More food pics…

…now new and improved, with recipes!

Because maybe all I do anymore is cook things featured on VeganCore. Maybe.

I give you, a big ugly pot of Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili:



Because I can’t leave well enough alone I also seasoned the chili with black pepper, cayenne pepper, fresh cilantro and the juice of half a lime. Needs more than “light” salting in my opinion. It’s definitely one of those taste and season along the way recipes, I would have found it quite bland without the extra spices. I thought it was too thick at by end of simmering time so that’s when I added the lime juice and some vegetable broth to thin it out a bit. Overall a tasty and hardy stew, not as good as chana masala, but then again what is?

I love this banana bread. This and the following pizza dough recipe are from 1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes


Brown Sugar Banana Bread

4 T softened margarine (Earth Balance works great)
¼ c applesauce (I prefer unsweetened)
2 eggs or equivalent to veganize it. (Some ground flax seed and water works well.)
2 T soy or nut milk or milk or H2O
¾ c packed brown sugar (you can easily substitute in part or in whole with other sweetener like Perfect Sweet Xylitol, a lot of people like molasses, sometimes I put a little maple syrup in there for fun. Whatever floats your boat. The brown sugar does give a nice caramel flavor.)
1 c mashed banana (the more ripe the better. Mine are usually fresh from the freezer.)
1 ¾ c flour (I usually use some combination of all purpose white and whole wheat pastry flour. I used all whole wheat this time and it was quite good.)
2 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
¼ t salt
¼ c walnuts and/or chocolate chips, raisins, etc... whatever else you might like
Other tasty optionals: vanilla extract, cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg

Beat margarine, applesauce, egg/egg equivalent, milk, and sugar until smooth, then add banana and beat 1 – 2 min more on high speed.

Combine dry ingredients and mix gradually into batter. Stir in your walnuts and whatnots.

Bake at 350 degrees, 55 – 60 min if you make one larger loaf, about 40 – 45 if you make 2 shallower loaves as pictured here (one has walnuts, the other chocolate chips), and maybe 20 - 25 for muffins.

Basic Pizza Dough

1 ¼ c flour (I usually use ¾ c whole wheat and ½ c white, combine before you begin)
1 packet yeast
½ t sugar
¼ t salt
½ c very hot H2O (recipe says 120 degrees, I just use really hot tap water)

Combine ¾ c flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add hot H2O and stir till smooth. Work in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Dump out onto floured surface, knead for about 5 min. Spray bowl with non-stick cooking spray or sprinkle with flour, cover. If you keep your covered bowl on top of a preheating oven that will help with the rising. Let dough rest for at least 15 min.

Spray pan with non-stick cooking spray, spread your dough out on a pan. It helps if your dough is in a nice round ball, then you can plop it in the middle and work the dough outwards. If you use a rectangular cookie sheet it will be a quite thin crust, a 12 in round pizza pan is ideal for crust thickness to my liking. Everyone is individual when it comes to toppings as you know, so I’ll leave that to you. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 min or until the edges are nicely browned.

As ya’ll know, I don’t know when to say stop when in comes to toppings.

There’s an Amy’s burrito under that salad. Honest, there is.

Oooh, shiny. Easily amused by pretty fruit.

I went to TJ’s to get some munchie foods for my trip and some AirBorne and I am ready to rock and roll. The next pictures you see from me will be of monkeys, tree canopies, beaches, and margaritas as big as your cabeza. See you on the flip side.