Tofu Bean Burgers, BBQ Pinto Beans, Raw Slaw, Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes

Stayin' in for "Carmegeddon" weekend and to prepare for it, I made an array of comforting foods to enjoy.


These tofu-bean burgers are the best. I try not to eat too many frozen veggie burgers so homemade is the way to go. Recipe here. I topped them with grilled onions and a homemade thousand island sauce.


This came to be when I noticed way too many cans of plain pinto beans in my pantry. I flipped through my "366 delicious ways to cook rice, beans and grains" book and saw a recipe for Slow Cooked Spicy Barbecue Pinto Beans. I loosely followed the recipe in which I mixed tomato sauce, brown sugar, chili powder, onions and garlic with the beans and let them slow cook in the oven.


Beautiful 'Raw Slaw' from the "Urban Vegan" cookbook. Since all the other dishes are kind of hearty and rich, I wanted a lighter coleslaw with an oil and vinegar based dressing. This one is perfect.


And dessert is always something I like to have on the weekends. This is the Mexican chocolate cake recipe with shop bought chocolate fudge frosting (I think it's Pillsbury).

Cake Balls! and Red Lentil Stew

What?!?! Yes sir, I made cake balls! I've seen these things before at the post punk kitchen forum and I knew that they were going to be made one day. When I made Marc's birthday cake a few weekends ago, I had messed up the first cake. It came out overdone on the outside and fell apart when I plopped it out of the cake tin. It was still perfectly good though so I kept the pieces in the freezer for cake balls later.


I felt like a candy maker rolling smooshy cake mixture into little balls and then dipping them in chocolate. I added colorful sprinkles to entice you even more.


These little guys are dense and very rich. I had one so far and I was totally satisfied! I will be sharing them with my co-workers tomorrow. If you want to make these, follow this recipe as a guideline. It says to use a whole can of cake frosting but that was a little scary for me. I used almost half a can which worked just fine.


This was my lunch today. I've been wanting middle eastern food and was flipping through a food memoir I read a while back called "Memories of a Lost Egypt" by Colette Rossant. There is a recipe for Soeur Leila's Red Lentil Stew which sounded real good. Pureed red lentils and vegetables simmered with vermicelli noodles and sauteed onions. I added spinach for some color. I served it with olive oil-fried pieces of pita bread. The stew was thick and velvety and was so good with the fried bread and a squeeze of lemon. This one's a keeper! Recipe here. (Replace the chicken broth for veggie broth or water. Also instead of a can of tomatoes, just use 1 tomato, quartered.)

Pouding Chomeur

I first learned about this sinfully sweet dessert many years ago from my mother-in-law. When I used to visit Marc in Montreal when we were first dating (long distance), his mom Pauline made us lots of wonderful dinners and with dinner there was always something for dessert. Pouding Chomeur, also known as "unemployment pudding" or "floating island" is a traditional Quebecois dessert which is made with cheap ingredients, hence the name "chomeur" which means "unemployed" in french. It bakes up as a vanilla white cake with a sticky brown sugar sauce underneath. I've veganized Pauline's recipe and I am posting it here to share. There are a myriad of chomeur recipes out there with different proportions of ingredients. This particular recipe I find has a higher cake to sauce ratio but I'm assuming you can double the sauce recipe if you prefer. I haven't actually tried that so I don't know what the result will be. You can always make extra sauce on the side and pour on each slice as you serve.

Vegan Pouding Chomeur

Sauce:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup water
1 TB vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)

Add all ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Set aside.

Cake:
1 TB vegan margarine
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup soymilk (or other non dairy milk)

With a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream margarine and sugar together. Add vanilla and soymilk. Mix flour, baking powder together in a separate bowl. Add to the rest of the mixture and mix until combined. Pour batter into a greased medium sized glass baking dish. Pour the sauce that you set aside evenly over the top of the batter. It will be watery, don't worry. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until top is browned. As it bakes, the cake will rise to the top and the sauce will be underneath.


