Baked "Fried" Pickles - Secret Recipe Club

This month for Secret Recipe Club I was assigned a beautiful blog called Life's Simple Pleasures. I absolutely love the design of the blog and there are so many YUMMY looking recipes. There were a lot of desserts which normally would make me jump with joy. (As you might have guessed I like baking) But my husband and I decided to go sugar free for a month. No refined sugar, no unrefined sugar, no sugar at all unless it was naturally occurring in the food. (7 more days till were DONE!).

If you are able to eat some sugar please go and check out Jess' blog. Seriously, like maybe you feel like a lemon square, or possibly some swirly roasted banana bread, or maybe these double apple mini bundt cakes, or if you are feeling really brave these amazing looking 7 layer magic bars.

There were also some really great looking savoury dishes. We were having some people over for our weekly Game of Thrones potluck party (yeah we are those people). So I decided on these "fried pickles" that are actually baked. I changed the recipe slightly to make them vegan. They were salty, crunchy and very delicious. Thanks for the recipe Jess!

Baked "Fried" Pickles
Via Life's Simple Measures

1/4 cup water
3 to 4 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 tsp. vegan worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. seasoning salt
1/2 tsp. dill
2 to 3 dill pickles, thinly sliced
1-1/2 c. bread crumbs

Directions:
Turn on broiler in oven (500°F). Place bread crumbs into shallow bowl; set aside. In another shallow bowl, beat water, flour, worcestershire and seasoning together. It should become a paste.

Add the pickles to the paste mixture and toss until well coated.

One at a time, coat pickles with bread crumbs and place on cookie sheet. Bake 4 to 6 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and flip over each pickle slice. Bake an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Serve immediately.

Secret Recipe Club - Vegan Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Secret Recipe Club time around here. This month I had the pleasure of being assigned Julies Eats and Treats blog. Julie has a bunch of really awesome recipes on her blog with some great and delicious looking photos. I had a tough time choosing between recipes but I had a bowl full of ripe bananas that needed using so when I came across this Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread I was sold. But check out these lemony treats that I was thinking about making - Lemon Drop Cupcakes and Lemonies. Don't they look good?

The recipe was easy to make vegan and was very delicious. The only thing I found was that there was too much cinnamon sugar on top of the banana bread that just ended up falling off, so I adjusted the measurements a bit.

Thanks Julie for the yummy recipe!


Vegan Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
Via Julies eats and treats

Bread
3 over-rip bananas, mashed
1/3 c. melted vegan butter
3/4 c. sugar
Vegan egg replacer equal to one egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
Dash of salt
1 1/2 c. flour

Swirl
1/3 c. sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil and flour a loaf pan.

2. Mix bananas, vegan butter, sugar, faux egg and vanilla together. Add soda, salt and flour. Gently stir. Do not over mix.

3. In a small bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

4. Pour 1/2 of batter into pan. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of batter. Add the rest of the banana mixture to the pan. Top with the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture.

5. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

February Secret Recipe Club - Graham Cracker Candy

I am happy to say I am back! It has been a crazy 6 months. Everyone always tells you how much having a baby changes your life - but you don't really understand until you have your own. We also made a big move in December across the country.

We are now in Calgary waiting to take possession of our new house. (So sorry about the photo's I don't have my camera or my regular set up. These are camera phone pics)

And how fitting that my first post back be for the Secret Recipe Club. I got a bit worried when I saw the name of the blog I had been assigned. Steak N Potatoes Kinda Gurl. Yikes. Because I am mostly vegan and not a steak N potatoes anything. But then I checked out the fabulous Desi's blog and was relieved because she has a ton of awesome recipes. Everything from drinks, dips and appetizers to desserts and even a whole bunch of restaurant reviews. I had so much fun looking through your blog Desi - thanks! I was trying to decide between a couple of things. These drinks look delicious as does this bean dip but in the end I decided on this graham cracker candy.

My advice - Do not make this recipe. Because if you make this recipe you will have to try a slice. And then just to be sure you will have to try another slice, and another, and another and then suddenly you will realize you have eaten a whole pan of graham crackers, butter, sugar and nuts. And that you were suppose to bring a dessert to brunch and now you have nothing except an empty pan and a lot of guilt. So save yourself the trouble and don't make this recipe. If you do decide to make this and eat the whole pan please blame Desi and not me! I also think these dipped in dark chocolate with a little sea salt on top would be delicious.


Vegan Graham Cracker Candy
Via SteakNPotatoesKindaGurl

1 Cup plus 3 Tbsp Earth Balance
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Sliced Pecans
Vegan Graham Crackers

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil so that it hangs over the edges of the pan and spray with nonstick baking spray or coat with a bit of olive oil. Do not skip this step or your candy will be stuck to the pan.

Arrange graham crackers to fit the entire baking sheet.

In a large saucepan, melt the Earth Balance on medium-high heat and add the brown sugar. Stir and bring to a boil. Continue stirring until the sugar dissolves and the consistency turns into caramel. You don't need to worry about using a candy themomoter or anything as it will cook in the oven. Just be sure the sugar is dissolved and the mixture has had a chance to boil for a few minutes.

Lower the heat to medium-low, stir in sliced pecans, and cook for a minute stirring constantly. Turn off heat and evenly spread the mixture onto the graham crackers. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before breaking apart.

Store in an air tight container. (or eat directly from pan until nothing remains. Ugh.)