Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Vegan Elderberry Pie -Perfect Pie Crust with an Incredible Filling





Very rarely do I ever see elderberry anything be it in a pie or jam. My mother in-law has 6 very large elderberry bushes and they produced a lot of berries this year. In one cut we have cleaned and bagged 17 cups of berries. This is a timely process because they are tiny and delicate but they need to be removed from there stems as they are bad for you.  After reading how raw elderberries ain't good for you I was shocked, I remember eating them raw as a kid. So elderberries need to cooked before you eat them.

Now this pie crust needs to be made prior at least 2 hours it a very simple recipe. I have combined a bunch of ideas from recipes to come up with this crust is very light and fluffy.  I have never even heard of the pastry flour till I read it on the blog Healthy-Happy-Life, wow this blew my pie crust out of the water. Now this is the only way I will make pie crust, the only variation I do is if its a sweet pie I add a splash of vanilla and if a savory pie I leave it out.

Pie Crust

2 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 

1 tbsp sugar 

1 tsp salt 

1 cup of Earth Balance Vegan Butter(cut into chunks and put in the freezer 30 min prior to using)

1/4 to 1/2 cups of ice cold water

splash of vanilla

Combined all the dry ingredients in a food processor with a dough blade and pulse to combined them. Add the butter and vanilla (if your making a sweet pie) and turn it on adding the water slowly till the dough forms a ball and cleans all the flour off the sides of the bowl. Then separate them into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap and put into the freezer.





Into the freezer for at least 2 hours

Now the filling is very simple only a few ingredients are need to make this pie which is the best way to make any thing. Now this is a basic pie filling recipe that can be used with most fresh fruits.

Pie Filling

4 cups elderberries washed and stemmed

6 tbsp flour

1 1/4 cups of sugar (bump it up a quarter cup if you want a really sweet filling

2 tbsp lemon juice

a sprinkle of cinnamon

All you gotta do is combined all the first 4 ingredients in a sauce pan heat till it starts to boil, now this one of those things that takes your  FULL ATTENTION. The sugar will melt fast and burn even faster before you know it it will be ruined, but this can be avoided by stirring constantly and right after it starts to boil then remove it from the heat source and let cool for at least 15 min before using stirring very couple of min. Now pull out your dough from the freezer and let warm up for about 10 min this will make it easier to roll out.

Pre-heat oven to 450 and roll out your dough one piece at a time after you roll the bottom out place into pie pan and shape into the sides. Place the filling in the bottom crust place the top crust over top and seal the sides by pressing together. Cut vent slots into the top to keep your pie from exploding out the sides. Now I don't like to waste any dough so I will always make little glass dish pies with the leftover filling and dough, perfect size for one person. bake at 450 for 10 min then turn down to 350 degrees and bake for 30 min.

This pie turned out so perfect, the taste was incredible and I loved that we picked the berries ourselves and made it.


















Sunday, August 11, 2013

Deep Dish Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake-This Rawsome Vegan Life



After the great success that I have had from the recipes on This Rawsome Vegan Life web site, my wifey decided to make this recipe for me. She followed her recipe to the letter making no adjustments or substitutions. We love making raw desserts especially for the weekend that Breaking Bad premieres the final last half of the season.

Now this recipe is copied and pasted from the web site This Rawsome Vegan Life word for word.


deep dish chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake: 

Crust:
1 cup dates
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1/3 cup whole flax seeds
3 tablespoons cacao powder 

Filling:
3 frozen bananas
1 cup dates
2 cups cashews
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 1/4 cups water or vegan milk, as needed
1/4 cup cacao powder
2 tablespoons nut butter (whatever kind you like, I used peanut butter of course)

Optional:
Raw chocolate sauce
Fave nut butter 


To make the crust: pulse the hemp and flax seeds and cacao in your food processor until they become a rough flour, then add the dates and process until it all gets sticky. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a spring form pan. Put in the fridge.

To make the filling: blend all the ingredients until smooth, adding water or vegan milk as needed to make it creamy. Spread evenly into your crust, occasionally swirling in nut butter and chocolate sauce if you're using them (soooo recommended). Put in the freezer overnight or until frozen solid, and let it thaw a little bit before serving, so it's nice and creamy. enjoy!
 
As you can see there is no need for any improvement cause it is perfect already.
 


















