Tag: vegan

Thumbprint Cookies

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Thumbprint Cookies (2)

Even toddlers can help prepare these easy cookies; your little one will love making the thumb indents that get filled with jelly.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup applesauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/3 cup apple juice
  • 2/3 cup melted Earth Balance butter
  • 2 tablespoons plain almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Jam for filling
  1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl; set aside.
  2. Whisk together the applesauce and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the apple juice, melted butter, almond milk, and vanilla.
  3. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The dough will be sticky but workable.
  4. Using your hands, shape into 1 inch balls and arrange on baking sheets.
  5. Press your thumb or a small measuring spoon into the center of each cookie to form an indent. Fill with your jam of choice.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 11 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Thumbprint Cookies (3)

Strawberry Cantaloupe Sorbet

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Strawberry Sorbet (2)

We’ve been having fun with fruit combos for dessert this summer. Here’s another unexpected blend of melon and berry with delicious results.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cantaloupe
  • 1 and 1/2 cups strawberries
  • 1/2 cup apple juice
  1. Peel and cube the cantaloupe, reserving the remaining half for another use.
  2. Add the cantaloupe to a blender, along with the strawberries and apple juice; process until smooth.
  3. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 1 hour. Fluff with a fork. Repeat until ready to serve.

Note: If you leave this in the freezer overnight and it becomes solid, just let thaw briefly before fluffing with a fork and scooping out. It will resemble more of a granita than a sorbet, but is still delicious!

Strawberry Sorbet (1)

Hummus Yogurt Dipping Sauce

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Hummus Yogurt DIp (2)

Store-bought hummus can be too strong for my kids’ taste buds. Adding creamy non-dairy yogurt helps make it just right!

Ingredients:

  • 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, undrained
  • 2 peeled garlic cloves
  • 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon plain non-dairy yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

We love this served with pita chips!

Hummus Yogurt DIp (1)

Pita Faces

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Eggy Faces (3)

Even young chefs will dig putting this lunch together because they can do the slicing all by themselves. The secret? Don’t hand them a knife, but a piece of dental floss instead! Make sure you’re using unwaxed and unflavored floss for this activity, or you might wind up with a mint-flavored sandwich.

First, I showed Travis how he could slice easily through a few items, if he held the string of dental floss taut enough. It slid easily through tofu…

Eggy Faces (1)

…and a wheel of Miyoko’s soft cheese!

Eggy Faces (2)

Once he had slices, I let him decide how he was going to decorate a face for lunch. We toasted a pita, then added the following:

  • circles of the cheese for eyes
  • an avocado smile
  • a cucumber slice for a nose
  • celery for eyebrows
  • shredded carrots for hair

If your family eats eggs, the dental floss trick will work on those, too, and those would make fun eyes on the pita. What else goes on your Pita Face? Please share in the comments!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

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Sweet Potato Biscuits (2)

Biscuit recipes can be sticky and tricky to work with, but this one comes together like a dream. It’s definitely worth the effort to make fresh sweet potato puree, instead of buying a can.

Ingredients:

  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, divided
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3/8 cup plain almond milk
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  1. Peel and cube the potatoes and place in a saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then continue to cook for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are very tender. Drain and mash to equal 1 cup, reserving any additional sweet potato for another use.
  2. Meanwhile, combine the applesauce and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder in a large bowl. Add the sweet potato puree, olive oil, and almond milk.
  3. In a second bowl, combine the flour, remaining 2 teaspoons baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the applesauce mixture, stirring slowly to combine.
  4. Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
  5. Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes.

Sweet Potato Biscuits (1)

These are delicious with a pat of Earth Balance butter for serving. You can store leftover biscuits in an air-tight container.

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

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Blackberry Frozen Yogurt (1)

Unlike turning out homemade ice cream, this frozen yogurt comes together with almost no effort.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup frozen blackberries
  • 8 ounces non-dairy vanilla yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon apple juice
  1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
  2. Spoon into a freezer-safe container and freeze. Every hour, fluff with a fork, and repeat until ready to serve. Our frozen yogurt was creamy but still a little more liquid than solid after 3 hours, and perfect after 4.

Update: We discovered this is just as yummy with other frozen berries, too. Blueberries were a big hit.

Fro Yo Blueberry

Then we used 1 cup frozen fruit for our version with strawberries…

Fro Yo Raspberry

…and one with raspberries, for results that were deemed even more delicious!

Fro Yo Strawberry

Limeade Sorbet

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Limeade Sorbet

This sorbet needs just two ingredients and it’s perfect on a hot day. For a little variation, you can add fresh grated ginger to the mix, too.

Ingredients:

  • 1 and 1/2 cups limeade
  • 3/4 cup frozen green grapes
  1. Combine the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
  2. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze. Every 2 to 3 hours, fluff the mixture with a fork, and repeat until ready to serve.

Treasure-Map Pizza

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Treasure Map Pizza (6)

This pizza was so fun to put together, complete with a tropical island background, an X-marks-the-spot, and golden treasure! You can prepare your edible mini maps on individual pita pockets, or do as Travis did and make a full-size pizza.

Treasure Map Pizza (1)

To start, pat pizza dough onto a pizza pan, then spread with tomato sauce, leaving a 1/2-inch crust. Sprinkle with your favorite non-dairy mozzarella.

Treasure Map Pizza (2)

Travis loved assembling a little pirate island that included the following: two bell pepper strips to mark an X for treasure; palm trees made of orange bell pepper trunks and green bell pepper fronds; mushroom rocks; olive footprints leading to the treasure; and corn kernels as nuggets of gold.

Treasure Map Pizza (4)

The kids had so much fun peaking while it baked!

Treasure Map Pizza (5)

Bubbles in the crust after baking even meant that we had some fun topography, like a little “hill” now below our X.

Treasure Map Pizza (7)

Then it was time to gobble up the treasure.

Treasure Map Pizza (8)

Mango Honeydew Sorbet

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Mango Honeydew (2)

Mango and honeydew might not make an obvious fruit combo, but a dish of this sorbet is so refreshing on a hot day. And contains no added sugar, to boot!

Ingredients:

  • 2 and 1/2 cups chopped fresh honeydew
  • 1 and 1/2 cups chopped fresh mango
  • 1/2 cup apple juice
  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.
  2. Transfer to a freezer-safe dish and freeze. Every 2 hours or so, scrape the mixture with a fork to fluff. Repeat until ready to serve.

Note: If you forget an interval of fluffing or two, don’t fret. We certainly did on a busy summer afternoon, and it still turned out just fine!

Mango Honeydew (3)

Tabouli Salad

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Tabouli (2)

There are a few twists to this take on tabbouleh: quinoa instead of bulgur wheat, flat leaf parsley instead of curly, and the addition of cannellini beans for a nice protein boost.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 cup cannellini beans
  • 1 and 1/2 cups chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 chopped tomatoes
  • 3 chopped green onions
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, stirring to combine.
  2. Cover and chill for at last 2 hours before serving.

Tabouli (1)