Banana Muffins Vegan Style

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vegan muffinsVegan Muffins?  Blech!

I miss baked goods.  I miss making banana muffins with my kids.  

The warm smell of melted chocolate and banana . . . that–get’s me excited.

One of my final steps in being Vegan was the problem with eggs in baking.  The problem . . . is kind of complicated.  I have a CSA egg share and I don’t want to cancel it for a few reasons . . . really, do you want me to bore you with the details about my eggs issues?  I won’t.  Just know, that being a Vegan Mom among non vegans isn’t always easy.

I’m lazy!

Not exactly true–I’m more like the energizer bunny ;-) or a race horse.  But some times I just can’t battle the little things.  Like eggs!  I love my muffin recipes and I didn’t want to go and find another recipe (from some weird vegan cookbook) that I had to then tweak, just so I wouldn’t use eggs.  

I solved the problem by not eating baked goods.  No muffins, cakes, cookies.

Did I just say Weird Vegan Cookbook?

Actually, yes I did.  I love going to the library and getting armfuls of cookbooks.  Do I ever make anything?  NO.  I look at the pictures.  When I started to seriously pursue my vegan-ness I checked out vegan cookbooks.  What a mistake.  The cookbooks had all sorts of ingredients that I do not typically buy.  And if you are Vegan, and love using all those ingredients–knock yourself out.  It’s just not for me.

Real Mom, Real Food in a Real Kitchen

I do pride myself on being a real mom with big issues with getting the kids out the door . . . somewhat on time, making food that is healthy with REAL ingredients.  I do cheat on some things.  I will buy those microwavable rice pouches and those salad kits to save time–the kids are starting to have 3rd and 4th dinners at 9 and 11 pm and I’m a “real tired” mom at that point and they are on their own.  My point is I don’t like processed fake vegan food.  But having just said I don’t like fake foods . . . 

Fake Eggs

In this recipe I finally used my “egg replacer”.  A box of . . . what?  I’m going to admit something here–I just bought the egg replacer because I didn’t want to eat eggs but DID want to eat muffins AND didn’t worry about what was even IN the egg replacer.  That was not forward thinking!  What is even in it?

  • Potato Starch–that doesn’t sound bad.
  • Tapioca Flour–I’ve used that before in thickening my famous pies!
  • Cream of Tartar–I’ve used that before too!
  • Cellulose Gum and Modified Cellulose . . . hhhmmmm.  These are not on my spice rack!  Definition: A chemically modified form of cellulose (the principal component of plant cells) used to prevent ice crystallization in foods.  I can live with that.

This website is a great resource for crazy ingredients.  http://www.vrg.org/ingredients/  I use it often to figure out what I’m eating–then decide if I can live without it or not.  It’s all about making the best choice at that moment in time.  

[Tweet “Check out this amazing vegan banana muffin recipe at Renee’s Kitchen! #veganRenee #Yumilicious!”]

Finally!  The Recipe!

 

[yumprint-recipe id=’15’] 

 

 

 

green smoothie

Counting Greens vs. Counting Calories

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Counting Greens

I love this idea of counting greens vs. counting calories.  It just makes sense to me.  

Each day I cook for 6 people.  I try to make sure that everyone eats a somewhat balanced diet.  Not a daily balanced diet because that would make me go nuts but by the end of the week I want everyone to have eaten some fruit, had a salad or two and didn’t indulge too much on sweets.  

The sweets part is easy–I don’t buy it and I only make it every so often.  I grew tired of the parenting battle of “you can have dessert if you eat your (insert random food item they won’t eat that day) so I eliminated making desserts.  I just required them to eat their food or . . . not.  

Watch this video

As much as I love making videos . . . I also love sharing them.

In this incredibly informative video you’ll understand why I don’t count calories!  —>  Click here for the video.

How to Cook Greens?

Ok, so maybe I’ll share a few of my posts and videos on greens!

Swiss Chard

Kale

Brussels Sprouts

Spinach

Beet Greens

Be Blessed as you prepare food to nourish the body and soul.

Why I don’t eat meat #27

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Why I don’t eat meat #27

I think many of you know I’m writing a book “47 Reason’s I don’t eat meat!”  But if you don’t know–I am.

The idea for the book has been rattling in my head for a few years now but I just never really had the courage to put it all down on paper.  I still don’t have the courage.  It isn’t a story just about not eating meat, it is a story of transformation from a compassionate farm girl who loved every single animal, turned pastry chef, turned line cook, turned deli goddess and now finally I’m a compassionate woman who dreams of having her own organic farm.  Each time someone asked me why I don’t eat meat–I would give a different answer.  I realized (after a long time of answering the same question) that my reasons were multifaceted and seemingly non ending.  So I began to keep track.

#27 Why I don’t eat Chickens!

This is a great article that includes a video.  And only one of the many reasons I don’t eat chickens.

Check it out here —>  Click here for the article. 

The article is not graphic at all and has some interesting statistics like :  Poultry Science journal has calculated that if humans grew at the same rate as today’s chickens, a human would weigh 660 pounds by the age of eight weeks.