren't many pumpkins readily available here but there are many kabocha. Kabocha is also known as Japanese pumpkin. The taste a bit like pumpkin and a bit like sweet potato. Even better! Killing two birds with one stone. Of course I wouldn't do that I can't even kill one bird with a stone. Poor birdie. Kabocha is a popular ingredient in Asian cooking and it's avaible all year round in the Asian markets. I've seen them in both the Korean markets and the Chinese market. In the Chinese market these kabocha are actually called pumpkin in Chinese. Hey why not make so "pumpkin pie"?

Recipe Yield 1 7" pie, 8 slices// 140.25 Cal/Slice

Crust
62g// 4 2x2 Graham Crackers, Crumbled
60g// 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
24g// 2 Tbsp Soy Butter, Room Temp.
3 Tbsp Soy Milk
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated

Filling
265g// Kabocha, puree
6 oz// 170g Silken Tofu, Firm (I used Mori-nu)
50g // 1/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated (You can use more, my kabocha was very sweet)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Crumble the graham crackers and combine it together with the all purpose flour.
Cut in the soy butter into the flour mixture.
Make a well in the middle and add the soy milk and knead the dough.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerated it for about 20 minutes.
Take out the dough and flour the rolling pin and your surface.
Roll out the dough to be around 3/4 cm thick and cover your 7" pie pan.
Poke many holes with the fork and back it in the oven for 15 minutes.
Take it out and let it cool while you make the filling.

Peel and dice the kabocha. (Make sure you measure the kabocha with out the skin and seeds.)
Dice the kabocha to 1.5" cubes and steam it in a steamer for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
Puree the squash in the food processor until there are no more lumps.
Put the kabocha into a large bowl and puree the tofu in the food processor. (Since we're using firm tofu, make sure there are no lumps! You don't want lumpy pie!)
Add the kabocha sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg into the tofu mixture and puree it until all the ingredients are combined.
Pour the filling into the crust and bake it for 20 minutes. If you bake too long, it will crack!

Cinnamon Raisin Coconut Rice Pudding

Rice pudding hmm....The coconut taste is very subtitle but with the addition of shredded coconuts, it goes quite far. Actually I've made it twice, once in my b/f house and once at home. The one that my b/f and I made was from a recipe in vegweb. It didnt turn out the way we wanted to so I've made it again.

Recipe Yields 4-6 Serving// 533-355 Cal/Serving

1 13.5 Fl Oz// 2 Cup Canned Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Cup Soy Milk (I used plain, sugarless)
185g// 1 Cup Jasmin Rice
150g// 3/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated
40g// 1/4 Cup Raisins
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar (Optional)
23 g// 1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut (Optional)

Boil the coconut milk and soy milk together in a saucepan or pot while you wash and rinse your rice. (It helps a lot if your saucepan or pot are nonstick because the rice will stick!)
When the milk mixture is just boiling, pour in the sugar and let the sugar melt in the milk. (If you are happening to use sweetened soy milk, reduce the amount of sugar.)
Pour in the the rice and let it boil with a lid overing the saucepan or pot on a medium to low heat.
While you are waiting for the rice to cook, soak the raisins in half a cup of warm water. If you don't soak the raisins they will absorb the moister in your rice pudding, making your pudding dry.
When the rice is starting to cook and has already absorbed about half of the milk, lower the heat to low and let it simmer slowly with the lid on so the steam can softens the rice. If you don't use a lid, the moister will evaporate out of the saucepan or pot. It's essential that you lower the heat or else the rice will burn! No shortcuts!! It may take up to 20 minutes to 30 minutes of simmering and steaming depending on the size of the saucepan or pot.
Stir the rice every few minutes to prevent burning or sticking to the saucepan or pot. If it does stick quickly scrap off any rice that is sticking to the saucepan or pot to prevent burning.
When the rice is mushy and reaches your desire consistency, fold in the raisins, vanilla extract, cinnamon, shredded coconuts and agave sugar (if you are using those).
Let the rice pudding simmer and steam for five more minutes. If your rice pudding happens to be drier due to moisture lost, add in some more soy milk.

Fatfree Carrot Muffin
Delicious muffin. My b/f and I got this recipe from fatfree vegan but we made our own streusel. which was not exactly fat free.

Streusel Topping

Recipe Yields enough for about 16 Cupcakes// 349 Cal total

36g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
24g// 2 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
1 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1 Tbsp Soy Butter
1 Tsp Cinnamon. Granulated
1/2 Tsp Ginger, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Clove, Granulated

Combine the sugars and spices.
Cut the applesauce and soy butter into the dry ingredients.
Combine until they are the consistency of breadcrumb
Sprinkle them onto the muffin batter after you scooped the batter into the muffin pan.

Tofu Pie!!

2007-10-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

Yearly check up at the doctors. I got a call back from my doctor because there was something wrong with my check up. I had a low count of white blood cell uh oh...don't know why though. I haven't gotten sick in a long time so I didn't really use any wbc... I dont know. I also have a high level of URIC ACID. All vegans and vegetarians should be concerned because high level of uric acid is caused by beans, pea, wine, beer and nutritional yeast! If you're a vegetarian/vegan and a lover of alcohol, it's a double whammy. High level of uric acid causes gout which is also known as metabolic arthritis. Here's a little more info about uric acid. Uric acid is the product of the purine when it's broken down by your body. Some holistic ways of reducing uric acid are eating 1/2 lb of cherries per day, drinking celery tea, eating bilberries, eating hawthorns, drinking juniper berry tea and much much more. Ah this is terrible...

Lots of cooking but not a lot of recording. I find that cooking is something that is hard to measure...People have different taste. Some people love to eat salty things, some people like blander things. Some people like spicy, some people can't stand spicy. I think I'm going to focus mainly on dessert and baked goods since I love baking. Whoopdeedoo.

Despite the fact that I should be reducing my intake of beans, I made CHOCOLATE TOFU PIE "magic pie". Love it so much. My b/f went ballistic. No picture since my mom borrowed my camera. Tofu is the shit!!. Also made raspberry chocolate pie. Hm.. hm.. good.

Chocolate Raspberry tofu pie

Not much modification. Just the addition of some raspberries.

Recipe 8" pie Serves 8/ 347Cal /Slice

Crust
8 large/128g Graham Cracker, Crumbled
4 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
1/4 Cup/50g Sugar, Granulated
or
You can use a prepared graham cracker shell.

Filling
16 oz/454g Silk Tofu (I used soft)
12 oz/340g Chocolate Chip, Vegan
7.35 oz/208 g Frozen Raspberries, Unsweetened
plus
2.5 oz/71g Frozen Raspberries, Unsweetened

Start preparing the chocolate by heating up the chocolate chips in a double boiler.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Combine the graham cracker crumb with the cinnamon powder and sugar. Then mix in the apple sauce until it reaches a consistency of brown sugar.
Bake it for 10 minute.
While the crust is baking, place the tofu in a blender and start blending. The chocolate chip should be melted by now so add the melted chocolate while the blender is on.
Add in the 7.35 oz/208g of Frozen Raspberries into the blender while it's on.
Shut the blender off. Try and chop the remaining 2.5 oz/71g of frozen raspberries into halves or quarters and stir it into the blended mixture.
Pour it into the graham cracker crust and let it sit in your refrigerator.

*Note: This is softer than the original "magic pie" due to the addition of raspberries. The brown color of the pie is much lighter too.

Autumn = Apples

2007-09-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Autumn is Here

Don't you just love autumn? My family and I went to the Masker Orchard in Warwick, New York for a jolly family apple picking trip. We picked around 45 apples but the variety was not great since there were only a few variety of apples ripe at that moment. We only have a few left. We love our apples. Yes we do.

Apple Tartlet

Recipe Yields 6 Tarlets 112 Cal/ Tarlet

3 1/2 Tbsp / 49g Vegan Butter, Room Temperature
48 Sheets/26 g Phyllo Dough (Each sheet around 4.5"x 2.5')
1 Large/ 268 g Golden Delicious Apple, Finely Diced
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg
1/8 Tsp salt

Grease a muffin pan.
Peel and dice your apples and put it into a sauce pan with the salt and a tablespoon of butter.
Heat up the apples on med-high heat and wait until the apples starts to let out it's juices.
Pour the sugar and lower the heat. Let the apples simmer and continue stirring the apples until the syrup reduce into a thick syrup similar to the consistency of rice syrup.
Add in the vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until it is combined.
Then set the apples aside while you prepare the phyllo dough crust.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and Lay the first sheet down and generously spread some butter on the phyllo dough, lay another phyllo sheet and spread the butter on it again. You should do this four more times, resulting in 6 layers of phyllo dough.
Gently stuff the sheet into the muffin pan and dollop 1/6th of the apple filling into the phyllo shell.
Do this 5 more times resulting 6 apple tartlets.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Another day in Manhattan

Sorry I didnt bring my camera but damn!! I love Union Square. I went with my boyfriend and we went to the green market and bought a lot of those decorative guords and indian corn. There was also a street fair with many various booths. There was a couple who had a booth selling vegan soap. Awesome! The only non vegan soap they had was the Honey Oatmeal. The couple was very nice and offered some nice tips and free samples. They also have a website so maybe you can check it out. They're booth is called the Copasoaps. They're from Phila, Pennsylvania but they sell their soaps in the street fairs on N.Y. They have the locations, time and date on the website.

My boyfriend and I also went to Zen Palate. They serve mostly vegan Asian food. They do specify whether the food contain milk derived ingredients, eggs, or dairy. Although it's a bit small, I loved the atmosphere. Their dishes are also huge so we ended up sharing our food and getting some appetizer. I didn't fully enjoy my stay there because of the other customers. There were several groups of customers who went into the restaurant not knowing that it was a veggie restaurant. When they took a look at the menu, they got up and left. What bunch of pricks. Screw them.

Thank goodness we went to some place sweet to calm my nerves. We went to Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen. FUck Yah. COMPLETELY VEGAN. I think Babycakes is overrated. Pretty website and what not. After reading an article online about Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen, I found out that they went through a lot since early this year, they were suppose to be scheduled to closed down due to their landlord but with support from the lovely customers of the bakery, a rally was held to keep the bakery open. Hell yah! They're still open. We got a pumpkin pie. Great treat for the fall. It tasted great! The bakery does not look the best nor was it big, it fucking rocks.

Homemade Vegan Candle

2007-09-19T21:54:00.000-05:00

No update in over a week because I'm too caught up with school and work. I haven't had the time to truely make anything worthy but I did modified the banana kiwi muffin.

Updated Banana Kiwi Muffin

I think the last Banana Kiwi Muffin didn't taste so good. Yet and I still posted it. Shouldn't do that...

Recipe Yields 8 Loaves

1 1/2 /180g Cup All Purpose Flour
1 /120g Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 /200g Cup Sugar, Granulated
2/3 Tsp Baking Soda
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Medium/128g Banana
1 Small/95g Kiwi
4 /56g Tbsp Vegan Butter, Room Temp.
2 Rice Eggs or Ener-G
1/4 Cup /59 mL Soy Milk
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 Tsp Banana Essence
1/4 Apple Cider Vinegar

In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt
Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the loaf pan.
Puree the banana and kiwi together in the food processor.
Cream together the vegan butter and vegan egg. (If you are using flax or rice egg please let it cool to room temperature before you cream together with the butter or else the butter will melt.)
Combine the fruit puree into the liquid mixture.
Add in the soy milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract and banana essence.
Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and combine until the two mixture are all mixed but do not over mix.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake it for 35 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Vegan Candles

For all those arts and craft people who enjoy making your own candles, there is a great site that provides vegan candle equipments. Hooray hoorah! They have very reasonable prices and a wide variety of candle base and scents. They're called Southern Scentsation. I emailed them to inquire about their product information. I didnt ask about their soap base nor do I think they are vegan.

This is the email between Beth and me.

Cookies

2007-09-09T22:43:00.000-05:00

So damn tired. My b/f, friend and I went bike riding for more than 4 hours along bike trails. Holy Fudge!! My bum hurts like a bitch. We went down hill on a rocky, dirt rode. I hit a tree at full speed and I went flying across the path. Awesome...bruised my pelvic bone when I hit the metal rod on the bike that is between the legs. I need to go out more hahahh fudging loser :3 Anyways enough ranting.

Berry Stoned Pome Smoothie

Laced it with calcium powder and protein powder in attempt to get all the needed nutrients. It does taste more like a power shake since it's does have a slight powdery gritty texture from the soy protein. You can do without it but hey you're not getting that calcium and protein even though it's not as much as a glass of soy milk. It has more protein than a regular soy milk smoothie.

Recipe Yields 3 cups/ 144 Cal, 11.7% Dv Calcium, 6g og Protein
1 Med-Large/195g Apple
1/138g Nectarine, White
1 Cup/250g Raspberries, Unsweetened Frozen
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
2 Tbsp Soy Powder (Now Brand)
1/2 Tsp Calcium Powder (Now Brand)
1 cup/237 mL Soy milk, plain

Pit and chop the apple and nectarine into 1/2 inch cubes.
Throw in the raspberries, apples and nectarine into the blender (hence the name of the smoothie).
Top it off with the soy powder, calcium powder and agave nectar.
Pour in the soy milk and blend!

It's really sweet from the apple yum!

Graham Cracker Raisin Cookies!!

Whoopdie doo! Need to get rid of my graham cracker. Use vegan graham cracker so watch out for em honey!! I need to perfect this cookie. My mom thinks it's sweet but I think it's fine. I think it's a bit too soft and chewy but my mom thinks it's nice soft and chewy. Hard to please so eh...

