My Vegan Creations

Major Catching Up

2007-02-17T18:21:00.000-06:00

Well, maybe not as major as the Christmas one! I guess I let all my photos pile up again and neglected to post them. Enjoy a plethora of photos from the past very long time:

Fork You Cupcakes

These resulted from one of those spur of the moment ideas and needed to be made on a whim. They are Vanilla Cupcakes from Cupcakes, topped with chocolate frosting dyed black (resulting in unusual bowel issues), and severed finger cookies, sans blood.

Cherry Berry Pie adapted from the Voluptuous Vegan:

British Muffins from The Fresh Loaf:

Pita Bread from the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen:

Unfortunately, they never got pockets. They were very delicious though! Great for pita chips.

Chocolate Vanilla Marbled Sugar Cookies (mom's recipe veganized):

Raspberry Chocolate Blondie Bars from VwaV:

Lolo's Mini Donuts! From Veganyumyum.com:
Lolo used a mini donut pan, but I do not own one. I got creative and rolled up some foil for muffin pans and they turned out wonderful!

Mocha-Choco Chip-Almond-Cashew Biscotti (Jess's recipe, see my very first blog entry for the recipe!):

Adorable Peanut Kiss Cookies:

The peanut butter cookie recipe is from Vive le Vegan and the hearts/kisses are cashew/agave filled chocolate hearts I made.

There's much more to come!

Mom's Birthday

2007-02-01T13:23:00.000-06:00

My mom's birthday was during my week of finals. I definitely had no time to make her a present or cake that week and I used my free time to vegetate. So I made her a MINI cake the following weekend:

It's a "neopolitan" cake with three different batters swirled together: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. They are the basic chocolate and vanilla cupcake recipes with half the vanilla dyed pink and flavored with strawberry extract. The batters mixed together was pure heaven.

I carefully and tediously frosted this mini cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, sparingly because I had a limited amount of powdered sugar. The rose is strawberry flavored vanilla buttercream.

Inside shot:

This was a really delcious cake. All the flavors mingled together smelled and tasted amazing. And mini makes everything cuter.

Christmas Baking plus other sweets (and savories)

2007-01-04T12:09:00.000-06:00

I've been way behind on everything this winter break, homework included. Before I embark on the continuation of my schoolwork, I want to post all these pictures so I have a peace of mind. I admit some of the pictures you'll see below are from up to a few months ago. This is going to be a BIG post, but bigger is better, right?

Christmas. I did a lot of baking/candy making because I tend to go all out for everything. I make simple things involved and complicated. But that's okay because I like to make people happy, and how do homemade baked goods and presents not make people happy? I got a lot of neat gifts, but I'll get to that later because I know you want to see the pictures.

Phase One: School
It's pretty much a given that I was going to do something for school. I had a secret santa party after school and a whole day of school to endure. So I made it sweet. I spent about 7 hours working on this the night before because I am, in fact, crazy.

The craziest:

Yes, they are gingerbread people. Yes they have faces. They're paper faces, but I neglected to tell the recipient that detail. I'm sure he figured it out though. I made a whole bunch of these and gave a boxful to my AP Euro teacher. The faces are my classmates copied from a yearbook and glued on with sugar paste. And dipped in chocolate. I have quite an obsession with dipping things in chocolate, as you will see shortly. He said they were the weirdest things ever. The second picture is me and it's no surprise that I pasted on something related to animal rights. I thought it was kind of funny that all of them stayed intact on the way to school except the cookie of my teacher, who was decapitated. Oh, and I had to walk to the store IN THE RAIN to get molasses for these.

I also brought Isa's chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookies (found on the PPK website) with crushed candy canes added into the batter. These are some of the best cookies ever. Sadly, the picture didn't turn out. I also brought Chocolate Chip Cookies from VwaV, made from the leftover batter of the cookie cake I brought to my secret santa party. And some Fudgy Brownies from Vive le Vegan, topped with drizzled cashew frosting and chocolate ganache. My secret santa received a gift card to Target, a stuffed animal of a frog, some brownies, and a few cookies.
Brownies OMFG

Choco Chip Cookes

Secret Santa Cake with chocolate ganache and multicolored frosting

Phase 2: Getting into the Christmas Season
This is the part where I am all excited and think: "OOOOOHHHH I can make a bazillion things because it's the holidays. Excitement!". And I did.
I made buttercrunch toffee, two kinds of sugar cookies, gifts for everybody (peppermint patties, chocolate covered cashew cream eggs, snickerdoodles, ginger cookies, and gingerbones for my puppy). I have pictures of everything except the snickerdoodles and gingerbones.
Buttercrunch Toffee. Basically pure sugar and fat. Mmmm...(I know I got the recipe from kittee on the PPK, but I'm really bad at remembering where I got things. Now I can't find it.) The first time I made these, I burned the mixture on the stove, panicked, and stupidly poured it into a STYROFOAM CUP. I don't know what I was thinking besides: "People put hot coffee in styrofoam cups....GRAB A STYROFOAM CUP". Not a good idea. It got sticky sugary stuff ALL OVER the stove and floor. I don't know why I didn't just leave it in the pot.

Sugar Cookies. I veganized my mom's recipe and they were sooo good. The frosting is from the cupcake book and the sprinkles are just sugar and food coloring.

The picture is pretty bad, but these are peppermint patties and chocolate covered cashew cream eggs. I cannot find where I got the eggs recipe, but they are fricking amazing. They were peanut butter eggs, but I kind of hate peanut butter, so I used cashew. I made them with peanut butter again today and they were really good because they were more sugary than peanutty. The peppermint patties were from Veganlicious. I will eventually type up the eggs recipe because everyone should make them.

Sparkled Ginger Cookies from your know where for my dad. I made them hard because he likes them crunchy. I like them soft and chewy, so I always make them that way instead.

Here's how I gave the gifts (I made one thing for each person, then gave a few of the other peoples' sweets to everyone):
Mom-Peppermint patties plus some cashew eggs and ginger cookies
Dad-Ginger cookies plus some peppermint patties and cashew eggs
Brother-Cashew eggs and snickerdoodles plus peppermint patties
Grandma-A little bit of everything
Other Grandma and Grandpa-Cashew Cream Eggs

Phase 3: Christmas Day
Drake got SOOOOO many presents. I divided the gingerbones between 4 presents so he had more to open. He also got a big tennis ball, a stuffed squeaky sheep, a squeaky duck, a stuffed cow that goes moooo, a stuffed frisbee, a holey roller ball, a new nylabone (he completely chewed up his other one), a rubber bone, and a few other things. He's sooo spoiled and loved opening everything and playing in the wrapping paper. This was his first real Christmas, so we made it really special for him. His first Christmas was most likely spent locked up in a crate in an ice-cold garage all day...
His favorite toy ever, his nylabone:
Some pictures of Drake with his presents:
His sheep (he tore off her ear within minutes, made a hole in his ducky, frisbee, and cow. Yet we still buy him cute little stuffed animals...):

Playing in the wrapping paper:

Drake was very patient when he let us take lots of pictures of him outside:

He didn't really like being dressed as a princess though:

On Christmas day, I got:
-Money-lots! and Hobby Lobby gift cards
-A woodburning kit from my grandparents
-Tracing paper
-Doggie picture frames and a photo album (I already filled up the whole thing with Drake pictures!)
-Wilton Dessert Decorator Pro!!! and pastry bags

-Big container of nooch
-Dark chocolate dreams by PB and Co
-Socks
-Mean people wear fur shirt (but I had to send it back for a different size because my mom thought "ladies L" meant "unisex L" since the other size was called "girly", she thought it was for little girls). We sent it back, but I still haven't gotten the right size yet...
-Anti fur and anti leather buttons
-peta calendar
-slippers
-Passionate Vegetarian
A 12 Pack of Agave squeeze bottles, hell yes! Plus 4 other cookbooks, 3 of which came the next day: The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein and The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton. Authentic Chinese Cuisine by Bryanna Clark Grogan has yet to come because it's out of stock. I may have to wait until February.
-A jar of pickles (from my dad...)
-Two face cleansers from earth science
-Urban decay lip gloss (it's so tiny and it was $17!)
-Merry Hempsters lip balm (probably my 6th or 7th tube now..)
-Desert essence organics almond body lotion (yum!!)
-Gloves
-A lemon zester, but we ended up returning it along with the pastry bags because I kept the big decorator pro. I bought silicon brush and a chopper that cuts veggies, fruits, and potatos into wavy shapes (like crinkle cut chips).
-A magnetic bracelet
-A garlic press
-A pawprint kit with a little quote book from Drake. It's like those concrete handprint kits for children, but for puppies!
-And a cupcake/cake/cookie/whatever carrier!!! It fit 24 cupcakes!

With my money, plus help from parents I bought a Sandisk Sansa 8 gig MP3 player with photos, music, and videos. For $180 from Amazon!! Take that, Ipod. It's expected to come in the next week. I can't wait, I've already downloaded (I mean, legally obtained and paid for..) 115 songs! It might come tomorrow since it's in Indianapolis right now! Maybe if it gets to Palatine later, it'll get here very soon!

I bought a 6 gig from BestBuy, but it was already loaded with Rhapsody and they trick you into having to pay a monthly fee, so I took it back when I realized this and then looked it up on Amazon. I paid $200 for the one from BestBuy, but only $180 for the same one with 2 more gigs. Woohoo!

Eventually I want to buy some rollerblades and a paint set. And an order from VeganEssentials. I've gone consumer-crazy...I never buy anything for myself, really. I actually felt a little guilty when I bought the first MP3 player.

Okay, back to Christmas. I brought Mint Chocolate Cupcakes topped with Trader Joe's Candy Cane Jojos to my cousin's house on Christmas.

From all the holiday baking, I had no sugar. I had to use maple syrup. I also ran out of mint extract, so I added some chopped candy canes to make up for it. I also had NO CHOCOLATE. I had to invent ganache from cocoa powder, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla because no stores were open. They actually turned out perfect!

I never mentioned Christmas Eve because it is not worth mentioning due to going to the home of some people I cannot stand. One person in particular is confident that I'm going to die because I am vegan. Yeah...right. I did get a cute little herb set from a food grab bag though!

Phase 4: Post-Christmas
I didn't have time for a gingerbread house before the holiday, so I did it after. Everything is homemade, down to the gingerbread, marzipan, and graham crackers. Not the candy though. And it's 100% vegan to boot!

I wanted to share my sprinkles kit I made today. It's just sugar plus food coloring in many colors. I LOVE IT!

Chocolate dipped pretzels with pink sprinkles:

Phase 5: No Relation to Christmas, happened months before Christmas, savories to balance out all this sweet.
Love this pie. Pumpkin Pie from Voluptuous Vegan

This is what happens when you make "Microwave Oatmeal Bars" from Vegan Family Favorites by Erin Pavlina. Not only do they BURN, they melt the container if you so choose to use a plastic one. That was a big mess.

Cinnamon Buns!

But in loaf form!

Chewy choco chip cookies sandwiched with fluffy buttercream frosting.

I LOVE love love this picture of Ginger Cupcakes with Lemony Frosting. They are so good and the lemon frosting is amazing.

Cashew Cupcakes, but with Almond Butter, which is one of my favorite foods. My favorite is becoming cashew butter now though!

Mini Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes:

On New Years, I made Hummus Tortilla Pizzas from Vive and made them into smiley pizzas with olives and ketchup.

I made some cheezy polenta lasagna with premade polenta, veggies, marinara, Parmezano Sprinkles and Buffalo Mostarella from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.

I made bagel dogs and bagels. I used a seitan pastrami recipe (although I would use something different if I made these again) and wrapped them in bagel dough!

