What is coming up

Working on perfecting some breakfast pastry recipes, curry cauliflower pancakes, curry cauliflower and potato’s and maybe some gluten free naan if I get around to it.

But until then, enjoy a picture of me and my baby girl, Ida Bobo

 

Sweet Potato and Lentils- Slow Cooker

Thursday night I decided I wanted to try my hand at making lentils. We have a local Asian market down the street from where I live that sells a lot of lentils/beans/legumes/rice and spices in bulk, which is sometimes cheaper than buying them in smaller batches. This recipe is for the slow cooker, but feel free to place it on the stove in a heavy bottom pot such as a dutch oven.

Ingredients:

1-2 large sweet potato’s, diced

3 cups veggie broth

1 onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons of each: coriander, garam masala, chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups of uncooked lentils

1/2 cup coconut milk (optional)

Put everything into the crock pot, except for the lentils, and cook on high for 3 hours.

Add in the lentils and stir only once and cook for an hour and a half.

Stir in the coconut milk at the end if you chose to do so.

I left the sweet potato’s quite large in this batch, but go ahead and cut them to the size that you would like.

*My dogs loved this for dinner with us, so go ahead and give them a taste*

 

Lunch

Are you in a time crunch for making lunch? Don’t know what to make for lunch? Here is one of my favorite lunch’s and it is quick and easy to make

All it is is gluten free pasta with a little sea salt, onion powder and olive oil/earth balance with some quick dry saute or steamed veggies. Today I did sliced mushrooms, carrots, broccoli florets and kale. Enjoy

 

Moose-a-Moose

Good Morning

Good morning Moosettes, I hope everyone is staying warm. It is about -5 with the real feel around my neck of the woods. Yesterday I received my Vegan starter kit from Vegancuts. com and it contained quite a few yummies.

The starter kit included: kettle cooked vegan bbq chips, organic fruit puree, Amy’s vegan chunky tomato bisque, habanero pepper chips, cobra corn, veggie elite performance protein, banana and coconut chip mix, coconut chips, Vegucated DVD, vegan dark chocolate, earth balance mac and cheese, instant shiitake, organic gummies, organic teas and some vegan recipe books.

If you are just starting out I highly recommend ordering this box. Just because you are Vegan, does not mean that you can’t enjoy your junk food ( I live off of junk foods).

 

Moose-a-Moose

“Sausage” Quinoa Stuffed Red Chard

So I got adventurous today and made these for the first time for my hubby, and let’s just say they were a hit. They take about half an hour for prep and an hour or so for baking, but I think they are absolutely worth it.

Ingredients:

1/2 of a large Sweet Potato, peeled and diced

1/2 of an Onion, diced

3 Cloves of Garlic, minced

1 package of Neat Meat prepared with 2 flax eggs (see tips and tricks)

Quinoa, prepared as stated on box

1 cup of diced Mushrooms

Red Chard leaves, de-ribbed

1/2 cup of chopped Kale

Tomato sauce

 

Saute onions, garlic, sweet potato, mushrooms and kale

Mix together Neat Meat as stated on package with flax seed eggs and crumble into the pan with the saute’d veggies and cook through

Prepare the quinoa as stated on the back of the package and de-rid the red chard

 

Cut with a paring knife, starting as where it starts to get thick straight down the rib, being careful not to rip the leaf.

Mix the cooked veggies, Neat Meat and quinoa together

Lay the chard out so that the cut ends overlap each other so that the filling does not fall out

 

Gently roll and fold in the ends to make a chard roll

Put a layer of sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish and place the rolls on top

Cover with a layer of sauce and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

 

*If you have dogs they might also like the filling, both of mine did*

Getting started

Good morning my Moosettes. In case anyone was wondering I am new to this blogging thing. So please bear with me as I get the basics finished and then the fun will start to begin. As I find new and interesting products/ recipes I will post them on here. Thanks for following Moose Munchies ❤

Moose-a-Moose

Kitchen Measurement Cheat Sheet

If you are not a professional chef then I highly doubt you remember kitchen conversions. So here is a cheat sheet that you can use in your kitchen when you are stumped on measurements

 

Replacing Butter in a Recipe

If you need a dairy free substitution for butter in your recipes here are a few different options:

