Breakfast Strawberry Shortcake

Growing up, one of my favorite breakfasts was my mother's version of strawberry shortcake. Freshly made biscuits and ripe strawberries would get drenched in milk and sprinkled with sugar. It was quite the treat. I stumbled upon a healthier vegan version of this breakfast delight when I made scones that were more like biscuits. I adapted the scone recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, substituting most of the ingredients. The adapted recipe is given below.

For the strawberry shortcakes, I toasted a day-old scone, buttered with Earth Balance, and sprinkled with coconut sugar. I put this into a bowl and covered with fresh cut strawberries and more coconut sugar. The final trick was using left over canned coconut milk that I thinned with some hazelnut milk to generously pour over the top. There's nothing quite like my mom's version, but this one came in a close second, and beat it by miles in the nutrition department.

Adapted Recipe for Simple Cream Scones

Ingredients:

• 2 cups gluten-free flour mix
• 5 Tbsp. coconut sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 5 Tbsp. Earth Balance baking stick, cut into 1/4 inch cubes and refrigerated
• 1 cup canned coconut milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a backing sheet with parchment paper. Mix dry ingredients in a food processor until combined. Add butter to dry ingredients and pulse until mixture resembles fine sand. Pour mixture into large bowl. Pour coconut milk into bowl with flour mixture and combine wet and dry ingredients, folding with a rubber spatula. When just combined, place dough on lightly floured surface and shape into a 9 inch round. Use a bench scraper or knife to divide circle into 8 triangles. Bake triangles on lined baking sheet for 15 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees halfway through. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Mediterranean Chopped Salad

I don't pretend to be an expert in Mediterranean cuisine, but I've taken my best stab at replicating what I think of as Mediterranean ingredients for this deliciously filling salad.

The primary ingredients that give this salad the bulk it needs to stand alone as a meal are chickpeas and hearts of palm. As far as I can tell, hearts of palm and artichoke hearts have interchangeable flavors and textures in a salad, and I prefer hearts of palm because there is no risk of chewy artichoke pieces popping up. I am able to find hearts of palm jarred, and they are just long, white cylinders of meaty deliciousness (yes, that is a technical description).

Chopped Mediterranean Salad:

• Chopped baby spinach
• Chopped romaine lettuce
• Vegan Caesar salad dressing of your choice or olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper
• Red onion, sliced thin
• Black or green olives, sliced
• Capers
• Jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
• Re-hydrated sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• Cooked and cooled chickpeas (or canned, drained, and rinsed)
• Chopped hearts of palm

Chop spinach and lettuce and add to a bowl with the sliced onion. Toss lettuce and onion with dressing or oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Dress salad with remaining ingredients and serve.

Chili Pinto Beans

Some people find vegan food unsavory and unsatisfying, but it doesn't have to be that way. These pinto beans are a favorite of my carnivorous mate. He loves them so much, and they are so simple to make, I periodically come home from work to find him making a pot. He cooks batches so often, I should have him write this blog post because I hardly ever get an opportunity to make them before he does and haven't made them myself in a while, lol.

I can't forget to thank my dear friend, Esther, and her family, for passing the recipe and pressure cooker to make them along to me. (Thanks friend!)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried pinto beans
• 6 cups water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. mild chili powder
• 2 Tbsp. cumin
• 7 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder

Rinse beans and add to pressure cooker with remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Cover and seal appropriately, based on the directions for your pressure cooker. Bring pot up to boiling over high heat. Once pressure cooker is releasing constant steam, reduce heat to low or medium low depending upon your stove. Our stove is electric, and we set to medium low. Let cook for one hour. Remove from stove, release pressure from pot, using the manufacturer directions for your pressure cooker.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, use a large, heavy bottomed pot, and cook longer. Seal the pot as tightly as possible. Since I haven't ever used a regular pot, you'll have to experiment with the times and temperatures.

I love eating the beans the way my friend Esther recommends: right out of the pot with chopped white onion and cilantro. It's so good!

