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!

Cooking in season!

I've found my new love (no offence to my husband of course): cooking in season!

We got a bunch of blueberries and fresh corn on the weekend and I looked through my recipes and found Corn Chowder and a Scones recipe I've been meaning to try (both from VWAV). I tell you when they say fresh is best they know what the heck they're talking about! Cutting corn directly off the cob into soup and watching plump fresh blueberries sizzle on the pan as the scones bake, it's an unreal feeling that makes you feel so good.
I've also taken to eating tomatoes with just salt and pepper. And greek salads with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. Also fruit salad with fresh peaches, blueberries and strawberries with just a sprinkle of sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup. Here's a picture of our fridge after we picked up blueberries.
So here are some meals I've made lately (lots of greek salad you'll notice). Below is some pesto garlic bread and pesto with a vegan roux mixed.
Below is a California type sandwich. The banana peppers were amazing! Yum yum. For more info see my other blog.
This was towards the beginning of summer when scapes were first out. Below is onions, scapes, beans, and mushrooms. A little pesto pasta (I swear it's not the only thing I eat, only like once every two weeks... not sure how it keeps coming up here)
Well that's a good enough update for now I think. I'll try and make my posts more frequent rather than huge ones all at once. What's in my future? A curry recipe... some cocoa-chocolate chip scones... some more birthday cupcakes perhaps... coconut pancakes with pineapple sauce, scalloped potatoes, pizza from scratch.... Very ambitious I know. The best part about summer is all the selection of fantastic fresh fruit and veggies... but unfortunately it's also a time when people are ridiculously busy and running around and vacationing etc. So you have all these ingredients but no time to do anything with them! Grrrr! The irony of it all! Oh well I'm only leaving for one more weekend this summer so I'll find some time hopefully. Until next time... love lots, laugh often and buy local!!!!

Update on my undercover status

Well I have been an undercover vegan for awhile now (4 months) I have not been the best vegan always, many slip ups but luckily I did it for health reasons rather than other reasons that may have made me feel worse for cheating. I have learned more about how my body reacts to foods in the last 4 months than in my whole life. I have definitely found a correlation with eating dairy and then feeling more pain the next day. Another thing that makes me feel worse are potato chips and deep fried foods. Chickpeas also make my stomach hurt. I have also noticed that eating lots of pasta or bread makes me feel sluggish. So these are all things I can work on now! So far very interesting undercover work. People are excepting everything much better now than at the beginning. My parents have become 10 times as excepting. People who we don't really discuss our life and meal choices with who we meet at potlucks always ask for recipes of what I make. My husband is starting to become a great cook btw. I'll point out a recipe and ask him to make it and it's always fabulous.

As for my family, at first my mom was like, I'll never be able to make you anything again!! Then I was letting her know what I was making and how good it was tasting. Then we went home to visit and my mom had bought us soy milk, made us brown rice and beans to have in the fridge, and she made vegan wheat germ, walnut, banana bread (with carob chips!) She must have done a lot of research, i was surprised she even knew what carob chips were. Then they have noticed how much better I feel and how much more energy and less pain I'm in. So obviously they are very happy I've made this change for myself. When I was home this past weekend I made a huge salad for lunch hoping to share and everyone had some and enjoyed it and then I made dinner and made portabello mushroom fajitas from scratch for dinner. True my mom made some chicken with taco sauce on the side but I think my sauce was damn good! And everyone enjoyed dinner. So my fajita mix is what I thought I would share with everyone!

I fried some garlic (3 cloves) in olive oil and added some sliced onions. Then I added some green and red peppers for about a minute. Then I added my sauce (a teaspoon or so of the following: chili powder, cumin, cornstarch and 1/2 tsp of onion powder, 1/4 tsp oregano, a little salt, juice from a lime and enough water to make it a sauce (1/2 - 3/4 cup) and I added the portabello mushrooms. I served it in whole wheat wraps with cut up lettuce, tomato, salsa and fresh guacamole. Yum Yum! I've discovered an amazing affection for portabello mushrooms since I found the portabello mushroom salad in Veganomicon. Justin also made us the maple mustard glazed potatoes which have made it into our regular rotation. Another recipe I try to use all the time is the tahini dressing from VWAV. I made it into a dip for a potluck which went over amazing. Oh and lastly I modified my pancake recipe again with chocolate almond milk, adding cocoa and mint extract with chocolate chips. Pretty yummy, more of a dessert pancake rather than breakfast though, lol

Well that was my update and I even managed to throw a recipe in there! The last four months have been an amazing learning experience and I will continue my adventures in vegan cooking!

Soup, Sandwich & Salad

Latley I have been obsessed with pumpkin seeds. They are so delicious on salad. So that is why I posted this. My salad is pumpkin seeds, spinach, salad greens, cukes, onion, red pepper and Little Island Salad dressing.

This is what I was lucky enough to have my hubby make for me for dinner tonight. It was supposed to be a dinosaur kale quinoa wrap but after seeing Justin try to eat it that way, I tore my kale up and had a dinosaur kale, quinoa salad. It was delicious with the obvious ingredients in the name plus: tomatoes, avocado, grated carrot, & cucumbers. Add salad dressing and voila! It was super tasty (from the Thrive Diet).
So on Friday I made pesto, my first attempt. It was from Vegan with a Vengeance and it was really yummy but unfortunately i failed to read that it was a teaspoon and a half of coarse salt rather than what I used which was finely ground sea salt. Needless to say it was REALLY salty. But I still ate it up and again the next day and then for lunch yesterday. So overall a success. p.s. I LOVE WALNUTS (no gross pinenuts, ick)
I made miso soup last week sometime as well. It was half from the thrive diet (ground up sesame seeds, miso paste, green onions) but I added a little soya sauce and tofu (way too much tofu). It was good minus the copious amounts of tofu, oh well the first time you make something never goes perfect. I had it with a hummus, avocado, spinach and red pepper sandwich, toasted. It was a pretty quick, yummy little dinner.
That's all for this week, I made stir fry again but decided not to bore you with the same old same old. My hubby is making me a pizza from the Thrive book on Thursday if it's fabulous I will post it. Until then happy cooking!