Banana Bread

Egg-free, gluten-free. This is a family-favorite that is gobbled up very quickly. I usually make two batches. This is the veganized version of my favorite banana bread recipe I've been adjusting and using for 25-30 years. Although this has flax seed, oat flour, and bananas, this is not a "health" food (or whole-food) because of the processed oil and sugar. I would classify this as a dessert or breakfast treat.

(conversions ARE verified by my kitchen scale, Feb ‘20)

Ingredients (I separated the list into groups according to the steps)

2 ripe bananas about 6 inches (15 cm) long

1 cup (207 g) sugar (I actually use about 7/8 of a cup nowadays, ~175g)

1/3 c (77 mL) water

1/3 c (77 mL) light olive oil

1 2/3 cup (250 g) oat flour (sometimes I use whole wheat, but it won't be GF)

1    tsp (4.8 g) baking soda

1/2 tsp (2.4 g) baking powder

1/2 tsp (3 g) salt

1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract (or powder...which I use and love!)

2    tsp (9.5 g) ground cinnamon

1    tsp (4.8 g) ground ginger

dash of ground cloves

2 T (14 g) ground flax seed (you can purchase it already ground up)

3 T (45 mL) water

1 tsp (5 mL) apple cider vinegar

Directions

-pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C)

-oil the bottom of bread pan

In large bowl:

-mash peeled bananas

-add sugar, water, and oil

-mix (hand mixer works best for me, but I used to use a large spoon when I didn't have a mixer)

In medium bowl:

-add the floor, baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves

-stir

In small bowl:

-mix together the ground flax seed and water

-let it sit for about 5 min while you do the next step

-Slowly add the flour mixture into the large bowl. Beat on low setting until all flour has been added

-Mix in the gelatinous flax and beat on medium to high until smooth

-Add in the apple cider vinegar and beat on high

-pour batter into bread pan

-bake on center rack for 1 hour

-remove and set on cooling rack for maybe 15 min

-loosen sides of bread from pan and remove bread from pan, set bread on cooling rack

-allow bread to cool about 45 min to an hour or longer, cutting into it too soon before it has had a chance to set may cause the center to collapse (still yummy, just a little gooey like a banana brownie)

Mash bananas, add sugar, water, oil.
Mix well.

Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt,
cinnamon, ginger, cloves, vanilla powder

Slowly mix the flour mixture into
banana mixture

Egg replacers:
-Use 1 T ground flaxseed + 1.5 T water per egg,
(2 "eggs" for this recipe),
it will form a gelatinous consistency
-Adding 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar to batter with
1 tsp baking soda is also beneficial to the texture

Cool on rack

Continue cooling after removing from bread pan

This is a recipe for banana muffins my
daughter made. Also very good.

"Kitchen Snippets"
My grandfather's lunchbox and my grandmother's gravy bowl.
I grew up seeing that gravy bowl during all holiday dinners at
my grandparents' home. I selected it to keep after she died.
It broke. I glued it back together and now use it as decor.

Something else I didn't know:
In nature, hens lay 10-15 eggs per year and mate naturally. To meet consumer demand, the egg industry has artificially bred hens to lay 200-300 eggs per year, which is very taxing on a hen's body and can result in painful complications. The industry has tricks to manipulate more egg production which includes intermittent starvation. Commercial egg production packs their hens into rows of tiny crates with other hens, cutting off the tips of their beaks to prevent pecking and eating their own eggs. "Organic" and "free-range" are marketing terms and don't mean the conditions for the hens are much better than the caged. Male chicks are of no-use to the egg industry and will either be ground-up alive or dumped into a plastic bag to suffocate.
The good news: We don't need eggs to survive. On the contrary, regular egg consumption is not good for us. The government-subsidized egg and dairy industries were sued and it is illegal for them to advertise that they are healthy or nutritious (nutrient-dense, yes, but not nutritious). Just like the tobacco industry lying to generations before about the benefits of smoking, the egg and dairy industry have also lied while using biased, industry-funded "studies" trying to show health-benefits so they can make money.

I used to cook eggs for my kids every single morning. Omelets, homemade eggnog, quiche, crepes: these were a regular part of our diet. Knowing what I know now, I am whole-heartedly happy to give those things up.

Conversion Charts

Update 11-20-19: I am finding that these conversion charts aren't true-to-experience at least for the dry measurements. For example, as I convert from cups and tablespoons to grams, the grams are way higher from these charts than what my kitchen scale shows I'm actually using. I'm going to have to go through recipes and indicate if they have been "verified by my kitchen scale" or not. Example below:

This is from my cheese sauce recipe where I actually
measured out and weighed the ingredients on my digital
kitchen scale. The seasonings showed 0 grams.

The following are a variety of cooking measurements and oven temps conversion charts. Info does overlap. Hopefully you can find your answer somewhere here.

4.76 g per teaspoon

Beans n Greens n Grains

This dish is another family favorite! Yes, even my 13 yo son likes it. It provides good protein and fiber, is inexpensive and easy to make. Also, if you plan ahead by preparing the rice and shredding the lettuce at an earlier time, this is basically fast-food. It makes great left-overs, too.

