Goodie bags

We are quickly approaching the upcoming holiday . . .
Goodie bags for our friends and neighbors, and some family members are a traditional gift from our home. This weekend we finally got them out. I was a little concerned that we would be pressed for time and missed working with the kids to assemble these bags, but I believe this is typical of a family entering the "launching" stage with two teenage children. Our goodie bags are actually brown paper lunch sacks decorated with ribbons to hold various goodies (decorated sacks not pictured), I find a basic bag like this very versatile and potentially festive. Although the gift bags vary in content quantity, the largest bags for a select few included: Bags of 8 mixed variety cookies, chocolate covered plastic spoons to stir hot cocoa with, baggies of hot cocoa, chex mix "puppy chow", (vegan) fudge, banana bread w/ chocolate chips (pictured previously during baking extra #1), chocolate dipped pretzel rods sprinkled with broken candy, and pumpkin granola bars.

Previously as a stay at home mom / home school teacher I had both kids and myself in the kitchen for a couple of days to make goodie bags that we would share with many. I greatly dislike holiday traditions in which kids make long "want lists" and it is all about them with no thought for someone else .... when they have no clue the holidays are about being a blessing to someone else. Our gifts and talent are not given to us to keep all to our self, they are meant to be shared and then they can accomplish the purpose for which they are intended - a satisfying and more peaceful life for all of us. I have tried to teach my kids that one must contribute something to anyplace they go, especially at Christmas time. These contributions can take many forms and is similar to looking for the positive in others, even though some people require that you really search for it.
MORE IDEAS FOR HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS GOODIES
Link#1 - ornaments, scrap book pages, sweet treat packages, etc
Link#2 - More than baked goods, long list of ideas
In our early home school years (when they were younger) on Christmas Day I would give both children a choice of something to contribute to our little family celebration meal. One year Melissa made homemade peanut brittle in the microwave (it turned out awesome) and Matthew made cookie bars (very dry, but he was sure impressed with them). Other years they made meal dishes, Matthew's favorite is corn casserole and Melissa has favored decorating the room and table to make the day extra special. On Christmas day we like to have a special brunch, Dave tells the Christmas story, we eat, and then officially receive gifts. I say receive because for the past three years each of us set a dollar amount and pick out our own gifts. The gifts are set under the tree and greatly anticipated until we finally receive them. We have really come to value the time that we shop together to pick out the gifts, even though the past two years I had to order their gifts from specialty catalogs. Shopping has been primarily for togetherness fun. I dislike holidays in which people I haven't spent much time with must figure out what to buy me or I them. I prefer to shop or do something together so I can can get to know them better.... this is a much nicer and more meaningful gift. I know that my kids would not be able to tell you all that they received as gifts three years ago, but they would be able to tell you what we did together and who did/ said something funny or sad, etc.

Over the past few years this is the order we tend to do things ... always make a big batch of hot cocoa and stock up on herbal teas around December 6th about the time we put up the tree and begin decorating. I say begin because we usually keep adding decor over the following weeks. This has allowed us to be prepared for snows and sledding.... they are getting older now and have more responsibilities so there is less snow play time (and oddly enough we have had no snow this year yet), but coming in for a nice warm cup of hot cocoa when it is cold is still a favorite. The first favorite sweet is chocolate coated pretzel sticks and biscotti (my favorite) and next favorite is the puppy chow mix... for some reason this is one that DH and the kids feel should be on hand at all times during the month of December.

One of my favorite home school memories is when it snowed. This was ALWAYS a time to delay all school plans and go sledding, my kids were the first to get to the best sledding hill or to make a snowman that was the first to say, "Welcome Winter" to all the kids walking home from school ready to have snow fun too. Hot cocoa was the best to warm up with.

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix
2 & 1/2 cups soy milk powder (Better Than Milk Vanilla is excellent)
3/4 cup natural sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Dash of salt
In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients.
Blend well.
Store in airtight container.
Makes about 15 servings.

Single Serving:
Combine 1/4 cup mix and 3/4 cup boiling water in a cup. Stir to blend.
If you like a chocolate mint flavor, stir with a candy cane... my favorite to to stir with a chocolate mint candy cane.

