soup, soup and weird biscotti

We have colds here, drats. It is nice to say I eat a healthy diet and I hardly ever get colds - not today! I think that in our previous homeschooling lifestyle the kids and I didn't have to be in closed places with bacteria and viruses so we rarely ever got sick (except Dave who would occasionally bring a bug home from work). This week I met with several other student teachers who also had colds, but then I have heard from long time teachers who have said they think they must have built up a resistance and rarely catch anything going around. I hope to get to that stage soon, until then I will have germ-x at my desk.

Great news for me, but bittersweet for bakehouse customers. I completed my student teaching experience officially on Wednesday! (YEAH ME!) So now I am home for a few weeks and I plan on restocking my canned soup supply because I am nearly out and opening up a jar of MY soup for lunch or a fast meal was way to easy! On Thursday I was offered a full-time contract at my school to begin January 2 .... I was very pleased with the deal and accepted. I intend to continue to be a vegan food and family blogger, but bakehouse work will be at a standstill until maybe summertime when I am on summer break and pull out the garden equipment and prepare for the farmer's market.









I thought I'd do something savory today because we have been eating goods other than cookies, sweet breads, and the other fattening stuff - these are two of Dreena's soups. One is made with wild rice and mushrooms and the other is called soulful chili. I loved the wildness of the soup and will definitely make this again, Dreena said that one pan makes alot so there will be some to store... not at our house. The chili made more. I often purchase mushrooms in a gallon can ..... no, they are not as good as fresh but worked for a wonderfully satisfying meal. A gallon can equals ALOT so some of the mushrooms get made into into burgers, pizza toppings, other soups, and stir fries.

The soulful chili was pretty, but a tad tart for my mexi chili sin carne standard. The chili I usually make calls for a little cocoa powder for a rich, dark bowl of tomatoey, beany and TVP crumble goodness. I also tried VwaV Roasted garlic and white bean stew. DH and I loved this. Although I cook alot I have never roasted garlic before, however I will surely roast it again someday! I took leftovers for lunch with me the next day and carried a little breath mint.

Saturday we went shopping together as a family. Dave has been working towards getting his CDL license because he wants to help our neighbor and owner of a auto repair and towing service with getting broke down and stranded travelers in his spare time. He got his permit so he can now ride along. He is excited like a boy with great big toys to play with.

Anyway we stopped by one of my favorite food coops. They had a vegan miso soup for sale. I enjoyed the simpleness of it. I made some based off of a recipe from the cookbook Lighten Up! with Louise Hagler: Tastey, low-fat, low-calorie vegetarian cuisine. It is vegan though. I enjoyed this tastey soup!

Here's my recipe of MISO SOUP:
1 onion, sliced thin
1 tsp olive oil (to saute the onions in until softened).
Then add:
6 cups of water
3/4 cup red miso
2 carrots sliced thin
1/3 cup chopped dry parsley
1/2 pound of firm regular tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Cook over high heat until liquid comes to a boil, turn down heat and simmer until carrots are soft. Enjoy!

THEN . . .

For fun and uniqueness I wanted to try a different biscotti recipe. Bryanna posted a "breakfast" biscotti recipe some time ago that called for a little tofu, tahini, nuts, dried chopped fruit and whole wheat pastry flour. I thought the recipe looked good, but a tad rich for my personal preference (although I often make rich since I have a family members who needs the extra calories). I am the kind of person who likes to eat big so I often attempt low cal foods that allows me the feeling of fullness. I totally took the recipe out of context and did my own thing. The result I will present to you here.

Dori's weird, but satisfying (to her)
BREAKFAST BISCOTTI:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place parchment paper on oven sheet lightly coat with oil spray.

Dry Mix:
Combine in a medium mixing bowl.
2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 tsp KAL stevia extract powder
a1/2 cup quick oats
3/4 C raisins
1/3 C unsweet carob chips
1/4 C ground flax seed
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet Mix:
I blended this in my largest magic bullet cup and it all fit.
1 - 12.3 oz mori-nu firm light silken tofu
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp ener-g egg replacer powder
1/2 c applesauce

Add wet mix into dry and combine until all dry is mixed. It is a thick batter, almost feels kneadable but I just kept working the dry into the wet. With water wet hands shape the dough into a rectangular loaf about 1" thick. Bake for 25 -30 minutes. Remove the pan and reduce oven to 300 degrees. Keep the loaf on the parchment paper, but remove both to a wire cooling rack to cool for 20 minutes. Cut the loaf into 12 slices (about 3/4 - 1" wide), this cut easily with a 8" serrated bread knife. Place the slices on a cookie sheet (see picture above) and bake 20 minutes, turn the biscotti over and bake 20 minutes more. Cool on a wire rack. These taste better when fully cool. The bitterness of the unsweet carob chips combined with the raisins was a real treat for me. Although it didn't have the same crispy/crumbly or hardness as some biscotti I have tried I really enjoyed this. I had them ALL eaten in two days (by myself thank you very much). I don't think that Dave and the kids would have liked these very much because of the bittersweetness of the unsweet carob chips, but I didn't give them a chance to let me know if they did or not.

Calorie wise, eating six of these cookies in a day amounts to 400 calories of whole wheat pastry and 1/4 C quick oats flour combined with 70 calories of lite silken tofu and 1/4 C applesauce. They were VERY filling.