Low Fat Vegan Apple Cake

I made an apple cake last weekend for Rosh Hashanah. I suppose the responsible thing to do would be to post it before the holiday was over, but it's a good fall cake too! It's dense, which I like in a bundt cake. The texture is great and it holds up well.



Low Fat Vegan Apple Cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 45 minutes

Serves 12-18

• 1/4 c. flax meal mixed with 1/4 c. water
• 3 c. all purpose flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1  heaping t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. cardamom
• 1 c. applesauce
• 1/4 c. canola oil
• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 2 t. vanilla
• 3 apples, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl combine flax meal and water and beat vigorously until well combined. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, and spices. Add the flax mixture, applesauce, oil, syrup, and vanilla, stirring as you go. The batter will be very thick, so if you have a stand or handheld mixer, this is a good time to use it. Fold in the apples (I used two granny smith and one Gala and I didn't bother to peel them). Grease a bundt pan and transfer the cake batter to the bundt pan. Use a rubber spatula to pat it down. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Shana Tovah! And I won't judge if you eat a slice for breakfast... I mean, it is a holiday.

Greek Fest 5k

Oklahoma City has a pretty great annual Greek Festival. I've been before and there's dancing, art, tours of a Greek Orthodox church, but most importantly, food. OMG, the food. One of my favorite bloggers,  Jennie runs with a group called Running to Drink and I imagine I'm the lone member of a Running to Eat All the Hummus group. Anyone want to join a hummus fan club/running group? The bib fee for this race includes free entry into the festival (ie, hummus), so when I saw that I immediately logged into SignMeUp.com and registered.

The race started at 8:30, which seemed a little risky to me. Sometimes in mid-September Oklahoma is cooling down already, but sometimes it is still thousands of degrees, so I felt great anxiety about signing up for a race that started two full hours after my normal running start time. It turns out I was worried for nothing because the weather was great for running. It was 59 degrees and drizzly.

I woke up a little before 7, got dressed, gave the cats some ear scratches, and ate a banana spread with peanut butter. I got to the race site a little before 8, picked up my bib and chip, and milled around stretching. I met up with a guy from work, Robert, who runs a 5k just about every weekend this time of year. I jogged a little bit to warm up and then it was time to start! Robert and I started together, but he took off ahead of me around the half mile mark. The course ran down a main street into a neighborhood, so there wasn't much scenery to enjoy. Around mile 1.5 I caught up with Robert and then passed him. I knew I was pretty close to the front and passed a woman about my age who I'd been neck and neck with for about a mile. Around mile 2.5 I started to feel a little nauseous. This has happened to me before at 5ks. I don't know if it's from pushing myself harder than I'm used to, or nerves leading up to the race, but I knew I wasn't far from the finish so I backed off a little bit on speed and just concentrated on keeping my feet moving. The girl I passed earlier came out of nowhere and was ahead of me. With the way I was feeling I knew I couldn't catch back up with her and she ended up finishing just a few seconds faster than I did.

At the finish I looked down at my GPS and it said 24:13. A PR! I was surprised when the results were posted and it showed my gun time at 24:48. I would still be perfectly happy with 24:48, but it seemed like a big difference. Several people were complaining that their gun time was off their GPS time and everyone was saying it was by about 30 seconds. The race organizer blew it off at the time, but I got a call later from someone with the timing company who said that the person who shot the starting gun was using a watch without a second hand, so they just assumed it was at 8:30:00, but many people had come to them saying their time was off. They were calling people to ask if they had used a GPS and then used that the determine when the starting gun was actually fired. The results online put my time at 24:13, so that's what I'm sticking with!

I ended up as the third place women's finisher and won a $15 gift card to a local running store. I drank some water, talked to Robert for a bit, and then got in my car. The festival didn't actually start until noon, so anyone wanting to attend is supposed to wear their race shirt when they go back for free admission. Saturday is normally my long run day, so I planned to run again after the race. I drove to Lake Hefner, which is on my way home and has nice trails for bicyclists, runners, and walkers. On the way there I drink some more water and ate a pack of Justin's chocolate peanut butter. My first mile at the lake was pretty rough, but after that I got into a rhythm and the time flew. I intended to get in 5 more miles, but I didn't turn around soon enough so by the time I made it back to my car I had run about 5.6 miles. 3.1+5.6= 8.7 AND I get to go back to the Greek Festival this weekend and eat my hummus. Great Saturday!

