VegFest! My Cupcake Revealed!

This is probably my biggest post - both in terms of size and news!!!

First, I must go back to April 2...I held a cupcake tasting party with friends and family to help me narrow down my entry into the NCVA's inaugural Cupcake Challenge Contest. I think I mentioned this party way back but couldn't divulge any details for fear of giving hints about my entry into the contest!

I made about 250 mini cuppies. I have no idea how I had the time to bake them all, but lemme tell you there was a plan each night for a week before the party where I had a task or three to complete. And of course I had to freeze the little suckers. Somehow, on that fateful Saturday of the party, I managed to get Kyson to swim class, get myself all ready and stuff and ice these things - and everything went so smoothly!



In order, Senators Strawberry, Capital Coconut Cream Pie and M'eh'ple Cream. Everyone cast their vote and the Capital Coconut Cream Pie came out on top, narrowly edging out the Senators Strawberry!

Pics of each:







Perfecting this damn cupcake took alot of effort, mainly for the coconut topping. I'm totally sick of the icing sugar/Earth Balance marg/shortening frostings, as they are too sickly sweet. So I tried coconut cream with a little icing sugar. Remarkably, it's cool and light like whipped cream or Cool Whip, but without all the gross stuff. However, you can't just grab any can of coconut milk to try this out. I had a fave gold label Rooster brand from Loblaws but of course they had to discontinue it and the only kinds in the Barrhaven area just don't have enough fat to them. So Kyle trotted over to T&T for me, where they have the most ridiculous selection of coconut milks and canned creams! I find the best ones to use have more than 17g of fat per serving. My fave is the Savoy brand of canned coconut cream - stick it in the fridge overnight, then scoop out the fat at the top, add icing sugar and whip. Easy! You just can't get greedy with your scooping trying to get every last bit of fat out - once you hit liquid put your spoon down and give it up (use the leftover stuff in a smoothie - yum!). It's great on anything - hot chocolate, pie, in trifle...and it's just so easy.

Capital Coconut Cream Pie Cupcakes

Cake:
¾ cup organic sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
¾ cup coconut milk
2 tbsp unsweetened soymilk
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
½ cup graham flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ cup fine shredded coconut

Cream Filling:
¾ cup organic sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp powdered egg replacer
1 cup coconut milk
½ cup unsweetened soymilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1 can coconut milk or cream (look for highest fat content possible – 17g or above per serving)
¾ cup icing sugar
2 tbsp medium shredded coconut, toasted

Instructions:

Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, canola oil, coconut milk, soymilk, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
3. Add flours, soda and salt, then whisk again until no large clumps remain in batter. Fold in coconut.
4. Fill muffins liners about ¾ full with batter. Place filled pan in middle of preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Use a steak knife (Finally - a use for these!) to carve out a hole in the middle about 1.5cm in diameter. Remove cone-shaped innards and discard or devour (I prefer the latter).

Filling:
1. Mix sugar, cornstarch and egg replacer powder in a small saucepan.
2. Slowly add coconut and soymilks and whisk to combine.
3. Let come to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking constantly.
4. Once bubbly and thickened, cook for about 30 seconds, still stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.
6. Let cool for one hour at room temperature, stirring occasionally.
7. Transfer to a glass container, lay a piece of parchment on top to prevent skin from forming, and refrigerate for at least four hours.
8. Once chilled, mix with electric mixers to make filling completely smooth.
9. Pour into a plastic pastry bag for easy cupcake filling or simply scoop into holes using a small spoon.

Topping:

1. Chill canned coconut milk or cream in the fridge overnight. Do not shake can.
2. Carefully open lid and scoop cream solids into a large bowl. Stop scooping once you hit anything watery – even the littlest amount of water will not enable you to get a whipped cream consistency.
3. Whisk or use whisk attachments on electric mixer to fluff coconut cream, then add icing sugar. Whisk or mix to combine until soft peaks form.
4. Spoon on filled cupcakes or pipe with pastry bag. Sprinkle toasted coconut on top. Keep chilled.

Anyways, fast forward to today. I prepped over the last couple of days and everything was going well until a crisis! My custard wouldn't set. I have found that my recently purchased cornstarch has not been thickening anything up. I quickly made a second batch this morning and it still didn't set as nicely. Ah well. I quickly filled them and topped with cream (with a hungry Kyson nipping at my ankles). So not the best feeling going into the competition! They were still cute though:




VegFest was a blast! It was so busy - it was great! Most of the food vendors were sold out halfway through! I think the organizers should be proud of the turnout! As for the contest, I found out mine made it through into the top 10 and would be judged by the panel - it was a little nerve-wracking since there were some gorgeous creations and they were all picked apart by real foodies.



