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!

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...