Recipe Yields 18 Cookies
1/2 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup Soy Butter
1 Egg Substitute (I used the rice egg)
1/3 Vanilla
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
8 Large/125g Graham Crackers
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Salt

Place the crackers into the food processor and process it until the crackers become powdered graham crackers. (Not crumb, POWDER!!)
Cream together the sugar and the butter in a large bowl until the mixture is all nice and creamy.
Cream the egg substitute into the creamed sugar mixture until everything is combined. (If you are using flax egg or the rice egg, let it cool down first or it will melt your creamed butter mixture)
Put in the vanilla extract the grounded cinnamon and cream it all together.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Sift the graham cracker powder, baking powder baking soda and salt into the creamed mixture.
Mix the dough together until everything is combined.
Form into 18 balls of dough and bake it on the cookie sheets for 12 minutes @350 F.

Italy Grape

Can someone please tell me what exactly are they? They were labeled Italy Grapes but I googled it and there were just listing of wine grapes. The chinese name for it is also Italy Grapes so I don't know. They are about 3/4 inches in diameter. The skin is also quite thick and the flesh is a bit tart but also has a hint of grape/plum flavor. I don't know please do inform me of this odd fruit.

Tempeh mixed Veggie Sandwich

Mixed veggies...You can tell me about it. Yes that is bokchoy. I dont even know what kind of sandwich it is hahah. Fried tempeh with soy sauce, Bokchoy, pan fried tomato with sweet relish and dijon mustard on pumpernickel. Que? Asian stuff with some non Asian stuff hahah yay!! It tasted pretty good though. Muahahah oddball

Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea and Wrigley's Orbit White

2007-09-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea
I called the company up using the number on the back of the bottle 1(800)657-3001. I spoke with one of the representative named Lin. I asked whether any of the ingredients contained any animal products or are derived from any animals. Lin quickly said no as if she has been asked many times before.

Here are the ingredients : water, citric acid, green tea, natural flavors, sodium hexametaphosphate (to protect flavor), phosphoric acid, potassium sorbate and potassim benzoate (preserve freshness), ascorbic acid (to protect flavor), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium (to protect flavor), caramel color, yellow 5, blue 1.

Although they may not contain many animal products, they do contain a lot of chemicals!! whoop dee doo.

Wrigley's Orbit White

I also called to inquire about the orbit white product and lo and behold, all flavors are vegan! I called 1(800)974-4539 and spoke with Kerry, Cari, Carry ( however you may spell her name) and asked her whether or not the spearment orbit white contained any animal by products and she also responded quickly ask if she has been asked this question a million times. In fact she said all of the orbit white contains no animal products.

Here are the ingredients: maltiol, sorbitol, gum base, acacia, natural and artificial flavors, mannitol; less than 2% of glycerol, soy lecithin, aspartame, acesulfame k, sodium bicarbonate, carnaba wax, BHT (to maintain fresshness)

All the flavors contains the same ingredients with the exception of colors.

Wintermint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, blue 1)
Bubblemint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, red3)
Peppermint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, blue 1)
Spearmint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, yellow 5, blue 1)

First week of School

2007-09-02T13:12:00.000-05:00

College sucks butt. This semester is more hectic than my previous semesters. Despite all the load I want to start a a vegan/vegetarian club at my school I need to recruit some vegan/vegetarians first. I know no one there let alone any vegan/vegetarians. I need to devise some things to do and plant out each meeting. I'm at a total lose. Some suggestions would be nice :3

I didn't cook much either. I have no idea what I've been eating this whole week...I've been eating Energy bars. Hahah a lot of luna bars, organic food bar. Oofz those are so gritty but it doesn't taste that bad after a while. They do have 22g of protein AWESOME. I've been eating a lot of durians too. Yayyy durians everyday. It's my fucking life.

Calcium Enriched Banana Raspberry Shake
It sucks that I have to go to work right after class so I don't get a chance to eat lunch and I start work at 1. I don't want to go to work and work for only 5 minutes and take my lunch break. I decided to make shakes so I can type as I chug down my shake. Sorry no picture because I had to rush to work. This shake is also calcium fortified since it's quite important for women to get a sufficient amount of calcium or else by the time we're 40, we're screwed.

Recipe Yields 2 Cup/ 198 Cal/cup

1 Large Banana, Chunks
1/2 Cup Frozen Raspberry
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Cup Soymilk
1/3 Tsp Citrate Calcium (I used NOW brand since it's Vegan)

Place the frozen raspberries in the blender first then put in the chunks of banana on top of the raspberries
Pour in the soymilk and put in the calcium and the agave nectar.
Blend it on high speed.

ed Bean/Green Bean Buns
Buns buns buns!! Sorry didn't measure out the amount for the filling so I only have the calorie intake for the buns not the filling

Portuguese Sweet Bread

Recipe Yields 8 Buns/262 Cal/Buns
1/6 Cup/8 Tsp Warm Water (105- 115 F)
2 1/2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast
1/2 Tsp and 3/8 Cup/6 Tbsp Sugar
1/6 Cup/ 8 Tsp and 1 Tbsp Warm Milk
3/8 Cup/ 6 Tbsp Margarine, Warm (Soy Garden)
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Flax Egg ( I used 1 1/2 Flax Egg and 1 1/2 Rice Egg)
2 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

Red Bean/Mung Bean Filling

Recipe
Red Bean/Mung Beans
Water
Sugar
Oil

or you can use canned red bean or mung bean at the asian markets.

To make the filling

Prepare the filling first if you are making your own by soaking the red beans in one bowl and the mung beans in another bowl for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Boil the red beans until the beans are cooked and soft.
Drain out all the water and blend the beans in the blender until it becomes a paste.
Then put the paste in a sauce pan and pour a small amount of oil (same amount you would for sauteing that much vegetables) and enough sugar for you to sweeten that batch of red bean.
Cook it on med to high heat until it reaches the consistency of a thick paste. (around 5 minutes)
Follow the same instructions above to make the mung bean paste.

To make the bread

Combine the warm water, active dry yeast and 1/2 tsp of sugar together. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the liquid mixture starts to bubble and rises to about double the size.
Then combine in the sugar, warm milk, butter and salt.
Then pour the "eggs" and 2 cup of the flour and mix it until it forms into a dough.
Knead the dough and add in the remaining flour. If the dough is a bit too wet add a bit more flour.
Knead it for 10 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about and hour or until it has double in sized and the dough retains the punctures of your fingers when you poke at the dough.
Punch down the dough and separate the dough into 8 balls.
Fill each ball of dough with the bean fillings.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Let the shaped buns rise for about 35 minutes or until it has double and the passes the finger test. (Same test you would use to test for the first rising)
Brush the buns with the remaining soy milk and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

NOW Food
You have to love NOW food. They have an awesome amount of vegan/vegetarian supplements. I just go the calcium citrate and the soy protein powder from them and I already had the calcium citrate + vitamin D pills. Awesome. Hm... I would consider these items a staple we need protein to survive and calcium too especially for women. Women tend to lack calcium so by the time they reach their middle ages, their bone mass has decrease to half it's original bone mass. Osteoporosis, slouching and fracture limbs are some of the symptoms of low bone mass. Watch out women!! BUILD EM BONES!!

Calcium Citrate
1 Tsp = 700mg = 70% of our DV (DV is 1000mg)
Although it says powder, it's not as fine as powder sugar. It's a bit gritty like cornmeal. It also has a tint of sourness towards it since it is derived from citrus items. It's great for sprinkling it on food items. The sour taste can easily be covered up by salt, sugar or anything.

Soy Protein
1/4 Cup = 21g =40% of our DV (DV is aorund 52g-53g)
NOW food brand soy protein powder is unflavored. Unlike the flavored soy protein drinks, it does not contain sugar so you can sprinkle your soy protein powder into salty food as well yay!
It taste like soy so it's not so hard masking the taste. Create a sauce for your tofu dish. Whatever you want! Make your own soy protein shake. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Use your imagination. You are not limited to the vanilla flavor or chocolate flavor that they have at the health food stores.

Last week of vacation

2007-08-26T12:46:00.000-05:00

It's the last week of my vacation. College starts tomorrow and I haven't gone school supply shopping. See how much I care about school. it's going to be hard to balance out school, work and b/f. FUDGE!! I hate this crap. I haven't been doing much cooking this week since I've been quite busy. All I've been doing is living off of my banana kiwi quick bread and my frozen food. We went back to the Poconos this Wednesdays and we went with Moses since he wanted to buy some fireworks. that arse hahahaha.

Banana Kiwi Quick bread (Vegetarian)

This is the quick bread I've been living off of the whole week. I had to get rid of all the kiwi I had. The quick bread was very moisty and soft. It should be finished within a few days. It's not vegan because of the cream cheese. I also need to convert it to a vegan recipe. Does not seem like a hard conversion at all. Sorry I didn't weight the kiwi and the banana as I was very lazy that day due to the fudging weather. It looks like the sky will fall and the whole world will end.

Recipe Yields 8 Mini Loaf

Wet Ingredient
1 1/2 Cup/180g All Purpose Flour
1 Cup/120g Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 Tsp Baking Soda
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Cup/150g Sugar,Granulated

Dry Ingredient
2 Medium Banana
3 Small Kiwi
1/2 Cup/2 oz/57g Cup Cream Cheese, soften
2 Tbsp Vegan Butter, soften (I used Soy Garden)
1/2 Cup of Cooked Homemade Rice Milk (You can use 2 eggs worth of Ener-G)
2 Tbsp Rice Milk/Soy Milk

Preheat the oven @ 350 F.
In a large bowl, sift the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and granulated sugar together and combine it well.
Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Then combine the nondairy milk and "egg" into the cream cheese/butter mixture.
Puree 1 banana in a food processor and chop the other banana into tiny pieces.
Puree 1 1/2 of the kiwi and chop the other 1 1/2 kiwi in to tiny pieces.
Pour in the banana and kiwi puree into the wet ingredients and mix well.
Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients.
Gently combine the two mixture together. Do not over mix you're batter.
Then Gently fold in the chopped banana and kiwi.
Place it in the oven and bake for 35 minute @ 350 F or until the toothpick test come out clean.

Paul's 19th Birthday
It was my b/f's 19th birthday yesterday and I baked him a cake from VCTOTW. A maple cake to be exact. I made a 9" cake but I think it was best to make a 8" cake so it'll look higher. Basically I used the recipe from VCTOTW. I made two batches separately and one recipe of the maple frosting but 2 recipe of the frosting is best if you were to use the frosting as the filling too. I toasted some walnut and coated the side of the cake with it since I didn't have enough frosting to cover up the sides. Fudge. Had a hugeeee slice. It was really rich and sweet. My brother described it as eating pancakes. hahahha

Trip to Poconos
Went to the Poconos again and here is Paul and Moses fooling around at the Crossing Outlet.

Went to American Candles and I couldn't resist this time. DOOD HOW THE HELL CAN YOU RESIST VEGETABLES AND ANIMALS. hahah Animals and Vegetable/Fruits is my life since hello I'm living as a vegetarian. I found it quite fitting. I had to purchase this. They had a variety of Home Grown Statues but I think this figurine resembles the vegetable and the animal the most. Cauliflower body and mushroom head. It's very cute, it also has the nutritional facts for these little figures. If you can't see it on the photo it says:

Serving Size: One home Grown Friend
Amount Per Serving
Companionship 100%
Total Laughst 25g - DV 100%
Saturated Giggles 10g - DV 100%
Friendship 15mg - DV 100%
Smiles 50mg - DV 100%
Humor Lots - DV 100%

If you are interested here is the site Enesco. They also have salt shakers and appetizer forks.

Day in Manhattan

2007-08-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

Wow many things to say and talk about well I'm going to talk about first is my day to Manhattan since that is the title after all. xD

I went with two of my friends, whom I have not seen since high school to Union Square to explore the world or organic produce, green markets and veganism and the whole shindig.

We went to the union square green market and browsed around. There's so many produces and there was this vendor there selling vegan baked goods...well only two...There were the apple cranberry cake and the carrot raisin cookie!! I have not tried it yet though since I was eating alllll day today haha.

I also bought some berry hot garlic jam. No berries only garlic and hot peppers. It was expensive though, $4 for a 2.5 oz. It's minuscules!!! When I went to the poconos I bought my 10.5 oz mayhaw jame for $3.50 at the local green market. There were so many items ranging from herbs to vegetables to flowers to baked goods to ice cream to cheese to goat hide....WTF?! goat hide. I got so pissed I was standing in front of the standing screaming OMFG they killed the poor goats. GOAT KILLERS. Cursing like crazy. It was so upsetting to see. It ruined the whole excitement of being at the green market so we quickly left.

We went to Galaxy Global Eatery a "new age" cafe with a full menu and a lot of vegetarian/vegan choices. There weren't that many vegan choices for the weekend brunch though. We didnt get to see the whole menu since they only gave us the weekend brunch menu. I took the paper menu for a souvenir and that was when I learned that they have the most scariest non veg food in the world!! They served rabbits, ostrich, bison and buffalo. NO FUCKING KIDDING about the new age theme!! As for the vegetarian/vegan food items, they did serve seitan and tempeh and a lot of tofu. I was surprised a non veg restaurant would have even heard of seitan and tempeh. For vegans, there were the choices of all the salads, rosemary tofu skewers, vegan breakfast and bbq buffalo seitan with out the japanese eggplant since it was breaded. As for the vegetarians, there were many choices like the whole wheat blueberry flaxseed pancakes and many of the other dishes as the turkey bacon can be substituted with the tempeh bacon. I got myself the Vegan Breakfast.

The tofu scramble was a bit bland but it had a nice parsley aroma. The potato and tempeh was delicious but the salad was a bit too salty. Maybe the chef mistakenly seasoned the salad a second time instead of the tofu scramble. Don't understand as to how the chef can get that incorrect though...

Archer Farms Fruit Bars (Vegan)
Here's what I've found at Target...FRUIT BARS!! It's like fruit preserve...but they had boxes of fruit preserve next to them so I guess they're not as similar as I think it is. I've bought the pomegranate and the Tropical fruit bars. According to the ingredients of the Pomegranate one, it says apple, natural pomegranate flavor, fruit juice concentrates (pomegranate, blueberry and lemon), elderberry juice, absorbic acid (vitamin c). Here's the ingredients to the Tropical fruit bars:

Vegetable Crackers (Vegan)

Free gift from the Asian grocery store!! My mom got it for free for spending over a certain amount of money in Hong Kong Supermarket. Yayy it's vegan! Here's what the ingredients have to say wheat flour, starch, vegetable oil, celery, scallion, onion, salt, leavening agent (it says in Chinese: leavening powder for food usage) , edible color yellow no.4

Concoctions muahah...

