Maggie's Almond Sour Cream Jam Muffins

These muffins are so, SO good. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I more-or-less made up the recipe and baking isn't as much my thing as cooking, but wow. They are rich, have great texture, and I love the dollop of jam in each one. I ate four in one day!

I didn't intend to create a sour cream muffin recipe, but I'd used a small amount of sour cream making cheesy taco mac. While normally I wouldn't think twice about an open tub of sour cream in the fridge, I've been far more conscientious about the food we've been making and using. We have only been to the grocery store twice in the last six weeks, and while we are very lucky in terms of our ability to stock up on food (plus, beans and lentils are cheap and delicious!), I am pretty sure that our changed behaviors have altered my processing of food in our house. This recipe is a great thing to emerge from my shifted consciousness and it is sure to make it into a regular rotation!

Protein Breakfast Cookies

Shana and a group of friends have started a once-a-month brunch. When she told me about the first one, I'd already planned another morning event, meaning I didn't attend. Coming home afterward, she proudly announced that we were hosting the second month. Fast forward and we are into month three.

Here's the problem: I'm running out of brunch recipes.

Let me clarify. I'm running out of brunch recipes that travel well and will be more or less a meal for me and Shana, as no one else in this group is vegan. I've got a few more ideas in mind, but I'll take any ideas you've got!

For tomorrow's brunch, I'm bringing these high-protein breakfast cookies. These were a recipe my sister-in-law was making when she was following a paleo diet. Shana tried them and loved them, so got the recipe for me. With a minor edit they became vegan and are absolutely delicious. There was a while when I was making a double-batch on the weekend so we could both grab a couple for breakfast during week. I just might have to start doing that again...

Maggie's Vegan Challah

Hanukkah is coming up. Neither of us is religious, but we both grew up with holiday traditions. Although Shana's Jewish traditions weren't my own, many of my friends were Jewish while growing up, so they are more than a bit familiar to me. One major tradition at Hanukkah is eating challah bread. Beautiful, braided, sweet, soft, magical challah bread; generally full of eggs.

A while ago I had an idea to try to make challah, figuring there had to be a way to make that magic vegan-friendly. Plus, the way Shana's eyes lit up when I mentioned the idea meant I had to try. More important was the way her eyes closed in pleasure when eating the finished bread. One way I show my love is through feeding people, so feeding my wife a food she'd not had since childhood made my heart overflow. It was only a matter of time before I'd make it again. With Hanukkah coming up in less than two weeks, I can feel the magic coming.

Maggie's Vegan Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

My wife love banana bread. LOVES it. Me? I prefer my sweet bread with zucchini. If I have to do banana, I'll do the best banana muffins ever. But Shana had been asking for banana bread - specifically, banana bread that tasted like bananas and included chocolate chips - for a long time.

A few months ago, I gave in to her request and started looking up recipes. I didn't find any that I liked. Undeterred, I made something up. Here's the crazy part: I wrote down what I did. When Shana tried it, she was thrilled. It was just what she wanted.

But the rule for the blog is that I have to make my own recipes at least twice before they appear here. Given my lack of enthusiasm for banana bread, it was a while before I felt like making it again. This weekend, my mother-in-law and step-dude (her husband) came to town and Shana mentioned banana bread when we were discussing breakfast. Three pairs of eyes lit up. In my quick mental check, I realized that my frozen-banana-zone of the freezer (what, you don't have one of those?!) was getting full, so I acquiesced.

It was just a good the second time as it was the first, though I'll still take zucchini bread any day.

It was still a bit warm when I cut it, so look at all that melty chocolate. 

Thomas Family "Special Syrup"

Every once in a while, you want a special treat for breakfast, like cinnamon rolls or candy coated clouds. But sometimes, with a busy week behind you, a full day ahead, and the semester looming, you just want something to make a more typical weekend breakfast a bit special. You want "special" without the effort "special" often requires. I have just the thing for you.

When I was growing up, we would have waffles or pancakes for weekend breakfasts with regularity. Nearly all of the time, those treats would be covered with maple syrup. But every so often, my dad would say that he was going to make "special syrup" for us to pour over our waffles. This pronouncement was met with glee! I assumed that special syrup was an occasional treat because it was labor intensive - I couldn't have been more wrong! This syrup recipe is all of the "special" with next to no effort. Instead, with three simple ingredients and about six minutes of your time, you'll be able to drench waffles in a delicious syrup with at least a three generation family history* (granted, I made mine vegan).

