Vegan MoFo - Day 30

Wow. This is it! 30 days (minus a few here and there...I'm a mom of three and was out of town!) of hempy foods...never thought I'd be able to blog about so many!

Smoothies, dips, bread, cookies, seitan...the possibilities are endless! 

Today I have an ultra hempy post. First up is dinner - Chloe Coscarelli's Avocado Pesto Pasta. Being nutfree here, and free of many other foods that are allergens to my son, pesto is normally off-limits due to pine nuts. But swap in hemp seeds and you not only have a safe dinner, but also a much healthier one too! Blended with an immersion blender with avocados, garlic, olive oil, basil and my touch, a big handful of spinach, and they are magically transformed into creamy deliciousness. After mixing with hot pasta, I topped with sundried tomatoes.

Next up is a healthy and yummy energy bar. I love this recipe because the combos are endless because it's based in ratios - you can read about it here: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/homemade-energy-bar-recipe/

Here's my combo:

• 1-pound can of beans - black beans
• ½ cup binder - chia/water
• ¼ cup sweetener - agave
• ¼ cup soft sweet fruit - applesauce 
• 1 teaspoon of extract (optional) - vanilla
• 1 teaspoon of dry spice (optional) - cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1.5 cups of oats
• 1 cup dry base ingredient - hemp pro 70/ some cocoa
• 1 cup stir-ins - choc chips/coconut/hemp seeds

I then topped the baked and cooked bars with 1 1/2 times the recipe of frosting from Dreena Burton's B-raw-nies. I could just make it and eat it out of the mini food processor. Thick and fudgey!

Vegan MoFo - Day 21

I love subbing hempseeds for nut butters when they are intended for thickening things...like this Sugar-Free Brownie Batter Dip from Chocolate Covered Katie!

Hello...nice boost of complete protein and omegas to boot! Love serving it with Farm Boy Cinnamon Chips and some cool coconut whipped cream and cocoa nibs.

Ps - I use black beans instead of chickpeas:

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/11/16/dark-chocolate-brownie-batter-dip-sugar-free/

Vegan MoFo - Day 13

Here is a not-so-guilty pleasure:

You may be totally wondering what on earth these are...but if you like whole foods à la Dreena Burton like me, then you would know that these are Cocoa Cookie Dough Balls - delicious mounds of dates, cocoa, raisins, oats, chocolate and - standing in for almonds - hemp seeds! As I mentioned many times before, hemp seeds are a perfect stand in for ground nuts!

These are a wonderful treat without all of the refined sugar and can be dolled up by rolling the soft dough in any coating before chilling. Or you can be like me and count yourself lucky that some of the soft dough can actually be rolled and not all eaten straight out of the food processor bowl :/

http://kokoskitchen.com/vegan/let-them-eat-vegan/

Vegan MoFo - Day 4

Hempseeds are awesome to throw into baked goods! 

In this case, I threw them into Dreena Burton's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies. Delicious! I had intended to make itty bitty cookies using my smallest scoop but man, these puppies really spread out. Oh well, I thought, I'll just go ahead and make ice cream sandwiches since they were the perfect size! I thought I was being so novel.

But what I didn't realize was that the bottom of the recipe gave instructions for doing just that. Next time I will a) refrigerate the cookies to avoid bending them and squishing chocolate chips all over my hands and b) not forget about the softening ice cream so that it doesn't get as soft as soup. Ah well. I gave the sides a little roll into hempseeds and chocolate chips. Delish!

http://plantpoweredkitchen.com/recipes/recipe-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Oh My Amaranth!

I have had a package of amaranth in my cupboard for a couple of months now - I had heard about this iron-rich, gluten-free supergrain and decided to give it a go in a recipe that called for it to be cooked in a chowder-like soup. I have to admit, I thought it was disgusting. I then wondered - how on earth am I going to use this stuff up?

Enter my issue of Fresh Juice! It mentions to pop it - like mini popcorn! I was pumped! I found a great video tutorial online (I'd link to it but mobile blogger sucks) - the technique was beyond putting kernels in a brown paper bag and microwaving, like I do for popcorn. The instructions in the mag seemed to suggest topping it with a little oil and eating by hand. Perfect! I thought. Except maybe these people have miniature fingers since there's no way you can shove this popped stuff in your mouth without making a giant mess - the puffed kernels aren't much bigger than the grain itself!