Whew. That was A LOT. Oh! I also went to a fur protest in Chicago during winter break at Nordstrom and Burberry. I met CUBE and Chelsea_Olive from the PPK and we went together. Afterwards, my mom and I went to Karyn's Cooked and got a TVP taco and coffee with soy creamer. So good. It was FREEZING. I didn't stop shivering until after we stopped in Whole Foods after dinner to warm up. I bought some TVP, cashew butter, and tahini. The tahini is 365 brand and VERY bitter. Anyone know how to alleviate this problem?

I'm off to do my homework now!

Thanksgiving (Dessert!)

2006-12-10T08:29:00.000-06:00

I didn't take any pictures of dinner, but I had Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Garlic, Kale, Green Beans, a cranberry cornbread muffin, Cranberry raisin orange walnut pecan bread, pumpkin butter and cranberry sauce. There was also a dead animal and foodstuffs filled with butter and animal broth.
But for dessert, it was much most desirable and aesthetically appealing!
I made Pumpkin Pie from the Voluptuous Vegan, Tiramisu Cupcakes, Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes, Strawberry Tallcakes, Sparkled Ginger Sandwich Cookies filled with lemon buttercream and a little banana cream pie for Drake. Everything was amazing, and I ended up making the pie again yesterday!

Recipe for the Banana Cream Doggie Pies:
I just made it up as I went. Drake loved it and we gave one to his friend who I was dogsitting.
Two small glass bowls (3-4 in diameter) that are oven safe, sprayed with oil
Crust:
Brown Rice Flour (or any flour, really)
Oats
Almond Butter (or PB)
Water
Pie:
A banana, slightly browned
Cinnamon
More nut butter
Cornstarch

Preheat oven to 325-350 degress F.
In each seperate bowl, stir together a mixture of oats and flour with a spoonful of nut butter and water as needed to create a workable dough. Press into the bottom and edges to make pie crusts. Set aside.
With a fork, mash the banana with a spoonful of nut butter. Add a few dashes of cinnamon. Stir in a a teaspoon or so of cornstarch. Pour the filling into the crusts. Sprinkle the tops with more oats or any other doggie-safe topping.
Cover the tops with foil and bake for about 10 minutes until the filling and crust is slightly firm. Uncover and bake for 5-8 more minutes (I'm not so sure on that time, I had my mom bake them while I was visiting Drake's friend, so keep an eye on them), until firm. Be careful not to cook too long or a skin will form on top (which is what happened, but Drake didn't mind).

My pies were brown because they had to sit in the fridge for a few hours since my mom decided to start cooking the animal right when I was about to put them in the oven.

Seitan Reuben, Challah, Pie, and Bloody Bloody Fingers

2006-12-09T18:55:00.000-06:00

Hello all! These last few weeks have been insanely busy and I haven't been able to post. I promise the Thanksgiving pictures are coming soon!
In the meantime, here's a seitan reuben, challah, and apple pie.
Reuben: I have been trying to collect all the components of a reuben sandwich and have them at the same time for quite a while. I even ran to the store to get a jar of pickles! Then I realized I had no rye bread, but I wasn't too upset. I just used a slice of sprouted whole wheat and a really small slice of sweet pumpernickel I made that I dug out of the freezer. It wasn't really sandwich bread at all. I made the first seitan I ever liked, in baked form (it's "Seitan Pastrami"). I loved it so much! So, my sandwich has seitan, kale, caraway sauerkraut, homemade thousand island dressing, sliced pickles, sliced tomato, and sliced onion. With Trader Joe's banana crisps on the side. Those things are really really good. They kind of taste like potato chips to me, but a lot better. And when I say "crisps" I mean crisps, not crisps as in chips. They are very different from banana chips.

The first time I ever made challah. I served it with potato pancakes, Earth Balance, homemade applesauce, and lots and lots of sauerkraut.

Gingerbread Apple Pie from VwaV:
Pre-oven:

Out of oven:

The pie crust is sooooooo good. And so is the filling. I love this pie.

These little severed fingers are really almond-flavored cookies with blanched almond nails and red sugar goo. I found the recipe on another blog, but I can't remember who. Has anyone seen these somewhere else?

Spooky Halloween Cupcakes

2006-11-09T19:41:00.000-06:00

OooooOOoooooOOooohhhhhHHHH!! Spooky...
Yes. So, whenever there is a holiday, I feel like making cupcakes and bringing them to school. I agree to get up at 4:30 in the morning to make frosting and pipe it on so the cuppers super fresh and pretty. Halloween was definitely no exception. No Halloween cupcakes? You've got to be kidding me.
I was very impressed with myself for coming up with candy corn-esque frosting. These gems are your basic chocolate cupcakes from, need I say it? Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by you know who(s). The frosting is the fluffy buttercream dyed unnatural shades of yellow and orange, but we love them that way. They look so Halloween-y and candy corn-esque, even if candy corn isn't vegan. It's gross anyway, but delicious in vegan fluffy buttercream frosting form.

As you can see, I made two more varieties of cupcakes. The mint chocolates and expresso with mocha frosting. The mints went over very well. One time when I brought mint chocolate and mocha chocolate muffins, the mints were left over in numbers. But I guess the demand is different on different days. Why am I even thinking about why cupcakes are less loved on certain days? Anyway, look at the pictures:

More candy corn cupcake goodness:

These aren't from Halloween, but they are cupcakes, so why are you complaining?
Pictures that don't do justice of the cupcakes that have remained my favorite since I receieved the cupcake book. They were the first ones I ever made and none can beat 'em (yet). Oh, they're the cherry chocolate cremes:

They're the best because they are chocolately cupcakes with a hint of cherry with my favorite-fluffy buttercream frosting and lots of cherry sauce.

I think they are worthy of coming with me to school on "Day Before Thanksgiving Break Day". To you know, share the goodness.

Brother's Birthday

2006-11-05T10:28:00.000-06:00

I may be getting a little ahead of myself since I still have to post Halloween Cupcakes, but that's okay. Here's the festivities of November 1st:

The cake is the Cookies n Cream Cupcake recipe from VCTotW (I can start using an acronymn for the cupcake book now, right?), made into a TRIPLE layer cake. The frosting is fluffy buttercream (1.5 batches to be exact) with crushed cookies, smothered between every layer and elegantly smoothed out on top and piped on the sides (the sides liked to fall down). The words are chocolate ganache piped on with a writing tip. Sprinkled with more cookie crumbs.

He was 12!

Mole Day!

2006-11-05T09:49:00.000-06:00

Here's my Eskimole that won first place at my school!

It's a puppet too!

'
With holidays comes cupcakes, right? Of course!
All from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. You should buy it. But you know that already.
First up, Mole Cupcakes (people at school insisted on calling them "molecakes")! Golden Vanilla Cupcakes dyed orange in honor of the approaching Halloween, topped with Rich Chocolate Ganache, complete with orange royal icing (I made up the royal icing recipe, ha!) spelling out 6.02 x 10^23 MOLE.

Cookies 'n' Cream. By popular opinion, these were the favorite. Chocolate Cupcakes with chopped "oreos" mixed into the batter. Topped with Fluffy Buttercream Frosting with cookie crumbs mixed in.

Strawberry Tallcakes, my love. Golden Vanilla with fluffy buttercream and strawberry sauce. Mmmm...

All of them, ready for action.

I wonder if moles like cupcakes?

BBQ Tofu and Polenta, Squashes

2006-11-05T09:28:00.000-06:00

I have a lot of food pictures (especially cupcakes) waiting to be posted. So keep checking back!

First off, we have BBQ tofu, made with homemade BBQ sauce. The polenta is from a tube. I love homemade polenta though!

A few squashes from the garden. I haven't eaten any yet, I should before they rot!

Cookie Dough Ice Cream. I started out with Vanilla So Delicious and stirred in some cookie dough. And some chunks of cookie dough that I froze.

Lots and Lots of Cupcakes

2006-10-22T08:02:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't been blogging lately. But that's because I've been using my spare time to make cupcakes!! My favorites are the strawberry tallcakes and the chocolate cherry creme!

Strawberry Tallcakes
Perfectly flavored basic vanilla cupcakes that melt in your mouth filled with gooey strawberry sauce and fluffy whipped buttercream frosting. Topped with more frosting and a strawberry half. Amazing.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
Peppermint-y chocolate cupcakes topped with minty buttercream with a dollop of smooth chocolate ganache.
Smores Cupcakes
Soft cinnamon cupcakes with smashed graham crackers folded in, filled with fluffy buttercream and topped with more buttercream, chocolate shavings, and a piece of graham cracker.

Elvis Cupcakes
Very banana-y cupcakes, perhaps too banana-y for me, but with an amazing texture. Topped with a swirl of peanut butter frosting and adorned with ganache.

Mini Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Tiny peanut butter dominated cupcakes with peanut chunks scattered throughout topped with a swirl of chocolatey buttercream frosting.

Halloween Marble Cupcakes
Marble cupcakes with a dose of orange food coloring added to the vanilla cake batter, topped with orange fluffy buttercream and drizzled with spider venom (ganache). Spider is not vegan.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!

2006-10-12T17:48:00.000-05:00

I received my copy today in the mail! If for some reason you have no clue what I am talking about, that would be a travesty, but I'll tell you anyway. VCTOtW is a cupcake book with lots of cupcake recipes and yumminess by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (author of Vegan with a Vengeance) and Terry Hope Romero. I was very very excited when it came as I wrote here and right away decided to make Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes, which are the best cupcakes I've ever eaten in my entire life as of now.

The pictures are kind of blurry, but what can I say? I wanted to hurry up and eat a cupcake. Yum.

Birthday Ice Cream Pie! And some cookies...

2006-10-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted in months, but I've been at school everyday. Then when I return home, I have hours of homework. Fun. But I decided it's time to post some pictures I've taken during my blogging idleness. I haven't taken pictures of nearly everything I've made lately because it would be too much to post, and I haven't made anything very time-consuming. Mostly a gajillion batches of cookies. I also made 24 cupcakes and a batch of cookies to bring to school (for the day after my birthday!), but I didn't take a picture.

It was my birthday two Tuesdays ago (September 26th) and my mom made me the Chocolate Crumb Cashew Ice Cream Pie from Vive le Vegan, the only change being the addition of caramel sauce in the middle of the ice cream layer. I ate it for dinner for three days...mmm...
She made everything except the caramel sauce, which I made.

Candles! They're all in one corner because I didn't want wax on the whole pie.

Blurry inside shot!
I made these cookies a long while ago. They are Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies from Vive le Vegan. Yum. I really like the first picture.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies. YES, THEY ARE VEGAN. "How?" might you ask. Well, one day I was at the thrift store and I came across a Hershey Kiss Making Kit. I was excited because I was trying to make a mold for kisses the previous week, so it was a real coincidence. I bought it for a buck and ended up throwing all the parts away except the mold because they had gross old milk chocolate on them and I could melt the chips on the stove top without all the parts that probably work like crap anyway. The only downside is that the chocolate kisses taste slightly plasticky from the mold. I've made mint kisses and almond kisses too!
The recipe is adapted from a non-vegan one I found in the cupboard. I wasn't crazy about the PB cookie recipe, so next time I'll use a different one.
Some muffins. Left is banana peanut butter chocolate chip and right is cornbread with raisins.

Tofutorial!

2006-08-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

Tofutorial
If you want to know how to make jewelry out of tofu, or just preserve a chunk of bean curd forever and ever, click the above link. I made a guided tutorial of making tofu jewelry.

Tofu Dill Salad Sammich, Peach Cobbler, and Fresh Herbs...

2006-08-13T21:08:00.000-05:00

I made a tofu dill salad sammich from VwaV for lunch and it looked so pretty and picture-worthy. It's a very yummy sammich.