I was hopeful to win, but alas, it wasn't meant to be :) But for the last couple of months, it made this stay-at-home mom pretty excited to have something fun to look forward to. And I love to bake for others! So my other big news is that I will soon be opening up shop and offering vegan baked goods (cuppies, muffins, cookies) to the vegan masses of Ottawa, or for anyone that's interested. I won't be returning to work until the kids are in school, so this will hopefully provide a little income and keep me sane. I'll be sure to post more about my upcoming venture!

Countdown to VegFest is on! Plus Some Grub...

Who is super pumped for VegFest on May 1st? Me! Me! Me! It's been almost a month since my Cupcake Party and I can't WAIT for the day that I can enter my creation. When they indicated that a preliminary round would not be necessary, I was so happy...not just because I felt that there weren't hundreds of competitors, but also because 6:30pm (the slated time of the potluck where said round would take place) is the equivalent of hell in this house. It would have been disaster. Anyways, I was so smug until I got an e-mail from the organizers indicating that there would be a preliminary round after all the day of the contest! Yikes! Must remain positive...I just am trying to write a big long post about my trials and tribulations with the major mystery ingredient of my cuppie...although I fear that come May 2nd I'll forget everything...

Similar to this post - I haven't had a chance to get on the PC and when I do to write up a post, I look at the pics and for the life of me, cannot remember what stuff is. Like this - I stared and stared and FINALLY realized it's one of my new fave dishes! From 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson Chinese Noodles with Black Bean Sauce. I think that's the title and am too far away from the cookbook right now. I toss in some edamame for added protein. So yummy! I added tri-colour chopped peppers since I have them for Ash to add like 'sprinkles' (likely due to my recent cupcake obsession).



This next treat was a mild disappointment...I came across one of Isa's blogposts from eons ago about a Raw Cheezecake. For forever, I have tried to mimic a childhood recipe from a kid's Better Home and Gardens cookbook - something like Be My Valentine Pie. It was made with gross Jello and soft ice cream in a cookie crumb shell. I liked it as a kid, and have tried re-creating it with vegan Jello and ice cream, but with no such luck. Reading the ingredients I was hopeful. But the darn thing just didn't set - I had read through the comments and it seemed like it either turned out great or not, and I so hoped I would be in the success group :( I even omitted adding water to combat my fear! But alas, it was a soggy mess. I had to keep it in the freezer. I will definitely try this again during strawberry picking season as the berries will be more plentiful then and I won't feel so badly for using up a ton of expensive raw cashews on top of it.



But this recipe of Isa's was a hit! Pasta De Los Angeles or something like that...with the black beans and cilantro and salsa-like sauce, it reminded me of the sweet potato and black bean enchiladas from Vegan Planet but just with pasta instead. Yum!



Always looking for snack stuff, I was drawn to a recipe on my PC Toasted O's cereal box for Honey Butter Crunch. Now the name alone is totally not suitable for vegans but it's pretty easy to make subs:

1/2 cup melted Earth Balance
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups toasted o's
1 bag plain microwave popcorn, popped
1 cup almonds

Mix wet ingredients. Add dry and stir. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes.

Not sure if I should have reduced the agave a little or upped the oven temp or cook longer, but this stuff was soggy but good. I don't think I'll make it again since you have to wait way too long for your snack. I prefer popping corn, then pouring melted coconut oil and chocolate chips on top and enjoying right then and there. Maybe I'll just add some almonds for a healthy boost to make me feel better!

Hail Seitan!

So I started off all GF-y. I felt especially inspired one day and decided to make Chef Chloe's Avocado Pesto Pasta. I had my little helper, Ashley, all pumped as she held all of the ingredients. So then I went to cut into a nice soft avocado. Surprise! All rotten :( Those damn avocados are so unreliable - they either never soften, or go from unripe to rotten and skip being all nice and creamy. Anyways, I was slightly bitter but went on and subbed some tofu to add the silky texture. Then, I had some frozen basil cubes - I went to add them in and noticed they were all dried up and gross. So in went some dried basil! I didn't have pinenuts so I subbed with ground almonds. I have to say that with all of my substitutions, it wasn't the most awesome dinner. Ah well. I took this pic:




Ash, my little budding photographer 3-year-old, now takes pics of her food just like mom - we just need to work on the food styling:



I did however redeem myself with Isa's Upside Down Shepherd's Pie from Appetite for Reduction. Rather stupidly, I got all ready to bake this puppy, until I re-read the recipe about four times, then saw the title and realized that I didn't have to bake this up - I nearly did a jig since I didn't feel like baking it up and having to wait eons to eat dinner (the small things in life these days make me so happy!). I had three full portions (thereby not really serving as a real 'reduction' recipe unfortunately - I have no self control), and even Ash gobbled this up. It was so freakin' good!



