Rainbow Chard Quiche

I've always loved quiche. This one comes pretty close to the "egg" type but without the eggs. You could substitute the vegetables too. Four stars.

Ingredients:
1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained
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1 large bunch rainbow chard
1/4 cup chopped onions
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
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½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ cup nutritional yeast
¼ cup cornstarch
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a shallow 9" pie dish and set aside.

For the greens: Cut off bottom 1 inch or so of stems and discard. De-vein each leaf and finely dice the stems and veins. Keep separate from rest of leaves. Chop the rest of the leaves. Saute the stems, veins, onions, and garlic until wilted. Add rest of leaves and saute until wilted. Set aside.

Crumble tofu into bowl with your hands. Add spices, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, mustard, and lemon. Mix well and add cooked chard. Mix in chard and transfer to baking dish. Bake 30-40 minutes, until golden and the center is not still mushy. Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Hershey's Chocolate Sauce

A quick, versatile chocolate sauce that's easy to make with ingredients you probably have on hand. This recipe is easily halved. It's my own version of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.

Ingredients
1 TB plus 1 tsp cornstarch
2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
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1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Combine cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of the milk, stir and set aside. Combine dry ingredients in small saucepan; whisk to mix well. Add milk and stir over medium heat until just coming to a boil. Add cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened. Take off heat and add vanilla.

Breakfast Tofu and Vegetable Hash

The best of all worlds to start your morning - tofu, potatoes, and peas! Four Stars.

Ingredients
8 ounces extra-firm tofu, drained
1 tsp tamari or Shoyu
1/2 tsp curry power*
1/4 tsp dried dill weed
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2 medium red-skinned potatoes, diced
2 tsp olive oil
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1/2 cup diced green peppers
1/4 cup diced red onion
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
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1/3 frozen peas
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1 small tomato, finely diced
fresh parsley to taste
1 TB nutritional yeast
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Crumble the tofu in to small bowl with the first 3 spices. Mix and let sit. Heat olive oil in pan and cook potatoes over medium heat until lightly browned around the edges. Add bell pepper, onions, and garlic and cook until onion is translucent. Add peas and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add tofu and the rest of the ingredients and cook for around 2 minutes.

*If you're not too wild about curry powders, substitute with 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp tumeric powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Flapjacks!

This recipe makes about 4 pancakes and it's one of the best vegan pancakes I've had. Do not substitute the flour unless you've made this at least once. Five Stars!

Ingredients
2/3 cup non-dairy milk of your choice
1 TB lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
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2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1-1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
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1 TB walnut oil (or oil of your choice)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Mix milk and lemon together and let sit while you mix all of the other ingredients in another small bowl. Add oil and vanilla to liquid ingredients, mix and add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Heat a skillet and lightly oil it; add 1/3 cup pancake mixture for each pancake. Cook until a few bubbles form on top and bottom is browned; flip and cook other side. Serve hot with maple syrup or whatever turns you on.

Thick Gooey Chocolate Sauce

Here is a recipe for a quick, easy chocolate sauce. It's really good on vanilla rice cream! Next time I make it, I will add 1 tsp. of vanilla. Store in the refrigerator in a microwavable container. It's very thick and you may want to heat it a bit so it will scoop out a bit easier. Three Stars.

(Note: This sauce did not grow on me as I ate it. The consistency is too thick and it makes me feel like I'm eating agave syrup flavored with chocolate. Too much sugar. I've scouted around and found another recipe that's much more to my liking, thinner, not so sweet and pours easily. See post for "Hershey's Chocolate Sauce" Sept. 18, 2010.)

Ingredients
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup agave syrup
1 Tb walnut oil

Directions
Combine ingredients into a small blender (I used the mini chopper attachment that came with my immersion blender) and blend until mixed.

King Arthur's No-Knead Country Bread

You say "no knead" and I'm there! This recipe has minimal "working" time - most of it's either waiting for it to rise or bake. This recipe is from the King Arthur Flour website and I'm loving it - lots of recipes, inspiration and things to buy if you're so inclined. This bread is really simple especially when you let it rise in the mixing bowl overnight. It has a nice flavor and chewy crust. I especially adore it because it uses whole wheat and flax flour.

