Chips and Sammich

Last night I used the banana chip recipe from Garden of Vegan.. this is how they turned out. They're hard on the outside but still a little chewy.. I have to figure out how to make them crunchier.. more chip-like, if you will. But I like them!
And tonight I made dinner for my family! These were supposed to be tempeh reubens, but I only had some wheat bread and mozzarella soy cheese (as opposed to uh.. rye/pumpernickel and swiss cheese) so they're not exact, but pretty close. I based it off the recipe from VWaV.
My family just thought they were so-so, but my (newly vegetarian) sister loved it! I think she now likes tempeh the best.. she hasn't really developed a taste for seitan or tofu yet.. or maybe I just haven't prepared them right..

Presents!

Merry Christmas! Three sweet new things:


I hope everybody else got neat stuff!

Party Foods!

Last night me and my sister threw a martini party!
Here's the Christmas shot.. apple and pomegranate martinis!

We made the Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cakes from VCTOtW.
Except the cream sort of absorbed into the cupcakes..
Nobody even knew it was there :-( We'll have to use more next time.

And also the Cookies 'N Cream Cupcakes..
Except I used the golden vanilla cupcake batter instead of chocolate.
They turned out really good, everybody liked these more.

We also made some pita chips, and the spinach artichoke dip
I found on Vegan-licious' blog.
It was excellent! The first thing to go.

Cookie Time!

Well, today was Christmas cookie day! Here's the spread:

Candy canes
Chocolate crinkles
Chocolate-peppermint pinwheels (courtesy of Alton Brown)
Finnish ribbon
*Gingerbread men (from LDV)
*Oatmeal-raisin (from LDV)
Peanut butter kisses
*Pecan sandies (adapted from Martha Stewart)

* = vegan

The happy bakers.. sister and me!

I really like the gingerbread men from La Dolce Vegan! I've made them before.. they're pretty awesome. The oatmeal-raisin cookies, on the other hand, were sort of a disappointment. I guess I was in bake mode and just did what the recipe said.. not realizing they have no spices! So I just mixed some cinnamon and nutmeg with a little sugar and sprinkled it on before putting them in the oven, and they actually turned out well!

I don't think it would have been hard to veganize the other cookies, but my family didn't see why we should.. these are for gift plates.. and I didn't really plan on eating them so.. it doesn't matter. But it was a fun day!

Oh yeah.. in other news.. my sister decided to go veg(etarian!) And my older brother (her twin, coincidentally) is also considering it! :-P

Graham Cracker Houses!

Well, they aren't completely vegan, but it was a funnnn Sunday activity nonetheless!

My first house..

Chris' first house..

Takin' a break.. house building is hard work!

See?

The whole village!

Peach Bars

I just made these.. there's a crust on the bottom (flour, sugar, margarine) and then some peaches that my Mom canned.. I found them in the back of my food drawer! Hehe. I just added a little cornstarch and sugar and put it on the stove 'til it thickened up. The topping stuff is a little more flour and sugar with a little oil. In conclusion.. they are delicious!

Peach Bars

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies!

From VWaV! I have no more extras for my baked goods (nuts, dried fruits, chocolate chips, oats, peanut butter!) I only had the basics.. plus some strawberry preserves so I made these!

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I don't usually eat my baked goods (I don't know if you noticed.. but I bake so much that if I ate everything I made.. I'd be huge!) But I did try these.. they're excellent! I made them yesterday.. and then another batch today! But I ran out of soymilk so I used water for these ones. They turned out a little chewier.. I like the soymilk ones better.

Cupcakes!

Jeez it's been a few days.. with band over I haven't been doing nearly as much baking. But tonight I went down to the kitchen and made the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from VCTOtW, with the Cinnamon Icing. I haven't tried one but they look preeetttty good! Although.. when I was making the icing of course I had to lick some off my fingers.. it tasted pretty darn margarine-y.. I wonder what I can do about that.

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing

Not much is up lately besides that.. I can't wait for the semester to be over....

Thanksgiving!