Well, that was the end of the gluten free trial. Kyson will soon be seeing an allergist, so I'm hoping I'll get more clarification as to whether my avoiding gluten is doing any good or harm. For now, I'm just too hungry still nursing every two hours that I can't take it! That and I tried making a GF pizza dough that even the smell had me gagging. I caved and made my usual recipe. But the real turning point came after making Vegan Dad's Veggie Lunch Meat. Good lord - somehow I missed the whole Seitan O' Greatness craze a few years back but I'm glad I found this - I will never go back to paying $3.49 for a package of Tofurky slices again when this makes up tons! It sliced so well. Ash said it was delicious! I'm going to try making one with maple syrup next time to punch up the sweetness.

Who Cares About the Beef...Where's the Bun???

OK, so I'm giving this whole gluten free thing a little go. Kyson has had three reactions to wheat products and despite not finding anything on the web about ME having to go wheatless since he's still nursing, I'm applying the same logic about nursing moms cutting out dairy in their own diet if their baby is reacting to it. I'm hoping this will help clear up his eczema and help him sleep better at night!

I have to say, I now have empathy for those who find themselves delving into a vegan diet and missing cheese, etc. I am one of those who never liked the taste of cheese in or on anything, creamy mayonnaise and cream cheese dips. So it was a cinch for me to go vegan and couldn't understand why others would 'miss' former foods they once consumed. I'm really finding the whole gluten free thing to be hard, as I'm such a carb-o-holic and while there are a wide number of GF substitutes out there, I still find a certain taste (tapioca starch maybe?) that seems to be prevalent in so many GF baked goods. I tried making a homemade loaf of GF bread and just one bite had me gagging. I also bought some GF crackers and am convinced I chewed up part of my tooth in eating them. So I miss my bread and my crackers.

OK, I'll stop whining.

Anyways, I have made some really tasty GF things. I need my snacks, and these have all been pretty helpful in helping me from pigging out on gluten filled goodness.

From the Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook, Buckwheat Apple Muffins. Fortunately no tapioca starch in this one, as it doesn't use the author's GF flour blend - just buckwheat. Ash devours these.



From the same book, Blueberry Millet Muffins. They look so professional! I actually really like these, despite the mild tapioca taste. They are incredibly fluffy for something gluten free!



Finally, again, from the same book, Banana Flax Muffins. I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips instead of the raisins. My fave!



And now for actual meals...

Caesar Salad from Appetite for Reduction. It actually calls for Eggplant Bacon, which I found a bit of a pain to make. Instead, I added baked tofu (suggested in the recipe) but in my marinade, I added a few dashes of liquid smoke. Thinly sliced, it was a nice smoky addition. I love how this dish has no garlic! It gives my breath a nice break. Pictured with GF pasta with Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Sauce from Vegan Yum Yum.



Brown rice + lentils + cooked veggies (onion, garlic, carrot, spinach) + Hurry Up Alfredo sauce from VYY = tasty little meal.



Give me a scarlet GF letter on my chest - at this weekend's cupcake party, I'm sooo cheating and will be scarfing down non-GF cuppies :( I already feel guilty as I know I'm not giving myself the full 3 weeks to see if this diet change impacts Kyson. *Sigh*

Gluten and Soy Free (!)

Not sure if our little Kyson has some allergies or what, but for one mere day I tried to be gluten and soy free in an effort to see if my milk is causing him issues. I failed miserably. The soy free part isn't too bad, and I think I can try that for a few weeks, but I love my carbs too much to give up the gluten.

However, having said that, I have made some fine stuff that meets both criteria!

First, a peanut butter cookie recipe from my friend - I'm guessing from 125 Best Gluten Free Recipes or something, since the font of my photocopy looks familiar to other 'Best' books. Made with amaranth flour, it really doesn't taste like a gluten free cookie! I love them!


Next, Coconut Curry Stew from Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas. Fab!


A suggested side to the stew, Fruity Couscous (I'm my case, quinoa) from the same cookbook. I think both of these meal items had a total of like 10 fruits and veggies - we nailed our 5-10 per day quota with this meal!