Here's a link to some homemade gift ideas ...
HOT COCOA GIFT IDEAS

DH comes form a large family intermixed with step siblings. At one time the girl friend of a step child of a step sibling (sorry for the complexity) worked at Starbucks. A few of us were commenting that we would love the recipe for the gingerbread late from her workplace. Well, she sent it to us.... last I knew she was no longer employed there and I don;t think it had anything to do with leaking secret recipes.

Gingerbread Latte for two
3 cups of (soy) milk
3 Tbsp. Of Starbucks® Gingerbread syrup
Two shots of Starbucks Espresso® Pods
Pinch of Ground Nutmeg
Steam milk with Starbucks Barista Athena™. Place Starbucks Gingerbread Syrup in preheated coffee mug. Brew single shot of espresso, using pre-measured Starbucks Espresso Pod, and pour immediately. Top with steamed milk and foam. Garnish foam with a light dusting of nutmeg, crushed gingerbread cookies, or a light touch of cinnamon sugar. Settle back and enjoy this delightful holiday treat!

Here is a recipe from my recipe files for homemade
"Gingerbread" Syrup
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1Tbs shredded fresh ginger
1" piece cinnamon stick
Put all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to boil. Turn to simmer. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, until sugar is dissolved, and mixture is syrupy. Cool. Strain. Store in jar in fridge. Will thicken when cooled.
-----
If you don't have an espresso machine,
just stir Gingerbread Syrup into hot coffee (to taste).
Top with whipped topping and a sprinkling of nutmeg or cinnamon-sugar

Pumpkin Granola Bars
The pumpkin puree in this recipe makes these tasty granola bars nutritious.
Wet Ingredients:
Blend until thickened and smooth. (I use the large magic blender cup)
3/4 c. pumpkin puree
1.5 teaspoon Ener-g egg replacer
1/4 cup water
1/4 c. margarine at room temperature (or sub 3 Tbsp olive oil)
1/3 C sorghum molasses OR substitute with the following syrup combination
(sub) 1/4 cup rice syrup or corn syrup with 2 T. black strap molasses

Dry Ingredients:
2 c. rolled oats
1/3 c. chopped pumpkin seeds
1/4 C currants or chopped raisins
2 T. shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. grated orange rind
Blend the wet ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl ( in the oats, seeds and dried fruit, coconut, wheat germ, cinnamon, and orange rind. Add the wet blend and mix well. Spread this mixture into a lightly greased 15 1/2-by-10 1/2-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake in a 325 degree F oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown. While still warm, cut into 3-by-1 1/2-inch bars. For very crisp bars, remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely. Cut in typical "granola" bar shapes. Wrap in parchment paper and store in refrigerator for a week or two and the freezer for longer term storage. Yield: about 30 bars.

Pear Upside Down Cake

A gal at church brought me a bag of pears from her tree. They were little and I knew would ripen / go soft very fast, so I tried to put them to a use right away. I made this pear cake, which I think the pear and ginger combination is wonderful. It is a gingerbread over my own creation of pear pie filling. The recipe evolved from three different cookbooks, butI know if you saw any of the original recipe(s) you would not know that I used the idea of it in my cake.

I prefer my "desserts" to be of meal quality because if I make it I want to eat it and moderation is not something I want to think alot about... I want to enjoy it and I want want to live a very long time so that I can enjoy it many, many times. My standards are: must not be full of sugar or syrups, if oil then a little of a good oil, fiberous yet easy to eat. I can always make a tofu smoothie or drink soymilk to go with any grain and fruit meal to make it high in protein, or have protein at another meal. In this recipe I use spelt. The gingerbread recipe that follows can be used as a muffins or cake to.

DORI SPELT GINGERBREAD
WET MIX:
3/4 C of your favorite wet sweetener (I use sorghum)
3/4 C plus 2 Tbsp soymilk
1/2 C applesauce
2 Tbsp light virgin olive or organic canola oil
1/2 tsp KAL stevia (see my side bar for link to info)

DRY MIX:
2 cups spelt flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp rumford baking powder (aluminum free)
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp apple pie spice (or good quality cinnamon)
1/2 tsp ginger powder (or try a couple teaspoons minced fresh for a nice flavor boost)

Combine wet and dry separately. Stir wet into dry until just mixed. Pour over pear pie filling in an 9x12 cake pan, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

PEAR "PIE" FILLING
6 cups diced pears
1/4 tsp KAL stevia
1/4 cup applesauce
2 1/2 Tbsp quick cooking tapioca
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Combine and place in the bottom of a 9x12 cake pan.

