Salty & Sweet Pretzels

I am a slacker before anything I know, I have been really lazy and that is my excuse. I have been really busy lately, and when I do find free time I am resting :( I made these quite a while back in honor of Independence Day, and I never got around to posting them until now. I am going to try to catch up, and fill up this blog with recipes and other stuff all of this week because this coming Saturday I will bid my technology good bye, and venture to Ohio. I am still bringing my laptop but sadly My grandma doesn't have any Internet. I thought of trying to steal one of her neighbors but, that always brings up the problem of figuring out the password :( I will have to wait until my uncle comes over with his glorious Air card, and allows me to have full Internet access to catch up with my "stuff".

Soft Pretzel Recipe

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast (1 1/2 pkg)2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour
2 cups warm water
2 tbsp baking soda
To taste, coarse salt
2 - 4 tbsp vegan butter (melted)

~~.`//Directions// '.~~
Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope(about 1/2" or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again ( But if you are inexperienced like me and take FOREVER to do it, the pretzels will rise while making the pretzel shape).

Add Sea salt to the pretzels if you like, or wait till they are done and add a cinnamon sugar topping

Bake in oven at 450°F for about 10 minutes or until go

lden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

What is to come... and some stuff coming up

Hello My jellies and Jams!! ( Do you like that or is it too cheese misterish?) Well I am giving myself a lazy day and will be updating you all on some of the stuff to expect from me :) Also, I will be separated from my beloved laptop for almost two and a half weeks *Cries*. I will be in the great Amish state of Ohio! I hail from Columbus, FYI, and will be visiting my dear Mamaw. She is an amazing cook! Well, anyways I will be going their and hopefully teaching her some very new kinds of recipes, vegan recipes. Well that is all that I know as far as that situation goes, and here are some new things that I will most definitely * Crosses fingers* try to bake, and "Blog" the results. Here is what is to be expected...

Chocolate Nut Butterfly Cupcakes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Cranberry Streusel Cupcakes

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Strawberry Shortcakes

Spanish Churros

Everything bagels

Chocolate Florentines

Jam Sandwich cookies

Chocolate Temptations

Peanut Butter Cookies with Banana Filling

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Strawberry & Almond Blondies

Date Granola bars

Chocolate Peppermint Bars

Tropical Banana & Passion Fruit Muffins

Zucchini and sesame seed Muffins

Cream Puffs

Chocolate Eclairs

Nutty Chocolate Clusters

French Beignets

Cinnamon Pretzels

Lemon Meringue Tart

Whew.......... So this excluded all holiday stuff because I WILL do some fun Festivities in Lu of the Holiday seasons. Until Tomorrow

~The Meatless Grandchild

Blueberry Grunt & Laziness..

Laziness overtook me the past week and a half, and I honestly had no desire or urge to bake, which is HIGHLY unlike me. So even though I didn't particularly want to do this ( In fact it was about 4' O clock when I decided to get my lazy but up, because I was doing this) But I figured when I did make this I would feel much better, and get back in my baking groove!! This turned out to be a big hit in my "Meat eating family". In fact this recipe went over so well it was gone in one hour! Let me mention that I found Earth Balance Vegan Margarine at Publix!! Yeah, and I also go some Tofutti :) I am a happy girl. Without further ado here is my blueberry grunt. (With this "Grunt" It brought endless amounts of laughter to our family because it was true to it's Grunt name, If you know what I mean *Wink, wink, smile, smile*)

Blueberry Grunt:

For the Blueberries:

1 1/2- 2 Cups Blueberries

1/4 Cup (heaping) Sugar

2 tsp. Lemon Juice

1/4 Cup water

1/2 tsp. cinnamon or nutmeg (Option)

Simple Biscuits:

1 Cup of All purpose Flour

3 Tbsp. Earth Balance Margarine or veg. shortening

1/4 -1/2 Cup Rice Milk

++/~~/~~ //:Directions://~~/~~/+++

Preheat the oven. Add all of the Ingredients for the blueberry Filling into a small to medium sized skillet, bring to a boil and leave for 10- 15 Minutes.

Gather all of the dry ingredients for the biscuits and take a pastry cutter, and cut the margarine into the flour mixture until well mixed. Wait to do this next step when your berries are nearly done boiling. Take the rice milk and mix it with your hands, until a dough like ball is formed. Don't be afraid to add more if it is too dry!! If it is crumbly add more rice milk, because you don't want the dough to be crumbly!

Take the mixtures, and put this in a fairly small gratin dish. Spray with a non-stick spray, and pour the blueberries into the dish first, and then take some of the dough and make tinier balls and then place on top of blueberries and make sure to cover, it doesn't have to be completely though. Then place into the oven for around 20 Minutes.

