Back.... with Avengance!

Yeah... it's been awhile. Ok so I have some good excuses, I think. I got laid off, went to Hawaii, moved cities, got 2 new jobs. It's all good though I don't really have to explain myself to you all, I probably don't even have a following! If I do, don't be offended, please forgive my absence and thanks so much for reading!

So what have I been up to lately. I have gone from making normal dinners to being laid off and having lots of time for more elaborate things, to being in Hawaii and being very lazy and wanting to eat out and eat bad (btw Hawaii has some AWESOME Mexican food, try Maui Tacos, it's a fast food chain), then to moving here and having two jobs and no time to cook.

So I'll start with a couple cupcakes I made. The first were peanut butter cupcakes which I loved so much for their simplicity. They were so creamy and tasty.

The second set of cupcakes are the Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes. I made them for my hubby's birthday because he loves blackforest cake. They are pretty neat looking. I don't like cherries so I can't tell you about taste but my man sure loved them. So pretty!*Warning - the next one is NOTcompletely vegan*
While we were in Hawaii, basically the only food we could get was Mexican food. So we ate A LOT of it. Mind you there was this place called Wok Star on the main road in Kihei, Maui which had vegan and vegetarian options, not to mention one hell of an awesome owner. But anyway one of the first meals I remember while we were still on Oahu was at Chili's. I ordered this crazy big Taco salad with cheese quesadillas on the side.

So basically I made a black bean and corn relish with some red peppers, red onion, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, vinegar, and olive oil. Then I let it sit for about an hour before throwing it on some lettuce and tomatoes then I added salsa as more dressing to the relish (you could also use a balsamic vinegar) and of course some avocado!! YUM!
One thing that my hubby wanted these Medjool Coconut, Almond Date Treats from Save On. I bought them and then thought, what the heck!? I could make these! So I did. The ingredients are Dates, Almonds, and Coconut. All you need is a food processor. I also rolled them in Coconut afterwards.

Now this next one I'm very, very proud of. I made gnocchi. It was a long and tedious process but I was unemployed so I had the time. I used the good ol' pesto recipe from VWAV which is also where the Gnocchi recipe came from. My friend Jeff helped me and it was lots of fun eating the fruits of our labour.Ok, then I went on a pancake kick and these were my best attempt, using my Dad's good old family recipe, veganized. Then I melted chocolate chips and let strawberries sit in sugar overnight and topped with those. Not healthy for sure but man were they delicious. I had them for dinner/dessert even.

Lastly, I made this beautiful Chocolate Raspberry Blackout Cake from VWAV also! This cake was amazing. I made it as a dessert for a Sunday night dinner I made for my parents. I made the raspberry glaze though rather than using preserves. Do we even have preserves in Canada? Is that like jam?

Anyway until next time!! Keep baking what you love and loving what you bake!

Hello.. long time no see.... ahem. Moving on. I have been cooking, don't you worry about it. I went to the Taste of Health in Vancouver and I got to meet Isa Chandra Moskowitz which was needless to say the highlight of my week. Her cupcake book made me realize I could be a vegan if vegan's could eat these delcious cupcakes!! She did a demo for us from her new brunch book, so tasty! And I also saw a demo by Raw Rose on raw food and bought her cookbook. I'm not saying I'm going raw but I really like the concepts and I'm not going to say, I could never do that because I used to say that about being vegan so I can do anything! mwahaha! So what have I been up to well I'm glad you asked... let me show you.
Above you'll see probably the most ridiculously easy concept salad ever. I put down some spinach, some tomatoes, some avocado, black beans and covered it in salsa (this particular kind was corn and black bean) Then I put some tortilla chips for scooping. The only prep work was soaking and cooking the black beans ahead of time. It was so delicious and simple though. Take away the chips and I'm not sure it could be healthier. Awesome.
OK above is a variation on a recipe from VWAV. There is the Sesame Asparagus recipe. So instead I just added more of everything and more vegetables and served it over quinoa or rice. So it's garlic cooked in toasted sesame oil then add rice vinegar and soya sauce and I added a little bit of miso paste too. Then I put it all together with toasted sesame seeds on top. Mmmmmm for days.
Herb-Scalloped potatoes from Veganomicon. It was ok. I used potatoes that were little. I think it needed a little more liquid cuz I found it dry. But then I fried it up the next day for breakfast with hot sauce. Freaking good! I love leftover potatoes in the fridge! Instant breakfast!
So it was my co-workers birthday on September 28th so we celebrated at work this week and she loves bananas. And since I am the cupcake ninja and always make the cupcakes on anyone's birthday I found the banana split cupcakes. I didn't make enough icing to make them look super fantastic like the pictures in my book but they were pretty good. REALLY SWEET! Too sweet for me but I did use strawberry pineapple jam instead of pineapple preserves since I couldn't find any so maybe that contributed to it. It also made them kind of mushy. But not a terrible experience. I'm determined to make every cupcake in the book eventually. My friend Jeff missed out on cupcakes for his birthday since we didn't meet him until a couple months ago so we're celebrating his un-birthday (6 months after your birthday since you literally can't get further away from a birthday) which is coming up in a week or two. He wants the hardest cupcakes in the book... of course. Tiramasu here I come!

