Apple Pumpkin Upside Down Cake, Polka Dot Muffins and Quesadilla

Pumpkin apple cake from an adapted recipe that was featured at the Midcentury Menu blog. I used a can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake mix for the batter. That's it! The apples, I just simmered in juice (cranberry or apple will do) until tender. I melted Earth Balance margarine on the bottom of the pan and sprinkled brown sugar, layered the apple slices, then poured batter on top. After 28 or so minutes in the oven, it was perfect! This cake went to a house party we went to last night. It was gone in a flash.

Polka Dot Muffins recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook. It uses cream of wheat in the batter and for me, it was a little too coarse of a muffin. I don't know if I'll make these again. They were just ok.

Breakfast Daiya cheese quesdilla.

"Get Well Soon, Paul!" cupcakes and other weekend foods.

So the love of my life, Paul McCartney got ill the day after he arrived in Japan a little over a week ago. He was so ill that he canceled the entire asian leg of his tour. You can imagine how worried I've been! We need you to be well Macca! I forget that he is almost 72 years old. He is normally so bouncy and energetic that I can't fathom him ever being sick. And Paul hardly ever cancels shows so to hear that five shows were canceled was pretty alarming. I made some vanilla cupcakes today with chocolate icing to wish Paul a speedy recovery. So far his people have said that he is definitely recovering. I hope he gets lots of rest. I'm seeing him at Dodger Stadium this August so I am very excited.

I used kittee's moist vanilla cake recipe and a chocolate icing recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook. I used Ghirardelli chocolate in my icing. Yummy.

Keeping the McCartney theme, this is Mary McCartney's pan fried cheese, tomato and onion sandwich. I used Daiya vegan cheese for gooey meltiness.

Crockpot pinto beans from scratch. Just a bit of onion, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper and liquid smoke for seasoning.

Tostada with pico de gallo, avocado and hot sauce. So delicious!

Szechuan Cabbage, Spinach and Mushrooms

Delicious szechuan cabbage recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook. Served over brown rice with Sriracha hot sauce drizzled on top.

Szechuan Cabbage and Tofurky.

Kind of a weird pairing but it worked well on top of brown rice. The cabbage was deliciously flavored with a sauce made with sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar and rice vinegar. I got the recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen.

Another sandwich and Cake!

I made another of these lettuce/tomato/olive salad/avocado sandwiches. They are ridiculous.


Dessert was the yellow cake and chocolate icing recipe from The Complete Vegan Kitchen. I wanted to eat cake and this satisfied my craving very well.

Oven Baked Dirty Rice

I was gifted with an amazing new vegan cookbook called The Complete Vegan Kitchen and I couldn't wait to use it. Tonight I made the dirty rice that was super easy and baked in the oven. I love these kinds of recipes where you throw stuff in a dish and sling it in the oven. I added black beans to my rice to add some protein. A very quick, tasty and complete meal for midweek. Can't wait to try more recipes from this book!