This is great with Ice Cream.... Vegan Ice cream that is :)

Viola, and enjoy your Blueberry Grunt!! You could also use any other berries in substitution for blueberries, Strawberries would be yummy :)

~The Meatless Grandchild

Mini Vegan "Festive" Donuts

So Donuts...... A word feared by many and also loved by millions. I myself have personally never tried a Vegan donut, and if you ask anyone else you know they would probably say no or give you a double take and look at you like that would be sacrilege, and just plain wrong. Let me start out by saying no I do not have a fancy donut pan to put these in, And no I do not have the Vegan Margarine and Ener-G Egg replacement that it calls for either!! For goodness sakes I am only ** years old :) This whole Blog is an experiment for me, to see what you can do with vegan cooking and Baking, and for my friends and family, to show them that yes Vegans do eat food, and It does taste good. I found this Particular recipe on this blog, click here.

Recipe My way ( I will list what prepared vegans can use):

Donuts:

1 Cup of All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Rice Milk (Or your choice of dairy free milk)

1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 Tbsp Cornstarch mixed w/ 2 Tbsp water ( Or Egg Replacement for one egg)

4 Tbsp Vegetable Shortening ( Or vegan Margarine, Ea

rth Balance seems popular)

Yummy Glaze:

1/2 Cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp Rice milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Agave nectar

~~Directions~~

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a donut pan, or

i

n my case a cupcake/muffin pan with non-stick baking spray.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large/Medium sized b

owl, and whisk together the ingredients until evenly combined. Combine the wet ingredients in a small saucepan on medium/low heat, and stir until warm ( If you use the Vegan Margarine heat until the margarine melts).

Take the saucepan and add it in with the dry ingredients and stir unti

l everything is combined. Your mixture should look similar to this:

Next pour the mixture into your pan. If you have a donut pan fill

just about to the top, fill just below the rim. If you use a cupcake/muffin pan fill just below the half way mark. Then pop them in the oven for about 12 minutes, or a toothpick comes out clean.

Let them cool, and pop them out gently. Here is where you can get creative, I used an icing topper ( you know, for making icing different shapes and textures) that is just an original one that has a plain circle hole on the top. What I did when the "Donuts

" came out looking like cupcakes I simply took the top of the icing topper and punched a small hole in the front, and followed through with one in the back (In the picture you will see). But use whatever will work to make a hole in the donut.

For the Icing whisk all the ingredients together and it will become a donut like glaze that you would expect to see at Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme when you order a glazed donut. Take the donut with the "hole" in them, and dip and swirl them in the glaze, and quickly take it out and place it on a plate. Repeat with all of the donuts. When all of the donut tops are semi dry, dunk the bottoms and place back on the plate.

After this feel free to decorate with sprinkles or anything your he

art desires.

If you are like me then the only sprinkles you have are christmas themed or halloween centered, where then you will not only have mini vegan donuts, but you will have FESTIVE mini vegan donuts!!

Enjoy

xoxo

Gossip Girl...... Just kidding

~The Meatless Granchild

Chocolate Mexican Cookies!

So I was ridiculously bored today so I was searching for some Vegan recipes and I came across this one I chose it because 1. it sounded good and 2. I had everything that the recipe called for. I found this off of the "Post Punk Kitchen Blog", and they found it from a book called "Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar", although I did tweak it a tiny bit for my liking :)

For the Rolling the cookies in:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons Rice milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate like me)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne ( paprika or chili powder works too)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.Take the sugar and cinnamon and mix it together. Set it on a flat plate so later you can roll your cookies on later, set aside.

2. Take the first four ingredients and stir them together vigorously with a fork. Take the Vanilla and/or chocolate extracts and mix in.

3. Mix the remaining ingredients in the batter, and mix until a thick dough ball is formed.

4. Take the dough and shape into a pretty good sized ball ( For reference I used a melon baller). I would say about the size of a large walnut.

5. Flatten the dough ball into a thick disk shape, and make sure it is semi smooth. Take the dough and take one side and "twist" it into the sugar and cinnamon mixture. If some of the sugar mixture is left sprinkle some on all the cookies again.

6. Do this for all of the cookies, and place them about an 1 inch and 1/2 apart, in four rows of three. Place them in the oven and bake for 10 -12 Minutes. Mine were done after 10 :)

7. Sit back and enjoy your delicious Mexican Chocolate cookies, with the added benefit of knowing no animal was harmed in the process :)

Mine Turned out BOMB by the way!! They were crisp and flakey on the outsides and super moist on the inside!! It even tasted a little fudgy, can you see how moist and fudgy it looks in this picture!! Yummy

Top Five Favorite Vegan Foods!!

Okay so I said I was going to do this post, so I decided to get it up today!! So all of these foods since I live in Florida are bought from my local Publix. But I am almost positive that almost any other big supermarket chain like Walmart, Winn Dixie, or up north I know they have Krogers and Meyers would have these foods.

