I’d heard that Teese vegan cheese was good, but it’s not sold locally yet, so I’d never tried it. Then a friend picked some up for me at The Veg Food Fest in Boston, so tonight we made pizzas.

The whole fam was impressed. For some reason, vegan cheeses usually don’t melt. This cheese melted well and tasted good. On top of a whole wheat crust with spinach, mushrooms, red peppers, and scallions, the meal was complete. Yum.

These are great ’cause you can serve the mashed potatoes with another meal a couple nights before, and use them again for this recipe. (If you do that, you might need to double the recipe below, depending on the size of your brood.) Sweet potatoes are high in nutrients and far better than other potatoes, but if your kids won’t do the orange, try to work in a half sweet potato and the rest yellow potatoes.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 yellow potato
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 small onion, chopped and sauteed
1 tablespoon soy milk
1 tablespoon margarine
8 large button mushrooms, washed and with insides carved slightly to make room for stuffing
1/4 cup almonds, lightly toasted and ground

Directions

1. Boil and mash potatoes, using margarine and soy milk. Add more if necessary.

2. Stir in peas, onion, and half the ground nuts.

3. Fill mushrooms.

4. Sprinkle remaining nuts on top of mushrooms.

5. Cook in (toaster) oven at 425 degrees for about twenty minutes.

My mom friends look at me with Martha Stewart admiration whenever I have homemade applesauce for the little guys. Of course, I soak it all in. But for you, I will reveal my secret.

Step 1 : Peel apples and put into saucepan.
Step 2: Cook apples over medium heat.
Step 3: While apples cook, add a half tablespoon sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a half teaspoon of nutmeg.

Voila! That’s it. Your applesauce will be ready in 20 minutes or so. (Maccouns and McIntosh break down easily, but Gala are good, too.)

So easy. Just don’t tell my friends!

I’ve always wanted to make donuts. These are the first, and they are baked, so they’re more cake-like than donut. Still yummy, though. And what kid doesn’t love something shaped like a donut?

Note: You’ll need a couple mini donut pans, which are not easy to find. I ordered mine on-line.

Mini Baked Donuts

*Makes 20*

(Taken from Vegan Yum Yum, by Lauren Ulm)

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon (scant) nutmeg
1 tiny pinch (or shake) cinnamon
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
egg substitute for 1 egg
4 tablespoons margarine

Directions

1. In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon with a whisk to mix thoroughly.

2. Combine milk, vinegar, extract, egg substitute, and margarine in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and mix till margarine is melted. Should not get too hot.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined. Should form very soft dough or thick batter.

4. Scoop out dough into ungreased, non-stick mini donut pan. Smooth out top of donuts with your fingers, clearing the post in the middle of each one. Do not overfill, or donuts will have muffin tops. (Mine had slight muffin tops but I flipped them over and dipped the other side.)

5. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees until donuts are almost browned on top and toothpick comes out clean. Turn onto cooling racks.

6. Once completely cooled, dip tops into melted chocolate.

This recipe is in honor of my good friend, Brianne, who needed a simple and delicious cookie for her first animal rights club meeting at Emmanuel College. Way to go, Bri!

Ingredients:

1 cup Earth Balance margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 and 1/4 cups unbleached flour
2 tablespoons ground flax seed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
8-9 ounces vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream margarine and sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add soy milk, cream well, then add vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, then fold in the chips.

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Out of instant pudding? No worries. This quick recipe uses ingredients that are bound to be in your pantry already. Super yummy and tastes even better the next day, if it lasts that long.

Chocolate Pudding

(From the Vegetarian Starter Guide, published by Compassion Over Killing)

* 1 1/2 cups soy or rice milk
* 3 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 cup cocoa
* 1/4 cup maple syrup
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla. Whisk rapidly.
Once mixture is smooth, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until pudding thickens.
Stir in the vanilla and mix well. Pour into individual serving dishes.
Refrigerate until chilled and serve.

If your local farm hasn’t ended its blueberry picking, it will likely do so this week. The cooler temperatures mark the beginning of the end for blueberries, so get out if you can and pick some to freeze for the winter.

You should still be able to purchase pre-picked blueberries from your farm for another week or two, and then they’ll be available at your grocer’s from further south.

As a last hurrah to blueberry season, and because the cooler air brings out the baker in me, I made a blueberry pie this weekend. My husband said it was the best blueberry pie I’ve made. Since I’ve only made two, that compliment doesn’t hold much water, but it was very tasty.

The recipe I followed is below, a variation taken from The Joy of Vegan Baking. You can find the crust recipe, and other amazing dessert recipes, in Sinfully Vegan.

Vegan Blueberry Pie
Ingredients:

pie crusts
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used just 1/2 cup)
3 tbsp. arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. lemon zest
4-5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

If you are using frozen blueberries, let them sit out for about 15 minutes and then strain the juice.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Punch holes in your pie crust with a fork and prebake for 10 minutes.

Remove crust from oven and let it cool.

For top crust, use another whole crust, make a latice design, cut shapes with a cookie cutter, or leave off. Roll crust and leave in fridge till ready to use.

In big bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and zest.

When mixture is creamy and combined, fold in blueberries.
Pour mixture into pre-baked crust and cover, if using another crust.

Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and put a cookie sheet under the pie pan to catch drippings. Bake for another 25-35 minutes till crust is just brown.
Allow to cool for 1-3 hours before eating.

Vegan Double Pie Crust
Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup canola oil or coconut oil, if desired
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/4 cups water or apple juice (refrigerated)

Directions:

1.Put flour and salt for crust into small bowl. Add oil and stir into flour until oil is distributed in pea-sized pieces. (Is using coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature like shortening, cut into flour with 2 knives until oil is pea-sized or smaller.) Add COLD water (or juice). Mix just until mixture forms a ball (add more water if necessary). Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

2. Place ball of dough on a piece of floured wax paper. Sprinkle ball of dough with a little more flour. Place another piece of wax paper on top of ball of dough and push down to flatten. Using a rolling pin, roll dough as thin as possible between the two sheets of paper.

3. Remove top sheet of paper carefully. Flip the pie crust onto the pie plate. Carefully remove the last piece of wax paper. Fit crust into pie plate allowing edges to hang over the edge. Set pie plate with rolled dough in it refrigerator until ready to fill.

4. Roll out other half of crust between floured wax paper and set aside. Refrigerate till using.