Green Tea Jasmin Cupcake~Muffins
I was intending to make some green tea jasmin muffin but they turned out to be more like cupcakes :[ I must experiment more!! I think I over seeped the green tea because the mufifn had a bitter after taste.

Lara Bars Copy Cats
I love lara bars but I don't think I can afford to buy a bar ranging from $1.29 to $1.79 everytime I go to the supermarket. It super duper good!! I must make my own I shall experiment and see how close I can get to the real deal.

FRUITS FRUITS FRUITS
We only had a tub of kiwi and one banana left so I went to buy some fruits after work and my mom also saw that there were no more fruit so she decided to buy some fruits while she was at work and guess what we ended up with? A LOT OF FRUITS. We have 12 different varieties!!

A bunch of Banana
3 Pears
8 Pluots
11 Plums
A bag of Logan
1 Cantaloupe
3 Nectarines
10 Oranges
A bag of Grapes
9 Mango
9 Kiwi
3 Dragon Fruits (Not in the Photo)

DURIAN!!
I love durians, the king of all fruits!! I had 6 nuggets and mommy bought another durian!!! It's 99 cent per lb!! DURIAN SEASON IS HERE!!!

Homemade Rice Milk

2007-08-14T08:45:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try and post smaller and more frequent post. It's hard to browse because you would have to keep scrolling down the the bottom of nothing just to get to your destination. :3 I've said that before but apparently I haven't improved yet.

Rice Milk Have you ever tried Rice Dream or Whole's Food 365 Rice Milk? If you haven't you should! My initial reaction was damn this is good. I personally prefer rice milk over soy milk because it's so light, crisp and tasty but, soy milk provides more protein. I'm so upset by the price of these alternative milk since it cost around 3 dollars for a quart of UHT milk. I can finish that in two days!!! I've tried making my own rice milk using the recipes acquire from nomilk. I've tried two of the recipe and they do not come close to any of the commercial rice milk. Here's my review for them.

Rice Milk Recipe #1
1 Cup of Warm Cooked Rice
4 Cups of Warm Water
1/2 Tsp Vanilla

Cook some rice or you can use left over and put it in a blend.
Pour in the warm water and blend it on high until there are no more rice particles.

The Recipe ask you to let it sit for half and hour and pour off the water but my rice milk has been sitting in my refrigerator for a couple of days and never separated. The liquid was very thick and pudding looking. It did not taste like rice milk but rather like rice. If you have ever tried congee, it's like a pureed form of it. It's not the best drink beverage but I think it would work great as a thickener in cakes and it goes well with coffee.

Rice Milk Recipe #2

1 Cup Rice, Raw
4 Cup Warm Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

Wash the rice until the water becomes clear to get rid of all the starch.
Soak the rice in water overnight or for at least 4 hours.
Rinse the rice out with clean water and wash the rice until the water is clear.
Put the rice into the blender and pour in the warm water and blend for about 3 minutes.
Let the rice particles separate from the liquid and blend it again for another 1 minute. *(I found that if you just pour the layer of water off as the rice milk, it taste jsut like water)
Pour the rice water into a fine muslin cheesecloth and catch the liquid with a bowl or a bottle to filter out the remaining rice particles.

I think this recipe taste the most like the commercial rice milk BUT unlike the manufacturing companies, we do not have a nice fancy filtration device to filter out the liquid from the solid resulting in gritty rice milk!! Another problem is that when you let the rice milk sit in your refrigerator, the liquid will separate and it must be shaken before you use it. It is also not wise to warm or cook the rice milk because it will turn into a thicker form the previous rice milk. It's going to turn into paste!

BUNS BUNS BUNS!!!!

I'm in love with buns! Steamed buns to be exact. This has to be my favorite brand of steam buns. They're in such an adorable size and they come in several different flavor!! Red bean paste, lotus paste, sesame paste and butter cream. I don't the brand name in English but I just call it the Flower Head Man Buns!!! My mom bought the sesame paste one and the butter cream one. The butter cream is not vegan because it contains butter, cream and cheese powder. I'm not exactly sure if that is vegetarian since I'm not really going to call international to China. I've never heard of cheese powder but I'm assuming it's custard powder since many of the other companies uses custard powder to make the custard fillings. My mom love these buns too so she'll be eating the butter cream one. I believe the other fillings are all vegan but I don't have them stocked in my freezer. I'll edit this post when I purchase the other fillings.

Flower Head Man Buns
Sesame Paste Buns - Vegan
Butter Cream Buns - Not Vegan and ?? if it's vegetarian
Red Bean Buns - ?? for now
Lotus Bean Bun - ?? for now

Weekend getaway

2007-08-12T13:17:00.000-05:00

More like a one day get away. I went with my b/f to the Poconos. Stayed at hojos and lots of candle stores/factories. They're also a cute little farmers market near by and two health food store. Awesome. Pangea the restaurant in the Poconos had a wide variety of food from different parts of the world and they also had a whole section for vegetarians. The waitress was very nice unlike some other waitress when you ask them about the food they would just lie about their answer. We asked the waitress some questions and she actually when to ask the chefs to find out the answers.
Other than that I didn't do much at all this week except for buy buy buy.

Crystallized Ginger (Vegan)
Bought some Vietnamese "sweetened ginger" thinking it's crystallized ginger at my local Chinese supermarket. I bought it before but I remember to taste more spicy. They also did not look like that either. It looks and taste like they have been boiled down and lost all it's ginger taste and dusted with confectioner sugar. It reminds me of those sugared cover Chinese new year candy like those sugar coated winter melons. I got the recipe from Great Cooking.

Verdict: I love sweet spicy ginger!!

Recipe Yields around 5.6 oz - 6 oz/156 g - 170 g
8 oz/227 g Large Young Ginger (Old wrinkly ginger has thread in it)
2 Cups/400 g Sugar, Granulated
1 Tbsp Water

Peel the ginger with a spoon and slice it 1/8th to 1/4th an inch which ever way that will yield you the widest slice. (Yes peel it with a spoon! The spoon is harder than the ginger skin but not harder than the ginger so it makes peeling so easy. You wont peel away all the flesh of the ginger either.
Toss the ginger with the sugar in a bowl
In a large sauce pan put in the water, sugar and ginger. Try to layer the ginger evenly so that it gets cooked evenly.
Bring the mixture to a slow simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes or until the syrup turns into paste. Stir when things starts sticking together or the ginger starts burning. It's best not to stir at all or else the sugar will crystallized. When it looks like the mixture will brown, lower the heat Do not let it brown at all or else it'll be too hard or bitter.
When it reaches a paste like mixture start stirring the mixture more often to form sugar crystals.
When the whole paste turn into sugar crystal place your crystallized ginger into an air tight jar or container. You can save the ginger sugar for tea or for your gingersnap cookies.

Sweet Potato Ginger Tong Sui (Vegetarian/Vegan)
I love ginger and sweet potato who know how many bowls I ate in one sitting. "Tong Sui" literally means sweet water in chinese so this is a dessert recipe. It's actually a sweet soup. The measurement is really not on scale because I just made it to my preference with no measuring cups. My mom never use measuring cups or any measuring utensils. She just grabs and dump and that's exactly what I did. I think the rock candy and the peen tong contains honey. I'm not sure... I was almost finished with the dessert, all except for dissolving the sugar but I had to run out to do something quickly. I'm assuming my mom used the rock candy cause that's all she uses.

Recipe
24 oz- 36 oz/680g - 1021 g Sweet Potatoes
2 in" worth Ginger
2 Handful Dried Jujubes (Chinese Red Dates) (optional)
1 Handful Dried Logan (Fruit similar to the lychee) (optional)
Water
Peen Tong/Rock Candy if none are available use Granulated Sugar

Peel and cube the sweet potato ginger into 3/4" - 1" cubes.
Peel the ginger with a spoon and slice it 1/8"-1/4" thick.
Rinse both the dried red dates and the dried logan. They both can be purchased at the dinese herbal store or your local Chinese supermarket.
Dump the sweet potatoes, ginger, jujubes and logans in a huge pot and pour in enough water cover 1 cm over the sweet potatoes.
Let it boil on med to high heat until the sweet potatoes are soft and sweeten the soup with the sugar. Put as much as you like.

Frey Chocolate Bar (Vegan)
Frey, the Swiss chocolate company also has an American Line of chocolate called the supreme. Target is the only place in America that sells Frey's chocolate. So far I have only found out that Frey's Swiss Dark Chocolate and Frey's Supreme Hot Chilli Peppers are vegan but may contain traces of milk. All the other chocolates like Endanger Species, Chocolove, Rapunzel and Green and Black are considered vegan but may contain traces of milk. Up to you to decide. I do no have the email to authenticate my words on the Swiss dark chocolate but the ingredients does not contain any milk solid, butter, nonfat milk and other dairy products. I need to buy the bar and scan the wrapper on. I do have the email saying that the hot chilli pepper is vegan.

Click on the photo to enlarge

Korean Traditional Rice Syrup (Vegan)

I found it at the local Korean supermarket. It cost $3.99 but my b/f bought it at his local korean market for a buck cheaper and twice the size. I was comparing and contrasting this syrup and the one I had from Lundberg. The korean rice syrup was a bit more diluted and the taste was not as strong. It's possible that water was used to dilute it or it was mixed with malt syrup but I can't tell for sure. On the ingredients all it said was Rice Malt syrup. I think i might use this as a substitute for brown rice syrup.

Bread.A Bakery
Hooray a vegetarian bakery opened near my neighborhood. For all those who live in Flushing, NY you should check it out. Although it's quite small and has not so great of a selection, the girl who works there is really nice. A Taiwanese person opened this place so the workers there might not speak English well. I know I was having a hard time communicating with the girl who works there since I can't speak Mandarin and she was not quite familiar with English. I hope the other workers there are more knowledgeable of English.

Pros
They have cakes, cookies, buns and entree.
They have a variety of bread and buns. I love buns!!! They had many buns like those Chinese bakery buns. They have the red bean, cinnamon raisin, black sesame and others. I love the fact that someone actually tried to make those vegetarian buns!! The drinks they serve are very delicious too.

Cons
They don't really serve any vegan cake or cookies but they are willing to custom make it for you. Yay vegan birthday cake but damnnit birthday passed. Too bad it's situated in a poor area though. It's right on an area in which there are many construction companies, auto shops and hardware stores. I am afraid they might do a lot of business. The place also a bit small. Its like an extremely small bakery with 2 tables and several chais in the back.

Goodies from the Place
Po Lo Bao (Pineapple Bun er...more like pumpkin bun)

It was Po Lo Bao at all. I think it was the pumpkin bun but I don't think the girl understood me when I was speak in Cantonese but never the less it tasted quite good. I loved the dough especially the flaky coat layer. I was having so much fun peeling it as i was eating it. The filling was decent, not the best but not the worst either. It was mildly sweet and reminded me of apples. I thought it would have had more filling though.

Hong Dao Sa Bao (Red Bean Paste Bun)
I think it tasted funky to me. The red bean didnt really taste like red bean. It tasted a bit bitter and not sweet at all.

Hak Zee Ma Bao (Black Sesame Bun)

It looked really cute... too cute to eat. I like the walnuts in the bottom of the filling and the sesame was pretty good.

Everything there was fairly decent. I like the service since the girl did try really hard to help me and I loved the drink that my brother got and the fact that there are buns!!

Mango cheese cake

2007-08-05T12:42:00.001-05:00

I forgot to post last week. I could've sworn I did but it's too late.

Mango Pineapple Cheesecake (Lacto Vegetarian)

Verdict: My mom a 2 boxes of 10 huge mango for $5.50. Too many mango for us to consume and plus I still need to get rid of my cream cheese and graham crackers.

They were the red, yellow, green orange one. I prefer the whole orange one. I think if you used the orange one, it'll taste much better.

Recipe Yields 8" pie/8 slices 228Cal/serving

Crust
16/62g Graham Cracker Rectangles or you can use a prepared crust
2-3 Tbsp Vegan Butter, Cold (I used Soy Garden)

Filling
1 1/2 Pkg/ 12 oz Neuchatel, Room Temperature (You can try it with vegan cream cheese or use silken tofu + lemon juice
1/2 tsp Pineapple Essence
1 1/4 Egg Using Ener-G, Seperated
4 Tbsp/78g/ Mango Puree 0r 1/2 Cup Sliced Mango Pureed in the Blender
1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp/125g Sugar, Granulated

Preheat the oven to 350F
To prepare the crust, crush the graham cracker into crumbs and cut the cold butter into the crumbs.
Press the crumb onto the bottom and the side of your 8" pie pan and bake it in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
Lower the oven temperature down to 325F.
Beat the pineapple essence and sugar into the neuchatel cheese until the batter becomes smooth
Separate the batter in half and place one half in another bowl.
In one bowl of batter beat in the mango puree until it is combined. This will be the mango layer of the cheesecake.
In the other bowl mix in 1/2 egg using Ener-G plus the required amount of water.
In the mango cheesecake batter mix in 3/4 egg using Ener-G plus the requied amount of water.
Pour the plain pineapple batter into the pie crust and even out the layer.
Then pour the mango cheesecake batter onto of the pineapple layer and even it out.
Place it in the oven and bake it at 324F for an hour or until the middle of the pie is very close to firm when you jiggle it.

Banana Nut Toast (Vegan)

Verdict: Bananas going bad.

