Vegan MoFo 2019 Day 5 - Not a Cronut

Welcome to Vegan MoFo Day 5! Today’s prompt is pastry! This presented the perfect opportunity to check another millennial dish off my list - cronuts!

But First, Salad!

I totally ate a nice big salad before diving into this experiment in pastry goodness. Today’s salad was brought to us by Urban Remedy. All of their vegan foods are incredible, but the Tahini Bowl is my favorite by far. The raw falafel seed mix is so so so good. I wish I could add it to everything. I’d eat it by the handful. I also really love the “Made With Care” stickers that they use to seal the container. Definitely give Urban Remedy a try if you ever have the chance!

And now, back to the cronut!

Apparently cronuts are trademarked by the creator and they’re aggressively suing anyone in the country who sells “cronuts” so people have been coming up with all sorts of crazy alternative names. Some of the more popular are Doissant, Doughssant, Crescent Doughnut, and my personal favorite, NotaCronut.

My version is made out of puff pastry, so I’m thinking we should call it a puffnut. Feel free to name yours anything you’d like. I experimented with a variety of methods, but ultimately settled on one adapted from Nish Kitchen. These puffnuts are baked, plus the glaze is made from fresh blackberries, so you won’t even feel guilty after eating one (or two or three!).

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Ingredients

For Puffnut

• 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed (Pepperidge Farms brand is vegan)

• 1/4 cup Just Egg

For Raspberry Glaze

• About 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 2 tbsp. lemon juice

• 2 tbsp. nondairy butter (I prefer Earth Balance)

Directions

1. Unfold puff pastry sheet on cutting board.

2. Brush with Just Egg and fold sheet back into thirds (like it was packaged). Brush top with Just Egg.

3. Repeat with second sheet.

4. Use a large cookie cutter to cut 3 circles out of each pastry sheet. Use a small cookie cutter (or piping nozzle) to cut out smaller circles from the center of each large circle.

5. Arrange the circles on a lined baking tray. Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes.

6. While baking, prep glaze. In an electric mixer, combine butter and lemon juice and berries (reserve a few for decorating if desired) on medium speed. Turn down to a low speed and add the powdered sugar slowly, a quarter cup at a time.

7. Dip puffnuts in glaze or drizzle glaze over them with a spoon.

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I tried baking the holes too, but they turned into weird little puff fingers. My husband loved them and said it was like eating a cronut cheeto. Your mileage may vary.

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I’ve never had a real cronut so I don’t know how they compare. I personally think this recipe is a keeper though! This was also my first time using Just Egg as an egg wash substitute and it worked brilliantly. I can’t wait to experiment with it in other recipes.

Vegan MoFo 2019 Day 4 - Cake! Also, Where's the Salad?!

These past few days have been a blur of rainbows and food coloring. In all my excitement, I’ve forgotten to share the foods dearest to my heart - the humble salad. So today I’m jumping back in the salad bowl! I actually try to start every day with a salad.

‘For breakfast??’ you may say. Yes!! It’s light, refreshing, and full of satisfying fiber. Plus, I feel a lot better about indulging in, say, a slice of vegan cheesecake if I’ve already eaten a big bowl of veggies.

Salad of the Day - Vegan Buffalo Wing Salad

Morningstar Farms has vegan buffalo wings now!!!

I practically lived off of these spicy little nuggets as a teenager. This salad made for such a tasty trip down memory lane. I’m sure there are differences, but they taste exactly like I remember them!

Now back to my salad. There’s no real recipe here. I prepared my wings as directed on the package, and then placed them on a simple bed of romaine, celery, shredded carrots and fresh beets, topped with vegan blue cheese dressing and squeeze of lime.

Those chips on the side? Beanfield’s Cheddar Sour Cream!

Dangerously delicious! I could definitely eat the whole bag in one sitting.

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Today’s Vegan MoFo prompt is cake! One of my absolute favorite restaurants in town is Great Full Gardens and today they were serving up this beautiful unicorn raw vegan cheesecake. How could I resist this serendipity? It matches my current color scheme so perfectly!! If you’re ever in the Reno area, definitely hit them up.

Vegan MoFo 2019 Day 3 - Rainbow Bagel Hack?

Feast your eyes upon the holy grail of whimsical baked goods… the almighty rainbow bagel!

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Well, kinda. There are a lot of recipes out there for rainbow bagels, but I settled on the easiest one, because, well, duh? I tried this one from Spoon University. Bonus points went to this recipe because today’s official #veganmofo19 prompt is “Biscuits – give us your best biscuit or cookie!”

Basically, you take 2 tubes of biscuit dough, mix it with some food coloring, shape it into rings, bake, and voila! Rainbow bagels! Or more accurately, rainbow colored, bagel shaped, biscuits.

My five year old son hates biscuits, but he was very interested in tasting my rainbow bagels, especially once I added sprinkles. Sprinkles make everything better.

Good news! He LOVED it! Here are his exact words: “Wow Mommy! It’s super good… it tastes like cake with no flavor!”

There you have it folks. Cake with no flavor. We can officially declare this shortcut a success.

For real though, keep your eyes out for my second attempt at rainbow bagels. Next time I’ll do it the old fashioned way with no shortcuts. Or maybe I’ll just see if any rainbow bagel shops deliver to Nevada.

What would a millennial do? Delivery for sure!

