Scream at Ice Cream!

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.

Vegan Militia

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.

Superfood: Quinoa

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!

All Hail Kale!

Ok, I was a bit premature to dismiss kale the other day. I learned a little bit more about the leafy greens on the internet and I’m loving them. I came across a recipe on Modern Hippie and the secret is sea salt! This Kale Avocado Salad was incredible. Natalia of Glowing Temple who posted the recipe also goes onto say, the more greens she eats the more her body craves them. Well, I’m not there yet, but I will give it a try!

The salad is also good stuffed in a whole wheat pita with other pairings like crispy tofu or homemade falafel (I’ll post that recipe next). Like this, it sort of reminds me of tabouleh. It’s a good way to get more greens, still eat healthy, but not get bored of eating ONLY salad all the time.

I also found a recipe for Kale Soup on The Hot Yam! blog site. Which means I was able to use up all that kale I had in the same cooking session! I was hoping to try Hot Yam for the first time too, but they’ve closed for the semester. This was more like a lentil soup, as the kale wasn’t really the feature ingredient, but it was still tasty and it’s a keeper!

Kale Soup

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
6 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 red potatoes, diced into ½-inch cubes
1 cup green lentils
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried sage
3 cups kale, chopped
salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add carrots and celery, and saute for an additional 10 minutes. Add all ingredients except for kale, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chopped kale, salt, and pepper. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Stay at Home Saturday

Am I weird if I want to stay at home and cook on my Saturday night? I don’t want to go out and drink at a bar with my friends and yell talk. And if I’m going to spend money on something to put in my mouth I would rather it be food and not alcohol. Tonight I made a yummy naturally sweet and raw snack (which I will post tomorrow). While those are refrigerating, I am prepping components for a vegan lasagna so that it’s all ready for tomorrow’s dinner, and I just tried Jennifer’s (Sweet On Veg) Blueberry Chocolate Frozen Treat. OK, this is the second time this girl has changed my life! The first time, if you recall, was with her Raw Chocolate Ice Cream. So my boyfriend is in heaven right now over it and I’m singing “yummy yummy I got love in my tummy”. I think it might have made us high… it’s not such a boring Saturday night after all!

Eggplant Parm

I made an exciting new vegan recipe. First, a HUGE shout out to SusanV at FatFree Vegan Kitchen for her amazing creations… she is a huge inspiration and I’ve managed to feed all my cheesy cravings thanks to her re-inventions of classic meals. Her Eggplant Parmesan is exactly like the “real” thing. Now eggplant’s aren’t really my fave food, in fact they’re not really even on my radar. I think people assume they are a vegetarians staple – usually part of a grilled veggie medley – and while they might have health properties that I’m not aware of, in my experience they’ve just been more of a pain in the ass then they’re worth.

This was worth it though. Also the cheese sauce component of the recipe will become a staple for other things I make in future… like a vegan lasagna!

My only mod is with the Vegan Parmesan Cheese. To make a real good replicate takes no time at all. Just whirl raw cashews, nutritional yeast, and sea salt together in a food processor. Make lots so you can keep it stored in the fridge to use for any meal, like pasta, salad etc.

Vegan French Toast perfection!

My recent post on Brekkie mentioned a first trial run at making vegan french toast. Some would think it’s an impossible feat, but it’s not! I figured out the tricks this time. I tried a different recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, just for curiosity sake. But this time  around I used denser bread and toasted it in the toaster slightly, before dipping it in the mixture, then pan frying it. I don’t really like soft french toast. It is called TOAST isn’t it?! I also made sure to use a non-stick pan. I guess without the use of eggs you don’t get quite the same crispy outside as what you might be used to, but the FatFree Vegan recipe adds a nice touch with the nutritional yeast,  and you could still combine this recipe with the one I tried in Brekkie using mashed banana for extra flavor.

And how much do you luuuuvvvv Maple Syrup! I wish I could drink it.

You Better Reki’nize!

That’s right son! hot for food has 2 feature posts on food web communities. Looks like my Guacamole Salsa is making people happy and getting them into the summer spirit over at Food Network Canada’s Blog (thanks, Val). And my Carrot Cake Muffins are part of the FoodBuzz Top 9 today. Out of nearly 3300 posts on FoodBuzz people are buzzing about my luscious muffins. Radical!!

Wow, what a wonderful world the internet is. Thanks for supporting hot for food. Happy healthy eating!

mac & cheeze V 2.0

Did you see my recent post about making a vegan mac & cheeze? OK, well I tried another recipe, just for fun. It’s from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. A blog I am frequenting now and highly recommend. The first recipe I tried was actually called a vegan alfredo sauce and while I originally disagreed, I take it back. This second version of mac & cheeze from FatFree Vegan Kitchen is more like real mac & cheese. It’s even yellow like KD… but WAAAAY better! It’s also a very smooth and creamy sauce. The first recipe from VeganYumYum had raw cashews in it that didn’t quite blend smooth in my meager blender. While it was still yummy and I’ll probably use that sauce again, I like how this one has no chunky bits. So definitely give it a whirl. It’s tasty and cheezy!

Let Them Eat Cake!

I seriously LOVE cake so much. Any kind, doesn’t matter. My last meal on earth would be a whole cake… all to myself. Anyway, I had so much fun making my first vegan birthday cake! It resulted in having extra cakes though, because I ended up trying different recipes. So I had even more fun using my extra cakes, concocting different icing and presentation ideas.

It was my bf’s birthday and all he wanted was a simple vanilla/white cake with chocolate icing. Looking online for vegan cake recipes I opted to try this one first at The Vegan Chef. I thought it turned out to be too heavy or dense. It has so much flour in it. And it was to puffy. Too much rise. I had to trim the tops to make them flatter, as I decided I was going to make a round 2 layered cake. It tasted good, but I was being extra picky. After some debate and anxiety I thought I should try a different recipe to get a lighter fluffier texture. I used a regular white cake recipe calling for butter, milk, and eggs, and just replaced those with Earth Balance, soy milk, and egg replacer powder. It was lighter, but it sunk in the middle. I don’t really know why it did that. And after searching online… no one else seems to know either. Some answers might be over beating the mixture, and get this, jumping around the oven? All very weird. But it still tasted good. I made an easy buttercream chocolate frosting by mixing powdered sugar, cocoa powder, earth balance, and soy milk.

See how lopsided it looks! The real fun and the following tasty photos were done using up the extra cake. What are these messy, stacked cakes like? Napoleons? I don’t know. There’s a fresh strawberry frosted one, and a peanut butter chocolate chip one. They were YUMMY!

Using fresh strawberry or raspberry puree is a good way to dye your icing (pink only) without using food coloring…plus it tastes better! I also had so much cake that I made some of these trifle-like cakes in wine glasses. They’re in the fridge waiting for a craving. I definitely have not found the perfect vegan vanilla cake recipe. There’s others out there. Some call for apple cider vinegar, which I guess reacts with the baking powder. I’m looking forward to more cake experiments in future!