I also made the cookies and cream cupcakes just for the hell of it. OMG! My top three for sure. If you're wondering what the other two are they are the Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes and the Green Tea Cupcakes. But yeah these were a big hit with everyone. My only tip is to keep them in the fridge... if it was possible to make them better... cold did it!
Well that's about it for now. I'm excited for thanksgiving! I'm hoping my mom might make me vegan perogies again. Oh and she also made us vegan spaghetti sauce (she usually uses butter), salsa and applesauce. I am SO spoiled! I also bought a huge bag of potatoes so you may see more potato recipes soon. Hopefully squash too but we haven't bought one yet! Why oh why!?
Happy cooking till then!

Well I went out for breakfast a couple times in the past month or so and my favorite thus far was The Pantry's Smothered skillet (without cheese and eggs) but I did cheat and have the hollandaise sauce (I know I know , it's made with eggs but it's yummy). And I would have had it without the sauce but then it would just be vegetables which are good and all but pretty dry. So I thought about it at home and made some little cubed hashbrowns with mushrooms, onions, peppers and hot sauce (I don't have banana peppers at home sadly) and then made cheezy sauce from Veganomicon and then topped it with tomatoes and green onions. Over all amazing but I added too much hot sauce but that's easily enough to fix next time. Oh and look how pretty it looks!!LOL! I just love this picture. I made my Dad Boston vs. Brooklyn Cupcakes for his birthday (lots of work but yummy) with chocolate buttercream icing and this is what happens when you don't pay a lot of attention. I actually did it 3 times.I also made a couple dozen cupcakes for my friends shower (VCTOTW the Vanilla made with whole wheat flour with chocolate buttercream icing).

Then below is Maple Mustard Glazed Potatoes and String Beans recipe but with Asparagus rather than beans, we decided it tastes better this way. My hunny made this! It's awesome!

Finally, I love love love love the following recipe. Whole Wheat Naan bread with spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce then onions and peppers then covered in beautiful pesto sauce (VWAV). I added pineapple as a topping and it just made it perfect with the salty pesto and sweet pineapple. This is one of my favorite things ever I think.

So that has been what I've been up to lately. Sorry all the pictures come at once, kind of overwhelming. The past week I've been doing the master cleanse and I ended up stopping after 5.5 days cuz of being sick. I just couldn't handle both and my heart really wasn't in the cleanse anyway. So I am weaning back onto food and loving every bite. Trying to start off on the right foot with lots of fruit and vegetables. The breakfast I am loving right now is chocolate almond milk with Vanilla Almond Cereal and a banana. I'm used to my hunny making me breakfast, he always makes us smoothies from the Thrive Diet book so I was kind of lost but I'm liking non-liquid breakfasts, haha. So I am excited about food again, feeling pretty creative! Hopefully lots more great recipes to come!

Hello! Yah yah I'm over a week late. Ok first of all here are the Vanilla/Chocolate Marble Cupcakes I made for my Mom's Birthday/Easter. I gave her Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and told her to pick one. I did the same with my Dad and of course instead of picking a nice easy one he choose Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Cupcakes. But that's ok I like a challenge I just have to use some new ingredients. But my mom gave us Bunny Grahams for Easter and I put them on the cupcakes, don't they look adorable?
So we went home for Easter and I put myself in charge of dinner to relieve it from my Mom, partially because it was supposed to be my Mom's birthday dinner a few days earlier. I decided to go with a green theme (ok ok I lied it just happened) and I made Pesto Pasta from VWAV and Sesame Asparagus from VWAV and a green salad (with the green icing cupcakes for dessert).
Ooo pretty. So here is what the Sesame Asparagus looks like. It was so delicious. I have made it and the pesto so many times!! They are both absolutely amazing.


