PB for Every Meal

(yes, I did already take a bite out of the pancake in the background!)

I've been going through more peanut butter than ever lately (apple slices topped with PB has become a very common lunch for me) and I've managed to find a way to work it into almost every meal of the day. Starting with breakfast, I made some GF apple buckwheat pancakes that I topped with some melty, gooey peanut butter and a tiny drizzle of maple syrup. The pancakes were alright, but not great- I'd prefer them to be fluffier. I definitely need to work on the recipe before I share it. I loved how the peanut butter melted on top of them, though. And maple syrup is always necessary in my book, so the concept of this breakfast was great, I just need to work on the pancakes themselves.

This meal was a TOTAL success! For dinner, I whipped up my adaptation of a recipe for Spicy Peanut Spinach I received in an email from the VegNews Recipe Club and it couldn't have been easier. After devouring half of it over some brown rice (even though it serves 4), I packed up the rest for my mom to take to work with her the next day for lunch. Around noon, I got a call from her telling me how much she loved it! In fact, my mom is going to go pick up some more spinach from the store this weekend so I can make it again next week. Since I adapted the recipe a bit and am just soooo happy with this dish, I'll share the recipe:

(Sort of) Spicy Peanut Spinach:

1 T. oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
4 c. baby spinach/regular spinach, chopped
1/4 c. salted peanut butter
1/4 c .peanut, chopped

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and add the onion, salt, and red pepper flakes. Saute until soft, about 5 min. Stir in tomatoes and spinach and cook until wilted. Stir in peanut butter and cook another 1-2 min. Serve over rice and top with peanuts.

The same day that I gave the peanut spinach to my mom for her lunch, I also sent some mini gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate peanut butter frosting (that's a mouthful!) with her to share with her co-workers. Needless to say, they were a hit! I used the chocolate gluten-freedom cupcake recipe, subbing Bob's Red Mill GF All-Purpose mix for the quinoa flower, and the peanut butter frosting recipe (both from VCTOTW), subbing Peanut Butter & Co. White Chocolate Wonderful for the regular peanut butter and omitting the vanilla extract. I think my new baking obsession is mini cupcakes and muffins. They are bite-sized and great for snacking!

Happy Fourth!

I just want to wish you all a happy Fourth of July! It feels like summer just started- it's so weird to think that it's already the fourth. I know that my blogging has been far too infrequent since the beginning of summer, but I've got some exciting meals planned and I can't wait to post those ASAP.

Enjoy your holiday and I'll post again soon!

Raw "Cleanse" Day

I feel like I've been eating too many carbs and fatty foods and haven't been getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables lately with the stress from finals and all (I'm finally done and found out my grades! I did better than I thought, so that's a huge relief), so I decided on Monday that I would try my best to eat just fresh fruits and veggies for the day. I then figured I might as well make it a raw day, but try not include any nut based dishes since I eat enough nuts as it is.

I had ordered some kelp noodles from Amazon last week (need to up the iodine for medical reasons) and received a small free packet of chia seeds along with it, but I sorta forgot about it until Monday so I decided to use it in my breakfast. As light as this was, my breakfast left me satisfied without feeling weighed down- it was great! I just blended some frozen sliced peaches that I thawed overnight, a super ripe and juicy mango, and a peeled orange in my blender. I then mixed in the chia seeds, let the mixture sit for about 15 min, and topped it with sliced strawberries. This was so delicious thanks to the super sweet fruit that I used and I couldn't stop myself from spooning it into my mouth.

Lunch was inspired by this post on Another One Bites the Crust and it was by far my favorite meal all day. I love spring rolls, so the idea of making them with sliced cucumber as the wrapper appealed to me immediately. I filled mine with buttery avocado slices, grated carrot, sliced scallions, and shredded romaine lettuce. I then topped them with some black sesame seeds and dipped them in a simple sauce made from Bragg Liquid Aminos and red pepper flakes. I also snacked on a sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon. This is one of those meals where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I knew that the rolls would taste good, but I was just blown away by the flavor of them! They tasted like the freshest veggie sushi ever and could not have been easier. I'm actually running to the store tomorrow to get the ingredients to make more of these rolls :)

Dinner was...not so great. I've never had gazpacho before, but the idea of it always appealed to me so I decided to try it. I didn't follow a specific recipe, but more of a blend of several. The flavor was pretty good, but after a few bites the texture became very unappealing to me and I ended up eating a bowl of fruit topped with ground flax seeds and half a Larabar. I think I might have had the proportions of veggies wrong because I feel like there was too much onion and cucumber. I won't give up on gazpacho just yet, but it'll be awhile before I try making it again.