THE LUNCHBOX GETS THE LEFTOVERS ->
This is a few seitan strips, veggie broth flavored brown rice with a little red pepper, avjar (balkan salsa of roasted red pepper and eggplant) and the feature dish - pear upside down cake.

BIG MEOW-MIE NEWS . . . .
The babies have their eyes open, check them out.
Kittens with eyes open

Lunchbox Black bottom Pie & Dumplings

CANNING: (link to my favorite canning info site)
If I have inspired you to can anything that I did from yesterday please know that I have a pressure canner. A water bath canner will NOT work for the rice, TVP strips and black eyed peas. Yesterday, Melissa and I made 9 pints of salsa, 1 pint of diced tomatoes and 3 pints of tomato juice. I still have about 25 pounds of roma and early girl tomatoes to do something with. I will make tomato soup to pressure can with half of these ... probably this afternoon and maybe KETCHUP or BBQ sauce with the roma's that are there tommorrow.

LUNCHBOX:
A creamy lunch for a cooler day. We made chik'n stew (carrots, celery, onions, garlic included) and cooked dumplings over them last night, this is the yellow stuff in the round container. I tried Vegan with a Vengeance Black Bottom Pie, only I really messed with the recipe. I am not a purist when it comes to all processed flour treats, but massive quantities of sugar just really makes me climb the walls or worse bounce of them. I nixed the sugar in this pie and cut the oils, nut butter .... you ask if there was anything good left? Well, yes. The stuff in the square container. The sunflower seeds really gave a pronounced flavor, Dave loved it, Melissa wished it tasted more peanuty... I thought it was medicore but loved the semisweet chocolate on the crust. To complete a lunch, pop the lids closed and throw in a bottle of mint herbal tea slightly sweetened with stevia. Melissa tasted the tea and said, "Hey! I like that this will give me fresh breath." After I took the picture I added a few celery sticks to this lunch.

THE PIE:
This was a fun one to do. I pulled out the chocolate chips again and made a graham cracker crust using the Ryvita rye crackers, 1 1/2 crushed cups full - the magic bullet did a fine job of this. I prefer Dreena's crumb crust recipe using 1/4 cup maple syrup and 2 Tbsp olive oil. My sis made this crust using sugar free commercial pancake syrup and applesauce, she says it turned out okay. I baked it just a bit to get it to hold it's shape, but VwaV cookbook adds 1 Tbsp soymilk to make it softer and says to just press it all in the pie pan. Then I melted the 1/4 cup chips with 2 Tbsp soymilk and brushed it into the bottom of the crust. Refrigerate until hardened. I forgot to use the remaining as a drizzle, so I added shredded chcolate to the top of my pie.


The filling recipe I used was a total remake of the original recipe also. I threw the following into the blender and pureed until smooth (I use a BOSCH kitchen center with a very powerful blender attachment, but this should work with most blenders, esp the ice crushing kind).
1 - 12.3 oz box mori-nu lite silken tofu
2/3 C soymilk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup sunflower seeds, mine were salted

I suppose you could use any nut here, the
original recipe called for this much peanutbutter

1/2 cup very hot water with 1 Tbsp agar granules/ powder dissolved into it

VwaV says 3 Tbsp, but they must have meant the flakes
or something, that would be a HUGE amount of the granules

1 tsp KAL brand stevia (this will make it very sweet, you could reduce)

1 1/2 cups of sugar is the amount called for with the VwaV recipe.

I consider 1 scant tsp KAL brand stevia extract to be the equivalent
of 1 cup worth of powerful sweetness

Pour into the hardened and chilled pie shell. Allow to set for at least three hours, better to allow it to go overnight. I sprinkled chocolate crumbs/ shavings on the top.

The gave the dumpling stew dish a nice protein boost while the chocolate chips gave it the satisfaction of a dessert. One meal and lunchboxes for three = empty pie pan!

