Your Vegan Mom

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats

Desmond is 2 years 8 months.  He has an imaginary friend.  Or five.  Five baby monsters.  He feeds them and bathes them and makes sure they take naps.  Last night he bought them toys from the toy store (the wicker basket in the living room) and then brought them outside to play.  

He also likes to build robots (or robops) from the blocks that we made him for Christmas (cereal boxes and whatnot, paper mached with newspaper, and painted with acrylic paints, which we really should have sealed with something, but we're not quite as crafty as we aspire to be, and also I think we made all of these blocks between the hours of bedtime and midnight on Christmas Eve).  He constructs these towering creatures, gives them a kiss, then knocks them down.  Paul calls it the kiss of doom.  I have no idea where this game came from, but I blame the boy's father.  

His language has exploded in the last couple months.  Much to the grandparents' and occasional strangers' concern, he really wasn't saying much before then.  Yesterday in the car he was practicing some recent acquisitions.  I could hear from the back seat this seemingly unrelated list:  caulking gun, stapler, peach tart, transformer.  Those Transformers, man.  He got ahold of the Toys R Us ad from the Sunday paper, and now he wants it read to him 24 hours a day.  I just can't find the narrative excitement, in "fast action battlers or deluxe figures, sale 9.99 each," but he never gets tired of it.  We had no idea that this happened so early.  We don't even have a TV.  

And somewhere he picked up, "right now," as in "I want rice crispy treats, right now."  Though we're working on the manners, with the sentiment, I completely agree.  

And this recipe is so, so easy, that those two-year-old cravings inside of you can pretty much be satisfied.  This is a classic recipe.  If your mom didn't make these for you as a kid, I bet one of the neighborhood moms did.  But with corn syrup.  And white sugar.  I like to pretend that these are moderately nutritious as far as sweet treats go, but you'll probably want to eat the whole pan, and then I guarantee you won't feel like you've been eating health food.  Not that I know this from experience or anything.  But do consider yourself warned.

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats  
6 c. crisp rice cereal (I like the Erewhon brand Crispy Brown Rice.) 
1 c. brown rice syrup 
1 c. sugar (when I say sugar, I'm always talking about the unrefined stuff, that you can find labeled as evaporated cane juice.  I know we haven't talked about this in a while)
1 c. peanut butter
1 t. dark molasses (or you can just sub 1c. of brown sugar)
pinch of salt (if your peanut butter's not salted, then add another couple pinches)

Lightly grease a 9 by 12 baking dish, and set aside.  Pour cereal into a large bowl and set aside.  In a sauce pan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, brown rice syrup, and molasses until just melted and beginning to bubble.  Stir in the peanut butter and salt and return to a boil.  Pour hot peanut butter mixture over cereal and stir to combine.  Press into prepared baking dish.  Let cool for about 5 to 10 minutes.  Cut into squares.  You can eat them at this point or let them cool completely.  Do not chill.  

 

(Aren't my new curtains cute?)

Vegan Baked Ziti

I recognize that it is not hearty pasta bake season.  And yet still, somehow, I have made this bubbling casserole twice in a week (and I'm eating some leftover right now at 8:45 AM on June 26th - I'm pregnant and looking at food photos, okay?)  It is just such a simple crowd pleaser.  And this past weekend, out in the desert to visit Paul's family there was a crowd to be pleased.  With new babies (the niece, this one's not due til September) to be snuggled and stories to be shared and many, many back issues of food magazines to be read, I did not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  So, I came with my giant tub of cashew ricotta and my jar of sauce and my bag of pasta, and all that was left was for Paul, despite the fact that we were there to celebrate father's day, to assemble it.  (Have I mentioned lately how much I love that dude?)  

After lots of running around and ducking of father-son water wars and playing toddler rules pool, there was a gaggle of hungry cousins and aunts and uncles and a nana and tapa to devour this super simple pasta dish.

So tuck this recipe away for when you're ready to turn your oven on again.  Or, if that happens to be right now, then let me suggest you start by doubling the ricotta recipe.  It will keep in your fridge for about a week, and that creamy cashew cheese goes really nicely scooped into half a juicy ripe summer peach.  

