Midterm week

The title describes all!! I had midterms last, this week and I believe the one after this... Great this shows how tentative I am in class. I don't even know when my midterms are. I've been so busy studying for calculus, I'm drained so I decided to treat myself by going to Six Flag for the fright fest. I'm not a picture person so there's no pictures. It wasn't what I had expected. I expected it to be more frightening but apparently not with all the rude people pushing and shoving.

Anyways onward to the food. I helped my boyfriend bake some goodies for his mother's office since she was leaving that hell hole yay!!! We had to bake 80 of each item but we didn't have enough time to bake enough of the muffins. I wished I had more influence on what was being served. We made apple cranberry muffins (ovo-vegetarian), gingerbread cookies (ovo-vegetarian) and VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies (vegan). Awesome. Everyone loved the baked goods. The vegan cookies came in second though :[ They liked the muffins more...but at least it's not last!!


This week's muffin, Persimmon Muffin!!
Tis is the season for persimmons!!! I love persimmons although they can cause severe heartburns if you just eat it out of the hand. They're amazingly delicious. Some how they remind me of pumpkins because they're so orange! *Note I tend not to use cups to measure ingredients as they can be quite inaccurate. I've just converted the weight to volume so please excuse all the odd measurement in volume.


Recipe Yields 6 Muffin // 165 Cal/Muffin


75g// 5/8 Cup All Purpose Flour
75g// 5/8 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
38g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
12g// 1 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Allspice, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Salt

115g// About 1 Medium Persimmon, Pureed
12g// 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Soy Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla

Kabocha Pie (Japanese Pumpkin Pie)
Tis is autumn!! The leaves are falling, the winds are strong, it's almost Halloween, Thanksgiving will soon follow. It's a great time for eating pumpkin pies and sweet potato pies! Normally people associate autumn with pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie but there aren't many pumpkins readily available here but there are many kabocha. Kabocha is also known as Japanese pumpkin. The taste a bit like pumpkin and a bit like sweet potato. Even better! Killing two birds with one stone. Of course I wouldn't do that I can't even kill one bird with a stone. Poor birdie. Kabocha is a popular ingredient in Asian cooking and it's avaible all year round in the Asian markets. I've seen them in both the Korean markets and the Chinese market. In the Chinese market these kabocha are actually called pumpkin in Chinese. Hey why not make so "pumpkin pie"?


Recipe Yield 1 7" pie, 8 slices// 140.25 Cal/Slice

Crust
62g// 4 2x2 Graham Crackers, Crumbled
60g// 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
24g// 2 Tbsp Soy Butter, Room Temp.
3 Tbsp Soy Milk
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated

Filling
265g// Kabocha, puree
6 oz// 170g Silken Tofu, Firm (I used Mori-nu)
50g // 1/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated (You can use more, my kabocha was very sweet)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Crumble the graham crackers and combine it together with the all purpose flour.
• Cut in the soy butter into the flour mixture.
• Make a well in the middle and add the soy milk and knead the dough.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerated it for about 20 minutes.
• Take out the dough and flour the rolling pin and your surface.
• Roll out the dough to be around 3/4 cm thick and cover your 7" pie pan.
  
• Poke many holes with the fork and back it in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Take it out and let it cool while you make the filling.

• Peel and dice the kabocha. (Make sure you measure the kabocha with out the skin and seeds.)
• Dice the kabocha to 1.5" cubes and steam it in a steamer for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
• Puree the squash in the food processor until there are no more lumps.
  
• Put the kabocha into a large bowl and puree the tofu in the food processor. (Since we're using firm tofu, make sure there are no lumps! You don't want lumpy pie!)
• Add the kabocha sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg into the tofu mixture and puree it until all the ingredients are combined.
• Pour the filling into the crust and bake it for 20 minutes. If you bake too long, it will crack!

Cinnamon Raisin Coconut Rice Pudding


Rice pudding hmm....The coconut taste is very subtitle but with the addition of shredded coconuts, it goes quite far. Actually I've made it twice, once in my b/f house and once at home. The one that my b/f and I made was from a recipe in vegweb. It didnt turn out the way we wanted to so I've made it again.

Recipe Yields 4-6 Serving// 533-355 Cal/Serving

1 13.5 Fl Oz// 2 Cup Canned Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Cup Soy Milk (I used plain, sugarless)
185g// 1 Cup Jasmin Rice
150g// 3/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated
40g// 1/4 Cup Raisins
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar (Optional)
23 g// 1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut (Optional)

• Boil the coconut milk and soy milk together in a saucepan or pot while you wash and rinse your rice. (It helps a lot if your saucepan or pot are nonstick because the rice will stick!)
  
• When the milk mixture is just boiling, pour in the sugar and let the sugar melt in the milk. (If you are happening to use sweetened soy milk, reduce the amount of sugar.)
• Pour in the the rice and let it boil with a lid overing the saucepan or pot on a medium to low heat.
  
• While you are waiting for the rice to cook, soak the raisins in half a cup of warm water. If you don't soak the raisins they will absorb the moister in your rice pudding, making your pudding dry.
• When the rice is starting to cook and has already absorbed about half of the milk, lower the heat to low and let it simmer slowly with the lid on so the steam can softens the rice. If you don't use a lid, the moister will evaporate out of the saucepan or pot. It's essential that you lower the heat or else the rice will burn! No shortcuts!! It may take up to 20 minutes to 30 minutes of simmering and steaming depending on the size of the saucepan or pot.
  
• Stir the rice every few minutes to prevent burning or sticking to the saucepan or pot. If it does stick quickly scrap off any rice that is sticking to the saucepan or pot to prevent burning.
  
• When the rice is mushy and reaches your desire consistency, fold in the raisins, vanilla extract, cinnamon, shredded coconuts and agave sugar (if you are using those).
  
• Let the rice pudding simmer and steam for five more minutes. If your rice pudding happens to be drier due to moisture lost, add in some more soy milk.

Fatfree Carrot Muffin
Delicious muffin. My b/f and I got this recipe from fatfree vegan but we made our own streusel. which was not exactly fat free.



Streusel Topping

Recipe Yields enough for about 16 Cupcakes// 349 Cal total

36g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
24g// 2 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
1 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1 Tbsp Soy Butter
1 Tsp Cinnamon. Granulated
1/2 Tsp Ginger, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Clove, Granulated

• Combine the sugars and spices.
  
• Cut the applesauce and soy butter into the dry ingredients.
  
• Combine until they are the consistency of breadcrumb
• Sprinkle them onto the muffin batter after you scooped the batter into the muffin pan.