Estimated protein for dish: 58 grams
Could easily serve 4: about 15 g protein per serving

Ingredients
About 1 1/2 cups dry brown rice (or another whole grain) plus water per cooking intructions
2 Cans of beans (we like black and pinto for this recipe)
Jar of salsa (green chili salsa is good if you don't like tomatoes ;)
1-2 heads of lettuce (variety)

Directions
-Prepare the rice (brown rice usually takes about an hour)
-Wash and chop lettuce
-Drain the beans and put in medium sauce pan
-Add salsa to the beans. Start with half then add more to your desired consistency.
-Heat through
-Layer: lettuce, rice, beans. Or throw it all into a bowl and stir. Whatever. It's all goooood.

Options: add avocado/guacamole for healthy-fat content. If you really, really have to have cheese, there are many non-dairy options usually found in "health" food stores, but they are slowly being found in regular grocery stores. Roll into a tortilla. Scoop onto corn chips. Add green onions, peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos...

(plus a can of pinto beans)

(I was a little creative during
the winter holiday season)

Kitchen Snippets
"Smidgen, Pinch, Dash"
(I don't remember where I got them)

Something else I didn't know: Once our digestive system is free from animal products and adapts to beans, beans won't cause the bloating and flatulence for which they are blamed. Much of the bad rap for beans grew out of short-term studies in the 60s that didn't account for our body's ability to adapt. Dairy products are actually the leading cause of flatulence.
The good news: Our body adapting to beans is the good news because beans are so good for us! They are a great source of protein, fiber, and other nutrients. We can survive and thrive on a whole food plant based (WFPB) diet. More good news: tastebuds CAN change. I never liked beans (except jellybeans). Now I love them!

Mango-Banana

Sliced mangos and bananas with cinnamon is another common and favorite breakfast/snack in our home. The ratio is usually 1:1.  Hydrating, nutritious, fiber, naturally sweet.

How I cut a mango is on this post:

https://42veggiequest.blogspot.com/2019/07/cutting-mango-tecnique.html

Sliced mango, sliced banana, sprinkle with cinnamon

Something else I didn't know: People with diabetes don't need to avoid whole fruit. Type 1 can manage their insulin resistance through a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Type 2 can reverse and eliminate their diabetes. For more information, see MasteringDiabetes.org
The good news: I'm no longer pre-diabetic and my blood pressure has dropped well into the healthy range.

OATMEAL: 2 versions

We have oatmeal almost each morning. It's simple, fast, satisfying, and so, so good for us. I do not like mushy oatmeal nor "quick" oats and prefer it to be chewier. The following is my own way of preparing this feel-good meal (I don't follow the container's directions) as well as the way my youngest son likes me to make his.

One of the key features of my version is that I barely cook the oats. So, get everything prepared before adding the oats to the water because it'll go fast (about 40 seconds). The reason I go quickly is for 2 reasons. One reason is because we don't like mushy oats, and the other reason is because we don't like mushy apples. Granny Smith apples are good for cooking longer (and the typical apple for apple pie and cobblers) but are on the sour side. We like sweeter apples, but those typically mush-up very quickly when cooked. (And shorter cooking may help foods retain their nutrients, too).

The Main Recipe

1/2 cup (40 g) 100% whole-grain oats "old fashioned"

1/2 cup (125 ml) water

1/3 of an apple, diced (approximately 1/3)
1 large medjool date diced

More-or-less of cinnamon, raisins, walnuts, hemp seeds

Have all of your ingredients ready.

Pour water into small pot, put onto stove, set heat to medium.
Add madjool date pieces. They will separate in warm water.

When water begins to boil, reduce heat to lowest setting (or just remove from heat if using electric stove).

Add oats then immediately add apples and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Briefly stir to gently warm apples. Do not boil or cook for long...just a few seconds.

Pour into bowl.

Add the hemp, raisins, and walnuts (or whatever variations).

Stir

To dice: cut the section of apple lengthwise then crosswise.
Flip down sections to cut into shorter pieces.

Heat on medium. When beginning to boil,
reduce heat to lowest (or remove from heat).

This series of steps should be within 40-ish seconds
if you want ingredients to stay firm.

Add your desired toppings, stir

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Recipe for My Son

1/2 cup (40 g) 100% whole-grain oats "old fashioned"
1/2 cup (125 ml) water
2 medjool dates or 3 smaller pitted dates diced
More-or-less of cinnamon, hemp seeds

Have all of your ingredients ready.
Pour water into small pot, put onto stove, set heat to medium.
When water begins to boil, reduce heat to lowest setting (or just remove from heat if using electric stove).
Add diced dates, stir to separate.
Add oats and sprinkle with cinnamon. Stir.
Do not boil or cook for long...just a few seconds.
Pour into bowl.
Add toppings. I double the hemp for my son because he doesn't have walnuts

Cut dates lengthwise then crosswise

This series of steps should be within 40-ish seconds
if you want ingredients to stay firm.