Baked Ziti

Way easier than lasagna, but packing that same crowd-pleasing punch, this will serve 6 - 8.

1 lb. tube pasta (such as ziti, penne, or rigatoni)

2 1/2 c. tomato sauce (psst, that's how much is in your favorite jar)

1 c. cashew ricotta (see recipe below)

olive oil

topping:

1/4 c. bread crumbs 

2 T. nutritional yeast

1/4 t. salt

1 T. olive oil

Heat oven to 400 and smear some olive oil around a 9 by 13 inch casserole dish.  Boil pasta until just al dente.  In a small bowl, stir together ingredients for topping and set aside.  Toss cooked and drained pasta into prepared casserole dish.  Pour in tomato sauce and cashew cheese.  Stir gently to coat pasta while still leaving pockets of cheese in tact.  Sprinkle bread crumb mixture on top.  Cover and bake 25 minutes, until heated through.  Uncover and bake 5 more minutes.  

Cashew Ricotta

This is the same cheese you made for the fig topped pizza last fall.  And if you didn't listen to your mom and make that pizza, well figs are getting ripe again, and I did already tell you to double the recipe, right?  Also, I'll mention again that this recipe is adapted from my favorite vegan cookbook, Nonna's Italian Kitchen by Bryanna Clark Grogan.  

1 (12.3 oz.) box firm silken tofu
1/3 cup whole raw cashews
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. salt

Grind the cashews in the food processor until very fine.  Add the tofu, lemon juice, and salt, and process until smooth.  

Free Cooking Class This Friday! Bring the Kids!

In addition to all the baked good eating that I have planned for you this week, I'm going to need you to pencil in a date for Friday as well.  One of my favorite cooking mother-daughter duos is teaching a vegan class at the Whole Foods in Redondo Beach this Friday from 5 to 6 PM.  Entitled, Summer Treats, this class will focus on kid-friendly fare like smoothies and popsicles and ice cream and a berry topped chocolate cake to take to your 4th of July picnic.  There will be an as yet to be determined (by 10-year-old Tyler and her mom, Dawn) main dish as well.  (They're looking for a compromise between mac and cheese and a picnic salad.  Can you guess which side the young lady is on?)  

Filled with tasty samples and simple summer recipes, this should be a fun evening for the whole family.  And if you would like to make a night of it in the South Bay, Dawn and Tyler recommend dinner nearby at The Spot, Green Temple, Veggie Grill or Happy Veggie (I love the Vietnamese Chicken Salad).  

See you Friday!  (And Thursday and Sunday!)       

All Sorts of Baked Goods

Just in case you haven't heard, there are all sorts of vegan bake sales happening the world over this next week.  If you're not already baking and are looking for some treats to enjoy in your neighborhood you can find the nearest one here.

And if you live in my neighborhood, you have three to choose from.  This Sunday (June 21) and next (June 28) there will be a table set up outside of locali in Hollywood from 11 to 5.  On Thursday (June 25), you will find a booth next to the fountain at the City Hall Farmers' Market from 10 to 2.  

Do you mind if I just plan your weekend?  Because locali is awfully close to Griffith Park and makes a great place to pick up a sandwich on your way to go play.  But for the next two Sundays you can also load up on all sorts of homemade treats to take on that picnic.  If you park at the bottom of Ferndell and take that leisurely walk through the shade, then you will certainly need a cake break by the time you get to the picnic tables under the trees by the little playground.  And if you choose to hike from there, up the trail to the Observatory then you will need some serious snacks at the top.  And then again on the way back, I imagine you'll stop under those same trees at the top of Ferndell before heading home.  And of course it would be sad to go home empty handed, so set some time, cash, and calories away for this Sunday and next. 

And I happen to know that some seriously talented bakers will be plying their wares.  If you've ever lusted after what comes out of this kitchen or this one or this one, here is your chance to actually sample their cooking.  

The Thursday sale downtown will benefit the L.A. River Keepers.  And if you're interested in donating vegan baked goods to this sale you can contact Monica Valencia.

 

Good thing I'm eating for two.  