Can't.. move.. beached.. whale... I made the stuffed Tofu Roast from La Dolce Vegan, it was pretty awesome! I really want to make something like it again. A lot of my family members tried it and I think they were surprised at how it "wasn't actually that bad!"

Here it is.. pre-oven..
Post-oven!
Post-slicing! Mmmm...
I also made the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance, also awesome! And I love the fact that I have some chickpeas left over to make hummus hehe. Even though I never want to see food ever again. Here's the plate! Corn, mashed potatoes and tofu roast with gravy, sweet potatoes and cranberry relish.
The little bro, me and my sister. Just missing the older bro (he's in Spain for a semester.. it just isn't the same!)

Banquet!

Well, no food to post..

Last night was the marching band banquet! Here's me and Chris :-)



Me and my lurve... I know what you're thinking.. this isn't what it looks like!

My bests :-)

Dori's No-Bake Cookies

Well I was bored this morning so I decided to make these No-Bake Cookies from Dori's blog. I only made 1/4 of the recipe hehe, and I didn't have any soymilk so I just used water.. and I topped them with some walnuts. They came out awesomely, I'm definitely making more! Woot. Well, off to class!

Cupcakes!

FINALLY putting VCTOtW to good use!
These are just regular banana cupcakes, fresh out of the oven:

Topped with chocolate buttercream frosting
and a few chopped walnuts:

The whole gang!

The only thing is.. marching band is over now.. I don't know who I baked these for. I'M certainly not going to eat them all. I just had some old bananas that I needed to use, and I STILL have 2 left! Yikes.

This Is What I Do

Me with my bestieess!

Bad Pictures of Good Food

So tonight was the start of my real cooking due to a depleting meal plan.. I was in the kitchen for a while! First I made a pizza. I used the "Yeast-Free Pizza Crust" from La Dolce Vegan, which is so easy to make. I had canned chickpeas so I made hummus as the spread-ish layer, and canned tomatoes and black beans. It's good!

Next time I have to put more toppings on though. I was just going skimpy because I was ALSO using them to make my next dish.... soup! It's barley, tomatoes and black beans in veggie broth with random spices I found in the kitchen. It is definitely more flavorful than my first try at lentil soup.


Then I made the snickerdoodles from LDV (again..) because they were a hit with the saxes last time. And finally I made these carob-pear muffins I found on Veggin' Out. The only change I made was using cocoa powder instead of carob. There's only 3 tbsp.. I think they could use 1/4 a cup. Not chocolate-y enough!

Peanut Butter Cookies

"Wolffie's Peanut Butter Cookies" to be exact, from La Dolce Vegan.

I was really glad I found this recipe because it doesn't use baking powder.. which mysteriously disappeared from the dorm kitchen the other day. If you can't tell from the picture, I just made one change: I subbed 2 tbsp of cocoa powder in for some flour.. so they are chocolate peanut butter cookies! What could be better?

Believe it or not.. I think I will be posting some real food (not baked goods) on here soonly. My meal plan is running out and I have $3 of flex left on my RAMecard. Yikes! I have some pasta in my food drawer.. and yellow split peas.. and some canned stuff.....

Halloween

yours truly!

who am i??

Soup/PPK Brownies!

Things have been super busy at school lately! I don't know why. But I bet my Mom's been wanting me to post this, so I gotta! I was home on Sunday night and she made the her kidney bean soup again, this time with Gimme Lean sausage and rice! It was good, and my brother ate the "sausage" without knowing it haha.


Tonight I got down to the kitchen in a hurry to make brownies for snack time tomorrow! I got this recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen. I haven't tried them.. but 2 of my friends already did, and I only got positive feedback! It's kind of a strange recipe that involves heating up silken tofu, it's not too extra time consuming, and they come out with an interesting texture that is somehow both fudgy AND cake-like.. you should try it!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

From Vive Le Vegan! I saw them on Vicki's blog, and I need a snack for band tomorrow anyway. These cookies are really awesome. Just don't forget to flatten them out! I did that on one tray and they didn't move at all.. so they were like little balls haha.