Peach Cobbler from Vegan with a Vengeace, delicious with a scoop of So Delcious Creamy Vanilla:

I've started freezing the garden herbs to use for winter and they all looked so pretty together. In the top left corner is mint, then below is basil, top middle is parsley, then lime basil, top right corner is rosemary, then chives, and dill. I packaged them all seperately in ziptop baggies then put them in one big baggie.

All packaged up for the freezer with some frozen lemon zest and frozen tablespoons of tomato paste:

Ginger Macadamia Coconut Carrot Cake and Caramel Nut Cupcakes

2006-08-13T20:46:00.000-05:00

It was my grandma's birthday recently and she came over yesterday. I made her Ginger Macadamia Coconut Carrot Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance AND mini chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel sauce and peanuts.

The cake is AMAZING. Seriously, if I was stranded on a desert island and I could only have one cake forever, I'd pick this one. It is my favorite recipe in the entire book and I've made about 70 in total. It's "healthy" too, there's carrots, pineapple juice, coconut, ginger, macadamias, maple syrup, oh who am I kidding? This is one decadent dessert.

The cake:

The mini chocolate cupcakes were just a basic wacky cake recipe. Then I filled them with caramel sauce and crushed peanuts.

The caramel sauce is REALLY good. I've tried other ones before and did not like the flavor or texture, but this one is perfect.

Vegan Caramel Sauce
from veganchef.com

3/4 cup soy milk, rice milk, or other non-dairy milk of choice
3/4 cup Sucanat
1/3 cup maple syrup or brown rice syrup
1 T. water
1 T. arrowroot
2 T. vegan margarine
1 t. vanilla

In a small saucepan, place the soy milk, Sucanat, and maple syrup, and whisk well to combine. Cook over medium heat, while whisking occasionally, for 3 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and arrowroot, and then whisk the mixture into the saucepan. Cook the mixture, while whisking constantly, an additional 2-3 minutes or until it thickens. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the remaining ingredients. Serve warm as a topping for cakes, desserts, non-dairy ice cream or sorbet, or as a dipping sauce for fruit. Store in an airtight container, in the refrigerator, and reheat as needed.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Muffins, Cupcakes and Purple Cauliflower

2006-08-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

One night for dinner I made black bean and quinoa-filled cornbread muffins. They were excellent! I made the recipe up myself, but based the filling on VwaV's stuffed pepper filling. I used my cornbread recipe (1/3 of it) and reduced the oil, sugar, and baking time. I was only cooking for myself that night, so this recipe doesn't make a lot, so feel free to double or triple (I had leftover filling). Here's my original cornbread recipe for reference. You'll also need some tortilla chips to put on top.

Black Bean-Quinoa Filling
1/2 can black beans
3 TB quinoa
1/2 chopped onion
3-5 cloves garlic (I love garlic!)
1 tsp maple syrup
Some jarred salsa
Water
Chili powder
Pepper
Salt

Saute the onions in some olive oil for a minute or so, then add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add the beans, quinoa, spices to taste, several spoonfuls of salsa, and some water so the quinoa doesn't stick. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cover and cook the mixture according to the quinoa package directions, or until the quinoa is not hard anymore. When done, add the maple syrup and set aside.

Cornbread Muffins
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup flour (I use mostly white whole wheat and a smidge of white)
1/3 cup plus 2 tsp non-dairy milk
1-3 TB sugar (slightly less for savory, more for sweet, I use a mix of sugar and maple syrup)
1 TB vegetable or corn oil
1 TB applesauce (egg replacer)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 scant tsp baking soda
dash salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a medium to large mixing bowl.
Mix in soymilk, oil, then applesauce. Stir, but not too much. Grease or spray a muffin tin and fill the cups about 1/4 full, top with a spoonful of black bean quinoa filling, then top with more cornbread batter and some crushed tortilla chips. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is just some tofu scramble I made one morning. I thought it was so pretty and colorful, so I took a picture. It has broccoli, red onion, purple cauliflower and shredded carrot. Topped with salsa, that's how I like my tofu scramble.
Fettucini Alfreda from Vegan with a Vengeance with PURPLE cauliflower. This dish looked so neon and galactical. I got the purple caulflower from the farmer's market. It was very different that white cauliflower-more bitter and had a more crunchy, hard texture. I prefer white cauliflower, but the purple was such a pretty color. See the tofu scramble above-turmeric and nutritional yeast make it so colorful!

This weekend we went to a forest preserve and went biking and kayaking. I packed a chickpea salad sammich for lunch and brought along some freshly baked Mocha Chip Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. I used decaf. Scrumptious.

This morning I made Coconut Heaven Cupcakes from VwaV. They were amazing!! I'm usually not a fan of white/vanilla cupcakes, they usually seem spongy and boring, but these coconut-ty cuppers were fantastic. Yum. I used sweetened preservative-filled coconut because I haven't been able to find unsweetened coconut anywhere, so I just reduced the sugar by a couple tablespoons.

It's already August, the summer really flew by. There's only two weeks until I go back to school, which means a lot of my time will be consumed by being at school and studying. I won't be able to blog as much as of August 22nd. I'm not going to be spending a lot of the remainder of summer on the internet because just like these three months went by so fast, 15-20 minutes on the computer mysteriously turns into 2 hours. I've got plans to do some sewing, go places, and spend time with my family and my dog before I have to be gone most of the day (I'm going to miss him so much!). So this is just a heads up of why I won't be blogging as frequently, but I'll be sure to stop by sometimes to say hi (I'll have to do a lot of homework on the computer and I tend to get distracted!). Before summer is over, I want to make a bag/purse out of some fabric I bought a few nights ago, draw a few pictures of Drake, sew some new clothes and do anything creative that I wanted to do. See you later!

Vive and Vengeance (and some bread)

2006-08-02T15:43:00.000-05:00

I recently made the brown rice pizza from Vive le Vegan. I used entirely different veggies, but it was so yummy!

The sauce was the Vegan with a Vengeance Pizza Sauce. I used fresh tomatoes because we were out of tinned.

Sourdough bread and veggies from the garden:

I'm going to try the sourdough thing again, I don't think the flavor was very sourdough-y, but the bread was SOOO good. There's still a few slices left!

Okay, you must try the Maple Mustard Potatoes and String Beans in VwaV! I loved them and my whole family did too, which is an accomplishment. I made extra sauce after they were done baking, but I think I may have used too many veggies in the first place because I had no idea how many potatoes equal 1 lb and how many beans to use. The beans were fresh from the garden.

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive le Vegan:

My brother was on crutches a few days ago and on Monday I was home with him all day. He was on the computer most of the day and in the afternoon he was hungry and said he wanted a chocolate chip cookie. I was wanting to try Dreena's cookies, so I got out Vive and made some. I gave him 3 cookies and he wanted more. So I gave him the rest of the batch and he STILL wanted more cookies. So I went and made another batch of chocolate chip cookies and the peanut butter cookies from Vive. Next time I'll make sure to make enough cookies the first time because this kid will eat 15 at a time!

I was home by myself one morning and I made some oreo-like cookies without the cream filling and crushed them to crumbs to make VwaV's peanut butter silk pie! This was SOOOOO extremely rich. I ate some for lunch and forgot to take a picture, so here it is with a slice (or a few) taken out:

Last night I also made Sunflower Lentil Pie with Sesame Mustard Tahini sauce from Vive. It wasn't very attractive and the camera was ALL THE WAY upstairs, so there's no picture, but it was very very very good. I took Dreena's suggestion and mashed the leftovers with Vegenaise and made a sandwich on my sourdough bread. Mmmm...I suggest adding the pie (and sauce) to your to-cook list.

Kione

2006-08-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

I had just came home from a bike ride with my dad yesterday and I saw something in the road. It was a turtle, right in front of my house in the street! The poor baby was probably lost, so I put on a pair of gloves and walked down the street to the park to let him go to the pond, admiring his beautiful shell and talking to him the whole way there. When we got to the pond, I couldn't find a way to get near the water and then I realized that I couldn't do it. I couldn't let him go, I formed a bond with the little guy in a matter of minutes. So I decided I was going to take care of him for the day-just for one day. I found a large plastic container and filled it with cold water and a few big rocks for him. I went on the internet and looked up how to take care of him and even went to look for a name that fit him, even if I was only going to be spending the day with him. I confirmed that he was a male turtle, I would have felt bad if I kept calling a girl turtle a he. He was a painted turtle and omnivorous. So I fed him some lettuce and organic swiss chard from the garden. Painted turtles also like clean water and sun basking, so I changed his water a couple times when it looked dirty and took him out and let him rest in the sun. After a couple hours, he hadn't eaten any of the chard or lettuce, so I worried that he might want to get some food by now. I knew I should bring him back home, or my best interpretation of it. I took him out of the container and started walking to a pond the opposite way of the other one. By then I had named him Kione, which means "someone who comes from nowhere". I talked to him and told him that I'd miss him, but he'd like his new home better. When we got to the pond, I said goodbye and placed him on the rocks near the water. He immediatly raced into the water and dove in.

When I first got him out of the street, he was a shy turtle:

The temporary environment I made for him:

Maybe it was selfish to contain him in a box, small compared to the big pond and world that he has so much freedom in now, or maybe it was the nicest thing in the world to give him so much care. If I hadn't interfered in his life, he may have been flattened into the street by someone who wasn't paying attention to the road, like a bird I saw on my ride. Or maybe it seems silly for someone to fuss over a turtle, come on, it's just a turtle. Just like a bee is just an insect, a fly is just something to be swatted and killed, or a hamburger is just a cow. No harm done. But Kione was more than just a turtle, he is a living being, a life just like any other animal or person. I don't know where Kione is right now, and I probably will never know. He could be still in that pond, swimming and living in happiness, or he may have ventured onto land and some idiot stepped on him. I like to believe he had a happy depart, but if not, my consolence comes from the fact that I impacted his life, even if I only had him for a few hours. Taking care of animals and people is a normal everyday thing for me. I value the sanctity of all living beings. There is no reason to be cruel to a turtle any more than a person. If every person realized that cruelty and hatred is not beneficial or kind to anyone, animals or people, the world would be a much better place.

Revolutionary Spanish Omelet with...Ketchup!

2006-07-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Revolutionary-worthy organic ketchup, that is.
This Vegan with a Vengeance recipe made my breakfast yesterday morning. Since I was only cooking for myself (and no one else will eat tofu), I made 1/3 of the recipe and cooked it in a loaf pan. It made a really big omelet. I started out with half, but then went back for the whole thing, it was so good! The brand of tofu I bought had a weird taste and texture to it and I could taste it a little, but with ketchup it was good. Next time I'll use different tofu and it'll be perfect.

Italian Food and Dessert (Vive le Vegan!)

2006-07-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

I love Italian food. When I was a kid I ate lots of pasta, lasagna, and pizza. Maybe that isn't even close to real Italian food, but I love all the flavors and herbs, and they seem so familiar to me. I am part Italian too.