Served this morning with hash browns and Amy's brand vegan breakfast sausages (because Shana is obsessed with them).

This was just what I needed the weekend before my semester starts in earnest.

Vegan Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread - No Knead and Low Fuss!

I know that I promised CSA posts, but right now we've been eating things from the CSA so quickly that I don't have time to photograph them (I'm only a little bit kidding). Every week I get so excited to see what we'll get. Just yesterday I submitted another manuscript to a journal, so I hope that means I'll get back to experimenting with new recipes.

For today, though, I'd like to share a recipe for a whole wheat sandwich bread. I used to think baking bread was scary and tedious and required a master's touch. To be honest, I still think that way about a lot of bread. However, this bread is SO easy because it's a very wet dough and requires no kneading. The lack of kneading means it takes a while, but get it started one weekend afternoon or right when you come home from work and then let it do it's thing. With minimal effort you will be rewarded with awesome bread!

Quick & Easy Vegan Buttermilk Biscuits

Despite the fact that I know we should eat something other than carbs for breakfast, that's often where we revert on weekend mornings. There are exceptions, such as tofu scramble, but carbs commonly grace our breakfast plates. Often I use Heart Smart Bisquick when I make pancakes, waffles, or biscuits, but the other week I was out and really craving biscuits. I figured it couldn't be that hard to make my own, so did some quick google searching. Turns out there are a ton of different ways to mix a few simple ingredients to make biscuits. After a bit of pondering (and a bit of guessing), I made an attempt at a recipe that turned out really well!

Even though the biscuits were delicious, I've got a rule. The rule for the blog, is that if I make up a recipe, I have to make that recipe at least twice before it gets posted. (FYI, if I make a recipe from a cookbook that's awesome, then I can post it after just one time, as it went through all sorts of testing before getting published.) Lucky for me, the second attempt at the biscuits turned out just as well as the first! Shana even said "good biscuits, love" multiple times during breakfast. We slather our biscuits with vegan butter and agave nectar, but you could easily do jam, maple syrup, gravy, or even use them to make a vegan breakfast sandwich (despite the addition of sugar, the biscuits themselves aren't sweet). Let me know what you do with your biscuits!

All slathered and with some fake bacon.

Vegan Baked Oatmeal

My wife loves routine. She loves the structure it provides to life. Shana's love of structure was another reason why the implementation of our meal plan has lasted for so many years. Her food routine spreads to breakfast, too. Nearly every morning, Shana eats a bagel (usually an everything bagel, sometimes a cinnamon raisin). However, at some point this past semester, Shana said that she'd not been eating a bagel because it was "too much" in the morning. Given that she teaches small children all day, having something for breakfast is important, and I lamented the fact that she doesn't like oatmeal due to its texture. She agreed with my lament, but it got me thinking if there was another way to get her to eat oatmeal (full of fiber, protein, a minerals like manganese, but low in fat and calories!).

Enter baked oatmeal; I hoped for all of the goodness, none of the texture issues. I did a lot of googling and found a ton of recipes, but most of them contained eggs and/or milk. Adding "vegan" to my search terms led to a bunch of recipes. Somewhat at random, I picked one that had some flavors I liked and dove in and hoped for the best. I'm so glad that I did because this recipe is AMAZING! It is easy to put together, has awesome texture and flavor (it tastes like fall!), freezes like a dream, and got Shana to eat oatmeal! 

Super Simple Breakfast Cookies

Somehow or another I went a whole month without posting - how embarrassing. October is always a busy month for us (we were gone two consecutive weekends in the middle of the month) and this is when the semester really starts to explode. Still, those aren't appropriate reasons to have neglected my blog for a whole month.

With that said, I'm back and cooking all sorts of new things this week. Hopefully some of them will be blog-worthy! I've got something blog-worthy today, though: breakfast cookies! I saw these on a blog I follow and decided I had to make them. They are SO simple and really delicious! Plus, they're full of healthy ingredients (oats, flax seed, bananas), soy and gluten free, take next to no time, and are low in sugar. What's not to love?

