This weekend was pretty fun…  we headed to Sacramento for a family reunion (my mom’s side) and I was in charge of dessert!  Not knowing how many people would actually show up, I made a batch of strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream, chocolate cupcakes with cookies & cream buttercream, and (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) tiramisu cupcakes.  As you may expect, there were way more cupcakes than necessary, but it allowed people to have seconds and take some home!

The tiramisu cupcakes are a vanilla cake (I used my own recipe, not the one in the book because– in my opinion– the cake recipes in the book all turn out really weird) topped with cream cheese frosting.  Before putting on the frosting, you scoop out a little well in the center of the cake and generously fill it with Kahlua and coffee.  Delicious!  I think this is my new favorite.  It would also make a really delicious layered cake.

Everyone enjoyed all three, but I think the kids (well, teenagers) really liked the chocolate with cookies & cream.  I’ve made it before, but this time I used my food processor to get the cookie chunks much smaller.  I liked that better.

Last, but not least, we have my mom’s favorite, the strawberry.  I’m really anxious to try the strawberry recipe with peaches.  Doesn’t that sound heavenly and so summery?  Peach cupcakes!  Yum!!

My dad has a garden and this year he’s planted more than just tomatoes. His tomatoes are awesome, btw. Check out these zucchini that he said “got away from him.”

The photo doesn’t really do them justice.  The larger one is about 18″ long and 15″ around. It weighs 6 pounds. That’s not much smaller than Emma when she was born. The smaller one is 15″ long, 11.5″ around and 4 pounds. I predict lots of zucchini bread and some chocolate zucchini muffins in our future.

Now for the best part. There is this billboard near our house that I see all the time. Since I’m the one driving and I almost never have my camera handy, I can never get a picture of it. Well, as we were crossing the Bay Bridge yesterday (Matt was driving), I saw the exact same one and was able to get a pic.

In case you can’t read it, it says “Be Veg!  Go Green!  Save the Planet!”  The ad is sponsored by the people that run this website.  While the website is a little strange, it does have some very interesting information on it:

• According to the UNreport “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” livestock production is the greatest contributor to global warming.
• Animal waste and feed cropland dump more pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined.
• Meat-based diets require 10-20 times as much land as plant-based diets – nearly half of the world’s grains & soybeans are fed to animals.

I can think of NO good reasons to eat meat, when you take into account how horribly the animals are treated, how it contributes to climate change, and it’s effects on your health.  Seriously, I’m the weirdo at a restaurant who has to pick apart a menu item to make it suitable for me, when in reality, you are the weirdo for suppoting this.  Anyway, I was really surprised that someone would pay for such an ad (happy about it, but still surprised).  I do hope there are ads elsewhere other than the Bay Area where vegetarianism is really pretty common.

I’ve made these several times and every time I make them, I can’t help but wonder why I don’t make them more often.  I mean, the last time we had these was at Christmas.  The recipe is from ED&BV and I topped them with the cranberry sauce also from that book. The filling is a mixture of white beans, walnuts, spinach, basil and roasted red peppers all wrapped up in crispy filo dough. And the cranberry sauce is just cranberries (fresh or frozen) and maple syrup. I add a little bit of arrowroot because I like it a little thicker.  So good, relatively easy to make, and so filling.  These are great for pretty much any meal too– brunch, lunch or dinner.   The best part is that the filling can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge (no need to worry about the spinach and basil turning brown).

It’s been a long time since I’ve made stuffed peppers.  I usually make some sort of a rice mixture to stuff them with, but decided to change it up by using some orzo pasta instead.  These turned out pretty good!

Orzo Stuffed Peppers

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1/4 cup orzo (dry)

2 large shallots, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 TB olive oil

1/4 cup roasted red peppers, chopped

1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped

1/4 cup olives, chopped (kalamata and green)

2 TB toasted pine nuts

1 TB basil, chopped

Juice and zest from one small lemon

2 bell peppers, any color

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Half and clean bell peppers, then place in a baking dish and bake in the oven while you prepare the stuffing.

