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Sunday, August 14, 2011

RECIPE - Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Makes 16 pieces
Calories without icing: 114 per piece
Calories with icing: 130 per piece
(Compared to a leading unnamed company's mini version that has 350cals each.)

Dough:
• 3/4 cup vanilla soy milk
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• sprinkling of evaporated cane sugar
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1tbsp evaporated cane sugar
• 2 tbsp organic canola oil
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
• 1/2-1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

Filling:
• 3/4 cup organic brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp Blackstrap Molasses

Icing:
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1. In a small bowl combine ground flax seed and water; set aside.
2. Warm soy milk in microwave but don’t let it get too hot then add yeast and sugar; Let sit for about 5 minutes.
3. Pour yeast mixture into a mixing bowl & add oil, flax seed mixture, salt, and wheat flour. Mix it a little with your hands then begin adding the all-purpose flour 1/4 cup at a time, kneading it in before adding more. The dough shouldn’t be sticky. When it’s not sticky, knead it for another 5 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, molasses, & cinnamon, making sure the molasses is mixed well into the mixture.
5. Once the dough is ready, form into a ball, spray nonstick spray into bottom of bowl, place dough back & spray top with nonstick (I used coconut oil). Cover with a moistened tea towel & let it sit in a warm area for 1- 1 1/2 hours to rise (1st rising).
6. When ready, put dough on a floured surface & roll out into a 10 by 14 rectangle. Brush entire surface with water & spread filling mixture over surface, leaving about 1 inch without filling at one of the short ends.
7. Begin rolling the dough up using the short edge that has filling. Try to roll it away from you, tucking and squeezing the roll as you go. When you get to the untouched dough edge, brush it with some water and finish rolling, sealing it with that edge.
8. Now cut the log in half, then each half in half, and so on. You should have about 14-16 cinnamon rolls. Place them in an 8” round pan or a square brownie pan. Cover with moist tea towel again and let rise in warm place for 45 minutes (2nd rising).
9. Heat your oven to 350˚ & bake rolls for 15-20 minutes. Rolls should be firm to the touch and golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly while you make the icing.
10. To make the icing, place powdered sugar and water in a bowl - add only enough water to get a thick consistency of the icing. Add the vanilla. If you don’t want to do the icing, drizzle some organic, raw honey (yes, I still eat honey because it has no cholesterol).


Let me know if you like these!  We did!


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My Zimbio

RECIPE - Vegan Ranch Dressing

Makes 1 Serving = 96 cals (approx.)

2 tsp. Low Fat Vegenaise
2 tsp. Galaxy Vegan Cream Cheese
1 tbsp. Almond milk (unsweetened)
1/2 tsp. Bragg's Cider Vinegar
Dried dill
Freshly ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl. Enjoy!
My Zimbio

Milestones! Oh, and Potassium!

     So this week I was able to hit a few milestones in taking charge of my own health.  I've been eating a vegan diet now for just under two months and I got my cholesterol tested last week to see what sort of effect my new eating habits have had on those numbers.  I was pleasantly surprised (and a little not surprised) to learn that my cholesterol numbers had dropped significantly enough to astound my doctor's nurse (who was the one calling me with the results).  My total cholesterol dropped 54mg!!  LDL went down 35mg but my HDL also went down 13mg so I need to work on bringing up those good fats in the next couple of months.  My triglycerides also dropped 30mg.  All-in-all, I think this marks quite a wonderful amount of progress but wait, there's more!!  I also realized that I've now lost approximately 16 pounds in the almost two months that I've changed my eating habits - and that, was like icing on the cake (vegan icing, of course)!!  All of this has made my week, maybe even month!  Of course, I'm sure that it wasn't just the diet but all of this was helped along by a good amount of exercising almost every day and THAT was more difficult than changing my eating habits.
     I've been finding that this whole vegan diet was just meant to be for me.  It feels easy and the food I'm discovering is a no-brainer when it comes to making it.  No more realizing at 4pm that I forgot to take a slab of meat out of the freezer and that it won't defrost in time for dinner only to give up and announce that we'd be going out to eat!  Now, around 4pm, I'm considering what I feel like eating, go to the store to pick up whatever veggies, grains, or additives needed to make it, and dinner is done within two hours!  I tried planning and buying a week's worth of meals but I got tired of the vegetables wilting or rotting before I was able to use them.  So now, I kind-of fly by the seat of my pants everyday.  I try to make sure I have leftovers so I can eat the next day for lunch but if not, I always keep tomatoes, mixed greens, broccoli, tofu (and/or tempeh), and vegan bacon in the fridge for a quick salad or a yummy VBLT (VeganBaconLettuceTomato) sandwich.  When I make a soup or stew, I freeze half of it to use another day that I don't feel up to creating something.  It's very liberating for me!  I do plan well-rounded nutritionally dense foods for every day's meals, remembering to keep it colorful to get a good balance of vitamins and minerals.  My copy of the book "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis, RD and Vesanto Melina MS, RD is my stalwart companion in keeping up with how much of what I need to eat to keep as healthy balanced as possible...if you're also embarking on a vegan adventure, I highly (again) recommend that book!
  


     So, besides needing to raise my HDL cholesterol and lowering the rest of all that a bit more, my other challenge has been potassium intake.  I just can't seem to get enough from what I've been eating.  Now, before anyone jumps on the banana wagon (LOL!), I know bananas have a lot of potassium but I also know that a baked potato has WAY MORE potassium than a banana. I've never been a big fan of bananas but I'll eat them if I have to and potatoes (love them) are way too high in calories to eat more than once in awhile (1 banana is 110 calories & 450mg of potassium; a baked potato is 290 calories for a whopping 1081mg of potassium)!  So I've been researching other sources of potassium that I can "pepper" my meals and snacks with and I've found out some interesting things:

(According to USDA.gov website):
1) Figs.  1 fresh medium fig - 116mg potassium / 37 calories
             1 dried fig - 87mg / 21 cals

2) Canned tomato paste (unsalted).  1 cup = 2657mg / 215cals
3) White beans. 1 cup = 1004mg / 249 cals
4) Raisins (packed). 1 cup = 1236mg / 493 cals
5) Spinach, cooked (without salt). 1 cup = 839mg / 41 cals

These are just a few of the ones I looked at but there seems to be more than I thought there was.  Plus, the list made me recheck my calorie tracking software and I found out that potassium numbers are not always given (even though I know the product has potassium).  Might be that I'm getting enough and I just don't realize it.  Nonetheless, living in a very humid area and working out hard...well, let's just say that I don't bother sitting down on our couch until after I've showered :D Minerals must be replaced constantly here.  It's too bad we can't have a machine in our homes that we can test our own blood every month to check vitamin/mineral serum levels ourselves.  Wouldn't that be grand??  I'd use it just to make sure my body has what it needs to function like it's supposed to.

If you want to check out the USDA's nutrient database sorted by potassium rich foods, here's the link.  (By-the-way, animal products only start showing up on this list at 850mg of potassium, just saying.)

Don't these look yummy?!? 

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My Zimbio