Recipe Yields 1 Serving 404Cal/Serving

1 Large Banana
2 Slices of Bread or bagel
2 Heaping Tbsp Cashew Butter (more or less to your liking)
Pinch of Cinnamon, Grounded (optional)

Spread the 1 tbsp of cashew butter on each slice of bread
Slice the banana 1/4" thick and line it across each slice of bread. (I could fit 4 slices by 4 slices)
Quickly sandwich the two slices together before the banana falls off.
Heat a skillet or pan and toast your bread on med-low heat until the bread is lightly browned.
Then take the remaining banana and heat it up in the skillet/pan and throw in a pinch of cinnamon and serve it on top of the toast.

Banana Nut Jam Rice Cake (Vegan)

verdict: Keep buying banana's even though I know I can never finish them quick enough.

Couldn't help but take a huge bite out of it before I took the picture.

Recipe Yields 1 Serving 285Cal/Serving

1 Plain Rice Cake
1 Tbsp Plum Preserve*
1 Tbsp Cashew Butter*
1 Small Banana
1 Heaping Tbsp of Plain Soy Yogurt*

Spread the cashew butter onto the rice cake, then spread the Plum preserve on top of the cashew butter.
Slice the banana into 1/4" and line it around the rice cake.
Nuke it in the microwave on high for 45 sec.
Top it off with the Soy Yogurt

*Use what ever flavor you wish.

Pathmark Brand Plain Rice Cake (Vegan)

Rice cake...I want to make some asian rice cake now. Same name but totally different. Asian rice cake are normally made of glutinous rice. Japanese rice cake is known as mochi and in China, Malaysia, Thailand, they're known as filling wrapped with rice. Actually they're many variations. They also have an actual cake made of steamed rice topped with dates and red beans.

Plain Flavor

Dude I shop at Pathmark and buy pathmark brand items cause I'm cheap and can't afford to buy organic food at the health shops. Nothing can beat pathmark's weekly specials! hahaha

Didn't really check out the other flavors. I believe most of these other flavors are vegan as well but it was a while ago when I bought this.

Vegetable Cutlets (Vegan)

Got the recipe off of Fatfree.com I don't quite trust that site. There's no rating, no nothing. These don't taste so well. They're quite bland so I ended up adding some onion powder and pepper which helped a bit.

Bing Tong Wuu Lo (Vegan)

My dad always tell us that he use to eat these as a kid even thought these originated from the Northern parts of China, they were available in the Southern parts as well. My uncle went back to China this summer and he went on a tour to Beijing and got these for us. I've always wanted to try them. Hm... Thank goodness they're vegan. I'm pretty sure they might have these available in the Chinese supermarkets. The freshly made ones contain several balls of these poked through a long skewer.

They're made with hawthorn white sugar, rock candy ( a type of sugar Chinese people use), Maltose, Sesame seeds. They're just basically hawthorn formed into balls and coated with a sugary syrup and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Some are plain and do not contain sesame seeds. Hawthorns are actually quite healthy for you.

Using up lacto ovo vegetarian food.

2007-07-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

I was suppose 2 upload this post last week but I was so caught up with school, work and everything else. I had a huge midterm this week so I haven't really made anything at all but I've been trying to finish all my lacto ovo vegetarian food. I've finished a majority of them with the exception of the cream cheese, butter, chocolate chip, chocolate candy, graham cracker, condensed milk and bread crumb and morning star. Oh dear god never finish my choco candy! Too much!

Dragon Fruit

I bought some from the market the day before yesterday. It was only 3.29 /lb in comparison to the usual of 6.99/lb. I just bought two and it was almost two lb. Crazy! I haven't eaten these in a while. The one I purchased was the one with the white flesh, not the one with the red/pink flesh. The one with the white flesh are mild in taste and it is not very sweet. In fact you can say it's lacking. Both the white flesh and the pink/red flesh one contains seeds that looks similar to black sesame seed. It's quite obvious there are a lot of different species of dragon fruits. There are at least 5 different species for the dragon fruit with the red/pink and the white flesh one. There is one special species where the dragon fruit is golden yellow!! I think I'll make some dragon fruit agar agar jelly from one of the thai food blogs. Hm...These dragon fruits remind me of the exotic fruit mangosteen. I miss those. I had them when I was in China. They don't sell them here. T.T If they were too, it probably cost so much.

Choco Coffee TeaBread
Anyways I've tried using up all my sour cream by making these sour cream cookies but I modified it so that it taste like chocolate and coffee and contains no eggs but it ended up like cake/bread! where's' the chewy or the crispiness?! It goes well with tea though. Dip dip :3

Baklava

Made some baklava from PamelaCooks! The agave has finally came and the phyllo dough was also waiting for me in the freezer. I think we overcooked it because the phyllo dough wouldn't golden. There was also a proud with our measurement of the nutmeg and the allspice. We added tooo much. There was a huge nutmeg/allspice flavor. It was a bit too flakey too because the syrup cooled down by the time the baklava came out of the oven. All problems on my b/f and my behalf. Other than that, the bakalava tasted awesome. I think Ill make it again!

My mom grew a lot of cucumbers in the yard and my granny gave us a lot of her home grown cucumbers as well so we need to eat some. I also need to rid myself of the sour cream, cream cheese and my wilting scallions. I've lost the sheet of paper to the ingredients I've used so I dont have the weight of each other either. Sorry.

Cucumber Sandwich (Lacto Vegetarian)

Recipe Serves 2 or 1 hungry person/279.5 cal/serving

1/2 Large Cumber, Sliced
2 oz Cream Cheese =*
2 Tbsp Sour Cream*
1/3 Scallion, Finely Chopped
2 Small Stalk of Celery, Finely Chopped (A stalk from the middle/inner bunch of celery. It's about 4 in long.)
1 1/2 Tbsp/1 Freshly squeezed Lime Juice
4 Slices of bread
Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine the cream cheese and sour cream together.
Pour the lime juice and mix well
Then stir in the scallion and celery
Season the spread with salt and pepper.
Spread the cream cheese mixture onto one side of both the bread.
Placed the sliced cucumbers on top of the cream cheese mixture of one slice of the bread and place the other slice on top of the cucumbers.

If you have left over cucumbers you can just eat it as it is. Hm...
* You can use vegan version of these. You can use tofutti brand cream cheese and sour cream.

Black Bean Patties

I have had these tucked away in my freezer for months. I've used a recipe from vegweb.com It tasted delicious with dijon mustard and sweet relish. I have had so many sandwiches this past week that I'm so sick and tired of it.

Spinach Pasta

I was quite proud of this recipe since I didn't modify or use a recipe :3 Yay but apparently I forgot how much of each ingredients I placed in it. Lost the paper where I wrote everything.

Homemade Soy Yogurt

2007-07-20T18:17:00.001-05:00

Soy Milk (Vegan)

Hmm....cultured soy milk hahah. It can't really be called soy yogurt since, by definition yogurt is made with cows milk. I don't care SOY YOGURT SOY YOGURT. We say vegetarian hot dog why not soy yogurt. Hm... Soy yogurt is very different from dairy yogurt. Soy yogurt is more diluted and the taste is very different. Even if the soy yogurt is plain, it doesn't taste sour like plain dairy yogurt, it taste sweet. Maybe that's just me.

Recipe Yields about 2 cup 175.5 Cal/Cup

2 Cup Soy Milk (I used unsweetened Silk soy milk)
1/4 Cup Plain Soy Yogurt with Active Culture like WholeSoy & Co
1/2 - 1 Tbsp Cornstarch* (If you want it to be much thicker use 1 Tbsp, 1/2 Tbsp should be fine)

Put 1 3/4 cup soy milk into a pot and heat it up on med-high heat until it starts simmering.
While the soy milk is heating up, dissolve the cornstarch into the 1/4 cup reserved soy milk to create a rue. (Don't sprinkle cornstarch into the hot soy milk or else you'll get clumpy bits in your soy yogurt!)
Pour the rue into your simmer milk and mix it in and stir until the soy milk mixture is slightly thickened.
Let it cool until it is 110 F. This is crucial because if you mix the soy yogurt into the hot soy milk mixture, the bacteria will die!!
Mix in the soy yogurt and pour into a container.
Place it in the oven at 100F for 8 hours or into a dehydrator for about 5-8 hours. I have a ronco dehydrator, I just placed it in a skinny long container and placed it into the middle of the dehydrator for about 6 hours.

You can experiment by putting some sugar, fruits, spices, grains etc. Have fun!

*The amount of cornstarch was edited changing from 2 tbsp to 1/2 tbsp to 1 tbsp. edited: 12/21.07

===================================================================
I just found the yogurt way too thin and it wasn't as sour as I hoped it would be, so here's the new recipe.

2 Cup of Unsweetened Soy Milk (You can use sweetened soy milk just omit the sugar)
1 Tbsp Sugar [ The sugar feeds the backeria]
1/3 Cup Soy Yogurt 1/2 for a more tangy taste
2 Tbsp of Cornstarch

Pour 1 3/4 cup soy milk into a saucepan and pour the sugar into it. Let it simmer on low-medium heat.
Mix the 1/4 cup soy milk with the corn starch until they are dissolve.
When the mixture is simmering mix the soy milk and pour in the cornstarch mixture.
Stir it until it thickens.
Remove from heat and let it cool until the temperature of the soy milk mixture is 100-120F. If you don't have a thermometer room temperature will do but ideally the best temperature for the yogurt bacteria is 100-120 F.
Mix in the yogurt until combine.
Put it in a container and place it in a dehydrator for about 7 hours. Just make sure that the dehydrator does not get too hot. [ If you don't have a dehydrator just preheat your oven to the lowest setting and place the container of yogurt into the oven and leave a crack open.

Slow week

2007-07-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Yes it has been a slow week. It's the second week of summer school. Calculus/intergals is hard work. After classes I go straight to work and on the days I have off, I spend all my time with my b/f. Not a lot of time for cooking. I've been just microwaving morningstar veggie bites for dinner and what not. I still have a lot of lacto octo vegetarian food...

I got this recipe off of recipezaar I still need to get rid of my vegetarian items.

Avocado Pie (Lacto Vegetarian)

8 in" pie/Serves 8 Slices - 282 cal/serving

Filling
1 /173g Avocado
1 14 oz/397g Condensed Milk, Canned
1/3 Cup/79 mL Lime Juice, Freshly juiced

Crust
12 1" by 2"/93g Graham Crackers, Crumbled
2 1/2 Tbsp/37 mL Baby food or Applesauce, Sweetened

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Make the crust by crushing the graham crackers into medium coarse grains.
Cut the baby food/applesauce into the graham cracker until the mixture is cut into texture like coarse bread crumb.
Press the crumb onto the bottom of a 8" circular pan.
Place the crust into the oven and bake it for 10 minutes.
Let the crust fully cool before filling the crust.
To make the filling pit and skin the avocado.
Put the avocado, lime juice and condense milk into a blender and blend it into a thick puree.
Pour the filling mixture into the pie crust and let it chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Verdict: Need to use up some left over vegetables.

It taste much better as leftover since the casserole firmed up and the tofu absorbed more of the flavor.

Vegetable Casserole (Vegan)

9" bu 5" loaf/4 servings

1 15 oz Block Firm Tofu, Thawed or in Packaged
1/4 /152g Eggplant, Sliced into 1/4"
1/2 /164g Large Zucchini, Sliced into 1/4"
3/4 /114g Large Onion, Sliced into 1/4"
2 Cup/592 mL Tomato Sauce
Vegetable Oil

It's best if you use thawed tofu because it absorbs more flavor. Drain the tofu and press as much liquid out of the tofu as possible with a heavy weight.
Slice the tofu block into 1/3".
Cook the Onions in a pan with some oil until half way tender then add in the zucchini and eggplant. Season with some salt and pepper and cook until tender.
Drain as much liquid as you can because when you bake it, all the water sweats out of the vegetables.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line the bottom of the pan with about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Then line the next layer with tofu and cover it with another 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or how ever much it takes to coat it.
Line the next two layer with the zucchini and the onion and cover it with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
Then line the last layer with the eggplant and coat it with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes.

Verdict: Had a lot of plums and I love spreads ;3 Stored in gerber jars. That's why I've been using a lot of baby food in my baking recently. I bought 24 jars of baby food for 10 dollars at my local market with my b/f. I felt like I had a baby and I didn't even know it. I got this recipe off of epicurious. Note: Preserve is not as sweet as jam. It's a tad bit sour for those who dislike sour stay clear of this recipe!

Plum Preserves (Vegan)

Serves 4 4oz jars

2 lb/907 g Plums, Any
1/2 Cup/100g Sugar,Granulated
1/2 Cup/118 mL Water
1 3" Cinnamon Stick

Pit the plums and roughly chop them into large pieces if you like large pieces in your spread and smaller pieces if you like jamish like spread.
Mix the water, plums, sugar and cinnamon stick into a small pot and simmer it for about 45 minutes or until it reaches the consistency you like.

Verdict: Homemade is the best even if it is organic.

Cashew Butter (Vegan)

Yields 1/2 Cup/ 16 Servings of 1 Tbsp = 48Cal/Serving

1 Cup/129g Cashew, Salted Roasted
or
1 Cup/120g Cashew, Raw
Salt

If you are roasting your own nut, preheat the oven to 325F
Place the raw nuts on a shallow rectangular pan. Do not pack your nuts!
Sprinkle enough salt for your tasting.
Roasted for about 10-20 minute or until golden brown. Stir often because they burn easily
Put the Cashews into the blender and blend it until it turns into butter.

**Note: If you like crunchy cashew butter, blend the whole cashew until it's chopped into coarse pieces and reserve 2-3 Tbsp. After you blend all the cashew into a cream, fold in the reserved cashew pieces.

VWAV's Chickpea and spinach curry. I made it with some coconut milk. hmm... :3

Many unsuccessful dishes =/

2007-07-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

Attended a family bbq for July 4th so I decided to bring some food there and my mom asked "Why? There's yam and fruits" Wow very nice...yam and fruits. I decided to make the Green pepper wheat gluten steak. It's a recipe I got off of vegweb.com. It's modified to what have had in stock. Here's the recipe I used.