Finally, Strawberry Shortcake! I made Spongecake from the Allergen-Free Bakers Handbook. It was so fluffy and delicious - I thought it was quite surprising for something with no gluten. With vegan whipped cream and yummy strawberries, it felt like summer was here.

Happy St. Patty's! Low Fat and...Healthy?

Theme day! Before bed last night I cut up veggies for dinner tonight, and made the slow cooker seitan pot roast from Vegan on the Cheap. Instead of using my big crockpot and using all the veggies, I just made the seitan dough and put it in my little crockpot that I normally reserve for steel cut oats. I couldn't believe how much it puffed up today - it looked like a souffle! But I really should have added some more water to account for the water the poor roast didn't get from all of the veggies that would have otherwise surrounded it. I just had to cut off some dry bits but other than that it was perfect! Cooking it overnight worked out really well and cut down on the prep required at a busy time in the afternoon.



So what did I use the roast for? Appetite for Reduction's Irish Stew. Made with vegan beer, I can't get over how authentic this tastes! Now when I say authentic, I mean Puritan Irish Stew from a can. Tracy and I seemed to have that often when Dad was in charge of dinner. Can't say I've ever had it from a real pub. Anyways, I'm sure this tastes like what would be served in one! I included some of my oatmeal bread (see this post) as it contains Irish oats, or steel cut oats. Yummy combo!


But the real showstoppers were Chloe Coscarelli's Chocolate Beer Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Buttercream...yummy! I do admit that I love Isa's cupcakes as they turn out so reliably (I had these ones in the oven for 10 minutes longer than specified since they wouldn't cook!), but this flavour combo was pretty cool. Anyways, for the buttercream, I wanted green, and since I'm not a fan of artificial colours, I added a scoop of my Vega Smoothie Infusion powder. Spinach anyone? It gave a pale green hue and didn't impart any weird flavouring. Healthy cupcakes? Kinda. Sweet? Omigod...I swear I developed a cavity eating these! I also made the caramel drizzle...I don't know, but cooking sugar stresses me out. Seems like there's this fine line between soft ball and hard ball (?) and I always seems to mess it up. I found her instructions a little unclear for the slight moron I can be, so to salvage a crunchy hard sugar mess, I added about 1/4 cup of soymilk and cooked over medium heat. Seemed to work! It resulted in a sticky taffy-like confection. Anyways, it looked good.

Solo:


With all her buddies:


I'm so happy for daylight savings time and the fact that spring is here! I can use natural light for pics! Hooray!

Vegan Yum Yum...Continued

 

Oh how I love quick dinners! A variation on the Hurry Up Alfredo, the Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Pasta is divine! Again, using my batch of already ground cashews, I blend up the ingredients (and two whole tomatoes just to watch them puree in all it's goodness!). I also don't bother to heat the sauce, shaving off another 5 minutes from the already quick recipe. I just dump it into the hot noodles. Although it doesn't give the sauce a chance to burn off the couple of tbsp of wine, I always hope that it will cause the kids to sleep through the night! Of course it doesn't work.

This time I put it on some Eden Artichoke Pasta Ribbons I picked up from Rainbow Foods. They reminded me of thick egg noodles, so it's been awhile since I've enjoyed a texture like this! I'll be sure to pick up some more since I'm getting a little bored with the whole spaghetti/linguine/macaroni we seem to serve up too frequently.

Vegan Yum Yum...So Good...

I briefly wrote about VYY before, but man, I love this cookbook. I like how clear the instructions are - I need that, my attention span is horrific lately and I find myself re-reading parts of a recipe numerous times since I can't retain anything. The pics are also so nice too.

Anyways, the recipes are what its all about! Here are two faves that I make on a regular basis:

Hurry Up Alfredo - I'm sure every vegan blogger has written about this one. Easy, and awesome! I grind up lots of cashews and keep a bag in the freezer. I then scoop out a necessary amount and use my immersion blender to make the sauce to dump on hot noodles and often include some broccoli or peas (thrown into the last few minutes with the pasta in the pot). I had found in the past that I need to grind the nuts on their own to begin with - trying to grind them with soy milk only resulted in a gritty sauce. I must have a crappy blender or something.