If you prefer, these also make great re-fried beans. There is typically a lot of flavorful water left with the beans that adds flavor after cooking. I mash the beans and water together in the pressure cooker with a potato masher or an immersion blender and then cook off extra moisture if they are really runny still. Make sure to constantly scrape the bottom of the pot when reducing the water because the re-fried beans do stick easily and burn. The beans will become less runny when they cool, so leave them a little looser than you want, and the starches from the beans will help your re-fried beans get thicker.

I love to eat these beans simply, as described above, but you can also make burritos, tacos, or enchiladas with these beans. These flavorful beans spice up any plain dish.

Finding Locally Sourced Food

I love, and I do mean LOVE, shopping at the farmer's market. There's something that increases the enjoyment I already get out of purchasing the ingredients for my next culinary masterpiece to be able to see the faces of the people who grew my food and know I could easily stop by the farm. All that, and there's less packaging and use of fuel needed to get my food from the farm to the kitchen safely. I could go on and on about my love for farmer's markets. If you are interested in finding farmers markets or signing up for a Community Supported Agriculture share, there is a great site to locate what you're after. Local Harvest is by far and away my favorite site for tracking all this important information down.

So, check out the opportunities to interface with your local food growers, and let me know what you find!

Summer Fruit Salad with Coconut

I love summer for many reasons, but one of the best things about summer is the produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables with pungent flavors and bright colors are abundant almost anywhere you shop.

I like to take advantage of the bounty as best as possible, but often I am left with fruits in my refrigerator and on my counter that I just couldn't eat quickly enough. Since I hate letting things go to waste, I have two options: use it or freeze it. A great use for fruits that don't freeze well is fresh fruit salad. Here, I've combined chopped kiwi, strawberries, bananas, and apples. For a touch of extra sweetness to cut the sometimes tart fruits, I like to coat the entire salad with shredded sweetened coconut, but any type of coconut is great in this application.

Other fruits that are great in chopped fruit salad are oranges that have been cut out of the fibrous skins, fresh or canned pineapple, mango, nectarines, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, cantaloupe, blackberries, pears, cherries, and watermelon.

For an extra boost or flavor, texture and nutrients, you can also add slivered or sliced almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts, or pecans.

Article Highlight: Got Proof? Lack of Evidence for Milk's Benefits

An interesting article came across my news feed today, and I thought I would share. Take a read here: Got Proof? Lack of Evidence for Milk's Benefits.

Healthy Vegan Snacks

In a society of between-meal binges on potato chips and cola, there are many snack foods that can contribute nutrients to one's overall health, rather than deplete it.

I would like to insert a suggestion here regarding the importance of staying hydrated. I live in a very dry climate at a fairly high altitude, so drinking a lot of water helps me stay hydrated and feel good throughout the day.

Regarding snack time, it is said that sometimes when we think we are hungry, we are actually thirsty. I have found this to be true of myself, so I encourage you to drink some water next time you're hankering for a snack. If you're still hungry after a glass or two of water, you can be sure it's not thirst. I like to carry a glass water bottle with me to stay hydrated and avoid buying plastic bottles. If there is bottled water available, it's likely there's also a spigot with potable water nearby.

So, once you've determined that your desire to munch is not actually thirst, there are many snack options that are vegan and healthy (by my analysis, anyhow).

First off, there are many fresh fruits and vegetables that can be munched on. I love quartered tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, plain carrots, celery, cucumber, jicama, broccoli, apples, apricots, berries, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet cherries, and I could go on and on. Fruits are great by themselves, but some people like to dip their veggies. One of my favorite dips is hummus.

Hummus is packed with protein, and just like other protein rich snacks, I like to eat some when I'm feeling tired and lethargic after my blood sugar drops off in the afternoon. If hummus isn't your thing, any type of nut is great, as are nut butters. You can eat nuts by themselves or mix with dried fruit and vegan chocolate chips. I like making "ants on a log", filling celery with peanut butter and raisins, or, like in the photo below, goji berries. I also really love nut butter with apples.

Dried fruit is one of my staple snacks because they are tasty and easy to take with me when I'm on the go. I absolutely love dried cherries, and I also really enjoy a mix of dried berries that includes blueberries, cranberries, cherries, and strawberries.

Of course, these are only a few of the many, many options for eating well and avoiding animal products. Comment below with your favorite vegan snacks!