24 Good Deeds, Days 10 and 11

18. Collect school supplies. I love school supply shopping. I think when I was in school it might have even ranked above back to school clothes shopping. I found a local organization that collects donations for a teachers' warehouse. Using their wish list, I headed for Target and picked up Kleenex, crayons, notebooks, and reward stickers. I missed the most recent drive, but I have all the supplies packed up and ready for the one in September.

19. Donate to Goodwill. I took a bag of donations to our local collection center.

20. Give to the homeless. The closest main intersection to my house is a gathering space for a lot our OKC's homeless population. We were even featured on The Lost Ogle recently. There's one guy who stands outside the 7-Eleven and asks for very specific amounts of money. On Tuesday I stopped for a drink on my way out of town and he asked me for $0.85. I went inside and bought my drink and gave him a few dollars when I came out. I hope the fact that it wasn't $0.85 exactly isn't an issue...

21. Deliver supplies to Wild Heart Ranch. My dad and I share a birthday, so the day before I went to the rural town where he lives so we could spend it together. One very cool thing about this town is that it's home to Wild Heart Ranch, a wildlife rescue that takes in orphaned, injured, or otherwise unable to care for themselves wild animals. They nurse them back to health and release the animals. Before I made the trip, I got our their website and looked at their wish list. My dad and I went to the feed store and each bought a bag of crimped oats (two good deeds for the price of one!) and delivered them.

22. Bake for the staff at WHR. The staff of Wild Heart Ranch has been working non-stop all summer caring for the orphans that come with spring and summer. I baked a batch of muffins and delivered them when we delivered the oats.

23. Bake for a bake sale. Remember when I said my main goal was to cook for as many people as possible? I baked muffins for the Light the Night bake sale at work. The sale ended up raising almost $500 for leukemia research.

24. Buy a drink for a stranger. This was the only time in my 24 good deeds that I really had to interact with someone and tell them what I was doing. Some of my good deeds were done anonymously and some, like donating to Wild Heart or Pit Bull Rescue, are things you don't have to explain. Sometimes people want to make donations, let's move on. This time I was at a convenience store getting a drink to last me for my drive back to Oklahoma City. There was a man ahead of me in line buying a bottle of soda and a slush.

"Excuse me?" He didn't hear me the first time. "Excuse me? I'm trying to do good deeds for my birthday and I was wondering if I could buy your drinks?"

He looked seriously confused. Nervous laughter. "What?" 

"She wants to buy your drinks," from the cashier. Thanks, dude.

"See, it's my 24th birthday and I'm trying to do 24 good deeds."

"I've never heard of that." 

When I got out my money to pay for my drink and his, the cashier informed me that my drink was on him and wished me a happy birthday. That's what I really wanted from my good deeds. Not a free Diet Dr. Pepper, although that was great. I wanted the people impacted by them to do something nice for someone else so in the end it wasn't just 24 good deeds, but maybe 36 or 48.

24 Good Deeds, Days 8 and 9

14. Buy dog food for Pit Bull Rescue Oklahoma. This is the rescue I adopted Kimmy from, and the group we're fostering Katie for. They do amazing work saving dogs and educating the public. They are always full and have a high food bill, so I try to help out with food occasionally. Next time I see the director I'll be delivering 70 pounds of food for the pitties.

15. Make a meal for the Carolyn Williams Center. The Carolyn Williams Center is a group home for young men who have aged out of the foster care system. I used to volunteer there weekly teaching a cooking class. Yesterday I made a big pot of pasta with veggie sauce, garlic knots, and peanut butter brownies and delivered it to the guys for Sunday night dinner.

16. Send books to my cousins. We recently had a book sale at work. All the the adult books skewed towards daily inspiration and the best way to cook beef in your slow cooker, but they had some great kids' books. I bought some for my cousins, Riley (age 12) and Kendall (age 6) and mailed them to Pittsburgh. I think it's fun to get an unexpected gift in the mail, especially for a kid who isn't used to getting mail of their own.

