Shay's Strawberry Tart

My little sous chef arrived the other day with a notebook in which she'd copied down recipes from a children's cookbook she'd checked out of the library. She was so excited to show me and to ask we could cook one. One problem... her notes didn't actually contain any measurements!

Rather than disappoint her, I decided to take the basic premise of one of the recipes and wing it. In the end, I was able to simplify it so much that this nine-year-old chef was able to do it entirely on her own (with careful supervision, of course).

Shay's Strawberry Tarts

Ingredients:
1 pkg mini graham cracker crusts (the Keebler ones are accidentally vegan)
1 qt fresh strawberries
1 sm jar all-fruit preserves

Directions:
Spray the crusts lightly with baking spray and pre-bake according to package directions. Cool five minutes. Slice strawberries and arrange in crusts. Place preserves in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Pour into strawberry-filled crusts. Cool tarts in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes until preserves are set. Top with vegan whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.

Fool-proof no-fat vegan banana bread

I couldn't find my family recipe for banana bread, so I decided to wing it. This turned out awesome. It's less like a traditional crumbly quick bread and more like a nice dense breakfast bread, but with all the delicious banana bread flavor and none of the fat. (Well, there's a negligible amount of fat in the banana itself, but not enough to count - less than a quarter of a gram per slice. And you do spray the pan. Still, I'm comfortable calling this 'no-fat'.)

Fool-proof no-fat banana bread

4 over-ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt 

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas and add wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and pour batter into pan. Bake 55 minutes or until golden brown and pulling away from the sides. Cool in pan on a wire rack for five minutes, then remove from pan (or cool completely in pan).

Vegan MoFo: Green Breakfast Smoothie of Champions!

Nutrition in a glass!

Awhile back, I reviewed a book on green smoothies for This Dish is Veg. I didn't realize it at the time, but I learned quite a lot from it. Chief among those things was the simple reason why blended fruit and vegetable drinks are better for you than juicing - you're not losing anything. It's whole nutrition in a cup.

The other thing I learned was the perfect ratio for taste in a green smoothie: 40% vegetables, 60% fruit. But sometimes it's hard to translate that into real terms, since we're comparing leaves to chunks, so to speak. So I find a recipe can be helpful.

This is my recipe for the ideal beginner's green smoothie. I know folks like to get fancy with it, adding everything from dandelion greens to cayenne pepper but that stuff is intimidating if all you want is a green drink that's palatable and maybe your kids would stomach.

So here is my non-vegan-kid (and husband) tested recipe for a delicious smoothie. It tastes of strawberry and banana, and that's pretty much it. It's a great place to start, or a great base to build from if you want to get adventurous.

Strawberry-Banana Green Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 large kale leaf, stemmed and torn (or two smaller ones - should equal about 2 loose cups in blender)
1/2 cup coconut water, chilled
1 small ripe banana (or half a large one)
4-5 frozen strawberries

Directions:
In a blender, add torn kale leaves and coconut water. Liquefy (about 10 seconds). Add banana and frozen strawberries and blend. Serve!

Notes:
How sweet this is will depend on the ripeness of the fruit. If it's not sweet enough for you, add 1 tsp agave.

Key Lime Chia Bread

Growing up, we had a Key lime tree in our backyard, as Floridians do. Let me tell you, that tree was the source of a lot of my mom's famous Key lime pies. (Hers is the best. Don't listen to anyone who tells you differently.) We lost that tree during the citrus canker scare (the government cut it down, though it was perfectly healthy), and I've been sad about it ever since. Yes, I know you can get a bottle of Key lime juice at Publix, but it's just not same.

Of course, even if we still had the tree, I've yet to find a soy-free vegan Key lime pie recipe that works for me. So when I found my beloved limes on sale at the farmer's market 15 for $1, I had to come up with another way to use them. And here it is! This revamp of a classic lemon-poppyseed bread has a lighter, brighter flavor with Key limes, and the chia adds a tasty dose of Omega-3.