So I made lasagna and gnocchi. I've actually never had gnocchi before, but I LOVE it now.
Inside the lasagna is broccoli, onions, olives, red pepper, green pepper, spinach, basil tofu ricotta, fresh basil and rosemary, pesto, diced tomatoes, and O Organics Pasta sauce (I didn't like this sauce very much). The noodles I used were Hodgson Mills Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles. I think I bought them before when I made lasagna last year, but this time they were not good at all. They were rubbery and had a strong wheaty/seitan-y flavor. I have never encountered this with whole wheat pasta, as I prefer it to white pasta. Maybe it was just this batch? I won't be buying them again though. On top I poured a can of tomato sauce, added some sliced onions and olives and sprinkled on some fresh basil. Even with the mishaps, this lasagna was YUMMY!
Gnocchi from Vegan with a Vengeance with Classic Pesto from Vegan with a Vengeance. And some O Organics pasta sauce.
Blueberry Coffee Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance!!! I put it in a 8" round cake pan instead of a square dish. I like to add some blueberries to the batter, pour half in the cake pan, then add a layer of blueberries and pour the rest of the batter on top. It makes a nice gooey center. This cake was devoured by me, my parents, brother, and grandma! I <3 my grandma.
I bought Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton over the weekend! All the recipes look so yummy. These are the Chocolate P-Nut Butter Squares.
I've also made the Banana Oat Bundles, Simple Dressing and Fudgy Brownies. My only complaint with the book so far is that the recipes don't make as much as they call for. When I made the fudgy brownies, I only had enough batter to fill half the pan (I used a 8x4 and halved the recipe) and same deal with these Chocolate P-Nut Butter Squares. I'm not discouraged though because Dreena's recipes are so delicious! I couldn't wait for the brownies to come out of the oven, so I took them out half-baked and my brother and I ate the WHOLE pan in 5 minutes. Mmmm, I have a new brownie recipe staple.

My Bread Recipe

2006-07-26T18:38:00.000-05:00

After many requests for my no knead bread recipe, I decided to post it. So here it is:
No Knead Oatmeal Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 2 loaves

2 TB sugar
2 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 package yeast
about 6 cups flour (I do a mix of whole wheat, white whole wheat, regular rolled oats, and a small amount of white)
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB toasted sesame seeds
1-2 tsp blackstrap molasses (opt.)
raw seeds or oats to sprinkle on top (sesame, black sesame, sunflower, poppy)
melted Earth Balance (opt.)

In a large bowl dissolve the sugar in the boiling water. Add oatmeal and cold water and stir. Sprinkle dried yeast over the surface, without stirring, and leave for 5-10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in the flours/oat mixture a little at a time, the salt, sesame seeds, and molasses (if using). Add more flour if the dough is sticky. Knead until combined (I know, I know, I said no kneading, but it's easier than stirring with a spoon). Or if you prefer, mix with your hands until combined. You will have a soft dough.

Oil 2 bread pans and divide the dough in half, placing each half in the pans and smooth them out. If desired brush loaves with melted margarine. I find this helps the seeds stick to the loaves easier. Then sprinkle with seeds. Place in the oven on its lowest setting (mine is 170 degrees F) to rise*, until the dough has reached the top of the tin and formed a slightly domed surface above it. This takes approximately 40 minutes.

When risen, increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for 35-45 minutes, checking after 30 minutes.

Let cool in tin for 5 minutes and enjoy!

*I try not to let the oven get too hot while the bread is rising. I'll turn it off for 5-10 minutes, open and close the door, turn it back on, repeat, and it will retain a lower temperature than 170 degrees, which is too hot if left on constantly.

My New Blog!!

2006-07-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

A crafty blog of course! In addition to cooking, I love to craft, especially sewing. You can follow my adventures here.

I've been updating blogs and spending time on the computer all day today. I did manage to write an essay too though! Maybe I'll sew something today too.

xo
Kelly

P.S. Here's some cupcakes:

Ginger Macadamia Coconut Carrot Cake as cupcakes, VwaV

Bread and Buns

2006-07-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

I love to make bread. And I love to eat bread, usually half the loaf right after it comes out of the oven because it's so irresistable. I think it's pretty easy to do because bread is whole wheat and seedy, so it's all healthy so you think you can have as much as you want.

Here's some whole wheat-oatmeal bread with sesame and poppy seeds. I make this bread allllll the time and it never fails me (also a plus: no kneading and it rises in the oven!).

Kittee's veggie burger and dogs bun recipe. I used white whole wheat for some of the white flour and decreased the flax a bit. They were reallllly good. I ate them with homemade black bean burgers. There's a angry rant to go along with the day I made these and we had people over, but I won't get into it. Just enjoy looking at the pretty buns!

Tropical Food and Feeding the Kid

2006-07-25T21:36:00.000-05:00

This is Tropical Pasta Salad from Vegan Planet. It has freshly squeezed OJ, coconut milk, cardmom, toasted coconut, mangos, oranges, fresh mint leaves, cinnamon, allspice, celery, pineapple, and all other kinds of tropical-ness.

Close-up. I really enjoyed this yummy pasta salad, but my mom didn't like it. I upped the spices and mint of the orginal recipe and added cinnamon.
Last Monday I was home with my brother (11) and Drake. He (brother) had a baseball game in 110 degree weather, so I had to make sure he got enough to eat and drink all day.

For breakfast, I made Three-Seed Lemon Tea Bread from Vegan Planet. I used four seeds with the addition of poppy seeds. This was very good! I suggest reducing the amount of lemon juice and increasing the zest, as I did, to ensure the loaf thoroughly cooks.

I also made the kid a smoothie with pineapple, mango, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, soy milk and maple syrup. Mmmm...For lunch I made (a whole lot of food!) microwaved potato chips, a tortilla sammich made with homemade ww tortillas filled with peanut butter, strawberry jelly, banana slices and chocolate chips. I heated it in a pan until melty. On the side is a leftover baseball cupcake and a soy latte.
He ate everything but the bottom tortilla, a few taters, and more than half the latte, I don't think he digged (dug?) it. I finished the latte and the tortilla after I had my own lunch (can't remember what it was, but not as yummy as this). This was pretty junky, but it's tough to feed this kid, he's so picky!
Snack was tollhouse pan cookies that I veganized. We gobbled them up in a day. I also made him a raspberry lemonade slushie.
Dinner was Sweet Potato Coconut Gratin from Vegan Planet. It was a nice tropical-y, sweet potato-y, pineapple-y dish. It was spiced with cardamom, though I would add an extra something next time. I also added more coconut milk. I made the brother another big smoothie like the breakfast one, but with coconut milk and more pineapple (he likes it a lot). It was the best smoothie I think I've ever tasted MMMMM! I drank his leftover smoothie. He ate everything but the sweet potatoes.

Pupsicles and Banana Faces

2006-07-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

I've been making lots of puppy popsicles or "pupsicles" since summer started and it got scorching hot outside. On those days when it's 100+ degrees outside, my American Eskimo gets exhausted and hot after just a 10 minute walk outside with all his fur.

I mash ripe bananas in a bowl, put them in popsicle molds and freeze, that's it! I also like to stir in a spoonful of ground flaxseeds (or "flaxies" as I call them when I talk to Drake, he's my little baby), some other fruit (this time I used peeled peaches), and some peanut butter. Drake will eat ANYTHING, but he goes crazy over his homemade treats!

Here we just got back from a walk on a realllllly hot day:

Want a pupsicle Drake?
Yes, nummy yummy!
Nice and cold!!
All done! *proceeds to take the popsicle stick in his mouth and run around with it for 10 minutes, hide under the dining room table, and run around some more until I catch him and get it back*
Oh no it really is all gone...
I sure could go for another pupsicle.A nap sounds good too...zzz...

We also found a cute little sticker on the bananas the other day and since a banana has never steered me wrong, we did as it told us:

Banana Sticker says: Place sticker on forehead. Smile.
A real smile! But the banana seems to be frowning...
Drake did it too! Though he didn't like a sticker on his forehead too much...

Rotini and Cookies x2

2006-07-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

Mmmm lately I've been enjoying big potfuls of veggies ina tomato-y sauce over some type of grain. Here there is green pepper, spinach, chickpeas, some tinned tomatoes, O Organics tomato basil pasta sauce, and Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs over rotini. Oh those meatballs are so good! I have no idea if they taste like real meatballs, but they are so good. I love them in pasta, with sweet and sour sauce, on sandwiches, in sauteeded veggies with salsa, and I really want to make some calzones with them inside.

I know I've posted these a lot, but they are just so yummy and pretty! Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance.
I was flipping through Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson I wondered why I have been neglecting it (okay, that was a lie. I've been neglecting it because of VwaV), so many recipes sound so good! Tonight I made Tahini Rotini with Lemon and Broccoli from VP. I used cannellini beans instead of garbanzos because *gasp* we were out of my favorite legume. I didn't know it was possible, I always make sure to have a big stock of garbanzos. Anyway, the pasta was really good, it had only a subtle flavor (as I've found with many recipes from the book), so next time I may add something else to the sauce. I'll definitely add less water to the sauce because it was too liquidy.
Double Chocolate Cookies. I've made variations of this recipe at least 10 times. This time I added some white chocolate chips and chopped dried apricots. They were delicious.

The day I made these was one of those days where all I wanted to do was make desserts all day (usually happens when I'm the only one home) and I had no interest in any food but sweet decadent treats. I made the baseball cupcakes (see below), peanut butter rice crispy treats, attempted vegan marshmellows which worked horribly, but they came out like a caramel sauce so I thought "Oooh! Vanilla ice cream!" and I had a bowl of vanilla So Delicious with caramel sauce, then I was itching to make these cookies all day so after my ice cream I made them and ate probably about 6 and went ravanous over the delicious chocolate-y batter and chocolate chips. Mmmm... The only "real" meal I had was biscuits and tempeh gravy with fruit. I love and hate those kind of days.

Baseball Cupcakes!

2006-07-16T18:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my brother had two baseball games to play and was going to be gone from 1pm-11pm. In the mid-morning I decided to make him some baseball cupcakes for a treat before he left. The cake is a regular chocolate wacky cake batter adapted by me and the frosting is vanilla buttercream. My first intention was to fill the cakes with pink frosting, but after I was having difficulties, I said "screw that". I used my frosting ball with the star tip to swirl the vanilla buttercream frosting all over the cake and then used some red gel food coloring to make stripes. The frosting was very melty because it was so hot outside, so I put all the cupcakes in the fridge after I frosted them.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/4 cup Earth Balance, softened

2 1/4 cups sifted organic powdered sugar
2 TB soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream the margarine with a hand mixer until fluffy and add the sugar a little at a time, alternating with the milk until desired consistancy. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.

When I was a kid, I usually ate cereal, pancakes, breads, oatmeal, and the occasional omelette or eggs for breakfast. Every Sunday my dad and I would make pancakes. I never really had savory breakfasts very often, but I decided to make biscuits and tempeh white bean sausage gravy from VwaV for breakfast yesterday. I've only had biscuits a few times in my life and after trying Isa's, I love 'em! The gravy was really good too, I love those tempeh sausage crumbles...

Sushi for Dad! I decided to surprise him one afternoon and made a few sushi rolls. The right side out roll is celery, hijiki, mung bean thread, shiitakes, red pepper and sesame seeds. The inside out roll is spicy tempeh, bean sprouts, red pepper and celery. I presented them on a plate of bean thread noodles with hijiki mixed in. Okay, now it's time to complain. The hijiki and mushrooms smelled so bad. The kitchen smelled like steamy lake water with lots of dead fish. Gross Gross Gross.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

2006-07-14T11:22:00.000-05:00

I had just came back from a bike ride this morning and ready for breakfast. I was looking through my pile of recipes and decided "muffins!". I remembered printing out a recipe for peanut butter and jelly muffins, so I finally decided to try them. I had to majorly modify the recipe because it called for eggs and I wasn't thinking they were going to turn out halfway through the recipe. But I'm glad I kept going, they turned out AMAZING.

The original recipe was lacto-ovo and called for no oil at all. I was a little skeptical because I remembered how no-oil muffins have a weird texture. I added a teaspoon or so of oil just in case. Next time I'll just leave the oil out, they didn't need it with the peanut butter in there. I also upped the amount of peanut butter, added banana and applesauce, chopped peanuts and made them mostly whole wheat. These muffins were so light and fluffy with the perfect texture I have never encountered with any other muffin and they had an amazing subtle peanutty flavor, in a really good way. Ready for the recipe? I didn't really measure when I was adding extra ingredients to improve the batter, but this is pretty much the same to what I did. The batter was really thick, so I added extra soy milk and maple syrup. Do the same if you encounter this.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

Serves: 8 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup white flour
2 t. baking powder
3/4 cup non-dairy milk
egg replacer-about 3 TB mashed banana + 1 TB applesauce
6 TB sugar + 2 TB maple syrup
6 TB peanut butter
2 tsp oil
dash of salt
2 TB chopped peanuts
jam, jelly or preserves

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour and baking powder and set aside.

