Deceptively Delicious Part Two PLUS Chocolate Muffins!

Continuing on, trying out recipes from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious...

(You can read about my veganized Blueberry (Squash) Lemon Muffins and Bean (Squash, Carrot) Baked Tortillas in my last post.)

I made a version of her Spaghetti Pie one night. I used Whole Wheat Angel Hair. I mixed 2 cups of Marinara Sauce with 1 cup steamed carrot puree. My 5 year old loves raw carrots but won't normally eat cooked carrots. (That's where the "deceptive" part comes in.)

I poured it into two pie plates, topped it with Daiya and my own version of meatballs, then baked it at 350 until it seemed ready. It was "delicious" with 10 thumbs up!

Pardon me while I waste time play around on Picnik for awhile:

1)pureed broccoli and seitan, 2) rolled up into balls, and 3) after they had baked

We loved these Broccoli Seitan Meatballs I created, based on the meatball recipe from Deceptively Delicious. As usual, I'm sure the rest of you will have better ideas about how to spice these up.

I used:

1 1/2 cups slightly steamed pureed broccoli

1 package of seitan

enough bread crumbs to help form balls

and a sprinkling of garlic salt

I pureed the broccoli with the seitan and garlic, then stirred in the bread crumbs before forming the balls and baking until slightly firm & browned.

Although it wasn't quite "pie-like" the first night (because we ate it hot from the oven), it definitely was the next day for leftovers. It cut very nicely into slices.

In other news:

I tried out the Chocolate Fudge Muffin recipe from Little House of Veggies. You might have seen it on her blog. Or you may remember drooling over its sister recipe, Chocolate Nutty Brownies, on Shenandoah Vegan's blog every few days for a week...or four.

This picture doesn't really do them justice. (Morgan's picture with the recipe is super yummy-looking.) These are the changes I made: I eliminated the oil (It only calls for 1 teaspoon to begin with - one major reason to love this recipe.), and I cut the sugar in half. The chocolate chips are what make the recipe, anyway.

Unless you're only baking for one, don't even bother making these unless you're going to double the recipe. Otherwise, you'll just feel angry and bewildered that you're out of these decadent little creatures so soon. Seriously, all five of us were talking about how much we loved these the entire time we were sitting at the table, eating them. There was a lot of "mmm"ing involved.

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!