Vegan Homemade Chocolate Turnovers

I have been wanting some good sweet pastries but wasn't sure which one I can purchase at stores. I found out that Pepperidge Farm's frozen Puff Pastry sheet is a vegan! 

The useful info is from this book. 

So I figure use the pastry sheet and make it easy and probably cheaper than any store-bought vegan goods.  

It was a huge hit, and I wanted more...that's how good! or bad... in a way. ;) 

You can easily look up recipes for "chocolate turnover"...but this is what I use. 

I know being a vegan isn't mean that being healthy and it is a good or bad example.

Well, at least it doesn't contain no dairy products.

Also this item helped make this easy! Oh how I love Trader Joe's!!

When it says "May contain traces of milk" I just wish it doesn't. So it is a vegan for me!

All I did was defrost the sheet over night in the fridge. Preheat the oven 425F. Cut a sheet into 9 pieces of 3 inch square. Place a little less 1 tablespoon of  chocolate chips on the middle of this cutted small square sheet. Fold it into half, like a triangle, seal them brushing with almond milk, press it with folk from top. Brush some almond milk on these triangles and then bake them for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown.

I had it with my usual, iced cafe almond latte.




This chocolate chips melted perfectly! It can be really hot, so please careful if you are urge to try them right after taking it out from your oven!

I do have some healthy snacks available on the table as well though. 

My younger son could not stop eating those clementines. So cute and yummy, easy to eat!  

Good for afternoon snack or let them take as part of school lunch. 

I'll talk about boys vegan school lunch next time. :) 

Have a good one, everyone! 

Vegan Banana Muffins

I have been trying to bake Vegan Banana Muffins for three weeks in a row! Finally, I have a recipe that I can call it's the winner! (Sorry but I made better changes on Dec. 22nd, '14)

First, I've adapted recipe from Averie Cooks, I reduced oil and sugar, add more banana, switched all purpose flour to whole wheat and almond flour.

I like using almond flour (Trader Joe's works well, 1 lb about $4) because it gives more flavor and protein for vegan. :) 

Yep, I have been vegan for almost three weeks and I am enjoying it. 

Well, many people has been asking me for a recipe, so here you are. 


Vegan Banana Muffins

makes regular 12, mini muffin 30-ish

Start pre-heating oven, set for 375F

Oil spray (mini)muffin pan or have liners ready. 

<A>

1/4 cup Coconuts oil*

1/2 cup Coconuts Milk**

1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 TBS Apple cider vinegar

<B>

3 "very" ripped banana

2/3 cup sugar***

<C>
1 1/4 cups Any kind of Flour ****
1/4 cup     Almond Flour 

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

<Option 1>
1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 2 TBS of sugar

<Option 2> 
Chocolate chip*****         about 1 cup or half of 12 oz bag.
Walnuts or Pecan nuts   about 1 cup

1. Microwave coconuts oil and coconuts milk to make it "warm." DO NOT make it hot! OR let them sit on room temperature for a while. Add Apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract mixed together set it aside. 

2. On a large bowl, start smashing bananas with a whisker or folks and add sugar. Add oil and milk mixture (1.) to this banana and sugar mixture and mix until all the ingredients get well blended.

3. All the dry ingredients on <C> in a bowl or a food storage plastic bag(with air, close it and shake, the easiest method!) and mixed/shifted it together. 

4. Mix 2 and 3 together and fill the prepared (mini) muffin pan. Do not fill them up full. Leave it 2/3 or 3/4 high. Bake them till they are done. Usually it takes 16 mins (for mini, 12 mins) for me, with MY oven, but everyone's ovens are different so please check them in little after 13 mins. When you insert a tooth pick and it does not come out clean, it's not done. Leave it in the oven for a little longer. 

There you have it. I'm telling you, I was not able to stop eating them.. so watch out!!

One of the tips for baking is never over mixing the ingredients at last, and never over baking... so good luck!  


Option 1: I like the idea of dressing the muffins. I mixed 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 2 TBS of sugar in a food storage bag, after muffins are cool enough to handle, I place them gently in the bag and shake it a little. 

Option 2: Add chocolate chips and/or nuts of your choice on Step 3. 

*Any kind of milk you have in your hand is fine. Almond, Soy, Cow...

**Any kind of oil, I don't recommend EVOO on this, but canola or grape seed oil works fine. I like Trader Joe's organic coconuts oil, that is best deal that I found so far

***I used "turbinado raw cane sugar" or usually have coconut sugar on hand, but any kind of sugar works

****I mixed sprouted spelt flour, whole wheat sprouted flour, white whole wheat flour

*****Trader Joe's Chocolate chips is vegan, so as Ghirardelli semi-sweet

Tea and Avatar-Last Airbender/Trader Joe's

I've watched TV show it's call "Avatar:The Last Airbender" series with our boys for last couple of weeks. Characters learns something every episode, and talk about not only good and bad, sacrifice, believe, and harmony are some of the interesting topics for any generations. My husband and I really got into it with our boys as well. This story was set in Asia-ish region, it's not particularly any country, but they look like China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Alaska... They use chop-stick to eat, hero-Aang is a monk, so he is vegetarian.  Aang explains why he doesn't eat any meat in this story, and our boys got really interested in the concept of  "vegetarian."