But the taste is much better - I've found myself sprinkling the puffed grain on steel cut oats, salads, and on pasta. But it was begging for something more.

I remembered seeing something on the Fresh Juice blog about mixing it with chocolate. Kyle sold it to the kids as a 'chocolate bar'. I fear that this sort of trickery is like a form of mini tree-hugger child abuse. But seriously it's so good, and the kids were none the wiser and begged more more! It's a new staple in this house.

Chocolate Amaranth Bars

(Gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free)

1 cup melted chocolate (Enjoy Life)

1 1/2 to 2 cups popped amaranth (google search it!)

Mix! Spread onto parchment lined cookie sheet and spread to same thickness as if you were making bark. Chill in the fridge at least one hour, then break into pieces. 

Plan to make this often - it doesn't last long!

Bark! The Herald Angels Sing!

I've been baking up a storm in anticipation for Christmas - I'm so thankful to Mattie for his vegan butter recipe (my white chocolate version is found here), as this stuff enabled me to make all my favourite Xmas goodies that call for margarine.  With the allergy crap around here, this white chocolate stuff is the only thing that makes a sub!  And given that everything is so sweet, it goes perfectly!  This year's baking assortment is totally Kyson safe with no allergy stuff.  I've made the usual gingerbread, orange carrot cookies, sugar cookies, ginger crinkles, etc. but I needed to have a few things to whip up quickly to satisfy a nearly-four-year-old's urge to constantly be busy baking something. 

Enter bark!  I used to make a chocolate one with Oreo's, but given the palm and soy content, those were a no-go.  So I whipped up some alternatives...first, a bark with just melted Enjoy Life chocolate chunks (about 1 cup) with about 1 cup of semi-crushed PC Blue Menu Alphabet Pretzels (no soy or other vegetable oil - hooray!) then spread on a cookie sheet with wax paper and chilled in the fridge (of course, once chilled, broken into pieces).  I honestly think this bark has the look and texture of a peanut bark - but is happily nut-free!  The saltiness of the pretzels makes this super yummy. 

I also used up some of my expensive Natural Candy Store order and made crunchy candy cane bark - this time, 2 cups of chocolate chunks (melted) with about 1 cup of crispy rice cereal and about 4 ounces of crushed candy canes.  

I can't decide which one I love more!

I'm getting ready to book Kyson's allergy follow up for May 2012 and am already getting my hopes up that he will grow out of SOMETHING.  If I had to pick, I'd love to have legumes back.  Fingers crossed!

Hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2012!

Happy Birthday Mami!

To borrow the title of one of Ash's fave stories...

It’s been so long that I’ve downloaded pics off the camera that I can’t really remember this day all that well. All I know is that I made the Butternut Squash Penne with Sage Pesto and Almonds dish from Skinny B*tch (with chicken tenders, of course) and mom liked it! Tracy also brought some delicious bread – she is now tasked with being the bread baker for our family events! I did end up trying to make my own at a later date:

For her cake, I think I used the chocolate cuppie recipe from VCTOTW and doubled it to make 2 8-inch layers. I used chocolate tofu mousse topping to fill the layers and ice the top, but nearly ran out to do the sides of the cake. So with whatever I had leftover for the mousse, I added melted chocolate chips to make a thick mousse-like ganache. I ‘pasted’ it on the sides and it was good! Definitely mom (and Ashley)-approved!

Mom also revealed that she’s considering adopting a vegetarian diet. I think Tracy nearly fell off her chair. This is after she became violently ill after eating at The Keg. Now that she’s over her illness, I’ll have to follow up on the status of her potential diet change…

Clearing Out the Archives

I was checking out my pics, and realized that I hadn't posted a few gems. Because it's been so long, I can't really remember the exact titles and where things were from, but I'll do my best.

First up, Cardamom Rice Pudding from an issue of Vegetarian Times. I love rice pudding, but I didn't love this one. Maybe it was all of the almonds plus dried cranberries and strong cardamom flavour, but this was a little much. I'll stick to my usual recipe.

I had some baby cereal that tasted way too iron-fortified for Ash to like, so I used it up in my banana muffins recipe! I tossed some in with some oats and added a little extra soymilk. They were my best muffins ever!

Mystery salad alert! I have NO idea what this was, but I think it was from a recent VT issue. I don't think I'll make it again, whatever it was, probably because I wouldn't even know what issue to look in!