Thanks for everybody's well wishes about my wisdom teeth! I finally had solid food this week at school! It still hurts but uhh.. whatever. I made the mistake of trying to play in flute class the other day.. bad idea. I'm still having sax lessons, just not playing. I'm supposed to buy a book so I can do a little reading hehe. I can still march in marching band, just not play. Too bad.. we're doing "Thriller" for the Halloween parade this Thursday. I should be able to play in 2 or 3 weeks. Hope everyone else is doing welllll!

Halloweenies!

It's almost HALLOWEEN! This is my first attempt at icing cut-out cookies, they're just OK. And don't adjust your computer screens, the tombstone IS green.. I couldn't quite get gray. Maybe next time.


Unfortunately, that's all the time I can afford to spend baking today. Tomorrow it's back to school and I have some homework to catch up on. Grr.

Don't Kill Me!

Mom.. if you're reading this (and I know you are) don't kill me! I.. baked.. some more. I just made the Skinny Fig Bars from Susan's blog. Now I know they're supposed to be fat free, but I couldn't find any more applesauce so I used margarine *cower* They still look great! I also used apricots instead of dates just to switch it up a bit. I couldn't try them (due to the teeth) but I hope they're good. Thanks Susan!



Oh yeah guys, about the first thing. I have this joke with my mom because over spring break last year I came home and baked every single day and finally one day she came home from work and said "Tania? Stop... baking.." hahaha. And now I've been baking every day since I've been home with the teeth. But it's OK because I'm taking most of it back with me for saxophone snack time!

Soup and Cookies

This morning I made the Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies from La Dolce Vegan.. aww cute little gingerbread men! I'm loving LDV recently. I think I'm going to save these for snack time on Friday.. man I'm really prepared this week. That will give me some time to catch up on the school work that I missed for being out Thursday and Friday (for my teeth.)


And I just ate this soup that my Mom made last night. Well, it's not much to look at, pureed for my stupid teeth, but it tastes good! It's the orange cauliflower with sweet potato. I think she also put leeks in there, and some spices. I'm not exactly sure what but if anybody is interested I can find out.

Muffins, Soup, Cauliflower!

This morning I made blueberry muffins! Well, mini muffins. They rock. I'm saving them for snack time on Wednesday. I used this recipe, and once again.. I shouldn't be eating solid foods yet but what the heck, they were good.


Then we went to the grocery store and found this orange and purple cauliflower! I was excited. The orange is currently on the stove with some sweet potatoes being made into a soup for tomorrow.


Oh yeah, and I finally bought dates at the grocery store! I tried my hand at some date bars, which I labeled (I have a lot of free time..) I haven't tried these yet but my family did and said they were good!


And last but not least.. tonight for dinner Mom made me the Cream of Tomato and Basil Soup from La Dolce Vegan! Now THIS I was able to eat, and it.. was.. delicious!

Cauliflower Potato Soup

Today Mom made the Cauliflower and Potato Soup with Nutmeg from La Dolce Vegan. I like it a lot because it doesn't taste like potatoes, OR cauliflower.. it's like a happy medium. I really like the cumin in it. Everybody make this!

Baked Goods!

Ahh Leslie, you knew I couldn't go long without them. I know you miss them anyway. So my cheeks are horrendously swollen, and sometimes I drool blood, but I can't go too many days without baking something! First I veganized an oooold family banana bread recipe.. which was easy because all I had to do was get the eggs out.. I used the flax meal method. It's amazing.


Then I made the Maple Flax Bars from La Dolce Vegan.. I reccommend this recipe. Really great! That's right, I shouldn't be eating real food yet but.. shhh. Watch I'm going to get an infection in a few days. It's worth it!

More Soup!

Mom said this is.. spicy red bean soup. It's kidney beans, vegetable broth, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and garlic powder. She said to tell you that it usually looks better than this because it's usually topped with rice and sausage. But I can't have the rice because of my teeth, and sausage is.. well.. sausage. I think it could use something else but I'm not sure what. It is good though!!


Mom is so excited that I'm photograping her food haha, I feel bad that this is the best picture I could get. I'm just sitting on the couch surrounded by blankets, watching tv and playing on my laptop. Taking pictures isn't easy!