Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

This is the time of the year when I start getting summer squash weekly in my CSA share.  One fun way of enjoying some of the squash is to hide it in delicious & healthy chocolate muffins.

I use this Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffin recipe and make it with or without the nuts.  Either way the muffins are delicious and we find them plenty moist - not needing any margarine to enjoy.   Adults & kids alike enjoy them for breakfast or dessert.

My yield on this recipe is 18 muffins.

Another simple & healthy Mexican dinner

This recipe is not as low fat as most that I share here.  However, most of the fat comes from whole foods and can be kept even lower if you water saute the peppers & garlic instead of using oil.

I made the recipe exactly as instructed and everyone loved it - including my pickiest eater.  I also love the simple one pan clean up.   This recipe is definitely a keeper!

One Pan Mexican Quinoa
http://damndelicious.net/2014/04/09/one-pan-mexican-quinoa/

The original recipe blog has great step-by-step instructions with photos... but here is a photo of my finished product - right before serving to my family.

Chipolte Pasta

http://www.forksoverknives.com/chipotle-pasta/

This Mexican style vegan pasta dish is easy to make, healthy, and a hit with the entire family.  Well, the little one doesn't love the sauce, so I prepare him a dish with everything mixed together (pasta, beans, corn, tomatoes) just before I add the sauce.

I can put together this dinner fairly quickly because I have all these ingredients on hand in my pantry.   However, I remember back to my early months cooking vegan and had no idea what miso was much less where to find it (and neither did most of the grocery store employees I enlisted to help me find it).  I'm happy to report, three years later, I see miso everywhere!   I've found it at Whole Foods, Wegmans, Trader Joes, etc.   Nutritional yeast can also be found in most grocery stores now.  I prefer buying it from the bulk bins at the natural foods grocery stores (for less than $10/lb) for the cost savings.  I store it in a cleaned out empty jelly jar.

A few notes on my prep: In the summer, when tomatoes are in season here in Maryland, I use fresh tomatoes in this recipe. Otherwise, I use one can of (drained) diced tomatoes.  Also, I use an entire 12oz. package of pasta.

Happy Birthday!

My husband and I recently celebrated a monumental birthday.  I was excited to have an occasion to try a recipe for a healthy cake that everyone would enjoy.  I think I found one (let's just say my husband helped himself to more than a couple pieces...)

Chocolate-Orange Cake
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/12/chocolate-orange-cake.html

Here's the cake, 10 mins. out of the oven

I made the cake at night, after the kids were in bed, and let it cool overnight.

The next evening, after dinner, I made the glaze, right before serving.   The only tweak I made to the recipe was to use more orange juice when making the icing - especially the orange icing.  2 teaspoons of orange juice seems like the minimum needed.

The finished product - ready to serve!

I love that this yummy cake is less than 200 calories per serving, with just 1 gram of fat!    

Delicious homemade soup - allergen free!

I found this recipe in a magazine from the health food store.  The total time to make this soup is nearly an hour... but it's worth it.  A very healthy and delicious soup the entire family can enjoy.  

Jasmine Rice Soup with Cannellini and Rosemary
http://deliciousliving.com/recipes/jasmine-rice-soup-cannellini-and-rosemary

A few notes on this recipe.  I omit the olive oil and cook the onions in a thin layer of water (a fat free cooking tip!)   The half teaspoon of red pepper flakes called for gives the soup a bit of heat.  If your little ones are sensitive to this, you might want to omit or just use a quarter teaspoon.

Great Northern Beans make an excellent substitution for the Cannellini beans if you find those in your pantry instead.

I like to make a loaf of homemade bread while the soup is cooking and serve it with the soup for dinner.

It's blackberry picking time!

I took my boys blackberry picking today at a local pick-your-own farm.   We had fun picking & tasting the berries and brought home over 4lbs of berries.  Then the challenge came - what to do with all these berries?!?   I searched around until I found a recipe that called for 2lbs of fruit and adapted it for our use.   It turned out delicious!!!  I really had to hold myself back from eating 1/2 the pan!

Low-Fat Plum Cobbler
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2010/06/low-fat-plum-cobbler.html

I substituted the blackberries for the plums in the recipe.
I don't buy soy yogurt but do have 6oz containers of So Delicious Blueberry Greek Cultured Coconut Milk, so I substituted with that.
I substituted 1 Tbsp of Truvia Baking Blend for the stevia in the recipe.   I also sprinkled just a pinch of this over the raw berries before I spread the batter on top.

The end result was a delicious & healthy dessert.   The only downside with substituting berries for the plums is that berries release a lot of liquid while being cooked, so the baking pan had quite a bit of delicious warm berry juice in it.  Next time I may try adding a mixture of liquid & corn starch to the berries (before the batter is spread on top) to thicken that up.  Or maybe I'll just pour all that berry juice over my frozen yogurt and eat it that way!

Got summer squash? How about some enchiladas?

Many weeks in the summer, our CSA gives us a bag of summer squash.   I found a recipe that we all love (and I've served it with success to guests as well) that uses whatever type of summer squash our CSA gives us.

Black Bean and Summer Squash Enchiladas
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2010/05/black-bean-summer-squash-enchiladas.html

I will admit that I have trouble with corn tortillas.  Maybe I just haven't found the right kind yet... but mine always split.  In fact, I think next time I'm going to try to alter the recipe a bit and just do layers (tortilla, squash/bean mix, tortilla) like a lasagna.  Even though this dish never looks pretty when I make it, it still tastes delicious!