Cashew date pudding.

Cashew pudding made with cashews, dates, banana and cashew milk. Layered with blueberries. I stuck it in the freezer for about half an hour to chill out.

Super creamy.

Recipe!

2 cups raw cashews, soaked in hot water at least 30 minutes

8-10 dates, pitted and soaked in hot water to soften

1/2 frozen banana 

1 TB coconut oil

1/2 cup or more cashew milk or any non dairy milk

Drain cashews and dates. Blend with banana, coconut oil and milk until smooth. Add a little more milk if too thick. Chill for an hour or so before serving.

Creamy Cashew Leek and Spinach Pasta with Tempeh Bacon.

Hey guys, here's a great pasta recipe that uses a vegan version of creme fraiche. You basically soak about 1 cup of cashews in hot water for 30 minutes, drain and then blend with 1/2 cup water, 2 TB lemon juice and a couple pinches of salt. Then you cook up some leeks, garlic, spinach and mix in with cashew sauce. I added tempeh bacon to mine. This is optional.

Some ingredients: spinach, vegan cheese and pasta. You will only need 1/4 cup cheese. Save the rest for pizza later in the week!

Chop up your leeks (I used 2) and garlic (2 cloves) . Quickly fry up the tempeh bacon that has been cut into bits.

Saute the garlic and leeks in olive oil over medium high heat. Once leeks have softened, add half a bag of spinach that has been roughly chopped.

This is what your cashew creme fraiche looks like all blended up.

Stir the cashew sauce into the leeks and spinach. It'll be very thick. At this point you can add some unsweetened soy or almond milk to thin it out, or even hot water. Add the 1/4 cup of vegan cheese. Season with salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon, red pepper flakes.

After the sauce is nice and hot and creamy, mix in the pasta. Add the tempeh bacon bits.

Eat!

Buckwheat pancakes & Tomato Cashew Potato Stew.

Got this recipe from The Happy Pear over at facebook. Mini buckwheat pancakes with bananas, maple syrup and cinnamon. Pretty tasty.

A deliciously creamy stew with cashews, tomatoes, yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, leeks, mushrooms, carrots and parsnips! To make it creamy, I blended the cashews with a little water and also blended some of the soup. Recipe below. I made it up and never measure anything so you might have to fiddle a little bit with it!

Tomato Cashew Potato Stew
2 TB olive oil
1 leek, sliced
½ large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
herbs: thyme, oregano, basil (about 2 tsps fresh)
1 parsnip, sliced into bite size chunks
1 carrot, sliced
1 large sweet potato, cut into bite size chunks, about 2 cups
2 or 3 yellow potatoes skin on, cut into bite size chunks, 2 cups
1 portobello mushroom, chopped
1 cup green beans, cut into pieces
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 cups veggie broth
1 cup cashews that have been soaked in hot water for a half hour
1 TB soy sauce
pinch of cumin
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne

Heat olive oil in a soup pot over medium high heat. Saute leeks, onions for a few minutes. Add garlic and herbs. Continue to cook a few minutes more. Add parsnip and carrots and cook until everything gets a little tender. Add sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, portobello, green beans, stewed tomatoes with juice and veggie broth. It should all cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, drain cashews and blend with about 1/2 water in a blender. It will blend easily and look like milk. If too thick, add a little more water. Add this to the stew. Stir and simmer for about 5 more minutes. Season with soy sauce, salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne. You may leave the soup as is or you can ladle some of the potatoes and liquid portion of the soup into a blender, blend til smooth and pour back into pot. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally so the potatoes don't stick to the bottom of the pot.

Eggplant Caponata, Cashew Cheeze Spread and Banana Bread

I like to make snacks that I can eat all throughout the weekend. I made the caponata yesterday after coming home from work because I wanted all the flavors to meld overnight. I used a recipe from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook. The recipe asks you to roast the eggplant which I was too lazy to do, so I just threw everything in a pot and cooked it slowly. Came out yummy. I plan to use the leftovers (there are lots) to serve over pasta. The cashew cheeze is just raw cashews soaked overnight that I blended with garlic, tahini, oil and salt in my new Blendtec.

Banana bread with chocolate chips and dried cherries. This is to have with hot cups of tea.

Everything is better with chocolate!

Long time no blog!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been eating lots but not cooking as much as I want to. I am addicted to Domino's cheeseless thin crust pizza with mushrooms, olives, onions and green peppers and extra sauce, help! I really do want to cook from scratch at home. I have lists that I keep of foods I want to cook. Here are a few things that I've made recently.

I made another cashew cheese from the Vegetarian Times recipe, this time with a black pepper crust. So good.

Here is our spread along with goodies from the much too expensive antipasti bar at Whole Foods. $8 for the container on the right - what?

Nosh nosh!

This was a delicious grilled portobello burger along with grilled potato that I made last weekend.

Monday's chili made into chili dogs on Tuesday with chopped onions and kraut!

Spaghetti w/ Red Wine and Rosemary Marinara

Made dinner with help from my new cookbook 'Vegan Italiano' tonight. Very simple sauce that came together in under 30 minutes. I added lots of fresh basil and zucchini. I topped my portion of pasta with a blob of creamy cashew cheeze sauce that I got from work (sorry can't give you the recipe). The sauce was great when mixed in with the pasta, it made it very creamy and so yummy!