Saturday, February 26, 2011

Deceptively Delicious

Where have I been?

I think I had the flu (fever, chills, achey, head cold). Which was preceded by my children all having it. And although the kids were feeling better by the time I got sick, it hit my husband and me at the same time. We'd both be in bed while the kids fended for themselves. Occasionally, one of us would stagger out of bed to break up a fight or refill a sippy cup, then stagger back into bed as quickly as possible. It was one of those illnesses in which I was too weak to even fast forward through my dvr'ed show's commercials. I just endured the commercials rather than muster the energy to lift my hand.

Mix three weeks of someone being sick with a big birthday party, lots of out of town company, and the rigors (and fun) of everyday life - and that's where I've been.

Back to blogging!

I borrowed Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious from the library awhile back and have been enjoying trying out recipes from it. Although it isn't a vegan book, there is plenty to easily veganize. For those of you not familiar with the book, the concept is simply finding ways to sneak pureed fruits and veggies into your food.

And although my kids eat healthy enough that "sneaking veggies in" isn't necessary, I still find it fun and a challenge to do so. Above, I made the Tortilla Cigars with several changes. This is sort of what our Tortillas consisted of:

1 can pinto beans
1/2 cup yellow squash puree
1/2 cup carrot puree
sprinkling of Daiya

Yum! I spread the vegetable/bean puree onto Ezekiel Sprouted Tortillas with a little Daiya and rolled them up as tight as I could. I baked them for a bit (10 minutes? not sure) until they were browning and starting to crisp up a little. We couldn't get enough of these. I feel like there's no reason NOT to add veggie puree to my refried beans from now on. I didn't think it changed the taste much when it was all wrapped up.


Next up were the Blueberry Lemon Muffins, which I adapted quite a bit from the original recipe, veganizing it and cutting out some of the sugar and oil.

This was another yellow squash puree recipe. I chose these two recipes mostly because squash happens to be one of the vegetables my youngest two aren't crazy about. I love that I have these ideas to get a little yellow squash into them. We devoured these in two sittings. I could never stretch my desserts out for a month, like Shen, even if I wanted to.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Preheat oven 350. I stirred together these ingredients:

1/4 cup turbinado
1 Tbs. Earth Balance
3 Tbs. applesauce
1 cup lemon soy yogurt
(which is a little more than one container)

Then I added these ingredients:

3/4 cup steamed yellow squash puree
egg replacer equivalent to one egg
1 teaspoon lemon flavor
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

The original recipe says to not overmix. Last, I stirred in:

1 cup frozen blueberries

Divide batter among muffin cups. (For me, this was equivalent to one 12-cup baking tin plus 2 extra silicone cups. Bake until muffins are lightly browned, about 13-16 minutes.

Next up on my list to try: Mozzarella Sticks with cauliflower puree!

15 comments:

  1. Those muffins look fantastic. Sorry you guys have all been sick. Not fun at all. Hope you guys are all in the clear now though!!

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  2. so glad you are feeling better! but hey, look what you got to stay in bed with:)

    lol that was bad

    love those muffins, mine never rise like that!

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  3. Ooh, those roll-ups look good! I have a package of spinach-flax wraps in the fridge, waiting to be used. You have given me some inspiration!

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  4. It must be super rough having kids and feeling sick. I guess at least you didn't have to get up to take them to school.. Glad you're feeling better.
    I've never tried Ezekiel wraps but they sound good, and your filling sounds great. I also love the look of those muffins! So many blueberries!! Nice job veganizing them.

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  5. Sorry you've been so sick! I know how it is to be the sick mom with healthy kids running around. Bummer. I have that cookbook, but I haven't made anything out of it yet - that's on my to-do list for sure! Yellow squash, or any kind of squash, yes, the elusive vegetable for my children, too.

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  6. it sounds like the past few weeks have been rough! i'm glad everyone is feeling better now.

    those muffins look tasty. can't wait to see the mozzarella sticks!

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  7. "staggering out of bed to break up a fight or fill a sippy cup"...I could just feel the weariness of those words...and out of town visitors and birthday parties to boot? You poor guys! Glad to hear you're feeling better and glad you're back on the blog!

    The Ezekiel wrap with beans, carrot and squash puree does sound super yummy! I'm going to try it. The muffins sound good too...I think that's just what Shen needs: some little SVs to expedite cookie consumption. lol.

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  8. Poor people! Flu's bad enough at the best of times, but when you have kids to look after! Every parent's nightmare! Glad you seem to be better now.

    I'm definitely going to make those blueberry and lemon muffins! I have several bags of frozen blueberries, officially earmarked for smoothies, but... A woman can take only so much temptation! And they sound positively healthy!

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  9. Those muffins look incredible. I love lots of blueberries.

    Glad you are feeling better. I can only imagine, not wanting to even ff commercials!

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  10. I'm glad you are feeling better. I hate being sick like that. I know it has to be extra hard when you have kids.
    Those muffins look and sound awesome!
    I also like how you wrapped those tortillas up small and baked them for bit...YUM!

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  11. Did you put the entire cup of blueberries into just one muffin? It is a thing of beauty! I'll have to make these and see how long they last in my house. Just for scientific purposes;-)

    Glad you and the Mr. are feeling better. I can imagine he gives off lots of good heat when you've got the chills;-)

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  12. I just got my book mark from the swap and I just wanted to say thank you and tell you that I love it!

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  13. Have we talked about how mad my husband got when I told him after-the-fact that I put shredded zucchini in his quesadilla?

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  14. Thanks, everyone! Things are definitely back to normal around here.

    Michelle and Shen, you guys are too much. You're going to make my husband impossible to live with.

    Cary, did he enjoy the quesadilla at the time? Did he also eat the brownies with black beans as chocolate chips?

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  15. Blueberry Lemon Muffins look really delicious , I would like to have the chance of cook it to my next meet with my friend s, we drink some coffee, Blueberry Lemon Muffins can be a good idea to share !

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