In a small pot, cook the orzo in boiling water per package directions.  Meanwhile in a small skillet, sauté the shallot and garlic in the olive oil until softened.  Remove from heat and mix in the roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, olives, pine nuts, basil and lemon juice and zest.  When orzo is fully cooked, mix that in as well.  Taste and season with S&P.  Stuff the mixture into the bell pepper halves, and then return them to the oven to finish cooking, about 10 minutes.

I’ve been trying hard lately to eat more Raw dishes; salads obviously being the easiest way to accomplish this goal.  I get tired of the same salads with the same dressing.  In fact, I find myself getting tired of salads altogether if I eat them every day.  So, I try to change it up a bit and give each it’s own uniqueness.

A few days ago, I tried this Fennel Orange Kale Salad from Kristen’s Raw.  In place of the hemp oil, I used cold-pressed organic flax oil.  I also didn’t have any kalamata olives, which was SOOOO depressing because I bet they’re awesome in this salad, so I used some cherry tomatoes.  My salad base was a mix of romaine lettuce and chopped kale.  Raw kale in a salad is a bit much for me, so I had to mix it up a bit with some crunchy lettuce.

Yesterday for lunch, I whipped up this salad using romaine lettuce, fennel, raw beets and cherry tomatoes.  I made this Sweet Dijon Dressing to go over it and it was AWESOME!  I found it to be a little thick, so I thinned it out just a tad with a TB or 2 of water.  This dressing is seriously good.  I think I’ll even try a ranch style version using the raw zucchini as a base and incorporating some of the herbs found in ranch dressing.

Today’s lunch was the same salad from yesterday, except I used a box grater to grate some carrot, beets and fennel.  Once I put the dressing on, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the top, which really made it super delicious.  I’ll have to remember to do that from now on.  Today, I had my salad with a banana and some coconut water.  Fresh coconut water is so delicious.  If you’ve never tried it, you’re seriously missing out.  I put mine in the fridge right when I bring them home from the store so that the water is nice and cold when I am in the mood for having some.  And, I’ve found that Asian markets have the best prices on coconuts, about 20 cents cheaper than my Whole Foods.  Be sure to buy the young coconuts (they have white all the way around).  The brown ones are older and don’t have the water inside.  Intimated about opening up a fresh coconut?  Here’s a video to help you:

We were invited to a Valentine’s Day art playgroup yesterday and I decided to take along some of Happy Herbivore’s chocolate zucchini muffins.  My love affair with kale was taken to a whole other level with these muffins.  I’ve been plotting for some time to sneak some into a baked good of some sort and I’ve finally done it successfully!  I did make a few changes to the original recipe:

1. I doubled the recipe.
2. I used half whole wheat pastry flour and half all-purpose flour.
3. I used 3 bananas instead of 2.
4. I used 3/4 cup of applesauce and 1/4 cup canola oil.
5. I grated the zucchini, then pulsed it in my food processor with 3 small kale leaves which had been finely chopped.
6. I added 1/2 – 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips.

When I first made these, Emma didn’t care too much for them and I think it was due to the texture.  Being fat free and made with whole wheat pastry flour does give the muffins a slightly grainy texture, which is why I opted to use half a-p flour and add in a bit of fat.  The result was great– Emma ate 5 (minis) the day I made them.  All of the kids at the party loved them, so did the parents.  Success!

Another thing that probably made these go over so well with Emma is the addition of the frosting on top.  I made a very basic buttercream (Earth Balance and powdered sugar) then added in a puree of strawberries, beets and 2 TB strawberry jam.  It didn’t taste overly stawberry-y or beet-y; it just had a nice pink tint without using FD&C Red #1 or some other probably carcinogenic chemical food dye.

