Vanilla Tapioca Pudding with Banana

I love pudding so when I found a way to make my favorite type of pudding dairy free I knew it would be blog worthy! The pudding alone is delicious but the addition of the bananas just puts the dessert over the top, so enjoy!



Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Tapioca pearls
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups vanilla soy milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp egg replacer (cornstarch can be used as an alternative)
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (add another tsp if you are not using vanilla soy milk)
• 2 bananas
• 1  tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Soak tapioca pearls in 3/4 cup water for 15 minutes
2. Add milk and salt to pearls and heat over medium heat until pot begins to boil. Stir continuously
3. Once boiling, lower heat to let it simmer uncovered for 15 minutes
4. Warm up the 3 tbsp of water in microwave then add egg replacer, stir till dissolved.
5. Add sugar and egg replacer to tapioca and keep over heat for another 3 minutes
6. Stir in vanilla extract
7. Transfer to a oven-friendly container and store in refridgerator for two hours.
8. Remove from refridgerator and turn on the broiler
9. Slice up the bananas add a single layer of bananas on top of the tapioca pudding
10. Mix cinnamon and sugar then sprinkle over banana
11. Place in preheated oven  3 inches below the broiler and let heat for 3 minutes.
12. Serve immediately!

Surprise! Okra is delicious

Every time I go to the farmer's market I like to grab an assortment of vegetables just to make it more intresting throughout the week. I picked up okra a few times and played around with it, but came across a recipe online and tweaked it to make this wonderful okra dish! It has so much flavor and okra is one of my favorite vegetables to cook because of all the slime! If you have never had okra before, this dish would be a great first experience with it.

Ingredients:
1 lb okra, both ends cut and body's cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small/medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 c. drained canned diced tomatoes
1/2 c. vegetable broth
3/4 tsp. cumin
1 can humany or 1 can of any other bean(15 oz.)
salt


Directions
Cook okra for 2 minutes in a large saucepan of boiling water.
Transfer okra with a slotted spoon to ice water, then drain.
Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high. (Use a skillet that has a lid and raised sides)
Add bell pepper to skillet and cook until soft.
Transfer peppers to a bowl.
Add onion, garlic, ginger, and pepper to the skillet and cook until the onion is soft and slightly browned
Mix in the tomatoes, broth, cumin, okra, and bell pepper.
Reduce heat to medium and cover.
Stir occasionally and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Add either the beans or humany and salt.
Cook for another 4 minutes without lid.
It will be ready to serve when there is little to no liquid in the pan.




Note: This dish can be served alone, but I accompanied mine with whole wheat cous cous and tried it another time with brown rice and found it very tasty. Before all the liquid evaporated, I spooned some of it into my cous cous and found that it made it taste very good!

Mexican Vegetable Soup

We are entering the season of delicious soups! I've loved making soups lately simply because you can add so many different vegetables and flavors and it all comes together into one cohesive meal. I prepared this soup with some local farmers market veggies as well as some canned goods. This soup is definiely one of the top tasting soups I've ever tasted before. It has just the right amount of spice and a good balance between vegetables and protein. The recipe makes manyyy servings, but you wont regret having leftovers:)

Ingredients

1 small potato

1/2 large red bell pepper

1 small squash

1 small zuchinni

1/3 onion

2 cloves of garlic, miced

1 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced

1/2 tsp papirika

1tbsp oil

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies (if you can't find tomatoes that have green chile, chop some up yourself and add to your liking!)

1 can pinto beans

1/2 can black bean

1/2 cup quinoa

3 cans of water

1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1.Chop all the vegetables up and add to large saucepan.(this includes the cilantro and the garlic) I cut the veggies into pretty large chunks, so if you cut them down smaller just make sure you cut cooking time down a little so the potatoes dont dissolve

 2. Add olive oil and papirika to veggies and turn heat on medium high. When the vegetables start to sizzle lower heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes

3. Add tomatoes, quinoa and beans. With one of the cans you just emptied, refill it three times with water and add to sauce pan

4. Add salt, cover, and bring to a boil

5. When boiling point is reached, reduce heat to low-simmer and heat for 30 minutes

6. When time is reached, remove from hot surface and set aside to cool

7. Serve with crisp tortilla chips crumbled up inside



Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Happy first day of October!! Well as you may suspect I'm kind of obsessed with this season, I'm just too excited to start wearing sweaters and mittens, eating oatmeal and hot tea every morning and soup all the time! yee! Well in celebration of the first day of October here is a super simple vegan muffin recipe I found and tweaked a bit featuring thee fall ingredient - pumpkin! 

Serves Twelve

Ingredients: 

1 3/4 cup All-purpose Flour

1 1/4 cup Evaporated Cane Sugar (Organic Sugar)*

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup Pumpkin Puree (be sure not to get pumpkin pie mix!)

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons molasses 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts - optional

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In separate bowl combine pumpkin puree, almond milk, vegetable oil, and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix (add walnuts if desired).

Bake in muffin tin on 400˚ for 18-20 minutes, once toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

I enjoyed with a touch of Earth Balance soy free Butter and hot Pumpkin Spice tea!

*I got the Evaporated Cane Sugar (Organic Sugar) I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts!! yay! So excited to using this as a healthier, more natural alternative. An other great option would be to use Stevia! Enjoy!