You can see the sauce underneath the cake.


To serve, cut a slice, place it face down on a plate and scoop some sauce on top!

Banana Molasses Bread

Look what I made last night! I would have taken a photo of the whole loaf but a lot of it is gone already! I based it off of this recipe. I didn't have Sucanat so I used regular unrefined sugar and added some blackstrap molasses for color. I also used spelt flour and omitted the chocolate chips. It came out so moist and amazing. This will be my go-to banana bread from now on.

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.

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm going to visit my 5 month pregnant cousin and her family today and I made these cupcakes for them. They are mexican chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. They are a basic chocolate cake with a hint of spicy cinnamon and cayenne. Hope they like them!


All ready to go in a makeshift cupcake travel box.

Easy Berry Cobbler

I made this last night when I got a sugar craving. It was very easy and quick and doesn't require that many ingredients. I wish I would have had some non dairy ice cream to go with it!



Easy Cobbler

1 cup all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup plain soymilk
dash of cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup vegan margarine like Earth Balance
3 cups frozen mixed berries, thawed OR frozen peaches OR frozen mangos (or any frozen fruits really!)


Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thaw frozen fruit and reserve the juice.
Put all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the soymilk and a dash of cinnamon. Mix the batter until all ingredients are incorporated.
Meanwhile put the vegan margarine into a baking dish. Put the dish into the oven to let the margarine melt completely.
After it is melted, take the dish out of the oven and pour the batter on top of the margarine. Spoon the fruit and juice on top of the batter.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. The batter will rise up around the fruit.
Let it cool after taking it out of the oven. I find it tastes better after it has cooled. Enjoy!

Hurrah for Vegan Biscotti!

I think I must be dreaming. I haven't had a biscotti in a million years it seems! When I went vegan, I pretty much said goodbye to these sweet cripsy italian cookies that I loved having with a coffee. The biscotti that you can buy at your local coffee shop or specialty store were off limits because of the ingredient list which traditionally contains eggs. Today I was craving biscotti and after shopping at Whole Foods and ogling the pretty holiday biscotti packages, I decided that I would make my own today. I knew there were a couple recipes in Veganomicon so I hurried home and got to work. I used the 'Almond Anise Biscotti' recipe but omitted the anise as I didn't have any. I also ran out of canola oil so I subbed olive oil with no problems. And instead of whole almonds, I used slivered almonds, mmm! The egg replacement in the recipe was ground flax seed that was whisked with soymilk. They did the trick and in about an hour, I had beautiful golden crunchy biscotti!




They were so heavenly dunked in coffee.

VeganMoFo: Happy Halloween!

Yes, I know Halloween is tomorrow but this is probably going to be my last food post for VeganMoFo. I'm impressed with myself. I made 25 posts this month which is 5 shy of last year's but not bad at all. Considering I've been busy with my new job as well as running my jewelry business part time at home and trying to find time in the mornings to make my meals, it all went swimmingly. I had a great time reading everyone's blogs this MoFo. It is always inspiring. Let's keep this celebration of vegan food going! I'll leave you with a Hallow's Eve treat: mini donut cakes dunked in a powdered sugar glaze and adorned with festive sprinkles. What's better than a sugary sweet treat on Halloween? Recipe to be found here.

Chocolate Loaf Cake & Breakfast in Bed.

I made this moist and perfect loaf cake yesterday using this recipe and on a whim added a small mashed sweet potato to the batter. The sweet potato flavor didn't come through at all but it made the cake very moist and fluffy and hold together so well. I've made this cake in the past and sometimes it would be a bit crumbly but this time it was utterly perfect, slice after slice. I topped it with a sweet cinnamon glaze made with powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and soymilk.


