Peachy Keen Green

I had some phyllo dough to use up, and adapted  this recipe for apple turnovers. I ended up having a fair bit of the fruit mixture left, so I also made a small apple crisp. Both were great! Ingredients 4 medium apples, diced 2 tsp lemon zest 1/4 C sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 T arrowroot 1 tsp cinnamon For turnovers: 9-12 phyllo sheets 1/2 stick miyoko (vegan) butter OR for crumble: 1 C flour 1 C oats 1/2 C brown sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/3 C canola oil 1/4 C water Instructions Dice apples. In a medium saucepan, add apples, sugar, vanilla, orange/lemon peel, cinnamon and arrowroot. Heat on med-low stirring every so often. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the apple mixture thickens. Remove from heat.  For crisp:  Put mixture in a pan; mix up the topping and spread it over the fruit. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. For turnovers:  Melt butter. Remove phyllo dough from package and lay out with the longer side facing you.  Using a pastry brush, brush the ph...

The Impossible Lasagna that I blogged earlier this year is tasty, but Impossible beef has a heavy taste like real beef does. We wanted to try a lighter, no-fake-meat lasagna, and I found the perfect recipe in my Chloe's Kitchen cookbook. Looks like Happy Healthy did the same. Here's my slightly-adapted version of Chloe's great recipe. It's super easy and delish! Ingredients 50 oz marinara (I like Rao's) 9 oz box no-boil lasagna noodles  Veggies: 5 oz spinach 10 oz mushrooms, sliced zucchini, sliced (optional) Garden Ricotta: 1 medium onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 14-ounce firm tofu 2 T of lemon juice 1/2 tsp of salt 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper 3 C of fresh basil  1 T white miso (optional; I don't always have it) Instructions Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Make the ricotta: Saute onion 5-7 minutes until soft.  Let cool. In a food processor, combine onions, garlic, drained tofu, lemon juice, salt, pepper, & miso paste if using.  Pulse unti...

We harvested some of Judi's apricots while her family was out of town. Her tree has the best apricots I've ever tasted! Sherry came to visit and shared her vegan apricot cake recipe , which we made together this morning. The secrets: Lots of fruit, and use sparkling water or soda to make it light and fluffy. I made this with white flour, but will try whole wheat next time. The original recipe says this is a twist on an Austrian sheet cake - a flat sponge cake baked on a sheet. Variations: Can make with plums or cherries, or bake in regular cake pans. Ingredients Wet: 1 C apricot puree (about 6-8 apricots) 2/3 C sugar 1/2 C sparkling water or sparkling fruit water 7 T canola oil Dry: 2 1/3 C flour 4 tsp baking soda Topping: 20-24 small apricots, halved (or 12 large, quartered) 2 tsp powdered sugar toasted almond slices Instructions Use a food processor to blend de-stoned apricots into a puree. Whisk together puree, sugar, and oil. Add sparkling water (can use sparkling apple or ...

Shelley Million gave us a blood orange cake when we made a backyard visit in March, and it was divine! I asked Larry what he wanted for his birthday, and he said this cake. Shelley made it with regular oranges and without the topping, and we had lots of oranges on our tree, so I did the same - except I made the topping and used a few blood oranges there, figuring I'd make it extra pretty for the birthday boy. I also doubled the recipe to make 2 rounds since we had 2 birthday parties, but 1 round is plenty for one group. (Also, our tree's oranges are HUGE, and blood oranges at the store were much smaller, so I used fewer oranges; adjust depending on your orange size.)  Ingredients (Makes one tall round; double for 2 rounds) zest from 2 oranges 1/2 C orange juice (from the 2 oranges) 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for greasing 1 1/2 cups flour 2/3 cup dark cocoa powder, unsweetened 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/4 C sugar 1 C water 1 1/2 tsp white vinegar topping: 1 C powd...

I made a Vegan Lasagna with Nooch Cheese a couple of weeks ago, and it was good, but didn't remind me much of classic lasagna, and Larry didn't like the nooch. So I made a mental note to try to make a classic lasagna with impossible beef and shredded vegan cheese. Two weeks later, my grad school friend Judy texts me: "Hey, there. Happy new year! Happy new administration! Just going through my old recipe binder and found (this)" -- a recipe for lasagna that I gave her back around 1990. Yay, I get to veganize my own recipe. Thank you, Judy! After a few tries, we decided the following was the ticket: biggest pan, less cheese, lots of noodles, a little extra marinara to help the noodles cook.  Ingredients Sauce: 2 T canola oil 3/4 lb (1 pkg) Impossible Beef 1 onion, diced 2 carrots, diced 8 oz mushrooms (optional but recommended) 3-4 cloves garlic, diced 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 1 tsp smoked paprika 3 14 oz cans diced tomatoes 2 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried baslil 1/2 ...

