Scones, Greens, and Falafel!

Apricot Oatbran Scones

This post is mostly just food porn – enjoy! These lovely scones are a tester recipe for Ripe From Around Here. I can’t even tell you how much I liked these – I hope the picture does them justice! I also tested this shiitake and dandelion greens saute, even though I am not a huge bitter greens fan this was tasty:

Shiitake and Dandelion Greens Saute

As a treat for eating my greens, I made a baked potato with Tofutti sour cream and chives!

Baked Potato

As it starts to get warmer here in So. Cal I’ve been craving falafel and tabouleh because this is one of my favorite summertime meals. I’m always on the quest to find a great falafel recipe and this time I tried the one in Vegan With A Vengeance – tasty indeed!

Falafel!

The tabouleh has parsley, mint, millet, red spring onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, and a bit of salt & pepper. It tastes even better a day later!

Tabouleh

Oh and the hummus recipe is also from VWAV – I made it super garlicy and threw in some green spring onions too and it turned out spicy – delicious!

Til next time…

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Calzone Night

Calzone

Calzones made with pizza dough from Vegan with a Vengeance, Field Roast Italian sausages, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese, and tomato sauce – yum! Not much more to say but if you haven’t tried to make vegan calzones, give it a try, they re easy and delicious.

Here is just random food porn from the week – cupcakes of course and some puff pastry filled with leftover cupcake filling.

Pistachio Rosewater Cupcake

Pistchio Rosewater Cupcakes

If you haven’t tried these babies from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I highly recommend them – they’re fantastic! I made them for a friend’s birthday and they were gone in a flash.

Espresso Cream Puff Pastry

Cappuccino Cupcake

Cappuccino cupcake with espresso cream and a chocolate ganache topping, nothing more needs to be said!

Cappuccino Cupcake

This picture makes me laugh – it looks as if the cupcake is saying – eat me! Or maybe that is just my sick mind…

Have a great weekend.

Springtime calls for Lemon Cupcakes

To mark the start of spring, among other things, I decided to make lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. The cupcake recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance  and the frosting is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

The liners are from Wilton and they are called “Fuzzy Bunny“! Here’s another shot:

Lemon Cupcakes

The gf piped the frosting in a zigzag pattern and it turned out awesome (I was feeling lazy and actually let her help for the first time!). Did I say how much I liked these liners…

Fuzzy Bunny Liners

Oh, and we actually did eat some food today aside from the cupcakes 🙂 I made breakfast potatoes (onions, garlic, and rosemary) and Tofu Scramble (Vegan With A Vengeance) with Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages. I tried to make the Hollandaise sauce from Vegan Yum Yum – the taste was great but the consistency was a bit off. I think it was that I couldn’t seem to get my almonds ground up enough in the food processor. 

Tofu Scramble with Hollandaise

Overall a great vegan food day!

Tempeh Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avo Wrap, and Homemade Granola.

Tempeh Bacon Wrap

Look at that Tempeh Bacon – isn’t it lovely? Again another recipe from the bad ass book, Vegan with a Vengeance! If you don’t have it yet, what are you waiting for? Easy, delicious vegan recipes from Isa – who totally rocks!

And speaking of people that rock, if you haven’t been to Have Cake, Will Travel you need to read this blog! Fabulous photos, great recipes, oh and fabulous photos – did I mention that already… I made some granola following this recipe.  I subbed some stuff because I didn’t have everything – I used whole wheat flour, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, coconut oil, and some dried mixed berries. Did I tell you that I love her pictures? Here’s my attempt at a nice picture like Celine’s (not close but they say imitation is the best form of flattery!)

Homemade Granola!

I never knew granola was so easy to make! And you know exactly what is in it, and its cheaper, oh and did I tell you it was delicious!!! Thanks Celine, I will never have the store bought stuff again!

Vegan Pancakes, Oh My!

So today for breakfast I made pancakes from Vegan With A Vengeance. I followed the basic recipe and then decided to add some chocolate chips at the end because it was just that kinda day!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Slathered them in Earth Balance and some agave – YUM!! I made only half the recipe because I was eating alone and I got 3 nice sized pancakes but they were so good I wish I would have made more!

For dinner I made roasted sunshine squash soup. Sunshine squash is also called orange kabocha. I got it from the Hollywood Farmers’ Market which if you’ve never been, you must go. Its open year round and it is one of the biggest in Los Angeles! So for the soup I roasted the squash (split in half) in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Took it out and let it cool. In a large saucepan I added a little oil, 1 diced onion, couple cloves of garlic minced, half of a red bell pepper diced, and some grated ginger. Once sauteed, I added some veggie stock and some water (I didn’t measure!) and brought that to a boil. I added a pinch of salt & pepper, some chili powder and some nutmeg. Once it was boiling I added the squash, turned the heat down and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. I tasted it for seasoning and then stuck in the handy dandy stick blender and pureed until smooth.

Roasted Sunshine Squash Soup

Can you see that color – now I see why its called sunshine! And the squash is very sweet, smooth, and not stringy. I need to go scout some more of these babies out at the FM on Sunday!

Tofu Scramble – I Can’t Believe We Just Met…

I have to admit that breakfast/brunch is easily my favorite meal category. I’ve always loved to wake up on the weekends and make a big scramble with potatoes, eggs, veggies, and practically everything in the fridge, throw it in a tortilla, add hot sauce and I’m happy! I thought those days were over now because I am not eating eggs or cheese anymore. Much to my surprise, I am happy to report that is not the case – enter the tofu scramble! 

So being a vegetarian for years and dining at a lot of vegetarian/vegan restaurants in LA, I am not going to sit here and tell you that I’ve never had tofu scramble, and good ones at that. I just have never made them myself.  Wow was I surprised when I followed the super easy recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance  for Tofu Scramble. Not only did it look like scrambled eggs, it tasted and had the texture of them too and its cruelty free! And as an added bonus, nutritional yeast tastes like cheese! I was in heaven! Take a look:

Tofu Scramble

I had it with Field Roast’s Smoked Apple Sage sausages and toast. It all tasted fantastic and while I was taking the pictures I just wanted to eat it! Here’s a close-up:

What I really liked about this recipe is that it can be very easily changed up by adding different veggie/herbs/spices combos. I can’t wait to experiment! But just following the basic recipe it is really, really good. I mean I took the pictures, put the camera down and hoovered it! I can’t quite remember if I chewed before swallowing let alone be mindful of what I was doing – good thing I was alone… Here’s the result after several seconds if I recall correctly:

All Gone!

 

Looking at the pictures again is making me hungry! I need to run to the store to get some tortillas… Til next time.