Using a similar sauce, Broccoli Bake (exact title escapes me) - I love how this uses the stalks! The broccoli florets and stalks are ground up with mushrooms - all things Ash will never eat on their own - and mixed with a variation of the alfredo sauce and orzo! So tasty! If only I could find whole wheat orzo. Then again, I haven't spent all that much time looking for it :)


So my few minutes of free time these days are being occupied with thoughts of how I could possibly win the VegFest cupcake contest held during the event on May 1 at the Glebe Community Centre. I'm consumed! I know I have a slim chance, but I've thought of three original cupcakes that could stand a chance (that is, as long as no real professional chefs enter!). I secretly hope that not too many people enter as there may be a preliminary round taking place during a time that is just evil for my little family. I'd have to show up with two over-tired children to this round during 'dinner' (also known as 'chaos time before bed' in our house) and I don't think that would bode well for my chances! I'll be sure to post about a cupcake party I'm hosting for friends and family to help me narrow down the selection. Of course, I won't be able to reveal all too much since I worry that my fierce competition could be reading! ;)

Good Eats - Leftover Oatmeal Bread

What to do with leftover oatmeal? Make bread! At least that's what Alton Brown does.

I have to say, results from this recipe are different everytime I make it. It all depends on the moisture level of the leftover oatmeal. And even when the dough seems too moist and I add a little flour, it's still a little unpredictable. In all, it makes for an interesting loaf.

I really like how some of the ingredients are by weight - I hope to cook this way more since I find too many fluctuations in my recipes. For example, sometimes I think I'm measuring 1/4 cup of margarine only to dump it in the bowl and realize there was a giant air pocket that I wasn't aware of. At least weighing my ingredients would help prevent that. Seems like the Brits do this already.

Anyways - back to the recipe - I tend to dump hot oatmeal into a bowl nowadays and add the agave and olive oil. I omit the extra water since I don't often need it. Then I add all the dry ingredients (except I use w/w bread flour) and yeast on top then put it in the Kitchenaid. I find the warm oatmeal is the same as using warm water so it helps it rise. I watch it and add a little flour where necessary. I let it rise for a few hours, turning on the Kitchenaid to knead it a little every hour or so. Then I continue with the instructions for baking. I've even made balls of dough, poked a hole in the middle, stretched out the hole and made delicious baked bagels.

Today's loaf? Moist on the inside, with a tough crust. It's a gum cutter loaf!

ETA - I of course don't use the egg...in fact, I just leave the loaf as is before baking. I suppose some soymilk or a flax egg bath with some oats or sesame seeds would be good, but I find they fall off while cutting anyways.

Gourmet Pizza

I came across Chloe Coscarelli’s site after reading VegNews and thought a few of her recipes looked yummy. I found a flatbread recipe, and to me it seemed like a different style of pizza.

Her crust (foccacia) recipe is perfect. No matter how hard I try, I can’t screw it up! I vary the recipe to use ½ AP flour and ½ whole wheat flour for added nutrition and it still comes out terrific. I double it (thank goodness for my Kitchenaid!) to always make two varieties of pizza that night, so Kyle has plenty of leftovers for his lunches in the coming days.

Pizza #1 follows her recipe to a 'T' – I top with ½ the recipe of bean puree, then spinach, apples, cooked butternut squash and caramelized onions.



Pizza #2 has the other ½ of the bean puree with a few dollops of tomato paste swirled in, then veggie pepperoni, mushrooms, caramelized onions and Daiya for those who like the taste of cheese (not me!). I normally add red peppers but last night I was all out.



They taste fantastic! Everytime I make these pizzas, Kyle and I fantasize about how much one would charge in a pizzeria to serve some of this good stuff.

I also make the bean puree pretty much on a daily basis. I make big batches of navy beans in my pressure cooker, and freeze in 15oz portions. I pull them out to whip up the puree which is a nice change from hummus and dip in crackers, pita or veggies. Makes me feel a little less guilty about evening snacking!

Mediocre Muffin

So I actually followed a recipe to a "T" for the first time! While I will praise the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook for thick cheezy sauce, Hurry Up Alfredo, Broccoli Bake and many more delicious recipes, I can't say that the Cranberry Lemon Muffins (or Lemon Cranberry Muffins - the book isn't in front of me to check the exact title) are the best ever. I do have to say that I've gotten very used to all of my muffins having at least 50% whole wheat flour, whereas this one is all all-purpose.

I also didn't find that pre-soaking the dried cranberries really did all that much. Despite draining them, I found they made the batter extra runny. It was to the point that I was seriously concerned that they would spill over in my oven and cause a kitchen nightmare (just last week I was forced to scrub my double oven since there were spills in both oven causing choking smoke, and I didn't want to do that again anytime soon!).

So while they 'turned out', I actually prefer the ones with oats and other filling ingredients instead.

Winter Blahs

Well, we had a nice blend of precipitation today - freezing rain and wet heavy snow - at least it gives us a chance to have March come in like a lamb in comparison!