Beat together milk, egg replacer, sugar/syrup, oil, peanut butter, and salt in a medium/large bowl. Add dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add more liquid or sweetener if necessary. The batter should not be really thick.

Fold in chopped peanuts. Fill muffin cups 1/2-2/3 full. Top with a dollop of jam and extra chopped peanuts.

Bake for about 12 minutes.

*Note: Alternatively, you can fill the muffins with jam after they bake or fill the cups partway, add the dollop of jam, then top with more batter and another jam dollop. Any way is sure to please, but the jam gets all warm and gooey if it's baked.

*Edit* I changed a few things in the muffin recipe after I made them a few days ago. They needed a bit of extra sweetness, and I forgot to write how many muffins it makes before.

In the Garden

2006-07-14T10:40:00.000-05:00

We planted everything later than usual, so nothing is ready to harvest yet, but it's all thriving. This year we planted A LOT for the small space we have: tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard, red bell peppers, jalepenos, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, beets, parsley, basil, lime basil, chives, rosemary, dill, lemon thyme, and mint (we've had it for years though). Last night I thinned the chard and beets, so I have a whole bagful of young greens for salads. I know there's no fruits or veggies growning on the plants yet, but the plants have grown a lot since we planted:
Acorn squash, rosemary, dill, and chives.
Close-up:
Young swiss chard:
Beet leaves for salad and beet roots for the pink dye:
Some food pictures for good measure. Raisin Cornbread I made for breakfast a few days ago:
Close-up:

My dad always used to make raisin cornbread for breakfast. This is the best cornbread recipe ever. It's so delicious, healthy, and lightly sweet. Cornbread is so versatile too. Use less sugar, add some jalepenos and it's perfectly savory paired with chili. Use more sugar and add plump raisins, and it's a perfect breakfast treat. Here's the recipe I use and have made many, many times:

Cornbread (adapted from a Vegweb recipe)

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour (I use 3/4 ww and 1/4 white, a mix, white whole wheat, ww pastry, and white)
1 cup plus 2 TB non-dairy milk
1/3 cup sugar (slightly less for savory, more for sweet, I use a mix of sugar and maple syrup)
2 1/2-3 TB vegetable or corn oil
2-3 TB applesauce (egg replacer)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
1/3-1/2 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes (opt.)
Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients in a medium to large mixing bowl.

Mix in soymilk, oil, then applesauce. Stir. Fold in plump raisins if using.

Spray/grease 9x9 baking pan with oil.

Pour mix in pan and bake for 15-20 min or until you can poke the center with a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Slice and enjoy.

Serves: 9-10 large slices

Preparation time: 15-20 min

Cherry Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes and Eggrolls!

2006-07-11T19:42:00.000-05:00

Yum, cupcakes. I was so excited to try out my new frosting decorator ball, so I made some cupcakes. The cupcakes were plain vanilla (Jennifer Shmoo's Fluffy White Cupcakes) and I filled them with cherry and strawberry filling (couldn't decide which one to use), using the filling tip which worked amazing. I topped them with chocolate buttercream frosting swirls and they turned out beautiful and delicious.
My hand holding a cuppy cake.
This is Beet, Barley and Black Soybean Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons from Vegan with a Vengeance! Honestly, I didn't like it at first, but after a while I warmed up to it more and now I really like it! I remembered I really love barley too. Mmm.
Chickpea Broccoli Casserole from Vegan with a Vengeance. This meal is so easy, wonderfully yummy and filling. I did manage to shatter a dish with half a chopped onion on it while I was mashing the chickpeas and my arm slipped. I did mix everything in that one pan though!

Tonight I made a huge pile of veggies for dinner: onion, broccoli, green pepper and a tin of tomatoes. I added some fresh basil, fresh rosemary (both from the backyard), a pinch of thyme and oregano, pepper and salt. There's some quinoa underneath too!
On Sunday I made Chinese! There's some eggrolls/spring rolls, whatever you want to call them filled with cabbage, carrot, celery, bean sprouts, tofu, water chestnuts, and napa cabbage. I baked them rather than frying. I had a shortage of filling and an excess of wrappers so I cut them into strips and fried them to a crisp to mimic the wonton chips you find at Chinese restaurants. They didn't taste very similar, but crispy nonetheless. I served the eggrolls with high fructose corn syrup-filled sweet and sour sauce (not pictured)(I forgot to make my own sweet and sour sauce) and a sauce of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger.

I easily veganized a recipe for no bake cookies yesterday when I remembered how tasty they were when I made them a few years back. They're so simple to make and have a combination of three of my favorite things: chocolate, peanut butter, and oatmeal. I only made part of the recipe because it's dangerous to bake tons of cookies while I'm home by myself, I'll make them disappear too fast. I also made some chocolate chip cookies and date cherry nut balls, but they were long gone before I could take a picture.

Easy No Bake Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar (the original recipe called for 2 cups, but I found that much to be too sweet)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup Earth Balance (I used slightly less)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 t vanilla
3 cups oatmeal (I used a handful or so more)

Bring sugar, cocoa, margarine and milk to a rolling boil in a medium sized saucepan. Let boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and oatmeal. Stir until thick. Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto parchment paper and let cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Thrift Store Finds and a Banana Split

2006-07-06T15:20:00.000-05:00

Today I went to a nearby thrift store during a everything half-price sale. Now I can decorate my cakes and cupcakes all nice because I got this frosting ball-thing that came with four different tips. You just put frosting in it, twist on a tip and squeeze, all for 50 cents! I also got this tong meets spatula flipper for 75 cents.

I love big bags full of different sewing notions and tools for a buck. You get a whole bunch of neat stuff and it's all a surprise. Apparently the person who dropped this off liked beheading dolls, as there's 6 little dolly heads in the bag. I have no idea what I should do with them, but they're kind of creeping me out. I also got lots of elastic, some gray bias tape, a zipper, some hot glue sticks, and a do-it-yourself belt maker.

And after a Trader Joe's trip a few days ago, I came home with a quart of vanilla So Delicious ice cream. So I made a banana split! It has vanilla ice cream with bananas on the sides, drizzled with melted dark chocolate, sprinkled with chopped nuts and garnished with fresh cherries, ice cream parlor style.

July 4th Eats-Waffles, Cookies and Sloppy Joes

2006-07-06T15:00:00.000-05:00

July 4th this year was pretty dull, no parties to make a big cake for, but I compensated by making some delicious food throughout the day.

After I came home from the morning bike ride, I made waffles. These are Ginger PEACH Waffles from Vegan with a Vengeance. We didn' t have any pears, and I thought peaches would taste wonderful in these. Here's one with a scoop of Soy Delicious Vanilla (yummmm I love this stuff) and drizzle of maple syrup:

I don't usually do waffle pictures, but these waffles always come out looking good with no tearing apart.

For dinner I made Sloppy Joes by veganizing my mom's recipe using tempeh for the cow. They tasted pretty similar and very very good!
I also made some cookies (for lunch). These are cashew macadamia cookies from Alohagail's blog. The recipe called for cashew butter and cashews, but I used cashew macadamia butter (delicious) and a mixture of cashews and macadamias. They were very rich and delicious, but they were crumbly the next day.
My other batch was chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Half the batch I used chocolate chips and vanilla extract, and the other half I subbed almond extract and added some dried cherries and macadamia nuts. Variations of these cookies are made quite often in this house. The first time I made them, my brother ate the *whole* 20-something cookie batch and requested more the next day. They are super fudgey and delicious, and very healthy for cookies with flax and mostly whole wheat flour.

Banana Bread, Sushi, Fig Not-Ins, Yogurt Pops

2006-07-03T08:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday for breakfast I made banana bread. I've never really liked banana bread, so I decided to make Isa's version to see if it would redeem itself. It was good, but apparently my family thought it was amazing because the whole loaf was gone in less than an hour.

Sushi on weekends for my dad is pretty much how it's been for the past few weeks. I got some new goodies after my trip to the Asian market (see two posts below). The top roll is a variation of the Yamroom roll using regular sweet potatoes and rehydrated shiitakes mixed with hot sesame chili oil. The inside out roll is spicy tempeh (mixed with Vegenaise and sesame chili oil) with deep fried peanuts, bean sprouts, and rolled in black sesame seeds. The bottom roll is also spicy tempeh, with shiitakes, bean sprouts and more deep fried peanuts. My dad liked the two latter, but didn't care much for the yamroom roll because the sweet potato "didn't have much texture and just was mushy in your mouth". Maybe I'll try some sushi [for the fifth time] and see if I like it this time. It doesn't look vey hopeful after I gagged eating miso soup with seaweed in it. And those shiitakes smelled like well, shiitake. Mushrooms and me don't mix. Oh well, it's still fun to make!

Fig Not-ins from Vegan with a Vengeance are amazing, you should try them now. I just tried some figs yesterday and I fell in love with them and automatically made the fig not-ins. Yum. While they were baking, I decided to rate all the recipes I've made from Vegan with a Vengeance (which is getting to be a lot around 50!). Of course it was hard, as so many of these recipes are very deserving. These bars filled with figgy goodness earned 5 shining stars!

I had a container of strawberry soy yogurt I bought from Trader Joe's that I waited to use until the day it expired. I opened it up and like all of TJ's soy products, it tasted very beany to me. So I mixed it with some mashed bananas, sliced strawberries and a bit of strawberry preserves from the bottom of a jar and froze them into popsicles.

Verdict=Very tasty!!

Waffle Grilled Cheez Sammie

2006-07-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

"Cheez" between two Earth Balanc'd slices of bread and cooked in the waffle iron till crispy. A side of coleslaw, sauerkraut and a pickle. Yummy.

This was the first time I ever tried coleslaw, omni or vegan, and it was okay. I didn't really like the taste of the creamy Vegenaise mixed with the cabbage. Am I the only vegan that doesn't really love Vegenaise?

Japanese Market!

2006-07-01T14:02:00.000-05:00

I drove an hour today to the HUGE Japanese market. I spent a long time trying to figure out what everything was because it was all in Japanese. I managed to remember that bonito flakes and powder were fish, which was a good thing because they were in so many things, even desserts and noodles! There was a huge selection of miso, so I bought a tub of white miso. Any ideas of what I can make with it? I didn't like the instant miso soup I bought because I don't like seaweed at all, so I might try some seaweed-less miso soup. I don't know why I bought hijiki because I know I won't like it, oh well. The tofu was really cheap, only $1.19 for a tub! They didn't have fresh tofu, unless I didn't see it because there was so much stuff it was overwhelming! The sweets aisle was really hard to shop at because everything was in Japanese and I didn't know what to check out, so I'm sure I missed out on some yummy sweets! Everything I bought was vegan, I didn't mistakenly skip over an ingredient. $65 later I came home with all these goodies:

Above, From Left to Right: Napa cabbage, bean sprouts, Chinese broccoli, ginger, green onions, firm tofu, silken tofu, white miso, spring roll wrapper, strawberry jelly/jello things (made with agar), soy sauce, sesame oil, can baby corn, can lychees, can water chestnuts, black sesame seeds, regular sesame seeds, wasabi, instant miso soup, mung bean threads, soba noodles, melon flavored rice balls, hijiki, nori, black dark chocolate, dried shiitakes, pineapple candy, powdered agar agar and two packages of agar agar threads (what am I going to do with it all?!).
Sweets: The melon rice balls were SO good. They were like really soft gummy balls with a sugary melon-y filling. The black chocolate bar was seriously the best chocolate bar I have ever tasted. The pineapple candies were yummy, but not very pinapple-y, mostly sugary. The ingredients were brown sugar, pinapple, pineapple juice.
I tried one of the strawberry jellies. Interesting. Even though it had a ton of sugar in it, it wasn't very sweet or flavorful. The strawberry in the middle was NASTY though. All mushy and artificial tasting.
I haven't tried the lychees yet. Next to them are sesame oil, sesame seeds and black sesame seeds. There was a whole big shelf with all different kinds of sesame seeds.
Agar-agar powder and flakes. I think I bought too much. I'll use it for peanut butter pie, uncheeses, "jello", uhm, any other ideas?

