Strawberry Pie...

So my dad brings home 3 boxes of strawberries. Not the little basket ones, the larger plastic containers. OK, I love strawberries, BUT NO ONE IN MY HOUSE HELPS ME EAT STRAWBERRIES AND THEN THEY JUST GO BAD SO I FEEL BAD. :( I usually wash most of them and then freeze them for smoothies. This time I decided I wanted to make a strawberry pie.

I made a pie crust and baked it in the oven. My crust was hideous. I suck at pie crusts. :( Probably because I insist on trying to work a little bit of whole wheat flour into the crust in an attempt to make it healthy or something. Anyway, my pie crust dough was too dry and cracked while I was rolling it out, so I got cranky and wadded it up into a ball and then slammed it against the countertop... and then started calmly over again. The damn thing shrank in the oven though. :/

While the crust baked, I sliced a bunch of strawberries and kept the outside slices for decorating the top of the pie. I tossed the inside slices in a pan with about half a cup of sugar and a little bit of vanilla and cooked them for a bit. Then I tossed that into the pie crust (minus the juice), and attempted to make it look pretty with the fresh bit of strawberries. Drizzled some of the juice on top to make the fresh strawberries look glaze-y.

And voilà. Don't look too closely at the crust. :(

"Simple Apple Yogurt Cake"

I was craving a cheese danish a few nights ago so I hopped on the internet and searched for yummy vegan danish recipes. Then I found out that they took forever to make and I wanted sweetness now, but luckily I found a different recipe to satisfy my bread craving. I made what Susan, from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, calls a "Simple Apple Yogurt Cake." But of course I was missing half of the ingredients so I made a bunch of substitutions, but it came out okay. I wasn't too crazy about how I could taste the brandy (the recipe actually called for rum, but I had none so I figured brandy was kinda the same thing...). I also ended up replacing the apple sauce with mashed bananas, the apple juice with soy milk, the plain soy yogurt with regular strawberry yogurt, and I skipped the raisins altogether because yuck.

Here's a picture:

Not much to look at, I know. The white patches, in case you are confused, are apple slices. I probably wouldn't make it again, but my Mom liked it and said I should. Hmm.

EDIT: I MADE THIS FOR EASTER, WITH THE SAME MODIFICATIONS AS BEFORE EXCEPT I ACTUALLY USED PLAIN YOGURT THIS TIME. I ALSO USED SOME WATER+SOY MILK IN PLACE OF THE APPLE JUICE. IT WAS MUCH BETTER. :)

Pizza!

I made 2 whole wheat pizzas and they were yummy. I'm really happy with the pizza dough recipe I've been using lately: Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
It's easy and it tastes good.

My sister is in love with Papa John's pizza, but I think it sucks because they put like 3 little pieces of bell pepper on it! Lame! I put a ton of veggies on mine. Yellow and green bell peppers, mushrooms, olives, tomato slices, onions, and small pieces of "pepperoni" seitan.



Pepperoni recipe story:
A few weeks ago I went crazy and decided to make two different kinds of pot stickers, veggie stuffed and "meat" stuffed. Well, I've been into making a ton of food so that I can freeze it and have insta-meals the next time I'm feeling lazy. :) So I made double the seitan that the pot sticker recipe called for and tossed it in the freezer. For the "pepperoni" I thawed and chopped the seitan and poured a little bit of soy sauce on them...and voilà instant pepperoni!

mmmm, I made Banana Bread!

I used the PPK's Banana Bread recipe and made a few minor [changes]:
-I skipped the apple cider vinegar because all I had was red wine vinegar and that didn't seem very banana-bread-like.
-I sprinkled raw sunflower seeds and flax seeds on top of the loaf before baking and it made the top part supper yummy.
-The suggested baking time of 60 to 70 minutes was a little bit too long (for my oven at least); I cooked it for ~57 minutes and it was a tad bit overdone on the bottom.

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup margarine, at room temp
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups flour [I used whole wheat]
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar [I totally skipped the vinegar but added a bit more soy milk]
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice [I used pumpkin spice instead, 'cause I obviously don't have a well stocked spice rack]
1/2 teaspoon salt
[raw sunflower seeds]
[flax seeds]

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8x4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, soy milk and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Pour batter into pan. [Sprinkle with sunflower seeds and flax seeds]. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes. [55 minutes for my oven].

Overall I give it a 4.5 out of 5 and will definitely make it again next time I have a bunch of rotting bananas. :)