Super Moist Easy Cakes

I totally need to be baking more as these pictures are quite old but I just wanted to share with you how well baked goods can turn out without the use of dairy or eggs. This delicious date cake is super duper easy and so so moist! It only requires 6 ingredients: dates, sugar, milk (in my case I substituted soymilk), flour, oil and baking soda. You can add nuts if you're feeling adventurous. The recipe requires you to soak the dates in milk: don't do that. I just blended them in the blender with the milk and sugar. Then I continue with the recipe as written. Recipe is here. You should try it, I guarantee you will love it. This cake goes well with tea or coffee. And if you feel like it, you can frost it with a vanilla buttercream frosting.



If you're not a date person or if you're in the mood for chocolate instead, let me direct you to this fool-proof chocolate cake recipe. If you feel like making spicy chocolate cake try this "mexican chocolate cake" recipe. This recipe requires the use of cinnamon and cayenne pepper. A word of warning: a little cayenne goes a long way. I like to cut it down to 1/4 tsp instead of 3/4 tsp!
Happy Baking!

Creamy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

I was out all day taking my father in law to see the sights and after a really big lunch, I planned to make something kind of light for supper. This soup was really simple and deliciously creamy.

Creamy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

2 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, sliced
2 cups cauliflower, chopped
3-4 small to medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 cups vegetable broth or water
unsweetened soymilk (a good brand: Kikkoman Pearl)
salt and pepper to taste
dash of paprika

Heat olive oil in a soup pot on medium high heat. Add onion and celery and saute until soft. Add cauliflower and potatoes and stir for a few minutes. Add veggie broth or water and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes or so until the vegetables are very soft. Mash with a potato masher if you like to break them down even more. Then add enough soymilk until you get the right consistency of creaminess (about 1/2 cup or more). Blend 3/4 of the soup in a blender until smooth and add back to the pot. Heat through and season with salt and pepper to taste and paprika. Serve hot.

Uh oh, football season is here. (Let's talk game food!)

Am I right? I'm not a follower of football but my husband got up real early today to go to his buddy's house to watch a Patriots game. Around this time of year, it's an obsession for him and I kind of think he wants me to get into it too. Sorry buddy, baseball is as far as I will go! (But who doesn't freaking love baseball????)

Yeah so anyway, there will probably be many Sundays (or is it Mondays?) where there will be a game on tv and snacks on the coffee table. I don't mind hanging around if there are yummy snacks to nibble on. I've got some perfect foods that I like to enjoy when the game is on.



Artichoke Spinach Dip. This dip is baked in the oven and comes out all hot and bubbly, ready to be spread on crackers. Yum. (Recipe at the end of this post.)


Good old nachos. Vegans like me can have them too! I like to put all kinds of stuff in there. Nacho Cheez (recipe from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook), refried beans, red onions, jalapenos in escabeche, Vegenaise mixed with lime and chili powder, guacamole and salsa. Who can pass up these nachos?


Hot Wingz! These are tempeh wings, a recipe I got from the Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk blog.


Mini pita pizzas! These are so easy to make as you don't have to make your own pizza dough or anything like that. Take a pita bread or two, smear it with spaghetti or pizza sauce, top with your favorite veggies and heat in the oven for about 5-10 minutes. These here have sauteed cremini mushrooms, garlic and red onions, fresh tomatoes, basil and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.


Something a little more substantial. A Boca Chik'n sandwich with bbq sauce and a side of Thai coleslaw.


I like to end it all with a nice refreshing fruit salad of strawberries, melon, plums, bananas and peaches.

Recipe:

Artichoke Spinach Dip

1 container Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (I find this at Trader Joe's, Ralphs Market and Whole Foods Market)
1 cup Vegenaise
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed, drained and chopped
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
2 TB nutritional yeast (optional)
2 TB lemon juice
1/2 tsp italian herbs
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients and pour into a baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F until browned and bubbly.

Corn-Oat Waffles + Bonus party cupcakes

My father in law is visiting from Montreal for a few weeks and he's a diabetic so I thought I'd keep the Country Life Veg cookbook close by as all the recipes are healthy, low fat and sugar free. These breakfast waffles are made entirely out of oats, cornmeal, water, a bit of oil and a tiny amount of agave syrup. They came out really nice! They are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside with a light corn flavor. I imagine a little cinnamon added to the batter would have been amazing. Never had a non-flour based waffle before and I think I will make these more often. It's like having a bowl of oatmeal in waffle form.




My father in law's waffles overflowing with sugar free pancake syrup.


Mine with lots of buttery Earth Balance!

***


Aren't these just screaming "birthday cake"? Tomorrow is a big party for several birthdays in our family so I made these festive cupcakes for them. It's the Dulce Sin Leche recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and the fluffy vanilla buttercream frosting.

Vegetable Paella

Ooh, doesn't this look so appetizing? I was stumped as to what I wanted to cook tonight because I didn't have that many fresh vegetables in my fridge. After a quick perusal through The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook, I came across the paella recipe that I could use as a base for the ingredients I had on hand. I had some basmati rice, one medium japanese eggplant, one tiny white squash, one large carrot, a bag of frozen fordhook lima beans, a bag of frozen corn and one can of stewed tomatoes. Even with these limited ingredients, it turned out so beautiful looking. And the taste is so nice, so creamy. This one's a keeper!

Pasta with Spinach and Esme's Special Sauce.

