Birthday Cakes

I celebrated a birthday almost a month ago. Does it come as a surprise that I make my own birthday cake every year? It shouldn't. That's just how it is. This year was no different. Except that this year's cake wasn't just chocolate (yes, I always make chocolate cake). I thought I'd try a new recipe from  Sweet Utopia by Sharon Valencik. It was the Ultimate Peanut Butter Cup Cake.

(S got me some awesome beer for my birthday...you can see them behind the cake)

I used a little whole wheat flour and mostly spelt, because that's all I had. As it turns out...the cake was quite crumbly and a little dry. A bit of a disappointment. I froze most of it in pieces and it actually tasted much better reheated with some ice cream on top (Nada Moo Java)! Very good, actually.

And here are the beautiful flowers my friend, Yuki, gave me:

I do love sunflowers :)

My favorite cake so far, though, would have to be Hannah Kaminsky's Decadent Almond Cake from her book, My Sweet Vegan. I've made this one a few times, and not just for MY birthday:

That one is absolutely amazing! I kind of wished I'd made that one this year.

Then there's my old chocolate cake with raspberry jam in the middle, and my own coffee frosting:

It's a good standby. Still love it. The recipe is here. You can easily veganize it by using Egg Replacer.

And there was the Simplest Rich Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting from Sweet Utopia. You can see my post on it here.

I guess that's it for birthday cakes since blogging. No pictures before that. 

What's YOUR favorite birthday cake? Do you have to make it yourself?

Eat smart,

T.

Awesome summer foods!

I wanted to tell you about some of the great things I've been eating since I got back from the big Europe trip (you can read about my trip here and here).  Let me go back and start with 4th of July:

I made some gazpacho and it was perfect for a hot day:

We had black bean burgers (on a sprouted english muffin, since that's all we had) and my potato salad:

And for dessert we had Kathy's awesome Silk Chocolate Mousse:

Moving on, I made Gena's Hemp Hummus, which is really delicious:

Then I put some in a sandwich with my kale salad:

I don't have a picture of it, but I'm totally addicted to Angela's  Tahini Lemon Dressing!! It is the best thing ever and so perfect for this hot summer weather!! I make large batches at a time now and it's great for dipping too, because it thickens up in the fridge :) Go make it...now!

I recently bought a Gardein product, because I had a coupon for it. We don't often buy this kind of thing, but once in a while is fine. I've heard good things about them, so we picked this up:

I heated them up in the microwave, like the package directions said. S liked them. He called them "smoky". They weren't my thing at all. The flavor of it was just weird. I didn't mind the texture, but...I don't know. I found the sauce to be a bit thick and gluey.  Have you had these before? I guess I'd be willing to try another "flavor" if I had coupons or something for it. But I wouldn't go out of my way for them.

I made them with my pesto:

Lemony Spinach Avocado Pesto:

1 avocado (Hass)
2 cups packed raw spinach, washed
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic
1 small tomato, chopped (if adding to pasta)
raw almonds, chopped small (if adding to pasta)
salt to taste

Scoop out the avocado, minus the pit, and put it into a food processor. Add the spinach, lemon juice, and garlic. If you have a small food processor, like I do, you may want to add the spinach a handful at a time. You can scrape it down and add the next batch of spinach, etc.  Process until nice and creamy. Add the salt and process again. Add it to your pasta in a pot (if eating it with pasta) and add in the tomatoes and almonds. Let the tomatoes heat up and then it's ready! I liked it cold too. You can use it as a dip, with or without the tomatoes, and without the almonds.

And here a couple of finds from the store:

Coconut Bliss Ice Cream (If you want to win a coupon for this, and other items, enter today!!)

This stuff is GOOD!!!

And the latest from Galaxy Foods-vegan cream cheese (yum):

So, don't forget to enter to win some cool vegan food coupons....contest ends tonight!

What cool summer foods have YOU eaten lately?

Eat smart,
T.

Brownies and Roasted Tomatoes, etc.

I've been so behind.  I'm really trying to catch up, but work was so busy for a while and now I finally have some time off to catch up on everything, from cleaning up, to taxes, to my beer blog, to this blog....it never ends!

They look good, don't they? They are! I got the recipe here. Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies! I changed it up just a bit by using whole wheat flour, MUCH less sugar, and more applesauce with just a little oil. To me, this was more like half blondie, half brownie because the cookie part was so thick.  Maybe I should've added more liquid so that I could've spread it more easily on top.  Nonetheless, still delicious :) I highly recommend it for that special once-in-a-while dessert (I can't make stuff like this very often, unless I want to put all my weight back on!).

I slow roasted tomatoes! Yup....so easy and so tasty.  Never done that before.  Here's how:

Take a pound or two of roma tomatoes and slice them in half.  Spray two cookie sheets (or however many you need) with some oil and lay the tomatoes on them, cut side down.  Put a few cloves of garlic in between them and cook in the oven on 250 degrees for around 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Watch them and make sure they don't burn.  They are absolutely amazing done this way!

They go in like this:

And come out like this:

I had some with a few other roasted veggies alongside this Lemony Yellow Split Pea dish. The split peas were awesome....I cooked them a bit longer, because I like them soft and mushy. But maybe that's just me :) But I actually got the idea from this blog....

Other stuff I've eaten recently.....

Raw Marinara with zucchini/carrot spirals:

A sandwich of my own sprouts, salad, and kale, with sweet pickles and Vegenaise on sprouted grain bread:

Hey, does anyone know of a good "standalone" vegan cheese? One you can just eat a piece of by itself? I like to put Dr. Cow on crackers...I don't think I could eat it by itself though. And I use Daiya, Teese, and Rice Vegan slices to melt onto things.  But I've got nothing to just eat plain, or in a sandwich. Any ideas?

And don't forget to give me your travel ideas on my last blog post!! It's very important.

On another note, if you love beer, please let me know if you'd be interested in this book at all. I'm trying to decide if I should do a giveaway on my beer blog.....if there are enough people that want it.

Eat smart,
T.

Eating Tasty Things

So I ran into a slight glitch with my CSN Stores giveaway. Not to worry....as soon as it's fixed, I will let you know! Oh wait, I just got the email from them.....as it turns out, I will post the giveaway later this evening!!

And while I'm on the topic of giveaways, I will be having a Tasty Bite giveaway next month!

I recently won an awesome totebag and cookbook from Kathy over at Healthy.Happy.Life. blog!

And check it out....Kathy's got her own recipe in there!!

Thanks so much, Kathy!!

On to more stuff I've eaten in the past week or two:

Chocolate Banana Soft Serve with a cocao/agave sauce and crumbled brownies

Kidney Bean Chili

Chocolate Zucchini Bread (absolutely amazing!!)

(used soymilk instead of coconut, 1/3 cup oil, 1 1/2 cups sugar & whole wheat flour)

Cauliflower and Couscous a la Lemon

Roasted Veggies with Tomato Sauce

Green Smoothie for 2 (see below)

Creamy Cauliflower Bake

Brownie topped with Purely Decadent Ice Cream

Green Smoothie for 2:

1 1/2 cups cold, filtered water

1 apple

1 carrot

3-4 large kale leaves

2 stalks celery

Blend in a high speed blender. Has just a hint of bitterness (from the kale).

Coming up: A CSN Stores giveaway, a Tasty Bite giveaway and my Kale and Carrot Salad recipe!

Eat smart,

T.

Thanksgiving 2010

Hope those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving had a nice day yesterday (and those of you that don't celebrate too)!  It was a busy day for me, but I still got time in to do some walking.

So here's the lowdown on our Vegan Thanksgiving table:

A trio of appetizer dips/sauces (arugula pesto, butternut squash dip, & lemon cashew cheese):

Tofurky Roast and gravy (we saved the dumplings for another time, and alas, no Amy's Chocolate Cake or coupons in the box, apparently I got an older box):

Field Roast Cranberry Hazelnut Roast

Roasted Root Vegetables (around the Field Roast):

Stuffing:

Cranberry Bread:

Whole Wheat Herb Biscuits:

Kale and Carrot Salad:

Pumpkin Pie:

Pumpkin Gingerbread with Spiced Buttercream:

And of course tart cranberry sauce! Our friends brought some extra cranberry sauce, fruit salad, beer, wine, and some non-dairy ice cream :)

My recipe sources:

Lemon Cashew Cheese (scroll down to download the pdf of all recipes, it's on pg. 4)
Pumpkin Gingerbread (I used all whole wheat flour & unsulphured molasses, also had to do the icing in a food processor  and then put it in the fridge to firm up)
Cranberry Orange Sauce
Kale & Carrot Salad (coming soon!)
Pumpkin Pie (I used a pre-bought crust I had leftover)
Stuffing (my mom's recipe...veganized)
Cranberry Bread (I used whole wheat flour and cut down the sugar a bit, used canola oil instead of shortening and used EnerG egg replacer instead of egg)
Herbed Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits (from "Vegan Brunch", used canola oil instead of shortening, was a bit salty)
Roasted Root Vegetables (from "Local Bounty")

So there you have it. Another year, another Thanksgiving!
We had a couple of friends over to share all the food and we had a good time :)

Yesterday it was 80, today it's 50.  The wind is so cold.....

Another CSN Stores giveaway coming soon!

Eat smart,
T.