1. Rice Milk. I was hesitant to try Rice milk at first, but I was happily surprised that it actually tasted good!! It tastes like rice milk, in the sense that rice doesn't really have a dominant taste. It is sweet though, which is nice. It also looks VERY watery looking, but just try it! I buy from the brand called "Rice Dream", and I usually buy the original flavor although they come in numerous flavors. Here is the website if your interested in more ( For all of these foods mentioned I will put a link to the website) information.

http://www.tastethedream.com/index.php

2. Smart Deli Bologna and

Pepperoni. This stuff is so freaking good!! The bologna is the same texture of real bologna, and it actually tastes to me virtually identical to real bologna. It actually is incredible how much it tastes like the real kind! The pepperoni is good, it has that spicy taste. It has a slightly different texture, but it is a nice solution for the pepperoni deprived :)

http://www.lightlife.com/product_detail.jsp?p=smartdelibologna

3. Veganaise is the next one. Veganaise is like Mayonaise except made with out the eggs in the regular stuff. This is amazingly fabulous!! It tastes like Mayo but a tad bit sweeter, and has no Carbs and is made with all natural ingredients. I do admit this is high in fat and calories, but I do want to put out their that is a reduced fat one that is waaay better for you. It tastes virtually the same except it is a little less sweeter and has an olive oil taste to it. All in all a staple if you are a vegan.

http://www.followyourheart.com/products.php?id=39

4. Tofu Shirataki Pastas. All I can say is a whole bag of these pastas are only 40 calories!!! Yes 40 calories and only 3 carbs!! This is a great alternative if you are a vegan on a diet, and just in general. I do admit It really, really stinks like fish. Dirty fish, when you take it out of the bag. And if you put it into a pasta strainer it bubbles, and fizzes which is a little weird but hey it is only 40 calories! It does taste edible with a pretty good amount of salt, and I like to add seasoning and pasta sauce with some onions and mushrooms as well then, viola!! Oh and this pasta comes in 3 different varieties ( Angel hair, Spaghetti, and Fettuccine).

http://www.house-foods.com/Tofu/tofu_shirataki.aspx

5. Cluckphrey and Moonphrey patties. Okay so these are faux chicken and Faux Beef patties. I like these both a lot! I would say that the Cluckphrey ones are my favorite because Before I was a vegan I liked chicken more so then I did beef. I like when you grill these best because it makes the patties slightly crunchier, which I LOVE!! The Moophrey patties have a slightly off taste that does taste good, and I think they added it to give it that beefy taste, but it is good when you get the taste down :) Really good overall though, Highly recommend!!

http://www.foodforlife.com/procart_catalog/index.cfm?CategoryID=6&do=subcat

About Me, and some Back round Information on me & Veganism

Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Megan, and I live in Sunny and bipolar Florida. It wasn't my choice to move here, but it happened anyway. I am also a vegan. My Veganism came slowly like any other extreme life change. I first was a Pescatarian ( eats seafood) then, I became a Vegetarian for about 9 months and now for about 3 or 4 months I have made the choice to become Vegan. My whole "Not eating animals" thing started when I went to a restaurant and ordered the lobster, when they brought the lobster out they brought the WHOLE lobster out. I was shocked, and repulsed! I knew I ate animals but it was just laying their dead, and lifeless. It changed my outlook on food forever. I then became a vegetarian, and did that for a long time until about January of this year. I was assigned for school to do a paper for a subject that you strongly believe in, and I chose farm animal abuse. I already knew before I wrote that paper that I was going to go Vegan in hue of the paper. I did the whole paper despite how much it hurt me. I hate those freakin' pop up windows because they just pop up!! A video of a baby cow getting slaughtered is lovely to see at 10:30 in the morning, right before lunch. That happened every time I went to a new animal abuse website!!

Anyway that is my going vegan story, and all the events that lead up to getting there. Now about my family...... I grew up in Ohio, the midwest, and people in the "up country" like their meat. I grew up with my grandma ,which I call mamaw, who is from Kentucky and she married my Papaw who when married to each other went to forgo the meat industry to make some money. They both slaughtered hogs for the longest time until my Mamaw got pregnant with my Uncle. Every weekend that I can remember ( while I lived in Ohio, moved to Florida when I was 4) My grandma would make the ultimate country breakfast. She would go all out with Biscuits filled with lard, fried apples, bacon, sausage patties, sausage gravy, Pancakes, grits and scrambled eggs. It was good from what I remember, and she is the kind of person who expects you to eat it all, because otherwise there was something wrong with it. Both of my parents are devote meat eaters and tease me constantly about being a vegan. I am essentially the "Meatless Grandchild", thus the blog name. Well that is enough for now, I will update you all on what I usually eat on a regular basis sometime later. For now,

~The Meatless Grandchild