So this ended up turning weird. I made a quinoa pilaf and the asparagus and decided the pilaf had no flavor and mixed them together. It was weird... but ok.Finally my strange little corn tortilla burritos. I walked into the supermarket and fell in love with these little corn tortillas so I had leftover beans and rice and fryed them up with some pico de gallo and topped with some avocado mixed with more pico de gallo, They were tasty although the corn tortillas split easily. Definitely eat em all at once. After they are opened the dry out and crack and don't stay together.

Well that's what I've been up to. As I said I've been working full time so my hubby's been stepping up to the plate! It's been great! Anywho good eats to you all!

Valentine's Day Treats

There! Got your attention! Banana Split Pudding Brownies from Vegan with a Vengeance. I made them for my hubby for Valentine's Day... although we may have partaken in 3 a day early.....

Ok now that I've shown you the prettiest picture I'll show you what we've been up to lately.

My husband made some crackers which I did not enjoy, but he loved! Lemon sesame crackers. They were very pretty I must say. They are from the Thrive Diet.


Ok, next I also made some lemon cupcakes. I took them from the sexy low fat cupcakes (VCTOTW) and added lemon juice and I put lemon juice in the buttercream icing. Well I used whole wheat flour and the cupcakes were uh, ahem, very healthy tasting. And my icing was so running. So all in all not my best work but I thought I would post anyway just to have something more to show for my past few weeks.

WARNING: MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF STIR FRY AHEAD!!!

Last but not least I show you what happens when I get let loose in the produce section. I found baby bok choy and zucchini and sugar snap peas.....and then I grabbed tofu thinking yum yum. Then I added my usual stir fry appearances (red peppers, garlic, onion, & lots of mushrooms) and did a make shift sauce of peanut sauce, soya sauce, veggie broth, basil, and some mixed thai seasoning (ingredients: basil, paprika, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne). And by the time it was all together well... look
Yup that's right I needed two gigantic frying pans to contain the spread of the stir fry. Here's a close up of the extreme yumminess served over brown rice (it's under there somewhere).
It was awesome, possibly a bit much... But very delish! I quite enjoyed it.. and I got to enjoy it in my lunch today and tomorrow and the next day and the next...

A love of all things green <3

So my hubby and I have been transitioning onto the Thrive Diet which is a vegan, all whole foods diet for energy. We made his pecan sunflower burgers (pecans, sunflower seeds, apple cider vinegar, cayenne, chili flakes, coconut oil, sea salt - food processed together) then I fried them in a little coconut oil. I topped them with his miso guacamole (avocadoes, tomato, garlic, onion, tahini, miso paste, lemon and mashed together). It was supposed to have kelp but I didn't have any. Then I made garlic oregano sweet potato fries (garlic, oregano, sweet potato, basil, coconut oil, pumpkin seeds chopped). This one was supposed to be yam but I don't listen to recipes well. The combination was phenomenal!! It was delish! I especially loved the guacamole... so gonna have on chips and make it for my superbowl party this weekend! I love it!


Speaking of a lot of green.... I finally made the cupcakes I've been wanting to make forever. They are not pretty because I couldn't wait for them to cool before I put on the glaze. Here are the fabulous, beautiful on the inside green tea cupcakes. Mmmmm...
So that's all the yummies I have for now.. hopefully I will have some pics of my Superbowl spread of food this Sunday. I'm gonna make my non-vegan friends LOVE vegan food... just you wait!!

Some recent yummies

Well I haven't posted any pictures or recipes yet so I thought I would find some. If there are typos I'm sorry, in addition to losing my 'm' key off my laptop keyboard, my 'd' key has followed in suit. My hubby is giving me his old computer but he hasn't found the time to switch it over yet. *Crosses fingers it's soon! So I made Sarah's Delicious chili from How it All Vegan and it was very easy. I made it twice actually the second time I put too much cayenne and too much curry. The first time was very yummy though, it is pictured with some biscuit lips that are not vegan because this was at a time when I was only vegetarian status. The second picture is the Mint Chocolate Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. So easy and sooooo delicious. I made them for a baby shower for my friend so we put gummy bears and animal crackers around them, not vegan again but I did not partake, guests thought it was adorable though. Enjoy, more to come when we get settled into our new apartment over the weekend.