Easy 3 a.m. Veg Muffins

I am the first to scoff at muffin mix from a box. It's true, I much prefer to do any kind of baking from scratch and encourage people to dirty their hands and create from raw ingredients. However, my friend is not of the same mentality. The man likes his muffins, and he can pop them out "fuss free" when the mix comes from a bag. 3am, a few mornings ago the baking bug nibbled away at our insides! With our pre-packaged muffin mix in tow, we set out to bake.

Most mixes (pancakes,cookies,muffins,cakes) are already vegan-it's the eggs you are instructed to add that makes the muffins non-veg. Easy solution: add 1tbsp of unsweetned applesauce for every one egg the box requires. For a personal twist, I threw in some oatmeal and crunchy cereal. The nice thing about these mixes is that they are mostly fool-proof!

So have fun and add in some nuts,dried fruit or morphine. ..Kidding about the morphine. Just make sure to READ the label on your mix to make sure the dry ingredients are AOK.

My veg muffins are in the blue silicon tray! FDA approved silicon cookware is a blessing! Easy to clean, less likely to burn the bottom of your baked goods AND you use a LOT less fat in your baking because you do not have to coat the pan with oil before you bake. I run a little grapeseed oil through just incase-but it is not a must. I use a silicon pan for my loafs and they come out perfect everytime!

NomNom!

BROWNIE TIME!

MmmMmm.

There are so many wonderful vegan brownie recipes out there, and hopefully this one is able to compete in the running. These brownies are moist, dense and chewy so don't expect hardcore fluffy crumble-in-your-mouth kind of wonder. This is a re-worked recipe I found on VegWeb.

I have to say these were a HIT in the household and I too enjoyed them. For icing I used the chocolate icing from HIAV, which I will post as well and hope that I am not in any violation of copyright laws. *HAAY SARAH KRAMER*

What You'll Need:
2 cups flour. 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugah ("sugar" for all you non-gangsters reading this,)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp organic vanilla extract
1/2 extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 very large bar of 80% dark chocolate.

Directions:

1) Over low heat, boil water and add 1/2 cup of flour stirring constantly. You want a thin glue paste mixture. Remove from heat and LET IT COOL.

2) Add sugah, vanilla, cocoa, oil and salt. Then add the remaining flour-water mixture. Stir.
3) Add the rest of the 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder and melted dark chocolate.

4) Then, you're going to get a dough that should look like this and be very hard to do anything with other than stick it into a greased pan. So do just that. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Let these babies cool for a good 40 minutes before you put on the icing, trust me-it'll be worth it.

How It All Vegan's: Chocolate Icing pg 149

What You'll Need:

1 cup cold water (I really hope I don't need to tell you it should be filtered water. Common people, GET WITH THE TIMES and INVEST IN A WATER FILTER! Ick)

5 tbsp white flour
1 cup raw cane sugar
1 tsp organic vanilla
6 tbsp Earth Balance
3 tbsp cocoa powder

On medium heat combine water and flour until it's a thin gluey paste like your brownies were. Remove from heat and cool in fridge. It's best to make your icing BEFORE or DURING your brownie process. I had my favorite dinner guest hook up the icing while I made the brownies so it worked out great. If you're alone and cooking these babies up-make your icing before you do anything else..you really want it to cool. In a medium bowl combine raw cane sugar, vanilla, Earth Balance, and cocoa powder until mixed. Add the cooled flour mixture to this and whisk together until there are no lumps, bumps or clumps. Stick in the fridge until your brownies are cooked and cooled.

Zucchini Loaf!

Who can resist a zucchini loaf? Rhetorical question!

This loaf is easy to whip up, and can be put together while your favorite homemade soup is cooking on the stove. Zucchini is part of the squash family and is jam-packed with radical fighting vitamins making it a perfect way to enrich your bread with nutrients.

What You’ll Need
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce

½ cup raw cane sugar

½ cup light olive oil

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp organic vanilla extract

1 zucchini, grated

½ cup raisins

¼-1/2 cup of water (I used close to ½ cup of water, my mixture was really dry. You be the judge of your own dough!)

Instructions

- Preheat oven to 350*F-

Using a large baking bowl, combine the first four dry ingredients. Add the apple sauce, raw cane sugar, oil, vinegar and vanilla- mix it all together. GENTLEY stir in your grated zucchini and raisins, DO NOT OVER MIX, just blend it together enough so that the raisins and zucchini are nicely mingled into the dough. At this point you will want to judge the dryness of your dough, add your water. Spoon mixture into a lightly coated bread pan and let bake for 45-50 minutes. Let it cool down for 20 minutes (yes, seriously-20 minutes!) before serving.