Maggie's Tofu Scramble

We're back from our lovely holiday travels and enjoying that last weekend of break before everything starts up again. When talking about having a fun weekend breakfast, I mentioned tofu scramble to Shana, who was enthusiastic. Having a tofu scramble for breakfast is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it's a departure from our regular fun weekend breakfasts of waffles or pancakes (though we couldn't resist). Second, I'm not sure that anyone who has known Shana would have ever expected her to think a tofu scramble sounds like a delicious food, no matter when it's served. On the other hand, I order them almost everywhere I can find them served.

I've made tofu scrambles a few times at home, but I'd never quite gotten the spices and moisture content quite right. I'd make one that was too wet (per Shana's standards), too bland, too spicy, or just not quite right. This morning, after looking over my notes from my most recent attempt, cross-referencing with a recipe from one of the figureheads of vegan cooking (Isa Chandra Moskowitz over at the PPK), and doing a little mental recalculation, I arrived at a winner of a tofu scramble! We devoured all of it, along with some mini pancakes and a couple of slices of vegan bacon.

Christmas Traditions: Candy Coated Clouds

I love traditions. Growing up in a family with many traditions likely caused my love for them, but regardless of the reason, I love traditions. Christmas time, in my family, is a time filled with traditions. I could give you an hour-by-hour account of what happens on any given Christmas starting Christmas Eve morning through Christmas night. Although this year was a bit different than other years (my mother's health is failing), we're still engaging in most of the traditions that we've had for years.

One of those traditions is what we eat for breakfast on Christmas morning: caramel pull-apart rolls. Although historically this breakfast was ONLY for Christmas, while my sister and I were growing up it became a breakfast occasionally served at other times. One of those other times was a trip up to my family's cabin in high school. I brought along a group of my friends and my dad made these for breakfast. One friend, upon taking her first bite, said, "it's like eating candy coated clouds!" The name (description) stuck; I don't even know what they are actually called. As an adult, I've served it to many other people. My nephew LOVES this breakfast and requests it every time we visit. He's been helping me cook them since he was about 3. He knows the whole process (and how long it takes) and has been requesting that I post this recipe here for a while.

Before I go on, let me clue you in that this is NOT a healthy breakfast. It's a delicious treat of a breakfast, but certainly not something that should be a regular indulgence. But hey, it's Christmas!

Amazing Apple Spice Bread

I've just finished the last week of the semester at school; finals are next week. Due to some scheduling confusion with the finals schedule, I rearranged the last three days of my Psychology of Prejudice class, necessitating that we start class 30 minutes early on Thursday (my students were giving presentations on their semester-long research projects; research is awesome!). Because they are college students and I know full well that most of them roll out of bed to come to my class (and, let's be honest, because I love them), I told them I would make them treats since I was starting class earlier than usual.

Class was going to run from 10-12 on Thursday, so I needed mostly breakfast-y stuff for them to eat. I opted for a lot of fruit (pineapple, strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries), a pretzel/chocolate/pecan thing, as well as some baked items. Actually, lots of baked items. I made my grape nut bars, two sets of banana muffins (with nuts and without), and this amazing apple bread. While cooking on Wednesday night, I worried that I wasn't going to have enough food, so I started some creative googling. Eventually, I stumbled on a non-vegan recipe for a bread that looked good, made some adjustments, and ended up not even getting a piece to try while in class! I asked a couple of students about the bread after class (one student said she liked it so much she had two pieces - excellent!), and with the rave reviews, I figured I had to make it again. I am SO glad I did, because this bread is AMAZING! It's full of a subtle blend of apple/cinnamon/molasses flavors, it's sweet but not cloying, it's dense without being heavy, and it's moist with a wonderful mouth feel. For those of you who like my family recipe zucchini bread, make this bread! You'll love it!

