Banana Coconut Bread (with a twist of lime) - "Tropical Coffee Cake" (Vegan)

I made a last minute banana bread on Friday, but I didn't have much sifted flour left on hand, and I had a LOT of mushy bananas (note to self: stop buying too many bananas!).

I also had a lot of limes. Our lime tree has been giving us SO many limes!

(But the lemon tree. Don't ask me about the lemon tree! It's got about 3 lemons on it. What a stingy lemon tree - the lime tree is way more generous.)

So, I decided it would be banana with coconut and lime. And I am a fan. The kids seemed to like it, too - they pretty much polished off this cake without leaving any for me.

Here's what I did:

Banana Coconut Bread, with a twist of lime

3-4 overripe bananas, mashed well
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
1 T. chia seeds
2/3 c. water

juice of 1 lime
1 cup flour
1.5  c. shredded coconut                                                                       
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
 

First combine all the wet ingredients, and then mix in the dry ingredients.

Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 180 C for about 1 hr.

You can make muffins instead if you like, use a greased muffin tin or paper liners, and bake for about 30 minutes.

This is a pretty dense loaf, though! So - keep that in mind.

It went well with my coffee! I'll call it my "Tropical Coffee Cake"!

Enjoy!

Vegan (Eggless!) Broccoli Kugel

Ok, it's not the most frugal food in the world, but once in a while we eat broccoli kugel. Especially when I can manage to get broccoli for about 12 shekels/bag!

bought this for 12.90

And we love broccoli kugel, which posed a huge problem when we stopped eating egg based foods, since my old recipe was very egg-y. I adapted it, and came up with this vegan version.

Let me know if you give it a try!

(sorry, no pic of the finished product, I ran out of time, I'll try to get one next time I pull out the broccoli!)



Recipe:

4 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
2.5 cups boiling water
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup flour
salt, pepper, garlic powder/granulated garlic, parsley flakes to taste
1 bag frozen broccoli (800 g), thawed and ideally chopped

Optional topping:
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper

Combine flaxseed and water in mixing bowl and allow to cool. mix in dry ingredients.

Arrange broccoli in a large baking pan. Pour batter over broccoli. Sprinkle topping over it, if desired.
Bake in 200C oven for 45 min - hr or until as done as you like it.

Enjoy!

Granola Cookies

I am posting this recipe because the people who were over and tried it really wanted to have the recipe! So, for those of you who requested it, be sure to make the cookies, share them, and then pass this link along to your friends! :-)

So, here goes!

Granola Cookies
 
2 T. ground flaxseed + 1/2 cup hot water (or 2 eggs) (mine are eggless)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups flour (I used "white whole wheat" - yes, there is such a thing in Israel too!)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups granola (I used homemade granola, but you can use any granola you like)

optional mix ins - raisins, dried cranberries, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, anything you think will taste good!
(I used 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup chocolate chips, plus about 1 T. shredded coconut)

 



Mix together eggs or flaxseed/water mixture, vanilla, oil, sugar. Fold in dry ingredients. Add mix ins at the end.

ready to go in the oven!

To bake, wet hands and form cookies - flatten them somewhat - and place on cookie sheet.

10 min later, they are ready!

Bake at 190 C for about 10 min. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.








Enjoy! (Watch them fly off the plate!)

Eggless Whole Wheat pancakes!

We've decided to go more or less egg-free. 

I've got no problem making most foods egg-free, but for some reason, I had a lot of trouble with pancakes. They just were NOT coming out right!

Some kind person pointed me to this vegan pancake recipe, which inspired me to try again. I discovered that my biggest problem was probably my lazy measuring - sometimes when I cook I am too lazy to pull out a measuring cup. That does not work well for pancakes!

So, here's my egg-free but dairy pancake recipe. It was a big hit!

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3 tsp. sugar
2/3 cup of whey or orange juice
1 cup milk
2 tsp oil

a bit of oil for the pan

 
First, mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add liquid ingredients and stir briefly. It can be lumpy.

Coat your frying pan with a very light layer of oil, and heat to med-high heat.

Make pancakes!

Enjoy!

We served these with maple syrup.

Chocolate Birthday Cake (January 24, 2012)

It started out as cupcakes...






But today, I needed a cake. A LARGE cake. So, here is my vegan, pretty much allergy-free chocolate cake...

  8T. ground flaxseed + 2.5 c. boiling water
  1.5 c oil (I used canola, use what you want) - this sounds like a lot, it is a huge cake!
  4cups raw sugar
  2 t. vanilla extract
  2 c. lukewarm, prepared instant decaf coffee or orange juice
  3 c. whole wheat flour
  3 c. cocoa (I've cut this back to 1.5 cups and the result is not as rich, but it works out "fine")
  1/4 t. salt
  1.5 t. baking powder

First combine the ground flaxseed with boiling water. Mix it well and let it rest 5-10 min. Add other liquid ingredients (+ sugar) and mix really well. Then add the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Fill up a super huge cake pan or 2 normal huge pans, or 4 round cake pans. Bake at 350 F for about 60 min. When done (test with a toothpick), remove from the oven and dot the top of the cake with squares of chocolate. Tent the pan with foil, and allow the chocolate to get soft. Spread it around the top of the cake. Allow to cool and serve!
Enjoy, and don't feel so guilty about serving this - it must be a celebration, anyhow! It is whole wheat, after all. Just NOT health food.

This is what was left by the time I remembered to snap a picture!