Macadamia Blondies and Hummus Cookies

2006-07-01T13:42:00.000-05:00

Macadamia Blondies from Vegan with a Vengeance:

I bought a jar of macadamias on a whim because they were on sale, $5 for a small jar. I don't remember ever eating these yummy nuts, but I LOVE them. I also made some blondie bars. Only 1/4 of the recipe because I didn't have a lot of macadamias to use and I've never tried this recipe before. They are verrrry yummy, I had two for lunch yesterday.

Hummus Cookies. Who woulda thunk? I made a recipe for oatmeal raisin "cookie dough" hummus (recipe below) and finally decided to try baking them into cookies. The result? Hummus cookies. They were pretty good actually, but definitely had a different texture than a real cookie. I used peanut butter instead of almond because I finished the almond butter a few days ago.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough Hummus

Ingredients:
1 can or 1 1/2 cups chickpeas
1-2 Tbsp almond butter
3-4 Tbsp applesauce
1 tsp neutral oil (canola works well)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp maple syrup
Lots of cinnamon (about 1 tsp to start)
1-2 Tbsp of softened raisins w/ water (microwave with a bit of water and cinnamon for 30 secs)
More raisins (cut the big ones in half)

Other Possible Add-Ins/Variations:
-A Spoonful of Oats (to give it more of a "cookie dough" flavor/texture, start with 2-3 TB)
-A spoonful of flaxseeds (for a nutty flavor and those omega-3s)
-Sunflower seeds
-Walnuts
-Sliced almonds
-Other dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, golden raisins, etc.)
-A different nut butter (cashew, peanut)
-Chocolate chips
-Anything you'd put in cookies!

Instructions:

Puree all ingredients together except for the dry raisins. Add extra cinnamon to taste and more maple syrup if you want it to be sweeter.

Stir in dry raisins and other optional ingredients. I always add oats, flaxseeds and extra cinnamon.

For the cookies, I subbed Earth Balance for the canola oil, added extra raisins, more maple syrup and sugar, a pinch of baking powder and soda, lots more oats and extra cinnamon.

Stuffed Peppers, Mango Ginger Tofu, and Sunny Blueberry Corn Muffins

2006-06-29T20:33:00.000-05:00

All these recipes are from Vegan with a Vengeance. I don't use any other cookbooks.
Quinoa Black Bean Stuffed Peppers with asparagus instead of mushrooms:

Breakfast one morning, Sunny Blueberry Corn Muffins:

I love muffins with blueberry explosions nestled inside. Yum.

Mango Ginger Tofu:

The marinade was beyond amazing, but I still cannot enjoy tofu! The only way I like it is in tofu nuggets, scrambled tofu, or when it's disguised.

I also made homemade seitan from scratch by washing the starch and bran out of whole wheat flour. I made jerk seitan (guess what cookbook) with it. This was my third or fourth attempt to like seitan and I still can't stand the texture. I baked it this time and the crispy edges were yummy, but I don't like seitan. Damn, I really wanted to wear "All Hail Seitan" attire.

The Best Breakfast Ever

2006-06-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

The BEST nacho "cheese", homemade guacamole, tempeh sausage crumbles (VwaV), avocado, olives, tomato and salsa atop blue corn tortilla chips. Every messy bite was amazing.

Chocolate Covered Chocolate with Cherries and Almonds

2006-06-29T20:21:00.000-05:00

CHERRY. ALMOND. BARK.
It was wicked easy to make too. First you melt some dark chocolate, pour it in a pan and chill, melt some white chocolate, add some chopped dried cherries and almonds to the white chocolate, then pour that over the dark chocolate. Then heat up the whole thing so that the chocolate layers don't seperate. Then chill again.

Grandma Came Over Last Weekend...

2006-06-25T15:21:00.000-05:00

...And I cooked for her! The appetizer was homemade roasted red pepper hummus (I loooooove the food processor for hummus!) with baked whole wheat pita chips flavored with garlic, olive oil, thyme, rosemary, and salt (Thanks Bittersweet for the recipe!).

I also deep fried some tofu (the first time I ever fried anything), it was very crunchy. I put it in...

...Sushi! For my dad and my grandma. My mom and I don't like seaweed, but I tried one and it was really good if you're a sushi person. The right side out roll is filled with the tofu, asparagus, carrots, red pepper, and toasted sesame seeds. The inside-out roll has deep fried and salted peanuts (those were realllly good, I just fried some peanuts in some peanut oil with salt), asparagus, carrot, pepper, and sesame chili oil.
Dinner for the sushi-phobes was sweet potato black bean enchiladas in corn tortillas. They were a big hit! I even made one with rice instead of black beans for my brother who refuses to even try beans (he'd love 'em if he tried them of course!). He took two small bites and said it was "okay". Take his opinion with a grain of salt, he lives off milkshakes, dairy cheese and junk food. Ha ha. Well here's the enchiladas :

I made the Sparkled Ginger cookies from VwaV before I started on dinner. I love these cookies. My brother and I ate them while dinner was cooking and everyone else ate the other ones after dinner. Then my brother finished the last few at night.

Since we were cookieless as of the night before, I decided to make some Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies with chocolate chips, a PPK recipe, in the mid-morning. These are some delicious cookies, especially if you love oatmeal, peanut butter and chocolate like me! I used cornstarch-thickened soy milk for the tofu and maple syrup for some of the sugar.

Bread, Muffins, Asparagus, and Pizza

2006-06-23T13:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I made two loaves of bread. I tried out my white whole wheat flour and it didn't seem much different than regular whole wheat flour mixed with some all-purpose, but it tasted DELICIOUS. There is a mixture of seeds kneaded into the dough and sprinkled on top: poppy seed, sesame seed, sunflower seed, and some oats. I didn't take a picture of the whole loaf because I decided to take it out of the pan too early (and the oven for that matter...) and parts of it fell apart.

My other loaf was rye/pumpernickel with caraway seed. My first rye bread was super dense, as was this one, but not as much as the other one. The dark color was from the cocoa and blackstrap molasses.

I made the Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vegeance to use up the rest of my pumpkin from this morning (pumpkin waffles!). I halved the recipe and cut the amount of oil to 1-2 TB and added extra pumpkin and used some maple syrup instead of some of the sugar. I slightly reduced the sugar by about 2 TB. They were very sweet and spicy!

Lemon Poppyseed mini muffins are so cute and yummy! Whenever I've needed lemon juice lately, I zested the lemon and kept the zest in a baggy in the freezer. Now whenever I want to make lemon poppy seed muffins (or anything else that only needs the zest), I have some on hand in the freezer and I don't have to use another lemon without the juice. I've probably mentioned this before, but here's my substitution for soy yogurt:
3 oz soy/rice/almond milk
2 tsp cornstarch
lemon juice or vinegar
Dissolve cornstarch in soy milk and microwave for 25 seconds. Stir. Microwave longer as needed until thickened. Squeeze in a bit of lemon juice and let sit for a few minutes before adding in recipe.
I use lemon juice for the lemon poppy seed muffins!

Here was my breakfast a few days ago: Sesame Asparagus (and broccoli and peppers and hot sesame chili oil) from Vegan with a Vengeance. I thought it looked real nice, so I snapped a picture of it. It tasted great too!

Here are some tempeh crumbles from, you guessed it, VwaV. The spice blend was soooooooooooo yummy smelling (and tasting!).

Here's the Tempeh Sausage and Potato Pizza. I think the fennel really wasn't my thing because I wasn't too impressed with this pizza. The potatoes didn't really cook all the way either before the crust would burn and I sliced them reallly thin.

Close-up.

Father's Day! Cake and Sushi

2006-06-19T09:36:00.000-05:00

Raspberry
Blackout
Cake!

I made Raspberry Blackout Cake from VwaV for my dad yesterday. It was so extremely good and a snap to make! The ganache was so perfect and chocolately without the overwhelming sweetness of powdered sugar buttercream frostings. The center was so moist and raspberry-y from the filling. This made a very good dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Only 1 slice left!

Cakes hot out of the oven!

A ridiculous way to cool your cake: put it on the cooling rack and under it stack Vegan with a Vengeance, an oven mit, and an ice pack. Note: the freezer (where the other cake was) works A LOT better.

Some smooth chocolate ganache!

My dad also requested sushi, so I made him two rolls: spicy tempeh inside out and a regular roll with carrot, bell pepper, onion, carrot and cucumber. Both the rolls had sliced asparagus and sesame seeds. He ate them before I had a chance to take pictures of them cut.

Frittata Cupcakes, Pasta Salad, Mango Tempeh Salad Sammich, Sparkled Ginger Cookies and Vanilla Maple Sorbet

2006-06-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

This morning I made the asparagus sundried tomato frittata from Vegan with a Vengeance. Since I live with a family of tofu-phobes, I only made part of the recipe and decided to put them in little cupcake tins!
The frittata cupcakes kind of fell apart when they came out of the oven, but they were still DELICIOUS! This recipe is definitely a keeper. I enjoyed my baked tofu scramble.
A simple pasta salad from last week: whole wheat rotini, cucumber, tomato, olives, sundried tomatoes, and carrots dressed with Newman's Own Light Italian Dressing. I'd prefer to put a different dressing on my lettuce salads, but it was nice on pasta salad.
A Curried Mango-Tempeh Sammich from VwaV was my lunch one day. It's very good! I used frozen mango.
Sparkled Ginger Cookies from VwaV!! These cookies were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! I didn't know what I was getting myself into, and that's a good thing! They are so perfectly spiced and satisfying, so for some reason I was initially able to only eat two and be completely satisfied.
Here's a freaky flash picture of the cookies...
Yesterday I intended to make vanilla ice cream, but it turned out more like a sorbet. But the flavor made up for the icy texture! It tasted so much like those bullseye caramels that I used to LOVE (okay, keep in my dresser drawer and binge on...). The maple syrup, pure vanilla extract and small amount of Earth Balance created such an amazing flavor! Darn those ice crystals and lack of scoopable smooth texture.

Sushi, Dessert and Coffee Cake

2006-06-15T13:06:00.000-05:00

Last night I made sushi. There's a spicy tempeh roll (tempeh, sesame chili hot sauce, vegan mayo), inside out spicy tempeh roll with carrot, and a california roll (avocado, cucumber, carrot, toasted sesame seeds). I used half white sushi rice and half short grain brown rice and you can't tell the difference between all-white rice sushi!

I can honestly say I don't really like sushi, but I think it looks so pretty and it's fun to make. I just don't like the fishyness. I bought some premade sushi from Trader Joe's and it was okay, smelled bad, but I thought I would like it better if it was homemade. Not so much. I was able to eat about 4 rolls and then if I ate anymore I would feel nauseaous. My dad loved them though!

Blueberry coffee cake from Vegan with a Vengeance! It was soooo yummy!! I put most of the blueberries in the middle and it had an ooey gooey center.

