Happy Birthday! Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes!

1. Today is a special day around The Two Vegan Ladies household. It's Jenna's Birthday! For the occasion we're doing a lot of different things to celebrate including going out to our favorite all-vegan restaurant with family, spending the day at a water park, and making delicious homemade vegan chocolate cupcakes! 
2. There's a lot of different recipes out there for animal-free cupcakes. A lot of people suggest applesauce or flaxseed to replace the egg typically suggested for cake recipes. We've tried a lot of them with varied results, but in all, when we're wanting chocolate cupcakes- this is our go-to recipe.

What you'll need:

1 cup almond milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract or more vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

First, preheat your oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper, foil, or reusable liners. Reusable liners you say? Yes, they do exist! Check them out: Reusable Baking Cups The good part about these is you can just pop the cupcake out!

Now, whisk together the almond milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for five minutes to curdle. 

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 

Next, add the sugar, oil, and extracts to the almond milk mixture and beat until foamy. 

Now, add all together and beat until there are no lumps.

Pour mixture into liners. Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way full. 

Bake 18 to 20 minutes. Test by sticking a toothpick in the center and making sure it comes out clean. 

Once baked, transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

So then what about frosting?

Well oddly enough a lot of store-bought frostings are already animal product free. Like the Pillsbury Crescent Rolls- "so fake, it's vegan!" For instance the Pillsbury Cream Cheese frosting... vegan. That's correct. It contains neither cream nor cheese! 

So either take a look at the back of a canned icing (be mindful of whey, carmine if it's tinted redish, and casin)  or try this recipe if you feel like going for something homemade!

This is buttercream type icing. Like what you would taste on a typical birthday cake.

What you'll need:

1 cup shortening 

3 1/2 vegan powdered sugar (any organic powdered sugar will be vegan)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 almond milk

Beat the shortening and powdered sugar toegther until well belnded. Add the vanilla extract and almond milk and beat for another 5 minutes or until fluffy. 

And don't forget the sprinkles!

With peace, love, and compassion-

The Two Vegan Ladies

Holy Guacamole! Mexican Alfredo Pasta!

So what do you do when you have a veggie basket full of avocados left over from Cinco de Mayo? Well first you pick out the survivors and then you make Mexican alfredo pasta!


Guacamole is delicious but sometimes you want that wonderful avocado flavor with a new twist.


This creamy dish is a good source of fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid.

 What you'll need:

1 medium-large avocado

1/2 can coconut milk

1/2 package tofu

Juice from 3 limes

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 can black beans

2 cloves of garlic

1 small red onion

1 small vadalia (or yellow) onion

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

1 package noodles (we like the Garden Delight variety) 

Fresh salsa for topping

First, cut your avocado and remove the seed. 


If you're feeling ambitious poke some toothpicks into the seed and set it in a jar of water so it can sprout. Once sprouted, move it to a pot of soil and then eventually to the ground so it can grow into a beautiful avocado tree! We have three growing at our house right now!  


*It should also be noted that sometimes these seeds take a while. Some of ours have taken their sweet time of almost two months! Just fill the water as it evaporates and change it out if it gets icky. They will eventually root and sprout little green friends! Promise! Sometimes removing the outer dark colored shell helps expedite this process. 




Next, combine avocado, coconut milk, tofu, lime juice, cilantro, basil, and green onions into a food processor or blender with 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Now, in a skillet sauté garlic with red and yellow onions and black beans. Season to taste.

Boil your noodles then combine avocado sauce with beans/onions and noodles. Mix well or layer.

Add fresh salsa or chopped green onions for garnish.

This creamy and delicious pasta dish will easily serve 4 people.

Gotta love avocados! 

With peace, love, and compassion-

The Two Vegan Ladies

What the Sprout?

So... sprouts! 


What are they? Why should you take the time to make them and why should you eat them? 


Well...
Sprouts are the living part that comes out of a bean/seed when it is soaked in water. 


