Day 366 Cream Cheese Danish

I made it through the year.  This is the last one.

Cream Cheese Danish

8 Ounces Vegan Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Earth Balance
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Warm Water
2 Packages Dry Yeast
Equivalent 2 Eggs*
4 Cups All Purpose Flour

*2 Tablespoons Ground Flaxseeds, 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder, 2 Teaspoons Potato Starch, 2 Tablespoons Oil, 6 Tablespoons Water - mixed together.

Filling
16 Ounces Vegan Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 Ounces Vegan Sour Cream

Glaze
2 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/4 Soy Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1.  Heat sour cream, Earth Balance, sugar and salt in a saucepan.  Stir occasionally until Earth Balance melts.  Let  cool.

2.  Combine yeast and water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Let stand 5 minutes.

3.  Stir egg equivalent into sour cream mixture. With the motor of the mixer running, alternately add the flour and the wet mixture.  Dough will be soft.  Cover the dough and chill at least 8 hours.

4.  Filling - Beat all of the filling ingredients together at medium speed with an electric mixer.

5.  Divide the dough into 4 portions.  Roll the pieces out into rectangles.  Spread the rectangles with the filling.  Roll the long end of the dough up into a large jellyroll style log.  Pinch the ends together.  Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

6. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.  Lightly make several slits on the top of each log.  Bake at 375 for 20 -30 minutes until browned. Remove from oven and cool some.

Danishes ready to rise

7.  Glaze - Stir together all of the ingredients.  Drizzle the loaves with glaze.

Baked danishes, ready for the glaze

Soundtrack Christmas Mood - Piano Instrumental Lugn Musik for Daglig

Day 136 Blackberry Crisp

Blackberry Crisp

The Fruit
4 Cups Blackberries
1 Tablespoon Flour
3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
Rind of 1 Orange, grated

Preheat oven to 375F.  Toss the berries with the flour, sugar and orange rind.  Place them in a glass pie pan.  Prepare the topping and distribute over the berries.  Bake 30 -40 minutes.

The Topping

1/2 Cup White Flour
6 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Earth Balance

Combine all of the dry ingredients.  Cut the Earth Balance into small pieces.  Work it into the flour with a pastry cutter and/or your fingers until well distributed.

Serves 4

Soundtrack Violent Femmes - The Violent Femmes Collection

Addicted to Results 5/9 and 5/10

5/9
Starting the day with oatmeal. These are the round whole oats. I soak them overnight so that they cook quick in the morning.  I added dates, pecans and apple butter.

Green pea hummus on a piece of whole wheat bread for a  snack.

Lunch was a mix of leftover stuff.  Some garlic lemon asparagus, tofu stir fry and tomato corn mix.

A blurry picture of dinner.  I was going crazy trying to figure out why the camera would not focus.  I learned the next day that junk was on the camera lens.  I cleaned it off and the later pics are better.  This is brown rice with sauteed spinach, onion, cherry tomatoes and carrots.  I toasted some pine nuts then added a pesto I made with  basil, parsley and cilantro.  There is some nutritional yeast on the top.

5/10

More oatmeal for breakfast.  These are regular oats with raisins, pecans, carob and apple butter.

We had a late lunch at my favorite place, The Great Sage. We sat out side under an umbrella during a rain storm.  Very nice an peaceful. I started with a cocktail called autumn harvest made with vodka, grapefruit juice and grenadine.

We split a appetizer plate of hummus, tapenade, and tabbouleh.

The main course was a Thai noodles with peanut sauce  and sweet potatoes and cabbage,

Dessert was cherry cobbler.

Because lunch was late, we really did not have dinner.  We had some Champagne with a cupcake.  The chocolate frosting was a sugar bomb. The cupcakes were from the Roots grocery in Clarksville, MD

Before bed, I had some olive bread with the last of the tomatilla avocado salsa.

Addicted to Results 4/19 Date Night

Sangria

As usual, the morning started with a smoothie. It is not the most photogenic color, but it did it's job.  This was a blend of soymilk, cranberries, pumpkin puree, frozen spinach, carob powder, spirulina and agave syrup.

Lunch was a mix of leftovers. The seitan mushroom mix was served over mashed sweet potatoes.  I added some kalamata olives and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

For dinner, we went to Orza in Little Italy. This is a Persian restaurant. At the start of the meal, they provide some hummus, tomatoes and pita to split.

I had the Veggie Ghormeh Sabzi Stew which is made with red beans, green herbs and mushrooms.  You have a choice of 4 types of rice.  I picked a basmati with sour cherries. The cherries gave a great taste to the stew.  Photo was a little blurry.

 

I tried a dessert which was presented as a lemon sorbet with cherry compote.  It was not at all what I expected.  The sorbet was basically frozen grated lemon peel with a little bit of cherry juice.  That was not good and I did not finish it.  Everything else was fantastic.

Lemon sorbet

After dinner we went to Landmark Theater for a movie - Raid 2.  The nice thing about Landmark is that it has a bar.  I had a Transcendence which was a gin and tonic with blueberries.  The bartender is great and has a good knowledge of foreign films.

  After the movie we stopped by Talara for a night cap.  I had the sangria pictured at the top and we split a order of black bean hummus and guacamole.