Finally some cherry chocolate chip cookies from Kittee's site. Chocolate and cherries are a great combination, but I didn't really like these cookies because they were very crunchy. I like a soft, chewy cookie myself.

Gooey Raspberry Banana Chocolate Brownies

2006-06-10T14:15:00.000-05:00

Behold the ultimate deliciousness: a mixture of rich chocolate brownies, gooey banana, sweet raspberry jam, and delicious vanilla blondie swirled with brownie and studded with melted chocolate chips. This is my delicious variation of VwaV's Raspberry Chocolate Blondies. The bottom layer is a brownie, the top is a blondie with chocolate swirls, and in the center is a sweet gooey mashed banana and some raspberry swirls. There's chocolate chips in all layers. You can see the yellow banana and red raspberries peeking through the top of the blondie. Mmmm...

Here's a close up of a couple that I cut. My camera doesn't like to focus well sometimes, so it's kind of blurry. These have mostly brownie and the blondie and the middle oozed together and soaked into the brownie. Mmm...

Breakfast: Tofu Scramble, Sushi, and Fiddlehead Ferns

2006-06-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

This morning's breakfast consisted of Vegan with a Vengeance's Tofu Scramble, Trader Joe's veggie sushi, fiddlehead ferns, and an organic granny smith apple. The tofu scramble is obviously delicious, I've made it many times. The lemon and nutritional yeast really make it wonderful. The veggie sushi from TJs was okay, probably one of those "it'll taste better homemade and fresh" deals. I just wanted to try sushi before I made homemade in case I didn't like it. Even though it's not my favorite thing ever, I feel compelled to make sushi because it looks so awesome and I'll feel cool doing it. The apple was yummers, no waxy junk like conventional apples, which I don't touch. Onto those ferns...
These things were creepy. I've seen them online before and when I went to Trader Joe's I saw a bag of them. Apparently they are a mix between broccoli, asparagus, and green beans. Now I usually reject crosses between vegetables because that just seems weird. I guess I was really intrigued by them because I didn't realize they were $5/12 oz. Well, the verdict is that they tasted pretty bad. They would taste okay mixed with other veggies in a sauce, but that still doesn't justify the cost and I'd rather have broccoli.

Cookies and Ice Cream

2006-06-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

These PPK Oatmeal Peanut Butter cookies are soooo good. I used cornstarch-thickened soy milk for the tofu and added some extra oats for part of the flour. Mmmm, these are worth making JUST for the batter, it tastes amazing. They smell amazing cooking. They taste amazing all gooey and chewy and peanut buttery. They turned out more amazing the first time I made them, but they were still good this time. I think I may have use some more maple syrup for part of the sugar than I did here or maybe more oil, I don't remember. I added some chocolate last time, and I think I'll add chocolate next time I make them, it's sooo good.

My experimentation with tofu-less, ice cream maker-less ice cream continues! This time I used cornstarch-thickened soymilk (my new favorite, much-used replacement for silken tofu and soy yogurt in many different culinary endeavors) in place of the silken tofu. The results were extremely similar to my first ice cream, but eating this didn't result with an upset tummy. Both of the ice creams are low fat too, so if you want some vegan ice cream, there's no need to add tons of fat by making a cashew base. I probably will try the cashew ice cream in the future for a more decadent dessert, but I'm going to focus on making a tasty, simple, everyday ice cream. I'll experiment with trying different flavors, perfecting the chocolate, making a good vanilla, trying soy-free with almond milk, etc. Then I'll use my free soy delicious coupon and get one of the decadent flavors and do a taste-test!

Disaster!!

2006-06-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight I roasted half a butternut squash and I noticed I had not put enough water into the bottom of the baking dish because it all evaporated. So my plan was to add a little more water in the dish and put it back in the oven to cook a little longer. When a drop of water from the sink touched the hot pan, the whole thing SHATTERED. If you're not supposed to put cold water in a burning hot dish because it will break, I wasn't aware until a few hours ago. Luckily it didn't fly and hit me in the eye or anywhere, but it did scare the crap out of me. I will not be making squash in the oven anytime soon unless I put it on a metal baking sheet.

So after cleaning up the mess, I didn't dare try to finish cooking the butternut squash in the oven, so I filled it with some oatmeal, almond milk, maple syrup, raisins, applesauce, cinnamon and I popped it in the microwave. I topped it with blackberries and ate up! It was super delicious, no shards of glass or anything.

Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Roll Bread and Cherry Almond Chocolate Muffins

2006-06-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

Mmmm....today I made ooey gooey raisin cinnamon roll bread using a cinnamon roll recipe. I've made rolls and a cake with this same recipe and I finally made a decadent bread oozing with sticky goodness. Though it didn't *need* it, I added extra sweetness and gooeyness with a small amount of glaze made with maple syrup, powdered sugar and vanilla to make it even better. The top is sprinkled with turbinado sugar, just like they do in bakeries.

Here's a close-up of the yummyness.

I guess after that cinnamon roll bread, a batch of muffins seem like they don't hold a candle to it, but trust me, these are some good muffins. From Vegan with a Vengeance, these muffins have lots of cherries (I cheated and used frozen), some almonds, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and almond extract. The original recipe didn't call for any chips, but they make them even more delicious. They are yummy for breakfast.

Sweet Potato Crepes with Coconut Mint Sauce

2006-05-31T19:48:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I made Sweet Potato crepes from VwaV, but I made a lot of modifications due to lack of ingredients. Instead of a red bell pepper I used a carrot and some green onion and left out the fenugreek seed because I've never heard of it. I didn't have any cilantro so I made the sauce with some parsley and fresh mint, added some lime juice, maple syrup and coriander. The sauce turned out realllly yummy, though next time I'll just use mint and maybe some basil (when it grows in the garden!) because I don't really like parsley too much. The crepes were delicious! I served them folded over drizzled with the sauce. They also tasted yummy cold in my packed lunch.

Tabouli and Mini Muffins and Cuppycakes

2006-05-29T16:28:00.000-05:00

Last night I made some tabouli!! I've always wanted to make some from scratch because the boxed version is yummy, but not up to par with fresh veggies, spices and lemons. I used organic bulgur, mint leaves from my backyard and some store bought parsley and veggies. I can't wait until summer when I'll have parsley, cucumber and tomato in my garden!! This was so good, except I added a LOT of parsley, so I'll cut down next time. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of olive oil, but after two tablespoons it tasted very olive oily, so I added extra lemon.

Speaking of lemon, I love lemon poppyseeds the bestest out of all muffins. Here's some mini lemon poppyseed muffins with extra zest (not lemon juice, it prevents the insides from cooking properly). I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance with a little tweaking. I happily devoured these delicious baby muffins.

Here's the muffins up close all lit up with the unnatural flash. You probably noticed in the background there is Trader Joe's Honey Bread. NOT VEGAN! It's not mine though.

Today I made some mini chocolate mint cupcakes!! They were really yummy and filled with peppermint buttercream frosting and topped with crushed chocolate.

Tofu and Oatmeal Bars

2006-05-29T16:08:00.000-05:00

No, the oatmeal bars didn't have tofu in them.

Okay, so one night I decided to have some tofu. Now I normally hate tofu (but I like experimenting) and this was no exception, but I thought the picture looked pretty damn nice. This dish was Three-Way Sesame Coated Tofu with Broccoli from Vegan Planet. Since I only have raw sesame seeds to work with, I toasted some and even made my own tahini in my blender that decided to just grind the seeds into a powder (that blender is pretty pathetic, it even has a hard time with hummus!). Anyway, I really enjoyed the broccoli and the next day I brought the cold leftover tofu in a pita with other sammich fixin's, but I ended up picking out the tofu pieces because I still hate tofu. So...the moral of the story is that I need (want) a food processor. Here's a more close-up picture:

Well, I said I hate tofu about a gazillion times, but there is a couple tofu dishes I actually do enjoy. I like tofu scramble and tofu baked and breaded with crushed cornflakes, like this:

Mmmmm these are soooo good, 'specially with a pickle and some ketchup for dipping. The breading is crshed cornflakes, a bunch of spices including parsley, onion and garlic powder and pepper, and nutritional yeast. I marinated the tofu in lemon juice so that when I bite into it, it doesn't taste all tofu-y. These nuggets have a texture like chicken nuggets (I think). Next time maybe I can get an omni to try them and tell me...

Last but definitely not least, I made some yummy oatmeal bars for breakfast one night (for the next day I mean, I don't eat breakfast at night). They have applesauce, cranberries, raisins, chocolate chips, cherries, almond extract and cinnamon. Mmmmm...they were yummy.

Balsamic Yellow Pepper Potato Pizza and a Lemon Poppyseed Muffin

2006-05-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I made some pizza!! The crust is whole wheat flour, all-purpose, whole wheat pastry and a little chickpea flour. It's topped with sauce, potato slices that I roasted in the oven with some olive oil/rosemary/balsamic/sea salt, sliced yellow bell pepper, broccoli, onions, sundried tomatoes, and cheezy cashew sauce. The veggies were mixed with some balsamic, an Italian herb and spice mix, olive oil and rosemary. It was REALLY good, I think I liked it even better than the other pizza I made. The crust was thin and soft, not charred or crunchy at all. Yum.

Here's a lemon poppyseed muffin (my favorite kind of muffin!) from Vegan with a Vengeance. I've been searching for the perfect lemon poppyseed muffin lately, tried a few different recipes, none of which rose and most were undercooked inside because of the lemon juice. I will look no further. This muffin was light and fluffy and rose amazingly high. Next time I will add a little extra sugar and find a way to make it more lemony without lemon juice which will probably prevent it from cooking all the way. I'm going to experiment a little more with this recipe, it's definitely a keeper (and I finally got my lemon poppyseed muffin with a perfect texture)!!

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream and Chickpea Pan Pizza

2006-05-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

Today I made chocolate ice cream out of silken tofu. I was a bit skeptical at first because I'm a little uneasy about tofu, but this was AMAZING! I was so chocolatey and I couldn't taste or feel the texture of the silken tofu one bit! I have so many ideas for flavor combos...

...see, this ice cream is topped with some frozen cherries (my favorite frozen fruit, they taste good in everything, especially chocolate things). Next time I may add some cherries into the ice cream. I also added some almond extract along with the vanilla extract because almond extract is my new favorite stuff, I don't know what I did without it. I'm also going to be on the lookout for soy-free ice cream recipes because tofu gives me a little tummyache. It gets more difficult because I don't have an ice cream maker. I also have some fudgsicles in the freezer waiting to be eaten...Mmmm!!

I was looking for things to do with my chickpea flour, so today for lunch I made a chickpea pan pizza. The crust is just chickpea flour, water and a little salt. It cooked on the stovetop in a nonstick skillet, I added the toppings and it went in the oven for about 7 minutes. On top is black beans, sundried tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, spinach, some cheezy cashew sauce, and rosemary. The bread/crust was so good, I never imagined chickpea flour and water would taste so good together. It was flat because there was no yeast or baking powder/soda, but oh-so-delicious. Tonight I'm making real pizza with homemade dough, pizza sauce, veggies, and the cheezy cashew sauce. I'll post pictures tomorrow!!

I wish I could write a vegan cookbook, that would be so cool. You never know, maybe I will one day!

Double Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

2006-05-19T20:33:00.000-05:00

The name for these yummylicious cookies is quite a mouthful, no pun intended!! They are chocolate cookies with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, fresh (okay, frozen) dark sweet cherries and a touch of almond extract. I used a basic chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe and added all the extra goodness for a truly delicious cookie.

Carrot Cake for Dinner and Chocolate Cupcakes for Dessert!

2006-05-16T21:01:00.000-05:00

I know what you are thinking: Cake for DINNER?! Well, it was Mother's Day and my mom likes carrot cake. It has vegetables in it, so it's healthy, right?

