New Location

helloveggie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:42:29 +0000

WordPress has been good to me but Hello Veggie DOT org will now be redirected to a new and improved site hosted elsewhere. I hope that all of my regular readers will continue checking out the site and I’d love to get some good comment flow on the new site. It’s bare naked right now!

So please check out helloveggie.org and give me any feedback (comments or constructive criticism) that you can. I’m still working out some kinks over there so if you click something and it doesn’t work, PLEASE let me know! I appreciate each and every reader and I hope to hear from everyone at the new site!

I’ll leave this blog up for a little while (few weeks maybe) but then it will be deleted. =-) See you on the flip side!

Jenn

Posted in Meal Planning

Low-Fat Blueberry Coffee Cake

helloveggie — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:02:57 +0000

I made this as a coffee cake, I will write about it as a coffee cake, the pictures show coffee cake, but truth be told I recommend this recipe as muffins. Do what you want with that information, I’m just putting it out there. I had baked the Blueberry Coffee cake for long enough +5 minutes and the center still came out thick and somewhat pasty. My toothpick came out clean and everything, but dense the center was. I ate the outsides. D, on the other hand, lathered his slice in Earth Balance and it was down the hatch.

I’ve had a lot of blueberries on hand lately! The reason is because in my quest to find organic food, which is of uttermost importance to me, I stumbled upon a 3lb bag of frozen organic blueberries at Costco. I since I practically have an I.V. pumping smoothies in my blood all week, frozen berries are a must have in my kitchen. The 3lb bag of organic blueberries have lasted for weeks so they are a great deal. Here is my newest NON-smoothie recipe…

What You’ll Need:

1 cup frozen blueberries, thawed

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 cup whole wheat pastry flower

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup applesauce

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups soy milk

How You’ll Do It:

Preheat oven to 350º. Put your frozen berries in a small bowl and cover them in cool water to thaw. Mix dry ingredients together (flours, baking soda, baking powder, raw sugar) in a large bowl. Sift if needed. Then pour in applesauce and soy milk. Mix together with a fork until all dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated with the wet ingredients. You should have a thick, mostly lumpless, batter that is still thin enough to be poured with ease. Drain your blueberries, dab dry with a paper towel, and fold them into your batter.

In either a round cake pan (what I used) or a square baking dish, pour batter in evenly. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes. If you would like to line a muffin tin for Low-Fat Blueberry Muffins, bake for 18-20 minutes instead. Either way, make sure a toothpick or fork comes out clean when inserted into cake to insure doneness.

Why You’ll Love It:

Using raw unrefined sugar in this recipe instead of refined sugar is a huge plus. Raw sugar has trace minerals in it, including phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, and potassium. Refined (white) sugar has been stripped of all these mineral and has chemicals used in it’s processing. Don’t be fooled into thinking that all sugar that is brown is raw. Many sugars have molasses added back into them to change the color brown. Take effort to make sure you purchase organic raw unrefined sugar, if you want to get the most nutritional bang for your buck. And if you’re feeling really generous to the environment, buy Fair Trade.

To up your blueberry intake through a recipe without raw sugar, try some Blueberry Sorbet.

Posted in Breakfast, Dessert Tagged: baking, cooking, healthy, Meal Planning, nutrition, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

Hazelnut Apple Crisp

helloveggie — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:45:39 +0000

I created this recipe especially for all you sinlges and couples out there. I lived alone for the majority of college and now that I’m married, it’s just D and me. 8 out of 10 recipes yeild enough to serve a family of 6. You end up feeling like you’re wasting money on more ingredients than you need and feeling bad for throwing out perfectly good leftovers that have been in your refridgerator for a week.

This recipe is quick and easy. It has a preperation time of 5 minutes or less and comes out of the oven ready to eat. No cooling, setting, flipping, or further constructing required. It serves a single person easily but could also be shared between two people.

What You’ll Need:

1 golden delicious apple

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

3 T agave nectar (or maple syrup)

1/4 cup raw hazlenuts, chopped

1 tsp rolled oats, optional

How You’ll Do It:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice your apple into thin wedges or slices.

Lay them mostly flat, in one layer, in a single serving baking dish.

Sprinkle the chopped hazlenuts, rolled oats and cinnamon on top of the apples as evenly as possible. Then drizzle the agave nectar on top.

Bake for 25 minutes. Make sure you can easily poke a fork or toothpick in an apple without any resistnace. If your apples are not soft enough, bake for 5 more minutes and recheck. Continue at 5 minute intervals if needed.

Why You’ll Love It:

Multiple studies have shown that cinnamon helps regulate blood sugar and has been very beneficial for people suffering from Type II Diabetes. Cinnamon is a natural food preservative because it prevents food spoilage and bacterial growth. Cinnamon also helps prevent blood clots. The smell of cinnamon has been shown to boost cognitive function and memory.

One medium apple, with peel, has aver 10% of your daily value of fiber. The combination of fiber and fructose, a simple sugar, in apples causes a slow and steady breadown which helps keep blood sugar regulated.

For another delicious, healthful, apple and cinnamon combination check out Fancy Apple Whole Wheat Crepes!

Posted in Dessert, Snacks, Soy-Free Tagged: baking, cooking, Dessert, health, healthy, nurition, vegan, vegetarian