Now for all the good stuff - delicious Vegan Lasagna from the latest VT. A little bit of effort, but pretty fast. Instead of cooking onions and garlic separately for each of the Speedy Red Sauce and Spinach Filling, I cooked them together and split them up. Cut down on alot of the time. I have to say that this recipe did confirm that I really don't like vegan cheese. I never liked regular cheese, so I'm not sure why I thought I'd like soy cheese, but I gave it another shot with this recipe and will omit it in the future.

Triple Nut Torte from a holiday issue of VT. Very easy, and super good! Instead of using a double boiler for melting the chocolate, I just stuck chocolate chips in a bowl and put the bowl on the hot cookie sheet (used to toast the nuts). Melted like a charm! Why don't the authors put these tips in? I'm sure it's not just new moms that don't need extra effort nor to wash extra dishes!

Finally, the most delicious Pan Pizza ever. I used the crust recipe from the most recent VT, but filled it with Isa Pizza toppings instead. Way better than the Hut, even for obvious reasons that it isn't laden with pepperoni! I can't wait to make this again. I'm going to try a pile of different mushrooms and onions. I'm so glad that I have a cast iron pan just for this recipe alone!

Merry Christmas!!!

Here's my cookie tray for this year:

Vegan Turtles - Turtles, turtles...rah rah rah! I will post this recipe shortly...yummy!

Gingerbread Bears - Same recipe Tracy uses, except my icing didn't turn out as crunchy.

Chocolate Coconut Clusters - Did I blog about these before? Good! I made them vegan (obviously) and only boiled the mixture for a couple of minutes.

Cranberry Crumble Bars - Not too sweet!

Incredibly Non-Butter Shortbread Cookies - Delish! I added a little lemon juice to my icing and it tasted really good! Recipe is below!

1 cup Earth Balance, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tsp Kingsmill egg replacer

2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. With electric mixer, beat Earth Balance until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in granulated and icing sugars and then beat in egg replacer, water and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into buttery mixture. Transfer dough to work surface; kneed lightly until it forms a ball.
3. Divide dough in half; shape each into disc. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 2 days. Once disc at a time, roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place them on parchment paper lined baking sheets.
4. Bake in centre of preheated 375 F oven for 10 - 12 minutes or until light golden on bottom and edges. Let cool for 3 minutes on baking sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool. Makes 3 dozen cookies. Ice as desired.

Merry Christmas from Ashley! Happy New Year Everyone!

Easy Recipe Alert!

A nice twist on the quesadilla front...sweet Strawberry Chocolate Quesadillas! I pulled this from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (Moosewood Celebrates or something like that). Made it for the weekly mom’s group get-together. Sweet, sinful and messy. A great way to use up seasonal strawberries! OK, next post will actually be something nutritious and meal-like...

I hope my dentist isn't reading this...

I know I had dissed this recipe in the past, but my sweet tooth was craving this cool, summery treat. And besides, I found a new brand of tofu cream cheese that didn’t have any hydrogenated products in it. I made a delicious Key Lime Pie. I devoured two pieces the night I made it.


The next night, I was watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. I love that show because geez, if they can raise that many kids while maintaining some sort of sanity, it gives me hope that I can handle the one I have! During the episode, Kate revealed that she would be making Monkey Munch with the girls. It looked like a sweet variation of one of my faves – Chex (US)/Crispix (Canada) Mix! I was at the store the next day buying the ingredients that I was missing – all it takes is Crispix, chocolate chips, peanut butter, margarine, vanilla and icing sugar! Kyle and I are addicted.

I fear that I have turned into a junk food freak.

At Long Last - A New Post!!!

Wow, it's really been too long! Honestly, I've eaten, but the camera is now used for taking pics of the baby and not food. Besides, I'm lucky if I have a chance to throw something in my mouth never mind take a pic of it :(

But I did make some stuff that I found pics of on my camera...I threw together some roasted sweet potatoes with edamame and green onions, and tossed in a dressing comprised of tamari, seasoned rice vinegar and sesame oil. Delicious!



For a cool treat (and believe me, it's needed right now since there's a humidex of 40 degrees Celsius right now), I rolled a banana in melted chocolate, then rolled it in a bowl of chopped peanuts, then rolled the concoction in press n' seal and stuck it in the freezer. After a few hours, it was like a vegan Drumstick! Sorry for the blurry photo...