Add hemp and stir
 

Kitchen Snippets
This painted stone with rock owls hung
above my grandmother's stove. Now it
hangs above mine.

Something else I didn't know: Feeding our growing population industrial meat is extremely inefficient. While about 40% of the world's grain is fed to livestock (and about 70-80% of the USA's grain is fed to livestock), a billion people go hungry each day. When we get this grain back in the form of meat, it comes at a significant calorie loss. For every 100 calories of grain fed to livestock, we only get 3 calories of beef and 12 calories of chicken back.

Good news: We can all fight world hunger by choosing more sustainable foods every time we eat. The less animals we eat, the less ranchers will artificially reproduce them. If we redirected all crop production for human consumption instead of livestock, we could feed an additional 4 billion people. 

MOCK TUNA FISH SALAD

This is a family-favorite, and my 13 year-old son often requests it. It's so easy to make. The nori sheet can be annoying, though. It's probably easiest to rip it all up into tiny pieces, but I like to pulverize the pieces into flakes. The Bullet blender I use creates so much static electricity that when I go to pour the flakes into the bowl, they "jump" out and away from the bowl and onto the counter (and me!). I am extra careful and use a spatula to slowly and gently scoop the flakes into the bowl.

Estimated protein for dish: 24 g
Estimated fiber: 23 g

Recipe

(conversions not verified by my kitchen scale, yet)

1 can (15.5 oz) (439g) Garbanzo Beans

1 T (15 ml) Tahini

1 T (15 ml) Lemon Juice

1/2 Nori Sheet ripped up or pulverized

1/4 tsp (1.42 g) Salt

1.5 T (21 g) sweet pickle relish

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mash them together. 

{You can substitute the tahini and lemon juice with a vegan mayo such as Veganaise. It's good but not as nutritious... but way better than animal-based mayo, for sure!}

Image credit: Pumpernickel Press

Something else I didn't know: Fish feel pain. The hook they are tricked into eating hurts. While trying to breathe, they suffer and drown in our atmosphere like we would suffer and drown in their environment. And sadly, they are often alive when cut open and gutted. Their brain and nerves feel that pain.

Good news: We don't need to eat them to survive (unless you live in a region where fish are the only source of food). Plant protein is much healthier and provides fiber. With all of the contaminants fish muscle absorbs, we definitely don't want to be consuming them anyway. And if you are concerned about getting your omegas, get them from where the fish get them: PLANTS!

By ceasing to eat fish, the marine life thanks you and the exploited* oceans thank you.

*The news today reports that fish may be extinct by 2048 

Chocolate Cream Pie

Dairy free!! And so, so yummy! I credit PinchOfYum.com for this recipe. I modified it according to the size of tofu-block available (I provided 3 different recipes based on size of tofu block. The most-common one is first, then there are photos of the other two below).

Protein estimate for entire pie: 55 g
Fiber estimate: 66 g

Note: Needs time to chill (don't we all! lol)

A few words about the ingredients:
-Don't let the word "tofu" discourage you. It works so well in this recipe.
-Dairy-free chocolate chips can be found in the baking section of a typical grocery store as well as in bulk at our Good Earth store. "Cocoa butter" will be the ingredient instead of milk.
-Almond butter has a better flavor than peanut butter in this recipe, in our opinion (we tried pb).

(An 8-cup blender and double-boiler are most-helpful but not absolutely required.)

Recipe: (conversions verified by my kitchen scale)
16 oz  (454 g)  silken tofu
16 oz  (454 g)  dairy-free chocolate chips (almost 2 2/3 C)
1/2 c + 2 2/3 T  (160 g)  almond butter
1/2 c + 2 2/3 T (175 mL) almond chocolate milk

9" pie crust

Directions:
-Melt chocolate gently in a double boiler (water boiling in bottom pot, chocolate in top pot)
-Blend tofu, chocolate almond milk, and almond butter until smooth.
-Add the melted chocolate to the blender. Blend until smooth.
-Pour into pie crust
-Chill for 12-24 hours

Double boiler

I had a little extra that I didn't think the pie crust would hold.
The kids were happy to gobble it up.

 

Something else I didn't know: Dairy calves are forbidden from drinking their mother's milk. I naively used to believe that somehow dairy cows made enough milk to share with us humans. Newborn calves are taken from their mothers within 24-48 hours. If female, the calf will be put in a tiny pen and fed supplemental food. If male, he will be either immediately slaughtered and disposed of or kept alive for a couple months then sold and slaughtered as veal. When dairy cows collapse from the exhaustion of multiple consecutive artificially-produced pregnancies, they are dragged off and slaughtered for ground beef. "The dairy industry is the meat industry."

Good News: We don't need cow-milk to survive. In fact, we are supposed to be weened. We can obtain all of our nutrients from plant sources, which provide better calcium absorption and superior protein over casein. More good news: There are many yummy plant-based cheeses, yogurts, ice-creams, and milks... and tastebuds do change!