Vegan White Yam Pie

I came into some beautiful White Yams this week. (thank you Fair Foods) If you can find these delicious tubers you need to try them. They are in the same family as a sweet potato but their flesh is a very pale creamy white. They taste comparable, maybe a bit more sugary than a traditional sweet potato. You can use sweet potatoes interchangeably in this recipe.
My favorite part of this recipe is the gluten-free, vegan crust. Eating vegan has been great for me except for the baking. I know a lot about baking with white flour, butter and eggs, but NOTHING about vegan baking. This was my first successful vegan pie crust, and I liked it a lot.

Vegan, Gluten-free Pie Crust

1/2 cup almonds (pecans or walnuts would also work well)
1 1/4 cup oats
6 dates
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cashew butter (you can use almond or peanut butter also)
3 tbsp water

1. In a food  processor pulse nuts until they are a fine meal. Add the oats until they are incorporated into the meal.

2. Add dates, oil and cashew butter and pulse until combined but dry.

3. Add the water and pulse two times.

4. Pour it into your pie plate and press into the bottom. Tip: if you mound it in the middle of your pie plate and keep pressing in from the middle it will evenly spread up the sides. Refrigerate to set while you prepare the filling.

Vegan White Yam Pie

2 large white yams
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup almond milk

1. Prick holes in your yams and either bake at 400 degrees for an hour, or microwave. (when microwaving do about 4 min on each side until the potato is soft)

2. Combine sugar, corn starch, spices, & salt in a small bowl.

3. Scoop the flesh out of the potato into a food processor. Pulse until mashed, scrape down the sides as you go. Add the dry ingredients and pulse to incorporate. Gradually add the vanilla and almond milk until smooth.

4. Pour into your prepared pie crust and bake at 35 for 50-55 minutes.

Vegan Peanut Butter Oat Cookies

Now lets be real...when I think of cookies I usually assume that they are baked and have butter, and eggs. These are AWESOME and the kiddos love them. If you like eating the dough before your mom got the cookies in the oven, you will especially like these. They do combine the three elements of awesome cookies, oatmeal, peanutbutter, and chocolate chips. Meghan Donohue found this recipe for me and we made some tweaks so we can call it our own :)

No Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Oat Cookies
You will need :

• 3/4 cup oat flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats (we used old fashioned, not quick cooking)
• 1 cup pitted dates – comes out to about 8-9 dates
• 1/2 cup organic peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• almond milk – start with 2 tablespoons and add more if needed to make the dough moist enough to press into balls
• 1 cup 60% cacao chocolate chips or carob chips

Directions:

1. In a food processor, pulse dates until broken down into crumb size pieces.
2. Add flour, oats, peanut butter, vanilla, almond milk. We started with pulsing in the food processor, but found that it was easier to put it in a bowl and mix while squashing with a spatula while adding the almond milk gradually. Then you are in control of the dough and can gauge the moisture level better.
3. If adding chocolate chips, stir in.
4. Form into small round balls and place on parchment or wax paper covered dish. We used a medium cookie scoop which helped press the dough together in a uniform way, then we squished them down so they looked like a disk of cookie.
5. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
6. Enjoy!!

Bear in a Cave: Eggplant Rolls

I have posted other eggplant rolls before, but because my kiddos came up with such an awesome name for these I had to post this one too.It simply is long, thin strips of eggplant that are stuffed with whatever I had in the house. The Bear Cave name comes from the fact that they rolls look like caves, and then I poured the Beschmelle sauce over them, like snow. So the brown filling (the bear) is in the cave (the eggplant) and it is hibernating under the snow (the white sauce). Very cute. Honestly, I don't care what they call it as long as they eat it. :)

                                    **Food Photography courtesy of Joseph and Timothy**

Bear-In-A-Cave: Eggplant Rolls

1 cup cooked brown rice (about 1/2 cup dry if you are starting from scratch)
1 cup chick peas
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
1 cup red wine
1 medium eggplant, Half sliced thinly from top to bottom,(you need about 8 slices) the other half diced
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper
1 24 oz can chopped tomatoes
Vegan Beschmelle Sauce

1. In a large frying pan saute and salt the onion, garlic & red pepper flakes. When onion begins to turn translucent (about 2 min) add the green pepper, celery, chopped eggplant and carrots. Saute for about 5 min. Add the red wine, roasted pepper and thyme. Cover and steam for about 2 min. Then add the rice and chick peas. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Pour the chopped tomatoes into the bottom of a 9X9 baking dish. Lay a slice of eggplant vertically on a cutting board. Place a large spoonful, about 1/3-1/2 a cup of filling in the middle, and gently bring the top and bottom edges to meet. Place the roll, seam side down on the tomatoes in the pan. continue with the remaining eggplant slices and filling.

3.Make the Beschmelle sauce and pour on top of the rolls. Bake at 350 for about 35 min, or until the top is beginning to brown slightly.

Vegan Beschmelle Sauce:

3 tbsp veggie oil
4 tbsp flour
2 cups unflavored almond milk
Salt & Pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. Heat the oil and flour in a medium saucepan for about 3 min. Add almond milk one cup at a time, whisking frequently. As the sauce thickens add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Continue to heat until it has reached a loose custard consistency. Do not boil!