Let's see if we can clear up the confusion

About?

Why Vegan's of course. Now I claim to know VERY LITTLE, so I probably shouldn't be doing this post BUT I wanted to do it :) SO I am sharing my list of Vegan Blogs with you all so that you can check them out.

I like meat, mostly, so I don't claim to be a Vegan or Vegetarian. I do like to be conscious of what my family is eating and what the effect of those things have on the world.

When you read about how many animals are raised and treated so cruelly it really curbs your want for meat. And you hear about all the weird crazy stuff that they are feeding animals now to get them to grow faster or bigger and it's scary to think that all that is finding it's way into your childrens stomachs. So we limit our meat intake, and make sure that it is local and not fed unhealthy stuff (and by we I mean I).

We eat very little meat at my house and what we do use is ALWAYS local farm raised, which is a perk of living where it is possible to get that for very close to the same price as other.

Growing up my parents had anywhere from 2-5 cows, they kept the females for milk and breeding and the steers (males) were butchered and stored. We knew what they ate and they were loved and well taken care of. And we had the chickens, gag- (remember the chickens?) Anyone who has had to raise, clean up after or butcher their own chickens, gag, will eat less chicken, remind me sometime to tell you the story of when my parents had over 10 roosters and we had to butcher them (my two younger then teen sisters were probably scarred for life). We didn't eat our chickens usually, they were kept mostly for eggs- and they were/are my Dad's pets.

So off the soapbox I get :)

Here is a list of Vegan Blogs I like to check out-

What the hell does a vegan eat
The Lazy Vegetarian
eat drink and be vegan
Andrea's easy vegan cooking
The Post Punk Kitchen

I looked up a definition for Vegan-

Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights or welfare, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns.

For my Friend it is part of her culture, being from India that is the way they live and also, If I'm right, part of their religion.
Remember when I told you she was a big fan of chocolate??? Being a Vegan doesn't exclude you from liking or enjoying sweet things, it does make it a little harder to make those things. But there are a lot of places to look for recipes.

If you know someone who is allergic to eggs or milk products and you still want to cook things for them go online and check out some popular Vegan recipe sites and you will find TONS of great egg and milk free recipes. My favorite chocolate cake recipe is a vegan one.

I hope this cleared up things a little, if not sorry, remember I did claim to know very little :)

Me Like Cookies

I am a big fan of Cookie Monster, seriously how could you not like a Cookie Loving Monster?

This recipe is one I found a few years ago when I was looking for a Vegan Cookie recipe. I liked to bake and send cookies with Hubby to the Lab he worked in and there was a girl he worked with who was from India, she is a Vegan. So whenever I sent in treats I would have Hubby calling me asking what was in them because she wanted to eat them but wasn't sure if they met her dietary requirements. This girl is also a big fan of chocolate, so I went online and googled chocolate vegan recipes. I found this recipe- Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. I baked up a batch of them and a batch of regular chocolate chip cookies and sent them to work with Hubby. He told me that the Vegan ones disappeared almost as a soon as he set them out, they were the favorite hands down.

This is probably my families favorite cookie and we make them pretty often. I like to make them without the chocolate chips in them, but everyone else here always out-votes me. We have made them with reg. chocolate chips, white and peanut butter ones. The first pkg of chips I grabbed today happened to be Peanut Butter Chips so that's what I went with.
So, being Vegan, these are completely egg and dairy free- no animal products. The cookie is a dense, chewy, brownie like cookie. Be careful not to over-bake these.

Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingred;
3/4c. canola oil (I use olive oil)
2c. sugar
2t. vanilla

1T + 1t. ground flax seed
1/2c. soy milk (If don't care about them being non-vegan you can use reg. milk)

2c. flour
3/4. c. cocoa powder
1t. baking soda
1/2t. salt
1c. chocolate chips

Oven 350.

Blend together the flax seed and milk, set aside. Beat together the sugar and oil, add in the flax/milk, stir, add in the vanilla.

Beat in the cocoa powder, then the salt and baking soda. Stir in the flour, it makes a pretty stiff dough. Stir in your chocolate chips. Place by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for exactly 10 min.

What happens when you are a Forgetful Fool

So Yesterday I decided to make bread, I got out all the ingredients, mixed it all together. I was thinking to myself how quick and easy it was. How the dough turned out perfect, not too sticky not too dry. I put my dough in a bowl to rise and started cleaning up, I was wiping the counter when I noticed a carton of eggs sitting on the counter, eggs? hmmm why are those out? Did my recipe call for eggs? Did I put eggs in it?
So I grabbed the recipe, which was sitting on the eggs, yep called for 1 egg, nope I didn't put an egg in it. Dang! What now? Should I try to mix in an egg?? Ummmm no probably not a good plan. Should I toss it or just cook it anyway?
I decided to cook it anyway to see if it would work, then I mixed up another batch of dough. You know, so that I could do the whole scientific thing and compare the 2. Cause apparently I wanted to spend all day in the kitchen, I am such a goof.

So here is my eggless bread-

Here is my follow-the-recipe bread-

They look pretty similar, they taste very similar too! The one without the egg is a bit crumblier, and I decided that next time (this recipe is a work in progress) I will be adding a little more sugar and 1 or 2 more eggs- if I remember them that is!
But if you wanted to make eggless bread, because of allergies or you want to make bread and have no eggs ( been there) this recipe will work! Yay! :)

Easy Homemade Bread
Ingred;
2c. milk
1/2c. butter
1-1/2t. salt
1/4c. sugar
2 1/2T. yeast
2/3c. warm water
1 egg
7c. flour

Place milk in a heat proof bowl, microwave on high for 3 minutes. Stir in the sugar, salt and butter. Let set until butter is melted in. Mix together the water and yeast, let set until creamy.
Mix the yeast and egg into the milk mixture.
Place the flour in your mixer bowl, turn on the mixer, slowly pour in the milk mixture. Mix until well combined, let the mixer continue to knead the dough for a few minutes. Turn dough into an oiled bowl, cover and set somewhere warm, let it rise until doubled- about 30 min.
Heat oven to 350. Shape loaves, place in oiled bread pans and let rise until dough reaches the top of the pans.
Bake about 30-40 minutes.


While we are on the subject of eggs, or the lack of, this morning for breakfast Mr K and I tried a new recipe for eggs, it was a big hit! I'm sure we will be making this one a lot :)


Shirred Eggs
Ingred;
eggs
butter
cream
salt and pepper
shredded cheese

Butter each small ramekin, place about 1T.cream in the bottom of each one. Place on egg in each. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cheese (if you want cheese, they do cook about 5 minutes quicker without the cheese).
Place in oven, 350, for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy.

Chocolate Buttermilk Snack Cake

Ingred;
3-1/2c. flour
1-1/2c. cocoa powder
2c. sugar
2t. baking soda
1/2t.salt
1c. butter, melted
2c. buttermilk
3t.vanilla

Stir together the dry ingred, then add in the wet ones. Bake at 350 for 35-45 min in a greased 9x13 pan.

Ok, now this was pretty good, I mean really it's chocolate you can't ever go wrong with chocolate right? But I was expecting something a little denser, and this is pretty much like a regular cake. The recipe is eggless, which makes it a good cake recipe for peope who can't have eggs. Or in case you're like me and really want to bake something but just looked into the fridge and realized you were out of eggs :)