• coconut butter
• applesauce
• coconut oil
• avocado
  • How it works? Avocados are packed with essential vitamins and minerals and are a great source of healthy fats.  Swapping avocado for butter will significantly reduce the calories and fat in any recipe.  To make this switch, replace with a one to one ratio.  For example, if your recipe calls for one cup of butter you can swap it with one cup of mashed avocado.  Just remember, naturally this will tint your batter or dough green, so keep that in mind!Works best with: Cakes and cookies. With cakes, reduce your oven temperature by 25% and increase your baking time. This will help to prevent your cake from rising up in the middle or, alternatively, caving in. It’ll also prevent the cake from browning too quickly.
• coconut yogurt
• earth balance butter/shortening sticks
• Banana
  • How it works? Replacing butter in a recipe with banana results in a nice rich, dense texture which can be great for all kinds of sweets.  Substitute an equal amount of mashed banana for the butter in the recipe. If a recipe calls for 1/2 cup softened butter, for example, pack a 1/2 cup with mashed banana.Works best with: Cakes, muffins, cookies, breads. Using banana for butter may reduce cooking time by up to 25%, so keep an eye on your sweets!

Almost all butter substitutions can be done at a 1:1. If you use coconut butter be sure not to over mix or you will get a runny batter. I have not used coconut butter so I am not familiar with using it. I tend to use Earth Balance more often then not.

Replacing Sugar in a Recipe

White and brown sugars are highly processed, and not always in a vegan way (charred cow bones). But the good news is that it is quite easy to replace them.

• coconut sugar
• pure maple syrup
• raw honey (for vegetarians and non-vegans)
• organic evaporated cane sugar
• raw cane sugar
• Applesauce
  • How it works? For cakes and bakes, you can reduce the sugar content by up to half when you use apple sauce.  All you need to do is cut the sugar in half, then add the same amount of apple sauce plus about 1/3 more. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, you can use 1/2 a cup of sugar and about 3/4 a cup of apple sauce (1/2 a cup, plus about 1/3 more).  For this substitution, you will need to cut down a bit on the recipe’s liquids.  Reduce the recipe’s main liquid by about 1/4 for every cup of apple sauce added.

    Works best with: cakes, bakes and fruit dishes

I personally haven’t used much coconut sugar yet, but I hear that it has a very similar to brown sugar. It is a sugar that can be replaced in a 1:1 ratio, as is the other dry sugars.

The maple syrup, honey and evaporated cane sugar can be a little more tricky. You can sub them at a 1:1, but you will most likely need to reduce the liquid from somewhere else in the recipe, such as the milk or oil.

Replacing Oil in a Recipe

There are quite a few ways to replace oil within a recipe. But keep in mind that if you take out all of the oil in a recipe, you will get a slightly gummy end product. I highly recommend to replace majority of the oil within the recipe but leave about 2 tablespoons in so that you avoid the gummy factor. Here are a few examples of oil replacers:

• banana
• applesauce
• greek yogurt
• avocado

 

Butter —-> Avocado

How it works? Avocados are packed with essential vitamins and minerals and are a great source of healthy fats.  Swapping avocado for butter will significantly reduce the calories and fat in any recipe.  To make this switch, replace with a one to one ratio.  For example, if your recipe calls for one cup of butter you can swap it with one cup of mashed avocado.  Just remember, naturally this will tint your batter or dough green, so keep that in mind!

Works best with: Cakes and cookies. With cakes, reduce your oven temperature by 25% and increase your baking time. This will help to prevent your cake from rising up in the middle or, alternatively, caving in. It’ll also prevent the cake from browning too quickly.

 

Butter —> Banana

How it works? Replacing butter in a recipe with banana results in a nice rich, dense texture which can be great for all kinds of sweets.  Substitute an equal amount of mashed banana for the butter in the recipe. If a recipe calls for 1/2 cup softened butter, for example, pack a 1/2 cup with mashed banana.

Works best with: Cakes, muffins, cookies, breads. Using banana for butter may reduce cooking time by up to 25%, so keep an eye on your sweets!

 

And for those Vegetarians

Canola Oil —> Greek Yogurt

How it works?  Using Greek yogurt in a recipe in place of oil is one of the best ways to cut the fat right out!  The Greek yogurt replacement is barely detectable and makes recipes super moist.  To make the substitution, cut the recipe’s amount of oil by half. Add ¾ cup of yogurt for every cup of oil that you remove from the recipe.

Works best with:  Cakes, breads, cookies