My first blog!

After a year (I'm a relatively new vegan) of trolling the veg blogs, mooching off the recipes of others, I have decided that it is in my karmic best interest to contribute to the vegan internet world.

DISCLAIMER:
#1 I am a poor, poor college student, so my recipes will not be very fancy. Neither will the ingredients. Right now I'm girding myself to buy capers since I HAVE to make the mustard sauce from Veganomicon....and the Seitan Piccata....and the myriad of other recipes that require the little buggers. My point is, my recipes will probably never contain coconut extract or saffron threads or truffle oil. Not that I don't appreciate recipes containing these items, I'd just rather spend my money on...well...toilet paper.
#2 I am computer-challenged. My monitor even has one of those giant black "cracks" in it (don't ask). Thus, it may take me a while to figure out links and tags and such things. Without the help of tech-saavy Omniguy, these things will never happen.

For those of you who are still reading this, I'll tell you a bit about myself. I just got my first apartment where I live with my boyfriend, J, (who takes great offense at such nicknames as "omniguy," so for his sake, I'll drop it), and our cat Tilly. She's still adjusting to the new pad, but she's always been a bit aloof. I am almost done with a BA in Theatre, and I commute to LA for acting work. I come from a very Republican, meat-eating, NRA card-carrying family (don't judge - my dad once said that my seitan "wasn't bad"). This makes me a bit of a black sheep where most things are concerned, but we do just fine. I think they've decided to find me quaint, and I'm okay with that.

Anyway, enough about me. I'm sure you'll learn way too much in the future.

On to my first food post. Definitely not the most attractive. But I promise, it tastes better than it looks. It's at the top...because I haven't figured out how to put it down here. I call this Chai Breakfast Cake. It's a modified version of the Chai Marathon Muffins from Vegweb (originally submitted by fiffreak99). Basically, it's a cake because I don't own a muffin tin. I halved the recipe, so I'm sure the full version would have been taller and more aesthetically pleasing. Obviously, it could have benefited from a smaller pan, but let's not be superficial, eh?

Chai Breakfast Cake

1 cup - whole wheat flour
1 cup - rolled oats
1/2 cup oat or wheat bran
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2-3/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I'm generous because I love this stuff)
2 tea bags of Chai Tea
1 cup of hot water
1-2 bananas mashed (or any other fresh fruit - apple works well)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 Tablespoon of canola oil (or applesauce, to cut the fat)

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix dry incredients while brewing one cup of chai tea with the two bags. Once dry ingredients are mixed, add the tea and the rest of the ingredients. Pour into a greased pan or muffin tin and cook for 20 minutes. Do the toothpick test after 20 minutes, and add another five or so as necessary.

So yeah, ridiculously easy, and I thought, very tasty. I'm a sucker for cinnamon and all other warm spices, so this was a winner for me. A bit dry on the outside (I'm still getting used to my "new" oven), but super moist on the inside. I kept going back for more, and J pretty much had to forcibly remove me from the cake, which is usually the indicator that a recipe is a keeper.