Today is Monday, and I had a bunch of library books due (I request all sorts of titles that come in all at once, it seems, and I never have a chance to even open the covers in the three weeks I have them). One of the books was Veganopolis. I had actually opened it when I first picked it up, and even made a recipe - it was for a homemade quinoa cracker. The recipe turned out really gross - I think I had rolled the dough out too thick, resulting in hard bricks that could easily call for some dental work. When I saw that it was due back today, I thumbed through it quickly and came across a 'Chicken' Noodle Soup that would be ideal for a crummy weather day and for using up some leftover seitan pot roast from Vegan on the Cheap. It was also a great way to use up little bits of pasta that remained in various pasta boxes in the pantry too!



Not only did the soup warm me up, but Tracy sent me an email from the National Capital Vegetarian Association regarding this year's Veg Fest...there's a cupcake competition! I'm super pumped! It sounds right up my alley - I just have to think of which one I could make...

One Bowl Goodies

Always eager to make something easy for quick snacks, these two treats fit the bill. I’m a fan of using just one bowl to make baked goods, as we have to run our dishwasher every night as it is with all of the dishes from the day, and I find it generally easier for Ash to do the mixing. I don’t think anyone would argue to use more than one bowl anyways!

I first made some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. I just threw a bunch of stuff in a bowl until the batter looked of muffin consistency. I filled cups halfway, added a teaspoon of peanut butter then topped with the remaining batter. The peanut butter spread out during baking, making for the muffin to split in half easily – and it was almost like it had ‘buttered’ itself!

Next, the only recipe that I’ve tried so far from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur..aptly titled "Throw a Bunch of Stuff in a Bowl” Oatmeal Breakfast Bars. To be honest, I’d rather spend my precious time with Ash while Kyson sleeps making something a little healthy (and really, I’m having a hard time getting the baby weight off this time!). Well wouldn’t you know it, but a delicious recipe in one bowl just popped out at me so I was pretty pumped! I make mine with blueberries, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and dark chocolate chips. And to cut down on the sugar, I use agave and a nut butter (instead of jam). Heavenly! I love that the recipe is so forgiving and there are plenty of variation options available depending on what I have in my pantry. I also like to make it with oats and oat flour instead of whole wheat flour just to spare myself a little gluten just for kicks (only to have gluten at dinner with a big seitan roast – ah well).

Vegan Yum Yum and Vcon

I pretty much relied on the aforementioned two books for this week's menu:

Monday - Easy dinner...PC Meatless Breaded Chicken Strips with homemade baked french fries. It was a busy day without much prep time. I often marvel why anyone would buy bagged frozen french fries since they are ridiculously easy to make from scratch at home - slice a few potatoes up, put on a greased cookie sheet, spray with oil and add salt and roast at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or so.

Tuesday - Hurry Up Alfredo - Delicious! Very easy and speedy. Although I cooked up way too many noodles that there wasn't much sauce :(

Wednesday - Alphabet Soup - so this one was from Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Family Cookbook. I love how easy this is and with using whole wheat alphabet noodles, we can work on spelling with Ash as she gobbles it up. Great for a guaranteed hit if she's eaten like crap all day.

Thursday - Baked Mac 'n' Cheese - another hit from Vegan Yum Yum! Kyle and I held a throwdown as he had invited some non-veg friends over for dinner and I think he was a little uncomfortable in serving them vegan food. So he used Tyler Florence's Ultimate Mac and Cheese recipe while I made this version. It was a friendly competition - neither of us tried to sabotage the other's creation by any means. As for the winner - he said it's a tie, but all I can say is that I had barely any leftover while he had nearly a whole pot left :)

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Baked Pumpkin Ziti - wow, I don't know what I was up to when I made this meal plan in advance. Nearly three variations of mac and cheese! I used to love this dish and still do, but for the amount of work it takes, I'd be happy just making the alfredo or other baked mac and cheese recipe from VYY.

Sunday - Chickpea Romesco - I love this recipe! I had forgotten to stock up on roasted red peppers, so I'm glad that we made it out to pick some up so that I could make this! While out, we also bought some vegan white chocolate chips from the kosher section from Loblaws at College Square (thanks Vaalea!). Instead of using canned tomatoes for this recipe, I used up the last of our homemade roasted tomatoes. We bought a pile of tomatoes from the Parkdale Market, cut them in half and placed them cut side down on an oiled cookie sheet, brushed with more olive oil and roasted them for eons in the oven. They turned out great! Much more flavourful than regular tomatoes but not as concentrated as sundried tomatoes.

Update!

