Who doesn’t love cake, or chocolate cake for that matter?  Well, chocolate cake is pretty much my very favorite!  I think I was still dreaming of the super rad vegan chocolate ganache cake from my birthday  that I was thinking I must make some for Valentine’s Day.  

If you live in or travel to Reno be sure to check out Dandelion Deli!!

Well, I was not going to pull a cake like that off so I settled for cupcakes.

If you love moist chocolate cake like I do, I recommend this recipe!

For the frosting I mixed in the stand mixer: powdered sugar, Tofutti cream cheese, vanilla extract and a bit of almond milk.  The frosting was good but my favorite way to eat chocolate cupcakes is with no frosting.  I am telling you, please check out this recipe!

For dinner, WE made penne pasta with tomato vodka cream sauce.  Jason was a big help in the kitchen and it made me wonder why we don’t do that more often.  Cooking together was great.  We added mushrooms and chopped up “meatballs” from Trader Joes.

Looking back at this meal is making me hungry! It might have to be my special dinner in 22 days.  Why 22 days?  Well, I am starting a 21 day cleanse tomorrow.  I read and love Crazy Sexy Diet.  I am hoping to jump start a healthier way of eating, see if  I am gluten sensitive, eliminate inflammation and of course ditch a few unneeded pounds.  So tomorrow will start the lovely juicing, greens, yummy salads and lots of water.  I will be leaving sugar, gluten coffee, alcohol and of course dairy and meat.    Dairy meat has been out of life since September 20, 2010 <3 The others things are going to be a bit tough.  I can do it for 21 days though.  I NEED to and I WANT to .  I am really looking forward to the personal and spiritual benefits as well.  Check out Kris Carr’s book my friends.  Some of the info may be a review or brand new information to you.  If you are still learning or just reviewing, it is a good boost either way.

I made some ratatouille a while ago and I forgot to share it. I am a huge fan of ratatouille and was excited to make this recipe, as I have not made one with beans before.

I discovered this fun recipe from Vegan Table. I just got this cook book and have only had a chance to make this one recipe but I have many pages tabbed to make soon.

Of course serving it with some vino and garlic, sourdough bread seemed to make the whole meal just perfect!

Any ratatouille fans out there?

I have too much to blog about and I think I have officially fallen behind.  I randomly took some fun photos over the last three weeks but certainly never got around to blogging about it.  I have no idea where time goes.  No, honestly, I really don’t.  It seemed I was anxious for the Holidays and family to visit and now as I type this, it has come and gone. Gal! I will try to get some of these photos organized and get to posting.  For now I just want to share a bit.  Have a lot to get done tonight, so I’m making it quick.

It is safe to say that my dinner tonight was EPIC! I love the way something simple can end up being amazing!

My favorite masaged kale salad with avocado and tahini, steamed tempeh with dijon mustard sauce and chayote squash. Why on earth have I never tried chayote squash before!?! I prepared it with this recipe and am hooked!!

I had a great Christmas with my brother and his fiance. <3 I miss them already!!

Growing up, I would always order alfredo sauce pasta when out at an Italian restaurant.  I don’t even want to think about the amount of fat, calories and cholesterol were in those dishes.  As I became more aware of health I stopped ordering it, knowing how guilty I would feel for all the fat I was eating.  Not to mention the usual stomach ache that would follow.  Now, having given up all dairy products, it seems that alfredo sauce would be dead and gone as an option for sure.  Nope, think again.  The other night I was falling victim to the gooey pasta dish craving.  So I searched for a non dairy alfredo sauce on VegWeb and made this simple recipe.  I actually forgot to add the butter, as it forgot to mention that step and I think it wasn’t even needed.  I might add it next time I make it. I served the pasta and sauce with roasted brussel sprouts, broccoli, tomatoes, green beans and Trader Joe’s meatless-meatballs.

This sauce was fantastic! I highly recommend you try this recipe for yourself!

It’s just more fun saying it like that than fajitas.  I’m just sayen After I sampled Soy Curls at Los Gorditos I was confident I wanted to make some at home.  I picked some up at Food Fight.

This dinner was fantastic!! I can’t wait to make it for friends and family that are curious about vegan eats.  I served it with black beans and red quinoa, lettuce, avocado, Tofutti sour cream and Cholula sauce. To make the fahjeetus I soaked the Soy Curls in warm water for 10 minutes while I slice red and green bell pepper and onion.  Then I put the Soy Curls, veggies and taco seasonings in a bowl and mixed with safflower oil and lime juice.  I let that sit for 10 minutes and then cooked over medium high heat. It was simple and great.

It is cloudy and rainy  so I think I am going to make some tea and do a little drawing.  In fact, I think I might draw garbage. Should you feel in the mood to draw, you should check this out.

Have I ever made a pot pie before? Nope, not until Friday night.

Will I ever make one again? Youbetcha!

So, I am a little bit anxious to tell you about a rad recipe I discovered in Veganomicon for a day-yum glorious pot pie. I made the seitan from scratch, which was easier than I thought, except for the time (plan ahead).  I used potato, rather than the celery root because that is what I had.  I will have to try celery root soon.  I have no idea what it tastes like.  I also used half, whole-wheat flour for the crust, otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.  Too bad the photos couldn’t show you how good this smelled and tasted!

