Greetings, it’s been a while! Yes, we’re alive and still busy trying to save the crumbs for our little Crumb Saver household. Not much has really changed in the last year since we wrote. Al has been busy with work as usual while doing finance seminars on the side (which is partly why he has had less time for the blog). I’m still a stay-at-home mom and my days are filled with the day-to-day household and mommy responsibilities of chopping vegetables, hanging out laundry, looking for froggy eggs in the pond, and dumping out the potty chair.

But what HAS changed is that Little Crumb Saver is now 3.5, has outgrown baby status and graduated to “big girl”-hood. It’s the most delightful thing to watch her sparkling personality unfold like a beautiful little flower! In the last few months we’ve noticed that she seems to be taking after her parents in her nerdy tendencies. We are thrilled! She has started reading Dick and Jane books, memorized the planets, 12 disciples, and books of the New Testament, and seems to have an interest in math. Of course, she is also like her parents in that she has very little interest in extreme sports (like riding her tricycle) or high risk pursuits (like swimming by herself with her floaties on). We love her to pieces and she brings so much fun and laughter and love to our Crumb Saver home.

Cornbread to the Rescue

Al was gone for a week to do a finance seminar, and whenever he is gone, I hate to cook. I’m generally less than enthusiastic about cooking anyway, but when it’s just me and Little Crumb Saver, I’m super unmotivated and we end up eating a lot of cereal. Bad mom.

So I decided to just make a huge batch of food once and eat it as long as we could bear it. That sounds like a great crumb saving strategy. I decided to make little Crumb Saver’s and my favorite: CORNBREAD. Oh, yum, how I love cornbread! I have loved it ever since I was a child and I think Little Crumb Saver was born with my taste buds. It’s helpful that cornbread is the perfect Crumb Saver winter comfort food: fluffy, warm, quick to throw together, easy to make in large batches, super cheap, warms up the house baking, good for potluck, and most importantly for us, goes great with our winter staple: soup. We usually eat it on the side spread with Just Mayo or margarine, but this time I decided to make a HUGE pot of chili beans with a bunch of veggies from last summer’s garden thrown in. Enough to last at least until Al came home. So we consumed cornbread topped with chili beans, avocado slices, and a dollop of mayo for 4 days straight! Little Crumb Saver who usually needs multiple reminders to stay on task and eat more than 1 bite every 10 minutes, gobbled it up without any coaxing or prodding. Which means, we may be tempted to eat this every day from now on.

So if you are looking for a cheap, easy, vegan cornbread recipe, feel free to try this one. I think I found it online at some point, tried different variations, and settled on this as my go-to version. So, sorry if I can’t credit the original source.

Let’s Make it!

I almost always make a double recipe, because cornbread gets consumed pretty fast around here. So keep in mind that these pictures are of a DOUBLE recipe.

I really like that the recipe is pretty forgiving (am I the only one that hates recipes that tell you to WEIGH ingredients?!). So when Little Crumb Saver helps me, our measurements are usually more approximations but it always comes out just fine. Well, except for some little girl saliva and a few stray sneezes that get mixed in. Oh well.

Mix the dry and liquid ingredients separately and then mix them together, like so. 

Pour into a sprayed pan and jiggle a little bit for the batter to spread out (the jiggling is Little Crumb Saver’s favorite part).

Bake uncovered until toothpick comes out clean. For our double recipe that’s usually 25 min. Don’t worry if it cracks on top. Those cracks just mean it’s baked to perfection.

Yum! Can’t wait to eat some warm fluffy cornbread with posole soup this week! How about you?

 

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Quick & Easy Vegan Cornbread

Ingredients

  • 2 T ground flaxseed
  • 6 T water
  • 1 c all-purpose flour
  • 1 c cornmeal
  • 1/4 c sugar
  • 4 t baking powder
  • 3/4 t salt
  • 1 c unsweetened soy or other plant milk
  • 1/4 c oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  2. Mix flax with water and microwave for 1 minute, mixture should develop a little "eggwhite" texture.
  3. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Mix wet ingredients with flax mixture. Then mix wet and dry ingredients together. Don't overmix.
  4. Pour into sprayed 8" square pan. Jiggle the pan to spread evenly.
  5. Bake uncovered for 20-25 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

Notes

If substituting whole wheat flour for all-purpose, add a little extra liquid to keep it moist.

Make sure you are using plain cornmeal, not self-rising cornmeal which is common in the grocery store.

This recipe is just slightly sweet. To reduce sweetness, just decrease amount of sugar to your preference.

We use aluminum free baking powder from Walmart.

You can use sweetened plant milk if you prefer sweeter cornbread. Or if it's all you have, you can just decrease the sugar a little in the recipe.

I've learned that skimping on the oil makes the cornbread leathery when reheated. So use the recipe amount to keep leftovers fluffy.

https://savingthecrumbs.com/quick-easy-vegan-cornbread/