Actually, it wasn't really cake-cake, I lied. For Mother's Day dinner I made my carrot rice peanut butter loaf in cake pans like a layer cake, "frosted" it with mashed potatoes colored yellow with turmeric and served it with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance, it's perfect match. I even made a cute little carrot cake cupcake with the leftovers and the rest of the mashed potatoes. Awwww isn't it adorable?!!

Here's the actual cake. Not only did it taste fabulous, but I even made it look pretty. I cut a big carrot into mini carrots, stuck on some leaves made out of spinach and decorated the cake with the little carrots. There's a big one in the middle and some shredded carrots and spinach around it. I finished it off with a sprinkle of poppy seeds (which complemented the lemony flavor of the mashed potatoes and the chickpea gravy). I must say, a slice of this cake with a generous serving of chickpea gravy was extremely filling, like, more than anything else you have ever eaten. I seriously couldn't move halfway through my "cake".

...And what Mother's Day is complete sans dessert? Actually any day is better when I get to bake dessert. I made these the day before Mother's Day because I made the carrot cake the next day. They are two different kinds of chocolate cupcakes, both my own recipes. The cuppie on the left is mocha almond chocolate filled with vanilla almond mocha filling and topped with chocolate covered expresso beans. All decaf, so you can eat as many as you want. Ha! The cuppie on the right, my personal favorite, was mint chocolate. It's mint chocolate batter with real peppermint oil in the cocoa. They're filled with mint chocolate filling and topped with a broken Back to Nature Mint Chocolate Cookie, which is a minty, oreo-style cookie that is very very good. The cupcakes were divine and the batters tasted SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!!!! Mmmmm....

Edit:
Here's the carrot rice loaf recipe per request..

Carrot Rice Peanut Butter Loaf
3 cups cooked brown rice
1 onion, chopped
2 cups grated carrot
2 TB peanut butter
2 TB refried beans (you can just use more PB if you want)
3 slices of whole wheat bread, crumbled (if you toast the crumbles in the oven for a few minutes, it adds a nice flavor)
1 3/4-2 cups plain soy, rice or almond milk
1/4-1/3 cup whole wheat flour/oatmeal mix
about 1-2 TB dried sage to taste
dried oregano, black pepper, salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly oil a 9x5 baking pan. In a medium-sized bowl, combine onions, carrot, rice, peanut butter, beans, bread, soy milk, and spices. Mix. Add flour and oatmeal to thicken up the batter, it shouldn't be watery. Stir and place in the baking dish. Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden.

This loaf tastes fantastic on its own or paired with a yummy gravy like Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance (the lemon and carrot really complement eachother). Or if you want to make a carrot "cake", bake in two 9" round pans (be sure to line the bottom with parchment paper or it won't come out in one piece!) and frost some mashed potatoes to layer it and frost the rest of the cake. Then decorate!

Cherry Almond Chocolate Chip Muffins

2006-05-12T13:40:00.000-05:00

I got some almond extract yesterday and made the Cherry Almond Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. HOLY CRAP these are so gooood!!! I added in some chocolate chips AND white chocolate chips along with the cherries and almonds. Almond extract is sooo yummy...

Mmmmm...

Bread, Burgers and Cookies

2006-05-12T13:11:00.000-05:00

I love making bread. It's so much fun and actually a lot easier than you may think. I use a basic no-kneading required recipe with mostly whole wheat flour, oats and some white flour. It has tons of possibilities for add-ins. On the left I have whole wheat with oats kneaded in covered with oats and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. On the left there's toasted sesame seeds kneaded into the dough (tastes SO good) and the top is covered in more sesame seeds.

Homemade whole wheat bread is yummy for sandwiches, [french] toast, and whatever else you use bread for. You can freeze any leftovers in individual slices within a few days to a week so it doesn't get moldy. Stale bread can be crumbled, baked and crushed and used as bread crumbs, which are hard to find in whole wheat, let alone being vegan. Homemade tastes much better anyway.

Here's a close up of a homemade black bean burger, my own recipe. I used freshly cooked black beans and homemade bread crumbs. The day I was making these the power went out for two hours in the middle of cooking the bread crumbs. I had to make the bean burger mixture sans bread crumbs until the power came back and I could finish cooking them and cook the burgers themselves. They turned out great!

And is any day ever complete without dessert? I think not! I made these recently when I couldn't decide between cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. I made the cookies and frosted them with chocolate frosting (the frosting is the best part anyway)! The first recipe I used was a complete disaster, my cookies spread then never rose. It was my fault somehow though because I know many other people have had awesome results with that recipe. So I trashed those (but did eat the soft, chocolate-y centers out of quite a few and salvaged some chocolate chips from the uncooked batter in queue for baking) and whipped out my mom's recipe and veganized it. It was pretty simple: flax for the eggs and Earth Balance margarine. I had to make some crazy fraction of the recipe though because I was running low on margarine and only had enough for either 1/3 or 1/6 of the recipe. It later occurred to me that I could have used some oil instead, but whatever. Nevertheless, they turned out awesome and tasted just like my mom's cookies, but this time, no eggy yuckness involved!

Brownie Pudding

2006-04-30T06:51:00.000-05:00

I love pudding. It is so cheap and easy to make and tastes delicious. If you use vitamin-fortified non-dairy milk, you'll get some calcium, vitamin D, maybe some B12 and all other sorts of good stuff. You can make it even more vitamin enriched by making strawberry, blueberry, raspberry or banana pudding. But I did not do that here. I made brownie pudding with white chocolate swirls. I used leftover brownie chunks and white chocolate chips from Pangea (I really must make something like cookies out of these!). It was decadent and delicious. I've only made homemade chocolate pudding, but I will probably eventually figure out how to make vanilla or other as the base pudding flavor. Broken up Oreo-style cookies (Trader Joe's Joe-Joes or Newman-Os) would taste fabulous in vanilla pudding. I like chocolate best though. Leftover brownie chunks would also taste good swirled with chocolate sauce into homemade vanilla soy ice cream, but I can't show you that because I do not own an ice cream maker...

I know, not vegan food, but here's a picture of my puppy! Adorable, isn't he?

Roasted Asparagus and Veggie Pizza with Cheesy Cashew Sauce

2006-04-30T06:41:00.000-05:00

Last night I was itching to make pizza and somehow use asparagus and melty "cheese", nutritional yeast and cashew sauce. I made the dough from scratch and kneaded in a few herbs. The red sauce was delicious (from Vegan with a Vengeance, I love that book!). I tossed some asparagus (in season!), red bell pepper, sliced zucchini and sliced onion with a little olive oil and spices and herbs and roasted them in the oven. It actually only took about 2 hours to make, and I made the sauces and veggies while the dough was rising. It was delicious, my whole family loved it, leaving only one slice.

Banana Split Pudding Brownies...

2006-04-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

...from Vegan with a Vengeance!! The chocolate-y banana-ness went together so perfectly, and I'm not even much of a cooked banana person. The best part was between the banana and brownie layer where it was so moist! I was expecting these to have warm gooey nanners on top, but it thickened and looks like a blondie layer. It's actually only banana, sugar, vanilla, soy milk and cornstarch. Isa suggested serving them with sliced bananas on top, but since I didn't served them all at once, I sprinkled some pieces of dark chocolate on top a few minutes before they were done baking so they would melt and I made chocolate-y swirls. Nummy.

Chocolate Pudding: Cookies 'n' Cream Mocha Almond Fudge Peanut Butter Raspberry White Chocolate Swirl

2006-04-26T16:03:00.000-05:00

My first intentions for pudding today was coffee flavored with the addition of some instant coffee powder, maybe mocha almond fudge with chopped almonds and dark chocolate chunks. I chopped an almond and added a square of dark chocolate (which was reallly good, right now I have a chocolate bar from Poland). I saw some Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Joe-Joes (oreo style cookies with peanut butter in the middle) sitting in the pantry and decided to add some broken up chocolate cookie and a bit of the peanut butter inside. This got me thinking COOKIES AND CREME and alas, I went right to my unopened bag of white chocolate chips from Pangea and sprinkled them in at the end. Mmmm...Those chips are pretty good, but they are kind of hard and don't melt very melty-ish, but they taste fabulous melted. I added some raspberries in for good measure. On top is a few white chocolate chips, cookie pieces and a sprinklin' of organic powdered sugar from Trader Joe's. Yum yum!

Raspberry Chocolate Blondies

2006-04-25T17:31:00.000-05:00

I made these nummy blondies from Vegan with a Vengeance last week. Raspberries and chocolate together are delicious...

It was really tough to spread out the blondie batter on top of the slippery raspberry filling but they still turned out amazing because all the chocolate and raspberries blended together on top, which was the best part!

Quinoa Croquettes and Raspberry-Chocolate Pudding

2006-04-24T18:29:00.000-05:00

Tonight I made Quinoa and Blackeyed Pea Croquettes from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, which is an awesome cookbook. The greens are kale, boiled, then sautéd with garlic, onion, red bell pepper and lemon. I served them with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy and extra quinoa in the middle.

Chocolate pudding with non-dairy milk is super easy to make. I've been eating mine with raspberries lately, but the flavor possibilities are endless. Here's the basic recipe I use for one serving:

Mix all dry ingredients in a small saucepan. Add milk and extract and WHISK (you must use a whisk or deal with chunks of cornstarch in your pudding) over medium heat until your pudding starts to thicken. Be careful not to overcook or you'll end up with a gummy blob. Stir in chocolate chunks and your choice of fruit or yummy add-ins. I used a handful of frozen raspberries here, but strawberries, peanut butter, nuts, dried fruit, frozen fruit or anything else you like to eat with chocolate would work great. Pour into a dish and eat. You can also chill it in the fridge, but if you leave it in there too long a "skin" will form on top. I've topped my pudding with Ricemellow Creme and it was delicious, but alas, I finished the container last week. Soon I will embark on a mission to create a tasty vegan whipped "cream".

Other flavors I think would be delish:
Mocha Almond Fudge: Stir in a bit of instant coffee, some chopped almonds, and after you turn off the heat, add in chunks of dark chocolate
Brownie Choco-chunk: Stir in pieces of fudgy vegan brownies and chunks of dark chocolate (or white chocolate chips, you can order vegan chips from Pangea).
Rocky Road: Chunks of dark chocolate, almonds/nuts, and vegan marshmallows
Mint Chocolate: Peppermint extract, mint cocoa powder (Natural Mint Cocoa from Trader Joe's is YUMMY), chunks of chocolate
Banana-Cherry Walnut: Banana Chunks, walnuts/peanuts and dried or fresh cherries
Dulce sans Leche: Swirl in some vegan caramel sauce such as this and some nuts and/or chocolate.
Cookies 'n' Cream: Crushed Newman O's/Oreos/Trader Joe's Jo-Jo Cookies
Think of your favorite ice cream or candy bar flavors, mmmmm...

Cakes!

2006-04-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

I made this cake for my Dad's birthday in March. It's double-layered, vanilla and chocolate, with a strawberry filling in the middle. The following days were very cake-a-licious, I think I had cake for breakfast everyday.

I made this choco cake for Easter (it's not intentionally in a cross-shape, I just wanted to eat some of it on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday). The frosting recipe was on the back of the Ghiradelli cocoa powder container and it turned out extremely fudge-y and delicious.It had strawberries in the cake and on top! Very yum!!

I need to brush up on my HTML skills, I used to be an expert!

Coffee Chocolate Almond Biscotti

2006-04-23T17:57:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I decided to make biscotti for the first time ever. I had been salivating over this recipe for a few days because it combines three of my favorite flavors in one cute little chocolate dipped cookie: mocha, almond and dark chocolate. Yummers! They turned out delish, but a little crumbly, so next time I may add in some flax or another binding agent to hold the biscotti together.