Green Pepper Wheat Gluten Steak (Vegan)

recipe yields 4-6 serving 246 cal/serving

1 12 oz Pkg of Gluten (the one found in the chinese supermarket)
1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
2 Tsp of Sesame Seed Oil
1/2 Cup of Onion, 1 inch half ring
2 Cloves Large Garlic, Minced
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper, Grounded
1 Tsp Fresh Ginger, Grounded
1/4 Tsp of Guilin Garlic Chili Sauce (Hot sauce will do)
1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper, Grounded
1 Vegetable Bouillon
1 Cup Hot Water
1 lb Chopped Plum Tomato
2 Large Green Peppers
1 Large Red Pepper
2 Tbsp Corn Starch
1/4 Cup Cold Water
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

Drizzle a pan with the olive and sesame seed oil and saute the onions. Then add the pepper and salt and saute it until they are almost tender.
Add the gluten and cook until the sides are lightly brown. Don't burn them! Then add in the ginger and garlic.
Dissolve the bouillon in the cup of boiling water and add to the gluten in the pan.
Let the food simmer for about 5 minutes and then add the tomatoes, peppers, cayenne and guilin garlic chili sauce and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
In a small cup or bowl create a slurry with the corn starch, soy sauce and cold water. Combine until all the corn starch has dissolved.
Mix the slurry into the food in the pan and let it cook until the sauce reaches your desire consistency.

I also made some vegan seasoned faux "sausage" patties but I don't think it tasted that great. It tasted a bit too herby since the recipe required a lot of herb. I like the texture of the pattie though.

Avocado = Guacomole :) Two attempt using two different recipe. I like the 2nd one more. I got this recipe out of one of my vegetarian book.

Guacamole (Vegan)

Recipe: Yields 4 Serving 173 Cal/Serving

2 Ripe Avocado, Mashed
2 Tomatoes, Seed and Chopped
6 Scallions, Finely Chopped
1-2 Jalapeno, Seeded and Finely Chopped
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Cilantro
Salt and Pepper to taste

Peel and seed your avocados and then mash it up well with your fork or masher.
Quickly add the lemon juice and mix well. Then add the tomatoes, scallions, jalapeno, cilantro, salt and pepper. Incorporate all the ingredients together.
Serve with tortilla, crackers, bread etc.

"Zucchini in bikini are walking down the stairs" an excerpt of the lyric from the the children show "Banana in Pajama". Wow...I feel old that was from my childhood. Needed to get rid of my zucchini so I ate it. I also needed to get rid of my dairy items. The light cream has been sitting in my refrigerator for about a month.

Zucchini Dessert Pie (Vegetarian)

Recipe Yields 8 Servings 283 Cal/Serving

1 9 Inch Pie Crust (you can make your own or omit it to make a custard)
2 Cup Pureed Cooked Zucchini (About 2 really large zucchini)
1/3 Cup Rice Syrup
1/3 Cup Sugar, Granulated
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
3/4 Tsp Ginger, Grounded
1/4 Tsp Allspice, Grounded
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg, Grounded
1 Cup Light Cream, warm or (Vegan version: Soy Cream)
3 Tsp of EnerG + 2 Tbsp Water

Peel and cut your zucchini into 1 inch cubes and microwave it for about 8 minutes on high or until tender.
Drain out off all the water from the zucchini!!
Put the chunks of zucchini into your blender and blend it until there are no more solid pieces.
Mix the puree with the rice syrup, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg.
Warm the light cream and pour it into the puree mixture along with the egg replacer.
Pour it into the pie crust and bake it for 425F for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 250F and bake it for 40-45 minutes or until your knife comes out clean when inserted near the middle of the tart.
Let it cool down completely before serving.

Attempted to make pumpernickle rye bread but I'm not sure if it's really pumpernickel rye since it doesn't taste anything like the one my ex job had. Who knows I guess Ill try again with another recipe.

I made the Banana Split Pudding Brownie from VWAV. It tasted great but it was a bit too fudgy. I know it's suppose to be pudding but was it suppose to be goey? The photo I saw on ppk does not look like pudding. In fact it looked solid. I think the error occurred because I reduced the recipe to by 1/4 and I ended up baking it in a muffin pan since I don't have a small enough pan. The top of my brownie lumped inwards. It deflated!! Maybe it's because I filled the muffin pans too much. Who knows...I'll try baking it in a rectangular pan next time.

Natural Valley Granola Bars

2007-07-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

Snack Bars

Nature Valley
Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars - (All vegan except Oat's n Honey) *contains honey
Nature Valley Yogurt - (Not sure) Sorry I didn't ask about the yogurt culture
Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix - (All of them are Vegetarian) *contains honey
Nature Valley Sweet and Salty - (Not sure) Sorry I didn't ask about he yogurt culture for this.
Nature Valley Healthy Heart - (All of them are Vegetarian) *contains honey
Nature Valley Fruit Crisp - Vegan
Nature Valley Cereal - (All of them are Vegetarian) *contains honey and no vitamin D

For all of those who can't always get larabars or those organic bars you can get nature valley bars. I've contacted Kellogg's nature valley's division asking whether or not their natural flavoring is animal derived and the representative was very friendly and assured me that the natural flavoring is plant derived.

Kashi TLC Granola Bar

Kashi TLC Chewy Granola Bar - (All of them are vegetarian) *contains honey
Kashi TLC Crunchy Granola Bar - (All of the are vegetarian) *contains honey

I've also contacted the Kashi company and asked about their natural flavoring and they also replied saying that their natural flavoring is not animal derived. It's a healthier alternative to nature valley for those who are concerned with their health but they're not vegan.

Gingersnaps and Seitan

2007-06-27T20:10:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to update shorter and more frequent entries.

Today my b/f and I went to the Museum of Natural History. We packed our own lunch and went out to a vegetarian/vegan friendly restaurant listed in Veg-Out! for New York by Justin Schwartz.
I made some pull "pork" bbq sandwiches from vegetarian times, slightly modified and some gingersnap cookies from simple vegetarian recipes, modified as well.

Pull "Pork" BBQ (vegan)
Vegetarian Times, May 07 issue pg. 68

Yields 6 Serving 189Cal/Serving

1 Cup/140g Chopped Onion
1/4 Cup/32g Minced Garlic
1 15 oz Garden Flavored Tomato Sauce (you can use any Tomato sauce)
1 Tbsp Prepared Horseradish
2 Tsp Molasses
2 Tsp Cider Vinegar
1 Tsp Lemon Zest
2 8oz Packaged of Flavored Seitan. (you can use plain)
Olive Oil, however much you need
Serve with Rice, Bread or Pasta.

In a saucepan heat heat up some olive oil and add your chopped onions into the pan and cook until they are tender.
Add in your minced garlic and cook it for about a minute.
Pour in your tomato sauce and mix it and cook it for several minutes.
Add in your prepared horseradish, molasses, cider vinegar lemon zest and 1/4 cup water and mix well.
Let it this sauce simmer on low heat while rinse your seitan if it's flavored. You want to rinse it and give it a squeeze because you want it to absorb the flavor of your sauce but not lose it's packaged flavor.
Shred your seitan and fold it into your sauce mixture. Cook it on medium heat until the seitan absorb the sauce and the mixture is thick.
Serve with rice, pasta or as a sandwich.

Gingersnaps (Vegan)
Modified Recipe from Simple Vegetarian Recipes

Yields About 40 2.5" cookies 64Cal/Cookie

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 Cups/300g Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup/200g Granulated Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
1/4 Cup/84g Molasses
1/4 Cup/64g Mixed Cereal Baby Food (It can be any baby food with fruit puree or you can use sweeten applesauce)
1/4 Cup/407g Vegan Margarine (Soy Butter)
3 Tbsp/44 mL Rice Milk or Soy Milk or Almond Milk
5 Tbsp Grated Fresh Ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease the cookie sheets.
In a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
In a smaller bowl combine the molasses, apple sauce, vegan margarine, rice milk and freshly grated ginger.
Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and gently fold in the liquid. Don't over work your batter.
Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, spoon out a ball and place it on your cookie sheet and flatten it with moist hands or a greased spoon. Leaving a 1" space in between each cookie.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes. These will yield chewy gingersnaps but gingersnaps are suppose to be crispy so if you want it to be crispy you have to over bake them a bit. Bake until they are a darker brown.

Sushi!!

2007-06-24T19:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't really been cooking or baking this week because I'm still feasting on the food I've made last week and the weeks/months before that...I'm having such a problem trying to get rid of these dairy and egg products. I'm such a hoarder of food. I buy and buy and I never use it in fear of not having it for the next recipe. I guess I'll go to the fourth level of hell xD OH wells. In addition to the abundance amount of food I have, my b/f and I have been eating out a lot and I've been going over to his house to eat. Rawr!! Poo!!

VWAV and VCTOTW finally came in the mail yesterday despite the fact that I ordered it two weeks ago. So damn excited!! Anyways Enough ranting and bullpooping.

Mock Tuna (Vegan)

I've made mock tuna for I was craving for some creamy spread and I also had a can of garbanzo bean that was calling me. I got the recipe off of vegweb. I didn't do much to change it.

Recipe Yields 4 Serving 155.75 Cal/Serving

1 15 oz Can of Garbanzo beans
2 Tbsp Vegan Mayonnaise (Nayonaise, Veganaise, Homemade...whichever)
1 Tbsp Sweet Pickle Relish
2 Tsp Dijon Mustard
2/3 Tsp Fresh Lemon Juice ( A little more if you like )
Salt and Pepper to taste

Drain and rinse your garbanzo beans, you can use your own cooked garbanzo beans (less sodium and much more healthier).
Mash up your garbanzo beans with the potato masher or use a fork if you don't have a potato masher.
Mix in the sweet pickle relish, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Banana Cottage Cheese Sandwich (Lacto-Vegetarian)

It is my attempt to get rid of all my dairy products. This was open from like 1 weeks ago =X Surprised it didn't mold. It tasted perfectly fine so I made a sandwich with my over ripe banana. Sorry I spelled banana wrong in the photo. Eh... I still have my never opened 32 oz plain yogurt and sour cream that is a few weeks pasted it's sell by date. Thank goodness it's sealed in a vacuum container.

Recipe Yields 1 Sandwich 440 Cal/Sandwich
1 Medium (118g)Ripe Banana
2/3 - 1 Cup (150g-225g) of Low Fat Cottage Cheese (axelrod or friendships)
2 Tsp (8g) of Sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
1/4 Tsp Grounded Cinnamon
2 Slice of Whole Wheat Bread

Slice your banana thinly (about 1/2 cm) width wise.
Mix the sugar, vanilla, ground cinnamon into your cottage cheese.
Spread the cottage cheese onto your first slice of bread, line the banana slices on top of the cottage cheese, spread the cottage cheese on top of the banana and then line it with the bananas again and continue until you've ran out of the banana or the cottage cheese.
Top your sandwich with the other slice of bread and enjoy.

Tomato TVP Fried Rice (Vegan)

It's fried rice I've made and brought to work for lunch. I bring lunch to work everyday now since most of my co workers order take out for lunch. There aren't many choices for vegetarian/vegan food and besides who knows if they cook the food on the same cooking wares. Made it with some tomatoes, garlic, some TVP I've made months ago.

Sushi (Vegan)

Verdict: I have 5 pack of nori, cucumbers and sushi rice so I need to get rid of some.
I got the sushi rice from about.com and the filling, I just used what I had.

Recipe Yields 8 Serving (8 pieces)
Bamboo Mat
Sushi Rice (Recipe follows)
Filling (Recipe/Instruction follows)
8 Sheets of Nori (Roasted Seaweed Sheets)
Bowl of Water

Sushi Rice
3 Cups (600g) Sushi Rice [clear short grain rice, the white short grain rice are the glutinous sweet rice]
3 1/4 Cups (769 mL) Water
1/3 Cup (79 mL) Rice Vinegar
3 Tbsp (37.5g) Sugar
1 Tsp Salt

Wash and rinse the rice several times.
Pour the rice and the water into the rice cooker and turn it on. (If you don't have a rice cooker use a small nonstick pot, pour the rice and water into the pot and let it simmer and continuously stir until the rice has become white and absorbed all the water.)
After the rice is cooked, pour in the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix it well and do not mash your rice.

Filling
1 English Cucumber
1 Medium Carrot
1/2 Cup of Mock Tuna Salad
1 Package of Takuan (can be found in the asian frozen section)
Tofu marinated in Miso Sauce (Recipe follows)

Peel and deseed your cucumbers. If you are not using English cucumbers and your using a cucumber with a nice crisp skin, you don't really need to peel them. Some cucumber have really crisp skin not those waxy tough skin. The crisp skin actually adds texture to your cucumbers.
Julienne your cucumbers, carrots and takuan into 1/4 cm by 1/4 cm strips.

Miso Marinated Tofu

1/5 Block of Extra Firm Tofu
1 Tbsp Miso Paste, Shiromiso
2 Tbsp Water (1 Tbsp if you want your tofu to be more flavorful)

Line your tofu with a clean towel and place some weights on it to squeeze out all the excess water for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile mix your miso paste with the water to create a diluted miso sauce.
Julienne your tofu into 1/2 cm by 1/2 cm strips and let it soak in the miso sauce for at least 15 minutes.

Constructing Your Sushi

Place your nori on your bamboo mat.
Even spread some rice on your nori. Make sure you get the sides. Just leave a 1 cm gap at the top edge of your nori.
Place the filling about 2 cm away from the bottom edge of nori.
Grab the bamboo mat and the nori and tuck the bottom edge of the nori under the filling and tightly roll your nori into a roll. Make sure you dont roll your bamboo mat into the sushi.

Follow Up on the Egg Replacer...

2007-06-17T10:50:00.000-05:00

Busy week indeed...

All right follow up on the Egg Replacer experiment from the previous post.

What happen to them a day after?
I stored it in a plastic air tight container in room temperature.