 

What the Jaconi Bierys Ate for Dinner, the June Edition

A few months ago I told you about the real-life dinners that our family had for a week.  I wrote it down as we went so that I wouldn't be tempted to lie or make it sound more nutritious or beautiful than it really was.  Having the chance to look at our quick, easy, normally undocumented meals all together like that made me kind of embarrassed - there was a shameful lack of fresh vegetables.  To be fair, I think it was a particularly harried week, and I wasn't in my own kitchen at the time, but still I've been meaning to revisit the idea to prove to myself (and you) that we eat more than frozen veggie burgers.  This past week was better.  Here's what this family really ate:

Sunday: BLTAs with bacon and chive potato salad and apricot upside down cake for dessert (BLTs are hard for toddlers to eat.  He sort of ate it open faced, but he mostly had chunks of avocado.  And cake.)

Monday: Fried tofu with soy sauce, korean chili powder and green onions (the way my roommate Cindy used to make it, or a lot like this), Korean braised potatoes (again Cindy, but kind of like this), sesame seared zuchini, and brown rice (I made the potatoes too spicy for the boy, but he loved the zuchini and rice and raw tofu.) 

Tuesday: I packed up sausage sandwiches and left over potato salad and took it to the free family night at the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena.  (The boy was way too busy too eat.  He scarfed down an almond butter sandwich in the car on the way home.  Then went straight to sleep upon our return.  I love free family night.)

Wednesday: Pasta with this red sauce (Yes, it uses the majority of a stick of Earth Balance, but it's really easy and delicious, and those were the two qualifiers for this evening's meal) and Italian restaurant salad (Pasta is always a kid hit, but the boy scorned the lettuce for the chickpeas in his salad.)

Thursday: Bean burritos and watermelon and almond cake with strawberries and whipped coconut cream for dessert (Kid is crazy for watermelon.  But everything else here was a hit too.)

Friday: Taco Spot (Paul and I order two different taco plates to share and an extra tortilla for the boy.  Then we make him a little bean and rice burrito.  Taco Spot is perfect for our family when I just can't bring myself to dirty another dish in our kitchen.  Did I tell you that we don't have a dishwasher here?  Our proximity to Taco Spot almost makes up for it though.  Man, they have good salsas.)

Saturday: Thai curry with long beans, shiitake mushrooms, and tofu over brown rice (Desmond now says with his labored 2-year-old pronunciation, sounding as if he's memorized each syllable, "I want shiitake mushrooms."  I love that kid.  He loves long beans, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and brown rice.)

And you, what was the most satisfying everyday meal you've made lately?  

What We Do Eat: Apricot Upside-Down Cake

I missed apricot season last year.  And cherry season too.  We spent the spring in northern Louisiana and then the summer back in Los Angeles, and a whole season got lost in the shuffle.  I am now very much making up for it. 

This time of year, and really any one of those magical times where one season is becoming the next, leaves me giddy.  I wander through the Hollywood Farmers Market in a haze of strawberry smells and tomato slices on tooth picks, pulling me one way and then the other.  I have no plan, but to buy any fruit or vegetable that looks delicious and elusive.  I'll figure out what to do with them later, and I do.  I buy morels, and then make pasta with fresh peas and lemon cashew cream.  And then some melon too, just to eat.  I spend most of our weekly food budget and don't feel at all bad.  It's important that the boy know that peas don't grow in freezer bags.   

I unpack the long beans and ginger and rhubarb and get to my most precious plunder - the net bag of tiny blushing blenheim apricots that I picked out of the almost empty black crate next to the mulberries.  With great hope, I lift one out of the bag, run it under cool water, and split it in half.  It is perfect.  Just perfectly apricot.   

I get out the bowl of very pretty, big ones that I bought in Torrance on Tuesday that did not live up to their apricot promise, cut them in half and get them ready for cake, making room in the fridge for all of the more authentic representatives of late spring and early summer (or the ones that manage to survive the day - as it turns out, I am not the only appreciator of perfect apricots in our house and those precious little fuzzy orbs are gone before the week begins.  Good thing there's a neighbor down the street with a lawn and side walk littered with them.  The ones on the sidewalk rarely have bug holes.  We walk this way often.)

