Eggs verses Goop

I am a vegetarian through and through. I live a mainly vegan life, but honestly, to a vegan who is completely pure, they would scoff. What we do in our family is avoid all meat, and avoid 99% of any other animal products. We do eat cheese once in a while, meaning for a family or 10 perhaps we eat cheese in small servings three times a month. We also eat ice-cream a little here and there. We go through phases where we won't eat any eggs for a year maybe, and then we will get a dozen free range eggs and we will make a few omelets or eggs sandwiches. I rarely use them for anything else. I have found that I don't need them. I use other things that are much more healthy. I don't believe for a minute that eggs are a great source of protein. They are too loaded with other things that are not good for us to take eggs very seriously as a "healthy" protein option. I will leave that discussion for another blog about protein in general.

When we bake and the recipe calls for an egg, I often use flax seed instead. Flax seeds are very inexpensive to purchase and I purchase mine either at Winco Foods in their bulk section or through Azure Standard foods. I make up what I call "Flax Seed Goop" and store it in my refrigerator for baking. This Goop works especially well for quick breads that you want to be moist. So here are my instructions for making Flax Seed Goop:

Blend 1 cup of flax seed in your blender or food processor. I have a Vitamix (Which I LOVE) and blend until the seeds are powder. Add 4 cups of water and return to blending for about 1 minute. The seeds and the water will turn to a consistency much like an egg from a chicken, maybe a bit thicker. The Goop will be slightly tan in color. This mixture can be used in 1/4 cup measures to replace 1 egg in baking. So 1/4 cup equals one egg. I store the rest of the Goop in my fridge for up to one week. You can make smaller batches by just cutting down the recipe...if you want to use 1/2 cup of flax seeds, then just use 2 cups of water, or 1/4 cup of flax seeds with 1 cup of water. It all works out to be the same Goop that is great for baking and so much better for you body, plus it is better on the poor chickens that are forced to lay eggs on farms.

Please note that you really do need to process or blend the seeds first into powder, as once the water is in the blender, it is much harder to get the seeds to grind down fine enough to make up a nice smooth Goop you want.

Here is a Pumpkin Bread Recipe I designed using my egg re-placer Goop. We like it a lot. I affectionately named it after one of my sons because he loves it so much! Abe will eat a whole loaf himself if I add chocolate to it. I add chocolate chips to our bread sometimes when I am feeling like I want to be naughty!

Abe's Favorite Pumpkin Bread Recipe designed by Chris Peterson
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup organic sugar (we use Turbinado)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and cinnamon, allspice each
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
(1/2 chocolate chips or carob chips can be added too)

1/2 olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup Goop
1 cup pumpkin puree' (fresh or canned)

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend wet ingredients together in a medium bowl and then add to large bowl of dry ingredients. Place in a lined or greased bread pan. Bake @350 degrees 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Please watch your pumpkin bread as every oven is different and baking times may vary.

I would love to hear what you do with your Goop!