Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse with Raw Vanilla Sauce

I have yet to try a raw dessert that I didn't like.  I usually find that they're on the expensive side at restaurants, so I thought I'd try making my own.  This raw chocolate mousse was super rich, crazy chocolate-y, and so easy to make!  

The accompanying vanilla sauce was a nice complement that balanced out the intensity of the mousse.  I got these recipes from Raw Food Made Easy for One or Two People, which has consistently surprised me with easy, raw, vegan, and insanely flavorful food.  Seriously, this is the best chocolate mousse I've ever had.  It's that good!  Wondering how to get that amazing mousse like consistency?  Avocados!  I was a bit skeptical when I put all the ingredients in the blender, but what came out was heaven!  Check out the mousse tart video on Jennifer Cornbleet's webpage for the recipe and the how-to on making this amazing raw dessert.

What is your favorite raw dessert?  I'm looking for more raw vegan cookbooks, so any recommendations would be most appreciated!

The Green Bean Cafe

A selection of vegan and raw treats from the Green Bean Cafe

I rarely ever have a reason to venture to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but I did end up there last weekend.  Totally by chance, I happened to walk by a great little vegan cafe on York Ave between 75th and 76th.  I had an amazing coconut smoothie made with fresh coconuts and a raw tiramisu.  The smoothie selection is amazing, I grabbed a take out menu so that I could replicate some of these at home.  If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend checking out the Green Bean Cafe!

No Sugar Apple Crisp

After the holidays and before my Clean Program detox, I decided I needed a serious break from sugar.  Typically, I start the day with coffee and later have a small baked good.  Sometimes it's a homemade muffin or a slice of pumpkin or cinnamon bread.  One of my favorites is coffee cake.  I needed something less sugary, but still sweet.  I immediately thought of organic apples, since they're sweet and easily available at my favorite food stores.  Apple crisps are so easy to make, they only require a few ingredients that take minutes to assemble, and they taste amazing.  I started by chopping about 4 apples with the skins and placing them into an 8 by 8 baking dish.  

Then, I sprinkled cinnamon all over the apples and mixed them right in the baking dish with my hands.

  

Now, on to the topping.  I took some oatmeal, chopped walnuts, whole wheat pastry flour, more cinnamon, and a bit of nutmeg and stirred them together in a bowl.

After that, I added some canola oil and a tiny bit of agave and stirred again.

Finally, I placed the topping over the apples in the baking dish, like this. 

I baked the crisp at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  I knew it was done when the smell coming out of the kitchen was amazing, the apples were sizzling, and they looked something like this.

I had a little bit whenever I craved something sweet.  The crunchy walnut, the filling oatmeal, and the apple-cinnamon combination was perfect!

I will definitely make this again after I finish my Clean detox, since I'm taking a break from gluten during the cleanse.  I bet this would be amazing with peaches in the summer!  Can't wait to try that!

Vegan and Gluten Free Cookie Sandwiches

I love looking through old photos.  While reliving the highlights of my life for the past few months, I came across these cookie sandwiches from the BabyCakes cookbook.  I thought about this frosting recently when I noticed a container of dry soy milk on my kitchen shelf, and I forgot that I made the cookies to go along with it.    This frosting is not thick like margarine based frosting, but it definitely does the job.  It's not as full-on as other frostings, rather it kind of just sits back and enhances in a mellow and yummy way.  The cookies were great, and together...whoa!  Sweet, fun, and I don't feel a blood sugar spike when I snack on them.  I love moderately/somewhat healthy baked goods!  The recipe for the frosting can be found here (care of Gwyneth Paltrow) and the cookie recipe (care of Oprah) is here.

 

As an aside, did you hear that BabyCakes is opening a location in Disney World?  Amazing!!!

Are You Sure That's Vegan?

As long time readers of this blog are aware, I took a bit of a blogging break a little while back.  Since my return, I looked over my email and realized that I was sent an amazing vegan dessert recipe book to review.  I apologized for the delay, and I immediately fired up the stand mixer and preheated the oven.  

Claire Goss's Are You Sure That's Vegan? isn't pretending to be health food, it's straight up comfort food for those of us with a serious sweet tooth.  It's filled with unapologetically sugary treats such as mint chocolate chip cupcakes, pineapple upside down cake, and creme brulee.  These desserts are meant to stand up to all of their non-vegan counterparts, pleasing even the most cynical dairy and egg-lovin' omnivore.  There is a bright color photograph for every dessert in the book, and she even includes a photo guide to the baking tools she uses. 

I decided to start my Are You Sure That's Vegan? experience with Nutty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Though my usual baking nut of choice is walnuts, this recipe called for pecans, and I'm glad it did.  This sweet combination of oatmeal, pecans, and chocolate did not disappoint.  

Aunt Lena's Oatmeal Shortbread was a real treat with just a hint of nutmeg and a delicate, buttery balance of truly simple ingredients that many of us already have on hand (oats, flour, margarine, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, and baking powder).  

The hands down favorite of the three recipes I've tried so far is definitely Peanutty Chocolate Chippers.  This is the best cookie I've had in a while.  This cookie is so good, that when I'm eating it I'm reminded of every good cookie experience I've ever had with every bite.  It really ranks up there with my favorite cookie experience from Whole Foods in New Orleans and with Cooking at the Pacific Outpost's Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookie.  It has the best combination of sweet and salty, chocolate and peanut butter.  You can bet that I will make these cookies when I really want to impress. 

This book is far more than just cookies, though.  She includes a recipe for funnel cakes, a summertime boardwalk favorite that I look forward to making soon.  I also count Key Lime Pie as one of my favorite desserts ever, so I will be following Claire's very easy Key Lime Cheesecake recipe whenever I need to be reminded of my trip to the Florida Keys.  This is a worthwhile addition to any vegan baker's collection of cookbooks.  Download the e-book or get five free recipes here.  You can also find the actual book version at Amazon.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, An Unlikey Thanksgiving Tradition

 

In addition to the traditional mashed potatoes, yams, cranberries, stuffing, and tofurky, I like to round out my Thanksgiving meal with some chocolate peanut butter pie.  It's ridiculously easy to make, in fact there's no baking required.  I don't even measure the ingredients!  Here's what you need:

• A block of firm tofu
• A small bag of vegan chocolate chips
• Some peanut butter, preferably smooth but it really doesn't matter
• A teensy splash of vanilla
• A graham cracker crust

Here's what to do:

1.  Chop the tofu up coarsely and put it in a blender.

2.  Add a lot of peanut butter.

3.  Melt the chips is a double boiler.  If you don't have one, do what I do: Put a smaller saucepan with the chips inside a bigger pot filled with boiling water.  Stir the chips until they melt.  You could probably melt them in a microwave too.

4.  Put the melted chips in the blender.

5.  Add a small bit of vanilla.

6.  Blend until smooth.

7.  Pour the mixture into the pre-made pie crust, let it set in the fridge for an hour or so.

Even the non-vegetarians and kids loved this pie, and it couldn't be easier.

To satisfy my love of all things pumpkin, I also make a deliciously traditional spicy pumpkin pie from Lorna Sass' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen.  It's essentially firm tofu, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and maple syrup blended together and poured in a prepared graham cracker crust.  You do have to bake it for 30 minutes and let it set in the fridge for a few hours, but it's totally worth the wait.

Vegan Things I'm Thankful For This Thanksgiving

In no particular order...

• Vegan MoFo-It has been challenging but fun to try to come up with a blog post every day of the week.
• Are You Sure That's Vegan?-I was sent an e-book to review, and I had a new reason to bake lots of cookies.  Review coming soon!
• Tons of vegan blogs-There are so many amazing vegan blogs that are well written by sincere people, and I'm super thankful for that.
• My vegan running shoes-Surprisingly, lots of running shoes are made out of entirely synthetic materials. 
• Tofurky-A ready made vegan alternative that I'm starting to see everywhere.
• People that leave nice little comments on my blog-I get super happy whenever I get a comment.  Thanks for reading!
• People that read my blog but are too shy to comment-Thank you for reading too!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I can't wait to read about what you cooked, baked, and ate.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I found a recipe for chocolate chip pumpkin bread that seemed borderline healthy on the Little House of Veggies blog.  I had a lot of the ingredients on hand, and it was super easy to make.  Even though I accidentally used pumpkin pie filling instead of pumpkin, it was super delicious.  I will definitely make this again!  I love pumpkin season!

Gluten Free Vegan Blondies

I like to tell myself that the substitutions I make in my baked goods make them almost good for me.  What can I say?  I have a sweet tooth that just won't quit.  I was super excited when I got the Babycakes cookbook because the few times I've eaten baked goods there, they seemed kind of healthy.  My first attempt from the cookbook was gluten free blondies. After reading through the ingredients and possible substitutions, I used only chickpea flour (I didn't have any brown rice flour or garbanzo fava flour) and I subbed canola oil for coconut oil.  I didn't have any mini muffin tins, so I used a 9x13 baking pan instead. After I finished adding and mixing all of the dry ingredients, I realized that I used the 1/3 cup dry measure instead of the 1/4 cup I was supposed to use.  Oops! Despite the fact that I mostly did not follow the recipe, the blondies turned out really good! I was a little worried when the batter tasted like sugary vanilla chickpeas, but when they came out of the oven I was pleasantly surprised. They tasted like regular wheat blondies. They were almost fudgey on the inside and crispy on the outside. I'll bet if I actually followed the recipe and used mini muffin tins, they'd be even better. It's also heartening to know that canola oil can totally be subbed for the super expensive coconut oil. I'll be making these again!

Coffee and Cake and Vanilla Soy Delicious

I love coffee.  I also have a bit of a sweet tooth and love coffee cake.  In my opinion, a hint of nutmeg or cinnamon goes perfectly with strong black coffee.

I have two go-to recipes for coffee cake.  I go back and forth between Vegan Brunch's coffee cake (with nutmeg) and The Joy of Vegan Baking's cinnamon coffee cake.  Last night, I chose to whip up some cinnamon cake.  I've made it so many times, I find it doesn't take long to get a piece on my plate.  In fact, I think it's pretty easy.

 

Here are my bowls and measuring cups, all ready to go with dry ingredients seperated from wet.  Once the oven is ready, I combine the whole wheat pastry flour cake mixture with oil, vinegar, and soy milk.  As soon as it's mixed, it goes directly in an 8 inch square glass baking dish.  Then, I add some canola oil to the crumb topping that includes brown sugar and walnuts.  I pat that on the top of the cake mixture, put it in the oven, and 35 minutes later, it's done!

Instead of enjoying this piece of cake with coffee, I treated it like dessert and added a scoop of vanilla Soy Delicious.  Yum!

Vegan Key West

Key West, affectionately called The Conch Republic, is a warm and easy place that is quite vegan and eco-friendly. Surrounded by turquoise water and snaky mangroves, the streets of Key West are lined with Victorian architecture, art galleries, quirky shops, rowdy bars, and mellow restaurants. We had a reservation for a sunset kayak tour, and after checking into our hotel in the old part of town we had just enough time to walk down the warm, Victorian-lined streets to The Cafe, a delicious vegetarian restaurant at 509 Southard Street. After traveling for a few hours in the car through slow Keys traffic (there is only one road that connects the Keys), I couldn't wait to relax with a delicious vegan meal. Appetizers included spring rolls with sweet chili sauce and Un-wing Dings, which was fried BBQ tofu with a side of a tahini dressing (it normally comes with un-vegan blue cheese dressing, but our waitress subbed it with the vegan tahini).

The main course consisted of a coconut tofu dish with roasted red peppers and bok choy. It was smoky, creamy, and super filling. Good thing we had a fridge and a microwave in the room we were staying in!

One thing I really wanted to try while in the Keys was vegan Key Lime Pie, and it was here that I got my chance. Tangy, sweet, and creamy, the filling and raspberry sauce contrasted nicely with the crunch of the graham cracker crust. Stuffed and satiated, we soon had to head back to our hotel, where our ride from Blue Planet Kayak Tours was waiting. We headed to a dock on a bay, and hopped into a kayak along with the rest of the tour. We paddled our way through mangroves while the sun set, spotting all sorts of creatures along the way. We saw a GIANT, red hermit crab with eerie green eyes that made it's home in a huge conch shell, southern sting rays, three different kinds of sea stars, a sea hare, sea cucumbers, and whelks.
As the sun fell into the horizon, and the water went from clear to black, we put on headlamps (flashlights that you put on your head!), and continued to paddle through the mangroves, which started to take on a spooky appearance. The grand finale of the kayak tour was on the way back to the dock, when the sky and water were completely black, and our paddles stirred up some bioluminescent plankton that sparkled through the water like twinkling stars. The sound of the paddles through the water was only punctuated by occasional laughter when our kayaks got stuck in the flat, shallow bay and the occasional splash of an unidentified fish jumping out of the water. It was an unforgettable experience.

Win a Free Juicer!

Looking for a way to get some more leafy greens into your life? Leave a comment on this post and you could win a free juicer courtesy of 877MyJuicer.com. From what I've read about the Lexen Healthy Juicer, it's a manual, easy to clean, lightweight and travel-friendly wheatgrass and leafy green juicer. More detailed information about the juicer (including reviews) can be found here. If you'd like a chance to win, leave a comment on this post about juicing. My personal favorite juice combination is carrot/apple/beet/ginger, heavy on the ginger. What's your favorite? Have you ever tried wheatgrass? What did you think of it? The winner will be randomly selected and contacted by May 29th. Unfortunately, this contest is open to U.S. residents only. If you are a winner, I'll need to give the people at 877MyJuicer.com your first/last name and valid email address. Good luck!

New Year Travel Resolutions

2009 has already been flying by! I don't know where the days are going, I've been keeping busy, busy, busy. Looking to the future, I'm planning two exciting getaways. In February, I'll be going to the Riviera Maya for some fun in the sun and to complete four open water dives so that I can finally finish my SCUBA certification. In July or August I'm (hopefully) going to Australia!!! It has been a life goal of mine to see the Great Barrier Reef since I did a report on Australia when I was in third or fourth grade. I hope 2009 is the year I cross that off my list!

Totally unrelated, but deliciously vegan, I finally went to Babycakes and tried some wheat, soy, and refined sugar free cupcakes and a spelt flour, agave-sweetened cinnamon roll. They had a "different" taste in that they weren't too sweet. I'd definitely go there again if I was in the neighborhood. While I like the cupcakes and cinnamon rolls I make in my kitchen better, there's something appealingly healthy about these treats. I look forward to their cookbook, apparently coming out soon.

Holiday Cookies

I think I make more cookies in December than I do the whole year! Here are a few of my favorites:Frosted sugar cookies: I used this iced sugar cookie recipe that I found on Cooking at the Pacific Outpost. For the royal icing, I found that I couldn't use the Vegan With a Vengeance recipe because I din't have soy milk powder. Instead, I used this recipe for vegan royal icing (I found it on Vegan Nutritionista) which I believe is originally from The Joy of Vegan Baking (I really need to get that book already!). This cookie was labor-intensive. That said, it was pretty fun frosting them. Vegan With a Vengeance's sparkled ginger cookies are super delicious and very December-y. This was my favorite cookie to make and eat. It was easy and very winter appropriate. I love the combination of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and molasses. I found that if I left them in the oven for 10 minutes, they stayed soft on the inside, and if I left them in for 12 minutes, they were perfectly crispy.OK, so these Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance don't exactly scream, "happy holidays!", but they are one of my all time favorite cookies ever. They're relatively easy to make and so addictively good. Plus, when you use peanut butter, oatmeal, and substitute whole wheat pastry flour, they kind of seem healthy. Almost.

Next year I'd like to try to make peppermint bark, snickerdoodles, and sugar cookies that look more like these:

These beautiful vegan peppermint cookies are are from Vegetarian Times. For now, I'm cookied out!

Pumpkin Yumminess and Sugar Cookies

One of my favorite things about November is the abundance of all things pumpkin. I finally tried the recipe for The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan With a Vengeance, adding some chopped walnuts. They really do live up to their name!

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. If I have one Thanksgiving tradition, it is making the pumpkin pie from Lorna Sass' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen. It's so easy and so good. It's basically tofu, pumpkin, and spices. It actually feels a little healthy, though the taste is totally decadent.

Now it's time to say goodbye to pumpkin, and hello to holiday cookies. I made my first batch of sugar cookies this year following this recipe that I read about on Vegan Crunk. Following Bianca's suggestion, I used whole wheat pastry flour. The final result was the perfect sugar cookie-buttery and sweet, but not too sweet.
I found the dough to be a little wet for a rolling pin and a cookie cutter, so the next time I make them I'm going to add more flour. These cookies would be perfect with frosting on top. I have had some bad luck in the past making sugar cookies, so this recipe makes me really happy! I might have a decent set of cookies to give out for the holidays this year!

Macadamia Blondies and the Beach

The months of July and August are like a long, extended vacation for those of us lucky enough to live at the Jersey Shore. For some of us, the beach is just steps away from our homes, and it seems like the beauty and sunshine are ever present. Labor Day weekend can be bittersweet, as the water temperatures are warmer than ever, but the end of the summer season is close at hand. Lucky for me, I live here year round, and September brings smaller crowds to the beach! Here is a bunch of photos I took over Labor Day weekend, followed by a pic of the super scrumptious Macadamia Blondies from Vegan With a Vengeance.

I didn't make the caramel sauce that was supposed to go with the recipe, but I found the blondies to be perfectly sweet enough, with a buttery smoothness from the macadamias. I loved them, and I'll probably make them again soon!