Yummy Experiment

I honestly don’t set out to modify recipes – especially when they don’t need changes! But sometimes as you re-invent a good recipe you end up coming up with something totally awesome.

Case in point – Vcon’s Vanillla Ice Cream. Delicious. Just like traditional ice cream in terms of texture, but without the sour taste of cow’s milk. So on Wednesday night, I set out to make a repeat batch. I encountered a few issues. I had exactly ½ of a package of silken tofu, which was the required amount according to the recipe, yet 1 cup of coconut milk left (2 times what the recipe called for). Obviously I didn’t have enough tofu to save for a third batch given the excess coconut milk, and I didn’t have any other recipes that would have used up the excess coconut milk. So I decided to dump the tofu in the blender and add the whole cup of coconut milk. I’ll just cut the required 1 cup soymilk down to ½ cup, I thought. Problem was, I was out of plain soymilk! I decided to then use ½ cup of chocolate soymilk, so I scanned the Chocolate Ice Cream option in Vcon and noticed that it called for melted chocolate chips to serve as the chocolate base. I decided not to go that route, and was now on an adventure.

I dumped in the ½ cup chocolate soymilk, but thought a chocolate ice cream should have more chocolate. I added in some cocoa, and was on my way. I added the required sugar and vanilla, and blended everything together.

After dumping the mixture in my ice cream maker, I had a thought. What if I could mimic the Soy Delicious (also called Purely Decadent) Peanut Butter Zig Zag ice cream that Kyle and I buy almost every week? While the ice cream was mixing, I stirred together some natural peanut butter and maple syrup (to make it sweeter) and stuck it in the freezer to chill, until the ice cream was ready and I had thought about what the heck I was going to do. I decided to take my soft serve ice cream and pour it into a shallow container, then swirled in the chilled PB mixture. After letting the ice cream firm up until the next night, Kyle and I took a sample, and it was awesome. Would have been better if I had ground some chocolate chips up and swirled them in too, for some crunchy bits. Next time!

Choco-PB Swirl Ice Cream
1 cup lite coconut milk
¾ cup sugar
½ pkg (6 oz) silken tofu
½ cup chocolate soymilk
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla
½ cup natural peanut butter
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup coarsely ground chocolate chips (optional)

Mix coconut milk, sugar, tofu, soymilk, cocoa and vanilla in a blender until smooth. Pour into ice cream maker, and follow manufacturer’s directions. Meanwhile, stir together peanut butter and maple syrup. Set aside in freezer. After ice cream has churned for about 35-40 minutes, pour into a shallow oblong container. Drop clumps of PB mixture and ground chocolate chips (if using), and lightly swirl into ice cream using a knife, trying to maintain ribbons. Store in freezer overnight to harden further.

Soft-serve (pre-overnight freezing) and hard ice cream pics shown below...notice the yummy bands of PB!

Heaven on Earth

Omigod - Isa's Chocolate Smlove Pie is to die for. I can't really say much else because it was just that darn good, as it was devoured at a family housewarming party tonight. Fortunately, Tracy and I managed to serve ourselves and our immediate family before the other vultures came along! I think most of the non-vegans who ate the pie were on too much of a chocolate high to notice or care that tofu was a main ingredient.

I was nervous about how long the recipe was in length, but happily surprised that it didn't really take much effort at all to make. I used a whole package of water-packed silken tofu that weighed more than the pound called for in the recipe, so I skipped adding the liqueur/soymilk option for the filling. It turned out great. I'm also glad that I read somewhere on the PPK to make extra maple-candied pecans - what a great little snack to have leftover!

Honestly though, anyone who hasn't already made this should really do so immediately! I can't believe I had stored this recipe in the back of my mind for as long as I did!

I <3 Summer!

I love a nearly disaster-free dessert - bananas, strawberries and pineapple fondue!

I had never used my cheap fondue set before, but remember being told to melt my chocolate mixture first and use the candle below to keep it warm. So I melted some vegan chocolate chips with some soymilk, and was ready to munch in no time. I did learn, however, that that little tealight candle has alot of power. While watching the hockey game, we heard some sizzling - a little patch of chocolate was burning.

Although I didn't mind tending to this little hiccup - I just swirled a cool chunk of pineapple around to stir the chocolate and leave myself with a decadent mouthful.

Colossal Food

I was craving something sweet, so I pulled out my VwaV, recalling that I had seen an interesting recipe I always wanted to try. Since I had all of the ingredients on-hand, I decided to make the Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars. I used my homemade raspberry jam, as suggested, instead of going to the trouble of making the raspberry purée.