Updated from the 2026 Blue Zone Cookbook. Originally from the How Not To Die Cookbook that Susie gave me, I asked Larry what he thought; he said "I always like pie." The following is a mashup between the one in the book and this  minimalist baker recipe, and the Blue SAone cookbook plus some ideas from our favorite  pot pie . It was very good!   Ingredients 2 T canola oil 1/2 hot pepper, diced, or 1/2 tsp pepper flakes 1 onion, chopped 3 carrot, sliced 3 stalks celery, chopped 8+ oz mushrooms, sliced Or other veggies, like zuccinni, or mixed frozen veggies 2-3 C cooked lentils 1/4 C red wine vinegar Slurry: 1 T potato starch or cornstarch 1 tsp soy sauce 1 T miso 2 C veggie broth Seasoning: 1 tsp dried thyme (or more fresh) 1 tsp dried oregano (or more fresh) 1 bay leaf 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp salt Topping: Mashed potatoes, or  Cauliflower mashed potatoes Fresh parsley & chives, chopped Instructions Mix flour, arrowroot, and broth into a slurry, and set...

It's lemon season! When the frost comes they go bad, so Larry is bringing in scores of meyer lemons and limes. After success with key lime yogurt , I got a craving for lemon cake. Larry said yes, please! (And Sandy says lemon cake is one of her favorites - good to know!) I tried this  loving it vegan recipe , and the cake was delish. The powdered-sugar frosting was sweeter than we liked, though. Then I tried a vegan cream cheese frosting from Vegan Richa , which was pretty good.  It's yummy without any frosting, just as a lemon bread -- which is probably how I'll use this recipe in the future Ingredients Dry: 1 C + 1 T whole-wheat flour 1 1/2 C white flour 1 1/2 C sugar  1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 tsp turmeric for color (optional) Wet: 1 T vinegar 1 1/2 C non-dairy milk (oat, soy, or almond) 1/2 C canola oil 1 tsp vanilla Zest and juice from 3 lemons Cream cheese frosting (OPTIONAL; don't need it for bread): 8 oz (vegan) cream cheese  1/3 C maple syrup z...

Pat brought over more persimmons! We sliced and dried a dozen unripe ones. We still had half a dozen ripe ones, and I owe cookies to some members of our movie-review SupPort group, so time to try persimmon cookies! (The group recently watched the original Ghostbusters movie; I offered cookies to anyone who also watched the Ghostbusters 2016 remake with SNL women, and two couples took up that offer.) This makes about 4 dozen cookies. I froze half the dough and halved the glaze for those I cooked, using the juice and zest from one tangerine with the powdered sugar. Ingredients 1 cup Hachiya persimmon pulp (2-3 ripe persimmons) 1 tsp baking soda 1 C sugar 1/2 C vegan butter, at room temperature 1 flax egg (1 T flaxmeal, 3 T warm water) 2 C flour 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp salt 1 C chopped walnuts 1 C raisins Glaze: 2 C powdered sugar 1/4 C fresh orange or tangerine juice 1 tsp orange zest  Instructions Peel the skin off the persimmons, and blend the pulp in...

Pat and Allen shared at least a dozen persimmons with us from their bountiful harvest, along with their persimmon bread recipe. Here's a slightly tweaked, vegan version of their bread; turned out yummy! Ingredients 1 tsp. baking soda 2 T lukewarm water 1 1/2 C persimmon puree 1 1/2 C sugar 1/2 C salad oil 2 flax eggs (2 T flaxmeal, 6 T warm water) Dry: 2 C flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/8 tsp. cloves 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. lemon juice 1 C walnuts Instructions Remove skin and puree persimmons in a food processor. Mix baking soda and warm water. Add persimmon pulp.  Let sit a few minutes. Mix sugar, oil, and flax eggs.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves.  Combine persimmon and sugar mixture.  Add flour mixture with lemon and walnuts. Pour into loaf pans. For a regular large loaf, bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes; then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes or until done.  For small loaf pans (what I us...

Vegans eating meatloaf? Impossible! Until Trader Joe's starting carrying Impossible Burger. My first foray into fake beef cooking, C'mon Man! Sloppy Joes , turned out well, so I decided to give meatloaf a try. I googled "impossible meatloaf" and tried a mashup with Market Street Meatloaf from my New Basics Cookbook (an excellent, classic omnivore cookbook). Larry contributed some needed-to-use scallions from our backyard;  I think the onion and veggies were important components. Would totally fool and omnivore, I bet.  Super delicious with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce! Update 1/2/21: Larry asked for more veggie to meat ratio, so I increased the veggies and bread crumbs, below. Use the upper range for more veg heavy; lower range for more meat heavy. Ingredients 2 T vegan butter 1 tsp cumin seed (or 1 tsp cumin powder later) 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (or 1/4 tsp cayenne later) 1 cup scallions/onion, chopped 1/3 - 1/2 C carrots, chopped 1/3 - 1/2 C celery, choppe...