kimberly August 16th, 2010

Nothing rounds out a birthday (or two) like cupcakes!

As per Adam’s request, we made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting (both recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). Only, to make things more “awesome” we filled each cupcake with a spoonful of apricot jam.

Personally, I thought it was a slightly odd combination, but he and Leah enjoyed them, so who am I to judge?

And as for my little baby Cupcake, I only wish she ate more than the few bites she managed to consume before declaring herself “all done.” We met with the dietitian at SickKids again today and Leah has neither gained a single gram nor grown a solitary millimetre since her last appointment four weeks ago. Ugh.

The plan for the next few weeks is to keep the eating routines the same but to lower the cream-to-milk ratio in her sippy cup. In theory, if she is getting fewer calories in her beverage, she will make up for it at meal times. I’m not sold on it but am willing to try since her g-tube surgery is less than two months away and I will do just about anything to avoid it. Time will tell.

Tags: Adam's birthday, cupcakes, dietitian, g-tube, leah's birthday, sickkids, vctotw

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kimberly July 29th, 2010

Since I have taken to spending Leah’s daily nap time attempting to catch up alternately on email and sleep, Adam has been left to his own devices on a regular basis, which usually ends up in a mess of paper, markers and glue.

Today, however, I managed to keep myself awake and away from the computer long enough to have Adam assist in making a mess in the kitchen!

I vaguely remember eating chocolate-oat bundles as a kid, but after scouring the Interwebs half-heartedly searching online for a vegan version, I decided it would be more fun for us to make up our own recipe. And so, Cocoa-Oat Bites were born!

Cocoa-Oat Bites

1-1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup cocoa powder
smidge of salt

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, combine oats, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together coconut oil, agave and vanilla. Pour over oat mixture and stir to combine.
Drop by small spoonfuls onto parchment paper and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Tags: adam, recipe, vegan baking

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kimberly May 31st, 2010

One of my favourite desserts as a kid was rice pudding — but only the kind made by my mom (I occasionally had rice pudding in restaurants and was always saddened to discover that it was neither particularly creamy nor did it include an essential ingredient: raisins!).

My mom’s recipe calls for milk, eggs and butter, but it wasn’t hard to substitute vegan options. Mashed banana stands in for the egg yolks, but if you don’t love banana, use a less ripe specimen.

And now, creamy rice pudding is mine any time I have leftover rice. Since it was too hot to cook on the stovetop when Adam and I made this, I’m giving microwave cooking directions.

Creamy Rice Pudding
Serves 4 – 6

3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups non-dairy milk
1/4 banana, mashed well
2 cups cooked rice (I use arborio)
1/2 cup raisins
1 tbsp. Earth Balance
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
ground nutmeg

Place raisins in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them to cover. Set aside. (This makes them nice and plump.)

In a 2-quart microwave-safe casserole, whisk together sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually whisk in non-dairy milk until ingredients are combined.

Cook on medium-high heat — power level 8 — for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring every two minutes, until mixture boils and thickens.

Stir in mashed banana and cook for 1 minute more.

Drain raisins.

Add rice, raisins, Earth Balance and vanilla to pudding mixture, stirring gently to combine. Cook for 2 minutes.

Mix pudding gently and then let stand for 10 – 15 minutes before spooning into dessert dishes and sprinkling with nutmeg.

Tags: rice pudding, vegan baking

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kimberly January 14th, 2010

I’ve been on a bit of a baking kick all week, and this morning, when I woke up at the ridiculously early hour of 4:30, I decided to surprise everyone with freshly baked muffins for breakfast. I know, I’m awesome. (Exhausted though, to the point where I later joined Leah for a two-hour nap because I could no longer keep my eyes open.)

Truly, it was wonderful to be able to have the kitchen all to myself without working around Adam’s mostly helpful but sometimes distracting attempts to fully participate in the baking process and Leah’s mostly successful attempts to wreak havoc while I have my hands full of dough or batter.

Flipping through my cookbooks, I settled on Zucchini Spelt Muffins from Vegan Brunch, as I quickly determined that it was one of the few recipes for which I had all the ingredients available.

I’ve made these muffins before and the results were, predictably, incredible. I added the optional cup of raisins since everyone here loves the added sweetness. Adam declared them “delicious” and insisted on taking one for his afternoon snack to kindergarten this afternoon (he even wanted to take one for his teacher).

Once the sun came out this afternoon, I figured I now had a good chance of getting some halfway decent photos of the muffins, and since I had hoped to spend a good chunk of time with an iced coffee and my knitting, I set up my little photoshoot to capture my afternoon plans.

The first shot looked good, but I decided to take another.

What’s that in the top left corner? A finger?

Whose hand is that? And what is it doing on my muffin?

Um, Leah. What are you doing?

Leah quickly tried to shove as much muffin as she could possibly fit inside her mouth.

Busted!

A less-than-stellar photo of the now decimated (yet still delicious) muffin.

Tags: leah, vegan brunch, zucchini spelt muffins

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kimberly October 5th, 2009

Yesterday afternoon I was flipping through my cookbooks, looking for inspiration, while Leah snacked on rice crackers and tried to snatch away my books when I wasn’t looking.

Vegan Brunch it is! Leah does have rather good taste, so I took her advice on which book to use for my next VeganMoFo post. The result? Pumpkin Bran Muffins!

These were delicious, moist and a perfect fall breakfast/snack. I subbed oat bran for the wheat bran flakes with no ill effects and added 3/4 cup raisins and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

Adam left behind a few of the walnut pieces, but otherwise declared the muffins a success. It probably helped that he was hungry after school and would have scarfed down cardboard if no other option presented itself.

And because I’ve received a few concerned comments/questions wondering about Leah’s whereabouts these days (she’s been cranky due to teething and therefore not terribly interested in having her photo snapped), here are a few photos of her (finally) getting a hang of the whole sippy cup thing.

Bottoms up!

Tags: adam, leah, pumpkin bran muffins, sippy cup, vegan baking, vegan brunch, veganmofo

• baking , life , veganmofo
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