Apricot Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, July 2003, via Epicurious

topping:
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. black strap molasses (Or skip this and go with 1/2 c. brown sugar)
3 T. butter (Earth Balance Vegan Stick)
about 8 large apricots 

cake:
1 T. vinegar
3/4 c. soy milk
2 T. flax meal
6 T. water
1 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. white whole wheat flour (if you don't have it, use more all-purpose, don't use regular whole wheat)
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c. butter (Earth Balance Vegan Stick)
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract

Heat the oven to 375. 

Make topping: 
In an 8-inch cast iron skillet, melt butter.  Mix together the sugar and molasses, and add to the butter in the pan.  Stir.  Cook for about 1 minute, until sugar is mostly melted.  Slice the apricots in half and arrange in pan cut-side down.  Remove from heat.

Make cake batter:
Pour the tablespoon vinegar into a glass measuring cup and add enough soy milk to make 3/4 cup.  Stir with a fork and set aside until thickened.  (i.e. make non-dairy buttermilk)

In a very small bowl, stir together the flax meal and water.  Set aside to thicken.  

In a small bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, soda, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butters, sugar, and extracts until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

Give the flax mixture a quick stir, and add half of it to the butter and sugar.  Beat to incorporate.  Add the other half, and continue beating until the mixture is light in color and doubled in volume (about 2 minutes). 

Alternate stirring in the buttermilk and dry ingredients, starting and ending with the dry mix.  Stir in 1/3 of the dry, then 1/2 the buttermilk, and so on.  (Don't over-mix this part!)

Assemble the cake:
Pour batter over fruit in skillet.  Smooth with a rubber spatula.  And bake for 40 - 45 minutes at 375 until a tooth pick comes out clean.  Immediately invert onto a plate.  

Serve warm, or cool.  (Either way, you'll want to eat this.)

Happy Apricot Season!  Apart from eating them immediately, what's your favorite way to enjoy an apricot?     

That's Why We Don't Eat Animals: A new children's book by Ruby Roth

While I'm a bit relieved that our family is not quite ready for this book or the surrounding discussion (I think the "That's Why We Don't Eat Animals" talk is probably the modern day vegan parent's difficult discussion equivalent of "That's Where Babies Come From."), I am happy to know that I will have this book in hand when the time comes.

With alternating emphasis on understanding animal families ("In a carefully planned nest, [a hen] and her chicks coo to each other before the eggs even hatch.  Roosters keep watch, and older chicks play chase, tag, and hide-and-seek.") and the cruelties of factory farming ("Crammed into cages on a factory farm, chickens have no room to live."), the text does a fine job of explaining this potentially emotional issue without being too fraught with horrifying detail.  The suggested age range (4-10) is appropriate.  

With my two-year-old on my lap though, I quickly turn past the periodic gloomy image (Is that a tear in the eye of the little penned chick?  And the caged turkeys have some subtle, though visible sores.), Desmond and I enjoy looking at the stylishly sweet illustrations of happy animal families while learning about pigs and cows and their babies.  I really like the book art.  And the entire story will be appropriate for him before I am anywhere near ready.

Ruby Roth is a talented illustrator and author who has written a gently informative children's book that will be indispensable to thoughtful families everywhere.  I am so grateful to her for making that inevitable talk a little bit easier.    

And if you're in the Los Angeles area, you can help her celebrate this weekend at Storyopolis in Studio City.  She's having a reading there at 11:30AM on the 6th with milk and cookies provided by Rice Dream and Uncle Eddies.  See you Saturday!    

Crock Cheese

This recipe came about as an excuse to eat more bread.  My pal, Vegyogini, gave me a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for my birthday a few weeks back, and I have grown annoyingly evangelical about it.  I'm sure you've heard, or already know first hand, how brilliant this book is, but here's the thing.  The real secret to bread making, like most things, is just doing it, over and over, until you're really good at it.  This book helps you fit bread making into your daily life, holds your hand while you do it, and makes you an expert.  I am so flippin' pleased with the bread that has been coming out of my kitchen.  (Which I'm sure you've heard if you have been unfortunate enough to have seen me recently.  Also, sorry if I didn't return your email/call/pleasant greeting - I was busy baking.)  

