Vegan MoFo - Day 5

This is a no-brainer post. 

What do you see? Hemp seeds? 

No! You don't! A couple of tablespoons blend so easily in any smoothie that they are almost invisible!

I'm fond of rice milk with banana, frozen pineapple, frozen mango and hemp seeds. A yummy snack packed with protein, vitamins and fibre!

Happy Easter! (And a Little Market Research Favour...)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with food, family and friends. We had a great time!

As I described in a previous post, I made a few yummy things...

Fronch Toast - from Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance book. I used all flour instead of some of the chickpea flour called for since we have to be legume-free. Turned out great as always! Annoyed with myself since I made homemade raspberry and strawberry sauces that I forgot to put out with the maple syrup...argh.  Served with Buttah, which I will blog about shortly!

Smoky Maple Sausages - from Isa's Vegan Brunch recipe. Used my own seitan. Turned out ok - I think I forgot to add salt and maybe I would have preferred more of a sauce with them? I have no idea how regular sausages are even served.

Fruit Flowers - This was pretty last minute. I ran out of time! I had visions of something even more grand!

Bakery Style Berry Muffins - Tasted perfect! Kyson was stealing these from unsuspecting guests' plates.

Potato Spinach Squares - also from Isa's Vegan Brunch. Others liked it, I thought it was ok.

Hash Browns - I loved these ones! From Isa's Vegan Brunch. I love these! I only have one nonstick muffin pan, and after using a regular ol' muffin pan, we quickly realized I will need to invest in a second nonstick one if we decide to double the recipe again.

Quinoa Salad - cooked quinoa, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, cilantro and parsley with Farm Boy Lemon Garlic dressing. Easy! Was yummy!

Carrot Cupcakes - Chickened out using the recipe from VCTOTW since I was nervous about subbing for the soy yogurt. Used a recipe from Happy Herbivore. Found them to be dough-y and gummy and stuck all over the muffin papers. Should have asked my MIL to make them since she does a way better job. Looked pretty though! Ash took charge of the coloured icing detail.  Here they are in their cute little basket wraps and then with the homemade tempered-Enjoy Life chocolate chunk Easter eggs (mold and wrappers from Bulk Barn).

Punch - bottled organic lemon juice and lime juice, two small bottles of POM, 1 bottle sparkling water, a few glugs of agave nectar and OJ. No pic :(

Takeaway - everyone got sugar cookies - making the icing was fun...spinach, turmeric, beet and blueberries were used. So pretty! Can't stand the thought of artificial colours. I enlisted the help of Ash and her older cousin Princess to decorate them all! Didn't get pics of that though.

So I think it went well.

Oh, doing a little market research - please comment if you are from Ottawa...any interest in vegan/soy free/peanut free/tree nut free cupcakes for events? I promise I wouldn't get Ash to decorate them :)  Awhile ago, I had thought about doing this on the side, but after being sidelined with the whack of allergies, I had to put it on the back burner.  Now that I've mastered this allergy stuff, I can make stuff taste great and even appeal to whoever else might need some stuff that's safe for those with soy, peanut or tree nut allergies.

And for those in Ottawa or outside of Ottawa (I can mail these puppies)...what about an order of vegan/soy free/peanut free/tree nut free/ refined sugar free/ridiculously healthy yet so yummy cookies as a great snack for work or packing in school lunches? Each cookie features a whopping 7g of protein, is chock full of fibre, packed with omegas, and contains 20% of the RDV of iron? I've developed them to serve as a meal replacement for my picky toddler. Will post more info soon, but hoped to gauge interest :). Thanks in advance!

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.

Not Ugly at All

I wanted to try Fatfree Vegan Kitchen's Miang Kum Rolls. Since Susan's daughter E ate them, I figured Princess might too (bland toppings only). I made them as raw as I could, using raw cashews instead of peanuts.



The sauce was really tasty, once you warm up to the idea that it's not peanut sauce, but tamarind flavoured. Princess was excited by the wrap-assembly process, so I was optimistic that she would eat the one she made. Alas, she picked out the spinach and only ate the cucumber and rice paper. But Pete and I really liked them.

We have been eating bushels of fruit lately, so to increase our dietary variety, we decided to try an "uglifruit". Here's what it looked like.



Inside, we were pleasantly surprised, despite the name.



They were very juicy with large wedges the size of grapefruit, but the taste was somewhere between an orange and a grapefruit, with a hint of lime. We ate it like an orange. I would definitely not hesitate to buy one again.