17. Give blood. I've been giving blood since I became eligible at 17. I'm not afraid of needles, I don't have any adverse reactions, and since my skin is practically see-through, I'm an easy target for phlebotomists. It's such an easy thing for me to do that can make a big difference to someone else. The last two times I've donated my pulse has been so slow that I have to get a supervisor to override the system to let me donate. I texted my mom while I waited today.

"I'm just waiting on supervisor approval to donate."

"Is your heart still beating?"

"43 times a minute."

"Well, that's enough to keep you alive, it seems." 

Yes. Yes, it is.

 

 

24 Good Deeds, Day 7

9. Bake for the comic shop crew. I have to admit that when I decided to start this project my main goal was to find 24 ways to cook for people. Sam has a friend who owns a comic shop and the guys there are always willing to receive food. They occasionally do a superhero class for kids on Saturdays and Sam went to help with it today. I sent him with mini coconut cupcakes for the staff and attendees.

10. Race for charity. This morning I ran the Salvation Army Red Hot Kettle 10k (race recap soon). Good for the Salvation Army, good for me.

11. Volunteer for animal rescue. The rescue I foster kittens through had an outreach at a Petsmart in the suburbs today. I volunteered to transport animals so as many of the available animals as possible could be there to try to get adopted.

12. Treat the volunteers. The volunteers who stayed all day at the adoption event had the task of schlepping animals in and outside on an Oklahoma August day. When I went to pick up animals I stopped at Sonic first for slushes for the volunteers,

13. Leave an unexpectedly large tip. While my time waiting tables was unsuccessful and thus very, very short, I am the child of two former servers, so tipping well is a requirement in my family. Today I wanted to surprise someone with an extra big tip. Sam and I went out for my traditional post-race Boca burger and I tipped our waitress about 80%.

24 Good Deeds, Day 6

Today is busy, busy getting ready for a party I'm throwing for theatre friends from my high school days. Despite all the party prep, I wanted to get a good deed in, so I chose one of the quicker items on my list.

8. Leave popcorn at Redbox. I bought a box of microwave popcorn and taped individual bags to the Redboxes around my house. Hopefully it makes someone's movie a little more enjoyable!

24 Good Deeds, Days 4 and 5

4. Distribute lottery tickets. Tuesday night after work I went to a convenience store and bought 11 (I needed one too!) scratch off lottery tickets and taped them places I hoped they would be found- bus stops, benches, and a few pay phones (okay, those might rot there forever). When I was running in my neighborhood this morning all but one seemed to be gone.

5. Feed a friend. A friend of ours recently had a health crisis that kept her out of work for a few weeks. A few weeks without a paycheck really hurt them and I know they're not very food-secure right now. When Sam and I were at the grocery store last night doing party-shopping we loaded up a bag with things for this family and left them on their porch.

6. Give to a women's shelter. After reviewing their online wish list, I took a box of toiletries, yoga/pajama pants, and bras to the YWCA shelter for women and children.

7. Help a neighbor. You know how everyone has a chore they feel irrational loathing for? Mine is taking the trash can and recycling bin back to the house after it's been picked up. It takes all of thirty seconds, but I see it when I get home from work and my hands are full and the trash can doesn't roll very well and I JUST HATE IT. But I started thinking about what a nice surprise it is when I get home and it's already done, so tonight I went down my block and returned all the trash cans to their homes.

24 Good Deeds, Day 3

3. Give an anonymous gift. Last month when I was in Pittsburgh I picked up some Steelers pens for a guy at work whose desk is decked out in Steelers gear. We've only spoken a few times... He used to sit along my path to the bathroom and we would occasionally exchange Steelers-related banter. This morning before he got in I left the pens on his keyboard.

24 Good Deeds, Day 2

I "like" lots and lots of animal rescue groups on Facebook. I'm also a member of a few rescue networks, which means that I see tons of ChipIns asking for help with an animal's expenses. When you see so many of these a day, it become easy to kind of ignore them, knowing you can't contribute to all of them. But for today's good deed I chose to contribute to a ChipIn for Lovey Pig, a dog diagnosed with pneumonia. My friend Leah is the president of this group and they're doing great things for animals in Oklahoma City.