I think I probably should have let it rise a bit longer on the second rise - it wasn't as "tall" as I thought it would be. But then I substituted regular yeast instead of instant* and used ground flax seed instead of flax flour. But don't get me wrong - it was still great! I'll be making this again but will follow the recipe to the letter next time. Five stars.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-country-bread-recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 cups King Arthur Premium Whole Wheat Flour or White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 cup BakOmega flax flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast

• 12 ounces water
• 8 1/2 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 5 ounces King Arthur Premium Whole Wheat Flour or White Whole Wheat Flour
• 3/4 ounce BakOmega flax flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast

Directions

1) Stir together all of the ingredients (or use a stand mixer) to make a sticky dough. Continue to work the dough enough to incorporate all the flour, or beat for several minutes in a stand mixer.

2) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature overnight, or for at least 8 hours; it'll become bubbly and rise quite a bit, so be sure your bowl is large enough.

3) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. To make a single loaf, choose a 14" to 15" long lidded stoneware baker; a 9" x 12" oval deep casserole dish with cover; or a 9" to 10" round, 4" deep lidded baking crock. To make 2 loaves, lightly grease (or line with parchment) a large baking sheet.

4) Shape the dough to fit, and place it in the lightly greased pan of your choice, smooth side up. For two loaves, divide dough in half, shape each into an oval loaf, and place on the prepared baking sheet.

5) Cover and let rise at room temperature for about 1 hour, until dough has become puffy and fills the pan about 1/2 full.

6) Slash the loaf in a cross-hatch pattern or 3 diagonal slashes just before placing into the oven.

7) If baking in a lidded crock or pan, place into a cold oven. Set the oven temperature to 450°F.

8) Bake the bread for 45 to 50 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to bake for another 5 to 15 minutes, until the bread is deep brown, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers about 205°F.

9) To bake on a baking sheet, preheat the oven to 400°F, and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until bread is deep brown. Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out onto a rack, and cool before slicing.

Yield: 1 large or 2 smaller loaves.

*I read online to substitute regular active yeast for instant yeast, you activate your yeast in warm water and REDUCE the overall liquid called for in the recipe by that amount. So, this recipe called for 1-1/2 cups water and I reduced that amount by 1/4 cup and used 1/4 cup to activate/proof the regular yeast. Just make sure the total amount of liquid in the recipe stays the same – or so they say!

Vegan Bites – Recipes for Singles

by Beverly Lynn Bennett
"This book was written specifically for single young people (in their teens and twenties) who have chosen to live as vegans." Direct quote from book on page 2 - and don't let it keep you from buying this book if you are NOT young and single! I've passed this book by before (on Amazon) just because it was geared towards a certain age group. Then I saw it in a book store and was able to inspect it and was excited by the recipes and the fact that each recipe is for one or two people. I get overwhelmed (as an older single person) by the large quantities of food in a regular recipe. It was nice to have someone else cut the size and test it for a change.

The book has lots of good information for someone inexperienced in the kitchen such as smart shopping, pantry essentials, equipment, cooking tips, menus, glossary of special ingredients, and an index. There are no fancy pictures and it's printed in two colors, maroon and green. It's very readable and each recipe is on one page.

Whenever I get a new cookbook I like to make a fast pass through it, listing all the recipes that interest me and right off the bat I had 23 recipes on my list: Spicy Vegetable Cocktail, Fabulous Flapjacks, Maple Pecan French Toast, Sweet Italian Sausages, Hacienda Home Fries, Tofu and Vegetable Hash, Garlic Tahini Dressing, Pesto, Unfried Beans, Vegetable Patch Chili, Unchicken Tofu Salad, Falafels, Seasoned Tofu Tidbits, Tex-Mex Bean Burgers, Pad Thai, Coconut Curry in a Hurry, Mexican Maize & Quinoa, Biscuits, Double Chocolate Brownies, Lemon Cake, Rich Dark Chocolate Cake, Hot Fudge Sauce, and Whipped Tofu Topping!

I've been very happy with the recipes I've made so far: Fabulous Flapjacks, you'd think a pancake is a pancake but that's not true. I've made lots of vegan pancakes and this was the best one by far (and there were only four - yippee!). The batter was perfect and not too thick like a lot of them are. The Hacienda Home Fries was very original by using yams instead of potatoes and I've made it twice so far. The Seasoned Tofu Tidbits did not disappoint and I will be making that one again. Finally, the Pad Thai was tasty, and there was enough for just two people.

All in all, I am very happy to add this book to my vegan book shelf and I'll be using it again and again. I highly recommend it.