VEGAN MOUNDS! ALMOND JOY!

As you know, Erin McKenna, of Babycakes NYC, has a new book out called Babycakes Covers the Classics: Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes from Donuts to Snickerdoodles. I was sold after watching this adorable promo video, and after Andrew made the recipe for Mounds. This is a melt in your mouth confection reminiscent of the non-vegan version. Obviously, these mounds are much healthier, and taste much better. I can't even tell you how good these are. It's outrageous!

Next time, we'll store them in a heart-shaped box.

Meeting Up

Andrew and I went to our first Vegan Chicago Meetup event last weekend. It was a bowling event at Timber Lanes. It was also a potluck and there was a Chocolate Inspirations tasting.

I made the old standby-vegan mac n cheese:

1 1/2 cups of plain soy milk
1 cup of water
1/3 cup of tamari or soy sauce
1 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup of canola or vegetable oil
1 box of macaroni
1 dollop of mustard (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Boil water in a big pot for the pasta.

Blend all ingredients sans pasta in a blender (you can also mix by hand).

Once pasta is cooked, drain it, dump it in a big pan, and pour the cheesy sauce over it.

"Bake until the top of the pasta looks slightly browned and crispy about 15 minutes but not too crispy because that is gross."

To give credit where it's due, I tweaked this from a vegweb.com recipe which I would link to, but I can't find it anymore :(

I've tried numerous vegan mac n cheese recipes at restaurants and such, and this is by far the tastiest, and it is a very popular potluck dish.

We also made some Zesty Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes with Sweet Lemon Glaze-a spectacular Sporkonline.com recipe for some seriously moist and lemony cakes. These were not as popular for some reason, so we had plenty to take home with us. Fine with me!

OK, so back to the event. Andrew didn't want to go. Neither of us are social people, so we were both a bit nervous but there was no pressure. When we walked in, we were basically told that the first four lanes were Vegan Meetup designated, and "it's a party." We loaded our plates, sat down to eat, and immediately met some people who became our bowling partners. I won the first game, and came in third in the second game-which might be Heineken's fault. I'm no good at bowling under the influence.

We took home some Chocolate Inspirations Cinnamon Toast Toffee and Peanut Butter Pillows (like a vegan Butterfinger candy bar in bark form). OMG.

All in all, it was a good time, and Andrew told me that he was glad I made him go.

PB & Pumpkin Vegan Dog Treats Recipe

We're fostering a pit bull puppy. Her name is Ginger and she is a handful! Chews everything, barks, pees on the couch (my beautiful couch!), plays too rough... We're trying to train her against these behaviors and instill in her some manners so's she can find a permanent home. Of course, dog treats are necessary for dog training. She loves these.


Ingredients
· 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
· 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
· 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
· 2 tablespoons peanut butter
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl, whisk flaxseed with 6 tablespoons of water until frothy.
3. Mix together the flax mixture, flour, pumpkin, peanut butter, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Add water as needed to help make the dough workable, but the dough should be dry and stiff. Roll the dough to a 3/8 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut desired shapes.
3. Bake in preheated oven until hard and golden brown-about 40 minutes.

And here's Ginger enjoying a treat:

Vegan Candy Corn from Scratch!

I got the recipe from the lovely Urban Housewife.

I actually halved the recipe because I didn't have enough powdered sugar on hand, and I still ended up with lots of candy. I am pleased with the results. I haven't had candy corn in years because the commercial stuff is filthy, but this tastes just like I remember. I expected it to be a lot of work, but it took less than an hour to make, and I would say it was easy. And fun. This could be a nice Halloween tradition for us vegans.

So tonight we're going to snuggle up with some homemade candy corn and watch Nightmare on Elm Street, The Crazies, or The Innocents (I added them all to the Netflix instant queue and I'm going to let Andrew pick).

Pumpkin Pie in a Cast Iron Skillet

So, we had a darling little pie pumpkin on display in our kitchen for a week or so. And yesterday, at the World Market (where we bought our new couch), we came across a bag of Stauffer's Ginger Snaps (which are vegan). And I knew that the pumpkin and the ginger snaps must be brought together to make a pumpkin pie with a gingersnap crust. And I knew I had to do it right away. So, I saw Andrew off to work, promising pie upon his return home.

I began roasting the pumpkin: at 425degrees, sliced in half, goo and seeds removed, cut side down in a baking dish, with a little water, for about an hour)

But! I forgot! We don't have a pie pan! I was bummed when I realized this, but determined. This is where the cast iron skillet came in. Its a twelve incher, quite a bit bigger than a traditional pie pan. I knew that the recipe I planned to be used needed to be adjusted, but I couldn't quite double it because I only had one package of tofu. So I kinda made it up as I went along. I was pessimistic because I am usually a measurer and I usually have tough luck with pumpkin pies (they don't firm up or they're too rubbery or WHATEVER)...but, guess what? This pie turned out PERFECT. The husband said it was the best pumpkin pie he'd ever had.

