You'll Go NUTS For This Bread!

Yesterday, I made nut bread for the very first time in my life. Of course, it was vegan. And it was amazing!!

INGREDIENTS
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Egg Replacer for 1 egg
1 cup Soy Milk, plain
1/4 cup Corn Oil
3/4-1 cup chopped walnuts [or almonds or pecans]


[Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.]

1. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix the "egg", soy milk, and oil.
3. Add the "egg" mixture to the flour mixture. Stir together. [The batter will most likely be lumpy. That is okay.]
4. Fold in the nuts.
5. Put the batter in a greased 8x4x2-inch loaf pan.
6. Bake for 50 minutes. [Do the toothpick test after 50 minutes. If necessary, extend the baking time for five more minutes.]

7. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes while the bread is still in the pan.
8. Take the bread out of the pan, and continue to let it cool on the wire rack till the bread has completely cooled.
9. Wrap the bread and store it for at least 12 hours before slicing it.

Egg Replacer.

Say hello to one of the most important things I have in my cupboards.

It is egg replacer. There are a few different kinds of egg replacer out there, but I like the one by Ener-G. If you ever see a box of it in the grocery store or health store, you might think it's absurd to pay $6-$8 for it. However, this stuff goes a long way! And by long way, I mean the box equals about ONE HUNDRED EGGS!!!! So when you compare that to buying cartons of real eggs, this stuff gives you more for less. The only down side to egg replacer is that you cannot use it to make any kind of eggs - poached, scrambled, over easy, etc. But other than that, egg replacer is great!! I have baked a lot with it lately, and it does a fantastic job! I have used it for cookies, cakes, cupcakes, breads, and a few other things.

All you have to do when using egg replacer is mix 1.5 teaspoons of egg replacer and 2 tablespoons of warm water per egg that a recipe calls for. You mix the egg replacer and warm water together, let it sit for a minute or two, and it's ready to be used. Very easy!

I love the stuff! It doesn't taste bad either! You don't really taste it in the foods, but I have taste tested it by itself before, just to see what it tasted like. It has a marshmallow-like taste to it, but it's not a strong marshmallow taste. Very light taste. It's quite nice, really. And when you bake with it, it does give a little egg-like taste in the batter for cakes, cupcakes, and breads.

This stuff really is very important when I'm baking and cooking! And honestly, I feel like I'm getting more than my money's worth when I use it! I have only bought one box of it - the one that I'm using now - and I got it back in March or April.

I highly recommend this product, even if you aren't vegan!! You can save a lot of money on eggs, especially if you only use eggs for baking and cooking. Not only will you save yourself some money, but you will have this product for a while because it lasts 6-9 months [due to the expiration date]. Also, it contains no cholesterol!! It really doesn't get much better than that!

PIZZA!!!!

Who doesn't love pizza?!?! Pizza is just so amazingly delicious! And you can make millions of different variations of pizzas with types of crust and toppings! It's spectacular! Then again, I'm Italian and was born with a bowl of spaghetti and a large pizza...and singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" [that's my all-time favorite song and has been since I was 11-12 years old].

I made enough pizza dough for eight pizzas about two weeks ago, and I kept most of them in the freezer to use for a later date. [Dough can be kept frozen for about three weeks.] So last night, I made some homemade pizza for dinner. Mark and the boys love when I make homemade pizza! Michael goes nuts while the crust is in the oven for 5-10 minutes, he watches me put the toppings on the crust, he watches it when I put it back in the oven to cook, and he stares at it when it cools down because he LOVES pizza! [You can definitely tell he's my son!] For Mark and the boys, I made them a large pepperoni pizza. I cut it into eight slices, and only two slices are left. Mark ate three slices, Michael two, and Brayden ate one.

For my pizza, I used mozzarella flavored vegan "cheese", vegan "pepperoni", mushrooms, and chopped green onions. Before last night, I never had vegan "pepperoni". I was a bit nervous about it, not going to lie, but it was amazingly great!!!!