 

Wine from dinner

 

 

New Milk

Mixed Nut Milk

I like trying new products and today at the grocery I found two new types of non dairy beverages.  One is a mix of almond, cashew and hazelnuts.  The other is a sunflower milk.  Most of these 'milks' taste the same to me.  However, the sunflower had a distinctive smell and taste.  I used it to make a Wild Rice Soup. Onions were sauteed in vegetable oil and flour was added. Then I added veggie stock, a little at time, to make a thick sauce.  This was added to a mix of already cooked wild rice, almonds and shredded carrots. Then the sunflower milk was added with a little sherry and parsley.  I cooked it until it was thick.

Wild Rice Soup

A side salad of spinach, mango salsa, and black olives with thousand island dressing and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast accompanied the soup.  We had some tortilla chips for a little crunch.

Salad

After dinner I made some Chocolate Pudding with the mixed nut milk. The pudding used unsweetened chocolate, cocoa, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla in addition to the milk.  This was all cooked on the stove top.

Pudding ready to be chilled

The pudding is cooling overnight so I will get to try it tomorrow.

Sunflower Milk

One Year Review

Chili

So, it has been one year since I embarked on a vegan diet.  It has been a good year. Eating at home is a breeze. Processed foods were not a big part of my diet to begin with, now I eat even less.  I have used some

Tacos and Refried Beans

mock meats and cheeses, but they are not the mainstay of my diet.  I will eat less of them this year.

Noodles and Vegetables

There are still plenty of recipes to make, some are modifications. Non dairy milks are great.  I do not crave meat at all.  The thought of eating a slab of meat is kind of gross.  Sometimes I would like some comfort food with ground meat and cheese, but that is rare.

Thousand Island Dressing

Tommy and I definitely eat out less often.  That is good for the waistline and the pocket book.  Eating out is still the hardest part.  It is frustrating to peruse a menu and see nothing I can eat on it.  The farm to table type places are the worst.  They put bacon in everything.  Some places will easily make a nice dish for me, others do not do a good job.

Noodles with peanut sauce, scallion pancakes

 Brunch is the hardest meal because everything is egg based.  Eating while travelling is tougher.  I have had two veggie sandwiches that had cheese on them.  It wasn't on the menu and we were on the road with the limited options. I am sure that will still happen every now and then.

Oatmeal with nuts and fruit

Granola

Health wise, I feel good.  My cholesterol dropped almost 30 points and it was high before. I lost a few pounds and gained a lot of muscle.  I made weight training a priority at the gym and it really paid off. When I had the Bod Pod analysis done, I gained 7 pounds of muscle.  Although the scale hasn't moved much, I am smaller and my clothes fit much better.

Lentil Soup with Rutabaga Croutons

Tommy has been a wonderful sport with this.  He eats vegetarian most of the time.  He likes a little cheese on most dishes.  I buy him some meat, especially if I am making a dish with a lot of veggies that I do not like.  He is also good at picking out the things that he doesn't like.

Mango Salsa

I have found that smoothies and oatmeal make the breakfasts.  You can add so many different ingredients to them to keep it from getting boring.  I snack on fruit and nuts most often.  I have to be careful with bread because I mindlessly eat it.  We have had lot of soups and

Spicy Lasagna

salads. One dish meals are common for dinner.  Stir fry a protein (beans or tofu) and at least 2 veggies and serve over a grain. I try not to make to many desserts, but we have had cookies, cakes and pies.  Earth Balance and bittersweet chocolate are a great team.  It took several tries to get good pancakes, but I have yet to find a good French Toast recipe. But I will trying.  I have made lots of hummus, pesto and guacamole. I make bread about as often as I did pre-vegan. We are enjoying a whole wheat loaf now.  

Portobello Mushroom with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

I claim the year a success and looking forward to another meat free year.

Nachos

Quinoa with veggies and  curry sauce

Tofu steaks, bulgar wheat and asparagus

Philly Finale

Independence Hall

This is the last post from the Thanksgiving trip.  It is just a week late.  I did not take a picture of my apple tart.  For the crust, I used phyllo sheets with Earth Balance brushed between the layers.  Of course, the loft did not have any type of food brush, so I had to use paper towels.  That resulted in a a little less buttery taste but it helped in the calorie department.  I made a syrup of vanilla bean, turbino sugar, apple peel and white wine.  This was used to coat the apples which were layered on the phyllo then baked. This was a nice light dessert.

Mashed Potatoes

One must have mashed potatoes over the Thanksgiving holiday.  These are Yukon Gold potatoes that were boiled and mashed with Earth Balance and Tofutiti sour cream.  Two bunches of green onions  and garlic were mixed in.  Seriously addictive.

Honey Pecan Tart

The big dessert was the pecan tart.  The pecans were cooked with honey, almond milk and silken tofu and mounded in a tart shell.  An empty wine bottle makes a good rolling pin for the crust.  A top layer of crust was placed over the tart.  Then I poured a chocolate 'granche' made with dark chocolate, Earth Balance, almond milk and silken tofu.  The remaining pecans were mounded on top.

Tart slice

We brought lots of leftovers home and I had to be very creative to find ways to store them from the trip.  Any container that could be used was saved.  Everything made it home safe.  This was a great trip and we are looking forward to many more Thanksgiving trips.