Here's what I did:

I made the crust:

Ingredients
1 bag Stauffer's Ginger Snaps
1/3 cup Earth Balance

Directions
Crush the snaps. Melt the balance. bring them together. Press into the bottom of the skillet. Bake at 350degreesF for 5 minutes.

Then I made the Pumpkin Pie Filling:

Ingredients
1 14oz package of soft tofu (blended in a blender until smooth)
2 1/2 cups cups of pumpkin puree
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp molasses
3/4 tsp cornstarch

Directions
Cream the pumpkin and sugar.
Add salt, cornstarch, spices, molasses, and tofu
Pour into crust
Bake at 425degreesF for 15 minutes, then at 350 for 30 minutes
Cool and chill for at least 2 hours

Yumma Yumma

Fantastical Shopping List

I have been unemployed for almost a week (did I tell you I walked off the job?!?) and since we just spent a bunch of money on our new apartment (which is awesome), I have no money to spend on anything else. However, if I had a few hundred dollars lying around, I would buy this stuff.

So, I have had my eye on these shoes for about a year now. God, I want them. I don't usually wear heels (Andrew and I are the same height and I don't want to tower over him), but Poppy, by the entirely vegan shoe line Novacas, has just a small bit of heel. Very hot. They can be found here.




Now, we are definitely going to get this clock. Its great because you can position the numbers any way you like because your wall is the clock face!


Are these leggings not fantastic?


"I love white wine. And red. And rum."

Stay Tuned

We got married!

We moved to Chicago!

Andrew turned 24!

We welcomed another family member!


And the blog is reborn!

Bagels, Chili, Brownies, Ice Cream!

Lately I have gotten back into the habit of making bagels every few days or so.

But before making the bagels I made vegetable stock. We just saute up some onions and garlic and then add a bunch of kitchen scraps, like raw ends of vegetables and pieces we didn't cook with, that had been in the freezer. Add nine cups of water and bring the whole thing to a boil. Let it simmer for an hour with a couple bay leaves and some other spices and we have veggie stock. This whole technique came from the Vegan Soul Kitchen.

For dinner I made chili. First, I cooked some onion and green pepper in olive oil until soft. Then, minced garlic and jalapeno pepper were added. Last comes the really easy part. I added a big can of tomatoes and three cans of different beans. The key to great chili is lots of cumin. I garnished with a little green onion and Amber broke out the vegan sour cream. Also pictured is a cornbread biscuit from Vegan Brunch.



At some point during the day Amber made the best brownies we've ever had. Naturally we figured we had to have ice cream and caramel sauce on top of our warm brownies.

Coconut Banana Ice Cream

one banana
one can of coconut milk
1/3 cup rice milk (give or take)
pinch of salt
teaspoon vanilla
some agave nectar

For the ice cream, break the banana into a few chunks and put in blender. Add can of coconut milk, and rice milk. Blend until smooth adding rice milk if needed. Add salt and vanilla and blend. Add sweetener to taste. Pour into your ice cream maker and churn. Put in the freezer and let the ice cream get really cold while you prepare the caramel sauce.

We got the idea for the ice cream from a guy at our local health food store. Wonder if he too is a vegan.

Donuts!

Wow it's been a long time since our last post. Nothing much to report. Just made donuts!

You Will Make It only if you run

I may have been too busy with kittens (below) and school to post but haven't been too busy to cook. Or more accurately, I haven't been too busy for Andrew to cook. I'm a lucky lady.

We picked blueberries in the rain and it was beautiful. Andrew made some buckwheat pancakes the next morning and this whole berry sauce which was incredible. It made our lips and teeth blue too, which we loved.

He ordered some Soy Curls from http://www.veganstore.com/ and recreated the barbequed soy curls we had in Portland. And he made corn bread, like, from real corn.

While he was ordering the soy curls, he thought he'd surprise me with a bag of Dandies Marshmallows (best marshies ever). Yay!!! I tried to copy something I saw on http://www.letsgetsconed.blogspot.com/ and chopped a few marshmallows in half and added them to some brownie batter and then in the last few minutes of baking, I tossed some more marshies on top and voila! SMORE frickin BROWNIES!

Today was Andrew's 23rd birthday. He's growing up so fast. I made these apple cider cupcakes (recipe slightly modified from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). I frosted them with cinnamon cream cheese and and a little apple butter swirled on top. Fall is here. It's official.

Awww...don't they look appetizing? We're fostering these troublemakers right now.

Vegan donuts, I love you.

I think that every once in a while, a good person deserves to buy a pack of peanut butter Newman O's and eat them all within like 2 hours, tops.

Anyway...

Oh yes, donuts.

Oops. I mean DONUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I had the time to make donuts everyday. These were so crispy on the outside, so soft and melt in your mouthy inside. The recipe for these can be found in My Sweet Vegan. I am also anxious to try the donut recipes from the current issue of Vegetarian Times. Check it out: French Toast Donuts. Apple Cider Donuts. Good Lord. But I need a handy donut pan which I can't see myself buying anytime soon (the tuition! It aches!)

