"Pretty Much Vegan" Zucchini Muffins

As I explaind in my Homemade Rice Milk post, I have started to eat "pretty much" vegan. I know some of the breads I eat are made with eggs or milk and I just don't worry much about it. And chocolate, well, I'm never going to give that up, and I have no desire to seek out only vegan chocolate or eat carob or whatever. So, "pretty much" vegan is good enough for me.

These muffins came from a vegan recipe that I made some changes to and added chocolate chips, hence the "pretty much" label. If you leave out the chips or add vegan chips or carob chips, you don't have to call these "pretty much". As is often the case, I can no longer find where I got the original recipe before I changed it up.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk flours, salt, baking soda, spices, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk applesauce, sugars, oil and vanilla. I used original applesauce (not unsweetened) because this is what I had on hand, so I reduced the sugars in half and that worked well.

Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend on medium speed until incorporated. The mixture is much thicker than a typical muffin mix.

It was so thick, I was worried I had messed up a measurement.

Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips.

I sprayed my muffin tins with baking spray with flour, you could also use cupcake liners. This muffin does not rise much, so I fill the tins 3/4 of the way up or more. This made about 20-22 muffins. The pictures are from a double batch I did which made 36 regular size muffins and 12 mini muffins.

These muffins go really fast in our house. I made the double batch Monday morning and we only had a couple left by Tues evening. My husband, who said he doesn't like zucchini muffins (I doubt he ever had one), really likes them. My daughter takes bags full of them to school (some for breakfast at the bus stop, snack and lunch).

The original recipe called for 3 cups all purpose flour. I substitute half whole wheat flour. You can definitely taste the wheat, so if you don't like that, you could just use all white flour. Alternately, they would be even better for you if you used all wheat flour.

I use my regular cheese grater for the zucchini which creates kind of a big piece. The kids have asked what the "green stuff" is, but it doesn't stop them from eating them. I think the chocolate chips are totally necessary (although not in the original recipe).

Overall, they taste like a healthy muffin in that you can taste the wheat and they are not too sweet, but they are not at all like choking down a bran muffin (sorry if you love bran muffins). They look like a healthy muffin too which may make some kids not want to try them, but they are really tasty and all of my kids like them (even the picky one that only likes oatmeal and macaroni and cheese). And they are way more moist than the zucchini muffin from Starbucks.

Hope your family likes them as much as we do :)

ENJOY!

Homemade Rice Milk

At the start of lent, I gave up meat with the intention it would evolve into being vegan at some point. Starting this week, I have stopped eating milk, eggs, cheese etc. I still eat bread that I know is made with eggs and I am sure there are other products I have had that have hidden milk or eggs or whatever in them. So, I'm "vegan enough".

I am not a milk drinker, although I do have it in cereal on the rare occasion I eat cereal. So, having a milk alternative is not imperative to me. However, we have recently begun experimenting with limiting milk and milk products for one of our children since we suspect she may have an allergy or intolerance or whatever. Here is where the homemade rice milk comes in. She eats cereal pretty much daily and also enjoys drinking glasses of milk. I know there are all kinds of milk alternatives on the market (soy, coconut, almond, rice etc) and they are readily available at the regular grocery store, but they are pricey and I'm a bit of a freak and like to do things like make my own.

So, here it is.

Rice Milk:
1 cup organic, long grain brown rice
8 cups water (for cooking)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp agave nectar
1/3 whole vanilla bean, split

I added the agave and vanilla to mine, but the original recipe I found just had the rice, water and salt.

Wash rice and strain. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil over high heat, add 1 cup brown rice:

And 1/3 whole vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Cover and lower heat to simmer, cook for 3hrs. It will look like a thin rice pudding/porridgey kind of stuff

Fish out the vanilla beans (store in a baggy if you want to try to reuse them, like me :). Let cool, stir in salt and agave nectar:

In batches, fill blender half with rice mixture and half with water. I did up to the "2" line with rice, then the "4" line with water, so my blender was not full to the top and had room to blend.

Blend until very smooth, stopping and scraping sides etc to make sure it's all blended. Then strain over fine mesh strainer twice.

If you are a freak like me, you can save the rice that you strain off and add it to your homemade dog food (more on that later).

After straining, the milk is still pretty thick like cream. I added about 1/2 cup of water before pouring into the jars.

Even with the added water, it's thicker than my taste, so I add more water to it at the time of using it. Store in the refrigerator in glass jars and drink up!