MATTHEW:
Poor Matthew didn't even get to try a bite of this pie and he is the one who pointed it out to me. He went through his first week of school well and with only a few problems. While he is at school he stays with Dave's dad during the week and comes home on the weekend (semi- independant). We went around the city and the campus a few times prior to the first day with him so he had no problem finding what he needed. They have a nice exercise facility that limits membership so it doesn't get crowded, we are trying to persuade him to join so he can swim... right now he's not interested. He really likes his classes and teachers are really great. He's in an area he enjoys. When he is done he will be able to take the test for A+ certification as well as two others for software (computer networking and technology). Plus he gets to work at grandpa's greenhouse a couple of hours each morning.

Problems included forgotting meds a couple of days (but hopefully we've worked out a method that will help him remember) ... he has asthma and takes an attention med. He ate to much white flour and something he ate at school must have had dairy so he is having a skin reaction this weekend (major uncomfortable, so we have been doctoring him)... when his body has to fight with food issues his immune system lowers, so he also has an infection on his toe and must wear an opened toe shoe this week. He's looking forward to going back this week.

CRAFTY:
The Renaissance Faire is at an area near us for the upcomming two weekends. Matthew is into this period of history. We shopped JoAnn's Fabrics this weekend and purchased him a pattern and material to make a Legalos (Lord of the Rings) costume. He was so excited he cut his paper pattern peices out last night. We plan to work on getting the pattern onto the material next weekend. There was such a good sale there that I also purchased a pattern and material for a skirt, two shirts, and another jumper with all the notions as well as a pattern for a bathroom decor ... sink, shower, and window curtain. I got all of my stuff for less than $26. I know I won't be able to work on mine until Christmas vacation and even then I will be making that matching purse for my brown birthday outfit first.

McSeitan Sandwich and Banana Scream

It's sure a hot one here today. When I think it is hot, which is a little out of the normal, it is so hot that Dave's workplace sent everyone home today. All commercial places in the county that use mega energy are asked to take turns shutting down on days like this. SO what do wer eat on super hot days?

Well, this of course . . . In a previous Vegan Feast newsletter Bryanna had a seitan/tofu "cutlet" recipe that I like to bake in my claycooker. I use cheesecloth between layers of four patties to keep them from sticking together and the recipe makes 16 cutlets. I think Bryanna used a large lasagna pan to bake them in... either way they turn out great. This sandwich I must call McSeitan because I think this is a sure rival of the well known golden arches sandwich in which more than one million have been served

This is the same seitan patties that we used for the jerk seitan, but I had several tucked away in the freezer waiting for a hot day like today in which I have to much work to do and had little time for meal prep. So here's an example of seitan/tofu patty that froze well. The patty here was heated on our little george grill.

NEXT on the platter for a nice hot day at the end of July when all there is in the freezer that is immediately edible, creamy and sweet is banana's . Something that is sure to please you and a loved one ... or your favorite son in the world who loves to take your treat. I didn't say make you a treat, I said take your treat. I got one bite bite, turned around to get a couple of bowls so I could share it, and when I returned the counter was empty! Processor bowl and all.... gone. Fortunately I am a food blogger, so I carry my camera everywhere. I went searching. Then I found the bowl, attached to a huge hand, attached to a hairy arm lifting a big chocolate covered spoon of creamy bliss to his mouth. Caught him!

I first got the idea of what I call banana screams when I read a book geared towards teenage vegetarians from my library about six years ago. I can not remember the name of it now though. It told about teen nutrition needs and had pleasing vegan recipes inclusing the first batch of awesome cinnamon rolls I ever made. When I say awesome they were also easy like the kind you get from a paper tube and lay on a sheet even though they were vegan and made in a little bowl. Anyway the important part is that I got the cool treat recipe and this has been a kid pleaser.

MATT'S "Hot Fudge" BANANA SCREAM
Take a couple of frozen banana's out of the freezer. We often put ones that are not to the blackened skin ripe stage, unpeel them and freeze. Take out of the freezer, break them into a few peices and add 1/2 of a 12.3 box silken tofu and a little sweetener of choice. Matthew likes nutmeg, so add a sprinkle of that too. Process until smooth. We "fudged" them by using the chocolate that didn't set on those bars from the 4th, just heat and pour over the "scream". This does give a banana like taste some, but with the tofu, nutmeg, and chocolate that flavor is masked and what remains is a wonderful I SCREAMY treat.