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.

Vegetable Hotchpotch & Date Cakes!

This is the preparation for Linda McCartney's Vegetable Hotchpotch which is from her book "Linda's Kitchen". Gardein steak chunks, onions, potatoes, herbs, white beans and vegetables all layered and then covered with veggie stock.

Ready to go in the oven for an hour. I drizzled some olive oil on top to add some fat!

Out of the oven. This was so delicious. I had some in a bowl with some white rice added and it was so rich and deep in flavor.

Date cakes!

And a heart shaped one to spread the love.

Topped with Coco Whip. Much too good!

Giant Vegan Sandwich and Date Cake.

Giant vegan sandwich with Tofurky slices, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart vegan cheeses, vegenaise, mustard, italian dressing, Maldon salt, freshly cracked black pepper, red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, red onions, olives, pepperoncini and romaine on a large french loaf.

My favorite date cake.

Recipe here. Substitute almond milk for the cow's milk.

Cocoa-date truffles, Coffee cooler and Raw "pasta".

I made these last night after coming back from the store with a giant container of deglet noor dates for $5. I processed them in the blender with walnuts, cocoa powder, coconut, vanilla and a pinch of salt. They make very good snacks for your sweet tooth.

Coffee cooler made with coffee, almond milk, chocolate syrup, dates and ice.

I made some sun-dried tomato marinara from Ani Phyo's book and served it on top of thinly sliced zucchini. (I don't have a spiralizer.)

Fresh tomato, sun-dried tomato, olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt and herbs make a very flavorful sauce. The zucchini sliced this way makes me think of Thai papaya salad. I might try that next.

More weekend eating.

I made another snack from Mary McCartney's book FOOD. It's the Pan-Fried Cheese, Tomato and Onion Sandwich. I used yellow and red cherry tomatoes and Daiya vegan mozzarella style cheese. It was delicious.

Gooey Daiya cheese.

Here we have a breakfast specialty of mine, a scrambled tofu sandwich. I added mushrooms today. Usually I have it on white toast but all I had was a loaf of Dave's Killer Bread which is full of whole grains. Worked out fine and was very satisfying with lots of Vegenaise and ketchup!

Vegans love cake too! Here is a tried and true eggless, dairy free date cake that I make often. It's so easy and so moist and sweet. Perfect with a hot cup of tea in the afternoon. Recipe here. (Substitute almond milk for the dairy milk!)

Kichadi Soup, Carrot Raisin Salad, Ginger-Date Cake

Enjoying my new Ayurvedic cookbook. In front is kichadi soup. Kichadi is a simple stew of basmati rice and split mung dal which is the core of Ayurvedic nutritional healing. This is a watered down version, cooked very plainly to make a soup. I didn't have split mung dal so I used masoor dal (red lentils) which turned yellow in the soup. The only ingredients in this soup are sunflower oil, basmati rice, lentils, cumin and mustard seeds, sea salt, ground cumin and water. I added minced ginger root, green hot chili peppers and coriander leaves (cilantro) as a topping. The dish in back is also from the cookbook and it's a simple carrot salad with raisins.


I was dying for sweet but didn't want to indulge in something sugar laden so I made this vegan date cake and used extra dates and also date syrup to sweeten. I added lots of grated fresh ginger root for some spiciness. It turned out so moist, almost like gingerbread (without the molasses) and lightly sweet. It's perfect with tea.
Recipe is here. In place of sugar, I added about 9 more dates and used about 1/2 cup date syrup and maybe a tablespoon of grated ginger. I also added a touch more spelt flour to make up for the extra liquid. I'm sure if you up the date syrup, it would be sweeter. Oh, and sub soymilk for the milk of course!

Greek Gigantes, Lemon-Caper Potato Salad & Baba Ganouj

You don't understand, I crave Mediterranean flavors all the time! Yes, I switch gears and do Thai or Indian and even good old American but when it comes to food that just does it for me, it's this kind of food. I think it's because of the glorious mediterranean climate here in California that gets me in the mood. Today I revisited Greek Gigantes. I made it once before using a recipe I found online. This time I used Diane Kochilas' recipe from "The Greek Vegetarian" cookbook. You're supposed to use authentic greek big beans but large limas do the trick just fine. I also omitted the honey and used a bit of sugar to counterbalance the tartness of the tomatoes. They turned out beautifully creamy and tender and flavored with lots of dill. I also made potato salad with lemon-caper mayo and dill. Also baba ganouj and fresh pita to round out the meal. Husband and I ate together and washed it all down with a cold beer/tomato juice cocktail.

Edited to add a picture of dessert! How could I forget to put this up?

Date cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. All vegan!

Oatmeal Walnut and Date Cookies

I wanted cookies today so I made these yummy cookies out of stuff I had in my pantry. I used spelt instead of all purpose flour and used olive oil instead of safflower. They were so easy to throw together and came out really delicious! I can see myself making these again real soon. Recipe is from Alicia Silverstone's book "The Kind Diet". You can find the recipe link here.

Black Eyed Pea Potato Burgers and Date Loaf Cake

I was in the mood for burgers today. I had some black eyed peas that I wanted to use as well as leftover mashed potato from last night's dinner. I mashed the peas and combined them with the potato, along with chopped onions, garlic, red pepper, zucchini, jalapeno, grated carrots, bread crumbs, smoked paprika, cumin and all purpose seasoning. I baked them for 35-40 minutes in a 400 degree oven, flipping halfway. They came out so nice and flavorful, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.


Served on a pita with lettuce and garlic-dill aioli.


For dessert, I made a date loaf cake that came out so moist. I used whole wheat flour and sucanat in place of the white flour and regular sugar. I use this recipe all the time and it always comes out perfect.

Happy Mom's Day! And More Cookbooks For My Collection.

Hope all you moms out there are having a wonderful day. I made a yummy date cake to celebrate. Later on, we are ordering pizzas for Mom because that's what she has been craving.




Soft, puffy and sweet cake topped with walnuts. Recipe here. (Substitute soymilk for the milk. And no need to soak dates, just puree them in a blender with soymilk and sugar.)


These are the latest books in my collection. The Moroccan, Mediterranean and Soups book have both meat and vegetarian recipes. I am determined to veganize a few of the meat recipes somehow...

Raw Breakfast Pudding

Last week my friend Cassidy gave me some raw strawberry pie that she made. It was deeelicious! I wanted to recreate that flavor by making this breakfast pudding. It has the consistency more like yogurt I think but the flavors were spot on. A sweet and creamy mixture of bananas, strawberries, dates and cashews. Yummy.

Raw Strawberry-Banana Pudding

8 dates, pitted
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 ripe bananas
6 strawberries, frozen
juice of 1/2 an orange

Soak dates and cashews together in a bowl of hot water for about 20 minutes. Discard the water and put the dates and nuts in blender along with the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl, cover with cling film and place in the freezer for about 20 minutes. (This step is not necessary. I liked eating it cold.) Serve.