And a couple of this week's dinners:


This is going to sound lame but we really just started buying beets this summer. I don't know why-they are wonderful. I like them plain or with a little maple syrup/tamari mixture drizzled over them. The kale is from our garden. We have been living off of these sausages since we bought Vegan Brunch. The bread was homeade (by Andrew), brushed with olive oil and rubbed with a clove of garlic. Rustic.



Pesto pasta. The lemon basil is from the garden as are the tomatoberries (cherry tomatos shaped like strawberries-and ohboy are they sweet!)

July Schmuly!

Yesterday my family came over to celebrate my mom's birthday which was a few days ago and baby Brennan's first birthday, which was yesterday, but had already been celebrated. So the birthdays kinda cancelled each other out. Anyway, Andrew took pictures.

So...everyone showed up before we were ready because we spent a good part of our afternoon searching for skewers...we were dashing about the kitchen and grill like mad. Me making the marinade for the veggies, Andrew chopping, me making the ice cream, Andrew making the dough for a flatbread that he would later "bake" on the grill, me making cupcakes, Andrew lighting the charcoal... anyway, look how pretty these skewers turned out. They really stimulated the old taste buds too. The recipe was from the August issue of Vegetarian Times .

Baked beans! I threw this together, don't even remember how exactly...hm, sauteed some onions, added them to the beans, mixed in some tomato paste, maple syrup, onion powder, molasses...yeah, that's about it. Never made this before but it worked out nicely.Raspberries and blueberries, fresh from the farmer's market. Mandarin oranges, fresh from a can. When in doubt, make a fruit salad.

We Fell in Love with the Place...

Our hotel room at the Jupiter. My mom thought the mural was a window. What a loon.

Our first night in Portland-We walked to Hungry Tiger Too and I ordered the corn dog basked while Andrew got the BLT (both vegan-a course) and then we shared. It was a satisfying meal after a day of waking up at 4am and then trains and planes and more trains. Tater tots are truly comfort food. This was the first time I had them in waaay to0 long.

We were so excited about Voo Doo Doughnuts. It was neat inside and there were people filming something there-a camera's dolly set up outside the place...anyway, the doughnuts! We had the girl pick a dozen for us-lots of vegan options they have. My fave was the one with the purple pixie stick like sugar on top, it was all grape-y and raised deliciousness. There was also a chick-o-stick topped doughnut and a voo doo doughnut a course-with cherry red filling and pretzel pins.

Stumptown coffee is truly perfect!!!!!! Wish we'd have brought some home with us...

At Rocco's Pizza they appeared to be only selling pizza by the slice. We were hesitant to order because we like to indulge ourselves on whole pies and didn't think one slice would be enough food after a day off walking around the city, riding the streetcars, and hours at Powell's. The vegan pizza is called The Compost Pile-which wasn't the most enticing name but this stuff was great-had just about every veggie on it and I was full about halfway into this.

We had been dreaming about this place for so long and finally we are here! A vegan strip mall, kids! Food Fight was just as awesome as I expected, this is Andrew outside of the grocery (he was chewing in most of the pics I took of him-a good thing!) We got some Dandies marshmallows (that were snacked on during our travels and later melted into amazing rice krispie treats). Sweetpea Bakery was our breakfast stop, got some Stumptown coffee a course and some muffins-we were most surprised by the nutritional yeast shaker at the cream counter-maybe that was what made us realize that we had to LIVE in Portland. We also went to Herbivore Clothing where Andrew picked up a hoodie and I got a T-shirt dress with an elephant on it that says "I'm Vegan and I Love You" across the chest. We didn't go to the tattoo parlor...maybe next time.


Our last full day in Portland was spent on our hotel-rented bicycles and I seriously rode to the end of my physical capacity (so many hills!) We were weak and sweaty as we hobbled our way up and down Alberta looking for an ATM machine...not in that bohemian neighborhood. We did eventually find a health food store that let us get cash back on our purchase so then we crawled over to The Homegrown Smoker BBQ, which was basically a big smoker in a corner lot with a couple of picnic tables. We shared this meal of Tempeh "ribs" and soy curls and coleslaw and macaroni and cornbread and went back for some barbequed beans. The picture does it no justice because I was playing with the functions on my camera when we took this...but mmmmmm.

So now we really want to live in Portland. Nice people, vegan food, mild winters, beautiful landscape, art and culture, perfect coffee, vintage shops on every block, serious farmer's markets...I'm going to cry.

Food to eat!

Didn't I mention this mac and whatever? (I say mac and cheese but I realize it's not cheese and words like chreese or cheeze are just silly.)

okra from this recipe:http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8908.0 but I did not deep fry it- just a little saute action. The chickpeas were influenced by a chickpea salad that the Earthen Jar serves, it's just chickpeas and peas and onions and a little cumin and we have sooo much dill so I had to throw some of that in as well.

And more from Vegan Brunch! (what did we ever do without it?)

Andrew has been making these bagels regularly. We use them for Tofurkey sandwiches and as toasted buttery goodness in the morning. We eat the hell out of em.

Vegan omelet?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just made these. Just. For the first time. I have a feeling that I'll be making them all the time. Really, really, really, really, really good.