Appearance/Texture before warming it up
**General note:: They all became denser including the egg one.
Flaxseed - No difference in appearance/texture before warming up except for being denser.
Ener-G - It was much denser and a bit crumbly looking
Tofu - This is still the softest out of all of the muffins even after becoming denser. The indentation disappears slowly when i poke at it.
Egg - It retains it originality the most out of all the egg replacers. It became dense but not much as the other replacrse

Appearance/Texture after warming up on high in the microwave for 30
Flaxseed - It became softer (quite obvious hahah) It was very gloopy and sticky like fudge. When my teeth sliced through the cupcake it clung onto my teeth :3 A bit like sticky rice cake if you have ever tried.
Ener-G - It also became softer but it was quite dry. When I was peeling the cupcake liner off of the muffin, pieces crumbled off. The good thing is that it resembled the egg's texture. Note that in the previous post the flaxseed's texture resembled the egg's texture the most on the first day.
Tofu - It became very soft as well, the crust was very much like the one from the muffin with the egg but, when I got into the middle, oh dear...It was very mushy and soft.
Egg - Became soft and it was dry as well but not as dry as the Ener-G where it started crumbling off.
Egg Replacer Experiment #2 Lemon Pound Cake

This Lemon Pound Cake recipe was found on Epicurious.com
It originally called for 3 eggs but to make my life easier I made changed the recipe proportionally to make it 4 eggs since I've tested 4 different type of egg replacers and what not. It is like the previous experiment. I used Flaxseed, Ener-G, Tofu and Egg.

Here's the recipe
Yields 16 medium cupcakes 193 Cal/Serving

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/3 Cup (183 g) Cake Flour
2/3 Tsp Baking Powder
1/3 Tsp Salt
2 2/3 Tbsp Freshly Grated Lemon Zest

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/3 Stick (369 g) Softened, Butter ( 2/3 Cup)
1 1/3 Cup (267 g) Granulated Sugar
1 Tsp (5 mL) Vanilla Extract (1/4 Tsp for each bowl if you are trying the experiment)
2 2/3 Tbsp (40 mL) tbsp SoyMilk (2 Tsp for each bowl if you are doing the experiment)
2 2/3 Tbsp (40 mL) Fresh Lemon Juice (2 Tsp for each bowl if you are doing the experiment)

Egg Substitute:
4 eggs or egg replacer (If you are trying to do th experiment follow the four different type of eggs below)

1 Tbsp Flaxseed + 3 Tbsp Water
1 1/2 Tsp Ener-G Mix + 2 Tbsp Water
1/4 Cup smoothed Silken Tofu
1 Egg

Preheat oven to 325 F and grease a 1 lb loaf pan, muffin pan or a 1 quart kugelhopf pan.
In a bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and zest together. Weigh the batter and split batter into 4 equal proportions. It's best if you label the bowls so you know which bowl belongs to which egg replacer. (Or if you just want to make lemon pound cake, you needn't split it into four portions) I labeled mine A-D.
In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Weigh the wet batter as well and split it into 4 equal portions.
Microwave the flaxseed mixture until it becomes a gloopy consistency and cream it into the the wet batter Bowl A. Mix the Ener-G Mix into the dry ingredients Bowl B and the water into wet ingredients Bowl B. Blend the tofu in the blender and cream it into wet mixture Bowl C. Cream the egg into wet mixture Bowl D.
Then beat in the vanilla extract and half of the Dry mixture for each bowl.
Beat in the milk and lemon juice for each bowl until they are combined.
Beat in the rest of the dry mixture.
Pour the batter into your pan and bake 45 min or until the toothpick test comes out clean.

Sorry I do not have pictures for the egg pound cake and Sorry for the poor quality.

Appearance/Texture
I received help from the my boyfriend as well.
Flaxseed - Very oily looking. There is a shiny sheen coating the pound cake. It's somewhat so oily that the pound cake looks transparent! When we poked at it, it a soggy sponge. It feels somewhat like those temprpedic beds hahah. The response to the poke was very slow.
Ener-G - There are no air pockets or bubbles. The surface also looks quite smooth. We would have to say it looks like your regular pound cake except a bit pale...When we poked at the cake, it was quite soft and responded quickly to the poke.
Silken Tofu - The surface was quite lumpy, a bit like a muffin's surface. It also had several cracks. When we placed the batter into the muffin pans, it refused to level out. The pod cake was also very firm and soft. It was bouncy. If i were a kid again, I would love to jump on a something like this.
Egg - It's actually yellow!! The surface had pores and holes on it. It also domed in the middle unlike the other muffins. When we touched it, it was very dense and bouncy It was the firmest out of all of them.

Taste/Texture
Flaxseed - It's very soft, actually it's the softest of all of them since there is so much oil in it. Not only are there oil from the butter but as well as the flax seed. It was so wet and moisty that it had a pasty consistency but also a crunchy texture from the flax seeds. I love the taste though :3 Look at the picture, the whole thing is paste hahah!
Ener-G - It was soft, moisty, spongy but also crumbly.
Silken Tofu - It was very moist and heavy. It was very pasty like fudge/brownie. My boyfriend made a comment of the paste coating his tongue and it would be great with wine hahah. Look at the picture!! The inside looks like paste!!!
Egg - It's spongey/springy. What more is there to say?

Sweet Cucumber Relish (vegan)
Damn you natural flavors!! Couldn't find sweet relish anywhere so I made my own. I modified a recipe I found in cooks.com. Now I can make mock tuna =X

Recipe: Yields 1 4.5 in Jar 1820cal/Jar
Ingredients
1 1/2 (454 g/1 lb) Large Grated Cucumbers
2 Large (440 g) Grated Yellow Onions
1 (164 g) Large Grated Sweet Green Pepper
2 1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup (237 mL) Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Cup (400 g) Sugar
1 Tsp Tumeric
3 g Mustard Powder or 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds

Tools (If you want to can and save it for several months)
A Glass Jar
Big pot (Big enough to cover your jars)
Thongs or jar lifter

Grate all of your vegetables and mix them together.
Combine the salt in make sure you mix it well!! Let it sit for at least 30 minutes.
Prepare your jars for sterilization by submerging your jars in the water in your big pot and boiling the water along with the lid to the jars.
Then strain all the water out of the vegetables and place them into a pot and pour in the apple cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric and mustard.
Let it simmer for 10 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. You can either reduce the liquid by simmering it or you can drain some of the liquid out of your relish before canning.
By the time you finish cooking your relish, your canning equipment should be ready unless you are evaporating your liquid. You are suppose to boil your equipments for 15 minutes.
Dip your thongs or jar lifter in the boiling water for a minute or two to sterilize it.
Empty the waters in the jar and place it on a clean surface. Quickly poor in the relish with a sterilized funnel (by boiling as well) but I didn't use one so just poor the relish in and quickly set your lid with thongs or the lid lifter and quickly closing it.
Wait a while and your protection caps on your jar lids should be sucked in. When you press on the lid, you shouldn't be able to hear the clicky noise.

Apple Filled Coffee Cake Wreath Bread (Vegan)
I got this recipe from my new Good HouseKeeping Great Baking book. I made a vegan version as well as the lacto-ovo Vegetarian Version for my boyfriend. I wont be posting the vegetarian one because I used the recipe from the book as it was. I didn't modify it at all or anything. I'll post pictures though

Yields 16 pieces (depending on how you cut it) 197 cal/Piece

Yeast
1/2 cup (118 mL) Warm Water (108-115 F)
2 Pkg (14 g) of Active Dry Yeast
1 Tsp (4 g) Granulated Sugar

Dough 2320 cal/Dough+ Yeast
1/2 Cup (100 g) Granulated Sugar
4 Tbsp (64 g) Oatmeal Apple Banana Baby Food (You can use sweetened Apple Sauce)
4 Tbsp (69 g) Soy Butter [you can use 1/2 Cup (139 g) Butter instead of the applesauce and the 4 Tbsp Butter]
1 Tbsp Grounded Flax Seed
3 Tbsp (44 mL) Water
+ - 3 1/4 cup (1381 g) All Purpose Flour

Filling 800 cal/Filling
1 1/4 lb (567 g ) Finely Chopped All Purpose Apples
2 Tbsp (35 g) Soy Butter
1/4 cup Seedless Raisins
1/4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

Soy Milk Wash 24 Cal/Wash
1 Tbsp Soy Milk
1 Tsp Granulated Sugar

In a large cup dissolve the yeast and sugar into the warm water. Let it sit for five minutes.
Warm the flax seed and the water until it becomes gloopy and let it cool down. (Don't want to kill the yeast later now do we ;D)
While the dough is sitting and the flax seed is cooling, cream together the sugar, baby food and butter (or just butter).
Combine the flax seed mixture into the wet mixture.
Then beat in the yeast, salt and a sixth of the flour (1/2 cup) until it's well combined.
Then stir in the rest of the flour with a wooden spatula or spoon. ( You will require more or less flour)
When the dough becomes tacky and not sticky to hand by hand, knead the dough for about 8 minutes or until it feels like a baby's bottom.
Let the dough rise for about 3 hours (depending on the temperature and humidity of the room, you will require more or less time. Use the finger test on the dough to see if it rised enough. Just press your index finger and middle finger into the dough if the indentation remains, it means the dough has double. If the indentation disappears, you need to let the dough rise some more.

In the mean time make the apple filling by melting the butter in a sauce pan.
Add in the finely chopped apples, cinnamon, raisins and sugar.
Cook the filling until it is tender about 15 minutes.

When the dough has double, punch the dough down and roll it out on a greased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.
Roll it out into a 18" by 12" rectangle (I rolled it out to be much thinner and got a bigger rectangle) Make sure the width is not that wide since you don't want to roll your dough up to be too huge of a log. What matter the most is the length since you will be forming it into a round wheel later.
Spread the apple filling over the dough leave about 1/2 in uncovered around the edge.
Roll the dough as if you are rolling a jelly roll sponge (Roll up the longer side)
Then shape the long log into a circular ring and pressing the inner edge together.
Using a clean scissor cut the side of the dough every 1 1/2 in. If you want a thicker piece you can cut it thicker or thinner, if you want more pieces/ "leaves" cut it at a smaller interval.
You can tilt the "leaves" to make it look nicer.
Cover the dough and let it go through it's final rise. (Use the finger test as well)
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Dissolve the sugar into the soy milk to create the soy milk wash and brush it onto the surface of the dough
When the dough finally finish it's last rising bake the dough for 30-35 minutes.

I dont have a picture of the finished product since I baked my b/f two bread and my first rack does not fit all 3 of the bread so I placed the vegan one on the bottom rack and guess what happen...It got burnt but the top inside was very delicious. It's great for breakfast, it's sweet but not too sweet.

Vegetarian Apple filled Coffee Cake Wreath Bread
I intended to give this to my b/f and keep the vegan one to myself but my b/f gladly accepted the burnt one since I was going to give the vegan one to my father for Father's day. Eh...so I didn't eat this one =/ I like the golden crust though, but then again I gave it an egg wash...

Vegetarian Cheese Filled Coffee Cake Braid
Another coffee bread i made for my b/f since he loves his cheese. Dont worry I used vegetarian cottage cheese and cream cheese ;3 It was suppose to be a braid but I kinda messed up with the length of the strips so I ended up doing a criss cross =/

Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
It's this month!! It's such a bore though watching the dragon boat race at Corona park. It's just a big fair with many Asian people, stalls, ice cream trucks and raffles. It's mainly huge Asian companies advertising themselves since most of these companies sponsors a specific dragon boat team and the team races for them in their names. Most of the dragon boat paddlers are teenagers, if not all of them. Two years ago, some of my friends were part of the dragon boat race. I was also going to participate but I had to go to China during their training days hahah.

Anyways the point I was trying to get to is that during the dragon boat festival, we feast on these lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice dumpling. The Salted ones are normally filled with obviously glutinous rice (sticky rice, not the Japaneses sushi rice. It's the Thai sticky rice.), peeled mung beans, fat pork, marinated mushrooms, salted egg yolks and dried baby shrimps. There is also another type of glutinous rice dumpling which only consist of glutinous rice soaked in lye water. These are the plain one where you need to dip it in either sugar or soy sauce. Sometimes if you are lucky you can come across lye dumpling that are filled with red bean paste but not this year...I was begging my mother to buy me some vegetarian ones but there were none so my mom made some especially for me. Yay. I also helped though. We made both the salted one and the lye one. We didnt put anything in the salted one except the mung beans but it still tasted like the original...except without the meat xD

I don't really have an actual measured out ingredients since we've always made it by eying everything and using what we have.

Salted Sticky Rice Dumpling Wrapped in Lotus Leaves
Glutinous Rice
Peeled Mung bean (You need much less, like around 1/3 of the glutinous rice)
Salt
Vegetable Oil
Lotus Leaves (Banana leaves will do or any other huge leaves)

You need to soak both the glutinous rice and peeled mung beans in separate bowls for at least 3 hours. Dont forget to pick out all the bad mung beans.
When you are ready to make the dumplings drain out all the water from both the glutinous rice and mung bean.
You season the rice and mung beans with the salt and oil. Just enough oil to lightly coat the rice/mung beans and enough salt for your taste.
Alright here comes the tricky part, My grandmother wraps the best dumplings. I use one bamboo leaf but others use 3 or 4 depending on how your want to wrap it. You can wrap it into a rectangle, triangle or pyramid. Traditionally, they are wrapped in a pyramid but it's too hard to explain without any pictures. I'll explain my method.
I used one bamboo leaf and formed a cone with it like you would when you make a dunce hat. Spoon in a tablespoon or two of the glutinous rice then layer another spoonful of the mung bean and to top it off, add anther spoonful of glutinous rice. Depending on the size of your dumpling and leaf, you would add more or less glutinous rice and mung bean.
Fold in the sides and the top. Wrap the leaf tightly around all the cracks and nannies. Make sure there is no rice or mung bean coming out!!
Wrap it tightly with string but not too tightly because the lotus leave can tear.
When you finish wrapping all of them take a huge pot fill it with the dumplings and cover them all with water.
Boil the dumplings for at least 3 hours because you need to fully cook all the rice!! You don't want to bite into raw rice now do you?