I didn't have a plain ol' crust on my pizza either. Oh no, no, no! For the crust, I melted vegan "butter", and added some garlic powder, parsley, and oregano. Then I brushed the mixture on the crust before I put it in the oven for 5 minutes. When I took it out of the oven, I put on the sauce and toppings; then I brushed some more of the "butter" mixture on the crust and put it back in the oven for about 16 minutes. [I'm Italian! What do you expect, me to not put garlic on my food?! Are you crazy?! LOL.] Other than the crust, there was not one bit of greasiness on the pizza! That's right, there is no grease on the pizza!! I know pizza is "suppose to be" greasy [yuck!], but greasy foods are just so bad for one's digestive system!! I prefer not having digestion pains, thank you very much!

I love, love, love pizza! I try to make myself pizza once every 10-14 days because I love it so much. I know it's not healthy to have pizza so often, but since it's vegan, I don't feel very guilty! I enjoy being able to have vegan Italian food!

The Name Says It All - So Delicious!

Last weekend, we went grocery shopping for a few items that we didn't find at the grocery store we normally go to. [Food Lion is where we go for most of our grocery shopping, but we do have a few other places we go for items that we cannot pass.] While we were at the store, Mark wanted to get some ice cream since he hasn't had any in a while. So we go over to the frozen section of the grocery store and he starts looking through all the flavors and brands of ice cream. As he's looking at the ice cream for a long time, I'm just standing there thinking Oh, come on! I don't feel like being out all day long! The kids are getting hungry and cranky, which means I'm getting annoyed and b*tchy! Eventually, Mark picks out the ice cream he wanted. I know neither the brand nor the flavor of what he got because I don't care - I won't be eating it. All I know is it took him ten centuries to pick out what he wanted! Men! HAHAHAHA. But anyway, as Mark was bringing the ice cream to the cart, I looked at him and said, "I wish they made soy ice cream in more flavors that come in the larger containers." I've only ever found the Neapolitan flavor before, and it's not like I've always been a fan of Neapolitan ice cream. [Don't ask me why I've never been a fan of it, I just never have. Weird, I know.] Well, as soon as I say that, I turn around and BAM!, right in front of me are a few flavors of soy ice cream in the not-so-tiny containers!!!! I was rather excited! I don't remember all of the flavors that were there, I just know I grabbed the Chocolate Velvet flavor. YAY for vegan-friendly ice that comes in a chocolate flavor and in a larger container than usual!!


I haven't been a big fan of chocolate for a long time. I never really even craved it that "one week of every month" before I became a vegan. [I know, I know. How un-feminine of me! HA.] Honestly, I haven't had much of a sweet tooth in years! Sure, there would be the occasional candy bar every so often, or the slice of birthday cake, or some ice cream, but sugar just makes me a bit sick - even if I've had very little. But ever since I became vegan, I have craved something with sugar a little bit more than I did before I became vegan. It's not much, but it is more than before. With being vegan, I feel like I can have a piece of cake, or a cupcake [or two], or a decent-sized bowl of ice cream, or an ice cream cone loaded with soy ice cream because vegan foods don't make me feel guilty!! I can eat so much stuff, and know that it's healthy for me - and I can work off that extra 0.05 ounce and then some off just by walking to the kitchen to get something else to eat if I'm still hungry! LOL. It's great! And how can you NOT like that though?!

Being healthy doesn't mean that you eat bland, nasty foods and are "limited" to certain things. If you know what to look for, look hard enough, and even sometimes get very creative in the kitchen, being healthy is better and tastier than you think!!

I Tried Something New For Dinner

Within the last two weeks, I heard about this one vegan line of foods. I heard about it through Twitter. [I hear about a lot of stuff through Twitter these days! It's such an amazing social networking site!] The line of foods is called Gardein. What I had tonight was the Burgundy Trio.

As soon as I opened the pouch of the meat, I immediately said, "Oh wow! This smells really freakin' good!!" I have had some vegan "meats" before where I open them, and just want to gag because they smell so horrible. However, that was not the case tonight!! It just smelled so good! It smelled like the meat and gravy used when my mom used to make spaetzle. Amazing!