They contain oxygen, healthy fats, fiber, and protein. They're also low in calories and high in vitamins B and C! 


You can buy some sprouted and living foods in grocery stores, but it's so easy, fun, and rewarding to sprout them yourself at home!


So let's get started with some lentils! This process will take about 3-4 days.


What you'll need:


A glass mason jar
Mesh fabric  
A rubber band (hair ties work too!)
Water
Green/brown lentils


This sort of feels like a science project already, doesn't it? We told you it was fun! 




Step 1:


1. Take the jar and fill it about 1/4 of the way with your lentils.


2. Fill your jar with 2-3 times as much water as you have of your lentils.


(Note: we suggest using filtered water for this step, like from a Brita pitcher, because your lentils are going to soak in it overnight. If you plan to eat them raw you're not going to want all the added stuff in tap water to end up in your sprouts.)


3. Put your mesh fabric over your jar and pull it taught, secure it with your rubber band.


                     4. Set in a shady/room temperature location.

                                                        5. Wait 8-12 hours to move on to step 2 instructions. 

Step 2: (8-12 hours later)
Look closely, you may have some small sprouts already!


1. Make sure 8-12 hours have elapsed. Don't wait more than 12 hours with them soaking or they could start to turn over saturated and icky! 


2. Drain the soaking water from the jar through your mesh lid. Get it all out.


3. Fill again with water and give a good swirl.


4. Drain all water from the jar.


5. Repeat the rinse/drain process until your water runs clear.


6. Make sure all water has drained from your jar and then set back in shady room temperature location. 



Step 3: (8-12 hours later)
Your sprouts should be pretty easy to see now! 


Repeat all steps from Step 2. Rinse, rinse, rinse and make sure all the water is drained from the jar. 


















Step 4: (8-12 hours later)
Your sprouts may be just about ready to go. 

If jar is full and the sprouts have a little green on the end, then go no further. If not, continue the rinse/drain process until your sprouts look ready.

Sometimes it takes a little longer, not to worry! Just keep rinsing and draining. 

When they are finished give them a last rinse/drain and then either take off your mesh cover and add a real jar lid or put them into a tupperware container and place in the refrigerator. 

You can do so much with these little guys! And it's a good thing, because you're going to have a lot of them! We suggest eating them raw on salads and sandwiches or cooking them in a stir-fry. 

Our favorite sprout dish:

A hummus, tomato paste, lettuce, tomato, and sprout sandwich!

Yummy!

Enjoy your new sprouty friends and eat them often, for they are delicious and good for you!




With peace, love, and compassion-
The Two Vegan Ladies

Homemade Chemical-Free (and cheap!) Laundry Detergent

We made our own laundry detergent for the first time a few weeks ago and it came out great! Our clothes are coming out super clean and we love that it's homemade (and vegan)! Not to mention that we have a ton of it and it cost us easily under $5.00!


So why make your own laundry detergent? Why spend a few hours making something you could simply go to the store and buy? Well, theres lots of reasons. 


Firstly, let's talk about chemicals.




If you take a look at a bottle of typical store-bought laundry detergent, you'll find that the ingredients are a rather vague collection of chemical substances. It may not say it on the back of the bottle, but most commercial laundry detergents, the common brands you find at grocery stores, are loaded with potentially toxic chemicals that could harm you, your family and the environment. We all want our clothes to be clean and fresh, but it seems the very detergents that we use to wash our clothes may actually be leaving them worse off than they were before we washed them. 


Additionally, residues of these chemicals are left on your clothes and possibly absorbed by your skin or evaporated into the air where they could be breathed in.

Now if that's not enough of a reason, let's talk about cost. 


The typical large bottle of detergent probably costs around $10.00. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but it takes a good chunk of money for sure. Add that to how often you have to replenish the supply and you're talking at least $100 per year for most households, and that's a modest estimate for some families.


