Practical & Conscientious Parenting
Posts tagged vegan
What We’re Reading Now – June
15 years
What Anne’s reading
I lost my job recently, and I’ve been working on starting a new business with my aunt. She has thirty years of experience running her own company, and I wanted to have some good ideas to contribute, so I picked up a bunch of books from the library to do some research on entrepreneurship. So far my favorite has been No More Mondays by Dan Miller.
The chapter I’m currently reading describes how even big businesses now are realizing that employees are more productive when allowed to do their thing whenever and wherever they please, and are compensating based on productivity rather than hours put in at the office. I’m thrilled at how at least some aspects of the global commerce climate are currently conspiring to lead us all to a creative lifestyle.
What Mehalia’s reading
I don’t remember reading The Little Prince as a child, but I’ve heard it’s a classic. Mehalia’s uncle gave her a copy for her birthday and I was excited to finally see what it’s all about. I have to admit, my first impression is that it is awfully strange.
I’m getting the feeling there’s going to be some kind of philosophical or political adult message, like Dr. Suess’s Better Butter Battle, The Lorax, or The Sneeches, but at this point I have no idea what the message could turn out to be. There’s just a boy who’s big enough (or his planet is small enough) for him to walk all the way around the world in a few steps, which I’m sure is going to turn out to have a symbolic meaning.
We’re only a few chapters in, so I’ll be curious to discover how it progresses.
What Zach’s reading
I haven’t committed time to reading much this month, but I have been exploring one of my new favorite cookbooks, Veganomicon. One of the authors, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, is my favorite vegan cookbook author right now. I have three of her other books: Vegan With A Vengeance, Vegan Brunch, and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. What I really enjoy about her recipes is that they are somewhere between the two most common vegan recipe books: the gourmet-30-ingredients-per-recipe books, and the how-to-make-mac-and-cheese-vegan books. While she does have some traditional dishes remade without the meat and dairy, most of the recipes (in Veganomicon in particular) are just creative all-new recipes that happen to be vegan, and don’t require a trip to the big city for ingredients.
What Edie’s reading
Edie has really been into animals and animal sounds lately, so she’s been especially enjoying books that have different animals in them. Before she was born, Ashley and I picked up two books that I couldn’t say no to when I saw them: Mommy Hugs and Daddy Kisses. The books go through different animals and say how the different animals kiss and hug their babies (e.g., “Daddy rabbit gives his bunny a kiss on the ear”), and I could just imagine how much fun it would be to read them with our little one, doing the different kisses and hugs as I read. It turns out it is a lot of fun! And they’re great to work on animal signs and sounds now, too. I end up reading Mommy Hugs most of the time, because that’s the one with elephants in it, and Edie loves elephants right now. Especially the elephant sound.
Raspberry Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
Raspberry Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Safeway had local raspberries reduced for quick sale today and I couldn’t pass them up. Then I got home and realized that I had a whole flat of raspberries that were all ripe- just touching them turned them to juice. We’ve been on a bit of a protein kick lately, so I decided to try to do something with peanut butter (because obviously the protein in peanut butter completely counteracts all the carbs in the raspberries, sugar, and chocolate…).
I couldn’t find quite the recipe I wanted, so Ashley and I started with the ‘Raspberry-Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars’ recipe from ‘Vegan With A Vengeance‘. It doesn’t call for peanut butter, but a little serendipity helped out: we ran out of soy yogurt, so we subbed in peanut butter. The recipe calls for holding out some of the blondie batter and putting it on top of the raspberry topping, kind of like a cobbler. I’m more a fan of crisps and crumbles with the oatmeal streusel style topping, so I adapted a recipe from ‘Sweat and Natural‘ to go on top. Here’s the recipe:
Raspberry Layer
2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1/3 cup sugar
Blondie Layer
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Crumble Topping
1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons canola oil
3 Tablespoons maple syrup
You’ll also need 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips (depending on how much you NEED chocolate).
Preheat your oven to 350º, and lightly grease a 13×9 pan.
For the raspberry layer: combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer for ~5 minutes, or until thickened.
For the blondie: combine wet and dry ingredients separately, then mix together. The dough should be stiff, a bit like peanut butter cookie dough.
For the crumble: combine dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients. Use your hands to help the mixture crumble.
To assemble, press the blondie dough out into an even layer in the pan. Spread the raspberry filling on top of the dough, then sprinkle with 1/2 the chocolate chips. Use your hands to crumble the… uh… crumble on top of the raspberry layer. Sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on, and bake for 40-45 minutes. Let it cool for ~20 minutes before you cut into it. Enjoy!