My god. As if Tracy nor I haven't posted in months. And not just one month...almost 7 of them!

On my end, I'm pretty busy with the toddler and the newborn. I was all ultra-pumped that Kyle bought me an iPhone - here I was, all set to be able to write up posts while I nurse, and efficiently upload my pics right from my phone. Either I'm totally not tech-savvy, or it's not possible, as it looks like I can't upload from my phone after all :(

That said, I'm committed to sharing my weekly meal plans sans photos. I don't recall ever receiving any real compliments on my photography anyways - there are so many other bloggers with awesome cameras and skills! With a fussy toddler and a little one that's always seeming to be hungry, I have even less time to make meals. So I will post my comments around what I made during the week from recipes that are totally speedy, tasty and most importantly, well-balanced.

Speaking of well-balanced, I seem to squeeze fun baking in there too. My daughter is all into cooking, so we often make muffins, cupcakes and cookies (often = everyday). I will never be out of my maternity wear at this rate! My big obsession right now is finding less sugary stuff - as my daughter barely sleeps as it is and I really don't need to add sugar to fuel the fire. I'm sick of icing sugar and so excited to get my Clear Jel from Viva Granola so that I can try this recipe. Babycakes frosting recipe is too unreliable, so I'm hoping this will be my new replacement for buttercream!

Things I've Made Lately

Other than working my way through Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and Veganomicon (which will take me a number of years) I've made a couple of things from some newly-acquired cookbooks.

The Urban Vegan

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup - Kid-friendly and full of Vitamin A. Very easy beyond chopping root vegetables.

Spaghetti Alle Melanzane - This is my kind of comfort food. Savoury tangy eggplant tossed with pasta. Delicious after a long run.

Triple Sesame Salad Dressing - A creamy-salty-tangy dressing without any associated garlic breath. This was so yummy atop an avocado-sprout green salad.

Quiche Du Jour (Spinach & Sun-dried Tomato Combo) - Excellent crust. Tasty but my quiche didn't set.

Better Than Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberries - Hearty healthy pancakes that didn't give me a sugar high. Used spelt flour.

Brownie Bites - Tasted awesome but were too delicate to get out of the muffin tin (both silicone and sprayed teflon). So I served brownie crumble topped with vanilla soy ice cream. Nobody complained.

Citrus-Scented Blueberry Muffins - I love muffins. These were light and fluffy.

Lorna Sass' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen

Hot and Zesty Black Bean Soup - So easy and so good! Packed with protein, which I had been craving.

I have a very long list of other recipes from these two books that I'd like to try. Most of the recipes are fairly straight-forward, which I appreciate after a long day of working and running.

Gluten-Free V-day

This year, we celebrated all the toddlers’ birthdays on Valentine’s Day. Given a few allergies and intolerances here and there, I decided to make VCTOTW’s gluten free cuppies – with 10 of the 12 vanilla ones topped with this sugar-free frosting (I’m getting sick of icing sugar…and it’s not especially great for the little ones anyways) and the chocolate ones topped with chocolate tofu mousse.



I also couldn’t go without also recognizing Valentines’ Day, so I teamed up the cute little valentines for Ash’s little buds with goodie bags filled with more gluten-free treats. Seeking something both nut-free and gluten-free and healthy at the same time, I came across these toddler treats. I have to admit that I was sceptical, because the uncooked dough didn’t taste all that great. But once baked, delicious! I did use mini-chocolate chips instead of raisins, thereby upping the sugar but I hope also the taste value. I don't have a pic for some reason, but they looked EXACTLY like how they turned out on the website with the recipe.

I had hoped to try sculpting those cookies into hearts to suit the theme, but it wouldn’t have cut it. And Ash and I sampled so many that we didn’t have enough for all of the goodie bags! So I broke out my copy of VCIYCJ (I hadn’t tried anything yet!) and went to make the gluten-free version of their roll-out sugar cookies. I was going to use their recipe for Gluten Frida, but it called for coconut flour which is a no-no for one of the kiddos. So I pulled out my bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour Blend and subbed it 1:1 with a ¼ tsp of xanthan gum. The dough still seemed very wet, but once chilled and rolled out with more GF flour, I had no problems. They baked up great! I just wish that I could get over that GF taste – some flours seems a little beany. But I’m hoping the kids don’t mind! When Ash sampled it, she didn’t seem to notice and told me it was yummy in her tummy.



Between writing this post and actually posting it, it looks like we're having to modify Ash's diet to not include soy, gluten, corn and sugar until we figure out what's causing her so many issues...so I'm thinking my food prep challenges are about to increase! Stay tuned...