They turned out great - almost too great. You see, I live alone, and Kyle was working alot of nights this past week. In case you can't tell from the photo, this is a 9x13" pan worth of rich, calorie-laden blondie bars. It was dangerous. I had one, and soon after sampling, knew I had to offload the 30-some servings of these things before I turned into a blob. Fortunately, they kept well in the fridge, and I was able to have Kyle take more than half of the pan to his hungry co-workers on Friday. Phew! Next time, I'll definitely halve this recipe into an 8x8" pan, or even quarter it into a loaf pan.

One note that was weird - I felt guilty making those blondie bars. All week, I was snacking on grapefruits as my nightly snack. It was mildly surprising how much I was enjoying this treat! One night, I ate my grapefruit, then had a tiny piece of blondie bar. It was weird, because I was so mad at myself for losing the sweet, light aftertaste of grapefruit in my mouth, and instead tasting the oil-based, sugary confection I had created. I was mildly disgusted with myself, and hope this is a sign that my somewhat sweet tooth is diminishing.

Today, I modified a Caesar Salad recipe from the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook. I used soy mayonnaise instead of the silken tofu/water combo. I found it better tasting than another Caesar-style dressing I made before, so I'll be sure to do this again. What I won't do again is double the amount of garlic. I have no idea what I was thinking, but at least I won't have to worry about vampires tonight.

Chocoholic's Delight

As I had mentioned yesterday, I decided to make some ice cream, and resorted to my favourite ice cream book, Vice Cream. I made the Chocoholic's Delight (for some reason, I feel like I've made this before...ah, I just checked my photo file and I did make this recipe, but without the chocolate chips). I made a sub for the purified water, and used organic chocolate soymilk instead for extra creaminess and chocolate flavour! My new blender did a much better job at pulverizing the raw cashews than my food processor did.

I just realized that I don't have a snack for this week at work (somehow bringing in my ice cream seems a little impractical). I saw somewhere that someone made a banana split loaf from Vegan Planet, so I'm going to check the recipe and hope I have all of the ingredients or come up with a recipe of my own that incorporates the browning bananas on my counter and homemade freezer jam that I made.

I've Overdone It

I made many homemade gifts this year, and have a lot of basket wrapping ahead of me:

Scary thing is, all of the more material goods are under the tree, and it's jam-packed already! I live alone, so I think that's just nuts that I could be giving that much stuff! Tonight, I painted a plate with a cat motif as a gift for my aunt. I was pretty impressed with myself, as it certainly beats last year's attempt at creating glass art:

And now onto food. This weekend, my mom, Sam and I made nearly 1000 cookies. It took 12 hours straight, but it was well worth it! Here are a few of them:

Orange-Carrot Cookies (my fave)

¾ cup Earth Balance margarine
1 cup sugar
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg
1 cup cooked, mashed carrots
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Icing:
Juice and rind from 1 organic orange
1 ¾ cup icing sugar

Cream margarine and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg replacer, carrots and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt, then add to sugar mixture, stirring until combined.

Drop onto greased or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Combine rind with icing sugar. Slowly add the juice of the orange, stirring until correct consistency. You may not use all of the juice. Frost cookies with icing mixture while slightly warm.

Sugar Cookies

½ cup shortening
½ cup sugar
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg
2 tbsp soymilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Using a mixer, cream together shortening and sugar; beat in egg replacer, soymilk, and vanilla.

Blend in combined dry ingredients using a wooden spoon to form a ball of dough. Chill dough in a flat round shape wrapped in plastic wrap, if necessary.

Roll dough between two large sheets of parchment paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes, and place on a greased or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes until golden.

Cool, and frost with icing in various colours to match shapes.

Makes 3 dozen, depending on size of shapes.

Cranberry Crumble Bars (my second fave)

1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups quick cooking oats (not instant)
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup melted Earth Balance
¼ cup corn syrup
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind

In large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar and baking soda. In small bowl, combine melted butter and corn syrup; stir into dry ingredients. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture; pat remaining mixture into a greased 8-inch square baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned.

In bowl, combine cranberry sauce, lemon juice and rind. Spread over base, and sprinkle evenly with reserved oats mixture; pat down lightly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely on rack. Cut into 25 squares.