Dessert was some homemade pineaple mango sorbet with a secret ingredient- fresh coconut milk! I felt like adding another layer of flavor to this sorbet in the form of coconut milk, but since canned was out of the question, I bought a young Thai coconut, cracked it open (I used the method show in this video), blended the meat and water, and strained it to make fresh coconut milk! While I've never been a fan of things with a strong coconut taste, I learned that fresh coconut is a totally different story. I'm now in LOVE with fresh coconut meat and want to go buy another one just to eat for breakfast! The flavor is not traditionally "coconutty," but just floral and tropical- it reminded me and my mom of the Bahamas. To make the sorbet, I just blended the coconut milk with 3-4 cups of chopped fruit and some raw agave nectar in the blender, chilled it, and churned it in my ice cream machine. The coconut milk didn't make the sorbet as creamy as I would have hoped, but it gave it such a great tropical aftertaste and I'm so glad I used it.

Overall, my raw "cleanse" day was a success and a great way to introduce myself to raw foods because I definitelty want to include more raw meals in my diet throughout the summer. I think I'll continue to do one day every month or so of completely raw foods that aren't nut-based because I felt great the next day. The only problem seemed to be that I didn't eat enough early in the day, so by about 3:00 I was craving carbs like crazy and felt really tired (I acually took a brief nap, which I rarely do), so I'll keep that in mind next time. I can't wait to try more raw recipes and I hope to eat at least one raw meal every week.

Swirlz- My Life Saver

After seeing Vegan Nurse's post about a cupcake from Swirlz she found at Whole Foods, I was intrigued immediately. While there are several places in my area where I can get vegan baked goods and gluten-free baked goods, I have yet to find somewhere where I can find a cake that is gluten-free AND vegan. That is, until now. I asked my dad (since he works in the city) if he had ever heard of Swirlz and it turns out that it's only two blocks from where he works and he runs right by it everyday, so I just mentioned to him that they have vegan, gluten-free cupcakes (one flavor each day) and that I might drive down there sometime during the summer. Well, fast-froward to the next day when I came home from school. I walked into my dad's office, said "hello," and began heading toward the kitchen to put my backpack away, when my dad told me that he had a surprise for me in the kitchen. I looked in and saw on the counter....


...a gluten-free, vegan double chocolate chip cupcake form Swirlz! Actually, he got me two and I ate both of them that night :) The cake itself was pretty good, a little dry, but it had a nice chocolate flavor. The real star here was the fudgey frosting. OH MY GOODNESS! This is the kind of frosting I've been missing and have yet to be able to make since going vegan. It's fudgey, chocolatey, and creamy- yum! The size of the cupcake was also really nice- a little bit bigger than the ones I make at home but not so big that the frosting to cake ratio is thrown off. My dad also brought home a box with two of the (nonvegan) gluten-free cupcakes for my mom and some of the "regular" cupcakes for the rest of my family and everyone loved them, so I think I'll be able to enjoy my cupcakes a little more often :)

Asian Flavor

I'm not sure why, but I've seemed to be craving Asian dishes for the past few weeks, which is fine by me because it means I've been eating tons of fresh veggies! Even though the weather here hasn't been great lately, we have had a few summery days and I decided to take them as an opportunity to make some refreshing SUSHI! I used to practically live off of sushi in my pre-veg*n days, but now that I've finally learned how to make my own vegan sushi, I plan on eating it all the time this summer! This time around, I used brown rice and finally conquered the inside-out roll (rice on the outside) and it surprisingly wasn't anymore difficult to make than regular sushi. I made two different rolls last week, as you see above, and I was really happy with these flavor combinations. The roll in the front contained just some simple sliced avocado (makes everything 10x better) and carrots and the one in back had some cucumber and roasted sweet potato and both rolls were fantastic (even though I think I preferred the one with avocado just because it's so darn creamy).

This dish came out of my need to use up some cabbage in the fridge and it ended up being so great that I've made it at least 3 times in the past month! For the tofu, I marinaded it in a mix of wheat-free tamari, sesame oil, and five-spice and let it sit for a few hours before pan-frying it in a little bit of oil. As good as the tofu was, the cabbage stir fry was the real star on this plate and it couldn't have been easier, so I decided to post the (approximate) recipe:

Cabbage Stir-Fry:

1 large head cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1-2 scallions, chopped
2 T. oil
2 t. agave nectar
1/4 c. tamari (or other soy sauce)
1 1/2 T. sesame oil
2 T. rice vinegar

Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Sautee bell pepper and carrot for 1-2 min. Add cabbage and scallions and sautee another 4 min, or just until cabbage softens slightly. Add the other ingredients and cook for about 1 more min. and serve immediately. Serves 4-6 (depending on how much you love your veggies)

I've actually made this dish a few times before, but never got around to posting about it until now for some reason. The Cashew Ginger Tofu from ED&BV is so easy and the cashew sauce after it thickens in the oven is amazing! I used tempeh this time instead of tofu since it's all I had on hand, but it's just as good with tempeh (if not better) because it absorbs the sauce beautifully. I served this dish with some steamed cauliflower and asparagus that I sauteed in some soy sauce and sesame oil (my mom's recipe- it's great!).