One of very clever old guy, guardian of hero's enemy Iroh, he always talks about tea. "Tea supposed calm you down" or "Ginseng tea is the best!" Iroh eventually own tea salon in the story.

Hearing about how good he makes his jasmine tea, we all are so mood for a nice cup of jasmine tea. I usually buy them at any of local Asian stores, but the day we were at Trader Joe's, and found the tea!  It's call "Jasmine Green Tea" I didn't taste no difference from those Asian store's jasmine tea and it was fairy good.

Speaking of Trader Joe's,Our boys likes to visit Trader Joe's, more than any other grocery stores. Because they ask children to find one of their mascot-stuffed turtle-some where in the store, and when children finds it, they get a little treat. They always have new items tasting counter, along with coffee and tea sampler. If you have never visited Trader Joe's, I highly recommend to stop by sometime soon. Also, their eco-bags are so cute. Don't miss it! If you have your favorite Trader Joe's items, please let me know so that I can try them too. :)

I usually purchase these items...

Breads

• Baguette
• Fruits and Nuts Artisan Bread

Refrigerate section

• Cheese(they have so many variety)
• Turkey Bacon
• Hummus
• Persian Cucumbers
• Yogurt (European Style)
• Soy milk

Dry Foods and condiments

• Almond Powder
• White Balsamic Vinegar
• Ketchup
• Spices 

Frozen Items

• Yaki Onigiri (Rice Snack)
• Pork Shumai
• Mandarin Chicken
• Cocktail Meatball 
• Croissant
• Steam Clam
• Mixed Seafood (squid, scallops, shrimp mix)
• Opera cake
• Carrot cake (they name it different, though)

Other thing...

• Coffee and tea (earl gray, mango, jasmine green tea...)
• Roasted Seaweed Snack
• Rice Crackers
• Kitchen Towel
• Wine, occasionally...

I heard that they have vegetarian Bento box in frozen section now and some of Japanese people said was pretty tasty. So I need try it next time.  

Oh, get back to Avatar, I really enjoyed the show. Unfortunately, the story seems completed already, but I like to see it coming back in near future...but not mention, the movie was horrible casting though...

So if you never seen "Avatar:Last Airbender", or had a nice cup of jasmine tea, why not give it a try! Avatar is available on Netflix, instant watch.

My Boys' Lunch

My both sons' take their lunch to the schools most of the time. I make them the "Bento" or I usually bake breads at home so whenever it's available, I make sandwiches for them with the homemade breads.

When the school first started, I barely let them buy school lunches at the cafeteria, so they had asked me a few times that they'd like to try out some of the cafeteria lunch. The cafeteria offered all the parents to come and try their school lunches sometime in last October and it lasted entire week or so. We have visited and tried what children at the school typically eat. The experience went pretty well. The lunch itself was better than I expected, but I figure if I make both of our boys lunch everyday, it's cheaper and healther. Plus I can actually see how much they have eaten. This picture below, is the one we have tried. it was Oriental Chicken and rice.

They bought cafeteria lunch few times each month so far. Only time I don't have anything to pack in the morning. My 1st son had experienced the cafeteria lunch wasn't so good...

These are typical bento, I make.

I do use some frozen item for bento if I don't have anything else available. My boys favorites are Trader Joe's Mandarin Chicken and Pork Shumai, they both are taste pretty good even when it's not hot anymore. Yes, it is pretty important to think about how the food will taste like, at the time to eat. Usually for me, it is about 3-4hours after I pack them, so it's better to be cooked, but chilled when you packing them into the bento boxes.

I get questions often from boys teachers or moms sometimes, about what was in their lunch. It must be very strange for others....

Other than bento, usually like this... sometimes, I add a little bag of chips or a stick of yogurt with an ice pack.

So tonight, I was a bit tired to start baking own breads, and I haven't really see anything particularly boys will like to have on their bento...I asked my 1st son, "What do you like for your lunch? Cafeteria lunch or sandwich?" If he answered and said sandwich, I would have start baking a bread for tomorrow by now, but he said "I wanna mommy's food." so I asked him back, "What do you mean, mommy's food?" then he said, "obento" (with "o" in the beginning of the word, it's a polite form in Japanese, most of the time. Not all the time...) Wow! It made my day!! I was very happy to hear him saying that. :)

I searched my pantry, and I found a little package of tuna. The ones we normally use for sandwich or salad. And then, I looked up a recipe using tuna for bento and I found one, and I'm pretty sure that boys will love it. It's rolled sushi and cooked tuna in it. It must be hard to imagine, so I link this recipe with picture on it, here... Wish me luck! Because I am not a sushi professional. I am Japanese but I don't eat sushi everyday or I don't make them at home so often...