Christmas Foods 2015!

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I'm just going to dump all my food pics. I am so full and fat from it all! Love!

My husband and I had dinner on xmas eve at our friend's place. Every year they have made a vegan friendly dinner for us. This year vegan Yorkshire puddings were a first!

Delia Smith recipe using soymilk, ener-g egg replacer and oil instead of animal products. They were heavenly!

All together now. My plate. I made the tofurky roast and orange herb gravy.

My friend Hope is a non-vegan vegan baker! She's amazing. Everything just comes out perfect.

These are Fran Costigan's Chocolate Tortes TO LIVE FOR. They really are.

Apple Cider cupcakes from VCTOTW.

Every year we make these Espresso Oatmeal Chip cookies from VCIYCJ.

I got a genius brainwave the next day. Leftover ganache and coconut milk with a little agave made delicious hot chocolate!

Sprinkled with some cinnamon.

Christmas day with my folks and brother. I made breakfast. Vegan Brunch's pastry puffs using Field Roast sausage instead of tempeh. Amazing everytime.

Broccoli quiche from Vegan Brunch. Can't go wrong.

Diner home fries from Vegan Brunch.

Leftover quiche and Bubble and Squeak made from leftover home fries and cabbage for Boxing Day breakfast! Mmmmm!

2 ingredient cake!

1 box of Duncan Hines (I think!) devil's food cake mix and 1 can of pure pumpkin makes this luscious pumpkin-chocolate cake. I piped Pillsbury chocolate fudge frosting on top (used a ziploc bag as a piping bag) and added sprinkles. I normally make my cakes from scratch but today I was in need and I wanted it fast. It was so good and so satisfying.

Tofu Scramble Sandwich & Gluten Free Chocolate Cake!

Tofu scramble sandwich!

A very sloppy to eat sandwich with lots of ketchup and tabasco. I love it.

I was in the mood for a silky smooth cake so I made this gluten free chocolate cake (made out of tofu and chickpeas, Godiva chocolate and espresso powder) with a cocoa peanut butter frosting.

This is all for me! I kind of winged it with the frosting. I mixed up in a bowl: a couple TB peanut butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and almond milk. Start with small amounts and work your way to the sweetness and consistency you like. I liked it on the thicker spreadable side though I'm sure it would have still worked as a runny glaze.

Recipe here!

Dinner ruined! Plus backup dinner and chocolate pudding freezer pops.

So I got home from work today and spent a good amount of time making the above dinner. I revamped the coconut lentil dahl and made patties and roasted cauliflower. It would have been so good. Unfortunately when I took them out of the oven, I realized a light bulb in the oven had exploded and there was glass on the food. There were shards of glass mixed in with the cauliflower. I was horrified! Had to throw it all out! At least I got some pics. I will recreate this dinner again one day.

Smokehouse chickpeas from Salad Samurai. Easy to make when dinner gets ruined!

Backup dinner was this salad with smokehouse chickpeas with homemade thousand island (vegenaise, ketchup, pickle relish). It was very good.

The other day I made vegan chocolate pudding and decided I wanted them to be freezer pops instead. Super easy to do. Just pour them into plastic cups, stick a popsicle stick or in my case skewers with some foil to cover and freeze overnight.

Super tasty too!

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweet Treat & Tacos.

I was dying for a sweet treat but I've been so bad lately with all the refined sugar and white flour desserts I've been making. I wanted to try something healthier and I've been inspired by the Happy Pear boys on youtube. They've been making great desserts made out of whole foods. This was my attempt at a dark chocolate peanut butter cake thingy. I was thinking along the lines of a peanut butter cup. It has ground almonds and cashews, natural chunky peanut butter (no sugar added), pureed dates and maple syrup sandwiched between dark chocolate. My filling was a little too wet but I didn't mind after all. I froze the dish for a few hours and it was perfectly sweet and decadent. And it did taste like peanut butter cup!

Went out to get veggie tacos at Baja Fresh tonight. Order the veggie tacos baja style with no cheese!

Healthy "Nutella".

Another Happy Pear recipe! I adapted it to make it vegan. First I roasted hazelnuts, then whizzed them in my Blendtec with a little sunflower oil. I was so pleased my blender was able to get it pretty smooth.

Then I poured the hazelnut butter into a bowl and added maple syrup (original recipe uses honey), salt, cocoa powder and vanilla. That's it!

It's not super smooth like store bought stuff but I don't mind the texture at all.

It's good on apples or any fruit, cake, bread and in smoothies. It's a cross between Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.

Grilled Veggie Sandwich & Vegan Chocolate Pots!

Zucchini, red peppers, yellow onion and mushrooms.

Pesto made in my mortar and pestle. I never use my mortar and pestle and I've been inspired by Jamie Oliver's cooking and he uses it all the time so I decided to make my pesto this way. I bashed the almonds and garlic first then added chopped basil and pounded until it all came together. I left it coarse and then added olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Vegan mayo and pesto spread on baguette.

Assembling. Added some fresh arugula too.

SO GOOOD!

Vegan chocolate pots, a recipe by Jamie Oliver. I really loved the taste and texture of this. Thick, yet fluffy and rich. I used soft tofu instead of silken which is why my pudding is so thick. Topped with Coconut Whip!

Mmmm.

Cake and Soup.

Got home yesterday from work and really wanted cake. Made a quick chocolate cake with a cocoa glaze with nuts. Hit the spot!

For dinner, a white bean, cabbage, potato, rutabaga, carrot soup seasoned with summer savory.

Healthy-ish Double Chocolate Muffins.

I saw this recipe and I knew it had to be done. I have recently been worried about my sugar intake because I've noticed that in the past year or so I have been going crazy with sweets. I've been trying to cut back on sugar here and there. As far as desserts, I am looking for ways to make treats that take care of my sweet craving but with less sugar. This recipe is great because it uses mostly fruit puree for sweetness and a little bit of agave and brown sugar. I used mango and banana puree in mine. The recipe uses red beets which would have been nice too.

They came out lovely, chocolatey, moist and not too sweet. I think they are perfect with a morning cup of coffee (black, no sugar!).

1 muffin is approximately 8.1 g fat, 190 cals, 9.4 grams sugar. Still pretty high in sugar but I guess a normal muffin would have more.