Wow! This ridiculously simple pasta sauce is so delicious. Esme from the Post Punk Kitchen Forums came up with this recipe. It's rich and creamy with the smooth flavors of sesame paste, saltiness of soy sauce and miso and sweetness from rice vinegar. This recipe has been going around the vegan blogs and has been quite popular. I decided to give it a go tonight and I am happy. I will make this again very very soon (like this weekend). Serve this with crushed red pepper sprinkled over the top. It's fantastic.

Esme's recipe is basically this (my additions are noted with a *):

Equal parts of: (For a pound of pasta, I used 4 TB of each.)
-tahini
-miso paste (*I used mellow white miso.)
-soy sauce (you can cut this to 2TB if you like it less salty.)
-olive oil
-nutritional yeast or mustard (*dijon is good)
-lemon juice or vinegar (seasoned rice vinegar is good here.)
-and a few cloves of garlic, minced

Cook pasta according to package directions. *Before I drain the pasta, I like to save at least 1/4 cup of the pasta water to dilute the sauce a bit. Drain pasta and set aside. Pour above ingredients into the pasta pot on low heat. Stir to get it all combined and then add the pasta water and stir until smooth. Then pour hot pasta into the pot and toss to combine with sauce. At this point you can add some chopped spinach or other green and let it wilt from the heat. Add black pepper to taste.

Why am I vegan?

Every time I cuddle with my beloved pit bull Buster or hang out with my lemon yellow bird Sparky, I am reminded of why I am vegan. They are my companions. They are a special and beautiful part of my life. They make me happy and I feel that life is so much more peaceful with them around. And it's also hard to deny that they too seek happiness and comfort in their lives. I don't see any difference between them and cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, lamb, ie. animals that are raised for food. I believe they deserve to be protected and deserve to live a good life just like my Buster and my Sparky. It's that simple for me. I don't see living creatures as food anymore. I wish I would have had this sense of clarity a long time ago but unfortunately I didn't want to see them as having any connection with the food that I ate everyday.

About 15 years ago when I was in high school, I went vegetarian for about 6 months after my English teacher showed us the "Diet for a New America" video in class. I remember just feeling sick to my stomach that all the suffering and sickness in factory farming was directly related to what I ate everyday. It really opened my eyes as to how it affected our health, our animals and the Earth. I came home from school and announced to my parents that I was going vegetarian. I decided to cut out meat from my diet and see if I could do it. It didn't last very long. I was so uninformed about the right foods to eat so I relied on plain salads, lots of carb heavy foods and junk food like chips, french fries and sweets. I didn't know about whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds or soy foods, let alone appetizing ways to prepare them. This "inconvenience" is what made me go back to eating meat-centric meals and fast food. This continued for the rest of my teen years to early adult life. I don't know why it took 15 years for me to start thinking about going veg again. Aside from thinking vegetarianism was difficult, I think I was ignoring what I really knew about where my food came from, just living with my head turned the other way, refusing to see what was there. Like many others, I pushed that knowledge out of my head while I enjoyed my steaks, fried chicken and Thanksgiving turkeys. I figured if I don't think about it, it won't hurt me (or the animals?). Then one day many many many years later, I woke up.

I decided to go vegan on January 1, 2007 after seeing a few videos of factory farming on the internet. I remembered again what it felt like when I sat in my high school classroom watching the same thing. I was sad that I never stuck with my transition to vegetarianism at that time and I thought if I'm going to do it, I should do it now. I knew I was ready for it and was ready to learn more about it. I didn't even bother starting as a vegetarian and working my way to vegan. I figured if I'm going to omit animal meat from my diet, I should eliminate their by-products too. At first it was intimidating. I thought: "So meat's out. Eggs and dairy too...What's left?" I didn't know where to begin. A book called 'The Food Revolution' gave me information about what was in the animal foods I was eating. Also looking at various information websites like Choose Veg, Vegan Outreach and vegan recipe sites like Vegweb and The Post Punk Kitchen, I was able to get so much information that would help me transition very quickly. Luckily I love to cook and always have since I was young, so buying a variety of vegan/vegetarian cookbooks helped me explore different recipe ideas. It got me very excited to be vegan. It's been over a year and it's only gotten easier and easier for me to be vegan. I no longer worry about what I'm going to eat everyday and whether I'm getting the right amount of nutrients. I still get very excited about food and I'm able to enjoy what I eat and share with others that animal free food can be delicious too!

Not only are there yummy foods that I can enjoy now, I've also had other benefits from being vegan. The first year I lost about 10 pounds and my husband who only ate vegan 70% of the time lost 30! Cutting out animal protein and dairy reduced the amount of bad fat we ate so naturally we lost weight. Also introducing more whole grains and a variety of vegetables helped very much. I can't say I lost any more weight since then as vegan cupcakes have taken over my life, but I still feel very healthy. My cholesterol levels are excellent, my digestion is impeccable and I still weigh less than I did when I ate meat a year and a half ago. Food is celebration to me and is abundance. I don't feel like I'm restricting myself. When people ask me if I miss eating chicken or steak or (enter other animal food here), I just tell them that as I no longer view chickens, cows, pigs etc. as food, I'm not missing anything. I have so many other choices that fulfill me and make me feel satisfied about my food choices. I love knowing that everything I eat and enjoy did not come from any suffering and pain. I love knowing that everything I eat is delicious and pleasing to me as well.

I didn't start this blog to try and "convert" anyone to veganism, I just want to share my passion for the kind of food that I love to eat. If anyone finds inspiration here to add a little more veggie friendly foods to their life, that's wonderful. I hope you enjoy it!
~Kim

My inspirational animals:


Buster Brown, the huckleberry hound.


Sparky, the Lemon "Chicken".