Breakfast in bed again! This time while watching my latest Netflix arrival: Mrs. Dalloway. On the tray: Darjeeling/Earl Grey tea, buttered toast, a dish of raspberry soy yogurt with bananas and a slice of cake. It was all delightful.

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.

Muffins for the Weekend & Thai Red Curry

Delicious muffins that I made yesterday and today. I finally cracked open my brand new copy of 'Vegan Brunch' and made the "Bakery Style Berry Muffins". I used strawberries in mine. I also made fluffy banana-cinnamon muffins from a recipe I adapted at vegetarian times. Find the recipe here.



And a simple Thai red curry with potato, carrot, eggplant, mushroom, zucchini, tofu and onions. Mmm.

Marble Loaf Cake + Ku Chai Dumplings!

Last night my husband and I went to Baja Fresh for dinner. After dinner which was really good and filling by the way (I had a burrito mexicano bowl), my husband wanted to go to Best Buy which was next door. I hate Best Buy so I ducked into nearby Ralph's supermarket while he shopped. I wandered the bakery section drooling over the cookies, cakes, turnovers and pies. I was mad that I couldn't have any as they all contained dairy and eggs. One that caught my eye especially was a marble loaf cake. I used to make marble cakes as a kid with prepared cake mixes. They were lovely. I was determined to make one this weekend, vegan style. I used kittee's vanilla cake recipe again (I used rice milk for the liquid), portioned out 1/4 of the batter and mixed in some cocoa powder to get the chocolate part of the cake. I poured the vanilla batter into the loaf tin and poured big dollops of chocolate batter in random areas on top of the vanilla batter, then took a butter knife and swirled it through cake a couple of times. About 50 minutes later, I had my very own marble loaf cake!


Moist and delicious. And you can bet that I'll be having this with tea later on. Next time I will use a higher proportion of chocolate to vanilla in the batter.


Went to Bangkok Market in Hollywood yesterday and picked up these babies. They are located in the freezers. You only need to defrost them and either pan fry or steam them. Ingredients: Chinese leek leaf, tapioca flour, salt, sugar, palm oil.


Served with low sodium soy sauce mixed with Sriracha hot sauce.


All together with tea and dessert!

Edited to add: Just found this recipe online to make these dumplings at home:
http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Chinese_Chive_Dumplings.htm

Breakfast in Bed + Ready Made Curry

This was my breakfast this morning, in bed while reading my Agatha Christie. I had a whole grain english muffin spread with Earth Balance margarine, a piece of orange blossom cake and hot ceylon tea (with a dash of soymilk and agave). I enjoyed this very very much. Only thing missing was fresh fruit which I didn't have today.


A close up of the cake. It was supposed to be sour cherry/orange blossom but the sour cherry flavor never came through. I used a half recipe of kittee's vanilla cake and used a mixture of water/sour cherry syrup for the liquid portion but I think I should have added more sour cherry, less water. Oh well. I will try to tweak it next time. But even so, this cake was delicious. Orange blossom is wonderful in desserts.


Sorry about the bad lighting but by the time I got around to eating this, it was late and the light was terrible. This is Trader Joe's Choley curry with toasted and "buttered" rolls. I served it with a side of cucumber salad. Yummy.

Apple-Plum-Strawberry Crumble

Summertime is the perfect time to make a fruit crumble. I went to Real Food Daily with my husband and in-laws this afternoon and for dessert we had their peach-blueberry cobbler. It was quite good and it inspired me to make a fruit dessert. I've made this before using mango and strawberries and I can imagine using any fruits that you have available. I had a ton of red delicious apples plus a few juicy plums that were very ripe. I didn't have fresh strawberries so I used some frozen ones I had in the freezer. It was delicious! I based the recipe off of the one here and substituted Earth Balance margarine for the butter, agave for the sugar and cut the brown sugar in the topping in half. Still sweet and scrumptious.

Curry & Scones.