Ashy's Second B-day!

Last year, I did cupcakes, but now that Ash is two, she has a keen understanding what birthdays are all about – cake, candles and presents. Given that I couldn’t simply grab a cake from the store since there aren’t a lot of vegan options around, and I didn’t have the extra cash to outsource the production of a vegan themed cake, I decided to make one – and a big one at that to serve almost 20 people.

I bought 2 9x13 pans, with the goal of stacking the cake so I could serve more people. I had looked at converting other recipes to suit this pan format, but decided to go with something tried and true – Vcon’s Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake. I made the recipe twice in two separate bowls (good idea from my mom, as there’s so much batter that I wouldn’t have had a bowl big enough to mix 2 batches at once!) and baked for about 40-45 minutes, as per this site’s recommendations. It turned out great! I decided to freeze the layers on two separate cookie sheets as I made it the day before the party and find it easier to ice frozen cakes anyways.

And now here’s where my history of birthday disasters begins. I’m not sure what happened. I looked for a frosting with little sugar…maybe agave? All seemed too glaze-like and not fitting my image for what the cake would look like. Again, trying to stick to my tried-and-true mantra, I thought that I would make the same chocolate mousse topping that I did for my mom’s bday, but since I didn’t want to give Ash that this time, I thought I’d use the vegan white chocolate chips I had bought from my overly-expensive Vegan Essentials order last year. I should have noted that the term ‘Decorator's Chips’ is not the same as ‘chocolate chips’ or ‘baking chocolate’. Even though the ingredient listing is only sugar and cocoa butter, these things are waaaayyy to oily to bake with. It might turn out OK in the use of cookies, but once melted, they take on a grainy feel. It was disaster when I mixed them with the silken tofu in my food processor. After Kyle suggested mixing it up better with my immersion blender, things seemed OK – until the morning of the party.

The mousse was a gloopy mess. I tried mixing half of the ‘mousse’ with icing sugar, but I would have needed about 10 lbs of icing sugar just to get the runny mess to be a firm frosting. So I scrapped that and tried to think of another plan. I could go with VCTOTW’s buttercream frosting, but I would want to cut the sweetness with a different middle layer. I then tried heating the other half of the mousse and adding a little cornstarch and coconut extract, thinking I might be able to salvage it and make a coconut cream. Again, these damn chips stayed grainy and it was an even bigger disaster than trying to make the mousse. So I scrapped that too. I then decided to make the same lemon curd I made for my cake this year, and use all Earth Balance for the buttercream frosting (two batches required!). Everything then turned out perfectly. With everything ice cold, the filling didn’t seep out, and I could ice the cake with no issues. I wish I had time to pipe something more elaborate, but Ash was happy with the simplicity of the decorations.



Unfortunately, the disaster didn’t end there. I used the bread recipe Tracy shared with me and attempted to use it for pizza dough. I thought it was pretty runny, but I then stupidly covered it to rise using a dry tea towel. Obviously when I went to bake it, I tore away about half of the dough. Tracy told me it was good, but I’m convinced that she was just being nice.

All in all, I think everyone had fun – especially the birthday girl.

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…

Motappa

We went to Rainbow Foods before the holidays to pick up a few things for Christmas baking and while perusing the tofu case for new Gardein products I spotted a tub of what was called "Motappa" - a sort of lentil hummus. I popped it into our basket for taking to one of the inevitable four days of Christmas events. I couldn't get enough of it. Since I only get to Rainbow periodically, I tried to re-create the dip myself.

Motappa Dip

1 cup dried brown lentils, rinsed and sorted
2 large carrots, chopped
1 medium eggplant
1 medium zucchini
1 small onion
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 small tomato, peeled and chopped
2 tblsp tahini
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tblsp brown sugar
3 tsp sea salt, divided


Slice eggplant into 1/2” thick slices and toss with 2 tsp sea salt. After 15 minutes, rinse.
Place lentils and carrots in small saucepan and add water to cover (at least 2-3 cups). Boil for 30-40 minutes until lentils are soft. Drain.
Slice zucchini and onion into 1/2” thick slices and place on baking sheet with eggplant. Brush both sides with olive oil. Roast at 425 degrees F for 30 minutes, turning once. When cool, peel skin off eggplant and zucchini.
Chop garlic cloves in food processor. Add lentil-carrot mixture and roasted veggies, tomatoes, tahini, lemon juice, sugar and 1 tsp sea salt. Puree until smooth.

Serve with pitas, raw veggies, or however you like to eat hummus.