Earlier this week, I made up half a batch of Happy Herbivore’s chocolate zucchini muffins.  I mean, how good does that sound?  Chocolate in a muffin with lots of good-for-you stuff like whole wheat flour and zucchini.  And, what?!  No added fat?  I’m sold!

I actually thought this would be  a great, sneaky way for my Emma to eat some zucchini.  But since baked goods, other than cake, don’t usually go over well with her, I only made half of the recipe since I usually end up eating what she won’t.  Really it was to save myself from myself.  I also made them into mini muffins since those are the perfect serving size for her… and three or four (or five) really only amounts to one regular size muffin, right?  The verdict:  I loved them (shocking!), as did Matt.  Emma was lukewarm on them.  She did manage to eat an entire muffin the day I made them and actually seemed to enjoy it, but has mostly just picked at ones I’ve given her since.  *sigh*

So you think you don’t like beets?  If you try this recipe, it just may change your opinion of them.  I love beets and could eat them on their own, but I wanted to try roasting them instead of boiling or steaming just to see what would happen.  This is my new favorite way to prepare beets now.  These were awesome!

This isn’t so much of a recipe as it is a method.  I took one bunch of (organic) beets and chopped off the greens.  Scrub them up very well, but leave the skins on.  Cut into eighths.  Place into a baking pan and add about 1/2 cup of whatever kind of juice you have on hand.  I had strawberry kiwi, so that’s what I used.  You could use apple, pomegranate, whatever.  Then drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.  Cover with foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about an hour.  Remove the foil and cook an additional 15 to 20 minutes until the beets are tender and the liquid has concentrated.  I topped ours with some pomegranates because I’m addicted to them, but you could eat them as they are.

I’m not kidding when I tell you how awesome these were.  But, then again, I do LOVE beets.

Yep, lots of salads in my house these days.  This was was particularly tasty– perfect for those of us watching our intake because it tastes good, but is pretty healthy.  This is based on a lentil salad recipe from Raising the Salad Bar. Since I didn’t have all of the ingredients to make that recipe, I made up my own.

Lentil Salad

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1 1/2 cups French green lentils

2 bay leaves

1 carrot, grated

1/2 medium red onion, diced (and soaked in several changes of water if the aftertaste of raw onion bothers you)

1 roasted red pepper, chopped

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup toasted pecans halves, crumbled lightly in your hand before adding to the salad

1/4 cup raisins

Dressing:

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1 TB white wine vinegar

1 TB fresh lemon juice

1 TB maple syrup

2 tsp flax oil

S&P to taste

Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add the lentils and bay leaves, reduce to a simmer and cook until the lentils are tender (but not mushy), about 20 minutes.  When cooked, drain them and let them cool a bit.  Meanwhile, put the remaining salad ingredients into a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing ingredients.  (NOTE:  The original recipe called for balasamic vinegar, but I was out, so I used the apple cider and white wine vinegars.)  When the lentils have cooled a bit, add them to the salad along with the dressing and toss everything together.

We had ours over some romaine and butter lettuce with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and drizzled with a little of the lentil salad dressing.  I thought the dressing was a little too delicate for the salad, so I will try it next time with the balsamic vinegar instead.  The delicateness could also be due to the fact that I used 2 tsp of flax oil instead of 1/4 cup of olive oil.  It was still good and I’ll be having the leftovers for lunch today, probably wrapped up in a cabbage leaf.  Yum!

The “chips” along the side of the bowl are garlic-herb lavash chips that I made so that we could have a “bread” with our salad.  These turned out great– even my Emma liked them!  All I did was cut a whole wheat lavash into triangles, either spray or brush lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle on some salt, granulated garlic and dried oregano.  Bake at 350 degrees until brown and crispy.  A very simple meal with very little cleanup too– can’t beat that!

Don’t forget– there’s only a few days left to enter yourself into my 1st super awesome giveaway!

I love spring rolls and I make them a lot, especially during the summer when fruits and veggies are so abundant.  Last night, I decided to make them again, but with a neat, calorie-reducing twist.