Chocolate Topped Crunchies

Crunch Base:
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tbsp corn syrup
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp melted Earth Balance
½ tsp vanilla
2 cups bran flakes

Topping:
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate or equiv. choc. chips
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, 2 tbsp peanut butter, margarine and vanilla; mixing well.

Add cereal, mixing well. Press into greased 8-inch square pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate and peanut butter, and spread evenly over baked layer. Cool and store in the refrigerator; cut into bars.

Makes 32 1-inch bars.

Ginger Crinkles

(I was too lazy to put them on a plate - so the pic is through the container)

2/3 cup vegetable oil
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg
4 tbsp molasses
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
2 ½ tsp ginger

Mix oil with sugar. Add egg replacer and beat until fluffy. Stir in molasses.

In another bowl, sift together dry ingredients, then add to molasses mixture.

Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, dip in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Dinner and Dessert in an Hour

Thanks to Tracy's shopping trip, I was able to borrow some pomegranate molasses to try BBQ Pomegranate Tofu from VwaV. I was really surprised how easy it was for this dish to come together, since you had to bake the tofu, make the sauce from scratch and cook some rice to serve it with. But it all came together in about an hour's time, but the effort part only took about 20 minutes. In between baking tofu and stirring the sauce, I had time to make the easiest dessert on earth. My own Hot Fudge Pudding Cake. This recipe is great for so many reasons: A) It gets made right in the pan it's cooked in, so there's no cleanup, B) I always have the ingredients on hand, and C) It makes it's own sauce with no stirring required!

Try it, and you'll see how good and easy it is:

Sarah's Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

1 cup flour
2 tablespoons + ¼ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup soymilk
½ cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup Sucanat
1 ¾ cups hot water


Measure flour, the 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into an ungreased 8x8 square baking pan or 2-quart casserole dish. Stir with fork.
Combine soymilk, maple syrup, oil and vanilla, then add to flour mixture. Stir until smooth. Spread evenly in pan.
In a separate bowl, mix Sucanat and ¼ cup cocoa powder. Sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over sugar and cocoa, and do not stir.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Mixture will form a cake and sauce in pan. Let stand for 15 minutes to cool.

I served it with Soy Delicious ice cream:

Honestly, I Don't Have an Imaginary Sister...

Yes, this blog is called ‘Two Vegan Sisters’, although I seem like the Blog Hog Sister. Tracy truly does exist – despite not posting her photo nor any entries over the past week. She is busy moving into her new house (which I have yet to see). I can’t wait to see what she will cook first in her gleaming new kitchen! Thankfully there won’t be any fluorescent lights like in her old house – the photos taken in that light probably didn’t make for good blog fodder.

And now onto food - In addition to making tasty treats on Tuesday night, I decided to make another batch of ice cream using the Chocolate Delight recipe from Vice Cream. As you may note in an earlier blog, I tried another recipe from this same book, with fantastic results. Only thing was the ‘cream’ seemed a little gritty. I had thought that this could have been caused in part from the natural peanut butter that was added to the recipe, but the other night, after a taste test, I confirmed that the gritty texture is also caused by the ground cashew base. I have to think of something that will grind these nuts much smoother than what my current food processor can do. And buying cashew nut butter is not a financially-viable option. Otherwise, I’ll have to live with the grit, or maybe try straining it. I was going to add some crushed Oreo-style cookies, but at the last minute, I found the ice cream’s almond extract flavour made it seem like a chocolate-almond ice cream, with bits of ‘almonds’, yeah…’almonds’ crushed into it.
Anyways, I didn’t post a pic of the ‘soft-serve’ style from when the mixture came out of the ice cream machine. This is because I made a dark chocolate variety of ice cream, that would cause critics to be grossed out by my creation. Instead, I stuck it in the freezer overnight and scooped it into a bowl, which you see below.

Guilty confession – I didn’t make it onto the elliptical on Tuesday night since as I was turning out the light in my office, I noticed an odd dark blob in the hallway. I turned my light on only to confirm my worst fear - a big kahuna spider. I’m petrified of spiders, and was forced to run downstairs, grab my central vac hose, and suck it up (that doesn’t sound very vegan of me). I was so stressed out from that experience that I decided to vacuum my upstairs, to ensure that the spider was safely in the central vac cannister in the garage. While that frightening episode forced me to avoid the basement - and hence, my elliptical - for fear of running into another spider of that magnitude, it did allow me to get half of my vacuuming done :)