All the products we purchased for our chemical-free detergent cost under $15.00, but it only took a fraction of each ingredient to make a whole 5 gallon bucket! So in the end the first batch (a whole 5 gallons!) probably cost about $2.00 or less. And... that 5 gallon bucket is going to be diluted and put into smaller bottles- so you're actually making about 10 gallons! 


Ten gallons of laundry soap for two dollars you say? Chemical-free, vegan, better for my famalies' health, and it really works? Well let's get started! (That's what we thought!)


What you will need:

1 bar of soap (You're gonna wanna stay away from any soap which contains glycerin unless it specifically states "made from vegetable glycerin".)  And take a a look at the ingredients to make sure it isn't made from other animal fats or products. 

1 cup of washing soda.

1 cup of Borax. Now here's the scoop on borax: it's a natural and vegan product, however, the main brand available out there is called 20-Mule Team. This brand has been around for over 100 years and has never directly conducted any animal testing, but they are now owned by the Dial corporation which does test on animals. It's sort of like ordering a vegan meal from a restaurant that serves meat. It's not ideal, but it's sometimes the best we can do.

The borax information was brought to our attention recently and we are doing some further research to try to find a brand of borax or something similar to use in our next batch of  homemade detergent. We will keep you updated on our findings. 


Essential oil of your choice. Now, make sure you're using essential oil and not the kind of oil you can burn at home for frangrance. You don't want this to be perfumed, just natural. We went with a cinnamon scent and it really mixed quite nicely with our soap scents.











A five gallon bucket with a lid. You can use whatever you wish but The Two Vegan Ladies aren't going to lie, we're all about saving the moola and the environment here, so we took an empty kitty litter container and washed it out really well. It worked perfectly! Plus the plastic it took to make that bucket would have taken a century to decompose, so the more use you can get out of things like that the better!




What to do:


So first, take your soap and either grate it or chop it finely into a large pot. The smaller the pieces the more easily they will dissolve during the next step.


Once grated set on the stove and add 4 cups of water. Bring soap and water to boil while stirring to dissolve soap. 


When your soap is fully dissolved remove from heat and add 1 cup of washing soda and 1 cup of borax. Stir together.


Now, fill your five gallon bucket halfway with water and mix in the contents of the pot. Give it a good stir and let it sit for an hour.


When the hour is up fill your bucket then rest of the way with water, give it a few stirs, cover, and leave it to sit overnight. 


The next day open it up and stir, stir, stir! It's going to be a little thick! Don't worry ours was super chunky too. 


Now you're ready to break it down into smaller bottles. This part is easy. Funnel laundry soap from your big bucket into a smaller bottle and fill it half way. Then add 20 or more drops of essential oil for every gallon of liquid your bottle can hold. You may want to add more or less drops. It depends on how scented you want your laundry. We did about 20 drops per gallon and the cinnamon scent is certainly there but not overpowering. It smells very fresh!


After adding your essential oil fill the bottle the rest of the way with water, tighten the lid, and shake! Now, get used to this. You're probably going to want to give your laundry soap a little shake every time you use it in case it decides to get chunky again. So far ours hasn't been too bad. Any solidified pieces that do make it into the washer work themselves through very nicely during the wash cycle. 


You're going to want to use about 1/4-1/3 of a cup of your soap for every load of wash you do- so this stuff is probably going to last a good while! You can just keep your 5 gallon bucket full of your soap until you need more to dilute and fill your smaller bottle. 




*Note, something you may notice: the detergent you have just made will not make as many bubbles as the store bought stuff when running in your washer. Don't you worry. This is just fine. The reason the store-bought detergent gets as foamy as it does is because of a chemical-based foaming agent. Your stuff is natural- and everything is still getting super clean!

This should be all you need to know to make your own homemade chemical-free laundry detergent! Please feel free to comment and ask us any questions you may have!




With peace, love, and compassion-
The Two Vegan Ladies