So I put the "meat" in a bowl, then put the sauce on top of it, and put it in the microwave for a couple minutes. While it was cooling off, I heated up the rice. Then I let all of the food cool off for a few minutes. They say to serve the rice as a side, but I am one who likes to mix my rice with other foods. I mixed the rice in the bowl with the "meat" and sauce, and let it cool off for a few more minutes. Once it was all cooled down some more, I sat down and ate.

The first bite I took...I can't even explain it! The "meat" was perfection!!!! I couldn't believe I was eating a "meat" that wasn't from an animal, but it tasted like animal meat!!!! The only difference between the "meat" for dinner and animal meat is that what I had is so much healthier!!!! After a few bites, I told Mark he just had to take a bite, but he didn't because he had just eaten and was full. [Also, I believe he's "afraid" to try the healthier stuff because it's not really meat, and he thinks he NEEDS to eat "real meat". Ugh, don't even get me started on that mess!] You know how you sometimes slowly eat something because it is just that good and you want to savor every bit of it? Yeah, that's how I ate my dinner! HAHAHA. It was just way too good to scarf down!!

I wish I would've gotten more of the Burgundy Trio when I went to the store over the weekend. It just sucks because I had to drive about 45 minutes to get to the nearest store that sells the Gardein products!! Ugh. Oh well, it was totally worth the drive! Luckily, I bought quite a few other products of theirs, so I will be trying them soon. I can't wait! I love finding out about new vegan-friendly food products!!!! It's so nice - and so much fun - to explore new foods, especially when they're healthy foods!!

I am currently in LOVE with this!

I mentioned in a recent blog how Food Lion has stepped up their game a lot and now carry a great amount of vegan foods and desserts. Also, I mentioned how I got a vegan pot pie and how awesome it was. Well, that vegan pot pie I got is still awesome!! The vegan pot pie is by Amy's Kitchen, and I seriously cannot praise it enough!



Sure, there's a lot of sodium in it, but I'm okay with that because I don't use much salt in foods I make anyway. I stay away from salt as much as I can, so I figure I can go a little "crazy" with sodium with the pot pie. If you want to check out the Nutritional Facts of the pot pie, just go here.

You know how you could eat one or two things for the rest of your life, if you had to? This pot pie is one of those two things for me! I love pot pies so much!

Vegan baking.

I tried a vegan cake mix about a week ago, and it was SO AWFUL!! I am not even kidding, it was one of the top five most disgusting things I have ever tasted in my LIFE! I was so bummed though because I wanted to have cake since I haven't had cake in what seems like forever. So earlier today, I was watching Food Network [I feel so fat for admitting that I watch that channel probably more than any human being should] and I was watching cake shows/contests and cupcake contests. This got me thinking - Hey, I should really bake some cupcakes right now. So I went in the kitchen and started baking cupcakes. But I wasn't baking regular cupcakes, I was baking vegan cupcakes. I decided to go ahead and try baking cupcakes by using a regular cake recipe, and substituting vegan ingredients for the milk, butter, and eggs. I tasted the batter before I baked the cupcakes, and I could already tell that the cupcakes would be a success with that recipe using the vegan ingredients. The cupcakes came out GREAT!!

Also, I made vegan frosting. Again, I just took a regular frosting recipe and substituted vegan ingredients for the butter and milk [no eggs necessary for this recipe]. The frosting tasted so good!

I didn't make a regular cupcake though. I made cupcake cones with soy ice cream underneath the cupcake!!!! My kids were LOVING them! They really liked the cherries I put on top, too! Such a fun little treat I wanted to give them.

I have created other vegan cake recipes so that I could make other types of cupcake cones, and I can't wait to try them! I am very excited about one of them in particular!

Here's my cupcake cone:



I sprayed some blue food coloring on the frosting and added some sugar crystal sprinkles. I couldn't even finish it! I don't have much of a sweet tooth at all, so a little sugar does a LOT for me! But it was a GREAT cupcake, nonetheless!! My husband and kids liked them, too, so that's a huge plus in my book!