Key Lime Chia Bread

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups organic pastry flour
1 cup organic sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup Key lime juice (about 6-10 Key limes) *
1 tbsp Key lime zest *
½ cup water
6 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp chia seeds

Preheat oven to 350°. Spoon flour into the measuring cup, then pour into mixing bowl. Mix in sugar and baking soda. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add liquid ingredients. Add the vinegar last and stir the wet and dry ingredients together. It may sizzle or foam a bit as the acids (lime juice and vinegar) blend with the base (baking soda). Stir in the chia seeds.

Spray an 8 inch loaf pan with baking spray. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, or until it springs back when pressed.

*If you do not have fresh Key limes, substitute bottled Key lime juice and use the zest of a lemon.

Recipe: Pina Colada 'Ice Cream'

Delicious, creamy, and dairy-free!

When I created the recipe for Mighty Fruity Ice Cream-y, I wondered if I could make it easier (and lower on the glycemic index) by replacing the sugar syrup with agave. Well, if you were wondering that too, wonder no more! It works like a charm.

The other thing I wondered was if I could make it creamier - "milkier," if you will - with coconut milk. This also worked like a charm! Thus, pina colada vegan ice cream was born.


Ingredients:
1 8.5 oz can Cream of Coconut
1 cup coconut milk (not coconut water - the thick stuff)
1 cup pure pineapple juice
1 cup agave
1/3 to 2/3 cup of crushed pineapple, depending on how chunky you like it.


Instructions:
Combine first four ingredients in a freezer-safe container and cover tightly. Freeze, scraping the edges and stirring every 30 minutes for the next 4-6 hours until it has an evenly slushy consistency. Add crushed pineapple and stir. Let freeze until firm (4-12 hours depending on freezer and container), stirring once more after it's mostly firm. Serve or store in freezer.

Recipe: Mightee Fruity Ice-Creamy

So this is the long-promised vegan ice cream recipe, except that there's a bit of dispute over whether I can really call it ice cream. The consistency is milkier than sorbet, but icier than ice cream, and more substantial than sherbet. Rather than call it ice sorshercream, I'm just calling it ice-cream-ish... Ice-creamy.

There are five things you should know about this recipe:

1. This is not a health food. There's plenty of sugar and a bit of fat in it. But with only 4-5 ingredients, you know exactly what you're getting.

2. There is no special equipment required; anyone can make it at home with a pot, a bowl, and a spoon. 

3. It's incredibly delicious.

4. While the work involved is minimal, it does take a whole day to freeze. Believe me, it's worth the wait.

5. It's SO DELICIOUS YOU SHOULD MAKE IT NOW AND THANK ME LATER.

Tangerine and mixed berry flavors are modifications I've tried. See the end note.

Mightee Fruity Ice-Creamy Recipe

2 cups fresh squeezed citrus juice plus 1 tsp zest
1 can (8.5 oz) cream of coconut
1.5 cups demerara sugar (or other vegan sugar)
1.5 cups water

Juice and zest citrus. Combine 2 cups juice, zest, and cream of coconut. Set aside.

Bring 1.5 cups of water to a boil. Add sugar .5 cups at a time and stir until dissolved. Boil for fifteen minutes over medium to medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let stand for about 15 minutes until it becomes syrupy but doesn’t harden. (If it cools too much and hardens, simply put it back on the heat until it softens again.)

Combine with juice mixture in a freezer-safe container and cover tightly. Freeze, scraping the edges and stirring every 30 minutes for the next 4-6 hours until it has an evenly slushy consistency. Let freeze until firm (4-12 hours depending on freezer and container), stirring once more after it's mostly firm. Serve or store in freezer.

Note: I first made this with fresh squeezed lemon juice. I love lemons, but for some people that might be too tart. Even I could only eat it in very small servings. I next tried tangerines, which gave a milder flavor but were also delicious. Finally, I decided to try mixed berry, using two cups of 100% juice berry smoothie (about 50% berry and banana puree and 50% juice) and omitting the citrus zest. All of these worked well, but unanimously we liked the tangerine best.

Note to Floridians: This is an excellent use of the extra citrus on the tree in your yard, or your neighbor's yard, or your coworker's yard that got foisted off on you because they didn't want to see another [lemon, key lime, grapefruit, orange] this year.

If you make this and try a different flavor, let me know how it turns out!