Lye Water Glutinous Rice Dumpling filled with Wrapped in Lotus Leaves
Glutinous Rice
Lye Water
Canned Red Bean Paste (or you can make your own)
Canned Mung Bean Paste (homemade is also fine)
Vegetable Oil
Lotus Leaves

You need to soak the glutinous rice for at least 3 hours as well. If you want to make the salt one as well just soak the glutinous rice for the salt dumpling and later split it.
Drain the water from the glutinous rice and add in some oil and mix it well.
Then add in the lye water a tsp at a time and mix it until all the rice turn to a pale yellow. When the lye water touches the glutinous rice it quickly turns it yellow. Make sure you don't add too much lye water!
Basically it's the same as the method above. Use the lotus leave or and form a cone.
Fill it up with the glutinous rice, add in the red bean paste and top it off with the glutinous rice again.
To make the mung bean one just fill it up with the mung bean paste instead of the red bean paste.
Fold in the sides and top part and tie it tightly with the string.
Boil All the dumplings in a big pot with water covering the dumplings for atleast 3 hours

You store them in the refrigerators after they have cooled down. When you want to eat one just warm it up by boiling it or steaming it for 20 minutes. Then you cut the strings and unwrap your dumplings.

Suggestions:
- Eat the lye water dumpling with sugar. Just dip the pieces into granulated sugar. You can also use soy sauce but it's not so great. The lye water taste funky!!
- Eat the salted dumpling with soy sauce or miso paste. Hmm hm good. It's delicious!!

Yay Knitting
Sorry pointless rambling. I knitted myself an oven mitten since we only have one. Great cheap mother! hahah. I just knitted it in garter stitches. I made it 7" x 7" but it's way to big so I sewed the sides up and now it fits!! i think it would be best if the width is 5" if not a bit less. Hahah well now I have a cute little border and when I'm not using it, I can stick little chopsticks or spatulas on the side of the oven mittens. It can keep my chopsticks warm!! Hahah damn I'm such a retart.

Egg Substitute Experiment #1a - Muffins

2007-06-10T18:39:00.000-05:00

Well I've set a goal for myself. I want to become a vegan by the end of Feb of next year. I must give myself time to finish off all my non vegan but vegetarian friendly food because no one in my house is willing to finish them for me nor do I like wasting. It's definitely going to be hard giving up cottage cheese. Yogurt and cottage cheese is the only dairy item I consume but yogurt can be easily substituted but cottage cheese, that's another story.
I'm starting small first though, I've decided to become a lacto-vegetarian and take eggs out of my life before I make the vegetarian to vegan transaction. It's not as if I consume eggs a lot anyways. I only use egg in baking and I've recently started baking. Using egg substitute in baking is going to be hard...that's why I'm experimenting while I can before I fully become a lacto-vegetarian and after I finish my morning star veggie bites.

I've spent all of yesterday and today baking with different type of egg substitute but the experiments from yesterday was not so great since I was using a very terrible recipe. Today I've just googled a basic muffin recipe.

Here is the recipe: Dinnercoop Basic Muffins Recipe

Dry Ingredients
1 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
1 cup Soy Milk
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil (calculation error, it's suppose to be 2 2/3 tbsp)

Egg substitutes
3/4 tsp Flaxseed + 2 1/4 tsp Water
5/16 tsp Egg Substitute + 1 1/2 tsp Water (Enger-G substitute recipe will be provided below)
1 tbsp Silken Tofu
1 tbsp Beaten Egg

**note
I reduced the recipe to half but instead of using the 1/4lb butter, I used 1/3 cup oil but I've made an error in my calculation and I was suppose to be using 2 2/3 tbsp

Here was how I carried out the experiment

Combine the dry ingredients, flour, sugar baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients, vegetable oil and soy milk in another bowl.
I divided the dry ingredients into fourths and placed it into 4 different bowls (To be accurate I weighted the dried mixture and divided the weight into fourths)
I divided the wet ingredients into fourths as well and placed it into another 4 bowls. (You can only imagine how clutter my whole table was)
I labeled the papers and placed it in front of the bowls so I know which bowl contained which egg substitute mixture. The flaxseed egg sub bowls were called A and I baked it in the pink cupcake liners, the Enger-G egg sub were called B and baked in the yellow cupcake liners, the silken tofu were called C and baked in the blue cupcake liners and the Egg (control) was called D and baked in the white cupcake liners.
For the flaxseed egg substitute. I microwaved the flaxseed and the water in a small bowl for 20 sec high. I took it out and stirred it and placed it in the microwave and microwaved it high for another 20 sec. Took it out again to check the consistency of the mixture. It should be mucous and gloopy like but it wasn't so I nuked it for another 15 sec. I poured the flaxseed egg sub into the wet ingredient bowl A and combined it with the wet ingredients. (Usually you would simmer it in a saucepan but the amount was too minuscule to be heated in the saucepan. **note If you already made a batch of flaxseed egg substitute mixture, you can use 1 tbsp)
For the Enger-G egg sub. I poured the 1 1/2 tsp of water in the wet ingredient bowl B and combined it. The Enger-G egg powder was combined into the dry ingredient bowl B.
For the Silken tofu, I mashed it up and tried to make it as smooth as possible in a separate bowl and combined it into the wet ingredient bowl C. (The amount of tofu is too small to be blended in the blender/processor. If you have prepared pureed tofu, you can use 1 tbsp)
For the egg I beat an egg and placed 1 tbsp into the wet ingredient bowl D and combined it.
Basically I just combined the dry ingredient A with wet ingredient A and B with B, C with C and D with D. Just fold everything together don't beat it or over work the batter!!

Here are my results (**NOTE CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE DETAIL)

Batter Appearance/Consistency:
Flaxseed - The batter was lumpy, thick and gloopy. It has the consistency of mucous. The oil was incorporated well into the batter. The color of the batter was white with black sesame seeds. (Looks like a batter for black sesame seed muffins. hahah)
Ener-G - The batter was very thick and lumpy. The oil separated from the batter and coated the batter. It did not stick to the spoon when I was scooping it into the liners. The batter was also white.
Silken Tofu - The batter was thick and lumpy. It resemble that of Ener-G batter but there weren't as much oil coating the batter. The batter was white.
Egg - The batter was yellow!! The consistency of the batter was very smooth and liquidy. Unlike all the other batters.

Appearance of the Baked Muffins
Flaxseed - The muffin was leavened well like a normal muffin. It's still very white in color and has the flaxseed scattered within it. The surface of the muffins was lumpy and has cracks all over it.
Enger-G - Looks like the flaxseed sub. muffin and the silken tofu egg sub muffin. It was white with lumps and cracks all over the surface of the muffin.
Silken Tofu - The surface is white with cracks and lumps.
Egg - Doesn't really look yellow despite the yellow egg yolk. The surface was much different than the other three muffins. It was actually quite smooth looking dome with a few small cracks in the middle of the muffin.

Texture and Other Attributes
Flaxseed - The cake was dense, moisty and fluffy but it does have the flaxseed in them making it a bit crunchy. The flaxseed provided a nutty taste. All though it is moisty it's not as moisty as the tofu or the Enger-G muffins. I think it most resembles the texture of the muffin with the real egg.
Ener-G - It's very moist and tender. It's more moisty than the flaxseed muffins but not as moisty as the tofu. It wasn't as fluffy as the egg or the flaxseed.
Silken Tofu - It was the moistest muffin out of all the other muffins. It was very soft but not fluffy. It's more of a soft mush than fluffy. You can say it's a bit chewy but not like rubber chewy. The texture was a bit more compacted together.
Egg - It was dense, fluffy and bouncy.

They all seemed dense and smells like those Chinese steamed spongecake. Like the one mommie makes for me when I was young.

It's probably because of all the oil but in my mommie's spongecake, she doesn't put any oil. I think I might redo this experiment with less oil so I can see if there is any difference. If you try this experiment as well, please do inform me of your results.

Energ-G substitute
I got this recipe from Fatfree Vegan

1 cup Potato Flour ( I didn't have potato flour so I used corn starch)
3/4 cup Tapioca Flour
2 tsp baking powder

Just combine all the ingredients together. (Make sure you combine them together very well)
Place it into a bag/plastic container or jar. Store in a cool dry place.

Here is what you do, for

1 Egg = 1 1/2 tsp of Egg Substitute Mixture + 2 tbsp water
1 Egg yolk = 1 1/2 tsp of Egg Substitute Mixture + 1 tbsp water

Lots of Baking!!!!

2007-06-03T14:03:00.000-05:00

Por Lor Bao

hmmm...Por Lor Bao...Now that I'm vegetarian, I can't eat any more of those delicious chinese bakery buns. I miss them so much. I got a recipe from Jo's Deli - Polo Pau My attempt to make it vegetarian was not so great...I didn't have soy milk powder so I used soy milk. That was a poor substitute. It didnt taste like the por lor bao from the chinese bakery but my mom liked it. I'll post the recipe when I find a better way of substituting.

Green Tea Cupcake

My boyfriend and I made these last Saturday. We used Chockylit's Green Tea Bubble Cream Filled Cupcake recipe.

What we did:

We added green tea powder to the cupcake batter.
We substituted the regular milk with the soy milk.
We used granulated sugar instead of the powder sugar.
We didn't fill the cupcakes with the filling, instead we ate it!!

What went wrong: It didn't say until the end that we were suppose to fill it with the bubble tea cream so we were like ... we already ate the filling.

The frosting came out a bit too grainy, sweet and the consistency of the frosting was to watery.
The granulated sugar didn't absorb enough water and granulated sugar is sweeter than powder sugar.

What went well:

Despite the problems, the cupcake came out great.
The bubble tea filling tasted pretty good too.
Yay. Next time we'll know what to do!

Yogurt Bread

I was inspired by Yochana's Mixed Berries Bun so I've decided to make some plain yogurt buns.
I've made some modification to her recipe. Here is the recipe I've used.

Yields: 1 5" x 8" loaf [930 cal/loaf]

1 tbsp (12 g) sugar
1 7/8 tsp (6.25 g) Active Dry Yeast
1/4 cup (60 g) warm water (100 - 115F)

+ or - 1 2/5 cup (175 g) All purpose flour
1 1/5 tbsp (21 g) Honey
1/4 tsp salt
A little less than 1/3 cup Plain unsweetened Yogurt (78 g)
1 2/5 tbsp melted butter

To active the yeast:

Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and add in the active dry yeast.
Mix until its combined and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Dough:

Mix the honey with plain yogurt and warm it up in the microwave until it's 100 - 115F. Make sure you don't burn it or warm it up too much that the yogurt will coagulate.
Combine the yogurt mixture with the yeast mixture.
In a separate bowl combine the salt with the flour.
Gradually add the flour into the liquid mixture, little by little while mixing it with your hand or a spatula. When it gets to a thick enough consistency, starting kneading it with your hands.
When the dough becomes smooth, add in the melted a tsp at a time. Continue kneading the dough until it becomes as firm as a baby's bottom.

Put it in a greased bowl and cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator for it to rise overnight to develop it's flavor. When morning comes take out the dough and let it sit out until it's room temperature. Make sure it doesn't over rise.

If you want to make the bread now, let it rise in a warm place until it double in size. (2 hours in a warm place or you can test it by pressing the dough with your index and middle finger. If it leaves an indentation it's ready to be shaped. If doesn't leave an indentation let it continue to rise.

Punch does down dough and shape the bread into little buns or a loaf and place it into the pan.
Let the dough go into the second rising for about 45 minutes or until an indentation is left on the dough.
Bake for 375F for about 20 minutes or until it's golden brown and cooked.

Spinach, Broccoli and Cheese Tart

My b/f and I got the recipe from the Vegetarian book from the Barnes & Noble Books. The recipe is called Cheese and Spinach Tart but me made some adjustments. For the cheese you can use low fat or nonfat cheese.

Recipe: Yields 1 9" tart [3126 cal/tart]
8 slices [391 cal/slice]

Crust [2121 cal/crust]
8 Tbsp (138 g) Butter
2 Cups (250 g) All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Chinese Mustard Powder (or 1/2 tsp Regular Mustard Powder)
Large Pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 cup (4 oz) Finely Grated Cheddar Cheese [used Cabot brand]

Filling [1005 cal/filling]
1/2 lb Fresh Spinach
1/2 lb Fresh Broccoli
1 med Onion or 1/2 Large Onion
pinch of Nutmeg
1 cup (8 oz) Large Chunk Cottage Cheese (you can use regular)
2 Large Beaten Eggs
1/2 cup (2 oz) Shredded Mozzarella [Sorrento brand]
2/3 cup (158 mL) Light Cream
Salt and Pepper for taste

Glaze
Beaten egg

Crust

In a bowl rub the butter into the flour until the flour looks like bread crumbs.
Add and combine the mustard powder, paprika, salt and cheddar cheese.
Add 2-3 tbsp of water or enough water to form dough.
Knead until the dough is smooth.
Put it in a bowl wrapped with plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator.

Filling

Chop the onions, spinach and broccoli.
Put the onions, spinach and broccoli in a wok or pan seasoned with the nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Cook it until they are tender.
Add and combine the cottage cheese, beaten eggs, parmesan cheese and light cream.

Crust

Take 2/3 of the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it fits a 9 inch pan.
Line the 9 inch pan with the crust and cut off the excessive dough.
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Spoon the filling into the pan with the crust.
Roll out the remaining into a 9 inch circle and cover the pie with the crust and press in the edges. (You can also cut the crust with a decorative pie crust cutter like the lattice pastry cutter.
Glaze the top of the crust with a beaten egg.
Put the tart into the oven and bake it for 35-40 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Sicilian Filled Cannoli Cake

It's a 3 layer sponge cake with Sicilian cannoli filling. I've searched far and wide for the best recipe online. It looks like it was slumping because the commercial type of ricotta cheese needs to be drained, which I didn't do and it was such a hot, warm day. It made the cannoli fillng melt as soon as I took it out of the fridge but the cannoli filling tasted very good. I was stealing bits and pieces here and there. I hope my boyfriend don't mind . The frosting was not good for decorating though. Not only was it too soft and wont retain the decorative detail, it had huge chunks of orange peels/zest and chocolate. I've should've made the cake with regular cannoli filling. My boyfriend liked it but the consistency of the filling was not the same as the regular cannoli filling. He said it was too grainy. I should've placed it in the blender. Eh...it's good to learn from mistake. By the way...I used Key Food - Part Skim Ricotta Cheese. It's Kosher but it does contain whey. Use your own judgment whether or not you want to use it.