PS- Don’t worry. This is my last rainbow recipe for at least a few days. I just needed to use up the last of my premixed natural food coloring.

Vegan MoFo 2019 Day 2 - Taste the Rainb-oats

Today’s day 2 of #veganmofo19! The official prompt is “Kitchen tour – Show us where the magic happens!” I don’t know about the other millennials out there, but my kitchen is far from magical. You know what is pure magic though? Rainb-oats! So today we’re tackling our first millennial food - overnight oats.

Everyone knows what overnight oats are, right? You put 1 part oats and 2 parts liquid in a bowl (or uber millennial mason jar) stick it in the fridge and the next morning - bam! You have delicious oatmeal without the hassle of cooking. There are infinite recipes out there, I don’t really think I can reinvent that wheel.

I do have one oat trick up my sleeve though! I’m told us millennials are poor planners. I take huge offense to that and completely disagree, but at the same time… I mean, how am I supposed to know if I’ll want oatmeal for breakfast in 8 hours?! I have no idea what I’ll be craving in 8 hours. I don’t want to be pinned down like that. Committed to a breakfast I might not want? I can’t stand idly by while my tastebuds are trapped by a grain. No! I’m taking a stand. Luckily, there is a way…

Quick cooking oats! You know what that means? They’re quick overnighting too! With these bad boys in your arsenal, you can wake up, decide oatmeal sounds good, and just relax, knowing that you don’t have to waste time you don’t have standing over the stove, or risk exploding oats in your microwave.

Another ruined breakfast. Thanks microwave.

The formula is the same. I do half a cup of oats to 1 cup of liquid. You can reduce it to 6 ounces of liquid if you like your oats less soupy. Just mix them together in your millennial-approved oat vessel of choice, stick it in the fridge and get ready for the day. When you come back in 20-30 minutes - bam! Delicious oatmeal in a fraction of the time. So long “overnight” oats! Hello “while I curl my hair” oats!!

If there’s one thing millennials really love, it’s rainbows. So today’s oats were made with the following:

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Strawberry (pink) = strawberry Califia Farms yogurt drink + 1/2 cup oats

Peaches & Cream (orange) = peach Kite Hill yogurt + 3 oz. vanilla almond milk + 1/2 cup oats

Piña Colada (yellow) = truefruit pineapple in coconut + 3 oz. coconut milk + 1/2 cup oats

Key Lime (green) = lime Kite Hill yogurt + 3 oz. vanilla almond milk + 1 tbsp. key lime juice + 1/2 cup oats

Blueberry (blue) = blueberry Califia Farms yogurt drink + 1/2 cup oats

Blackberry Vanilla (purple) = vanilla Kite Hill yogurt + 3 oz. vanilla almond milk + 1 pint of blackberries (puréed) + 1/2 cup oats

(Add a sprinkle of food coloring if you’re going full rainbow)

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Here you have choices. You could make any one of these. You could make all of them and eat a different flavor each day. Or you could live dangerously and add a little of each to your bowl each morning for a tropical medley of rainb-oats. Of course, that’s what I always do.

I always try to make nice straight lines, but I apparently failed that portion of preschool, so I inevitably just swirl it all together. I tell myself it tastes better that way anyway.

There you have it. Millennial food #1 - overnight oats, made extra fabulous!

VeganMoFo 2019 Day 1 - How Millennial Are You???

I’ve spent the last few weeks debating whether or not to participate in VeganMoFo 2019. I’ve signed up many times, but never actually followed through. Once again, I was feeling uninspired and leaning towards not even bothering to try this year.

But then, I saw this!

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A friend shared this image in a local moms group I follow. I somehow felt both proud and embarrassed of just how many of these I eat regularly. Overnight oats made with oat milk, acai, and almond butter? Yes please! I’ll probably even have a La Croix on the side.

Man. If I’m being totally honest, that stung a bit. I thought I was an individual. Now here comes some dumb Facebook survey telling me that I’m just like everyone else born in my decade. I can’t lie, that was a bit of a shock.

But you know what was even more shocking? The number of people in our group who had never even heard of things on this list! I mean who hasn’t lusted after…

A beautiful mermaid toast?

A unicorn frap?

Or even a rainbow bagel??

I contemplated what a sad existence that must be, full of plain boring foods, and suddenly inspiration struck! My fellow millennial moms (and dads! and all you carefree childless millennials too!) need to know what they’re missing out on! I can save them from their gray plates of sadness!

And just like that, my VeganMoFo 2019 theme was born! I hope you enjoy my month long journey through the apparent foods of my generation. As a true millennial, I’m taking on this challenge with the added layer of dietary restrictions; all the food I share will be vegan. I’ll have to get creative with things like bone broth and cloud eggs, but don’t you worry, I’ll share all my results along the way, in true bloggin’ millennial fashion!

One more thing, as a group millennials don’t particularly cook much. It’s an insult to say we don’t know how. We just don’t have time because we’re too busy ruining everything.

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With that in mind, a lot of my posts this month will be product reviews and simple semi-homemade recipes à la Sandra Lee. That… uhh… evil doorbell industry won’t ruin itself. I got you my fellow busy millennials!

#MillennialAF #VeganMoFo2019 #MillennialAsAVeganMoFo #I’mStillAnIndividualDamnit #ButFirstSalad