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Happy eating!
-LT
Ice Cream equals summer, if you ask me. I used to eat ice cream… lots of it… all summer. Problem is, I wanted to die every time. That’s not a fun summer. You know, having to pre-plan my entire ice cream excursion (making sure I could get to a err uhh… bathroom). How ridiculous is that?! Now that I’m a changed woman, I no longer have to worry about such silliness. Though I still can’t have that spontaneous ice cream on a nice summer stroll, I can deal. I just go home and fulfill my cravings with my trusty food processor. No freezing required!
You know I’ve raved about frozen banana ice cream before, but I recently saw a new creation on (never home) maker. Great blog, by the way! If you want to be way jealous of someone’s house, go check out the pics of Ashley and Steven’s, here. Anyway, recently they posted a recipe for a variation of this frozen treat. Check it out…. peanut butter chocolate banana vegan ice cream… awesome!
I used natural peanut butter, so I added a bit of sea salt as well. I bet if you used the “not so good for you” PB it would be a bit tastier, or sweeter. Maybe even add a drizzle of maple syrup. I’m going to try some other versions of this too. Jennifer of sweetonveg pointed me in the direction of this Banana Caramel Pecan version just the other day. That’s next on my list of to eat’s!
Of course, I can always go for a bowl of my favorite Fruity Summer Sorbet. Probably the easiest, healthiest treat one could eat while still feeling indulgent! This is just frozen raspberries, mango and 1/4 of a banana with a drizzle of lemon juice. No added sugar! It’s SO friggin good.
I just want to point out that you don’t have to do this in a food processor. A blender works too, but it might take a bit more fiddling with a spatula to get everything well blended.
Last Sunday I went to S.C.E.N.E in St.Catherines. Fun… yes! Food…no! Tell me St. Catherines, why would you hold a music festival throughout your downtown and keep all the businesses closed?! This is a tourism no, no… isn’t it? With only a Tim Horton’s and a Pita Pit in sight, what’s a vegan to do! I was not a happy scenester after eating a sandwich from said open vendor of lettuce and tomatoes, oh ya, and some yellow mustard… geez! Well here’s where the point of this blog entry comes in. I was elated to see The Niagara Vegan Baking Militia set up in the merch marketplace with a huge spread of yummy vegan treats!
That guy there is Dylan Powell of The Vegan Police. Thanks for saving the day! I love what these guys (and one gal) are doing and since I don’t live anywhere near the Niagara region I NEED to find something like this in Toronto… or perhaps I will have to start my own militia!!
Whoever made that vegan black & white cookie is a genius! And in case you’re wondering… I did not eat all those treats myself. They were shared with the peeps at the S4C tent.
I am surprised how many people still don’t know about quinoa! When I mention it aloud, people go… huh? Well, you need to know about it. It is an ancient whole grain, and is considered to be a complete protein. Technically, though it is a seed. But it replaces grains in recipes and cooks the same way. It is AMAZING! It’s cheap, versatile, and completely healthy for you. AND most importantly, it doesn’t hurt my gut! It is my favorite food. I vow to try more interesting recipes using this super ingredient. I even want to try baking with it.
I found this recipe linked from a Facebook post of fellow blogger Sweet On Veg. I cooked up a whole box of quinoa for this Quinoa Taco Salad and ate it all myself over the course of a few days.
Credit goes to Karina, the Gluten-Free Goddess. She is incredible. Lots of foodies know about this amazing site and I check back often, because she has a lot of gluten-free AND vegan recipes, including a lot of baked goods. Now I’m not 100% G-free, but I am experimenting with it. I think we could all stand to lighten up on the refined sugars, flours, and yeast. Check out Gluten-Free Goddess for some ideas and give this salad a try!
This was one of those baking episodes I anticipated would be a wasteful disaster. With my luck, upside down cupcakes were gonna stick to the pan like mad! Luckily, I was wrong. They turned out beautifully. It all started with half a bag of cherries being left in the fridge for too long. They were a day away from being no good, so I saved them from a rotten death and turned them into pretty Upside Down Cherry Vanilla Almond Cakes.
You could make this even easier and use a box cake mix, but I followed my Vanilla Bean Cupcake recipe.
You also need:
2 cups of pitted and halved cherries
12 tsp raw sugar
1/4 cup toasted almond slices.
Prepare a muffin pan by buttering (I used, Earth Balance) each muffin cup. Place cherry pieces at the bottom of each so there is little space and sprinkle each with 1 tsp of raw sugar. Pour cake batter into the muffin cups and bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes. You can toast the almond slices in a pan on low heat with some brown sugar or raw sugar until brown. Make sure you allow the cakes to cool for at least 10-15 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack. It was a bit tricky. In my case they didn’t all come out of the pan at once. It took a few turns to get all 12 cakes out of the pan. Lastly, sprinkle each cake with almond slices.
p.s. apologies to Greg P for tempting you with these cakes and making them appear forbidden to eat. Next time you can have all of ‘em buddy!
