Vegan No-Hole Doughnuts

 
Hot diggity, these are amazing!  Vegan donuts, I can't believe it.

So I was watching this stupid commercial about some kind children's pediasure drink that's supposed to be healthier for them than french fries and stuff, and they showed all these kids playing soccer and one of the little girls was dressed as a chocolate-glazed doughnut with sprinkles.  And then all of a sudden I just HAD to have a chocolate glazed doughnut with sprinkles.  I mean how sick is that?  A little kid dressed as a doughnut made me want to eat doughnuts?!  I can never actually eat doughnuts because they are made with all sorts or milk and dairy.  Of course, doughnuts are super unhealthy anyway, so I'm not complaining.  But sometimes don't you just want a doughnut?  Like for a special occasion or something?  After our week in Boston, which I swear is the doughnut capital of the world, I was already jonesing for one of those round things, and then I saw that ridiculous commercial!  That was it.

I knew my trusty Chloe's Kitchen cookbook had a vegan donut recipe that I've been eying for awhile, and now was the time to make them.  The best part about this recipe is that I had all the ingredients already and it was incredibly easy to make.  I don't have a doughnut pan, so I just plopped little balls of dough on a pan and baked them as giant doughnut holes.  Despite their lack of doughnut-like appearance, they tasted just fine.  In fact they were so delicious I immediately ate two of them. 

Enough said.

Recipe from Chloe's Kitchen

Doughnuts
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup white or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Chocolate glaze
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (dairy-free)
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon almond milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly grease two doughnut pans (or just a regular cookie sheet like I did.)

In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk nondairy milk, oil vinegar, and vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk together quickly until just combined.  Do not overmix.

Using a pastry bag or plastic bag with the tip cut, pipe batter into the prepared doughnut pans (I just used my hands to form two-inch balls and placed them two inches apart on cookie sheet) and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and let sit 5 minutes before unmolding.

To make the chocolate glaze:
In the microwave, melt the chocolate chips and almond milk together. (About 45 seconds.)  Whisk in the powdered sugar until smooth. 

Dip each doughnut into the glaze, covering the top.  Immediately sprinkle the tops with colored sprinkles and let set.

Green Smoothie

With my new job, I've had a little bit more time in the mornings this week.  This is a great thing, because I love mornings, and I love having a lot of time to do things in the morning.  So I decided to make smoothies for breakfast this week.

For pretty much my entire working career I've had to be out of the house by 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. every day.  Sometimes earlier!  I've never had time to eat anything other than toast and cereal for breakfast; or if I wanted something hot, I made it the night before, microwaved it two seconds before walking out the door and ate in the car!

Anyway, I was really excited to have time to make a smoothie and actually enjoy eating breakfast at our breakfast nook in the kitchen.

This is the smoothie I made one day, and the rest of the days were a variation of the same.

1 apple, cored and sliced
1 1/2 cups chopped kale
1/2 -1 cup spinach
1 1/2 cups organic apple juice

Blend.

Add ice and blend some more.  Drink up!

Spicy Sesame Udon Noodles

 I've said before and I'll say it again:  I love Asian food.  Asian and Mexican food are my favorites of all time.

That being said, this is about the former food group.  I assessed my Asian food supplies and devised this delicious dinner, served with a kale salad (talked about in another post.)

YUM!  We could not get enough of this Udon noodle dish.  It was the perfect spiciness and mixed with the veggies and gluten-pork, it was a top ten if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped chard
2 baby bok choy, separated
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (see below)
1/2 teaspoon Tamari
1 tablespoon water
5-6 chunks Wu Chung fried gluten, imitation pork (see below)
3 oz dried udon noodles, cooked according to package

Directions:

In a steamer pot, steam the chard and baby bok choy for only about 3-5 minutes.  Move to a large pan or skillet.  In a separate bowl whisk together sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, tamari and water.  Add to skillet with vegetables.  Stir and cook over medium-high heat.  Add the imitation pork and cook everything until heated through.  Right before serving, add the cooked noodles, mix until they are thoroughly coated with the sauce.

Enjoy!

Vegan Food in Temecula

I met up with a good friend in Temecula to go visit another one of our friends who just had a baby.  We wanted to have lunch first and were trying to find a place other than the large amount of chain restaurants in this town.  Just out of curiosity, and not really thinking anything would come up, I went to Yelp and typed in vegan in Temecula.  Wow!  This place came up and it turned out to be amazing!  I'm super excited that I found Earth Bistro, because as it turns out, my new territory includes several schools in Temecula, so I'll be in this town a lot more often now and can frequent this lucky vegan find.

Earth Bistro serves all fresh, organic ingredients that include meat, dairy and vegan items.  Literally everyone can be happy eating here.  Their claim-to-fame is the pizza, and they have two vegan cheese options, and a vegan chicken.  Any pizza on the menu can be made vegan, so we ordered the vegan chicken bbq pizza.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  It was one of the best vegan pizza's I've had.  For starters we ordered vegan stuffed mushrooms -- DELISH!, and a Greek salad with homemade goddess dressing.

I love this place! 

"Chicken" Chickpea Noodle Soup

I'm finally back from all my traveling and can get back into the kitchen!  By the way, I got a new camera for Christmas and I'm still experimenting with it, so unfortunately the picture above is a little blurry. 

Someone in our household has been sick this week, and it's not me.  So there's pretty much been only one appetite in our house, and it's definitely mine. 

What's the best thing for a sickie?  Chicken noodle soup of course!  I found this recipe in the cookbook Veganomicon and adapted it into this:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, sliced thinly
1 cup chopped baby carrots
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried ground rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons mirin
1/3 cup light yellow miso
4 cups vegan chicken broth
2 cups water
1 15 oz. can chickpeas
6 ounces brown rice spaghetti

1.  Saute the onions and carrots in the oil for about ten minutes or until they are softened.  Add the garlic, mushrooms, and herbs and cook for another five minutes.  Add the mirin, stir.  Add the chicken broth, water and chickpeas.  Stir well, bring to a boil.

2.   Lower heat and let simmer.

3.  Meanwhile, break the spaghetti into thirds.  In a separate pot, cook the spaghetti according to the package.

4.  When the spaghetti is done, it's time to serve the soup.

5.  To serve, place the desired amount of spaghetti in a bowl and spoon ladle-fulls of soup on top. 

Eat and enjoy and feel better if you have the nasty cold. 

Happy New Year!

Since my last post, way back in December of 2012 (that was so last year!), I have not been home long enough to make more than pasta and salad!

I miss cooking.

First, we were spent a week in Boston visiting both families and meeting our new little niece!  We met her when she was four hours old and she is adorable, I love her!

Lots of good veggie-licious food, including homemade potato pancakes by Dad, and a delicious meal at Legal Seafoods with MIL and FIL.

Next, we got to spend a few precious days at home before we both left for the desert cities of Las Vegas (Will) and Phoenix (me).  Why am I in Phoenix, you ask?

I am in Phoenix training for my new job, which will be based in San Diego in my home office!

I'm super excited about this new career path, and this week of training has been an amazing whirl wind. 

By the way, there have been a lot of vegan and vegetarian options here, and I'm really impressed.

I'll be home next week, and hopefully back to cooking some yummy veggie goodness.  Stay tuned.