 
Have fun and Enjoy.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Raw Creamy Kale Salad



Now most of the recipes I have found for this call for the usage of straight avocado, but I step it up notch by using my guacamole. You can find my guacamole recipe here.

bunch of kale washed and stemmed 

1 batch guacamole 

2 tomatoes quartered  

1 pepper sliced 

Now kale is one of those greens that you either love or hate there ain't no in between. It is really simple to get ready grab the stem with one hand and pull the leaves right off, breaking them into smaller bite size pieces. Now remember to wash your kale thoroughly and place to in a large bowl. 

Mix up a batch of guacamole adjusting to your taste. Scoop a couple of large spoon on top, now you need to get in with you hands and massage into the kale. Chop up whatever veggies you want for on top and you got yourself a great salad.

kale washed and stemmed

Guacamole....Yum





 Have fun and Enjoy.



Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Raw Chocolate Haystacks Recipe from Raw & Simple



 Trying to keep to 100% raw ain't really that hard as long as you have chocolate......RIGHT. Now this past weekend I did make a tofu scramble with all the fixin's but I actually felt like I was doing something wrong even though it was all this vegan and tasted great. So wanting to get back to my raw state I need some desserts for the week, reading some new books that the wifey got I found this one and they reminded me of no-bake cookies which I love. I followed  this recipe exactly no subs or add-ins it was perfect. This book Raw & Simple by Judita Wignall is full of great recipes that I can't wait to try.


Monday, August 5, 2013

Green-Nami Phoenix Arizona -Review



 After leaving Tucson we headed back up to Phoenix for our final days on vacation. I almost was feeling sad and a little depressed to be heading out of the town that I will someday call home. If the boys weren't still in school I would of sent Amber home to get our cats and cars and we would be living out here. Well that sad feeling went away when Amber started reading me the menu from Green.  Now my mood was getting better and better. After arriving to this very modern feeling place I knew that this was gonna be awesome, and to find out there is an ice-cream shop next door this is gonna rock. When I was told the name I did not realize that it was two places side by side owned by the same owner. Any place that has vegan soft serve is ok in my book.

When you walk in the Green you will want to grab a seat cause they go fast, when you order you need to buy one of their drinks, they have 4 different house made sweet drinks they were so freaking good. The options were Sweet Lime, Green Tea, Vimto (which is a very sweet fruit drink), and a Berry Lemonade. I was mixing the Sweet Lime and the Vimto ~ what a combo.

We started our lunch off with some amazing Chili Fries that were perfect. I have never liked shoestring fries until this trip wow are they good.  Now I love vegan burgers when they are done up the right way they are better than what I used to eat back in the day which was real meat. The Big WAC is within the top 5 burgers I have eaten in my vegan life and non-vegan life and that is no BS. What ever they are doing to make this patty for this burger I need to learn it now.

Amber's Calexico Burger had so much flavor that it makes you stop in mid chew just to savor it for an extra second. After we were done eating I wanted to order more but I had hold off cause we were gonna go next door to Nami for some sweet treats.

Nami is the same style modern building right next door with the same great kind of service which is friendly and fast. The boys went with milkshakes, but my wife and I decided to step it up a notch. The Tsoynami special is a mixture of different items and they awesome soft serve ice-cream (like a blizzard) Amber ordered the Banana Creme Pie which was awesome! I had the Compost which had so much in it I had trouble finishing it but I got it down. This place rocks, I could really do some damage at a place like this thank god they are not down the street from me.

After finding our hotel and touring around Phoenix we ended up back at Green for some supper. I was so excited for this meal we snatched a table, grabbed our drinks, and ordered up starting with the appetizer of Spicy Buffalo "Wings". I thought that I was gonna have to wrestle these away from my oldest son he said they were awesome and he ain't even vegan, he was right they were awesome.

Amber went with a Singapore Orange Bowl with Mock Chicken and Organic Brown Rice. Wow the flavors were so good that they are indescribable, this place is awesome. The Po-Boys were calling my name I had a hard time deciding from which one to order, but I went with the Argentina. It was so full of flavor on a perfect bun this place is truly heaven to me. Of course we are back in PA now and there is nothing like this around, no where even with in a decent driving distance. If your are anywhere close to or are coming to Phoenix you need to come here vegan or not you will LOVE this food.

Sweet Lime and Vimto mixed with Sweet Lime

Their House-made Drinks

The Big Wac

Calexico Burger

Chili Fries

Tsoynami's

Buffalo Chicken Wings

The Argentina Po-Boy

Amber's Singapore Orange Bowl

Great Mac N Cheese

Awesome prices and selections.

Awesome prices and selections.

Awesome prices and selections.

Awesome prices and selections.


Awesome prices and selections.