Now that summer has hit, I am less hungry! I know, me, not hungry?! Worst thing ever. So my blogging / cooking has been less frequent and perhaps not as inventive. I want it easy and light. But I’ve got into the habit of making the same things over again… already! I need some more inspiration. Anyone?!
Anyway, this is what’s been cooking in my kitchen over the last week or so. Perfect summer recipes to make for yourself or take to the next summer BBQ/party.
A new take on couscous. Similar to the Orange Scented Couscous of the past but with a few new and different tastes. This Orange-Infused Couscous Salad has been modified from the Early Summer Ed. of LCBO’s Food & Drink mag. It called for chicken, but of course I did it without. It’s a nice, refreshing summery salad that results in left overs!
Ingredients:
1 cup OJ
1/2 cup veggie stock
1 shallot chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
3-4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 1/4 cup couscous
1 red and orange pepper sliced
2 green onions sliced
1/4 cup fresh mint chopped
1/4 cup dried apricots
1 tbsp OJ
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
6 cups baby arugula
salt & pepper
Saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes (or until fragrant) in the same pot you will want to boil and cook your couscous. Add OJ, stock, and fresh thyme (removed from stem) to the onions and garlic and bring to a boil. Add couscous and remove from heat, cover and set aside for liquid to absorb. This could be made ahead of time and you could complete the rest of the recipe right before serving. Add in peppers, apricots, mint, and green onions. Whisk together a dressing of OJ, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour half over couscous and toss until combined. Reserve remaining dressing to lightly toss the arugula leave in. Arrange arugula on plate first and serve warm couscous on top.
Hot, steamy, cheesy spinach and artichoke dip used to be one of my fave things. Now that I have eliminated cheese, and better yet, don’t even want to eat it, I made a yummy warm butter bean and artichoke dip with home made pita chips instead. It’s sort of like a hummus, but richer in flavor. I think heating it thoroughly in the oven helped with that. I kind of made this up on the spot so the recipe may not be exact. Tasting it as you go is the best way to make it – so it tastes the way you want!
Ingredients:
1 can butter beans (lima beans)
1 can artichoke hearts, drained
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp paprika
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp white miso paste
4 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
In a food processor combine all ingredients and process. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mix at the end. Baking it at 350 F for approx. 15-20 minutes or until heated through is optional. I also topped it with some homemade vegan parmesan before baking.
I was passed along a recipe for Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. I occasionally get recipes from people so that I can test them, as the person giving me the recipe doesn’t want to go to the trouble! Which is totally cool since I love to cook, especially bake. And I’ll try anything. A perfect combo and childhood fave of mine, chocolate and mint, can’t go wrong! This Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is supposedly from a real live bakery/baker, Krissys Cookies. Her gourmet vegan cookies look incredible, don’t get me wrong. But this cannot possibly be her recipe, as posted on Ready Made. The dough was totally dry and impossible to ball up into cookies, let alone flatten slightly on the cookie tray. Mine do not look like the picture on Krissys website, or even the picture posted on ReadyMade.com. What gives? Sometimes I truly HATE following recipes, as I find they often turn out wrong. Maybe this was scaled down from a larger batch recipe and therefore messed up somewhere.
Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie #1 (krissyscookies.com)
This was the first time I’ve ever seen Peppermint Oil used in a recipe as opposed to Peppermint Extract. I bought 100% pure organic peppermint oil, and boy is it strong. The recipe calls for 1 tsp, which FYI is WAY too much. You can barely even eat these cookies, even though they look rather edible in my pic. They’re like some kind of aromatherapy cookie. Seems a little like your eating medicine or something. It’s so over powering that you can’t taste the cookie or chocolate. I also used white all-purpose flour and coconut oil instead of spelt flour and safflower oil, which this recipe calls for. Really, the only part that ruined these is the amount of peppermint essence.
I always get bummed when a recipe doesn’t work and so I immediately have to re-do it with variations to fix it.
Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie #2 (recipe below)
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups non-dairy chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
2/3 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp peppermint oil
Combine wet ingredients in a bowl. Sift dry ingredients, except for walnuts and chocolate, into another bowl and combine. Add dry to wet and stir until combined, without over mixing. Line baking trays with parchment or spray with cooking spray. Roll 1 1/2 balls and place on cookie tray, then slightly flatten the dough with your hand. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Makes 16 regular sized cookies or 8 large cookies.
Cookie #2 is the winner! It’s still minty fresh, but the batter tastes better, the chocolate comes through and it doesn’t feel like you just drank mouthwash!
