Muffin cloud

The thing that has happened to me many times is that when I try to make good muffins without egg, the result sucks. Often they stick to the mold and don't come off the paper as a whole, pshff. I'm not in harmony with this chemistry yet. But today I nailed it, I didn't mean it
I have been planning on making these for some time. After all the work I found out that I had time, and I was hungry, so I made these instead of making real food (excellent decision). We named these the tropical muffins!! Jambalaya ? Next thing I have in mind, is baking pineapple muffins, that is a craving. But these were good and sweet and vegan. All good and all happy.

The tropical muffins

Ingredients:
3 dl of spelt flour
1 dl of oat flakes
½ dl of sunflower seeds
2 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 dl sugar
1 dl of desiccated coconut
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of clove
50 g of melted margarine
2 dl of soy- or ricemilk (I would have loved to make this to coconut milk, worth a try)
½ dl of chopped dried dates
2 medium sized carrots grated
1 small apple grated

Heat the oven in 225 degrees. Grate the carrots and apples. Mix the dry ingredients, and add the liquids. Sturb in the dates, carrots and apple. Admeasure evenly to cupcake molds. Bake for 15 minutes!

Altered Pizza & Cake

Polenta-almond pizza

This recipe was found from the book Paula Heinonen & Satu Silvo's book Satumaista voimaa arkeen. It made for two pizzas, or then it could be for one large one. I rarely eat pizza, and it's so greasy and makes you feel quite dunk, but this was quite a ... "light"-version of a pizza (even though I could just squint for the word light)! It's also gluten-free! I think some spices could make the base more interesting, it was quite mild tasting.

Ingredients

The base:

225 g of polenta grits

1 l of water

2 tsp of salt

1 dl of crushed almond

Let the polenta grits boil in the salted water for 10 minutes, sturbing for the time. After that pour in to an oiled casserole for a 1-2 cm layer and let cool. Fill as a normal pizza as you like. Bake in 200 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

And we had some "mozzarella"-salad, but the mozzarella had passed it's best before-date, so the situation was saved with some cottage cheese! The taste is pretty much the same. The salad included fresh basil, wild rucola, pear, tomato and the cheese.

And now I have some pictures of the living nutrition's cake! http://nanae-n.blogspot.com/search/label/living%20nutrition That link holds the recipe used also in this one. This could be variated in so many ways, and it's under to-do-list to make different versions of this cake. I filled this with mashed banana and red-currant-jam, and put on top nectarine and apple, desiccated coconut and cinnamon. No sugar & flour used.

Pancake breakfast

Blueberry pancakes

Pancakes for breakfast is a good tradition! Mom insisted me doing some for this morning. These could be variated in so many different ways, by using different berries or some chopped fruits, and using coconut milk instead of soy milk etc. I've quite advanced in baking pancakes, since the first ones I made last summer became quite poor. I like to sit next to the stove and read something meanwhile the pancakes are frying. Relaxing.

Ingredients:

5 dl of soy- or ricemilk

50 g of melted margarine

Juice of a ½ lemon

4 tbsp of grounded flaxseed mixed with 4 tbsp of water (replacing 2 eggs)

4 ½ dl of spelt flour

½ tsp of salt

2 tsp of baking powder

2-3 dl of blueberries (or whatever berries you have to use)

margarine or oil for frying

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, and then add together. Whisk in the blueberries. Heat a pan with some margarine, and when hot, put a spoonful of the dough in. Fry for 2-3 minutes from each side. I prefer adding margarine a little for each pancake. I also like the pancakes not too flat. This made about 12 pancakes with my pan.

Asian Cooking

Yesterday the weather was just perfect, the air was fresh and cool so I walked to town taking alongside some pictures. Today clearly it's just been raining and of course it's mail distribution day today... I've been soaking wet, but made some asian lunch and Yogi tea and changed in to dry socks. This recipe was from Yukiko Duke's book Viisi aasialaista keittiötä, though a little variated.