Post-Surgery, Veganism, My Birthday Wish, & MORE!

So yesterday was SIX WEEKS since my surgery!! WOW! I can't even believe that. It feels like I had surgery three weeks ago, not six! I am feeling great though! I am able to move around a lot, but I still try not to overdo it. I haven't worked out yet since the surgery because my stomach isn't fully healed and I do not want to push the limit just yet. I wish I could work out because I have put back on a pound or two by not being able to work out. Not my idea of fun, let me tell you!

I am eating so ridiculously healthy these days, it's not even funny. I went to the grocery store the other night, and they had a LOT of vegan foods and deserts there! I had never seen the stuff before, and that is my main grocery store of choice. [I go there 1-3 times a week.] I am so happy to see that they are adding much more healthy things in their store!! [Food Lion, you get my stamp of approval!!] I got a vegan pot pie when I went grocery shopping and had it that night for dinner. I cannot even begin to explain to you how delicious it was! OMG! I got a lot of things that are more vegan friendly, too. I have really gotten into cooking and baking things from scratch lately. I will take a normal recipe out of a normal cookbook, and I will use the vegan alternatives. One of the most successful things I have made recently was cinnamon rolls. They were beyond amazing!!!! I want to make them again real soon because they were so good! Mark's mom and brother were here over the weekend, and even they loved them! Also, Michael, my picky-as-can-be 4-year-old son, ate them and LOVED them!

When I began the whole veganism thing last year, I never had any idea how much I would enjoy it - and how passionate I would become about it. I didn't start because of the animals. I can be honest and admit that it had absolutely nothing to do with animal rights and all that stuff. I switched because of the health benefits. Then about a month or so ago, I learned about how eco-friendly it is to be vegan. Did you know that eating meat is not green? I did not know that until I became more passionate about being vegan and learning more about all of the benefits that come from being vegan. I am all about being eco-friendly! I know that I still can do quite a bit to being kind to Mother Earth, but I'm really trying. [If you want to read a little bit about how eating meat is not green, go here. Hopefully you will get somewhat of an understanding as to how meat is not green.] I'm trying to get Mark and the boys away from eating so much meat now. My birthday "wish" for this year is that Mark and the boys to go vegetarian for a week or two next month. All I want for my birthday this year is a Journey album [vinyl, of course] and my husband and sons to not eat any meat. If my husband can even find the Journey album I asked for, he'll spend no more than $10 on me for my birthday. So I think what I'm asking for is pretty fair. It would mean so much to me if they didn't eat any meat. They can drink regular milk and eat regular cheese and all that stuff, just no meat.

While I did not become vegan because of animal cruelty and animal rights, that does not mean I have not become more passionate about the animals. During all of my vegan-related research, I decided to look into the cruelty that factory-farmers show their animals. Not all farmers are cruel to their animals, but the ones that run factory-farms are, and that's where most of the meat that is consumed comes from. I cannot even begin to explain to you just how ridiculous, disgusting, upsetting, etc. it is to learn about the factory-farms and how cruel those farmers are. I watched a video the other day, and I sat here and I cried my eyes out. Just the thought of it right now makes me want to cry! It's absurd how horribly those animals get treated! I have been against wearing fur and leather for many years now. I don't care how clean the fur is, I just always thought of it to be nasty to be wearing someone else's hair for "fashion". It's stupid!

We are moving down to the coast of the Gulf in a few months. I have been very upset and angered with this whole BP oil spill for a good while now. I am going to try to volunteer once we get down there and help in any way I can. I am sure they will still need help in the fall, so I will do what I can. I told Mark about my plans, and he's very supportive. He knows how much it means to me. I just want to help make this world a better place and leave it in better shape than it is now.

What do you do to help make our a world a better place? Do you plant your own garden? Do you use reusable grocery bags? Do you use energy efficient appliances? Recycle? Something else? Anything you do to help make this world cleaner and a better place makes a difference!!