As far as how this tastes, it's hard for me to say. I'm not a milk drinker and I don't enjoy a nice cold glass of milk alternatives either. It has a nice vanilla scent, but not so much vanilla flavor. I may add vanilla extract as well next time. It is also not sweet at all, so if you want a sweeter milk, add more agave nectar (or real sugar or honey or whatever). I have not yet tried it with cereal myself, but the 3 little girls in our home have all tried it and they drank it just fine. I have cooked with it and it has been perfect for that use. I mixed chocolate syrup into it and the kids all liked it that way. I think it would be great in baked goods, so I plan to use a lot of it that way. So, it will for sure get consumed, but not sure it cuts it for a daily milk alternative (at least not in our home).


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Crock Pot Chicken 3-Ways

This should really be called "crock pot chicken a million ways" because there are seriously endless uses for this chicken. But these are the 3 ways I used it.

I put about 3 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot, spinkled 1 packet taco seasoning mix, poured 1 jar of green tomatillo salsa, put the lid on, put it on low and walked away. It was super easy. After cooking for about 8hrs, the chicken just shredded apart with a fork. And it tasted amazing! With just 2 easy ingredients, fabulous chicken. Love it! Check out this post for pictures of the process.

I portioned it into 3 ziploc bags and stuck them in the freezer.

I defrosted the chicken in the bag in the fridge the night before I needed it, then warmed it in a bowl in the microwave:

Put the chicken on a tortilla, top with cheese:

Warm on the griddle:

Dinner #1 Done!

I also used the shredded chicken to make the Southwest Chicken and Potato Soup recipe posted earlier:

Dinner #2 Done! (and lunch the next day and the day after that)

Then I made chicken burritos with it. I made pinto beans in the crock pot (just like I did here with the black beans) and mexican rice:

This time, I forgot to thaw the chicken the night before, so I re-warmed it in a pan (more time-consuming, but still worked in a pinch):

Then, rolled it all up into this yummy-ness:

Dinner #3 Done! There were also lots of left-overs for lunch from this one too.

There you go. 3 1/2 lbs of chicken (cost me about $9), cooked once, made into 3 dinners and several lunches. This chicken would be great for tacos, enchiladas and even my bbq chicken salad sandwiches or Mexican Stuffed Shells.

You're Welcome :)

Southwest Chicken and Potato Soup

I seriously considered naming this "Good A#@ Soup", but decided against it. But, it is really good soup! Sometimes, I impress myself. The recipe says shredded chicken, but the chicken I used was from a crock pot chicken I made that is also super impressive (but not my recipe). I'll post on that chicken soon. But you can use any shredded chicken.

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken broth (divided into 3 cups and 1 cup)
2 cups water
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, diced
1 orange bell pepper, seeded, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
4 small celery stalks, peeled, diced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp corriander
2 Tbsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 bag small potatoes
1/2 can corn
2 cups baby carrots
1 can Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chiles)
1 lb. shredded chicken

First, let's dicuss the potatoes. I had no idea the variety of potatoes available at the regular grocery store. I was first so excited to see these little bags of baby potatoes:

Then I saw that there were different varieties of small bags of little potatoes:

There were also fingerling potatoes:

Which is what I almost bought until I saw these:

There are purple potatoes in there! I was so excited to try them. Maybe you all already know about the potato wonderland out there, but it was new to me.

How cute are they?

First, chop the bell peppers, onions, celery and saute them in a pan with cooking spray. Add garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, corriander and cook until vegetables are tender (about 10 min over med-low heat)

Add the cooked veggies to a stock pot with 3 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water. Chop the potatoes, and add potatoes, carrots and corn to the pot. I just cut the bigger potatoes in half and left the small ones whole since I was using little potatoes:

Bring the soup up to a boil. While the liquids are coming to a boil, make a roux. I used 3 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp flour:

Add remaining cup of chicken stock and whisk until creamy:

Add the roux mixture to the soup pot once boiling and mix well. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 3-4 hours until potatoes and carrots are soft. With last 30-40 min of cooking, add the can of Rotel and the shredded chicken. I used about 1 lb of shredded chicken that I had frozen from a previous recipe:

It did turn out a little spicy. I loved it, but it may have been a little bit much for the kids (wimps!) The only spicy element is the Rotel, so you could eliminate it or use the mild version (I used original) or use a different can of diced tomatoes. You could also make this in a crock pot if you weren't going to be home to have it on the stove all day. And there you go, some good a#% soup!

Enjoy!


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Owl Valentine Cupcakes

Happy Valentine's Day!

These are pink lemonade cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and pink owls for Valentine's day.

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