Tag Archives: maple syrup

Jun 13 2013
2 Comments
Raw, Snacks

Hail Merry Grawnola

I’m not often vocal about my decision to turn veganese for a few reasons. One, I’m not often in the mood to get into a discussion about why/how I made my choice. Two, once people know I’m vegan, my food choices get scrutinized (“PIZZA ISN’T VEGAN, YOU KNOW” or “That’s all you’re eating? How sad.”). A lot of the time, though, opening up about being vegan (or trying to be) can be a beautiful thing. I learn a lot, I get asked a lot of smart questions, and I get introduced to foods and products and other vegany things.

One of the people I enjoy discussing food with is someone I’ve mentioned before, my friend Joelen (read her blog already, it’s not vegan, but it’s great). She introduced me to my new favorite vegan snack, which I will now introduce to you:

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Hail Merry Grawnola!

I posted about Hail Merry’s Miracle Tart before. It was good, but I wasn’t really left wanting more. They have definitely hit it out of the ballpark with their Grawnola product, though.

Joelen brought me a couple bags of their orange cranberry blend. As you can see on the package, it’s raw, gluten-free, and vegan.
3.5_orangegraw_nutr_1The mix contains almonds, buckwheat groats, pecans, dried apples and cranberries, sunflower seeds, walnuts, flax seeds… and it’s flavored with maple syrup, orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt. It occurs to me that one would easily make this mix on their own, but I’m going to leave the mixing and dehydrating to the experts.

The Grawnola is much more exciting than plain nuts, satisfies my sweet cravings that usually have me reaching for chocolate, and is just plain fun to eat. I’ve only tried it straight out of the bag, but I imagine that it would be awesome with mixed in with vegan yogurt or ice cream.

Yum… ice cream… ahem.

It’s great when I’m having a snack attack or as a quick pick-me-up after an intense work out (read: leisurely walk on the treadmill).

Look for Hail Merry Grawnola in stores or buy directly from them on their web site. Hail Merry also has a great presence on Facebook, so go Like them.

Have you tried Hail Merry Grawnola? What do you think? –Melissa

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Feb 09 2013
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Cooking

Perfectly Easy Tempeh Bacon

I’ve been working really hard lately and haven’t had time to really cook or even enjoy my meals. My family and my co-workers have been taking good care of me, cooking some meals for me or bringing in vegan sandwiches for lunch. I’m lucky and grateful! But today, before I continue working some more, I wanted to make myself a satisfying breakfast.

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Tempeh and I haven’t always been good friends. I eat it but I’m often underwhelmed by it. Today, I tried out something different and super easy. I cooked the tempeh with a mixture of 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp of maple syrup, and a dash of liquid smoke.

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It looks and smells pretty as it cooks. For you Filipinos out there, I think this is a great (though less garlicky) alternative to longanisa that doesn’t take a lot of effort or require hours of marinating time. This would have been great with some garlicky fried rice, but I’ve had a lot of rice lately. So I roasted some potato straws instead, sprinkling them with garlic salt. I completed the meal by making a tomato salad, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Really easy. Really satisfying. Now feeling really energized to get started on all the work I need to get done today! –Melissa

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Aug 25 2012
7 Comments
Cooking

Perfect Pancakes

I have tried a handful of vegan pancake recipes and they have all been disasters until I decided to try this 5 Minute Vegan Pancakes recipe. I first tried it about one or two months ago. They turned out so well that I really wanted to write about them, but I decided that I better try them again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

It wasn’t a fluke.

There is a minimal number of ingredients. In addition, both times I have used this recipe, I didn’t have to do the usual tossing of the first pancake. You know what I’m talking about.

I tweaked the recipe a bit today and used the following ingredients:

1 cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1 tbsp turbinado
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsbp flax meal
pinch of salt
1 cup almond milk (I used soy milk the last time; either is fine)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c or so of dried blueberries

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl…

…and then I cooked the pancakes. That’s all there was to it.

Yay! Fluffy vegan pancakes! As you can see, I couldn’t even pause to take a photo before digging in. Actually, I ate the first pancake as soon as it came off the pan. That’s how delicious these are. They’re even better with some maple syrup and a side of tempeh strips.

Next vegan pancake challenge: Swedish pancakes! –Melissa

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Jun 29 2012
12 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan

Vegan BLT… like a party in your face!

This is so simple I feel like I’m cheating by posting it.  We wanted BLT this Monday. We’ve got a reliable source of vegan gluten-free bread so the next step is to make it awesome.

All you need is some smoky maple bacon tempeh. We bought outs pre-flavored but a tablespoon of maple syrup and drop of liquid smoke or pinch of smoked paprika works perfectly. We sprayed a pan lightly with some olive oil and sauteed it until it was browned lightly.

We mixed up some chipotle lime mayo by combining the juice from 1/2 a lime, a heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast, a pinch of vegan sugar, 1 carton of silken tofu and 1 8 ounce tin of chipotle peppers (this will make it REALLY spicy) use 2-3 peppers for an amusing kick of spice) in the food processor and blending until smooth.

I spread that on a piece of bread, added some tomato and spinach, so technically it’s not really a BLT, it’s a TST but who’s counting anyways.

These babies disappeared really fast.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off.

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May 22 2012
6 Comments
Snacks

Maca and Carob Chia Seed Pudding!

I love pudding. I really love pudding. When I saw An Unrefined Vegan’s chia seed pudding I decided that I had to have some. I’m not very good at following instructions so I made my own version of Food Doodle’s pudding.

I combined the following:
4 tbsp chia seeds
2 cups vanilla almond milk (use soy-milk if you’ve got a nut allergy)
a splash of almond extract (optional)
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp carob powder
a smidge of maple syrup harvested by my cousin (maca is already very sweet and this might not necessarily need to be sweetened)

I’ll take an aside to promote maple syrup farming: this centuries old practice promotes the preservation of old growth forests, typically with a minimally disruptive human intervention. Above is a picture of miles of tubing running through the woods into a pair of collection vats that must be emptied several times during the repeated freezes and thaws of spring. Great care is taken to keep the taps and tubing clean so that the sap doesn’t ferment and the trees stay healthy to produce during the next season. The tubing is put into place after the first snow and removed after the last thaw has passed. I love the smell of maple sap being boiled down. Grade B is my favorite kind of maple syrup. It’s supposed to be lower quality than the grade A “fancy” syrup that looks so lovely in clear glass bottles but I love the intense maple flavor.

I let it sit for half an hour and then ate it. I kind of shared with Brent but not really. I really love pudding. It was delightfully nutty and chocolatey and loaded with antioxidants, calcium, omega fatty acids and other good-for-you stuff. I lé recommend. I’m also realizing that this is a very versatile recipe and can be manipulated with the ingredients you prefer… next I’m thinking mint chocolate chip!

This is Christie, signing off.

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