The recipe called for dried sage.  I actually just picked some in September and have been drying it in the window, oh, maybe since that time. I asked Jason to grind it in the mortar and pistil.

“That is some serious, fresh sage J, thanks!”

What is more comfy during than these short-ass, dark days than homemade potpie?! … Not much!

Hope you get you potpie on!

A while ago I cooked a buttercup squash and discovered that two out of the three kitties liked it.  I wasn’t actually planning to give them some because if you know one thing about cats, it is that they are finicky eaters.  Well, when I took it out of the oven and was scraping away thee skin, Yoshi and Choopey were at my feet just staring up at me, begging.  So, I put some in their dishes and was amazed at what I saw…

Little Yoch actually had seconds!

I know I have talked about how much I like massaged kale but I must tell you at least one more time.  I made this one with avocado, lemon and salt.  I promise you, it is fabulous

The combination of this dinner is one I might just have to duplicate the exact same way.  Yup, it was that good.  Avocado-massaged kale salad+ buttercup squash with tahini+ tempeh= perfect.

You know how I talked about kitties always wanting to get in the photos, well it didn’t fail this morning.

I almost forgot to mention the tasty zucchini muffins I made from ED&BV.  This morning I toasted them under the broiler in the oven. Let me just tell you about a really rad memories real quick.  My mom used to make the most fabulous sourdough biscuits (one of the best foods I have had in my whole life) and we would toast them in the oven this way.  Told you it would be real quick.  Have a great night

Today I picked up wild, local chanterelle mushrooms.  This would be our first time trying them and I am so glad we did.  I had a new tempeh to fix and thought I would go with the flavor of it and make a curry dish.

sweet onions, garlic, zucchini, green beans, tempeh, curry powder, chanterelle mushrooms, lite coconut milk and  sriracha

Served with baked kabocha squash and brown rice

It is safe to say that I was proud of dinner tonight, just saying.  I mean really, it all went together so perfectly.  I am even over the moon that Jason enjoyed it as well. In fact, I was too hungry and anxious to take the time and take better photos.  I was a bit disappointed with what I had on my camera when I sat down to post this.  All I know is, lunch will be stellar tomorrow!

Also, in great food news, have you had a persimmon yet!?! I fell in love with these little guys last year.  I have been waiting for them for a few weeks now and finally saw some Saturday.

“I think I love you fuyu.”

Did you enter the GIVEAWAY?

Ha! That sounds awesome!! What is MOFO, you ask.?  Well, it is Vegan Month Of Food of course.  While I may not post as regular as I would like, I will be trying my best to post as frequent as possible during this month of November.

To start the month off right, I leaned towards a meal to suite the both of us; buffalo wraps.

We sampled some Gardein products at the VegFest in September.  Much to my surprise, Jason liked what he tried.  YAY!!  So I put a twist on one of his favorites dinners.

I slathered buffalo sauce on the tenders and prepared the wrap with tahini sauce, avocado, lentil sprouts and lettuce.  
Sweet poato fries and mustard made the meal complete.  The wrap was great and a very special Mr. enjoyed them as well

Tonight I made quinoa chickpea confetti casserole from EDBV.  I subbed zucchini for the fennel bulb, left out fennel seeds and allspice because I do not have those ingredients.  I also have a nice amount of zucchini to work with.  To be honest, I have never tried fennel bulb.  I am not sure what it might taste like.  I was also short on quinoa and ended up using millet to make up the difference.  I really enjoyed the casserole but found the spices to be a little strong.  Next time, I will just reduce the amounts.

If you haven’t entered the giveaway, you can do so here.

For me , it easier to take fun photos than it is to write a half way entertaining post to go with them.  What happens is, I end up with way more photos than I ever post.  Then when I sit down to actually write a post, I feel overwhelmed with where to start, or find that some of the photos seem outdated.  Today, I deleted quite a few that “didn’t make the cut.”  The ones that did are going to make this post a bit lengthy.  This is my way to catch up.  My goal, is to then post more regularly.

I will start with some scones I made about 3 weeks ago. I had some figs that were ripening faster that I could eat them.  Jason was out of town and so I was the only one eating around here.  I searched for a fun recipe and came across these figgy buckwheat scones. I subbed Earth Balance for butter and almond milk for heavy cream.  My filling consisted of fresh fig, Earth Balance, vanilla extract, cinnamon, ground clove and a bit of stevia. I didn’t have red wine or port and I was using fresh, rather than dried figs.

Last Sunday, after my trip to an Asian supermarket to get hijiki, I made my first recipe from The Kind Diet.

Hijiki-Tofu Croquettes

I will be making this recipe again for sure! Do pick up this book.

Miso soup with soba noodles, collard greens, broccoli, edamame and cutie mushrooms. I used unpasteurized-brown miso and diluted about 1 tablespoon to 1 cup water. Bring water to a boil then add the vegetables and let them steep maybe 5 minutes and then stir in the miso. Miso paste should be thinned out in a few tablespoons of water first.  You can reheat if you prefer, cautious not to overcook the veggies and miso.  Enjoy!

With Fall swirling by me faster than I appreciate, I made sure to make pumpkin cookies earlier this week.  Pumpkin-Molasses cookies to be exact.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

If you like pumpkin AND molasses, Do make these cookies! You will not regret it!

HAPPY SUNDAY!