2. Donate to a ChipIn.



There's no minimum for donating through ChipIn, so if you have something to spare, send it their way!

24 Good Deeds, Day 1

My 24th birthday is 9 days away, so yesterday I started my 10 day quest to do 24 good deeds in honor of it.

I've lost a lot of weight. It started when I became a vegan, and picked up two years ago when the family I was a nanny for got an elliptical trainer. I would use it while the kids napped- when I started I felt like 15 minutes would kill me. When you lose that much weight, well, your clothes don't fit. I've been getting rid of things slowly, packing up a load for Goodwill each time I hit a new size. But there have been some things that are really hard to part with. I had amassed an impressive collection of vintage dresses, mostly a-lines in colorful prints. Oh, I love them! Still, they don't fit, trying to make it look like they fit by belting them isn't working, and it's time to say goodbye. So, my first good deed was a simple one.

1. Donate clothes. I packed up everything I can't wear anymore and invited my friend Lily over to dig through it. She and I have a similar style and I knew she would like the dresses as much as I do. I told her to take what she wanted and anything that was left would go to Goodwill. She ended up taking almost everything. I'm glad that now she has a ton of new clothes and my beautiful dresses will get to be worn and appreciated.

Peanut Butter Spelt Cookies

Last weekend I asked Sam what kind of lunch dessert he wanted for the week. When I pack our lunches I always include some sort of dessert- a cookie, a muffin, or an oatmeal bar, usually. He said he wanted peanut butter cookies, so I decided to play around with it and come up with a healthier peanut butter cookie. These turned out really, really well! I'm thinking of messing with it some more to find a gluten-free version to make for my dad. I made a small batch since I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but double the recipe to feed a crowd.

Peanut Butter Spelt Cookies
Prep time: 5 minutes
Bake time: 8-10 minutes

Makes 8 cookies

• 1/2 c. natural peanut butter
• 1/4 c. spelt flour
• 2 T white sugar
• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T agave nectar
• 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 1 t baking soda
• 1-2 T non-dairy milk (I used 1 T of almond milk. The amount of liquid you need will vary based on the moisture in the peanut butter you use)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. A stand mixer comes in handy here since it's a pretty thick dough,
3. Roll generous tablespoons of dough and place them on the cookie sheet. Flatten slightly, or make criss-crosses in them with a fork.
4. Bake 8-10 minutes, until the edges start to look dry.

According to the nutrition analysis on Calorie Count, each cookie has 148 calories, 4.6 grams of protein, and 1.5 grams of fiber. Not bad!

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I am not a fan of the sweet potato. Generally, anything that is straddling the line between sweet and savory is a no-go for me. However, I've been getting lots of sweet potatoes in my cheap produce order lately, and I needed to find a use for them before they took over my vegetable drawer. I thought fries would be a good use of them for Sunday brunch. Plus, Kim and Katie were having Blue Buffalo Fish and Sweet Potato for breakfast, and I'm kind of a follower.

I started with two medium sweet potatoes- wait, actually, I STARTED by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Back to my sweet potatoes- I cut them into "fries" and put them in a large Ziploc container.

(Oh, yes, that is a cat just hanging out in the sink. He just wants to know if whatever I'm cooking is worth his time.)

I melted two teaspoons of extra virgin coconut oil, added half a teaspoon of almond extract, threw that into the Ziploc container and tossed until everything was coated. I transferred the potatoes to a baking sheet and sprinkled them liberally (too liberally?) with cinnamon.

They went in the oven for 15 minutes, then I took them out, flipped them, and put them back in for another 15 minutes. I wanted something sweet to dip them in, so I mixed one part peanut butter with one part applesauce and microwaved it for about 10 seconds. It was a great (non-savory) dipping sauce.

I ate some with plain applesauce as well. They were good! I'm not sure I'm a total sweet potato-convert yet, but I would definitely eat these again.

Also, if anyone was wondering? Sweet potato fries are not worth the cat's time. He was napping on a stool by the time they were done.

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 2 t extra virgin coconut oil, or canola oil
• 1/2 t almond extract
• cinnamon, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut sweet potatoes into fries.
3. Mix oil and extract, pour onto fries, and toss to coat.
4. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, turning halfway through.