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...