Zha Caixin (Woked Choi Sum) with rice noodles

So this recipe is really meant to be cooked of Choi sum-cabbage, but I used just ordinary iceberg lettuce and it was fine. It says in the book, that this fits for all green leaf veggies. I added the noodles to this so it made a whole meal. Otherwise this could be used as a condiment.

Ingredients:

500 g of iceberg lettuce

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of soy sauce (it says in the recipe to use oyster sauce, but we had none)

250 g of rice noodles

water

Peel and crush the garlic. Heat the wok pan and pour the oil in it. Add the garlic and fry for a minute. Add the lettuce with spices and fry for 4 minutes.

At the meantime, heat the water so it's boiling, and add the noodles in it. Take off from the stove and let it sit for 3 minutes. Strain the water and flush with cold water. Add to the wok pan in the last minutes.

Soup Days

This is how sane she is. Above a capture of our kitchen.
Soups are needed, when I want to eat something not-too-heavy, and still get warmed up. I've made two different variations of a carrot-soup. Funny how the things you disliked as a child... I don't know what it is, but these days I like cooked carrot and vegetable soups. Maybe I'm just too adult. I like pureed soups the best, when they are not too creamy and not made in cow milk. And not tasting boring.

I have no good pictures for the first soup, it was beautifully golden orange.. but it tasted so nice I wanted to put the recipe up. The first soup gives spunk to carrots with coconut milk and ginger, and the other one tastes quite autumnal with lemon juice and honey. I recommend both of these! They equal the color in the leaves of the trees. Both of the recipes are for 1-2 persons.

Coconutty Carrot-Soup

Ingredients: (for 2 person)

3 medium sized carrots

1 tomato

2 dl of coconut milk

1 garlic

2 tsp of grated ginger

2 dl of water

olive oil

sea salt

Saute the ginger and garlic in some olive oil. Add carrots and tomato, chopped finely, plus the coconut milk and water. Let it boil until cooked and puree with a blender. Season with sea salt.

Carrot-lentil soup

Ingredients:

3 carrots

50 g of red lentils

1 garlic

about 4 dl of water with ½ vegetable bouillon

juice of a ½ lemon

1/4 dl of soy cream

1 tsp of honey

pepper

sea salt

Chop the carrots and add to the boiling water with garlic and red lentils. Let it boil for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lemon juice, honey and soy cream and let it boil for 5 minutes. Puree with blender. Enjoy with fresh rye bread !

Some tastings

Berry-pie

Last friday I baked some berry-pie. Mainly blueberry, but I mixed in some cloud- and redberries also. It was SO good. And also vegan. I've been feeling quite good leaving out egg in cooking, even though sometimes I get frustrated and throw eggs in when things seem to go against the wall.
Ingredients:
The base : 3 dl of spelt flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of vanilla sugar
½ dl of sugar
50 g of melted margarine
½ dl of syrup
2 dl of water
1 tbsp of vinegar

About 4-5 dl of blueberries and/or other berries
Some sugar

Preheat the oven 175 degrees. Mix the ingredients of the dough and pour into a greased cake tin (mine was quite huge, but if you use smaller a longer baking time in the oven would be good). Set the berries on top and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.


And then I also made some rice pilaff in the weekend, it consisted some apple, raisins, nuts, onion and indian spices. It was one of "I-had-to-come-up-with-something-and-quickly"-foods. And some salad, I watched Nigella the other day.. (Can't really watch now, because the tv signed itself off. I'm glad) Crispy iceberg lettuce, a bag of frozen peas quickly boiled in water and seasoned with vinegar, salt and fresh mint, and avocados chopped in good slices. And some more mint and sea salt.

In the Cookie jar

Almond-sunflower seed cookies

This recipe was from the book "Kasviskeittiö".

Ingredients:

50 g of room-temperature margarine

1 dl sugar (I guess less would also serve fine, these became quite sweet with that amount)

1 dl of crushed roasted almond

½ dl of sunflower seeds

2 dl of graham flour

pinch of salt

1 tsp of baking powder

½ dl of soy milk (or cream)

Am I forgetting something from this recipe? I put in some nuts also. These were baked in... 220 degrees I think . Good guesses, these were good but I would have preferred less sugar. I want a cookie jar full of cookies.