Instead of using the rice wrappers, I went with a leaf of napa cabbage.  Napa cabbage is a little more delicate than red or green cabbage with a texture sort of like a hearty lettuce leaf.  It was the perfect “wrap” for our rolls.  Inside the rolls, I used some lightly blanched broccoli (I don’t care for raw broccoli so I had to cook it a little), some grated carrots, radishes, cilantro and mint, and tofu.  Emma even helped with the dinner preparation by pulling all the mint leaves off of the stem!

On the side, I boiled up some soba noodles and topped them with the extra tofu that I had cut up.  The dressing that I made for the rolls and noodles is a peanut flavored one, instead of being peanut based.  I didn’t measure anything at all.  I threw stuff into a bowl and adjusted it until it tasted right, so sorry for not having a real recipe.  I’ll tell you what I used and you can fiddle around with your own concoction:  soy sauce (probably about 1-2 TB), Thai sweet chili sauce (~2 tsp), garlic powder (~1/4 tsp), fresh ginger, grated (~1/4 tsp), toasted sesame oil (drizzle), peanut butter (~1 tsp).  It was really good, peanut-y without being overly heavy with peanut butter.  And even though I’ve sworn off noddles, bread and rice until I drop a few pounds, at least the soba noodles are wheat and my portion was itty bitty.

While I’m on the subject of peanut butter, I want to tell you all about a new one I just tried.  I’m perfectly happy with natural peanut butter– the stuff you have to stir and then refrigerate.  If you’re going to be eating peanut butter, it’s probably the best stuff (be sure to always buy organic peanut butter).  Anyway, I saw this stuff and thought I’d try it, even though it isn’t organic.  It’s a no stir, natural peanut butter from Earth Balance.  It’s soft like how I remember Skippy or Jif being and is good, but I don’t think it’s any better tasting than the natural kind.  Maybe just more convenient because it spreads more easily.  If my choices were between Skippy and Earth Balance, I would definitely opt for the Earth Balance brand simply because all those hydrogenated oils are like a death sentence.  Did you know that people who eat hydrogenated oils are more likely to have health issues than people who don’t?  Back to the butter:  I don’t know that I’d ever buy this again, only because it’s not organic.  With all the weird things sprayed on foods to prevent naturally occuring processes (like molding and pest infestations), I’m not willing to eat the weird stuff just to have peanut butter that doesn’t separate.

I always thought it was just hocus pocus that spicy foods can help you lose weight, but according to this site, there may be some truth to it.  If it is true, I should wake up tomorrow 10 pounds lighter after the salad I had for dinner last night (and lunch today).  It was on fire!  But I really liked it.

I got this book from the library over the weekend, Raising the Salad Bar. Some of the recipes aren’t even vegetarian, but omitting and subbing would solve that problem. One recipe that caught my eye was for a sweet potato, corn and black bean salad mixed with cilantro and a chipotle-lime vinaigrette. It sounded good, so I decided to make it.

The sweet potatoes get covered in some canola oil (I only used a small drizzle, not as much as the recipe called for), cumin, coriander and chili powder. Then they get roasted in the oven until they are cooked and a little crispy. The sweet potatoes get mixed with black beans, corn and cilantro and then topped with a dressing made from a chiptole, some Thai sweet chili sauce, lots of lime juice and some canola oil. I opted to use about a teaspoon of flax oil in place of the 1/2 cup of canola oil that the recipe suggested. Yikes! That’s like a million billion calories and thousands of grams of fat!

I opted to serve this salad over a bed of romaine and butter lettuces and some radishes, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The dressing was super hot– almost too hot for me and I like spicy stuff– but it was still really good. Along the side of the salad, I put some vegetable and flax tortilla chips to help extinguish the flames. All that fiber was very filling too.

For a very similar dish, roast some sweet potatoes and add it to my corn and black bean salsa and pile all that on top of some salad greens.