Victoria Sponge.

Victoria Sponge: 2 layers of vanilla cake with jam (strawberry) and cream (vegan buttercream) sandwiched in the middle and the whole thing dusted with powdered sugar. No more explanations necessary!

Edited to add: I came back to get some a few hours later and there were ANTS all over my cake! Had to throw it out. Oh well, at least I had one slice. :(

Healthy-ish Double Chocolate Muffins.

I saw this recipe and I knew it had to be done. I have recently been worried about my sugar intake because I've noticed that in the past year or so I have been going crazy with sweets. I've been trying to cut back on sugar here and there. As far as desserts, I am looking for ways to make treats that take care of my sweet craving but with less sugar. This recipe is great because it uses mostly fruit puree for sweetness and a little bit of agave and brown sugar. I used mango and banana puree in mine. The recipe uses red beets which would have been nice too.

They came out lovely, chocolatey, moist and not too sweet. I think they are perfect with a morning cup of coffee (black, no sugar!).

1 muffin is approximately 8.1 g fat, 190 cals, 9.4 grams sugar. Still pretty high in sugar but I guess a normal muffin would have more.

More lavash pizza and "Help Yourself" lunch.

I love making lavash pizza. I made these on Saturday. So simple and quick! Just ten minutes in the oven.

With arugula salad.

I love this. This was today's mid day snack. My husband just told me today that growing up, his mom would make lunch that she would call "Help Yourself". She would lay out a bunch of items like breads, crackers, meats, cheeses, spreads, pickles, etc and everyone would help themselves. I kind of did something similar today. Homemade tomato bruschetta with store bought hummus and olive tapenade, Daiya cheese, crackers and fresh bread.

So scrummy.

My favorite Daiya wedge flavor, jalapeno havarti. It's so creamy and good with a slight kick.

Lavash Pizza.

Why haven't I thought of this before? I made pizza using pita bread before but never lavash bread which is even more perfect for super thin and crispy pizzas. I made these two nights in a row. I used regular tomato sauce which I doctored up with italian herbs, sugar, salt and pepper. You can get very creative with the toppings. I want to try this with vegan cheese next time.

Marinated Beans, Artichoke-Black Olive and Tomato Bruschetta and Eggless Chocolate Cake.

When you have a nice baguette or a box of water crackers or a package of pita bread or lavash, you must have lovely things to eat them with like hummus, vegan cheese (Daiya havarti jalapeno is my choice!) and the following two salads. I made a simple batch of marinated garbanzo and white beans. Two cans of beans get to marinated in lots of olive oil, garlic, a bit of chopped onion, white wine vinegar, parsley and italian herbs.

Next up, I made the Artichoke, black olive and tomato bruschetta from the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook. This book is amazing. So many great ideas like this. I must remember to use this book more often.

For dessert, an eggless chocolate cake made with tofu. I don't normally make cakes with tofu in them but I had half a block of tofu hanging out in my fridge that I wanted to use up. I made a quick chocolate glaze/icing on the stove with cocoa powder, margarine, vanilla and powdered sugar. Sprinkles for color.

Gotta have ice cream with your cake! To be honest, I'm not a fan of tofu in vegan cakes. I get that it is trying to substitute for eggs but it really doesn't need tofu at all. The texture is more dense and "eggy" and not light and fluffy like the normal vegan cakes I make.

Red lentil soup and a vintage sandwich spread recipe.

Red lentil soup recipe from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook. I added potatoes and spinach. So good and easy to prepare.

I've been reading books in bed all morning, one of which is Mary Meade's Magic Recipes for the Osterizer (blender) and I found this sandwich spread recipe made with apricots, walnuts and mayo. What the heck? I had all the ingredients so I gave it a go. I added more vegan mayo and nuts to balance out the amount of fruit. To the sandwich, I added a slice of Tofutti cheese. This was surprisingly good. The crunch of the walnuts are nice against the tangy mayo and slightly sweet apricots. I made sure to use dried apricots without any sugar added.

This book was published in 1952 and it has fantastic recipes in it. The cocktails section is great.

Dainty sandwiches! haha!

Heads up! Rite Aid pharmacy carries these vegan british crisps. Yummy!

Black bean burger and Bisquick cake!

I whipped up these black bean burgers and baked them in the oven. I served them with grilled onions doused in bbq sauce. They were pretty good.

Aaaaand, I played around with Bisquick again and made a cake! I used a recipe from the vintage Bisquick cookbook. It was for the "Velvet Crumb Cake" in which I substituted the 1 egg with 1 TB of cornstarch. I think I will try a different egg sub next time. Not much rise on this cake. I added finely chopped dark chocolate to the batter.

Very moist and tasty with a cup of tea or coffee.