So while I really like nut butters and jam and earth balance and mashed avocado with a pinch of salt and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice, I was ready for something else to spread.  Something that merited my delicious homemade bread and rivaled its simplicity.  This is it.  

 Cashew Chive Cheese Spread

The rich, creamy yogurt-cashew base is endlessly malleable.  You can easily adapt this recipe to your favorite combination of herbs and spices, but I really like the fresh chives here.  And also, I happen to have two big pots of them on my back porch.  Use what you have or what you like.  Oh, it's also good on crackers.  

3/4 c. raw cashew pieces
scant 3/4 c. (or one 6 oz. container) plain yogurt 
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. salt
about 2 t. minced chives

In the bowl of a food processor, grind the cashews to a rough powder.  Add the nutritional yeast and salt and pulse once more to combine the dry ingredients.  Add the yogurt and process until smooth and creamy.  Add the chives (or other herbs) and pulse once more to combine.  

Serve at once or chill overnight for a slightly firmer texture.  This keeps well in the fridge for several days.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups of spread.  

You Win! (If you're Susan. If you're not, thank you still for leaving such a nice comment.)

I have to wake up the boy in eight minutes.  But really quickly, since it is no longer last week, I want to tell you that I have a book for Susan (the Susan that left comment number 25 about the persuasive powers of good vegan cooking).  So get me that address, Lady, and I'll put your book in the mail.  Congratulations.  Everybody else, thank you so much for telling me about your Mother's Day foraging, and recipes you've tried, and campfire treats.  It was such a pleasure to hear from you.   

Now, any advice on getting my 2 1/2 year old to go to sleep on his own?  For the last four nights he has needed Paul or me to lay down with him.  Is this a (brief) phase?  Or now that we have caved in to his demands will we be doing this for years to come?   

Also, I defy you to give me an example of a more ridiculous transitional object than three life-size, plush golden retrievers.  

Holidays, S'mores, and Free Books

This weekend I sat on a yellow towel in dappled shade and ate cherries.  Just about a whole bag of cherries.  I saved five for my mom because it WAS Mother's Day.  I listened to the wind and the birds and wore a sun hat.  I laid back on the towel and studied the structure of pine branches and blue sky and felt my baby move.  

Desmond made pancakes by the lake from two squishy blue water balls that Grandma bought for him at the Dollar Tree.  And then he made soup from rocks and pine needles in his new blue bucket.  It smelled delicious.    

I read a book.  Not three pages of a book before falling asleep, but a whole book.  (Beatrice by Noelle Harrision.  It was pretty good.  I found it on a shelf in the cabin, after the local library was closed for staff development, but thank you so much for the book recommendations - those titles are added to my list.)

The day was so perfect in fact that we wrote out a detailed list of provisions for dinner and sent the boys away to make it happen.  And since it WAS Mother's Day, they came back not only with sausages and fresh rolls and peppers and onions, but also a perfect little tub of Sweet and Sara Marshmallows from Sol Food Market.  We stacked up graham crackers and marshmallows and good dark chocolate, wrapped the sandwiches in foil, and put them on the grate just over the warm coals while we ate dinner.  

And I brought you back a present too.  Since, as I mentioned the other day, I started this blog on my first Mother's Day, two years ago, and you've been kind of enough to come back and read and share your thoughts and maybe even try out  some of the recipes, I have a book for you.  My radical mother-in-law gave me two copies of Vive le Vegan. 

This cookbook is so sensible and maternal and warm and loving.  The recipes, with their focus on a variety of foods and ingredients, will take care of you and keep you healthy.  Plus there's a section on feeding your vegan baby and toddler if you're interested in that sort of information.  

  

 So like one of those heart-shaped friendship necklaces, I'm keeping one and sharing the other with you, Pal.  BFF?  Just leave a comment about anything you like, perhaps your favorite campfire treat, or notes on any recipes you've tried here would be so great.  I'll draw a name next week.