Instant Pot Vegan Bread Pudding

This is an easy and delicious dessert to prepare in the Instant Pot.  I just used ordinary whole wheat bread and mostly ingredients I already have in the pantry. To make the original recipe from this site vegan, I used flax seed meal instead of eggs and almond milk instead of the cream. I also skipped the butter. I was pleasantly surprised the end vegan version turned out moist but not mushy at all .

My family especially my husband love this. I for one could not stop eating it.

Instant Pot Vegan Bread Pudding

Adapted from this site

• 8 cups whole wheat bread, cubed
• 2 tbsp flax seed meal 
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk
• 1//2 cup raisins 
• 1 1/2 cups water for Instant Pot

Optional

• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tbsp rum

1. Cut or tear the bread into cubes.

2. Mix the flax seed, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and almond milk in a large bowl.

3. Add to the milk mixture, the bread and raisns. Mix.

4. Transfer the bread mixture in a 6 or 7 inch bowl. Cover with aluminum foil.  Center the container on the aluminum sling.

5. Place 1 1/2 cup water in the pot.  Place the trivet on top. With the help of the sling, lower the container of bread mixture on top of the trivet.

6. Place the valve of the Instant Pot in the sealing position. Cook on manual/high pressure for 30 minutes.

7. At the end of the cooking cycle, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes. After that time, place the valve in the venting position using glove for quick release of pressure.

8. Using pair of gloves, lift the container with help of the sling.

9. If you like,  mix maple syrup and rum and pour on top of bread pudding.

My impossible wish for maddie

That you will always find the thrill in finding your elf in its hiding place. That missing a morning to find it is not an option, more important than staying overnight with Lolo and Lola, grandpa and grandma in Tagalog respectively..

Oh how you shed cupious tears when your Dada insisted that you stay overnight with us. He did not want me to take another trip to your house the next day to babysit you on your day off from school.  I just quietly stayed out of the way of your power struggle with your Dada. You did sleep at our house.  Dada won.

Finding your elf in its hiding place is not something I did with your mama though I had several toy elves I have could have used.  Your Lolo's mother never taught me that custom at all.  I finally understood why you cried when we finally got to your house past lunch time.  That morning, you sort of forgot about the elf since we had a great time at the Oakmont library and then lunch at Panera like we used to before you started kindergarten,  I will not forget that excitement in your steps as you entered your house to look for the elf.  The seriousness in your quest for finding the elf was intense.  You went through every possible nooks and crannies, high and low in your house. The joy in your squeal when you finally found it on the shelf among several plates and cups in the curio cabinet was heartwarming.   I do not know how you found it but you did.

I know there will come a time when this obsession of finding the hidden elf will pass but I hope you will discover another challenge in  your life to seek and find not necessarily an object.  Maybe a quest for happiness or maybe peace or some goal you want fulfilled. I hope you will always find joy when you do reach that aha moment. 

Instant Pot Vegan Shepherd's Pie with Mashed Cauliflower

Shepherd's Pie and Mashed Cauliflower in one Instant Pot?  Yes, Ma'm.  Instant Pot comes with a trivet and this recipe employs its use to the hilt to accomplish the stacking approach.  The shepherd's pie is cooked right in the pot, trivet is positioned above it and the cauliflower is placed in a seven inch container to hold the cauliflower florets.

The recipe and idea of using the stacking method to cook both the pie and cauliflower was adapted from the book The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook by Megan Gilmore. I tweaked the original recipe by using tomato paste, miso paste, nutritional yeast and bay leaves to enhance the depth of flavor of the filling. I also added green peas to the vegetable medley at the end.

Instant Pot Vegan Shepherd's Pie with Mashed Cauliflower

Adapted from the book The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook by Megan Gilmore.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 carrots, cut in half inch pieces
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, roughly cut
• 1/2 cup lentils
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dry rosemary
• 1 tbsp tamari soy sauce or more to taste
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 1 head cauliflower cut into small pieces
• 1 tbsp miso paste or more to taste
• 8 ounces frozen green peas

1. Add all the ingredients EXCEPT the cauliflower, miso paste and green peas in the Instant Pot and mix them. 

2. Place the trivet on top of the vegetables and put a seven inch oven safe bowl on top. Place the cauliflower florets and 1/2 cup water in the bowl. 

3.  Securely place the lid and be sure the steam release valve is in the Sealing position.

4  Select Manual/Pressure Cook to cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. 

5. When the cooking cycle is done, allow the pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes.   At the end of ten minutes, move the steam release valve to Venting position to allow the remaing pressure to escape.  

6. When all the pressure is released the floating valve will drop, and you can now open the lid. Using an oven mitt remove the trivet and the bowl out of the pot. 

7,  Remove the bay leaves from the vegetable filling and add the miso paste with stirring and adjust the other seasonings. Add the frozen green peas and stir.  

8. Mash the cauliflower with nondairy milk, salt and pepper in the bowl with a fork or transfer in a blender.

9. Serve the vegetable filling in a large bowl or individual bowls 

topped with mashed cauliflower.

Paula’s Prayer Meeting 1/8/2020

My notes:

We were asked to find epiphanies that we have experienced in our lives.

God uses everything for the good. We just need to pay attention.

Jesus was born during winter and resurrected during spring.

Seek me with all your heart and you will find me. Jeremiah 29.

We are called to be saints. Collosians 3

We all seek transcendence. The spiritual yearns not to be constricted by our body.

We need community and connectedness.

Happy New Year. Hope you can join us.

eternity in life stories

Am I witnessing eternity as I visit the past?
As I write about my life story.
As I reminisce about my childhood with my Nanang, my Lola Sefa,
My mother, my father.
My aunts and uncles.
My days playing with my Ate, Anton, Benjie, Chot, and Menchie.
Countless cousins, playmates.
Friends in high school, college, grad school.
Memorable neighbors, friends, colleagues.
Strangers along the way.

Is that why I am both exhausted and exhilarated as I hit the keys as I write.
What I  knock off from my memory bank.
Pieces and fragments. Emotions, happy, sad.

Am I poking at an incomprehensible huge matrix.  Of interwoven lives and events.
Is this after all eternity? When the past is brought in the now.
And the future being painted with the brushes of awe inspiring recall.



Note:  This musing was inspired by the interview of the Poet Laureate of 2019, Joy Harjo,  in Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday Show.   Below are some of the notes I made of her profound thoughts.

Nobody dies
Ancestors in every poem, story
One connected matrix

In the eye of children,  nature
We are always in conversation with history

Train sets, I don't get it

What is this about
train sets? Mesmerizing whirr,
symphonic movements.

Unearthed from boxes
Set up with blood, sweat, elbow grease
Countless google search for parts
But why?

Memories of childhood past
Thrill to build
Creative juices satisfied
I still don't get it.