Finals start Tuesday and by the end of the week my summer vacation will have officially begun!! One great perk of summer is more time to cook/bake new things and more time to share them all with you!

New Foods Challenge Accepted!

Katie of Chocolate-Covered Katie announced a new contest a few weeks ago and I've finally gotten around to posting about my results. The challenge was to try either a new product, fruit, vegetable, or whatever and I think this was such a great idea since I often find myself in food ruts. While I have a lengthy list of more foods I want to try, the contest ends June 1st, so I'll post about these for now:

I was beyond excited to see the new Living Harvest Tempt hemp milk ice cream at my local Whole Foods and grabbed a pint. I was only able to find the vanilla bean, mint chip, and chocolate fudge flavors at the store, so I chose mint chip. OH MY GOODNESS!! This is fantastic! I love this ice cream because it's gluten-free, not soy-based, not terribly high in fat/sugar, and doesn't have any aftertaste like soy ice cream can have. Also, the little chocolate flakes just melt in your mouth and remind me of the mint chip ice cream of my childhood. This product is pretty rich, but I can't stop eating it and I think I'll have to have a pint in my freezer at all times.

As I went to the checkout line at Whole Foods with my hemp milk ice cream, I noticed a basket full of every flavor of Justin's almond/peanut butter squeeze packs. I've always wanted to try these after reading about them so much on other blogs, so I grabbed one pack of the classic peanut butter and one pack of the maple almond butter. The peanut butter was pretty good- nothing too special, but that's what I expected. What I was really excited to try was the maple almond butter, so I squeezed out as much as possible onto some apple slices. While this certainly is some special almond butter, I wasn't blown away. Don't get me wrong- I think this was delicious and was so glad to try it, but I tend to prefer raw almond butter so the flavor of the roasted almonds was a little overpowering for me. My favorite part of this product, though, is the convenience! I'll probably keep a few packs of the peanut butter on hand because they'll be great for traveling and school lunches (even though I only have 2 weeks left!).

Thanks so much Katie for this fun challenge! I'm already planning my next trip to the store to cross a few new foods off my list :)

Crepes Two Ways and Another Surprise in the Mail

I have no idea why it took me so long, but I finally got around to making the crepes from Vcon. They were so easy to make gluten-free by substituting some millet flour and xanthan gum for the wheat flour. I made the savory version of the batter and made 4 crepes, but then added some agave nectar to the 2nd half of the batter and made another 5 crepes. I froze them all so now I have a bunch of crepes for any type of meal whenever I want! But of course I couldn't wait very long to try them out, so I made the Potato Mushroom Blintzes (also from Vcon) and topped them with some Vegan Gourmet Sour Cream, natural apple sauce, and fresh thyme leaves. While the crepes themselves were great, I wasn't a huge fan of the potato mushroom filling. I think there just wasn't a whole lot of flavor, plus I'm not a fan of the whole "carb wrapped in a carb" kind of meal. Oh well, they can't all be winners.

Even though my first vegan crepe adventure was savory, I think the real way to eat crepes is for a sweet breakfast. This morning, I just warmed up two of my defrosted sweetened crepes and filled them with some Wildwood plain soy yogurt (my Whole Foods started carrying it and it's great! I like being able to control the sweetness), lemon zest, grapefruit zest, agave nectar, and chopped blackberries. Topped my crepes with a drizzle of more agave nectar and some whole blackberries. Now this is how crepes should be eaten!! This was one excellent, light, and special breakfast. The crepes taste exactly how I remember nonvegan crepes tasting and they were simple to make.

And the last cookbook of my Amazon preorder arrived Friday afternoon! I immediately flipped through my new copy of Vegan Brunch and tagged a bunch of recipes I want to try soon. The layout of this book is fantastic and it has some delicious-looking pictures. I think I've gotta hold off now on buying any more cookbooks- I have too many things I want to try in a bunch of them that I don't know where to start!

You've Got Mail

If you remember, a few weeks ago I announced my search for vegan butterscotch chips and Annieeggplant from the PPK boards was kind enough to help me out. We had a fun little "mini-swap" with each other. In return for these two bags of butterscotch chips, I sent her some Ricemellow and natural, vegan soap bars. I've been trying to perfect my gluten-free oatmeal cookie recipe before I make some with these precious chips, but I have sampled a few (hence the opened bag in the back of the photo) and they are delicious! Of course, they do taste artificial and all, but what do you expect?