I have Brian McCarthy's book 'The Vegan Family Cookbook' and I've only made a few things from it which have been absolutely stellar. I decided to try another one today. This is the "Tomato Garam Masala with Garbanzo Beans" which is kind of a saucier version of channa masala. It's very tomatoey and a little light on the spices so I upped the garam masala and added cumin, cayenne, coriander, ginger, cumin seed and mustard seed. I also added potatoes which was a good idea. Very yummy, saucy and comfort foody.


Really good cranberry and raisin scones. An easy easy recipe that I got from Vegweb.com. I love this site. You'll find the recipe here. I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour. Yum yum. I want to eat these all the time! They are great with a cuppa tea.


A pat of Earth Balance margarine make it even better.

Easy Peach Pita Tart

A scoop of Trader Joe's Soy Vanilla ice cream would have made this dessert perfect. I was dying for something sweet today and my mind was thinking "cake" but I wasn't about to bake a cake from scratch so I came up with this simple summer treat. It is a whole wheat pita spread with margarine, sprinkled with about a tablespoon or so of brown sugar, adorned with thinly sliced ripe peaches, brushed with marmalade jam and sprinkled with cinnamon. It went in the oven on a baking sheet for 10 minutes at 350 F degrees. The result was really nice. Soft and tender peaches on a sweet buttery base and crispy shell.

Thai Karee Curry and a Frozen Banana Treat.

What to do with fresh asparagus, red bell peppers, zucchini, potatoes and tofu? Make a thai curry. I fall back on curry all the time when I have lots of vegetables to use up. I made a thai curry today using coconut milk and karee curry paste. It's super spicy and perfect with some white jasmine rice. I might turn this into a soup later in the week by adding water and lime juice.


To cool down from the furious heat of the curry I had this delightful treat for dessert. It's frozen banana chunks (that I froze last night in little ziploc bags) topped with warm unsalted peanut butter, a sprinkle of chocolate chips and a drizzle of agave syrup. Really really good.

4th of July Food.

A very simple and understated menu: Broiled veggies and mushrooms, baked potato and salad with strawberry/jalapeno/balsamic vinaigrette. I marinated the veggies in a garlic/olive oil/vinegar marinade and broiled them on a skewer. I also made the "Backyard BBQ Sauce" from Veganomicon. I brushed some sauce on the veggies while they were broiling. It was the perfect sauce: tangy, sweet and smoky. This was a perfect meal for today which left lots of room for...(wait for it)...deep fried donuts!


I made these because they remind me of childhood. When I was little, my mom and aunts used to fry up pieces of dough for us kids and we just loved them. They didn't add any sugar or anything but these little nuggets of plain deep fried dough were so good. They were golden and crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. I remember thinking they must have made their own special dough for this but found out it was actually Pillsbury Crescent refrigerated dough! It's not in the least bit healthy but I decided to go for it and make some today. (the dough is vegan by the way!) I made some plain like I remember and some of the donuts sweet by dipping them in cinnamon and sugar. The sweet ones tasted like churros!


And you have to have a cocktail to enjoy with all of this food. This is seltzer water, sour cherry syrup and vodka!

Bread Pudding!

Used up the leftover french bread from last night to make this treat which I had for breakfast. I never made a vegan bread pudding before so I went online and looked at several recipes and came up with this.

Bread Pudding

1 small loaf of day old french bread, sliced
2 cups soymilk
2 TB cornstarch
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
cinnamon
dark raisins
sultanas

Preheat oven to 350 F. Layer bread in a oiled baking dish, overlapping slices and sprinkle raisins on top as well as in between slices. Combine soymilk, cornstarch, vanilla, sugar and a pinch or two of cinnamon. Whisk together. Pour mixture over bread slices and make sure to soak every piece. Sprinkle more raisins and cinnamon on top and let soak for 5-10 minutes. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 min. or until golden.
Variation: For extra richness, spread each bread slice with Earth Balance margarine before layering. I would have done this if I had some margarine but I didn't!