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:

Random Catch-Up Meals

I know that I haven't been the world's best blogger lately, but I hope you guys understand- there just aren't enough hours in a day! I may not have been blogging regularly, but I have been cooking quite a bit, so I thought I'd share some of the highlights of my meals from the past few weeks.

Using this recipe for the seemingly famous General Tao's Tofu, I was able to recreate the taste of the Chinese take-out food that I used to love so much. I used reduced sodium wheat-free tamari for the soy sauce, reduced the sugar by a tad, and added some steamed broccoli and red bell peppers and served it all over brown rice, so I know that this dish was much healthier than any Chinese take-out I could ever find. While the sauce in this dish was amazing, my favorite part was the super crispy tofu because, despite being fried in oil, it was still so light and not the least bit greasy! I'm definitely planning on making this tofu for my family sometime- I know they'll go crazy for it.

What started out as some accidentally overcooked tofu one night turned into one of my new favorite sandwiches. I had marinaded some thinly sliced, pressed tofu in a mixture of tamari, maple syrup, ketchup, liquid smoke, onion powder, and water and baked it for a long time (about 30-40 min) at a low temperature, flipping every 15 minutes or so. The tofu wasn't becoming as crispy as I wanted, so I broiled it for about 10 min on each side, but then forgot about it for a few minutes! When I came back, I saw that the tofu was very well-done, but I decided to try it anyways. It turned out to be DELICIOUS! My brother loved it as well, so I ended up splitting it with him. I then realized that the tofu had a great texture for sandwiches and tasted a tiny bit like bacon, so my newest version of a "BLT" was created! The smokey tofu was really nice with the cool lettuce, tomato, and Veganaise. It would have been better with an avocado, but whatever- there's no way I'm gonna complain about this sandwich! Lately, I've had a big batch of baked tofu slices on hand every week so I can have a sandwich anytime I want.

As you know, I couldn't wait to try a recipe from my Sublime cookbook when I returned from Florida, so when I felt like planning some lighter meals this week I turned to the "salads" chapter of the book. The Sublime Chopped Salad seemed simple and light and I definitely made the right choice with this recipe! The salad and dressing are both simple and took no more than 10 minutes to put together. All I had to do was toss together some chickpeas, chopped tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, scallions, red onion, and kalamata olives in a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh oregano, salt and pepper and viola! Lay it all on top of some romaine lettuce and I had a perfect light dinner. My mom fell in LOVE with this salad and I think you'll see a return of it very soon....

This is from last month, but I just had to finally share it- a slice of Lemon Blackberry Raw Cheesecake that I brought home from the Chicago Diner one day after lunch with my brother. I've had their raw cheesecake several times, but this slice blew my mind and it's totally my favorite flavor. The filling and crust together tasted kinda like a Lemon Larabar, only better! And, of course, the fact that it was gluten-free only made it that much better :)

Alright- now I need help from some of you guys! If anyone knows of any sources online from which I could buy come vegan butterscotch chips, or maybe has access to some in their area and would be interested in a mini-swap, I would appreciate it very much if you could let me know. My mom has also been diagnosed with a few food allergies/intolerance, with the major ones being dairy, eggs, and gluten. She's been taking it a little rougher than I did and I just want to help her out a bit. Her biggest weakness is cookies and she hasn't been able to find any gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free cookies yet that she's really thrilled with, so that's where I'm stepping in. She told me that her favorite cookies are oatmeal scotchies so I'm taking on the mission of making us some gluten-free, vegan oatmeal scotchies, but the chips are pretty darn hard to find (as I expected). Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Less than 2 weeks until Spring Break! I'll have an entire week to cook and bake some great food to share with all of you.

Breakfast Sweets

I actually made these quite awhile ago as they were my first successful gluten-free baking project, but I just never got a round to posting them. I was so happy to find this recipe for Cinnamon Apple Muffins because I had some buckwheat flour to use up and my family and I could always use some apple muffins. They turned out beautifully with awesome muffin tops and perfectly sweet and cinnamon-y. After making one batch of these muffins, I made another half batch the next day (I was running out of applesauce!) and froze them to snack on for awhile and they taste just as great frozen and thawed.

I finally got around to making a big batch of granola using the recipe from The Gluten Free Vegan. The only changes I made were using puffed millet instead of the puffed rice and dried cherries and raisins instead of dates since that's what I had on hand and I couldn't believe how incredibly addicting this was! I find myself snacking on it more than eating it for breakfast, but either way it's delicious!

I've been using Katie of Chocolate-Covered Katie's recipe for oatmeal raisin pudding for awhile now whenever I make oatmeal and I finally got around to blogging about it. I used Bob's Red Mill's Gluten-Free Oats, hemp milk instead of soymilk, agave nectar and stevia as the sweeteners, and added dried cherries. This recipe is awesome- by cooking the oatmeal a second time with the added liquid, it becomes so super creamy and really is better than any rice pudding I've ever made. If you want one of the easiest and most delicious oatmeal breakfasts ever, make this recipe!!

A Chocolate-Covered Giveaway!

In case you haven't heard yet, Katie of Chocolate-Covered Katie (she switched to Wordpress- how exciting!) is having a SUPER awesome giveaway with the prize being an entire case of Jocalat Bars! Go here to learn more and good luck to all who enter :)

Sublime!