Ricotta Cheese

Key Food Brand
Ricotta Cheese - Part Skim [any size] (veg)
*Does contain Whey

This was the type of ricotta cheese used in the cannoli frosted cake. It does contain whey but it is Kosher. I'm also pretty sure the whole ricotta cheese are also vegetarian.

Arnold Bread, Yogurt, Cream Cheese and Neufchatel Cheese

2007-05-27T01:40:00.000-05:00

Bread

Arnold
Arnold Whole Grain Classics 7 Grain Bread and some others (veg) *contains whey
Arnold Whole Grain Classics Healthy Multi-Grain Bread (veg) *does not contain whey
Arnold Stoneground 100% Whole Wheat Bread (vegan)

Awesome!! I called Arnold Bread company at 800-984-0989 and spoke to a representative about the ingredients of the breads. She said that all the ingredients in the bread are vegetarian except for the milk and whey but they are listed in the ingredients so make sure you continue to read the ingredient labels!!

Yogurt

La Yogurt
Plain and Vanilla Flavored-Low fat and Fatfree 32 oz. (veg)
ShopRite Brand
Plain and Vanilla Flavored - Low fat and Fatfree 32 oz. (veg)
Plain flavored - Low fat 8 oz. (veg)
Keyfood Brand
Plain and Vanilla Flavored - Low fat and Fatfree 32 oz. (veg)

As many knows there most yogurt uses gelatin as a stabilizer but from what I know these three do not use gelatin but only for Plain and Vanilla flavored for the 32 oz. However, ShopRite's plain flavored - low fat 8 oz is vegetarian. It does not use gelatin. All the other flavor and sizes do!!! Here is the source for La Yogurt: Johannafoods

Here are the ingredients for:
ShopRite's Plain Flavored - Low fat 32 oz.
ShopRite's Plain Flavored - Fatfree 32 oz.
ShopRite's Vanilla Flavored - Low fat 32 oz.
ShopRite's Vanilla Flavored - Fatfree 32 oz.
ShopRite's Plain Flavored - Low Fat 8 oz.

I currently do not have the links to the Keyfood one but hopefully I'll be able to get them soon.

Cream Cheese and Neufchatel Cheese

Philadelphia
Cream Cheese - block, whipped and soft variety(veg)
Pathmark
Neufchatel Cheese (veg)
KeyFood
Neufchatel Cheese (veg)

According to The Cheese List soft cheese are not made with enzymes and What's in Your Cheese? mentions that Philadelphia Cream cheeses are vegetarian. Vegetarian Times also stated that most soft cheese uses vegetable or microbial enzyme. If you look closely at the pictures below, both neufchatel cheeses are Dairy Kosher, meaning it can not contain anything derived from meat including animal rennet.

Here are the pictures to the Pathmark Neufchatel cheese and the KeyFood Neufchatel Cheese.

click here to enlarge

click here to enlarge

Kosher

2007-04-23T18:39:00.001-05:00

I know people have told you kosher does not help you determine whether or not certain food are vegetarians, but if you do more research on kosher food and laws, it can actually quite a bit. Ok lets start off with the rules...

What is kosher? Kosher is something that is acceptable under the Jewish law, mainly referring to food.
What are Kosher food? Kosher food are food that meet the requirement of the Jewish law.
What is Parve? It is when the food is not derived from meat or dair

Kosher meat- This include Poultry and Land Mammalsr.Land Mammals: All those that are both hoofed and chew their crud are kosher. Examples of Kosher land animals: Cow, deer, giraffe.Examples of Non kosher land animals: pigs-hoofed but don't chew their crud. Hare- chew their crud but has no hoofs.Poultry: It is not clearly specified but most birds are kosher except but scavenger birds are considered as non kosher.Animal Fat: "chelev" fat surrounding vital organs are not kosher but animal fat are kosher.
Kosher Parve- Food that are not derived from meat or dairy.

Vegetable: All vegetables are considered kosher except for those that have been found with insects and worms.

Seafood: Seafood that has scales and fin are kosher, meaning fish. Fish are considered parve, not meat or dairy. Shellfish, sharks dolphin are non kosher because they have no fins or scales.

Unknown- Sorry I'm not sure whether this is considered meat or parve.

insects: Certain "winged" insects are considered kosher under different Jewish tradition who believe differently but a majority are non kosher.

What are the Kosher symbols?

OU a circle with a U in the middle, or K means means that the product is kosher and it's parve. Parve can include both fish and eggs so watch out.
OU and a D next to it means that it is kosher and it contains milk. D meaning Dairy.
OU and a M next to it means that it is kosher and has meat derivative. M meaning meat.

Ok...What do these have to do with vegetarians...?
Obviously it has a lot to do with vegetarians, why else would I be posting this?

OUD means there are some type of dairy in it but it's kosher. It still might have a possibilty of having fish or eggs in it since fish and eggs are considered parve.

Fish derived items

Vitamin A palmitate- Fish oil
Vitamin D3- Mostly lanolin oil [derived from sheep wool] and sometimes fish oil
Kosher Gelatin- Fish bones

OUM means meat derived so stay clear of this item even if it doesn't seem like it has any meat in the ingredient list.
If it's OUD or K or OU and it has mono-diglyceride or glycerin, you know it's vegetable derived and not meat derived since glycerin and glyceride are derived from hogs and cows. Even if it was derived from cows (kosher meat) it would have a OUM on it. Well you can look at natural flavoring the same way as you do with glyceride and glycerin but remember natural flavoring can be obtain from fish. If you want to risk that...so be it.
CHEESE!!! If the cheese has OUD on it, it means it uses vegetable or microbe rennet. There are two reason, one being that animal rennet is a meat derived, so it cant be eaten with dairy ( jewish law says it's not kosher to eat meat with dairy). The second reason is that it would have to have a OUM on it if it is from meat but the 1st reason makes it impossible for a cheese factory to even label it OUM.
Whey would not be extracted through the usage of animal enzyme if the product is OUD since the enzyme is derived from calves and calves are meat.

Update:
Sources: wikipedia-kosher, Judism 101, VRG, Dairy House, Vegetarian-Restaurant

Cottage Cheese!!

2007-02-28T16:03:00.000-05:00

Omg i love cottage cheese. Here is what I have found out.

Axelrod
All products(veg)
http://www.axelrod.com/

I called them (800) 637-0019 and spoked to Linda about the cottage cheese and she said all of the cottage cheese are vegetarian. I was thinking to myself...eh why not so I asked her whether or not all Axelrod products are vegetarian and she responded with all of Axelrod products are vegetarian. There are no animal byproducts in the Axelrod products except for the milk. If you are lacto or lacto/ovo vegetarian consume all you want!!

Friendship
All products (veg)

I've emailed Friendship company and they said that all of their products are considered vegetarian since there are no "animal parts". I'm not exactly sure cause I checked the ingredients of the lowfat butter milk and it contains both vitamin A and vitamin D3 so it might not actually be vegetarian. In addition to that i'm not quite sure about the enzymes because Ms. Danielle Madsen did not specify whether or not the enzymes are microorganism or from rennet. Just be cautious. I've just emailed her again.

click here to enlarge

WHAT?!!! Peta's vegan list is not so vegan?!

2007-02-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

I can't Believe that "I Can't Believe it's Vegan" is Not Really Vegan!!

I Can't Believe it's Vegan

and
Vegcooking- Shopping Guide

These two lists from these two well known site are seen over the web. Well I don't know about you, but when i google vegetarian food list, those are the lists I see in peoples site. The same exact list (plagiarized) I kind of get the impression that these two list are widely used by many vegans and vegetarian. I'm sorry to burst people's bubble but i must inform you that not all the items on the list are vegan let alone vegetarian. I am not trying to give PETA and Vegcooking a negative publicity but I don't want vegetarians and vegans following a list that may contain by products of animals.

I've contacted Kelloggs and Post through email for my own personal needs and I found out that none of the Kellogg's cereal are vegan or vegetarian. I also found out that none of the Post cereal are vegan or vegetarian with the exception of Shredded Wheats which does not contain Vitamin D3.

Here are the proof:

Email from Kelloggs

click here to enlarge

Email from Kraft-Post

click here to enlarge

Instruction/Tips

2007-02-15T13:38:00.000-05:00

Before you go and read ahead on all my post please read this first.
I will be listing vegetarian, vegan and non vegetarian/vegan food as a FYI.

Here are the legends.
(veg) = vegetarian
(vegan) = obviously, vegan
(nv) = not vegetarian and definitely not vegetarian

Here are some sites you can go to for recipes.

Vegetarian/Vegan Recipe
Vegcooking Affiliated with PETA, they also include a list very similar to Peta's "I can't believe it's Vegan!" Note: I do highly recommend checking those products' ingredients before you purchase them because I've been doing my own research and I emailed the companies. Some of those products listed there are not vegetarian or vegan
VegWeb Very great place for vegetarian recipes
IVU International Vegetarian Unions' list of recipe. There are recipes from around the world. YAy!!
VRG Not as much recipes but very helpful. There are articles and info about the produce you will be using.
VegSource
It's more like a database of recipes gathered from various links including those above. Note: some of the links don't work.
Vegetarian Times Very narrow search which is great, but it does not list the recipes. You need to search it yourself.
The Vegetarian Society Some recipes

Ingredients Vegetarians/Vegans should watch out for
IVU Very thorough list (does not define ingredients)
Vegetarian Guide Another very thorough list (does not define ingredients)
The Vegetarian Society Very nice list and they do explain why it's not vegetarian/vegan
Vegetarian Watch-Out Nice list with explanation

Food that are Vegetarian/Vegan!
VegCooking Like i have noted before, I recommend you to read the ingredients before purchasing because some of those items are no vegetarian/vegan.
PETA Affiliated with VegCooking. This list is obsoleted. Not all of these products are vegan.
Droogie Awesome list. Note: Only for products in the UK. I'm not certain if it applies to the one in USA.
Vegetarian Cheese List Meatless Rennet Cheese x3 Awesome!
What's in Your Cheese? An article about cheese and rennet. On the bottom of the page they suggest vegetarian cheese including cheese substitute.
Almost Vegan Vegan Blog :3

Daisy Sour Cream, Damascus Bakery Wraps, Barilla Pasta Sauce

2007-02-13T16:42:00.000-05:00

Sour Cream

Daisy
Sour Cream - All (veg)
http://www.daisybrand.com/index.html

I've contacted Daisy via telephone and i was informed that all of Daisy's sour cream whether or not it regular, light or no fat, it is vegetarian!!! The vitamin A palmitate is not derived from animals or vegetables. It's derived from micro-organisms.

Lahvash Wrap

Damascus Bakery
Lahvash Wraps - All Flavors (veg)
*contains honey
http://www.damascusbakery.com/

I've checked the ingredients on the back.
Plain Lahvash ingrednts: enriched flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, salt, yeast, calcium proprionate and tumaric acid (as preservatives.)
Honey Wheat Lahvash ingredients: 100% stone ground whole wheat flour, enriched flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, salt, yeast, calcium proprionate and tumaric acid (as preservatives.)

Spinach Lahvash ingredients : natural spinach powder and parsley, enriched flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, salt, yeast, calcium proprionate and tumaric acid (as preservatives.)
Sun-Dried Tomato Lahvash ingredients: natural tomato powder, sun-dried tomato and paprika, enriched flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, salt, yeast, calcium proprionate and tumaric acid (as preservatives.)

Spaghetti Sauce

Barilla
Pasta Sauce - Some (vegan)
http://www.barillaus.com/index.aspx

I've checked the ingredients on the back.
Roasted Garlic Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), onions, roasted garlic (garlic, canola oil), sugar, salt, oregano, olive oil, sunflower oil, parsley, pepper, citric acid.
Garden Vegetable Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), zucchini, eggplant, onions, red bell peppers, sugar, garlic, olive oil, sunflower oil, oregano.
Green & Black Olive Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), green olives (olives, water, salt, acetic acid), black olives (olives, salt, ferrous gluconate), white wine, onions, sugar, salt, olive oil, parsley, sunflower oil, garlic, oregano.
Italian Baking Sauce Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), sugar, salt, garlic powder, olive oil, sunflower oil, oregano, parsley, pepper, basil, citric acid.
Marinara (not sure) - Contains Natural Flavoring*
Mushroom & Garlic Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), mushrooms, onions, garlic, sugar, salt, olive oil, sunflower oil, parsley, citric acid, basil, oregano, pepper
Spicy Pepper Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), green chili peppers, salt, garlic, olive oil, sugar, sunflower oil, parsley, chili pepper, crushed red pepper.
Sweet Peppers & Garlic Ingredients: Diced Tomatoes, tomato puree ( Water, tomato paste), red bell peppers, onions, green bell peppers, salt, olive oil, sunflower oil, garlic, basil, oregano, citric acid, white pepper.
Three Cheese : (not sure) - Contains Enzymes and whey (for those who do not consume whey).
Tomato & Basil: (not sure) - Contains Natural Flavoring*

First Post woo Hoo

2007-02-13T00:55:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try to be devoted to posting weekly if not bi weekly.

The whole purpose of creating this blog is to inform vegetarians,vegans and omnivores which food at the supermarket and the health food are vegetarian or vegan.

I know it's quite hard to go shopping at the supermarket because it's quite hard not knowing whether or not the food you want to purchase if vegetarian or vegan. Maybe this blog will help people's lives much easier.