Vegan Cornbread Muffins

Tonight Shana is cooking dinner! Just like I'm doing crockpot meals once a week, she's cooking dinner one night a week now. It has been fun to NOT cook dinner one night a week, but, in all honesty, I wouldn't like it if she cooked all the time. I just enjoy cooking too much for that. Anyway, Shana is not a very experienced cook, so she's opting to make dishes from my blog because she knows what they are supposed to taste like and because I'm here while she's cooking in case questions arise. It's actually been quite helpful for me to have a novice cook attempt recipes, as she's pointed out areas where I don't provide enough information (e.g., how much heat does one use for a simmer?), as well as the occasional typo.

We'd been talking about having the best vegan chili for about a week, so the cooler temperatures of today (perfect for the autumnal equinox) made this a perfect choice for dinner. Since Shana was cooking the main part of dinner, I thought I'd take the time to make the classic chili accompaniment of cornbread. Most cornbread recipes call for at least one of the following non-vegan ingredients: buttermilk, eggs, or butter. However, none of those ingredients are necessary to make a moist and delicious cornbread! You can make a delicious cornbread without animal by-products and no one will ever know!

Family Recipe Zucchini Bread

Yesterday I walked to the farmer's market. I needed the walk and I wanted the produce. While there, I purchased all sorts of goodies, including two ~9 inch zucchinis. As soon as I saw them I could smell the zucchini bread cooking.

I called my parents tonight to find out where this recipe came from. Originally, it was my Grandma T's recipe (my paternal grandmother). Apparently, though, it was my parents' ingenuity to add the chocolate chips. I won't make it any other way.

When I was growing up, all we needed was one giant zucchini from my dad's garden and zucchini bread would happen. I can see my mom standing in the kitchen, bending over the giant yellow/flowered metal bowl, stirring and stirring as she mixed in the shredded zucchini. This, of course, was after she'd carefully mixed together all the other ingredients. I'd marvel as the zucchini leached its liquid into the batter; watching it slowly turn from a nearly sandy texture to something smooth, brown, and magical. I'd get to help lick the bowl clean  (trying carefully to avoid the leftover shreds of zucchini) and then I'd wait as amazing smells filled the kitchen. When I was older, I'd help mix ingredients or shred zucchini, and I no longer avoided the leftover shreds of zucchini in the bowl. Mom would still do the last stirring though; that was her job. To me, this bread is the representation of late summer, of garden bounty, of tradition, of family.

Simple Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

Yesterday morning was the first normal Sunday morning Shana and I have had in a while. Last Sunday we were driving to Philly, the Sunday before that was in State College, and the Sunday before that I was in Jordan. I guess we'll actually only have one more normal Sunday before all of our summer travels start, too.

I love two* things about Sunday mornings. First, I get the local paper and Indianapolis paper delivered to my doorstep and I read both with a cup of french-pressed coffee. Second, I often make a fun breakfast for Shana and I (once she gets up, anyway). Usually the special breakfast is nothing more than pancakes or waffles, but we decided that we wanted to eat cinnamon rolls yesterday. Many recipes for cinnamon rolls require yeast and long rising times, but these are far easier! Although they don't have quite the tenderness of a yeast-dough, they are still soft and their ease makes up for any lack in tenderness.

Maggie's Vegan Quiche

Now that I'm back from my trip to Jordan, I feel like my summer is actually starting. I spent the past few days organizing little bits of things from the end of the semester (though I've more work to do) and even got some good "summer work" done today (data analysis and manuscript writing).

However, what makes it really feel like summer is that my mind is whirring with plans for all the things I want to try to cook! As of right now, my dining room table is covered with cookbooks and I've got a running list going. For example, there are couple of Peruvian recipes from World Vegan Feast I've been eyeing, I got a couple of ingredients that are hard to find here when we were gone over Memorial Day weekend some fun recipes I haven't made in a while (vegan whoopie pies, anyone?), and just today I got a new cookbook in the mail (Let Them Eat Vegan) that I won in a giveaway.

With all that said, tonight I opted for a tried and true recipe. Shana stayed in Indy tonight for a "meet the new families" school function, which meant that I could do what I wanted for dinner. I opted for vegan quiche, because Shana keeps trying to tell herself she doesn't like it (even though the last time I made she ate 1/4 of it herself). The beauty of this recipe is that it can be made with veggies you likely have hanging out in your fridge. My preference is green things (broccoli, spinach, etc.), but veggies like mushrooms or peppers would also be delicious. Regardless of what you put in it, this recipe will get eaten up whenever you make it. I've taken it to brunches and served it to guests for breakfast and dinner, and it always disappears.

Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Two posts in as many days! It's amazing what I can accomplish when I'm home on the weekend and avoiding my grading.

In reality, making these muffins was preceded by the local food co-op ordering me a case of vanilla soy yogurt. I use vanilla in some of the varieties of Overnight Refrigerator Oats, but I can't get it around town. Luckily, we have great people at the food co-op who will order things for you if you need them. Awesome. However, since yogurt has a shelf-life, I needed to use some up rather quickly. This muffin recipe is a delicious way to do so!

Originally a non-vegan Alton Brown recipe for blueberry muffins, I've made slight modifications to make lemon poppy seed muffins. However, you can easily use the base recipe to make fruity muffins of your choice (see the Helpful Hints). Regardless of what kind of muffin you make, they are bound to be tasty, fresh or from the freezer.

Maggie's Vegan Overnight Refrigerator Oats

The recorded high here yesterday was 82 degrees. As it is April, I'm happy for there to be warmer weather, but 82 on April 9th is just silly; that's June 9th weather. However, since the past few days have been warm, I've been switching my brain over to warm weather food. Assuming that the weather stays like this, I'll be using the "summer" tag more often.

One of the hardest meals for me in the summer used to be breakfast. I didn't want to eat something hot, but just grabbing a banana wasn't enough and I rarely made time for cereal. Thus, when I stumbled on a mention of "refrigerator oats" late last summer, I was intrigued. Although the recipe I found wasn't vegan, it didn't seem like it would be too hard to adjust. After trying it one time, I was hooked! Plus, it's infinitely variable to personal tastes.

Although it might sound odd, refrigerator oats (especially when made in a jar/container for easy on-the-fly morning fueling) are a perfect summer breakfast. Below, I'll give you the general recipe and then some of my favorites. But really, experiment!

Maple-blueberry = one of my favorites

Maggie's Vegan French Toast

Breakfast as a vegan can be super easy (think oatmeal and fruit), but many people think it's a difficult meal to veganize due to Americans' heavy reliance on things like eggs and breakfast meats. However, that perception is wholly unfounded! It's easy to veganize nearly every breakfast food you can think of, often far more easily than you might imagine. For example, commercial mixes for pancakes and waffles are often vegan (though check carefully, because some are not), substitutions can lead to things like a killer vegan quiche, and there are a ton of faux meat things you can buy.

One of the few breakfast tastes that eluded me, however, was french toast. Sure, I could make something cinnamony and delicious, but I couldn't get it to have that "eggy" taste that I associated with the french toast of my pre-vegan days. But after a ton of experimentation and recipe perusal, I zeroed in on a french toast recipe that has the flavor and texture that I love. The keys are the use of garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour, high quality bread gone stale, and a slow cook time.

Best Banana Muffins

Every week we buy bananas for Shana to eat at school, on the way to school, or in the middle of the night if she gets super hungry. Most weeks, all the bananas are eaten. However, occasionally we have a banana left over at the end of the week. You know that banana. The browning, squishy, BANANA-smelling, one. I'm not sure I'd eat that banana if my life depended on it (when I eat bananas, they have to be yellow-green and firm). Thus, those bananas get tossed in to the freezer, waiting for a time when I decide to turn them magically into something delicious.

This morning's confluence of factors (the cold outside, our lack of plan for breakfast, a sleeping Shana, a hungry Maggie, and much of the rest of the day to work) turned my groggy morning thoughts to baking, thinking both to warm the kitchen and have freezer-goodies for later breakfasts. It was then that I remembered the seven bananas in the freezer, just waiting. Yes, I said seven. In short order, four of the frozen bananas were out, thawing on the counter.

The recipe below is one of the first breakfast recipes I tried on my own after going vegan (well, that wasn't pancakes) and it is great! It is actually one of those recipes I frequently find that are essentially vegan, meaning all I have to do is replace a very common ingredient (e.g., cow butter for vegan butter). There's no replacing of eggs and no "weird vegan ingredients" (most people think of things like flax seed and wheat germ as "weird vegan ingredients"); there are just pantry staples that are combined into the best banana muffin I've ever had.