I didn't take many pictures during my vacation last weekend because it was just so relaxing that I didn't bother with it a whole lot. Overall, this trip to Ft. Lauderdale much more enjoyable than last year- my cousins and aunt came along with us and they're always fun, the weather was wonderful, and I got to try a new completely vegan restaurant: Sublime!! Our first night in Florida, my mom and I decided to go to Sublime for dinner while everyone else went to a seafood restaurant that my mom doesn't like very much. The pictures you see above is of the van parked next to us which I thought was so cool because the ARFF (Animal Rights Foundation of Florida) is the owner's animal rights organization and 100% of Sublime's profits go towards it, which I think is freaking unbelievable. I had brought my camera to take pictures of our meal, but the lighting was just too dark so I didn't bother. But one thing I can promise you is that our meal was AMAZING. Honestly, my experience and meal at Sublime was probably the best I've ever had. For an appetizer, we started out with the Eggplant Rollatini and it blew my mind! The ricotta filling was so creamy and I thought it tasted very "cheesy." For our entrees, my mom ordered the Enchiladas and I had the Sublime Loaf (which was even gluten-free and made with water chesnuts, lentils, and rice), which came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. My dish was great- the slices of the loaf were crispy on the outside and had the occassional crunch from the pieces of water chesnuts. Th gravy that was served with it totally made the dish and I couldn't have imagined it being any better. My mom loved her enchiladas and we both quickly cleaned out plates. I was totally ready for dessert and, while my mom would have loved to order dessert as well, she stuck with just come coffee since she's been trying to reduce her sugar intake. After a difficult decision, I chose the Key Lime Cheesecake (also gluten-free!) and I definitely made the right choice. While it didn't have much of a key lime flavor, the cheesecake itself was sooooooooooo unbelievably creamy yet light and airy. The nut crust added a nice almost caramelly flavor and I can say with all certainty that it was better than any cheesecake I've ever had (yes- even better that the Chicago Diner *gasp*)! I left stuffed, but was so happy I finally got to eat at this restaurant!

Sunday night was our last night in Florida, so my dad told me that I could order something to go from Sublime for dinner to try it one last time before having to wait a whole year before coming back. My aunt had tried the leftovers I rought home from our first visit to Sublime, so she wanted to order something as well (though I was unable to get pictures of her meal). She ordered the dish I had the first time, the Sublime Loaf, and was super impressed by it as well. I tried the Tuscan Quiche which was filled with the same type of ricotta filling as the eggplant appetizer from my first visit so it was, of course, delicious. While the quiche was great, I think I preferred the loaf because it was just so amazing. I had asked for the Key Lime Cheesecake one again, but the hostess informed me that they only had some of their strawberry cheesecake from the Valentine's Day dinner the night before, but I was happy to try it! The strawberry version was just as delicious as the original key lime cheesecake and it was great to try both.

When my dad came home from picking up my carry out order from Sublime, he surprised me with something that my mom and I did not see while we were at the restaurant- Sublime's cookbook! I've been having fun looking through it this week and marking all the recipes I want to try and, let's just say that you'll be seeing quite a few of these dishes soon!

I'm already looking forward to next February when we'll get a chance to go back to Ft. Lauderdale, meaning that I'll be able to return to Sublime :)

A Sweet Delivery

As I mentioned in my last post, my family and I took a quick trip to Florida for President's Day weekend and I will post all about my trip later. For now, I wanted to share an awesome surprise I got in the mail last week- a Peppermint Ritter Sport Bar from Ricki of Diets, Dessert, and Dogs! She had held a contest a few weeks ago and I was one of the lucky winners of this bar. This package unfortunately arrived minutes before we had to leave for the airport, but it was on my mind the entire trip and I was sure to enjoy it the night we got back. I am sure gonna be sad when this chocolare bar is gone since the company changed the formula so they will no longer be vegan because it is sooooo delicious! It tastes just like a peppermint patty, only the chocolate is less waxy and much creamier. Yummy! Thank you so much Ricki and I'm definitely enjoying my prize. I'll be back later with a post all about Ft. Lauderdale :)

Hearty, Warm (Frozen?) Veggie Chili

My mom was so sweet and mad this delicious vegetable chili for dinner on Xmas Eve and I've been able to keep enjoying it since then because I froze the leftovers. This chili is so full of black-eyed peas, black beans, chickpeas, zucchini, squash, carrots, and other veggies that I get soooo full after eating a bowl of it, but I just can't stop myself from finishing the whole thing! And, as you know, no bowl of chili is complete without...


...Super moist and sweet cornbread! I used my ol' standby recipe, which is the Skillet Cornbread from Vcon, but made it gluten-free and baked it in muffin tins. I made a double batch to freeze these as well so I always will have some cornbread for my chili. I've been restocking my stash of frozen meals and veggie burgers lately since those have been getting me by throughout the week, so I'll try to feature those in a future post. Speaking of that, I may not be able to post for a few week because next weekend, my family and I are going to Ft. Lauderdale once again to visit my grandparents. I'll probably be living off a bunch of rice cakes and Larabars, but I'll hopefully have a few culinary adventures to share when I return!