I was completely shocked yesterday when I received another package from Annieeggplant in the mail yesterday! The package included a letter in which Annie told me that she thought that her package to me was "lame" (her words, not mine) compared tot he one I sent her, so she sent me some good from an Indian market and chocolate bars. While this was completely unnecessary, I appreciate it none the less and can't wait to try some of this stuff. In her package, Anne sent me two boxes of some sort of vegan "jell-o" mix (one mango and one cherry), cardamom powder, black sesame seeds, some kind of crunchy nut candy, a small jar of asofetida, a Ritter Sport marzipan bar (my dad always gets these for me- love 'em!), and a raspberry dark chocolate bar.

Today, the surprises kept on coming! As I mentioned in my last post, I preordered the new Babycakes cookbook a few weeks ago, and it arrived today! I've been spending my night reading this book and planning what recipes I'm going to try first. Even if you eat dairy, eggs, or gluten, I suggest you buy this book because it looks amazing. The pictures are gorgeous and the layout is wonderful. I'll report back on some recipes later :)


Just to let you all know, I have been photographing some of my more impressive meals and once I have enough, I'll post about them. So please don't think I've forgotten about you all- you'll get a good food post soon!

Sweet Snackin'

A few weeks ago, I pre-ordered the new BabyCakes cookbook, so you bet when I saw this recipe for blueberry muffins on the Food Network website by Erin McKenna of BabyCakes Bakery, I just had to try it. The only changes I made were substituting 1/2 c. of the GF All-Purpose flour with millet flour and using only 1/2 t. of cinnamon. I got so excited watching these bake becasue the tops puffed up a little bit (some even had nice muffin tops!) and got really golden. The muffins tasted great- not too sweet and the agave nectar really added a nice caramel-y flavor. However, only the tops and bottoms of the muffins held together- the middles just crumbled as soon as I started eating one! My family and I agreed that more xanthan gum (maybe another 1/2 t.?) needed to be used, but other than that this was one good muffins recipe! I'm now even more excited for the arrival of my cookbook in a few weeks.

I used up all of my organic peanut butter from Costco last week and my dad wasn't going again for awhile, so I had to get some from the grocery store in the meantime. Unfrotunately, the only natural peanut butter at the store I was at was Smucker's, so I grabbed that. I tried a little and realized how, compared to the organic peanut butter I had been eating for months, this kind just didn't taste like peanuts. To use some of it up, I made some trail mix bars based on the recipe on the lid of the peanut butter jar and they turned out pretty well! The only ingredient that needed to be veganized was the honey and since I made a few other changes, I'll share the recipe:


Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars:

1 1/2 c. puffed rice cereal
1 1/2 c. oats (I used GF oats)
1/2 c. raisins
1/4 c. dried cherries/cranberries
1/4 c. sunflower seeds
2 T. pecans, chopped
1/4 c. seeded pumpkin seeds (I left these out since I didn't have any on hand)
1/2 c. brown rice syrup/agave nectar (I used a mix of both)
3 T. sugar
1 c. all-natural peanut butter
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Grease a 9x9 pan. Mix together the puffed rice, oats, dried fruits, nuts, and seeds in a large bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the brown rice syrup/agave nectar with the sugar until it boils. Boil for one minute. Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla and stir until combined. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. Press into the grease pan and let cool. Makes 12-16 bars.

A Big Ol' Bowl of VEGGIES!

The ratatouille from Gluten-Free Vegan is sooooo delicious and filling, yet I just can't get enough! My mom loves it as well, so I've been making as much of it as I can to freeze for later, but it never lasts too long. It's full of eggplant, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, chickpeas, zucchinis, and fresh basil from my herb garden! I just made some simple soft polenta with salt, pepper, and nooch to go with the ratatouille and it was really good. However, I think I'll made some pan-fried polenta next time I serve it because I think the contrast in textures will be better.

Any of you remember my family's new holiday I mentioned a year ago? Well, "Spring Day" actually happened the first Sunday of this Spring (March 22) this year! I didn't get any pictures of the food but you aren't missing much- the food wasn't that exciting to look at, but it was good! I made the Chopped Salad from Sublime's cookbook again, and my family had burgers and quesadillas while I had a veggie burger and filled my quesadilla with refried beans. For dessert, I ran to the store and got some soy ice cream for my mom and me, dairy ice cream for my family, and a bunch of sundae toppings for a sundae bar! Also, my mom was so sweet and surprised us all that morning with a "Spring Day basket" (instead of an Easter basket) filled with candy, including some vegan candy from Trader Joe's! Even though I have no pictures, I just thought I'd let you all know that we officially do have a new holiday to celebrate in our family :)

Speaking of my herb garden, here's a picture of it all grown-up: