Vegan Brunch with Muffins! yay! (and a quick dinner)

Mmm. Made a vegan brunch today thanks to my favorite vegan cookbook, Vegan Brunch.
I made the "swiss chard frittata" (which ended up being a baby kale and caramelized onion frittata because Whole Foods was out of chard). I also made my polenta topped with roasted tomatoes. Mmm.

I made the Blueberry Ginger Spelt Muffins on page 155 of Vegan Brunch for the first time.
These were pretty good; I was craving some blueberry muffins and these hit the spot. I think I prefer a more dense bran-type muffin, so maybe I'll make blueberry bran muffins when I run out of spelt flour.

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt (a 6oz container) (as I'm typing this I realized that I actually screwed up and used 1 cup plain soy yogurt but it was totally fine!)
1 cup mylk (any kind of nut mylk will do)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups blueberries
(original recipe also calls for 1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger, which I omitted.)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
Mix all dry ingredients in a big bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in a separate bowl with the exception of the blueberries. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold in the blueberries (and ginger if using). Scoop batter into muffin tin and bake 28 - 32 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin before transferring muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely.

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Later, for dinner, I made a salad and a quick steamed spaghetti squash with vegan meatless balls. Mmm

This salad was also satisfying and it was just kalamata olives, mesclun lettuce, cucumbers, fresh heirloom tomatoes, roasted chestnuts, and the balsamic dressing that I made yesterday.
I paired it with some steamed spaghetti squash "pasta" and a veggie-loaded tomato sauce and Whole Foods' brand vegan meatless balls.
This is my lower carb alternative to pasta. meh.
To steam spaghetti squash (the lazy way): Cut ends off squash and then cut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and put in a microwaveable dish with about 1 centimeter of cold water. Microwave for about 13 minutes. Hold squash with a potholder (it's HOT!) while you scrape out the strings into a bowl.
To make the sauce (the lazy way): I sauté a sliced onion in a little olive oil in a saucepan until translucent. Then add a 28oz can of organic diced or crushed tomatoes and some Italian herbs and spices such as oregano, garlic powder, red pepper flake, salt, and pepper. I also added some frozen artichoke hearts to this sauce which I had reheated in the microwave. (This was my first try of frozen artichokes. Blech. I will stick to canned or jarred.) Heat through until flavors blend - about 5 - 10 mins.
Prepare your favorite vegan meatless balls as directed, put on top of spaghetti squash, top with sauce and enjoy! yum. (Add a basil chiffonade for extra yum yums.)