Banana Bread

Due to having the flu, I had about 4 bananas that were almost ready to be thrown out (among a ton of other food). So what else can you do with almost rotten bananas? Banana bread!! 

(Yes, that is steam still coming off of the bread...mmmmm)

This has to be the best banana bread I've ever made. This loaf lasted not even 4 days. It was extremely moist when first made and was still fairly moist a few days later. 

You'll need

4 bananas

1/3 cup melted Earth Balance butter

1 heaping tablespoon apple sauce

1 cup sugar or agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

1 pinch of salt

1 loaf pan

How to make

Preheat the oven to 350F. Now for this recipe, it works best if you break it down into steps. It mixes up better and seems to cook smoother. Start off with the melted butter and bananas. You can mush the bananas by hand if they are ripe enough. Then add the sugar, apple sauce, and vanilla. When that is all mixed, add the flour and other powdered ingredients. Pour into a buttered loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

When it cooled, I cut it in half and put it into a sealed container to keep some moisture in it. It will probably last a week as long as you wipe out the excess moisture in the container once every day or two.

Pumpkin Cookies

This recipe comes from my boyfriend's mother, slightly modified to be vegan. She is a great cook and is a very hard act to follow! 

What you'll need 

• 1 cup canned pumpkin or pumpkin pie mix
• 1 cup vegetable based shortening
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make

The original recipe calls for canned pumpkin, but we decided to use pumpkin pie mix this time. It came out a lot better than usual. I've never seen cookies fly off the plate so fast!

Preheat oven to 350. Mix everything together in a big bowl and blend well. Its up to you whether you want to share the beaters or not.

Drop spoonfuls on to the cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

The original recipe calls for Penuche frosting, which tastes great as well. We used your basic frosting and colored it orange to match the holidays. If you want to use the Penuche frosting, the recipe is as follows:

• 3 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Combine 3 tablespoons of vegan butter and the brown sugar together in a saucepan. Heat to a boil, let cool for one minute while stirring. Cool for 15 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of soy milk and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar as you go, approximately 2 cups, until it is thick enough to be spread.

 Once the cookies are done, cool and frost!

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

 

I was so excited to try out this recipe at Thanksgiving! It turned out really good and I would definitely make it again! There are two ways to make this - with pre-made crust or to make the crust yourself.

What you'll need

Filling 

(you can used canned pumpkin pie filling, but that isn't any fun!)

• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup soy milk
• 3/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 tablespoon dark molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Crust 

(we used pre-made crust)

• 1/2 cup unbleached flour
• 7 tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon. salt
• 1/2 teaspoon agave nectar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoon canola oil
• 3 tablespoons soy milk plus 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 to 4 tablespoons water

How to make

*If making the crust yourself, preheat to 425F. If using pre-made crust, heat to 350F*

We used a pre-made crust! Completely vegan and made of graham crackers 

To make the crust, mix all ingredients together and roll into a ball. Roll flat into a 11 inch circle with a rolling pin and line a 9 inch pie plate. Crimp the edges by hand or with a fork. Cover and refrigerate. 

Agave nectar was one of the ingredients we used instead of sugar. If using this, reduce the amount of liquid by a tiny tiny bit - about a tablespoon or two - and increase cooking time by 3 minutes or so.

Mix all of the ingredients together for the filling. Make sure you mix thoroughly.  Pour gently into pie pan and bake! 

*If making the crust yourself, you must bake for 10 minutes with filling at 425F, then reduce to 350F and continue to bake for 50 minutes. If using pre-made crust, simply bake for 50 minutes at 350F*

When finished, cool for 10 minutes, refrigerate, and enjoy the next day! 

Where we went wrong... 

Don't get me wrong, it tasted GREAT the first bite, but it was wayyy too sweet! We couldn't figure out why until I looked at the pictures I had taken - We used Pumpkin Pie Filling instead of pumpkin! Oops!! The next one tasted great, although there were no pictures of that :)

Cupcakes and Cookies

One big fear that I notice among people who are trying to go vegan is that they don't want to give up cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. Luckily for them, there are plenty of ways to make delicious treats while still maintaining a vegan diet! These are very basic and easy to do recipes here that don't require you to be a super baker (trust me - I'm not). I managed to do these with the help of my daughter, which means you should be able to do them too! :)

We'll start with the cupcakes. I normally use Duncan Hines but the store we were at didn't carry it! So we went with our next vegan option - Pillsbury Strawberry cake mix. Please remember to read the ingredients before buying! Not all of them are vegan. This was the only vegan option available to us so we went with it. 

You will need

One box of cake mix

Applesauce

Earth Balance Butter

Vegetable oil

Cake Beaters

Icing and Sprinkles 

How to make

You'll notice I included applesauce in the list of ingredients. Applesauce is one of those magic foods that can be used to replace egg in a recipe. You can also substitute banana if you are making something that already has a banana taste. Applesauce leaves no taste so you can use it for anything. Substitute one tablespoon for every egg. Another good hint - You can use vegetable oil to replace the butter in a recipe. I like using Earth Balance butter instead of substituting straight vegetable oil, but it works if you run out of butter substitute. 

Follow the direction on the box. Mix the cake mix with applesauce, butter, and vegetable oil (or whatever your box calls for). Use cake beaters to ensure that it comes out smooth. The Pillsbury kind really fluffed up a lot and made it difficult to work with, but it still came out delicious.

Fill up the cupcake papers half of the way to about 2/3 of the way full. This kind was very hard to judge so I just plopped it in. If you use Duncan Hines, you'll be able to smoothly put it into the cupcake papers.

Let it cook for about 20 minutes. Keep checking and use a tooth pick to ensure they are done.

If you fill the cup properly, which I admit is pretty difficult to get right, you'll have a nice cupcake height. This took me a few batches in the beginning when I was learning, but if you mess a few up, don't worry! 

After they are cooled, feel free to decorate however you'd like!

In between making those, I also made some cookies. I used Pillsbury Funfetti Halloween Cookie mix. You can use the regular funfetti mix as well. This brand makes delicious cookies! 

You will need

Cookie mix
Applesauce

Vegetable oil

Earth's Balance Butter

Icing and sprinkles

How to make

Follow the directions on the box! Mix everything together, again substituting 1 table spoon of applesauce for 1 egg.  This is the easiest cookie recipe in the world. All you are doing is substituting non-vegan for vegan. 

We had a separate pan filled with a little bit of flour to cut our cookie shapes out. You can skip this step by rolling them into balls and cooking them. This is a fun, simple project that kids can even help with! I let my 1 year old cut a few cookies with no worries if she ate the dough since it didn't contain egg in it!

When finished, place them on a tray to cook. They will take about 8-10 minutes. When they are done, they will look beautiful and fluffy like this

When they cool down, feel free to decorate however you'd like and enjoy!